"This doesn't make any sense," Alec complained. "Why would she help me? It would've been easier for her to just let the demon attack me."

"We might not know what their goal is, but I doubt Clary wants you to die," Magnus said. "It's been three months; she might even think that you guys are friends." Magnus sat behind his boyfriend and ran his fingers through his hair.

It was so much easier for Alec to think that Clary and her brother had nothing but bad intentions and no morals. But if she can only do what her brother wants her to do, then maybe they both wanted him alive.

He wanted to hate her so much, to hate her brother too. But now, he just couldn't. The pain and fear that he felt when he thought she might die was something that he'd only ever felt with Jace or Izzy before. And it wasn't something that he wanted to feel with her. His priority was supposed to be protecting his family from Jonathan and Clary, and he couldn't do that as long as Clary felt like family to him. He didn't want to feel this way, but now, he couldn't help it.

"I get the feeling that you didn't tell us everything, Sera," Jace said.

Jace was relaxing with Clary in her room. Jonathan had gone – he didn't know where, but he also didn't really care because this was the first chance that he was able to be alone with Clary in weeks.

"Jonathan didn't want me to," Clarissa looked down as she fidgeted with the hem of Jace's shirt. "He, um, doesn't really trust Magnus."

"What? But Magnus is, well, Magnus. You can trust him with anything." Jace brushed a stray hair back behind Clarissa's ear.

"He's a four hundred your old warlock, Jace. We had no way of knowing how he'd react to that, or what he even knew about it."

Jace took a second to consider her words and he didn't know if he was arguing with Jonathan's logic or Clary's. Actually, looking back, everything that he thought had been Clary could've just as easily been Jonathan. But right now, he wasn't in the mood for the headache that that would causes, and he really just wanted to know more about the rune.

"Ok," he agreed easily. "But what else didn't you tell us."

"Jonathan talked about most things. We just left out some of the details."

"Sera," Jace whined. "You can't keep hiding things like this."

"We aren't really hiding anything," Clarissa said. "Jonathan explained everything that he thought you guys needed to know."

"But you guys did leave things out, then."

"Of course we did," Clarissa laughed. "Jonathan isn't big on sharing. And it wasn't even like we did this of our own free will, knowing that we'd have to tell people eventually. This wasn't our choice. And it wasn't something that I wanted." Clarissa was outright lying now, but still trying to keep this light. She really didn't want to have Jace pitying her.

"Could you explain it to me, then? I'm kinda curious."

"What do you want to know?" Clarissa asked.

"Jonathan said that you can feel what he feels. So how much can you feel?"

"I don't really know how much Jonathan can feel from me, but I think it's about the same amount that I can feel from him. It's usually just strong emotions and feelings," she explained. "Like if I stubbed my toe or got stabbed, then Jonathan would feel it. But if I really focus, then sometimes I can feel what he feels." Clarissa paused and tried to focus on what she felt from him. "Actually, right now, I think he's laying on the roof. I can feel pebbles, I think, digging into his skin. He'd have to have been there for a while." Clarissa idly ran her hands over her arms.

"You can just focus and feel whatever he feels whenever you want?" Jace asked incredulously.

"Not exactly. I can only feel this because it's uncomfortable for him. I actually think he fell asleep," she commented.

I'm not asleep. Jonathan's voice rang through her head.

"Never mind," she said under her breath while rolling her eyes. Of course he was listening to her.

"Wait, I need to go back a bit," Jace said. "So, Jonathan wants what you want," he said slowly.

"No, it's the other way around," she corrected. "Jonathan's kinda 'in charge' and whatever he wants is what I want. It's more subconscious and covers more general things, I guess. Like, if it's eight o'clock at night and Jonathan decides that he wants to go to sleep, I don't feel the urge to sleep. But if he likes someone, then I'd probably like them too, or, at least, it'd be almost impossible for me to hate them."

Jace wrapped his arms around Clary and fell back with her so they could lay on the bed.

"Jace," she squealed.

His laugh rumbled in her ears. She giggled contently in his arms. He was more than happy to stay with her, just like this, but his thoughts got in the way again. It really wasn't fair. From the way she described it, she almost couldn't make her own decisions without Jonathan's opinions weighing in. When Shadowhunters use permanent runes, we get to decide where they go, but she didn't even have a say in that.

"Your rune looks so different from mine. How different was the ritual?"

Clarissa turned awkwardly in his arms to face him and settled her head in the crook of his neck.

"It was very different," she said quietly. "I didn't really have to do anything. My father summoned Lilith, she made a ring of fire around us, and Jonathan –."

Be careful with what you say. Her brother's voice invaded her thoughts again.

I am, she thought back. And stop listening to our conversation.

I can't. You're talking very loudly and I'm finding it very hard to ignore your voice.

"Sera?" Jace had noticed her sudden silence. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"It's fine," she said. "Jonathan drew the rune on both of us. It burned, but not like the normal burn from a rune, it burned like someone lit a fire on my chest. It didn't last long though. After that, I'm not really sure what happened. I was kinda out of it. I just remember not wanting to leave Jonathan. It was a bit of a sensory overload, trying to deal with his emotions and mine, but I think we're used to it now."

"So you can always feel what he feels?"

"If the emotion is strong enough, then yes. And he can feel what I feel."

"What about right now?"

"Probably not. If he does, I doubt he even cares because I'm really calm right now," she said. "He knows I'm with you, so if I was feeling anything else, he'd notice." She paused briefly. She wasn't entirely sure if Jonathan would want her saying this, but it would definitely clear up any confusion about when it happened.

I'll stop you if you start saying too much, Jonathan thought. She knew that her brother could hear what she was saying, but she didn't know that he was actively listening to what they were talking about.

"We actually left because of the rune. It sucked, but I never would've known what father was doing to Jonathan without it. So, in a weird way, I'm glad we have it," she said softly.

When she didn't offer any more information, Jace assumed that she just didn't want to talk about her rune anymore. He was comfortable to just sit with her for a little bit before remembering why he had initial gone to her room.

"My parents, Robert and Maryse," he clarified, "they're coming back tonight."

"That's great." Clarissa said flatly. She didn't have any reason to dislike them, but everything was easier when they weren't here.

"Yeah, but they aren't coming back alone."

"Jace," she said. "Stop being so cryptic. Just say whatever you wanted to say."

He sighed. "The Clave updated our status to be a Fully Operational Institute."

"What does that have to do with your parents?" Clarissa had an idea as to where he was going with this, but Raziel, she hoped she was wrong.

"They're sending more Shadowhunters, so we operate as a fully functioning Institute."

"What!" Clarissa sat up suddenly. "Why? What'd we do?"

"It's been building up for a while now. But our last mission, if there were more of us, it wouldn't've been as bad." Jace's voice got a little rough as he spoke. "Nowhere near as many mundanes would've died. You wouldn't've gotten hurt and nearly died." His voice cracked. He didn't want to even think about Clary dying. "Trust me when I say that this isn't a bad thing."

"We tried our best," she defended weakly.

"And that's why aren't under review. There should've been ten of us on that mission at the very least. Preferably fifteen."

Clarissa nervously ran her fingers through her hair. This wasn't what they planned for and it could ruin everything. Did you hear that? She thought.

Yes. Jonathan answered. Give me some time to think, but I don't think there's anything we can do.

"Hey, take a deep breath." Jace caught her wrist. "It won't be that bad. It'll just be some more people around here and we'd report to the Institute Head."

"I thought that was Alec."

"Technically he was, but not anymore. Since they updated our status, they're sending in an interim Head for now."

"When did all this get decided?"

"The Clave held an emergency meeting last night; I think you and Jonathan were asleep." Jace said. "Everyone should be arriving at some point tomorrow."

"Great," Clary sighed. She pouted and leaned back into Jace's arms.

He chuckled. "You're cute when you pout."

"Wait a minute," he said. "All those times we were making out, and you wanted us to stop because Jonathan could've walked in and seen us, was it because he –."

"Yeah. But it was mostly because he was getting really annoyed with me." Clarissa felt more than she heard her brother's laugh.

Everything was finally starting to make sense to him.

"So, he can always feel it, but he just doesn't care? God, I would hate to feel everything when Izzy goes out for the night."

"I don't live my life around this Jace, or I'd sit in my room and I'd never leave," she said. "Most of the time, Jonathan doesn't care what I do as long as I don't get hurt. The times that I wanted to stop, Jonathan was usually trying to focus on something, and my emotions were distracting him."

"Is he trying to focus right now?"

"Nope."

"And do you think he'll want to come back to your room in the next couple hours?"

"He'll know to stay away."

"Good." Jace rolled them over so he could straddle Clary's waist.

Clarissa giggled playfully as she hooked her fingers behind his neck and pulled Jace down.

Clarissa felt groggy as she woke up early in the afternoon; She had been up with Jace until the sun was about to rise. She sat up slowly, wishing that she were still asleep, and glanced out the window.

"Why didn't you wake me up to train?" Her voice was still rough from sleep.

"Most of the Shadowhunters arrived this morning so I didn't think it was a good idea to go out yet."

Clarissa nodded slowly. "How many?"

"About a hundred so far. From what I heard, there should be about fifty more coming."

"Jace said there'd be more Shadowhunters coming in today. I thought he meant fifty, not a hundred and fifty."

"Will just have to be a little more careful. For now, none of them will trust us, and that should be the only thing that we'd have to deal with. We'll just wait a little longer before we take get the cup," Jonathan said.

Clarissa moved slowly to get dressed. She slept for over six hours, but that was nowhere near enough sleep to compensate for the early morning training that she had with Jonathan yesterday.

"Izzy came by while you were asleep," Jonathan said. "Everyone's expected to be in the main command centre at four pm, so in about two hours. It's the big open area near the first entrance. Apparently, they just upgraded everything this morning so we're officially a functioning Institute."

They spent two hours in their room before heading to the command centre. The halls near their room were still empty, but a few the doors that were open last night were closed now. They ran into Jace, who also looked like he just woke up, when they walked by his room.

"Hey," Jace said.

Jonathan wasn't in the mood for any pleasantries. "Do you know who the new Head is?"

"No. The Clave didn't say who it was, just that she's had a bit of experience but she's still pretty new to this," Jace answered.

"What about Izzy or Alec?" Clarissa asked. "Have you seen either of them?"

"Izzy said she might find us here if she can, and Alec was busy with the new Head all morning."

Once they got to some of the more crowded halls, Clarissa and Jonathan were on the receiving end of some dirty looks. She wasn't even surprised that they were recognized so quickly, Jonathan did look almost exactly like father, and everyone that was brought in was probably at least warned about them.

Everyone had arrived at least a couple minutes early. Jonathan spotted Alec speaking quietly with a blonde woman who was barely taller than Clarissa.

At exactly four pm, the blonde stepped to the level above them while Alec stayed on the floor. Everyone immediately stopped talking and focused their attention on the speaker.

"Welcome," she said. "My name's Lydia Branwell and the Clave has appointed me as the interim Institute Head until someone more permanent becomes available."

Jonathan was surprised that they Clave was willing to send someone this young and who didn't have too much experience. The Clave wasn't known for being trusting so she was probably the only person who wasn't already on an assignment, so they were probably going to rush to find another Head.

"I know that many of you are recent graduates of the Academy or haven't worked at an Institute before, so I'll go over how things are going to work. Right now, there about one hundred and forty of us and some more will be arriving in the coming weeks. The demon population in New York and amount of attacks have increased so were starting on-call rotations."

Now this was sounding a little more like the type of Institutes that father had described to them.

"It'll be twelve hour shifts and if you're on primary on-call, then you'll be expected to be armed and in gear during your shift. You'll also be wearing these." Lydia held up a pair of plain, thin, and white bracelets. "If it vibrates and turns red, then you'll have exactly thirty seconds to get here, to the main command centre. From here everyone will be briefed on the mission. For those on secondary on-call, you're going to be acting as backup for those on primary if you're needed. You don't have to stay in gear the whole time, but if your bracelets vibrate and turn red, then you have five minutes to get here, in gear and armed."

She glanced down at Alec, who's reassuring nod was nearly imperceptible to those who weren't watching for it.

"For now, your teams will be made at random and you'll be training with those teams at your scheduled training time. As we're able to observe your training, we'll adjust your teams until we have something more permanent; that should take about a month or two. Your team's training times and on-call schedule is posted outside the training room. The first on-call starts at midnight tonight and the first team training is at five am, so everyone will need to check the schedules before the end of the day." Lydia leaned forward to hold the railing. "As we become more established, we'll start with diplomatic missions to asses the downworlder population."

She kept fixing the non-existent imperfections with her hair, a nervous habit that showed her inexperience.

"I'm not going to impose a curfew, we're all adults here, or nearly adults, so everyone will be treated as such. Be sensible and we can keep the rules to a minimum. Any questions?" Everyone in the crowd either shook their heads or stayed silent. "Good. Dismissed."

Jonathan glanced down at his sister, the odds of the two of them being placed on the same team was slim to none. He knew that he needed to do whatever he could to convince Lydia to put them on the same team. Her inexperience and nervousness would work in his favour here. If she was already this comfortable with Alec after knowing him for no more than eleven or twelve hours, then he should also be to get her to be comfortable with him. The only mild complication was that he'd need her to not compare him to father.

AN:

Thank you user Arx Asperity for the idea to have Clarissa save Alec's life and then have him be confused about it. It was a great idea and I think it'd be cool to continue a little with the story!