26) Reunited
Alice stared at her mother stunned, her legs wouldn't move at first, she felt the eyes of her brother, Clary and Isabelle staring at her, not understanding anything that is going on.
Her legs finally became hers again and she ran forward jumping into her mother's arms, she caught her just like her father used to catch her and Alice cried into her. "You're really here? It…it isn't a dream? I…I thought we wouldn't see each other again?" Alice sobbed through her sentence.
Camael smiled whipping Alice's tears away, then strokes her hair and kisses her forehead, "I am not supposed to, I begged your uncle to let me, he finally gave in. I am here because you need to know how proud I am of you, you have been through so much, yet you are still so strong. You must hold your head up high."
Alice looked from her Uncle back to her mother, then back to him, "Thank you so much Uncle Raziel!" She started then she turned back to her mother, she knew they had an audience but she didn't care at all, she was proud of her mother and now she knew how proud her mother was of her, but she wasn't proud of herself, "How can you be proud though mother? I have failed everything, I still haven't defeated Valentine, he is still out there building whatever army he is building and it is getting closer and closer to chaos and I am here still not fully powered yet, what if I am not powered up and he loses control of his demons? Then I have failed for sure." She looked down and moved out her mother's hold and stands looking down ashamed.
Camael looked at Alice to Raziel who just shrugged as if to say this could be the last time she could comfort her own daughter. Camael kneeled in front of her daughter, "Listen to me Alessandra Shadowhunter, you are far from a failure, you have come so far, you are so powerful even when you are not at full power, you can beat Valentine with her eyes shut…literally." She chuckles softly. "You know his strengths and his weaknesses, you know what you are his weakness, you know that Jocelyn and Clary are his weaknesses-"
Camael was cut off by Alice shouting, "I would never use them against Valentine, that is something he would do! I am not Valentine Morgenstern! I never want to be him; he may have put demon blood in my veins but I will not become what he wants me to become!" Alice was trembling, she had never felt such anger in a long time. She felt her power grow inside her, she looked around seeing how many people she could injure if she exploded now.
Alice looked at Uncle Raziel drawing a shield rune in mid-air, a blue shield dome moves around her, a shield that let nothing out and nothing in. Raziel's eyes widen, "Alessandra no! You have control of your powers you know you have and I know you have, look at your brother, you would never hurt him in a million years would you?"
Alice shakes her head but her eyes water, "the powers never burned before Uncle Raziel, not even when I had no control, the power runs through my body and it burns right now. What if it's the demon blood? What if he turned me into a monster?"
Raziel had never felt so much fear, he knew if she exploded in the shield everything would reflect back onto her, but it wasn't him that answered, it was Jace her brother. "Hey sis, look at me." He waited until she turned to look at him, "You have got this, we can deal with this together like everything else, you are not a monster, I know that, I know you. You could never hurt me, I know that, you know that. Put that amazing shield down, or let me in, I will help you, let me help you Alice. Please."
Alice still trembled, "It burns Jace, it hurts so much, I am doing everything within me to stay in control but its fighting to come out. It wants to come out, but I don't want it to, this…this power I am feeling, it is everything I can do, everything I am capable of is built up inside me right now. I can't let it go, there is nowhere for me to go where I can let all of this out."
Jace looks at Raziel then back to her, "You don't need to let it go, you just need to gain control of it, you have done this before many times, or Angel Raziel would never let you back, just close your eyes and gain control of your emotions, remember you told me that? Your powers are linked to your emotions, just look right at me Alice, put your shield down and let me help you calm down."
Alice looked into her brother's eyes, there wasn't a single ounce of fear inside them unlike hers she was terrified that she would hurt or kill her brother, but she done as she asked and redrew the rune and the shield goes down, Jace walked to her and holds her, she was very hot to the touch but Jace didn't care, he just held her and stroked her hair, "Its ok, you are nothing like Valentine ok? You are so much better than him, there isn't an ounce of bad in your body." He kisses her forehead.
Alice was starting to feel better already, the burning started to hurt less, she closed her eyes, she knew she had to release one of her powers, she just had to, she released the water ring around her and Jace. She heard the gasp from Clary and Isabelle.
Raziel released an unnecessary breath, she had everything she needed to keep calm, she knew she had to release one power, she is ready she has always been ready for this battle.
"Do you think so Uncle Raziel?" Alice answers his thought; everyone looks at Angel Raziel confused. Alice was now looking at her uncle, the water ring had subsided and disappeared.
Raziel smiled and nodded, "Yes, you may have nearly lost control but you didn't, you never would have, now you just need to kick Valentines ass, so you can put all that power to good use, I have the dimension you wanted me to get too. Well your mother chose it."
Alice turned to look at her mother, who looked flustered, like she didn't know Alice, she didn't know what made her tick, what made her happy or sad, what made her strong, what made her weak. Camael was so lost. "what is this place?"
Jace frowned deeply, "Dimension set up? Alice what is he talking about?"
Alice looked at her brother, "I was going to tell you the plan soon and do not worry you were not left out of the plan, no one was, why do you think I have been pushing you all so hard? It isn't just me that needed to be ready, it is all of you?" Alice looked at Jace, Clary then Isabelle, "I cannot win this fight on my own, I need help, I need the help of people that I trust most in this world. Will you help me defeat Valentine?"
Isabelle started off by grinning and saying, "Hell yes I am in, I don't care what your plan is for me I will do it, you can count on me, Alice."
Alice smiled in return, "You will all be doing what you do best, kicking demon ass, whilst I go and locate Valentine, none of you can follow me until you kill all of the demons, I cannot be distracted not with the powers I yield, even then I need you to be careful and stay back, none of you can be in the room when I am fighting Valentine, I will hopefully be kicking him in another dimension if I cannot kill him, though I know there may be a chance that he drags me in with him, I will find a way back to you guys, just like I always do."
Jace looked at Alice then nodded, least he could help with this plan, he wasn't sitting around doing nothing, "Alright, but where will you end up if he drags you in?"
They both turn to look at Raziel and Camael, Camael gulps hard, "The Arena." She answers as if they were supposed to know what that location was.
"The Arena what is that? Arena for what?" Jace asked, not liking the sound of this place, not for his little sister, this plan could end bad, so bad.
Camael's mouth opened but no words came out so she closed it again. Raziel sighed softly and shook his head at Camael in disappointment. "The Arena used to be where angels trained against the demons, it was a place where the angels discovered their powers between the ages off 100-140."
He was interrupted by Clary asking, "100-140? Alice was only what 4?"
Alice answered knowing her uncle would complicate the matter, "Angels age differently, in this realm or dimension I am 14, but my angel age is 140, so I was 40 when I started to discover my powers."
Clary just nodded once understanding. Raziel carried on, "We thought that it would be easiest to see how powerful certain angels were by making them fight demons, powers unlock normally when angels are in danger, not fake danger, real, deadly danger, that is why we done that, but then can the war, the first major war between angels and demon, many centuries ago, some demons not even we could kill, not at the time anyways, so we closed down the arena, and stored the most dangerous demons there. Well that was what is was at first, then we found out that even when we killed demons they came back because they just went back to their dimension, so we changed that, so when demons died their body would go to the arena, there is no way of them escaping there, we made sure of that." Raziel looked down a little expecting an outburst from Alice but instead he got an outburst from the brother.
"You are opening a portal to basically hell? What if she gets dragged in too? Then what you expect her to fight them all and come back to us?" Jace looked at Raziel then remembered it was Alice's mother that decided the place, "And you, how could you pick a place like that knowing your daughter could get dragged in there? In the place where demons belong!"
Raziel sighed softly, "What if she doesn't get dragged in Jace? Then Valentine will die in hell and spawn back there where he belongs, he may even be killed over and over again by the demons. He would never be able to kill them all."
"How many demons are down there?" Isabelle asks, worried about if Alice gets dragged in.
"Billions, zillions? We don't know." Raziel admits, he turns to Alice, she was quiet, too quiet. Why was she so quiet? "Alessandra?" he finally added.
"How many are there that you couldn't kill?" she asked, her face was masked, none of her true emotions showed.
"Around 3,400." Raziel answered trying to figure out what she was thinking, what she felt about it.
She just nodded, the room was silent for a long 5 minutes then Alice finally says, "I will just have to ensure I don't get dragged in then, won't I?"
Camael finally spoke up, "We can change the dimension if you want?"
Alice looked at her mother as if she didn't recognise her, that her own mother could be sending her to hell as a reward for killing Valentine but she just shakes her head.
Raziel seemed to hear her thoughts, "Alice, this will be the last time you see your mother and that is what you think?"
Alice's eyes shift to her uncle and they soften a little. "Yes, how else am I supposed to think Uncle Raziel? What isn't there another dimension? Did she even think of other dimensions or did she just choose that one straight away? I bet she prays that I end up getting dragged in, she never loved me, I was never a good enough daughter for her." She spoke without thinking half of the time but she meant every word.
Camael gasped, "Alessandra, that is not true at all, I am-"
She was cut off by her daughter, "What about my first mission mother? You couldn't even face me, you didn't hold me, you didn't comfort me." Tears were rolling down her cheeks, "My dad left me with a stranger at the time to comfort me, to bind my wounds, because he was so mad at you for not telling the truth." Alice points to her scarred hand, "This…this is your fault, you could have prevented it, or warned me about me, but did you? No you just let me, you let my father watch as I screamed in agony, but I kept on going, I finished what was asked of me to make you proud, to show you that I was strong enough. Then you don't show up, I don't see you again until I am crying on the phone to dad after I was tortured, where were you then? You were meant to protect me!"
"Al-Al" Camael was sobbing, her heart was broken.
Raziel spoke up, his commanding voice returned, "Alessandra that is enough! You apologise to your mother!" Jace, Clary and Isabelle gulp hard, his voice had frightened them but not Alice.
"No! Why should I? First she lets me go on a mission that could have killed instantly, then she lets me be tortured when it was is damn well obvious that she could have saved me. I was 40 uncle Raziel 40! And now…now at 140 she wants to send me to hell, where is the love in that Uncle Raziel." Then she shouted loudly, "Where?" this time though she had perfect control of her power, though anger was running through her body.
Raziel was shocked at how much she made sense, her mother never gave her enough love or protection, he gave her extra protection to protect Alice and she ends up in the enemies hold. He turns to Camael, "Camael?"
Damn it, I have been caught, what am I supposed to do now? Valentine said that they would never find out, that I would be able to keep my family. Camael thought. "I…I tried my best Raziel."
Raziel didn't seem to hear her thoughts but Alice did loud and clear, "My own mother! You are a traitor! No wonder you pushed me to train, the quicker I trained the less attached you would become and the quicker I would be in Valentines hand, but every time his plans went wrong."
Raziel looked at Alessandra as she spoke, he saw the fury in her eyes so he knew that she was telling the truth, but he wanted to hear it from Camael, "Is this true, Camael?"
"Wh-wh-what no of course not." Camael answered though she had guilt written all over her face.
Raziel was going to speak but Alice seemed to still have grudges against her, "You let that filthy monster, torture me? You let that filthy monster's son torture me and…and…"
Jace held her and whispered though he never everyone could here, "It's ok, you don't have to say it. We all know what you mean." Though he knew Isabelle and Clary didn't, he would have to explain to them later.
"No you right, I don't have to say it, because she knew, Uncle Raziel saved me that night, it was that exact night that I escaped, all because Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern wanted to know how I did this?" blades were in everyone's hands except for Camael.
Raziel was about to say that seraph blades can't kill angels but he saw the blade that he held was different this blade he had never seen before, he felt the power it held, this blade could kill angels, he knew it as soon as he looked at it, the blade, it was silver with a black line down the middle that represented demon blood.
He was about to object at first, after all it was his sister they were about to kill, it was his instinct to protect her, but it should have been Camael's instinct to protect Alessandra and for some reason he did not know she did not. So instead he asked, "Why?"
Alice first thought he was talking to her until she saw him looking at Camael. "I…I just wanted Alessandra trained and he was going to do it and my husband wasn't going to, he said he was going to use her for good that he was going to get her to slaughter demons and be a hero said he would treat her as if she was his own."
"What about the demon blood? Why would you agree to that knowing that it could have killed me?" Alice questioned next, her brother had one protective arm around her, the other hand held the blade that Alice summoned him moments ago, they were both slightly turned to face Camael both of that had a tight grip on the blade ready to move to kill her at any moment.
"I…I didn't know about that I swear, I would never have let him take you or know about you if I knew he was going to do that, Alessandra you have to believe me." Camael had plea in her eyes.
Alice shook her head, "No, I don't, you chose the enemy over your family, not only over me but over your own brother, you knew this meant a lot to him, you knew that Valentine was the one that I was meant to vanquish but you just handed me to him, I'm guessing that the punishment for traitors is death. Am I right uncle Raziel?"