I know a whole bunch of you are mad at both me and Jace, so I'm going to update twice today. Please be sure to review!

Day two.

Jace only had three days left. Today, tomorrow, and then he would be gone. Except, he still didn't know how he wasn't going to go about disappearing. Did he tell everyone he was moving away? Would that even be believable? Maybe he could fake his own death. Or maybe he could have Black Angel fake his death. That might be believable.

Jace thought he was doing a half-way decent job of distancing himself from his friends. Alec was pretty pissed at him for a few things he'd said and done now. And from the look on Clary's face when she'd seen him in Java Jones the other day, she definitely wasn't his biggest fan. And then, the next day he'd known she was going to Taki's with Simon, so he made a point of eating lunch with another girl there. Yeah, it hurt pushing away two of the people closest to him, but it had to be done. For the sake of saving them, it had to be done.

Izzy seemed to be an expert on pushing people away and he was thankful now that he had entrusted her with his secret. He'd also expected more questions, but questions she restrained from asking. Every now and then she gave him a sympathetic glance and asked how things were going. Not good. Things were never good. Especially with the number of Black Angel copy attacks that had been happening. There had been two the day before and Clary kept on getting injured in them. Not that Jace could care, but he did care. Obviously, he cared. The point was that he had to pretend he didn't care.

When the door opened and Isabelle walked in, she smiled at him as if he'd just done something great. She tossed down her purse and continued into the kitchen.

"What's up, Mr. Hated?" At the strange look Jace gave her, Isabelle elaborated. "I just spent a good two hours listening to Clary rant about how you not only are a douche as yourself but also about how you're a prick as a superhero." She poured herself a glass of water and sort of raised it to him. "You, my dear friend, are successfully hated."

Jace let his head fall back on the couch. "Wow, doesn't that make me feel great."

Isabelle appeared beside him. She picked her feet up and set them on the coffee table. "This is what you wanted though. You've been trying to make Clary upset with you. You succeeded."

"Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it," Jace sighed.

"No shit you're not happy about it, but just remember that all of this effort is being put towards a much larger goal." She rubbed his shoulder comfortingly. "You're a really good guy, Jace."

Jace chuckled. "You know, it's kind of hard to believe that I haven't known you all my life. You feel like a sister."

The smile on Isabelle's face reached her eyes. She extended her arm around the golden boy's shoulders and squeezed. "You know, that's one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. And you feel like a brother, really."

"Speaking of brothers." Jace groaned remembering Alec. He leaned forward, holding his head in his hands. "I don't know how I'm going to get Alec to hate me. He's a little mad at me right now but that'll blow over by tomorrow. It always does."

"You know, it might be worth it to tell Alec the truth."

At Isabelle's suggestion, Jace whipped his head back up. "Are you kidding me? Telling you was one thing, but telling Alec would be this huge mess. I've basically been lying to him for more than a year. He would never forgive me for that."

She shrugged. "So, you're saying that he would hate you?"

"No, that's different. Pissing him off to the point that he can't stand me won't hurt him like betrayal will. And besides, if I told him everything, he would never let me go through with this deal."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Isabelle opened her mouth to say something else, but the doorbell rang. She held up a finger to Jace before standing to answer it.

"Hey," Clary said greeting her friend. For a moment, she glanced past Isabelle and saw Jace sitting on the couch. Immediately, she averted her gaze. "I realized that I left my wallet in your purse."

"Oh, yeah I'll get it." Isabelle walked away to get said purse and Jace noticed that Clary was refusing to enter the apartment when in a situation like this, she normally would. She was also looking anywhere and everywhere but Jace. When Isabelle returned, Clary smiled and thanked her and turned to leave. Closing the door, Isabelle shook her head. "Damn, like ice." She smiled back at Jace who was just sullen now. Quickly, her grin turned to a frown. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Jace was taken aback by the sudden question. Isabelle had always been rather supportive of him in the past few days. "What do you mean?"

"Are you sure you want to give yourself up? Can't you try and figure out another way to stop Black Angel?"

Jace stood up. "Stuff like this is why I refuse to tell Alec or Clary."

"I know, but Jace you're broken. You're hurting yourself more than you could ever hurt either of them."

"But that's the point! I get hurt so they don't have to be!"

"But you're hurting me too..." Isabelle took a few steps forward so they were more face to face. "You're my friend and you're practically throwing yourself away when there might be other options. What if you and Clary found a way to beat Black Angel? What if you make a different deal?"

"No, he's getting stronger by the day. And I talked with him for like two hours, this was the only way. I have to do it."

"But Jace-"

"No more buts!" Jace threw his arms up and paced a little bit. "It's either I die or everyone else dies. I choose the former. I will always choose the former." With that, Jace stormed into his room and slammed the door behind him.


Clary stretched out on the couch in Magnus and Alec's apartment. She stared up at the ceiling as she listened to what Magnus was rambling on about. He was over in the kitchen, cooking. Alec was sitting in the chair beside the couch, reading.

"And so I told him, 'if you're going to adopt a cat, then you can't name it Mulder. That's a horrible name.' And anyway, we got into this whole big debate that ended with a bidding war. So, that's how I got the kitten." As Magnus finished the story, said kitten came up beside the couch. Clary looked down at it and let her arm fall so she could stroke the thing.

"What'd you say his name was?" she wondered.

"Chairman Meow," Alec answered. "And if you're curious, no he did not get my consent before buying him."

Clary had to hide her laughter at that. "Well, he's adorable."

"Yeah." Alec sighed. "I guess I love him anyway."

"Which one? Magnus or the cat?" Clary turned her head a little so she could see Alec contemplate the question.

"The cat," he decided after a few moments.

"Hey!" Magnus shouted from the kitchen, and this time Clary let herself laugh.

"Relax, I love you too," Alec called back. He bookmarked his book and set it down on the side table. "You know, I was supposed to head over to Jace and Izzy's tonight, but I'm really just not in the mood to see Jace."

This piqued Clary's interest. She pushed herself to an upright sitting position and cocked her head at Alec. "How come?"

Alec shrugged. "He's just been such a dick lately and I don't even know why. Like we've gotten into plenty of fights in the past, but he's really being an asshole right now."

"I know right!" Clary exclaimed and Alec jumped a little. "It's like every time I try to talk to him he just ices me out. And he's been going out with all these random girls lately."

"I mean, the second part doesn't seem so out of character, but he has been acting pretty strange." Clary glared at Alec and he put up his hands defensively. "Just stating a fact."

"Whatever." Clary rolled her eyes. "You know what? I say that we ignore him for the next few days. See how he likes that."

Alec chuckled. "Aw man, he'll go insane if I ignore him. I'm his go-to for literally everything."

"That's not going to end well," Magnus said.

Clary looked back to him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that douche plus douche does not equal sweetheart. Someone's gonna regret something."

"And that someone is going to be Jace," said Alec. He grinned at Clary. "He's gonna hate us."

"Perfect! We'll shut him out and give him a taste of his own asshole medicine."

Alec nodded and held out his hand to Clary. "Sounds like a plan."