I am...really sorry. Please don't be too mean in the comments.
Jace's last full day of freedom was winding down to an end. Well, almost. It was about five pm in the afternoon, but he felt like it was the end of all of eternity.
The day had been pretty bad, actually. Anytime that he'd tried to talk to Alec, he was subsequentially ignored. All texts were left on read. He supposed that this was probably a good thing. Alec really was mad at him now. And it was the same thing with Clary. When he'd gone to Java Jones earlier she had pointedly walked away from the cash register just so she didn't have to take his order. Magnus had sighed when doing it instead and he had shaken his head at Clary. So, that was something.
Jace sighed as he sat up on the couch he'd been laying on. He grabbed the remote and turned on the tv. Flipping through the channels, he landed on the news to find that there was a live broadcast of a Blindeye/Badger fight. Only Badger wasn't there, obviously. Jace gaped as he quickly got up, changed, and sprinted off to the scene.
Arriving at the fight, Jace immediately spotted Clary fighting. He ignored her for a moment as he went to take care of some of the other copies that were harassing civilians. After saving a few people and destroying a few copies, Jace made his way to Clary.
"Thanks for the text," he said as he pulled the sword out from behind his back. He swung out connecting with two copies. When Clary didn't respond, he sighed. "Seriously?" Then, he realized that he couldn't be upset about it and moved on. Man, this really was destroying him.
Jace pulled a tree from the ground and threw it at a group of copies. It crushed them subsequently destroying them. But there seemed to be more and more appearing. That meant that the real Black Angel was around somewhere. But where? And why was he doing this now? They only had one more day to go.
Half a dozen copies rushed at Jace. He connecting his fist with the first one's jaw before quickly kicking out his left foot to hit the second one square in the chest. Pulling out his sword again, he parried with two at once while the other four were coming at him without weapons. Connecting with one's head, it disappeared. Hitting another in the leg, it fell to the ground and had trouble getting back up. Jace leaped up high enough that he was able to jump over their heads outside of the circle they'd created around him. He swiftly took down two more. He glanced around to find that Clary was struggling too.
Ignoring the two he'd yet to kill, Jace tried to reach where Clary was fighting. She had her color aura up but it was clearly about to break. When a few more copies appeared from nowhere, Jace paused and focused hard. The best way to win this fight would be to find where Black Angel was and to stop him from creating more copies. So, he listened. He changed the direction he was listening in too many times to count before he found the person he was looking for.
Jace took another glance at Clary. He hesitated before dashing off in the direction he suspected Black Angel to be in. Leaping over a few buildings, Jace listened again. He changed his course a little and continued before stopping and listening. He went on like this for a few minutes until he found him. If Jace had had this telepathic power from the start then all of these fights would've been so much easier.
"Hey!" Jace called and Sebastian jumped back. "What the hell are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" he responded. Jace looked around, they were in a cemetery and no one else was around. Jace knew this cemetery, it was the one Clary's father was buried in. The one Sebastian's father was buried in.
"Mourning?" Jace guessed as a half-joke. "You need to stop it with the copies. I thought we had a deal. No more attacks."
"No more attacks once you are mine," Sebastian rectified and he twitched a little. "Listen, Jace, I've been under a lot of pressure these past few days and, honestly, the only way for me to relax is to attack. Besides, revenge is sweet right up until the moment it's complete, and I will continue to fight minute after minute until you finally bite."
Jace opened his mouth but he didn't know what to say. "Well, we're fighting. But you're sending too many copies. If you keep on like this then the deal's off."
Sebastian pouted. "Fine, I won't send any more copies. But I'm not getting rid of the ones that are already out. So, I would hurry back if I were you. I have a feeling that my dear old sister isn't doing too well on her own."
Jace didn't even bother questioning the man. He just turned around and headed straight back to Clary. With his speed and agility, he was back in less than a minute and arrive just in time to see one of the copies fling Clary's body high. She hit the side of a building about three floors up. Jace hadn't known they had that kind of strength. Leaping over to her, Jace caught her limp body as it fell through the air. He landed as softly as he could and cradled her in his arms. She was bleeding a lot and her breaths were ragged.
"Crap," Jace whispered. He anxiously pushed her sweat-soaked hair from her face and gently set her on the ground against the wall. "Please be okay. Please. If you die then all of this is for nothing." He cradled her face in his hands, waiting for some sort of response meaning that she was okay.
When her hand came up and lightly clasped his wrist, he released a sigh of relief. Taking her hand in his, he kissed it and then set it down on her lap.
"Thank the Angel. Stay here." Jace slowly stepped away from Clary before rushing back into the battle. The copies had gone back to terrorizing the people that were around but now became focused on Jace as he attacked them.
One-by-one, Jace took the copies out. He didn't try to take on multiple at a time in fear that he would mess up or something would just generally go wrong. He'd never been this anxious in a fight before, but Clary had looked really bad when he'd left her. The Black Angels weren't duplicating anymore, but there was still a tremendous amount of them. Jace could barely handle it all by himself.
Just as this thought crossed his mind, he saw Blindeye's costume from the corner of his eye. Doing a double-take, Jace saw that Clary had gotten back up and was now limping around trying to fight. So, Jace fought just a little bit harder and faster if only so he could scold her as soon as possible.
It took a few more minutes, but eventually, the copies were all destroyed. The news teams appeared immediately and civilians began to crowd around Jace. He pushed past all of them without a half a glance as he made his way to Clary. When he reached her, he grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away from everyone else. Once they were alone, he released her.
"What the hell?" She frowned at him and pulled off her mask with a scoff.
"'What the hell?'" Jace repeated. He threw up his arms exasperated. Never had he been so mad. "I should be saying that to you! What were you doing getting back up when you can barely walk? You were thrown into a freaking building, and when I specifically told you to stay, you got up and fought some more!"
"And? I'm a superhero; it's what I do!" Clary sneered.
"You could be dead!" Jace was shouting, and he didn't care. There were cuts on her face and arms, her suit was torn in several places, and her hair was multiple colors. "You seriously could've just died, Clary! And you're acting like it's no big deal!"
"I don't see why it is to you." She scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "What does it matter if I fight like that? It's how I've always fought. Why do you even care?"
"Because I'm not about to watch the woman I'm in love with die!" Jace yelled and he didn't even realize what he'd said until Clary's face softened and her eyes went wide.
"You what?" she asked and it was hardly audible.
"I-" Jace sighed. He ran a hand through his hair. He fucked up. "Nothing. I'm just saying that it was really stupid of you to do that."
"No." Clary shook her head. The faintest of smiles was on her lips. "You just said you love me."
"Yeah, I meant as like a partner or whatever." Jace avoided her gaze, feeling like he should make a run for it.
"You said 'in love with.' You don't say that to your teammate." Clary grabbed Jace's jaw with her hand and turned his face to look at her. She was so bruised and so beat up, but she looked so soft and happy now. "Do you really love me?"
He was staring into her eyes now and couldn't bring himself to lie about it. "I've never loved anything or anyone more."
She looked almost frozen. Like she didn't know what to do next. Her breath caught when he admitted it and she just stood there now, holding his jaw and staring at him. After a few more beats, she tilted her head up to his and slowly pressed her lips against his. Despite everything in Jace telling him that he shouldn't be doing this, he kissed her back.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her body against his. He'd waited an entire year to be able to do this and it felt so right.
Clary was the one to pull away. She still had one hand on his face, it rested against his cheek, as she stared at him intently. Her expression was all screwed up like she was thinking hard.
"So why the hell have you been such a dick lately? I've seen you out with like three girls in the past two days and until now you've refused to say more than three words to me."
Jace pursed his lips together and released his grip from Clary. He took a half a step back and her hand fell. He probably should've expected this. Great... so this was where the true seeds of hatred would be planted. He had to do it. He didn't have a choice.
"I don't want to love you." Jace shrugged when he said it. "I sort of figure it's like a fluke in my head, you know because you're really just not my type and although I'm feeling one way, I also just know that there's no way it would ever work out. So it's not that I'm trying to push you away, it's that I don't want to like you. At all."
Clary's jaw was on the floor. "Oh my god," she said, "I can't believe that for even half a second I thought that I loved you too. You really are just a douchebag." Clary scoffed and looked up at Jace. "Thank you so much for this scarring experience. I hope you die in a hole that's full of ducks."
She put her mask back on her face, brushed herself off a little, slapped Jace across the face nice and hard, and then turned and left. Left with a hell of a limp too.
Jace let out a deep breath and fell back against the brick wall behind him. He slid down the thing until he was sitting on the floor. With his head on his knees, Jace let the reality of everything sink in. Maybe he could ask Isabelle to tell everyone the truth like a week after he's gone or something. That way he knows they won't hate him forever. He couldn't stand it if they just hated him forever.
