"No," Clary said in response to Simon for what had to be the eighth or so time.

"But-"

"No."

"But Clary..."

"What do you not understand about no?"

"Just for an hour!" Simon sighed clearly exasperated.

"I don't want to go out."

"Well, you can't just stay holed up in the apartment all day." He crouched down beside Clary's bed so he was level with her head, which was laying on her pillow. "You haven't gotten out of bed since last night and it's past noon now. This isn't like you."

"Maybe it's the new me. Did you ever think about that?" Clary turned so she was staring up at the ceiling. "No, because you only think about yourself."

Simon groaned and stood back up. He tugged at the covers a bit. "Clary," he whined.

"No!" she whined in a tone equal to his. "Leave me alone." She pulled the covers up to her chin and rolled so her back was to Simon.

"Will you at least tell me what's wrong?"

"No."

"Okay... fine, I guess I have to respect that." Clary could hear Simon's footsteps retreating from her bed. The door opened letting in light but his silhouette cast a shadow over her bed. "Whenever you're ready to talk I'll be out here." And then the door closed and the light was gone along with Simon.

Clary furrowed her eyebrows. She rolled back over and stared at the now closed door. She wasn't usually the type of person to pout like this, but the pain her body was in rivaled the pain in her broken heart. Not only was she bleeding all over her back, legs, and arms, but she felt like her chest was going to explode. The things Jace had said... she just couldn't move past it. Not yet at least. It'd only been half a day after all.

After another minute, Clary groaned and sat up. Simon was right, she couldn't just lie there all day no matter how much she wanted to. First, she needed to properly take care of some of her injuries. Then, she needed to do something proactive. Something that would make her feel good and take her mind off the asshole called Jace.

Clary went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. While waiting for the water to heat up, she carefully peeled her clothes away from herself. She had been wearing pajamas but since she hadn't bothered to bandage herself up the night before, she'd wound up getting blood everywhere. So, laundry day would be fun.

It took a little while since everything hurt, but Clary eventually got herself all cleaned and bandaged up. She swore that she looked like a mummy with all the wrap on her. With a sigh, she walked back to her bedroom, got dressed, and revealed herself to Simon in the living room.

Immediately, Simon bolted up from the couch. He took long strides over to Clary and looked her up and down. With hesitation, he lifted his hand to touch the scratches on her face and the bandages on her arms.

"Oh my god," he whispered.

"I'm sorry."

At Clary's words, Simon met her eyes. He wrapped his arms around her gently for just a few seconds before leading her over to the couch and making her sit down.

"Pardon my candor, but you look utterly awful," Simon said as he went to the kitchen.

"Thanks." Clary chuckled. "I kind of knew that already."

"So then I take it this is why you didn't want to get out of bed? Too much pain?" When Simon returned it was with a glass of water.

Clary shook her head slowly as she took the cup from him. He raised an eyebrow at her and she chewed on her lip.

"It's... Jace. He's- well let's just say that Izzy was right when she said I shouldn't be with him." She took a long sip of the water. "I definitely don't want to be with him anymore."

"I'm sorry," Simon said lightly rubbing Clary's back. When she winced, he stopped. "He's a jerk and you don't need him."

Clary forced a smile at her friend. "It's alright. I... I'll be alright. I think that for now I just need to relax and heal because lord I am in so much pain."

Simon offered a sad smile and set one of his hands over one of Clary's. "I'll let Magnus know you need a few days off of work."

Simon got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. Clary watched as he grabbed his phone off the counter and started typing out a message. Then, she turned her attention back to the tv screen before her. When she found that the news wasn't particularly interesting, she took her sketchbook from the coffee table and began to draw. For a few minutes, she drew in silence until Simon returned to the couch with a few ice packs wrapped in hand towels. He began to place them on the spots of Clary that looked the worse.

"Isabelle's going to come over in a bit," he said. Clary glanced up at him momentarily. "She texted me asking something about Jace and I let her know a bit about what happened yesterday."

"What did she ask about Jace?" Clary wondered aloud as nonchalantly as she could.

"I guess he came home last night acting really mad and she tried asking him what was wrong but he just stormed into his room without a word."

Clary furrowed her eyebrows as she continued to draw. She didn't care though. It was Jace. Why would she care about Jace?

"Does Izzy know about my current state of being?" Clary asked flickering her gaze from ice pack to ice pack.

"Well, she saw the news coverage last night, so I assume she has an idea about how beat up you are." Simon changed the channel. His phone went off and he checked it silently. Clary watched the expression change on his face as he responded to whoever had messaged him.

"What's wrong?"

Simon shook his head. "Nothing, Alec just asked me something."

"Simon?"

Again, he shook his head. "Nothing." He stood up. "I'm- I'll be right back." With that, he headed off towards his room.

Clary watched her friend walk away with confusion. When his bedroom door closed behind him, she faced forward and crossed her arms over her chest. She did not appreciate secrets. Attempting to ignore the current situation, Clary returned to her sketchbook. The minutes ticked by. And then an hour passed. And then the doorbell rang. Sighing, Clary pushed her ice packs off herself and stood to answer the door.

When she opened the door, Isabelle greeted her immediately with a smile that was quickly replaced with a worried frown. She stepped through the doorway and set both her hands on either of Clary's shoulders.

"Don't even say it," Clary said. "I already know that I look like crap."

Chuckling a little, Isabelle hooked an arm through Clary's and the two walked back to the couch. When Isabelle almost sat on an ice pack, she proceeded to grab all of them and hand them to Clary with a pointed look. Understanding, Clary sighed, sat down, and covered herself with the ice packs again.

"How much sleep did you get last night?" Isabelle wondered.

Clary leaned her head back against the couch. "I don't know. As soon as I got home I passed out, and I woke up at noon."

"So, a decent amount." Isabelle rubbed Clary's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I have never been so not okay in my life." She shook her head thinking back to all the year's events. "You know, I'm not going to lie... I really want my mom right now."

"I think your mom would have a question or two about why you're covered head to toe in bruises and cuts." After a pause, Isabelle continued. "I think you should go to the hospital."

"And tell them what?" Clary lolled her head to the side so that she was looking at the raven-haired girl. "You can't go to a hospital without questions being asked."

"We'll come up with something." Isabelle sighed. "Anything. You're not well, Clare. You need professional help. For once in your superhero life, please get some help."

Clary looked down at her hands in her lap. She knew that Izzy was right. She also knew that it was complicated and that everything, since she'd become a superhero, had gotten infinitely more complicated.

"Can we not go immediately?" Clary asked. "Later tonight or even tomorrow morning?"

Isabelle nodded, a smile pulling at her lips. "We'll go tonight. And Simon and I will come up with some great elaborate story to cover up for why you're so beat up. There is nothing for you to worry about."

Clary nodded taking a deep breath. She would be alright. With Simon and Isabelle at her side, she knew she would be alright.


Late that night, Clary was resting in her room. Simon had informed her that her cover story was she had been attacked by a small pack of vicious dogs. She supposed it was true enough considering how animal-like Black Angel was.

It was nearly eight pm when Clary came limping out of her room, ready to go to the hospital. Or as ready as she ever would be. Needless to say, she did not like going to the hospital. Simon and Isabelle were in the living room when Clary came out and neither noticed her right away. They were in deep conversation about something. When Clary caught a snippet of what they were discussing, she turned herself invisible and inched towards them.

"So, you haven't seen him either?" Simon was asking Isabelle.

She hesitated. "I didn't seem him this morning before coming here and I didn't see him when I went to the apartment just now either. I'm telling you, he's not there."

"Well, Alec is worried."

"Wasn't Alec ignoring him or something?" There was something off about Isabelle. She was avoiding looking directly into Simon's eye; her gaze was focused on his forehead.

"He was, yes, but today he decided to try and contact him and Jace didn't answer. So, he went to your guys' apartment and he wasn't there." Simon was concerned though Clary didn't know what for. They were talking about Jace, so what mattered?

"Yeah, yeah I got that." Isabelle rolled her eyes. Another sign that something was off. Why was she being so passive-aggressive? "Maybe after the fight last night he got hurt and went to the hospital."

Simon raised an eyebrow. "His health regenerates almost immediately."

"Right... I forgot about that..." Isabelle bit her lip. Then, she shook her head a little bit and crossed her arms over her chest. "Honestly, he's probably just at some girl's apartment right now. I don't know what you're so riled up about, Simon. It hasn't even been a day. He's disappeared for longer than that before."

"Because of the clones," Simon whispered aggressively and Clary took another step forward. "Have you been paying attention to the news? They're all gone. Every single one across the city has just disappeared. Why? What is Black Angel planning?"

"You think it has something to do with Jace?"

"I'd be more surprised if it didn't." Simon glanced towards Clary's room. It was a strange sensation because he was looking right at her, but he couldn't see that she was there. "What if something happens to Clary? What if Black Angel finally figured something out and kidnapped Jace to experiment on him?" Isabelle opened and closed her mouth a few times. Her eyes were shiny. "Iz... what do you know?"

But she shook her head and looked at Clary's room too. "Nothing that you don't."

"Iz." Simon put a hand on her shoulder snapping her attention back to him. "What?"

"Jace gave himself up."

"He-" Simon started to shout but Isabelle quickly put up both of her hands to shush him.

It was too late though. Clary heard. And she opened her hand revealing herself to the two that were now just feet in front of her.

"What?" Her voice barely came out as more than a breath.

Isabelle's eyes went wide with the greatest amount of regret Clary thought she'd ever seen. "You can't- you aren't- I mean- he didn't want- crap."

Clary took another step forward. Her leg pulsed with pain. "He what?" When Isabelle didn't clarify any further, Clary turned away from the two letting out a grunt of aggravation. She ran her hands through her hair, ignoring the pain that was spreading through her body as she paced back and forth. "That explains so goddamn much. He was purposefully pushing himself away from me and Alec, right? Right?" She spun toward Isabelle at the last word.

"He-" She started to say something but apparently decided against it when all she did was nod.

"Unbelievable." Clary clenched and unclenched her fists not paying attention to the fact that she was effectively turning herself invisible and visible again. "He is absolutely unbelievable. Always has to be the best."

"'Best?'" Simon questioned.

"Yeah!" Clary exclaimed throwing up her hands. "If he thinks that sacrificing himself will make his legacy last or whatever then he's got another thing coming."

Clary started towards the door. Simon and Isabelle watched in confusion.

"Where are you going?" Simon asked.

"To get that idiot, Jace," Clary said. She turned back to the two with her hand on the doorknob. "So, are you guys coming or not?"