Here's the second chapter of the day, as promised. And I must warn that things are going to go downhill from here. Please don't hate me. Love ya!
Jace held his head in his hands. His palms were pressed hard into his forehead. After what Isabelle just explained, he had a pounding headache.
"You just let her stay behind?" Jace questioned. He raised his head just a little so that he was staring at the four of his friends who sat before him.
"It's not that we let her-" Simon started but at Jace's glare he quickly shut up.
"Okay, well great." Jace stood up. "Then I have to go and get her."
"You can't just go there alone," Alec rebutted. Now that he knew Jace's secret too, there wasn't going to be much Jace could get away with.
"Who's going to stop me?" Jace started to walk away but then paused and turned back. "Do you guys know what's going to happen to Clary?"
"She's going to die?" Magnus guessed a little bit too nonchalantly.
"No!" Jace exclaimed. "If she was going to die, I would've left the moment I found out what happened. She's not going to die, but she's not going to be able to remember anything from the past year. She's not going to have her powers anymore. She's not going to be Blindeye."
"What if she wants that?" Simon queried and this stopped Jace from starting to leave again.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"I mean," Simon started but he seemed a little unsure. "I mean that she never seemed to like being Blindeye. She's always getting hurt and never has time to focus on herself anymore. She was always complaining about not being good enough. What if Blindeye is detrimental to her health? She hasn't been the same Clary for the past year, and once I found out she was Blindeye I knew why."
Jace tried to respond, but he didn't know what to say. She was Blindeye. Inside and out, she was a hero. He had met her because of their powers. He had first fallen in love with her as Blindeye and Badger. She couldn't just give up that part of herself. But then again... isn't that exactly what he was going to do?
But that wasn't why he wanted to stop her from doing this. He wanted to stop her from losing all her memories of this year; of her powers, her friends, him. There was no way in hell that she could forget everything they'd been through together.
Jace shook his head though. "No. I'm not going to let that happen. I'm not going to let her forget everything." Before anyone else could say something to stop Jace, he turned and left.
The sun had already risen. This was particularly bad because that meant that Sebastian would have already started his machine up. Sebastian had explained to Jace that his machine ran on solar power energy because it was the cleanest form and he couldn't afford any more mishaps. In truth, Jace thought he was a bit of a control freak. It would be far easier to use some other energy source. But it probably had to do with his mental state.
It had probably been daylight for about four hours now. So, at most, Clary could've been in the machine for four hours. But that was the worst-case scenario. The best case was that she wasn't even in the machine at all.
Jace arrived at Black Angel's location in hardly any time at all. Since Sebastian hadn't cared too much about hiding where everything was from Jace, he found his way around easily. Although, now it was far easier to find the place because Sebastian had opened up the entire roof to expose a glass ceiling to the sky. So, Jace could just look down and see the machine below him, and near it stood Sebastian. The machine was on.
Not wanting to waste more time, Jace jumped through the glass. He threw open the door to the machine shutting it off. Sebastian bolted towards Jace, his copies began appearing around him. He pulled his swords from his back and began the fight. When he continuously knocked down his enemies, Sebastian became visibly irritated. He started towards Jace himself but the moment he was close enough, Jace knocked him off his feet then squatted over him on the ground and wrapped his hand around Sebastian's throat. The copies disappeared.
"How long was she in there?" Jace demanded. Sebastian gasped, unable to answer. Jace loosened his grip only enough for Sebastian to be able to answer. "How. Long."
"Two hours," Sebastian managed to croak out.
Jace lifted the boy up by the throat. He dragged him over to the machine and, after pulling Clary out, threw Sebastian in. Before he could react, Jace closed the door and hit the power button. He locked the door and made a mental note to return in about fourteen hours. One hour equaled one month erased. Sebastian had explained just about everything to Jace. Probably because he hadn't expected him to remember any of it by the next day.
Gently picking up Clary's unconscious body, Jace left the hideout. He was quickly running through the city and doing his best to make sure the general populace didn't catch sight of what was happening. There would be far too many questions to answer, and if Clary had really only lost two months then he didn't want to tell anyone anything yet.
Jace returned to Clary's apartment and contacted Simon letting him know everything that had happened. He set her down in her bed and pulled the covers up to her chest. Tucking in the blanket at her sides, Jace sat down beside her as he waited for everyone else to arrive.
"Two months," he whispered as he stroked her bright hair from her face. His heart clenched in his chest. "You lost two months. Maybe one month would've been okay, but no... you just had to lose everything since we met."
The front door opened and Jace glanced back as Simon and the others came into the room. He took a step back, and Simon rushed forward. He placed his hand on her forehead, then on her pulse at her neck. Then, he turned to Jace for answers.
"When she wakes up," Jace started solemnly, "she's not going to know who Isabelle or I am. What she will know is that she's a superhero."
"She didn't lose everything?" Magnus asked from behind him.
"She still has her powers?" Simon added to the question.
Jace nodded. "She only lost two months."
"Is there any way," Isabelle said, "for us to bring her memory back?"
Jace shrugged. "How would I know?"
"This is a disaster." Alec sat down on the edge of Clary's bed. He took the blanket that was bunched up at Clary's feet and pulled it over her legs. Simon grabbed it from him to bring up to her chest.
"So, we probably shouldn't be here when she wakes up," Jace said, and Isabelle whimpered a little. He rubbed her arm with one hand. "I'm sorry, Iz. Imagine how I feel..."
Isabelle set her other hand over Jace's and offered him a sad smile. He turned back to Clary, not wanting to leave but knowing that she should be waking in the next hour or so. Jace ran his hand down his face feeling exhausted. Maybe he just needed a nap. Maybe he was already asleep and this whole thing was really one big dream. What a terrible nightmare that would be...
"We'll stay here," Alec said after a minute or so of silence. "When she wakes up, we'll be here."
"To do what?" Magnus asked. "It's not like we're supposed to know about her powers. Hell, in her mind, we're not even dating yet."
Alec stuttered looking back and forth between Clary's unconscious body and the rest of the group. "We'll... we'll invite her out to lunch. Tell her I'm going out with my roommate and my sister and invite her along. She won't think anything strange about that."
Jace looked sideways at Izzy. "Are we sure it's a good idea to introduce her to us so soon?" he wondered.
"I don't know," answered Alec, "but why not?"
"Things could go very wrong," Simon piped up, "but if we continue to do nothing, then nothing will happen at all."
"Are we ever going to be honest with her?" Isabelle asked.
At that question, everyone looked to each other for the answer. On the one hand, she deserved to know the truth. On the other hand, would she even believe it? And how would it affect her mentally to find out that two months of her life was erased?
