Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/the Mortal Instruments.

Sequel to: Jace Morgenstern's Unlucky Streak

Alec was in a state. He wasn't sure whether Magnus was fine or not. He paced back and forth, awaiting some sort of message from his boyfriend, but there was none. Shadowhunters from Alicante had been sent to the Institute but they hadn't found Magnus, just the bodies of the Forsaken who'd attacked while the group had been preparing to head to Idris' capital in response to the Clave's summons.

Not only that, but Jace and Chloe hadn't made it. He had no idea where they were. They'd stepped through the portal, but from what the Clave were saying, there was something wrong with the barrier surrounding Alicante. Many Shadowhunters from institutions all over the world had been called to Alicante to preside over what was going to be no doubt an interrogation, but half of them hadn't actually made it into the city.

For reasons that no one could understand, the barrier was bouncing people off. It was random. There was nothing tying any of the people who'd been sent to different parts of Idris instead of entering the capital, nothing that could be used to discern a pattern and be used to figure out exactly what was going on with their protection.

Alec's father and little brother hadn't made it to Alicante either, but they'd been bounced into a nearby village and had been able to get a message to Alicante confirming their location and safety.

Suddenly a spark of fire appeared in the air in front of Alec, and that spark became a floating fire which turned into a glowing message:

'Stop worrying so much. It's insulting. –M'

Relief speared through Alec's body as he leaned forwards and gripped the railing, shoulders slumped. Magnus was fine. He'd made it out of there.

Taking in a deep breath, Alec stood, much calmer now knowing that the Warlock was fine. He could think now, could ground himself. Now he could try and figure out where Jace and Chloe had been bounced off to and how to help them.

He wouldn't be able to do it alone though. Nope. He needed to find Izzy, Lois, and Clark Kent.

Jace awoke to a headache and shaky vision. Sounds joined together in some sort of demonic symphony, and when he tried to sit up the world spun around him viciously and he landed on the cool grass. He tried to remember what'd happened, how he'd gotten there, but his mind was blurry, painful, disorientation making him nauseas. He wasn't used to feeling like this, to feeling ill at all, and the panic at the back of his mind telling him he'd forgotten something important made him desperate. The last thing Jace remembered was Magnus Bane opening a sanctioned portal to Idris, and the Shadowhunters lining up to step through. Clark had been there too, hadn't he?

"Come on!" An unfamiliar voice hissed.

Fighting the desire to stay lying on the ground, Jace pulled himself up enough on his elbows to turn, and what he saw filled him with fear.

There was someone Jace didn't recognize (but who had to be a Shadowhunter because of the runes covering his body) leaning over Chloe, performing what Chloe had once explained to Jace was a Mundane life-preservation tactic called "CPR". The guy and Chloe were soaked to the bone, and Jace (who was utterly dry) had the feeling that the guy had jumped into the large lake besides them for Chloe. He didn't know why, but he just knew that. He was also performing CPR, so Chloe must've been drowning.

That realization had Jace up on his uneasy legs. He was dry as can be, so for some reason he hadn't taken a dip in the lake. He stumbled next to them, eyes wide in horror. "Chloe?"

"Make yourself useful," the guy hissed as he pumped down repeatedly on Chloe's chest. "Iratze."

Jace already had his stele out and was burning the rune into Chloe's arm. "What happened?"

"You tell me!" The guy stopped doing compressions and reached down, pressing his lips to Chloe's and breathing in, Chloe's chest visibly filling with air as he did so. In seconds the guy's lips were gone from hers and he returned to compressions. "All I know is that something was weird with the portal that was supposed to take me to Idris, I'm supposed to represent my family - represent the Paris Institute. For some reason the barrier knocked me away from Alicante and sent me here. I thought it was a fluke but then you two ended up here as well. You fell into the bushes but she fell into the lake." The compressions ended and once more he was breathing into her mouth before pulling away and working once more. "You know, I'm wondering why I convinced her to get back with you considering you're never are around to protect her!"

And suddenly Jace knew who this was. It was Chloe's friend, the one she'd made in the Fae Realm. This was the guy who'd assured Chloe that her reasons for keeping her distance from Jace were ludicrous.

Finally, Chloe's body reacted, and they both turned her over in time for a flood of water to gush out of her mouth. Instead of opening her eyes and staring up at them, however, she curled up in a ball and whimpered while shivering despite the fact that her body was warm to the touch. This in itself filled Jace with more dread and he finally turned to peer at the lake before freezing in horrified realization.

That was Lake Lyn.

Lake Lyn was cursed, was toxic to Shadowhunters – especially if ingested!

"Finally dawning on you how bad this situation is?" The guy wanted to know as he pulled out his own stele and began to burn iratze into Chloe's skin. "These will only slow down the fever. If we don't get her to Alicante soon the fever will get worse and she'll go insane."

"You're going to feel the fever too, even if not as badly or as soon as her," Jace reminded. "You went into the water."

"You think I don't know that?" The guy wanted to know with a raised eyebrow. "You were out cold and she was unconscious, sinking deeper into the lake, I couldn't just stand there and not do anything."

It was a punch in the gut to realize just how useless he'd been. Chloe would've drowned had this guy not been here, or if the stranger had been less of a man and refused to (in essence) poison himself in an effort to save her life. This guy had saved Chloe's life.

"Thank you for doing what I should've." He held his hand across Chloe's body. "I'm Jace Morgenstern, from the Metropolis Institute."

The guy eyed Jace's hand for a second before nodding to himself. "I'm Sebastian Verlac, from the Paris Institute." He took Jace's hand, and they both visibly froze when something raced through their bodies at the touch. Sebastian's brown eyes and Jace's golden ones met in shock when something sparked in their palms seconds before Chloe's eyes finally opened as she sat up.

Sebastian and Jace quickly yanked their hands away from each other and turned their attention on her. Jace moved closer, pressing his cool hand against her warm forehead. He smiled down at her despite not feeling like smiling at all, but she was obviously just as confused as he was, on top of having the beginning of the fever. "Hey."

"Hey." She smiled up at him, eyes a bit glassy as she as she turned eye Sebastian. "Are you a hallucination like Dino?"

"Huh?" Sebastian looked up at Jace for clarification.

"It's probably a mundie thing," Jace hated admitting he had no clue what she was talking about. "Sebastian's really here, Chloe. Something's wrong with the barrier around Alicante, we were bounced back towards Lake Lyn. It's toxic for our kind, and you swallowed a good chunk of the lake." He brushed some blonde strands out of her face. "You never make things easy for me, do you?"

"Where's the fun in that?" She seemed to be asking herself as she closed her eyes, softly whispering under her voice: "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're a modern stone-age family…" Then she fell asleep.

Jace blinked. What sort of odd things were mundanes in to?

"She's odd, huh." Sebastian wasn't asking, merely making a point.

"Very," Jace agreed. It was one of the many things he liked about her though. "We need to get going. If this is Lake Lyn, Alicante is a couple days walk."

Sebastian nodded and reached for Chloe, surprising Jace when he eased her into his arms and stood with her.

Immediately Jace stood as well. "What are you doing?"

"I lost my seraph blade in the lake when I dove for her, I'm not going back for it," Sebastian informed him with a raised eyebrow. "You're also right, it's a couple of days walk to Alicante and we'll get there quicker using our runes. She can't walk, and I don't have a blade, so it makes more sense for me to carry her while you stand guard."

This reasoning made Jace uneasy, and yet not for the reason one would immediately expect. "You think we're going to be attacked."

Sebastian looked at him as if he was shocked Jace didn't think the same thing. "Valentine Morgenstern is not one to take lightly, you'd think you'd know that by now. If there is an issue with the barrier I doubt it is just a random occurrence. That barrier has been around Alicante for as long as the city has been built, and I don't remember ever hearing about anything like this ever happening before. It doesn't take genius level intellect to figure out that by bouncing people out of the protected City of Glass, Valentine would be able to pick off leading members of our Institute." He raised his chin. "So yes, I think we're going to be attacked."

The scene before her was so confusing, so earth-shattering, so terrifying, that Chloe was frozen. She'd woken up, ready to start the day and get this trip to Idris over and done with, when the first clue that something was off hit her. Her arms were covered in scratches which looked fairly recent, and if the dried blood under her fingernails had anything to say about it she'd inflicted the wounds on herself. The second clue that something was wrong was that when she'd turned to ask Jace what was going on, he was gone. He wouldn't have left her, not after that freaky encounter with the woman who claimed to be her biological mother. The third clue that something was off was that, once she realized Jace wasn't there, Chloe finally looked beyond the bed and realized that this wasn't Jace's room in the institution.

Just where the hell was she? And how had she gotten there? Had Valentine attacked the Institute and kidnapped her again?

With so many questions floating in her mind, Chloe slipped out of the bed and tiptoed towards the window to see not Idris, but Metropolis outside. Okay. So she was still on her own home-turf. Good. A quick check of the door proved that it wasn't locked. Good as well. She just needed to slip out of this place and go back to the Institute, and…

It was while she was tiptoeing through what seemed like an apartment that Chloe came upon the sight that left her frozen in utter terror.

"I'm just saying that there's a reason I don't bring girls over," a boy with shocking blonde hair and blue eyes declared. "You two are embarrassing."

"Nonsense," the man with golden blonde hair and blue eyes declared, a funny mustache seated over his top lip. "Your mother and I are hip. Aren't we, honey?"

The dark haired, green eyed woman from the pixie club smirked. "Honey, you're adorable, but no way am I saying 'hip'."

"Even if I beg?" The man asked coyly. "I know you like it when I beg, Lili."

The woman from the pixie club, Lili, grinned at him. "Not in front of the kids."

The boy groaned. "Kill me now!" He caught sight of Chloe and shot a look at her which clearly said 'only you feel my pain'. "Tell them, Chlo, tell them to get a room!"

"Chloe!" Lili smiled as she beckoned her over. "Come and defend your father and I from your brother."

"Excuse me! From childhood Chloe and I have had to watch each other's backs and make sure you two don't embarrass us into self-imposed exile," the boy huffed. "It's always been Jonathan and Chloe Wayland against the world, always will be, right Chlo?"

She'd gone insane. That was the only explanation she had for the fact that that woman (who tried to make her believe she was her mother), her biological father (who was dead) and her biological brother (who was also dead) were all there smiling happily at her as if them having breakfast together and snarking at each other wasn't an odd occurrence.

"Honey, are you alright?" Michael Wayland wanted to know, his smile slipping immediately in fatherly concern. "Are you hurt? Ill?" His eyes narrowed. "Did that boy of yours break your heart?" He turned to Lili. "I told you it was too early to allow her to date."

"Michael, hush," Lili (Wayland?) patted her husband's hand (there were wedding rings - they were wearing wedding rings!), eyes on Chloe. "What's wrong? It's not like you to be so pale. You look like you've seen a ghost." She moved towards Chloe and softly chucked the girl's chin up so she could peer into her face, Lili's expression both pensive and worried. "Something feels a little… off… with you."

"Wait, he didn't actually break your heart, did he?" That was Jonathan, and it was asked in a very low, very angered voice. "Because I'll beat the shit out of him if he did! No one messes with my sister!"

"Language," Michael mumbled.

Lili's eyes were on Chloe's arms. "What happened to you?"

Jonathan and Michael, who hadn't noticed the state of her arms, flocked around her in a ball of angered and confused and worried voices. Chloe pinched herself, wondering if she'd wake up. Nope, she didn't. She tried to do it again but Jonathan gripped her by the wrists and yanked them away from each other, his eyes narrowed in concern. "Did you do this to yourself?"

That caused a whole flutter of questions and worries, and by the end of it Chloe was seated at the table with the others while basically trying to figure out just how real a delusion could be. This seemed real. Everyone seemed real. And yet there were people here who definitely couldn't be here due to the fact that two of them were extremely dead… so this had to be a psychotic episode, probably triggered by all her stress, and intensified by the Infernal Conversion. The woman from last night had left such an impression on her with that attack that her subconscious had given her a name and had inserted her into this weird fantasy as her mother.

Everyone started talking to themselves, worrying, planning, strategizing, and from their conversation Chloe got context clues as to what was going on in her delusion. Not only were her brother and father alive, and Lili her mother… but in this delusion Chloe wasn't her first name, and she only knew that because her father had knelt down in front of her and said:

"Abigail Chloe Wayland, if you have a problem you tell us this instance. If it's a kid, Jonathan will beat them up. If it's an adult, your mother and I will—."

Chloe just stared at this man. Was this what she'd secretly wanted for in a father? He was completely different from Gabe, who hadn't really ever known anything that was going on in Chloe's life. Gabe had been a good father, he'd cared for and about her, but you couldn't call him "involved". Maybe, deep down inside, this man, who looked strong and handsome and ready to order people to go beat up someone in her name was everything she'd ever actually wanted growing up. Either way she was close to tears.

"Everything's going to be fine," her father assured her with certainty.

A knock sounded on the door and Jonathan excused himself to answer it.

Pushing away from her father, Chloe wiped her eyes and smiled at him sadly. "I've lost my mind. I'm now certifiably insane."

He stared at her in silence and then nodded, expression serious. "You get that from your mother's side of the family."

Lili slapped him up the back of his head yet never took her gaze from Chloe's face. "Honey, what happened to your arms?"

"I think I had a nightmare. Or it was the beginning of this delusion," Chloe admitted.

"Delusion?" Michael Wayland asked curiously.

"Yeah. What I'm having right now? It's a psychotic meltdown of epic proportions," she informed them with a shaky smile. "I mean, I knew something was going to give, but I never expected I'd go coocoo for cocoapuffs."

"Come again?" Lili blinked.

"This isn't real." Chloe took in a deep breath. "None of this is. It's either a dream or I'm locked up in a psych ward in Idris somewhere."

Michael frowned, something darkening his expression. "What are you talking about?"

"You aren't real," she told him.

"Why would you—?" Her father immediately looked hurt and confused.

"You died before I was born, so did Jonathan, I never met either of you. You didn't even know mom was pregnant with me when you two died."

"Chloe," Lili interrupted slowly, patiently, yet there was an odd tone in her voice - she sounded scared. "Your father was with me throughout every step of my pregnancy. You know this. There're pictures."

"And you? You're not my mother. Moira Laneara is. I don't know who the hell you are." She saw the wide-eyed shock on their faces as they exchanged meaningful looks as she continued to try and school her delusion. "I grew up with Uncle Sam's half brother, Gabriel. I thought he was my father and when he found out he wasn't he basically broke all ties with me."

"He gave her different parents?" Michael snarled, anger obvious on his face. "He went to that extreme?"

"Honey, enough, remember what he said," Lili whispered before she turned to Chloe. "Chloe, I know that things are going to be confusing for you for a little while, but we're here for you. If you see annoyance or sadness or anger from us - like your father right now - know that it's not directed towards you."

"I'm sorry." Michael sighed heavily as he rested his hands on Chloe's arms. "Chloe, things aren't going to make much sense for you, but your mother, brother and I - everyone else - we're here for you every step of the way." He looked up at Lili, as if asking for help.

"What your father is trying to say is that—," Lili began.

Chloe stared at her father's arms, eyeing the runes burnt into his flesh. She recognized every single one of them, could recite what each and every one of them helped with. And then she noticed that he was covered in iratze. Her eyes narrowed as they rose to his face. "How were you hurt? There are iratze all over you, why would I imagine you hurt?"

"Honey, you can see—?" He glanced down at his arms and then looked up at Lili, clearly nervous and concerned, before his gaze returned to Chloe. "I don't want to overwhelm you, we can't overwhelm you, you might relapse, and we just got you back."

"Relapse?" Chloe stared at him in confusion. "This is the relapse… or the lapse… since I haven't gone this crazy before."

"Why do you two look like Chloe's going to detonate a bomb?" An unfamiliar voice wanted to know from behind them.

Chloe turned to see Jonathan (who also had runes now that she paid attention) standing next to a petite girl with fiery red hair who reminded her very much of Jocelyn. "If you say you're Jocelyn I'm going to scream."

The girl made a face and snorted. "Why would I say that?" She hooked her hands on her hips, her arms and chest also covered in runes. "Although, mom was beautiful, so that's actually a compliment. Dad always says, 'Clary'-.."

"Wait." Chloe interrupted immediately. "You're Jocelyn's daughter?"

'Clary' snickered and came forwards, hooking her arm around Chloe's. "You are such a weirdo, CeeCee." She smirked. "It's probably why we're best friends, but still, you are so weeeiiiirrrd."

"You're Clary Fairchild, my best friend?" Chloe blinked, confused. She understood the presence of the other people here: they were all important to her in one way or the other. But this Clary person? Why had she been created for this delusion?

"Uhm, more like Clary Morgenstern?" Clary rolled her eyes. "And you're Abigail "Chloe" Wayland, the only person who understands my need to go by my second name instead of "Seraphina"?" She laughed. "C'mon now, we have to get ready." She pulled Chloe away from the others and towards her bedroom. "What happened to your arms though? You look like you got an itch and scratched wayyyy too hard."

Chloe had no idea what to do with Clary Morgenstern.

"Okay, so Simon, Eric, Matt and Kirk have a gig tonight and we since we promised them the last time we hung out that we'd egg on Champagne Enema during the next gig they scored…" She frowned as she closed the door behind them. "Or, was it Ermhagawd? They keep changing the name of that band and I can't keep up with it!" She flung herself on Chloe's bed with practiced ease and yanked off her messenger bag. "It wouldn't bother me so much if they didn't expect me to keep on designing new logos for them every time they change their name." The girl pulled a drawing pad and pencil out of her bag and began drawing immediately, eyes on the paper. "So, you never explained the scratches." She made up her nose. "Is this some kinky crap you and the boytoy are into? Because if so, I don't want to know."

"I….. need to bathe." Chloe escaped into the bathroom and bathed just to give herself a moment to get away from the girl, who was a petite missile ready to launch. She was a large personality in a tiny package. She was dizzying. She was also, apparently, Chloe's best friend. Why wasn't Lois her best friend in her delusion? It would make sense for Lois to be her best friend! Why create some random person instead?

After bathing, Chloe was in the middle of drying off when she noticed it. The scar from where Valentine had cut her open with his seraph blade and yanked out the Mortal Cup… it was still there. And now that she looked, the white lines from where she'd cut herself on the Mortal Sword… they were there too on her arms and hands. Healed but there.

"I was thinking." Clary's voice was muffled through the door yet distinguishable. "What if this symbol I've been drawing actually means something? Maybe it's something in my subconscious trying to manifest itself. There's got to be a reason why dad keeps getting those looks whenever he sees that I've doodled it again."

Chloe emerged from the bathroom in a towel and went to get a change of clothes, not at all self-conscious given the fact that this was a dream/delusion.

Clary's phone beeped with a message and she answered it with a smirk. "Simon thinks that this symbol means I'm the new Slayer and that I've been activated."

"Maybe you're really a Slayer, anything's possible." Especially since none of this is real. Chloe went through the wardrobe filled with clothes that looked like nothing she would actually wear in real life. There were so many colors, and this was girly. It was as if Lana and Lois' styles had gotten together and given birth to her wardrobe!

"You tease me while not understanding just how cruel you're being." Clary rolled her eyes.

Chloe made it back to the bathroom and changed into her underwear and clothes - a short, yellow sundress with boots and a leather jacket. Her hair was longer than she was used to dealing with, so she put it up in a messy bun before applying rubbing alcohol to the wounds on her arms. At least the jacket covered her arms, which she'd tended to. They didn't look horrible but they'd stick out if she didn't cover them up with the jacket.

She stepped out of the bathroom to find Clary eyeing her oddly, intently, worriedly. "I know… I know things are kind of fuzzy for you right now… but please tell me you at least know you can trust me."

"Why would you say that?" Chloe then noticed Clary's gaze on her arms, which, although covered, still held the proof of a good scratching. "It's fine. I'll just iratze them and…" She frowned and looked around. "Where's my stele?" She then glanced over at Clary. "Never mind. Use yours. That agility rune is fresh. You have to have your stele on you."

Clary's eyes widened. "No way, you can see the runes? So you know?" Hope lit her face as she smiled. "You remember? I was supposed to help ease you into… that's why with the drawing… but you remember?"

"I've never forgotten about the runes or the fact that I'm a Shadowhunter," Chloe informed her, a little taken aback by the girl's open hope. "It's why, in this delusion, we're all still Shadowhunters."

"Oh." And like that, the light shining from Clary disappeared and she slumped back down on the bed. "I should've—I mean he warned us that you—." Head lowered, Clary took in a deep breath and when she looked up she was smiling again, but the smile didn't seem genuine at all, if anything, it looked very sad. "It's going to be okay, Cee."

She doubted it, and was relieved when the doorbell rung, giving her an opportune minute to escape the weird situation. "I'm going to answer that."

Clary nodded, that forced smile still in place. "You do that."

Exiting her room, Chloe could hear a heated discussion in one of the rooms, and she would've listened in if the doorbell hadn't gotten her attention once more. "Coming!" She hurried to the door and flung it open to reveal… Sebastian Verlac. He was dressed in skinny jeans, combat boots, had on a white shirt and a black leather jacket. His hairstyle was different, and he sported a nose ring. "Sebastian?"

He looked up from the phone he'd been texting in and smirked and leaned in. "Hey, Troublemaker."

"What are you doing here?" Chloe took a couple of steps back into the house.

The smirk fell from his lips, replaced by a disturbed expression, seconds before the smirk was back in place. "You don't sound too happy to have me here." He cleared his throat. "Call me a softie, but that actually kind of hurt."

"Sorry, I didn't mean…" She let out a deep breath and ran her fingers over her hair. "You're just the last person I expected to open the door to."

Sebastian's smirk slipped once more as he eyed her. "Again, I'm kind of hurt. I expected, I don't know, a different sort of reaction."

"Why?"

He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. "Ouch. That was rougher than I thought it would be." He opened his eyes, took in a deep breath, and stood in the doorway, clearly hesitant. "Do you remember me doing something that pissed you off, or something?"

"What? No." She let out another sigh and fought the frustration this delusion was giving her. "I'm sorry I'm such a bitch. I just thought, for some reason, that it might be Jace. But, well, obviously you're not Jace."

"Herondale?" Sebastian asked oddly.

"No. Jace Morgenstern. He's my boyfriend," Chloe reminded him patiently.

Sebastian went still. "What?"

"You know this. I've talked to you in real life about him before, in fact I talk about him with you more than with anyone else for some weird reason." She made a face as she snapped her fingers in front of his face. "How do I control this delusion? I'm obviously somehow—."

"Are you serious?" Sebastian snapped as he finally stepped over the threshold and loomed over her, eyes dark and unhappy. "That's what he did? I'm going to kill him! I'd already planned to before, but now, I—!"

Chloe arched away from him, eyes wide. "Look, you're a part of my delusion. None of this is real. Not you. Not my dead brother and father. Not that weird woman who thinks she's my mother. Not Jocelyn Fairchild's imaginary daughter. Not even this form that I've taken."

Sebastian's ire mixed with horror. "What?"

A gasp from behind proved that Clary had joined them and had heard that last part. "You think I'm imaginary?"

Chloe shifted stance so that she could glance between Sebastian and Clary. "I'm having a mental breakdown."

Clary narrowed her eyes, her hurt visible in them. "Explain."

"This isn't real, it's a delusion I've made up, or a psychotic break, I'm not too sure yet," Chloe glanced around her. "People are different but the same. I never met my dad or my brother, Clary's father killed them when I was a kid. We're fighting this war, and he did this Infernal Conversion on me to align me to the demonic side, and I'm dating Jonathan Morgenstern." She frowned. "There's only him. He's the only Morgenstern kid. You don't exist, Clary." She took in a deep breath. "I've met Sebastian a couple of times, but beyond that he's basically a stranger, so I don't know what you, him, and Lili are doing in this delusion. What roles does my subconscious need you to fill?"

Clary clutched her hands together and looked close to tears.

Sebastian's ire had visibly returned, but it was tempered by pain just as deep as Clary's. While there weren't tears in his dark eyes, he was visibly tormented by something.

"Have you wondered if maybe you're not having a delusion?" Clary asked softly. "You can see our runes, which means that you still remember that the world has magic in it, that there's evil. Have you never considered you might be under a spell?"

Chloe froze, eyes wide. By the Angel… she'd never considered that! What if it were true? What if this wasn't her going insane, instead being trapped in an illusion caused by magic?

"Clary!" Sebastian hissed at the redhead. "You know what he said!"

"I don't care! My best friend thinks I'm imaginary!" Clary moved towards her, determination thrumming throughout her body. "Ceecee I need you to listen to me. We're Shadowhunters, we fight to protect the Mundanes from things that go bump in the night. You're one of us. You got hurt." She stared into Chloe's eyes. "Someone hurt you, and we're told that the spell on you is so bad we could seriously hurt you if we don't let you ease into the truth again, but I can't stand this pretending that nothing happened! You were imprisoned by the enemy. You were tortured and interrogated for information regarding the Institute, the Clave, everything. They broke into your mind to get the information they couldn't otherwise." Her voice cracked. "Chloe, they broke you, and I'm going to kill them all for what they did. I want you to get better, I want—I want things to go back to how they were—but you need to know that this is real. This is real. We are real."

I might be under a spell.

Chloe took in a deep breath and walked out of the apartment, ignoring Sebastian and Clary's calls for her as they hurried out behind her. She ignored them and began to run as fast as her legs could take her.

There was only one place she could go where she'd feel safe, where she could find answers.

She needed to find Magnus Bane.

"No." Clark shook his head. At first, when he'd found out at the last minute that he'd been summoned by the Clave, he'd figured that someone had spilled the beans that he was a "Downworlder", and yet it seemed that everyone had kept that a secret because the Clave kept referring to him as a Mundane. He realized that this was for the best, that he was safer as long as they believed him a Mundane, because the Clave was supposed to protect Mundanes, not so much the Downworlders, no matter what they wanted others to think.

"Think long and clear on your answer, Mundane," one of the Elders who made up the Clave, declared as he leaned forwards in his seat. "Our kind is versed in deception, it would be easy for them to trick you unless you truly paid attention to details." He raised an eyebrow. "And as you have discovered our world on your own it proves that you have greater eye to detail than most Mundanes."

The eyes of the Clave were upon him.

Clark took in a deep breath and tried not to get angry at these people, and at what they were trying to make him do. "The Lightwood family did not know of Hodge Starkweather's alliance with Valentine Morgenstern, and they are not in league with Valentine Morgenstern either." Why were the Clave so eager to have him testify to the contrary? "In fact, they risked their lives to battle him and save Chloe and I when we were kidnapped. They battled demons to try and stop him from conducting the Infernal Conversion. It was a suicide mission, one in which many died."

"And yet not one Lightwood perished aboard that ship," another of the Elders declared pensively. "How fortuitous."

Clark opened his mouth.

"It was also convenient for them that our own Inquisitor was killed during the Forsaken's attack," another Elder announced. "No one else in your party was killed except her… except the one person who could tell us the truth of what truly happened." He eyed Clark. "Valentine's wife, his son, his followers – they all escaped with their lives, and yet our agent did not. Surely you understand why this seems a little… suspicious."

"The Inquisitor died because she protected Jace." Clark wouldn't back down, wouldn't doubt his friends. "He was surrounded by Forsaken and she stepped in to help him. She pushed him and Chloe into the portal to safety seconds before she was impaled and killed. She died a hero."

There was silence in the Clave as they all watched him.

Clark stood his ground, suddenly wondering if it wasn't safer for Jace and Chloe that the barrier over Alicante had bounced them somewhere else, hopefully far away from these people.

Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're a modern stone-age family

Chloe frowned, suddenly realizing that she wasn't running anymore. She couldn't remember stopping. Why had she stopped? Why were her eyes closed? Why was she thinking of the Flintstones' theme song? Where was she? What was she doing? What was going on? She could feel herself in someone's arms being taken somewhere, but couldn't open her eyes for the life of her.

"You shouldn't have pushed, Clary," Sebastian's voice was low, reproachful. "We were told to ease her into it! What if you've gone and undone all the progress she'd made by pushing too fast too soon?"

"I know, but I'm so worried!" Clary's voice broke once more in emotion. "We haven't been able to see her in months, Seb! It's taken this long for her to be able to leave the care of the Silent Brothers! Her mind… it was so completely taken over by that fantasy world created by that son of a bitch—! There was almost nothing left to rebuild! I can't—I thought we'd lost her!"

"You think I don't know that? You think I don't feel that way too?" Sebastian snapped. "Today's the first day that I was able to see her since the rescue mission was a success! That was months ago! And I wasn't even on it! If it wasn't for her brother she'd still be in that mad man's—. The last thing I saw of her was her unconscious and… and before that I saw her… I saw… it was my fault!"

"No it wasn't!" Clary snapped right back. "It is not your fault that he took her! He used me as bait. If there's anyone to blame here it's me."

Chloe nibbled her thumbnail as she paced the room. She glanced up at the clock and then down at the floor as she walked back and forth, back and forth. Where was he? She needed to see him immediately! Hadn't he gotten her message? That it was important? She'd found out what their enemy was planning, but she was scared that he knew. He was coming after her, and she needed to make sure that the message was passed on before that monster could get his claws in her.

The world depended on Valentine Morgenstern making it to their damned meeting on time!

Suddenly a sharp pain pierced Chloe's temple. She groaned and pressed her hand against the ache. What—what had that been? What had she seen? It'd almost seemed like a memory that was hers yet wasn't hers at the same time.

A wave of confusion rippled over her, and was enough for her eyes to finally open and focus on Sebastian's concerned face. Chloe glanced around them, wondering what in the world was going on. How had she ended up with Sebastian carrying her? And where was he carrying her?

"Chloe?" He asked her softly, worried. "How are you feeling? You fainted. We're almost at the Institute—."

The Institute… did Valentine send them for me when he couldn't make it in time? Did someone attack me? Is that why I don't seem to recall what happened during the time between me pacing… and Seb carrying me like this?

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed so hard." Clary leaned towards her, her best friend's expression contrite. "Do you still think I'm imaginary?"

Imaginary? Why would I think Clary's im—?

And then Chloe was back, and took in a deep breath as the confusion was gone and she knew who she was. She was Chloe Wayland and she was insane.

The pain was gone.

Chloe tried to ignore the feeling of sickening dread curling in the pit of her stomach that something wasn't right.

I'm crazy. This is a delusion. Obviously something is wrong.

And yet…

Fighting out of Sebastian's arms, she nearly fell but he managed to catch her before she could hit pavement. She didn't thank him. Didn't even acknowledge him. She took off running towards Magnus' once more, terror building in her chest.

TBC