Disclaimer: I do not own the Mortal Instruments series. Everything recognisable belongs to Cassandra Clare.
Sorry for another two weeks of silence, I've had the worst writer's block. And I've had no way to check my grammar since my computer stopped working and acted really stupid the past week. And since English isn't my first language, well it took a bit longer to write this chapter without any other way of checking my grammar than Google.
I wanted to thank all of you for sticking with me for six months with this fanfiction, it's incredible how amazing all of you are, and we're almost at 800 review and that is more than I could ever even dream of. Thank you!
"You should eat something sweetheart." Celine pushed a bowl of cereal towards her son. Iwan ignored her. His eyes were red, like he'd had trouble sleeping. Which he probably had.
"Iwan." Celine touched his head, brushing her fingers through his messy blond locks.
When Iwan finally looked back, his mother sat down next to him with a cup of coffee in her shaky hands.
"Iwan, we should really talk about this.." she tried to speak with a clear voice, but he could hear her heartbreak on the tip of her tongue.
"There's nothing to talk about." He whispered, feeling water starting to well up in his blue eyes.
"Nothing to talk about." He repeated, shaking his head.
"I know you find it hard to talk about Iwan, we all do. But please don't shut yourself out- we need to keep together if we're going to get through this." Celine's hand rested on the back of the boy's head.
"Get through it?" Iwan snapped angry, "Get through what? Are we going to forget that he died? Are we going to forget that he was too trusting? That your best friend's daughter killed my brother? Your son.." He hissed angry.
"Iwan please, you know I didn't mean that. We're not going to forget anything, but we can't keep falling apart like this either." She whispered, her voice balancing on a thin thread threatening to break at any second.
Iwan pushed her hand away, moving his chair a few inches away from her. He knew he was being unreasonable, but everything happening inside his head made him feel like his brain was ready to explode. He knew that if he opened up to his mother, he would start crying- and when he started crying he wouldn't be able to stop.
"I just.." Iwan began, raising his head, seeing the blank blue eyes of his mother, "I just don't understand it."
"Me neither." Celine replied honestly, releasing the water from her burning eyes.
"Don't cry, please mom, don't cry!" Iwan snapped at her before he realised what he was doing, "I'm.. I'm sorry." He apologized, "I'm sorry."
"Oh Iwan, you don't have to apologize to me, just understand that we are all going through the same thing here, and there is nothing your father and I want more than for you to know that we are here for you. Whenever you need us, we're here." Celine whipped her tear away from her hot cheeks.
"I know." Iwan whispered, nodding his head, forcing his own tears back behind his eyes.
Celine bent down to kiss the top of Iwan's head, and as she moved away, his eyes were closed, and he drew a deep breath.
Neither mother nor son moved, both sitting in silence with their thoughts spinning fiercely inside their heads.
xxxx
"Isabelle, Alec!" Maryse yelled from the kitchen.
"Hmm." Isabelle looked up from her book.
"Could you help me with the dinner darling?" Maryse asked.
"Sure mom." Isabelle answered, "Alec's not here." She informed her as she picked up a knife and started cutting the vegetables.
"He's not here?" Maryse asked concerned.
"No, I think he needed some air. You know, some room to breathe." Isabelle smiled, trying to put on her most convincing hurt-yet-pretending-to-not-be-sad-face. "He's not dealing well with the whole situation." She finished.
"No.." Maryse nodded.
"I don't think anyone is. Jocelyn's not been here at all, and Luke told me she's not really speaking to him or anyone else right now. Iwan, well, what could you expect, he's heartbroken, that poor boy."
Isabelle nodded in agreement, "Yeah.."
Maryse studied her daughter carefully, "What about you Isabelle?" she asked, her voice shaking a little as she started heating up the food Isabelle had cut up.
"What about me?" Isabelle asked, knowing perfectly well what her mother was asking her about.
"How are you?" Maryse asked, meeting her daughter's dark brown eyes.
"I'm okay." Isabelle answered honestly, "I guess I'm just trying to keep strong you know, for Alec."
Isabelle hated lying to her mother, and she'd never thought she would find herself in a position where she would be lying about something as big as this.
xxxx
Alec walked out with Jace following silently behind him. Clary was already standing with her shoulder pressed against the hotel's wall.
Her hair was pulled up into a high, tight ponytail. "So boys." She clapped her hands together and the dim evening light shone down on her face, illuminating her features.
"Are you ready for the adventure of your lives?" She joked as she started walking towards them.
"As much as I like this change of attitude darling," Jace's voice was covered in a layer of sarcasm, "this is starting to get out of hand."
Alec smirked, "Very true, indeed." Alec muttered under his breath.
"Ha-ha." Clary's fake laughter rang out through the empty parking lot as they walked down the cold asphalt streets.
"Okay, it's very nice to see you two all buddy-buddy again, but-." Clary complained as she kicked a small stone with the tip of her shoe.
"We're not." Alec muttered, before Clary could finish her sentence.
She looked up at Jace's face, noticing his disappointed expression as Alec spoke.
"Okay, so any idea how we're going to get out of this place?" Clary asked, looking around the large open space. The sun had started to rise higher in the sky, with a few dark clouds indicating rain later in the evening.
"I don't know, you're supposed to be the smart one, make a portal or something." Jace smirked.
Clary looked around thoughtfully, "Did Isabelle say anything about when she would meet us?" she asked Alec, before she turned to Jace with an annoyed expression, "I can't do that, they're definitely tracking all portal activity in the area."
"No, not yet, but she'll call me when the institute is clear for her to leave." Alec answered, looking directly at Clary, ignoring his best friend, who was walking a few feet in front of them, clearly provoked.
"Okay, just tell me when she calls okay?" Clary smiled weakly.
"Okay."
"Hmm," Clary bit her lip while inspecting their surroundings, "There are a lot of cars here." She muttered irritated, like they were in her way.
"Well observed Sherlock, do you have any other useful information that we could use?" Jace sighed, brushing his hand carelessly through his messy hair.
Clary ignored his sarcastic remarks, walking over to a car trying to see if there was something they could use inside it.
"Oh, we could drive." Jace grinned, meeting Alec's disapproving look.
"Then we would have to steal a car." Alec stated, rolling his eyes.
Clary pulled at the door to see if it by any luck was open, it wasn't- Clary smiled when she remembered her stele or not her stele, but the stele in her pocket. "Sounds like a plan." Clary turned around, waving the silver stele in her hand.
"What?" Alec asked loudly, "No, that was not actually a real suggestion!" He yelled, walking sternly towards the redheaded girl, trying to take the silver twig out of her fingers before she could do whatever her plan was to do.
"Too late loverboy." Clary smirked as she quickly drew the opening rune on the black SUV.
"Jace, you can't approve of this?" Alec argued angry, as Jace raised an eyebrow towards him. "I don't think I am in charge here Alec." He replied with a small grin playing on his mouth.
"Okay, fine, I don't care. Steal the car, do whatever you want, it's not like we've not done enough illegal shit already, adding one more crime to the list won't hurt.." Alec muttered as Clary opened the car door.
"Great." Clary smiled falsely at the black haired boy, "So, does any of you know how to drive a car?" Clary asked as she drew a glamour rune on the car to hide its usual look, just for when the owner notice the car gone.
There was a moment of silence before Jace stepped forward.
"You don't know shit about driving a car." Alec complained irritated.
"And neither do you, nor Clary, but I don't think it can be that hard." Jace argued.
Clary moved over to the other side, sitting down in the seat next to Jace as Alec pulled the back door open. "This day honestly just gets better and better." He mumbled irritated.
xxxx
The atmosphere inside the car was unbearable. The two best friends didn't speak to each other at all, and Clary was too busy looking at a map she'd found in the glove compartment along with a flash light and the car's papers.
"I think we should take right if we're going to meet Isabelle and the vampire at, ehh," Clary studied the map again, "Marcus Gravy Park was it?" Clary turned around to look at Alec, how nodded distantly.
"I still think it's risky, to meet them this close to the goddamn hotel, they couldn't at least pretend like they were avoiding Harlem Street?"
Jace looked over at Clary as she spoke. Alec didn't feel the need to argue with her, seeing as he agreed, not that he would tell her that.
When they had left the parking lot earlier that evening they had driven to an abandoned place on the east side of Manhattan, there Clary had kept to herself trying to map out every possible hiding place for the three Mortal Instruments. So far she had only managed to think of three different places she could look for the cup, she knew where the sword was, and as for the mirror, she had no idea.
Clary's thoughts were abruptly cut short by Jace hitting the brakes too hard, making all three of them crash forward as he stopped the car. "Okay, my bad." He mumbled frustrated as he banged his fist in the steering wheel's leather.
"I don't think it can be that hard." Alec mimicked Jace's earlier words with a bitter tone to his voice, making Jace even more annoyed as he started the car again.
"I'd like to see you do it better." Jace said, changing the gear.
"Stop fighting." Clary muttered under her breath, she didn't sound too convincing as she kept looking down at the map drawing small x's every time she recognised where they were. "Take left." Clary commanded.
"What?"
"I said take left!" she repeated louder.
Jace made a quick turn, shoving all of them to the side. "What are you doing?" Clary rolled her eyes.
"Making a turn." Jace answered bemused.
"You turned right. I specifically told you to turn left down towards the park, not up some shabby street for homeless people!" Clary shouted angry as Jace continued down the road.
"By the angel, it's not the end of the world darling." Jace rolled his eyes as Clary shot him an angry glance. "Stop calling me that." She snapped.
"Ehh, guys?" Alec said.
"Calling you what?" Jace smirked, "Darling?"
"Yes, stop it, you know my name so stop making up stupid nicknames for me all the time." Clary answered.
"Oh, don't think you're special Red, nicknames are kind of my thing, I give them to everybody, don't I Alec?" Jace grinned down at Clary, who looked even more irritated.
"Sure, but-" Alec began, but the two Shadowhunters in the front were too busy arguing to let him finish.
"See." Jace smiled.
"Whatever, just get down to the main road again, I don't like it here." Clary told him with a final shake of her head.
"GUYS!" Alec shouted, "I hate to interrupt you, but look at your censors." He held up his own censor, which was showing high levels of demon activity. Clary pulled out her black stone. It pulsed heavily in Clary's palm, "shit." She muttered.
She didn't notice Jace stopping the car before she heard Alec and Jace whisper quietly. A big red bag was dropped in the backseat.
"I'm guessing you don't have any weapons." Jace smirked down at Clary who replied with a sarcastic smile, and picked up a seraph blade and a dagger.
"I think you can take that as a no." Alec laughed nervously as he too picked up his weapon of choice, a crossbow and arrows.
"Okay, whatever kind of demon is out there, I want us to get this done quick okay?" Clary told the two others.
They all stepped out of the car. A cold autumn breeze brushing over them.
Clary started walking, her fingers closed tightly around the black gem around her neck. She whispered the seraph blade's name and watched as it started glowing light yellow in the dark alley.
"Do you see anything?" She asked the two others as she held her weapon relatively far away from her body.
"No." both answered at the same time, looking around them to see if there was anything abnormal. It took a few minutes before Alec pointed out some dark grey smoke in the end of the street. Like a cloud of gas leaking from the front of a car. Two great glowing lights placed in the middle. The only problem was, the car, it wasn't there, and the two lights.. They blinked.
"Oh shit… fuck. Get back, we need to get back to the car now," Clary cursed loudly at the two boys who seemed to not have seen what Clary had. "I SAID NOW!" Clary yelled, hitting Jace hard in the chest to make him turn around.
When Jace didn't react, she tried to physically pull him around. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" she heard him whisper under his breath, pulling free from Clary's grip. "Jace please!" she begged.
"Alec!"
Alec had stopped walking too, but something about his posture looked off, he was leaning back, face blank and his eyes were full of angry tears.
"I am!" he screamed loudly, his voice bellowing through the street.
"No, not you too." Clary whispered watching the boy stare angrily into thin air yelling curses at no one.
"Alec!" Clary tried to say his name as calmly as she possibly could manage, "Whatever you are seeing, it's not real! You have to believe me, it's not. Jace, you too, please calm down!" Both boys seemed to be losing their minds, Jace sat on his knees, his hands pressed to his ears, like he was covering them from a loud sound. "IT IS NOT REAL!" Clary yelled at him, wondering what he must be seeing to react that strongly.
Clary ran over to the blond boy sitting helplessly on the cold ground, he suddenly looked a lot younger than he really was. "Please, don't hurt him, don't hurt him." His voice shook as he begged.
"Kill me, do whatever you want, just don't hurt them!"
"Jace you have to hear me, I'm telling you it's not real, it's a demon. Agramon, he's the demon of fear, and I know you know that, which means you know that what you're seeing right now, isn't really happening. You have to fight it, because if you don't, you die!" Clary whispered as she tried to make him face her.
His eyes were filled with hot tears, and his cheeks cold, almost like the air had frozen his skin, leaving ice. The hair falling into his eyes was damp from either tears or sweat.
"I have to give it to you my dear, always such a clever mind." The voice sent shivers down her spine, and it felt like all her hope was pulled out of her. Leaving only a large empty black hole.
"You can go fuck yourself." She spat at him as she held her seraph blade out as a warning.
"Well, is that the way to speak to your father Clarissa?" Valentine asked with a small smile playing on his thin lips.
"You're not my father." Clary stated.
"Why would you say something like that? Am I not the one who raised you? Am I not the one who made you who you are Clary?" the demon spoke with such a burning passion in his voice, Clary started to doubt herself.
Valentine took a few steps closer to her, holding out his hand towards her. Clary moved the sword closer to him. "Even if you were my father, you never qualified to call yourself one." Clary whispered angry, closing her eyes to keep them from watering.
Clary looked at him, the demon wearing her father's look, his cold black eyes, his white hair and slender figure. He was a true copy, almost fooling her.
The pained cries from both boys behind her died out as her father's figure came closer to her, she automatically pulled her sword away to keep from harming him.
"Don't." she said.
"I'm not going to hurt you sweetheart, but you've done things, things any other parent wouldn't forgive. But I do, I forgive you Clarissa." He spoke in a loud voice.
"No, you can't forgive me." Clary replied.
"Of course I can, you just have to come with me, and we could rule the world."
"NO!" Clary yelled, her seraph blade held high again, "No, you can't forgive me, because I've not done anything wrong in the first place!"
When she finished her sentence she noticed how close he was standing to her, only inches away. And Clary knew, deep down, that this was not her father. It was something else. Something, if possible, even worse. And if she didn't react now that she had a somewhat clear mind, she knew she wouldn't be able to do anything later. And then, she knew she would be dead, along with both Jace and Alec.
Clary held out her blade, "You can go to hell!" She swung her sword in the demon's direction, cutting him across the chest. Demon-Valentine looked down at the black liquid streaming down his white shirt.
It took a few seconds before Valentine looked back up at her, a smile so full of malice it sent shiver down her spine, "You think you can hurt me young girl. You think you can actually send me to hell?" He sneered.
It was weird, watching her father act this way. Watching the dark, bloodish liquid cover his torso.
"I would like to think so yeah," Clary smirked back, trying to hide the true terror behind her words, "and before you go, if you could tell my father, and then I mean my real father, that there's a spot there for him too." Clary leaped forward, catching the demon by surprise. His reactions slow.
Agramon seemed to move ungracefully through the dark, which didn't come as a shock to Clary. A demon that could kill by showing an opponent their biggest fears, why on earth would he learn to fight.
Clary jumped to the side as he went in for an attack. Wearing her father's body, he moved better than he would in his true form.
Behind Clary, there was nothing more than wind moving through the open windows and the buzzing sound of a flickering street light.
She saw the white haired demon leap towards her, his clothes soaked in black goo. Clary fought to keep the fear of her father out of her mind.
She braced herself for the attack, watching him move closer and closer towards her. She took back what she'd said about being ungraceful. He seemed to be at two places at the same time. Moving faster than Clary had ever seen.
Three. Four. Five.
She was surrounded by at him. Everywhere. Valentine.
Standing in the middle of the circle, Clary noticed something about him. Or them. The black liquid had turned red. Like real blood.
Two of the men, walked up to her, one forcing the sword out of her hand, the other pinning her hands behind her back. And Clary. She didn't even fight.
"Oh, Clary, Clary, Clary." They all said in unison. "You're so good at hiding your true fear. It took a while, longer than with most." The voice coming out of the at least ten Valentines said with a taunt. A black glint in their eyes, like a cat ready for attack. When he realises he's won.
"There is something special about you Clarissa." He hissed, "Unlike your friends here." They raised one hand, pointing at the ground where Alec and Jace laid with their faces pointing towards the ground.
"You know how to hide your true emotions. What it is, 'Never show any weakness'?"
Clary nodded.
"You can tell a lot about a person by looking at their biggest fears," One of the Valentines moved over to stand beside Alec. "Fear of rejection. Not living up to a parent's expectations." He laughed, "A normal fear, the fear of a civilian. A victim in this fight."
He moved over to Jace, brushing his fingers through his blond, sweaty locks. "Don't touch him!" Clary yelled angry. Making the Valentine sneer as he pulled Jace's face up by his hair. "The martyr. Always ready to give their lives for others. I would call this the fear of the foolish, don't you agree sweetheart?" Valentine let go of him, making Jace fall hard against the asphalt.
Clary closed her eyes, not wanting to see the blood streaming from his nose.
The same Valentine walked back into the circle, letting another true copy of her father step forward. "But you Clarissa, your fear is something special." His hand rested on Clary's cheek.
"You are what I like to call the soldier. Fighting for what you believe is right, but come on dear, are you sure you're fighting for the right side?"
"What do you mean?" Clary asked; her voice hoarse.
"Your fear." He said.
"It's killing your own father."
Clary looked up at him with wide eyes. "What?"
"Oh I think you heard me just fine sweetie." He smirked.
Before he managed to finish the sentence, Clary felt like she'd been smashed in the head by a small truck. "What are you doing?" She asked, watching the demon smile.
"I'm not doing anything. You're bringing this upon yourself."
It felt like her throat closed, making it almost impossible to breath.
"This is war Clarissa, and we are all a part of it." He let go of her, keeping the same malicious smile on his face, "You should find your true place before someone you love, gets, well… hurt." He laughed as he suddenly disappeared. Leaving only a cloud of grey smoke behind him.
"Clary." She heard Jace's voice behind her, and when she turned around, both he and Alec were back on their feet. "You okay?" he asked.
Clary was eyeing him with a questioning look. " Yeah.." she mumbled.
Alec watched as they exchanged the awkward conversation before he asked, "Ehh, Jace why are you bleeding?"
"What?" Jace raised an eyebrow. "I'm not- oh shit, I don't know." He replied before he touched his nose, moaning painfully as he said, "I think it's broken. How did that happen?"
"Dunno?" Alec replied sceptically.
"No, you must've crashed into something when you were walking?" Clary suggested stupidly. She didn't know what else to say, the demon had clearly whipped their memories, making them forget their little encounter with the Greater Demon.
"Yeah, I suppose." Jace replied, still holding his hand over his broken nose.
Clary watched as he pulled out his stele to draw a healing rune. Her head was spinning with a million different thoughts. "This is war Clarissa, and we are all a part of it. You should find your true place before someone you love gets hurt." Valentine's voice repeated again and again in her head.
I hope you liked it. Please leave a little review. :) I love you guys!