Disclaimer: I do not own the Mortal Instruments series. Everything recognisable belongs to Cassandra Clare.

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Jon looked from the bed where his sister lied. Her face was almost as red her hair, not that her hair really was red anymore, the dried blood in her curls turned her normally red hair into some sort of dark brown colour.

A cry escaped Clary's lips as the Silent Brother started to treat her wounds. Jonathan didn't know exactly what the Silent Brother was doing, but they had said normal healing runes wouldn't do much on the cuts on Clary's back.

Jon was told to leave, as the Silent Brothers had to work in –ironically enough- silence. He stole one last glance at his sister's bruised body before he left, 'please, just be okay.' He hated not knowing what would happen to her, they'd not even reassured anyone Clary would live through it.

"How is she?" Jon hadn't even closed the door completely before Jace asked, he was the only one out of the four teens not allowed inside the Infirmary, he had no injured family members.

Robert Lightwood had been attacked by one of Valentine's men when they were in the Morgenstern Manor, and a knife had caught the left side of his torso. Robert was fine, but they wanted to keep him in the Infirmary over the night, just in case something happened. Maryse and all three of the Lightwood children had been able to visit him at some point during the following day after the rescue mission.

"Truth?" Jon asked, watching the anxious teen before him.

"Yes." Jace answered, nodding his head, "I mean no, if it's bad, don't say anything." Jace brushed his fingers through his hair like his life depended on it.

"Great, you're not saying anything!" Jace stated after a few seconds, leaning his back against the wall.

"You didn't really think this through, did you?" Jon laughed; surprise caught him in the middle of his laugh. He couldn't remember the last time he'd actually laughed, the last few weeks had been like going through hell, and knowing you still had to turn around and go back at some point.

Jace didn't answer, his concern for Jonathan's sister showing up in every feature of his face.

"She'll make it, she's Clary." Jonathan said, he rested against the same wall as Jace, his head buried against the palms of his hands.

"How's your mother?" Jace asked, changing the subject as they both heard Clary cry out in another fit of excruciating pain.

Jon tried to block out the loud cries, answering Jace loudly, "She's fine, nothing to worry about."

"I'm more concerned about the other guy, sounded like they had one hell of an unfinished fight to catch up on. Or at least that's what Luke told me." Jonathan continued, Luke had told him, through protests from Jocelyn who sat on the Infirmary bed, a newly drawn iratze on her pale skin, that his mother had fought someone with the name Hodge Starkweather, an old ex-family friend and circle member.

"Yeah, I don't doubt it." Jace smiled half-heartedly at him.

xxxx

"Can't you give her any sort of drug to keep her in some sort of anaesthesia?" Jocelyn asked the silent brother by Clary's bed.

'I am afraid there isn't Mrs. Fairchild, we cannot risk sending her into a medically induced coma when we are healing her the way we are. There is no guarantee she'll wake up again if we was to try it.' The Silent Brother told her, speaking inside her head.

Jocelyn clenched her teeth, the words stung inside her, they had all been through so much the past few months, and it couldn't end here. Jocelyn couldn't even think of the worst case scenario.

Perspiration had started to roll down Clary's forehead in droplets, and Jocelyn found a small wet cloth she could press carefully against her daughter's burning forehead.

Clary had started another round of loud moans. All Jocelyn wanted to do was to stop her daughter's gruesome pain, and being told there was nothing she could do, it drove her crazy.

'I will have to ask you to leave, Mrs. Fairchild.' The voice spoke inside her mind.

"I'm not leaving her, not like this." Jocelyn stated irritated, flabbergasted he would even suggest something like that.

Clary moved to the side. Her breathing became even more rapid and out of control, the longer the Silent Brothers waited, the longer it would take for Clary to get better, and the longer that would take, the greater would the risks of her never getting better end up being.

Jocelyne watched the hooded man with intensity shining brightly in her green eyes, one last look on the beautiful young girl, the girl Jocelyn had thought she'd lost all those years ago. She couldn't lose her now.

"Please, just make sure she'll be okay." Jocelyn whispered, carefully placing her hand over Clary's red cheek. Clary flinched at the cold touch, even in sleep; she wouldn't let anyone touch her.

Jocelyn heard the Silent Brother confirm that he would do everything in his power to make her daughter better than ever. Even though Jocelyn knew, 'better than ever' would be nearly impossible in her daughter's case. What Clary had been through, what she'd done and had done to her, it would make even the strongest go crazy.

Jocelyn left after that, leaving Clary in the care of the Silent Brothers. As she walked through the Infirmary doors, a tall, lean man met her in the door. Magnus Bane. He looked as fabulous as ever, sophisticated and calm in a black and navy blue blazer and jeans.

"Magnus, what a surprise." Jocelyn exclaimed genuinely, "I would've thought you had had enough of us by now." Jocelyn tried to laugh, but it came out as false.

"Oh, I don't know ,my dear Jocelyn," Magnus smiled, "I find myself starting to, dare I say, take a greater interest in the company of some of these remarkable, yet annoying creatures we call Shadowhunters." Magnus smiled again, his expression unreadable as he spoke.

Jocelyn laughed again, more sincere this time, "Well, I'm glad to hear that." She told him, continuing with laying her hand on his shoulder, "And I would like to thank you one more time Magnus, without you there yesterday, I don't know how we would've managed to get my daughter out of there, thank you so much." Jocelyn felt like hugging him, but held herself back.

"It was nothing," Magnus brushed her off, but they both knew it was everything, if Magnus hadn't been there to open the portals from the Institute to Idris and back, none of it would've been manageable.

"But speaking of Clary, how is she doing? Is she awake yet?" Magnus asked, his cat-like eyes glowing in the dim lights in the hallway.

As if to answer Magnus herself, Clary screamed. Both Magnus and Jocelyn turned towards the Infirmary door as they heard the shriek coming from behind the doors. Clary's voice rang through the room like a siren.

Jocelyn bolted through the door to find two Silent Brother's, they were holding her down, using force. Clary still had her eyes closed, which made Jocelyn even more worried.

"What are you doing?" Jocelyn asked panicked.

Her daughter kept on tossing and turning in the bed, her screams had slowly turned into a silent crying, tears streaming down the semiconscious girl's face.

Jocelyn had been too shocked to do anything, only standing there clutching Magnus's upper arm.

"What happened?" Jocelyn asked after almost five minutes.

There wasn't any answer, the hooded men kept Clary down until she'd calmed down.

They went back to doing whatever they'd been doing before Clary had started screaming. This set off an angry spark inside the redheaded woman.

"Excuse me!" Jocelyn yelled angry, "That is my child you are experimenting on, if someone could be kind enough to tell me what the hell just happened, that would be nice." Jocelyn felt her fingers shaking as she spoke, trying to keep her voice as calm and cool as she possibly could.

"Jocelyn." Magnus said after a while, "I think they are only trying to help."

"I know," Jocelyn snapped, "But that doesn't mean they have to be so arrogant and reserved about it." She started to feel more confused than angry as she told the Warlock this.

A Silent Brother turned up before them; he had appeared out of nowhere.

'I am afraid we don't know exactly what happened, it was not a reaction to our treatment, seeing as we were almost done when she started to panic. It seems unlikely she would react like that so late in the process.' The Silent Brother told her, speaking loudly, but calmly inside her head.

"What do you mean it wasn't a reaction to your treatment, what was it then?" Jocelyn asked confused.

'To be completely honest with you, Jocelyn Fairchild, I believe she was only having a nightmare. It could occur during such high fever. And the treatment of my fellow Brothers, it might've triggered some bad memories. I don't think there's anything to worry about.' The Silent Brother explained.

"Oh.." Jocelyn didn't know how to react to that, it seemed good; a nightmare wouldn't kill her. She only hoped the Silent Brother knew what he was talking about.

xxxx

Clary felt different. She didn't know how, but something was definitely not right. Her head felt too light, her back didn't even hurt. And where the hell was she?

Clary looked around, no she'd been her before, everything seemed so familiar, yet so unknown.

The great walls sprung above her like trees, decorated with a dark red colour. Lights shone, brighter than even the magic lights of the witch stone.

"I know, you keep telling me that." A voice rang out. Clary wasn't sure where it came from.

"Please, sir, just listen. I didn't know. I didn't know." It was a woman's voice. Begging.

Clary tried to find the source of the sounds, but it seemed to come from the walls. She started pulling at the different door knobs, carefully, making no sound as she opened each door.

The farther down the hallway she came, the louder the voices got. Louder and louder, until the two voices were the only thing Clary could hear. Drumming inside her head.

"I know, you keep telling me that." The male voice kept saying.

"Please, sir, just listen. I didn't know. I didn't know." The female replied. Over and over.

Clary darted through the last door in the end of the hallway.

Everything swayed before her. She was still in the manor. She was still in the dark chamber. It had only been a dream. A bad dream. It would only be minutes now, before one of her father's circle members came back for her.

"I didn't know." The female voice yelled inside Clary's head one more time, causing Clary to turn around.

"Of course you did my dear. Do you really think I let my house stand unprotected; do you really think I don't have some secrets of my own?" Now that she saw the person talking, she recognised him instantly. How could she not have heard who he was?

Valentine stood before her, as tall and proud as ever. Clary wondered why he'd not woken her up earlier, and most of all, why he would be having an argument with Maggie inside her prison.

"What do you mean?" Maggie asked, watching nothing but her leader as she spoke. Maggie always used to do that, whenever she spoke with Valentine, she'd watch him like he was the answer to all the worlds secrets.

"Have you never heard the saying 'walls have ears', well, in my case, they have eyes too." Valentine laughed hauntingly.

Clary walked over to the two of them to get a better look. It didn't hit her before, but she was standing. How could she be doing that? Hadn't she just a few hours ago been beaten and left to die? But no, she was really walking. Standing next to Maggie as Valentine continued his angry scolding.

"Oh.." Maggie whispered, her voice suddenly scared.

"Hey!" Clary tried to yell, speaking with them like she still lived there, "What the hell is going on?" Clary would usually never speak to Valentine like that, but considering the circumstances, she didn't really care.

They didn't answer her. To Clary, it seemed like they didn't even see her standing there.

"Excuse me?" Clary managed to say, stepping between the two of them, but the argument just kept going.

"You can't see me, can you?" she asked, realising soon that she wouldn't get an answer.

Valentine moved, stepping away from his closest Circle member.

"You do realise.." Valentine had turned his back to Maggie as he spoke, "My dear Magdalena.." he turned around again, watching the fear crumble onto Maggie's face, "That you have committed treason, not only towards the Circle, BUT TOWARDS ME!" he screamed the last part, making Maggie take a step back. Clary noticed that, even though Maggie showed fear, she still kept her head held high, still looked into Valentine's pitch-black eyes as he spoke.

"I am very sorry, Valentine." Maggie said, her voice sounding sincere, "I never meant to go against your direct orders."

"Yet," Valentine laughed again, "Here we are." He waved one hand around in the air, stepping closer to Maggie again.

Clary had to take a step back as she watched her father move.

"I have to say, I was utterly surprised it was you, but at the same time I understand it." Valentine said, his voice calmer now, "You were always so found of my daughter, always so kind to her." Valentine spoke and Clary felt a sad smile fall across her mouth.

"You do understand I hate that it has to end this way?" Valentine asked.

Maggie didn't answer. She watched him with burning eyes. The flames in Maggie's orange eyes had become some sort of familiarity to Clary; she'd stopped noticing it after years of knowing the ageless woman. But now, they stood out brighter than any other flame Clary had seen.

What had Maggie done? What would happen to her for this act of treason?

Clary wanted answers, but it seemed like all she got was more questions.

Clary noticed something shiny in her father's hands. Something sharp.

Valentine pressed the knife to the tip of his index finger, watching as the sharp blade turned red.

"Did you not think, my dear, of the consequences letting my daughter in the hands of those monsters, would bring you?" Valentine finally answered Clary's unasked question.

"Did you really think I wouldn't find out? That I would think they had just happened to find exactly where I was hiding her, and have a key? How foolish can you possibly be Magdalena?" he pointed the knife in her direction, but not in a threatening way.

"I knew what I was doing." Maggie told him, her voice steady, "And I would do it again if I had the chance."

A loud sound formed as the back of Valentine's hand met Maggie's cheek. Clary gaped shocked, "What are you doing?" Clary yelled, forgetting that no one could hear her.

A small prickle of blood fell from Maggie's cheek, the ring on Valentine's finger had cut into her soft skin.

Watching the scene before her made Clary incredibly angry, and even more frustrated when there was nobody to yell at.

"You've been a helpful member of my Circle, Maggie, but you know what we do with rule-breakers." Valentine sounded almost sad as he spoke.

Clary looked form her father to the woman who'd been the closest thing to a mother Clary had ever had in the past fifteen years. "No.." Clary whispered, knowing exactly where this was going. "NO!" She tried to yell.

Maggie nodded carefully, watching her leader as he moved closer to her. Clary darted forward, trying feverishly to get the knife out of her father's hands, but it was like she was made out of air.

"PLEASE, NO!" Clary cried, "Don't, please father!" She looked from Maggie to the raised knife. Everything seemed to go so slowly, but Clary knew it hadn't been more than a few seconds.

The sharp blade pressed against Maggie's skin, disappearing behind the layer of clothes. A small yelp escaped the ageless woman's lips.

Clary stood frozen, watching her father twist the knife fast around. Clary felt her knees give in under her, and she hit the stone floor at the same time as Maggie.

Clary screamed. She screamed so loud she felt like she would never be able to use her voice again.

Tears pressed on behind her eyes and she made no effort to keep them hidden. Clary crawled towards the fallen Iron Sister, watching the lifeless eyes stare back at her. "Maggie.." Clary whispered, "Oh god, no, no, no, no. This isn't happening. This is just a dream, please, wake up!" Clary screamed, not only to Maggie, but herself.

xxxx

The woman fell to the floor, dead.

Valentine watched her for a few seconds before he stepped past her, his anger still boiling hot beneath his skin. He really had been shocked to see her give the young Herondale boy the key to Clary's chamber. How had Magdalena believed something as foolish as that wouldn't be discovered?

Valentine didn't think much about it. As soon as he'd left the chamber and the dead woman he called for someone to go down and fetch her body. If there was one thing he knew he would have to do, it would be to send a message.

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