Dark Stained Soul

by Eveythefirst

Alec travels to Edom to bring Magnus back. Something goes wrong and Jace must fix the parabati bond. Both learn that some things cannot be fixed with a wave of magic and a dose of medicine. And that love does not always stay the same.

1. Chapter 1

DARK STAINED SOUL

By Evey

Chapter One

Why did I come here again?

Alec thought miserably to himself as he trekked across the foreign landscape. One foot in front of the other, puffs of red dirt every few steps he took rose up from the ground. Black hair stuck to the back of his neck in wet clumps. The air was hot and smelt of dirt, decay, and smoke. Edom.

Magnus. Need to reach Magnus.

Magnus had trapped himself in Edom to save all of Alicante, to save him. The least Alec could do was rescue the man he loved. The man he wanted to protect against his own stupid decision regardless of how many it saved. Alec paused for a moment and clutched at the simple white charm he had given Magnus and attempted to track him again. Nothing.

How the hell am I going to pull off this plan to get Magnus out of here?

The shadows ahead of him stretched long. Red light filtering onto everything from a sickly looking sun far in the distance. He stumbled and coughed from the fumes burning his throat. His body not used to the poison from Edom's air. Inhale, cough, exhale, inhale, exhale. Keep walking towards the looming building in the distance that told him it might be where Magnus was.

Magnus wasn't his entire goal though. He needed to find the lost souls of Edom. That is what he really needed, not Magnus. Magnus was the ultimate goal but to get him out he needed the power of the souls. At least that is what the book read, he really hoped that book was right or this was a suicide mission. Alec grimaced at that thought and viciously shoved the downward spiral of doom and death to the back of his mind.

After what felt like an eternity, but was really a few hours Alec reached his goal. Black stony pillars stood before him cresting the red sky. The building was surprisingly devoid of a roof or much of anything for that matter as Alec entered inside to search for Magnus.

He slammed his back into the wall as soon as he was inside, arms up with the Seelie bow and arrow pointed towards the bleak interior of the building. Sweat dripped down his back and matted his hair further to the back of his neck. His breath came in short pants after the miserable hike through what was appearing to be poisonous air. He desperately wanted to call out Magnus's name, but that would accomplish nothing.

Bring all of Edom down on my head probably. Maybe Lilith and Asmodeus as well.

Alec scoffed at himself. Attempted to track Magnus with the charm and converted Seelie stone he had acquired before leaving on this deadly mission. This time he found a faint trail to follow now that he was much closer to his intended target.

Finally, found you. Still have no idea where the souls are hidden.

Souls he would need if he ever wanted to leave this place alive. He heaved a sigh internally and began the task of casing each room he passed.

Each room more empty than the last until he arrived at what appeared to be a throne room. And on that throne a man dressed in black and golden eyes with a dark haired female figure nearby slowly turning towards him.

"Alexander?" The surprise in Magnus's voice turned his heart a little lighter, but dread filled him a second later as he realized the other figure was Lilith.

Great. Enemy number one.

"The lovely Shadowhunter you so adore." she crooned with a viciousness filled with cold hate. Golden dress shimmering as she walked closer to Magnus, hands slowly moving to motion towards Alec. "I could make him yours for..."

"But you won't." Magnus cut in blue, electric magic shot towards Lilith slamming into her with enough force to knock her back and off her feet. Rolling herself up to her knees she glared at Magnus with hate. Magnus looked calmly back, arms spread out across his throne, legs crossed calmly, head tilted as he watched with distaste at Lilith.

Alec slowly moved further into the room, bow still up and arrow notched towards Lilith.

Lilith shoved her feet under her and stood up angrily. "I will have more power than you shortly. I can make your shadowhunter into something that can survive Edom. Just open a rift for me." She snarled, red magic sparking off her hands.

Alec moved to Magnus's side, his eyes never leaving Lilith. The air felt cloying to him and it had been increasingly difficult to repress a cough since he had entered the room.

"Get the hell out of my house." Magnus snapped. It was not a request.

Lilith straightened to her full height and with one last snarl and a vicious, hateful look towards the two of them she left.

Alec let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding, quickly followed by a coughing fit.

Damnit. I need clean air.

Magnus approached him quickly equal parts concern and anger written all over his face. He lifted up a hand glowing with blue magic and aimed it at Alec's chest.

Cool relief hit a moment later as the blue magic worked to clear his lungs of Edom's poisonous air.

"You will die down here. You must know that. Why did you even come?" Magnus's distress towards Alec's minor coughing fit sent a jolt of anger down Alec's spine.

"I came to get you back!" Alec loudly shouted. It echoed around them. In the distance Alec could hear a demons cry, feral, bone chilling, and long.

"I cannot leave without the rift reopening. You being safe was the only thing that made me happy to be here." Magnus replied bitterly, his whole body seemed to deflate in sorrow, shoulders and back slumping slightly.

"Where are Edom's souls?" Alec inquired instead pushing towards practical matters towards his goal, reaching out to touch Magnus's cheek forcing the warlock to look at him.

Magnus's form froze for a moment, breathed in then straightened to look directly in Alec's eyes. The gold of Magnus's eyes glittered in the red light.

"No."

What!? Why?

Magnus's face hardened into a mask. He must have seen the look of disbelief across Alec's face and Alec tried to wipe it clear, dropping his arm with a jerk to stand tall and relax his stance at the same time.

"Why can't you tell me?" Alec pleaded while a fire of rage was starting to build inside. Rage and fear that Magnus would prefer to stay in Edom rather than tell Alec where the souls were hidden. The souls that powered all of Edom.

Control the situation. Stick to the plan.

Magnus snapped voice growing louder as he spoke. "Because I will not sacrifice thousands of souls just to release myself from my own decisions!"

"You must tell me if you want to see me free of Edom as well then. The souls may not even be harmed." Alec stated as calmly as he could while cold fear started to spread down his spine and his lungs started to burn from the air again. The need to cough was starting up again. The souls needed to remain the only way he could get out of Edom, any other way would leave Magnus behind.

Magnus looked torn, old and weary as all his hundreds of years ever could in that moment. Alec felt vaguely guilty for even coming to Edom with that look. Yet, he had decided he could not live without him, made the decision to do this on his own rather than risk his family.

"I'm not letting you go without a fight." Alec declared stepping towards Magnus in an attempt to sway him.

"And I am not risking everything you and I have fought to protect to save one person!" Magnus yelled. "Even if that person is the one I love the most!" He finished softly, heartbreak clear in his voice.

Alec rocked back on his heels from that statement. Felt the words like a blow to the chest. Selfish. He had come here because he was selfish enough to love, to want Magnus back in the realm of humanity and Shadowhunters.

"Then tell me where the souls are and we don't risk destroying everything we have fought to protect." Alec reasoned, spreading his arms out and waved them towards the open windows where red sky could be seen. Somewhere out there in the vast red plains was what he needed.

"I refuse." Magnus said flatly turning away.

"It is the only way." Alec pleaded his gut turning to stone as he realized Magnus might not accept his plan.

"There is always another way." Magnus replied.

It's his magic.

Cold realization hit Alec hard. Magnus had already lost his magic not once but twice. If Alec destroyed Edom, he might lose his magic a third time.

"You want to discuss being selfish? You really won't tell me the souls location because you might lose your magic? Magic you gave up willingly twice!?"

Magnus spun around to face Alec. "And I cannot do it again!" Magnus all but screamed into Alec's face, veins in his neck protruding, desperation in his yellow cat-eyes.

It would break him.

"Fine." Alec said simple and cold. He turned and walked away. "I'll find it myself."

Or die trying. Morbid. Stop. Do the mission.

Alec walked out of Magnus's home. He hoped Magnus would immediately follow, relied on it. No such luck. Apparently stubbornness was a trait they both will always share as leaders. Movement caught his eye to the left.

Now what.

Alec turned slowly bringing an arm up to grab an arrow from the quiver, notching it, and letting the bow and arrow rest in his arms as he approached where he had seen movement. He was in Edom, any movement meant a demon. And a demon meant a spy, killer, or worse.

Something heavy slammed into him from behind, followed by a sharp pain in his head. He struggled to hold onto his bow and turn to the attacker but blackness was quickly swallowing his vision. Another hit to the head and blackness consumed him whole.

He awoke later in stages. Being dragged along the dirt, some kind of mask over his face to prevent him from seeing anything. Then darkness. Then again another bout of consciousness only to realize his mouth was wet, with what he did not know and did not particularly want to know. The mask was still on and he was still being dragged. The third time he managed to stay awake and groan.

"Good you are awake."

What is going on?

That was Jonathan Morgenstern's voice.

I'm not dead. Yet.

The point in Alec's court to not be dead around Jonathan felt like both a win and a loss. Then he realized Jonathan was talking to him and that he should probably be paying attention like a good soldier rather than wallowing in the existential crisis of being alive or dead.

"...hence why I need you."

Fuck. What did he just miss?

"Also, we are here. So if you don't mind just slice yourself up a bit and destroy the runes and we can all go home." Jonathan said casually.

Runes? In Edom? The book was right.

The mask was ripped off his face rather harshly and even in the dim light of the red sun Alec found himself blinking at the sudden brightness. He looked around and saw a familiar landscape of red dead ground and red sky, yet nothing looked the same. With a start he realized the air held no demons flying through it, no demons crying in the background. No demons at all. Jonathan stood before him, red hair cropped short, dressed all in black, pointed face looking at him with something indecipherable in his eyes.

"Where are we?" Alec cautiously asked Jonathan.

"Edom." Jonathan replied still staring at him.

Asshole.

"Typical." is what came out instead.

Jonathan actually grinned at that. He came closer and Alec noticed that his red hair was covered in a fine layer of dust, teeth just a tad too sharp, and eyes that could not seem to decide on a hazy green or black color. When he tried to focus on it he realized he was getting a headache. Jonathan moved to cut the bindings from around Alec's wrists and held up a flask. Alec eyed it warily.

"It's water." The demon said with a mocking smirk.

Alec stared at him, unbelieving that this monster could ever give assistance to anyone. Something wet and cold hit him in the face and he reared back expecting it to burn him. He started slapping at his clothes to get it off him only to freeze. It was water. Water in Edom. Alec's parched throat and raw lungs screamed at him and he lunged for Jonathan and the water flask. Jonathan rolled with the lunge and with a simple hip twist flipped them the rest of the way over and pinned Alec to the ground. It was embarrassing how easy Jonathan won that little tussle.

And I'm supposed to be this great warrior.

"You get your water when you break the seals to Edom." Jonathan ordered not letting Alec up.

No.

Jonathan sat up, a scathing smile growing. "I thought you wanted to save your precious warlock? That is why you wanted the well of souls, did you not?"

Alec stared up at Jonathan who was still dangling that water flask over his head with a small triumphant smirk. Then Jonathan tilted the flask back and took a sip of the water, tipped it towards Alec a fraction in offering while his eyes flitted from Alec to something to the side of them. Alec looked over to where he had seen the glance. A rune. It was massive. It stood about 20 feet high, large swirls crisscrossing over each other in an ornate pattern incomprehensible to follow and was unlike any angelic rune he had seen before but he knew instantly it was angelic.

Angelic runes in Edom. Guess the book was right. Learn something new every day.

Alec did not want to dwell on why there were angelic runes in Edom he had dwelled on that fact enough when he was researching prior to even traveling to Edom on this suicide mission that suddenly no longer seemed like a suicide mission if those runes were anything to go by that is precisely what he was looking for.

"Why are you helping me?" Alec asked, eyeing Jonathan who continued to pin him to the ground waiting for an affirmative.

"Consider it helping each other. You help me kill my mother, Lilith. I help you release your boyfriend." Jonathan blandly stated, like working with the person you wanted to kill a couple days ago was nothing strange.

Not like I have any help from Magnus.

The thought was bitter but true. Magnus held values above all else. And apparently Alec valued...

Not going there.

Alec sighed, defeated, hoping that he was right and that rune matched what he remembered of in the book. Stupid book burnt up when he took the portal to Edom. He took a breath and started coughing again. The air was constantly burning his skin and apparently that meant the inside of his lungs as well.

"I'd rather you did this before you keeled over and died on me." Jonathan stated matter-of-factly and precise. Alec felt a spark of hatred towards Jonathan as his lungs gave another painful spasm. But then again he did have demon blood, Lilith's running through him, and was raised in Edom. Cannot imagine Jonathan had many playdates and friends to form any lasting understanding of camaraderie and sharing. The mask was suddenly being shoved back over his head in the midst of his coughing fit. Alec threw an elbow into Jonathan's ribs and was satisfied to hear a grunt and a whoosh of air leave him. But then Jonathan just grabbed him by the throat and held him down while pulling the mask further on. Alec snapped his head up attempting to head-butt Jonathan. Jonathan twisted to the side to avoid it and punched him in the face with the flask. Metal hit the side of his head and he saw stars.

"Stop trying to kill yourself!" Jonathan roared irritated.

Alec froze again. Everything in this place kept throwing him curveballs today. The mask was yanked fully into place and he inhaled to demand what he meant when he realized he could breathe clean air. Well, cleaner than he had been breathing. He opened his mouth to speak, only to realize he could not. Panic started to set in.

"Relax. The mask allows air flow but removes your capacity to speak in the process. A give and take. Now can you toss your blood over the runes. We have several more to go and I for one do not want to meet Lilith while trying to break a bunch of idiot souls free to kill her with."

Right ok. I can do that.

Some distant part of his mind was asking himself why the hell he was taking orders from a madman and not running back to Magnus like he should have done the moment he awoke and could breathe. Then again if he had run he would probably be dying on the open plains gasping for breathe right about now too. Alec grimaced to himself and picked up his blade. A Seelie blade as any of the angelic ones would have been detected the moment he entered into Edom and made a small cut across his arm to smear along the rune.

"More." Jonathan sounded ecstatic, jubilant, like he was nearing some pleasure peak rather than watching Alec spill the tiniest amount of blood. He spared a glance towards him and saw black eyes watching the drops of blood spill onto the rune where it sparked ominously.

"It needs more of your blood. Angel blood." Jonathan pushed reaching out like he might take the knife and slice up Alec himself.

Alec stepped away. "I'm not committing suicide on the first rune. How many of these are there?" He questioned following the rune with his blood.

"Seven" Jonathan replied watching the ground spark with every smear Alec applied.

That might kill me.

He glanced at the massive rune realizing all 20 feet of it would need some trace of his blood on it. Deep breathe, cut across the arm the top of his arm, pain bloomed, and began his task. Vaguely wondering how far they would need to walk between each rune as he mapped out the rune in his own blood. Watching it soak the red in so it was hard to tell where he had placed his own blood sometimes. When he was done Jonathan was looking at him with something akin to awe. Why he was not really sure. It was just blood and a rune. Jonathan's own blood, demonic, could probably do a host of damage in other ways. Granted Alec's blood was supposedly about to destroy an entire realm.

Definitely, might kill me.

When he was finished with the first rune. Jonathan finally, finally gave him the water flask which he guzzled down quickly. Only realizing after he had drunk half of it that he would need to partition out the last half for the other six runes.

Magnus, you better be worth this.

They moved onto the next rune and the next and the next. No demons were ever to be seen and he watched Jonathan keep replacing runes on his own body but they glowed red rather than gold and were unlike any angel rune he had seen before. Jonathan drew something on his back at some point between rune five or six, whatever it was made the lightheadedness that had slowly developed completing the other runes fade slightly. Alec weakened by now could not fight him off.

When they reached the last rune Alec's heart sank. He was already covered in sweat, shaky from lack of blood and what he was staring at was easily twice the size of any of the other runes they had completed.

"Go on Alec. Complete it and your mission is over."

The mission.

Alec knew they had been conversing periodically during their travels between runes. Didn't think the demonic boy had paid attention to anything he had said, until Jonathan referenced the mission and in his anemic state understands he must have said this was his mission at some point. The same mission as Jonathan, only Jonathan does not have the angel blood to do it.

Alec reached up to the last rune. Swiped the blade across his arm. Again. Several other marks had already formed crisscrossing in bright red patterns that oozed blood slowly. Hated the appearance of them as it made him look weak.

Alec felt his parabati rune begin to heat up in warning. A warning that he is testing the limits of his own body and that even from this distance Jace might notice that something is wrong, that Alec is not in the Institute, not at Magnus's loft, not even in the realm.

A hand gripped his arm and Jonathan moved it across the rune for him. Alec slowly opened his heavy eyes to watch as Jonathan moved his arm for him and slices into his arm again, more deeply than Alec had done and continues to follow the path of the rune.

Alec can feel the strength of the souls behind that last rune. He can feel their pain and despair at being trapped here for all eternity, their anger, their hate, their envy. His arm is still moving, still bleeding out onto the rune. The parabati rune at his side is starting to hurt, burn, pulse, screaming at him to not let go. He feels Jonathan lift him up as they climb through the rocks and rubble to reach each point high in the air. His head is starting to feel very heavy.

"Stay awake. You must be awake for the whole thing. Fight for it." Encouraging words from the least likely source, but words Alec accepted eagerly. He concentrated on breathing on holding his eyes open as Jonathan moved his body around like a rag doll over the last rune. Finally, finally it is complete. All forty feet of it soaked in Alec's blood. And all Alec can think about is not freeing Magnus but of Jace and how his parabati rune is on fire.

A deep explosion under the dirt and the rock before them crumbled, the souls came pouring out. White streaks flare past, screaming and crying. Some of the souls crashed into the ground near them and wink out almost instantly, the bulk of the souls a beacon shooting straight into the sky like white lightning. The sounds of the screaming souls deafening, through it all Alec hears Jonathan screaming something about Lilith coming but he is too exhausted to move, breathing had become painful now.

Arms wrapped around him under his shoulders and picked Alec up, hauling his body along the ground, rock cutting into his legs, bright white light engulfs them. Jonathan dragged him through the souls towards some source they are all pouring from.

"Use it! Use it!" Jonathan frantically shouted.

Use what?

Alec wanted to ask but he is drained, throat parched. He cracked his eyes open, which open wider when he realizes abruptly Lilith is standing before them. But it is not just Lilith, Asmodeus is there as well. Both demons look terrified and furious. Alec watched as they brought their arms up red magic coiling around their hands, watched as it turns black and rushes in a torrential wave towards him and Jonathan.

Jonathan dumped him into a pool of something bright. He gasped on it, inhaled it and realized its power. Power to destroy everything demonic.

This is what he meant.

Alec reached into that well, felt the souls recognize his angel blood, respond, and flings it back at the two greater demons. He distantly observed as the blast annihilates their red magic and vaporizes them. Their demonic magic suddenly let loose from its bounds comes hurtling towards him and Jonathan impaling them both as it sought to destroy all the souls they stood within, including their own.

Fire and pain. Pain and darkness. Dark and cold. Cold and light. Light. A pinprick of light and Alec dives for it with everything he has. Throwing his whole self and soul into reaching that pinprick of light because it is screaming for him. Yelling his name. Begging for his soul to reach it. And he follows that call, rushes towards it with everything he has. Only to feel the darkness behind him surge up and come crashing down upon him slicing through his body and soul.

Alec screamed.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jace woke up screaming. His whole body felt like it is on fire. His stomach felt like it is about to heave up everything he ate in the last day. He threw himself from the bed, crashing into the floor on his side and vomited up most of last night's dinner. He vaguely heard Clary scramble off the bed jostled awake from his thrashing and perfect exit of their bed.

"Jace! Shit! Let me get a towel." Jace puked again, the pain not receding and his whole body burning.

"Maybe a bucket." He heard her say. He attempted to get up to make it to the bathroom, discovered he does not have the energy and just ends up sick again.

Yup, stellar sexy man over here. Just puking my guts up. What the fuck is wrong?

Clary returned with a bucket, towels, water, and her stele. She quickly started to draw an iratze only to stop.

"Jace, its red." Clary warned in concern.

Ice cold dread went down his back. Red meant infection. Red meant demon.

"Least we know why I am sick. Thought it was something I ate." He tried to joke. Clary just frowned and called Isabelle on her phone to come to Jace's room with someone from the infirmary to help them get Jace there. Jace laid there trying to curtail the burning, spinning, awful pain he was feeling. He managed to take stock of his body, his focus traveled to his parabati rune. The pain was mostly centered on the rune and he yanked his shirt up to confirm it was still etched on his skin. The black parabati rune stood stark against his skin, which appeared unnaturally pale at the moment, while the skin directly around the rune appeared blistered and red.

"Alec." Terror. The pain he was feeling was not because he was sick it was secondhand. Alec. Alec was feeling that pain, that burning.

"Alec." he said again because he cannot seem to say anything else. Kept repeating Alec's name over and over again as Isabelle and the nurse arrived to take him to the infirmary.

"What happened!?" Izzy questioned franticly, her face etched in concern as she and the nurse lifted him onto a stretcher. The nurse washed his arm with a small pad and Jace feels a slight pinch as a needle was jabbed into his arm, followed by a cool feeling starting from the needle and working its way up his arm. An IV.

"It's Alec." Jace sobbed out again, trying to get them to understand. It was not him that they needed to be caring for. "Please get to Alec. Alec. Alec was at Magnus's. Alec was doing research. Alec…"

"I need you to take a breath and calm down." It's the nurse. He glared at her feeling his ire rise from being told what to do, when they clearly do not understand.

"My job right now is to care for you. Your parabati will be called and checked on." The nurse informed him gentle but stern.

"I'll go." Interjected Izzy and the relief Jace felt from knowing finally, finally someone was going to check on Alec made him lay back suddenly drained with bone weary exhaustion. The pain that had woken him and annihilated his ability to function was starting to fade to a more manageable level seated right inside his parabati rune. Pulsing, hot, quivering with some energy he cannot identify and was to weary to attempt.

"Take Clary with you." Jace ordered weaker than he expected.

"No, I'm staying here with you! We have no idea what just happened and with all you have been through these last months. I'm not leaving." Clary stated firmly convinced in her own authority on what Jace really needed.

Izzy started to head out the door, clearly going to check on her brother's status at Magnus's, phone in hand. "Mom..." Jace heard her say as she exited.

Good. Least someone listens.

Maryse had been with Alec last night as he searched book after book for a way to release Magnus.

I should have been with him. He needed me.

Jace glanced over at Clary, guilt and anger formed low in his gut. Guilt that he had chosen Clary once again over his own parabati. Angry that Clary did not listen to him.

Alec was right.

His side pulsed with the thought. Burned again and Jace finally looked down at it again. Red blood coated the rune. It was oozing blood. Jace struggled to recall what Alec had told him when he had died and was brought back by the Angel. The rune disappeared right? He never said anything about it bleeding and this much pain.

He's dead.

Pulse. Burn. Pulse.

"Jace, I'm contacting the Silent Brothers. When a parabati dies the rune should disappear not bleed." the nurse stated and Jace hated her for it. That pulse he felt was another heartbeat, another soul. It had to be.

He is NOT dead!

Tears that had been threatening to fall since he first fell out of bed are now sliding down his face in wet, hot trails. Jace gasped, trying to hold himself together as the nurse leaves. He let out a ragged breath, a choked sob, and Clary was sliding her arms around him holding him. He tensed, throwing his head back and tried to shake her off screaming a loud, primal sound of grief. He felt gutted and Clary tried to hold onto him as he sobbed against the pain. He vaguely heard Clary trying to soothe him. His hand held over his bleeding rune, begging in his mind for Alec's soul to find him, to reach him, to be alive. The bed jostled as he was taken to the infirmary. Eventually, he fell asleep in Clary's arms.

Be alive.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jace was shaken awake a few hours later. Blearily opening his eyes, noting black hair not red before registering Izzy staring at him with a hand on his shoulder, feeling hope bloom in his chest before he registered her face. Her face was pale, streaked with tears, and she appeared shaky. Maryse was also in the room with them. No Clary. A sick feeling filled his stomach, churning with dread.

"Where's Alec?" Jace asked cautiously.

"We don't know. Jace, I think he went to Edom alone to get Magnus back." Izzy shakily sounding like she has been crying for hours already. He looked to Maryse. Anger exploded in his gut. Anger that she did not protect her own son. Fear chased the anger. Alec was injured or worse.

Where were you?

Jace ignored that internal voice reprimanding himself.

"You were with him, weren't you!?" Jace screamed, anger won. His fear for where Alec was left him barely able to focus on anything but trying and failing to track him. He closed his eyes and tried again. Nothing but a pleasant warmth that also feels brittle and cold, two feelings wrapped in one and he feels his head swim as he tried to track Alec again.

Maryse grasped his hand in hers.

"Jace, stop. I was with Alec last night when he was researching on how to release Magnus from Edom. He found something. A rune within Edom that holds all the souls the demons there have ever captured. He wanted to release them. It was supposed to destroy Edom thus releasing Magnus." She paused, choking back a sob for her eldest and pushed on. "I told him to get some rest and that we would discuss it in the morning. When Izzy called me I knew what he had done. He had gone alone to find Magnus."

Jace pulled away.

No! No. No. No.

"It worked." Izzy sounded tearfully proud of her brother in that moment.

"How do you know?" challenged Jace, disbelieving.

Izzy reached out taking his hand in hers. "Last night around the same time you had your...attack. Our sensors picked up a massive influx of souls. Jace it was immense. Large enough that some mundanes could see it. Both Simon and Lucian called thinking it was an attack and wanted to notify us. Simon said it was just a giant pillar of light traveling from the ground to the sky. Idris is sending envoys over to ensure the two points the souls traveled through are closed now."

Jace looked at Izzy as she spoke. What she was saying made sense. Simon would have certainly wanted to inform them of any attacks. He was dating Izzy and his best friend was Clary. He was caring to an annoying fault, devoid of being selfish and would throw himself into any danger his friends would need.

"If it worked then where are Magnus and Alec?" Jace questioned, looking between Maryse and Isabelle. His attention becoming side-tracked when the nurse walked in with a silent brother trailing behind, long robes of grey wrapped around him, blue dyed hair, and no stitches over his face or over his eyes. He smiled at Jace.

That is NOT a silent brother.

"I am Brother Zachariah. I am here to examine your parabati bond, if intact or broken." The silent brother's voice echoed inside Jace's head. If it was corrupted by something new was left unsaid. The silent brother reached a hand out towards Jace's side. His side remained covered in bandages that were soaked with blood and whatever gel the nurse had applied to it before giving him some medicine to knock him out for a few hours earlier.

Anxiety spiked through him at seeing the hand. Suddenly, fearful that perhaps there was something to fear in his and Alec's bond. Alec used to have a crush on him prior to meeting Magnus. That was ages ago. No, he loved Alec but he knew, knew the bond was never corrupted. The hand landed on his side and he bit his lip to keep from screaming at the pain, jolting in the bed in an attempt to escape. The silent brother seemed unmoved by his brief, embarrassing display of weakness. Jace could feel Izzy and Maryse watching him carefully. Maryse with concern etched on her face. Izzy looked more agitated and confused by his response.

Jace felt a shiver of angelic power emit from the silent brother toward his parabati rune. Felt as it touched the rune ever so gently, a soft caress surprising him as if the silent brother understood how two souls linked would itch to throw the intruder out. As it was that brief touch was enough for Jace to feel Alec's side of the bond push at the silent brother swiftly throwing the tendril of angelic power out of the rune, it had all taken less than a second.

Alec. I felt him. He's alive.

Relief.

"Your parabati appears to be alive. But he has been exposed to a great deal of dark magic. The bond is unbroken, it is not corrupted." The silent brother turned his eyes to meet Jace's as he spoke, there was a sadness for him that spoke of a deeper understanding.

"But there is something wrong." The Silent Brother spoke directly to Jace's mind. His heart froze, then resumed its frantic beating.

"If nothing is wrong why is he in pain?" Maryse's confused, sharp voice pierced Jace's brain like a bullet.

He only told me that something is wrong.

Jace found himself examining this silent brother. He was unlike any silent brother he had ever met. Bright blue black hair, spiked into some new edgy design, face relaxed, soft smile fixed firmly in place. The silent brother lifted his hand away from Jace's rune and dropped it to his side, turning to Izzy and Maryse.

"He will recover with time. Give him plenty of sunlight and water and ensure he does not leave the Institute for at least two weeks." The Silent Brother intoned through their heads.

"Hey! I'm not a plant!" Jace cried affronted, his dignity was on the line.

Izzy smiled at that, taking up the space that the silent brother had stood in a moment ago, arms coming up to wrap around his shoulders in a hug. Jace leaned into it, finding that he was craving comfort a bit more than usual since his graceful fall out of his bed earlier.

"I'm glad you are going to be ok." Izzy tightened her hold on him for a moment before leaning back. "No way am I allowing you to vanish on me again."

You and me both.

Jace glanced towards Maryse. Her lips were in a thin line, unbelieving of the status the silent brother had given on Jace's parabati rune.

Makes three of us.

"Why don't you and Izzy take some food out to the internal courtyard for the rest of the day, I will be calling in some favors to see if we cannot locate Alec or Magnus." Commanded Maryse.

Hasn't lost her drive to finish a problem.

"Yeah sounds like a good idea." Jace moved to sit up slowly, grimacing when his rune scrapped against the bandages. Seriously, how can something so small cause so much pain?

"Do either of you have anything Max could use to track them with?" Maryse questioned heading towards the door with the Silent Brother.

Max was here!?

"Um...just use anything at Magnus's wouldn't that count? As for Alec, he has an old t-shirt looks kind of green and black that he always wears. Use that." Jace said as he pulled a shirt over his head first. He knew it was Alec's favorite and probably oldest piece of clothing he owned, which would make tracking him with it easier. Jace glanced over at Maryse to verify she understood. He received a blank, you can do better than that look instead.

"A shirt?" Maryse deadpanned.

Not like he owns much here. The institute always took priority over anything.

Jace closed his eyes thinking. "Er, maybe use the blade I gave him for one of his birthdays. Silver with arrows inlaid on the sides and angelic runes on the hilt, he would not have been able to take that one to Edom anyway." A smile and a nod and Maryse turned and walked out.

Love you too, mom.

Jace grabbed his underwear and pants, gave Izzy a short look to which she turned around and finished getting dressed.

Time to go be a plant.

"Let's go be plants together." chuckled Izzy as she wheeled over a black shiny chair with wheels, armrests, and a buckle on it for him to sit in. Jace glared at it like it would physically hurt him if he so much as got near it.

"I'm not sitting in that."

-o-o-o-o-o-

A few minutes later found Jace being pushed down the hallway in said chair pouting while Izzy skipped along behind with her hands controlling where he went. He crossed his arms and huffed, hoping she would understand just how much this was degrading and beneath him.

Least it's only shadowhunters here and no one else.

"Izzy!"

Fuck. Simon.

Simon came running up to them out of breath, geeky t-shirt and jeans one size to big, skidding to a stop in front of Izzy.

Still not used to being a vampire.

"Hey are you ok?" Simon glanced at Jace with real concern in his brown eyes, brows creased and a small frown.

"Fine." Jace bit out glaring at the vampire in a challenge.

"We're going out to the courtyard for lunch and some sunlight. Want to join us?" chimed in Izzy.

No we do not want him to join us.

"Of course!" Simon said brightly.

Love-sick fool.

Which was how Jace found himself outside with Simon and Izzy eating a decent meal and guzzling water like he had been running the length of the Sahara desert.

"So, um, what happened exactly?" Simon asked, his eyes flitted between the two of them back and forth waiting for an answer.

Jace closed his eyes, trying once again to search out Alec only to find a calming warmth now followed by a cold spike of brittle pain and then nothing. He opened his eyes and glared at his water bottle like it was the waters fault he could not track his own parabati correctly.

"We are not really sure yet. We know Alec tried to get Magnus back and that he is now missing." Izzy said. She gave Jace a quick glance, concern held there before looking back to Simon. "If I know my brother he went to Edom with a plan. He never does anything without a plan. We know he is alive. We do not know where he or Magnus are located right now. Mom is having Max track them now."

"Isn't Max like twelve? I thought you had to be a full shadowhunter to do missions?" Simon's question had some merits but he did not know just how good Max was turning out to be as a tracker and shadowhunter. There was apparently very little Max could not track and he did not need much to go on to track anything to begin with. It was a rather rare skill to track that well.

"Max is a full shadowhunter. He has his angelic rune and tracked Jonathan when no one else could. I think mom has the right idea. If anyone can find my brother it is him." Izzy sounded like Maryse then, all conviction and strong belief that they could find them.

Pulse, Burn, Pulse.

Jace put his hand over the bandage. He did not want to be here. He wanted to be far away from here. Far, far away, to where ever Alec had gone.

Where you go. I will follow.

Only he could not follow him this time. Whatever path Alec had chosen, Jace had deemed unworthy of his own time and energy. He had done so to many times that Alec had not even bothered to ask for his help anymore, instead headed into Edom without even requesting Jace's presence. How had the bond survived whatever the hell happened when they were incredibly distant. Jace engrossed with Clary and his own problems, Alec with Magnus and the Institute.

Izzy's phone rang. She picked it up from the picnic cloth and swiped "Mom?" A pause as she listened. "Yeah, yes, we are on our way. Simon is with us." She hung up and looked at the two of them a smile growing.

"Max tracked Magnus!" Izzy smiled.

Why not Alec!

Jace bit back the immediate retort, clenched his jaw shut with effort. Started instead to gather up their things that he could reach without putting any undue pressure on his side. Simon started helping as well, glancing at Jace with that same concern Izzy had given him earlier.

Get a grip.

"Look Simon. I'm fine. I know Alec. Izzy is right. Alec would have gone in with a plan to get Magnus out." Jace said as confidently as he could.

Please have gone in with a plan. A real plan.

Simon just gave him a sadder look, one that made him wonder what the hell he was thinking in that vampire brain of his. Jace decided he actually did not want to know whatever sympathy Simon had concocted for him and turned to Izzy so they could head to the ops center.

"I'm sorry." Simon blurted out.

Huh?

Jace turned his head back to look at Simon again, waiting for him to explain. He tried shoving his concern for Alec away from his face so he would not look so pathetic, hoped he appeared a bit like himself, strong and self-assured. Jace attempted to plaster that on his face.

"I said a long time ago that you and Alec never had each other's backs. And well seeing what the rune does to you when you when the other gets hurt. You are kind of forced to have each other's backs, right? Kind of like a brothers in arms or Jedi force brothers."

We don't.

That thought stung. Jace pulled a smiled, was not quite sure if it ended up being a grimace or a smile and plopped himself in the stupid chair of shame. Izzy patted him on the shoulder as if what Simon had just said held true and started to wheel him inside.

Izzy parked him near the ops table and he noticed her blinking back tears even as she smoothly sat down in her seat. While she had been putting up a brave front all this time, her worry for her brother ran just as deep as Jace's and Jace felt stupid for not acknowledging that when they were in the courtyard now. He reached out a hand to her, Izzy took it and gave his hand a small squeeze before they both dropped their arms again to focus on Maryse and Max, both of whom seem to be waiting for someone.

Jace glanced at the others at the table. Clary, check, Izzy, himself, Max, check, check, check, Simon, tagalong check, Lydia, that's new, Clave wasted no time in getting Alec's temporary replacement here, check, who were they waiting on. Jace did not have to wait long. Magnus came striding down the corridor towards them. Wearing a black embroidered shirt that had silver etched through the sleeves and silver buttons, hair spiked, and black pants, looking energized from his time in Edom rather than depressed. Jace felt Magnus's eyes slide to him, do a once over, as Jace's eyes traveled the length of Magnus's body when he got to the top Magnus's was looking at him strangely and with a raised eyebrow. Magnus's eyes were unreadable.

Jace tried not to sink lower in his chair of shame and instead placed his arms on the armrests trying to fill up as much space as possible.

Stupid chair. There went the rest of my pride.

Stuck in the wheelchair Jace leaned back waiting for Maryse to begin now that Magnus was here. Present and apparently unharmed. Odd.

"I want to begin by saying the good news first." Magnus was the one who started speaking, his voice not betraying anything to what he felt. "Edom is destroyed, Lilith and Asmodeus both appear to be destroyed as well."

"How did you get out?" Jace found himself asking before he really thought it through.

Magnus hesitated just the briefest of fractions. "I escaped because someone with angel blood broke Edom's seals."

"Did you sacrifice Alec for it?" Jace snapped.

Woah. Where did that come from?

"Jace, I doubt Magnus would want any harm to come to Alec." Izzy sounded annoyed and hurt that Jace would even consider it. Her arms tightening around herself. Magnus looked perturbed and not a little angry, eyes narrowed on Jace and hand curled up as if about to summon his magic forth. Jace did not realize he had considered it until the words had left his mouth. To late now.

"Alec came to me in Edom. He had the plan in place but did not know where the souls…" a pause, as Magnus swallowed. "Did not know where the souls were located. I wanted to send him back as soon as I could. I was not going to risk him or the souls just to be free of my own decision." Magnus closed his eyes, briefly and Jace wondered what hidden pain he was dealing with right now as well. A part of him did not really care either. "We argued and he only left my sight for a moment." Magnus turned his eyes towards Jace.

Jace suddenly needed to grip the table in front of him, dreading the next words.

"I lost him. When I went after him someone had already taken him." Magnus said, the sorrow in that gaze now made Jace feel uncomfortable. He had no idea how to react to someone who had just lost a lover, a friend, and whatever else Alec was to the warlock, when that loss was due to an attempt to save him. The guilt would be crushing Jace if it was him. How the hell was Magnus still standing, talking even.

Guess being over a hundred years old teaches you some tricks.

"So who hates Edom enough to burn it to the ground with angelic power?" Before Jace was even through asking the question he already knew the answer, Clary answered for him though.

"Jonathan." she breathed the name, eyes widening in fear. If Jonathan had Alec, then just how much of a chance did he stand? Jonathan had already taken out several institutes and supposedly the Seelie queen as well. Jace's gut twisted into a knot, the kind he couldn't escape from as thoughts of what types of torture one would need to endure to cause his rune to bleed shot through his head. He forced that thought process to stop. It was harder to do than he wanted to admit. Forced himself to focus on Clary and her red hair, bright and strong.

"Max, he said he tracked Jonathan before can we track him again?" Clary demanded to know, green eyes flashing with a barely suppressed need to do something. Jace felt the same but the exhaustion from last night still clung to him like a shroud and for once he was grateful of the stupid chair of shame that Izzy had been carting him around in. At least he did not have to try and remain upright like the rest. He glanced towards Magnus, who sure enough looked to be sagging under an unseen weight.

We're both grieving.

"Why can't we track Alec?" interjected Jace.

The tense silence that followed filled Jace with another bout of dread. Nausea rising, he was going to be sick again. He felt like that was all he was feeling the last day was dread. His eyes shot to Max. Little Max dressed in a casual shirt and blue jeans, shock of brown hair reaching his neck, who was not quite a child but not quite a man yet. Max shifted on his feet uneasily, could not quite meet Jace's eyes, head down.

"I tried to track him. It's confusing. It kept leading me back to you in the courtyard. There was another pull but I cannot follow it because it's to jumbled up with...you." Max finally said, slowly, like he was afraid of Jace's reaction to this news. Jace stared. Face blank and frozen. Brain refusing to work. Shut down. He was the reason they couldn't track Alec.

Alec.

"Parabati can always be tracked, this should be simple." Jace unfroze and all but snarled the words at Max. Max took a startled step back, head coming up, and sneering at Jace in anger.

"Then you try tracking him!" Max shouted, eyes flashing, and showing the dark circles under his eyes no kid should have. "I tried alright! I tried for hours! While you lay asleep! I tried when Izzy took you outside in the sun. I tried when mom called you guys here. He's my brother too! And every time I try it doesn't feel right it's like trying to track two people at once!" On the last bit Max started to cry, Jace instantly felt regret for yelling at him. He was his brother as well. Jace had been adopted to their family when Max was still a baby practically.

"Let's try and deal with the problems we know how to address." It was Lydia, the replacement. Jace knew she was kind, understanding, good even, and apparently excellent at her job. But right now he just wanted her gone, she stood where Alec was supposed to stand. But that thought would not help getting Alec back or help anyone in the long run.

"Alright shoot, where do we start." Jace asked leaning forward in his wheelchair.

"You are off duty until that heals" Lydia pointed at his side where the parabati rune was bandaged. "Magnus, Max, and Clary I want you to track Jonathan. I believe the combination of the three of you will boost the tracking to something we can use to actually catch him. Isabelle I need you to figure out a way to make your Malachi contraption work to hold Jonathan, a lot depends on you making that work. Simon can you get any of the vampires to start searching for any trace of demonic activity in your area that seems unusual." Jace was silently impressed, he could see the plan forming. Although he was a little unsure of any help from the vampires but then again Alec had been making leaps and bounds of progress with all the Downworlders lately towards his cabinet idea.

Useless. He was useless to help.

Jace grabbed the wheels of the chair of shame, spun himself backwards and started to head back to the infirmary. Livid that he could do nothing. Angry at himself that he even needed help over a stupid, burned rune.

Only it's not stupid. It meant everything.

"Hey, wait up." Simon called.

"What do you want?" clipped Jace in no mood to deal with the vampire.

"Um, to accompany you. And to talk to you. And well, I kind of need advice." The last was said as Simon slowed to a stop beside him, Jace stopped turning the wheels to glance at him. He grabbed the wheels again to move forward.

Maybe not completely useless.

"What do you need advice on?" Jace drawled knowing how much Simon and he butted heads due to their past with Clary.

"Well, what exactly does demon exiting from hell look like? I mean are we searching for something all black and gooey or a shapeshifter or what?" Simon asked not rising to the silent bait, earnest as only he could be. For the short time Simon had been part of the Shadowworld Jace was still surprised by how little he really knew. Especially, seeing as he was supposed to be part demon now.

"You are the worst vampire." Jace said, half a joke, half serious. Simon flashed a smile, pointed teeth showing just to throw Jace off.

"But your only vampire that can help you out. So by default, the best vampire ever." Smug and proud. Clary rubbed off on him sometimes or Isabelle's confidence.

"Honestly, I am not sure what we are searching for. The last we saw Jonathan he had black wings, hair was red or white, guy kind of stands out, lots of destruction." Jace informed him continuing down the path towards the infirmary.

"What if now that Edom is destroyed he doesn't want to destroy now?" Simon asked casually walking beside him.

The fuck?

Jace looked at Simon like the idea was preposterous. Seriously, the guy had been on a constant killing and destruction spree since they met him. Where the hell did Simon even form that farfetched conclusion?

"Well, I mean, Clary told me her brother was trapped in Edom since he was a kid. Hated it down there. Said he only ever cared about her when he discovered her." Simon shrugged like the conclusion was not a big deal, walking slowly beside Jace so he could keep up in the blasted chair of shame. Only it was a big deal. Jonathan's obsession with Clary had resulted in that rune they spent so much time breaking. And when they broke it. Well, that's what got them into this fucked up situation. They needed Magnus and all his magical power from Edom to save their asses. Again. And Alec, being his noble self, went to go fix that sacrifice. There was a connection in there somewhere, Jace knew it. Just could not pin it down. The fact that his brain was forming a circle of connections meant that the vampire may be onto something, perhaps not the right something, but something nonetheless. He pushed the wheelchair forward again and maneuvered it around a turn as Simon followed beside him waiting for him to speak.

"I think you are wrong. I think he still wants to destroy. Maybe Edom was just the start." Jace frowned at this train of thought, something did not add up.

"Yeah but you heard Magnus. You would need angel blood to destroy the runes, to destroy Edom." Simon reminded.

Angel blood that only one person in Edom would have had at the time.

Jace grabbed the wheels to stop his forward motion and nearly tipped over, Simon reaching out to grab the wheelchair and halt his fall. "You think Alec is with Jonathon?"

I can get to you.

"Yeah sort of. It made more sense in my head. But now not really. I mean how big would those runes need to be to power a bunch of souls powering Edom. How would they have even broken them?" Simon responded a little nervously.

Pointless questions.

"The real question is where they would go once that blast of souls ended. They must have survived because my rune is still there." Jace lifted his shirt and peeled the bandage back just to ensure the parabati rune was still there. It looked a little healthier. The blisters had faded but the ugly red around it remained. Simon leaned over him to get a better look. Jace elbowed him in the side rather harshly to back off, the vampire barely acknowledges the hit.

"Shit. That looks and smells horrible." Simon said taking a step back from Jace, nose wrinkled in distaste.

"So glad I smell like dinner to you." Jace snarked back.

"No I mean, it smells like you got blasted with a lightning bolt or electrocuted. Also you smell terrible. All that angel blood with..." Simon trailed off waving his hand at Jace's side like that is supposed to sum up whatever it is he is trying to convey. Jace raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at Simon's eloquent description of whatever the hell happened to him.

Electrocuted?

Jace glanced down at his side again, examined the rune, angry red around it and the rest of his skin smooth and flawless. The rest of his runes untouched by whatever had plagued him last night.

"I do think you are right that Alec is with Jonathan in some way. Prisoner maybe. He is alive for some reason. Jonathan would not keep him around except to be used later." Jace directed his gaze back up at Simon and covered the rune with the bandages again. "As for what to look for, go with your gut. Always works for me."

Simon smiled a genuine smile, clapping Jace on the back. "We will find them both. Take Jonathan out and get Alec back. You'll see."

Jace wished he could believe him. Because wherever Alec really was according to their rune, it was really not a good place. He rolled the chair of shame the rest of the way to the infirmary ignoring the looks from other shadowhunters at their greatest warrior stuck in a wheelchair with no visible wounds.

Something is wrong with the bond.

The thought brought him back to what the Silent Brother had told only him earlier. There was something wrong and whatever it was, was dangerous enough for a silent brother to want to hide it.

Fuck. Alec what did you do.

Jace parked the wheelchair near the bed and hoisted himself up on the bed. At least moving seemed to be getting easier as the day progressed, he went to lay down.

"Why aren't you outside?" The nurse demanded scowling and rushing towards him.

Really? I just want to rest.

"Go outside. Do whatever you wanted to do in here out there." Jace sighed, dragging himself back off the bed and back into wheels of shame. Wheeled his way back outside to where he, Izzy, and Simon had their picnic and flopped down on the grass. Turning over to stare up at the clear sky. Sun shining down brightly, a clear day devoid of clouds. The complete opposite of how he had felt since everything exploded.

Literally.

Jace ran a hand over the parabati rune, feeling a small pulse of warmth, for once no pain, just a calm exhaustion. The fight finally dragged out of him and Jace fell asleep staring up at the sky.

When he came to it was night and Clary was beside him with her notepad, drawing. A blanket had been placed over him at some point. He felt weak for it, everyone else had jobs and all his job was to go rest. Well he rested.

"Hey you." Clary said giving him a soft smile, looking down at him. Her fiery red hair looked maroon in the darkness. She looked beautiful and Jace wanted to kiss her for it. Jace sat up.

"Hey. How long have you been here? Did you track Jonathan?" Jace questioned.

Clary looked away, closing her sketchbook.

Not again.

"Max says there is something wrong again. He is losing confidence in his ability to track these two and insisted on taking a break. His definition of break was to track other stuff throughout the whole institute. We found everything he wanted to challenge himself with. Including Magnus deciding to play hide and seek." Jace kind of wishes he had been awake to watch that. High Warlock of Brooklyn playing hide-and-seek with a kid, even if it was more for training purposes.

"So what's wrong?" Jace pressed.

"He says he doesn't feel demonic when he tracks him now, just like another shadowhunter. It's strange. Something happened to Jonathan to change the signature." Clary explained.

Max could make out the difference between Jonathan before and after the destruction of Edom.

Impressive.

"So why aren't we tracking that?" Jace demanded more than a little irritated that she did not explain why they could not track Alec.

"We did." She looked up at the sky and kept her face turned away from him as she said it, but reached out to hold his hand anyway.

God, what did you find?

"Jace, Jonathan and Alec were found together. There are marks of demonic runes all over Alec. We lost two people just on reconnaissance. Jace, Alec killed them. Jonathan pulled him back and they escaped." So many questions flashed through Jace's mind at that, too many to even begin to settle on one, except his brain did anyway.

Demonic runes on BOTH of them.

"How did you know Alec had runes like that on him?" Jace could not say it.

Demonic.

"He was mostly naked." Clary said not looking at him, face covered in a blush. She must have been there then, witnessed the destruction Alec, not Jonathan wrought.

"Well, I rested. What's the plan?" Jace needed to fix this somehow. That was his parabati out there and with the Clave envoy probably here by now looking over the souls entry and exit points, having a shadowhunter running around with demonic runes really did not bode well for anyone.

"Izzy is reconfiguring her weapon to house both Alec and Jonathan. Magnus is helping her." Clary explained finally looking at Jace again.

"Good, let's go train. I need to do something and if I have to ram a sword through someone to do it, I need to be ready for it." Jace said restless energy forcing him to move.

Just don't let it be Alec.

-o-o-oo-o-o-o-o-

Clary and Jace reached the training room together. It was empty. The room darkened for the night, runes spread evenly across the floor. The archery stands were far in the back, the punching bag was closest to him and he moved to it. The room he and Alec used to train in since they were little. The first punch sends a jolt of pain down his arm.

Good.

Jace punched again harder. Punched again. And again. Until he was breathing heavily, tears were starting to form in his eyes. Clary had been doing her own warmup off to the side but he could feel her observing him carefully. He blinked to clear his eyes. Taking a breath, slow in and out, to appear normal, shoving everything to the back of his head. Jace turned to look over at Clary.

"Ready to get your ass whipped?" Jace asked all cocky and self-assured.

Clary smiled. "You'll be surprised how good I've gotten." Clary tossed back walking over to grab two kindjals, while Jace moved to grab a sword to practice with. They circle each other first. But Jace had become wound up and tense with doing nothing the last day or two, he was not really sure anymore. It was all blurred together. He charged at Clary instead, sprinting as fast as he can at her. Jace can spot the surprise in her face, raising her kindjals up before her in a defensive stance. Jace buckled his knees and slid past, neatly tapping her legs with his sword. He smirked, it turned into a full blown grin as Clary whirled around fuming at herself that she missed such a large opportunity and left herself open.

"Getting better, huh?" Jace taunted.

She growled in response.

"Again." Jace called.

She faced off with him again. One foot slightly behind her, the other slightly forward, hips turned towards him, her eyes tracking his movements.

Jace took a side approach this time, swiping at her with the sword, allowing her a chance to lock their weapons together. Jace felt the jolt through his arms as the metal clashed together.

Clary grinned wickedly at him, thinking she had an upper hand. She brought her free arm up to stab at him. Jace slid to the side disengaging his blade from her kindjals, leaping out of the way just as her free arm whips through where he had been standing a moment ago.

Jace did not wait for her to get prepared, just whirled into her and slammed the sword into her face. For a moment, Jace paniced thinking he hit her to hard, which he probably did. But Clary took her blades and tried to slam them towards his ribs. Jace hopped backwards on his feet, bouncing lightly, before switching stances again, prowling towards her, close enough to be just out of reach.

"Have to keep your opponent confused. And you Clary need to do better." Jace gently reprimanded her, poised for the next attack. She lunged at him swiping at his front with her weapon. He took another step back, leaning just slightly, easily dodging the attack. Her balance was off because of the lunge and he lifted a foot up and shoved her backwards to sprawl on her back. Jace leapt on top of her, pinning her to the ground, straddling her hips, one leg on each side, arm raised with the sword in his hand. She was out of breath. Jace felt barely winded, energy coursing through him, his practice sword pointed at her throat.

Always miss this feeling in a fight. The adrenaline.

"I am getting better. You are just being harder on me." Clary informed him with a smile.

She dropped her kindjals and tapped out. But she was smiling and leaning up to kiss him.

Jace felt an unexplainable urge to run from that kiss, pull back, turn away, his brain sending signals of flee so strong he gasped on it. Confused by it. Jace jerked his head to the side so she ended up kissing his cheek instead, bowing his head down to her shoulder trying to figure out what just happened. He has always enjoyed kissing Clary. He's in love with her, he thinks. His rune was burning again, pulsing angrily against his side. Jace rolled off Clary to check it.

"Not you, I think I tore the skin or something." Jace panted. Now he feels winded just from trying to avoid a kiss.

She was watching him, concern and confusion and more than a little hurt. She knew him well enough that he would not normally turn away from a kiss because of pain. Eyes downcast, she picked herself up off the floor, picked up her weapons, and carried them over to their stand.

Say something.

The silence was suffocating. More so, because Jace had no idea what made him react that way. He thought of kissing her again, walking up to her and wrapping his arms around her.

"Let me know when you feel better." Clary bitterly cut across his thoughts suddenly. "You did just get out of the infirmary. You are released from the infirmary, right?"

Jace tossed her a lopsided grin. Frankly, he is not really sure he was released or not and does not want to face the wrath of the nurse that has been assigned him.

"Yes. Of course I am. Just need some rest and I'll be good to go." Jace informed her. It is not quite a lie, really he does feel ten times better than he did before his little nap. "Besides there is some footage I want to view before we go catch Jonathan."

Catch Alec.

The two headed down to the ops center, where it was still fairly busy for the middle of the night. Apparently Lydia felt that they needed to be on high alert for Jonathan, that or Alec had some contingency plan laid out in an event like this. Jace vaguely wondered which reason it was.

Jace plopped down in a chair near the computers hitting the keyboard as Clary took a seat beside him.

"What footage are we searching?" Clary asked.

"Every street near the souls ejection point and then I want to view the mission when you guys went and tracked Jonathan earlier." Jace was worried about watching that mission. Clary had said Alec killed. Which meant one, Alec was in fighting condition. Two, his parabati clearly needed his help.

Why aren't you reaching out to me?

"You said Max was having trouble tracking due to complications with both Jonathan and Alec. May as well try and give him a place to start." Jace continued.

They combed through all the footage of the souls exiting Edom, which on their screens looked like a giant white blast through the ground. Bright, white light crackling up to the sky like lightning, a red glow on the ground where is started. Logically, Jace knew others were going over this same footage but he wanted to search for one form in particular. He knew he would recognize it. He hoped. Yet after going through several camera angles and nearly 3:00 in the morning Jace was starting to wonder if he was right in his assessment of himself and spotting Alec. Clary had long since fallen asleep in her chair and Jace was reluctant to carry her to bed. Mostly, because he did not want to fall asleep again. His parabati was out there, clearly in danger and he could not find him. Jace hit pause on the current video of bright, electric light he was watching and reached down to his parabati rune. He reached for Alec again, finding that same warm, contentment, quickly followed by icy, razor edges, before the connection just stopped.

Confusing as hell.

Nothing made sense with how the bond was acting. Unless it was one of those demon runes Clary had mentioned. But that should have severely injured Alec, not made him capable of fighting, let alone killing two shadowhunters.

He hit play again staring at the screen, movement in the far corner of the screen caught his eye. Two humanoid forms. One was dragging the other slowly away from the blaze of souls, crawling really.

That has to be them.

"Clary!" He grabbed her arm and shook her hard. "Clary! I think I found them!"

"Wha?" She groggily opened her eyes, blinking at him a couple times, red hair sticking in all directions.

"I think I found them." Jace excitedly told her. Now she was fully awake, scrambling to sit upright in her chair nearly falling over in the process.

"Where?" Clary demanded.

"Here." Jace pointed and hit play on the video again and pointed at the two forms on the screen. "If we can get Max and Magnus close enough to that location maybe he can see what is really blocking him from tracking them. This would have been their first steps onto this plane again. Come on lets go wake them up." Excitement was bubbling up in him, hope that maybe he could get to Alec in time.

"Jace. It's three in the morning. Jonathan hasn't killed Alec yet. It's already been over a day. If he was going to, he would have done so already. Also whatever happened in Edom, they were working together." she pointed back to the screen. "They were dragging each other out of the line of danger."

Jace's eyes flared wide, fist bunching up, the surge of unchecked anger through him was something he had never felt towards Clary. Ever.

"You don't want to help me get my parabati back." Jace hissed, but forced his hands to relax, he was not going to hit Clary. Clary brought her hands up in surrender, but he could see the fire in her eyes. She was ready for a fight.

"Jace that's not what I said. I said let's wait until morning. Then we..."

"No. I dropped everything for you, for your mom, when you first came into the Shadowworld. I was always there for you as much as I could be. You were always there for me every step of the way. But my parabati is asking too much?" Jace realized he was shaking in anger. He looked away from Clary because looking at her bright red hair and green eyes was just making him furious right now.

"Jace, we'll get him back. I promise. We'll wake everyone up at 6:00. It's just three hours away. Come on, you found something. Let's go get some rest." Clary's calm logical approach sounded right. It was only three hours, but everything inside Jace itched to start now. To get to Alec, now. Because while the blistering pain had abated, what was left in its wake was just as confusing. He had not been able to fully think without part of himself checking the bond, physically looking at it each time he thought no one was looking at him to make sure the black symbol was still on his side. He checked it now and felt the same thing he had the last time.

"No. He is Max's brother. He would want to be woken up for this. And Magnus, Magnus just lost Alec to who knows what. I'm not sure how immortals work with grief but he has to feel something." Jace insisted hitting save on the file location.

"And you?" Clary urged looking up at him.

Fuck. Not going to try and understand that particular mess right now.

"Jace, it's ok to feel something. Fear even, but we need rest." Her hands were still up in surrender but she was bringing them towards him. Jace balked at the idea of touching someone right now.

It's just Clary.

He tried to reign in whatever it was that he was feeling, standing up from his chair quickly.

Definitely, not running away.

"Come on let's just get some rest, rather than argue." Jace said to cover his strange restless nerves.

"Ok." she smiled at him sweetly. His stomach turned over instead of the usual warm feeling from Clary's looks. She took his hand and he almost did not let her and lead him back to his, their, room. His feet felt heavier with each step closer, the urge to pull back became overwhelming.

I can't.

"Clary." Jace stopped at the entrance to his room, feet glued to the floor.

She glanced back at him, inquisitive green eyes piercing him.

He wondered if she could sense that he did not want her there. That something vital had shifted in him and until he got that back he could not have her in his room. "I can't."

She looked confused for a moment, before stepping towards him, into his personal space. Her hand came up to stroke his face and he broke out in a cold sweat.

"I can't. Not tonight. Maybe you should sleep in your room tonight. I don't want to wake you again if I get sick." Jace used the guilt card, he knew her caring soul would do as he asked. But he just could not touch her right now. Everything still felt off. His soul was damaged, a Silent Brother would not even announce the damage to his own family, and Jace was pretty sure that particular Silent Brother was not telling anyone else. Otherwise, the Clave would have already been down here poking and prodding at him like a lab rat at best, him dead at worst.

"Ok. Come get me if you need anything or call my phone." She continued to stroke his face and he wanted to rip it off his skin. He could tell she would rather stay there, but respected him enough to grant his wish for tonight. She leaned in to give him a kiss, but something she saw on his face made her pause. Instead she drew him into a hug that Jace let her have.

Get off me.

Finally she left for her room. Thankful she did not actually kiss him, but he found himself missing the closeness they usually shared as soon as she left his sight. He collapsed on his bed. He had not even been awake that long.

Well you did skip a meal or two today.

Jace closed his eyes and willed sleep to come.

O –o – o – o - O

Golden haze surrounded him, thinning out in sections, thickening in others turning dark in one part.

Strange.

Jace took a couple steps through the golden mist, watched as it swirled around him instead. Wrapping around his body in tendrils and thicker ropes of gold. He searched the golden mist for some point of reference. Which was really just that darker, black spot far in the distance. A dark spot that he realized was Alec.

Jace stumbled towards him as the golden mist suddenly seemed more difficult to push through.

"Alec!"

"Knew you'd find me." Alec's whole body was glowing the same faint golden color as the mist.

Jace tried to touch him but discovered he could not move enough to do so.

"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you…" Alec held out his right arm to Jace as they had during the original parabati ceremony.

Not quite the same words.

"Where you go I will go..." Jace told him, smiling, renewed that he had Alec near him.

Jace reached up his arm to grasp Alec's this time he could, but when he looked down at their joined arms his smile vanished. Alec's entire arm was blackened with streaks of black following his veins, traveling up his arm.

Alec looked at him.

His eyes were demonic black.

"Alec!"

"The one who sins…"

-o-o-o-o-o-

"The one who sins…"

Jace jolted upright in his bed, pulse driving his blood faster and faster through his head, sweat dripped down his spine in a wet, sticky trail, body still tense as if he had just come off a mission.

Jace fumbled and rolled towards the side of his bed, hand reaching out to grab the clock sitting on the nightstand, still trying to blink the dream from his eyes.

5:00am

Jace breathed a sigh of relief. "Good still have time."

Two hours of sleep wasn't much, but it left him enough time to check with the nurse and get the go ahead to go on missions again.

It had been 24-48-36 hours since...

He really did need to find out what day he was on again. The disassociation was starting to get to him. He covered his face with both hands, running them down his cheeks, trying to wipe away the remnants of sleep.

Strange dream.

He did not normally dream about his parabati, but then again his entire focus had been on him lately. He still felt exhausted. He wanted to drop back into his bed, pull the covers over and try for a better dream. One with Clary or another past girl.

Crap. Don't have time for this.

Jace pushed himself onto his feet, grabbed the nearest pair of pants, hoped they were clean enough, tossed on a grey sweatshirt, black combat boots, and grabbed his stele. A pause. He walked back over to his closet and rummaged around in it until he found what he wanted. A blue cord. He removed the Herondale ring off its usual chain and put it on the blue cord instead, putting it back over his head when he was done.

Izzy will probably need another hour of sleep.

She had been working on their main mechanism to entrap Jonathan and now Alec since the meeting yesterday. However, knowing Izzy she kept a lot of her stuff in Alec's room as well. Even when it was frowned on by her parents she always would leave clothes, jewelry, and makeup in her brother's room. Now with Magnus in the picture Jace had a feeling the makeup bit had gotten worse.

Perfect.

Jace wandered down to Alec's room, pushed the heavy oak door open, and slipped inside to search for what he needed.

Damnit. Why is he here?

Jace froze as soon as he had entered the room. Magnus lay there asleep, surprisingly without makeup on, sprawled beneath the covers, arms and legs thrashed at odd angles. Jace doubted he had slept peacefully since returning from Edom. Now all Jace felt was a strange awkwardness to have just walked in unannounced.

Didn't really expect anyone in here.

He debated about glamouring himself to be invisible. Scoffed.

Right, cause THAT would work with the High Warlock of Brooklyn.

Instead he tried to walk carefully and quietly over to the dresser which had accumulated most of Izzy's makeup. The trek was made easy with no clothing, weapons, or backpacks to impede his way, unlike his own room.

Thank the Angel, Alec keeps a clean room.

Upon closer inspection of the dresser, a great deal of Magnus's makeup as well. Jace figured the warlock just used magic to apply all his abundant and sparkly makeup. Guess it had to come from somewhere.

Well crap.

Jace stared at all the makeup contraptions.

How the fuck does Alec stand this.

Between Magnus and Izzy Alec's dresser had become a minefield of makeup containers in all sorts of colorful shades. Jace had no idea which one even held the container called "foundation" or was it "concealer" that he needed to cover the worst of the redness around his parabati rune. He picked up a couple containers trying to figure out which one he actually needed. Blue, green, brown. He set aside the brown one. He glanced inside a pale colored jar with some kind of paste in it.

Fuck. I should have just woken Izzy.

"Is there something I do not know about the great Jace Herondale? Or is there any particular reason you are currently creeping around looking at makeup at five in the morning." A very awake warlock spoke from the bed.

Well, there goes more of my reputation.

Jace spun around to face the warlock plastered on his best cocky smile. "Well, you see Izzy wanted something to make her look better for Simon…"

Magnus narrowed his eyes and shot Jace a deadpan look from the bed making him trail off.

"Jace, I'm not stupid. You were in the infirmary less than a day ago from some sort of injury. Now you have been benched and cannot join any further missions until approved. My guess. You want to cover up whatever your injury is, flirt with the medical staff, and get a pass to get assigned missions again. How am I doing?"

Meddling warlock.

Jace knew that was exactly his plan, but to have it thrown at him so obviously made him grind his teeth.

"Not exactly." Jace said.

"Then why are you holding my makeup?" queried Magnus, peering at Jace, his head cocked to the side.

Jace cautiously put the makeup he was holding back down as if it was a bomb set and ready to explode at any moment. Unfortunately for him, all his attention was riveted on the warlock still in the bed and with a crash a large chunk from the pile of makeup slid off the dresser hitting the floor. A detonation of sparkles and powdery color spread out across the floor and washed over his boots.

Stupid makeup…

Magnus huffed out a laugh, bringing a hand up and with a quick wave of blue magic from his hand had the entire mess cleaned up and himself immaculately dressed, makeup in place.

"I shall ask again. Why are you here?" Magnus voice, broke no room for argument this time.

Jace shrugged his shoulders, threw his arms out with the movement. "Same as I said before. Izzy."

"And I am supposed to believe this plot to improve her appearance for the sake of Simon after I have spent the last 10 hours working with her on the Malachi project." Magnus prowled across the room towards Jace.

Shit.

Jace despised being out of the loop. This was the whole reason he needed the makeup anyway. Get the go ahead from the infirmary for more missions.

"You do know a nurse is going to easily spot makeup covering up whatever you are trying to hide." Magnus pointed out.

Not hiding anything.

Even as he thought it his hand inadvertently came up to press against his side over the parabati rune. Magnus's eyes zeroed in on the movement.

Jace stayed silent.

"Have it your way then." Magnus turned away and headed for the door. "We have a meeting about our counterattack soon."

"Fine… Fine. I need your help." Still holding onto the rune at his side Jace hurried to catch up to him before he got out the door, drawing up short when Magnus stopped walking suddenly and swiftly turned around, a small grin on his face.

"What do you need?" Magnus asked.

Jace looked away, then back to meet Magnus's brown eyes directly. "I need you to make my skin look normal." He said.

There he said it.

"Let me see." Magnus's gentle request did not set him at ease.

Jace kept his eyes averted, head turned to the side, as he slowly lifted up his shirt to expose the parabati rune. It had stopped bleeding hours ago, but last he had checked it was still an angry red all around it.

He heard Magnus's sharp intake of breath. Followed by a wash of cool, blue magic. Magnus stood still for longer than Jace expected, sending more blue magic at the rune. He glanced down to see what was taking so long. It looked ok, well better than it had.

Magnus's magic stopped and he took a step away from Jace. "I don't know what happened to you or Alec, but I have my suspicions. That appears to be a much deeper injury that some demon attack."

Great, like I don't have enough to worry about.

Jace checked the rune over. It appeared unblemished, soft, clean, unmarred skin sat around the rune. The rune itself a deep black, no scabs or blood on it. "Perfect. Thanks Magnus."

Jace shot out the door. He did not want to linger on whatever it was Magnus seemed to want to discuss. Plus, he had no idea how long this glamour was supposed to hold. On the bright side, he did feel much better now. No nausea, no weakness, in fact he kind of felt more rejuvenated than he had in a long time. He broke into a light jog, then with a small laugh burst into a sprint the rest of the way to the infirmary.

"Hey nurse!" Jace shouted.

Said nurse did not look impressed to see Jace sprinting through the corridors of the infirmary. Jace slid the last couple feet into her station and came to a graceful stop directly in front of her, threw on his best smolder and cocked his head to the right, small smirk in place.

"Hey. So, I feel a ton better. You said I needed rest. Got that done. Ate some food. Got some sunshine. Feel completely healthy. Give me the release to go on mission today?" Jace said all with complete confidence.

She barely batted an eye.

"We'll see, you are supposed to be on leave for two weeks, not a day. Go in room three. Strip the shirt off and I'll be in in a moment to check your vitals and the injury." She turned away to start entering information into the computer in front of her.

This had better work.

Jace glanced behind him and scanned the hallway doors looking for the right room. Spotted it, pushed off the nurse's desk and jogged over to the examination room, mostly to show off that he could move easily.

Healthy as a horse.

He hopped up on the table inside, pulled off his sweatshirt and began to play with his stele as he waited. Spinning it around his hands and twirling it between his fingers.

The nurse entered, setting her instruments to the side. Put on her gloves before she picked up one instrument and began to run him through each test, temperature, blood pressure, eyes, last she took a look at his side.

"Have you experienced any nausea since your episode?"

"No."

"Have you experienced any hallucinations?"

"No."

"Have you experienced any pulls or pain in your chest?"

"No."

The nurse typed some notes down into his file. Ran a hand over his parabati rune, no red marks around it to be seen. Jace nearly grinned in glee. This was going to work.

"I have no idea how you were able to recover so quickly. Your parabati rune was clearly damaged from either your side or your parabati's. Which means your soul may have been at risk. You already are aware of the risks of a weakened soul outside of this Institute. However, perhaps your angel blood has allowed for you to completely heal more quickly than most." Matter-of-fact and clinical the nurse typed away on her computer while she spoke.

Lilith.

"So am I cleared?"

"Yes, you passed everything remarkably well." There was a strange note of dissonance in her voice. Jace glanced at her, making sure she was still typing out the needed paperwork to get him back to active duty. She was. But she also had a small frown on her face.

Just needs to hold until I get him back.

She hit print. Jace had an urge to just reach out and grab the paperwork before she became suspicious. Settled for spinning his stele through his fingers again, pocketing it, and throwing on his shirt instead. It finished printing.

Longest goddamn wait ever.

She picked it up, signed it, and stamped it.

Anytime now.

The nurse handed it over to him. "You are all set for active duty. You may take that to Maryse or Lydia to be assigned. Good luck on your next mission."

Jace grinned, thanked her, and sprinted out, paper in hand. A joyful feeling bubbling up through him as he finally felt like he could take a step closer towards getting his parabati back. He glanced at one of the clocks as he ran by to reach Maryse's office. 5:45.

Shit. 15 minutes. Maryse better be there.

He burst into what should have been Alec's office without knocking. His adoptive mother sat at Alec's desk speaking with Lydia, they both looked towards him as he careened through the door, paper waving wildly in his hand.

"I can be on active duty again. Assign me to the mission to catch Jonathan and get Alec back." He practically shouted at them, like they were not five feet from him. Lydia looked like she might laugh and had brought a hand up to her mouth. Maryse had her face screwed up in a sort of forced scowl, but her eyes shown with relief.

Best shadowhunter in New York.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Fifteen minutes later found Jace in the Ops Center along with Maryse, Lydia, Magnus, Izzy, Max, Simon, Clary, Lucian, and several other Shadowhunters. He dropped into the chair between Clary and Izzy. Clary gave him an anxious glance. Izzy on the other side of him was focused on some conversation with Magnus.

"You ok?" Clary's insistent, voice was the first thing he heard after he settled into his chair, legs crossed, hand already twirling his stele. He saw Izzy shoot him a frown for that, but she mostly remained engrossed in her conversation with Magnus. Probably thinking he was going to drop it and break it.

It wouldn't be the first time.

"Yeah. Medic gave me the ok to return to duty." He felt a mild irritation at the question. She should know he would do anything for most of the people here, especially for Alec.

"Jace, you were in a wheelchair yesterday." Clary blatantly pointed out as she scooted her chair closer.

Yes, I know I was buddies with the chair of shame.

"Well, I got better." He snapped. Jace noticed hurt cross her face as she pulled away.

He sighed and dropped his voice to a low whisper. "It's my angel blood. Whatever happened to the bond, my blood fixed it just as fast. I'm fine." The last bit he put some extra edge to his voice.

"Ok, well Maryse wants you as lead." Clary replied a bit stiffly.

Since Alec isn't.

"Everyone is here. Let us get started." Maryse's voice cut across everyone's conversations, effectively shutting everyone up. "Good. Jace, you will be lead on this assignment. You have always been our best fighter and as the only one who has truly fought Jonathan you understand him a bit better than most. Max will track them starting at the location Jace discovered them exiting Edom from, Magnus will go with him as both support and protection."

A low mummer of "Mooom." Came from Max's side of the table, before a sharp look from Maryse quieted him.

"Magnus once the two of you have located them. You will portal Max home. Immediately. Then portal the others to the needed location. Each of you will be receiving a comm. These comms only work at short distance due to how most technology interacts with magic. Magnus has several warlocks setting up a shield around New York to trap both demonic and angelic signatures from crossing. Izzy, once they have been located you can set up your new Malachi configuration. Tell the others about it."

Izzy sat up straighter as all attention veered towards her. "Magnus and I were able to set it up to hold various signatures both Alec and Jonathan shall remain contained. It has a one block radius. The only thing we need to do after that is locate them within that block and keep them still enough for Clary to draw her rune."

"Isn't that exactly the same plan as last time?" Jace interjected.

Nothing changed.

"Jace, that plan should have worked. It didn't because we had gone in assuming Alec was on our side. We are not letting that happen again. Which is why your focus will be to capture Alec. Clary, Simon, and Magnus will focus on capturing Jonathan. Izzy and the others will be placing the Malachi configuration. Magnus, I want you to focus on whoever Clary is capturing to ensure the move via her portal rune goes smoothly with no mistakes." Whatever heartbreak Maryse was feeling for her eldest, she was covering it well.

"Dismissed." Maryse barked out.

Jace turned his head towards Max. Youngest shadowhunter on this mission and the whole thing hinged on his ability to track two people that obviously did not want to be found.

Max's face was pale, but his eyes were determined. He hopped up with boyish energy and quickly walked to where Magnus was standing. "Let's go get my brother back." Max said with enough conviction that Jace actually believed he might feel it.

Why are you running from us Alec?

Magnus gave a small smile that did not quite wash away the pain in his eyes that Jace could see from here. He reached out his arm to Max, the Lightwood ring glinting on his finger, and with a circular wave of his other arm, opened a portal to the nearest location Max needed to travel to begin the tracking.

"Stay safe." It was Maryse. Her voice sounded far closer to terrified than Jace was comfortable hearing and he found himself moving with Isabelle to stand near her. They were still family. Maryse had her eldest already considered rogue. Jace doubted she had filed the paperwork to make that official though. But seeing her eyes widen just slightly as Max vanished with Magnus through the portal. Jace realized that she did consider Alec a threat even to his own family.

"Jace." Maryse had control over herself again and was turning to him.

"I know. I'll get Alec back." Jace promised her.

"It's not that. I want you to be careful. Whatever happened to him in Edom. There is a very strong possibility he is possessed and we do not know the demon." Maryse said.

"If it was just a demon, he would have been able to be tracked. Easily." Snapped Jace turning fully to face her.

She made an abortive motion with her arm, sighed tiredly. "When he killed two of our own. Alec was screaming about them not being right."

Why was he just learning of this now?

The videos he had watched with Clary had been blurry and watching Alec kill two people he supposedly knew had caused a sick feeling to form in his stomach. He had not understood why Alec had attacked.

"What do you mean "not right"? Jace asked forcefully.

"We don't know. But the two he did attack he blasted with some form of energy into their sides, where your parabati rune is located." She took his hands in hers, a gleam of manic hope shining darkly in her eyes. "I think he was searching for the parabati rune. For you."

She's a mother. She would reach for any hope to save her children.

He did not know Alec had been searching for something, had not felt anything from the bond but the constant conflicting warmth and razor ice. Certainly had not felt any emotions from Alec's end of the bond since this whole thing started. But her words gave him an optimistic hope that was dashed in cold reality as soon as it started to form. Two people had died to show that slight glimpse into Alec's state of mind.

"You don't think he's possessed do you? That's just what you need to put down in the file in case the Clave shows up." Jace remarked carefully, letting go of Maryse's hands and crossing his arms over his chest.

Maryse crossed her arms around herself. "I know my boy is in there somewhere. Your rune still being intact is proof enough of that. All of you worked so hard to bring Clary back and you succeeded. I want my boy back. He will know you. The silent brother even said it was intact and not corrupted."

He also said there was something seriously wrong.

The following wait for Max or Magnus to call about the location to meet felt like forever. Jace found that just spinning his stele was not enough, pacing was not enough, and that he had a nervous energy pulsing through him that would not let him sit still for more than a moment.

Clary sat drawing something in her sketchpad, while Izzy went over her Malachi configuration numbers for the 10,000th time banging her head into the table in front of her in her own form of frustrated waiting. Simon had left to call Raphael regarding the shield going up. Lucian was somewhere else. The other shadowhunters in their group sat doing their own thing. Nobody talked. He kind of wished Simon was here just to break the silence with some ill-timed comment about a comic.

Since when do you prefer Simon's geekiness to Clary's company?

"Can I see what you are drawing?" Jace found himself asking, just to break the silence and diminish the awkwardness.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Clary flipped the notebook around and handed it over. He took it, careful not to bend any pages. It was a picture of him, standing tall, arms straight out from his sides, his sword in one his right hand, most of his body bare, head thrown back. Jace was shocked to see it. For one, it was amazing artwork the detail astounding. For two, he never realized she saw him as such a warrior. He felt something warm bloom in his chest.

"It's amazing." He said softly. He turned another page. It was of him asleep. As he took it in he realized it was from when he had fallen asleep outside in the courtyard the other day. He glanced at her to find her blushing a bright red, her face burned brighter when she met his eyes. He flipped a few other pages to find one of Izzy while she worked fixing a weapon. Another of Simon laughing.

"Do you have any of Alec?" Jace asked offhandly.

Clary's lips thinned as she crossed one arm across her body and reached out with the other to retrieve the notebook. "No, sorry. He was always so busy being a leader I never had a chance."

Didn't really want a sketched picture anyway.

"Oh. Well maybe when we get him back. Draw him for me."

Where the hell had that request come from.

"Sure, if you want. I can." Clary said with a small smile.

The Ops Center phone rang. It was Max with a location. It was close.

Fucking finally.

They all finished strapping on last minute weapons, casting steles over runes as they gathered by the determined location that Magnus would open a portal for them. The golden hued portal formed before them and they all stepped through. Magnus stood on the other side. A second portal winking out of existence behind him.

Must have been Max.

Jace clicked his Comm unit on and did a voice check of each person on the team. He ensured each soldiers comm was working, affirmatives returned from each person. Simon needed to turn his down a bit, but otherwise everyone was good. Jace pointed to three of the shadowhunters and Izzy and gave each a signal to travel in groups of two around the perimeter to impale the Malachi Configuration into the ground. The four activated their speed and stealth runes and took off. Jace checked that Clary, Simon, and Magnus were behind him and began the trek towards the center of the block. He pushed open the glass door to the building in front of them and doing a quick scan for danger before signaling the others inside.

Time to go be bait.

He leapt over the security desk on the first floor, ignoring the mundane that sat idly sipping coffee and oblivious to their presence. The guy glanced up once but otherwise did not notice anything amiss. Simon had already used his vampire speed to zoom past the guards line of sight and was waiting for them around the corner.

"Jace, can you hear me?"

Jace reached up his hand to the comm in his ear. He disliked how garbled her voice already sounded after only a few feet into the building Jonathan held Alec, made a note of it in his head that they may need to rely on Magnus to inform them when the Malachi configuration was activated.

Activating the comm. "Affirmative." Jace replied.

"Points 1 and 2 have been placed, 3 and 4 on the way." Izzy's quickly fading and crackled voice streamed through his ear.

Jace motioned Magnus to him. The warlock was dressed in some ridiculously sparkly outfit, sewn with dragons in gold and red. He moved with a relaxed ease that belied just how much power lay within him.

"Going to need you to tell us when the Malachi configuration goes up." Jace informed him.

Magnus just nodded, eyes flashing gold. Maybe more ready for this to be over than Jace was. With Jace in the lead they started scouting through the building, one room at a time.

"Magnus, you sense anything?" Jace asked after they cleared the first floor.

"Basement." Magnus replied.

"Awesome, let's go." Jace said.

They found the nearest set of stairs and headed down.

Jace pulled his seraph blade out and let it light up. The soft angelic light casting a soft glow over the lower portion of his face and giving him some light into the gloom of the basement.

"I smell blood." Simon warned hovering close to Clary.

Jace's ear split open on a crackle. He batted at his ear, but the screeching had already stopped.

Ow.

"Malachi is up." Magnus said a moment later.

I figured. Thanks for the confirmation.

When they rounded the next corner Jace was unprepared for what met them. Jonathan Morgenstern stood crouched before them in the dark holding a Seelie blade, his flesh was torn in several places, one spot near his neck Jace knew used to hold an angelic rune. Jace could see the blade shiver in his grasp.

"Clary!? Clary you there?" Jonathan's first words sounded pleading and desperate. "Clary you have to help. I don't know how to stop it anymore."

"Yeah I'm here." Clary responded moving towards her demonic brother carefully, blade out and ready.

The red haired man took a step towards where Clary's voice had come from and Jace raised his blade higher.

Some instinct told him to move, so he did, spinning to his right, blade slashing out towards the attack, only to feel an arrow wiz by where he had been standing a second ago. Jace nearly dropped his sword when he realized the attacker was Alec.

Ambush. Split them up.

"Clary, do your thing." Jace ordered. He turned away from Alec and burst into a sprint away from Jonathan, praying that Alec would follow. He felt more than heard the low snarl.

Duck.

Jace dropped into a roll, two more arrows flew over his head. He popped up and threw himself around a corner, out of line of sight from the deadly objects, back pressed to the wall, blade in hand, waiting for Alec to approach. Instinct telling him Alec would follow him.

Come on.

Above.

Jace threw himself to the side as Alec dropped from the pipes above him, a silver blade flashing towards his side. Jace brought his own blade up to clash, felt the reverberation through his shoulders when they hit.

This close he finally got a decent look at his parabati. Black hair matted, face twisted in a feral snarl, brown eyes unfocused with something shining there that Jace did not have time to identify before Alec was twisting his blade down, forcing Jace's to go with it.

"Alec! It's me! It's Jace!" Shouted Jace desperately at Alec, bringing a foot up and using the wall behind him as leverage to push Alec off and away from him.

"You left me." Snarled Alec.

"I didn't leave you!" Jace shouted at him confused about the statement. Alec swung the blade forcing Jace to bend his knees deeply and avoid the attack. Jace sprang back up with enough force to slam his sword into Alec's and cause the other to stagger backward a step. Jace took advantage of it and swung up and across again aiming for Alec's arm to incapacitate. Alec deflected each blow.

Clary hurry the hell up.

The next attack from Alec nearly cost Jace his head as Alec reached up grabbed an arrow and aimed it and his blade at Jace's chest slashing both across at the same time. Jace found himself dancing around Alec in a circle to avoid getting cornered by the wall.

"We're on the same side! Damnit!" Jace hollered.

What is wrong with you?

Alec's eyes lit with something, but his whole body had paused and tensed. Jace took full advantage of it. Threw his body towards the ground, dropped his seraph blade, lunged the short distance to Alec, grabbing his ankles and yanked him off his feet with all his might, keeping his eyes on the weapon in Alec's right hand. Alec crashed to the floor with a strangled shout. Jace did not give him a chance to move, crawled, kicked, and pulled his way up Alec's back which was slippery and wet with some substance. Jace used his own body weight to keep Alec pinned to the basement floor. Alec tried to stab him with his right arm holding the Seelie blade. Jace latched onto the flailing arm with both hands, lifted up the offending arm and slammed it down with enough force he could hear a crack.

Alec merely grunted in pain. Jace slammed the arm down again. Alec let out a shout of anguish as the bones in his wrist were stressed, nearly breaking. Alec slammed his head back and up into Jace's face giving him enough leverage to roll his hips and flip the two of them over. Jace wrapped his legs around Alec's waist in a grapple move trying to gain the upper hand again. He missed seeing Alec pull his fist back before it slammed into his face, snapping his head to the side making the edges of his vision turn a dangerous black.

Didn't check that blow.

"Alec look at me!" Jace shouted. Head still swimming, Jace struggled to catch Alec's eyes.

Alec's left hand came up to close around Jace's throat, tightening dangerously.

Jace growled.

Want to play rough. I'll win.

Jace curled his body up, hips pushing against Alec, inched his legs up Alec's back until he could wrap them around his throat. Alec knew this grapple. As soon as Jace got his legs around his neck, Alec surged upwards, standing to his full height, bringing Jace completely off the ground.

Oh fuck.

Jace felt gravity take over as he was slammed back into the ground, head bouncing against the concrete, the blackness nearly took him under. Jace rolled over onto his hands and knees panting and gasping for air, with a thought he activated his strength and stamina runes to keep himself conscious, golden light seeped from the two runes.

Alec stood swaying nearby gasping just as hard.

"Got to make this hard don't you? Just come back home and we can fix…" Jace started but was cut off when Alec's leg connected with his side, throwing him up in the air to land a few feet away. His back and ribs felt like they were on fire. Groaning Jace rolled with it, staggering to his feet.

"You know nothing of what I want to fix." Alec growled lowly, approaching him like a predator.

Oh, I think I have a good idea.

The rune at his side felt like it might be bleeding again and was sending off anguished waves of pain. Each wave felt hotter than the last. Something hot slithered through his skin.

"Alec. Stop! Just Stop!" Jace snapped.

Where the fuck were the others.

Alec did not stop. Instead he picked up the fallen Seelie blade and slashed across Jace's chest. Fresh blood splattered across the floor, Jace felt the sticky wetness quickly coat his chest and soak his shirt. Now that pissed him off. He punched Alec across the face with a backhand, quickly followed by a straight punch to the face.

Why. Won't. You. Stop.

On each word in his head Jace hit Alec again, until the other was staggering under the onslaught. Jace maneuvered him back into the wall, pinning him there with his hips, breath coming in sharp pants against Alec's face.

Alec shuddered under the weight, the feral snarl dropped from his face. Fight finally gone.

Well he stopped.

Jace was not quite sure how to proceed from here. But he sure as hell was not moving away from Alec either. Rune cooling at his side. Jace shifted his stance to press a little harder against Alec to ensure he did not escape, bringing his arms to firmly plant them on either side of Alec trapping him in. He could feel Alec's muscles bunching as if to run.

"Don't run." Jace ordered. Alec's whole body tensed, shuddered, and locked up again.

If this odd stance of bodies pressed together is what it took to get him back, well he had enough of throwing his reputation out the window the last couple days anyway that he did not really care what it looked like to the others when they showed up to portal them.

Hot breath ghosted across Jace's face, firing off an awareness of their positions.

"Going to tell me what happened in Edom?" Jace questioned to keep his focus.

"No." Alec growled, head turning to the side.

"It involves both of us." Jace stated.

Alec's eyes snapped to Jace's. Brown met the heterochromia of blue and brown. A small twist in Alec's lips, almost a frown, eyes searching Jace's for something, his gaze dropped briefly before snapping back up. Jace felt the rune on his side start to heat slowly, small embers of flame entering his bloodstream.

"You weren't there." Alec said.

I know.

Jace let his hand slide down Alec's right arm, telling himself he was not searching for something. His chest tightened as he made out lines of black running down Alec's arm.

Alec remained locked in place, breath coming in short gasps, trembling.

"Jace…"

"You never run from a fight. You've never run from me." Jace did not even try to hide the hurt he felt, saying it made the pain in his chest surge. The slow burn emitting from his rune kept increasing his awareness of just how tightly locked they stood.

"You'll never understand." Alec hissed at him.

"Try me." Jace challenged locking their gazes.

Alec stared into his eyes. Dark brown, sparking with some decision, before he tilted his head and slammed into Jace in a reckless angry kiss.

Heat poured through his veins ratcheting higher each time Alec moved his lips against his again. Biting, nipping, and demanding something only Jace could give him.

That wasn't the plan.

His body did not seem to get the message that his rational self was telling it and his mind had stopped working altogether when Alec had slid his hand behind his neck holding him in place. Instead he caved to it, found himself responding to it, meeting Alec's kisses with a fever he was unaware was there until now. This wet hot heat that had consumed him, burned him up and demanded he get closer to Alec. Jace was not certainly not moving away but Alec seemed to think he would as he grasped Jace's jacket, twisted it and attempted to pull him closer. Not that there was much room left between the two of them. Jace felt the wild heat start to build in his spine, crawling into his groin and up his back, he shoved a leg between Alec's, heard a groan come from the dark haired man only making him want more.

Fuck.

"Jace, what's your location? We have Jonathan secured."

Clary's voice screeched with static across the comm in his ear. The bucket of cold, hard reality crashed through his ear and hit his over fevered brain. He broke the heated kiss and froze staring at Alec. His eyes dark, lips red from the attack, hair mussed. Breathe coming in deep sharp pants. Alec inclined his head towards him again and Jace responded by grasping Alec's wrists and pinned them above his head. Alec gave a low grown that sent heat right to his gut.

What the fuck just happened?

Because Jace was not about to compromise this mission over whatever the hell that had just been. Securing Alec's wrists in one hand, he reached to his comm, while casting a quick glance around the basement searching for something to tell Clary. Because, fuck, he had not been paying attention the entire fight.

Novice mistake.

Spotting a door with a number on it he clicked the comm on. "Near room B116. I've got Alec. You might want to hurry." He responded hoarsely.

Jace felt quite uncertain he would not try to attack Alec's lips again. If the others came in to find the two of them like that, Jace did not even want to think about the fallout. Clary would never speak to him again and they were already in a rough patch. Magnus. Well, Magnus would probably obliterate him within a magical inferno.

The roaring fire, settled to a slow pulse and burn deep in his parabati rune.

"Going to turn me into the Clave?" Alec sounded more defeated than angry.

"No, I'm taking you home. We'll figure the rest out later." Jace told him not letting go of Alec's wrists.

Except that kiss. Not going to mention that mind altering kiss ever again.

"Found them! Keep going the direction you are going and take the first door marked B100." Simon's joyful voice echoed doubly as loud considering he was both in the room with them now and it was echoing through his comm secured painfully in his ear. Jace ripped the offensive thing out before he could rupture an eardrum. Simon approached them and Jace watched as a complicated set of emotions crossed his face, before settling on amusement. It took a second for Jace to realize he still had Alec pinned to the wall with his hips, holding his arms over his head with one arm.

"So are you two going to shag now or should I leave and come back later?" Simon joked.

Jace felt Alec tense as if to attack and Jace quickly brought up the pair of magical handcuffs that were originally intended for Jonathan, snapped them around Alec's wrists.

Alec's whole body sagged suddenly, breath gusting out of him.

Jace had to scramble a bit just to keep him from hitting the floor. His arm and chest paining him as his body took all of Alec's dead weight and held him up.

"Is he alright?" Simon asked.

"No, dipshit. He just collapsed for no reason." Jace glowered at the vampire and lowered Alec to a seated position on the floor. Alec leaned his body into him and nuzzled into his side. Jace heard Simon laugh at the action.

"Dude, I think he's drugged. Alec is not cuddly." Simon's eyes laughed at Jace's apparent awkwardness with the whole situation.

Jace instead tried to ignore the spike of heat and pleasure that had shot through his side when Alec had nuzzled into him.

"Least he didn't kill anyone. Maryse was right. He recognized me." Jace acknowledged resting a hand on Alec's shoulder.

Magnus and Clary rounded the corner each appearing like they had run the whole way.

"Alexander. Oh thank God you are safe." Magnus rushed towards Alec to check his lover over. Alec took one look at Magnus, face twisted into a snarl, eyes going from brown to pitch black in a heartbeat and lunged past Jace towards the warlock. Using his recently handcuffed arms to cut the warlock's breath off and slammed him into the ground with a roar.

What the hell.

Magnus was everything to Alec. He would not attack him. Only clearly he just had. Magnus appeared just as shocked but was quick to recover. Blue magic wrapped around Alec to physically lift him off, while Jace grabbed Alec's shoulders from behind to wrench him off the gold-eyed warlock. Alec let out an inhuman howl at this, reaching for Magnus. Jace could see the magical shackles lighting up with red sparks of magic.

Magic. Shadowhunters don't have magic.

"Clary. Now. Send me with him." Jace called out the order, eyeing those glowing shackles as they began to grow brighter and brighter.

They were running out of time if those glowing shackles said anything.

"No. I'm not sending you to a cell like that." Clary snapped angrily.

Jace growled still struggling to hold onto a kicking and howling Alec. His rune lit up in an angry painful inferno.

I don't have time to argue.

Jace looked over at Clary eyes glowing golden concentrating to let his angelic power activate every rune. He gave the red head a tight nod to let her know he would let go when she drew the rune. Clary drew the gold rune in the air. Jace watched it carefully, the short seconds drawing down into an agonizing moment as Jace prepared to shove Alec towards the rune and get himself the hell out of the way. He did not want to know what happened to a person's body if they only had half their body get hit by a portal rune. He coiled his body ready for the call.

"Jace now!"

At her shout Jace shoved Alec forward with all the might his strength rune gave him, pushed with his legs to hurl himself to the side, felt Magnus's magic wrapping around his torso pulling him away from the incoming portal rune even faster.

As he watched that bright rune collapse close, carrying Alec to the Institutes holding cells Jace felt a pressure ease off. He had him. He was safe. He could talk to him.

Don't think about the kiss.

"Well, that was easy." Magnus said dusting off his expensive jacket.

"Yeah, cause a horde of demons was easy." Grinned Simon, he was covered in several cuts but nothing serious. "But you were so badass. It was like watching a real life Harry Potter or Doctor Strange when he waves his arms about. But you are way cooler."

"You ok?" Clary's concern something Jace did not need to deal with right now.

Jace picked up the Comm he had dropped earlier, stuck it in his ear. "Izzy?" He asked into the comm.

Nothing.

Stupid short range.

"Come on. Let's go outside get the others and send a cleanup crew." Jace ordered the the group.

They gathered up the others, no major injuries, and headed home. The trek home felt far too short and too long. Jace had no idea how to approach Alec now. What could he even say? The bond was hurting. And whatever had happened Alec did not appear remotely close to talking to him. And that kiss, what the hell had that been about. Last week Alec was ready to marry Magnus. Jace glanced at Magnus out of the corner of his eye as they walked home, guilt traveled in slow spirals through his gut alongside the strange heat the kiss had rammed into his body.

"You ok?" Clary asked again dropping back to walk beside him.

No.

"Yeah. We have Jonathan. We have Alec back. We'll sort everything out." Jace told her absently.

So why does it feel like I lost.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Jace!"

Alec yelled as he hit the floor on the other side of the rune. Scrambling to his feet, his head whipped from side to side searching the cell.

"Still alive." Jonathan's deep, slow voice sounded from across the room.

Alec groaned in relief. Ever since the explosion of Edom they had been relying on each other for sanities sake. Looking around he realized they were in the Institutes underground cells which meant they were considered a threat, dangerous enough to quarantine without bringing them in to be processed.

Jonathan will be considered the threat. Not me, I can use that.

"Clary is coming here. She's going to talk to me. She's going to kill me." Jonathan informed him, but Alec could detect the faint tremble of fear.

Alec crawled over and sat down beside Jonathan, leaning back against the cell wall with him, still panting from the collision with Jace. "Clary loves you." He gasped out.

She'll murder you.

"No she doesn't. Every step I take to try and get closer she pushes me away. Even with the twinning rune she wanted to be rid of me!" Jonathan snarled, eyes flashing dangerously but he did not move from his spot.

Alec closed his eyes. There had to be a way out of this.

"I don't know much about Clary. But Jace loves her and she wants you to be her brother. Edom's souls changed you. Use that. She'll want to believe you. She wants a family." Alec informed him as the insanity drew back, leaving behind the rush of cold.

"Changed you too." Jonathan said nudging his shoulder.

Alec rubbed at his parabati rune at that. Stupid thing had been painfully cold since Jonathan had dragged him from the stream of souls blasting through to Heaven. Jace appeared perfectly fine when they had clashed, although he was a little hazy in parts of that exchange. The entire day since he had left Edom had been hazy if he was honest with himself. Sections crossed and blurred together until he could not tell which was real and which was dream.

Jonathan reached over suddenly and dug his nails into Alec's arm, literally clawed a rune into his skin.

Sharp pain exploded in his arm as the nails dug deep, Alec yanked his arm away only for Jonathan to follow still digging and drawing, blood seeped up from the wound.

Jonathan released him just as suddenly as he had attacked. Sitting back down against the wall casually after the violence he had just exhibited.

Warmth spread through Alec's system, clearing his head a bit further. Etched into his skin was a new angelic rune, diamond shape rounded on one side, crisscrossed on the other with prongs sticking out.

"Your precious angel rune isn't going to hold it back forever. The fact I'm drawing it now, not you, is telling. So is the fever and the tremors. What would your precious parabati say if he knew what you are now?" There was a taunt in there somewhere, a slow drawl as Jonathan enjoyed the moment.

"Think you need your head looked at. Jace will check here once. Then Clary will drag him off on some new stupid deadly adventure." Alec's head felt completely clear again and the muddled thoughts faded. Maybe Magnus would know of a way to fix this. The warlock should be grateful he was no longer locked in Edom due to Alec's sacrifice.

Because that plan went so well.

"Maybe she'll see that I have humanity left in me." Jonathan stated hopefully, kicking his feet out in front of himself now that Alec had the new rune applied.

Yeah. I don't.

"Clary said she would kill you." Alec said coldly.

"Clary isn't like my father. Clary isn't like my mother. She still cares about me." Jonathan snarled his vicious voice echoed in the cell.

Alec did not know what to make of that. Demonic rage and destructive Jonathan he understood how to deal with. This new caring and hurt Jonathan kept throwing him off. He knew he needed to keep reapplying the angelic rune every hour but had apparently forgotten. Instead Jonathan had applied it. Looking down at his arm he saw three other angelic runes carved into his arms from Jonathan's nails.

Missed a few other hours in there.

"Sorry, I just. It's a lot to deal with. I got you out because I saw some good in you. That same good Clary always hoped to be there under it all. I just….I don't know what to do…" Alec told him.

Jonathan knocked his head back against the wall. "Yeah, well my plan backfired spectacularly when you lost it." Jonathan rolled his head to look over at Alec.

"I didn't lose it." Growled Alec, dark eyes narrowing.

"You lost most of your soul. You expect to just move on from that? Your warlock boyfriend should be able to tell you just how long you have until what you do have in that body winks out or is corrupted by Lilith's remnants. I wanted to stick you in the nearest hellish realm, get as far from you as possible before it exploded."

That's a nice mental image.

Alec shuddered. "Then why haven't you?"

"Because when I lived in this Institute as Sebastian. You all showed me the value of emotions and power. Not being a demon anymore, apparently logic goes out the window."

You had logic?

"That didn't answer the question." Alec said flatly.

Jonathan turned to face Alec more fully. "You reminded me of me. A shadowhunter forced into being something they never should have been. I've been given a second chance, so should you."

Something uncomfortable lodged in his chest. He was not like Jonathan. He was a respected shadowhunter, leader of the New York Institute, he had people counting on him.

I got this. It's just about control.

"Jonathan, you got a glimpse into life here at the Institute, you saw how the others fought for each other. Clary will fight for you with everything she has." Alec felt a wave of cold wash over him, rune at his side burning icily and he scratched at it in annoyance. "Then she'll kill you."

"Defiantly getting worse. Can't wait for this lovely conversation when your friends arrive." Jonathan reached over and dug his nails in, retracing the angelic rune without another comment.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ding!

The doors to the lowest level in the Institute slid open at an agonizing slow place to Jace. He shoved his way through them before they were fully open and sprinted down the grey halls to the cells he knew would hold Alec and Jonathan. Heard the others trailing behind him at a slower pace. He needed to ensure Alec was physically there. Jace nearly collided his face into the glass wall when he reached it searching the cell frantically. His eyes landed on Alec and Jonathan who were seated beside each other on the far side.

Jonathan had his legs kicked out in front of himself casually wiping his hand against his pant leg. Alec was digging his nails into his right arm until Jonathan leaned over to whisper something in his ear. Alec's head snapped up that dark gaze slammed into Jace's. His breath caught. He's safe. The reality of the picture before him hit a second later when he realized Alec was mutilating his skin.

Fuck. What is wrong with him?

Magnus, Clary, and Maryse arrived shortly after. Maryse placed her hand to the glass as if she could touch her son. Jace reached over and hit the comm.

"Alec. Jonathan. You both have been captured and quarantined until this Institute had determined your health and sentencing." Jace announced, shooting a look at Maryse whom now seemed incapable of beginning the questioning of her own son.

"I want to talk to Clary only." Jonathan's first request was met with a hard stare from Jace.

"She'll talk to you when she's ready and with me present at all times." Claimed Jace crossing his arms in a dominant stance glaring at Jonathan.

Jace could not help it his eyes slid over to Alec's form, searching his body for signs of distress. In the bright light of the cell he hated what he saw. Alec's body was covered in the angelic rune over and over and over again particularly on his right arm. There were a couple demonic runes he could see across his chest, a strange goop like blood coated his entire body. Clary was right about him looking half naked. Jace had not really focused on the clothing during the fight he and Alec had earlier but he did remember the feeling of hot bare skin pressed against his body.

"So, why are they in the same cell?" Simon stated the obvious.

Kind of wondered that myself.

"It's hard to aim that rune and this cell I understood the location of best." Clary admitted.

Alec stood. "Jace, let me out." He demanded. Jace could not look away from that dark gaze, watched as Alec drew closer to the glass pane, saw Alec's jaw tighten when he stopped in front of Jace, lifting up a hand to press it against the glass. "Let me out. I won't hurt anyone."

Like those two shadowhunters.

Jace shook his head slightly. "Can't do that parabati. You and Jonathan here get to explain exactly what happened in Edom. Now."

Alec's gaze flickered across Jace's face, he licked his lower lip before it turned into a snarl. "I'm part of this Institute! I got Magnus out of Edom! Everything is fine!"

Really not acting like Alec.

"Look at his arm. Alec have you been drawing the runes on yourself?" Magnus spoke as he drew gracefully forward until he stood beside Jace.

The comment drew Jace's gaze back to the tattered arm. Coated in blood and covered in clawed angelic runes, two bleeding as he looked at them. He did not use a stele, they should not even work.

"Why do you need so many runes?" Clary asked.

"How about we start from the beginning." stated Magnus bringing his hand up to touch the glass pane.

Alec's gaze finally broke from Jace's to travel toward Magnus. "That's easy. You didn't tell me where the souls to Edom were located. I got help." Alec waved an arm towards Jonathan, paused as he stalked towards Magnus's side of the glass. "Our enemy has helped us destroy Edom, taken out Lilith and Asmodeus. And you want to lock us up for it?" Alec's voice grew darker. "Or are we just here until the Clave comes to kill us?"

"No one is killing anybody!" Maryse ordered.

Jace glanced at Jonathan and Clary whom Jace figured would be the two volatile ones in this situation. Hell, he wanted to snap and rage too. Felt a need to scream at Alec until the other man saw sense.

"What did it cost?" Magnus's softly spoken question to Alec had Jace snapping his gaze to Alec.

Alec had a strange look on his face, he smiled towards Magnus. Something in that smile had Jace on high alert, hand falling to his seraph blade.

"You are wasting your time. There is nothing wrong. Edom is destroyed. Jonathan is cured. All you have to do is release us." Alec eerily stated.

"What do you mean Jonathan is cured?" Clary's insistent hopeful voice leapt on one single statement. She immediately moved towards Jonathan to look at him better. Her arms wrapped around her waist hugging herself. "How can we tell?" She asked glancing at Jace.

Not trusting this bullshit.

Jace kept his gaze on Alec. He was the one who stated this supposed cure. Felt his jaw clench tight when Alec met his gaze. His rune pulsed again. He ignored it.

"We can send samples of their blood down to the lab, search for demonic taint and infection." Izzy logically mentioned, her gaze on her brother as well.

Alec looked like he could use about ten doses of anti-venom and some work from a silent brother.

"That won't show what is wrong with Alexander." Magnus's voice flowed easily, but there was a tension in his face that was hard to miss. "Alexander. I'm a warlock. Part of my job is to understand souls. Yours isn't fully there. What's left is how you are alive, how you are functioning as you are I do not know. But there are ways to fix you."

That night his parabati rune had bled…

Alec angled his gaze towards the warlock, something icy in that gaze. "You don't know what you are talking about."

"I know souls. I know yours and it isn't there." Magnus sadly told him.

The warm feeling, slicing into ice. That was the end of a soul…

"We need a silent brother and need to keep this quiet. The Clave can never know about this and make sure no one else knows." Jace kept his voice even. Inside he felt cold dread. Alec had his soul ripped in half, the bond was supposed to be two souls interlocked into one. One soul.

The heat from that kiss.

"You weren't there…"

"I know one that may help." Magnus informed them and began slowly waving his arms up and down attempting to scan Alec with his magic. Alec's handcuffed arms shook under the strain attempting to help or escape. Blue magic wrapped around his body, handcuffs slowly turning a brighter and brighter red.

"I'll obtain the blood samples from both." Izzy tried to sound calm and failed, as she watched her brother on the other side of the glass.

Jace could not really fault her the emotion.

"I'll get the blood samples." Jace announced as tension bled into his shoulders, an urge to get near Alec was corrupting this decision. He needed to do this. Lurking somewhere under his skin the pulsing heat had picked up.

Obtain the blood samples, get the diagnostic report, and fix Alec.

Jonathan walked calmly over to Alec grabbed his arm, ignoring Magnus's magic entirely. Before Jace could take a breath, Jonathan slammed his nails into Alec's arm carving out the angelic rune. Alec barely flinched. It appeared identical to the others scrawled across his arm.

"Get away from him!" snarled Jace slamming his fist into the glass.

"Ah. Uh. We wouldn't want him to kill you. Bet he wouldn't like that when he gained rationality." Jonathan called, green eyes clocking the movements of Jace and Clary. Clary stood horrified at the violence. Magnus cut his magical diagnostic off.

"Jace. I don't want you to go in there. Send the needles in through the food port and have them take the samples. Send them back through. It's simple." Pleaded Clary.

"No. I'm getting Alec's myself."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Alec monitored Jace's movements as they got everything ready for the simple blood samples. Watched as the blonde paced, touched his side once or twice and twirled his stele while they waited for Izzy to bring the needles. Izzy showed up and he acknowledged her presence with a nod. Otherwise, he felt numb. Eyes still tracking Jace through the glass.

"Alright. I want Alec to come over to the door first. Jonathan you wait on the far side of the room. Clary go activate the center shield." Jace commanded taking the first needle over to the double set of doors and stepping through.

Alec heard them hiss close. Jace directly on the other side. The compulsion to grab Jace and drag him in was growing. There was a thirst for something he was trying hard to ignore. He'd already given in to it once.

He kissed you back.

If he wanted to get out of this cell. He needed to act normal, healthy.

"Alec, I need you to put your arm through the food port. I'll take the blood sample then." Jace called through the door, voice slightly muffled.

"Acknowledged." The urge was growing, a heat blooming in his side finally easing the cold ache. The port slid open, Alec stuck his unblemished arm through, felt Jace's hand slide up his arm from his wrist to his elbow. Goosebumps broke out on his skin, heat flared through him. Jace's hand wrapped gently around his elbow holding him in place. Felt the quick brush of the alcohol wipe, followed by the prick of the needle. Jace's hand slide back down his arm, every nerve ending on fire from the simple casual touch.

"Got it." Jace's voice sounded hoarse. He heard him clear his throat once before continuing. "You can go back to the other side. Jonathan's turn now."

Ice spread back through his side as he got up to walk away, the heat that had eased the pain fading the further he walked away. By the time Alec reached the other side of the room anger and frustration were burning low in his gut.

Control it.

He wanted to punch the wall, settled for glaring at it until Jace had finished with Jonathan, continued to glare at it as the small party left him and Jonathan in the warded cell together.

"How the mighty have fallen." Jonathan told him as he settled down in front of Alec. "Clary will get me out of here now." He nodded to himself, eyes locked on the door that had closed behind the team.

Alec curled in on himself, shifting away from Jonathan.

He knew where his soul was.