8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8
Demon Infested World
Magnus POV
Magnus walked slowly toward the institute his fingers playing a dance across his thigh as he sent magic feelers out into the world. He had no idea what he was dealing with here, having only been in this realm for a little under an hour or so, but he could absolutely tell that the magical landscape was ravaged. The ley lines were in ruins. His portal not working wasn't because of a demon wave, it was because the magic of this world was warped. He wondered if the other him was aware, or if this had just become the norm.
The summoning ritual from the Angels was more and more intriguing by the minute. Could they not just swoop down from the "heavens" and insert themselves into the situation. It was becoming apparent that they were limited. But how limited? He'd never really taken the time to study or even consider what the limitations to an angel's powers were. But he was forming a theory that the ley lines were a pillar of angelic power even if they weren't necessarily angelic in nature.
Alec was ahead of him, leading the way to the institute, with his bow drawn and his eyes searching every dark corner they passed. Magnus let him cover them trusting his Shadowhunter's skills as he sent out a more concentrated burst of magic, looking for angelic power and searching for concentrated demonic energy. He was surprised to find Alec the only source of angelic energy within the radius of his magic. Had the angels been banished from this realm? Was that what the summoning ritual was for? He wasn't actually summoning the angel, he was tearing through a banishing spell. The contents of the circle made a bit more sense, but he was still puzzled as to why the angels had jerked him out of his warm bed to do this.
There was already a Magnus here. If he was missing the Edom power up, couldn't they have just fixed it? This was all very confusing. Alec stopped in front of him abruptly, and Magnus put his hand up to grab the back of his leather jacket. "Darling?" He pushed a bit of magic at Alec's quiver, and realized the other Magnus must have renewed the charm.
"What are we going to tell Raphael, Luke and Cat when we get back?" They were a few hundred yards from the steps of the institute, and he could feel the tension in Alec's shoulders.
"Let me talk to them." Magnus said firmly stroking a hand down Alec's back in an attempt to soothe. This beautiful man would never cease to amaze him. His sensitive loving nature was something Magnus hoped he never stopped being in awe of, that he would never take such a wonderful gift for granted.
"The Magnus here is different, they're not going…"
Magnus turned Alec around and looked up into his concerned hazel eyes, raising up slightly to kiss his husband. "Alexander. He may not have gone through everything that I have, but he still gathered the same people around him. His family. That speaks volumes about who he is as a person. I've had many phases in my life, believe it or not, one of them was a boring bookish professor type who still wore eye liner and painted his nails. Had his world not devolved into this apocalyptic landscape, he may have taken on the same flamboyant dramatic air as my glorious self." Magnus sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. Alec came closer and pulled Magnus' arms down and around his waist and softly kissed his forehead while rubbing soothing circles across his back.
"There's no way to deliver the news gently. They're going to be furious, but I have no intention of sitting on the sidelines while their Magnus is indisposed. They're not going to trust us at first, but we've earned their approval before. We can do it again. And, I'm not going to let that stop me from getting us home and saving this dumpster fire of a world." Magnus looked up at his husband and the fierceness of his words made Alec grin.
"Alright alright, let's do this then." With one final squeeze, Alec and Magnus turned to walk the final stretch into the institute.
8∞8∞8Magnus took a deep breath. Cat was standing to his right, Raphael was glowering at him from his seat by the monitors, and Luke was judging the hell out of him with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. Alec had given him a look of utter sympathy and headed for the kitchen, knowing Magnus was going to want to eat and drink his feelings post this horrid wretched god awful conversation.
Three of the five people Magnus was closest to, had yelled at him for a good solid five minutes about how reckless and negligent he was. If he didn't feel so damn guilty, it would be like any other dressing down he'd received at their hands over the past few years.
"You could have waited for us, you could have stayed together, but NO….you ran off with a Shadowhunter and let our Magnus get taken as a result. How could you?" Catarina had her hands on her hips and a look of pure betrayal in her eyes. Magnus winced and took a breath, he could do this. Cat was a reasonable person.
"We didn't think Cat, we split up to cover both sides. I had no idea he was in any more danger than I was." Pleading with her to understand, she huffed and rolled her eyes.
Luke was frowning just as fiercely. "What were you thinking Magnus? Has that Shadowhunter turned you against our kind? Has he fucked the…." Magnus couldn't stop his magic from igniting, and he couldn't stop the anger in his voice rocking the foundation of the room.
"I'll allow your anger at me, as it is deserved, but you speak about my husband with anything but respect in your tone again, and I will not be so restrained. Are we clear?" Magnus let the red fire of his magic pulse, and felt a tiny sliver of guilt at the fear in Luke's eyes as he backed away. The three of them looked wary, but Magnus wasn't about to let them get away with the slur.
"My husband is not up for debate. You were alone with him for a period of time before I arrived, did he strike you as a dishonorable man? Did he give you the impression he would allow someone to walk to their death on purpose?" Each of them shook their heads a little shamefully.
"I understand that your anger and grief are making you lash out, but Alexander does not deserve it and I won't stand for it. Your Magnus is your family, Alexander is my family, do not think for a minute I'll let you hurt him." Magnus took a deep breath and wrapped his arms across his stomach, rocking back on his heels and letting his magic fade. He dropped the glamour on his eyes, and looked at the haggard faces before him. "I really am sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't save him, that I didn't see the danger, it was not well done of me."
Raphael's voice, lower after having yelled so furiously before, was violence personified as he glowered at Magnus, "After everything he's done for all of us, everything he's sacrificed, every horror he's endured for our people, his death was for nothing." Magnus wanted to ball, sit down in the floor and ball. What the hell had happened in this world?
Raphael would defend him to the death, he knew that, he'd always known that, but seeing it with his own eyes was humbling. "I'm pretty sure he's not dead." Raphael did not like that, not at all, so very much the same vibe as his world.
"Pretty sure isn't sure." he said with an actual snap of his fangs. Magnus sighed.
"The Kraken was clearly sent here to retrieve the two of them, and there wasn't a whole lot either myself or Alexander could have done to stop it." With those words Raphael stood up and came closer staring at Magnus with pure fury blazing in his eyes.
"How hard did you actually try?"
Luke reached out and put a restraining hand on Raphael's shoulder. "They didn't deliberately put our Magnus in danger. He walked into it with them, Raphael. You know how he is, they couldn't have stopped him." So Luke was going to be the reasonable one. He turned to Magnus with a frown. "I was out of line before, I apologize." He waited for Magnus' acknowledgement before asking firmly, "You said pretty sure. What makes you believe he might not be dead?"
Magnus took a deep breath. "I wasn't brought here for the fun of it. The angels have an agenda, though Lilith only knows what the hell it is. The Kraken is a demon of legend, and one of the lesser known details about the creature is its ability to pass souls into Limbo." Everyone around him was looking at him with wide eyes, and Magnus was happy to see a little hope seeping into them.
"You think they took him to Limbo for something, but what?" Catarina began to pace.
"I think there's something wrong here, beyond just the lack of Shadowhunters and the influx of demons. And I don't think you've noticed because you're living in it, maybe. Or something is making you not notice. And besides all of that, Alexander is with him."
Raphael raised a brow and snarled, "Is that meant to be a comfort?"
Magnus grinned in spite of Raphael's dour attitude. "My dear, my Shadowhunter would blow up the ground he stands on to make something right. That Shadowhunter, the one your Magnus is with, will blow up the ground the angels stand on to make something right. He's different, but your Magnus is in safe hands. If it's within Alec's power, nothing will happen to your version of me. He won't let it." Choosing not to reveal his knowledge of the tattoo's on Alec's chest, that wasn't for him to say, and knowing exactly how militant Alec could be about safety, Magnus was fairly certain he wasn't wrong.
Raphael rolled his eyes, but settled back down and dialed his glower down from an 8 to a 4. Satisfied he'd gotten his point across, Magnus turned fully toward Cat, giving his back to Luke and Raphael. "Now Cat, how aware are you of the disturbance in the force?"
"What are you talking about?" Cat stopped and looked at him curiously, making Magnus fondly think of Simon. How droll. This would be far more spirited and entertaining if the little chatterbox was hanging around offering his off color commentary. Magnus quickly snapped out of it, missing home was just going to distract him better to focus on the now.
"The magic here is wrong, it's warped in a way that I've never seen before." Magnus waved his hands out before him and brought up a facsimile of the ley lines. The image stretched out across the table in the opps area where they all stood. "In my world the ley lines are like a stream, a flowing stream of pure magic that wrap around the world and balance the web of magic." He watched Cat look at his magic nodding her head along.
"Yes, that's right."
"Have you looked at the ley lines in the past 20 years? Has anyone?" Magnus asked as he waved his hands again. The new image made Catarina gasp, then she leaned forward and put her hands on the table while taking a deep breath. The ley lines were no longer tightly controlled streams of power, they looked like a pair of headphones that had been at the bottom of a backpack for a month. The nexus points were gone, and the tangled incomplete web was horrifying.
"This is why our magic isn't stable. It's not the demonic portals. How in the world did we miss this?" She said wonderingly.
"Yeah and it baffles the hell out of me why you haven't looked." Magnus looked over at her. "I sent out some analysis spells, and the angelic energy in this world is all but non-existent. I don't know if that would tangle the ley lines like this, but it might." Catarina nodded her head.
"The working theories about the origins of magic touch upon the need for a balance of demonic and angelic energies. Complete absence of one could lead to a complete destabilization of magic, but it doesn't explain us not investigating it. Your Alec also asked us if we'd investigated the disappearance of the Shadowhunter's, and we hadn't. It's like there's a fog over us all, but I can't detect it at all."
Magnus raised tapped a finger on his chin, thinking. "I think I should take a look at one of the demon rifts. You call them portals, but I think they might be something else."
Cat waved her own hands and pulled up a map of the area. She pinpointed the portals. "These are the ones I know about. We can take a look."
Magnus examined the map closely, there was something about the formation that was pinging a forgotten memory. He was struggling to pull it forward."I really need to talk to Ragnor his knowledge of the archaic is far more robust than mine, he also has a direct relation to ley line theory as he studied it for years. I'm hoping…" He let his words trail off as Catarina turned to look at him, tears pooling in her eyes. Damnit he thought.
"I'm so sorry Magnus."
Raphael and Luke came forward to look more closely at the map and Magnus felt a wave of sadness overwhelm him; as soon as he wrapped this up he was going to start working on that communication spell. Speaking with Cat and Madzie, or hell even Jace at this point would make the gaping hole in his chest ease.
A siren broke him out of his reverie and he turned on autopilot for the front doors of the institute.
"What are you doing?" Luke asked as he followed him.
"Demons have breached the perimeter, I'm going to go fry most of them." Magnus said firmly without pausing his stride toward the front. His incredibly gorgeous husband came sliding around the corner.
"Magnus wait, don't kill all of them."
The three people he considered family looked at Alec horrified, but Magnus was on the same page. "Already on it darling." Magnus said with a small wave of his hand. Then he tilted his head. "Should you stay.."
"Did it before you arrived, we're good." Alec said as he pulled his bow from his shoulder and an arrow from his quiver, sliding smoothly in front of his husband before he could step out of the institute. Magnus gave him a "I see what you did there look", but Alec just winked at him. Alec was never going to not use himself as a shield, it was infuriating.
"What the hell are the two of you talking about?" Luke growled.
Magnus turned to look over his shoulder at the others. "We need to take a look at the demons, something is off about them. My very enterprising husband has prepared a space in the lab of this little fortress where I will very shortly be analyzing the creature we're going to capture. You lot can stay here, we'll be back shortly."
"Magnus your magic is just as affected as ours, you can't go out there. We need you to…" Magnus cut Catarina off with a wave of his hand.
"I've got a handle on it, and I'm a bit different from the Magnus here. As long as Alexander is with me, I'll be fine." He didn't tell her that sharing energy with his husband had stabilized him to some degree, even if he couldn't create a portal, he could see where the kinks in the magic were. Given enough time he'd work out a solution. He also paused momentarily wondering if he should talk to her about summoning the angel. A part of him was hesitant, but he couldn't put his finger on why. Vowing to speak with Alexander about it later he concentrated on his magic, sorting out the inconsistencies. With that, Magnus blew the doors of the institute open and his husband descended the steps with Magnus one step behind him. Flicking his fingers, he let his power concentrate in his palms blue wisps floating around his arms.
8∞8∞8Magnus sat down on the chair Alec so kindly pulled over for him, they'd finally made it to the kitchen after the mess outside. "You know I'm not actually drained right?"
Alec raised a brow at him and shrugged, "Can I not do nice things for my husband?"
Magnus rolled his eyes. They'd captured one of the mutated demons, and had him locked tightly in the lab. Magnus had used quite a bit of magic, but there was no cause for this deep level of concern. Alec was hovering over him like he was one breath away from passing out. "Alexander, darling, everything is going to be okay. I'm fine."
Alec scowled. "You don't know that. You don't know what being in this realm is doing to either of us. We could both be stuck here forever. And I don't know about you, but I'd really like to get home, and right now we have about zero idea how to even accomplish that." He placed a bowl on the table in front of Magnus, and knowing his husband it was probably….yup his favorite a delicious fried rice dish he'd taught Alexander how to make months ago. He'd been as bad as Isabelle when they first started dating, and that horrifying stew he'd made his mother had inspired Magnus to help Alec find his feet in the kitchen. He'd been hesitant at first, but his focused diligence was paying off despite how many of their lessons had ended sans clothes. Magnus didn't hesitate as he leaned over to take a bite of the offering. He smiled up at Alec doing his best to distract him from the anxiety of their situation.
He failed.
His husband was having a meltdown.
Magnus wanted to cry. Just the thought of not seeing his parabatai or his sister again was ripping his husband to shreds. He could see it all over his face. Years later and Alec still couldn't hide his feelings, not that Magnus would want him to, he enjoyed reading his husband like a book. Magnus stood up and wrapped his arms around Alec's waist, doing his best to soothe the agitated Shadowhunter. "I don't think the angels intend for us to remain here. No, I don't know how to get us home, but that doesn't mean I won't figure it out. Something tells me the Angels are just as invested in a solution to this problem as we are." Running his hands up Alec's back to soothe his tension, Magnus kissed the underside of his chin.
"What if we die here?" Alec asks quietly into his hair then dropping his face into the crook of Magnus' shoulder.
Magnus sighed into his chest. "I can't promise it won't happen darling, but I will promise I'll be more careful." Alec nodded on his shoulder and kissed his neck. Magnus ran a hand over the back of his neck soothingly. "Sit we both need to eat." Alec grumbled at Magnus pulling out of his arms, but he sat at the table. Then he stood back up to grab a bowl of fruit from the counter and the teapot for Magnus.
Magnus hoped Alec could see every bit of the love in his eyes when he placed the items on the table. He'd never had anyone in his life who so carefully saw to his needs. Alec made a point of providing for Magnus in small ways. Like adding fruit and tea to every meal he prepared because they were Magnus' favorites. It was precious, and Magnus loved the hell out of him for it. Leaning across the table he kissed his husband, "I love you."
Alec grinned and let his own eyes go soft with love. "Love you too."
8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8∞8Homeworld:
Jace POV
Jace kicked the wall of the room the Seelie Queen had given him. Clary and Isabelle had gone back home over four hours ago, but he refused. He'd be damned if he was going to worry about the institute when Alec and Magnus were god knows where, doing god knows what, with no back up. The queen had been accommodating, Jace would give her that, but he was no closer to any answers about the couple's whereabouts and he was losing what little patience he possessed. His rune wasn't acting differently, but something told him Alec was in some shit without him and he wanted to punch someone.
"Jace?" The queen asked from his doorway and Jace felt stupid for letting her sneak up on him.
"Your majesty, sorry." Still not used to the cooperative nature of the new Queen he had to forcefully stop himself from making a snide comment. To be fair she had been more than accommodating, clearly understanding the impact of Magnus and Alec's disappearance.
"Please call me Hera."
"Wow a Greek goddess huh." Jace said flippantly.
She winked making him pause, "Oh yes she wore my name well, though perhaps a little more vindictive than I myself would chose to be."
Jace gaped. "They named her after you?"
Hera laughed. "No I'm not soo very old." She tilted her head to the side and grinned at him, and Jace couldn't help but chuckle. She was charming, and not in a creepy power mad kind of way. "I came to see if you would like to join me and the historians as we search for information about the tree."
Jace perked up. "Yeah that sounds great. Any working theories?"
A puzzled look made her scrunch her face up, "there are so many tree legends it's daunting. The tree of life; the tree of knowledge of good and evil; The world tree; the tree of knowledge; Yggdrasil a gateway or portal to heaven and hell, and the list continues."
Jace groaned, "Do we know anything new?"
She slowed her pace slightly as she turned to look at him. "We do. The roots of the tree are entwined with the ley lines. The power is running through the tree, and it appears to be causing no damage, but we do not understand the purpose."
Jace held the door to the library open for the queen and followed her inside. She motioned for him to have a seat and he was impressed by both the number of people in the room pouring over books, and the number of books available. "Where are the branches going? Or what are they doing?"
She looked at him curiously, "What?"
Jace felt a little self conscious as everyone in the room looked up from their books and stared. "If the roots are connected to the ley lines, what about the branches? I mean it seems logical that they'd be going somewhere or bearing fruit of some kind."
The queen grinned. "That is a very good question Jace Herondale." She sounded surprised.
"I'm not an idiot." He said grumpily.
She shook her head, "Oh no please do not take offense. You are not at all what I expected you to be, that's all."
He rolled his eyes. "A hot headed, idiotic, anger prone, warrior?" He said a little disdainfully.
"I admit I had some preconceived prejudices. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to correct my assumptions." She paused for a moment letting her hair fall around her shoulders, then seemingly making some decision or another she looked up at him a fierce look in her eyes. "It is still very new to us, being on such good terms with Shadowhunters. Your brother is a credit to your kind, and it fills me with joy to know you are also a credit. They, your brother and Magnus, have fought very hard for this balance between all of our kind. So, myself and my people will do our very best to bring the both of them home to you. And please accept my apologies for any slight, it was not my intention to insult."
Jace wilted at her speech, his anger draining out of him entirely. No denying he was a sucker for someone speaking so highly of Alec. It was a damn shame so many people, so many Nephilim still questioned why he'd wanted Alec as his parabatai. Why he would always want Alec as his parabatai. He nodded his head respectfully, "Accepted, and thank you."
"Now, about your theory, I will have the warlocks and Seelie experts begin testing immediately for magic reaching toward our realm to connect with the tree." Just as she sent a fire message, a knock was heard on the door and a young Fae handmaiden let Clary in.
"Jace!" She said with a bright smile on her face as she came up beside him.
"Clary, is everything okay?"
"Of course, I came to check on you." She rested a palm on his face and kissed his nose making him roll his eyes at her silliness.
"It's only been four hours. I'm fine." Not wanting to let go of his grumpiness entirely, but not really wanting her to leave him he wrapped his arm around her waist and rested his forehead on her stomach.
She made a humming sound. "How's your rune?"
He frowned. "It's weird. I can't feel anything. It's like I don't have it at all. I don't sense anything awful, but the complete lack of it is freaking me out."
She ran a hand through his hair and he couldn't deny how soothing her touch was. "They're going to be okay Jace."
Not caring about the audience they most definitely had he lifted his head to glare into her beautiful face, "You don't know that."
She smiled down at him, gentle as ever, "I know that they're together. I know that Magnus would destroy an entire dimension to keep Alec safe, and I know that Alec would…"
Jace stood up abruptly and turned to the queen, "You said the roots were connected to the ley lines here, is it possible the branches are connecting to a hell realm's ley lines? Do they have different ley lines in hell realms?"
The Queen's eyes went wide. "Two for two Jace Herondale."
"You're still acting surprised, I told you I wasn't stupid."
She laughed excitedly, "If it's true that would mean we're looking at some variation of Yggdrasil, maybe. What made you think that?"
"Edom was basically destroyed. What if the tree is trying to rebuild it?"
One of the Fae historians interrupted, "There have been no less than 7 hell dimensions destroyed in the past millennia. This tree hasn't bloomed during any of those periods."
Jace huffed and sat back down pulling Clary back into his embrace. "Well damn."
"No it was a good theory, even if it's not exact. You still may be on to something, demonic ley lines are not something we had given any thought for, perhaps we can narrow down the connection to the tree, if there is one, by searching for demonic ley line activity. It might be a wild goose chase, but I'd rather be doing something rather than nothing."
Jace sighed, she was too right. His hand twitched wishing like hell he had something to fight that would bring his brother home. Alec was…..Alec was too important for him to just sit here doing nothing. "So ley lines are angelic then?"
The queen shook her head. "No, though I'm sure there's a warlock scholar or two out there who would argue with me. Ley lines have no basis in either demonic or angelic power. Worlds without ley lines do not have magic, worlds with dying ley lines have very little to no magic. As far as we know, ley lines predate angels."
"So where do they come from, how are they created?" Clary asks while gently petting Jace's hair.
"No one knows." One of the Seelie historians said with a shrug.
"Not even the angels?" Clary asked bewildered.
"If they've said, they've never said it in the vicinity of someone who wrote it down or shared that knowledge with others. Warlocks and Seelie have been studying them for as long as recorded memory, and the only thing they know for sure, is that the lines can be corrupted, we need them for magic to exist, and they have no known beginning or end." The historian pushed a book their way. It was small, no more than 100 pages, and Jace frowned at the title. 'Ley Lines, the definitive guide'.
"Seriously." Jace groaned and buried his head in Clary's stomach. This was complete utter bullshit.