"Hello, who is this?"

"Alexander! Hi," Magnus said happily when he picked up. "It's Magnus. We met the other day, you know, with the demon."

"Uh, yeah. Yeah…hey, what's up?"

"I was just thinking it was really nice getting to know you. You seem…sympathetic. Would you like to go out for a drink sometime?"

There was a moment of hesitation. "That sounds fun, um…when?"

"How about right now?"

"Um…you know now's not really a good time for me. Another time. Gotta go."

With that, he hung up. Magnus gave his phone that look. "Playing hard to get. I love a challenge."

"Alexander Lightwood is a serious piece of work," Shu warned. "He's all for the rules, mostly because he's got the Institute on his shoulders. You sure Shadowhunters are the best people to get involved with?"

"I think I can crack through him. I've got a little experience with hard cases. Besides, you and I know Shadowhunters fairly well, you most of all."

"Yeah, and I know his mother is even worse."

"No worse than our 'father,'" He said, taking a sip of his drink.

"Believe me, she rivals him."

"Looks like we have a common problem then."

"Go after him if you want. I'll be behind you if you can manage to convince him."

"What happened?" Magnus demanded.

"He was attacked!" Simon said.

"He needs a Warlock," Clary explained. "He needs you."

Shu laid a cloth over one of the couches to cover it. "Put him here."

Clary and Simon were carrying Luke, moving to place him on the couch.

"Where are you?" Luke muttered. "I can't find you. Where are…where are you? Where are you? Joselyn. Joselyn!"

"No, Luke, it's Clary," She said, placing his hand on her cheek. "Can you hear me?"

"Clary, listen to me. Listen…you have to listen to me. I have to tell you, just in case-"

"No, don't even say it, don't-"

"No, listen to me."

"Luke-"

"No, you need to know. Listen-"

"Was he bitten by an Alpha?" Shu asked.

"Yeah," Simon said. "Why?"

"Three, two, one…" Magnus counted.

Luke tensed up, his eyes glowing green as he began thrashing around in pain. Magnus quickly hurried over to the next room.

"Where do you think you're going?" Simon called.

"Hold him down," He responded.

When he came back, he was carrying what looked to be a piece of bark and a bowl. He stuck the bark between Luke's teeth as she thrashed and grunted in pain.

"It'll take a few moments to take effect," Magnus explained.

"What happened to him?" Clary asked.

"Random Werewolf transformation," Shu explained. "It's a side effect of the poison in an Alpha bite."

Luke slowly began to calm, his thrashing slowing to a stop and his screams dying down to heavy breaths.

"Let's patch up those wounds," Shu said, walking out of the room. "Maggie, where did you move the medical supplies?"

Magnus followed her and they returned with a first-aid kit. When Shu opened it, however, the items inside began to flow out on their own, assessing Luke's wounds before the cloths began to wipe away the blood, the medicine began to clean them, and then the bandages sealed themselves on.

"That should hold him over for now," She said. "Clary, Simon, you two watch over him while we attend to some other preparations."

With that, the two of them rushed out of the room again and into another room, messing with ingredients and mixing bowls. Clary was sitting over Luke while Simon was watching over her, trying to comfort her as she realized that she had doubted his loyalties.

"The bark will stop the transformation for now, but Luke needs an antidote to stop the poison in his system," Magnus explained as the two of them walked into the room and set some equipment on the table. "And I don't have all the ingredients here."

"Just tell me what you need and how to get it," Clary offered.

"No, you stay here," Shu said, her and Magnus running out to the balcony. "Luke will need you if he wakes up."

"When he wakes up," Clary corrected.

"I'll go," Simon offered.

"I'll go," Jace said as he walked into the room.

Magnus walked over and saw that Jace looked a bit bruised and was bleeding slightly under his nose. "Jace. What happened to you?"

He poked Jace chin and made him turn his head to examine it. Jace gave a face and Magnus walked away. Wasn't like he was interested in healing him anyway.

"Luke's car may have found it's way into a pole while I was stashing it." Clary gave him a 'Seriously?' look. "I don't to mundane driving," He declared, reaching for a bandage to wipe it away.

"Yeah, apparently," Simon said with a grain of salt, putting his hand on Clary's shoulder.

"What do you need for the antidote?"

"Hey, I got this," Simon said, stepping forward.

"Phoenix eyes, moon salt, and Idris fulgurite," Magnus said.

"One trip to the pharmacy, it'll take two seconds."

He moved to walk past Jace, but he held him back. "I know a guy. And uh…I don't need him." He shoved Simon's arm away.

"Too bad, you're getting me," Simon declared. "We'll be right back."

"One more thing," Magnus called. "I need Alexander."

"Uh, why do you need Alec?" Jace asked.

"Virgin Shadowhunter energy," Shu said quickly. "It's…very potent."

Magnus pointed to her and nodded in confirmation like 'Yes, that's totally true! What she said!'

Simon scoffed. "That explains so much."

Jace cleared his throat. "Um, Alec, I uh…I can't."

"Jace, just ask, please," Clary begged, walking up to him. "You guys need to talk."

He looked to her and sighed.

"Trouble in paradise?" Magnus asked.

Jace rolled his eyes and grabbed Simon by the shirt, walking off. "Just don't speak to me," He ordered.

Clary sighed.

"Right, let's get to work, Maggie," Shu called.

"What's all this for?" Clary asked, looking at the funky ingredients on the table that Magnus and Shu were working at.

"The base for the potion," Magnus explained, pouring one liquid into another to have it start glowing.

"Stir," Shu ordered as Magnus poured the glowing piqued into the small cauldron he was mixing things into.

"We need to have it ready before your boy-toys gets back."

"What if they don't get back?"

"You…can't think like that, biscuit," Magnus said as the two of them rushed around the room.

"That's all I can think about."

She sighed and put her hands on the table. "Magnus, Shu, I don't know if I can do this anymore. I'm an art student. All my adventures are supposed to be two-dimensional."

"Who says?" Magnus asked from the balcony, cutting some herbs from one of his plants.

"Me. Look, it is one thing to draw monsters and demons, but it is completely different to…see them up close and personal."

Shu rushed inside and began stirring again, as Clary had neglected the brew, and Magnus rushed in to set his herbs down and continue working, Clary pestering him from the side.

"I don't know what I'm doing."

"Don't sell yourself short, hon," Shu said. "You forget, we've seen you in action, Clary Fairchild."

"Joselyn!" Luke called in his sleep. "No! Don't…don't…wait, don't…don't touch her."

"Luke, I'm here!" Clary called, rushing over.

Magnus pushed past. "Let me take your pain away."

"No, no…"

"Agitation only makes the venom work faster," Shu explained.

"I need to tell Clary…"

"Save your strength," She ordered.

"No, you need to know. No, please."

"Magnus, do it."

He grunted in pain. "You need to tell her, all of it. P-Promise me!"

Shu hesitated and gave a small nod before she snapped and Luke tensed. The two of them swept their magic across Luke's body as he gripped the couch beneath him and grunted in pain, barely resisting screaming.

"The poison is spreading," Magnus reported. "Your suitors need to hurry."

"Tell me what?" Clary asked. "What's so important that Luke risked his life?"

"Everything Joselyn hoped to hide from you," Shu said.

Magnus snapped and pad with paper appeared on the table. Clary walked over and opened it to reveal blank pages and a pen.

"Why…?" She asked.

Magnus sighed. "When you were younger, we'd watch you sketching. It was your bliss. You're gonna need some bliss now."

"Back then, there wasn't a day I didn't draw. It was like breathing. Now, I-I look at this blank page, and I barely even know what to do. Some times I feel like…my art, my memories…my life, it…it all vanished with that Memory Demon."

"Your art, everything you are, they're all still here," Shu said. "You're the woman your mother always knew you could be."

"But tried to keep me from being."

"That's why you need to know how you got here," Magnus said.

"Will it help me find my mother?"

"That's the only reason I can think of why Luke would be so adamant."

"I'm ready. Bring it, Warlock."

"When I first heard about your father, around the time he and Joselyn first got together, long before the Uprising, and the Circle, Valentine elevated the Morgenstern name to be synonymous with virtue."

"And your mother was at his side," Shu continued. "But by the time our people came to know him, barely two years later, his name had become synonymous with devastation. Your mother told us it was then she first saw the signs. He hated the Accords, hated us Downworlders for being part demon. He slaughtered a good deal of Warlocks without provocation."

"They never found all the bodies," Magnus said. "We'd all stood with the Clave for centuries."

Clary looked up from shading her drawing. "How could that not matter to him?"

"He was obsessed with ensuring purity of blood. Convinced that the impurities were a threat to peace."

"He was the threat to peace."

"Mad men rarely make sense. Mostly they just hate. And he hated the Downworlders, for the gifts that we possess that he could not have."

"He hated us enough to kill us all," Shu finished.

Magnus and Shu stared at Clary's drawing of a horned Warlock being stabbed.

"Ever since my mother was kidnapped, and the Shadow World invaded my life, so many Downworlders have helped me, not even…thinking about what it might cost them. How could Valentine not see good in any of them?"

"We were thinking about what might it might cost us if we didn't help you, Clary," Shu said. "We're treated like second or even third class citizens compared to the Shadowhunters. In turn, we become bitter because of the unfair treatment. We're powerful, and the people fear what happens when something more powerful than you gets dominant. So they put us down, and we get angry because of it, and so they consider us uncivilized and dangerous because of that. Next thing you know, we're considered heathens, and people like Valentine want us all gone."

"So they make you miserable and then blame you for being angry?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, it sucks. Valentine was blinded by his ambition, wasn't willing to see the good in us, though it wasn't like he was the only one. He was just the one that decided to take action."

"Why didn't the Clave stop him?" She demanded.

Magnus sighed and shook his head. "He was clever. He and his followers, they managed to convince the Clave that the Downworlders they killed on their special missions had…violated the Accords in some way. Complete fabrications!"

Clary sighed. "How could the Clave not see?"

"Shadowhunters believe in the Law as absolute. They could never conceive of one of their own going astray."

Clary laughed humorlessly. "My father didn't go astray, Magnus. He went insane."

"What happened back then is happening again," Shu said. "The Clave refuses to believe that Valentine's a threat. 19 years ago, their lack of vision allowed the Circle to almost decimate the entire Shadow World."

"That was the Uprising?"

"Yes. Valentine wanted to create a new Shadowhunter army. And for that, he needed to Mortal Cup. He knew it would be on display at the signing of the Accords, as a show of the Clave's power. He seized the opportunity to accomplish everything he ever wanted. Destroy the Accords, murder Downworlders, and secure the cup."

"How could my mom and Luke be a part of something like this?"

"Joselyn, Luke, and I tried to stop the Uprising," Shu said. "I wasn't a part of the Circle, obviously, but I infiltrated the Shadowhunters and posed as one of them to try and stop Valentine, meeting your mother and Luke in the process. Joselyn and Luke tried to change Valentine's mind about Downworlders."

"Obviously they didn't."

"Clary, if it wasn't for your mother and Luke, the Circle would've won. Luke tried fighting Valentine with fists, and lost, but Joselyn and I fought him with blades and magic and managed to knock him down long enough to grab the cup and run."

"Ever since I found out Valentine was my father, I wondered how my mother could be married to someone like that…and why she stayed. She had to stop him."

"And safeguard the cup. Everything Joselyn did, she did to save the people she'd sworn to protect. She took her oath as a Shadowhunter seriously."

"I understand, but how does that help me find the cup?"

"Maybe Luke thinks if you know your mother better, you'll know where she hid it," Magnus suggested.

"Then, tell me why she gave up being a Shadowhunter?"

Magnus kneeled down to her. "Because the one thing in the world she loved more is you. She had to protect you."

She sighed and looked down. "From my father, the lunatic."

Magnus looked down but didn't deny it, but the moment was interrupted by Luke, who grunted in pain. Clary set her notepad aside and hurried over to him. "Luke. Luke?"

"The magic's wearing off," Magnus muttered.

"It was our fault," Luke muttered.

He spasmed in pain and began to grunt in pain, biting back his screams. Clary looked to one of his bandages and gasped as she pulled it back to see the wound. "It's worse."

Magnus and Shu held their hands out and tried to calm him with magic once more. "We can't do this forever," Shu warned. "The more we do this, the less potent the spells are going to be. Ugh, I should've gone with the boys for the things. What is taking so long?"

The room began rumbling as the amount of magic needed to contain Luke was rising.

Magnus grunted. "I'm running out of magic!"

"What do I do?" Clary asked.

"We can't leave him, but the potion stock still needs Kimono scale. Find it, add the rest when they get here. You'll have to feed it to Luke."

"What about you?"

"We'll hold on as long as we can!" Shu shouted. "Just go!"

Clary ran out of the room, but Magnus was beginning to wobble in exhaustion.

"Mags? Maggie! Magnus stay with me! Magnus!"

He began to fall back, but with her hands focusing on keeping Luke stable with Magnus's help decreasing, she couldn't reach across to catch him. Luckily, Alec suddenly ran in, saw what was happening, and hurried over to catch Magnus before he ate the carpet, or possibly the table.

"Help me…" Magnus panted, holding up his hand. "I need your strength."

Alec looked to his face and his hand, before offering his own. "Take what you need."

Magnus put his hand in Alec's and managed a smile before he began to take Alec's energy and use it to help fuel the containment spell. As Alec wasn't born a magic user yet was still part angel, he had a moderate amount of reserves, more than enough to help Magnus with the spell.

Jace and Simon ran in with the ingredients, and Clary worked quickly to mix them in and then pour it into a cup. She then rushed over to Luke and poured the brew carefully into his mouth. He managed to drink and swallow it, and instantly, his condition improved, the spell needed to keep his transformation in check dying down as it was no longer needed.

"Hey…Clary," He said, opening his eyes and smiling.

Magnus then took the opportunity to collapse against Alec.

"Smooth," Shu muttered, panting, before she reached over and grabbed a bottle of alcohol and took a sip. "This is disgusting, Mags," She commented before taking another swig.

"You okay?" Alec asked.

Magnus nodded weakly. "Yeah."

"He started injecting himself with Downworlder blood…" Luke was saying in the other room.

"As if that would ever work," Shu muttered. "Shadowhunter and demonic blood do not go well together. The only possible way that could work is if the person was conceived of the two species naturally."

"I'll take your word for it, considering you're-"

"Hey, Magnus do you need any…?"

Alec stopped when he saw Magnus wasn't alone.

"-eavesdropping," Magnus finished.

"I have to go," Shu said. "But, uh…Alec, could you stay and watch over Mags? I don't want him collapsing from all the magic he used today. Great, thanks."

She slipped out of the room and mouthed 'Good luck, bro,' before she disappeared.

Alec was working to clean the blood Luke spilled past the cloth off Magnus's couch while Magnus made some drinks, because this was Magnus we were talking about.

He looked back and saw what Alec was doing. "You know I have magic for that, right? Even Shu could do it, since she is living with me."

"I think you've exerted yourself enough for one day."

"Drink break?"

Alec looked to him for a moment before letting out a small laugh and standing, walking over and accepting the drink. Magnus snapped his fingers and the liquid was set alight with his blue magic.

"To us."

Alec clinked his glass against Magnus's before taking a drink, cringing at the taste and barely forcing it down.

"Finally, a guy that doesn't drink," Shu thought to herself.

"Why did you ask for me…when Jace and Clary were both here?" Alec asked.

"Jace didn't tell you?" Magnus asked in surprise.

Alec shook his head and Magnus took a deep breath in relief, turning away. "Doesn't matter. It was a lie anyway."

He took a few steps away, hiding the nervousness on his face at Alec realizing the truth.

"Aw, he's nervous."

"Are Warlocks always this cryptic?"

Magnus chuckled. "I'm not being cryptic." He paused and took on a matter-of-fact tone. "I'm being coy."

Shu was glad she was eavesdropping from another room and not right in the hallway since she would've just blown her cover at how hard she was laughing.

Magnus turned back to Alec, who was still clueless, and sighed. "Let me spell it out for you. I wanted to see you again."

Alec looked extremely nervous. Even when being the master of not taking a hint, he had to have understood that, right?

"Why?"

"Why'd you come?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. He shook his head. "I'm not sure."

Magnus hesitated. "For almost…a century…I've closed myself off to feeling anything for anyone. Man or woman. You've unlocked something in me."

Alec tried to say something, but he couldn't seem to find the words. Magnus looked down, thinking that he'd probably pushed him too far and Alec was trying to find a way to reject him. Alec continued to try and think of something, and actually looked like he was about to get some words out, before his phone rang.

The moment was broken between them, and each turned away as Alec answered his phone. "Hey. Hi, mother." He listened to the phone for a good deal of time before finally responding. "Of course."

He hung up and Magnus turned back to him. He motioned to his phone as he set his glass down. "Duty calls."

Magnus nodded. "Ah. Oh, the furrowed brow. Maryse must be recruiting you for something…unseemly."

Alec hesitated. "Uh, listen, Magnus, I…I wish…I-I could…I-I just don't know what-"

Magnus put his finger up to his lips. "I understand."

As he moved his hand away to grab Alec's glass, a smile forced it's way across his face.

"Stay for just one more drink?" He offered. "And then decide."

"Wow, that was surprisingly easier than I'd thought it'd be."

"And now you've jinxed it, Shu," Magnus said.

"Oh, it'll work out. I'm 99% positive Isabelle is already sold on it. Besides, what relationship have you had that wasn't hard? You'll make it through. Although Maryse might be a problem. She's the real tough nut to crack in this situation."

"I have no doubt about it."