Magnus and Izzy were digging through potions, and Shu was trying to keep her nerves in control. There needed to be someone grounded in this place, as total havoc wasn't going to do anyone any good. Magnus was growing more and more unstable, and if he lost it, things were only going to get worse.

"Best team…best team…" Alec muttered.

"It's okay, Alec," Magnus said. "You hear me? We're gonna get you out of here and bring you back."

The door suddenly opened and that man that had taken charge of the Institute walked in. "You put in a request to transfer your brother to Idris?"

"My parents put in the request," Izzy fired back.

"Alec isn't leaving this Institute. I'm sure his Warlock friends can figure something out. Here."

"This isn't waking Sleeping Beauty with a kiss," Shu protested. "Runic power is deep. It requires magic that can't be accessed in the walls of this Institute."

"I don't know what you're up to, and ultimately, I don't care. But as far as I'm concerned, your brother is too weak to be portaled."

"You're just using Alec as bait to arrest Jace," Izzy declared.

"No. I'm working to capture the fugitive who put Alec in this position. I've allowed these Warlocks into the Institute for the sole purpose of treating your brother. Although, you don't seem to be doing too good a job of it."

"You mind if I murdered him?"

"Not one bit."

"I'm placing Raj by the door. Do not try this again."

He nodded to the man behind him. Magnus rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Alec, while Shu gripped her stele, ready to burn a permanent pain rune onto that guy's face.

"I'm just under orders," Raj said nervously under Izzy's gaze.

"Shut up Raj."

He nodded, expecting that, while Magnus got to work with his magic once more.

Magnus swept his magic up Alec's body. He seemed to be responding to the energy, but his mind refused to come to consciousness.

"No…it's too late. I…"

"Alec?" Magnus asked, instantly at his side.

But he was still unconscious.

Magnus grunted in anger, turning and tossing a vase off the desk with his magic.

"Hey, don't go wasting energy unnecessarily," Shu warned. "We don't need that right now."

Raj, that Shadowhunter who was standing at the door, looked down at the broken vase. "You know you're gonna have to clean that up?"

Magnus glared and turned away.

"I feel you, man, but I have direct orders. If you can't help him, then you need to go."

"Our magic is the only thing keeping Alec from completely slipping away," Shu declared. "We will not leave."

"I know you're old, but I didn't realize you were hard of hearing. He's clearly not waking up anytime soon, so you can leave. Now. Or I can remove you myself-"

Magnus held his hand out and his magic flared to life, orange this time rather than his normal blue. It wrapped around Raj's neck and began to choke him, silencing his words.

"I'm sorry. I don't like being rushed."

He tossed Raj back with a surge of power, smashing him into the wall behind him and bringing down a picture as well. Izzy rushed into the room upon hearing the noise and held Magnus back before he could attack Raj further.

"Magnus, stop. We need to get Alec out of here, but this isn't helping."

"Save your magic and channel that rage into helping Alec," Shu agreed. "Raj wasn't going to kick us out any time soon, and I was prepared to throw him to Russia too, but right now, no more, okay?"

Shu sighed and held her face in her hands. "I feel helpless. We couldn't save all those Warlocks from the Circle's attack. We couldn't save Ragnor, Magnus. Infinite possibilities for us, almost literally. An endless future, a million things we probably could've done this century alone…All of it, lost so easily."

"Alec is going to make it through this."

"I know. I won't let him die like this. I won't let someone else slip through my grasp."

She twirled a flower between her fingers - a rose.

"I miss him."

"I do too."

"Still no improvement?"

"Happy now?" Izzy asked.

"Not at all. Alec's one of our best. It'd be a shame to lose him."

Izzy stood from beside her brother. "We're not gonna lose him."

"So confident. Almost too confident."

He walked over and used his stele on Alec's arm, before revealing him to be the unconscious Raj.

"Well, that's unfortunate."

"When are you going to realize that Jace is on your side?"

"Our side doesn't murder werewolves. Oh, so he didn't mention that little transgression? I was hoping to protect Jace by bringing him here, but clearly, you've made other plans."

She chuckled. "Ah, the old 'I was planning to protect them' line. How cute, darling. But we all know you weren't. You wanted to do something so much worse than kill him. You wanted to keep him alive, shame him, make him and his friends miserable to make yourself feel more powerful. And who could stop you? You hold all the power, right? I've seen your kind before. Heck, I made your kind."

"Who are you?"

She smiled. "If I were to place you next to a dead corpse and leave you to be found alone with your 'victim,' would that mean you killed him? Obviously it would have to. You Shadowhunters have always been so cruel like that. I'm not a fan of Valentine, but at least I know he didn't come out of nowhere. Blaming the innocent, jumping to conclusions if it's in your benefit? Claiming that you're doing something for a good cause when really, you're just ready to torture someone to no end, kill and slaughter mercilessly, violate moral codes of all kind. Saying it's the law, but really it's just your abuse of power. And yet, you seem to think you're in the right. Aw, how cute, sweetheart, but you Shadowhunters won't last long at this rate. Because there are people out there who do the right thing for the right cause. Sometimes they're idiots, but the craziest people are the ones who have seen the light. You? You remain in the dark, sadly, and you, little Shadowhunter, are doomed to the darkness of hell forever. I will make sure of it."

"I do what I do to protect the people at this Institute. The law is hard, but-"

"It's the law? Oh, don't even try that with me. The law is meant to uphold moral values, but you can't put morality on a piece of paper. Only free will can determine what is right and wrong, and there are those who have corrupted senses of that morality. Valentine, for example. As well as the Clave. You're not so different. You all hide behind the guise of doing the right thing, but the world isn't so black and white. I look forward to seeing you again, little man, but believe me, when you see me next, it might just be the last thing you see in this life."

With that, a cloud of dark smoke rose from the ground to consume her, and when it dissipated, she was gone.

"Come back. Come back. Please, come back," Magnus begged. "I'm all out of answers. I've tried everything."

He hesitated. "Except…"

He swallowed before leaning in to kiss Alec. When he pulled back, Alec hadn't changed, and he didn't for the next few moments either.

He took a deep breath, feeling stupid for even trying, but Shu put her hand on his shoulder. She didn't say anything, she knew she didn't need to, that it wouldn't help. But Magnus sensed the comfort she was trying to give, and took all that he could.

"What is he dreaming of?" Shu wondered, putting her hand to his forehead.

Alec had been portaled to their apartment, leaving Raj disguised as Alec in his place. Hopefully it would buy some time before they realized what happened. Just in case, Shu had wards up to alert her of any Shadowhunters that came to the building.

"Memories."

Charon appeared out of his cloud of smoke. Shu stood at attention before then putting her hand on the necklace he'd given her and tearing it off.

"You! You're stupid necklace wasn't of any help, dumbarse!"

She threw it at him, and he caught the projectile despite her strength putting so much speed into it.

"You're lucky we found the Book of the White on our own, but what the hell?!"

He gave her a passive look, as though he was tired of having to explain things. "It must mean that you didn't want the memories inside of it."

"I wanted them, all right. What was so wrong with wanting to know where I'd hidden the book? We found it without incident, there were no traps or bad things that came of it. Why wouldn't getting the information from the charm be any worse than what we had to do?"

He looked to the balcony past her. "A couple things surrounding the incident where you hid it must be stored in there too. You were willing to gain the memories of hiding the book back, but not the ones that came along as caveats."

"What memories?"

"Things that you must really not like, since the gem is refusing to give them. It senses that part of your subconscious that wants to keep the memories hidden, and so it trusts your subconscious more than your conscious, especially when it comes to missing memories."

"Can you wake them up for me?"

"I can't do anything without your subconscious consent."

"You're a memory demon, this is your gem-"

"That's not what I meant," He said quieter.

He walked up to her, but refused to make eye contact. "I wouldn't do anything you aren't prepared for. If your subconscious wants to stay hidden, doesn't want those memories, then I won't give them to you."

"I can take it. I've dealt with worse. There is nothing that could possibly be that bad by this point in my life."

"I don't care. I will not put you through that until you're ready. And until you're ready-" He put the gem in her hand "-keep it with you. The moment it thinks you're properly prepared, you'll get what you want."

He took a few nervous steps back and turned away to leave.

"You're the one that's afraid," She called. "Whatever's in here, it must make me pissed at you. You just want to make sure that you don't get the receiving end of my wrath, at least until you're a safe distance away."

He turned his head slightly to look back on her. "Yeah. Maybe."

But he wasn't proud of what he was admitting. It wasn't just a game of survival to him, it was a game of trust. He wanted her to trust him. Whatever was in there would break that trust completely.

Shu hated demons. Once upon a time, she was determined as hell to wipe them off the face of the planet.

"You'd best remember to kill yourself at the end of your little crusade," One had told her.

But over the years, she'd seen that demons weren't the worst things out there. If anything, they were the most noble. At least they had the courage to admit they killed for reasons, instead of hiding behind the guise of doing the right thing.

But that didn't mean she still wouldn't hold a grudge for things that had happened to her in the past.

And Charon disappeared before he could see her grudge first hand.

"He can't last much longer," Magnus reported.

Clary and Isabelle had returned from saving Jace from the werewolves of Luke's pack that wanted revenge for the one Valentine had killed.

When Jace walked in, he quickly looked over to his parabatai. "Alec."

Shu stood and handed him the rock of adamas that Alec had tried to use to track Jace, getting him in this position in the first place.

Jace walked over and took Alec's hand with the stone in between their interlocked grips. Their hands began to glow as Jace transferred back the part of Alec's soul that he was missing, and began to see what Alec saw.

"Entreat me not to leave thee…or to return from following after thee."

Alec suddenly spasmed, the glowing rock dropping to the carpet beside them. He began to wheeze, trying to breathe, but struggling.

"What's happening?" Izzy asked.

"He's slipping," Shu muttered.

"No…" Clary protested.

Jace cupped Alec's face. "Thy people will be my people, thy God will be my God. And when thou diest, I will die. And there will I be buried. The Angel do so to me."

The rock on the floor grew dark, and Alec's head fell limp. Jace took Alec's motionless body and hugged him, tears rolling down his face.

"No…" Shu muttered. "Not again…again and again…"

"And more also," Jace continued. "If aught but death part thee and me…please don't leave me, Alec…"

"If aught but death part thee and me…" Alec repeated weakly.

Izzy and Clary let out sighs of relief, while Jace set Alec back to see his eyes were open. He chuckled in relief before embracing Alec once more in a tight hug.

Shu took Magnus's hand, letting their combined relief flow through them. And it wasn't just them. That relief was flowing through all of them. Even Alec, who was sobbing softly.

Then, Shu looked up. Her wards had been trying to alert her for the past few minutes. She smelled angel blood. A lot of it.

"Jace Wayland," Aldertree, the man from the Clave, called as he entered with his entourage of Shadowhunters. "You are hereby sentenced to the City of Bones to await trial for the charge of high treason and aiding Valentine in the war against the Clave."

"Wait, what?" Alec asked. "What the hell is going on?"

"It's all right, Alec," Jace assured him. "What matters is you're back."

The posy of Shadowhunters took Jace by the arms and led him away.

"How'd it go with Aldertree?"

"Well, the man didn't disappoint," Magnus admitted. "In his own charming, inimitable way, he informed me that I will indeed be punished, but the form of punishment is yet to be decided."

"All for trying to save my life."

Magnus shrugged.

"Jace may have been the one who pulled me out, but I did feel you there. And it did make a difference. So…thank you."

Magus was slightly taken back by the statement. "Thank you for not dying on me."

There was a moment of awkward tension between the two.

"H-How is Jace?"

"He won't be long. Once his hand touches the Soul Sword, the truth will come out. And prove that he's never been on Valentine's side."

Alec looked left and right, shifting nervously. "Look, um…I know that with…everything that's been going on, I…We-we haven't had a chance to…"

"Go on that first date we never had?"

"Right, yes."

"I know a place in SoHo that has the best lamb kebab this side of Marrakesh. Or we could portal to Marrakesh. You hungry?"

"Starving."

Shu sighed as she walked up to him. "This is why I hate Shadowhunters," She muttered. "No offense, Alec. You're one of the ones I can tolerate and actually like, but I'm seriously close to murdering your superiors right at this moment."

"I take it things didn't go too well?" Alec asked.

"I didn't blast Raj into a wall, but I'm still apparently being punished for aiding you or some shit as well as some other random thing. He says I disguised myself as Isabelle and said some harsh things to him and threatened him, and while I'd love to take credit for such a thing, it wasn't me. He claims that whoever did this was condescending, clearly emphasized female behavior, and acted just like me. He said I should stand trial or something, I said no and threatened him to leave me the hell alone, he threatened me, I shut him up by taking his memories of the event and we had to start all over."

Magnus rolled his eyes. "Will your solution always be to take the memories of the events that get you into trouble?"

"I am not the only one in this relationship to do so," She said, pointing at him. "I'm not the only one in the entire Shadow World to do so. In any case, it would have to be someone who knew me well enough to impersonate me."

"Well it wasn't me," Magnus said defensively.

"I know. I would've known if it were you. I'm going to do some digging on this. Plus, I have somewhere I was heading to anyway. And for goodness' sake, please try to actually make it through this date without interruptions. I swear, I'm going to eliminate Valentine just to make sure nothing else interrupts you two. The only person I know who has worse time with dates is the Doctor, and at least he makes it to the location before hell breaks lose."

"Hey, Alec," Raj called from behind him. "Demon briefing in the OPs center. All hands on deck."

"Oh for heaven's sake!"

"My dear, Raj…" Magnus muttered. "You look well."

Raj gave him a glare before walking away without a word.

Alec turned back to Magnus nervously.

"Rain check?" He guessed.

"Yes, yeah. I-I-Is that okay?"

"You go battle your demons."

Alec nodded and rushed off.

"I'll go battle mine," Magnus finished.

"I'll meet you later," Shu said. "There's somewhere I have to be."

She moved to walk off, but Magnus called, "It wasn't your fault, Shu."

She paused for a moment before stomping off without another word.