I just got a new puppy and school is hitting me repeatedly in the face, I've got a club, and a play where I'm working as a props assistant, so my updates won't be as frequent. I'm trying as hard as a I can to keep up, but things have gotten hectic. Sorry, but I'm not giving up on any stories, don't worry.

"You're sure you're okay?" Val asked.

"Angels don't get concussions," Shu reminded her.

"Well for an angel, you sure don't act like one. At least not anymore. For both our sakes' it's good that you're not causing misbalance to the universe, but in turn your powers seem to be weakening as well."

"Demonic presence…balances me out. That's how it was a long time ago. With Charon, at least."

"When do I get to meet my famous father?"

"He vanished from the loft one morning, not sure where he went, but he never even talked to me."

Val chuckled. "If we didn't know any better, I'd say that he was the Owl."

"Well, glad that we know better."

"Did you find anything suspicious about him?"

"Demons don't sleep, and he should've long since recovered from any corruption. The ley lines have been fixed, and he could've been possessed or infected or something, but Charon's more resilient than that. Then again, Magnus and I think we've been sensing a dark power, something much worse than Charon, something much more powerful."

"Who?"

Shu sighed. "My mother. Adoptive mother, of course. My human mother is long since dead."

Val shook her head. "Well, who's that?"

"Someone who might very well be capable of affecting a Greater Demon that way. Lilith."

There was a small gasp from across the room and Val looked up. Her eyes scanned the room carefully, before she raised her hand and a black throwing knife appeared. She chucked it across the room and threw it at the wall, where a man shimmered into existence as he twisted out of the way to avoid it.

"Charon?" Shu asked.

"That is not Valak Mataecharonsan!" Val shouted.

She thrust her hand forward as a wave of energy shoved him up against the wall as the imposter strained to break free.

"Who are you?!" Val demanded.

"Please…please let me explain…" He wheezed.

"Val, let him go," Shu ordered. "Let your minions keep him in the room, but we can't interrogate him like this."

Val eyed Shu before dropping her hand, simultaneously dropping the imposter to his feet again. He took deep breaths. "Thank you."

"Now start talking," Val hissed.

He flinched and looked down. "It's…it's hard to explain."

"Then simplify it."

He sighed. "My name is Kandai. I'm an exiled Greater Demon."

Shu shook her head. "That's impossible. Kandai died ages ago. I killed him with a blast that no creature could survive, let alone recover from."

"I can prove it. Please, just…I need your help. I'll do whatever it takes to convince you, but Ren needs me and I don't know what to do!"

"How?" Shu asked. "H-How can you prove it…?"

"Shu, be careful," Val warned. "This could very well be a trap. He's a Greater Demon, anyone can wear that face and say they're going to explain to get you to let your guard down."

"Susu, it's me," Kandai begged. "Remember the flower I gave you? Blue, glowing with angelic energy. We didn't know at the time, but that flower's angelic properties were why you liked it to much. It was why it never withered, it was how…it was how the demons figured out what you needed to be complete. I got it from Ren - he's an angel."

Shu stared for a long moment in shock.

"Shu?" Val asked.

"Ren'ai."

"Yes!" Kandai exclaimed. "Yes, how did you…?"

"She told me," Shu muttered. "The Demon Queen."

'That poor sod was an ostracized Greater Demon who fell in love with an angel of all creatures. Everyone warned him that angels don't love demons unconditionally. They're deceptive, only care about their own kind, and love is impossible for them. But Uncle Kan didn't listen. Fell in love with this guy…Renèe? No, no, that's not right. It was fancier than that. Ah! Ren'ai. And angel who couldn't help but fall for a demon. They even married for heaven's sake, eloped and ran back to the mortal world to hide out and pretend to be humans. Honestly, what were they thinking?'

"You married, ran to the mortal world to hide."

"That was the plan, yes," Kan nodded. "It happened after you…well, after we lost you."

A small girl, who must've barely been able to walk, wandered through a tall field of crops. She had planted and tended to the fields, but she was curious to see what laid beyond her small farm.

Around their ranch was a sea of wheat, but when Shu had first gotten curious and struggled her way up a tall tree, she had seen specks that looked similar to her house in the distance. Her mother had told her she had never been beyond the fields, but she didn't care if Shu went. Probably because she hoped that Shu would leave and be killed by the demons, never to return.

Shu wandered blindly through the endless fields, the wheat much taller than her. She liked how it poked at her skin, the scratching rather stimulating for her, though she couldn't explain why. Her mother delivered her nothing but harsh abuse, however, this small stinging felt nice and easy compared to that.

She was so focused on the serene feeling, that she didn't notice when she bumped into a man's leg. He was even taller than her mother, and he smelled much different. She got a powerful aura from him, and quickly backed away.

She said no apologies and gave no excuses, as she had been taught that they only made a situation worse, and only watched to see if the man would ignore her in disgust but decide she wasn't worth his time, or if he'd follow after her to beat her.

She had no idea of the difference between genders yet, however, this person seemed much stronger than her mother, and the danger he posed was even greater, if his aura was anything to go by.

When he stepped for her, she closed her eyes and braced herself for the coming blow.

"Are you okay? I am sorry. I did not mean to scare you."

She felt something gently touch her shoulder and flinched, but there was no pain like usual. His aura was definitely more intense than her mother's - what she was used to - but it didn't seem to be doing any harm. In fact, it seemed to be empowering her in an odd way, it felt good, like the pain of itching a scratch being relieving.

"Do you understand me? I am not good at mundane speech."

Slowly, she looked up and flinched back to see the man was much closer than she expected. His eyes were chocolate brown, his hair a shade lighter. But there was something else in them that he sensed, a sort of sadness that he wasn't trying to hide, but it was being covered by a feeling she wasn't used to. Her mother's angry glares had been all she'd ever known.

But that dark look in his eyes was familiar. She saw it every time she'd look into her reflection within water.

"I…speak."

"You speak this tongue?"

"Ton?"

"Tongue. I mean, language."

"Lang…langu-age?"

"Sorry. I see you know this tongue just about as well as I do."

His speech suddenly changed, though Shu couldn't pin down how.

"How about this? Is this easier to understand? You've got demon blood, so I'd assume you speak our language naturally."

"Yes. I understand you. Mama always speaks like you were before, and so I've learned a little, though a lot of what she says I merely have to guess what her meaning is."

"Ah, you're fluent in this language."

"I suppose so. What's a language?"

He looked to her curiously, his head tilting to the side slightly, before he smiled. "It's just a way of speaking to someone with different words having a certain meaning. If you understand what someone is trying to explain to you, then you know the language. If what someone's saying is just a bunch of noise, then you don't understand."

She blinked in confusion, trying to process what he was saying. "Huh?"

"It's not important."

He smiled to her, and though she'd never seen what a smile was before, nor understood what it's purpose was, it made him look really trustworthy. She'd never known a person like him before. Maybe she was dreaming.

"Who are you? What are you doing in the fields?"

"I'm Kandai. As for why I'm here…I'm not really sure. I got kicked out of my home, back in the city over that way, and so I've wandered through these fields for a while until I found you."

"My home and Mama are that way," She said, pointing. "You wanna talk with her?"

"No. I shouldn't bother you if you're going somewhere. Perhaps to the city?"

"What's a city?"

"Those things over there. The buildings."

She looked over to the things that looked similar to her house. "No. Mama and I don't go near the other people."

"Why not?"

"They're mean, Mama says."

He sighed. "Yeah, they are."

"You've met them?"

"Yes. And they're not nice to those they don't like. But you look like someone who no one could possibly hate."

She looked down. "Mama doesn't like me. She…she hates me."

"That can't be possible."

"She hurts me. She wants to kill me. But my body refuses to let her."

She rolled up the sleeve of her dress to reveal a forearm full pf bruises and scratches in the process of healing. He took her forearm frantically, and she flinched back from the sudden movement.

"How could-? Even a demon mother wouldn't ever do such a thing."

"Mama is no demon. I know that."

"You're right," He said, gliding his fingers gently over the wounds. "She is far worse. No demon would ever harm their children in such a way. If they didn't like them or was disappointed in them, they'd be thrown out or forced to serve a slave, doing extra work and labor under another to make up for any crimes they've committed."

"Mama makes me work too."

"So she makes you work and shames you, but also gives you such injuries?"

"It's normal for Mama."

"Well it shouldn't be."

She looked over to the setting sun and jumped. "I must go! If I'm late, Mama will be mad!"

"You can't possibly still go back there day by day. She lets you roam free, you could run and never see her again."

"I have nowhere to run, and the city you speak of is worse than anything. Mama may be different than them, but she is only one, and I know how to deal with her. Please, stay away and don't let her know you're near. I fear she will punish one or both of us should you be caught. I'll come visit at the sun's rise tomorrow, if you will stay."

"I will. I've got nowhere else I'd rather be."

She nodded and ran back to her house in the distance, and Kandai stood from kneeling down to her, wondering just who and what that child was.

When Shu returned to Kandai, they began to share experiences, information of where each were from and what knowledge they had. Kandai began teaching Shu of many things that she had yet to understand.

After growing up with her mother, Shu had never known what a gentle person was like, when they didn't scold her for such simple things or punish her when she spoke or acted without permission. It took a long time, but gradually, she opened up more and more to the man she found herself quickly trusting.

At one point, she had run from Kandai after his demonic aura began to show. Another man had been coming through the fields from the city, and Kandai got into an argument with him before suddenly, he got angry and his aura exploded in rage. It wasn't even the scary sight that terrified the little girl, but the wave of power that washed over her just from sensing him, seeing the gentle and kind person she'd begun to open up to losing it just like her mother would.

So she turned and fled.

She didn't dare venture further than her farm after that incident, managing to keep out of her mother's sight, but also too afraid that Kandai would hurt her even worse. If he got angry at her, her mother's abuse would be put to shame, seem like a luxury.

But after many sun rises and sunsets, Kandai came to the farm, peaking his head gently out from the wall of wheat.

"Shu."

She jumped and fell to the ground, backing away.

"Hey, no, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm sorry for what happened. I was afraid that man was going to hurt you, so I scared him off."

"Y-You hurt him instead?"

He hesitated, before sighing. "Yes, I hurt him a little. But just to make sure he didn't come back to hurt you ever again."

She looked over him, before she heard her mother's footsteps and jumped to her feet. "She comes. Hide!"

She pushed Kandai into the wheat field once more, waiting until her mother's footsteps had receded before she relaxed. She had no idea what her mother commonly did while she was gone, but she didn't dare spy and risk her wrath.

"I apologize for my actions previous that had scared you off," Kandai said. "Perhaps we could begin again."

He seemed to remember something before reaching to his jacket's coat pocket and pulling out a flower with blue petals that almost seemed to glow.

"Accept a token of my apology?"

She looked at the object in his hand curiously. It smelled really weird, but not in a bad way, just in an unfamiliar one. But her senses seemed to like it, and she reached out slowly to touch it. When she made contact, it felt like she'd taken a breath of fresh air.

She looked to Kandai, whose face was pleading for her forgiveness. She saw his concern, how he was afraid of what would happen if she said no. She felt a pang of sympathy, though she had no idea what the feeling within her was or how to describe it. She just knew that she trusted him, that her fear was gone.

"Yes," She said. "Perhaps we could begin again."

"This is a rose."

"Row-sssss?"

"Rose. A friend of mine told me to give it to you. He can't come here, but he says hi."

Of course, Shu wasn't surprised to hear that someone couldn't come and visit her. If it weren't for Kandai, she probably wouldn't have known anyone else existed accept her mother, especially a person being so kind.

"Who?" She asked.

"Someone I trust, and who wishes the best for you."

"Is he like you?"

"Yes. He saved my life once. And if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here."

Shu assumed that meant he would've never been able to find her, and so she nodded. "Then I like him too!"

He chuckled and patted her on the shoulder. "You should get back to tending to the fields. I can help if you'd like."

She shook her head firmly. "No. It's my job. I can do it. I can!" She insisted almost desperately.

"I don't doubt your ability, sweetie. I just get lonely, and I like talking with you. You mind if I stay and talk with you while you work?"

She thought about it for a moment, before smiling and nodding. "Okay!"

The vision flashed through the two's encounters, from the moment they'd met to the moment they'd last parted. They saw Kandai's perspective from that final day, when he came running through the wheat fields excitedly to take Shu away from this terrible place.

But then he saw her being taken away by a group of demons, and ran to assist her. Then, he saw the girl he'd watch grow up scream, the air pulsed with power, and suddenly Kandai could feel nothing but pain.

Then nothing at all.

But then he woke up. He couldn't move, he felt nothing but pain, and he thought he had been banished to the deeper layers of Hell, where it would take years for him to reform.

At least, until he saw a beautiful face above him and heard a soft voice. "Hey, are you awake?"

Kandai tried to move, but everything stung and hurt. He must've just been dreaming while deep in Hell, his physical body gone as he had been banished into smoke.

"Easy, love. You're alive, but you're really hurt."

"Ren…?" He realized.

"Yes," He said quickly. "Yes, it's me. Gods, I was so worried when you didn't come back from Edom that I…I came after you and found you…"

"You…you came to…E-Edom?"

He nodded.

"Ren…you…you could've…"

"I'm fine."

Kan forced his eyes further open and let them adjust to see his boyfriend's face. But it was different. His skin was red and burnt, scarring in patches.

"Ren…!"

"Hey, don't strain yourself. I'm fine. You're the one that needs medical attention. I'm healing fast."

"You mean…i-it was worse?"

"No, no! That's not what I…I mean, yes, it was worse, but that's not what I meant to imply. I'm stable and only getting better, but you neeed to stay still and let my potions do the work. Where's your ring? It should've healed you gradually over time if it were still with you, no matter how damaged you were."

He looked down and noticed that it wasn't there. He felt empty without it on, like he was missing a piece of himself now that his finger was empty. He felt bad for losing it, especially since Ren had given it to him when he'd proposed.

"I don't know," He admitted.

Ren sighed. "Well, what matters is I found you in time. Gods, if I hadn't gotten there when I did…"

"You saved me?"

"Yeah. I brought you back home, and we're in your room. Our room, I suppose."

He mustered a smile but winced as his skin stung.

"Anyway, you're gonna be okay, but no moving."

"Where's Susu?"

"I don't know. I've never met her so I don't know what she looks like, but there was no one else on that farm other than you and a dead mundane woman."

"That must've been her mother. Those people…there were other demons there that took her. She could be being tortured. We have to find her."

"We will. But you need to heal first."

"I don't want you going anywhere near Edom no matter how well you're doing."

"That makes two of us."

"But I can't leave that little girl to suffer."

"I fear the two of us won't be enough to lead a search and rescue. If the demons that took her are great in both numbers and power, we won't be able to take them head on, and I doubt sneaking is safe either. The moment we make a move against them, we'll never be able to escape them."

Kan sighed and leaned his head back. "Then what do we do?"

"We hope. They probably won't kill her because they need her and her power to work for them, but I think you've already helped her by strengthening her will. If she can survive their…encouragement, then she might be able to figure out her abilities and escape on her own. If she does, we'll definitely know about it. But I think that's all we can do. If we don't want to end up dead, that is."

Kan sighed. "We can't do anything?"

"There are people higher up than us at work, and we can struggle and scream, but some of us aren't loud enough to be heard."

"Ren-"

"We both know what happens when an ant attempts to challenge the gods. They'd never stand a chance."

He leaned forward and took the angel's hand. "I'm sorry. I know what you've been through, and I know you're scared. We won't go looking for unnecessary trouble, I promise."

"I know she means a lot to you, but…I don't want you hurt. It's selfish. But I care more for your life than I do hers."

He nodded solemnly. "If we go try and rescue her, we won't stand a chance. At least if we stay back, we might be able to see her again."

Ren nodded slowly too, before a moment of silence settled upon them.

"I, uh…I made you dinner. I'll go get it."

"Thanks," He said half-heartedly.

"You survived," Shu muttered.

"Barely. If it weren't for Ren, I wouldn't have."

"H-How? I-I mean…I was so sure that you…"

"I don't know. He's an alchemist, so he works magic I won't claim to understand."

"Angels bringing back the dead is one thing, but an angel bringing back a Greater Demon after…after what I did?"

Kan shrugged. "You can ask him yourself, one day. Me? I didn't really care. We were both alive, we had to move on together."

"Where is he now?"

Kan looked down with a hopeless look in his eyes. "With your demon half. With Namir. She made me take a blood oath so she wouldn't harm him…" He collapsed against the wall with his head in his hands, sobbing. "I have to do what she says, I'm sorry!"

"What did she tell you to do?" Val asked suspiciously.

"So far? Find my ring. You apparently took it from me when I nearly died. It turns angelic energy to demon-compatible energy, among other small things. Imagine the chaos she could create having that on her side. Not only would you be powerless to harm her, but anything infused with angelic power will be converted to her power if she comes into contact with it. Any demons are under her command already. She's at the top of the hierarchy. She'd become unstoppable."

"I don't have the ring with me," Shu realized. "I gave it to Charon for his protection."

"Where's this Charon that I keep hearing about? And why does everyone think that I'm him?"

Shu sat on her bed. "He was sent by my father to gain my trust, taking my memory of you and using your face to do so. My mind had been broke after all the…torture, experiments, manipulation that they did to me. I knew that I trusted your face, that much I was sure about. So, he taught me about my powers, about the world, and eventually we fell in love."

"That's…gotta be awkward."

Shu chuckled. "Kinda. When I found out the truth, I was so angry. I thought everything had been a lie. And yeah, it started that way. Everything about him was meant to be a lie. Then somewhere in the middle, it wasn't anymore. But in my anger, I went a little off the rails. He convinced me to give him another chance, but took my memories of the event for my own good. We parted ways for a while. He was my friend who I called on like any other demon, but recently things happened and we got back together, he gave me my memories back, and we started fresh again."

"So where is he now?"

"If you're not him, then…the last time I saw him was when he'd been affected by the corrupted ley lines - ages ago."

"My dad's not exactly easy to track down," Val said. "If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be. He can hide from even the strongest of demons."

"So I guess his disappearance has been a blessing of sorts," Shu summarized.

"Not for Ren!" Kan snapped. "If I don't give Namir that ring soon, he's going to be tortured to no end! He's already weak enough, but I can't be responsible for letting that happen to him!"

Shu fell back on her bed and sighed. "Okay, let's think about this. We don't know where Charon is, and we could always summon him, but we have to consider the possible damage that this might cause."

"And can't let him suffer. This wasn't his fault, it's mine! He has nothing to do with all this!"

"Look, even if we give her the ring, we don't have any fire-power against her that'll come close to being useful," Val pointed out. "You and her are equals at the moment, meaning that you are the only one that stands a chance of stopping her. What happened last night, you losing your power, it's going to tip the scales in her favor already. You can't live like an angel - you'll lose your mind, your humanity."

"I don't have any humanity," Shu corrected.

"Wrong, you do. When you were one person, the angel and the demon inside of you cancelled each other out, making enough room for your humanity to shine through - all that time you spent on the farm with your mother, meeting Kandai, whatever. Then, once they'd unlocked your true power, your humanity was pushed deep inside your heart and you began to go all cosine on them, up and down, angel and demon, before you began to tear yourself apart. Namir left you and became the Demon Queen, leaving the angel inside of you to be countered by Charon. Then, your humanity showed again. Once you had your falling out with Charon, it was your soul bond with a Downworlder that kept you human. But even now, your humanity hasn't left you. It's been split across you and Namir, already small and weak compared to your celestial powers, but now it's been split in half! It's extremely weak, but it's there."

"A-And now that you're here, ever since I met you, it's…been showing again…?"

Val nodded. "Now you're getting it."

"So…what do we do?"

"Angelic power won't work on her if she gets this ring, and demonic power will only make her stronger."

"So we can't give it to her?"

"There are many more powers other than angelic and demonic."

Shu's brow furrowed in confusion.

"How often have you been to Faerie in the past few millennia?"

"Jace is the Owl?!" Izzy exclaimed. "How is that even possible?"

"This whole time, it wasn't his mental health," Alec realized. "He was possessed."

"By an extremely powerful Greater Demon, who gave him the ability to turn mundanes into demonic killers," Magnus continued.

"We've defeated Greater Demons before. We'll do it again and free Jace."

"This is not just any Greater Demon," Shu informed them.

"Clary was able to draw an image of the beast, and it matches this image from the Silent City archives," Magnus announced, showing them a clearer sketch of the demon that Clary had encountered. "The demon is Lilith, Queen of Edom."

"Adam's first wife," Shu finished.

"Adam, as in Garden of Eden, Adam?" Izzy asked.

"The one and only." She sighed and shook her head. "I knew the scent was familiar. It's 'Mother.'"

"Mother?" Simon asked.

"She's the mother of all demons. She wished to become my mother too, back when I was down there. Long story, but I have a demon and an angel half. Circumstances have recently split us. I'll inform you now that I am certainly not the demonic half. Which means that Lily dear has a partner. We call her Namir. Good thing about having a long name is you can split it up for different personalities. In any case, she took up the mantle of the Demon Queen. While Lilith is the mother of all demons, Namir is the actual queen in command of a good deal of them. Both are powerful in their own respect, and if they're working together-"

"They're more powerful than anything we've ever encountered," Alec summarized. "But of all people, why Jace?"

There was a silence among the group, while Shu nodded for Clary to do it. Clary hesitated, but her eyes were red as she held back tears.

"Alec…what you felt that night…when your…parabatai rune disappeared…you were right. Jace did die. Valentine killed him."

"I knew it," Alec snapped, though he wasn't happy to be proven right.

"But if he died, how did he come back?" Simon asked.

Tears ran down Clary's face. "Because I made a wish to Raziel."

Everyone shifted nervously. "You made…the wish?" Izzy clarified.

"I had to," Clary said desperately. "I had to. It was the only way to bring him back But it…"

"It made him vulnerable," Shu finished. "To Lilith."

"To this beast that nearly murdered Ithuriel."

"What?" Izzy asked.

"Because of me! Because I summoned him. Because I was trying to help Jace…" Her voice broke. "Alec, I am so sorry! I should not have kept this from you. I know what position this puts you in with the Clave, so if you wanna send me to the Gard…I understand."

"Clary, no!" Simon hissed.

Alec's gaze was dark as Simon flinched under it. Magnus turned away, pinching the bridge of his nose, Izzy leaned against the desk they were at in the weapons' room, Clary bowed her head submissively, and Shu pursed her lips.

Alec slowly moved around the table to face Clary. Everyone held their breaths, but Shu gave a small smile. Alec then pulled Clary into a hug, which she wasn't expecting.

"I would've done the same thing."

Namir sat in one of the old chairs of the newly dubbed Church of Talto, watching as the police woman gave her blood after sacrificing her mother or something. She was sitting in the chair backwards, boredly watching as the ceremony was completed. Well, that was easy.

Of course, they weren't done yet, but the blood sacrifices were done. Whoo.

What now? Flesh of that Valentine's day guy or something?

And why hadn't she gotten the freaking ring yet? Namir knew she had complete control over Kandai and Ren'ai, but first she needed to get the two of them together. She had always planned to release Ren'ai for Kandai to have a little extra motivation, but the whole Ithuriel situation had complicated things. If Lilith killed an angel of Heaven, she'd be declaring war on all the angels. That kind of attention was not something that they needed.

Now that Ren'ai had her special brand of the mark, his pain would be completely controlled by her. But the angel was still running around like a chicken with its head cut off in the city, the weakling.

She needed that ring. She needed it soon. She needed her fun, and she needed it now.

"Last night…Ollie's mother was found in her apartment…" Luke reported. "…stabbed to death."

"Luke…there is nothing you could've done," Clary said.

"Wait, Jace was able to reverse Morgan's possession, remember?" Izzy pointed out. "If we can find Jace, maybe he can save Ollie."

"No, we tried that. He must be using his antitracking rune."

"The Owl wasn't exactly shy before," Magnus said. "If we're able to somehow contain him the next time he makes an appearance, we might be able to relieve him of Lilith's influence."

"How the hell are we gonna contain him?" Luke asked.

"When I took over as weapons master, I read about a piece of Clave technology that never made it into the field," Izzy announced. "It was called the Malachi Configuration."

"Malachi the traitor?" Alec clarified.

"He invented a type of cage for Greater Demons."

"Blech," Val cringed. When everyone looked at her, she shrugged and took a step back. "Continue."

"Now, it's just sitting in the Alicante Armory," Izzy finished.

"So we go there and we get it," Clary declared.

"What? You expect the Clave to just hand it over?" Luke asked.

"No…but Imogen might." Everyone looked around with nervous glances. "She's Jace's grandmother. We can trust her."

Shu shrugged. "Jace is the latest descendant of the Herondales. I'm sure Imogen will be encouraged to keep the bloodline alive. Even if others protest, the Herondale line ending would still be a good excuse, perhaps. There's no harm in trying."

"Izzy and I will go with you," Alec said.

"And we'll go try and find a cure for Jace," Magnus stated.

"Magnus told me that Clary saw another angel that barely managed to save Ithuriel's life," Shu said. "Alec says that he fled from the Institute, but an angel down in the mortal world is very dangerous. We need to find that angel. We have our suspicions as to who this angel is, and finding him is imperative. If anyone knows how to fight Lilith, it'll be him."

"Meanwhile, we're figuring out ways to fight Shu's demon half," Val added. "She's immune to demonic magic and energy of every kind - meaning warlock and Seelie magic even will be useless against her, and vampires and werewolves won't help much either. She also may have protection against angelic energy, so Shu and even you Nephilim won't be able to do any damage. But…we think we've got a third type of power that might just work against her."

"You get on that," Luke nodded. "Before the Owl got a hold on Ollie, she had a location lead. If I can find Lilith…I can find Jace."

Magnus, Shu, and Val were walking down the hall to leave the Institute, Magnus trying to be invisible as possible. He was still wrapping his head around the fact that it was his fault for giving Lilith that potion to make Jace fall out of love with Clary.

"Magnus! Hey!"

Magnus sighed and started speeding up his pace, but Shu grabbed his shoulder. "Hey, stop it. You're not running away from this."

Shu patted Magnus on the shoulder as she nodded for her and Val to keep moving, heading out the front doors and waiting for Magnus there.

"Magnus…" Alec began when he caught up.

Magnus sighed. "What a fool I am. If I hadn't given her that elixir…Jace would still be Jace."

"Magnus. Lilith…would've gotten to him with or without you. You can't put this all on yourself."

"I will fix it. I will use the last drop of my power if it's the death of me."

Alec stepped forward and pulled Magnus into a hug. "Thank you…" He hesitated. "About our fight…"

"Alexander…"

"No. I was wrong. I said things I shouldn't have."

Magnus swallowed. "As did I."

There was a moment of silence as the two of them simply relaxed into each other's arms, wanting to forget the world and their problems ever existed.

Magnus let out a deep sigh and pulled away. "But that's not important right now. What's important is that we save your parabatai."

Alec nodded solemnly.

"So this is your adoptive father?"

"More like the guy who's been worthless all his life," Kandai sighed. "But nice to meet you all the same."

"Right. So, what was that plan you had in mind?"

"I'm calling in a guy who owes me a favor," Val informed them. "He's got magic that's a bit different than angelic and demonic power. And he's…got unique abilities to say the least. If anyone can defeat Namir, it'll be him."

"Are we sure giving this ring over is a good idea?" Magnus asked again. "We're basically giving her immunity to everything but the slim chance your friend has."

"It's not slim. He has a partner. If he brings him, we'll have an even better chance."

"Whatever your plan is, this is a big risk."

"We can't let Ren'ai suffer!" Kandai snapped.

Magnus put his hands up. "Okay, okay, I understand. If it were Alec, I'd probably do the same."

"For now, let's work on that spell for Jace," Shu said. "I've enlisted Luke's help with the police force to look for a missing guy from a mental institute - considering that this angel that escaped the Institute is wearing all white."

"You don't think…I mean what other angel would be on Earth, so weak that he'd have to run around rather than just teleport back to Heaven?" Kan asked.

"It's possible the angel is Ren, but the only way to be sure is to find him."

"Before Namir does?"

"I'm not so sure she ever lost him. All it takes is a simple spell and she can torture him from any distance. You said your deal allowed you any time you want with Ren?"

He nodded. "I was supposed to go back for meals, dinner at the least, but I was trapped here. I passed out the first nights, in an out of consciousness, but by the time I'd fully woken and healed, I looked around for my ring and hadn't found it. After that, I cloaked myself and hoped to hear if you knew of its location."

"Then Val choke-slammed you against the wall."

"It was my pleasure," Val bowed.

"Nice weapon, by the way," Kan said, holding up the throwing knife she'd summoned. "Only Greater Demons have access to-"

There was a knock at the door. "That your friend?" Magnus asked.

"No, he'd never use the door. Likes to make an entrance."

"Must be Cat," Shu announced, waving her hand. "Come in!"

The door opened and Cat walked in. "Got your fire message. Let's do this thing."

"What about a variation on a healing spell?" Cat suggested, flipping through a spell book.

"It's not that simple," Magnus declared. "My elixir's already taken hold of him."

"Magnus, you can't blame yourself."

"Of course I can. I knew there was something off about that warlock…I should've followed my gut."

"You were manipulated by Namir," Shu reminded him. "She has a stronger variation of the soul bond than I ever did since she doesn't have angelic power interfering. Look…your mind was twisted to think what she wanted you to think. Your mind was…taken over. Your gut instinct was diminished, even thrown out the window. She never let you suspect anything, you probably didn't even find it odd that I was there, that I looked back to my old self, that the soul bond was there again."

Magnus sighed. "I suppose I did feel this…overwhelming urge to just have things back to normal again. So much so that I was manipulated easily. I let this happen."

"The past is the past," Cat declared. "But you and I both know, you're powerful enough to reverse this."

"Well, that's the problem. I'm too powerful for my own good. I'm too powerful for anyone's good."

Magnus added some ingredients to a brew in front of him. It glowed red before suddenly blowing up and releasing the energy in a puff of red.

Magnus sighed. "The elixir is irreversible."

Cat walked around the desk she was at. "Jace was already compromised before your elixir ever touched his lips. It's not gonna be easy, but don't act like you're some helpless 40 year old warlock. You're Magnus Bane. Now, I've gotta get home to Madzie. The babysitter must be exhausted. But don't give up. Do what you do best. Think outside the box."

Cat walked out and Magnus let out a deep sigh.

Shu patted him on the shoulder. "Inspiration comes at the weirdest of moments. All you have to do is stay determined."

She kissed his temple.

"I'm gonna go check on Val and Kan, see if they haven't murdered each other yet. Not to mention make some food. Warlocks should never work on an empty stomach."

"Thanks."

She smiled. "Things'll be back to normal eventually. One way or another, I'm gonna drag Namir kicking and screaming back into me so we can be one again. Asushunamir will be in the house soon. You'll see."

He chuckled. "I look forward to it."

Shu left the room, leaving Magnus to start grabbing some more ingredients to begin once more.

When Lilith screamed, Namir simply plugged her ears and drank another sip of wine.

"Two of them vanquished, just like that! How has he the mark?! It-"

"You mean this mark?" Namir asked, twirling the staff with the mark in her hand.

Lilith stared. "You have it-?"

"I stole it from the people who put it on the Daylighter."

"Why did you not tell me of this Daylighter?!"

"I did, but you were too busy with your little ceremony to listen to me. I said 'Caution,' you said 'Fuck it,' and here we are. So, you ready to listen to reason?"

With a whoosh, the living room was suddenly occupied by Jace inside a glowing square of swords with Alec and Izzy outside of it.

"Well, this is certainly a surprise," Magnus muttered.

"Ooo, fancy," Val commented. "I like it. Smells like blech, but I like it."

"Only demons can smell it," Kan said. "The four positions of the blades work like a pentagram for demons - though it focuses angelic energy, rather than demonic - to be exponentially more powerful. Gotta hand it to the guy who made it, he was smart."

Jace chuckled lightly, the insanity in him showing. "You really think that this…thing…can contain me? You're even stupider than I thought."

"We're gonna save you, Jace," Alec declared.

"Good luck. It's only a matter of time before Lilith finds me, finds you. You'll all be dead by sunrise."

"I don't think so," Izzy declared. "We will batter her with everything we've got. We won't let her take you again."

"When your…delusional confidence gets you killed, I'll be sure to tell your mundane boyfriend that you died in a tragic jewelrymaking accident."

"What?" Kan asked, his face cringing in confusion.

"That…is a story for another day," Shu declared.

"At least he's safe from the Clave," Alec muttered.

"For the time being," Magnus agreed hesitantly.

"Hey, guys?" Val asked. "Wasn't there a red-head with you?"

"Where's Clary?" Shu realized.