Hey, this is a short chapter, but I believe it serves it's purpose well enough.

Thanks, you guys for the favs, follows, and reviews. Thanks, also for just reading. I really appreciate it.

I have a favor to ask you guys, after you read this, in the a/n at the bottom.

I don't own TMI

"Magnus!" A female voice came urgently to me. Somehow that voice managed to scream and whisper at the same time.

I tried to turn my head to where I thought the sound was originating, but I couldn't move much. There was not even a word for the way I felt. The words miserable and atrocious came to mind, briefly, but those just didn't do justice.

My head was pounding heavier than I'd ever felt it. I couldn't open my eyes and that was concerning. When I finally managed to move them slightly, it felt like something, probably blood, was drying on my face.

As time wore on I slowly became acclimated to my surroundings and to how much pain I was in. I found that my ribs were definitely fractured and my left arm was underneath me in a way that made it clear that my shoulder was dislocated.

My mind was groggy to the point where I knew that I was under the influence of a very strong drug.

It is really difficult to drug a warlock. The magic within battles any drug, injury, or sickness until it is gone. Even if the warlock is asleep or unconscious.

The person that drugged me must have somehow found a way to drain my magical energy first or just overloaded my system to the point where the drug overcame my magic.

The weird thing was that I could feel my magic trying to fight off the foreign substance in my body, but it felt like the drug kept getting stronger and my energy weaker.

So I just laid there while my consciousness came and went and I had no idea what was going on inside of me or if I would be able to fight this off.

Maybe I was dying.

I kept hearing the female voice, but I couldn't understand what she was saying most of the time.

I felt a wave of nausea, suddenly, and then blackness once again.

When I came around again my grogginess was sufficiently lower. The first thing I noticed was how much more aware of the pain I was. My ribs and head were still pounding. My arm just felt numb. The good thing was that I could tell that my magic was finally getting the upper hand in its battle against the drug, if only very slightly.

With that thought giving me a glimmer of hope, I tried to survey my environment. The room I was in was very small and contained no furniture. Only lumps on the ground.

One of the lumps stirred.

"Magnus?" A hoarse whisper came.

"Maia?" I croaked out. Fuck! I'd been kidnapped.

Ok, well, I guess I had already sensed that as soon as I woke up, but now I knew for sure.

Maia crawled laboriously over to where I was. It looked really difficult since she had to dodge other lumps (bodies?) on the floor to get to me.

"Magnus, I'm glad you're awake, but you have to be quiet. Once they know you're awake, they'll just use you again." She'd stopped whispering, but she kept her voice very quiet so as not to be overheard by whoever was keeping us.

"Where are we? What have they been doing to you?"

"I don't know where we are. But, I do know that they are using us to make that faery smoke."

"I've been around for a long time, but the last time the Clave had to deal with anybody using faery smoke predates even me."

"Really? That explains why they are doing so many experiments."

"From what I've heard about the stuff, the people who first discovered the means of creating the smoke ended up killing themselves accidentally. That was only after taking out many of other downworlders and shadowhunters, first."

I really didn't know too many of the details surrounding the people who created the smoke. Only that it was some faeries and a warlock. These people had only succeeded in making two kinds, according to the legends. The first was the kind that was currently being used (and was used on my apartment building). The other kind was one that had to be ingested. It was used as a relatively mild form of mind control.

I related all of that to Maia.

"What is unknown is how they actually went about making it. Although, there are theories that involved killing people." I finished telling her what I knew, still mindful of being quiet.

"They almost killed Bat." Maia said, looking furious. "The drained him to the point where he's no more than a vegetable. I'm worried that he wont wake up, or, if he does, I'm worried that he wont be the same."

Maia crept over to a door that I hadn't noticed earlier. It had a small and dirty window near the top of it that she looked through. "Looks like the guard is sleeping now. No one will come in for a few hours."

Something wasn't quite adding up, in my opinion. "So, who are all these others here?" I pointed to the others on the floor. "Are they all drained? Like Bat?"

"Mostly pack-less werewolves and a couple of mundanes. All male. And yes, they are all drained and no better than vegetables at this point."

"You've been in here as long as Bat has. Why are you not in the same state as the others?" Not that I wished it on her, or anything, I just didn't know how she had managed consciousness where no one else had.

Maia snorted. "They seriously wouldn't touch me when I first got here. They don't seem to think females are strong enough to withstand their torture. At least not enough to provide enough of whatever substance they are mining from our bodies." She looked pissed enough to bitch-slap the next person who looked at her funny.

"Anyway, I've been using that to my advantage. Whenever they would take Bat, or any of the others, I couldn't see anything. But I could hear everything. The screams would get louder and louder until the person was hoarse and was begging them to stop." Maia looked up at me.

"So when they took me, after they had no other options, and their kidnapping attempts didn't bring in any other prisoners, I pretended to be weaker than I am. I pretend to be able to take less torture than I actually can. So I stay strong, well, strongish. I think they might be starting to catch on, though, so I need to try to escape soon. Maybe you can do the same and we can escape this place."

I nodded "I'm all for escaping. If we have a few hours before they come back in, I'm sure I will have enough magical energy by then-"

"No! Don't attempt any magic-not yet. Try to save as much energy as you can. They pump the smoke in through the vents every now and then to keep us weak, so you probably won't have enough magic to do much." Maia explained, looking a bit defeated.

"We'll figure out something."

"Magnus, just don't give them any reason to hurt you even further. You must have put up a hell of a fight for them to have kicked your ass like that." She eyed my injuries.

"Actually, I don't remember being kidnapped. I was doing a favor for a client who claimed to have an emergency. He wanted to meet at some seedy-looking diner, but I didn't think much of it. I went in and ordered a cocktail and that's absolutely all I remember."

"Oh. Well anyway, the vampires sort of have the upper hand, it seems. They and the fae don't get along at all. The vamps are barbaric and look for any excuse to add their own personal physical torture to the what we already have to go through when they drain us to make the smoke."

"Maia, I might seem snarky and sarcastic all the time, but I'm nothing if not a self-preservationist. I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you. How long do you think you've got until you're not waking up?"

At that moment the door suddenly opened and two people walked in.

"Magnus Bane. After all this time, I finally have you here with me. Please say you'll join me." A laugh. "We are going to have so much fun."

A/N

Soooo, I was wondering if you guys could do me a favor. If you feel like it, could you please tell me what you think I need to work on in my writing? I love all the nice comments, but I would love some criticism. I know there is plenty of room for some, so just leave one on here or shoot me a pm (if you have the time or desire to do so.)

I am going back and editing my chapters for errors. I want to have that done by the end of the day, but lawd, it took me all of forever to just do the first chapter...

Thanks for reading!