Author's Note: Lots of this is clearly from CoA (WHICH I STILL DO NOT OWN, kthnks), but with lots of added extras. It's kind of long (took me three hours to get it right. Thirteen pages in Word). It's mostly a set up for the next chapter, but it was completely necessary. I also love feedback, even if you're just pointing out a typo or something ;)
When You Say Forever, Chapter 8
Magnus was walking down the street, feeling the change in temperature as he neared the water. He had known that the tired state he had been in for several days now wasn't exactly ideal, but now it was just plain inconvenient. Alexander had been draining his energy without even knowing it and it could be the reason for avoidable deaths and he would only have himself to blame.
But wouldn't it all be worth it in the end?
He knew what the Shadowhunter was going to ask of him. The boy needed to get to a boat, but couldn't use a boat to get there. And on top of it, he needed Magnus to tear down wards on Valentine's ship so that he could go and fight him. This was going to be an endeavor which would either put him in very good standing with the Clave, if they ever showed up, or was going to kill him. While he hoped for the former, he was almost expecting the latter. And no one would be around to make sure he came back...
He spotted Jace, the werewolf, and Clary near the water. Luke looked away from the teenagers and saw him approaching. Clary was the next to see him, but she furrowed her brow, as if confused by his appearance. Well, who wouldn't have been confused? Magnus Bane wasn't only known for his magic. No, he was also known for his outlandish outfits and all the color that usually surrounded him. Of course no one could ever forget his sarcasm, either.
Now he was wearing black and the only makeup he wore was eyeliner that he hadn't even applied today. It would have taken too much of his energy to put on his makeup and do his hair, something he had never had to worry about before, but now he was walking toward them, feeling almost naked.
"You look surprised to see me," he said to them when he was close.
"We did wonder if you were coming." The boy was looking at his watch and Magnus scowled at his nerve. He was doing them a favor.
"I said I would come, so I came. I just needed time to prepare. This isn't some hat trick, Shadowhunter. This is going to take some serious magic." He looked at the werewolf, who seemed better than he had been when he had left him. "How's the arm?"
"Fine. Thank you," he replied. Magnus noticed that he had a weapon on his belt. Were the only fighters in this battle going to be people who were untrained or recently injured?
"That's your truck parked by the factory, isn't it? It's awfully butch for a bookseller," Magnus noted. Well, it was.
"Oh, I don't know. All that lugging around heavy book boxes, climbing stacks, hard-core alphabetizing..."
Magnus laughed, the first time in a while, and said "Can you unlock the truck for me? I mean, I could do it myself"—he wiggled his fingers in Luke's direction—"but that just seems rude." And I need to preserve my energy.
"Sure."
They walked to the truck mostly in silence. Once they arrived, Luke unlocked it without a word and opened the door for Magnus.
"Chivalry isn't dead," Magnus noted, climbing into the cab. Luke just laughed and stepped back. He sat for a moment and looked around, studying each different aspect of the truck. He sighed deeply, realizing that his Plan A wouldn't be the option he'd be able to do. The truck wasn't a stick shift.
He hopped out of the truck and walked around it in a huff and tried to pull down the back. He scrunched up his nose in frustration as Luke walked over with the key and pulled it down. Magnus hoisted himself into the back of the truck and looked down at his hands as he knelt on the grooves. Disgusting. He didn't even want to know what his knees were going to look like.
He pushed aside a few tools and a long rope to clear out the center. He held out his right hand and snapped with his left, a can of black spray paint materializing in his open hand. As Magnus shook the can and removed the cap, Luke cleared his throat. Magnus looked over at him.
"And you thought unlocking it without asking would be rude?" He grinned. "Now you're just going to deface my property?"
Magnus smiled back dryly. "Trust me," he said. "What I'm about to do is the least I'm going to be doing to this poor truck today."
Luke shook his head and waved his hand, permitting Magnus to go back to his work.
"No more interruptions from the peanut gallery," Magnus said, zipping his lips with a motion.
He looked back down at the bed of the truck and pointed the spray paint at it, pressing his finger down and letting it fly onto the metal.
With careful precision and a little bit of magic, he was able to create a perfect circle to put his pentagram in. Once the pentagram itself was done, he added the additional flourishes that would aid him. As he did so, he chanted under his breath in Chthonian, vaguely wondering in the back of his mind if the werewolf had heard him speaking the language when he had been healing him. So few Shadowhunters actually knew anything about the language of the Warlocks and got uncomfortable when it was spoken in their midst, even when beneficial.
When he was through, he stood and admired his handiwork. He put the cap back on the can and snapped again, sending the half-empty can back to a shelf in someone's tool shed.
He rubbed his hands together to rid himself of the dirt and then wiped his pants off before trying to jump down. He stumbled slightly when he hit the ground and Luke caught him, making sure he was steady before letting him go.
"No offense, Lucian, but you're not exactly my type," he said with a smirk.
Again, Luke just laughed.
"If you could drive it around in a few circles, I'd appreciate it. I just want to make sure it isn't going to blow up," Magnus said, pointing his thumb back at the truck. "I'm going to go back over to the water and see what I can come up with."
"Thanks for giving me the easy job," Luke said, twirling his keys around his finger once before going back to the truck.
Magnus walked back toward the water, seeing Jace standing close to Clary, marking her. It looked more intimate than a Shadowhunter marking another should, but it made Magnus more at ease about Alexander, since Jace hadn't quite looked like that when he had been marking Alexander with the fearless rune before.
"'And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a Mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him,'" he said as Clary pulled her sleeve down. She turned, surprised to see him standing there. He smiled at the nervous step Jace took away from Clary.
"You can quote the Bible?"
"I was born in a deeply religious century, my boy," Magnus replied. "I always thought Cain's may have been the first recorded Mark. It certainly protected him."
"But he was hardly one of the angels," the redhead said. "Didn't he kill his brother?"
"Aren't we planning to kill our father?" said Jace, turning to look out into the water.
"That's different," said Clary.
At that moment, the truck pulled up only a few feet from them and Luke leaned out the window, gesturing to them with his hand.
"Okay. Here we go. Get in."
"Are we going to drive to the boat? I thought..."
"What boat?" Magnus laughed and got into the cab next to Luke. "You two, get into the back."
Once they were all situated in the truck, Luke seemed to have second thoughts about bringing Clary along. However, instead of doing the smart thing and simply leaving the girl on the shore, Luke told her she was going to be staying with Magnus in the truck and that he and Jace would go out to the ship.
Luke started the truck again and it lurched forward onto the water, the tires rolling just above the surface. As they drove, Magnus tried to concentrate on the spell it was going to take to tear down Valentine's wards on the ship. He heard talking from the back and tuned in briefly.
"Other crack teams get bat boomerangs and wall-crawling powers; we get the Aquatruck," Clary said.
"If you don't like it, Nephilim, you're welcome to see if you can walk on the water," Magnus said.
Several minutes later, as the light of the sun began to disappear entirely, they were drawing closer to the ship. It seemed to spring out of nowhere, but as they got closer, Magnus felt the pull of all the demons in the pit of his stomach.
"Stop here," said Magnus. The truck stopped on the water and idled there, swaying gently in the tide, and Magnus saw a swarm of bird-like demons heading their way. He couldn't focus on them, though, he needed to start stripping Valentine's protection from the ship. If he didn't start now, it would just take longer later.
He heard commotion in the back of the truck and he knew that Clary and Jace were probably fighting the hideous birds off, not realizing that they were going to be the least of their troubles. The truck rocked slightly with each lunge they took and Magnus prayed that neither of them would fall; he didn't have time to get them out of the water.
He ignored Luke, who seemed to be contemplating going out there through the back window (he'd never have fit) but he jumped when one of the winged-demons landed on the windshield, cracking it in a spiderweb pattern. He distantly heard Jace whining about his jacket. Luke was climbing out of the window now, causing the truck to tilt slightly sideways on the water. He ended up on the hood of the truck, slashing at one of the creatures with his kindjal. A moment later, the top of the cab was ripped off by the claws of one of them, ringing in Magnus's ears. His head pounded, but he kept up with his efforts, slightly doubled over.
"Magnus!" Clary cried. "Are you hurt?"
"No," he said, struggling to sit upright. He fell backwards against the seat and stared at the ship. "I'm just drained. The protection spells on the ship are strong. Stripping them, keeping them off, is—difficult." He was quiet for a moment as Clary looked off at the ship. "But if I don't do it, anyone who sets foot on that ship, other than Valentine, will die."
"Maybe you should come with us," Luke suggested.
"I can't work on the wards if I'm on the ship itself. I have to do it from here. That's the way it works. Besides, I'm no good in a fight." He grinned, but it was a painful smile. "My talents lie elsewhere."
"But what if we need—" Clary started to say something, but never had the chance to finish. One of the flying creatures had come when none of them had been looking out for it and taken Clary in it's talons. And then she was gone, heading back to the ship, dangling like a rag doll from the creatures claws.
Magnus, who was getting weaker by the moment, looked up as Jace and Luke watched from the hood as Clary got smaller and smaller. Jace dove into the water without hesitation. Then Luke turned back to him and held up his hand, asking his permission to follow, asking him if he was going to be okay. Magnus let his head fall forward in a weak nod. And then he was alone.
He was alone for a long time, watching the battle on the ship that looked like it was going to be a losing one. It was a while before another group of Shadowhunters arrived with real boats, and with a pang in his chest, Magnus saw Alexander making his way onto the ship. He wanted to scream out to him, tell him not to go, but he didn't have the energy. He'd just have to pray that Alexander didn't get himself into more than he could handle.
All Magnus could do was watch with a blank stare as the scene played before him on the ship. There weren't many Shadowhunters, but the ones who were there were probably being slaughtered. Magnus wondered how long they would last before Valentine was finished with the ritual and had control over all of hell.
He saw Alexander helping Isabelle, who appeared to be injured, up a ladder and over a rail on the ship. For a moment it looked like he was going to follow her as Jace prepared to fight a rather large demon that resembled a cross between an over-sized mosquito and an elephant, but then he turned back, like he had suddenly changed his mind and decided to try to be a hero.
Magnus lunged forward in the cab of the truck and shouted a weak "No!" but of course Alexander couldn't hear him.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The demon, which had previously been focused on Jace, changed its mind and headed for Alexander, whose sudden movement must have been the deciding factor. As Alexander picked up his weapon, the demon sped up and was on him in a moment, looking as though it was ready for its meal.
"No, no, no!" Magnus cried, wishing there was something he could do. But there was nothing he could do; he could only watch and hope that Jace saved the day. It was what Jace was there for.
But the demon didn't get to eat the boy and Jace didn't get to save him. Instead, Alexander stabbed the demon, which just pissed it off, and was flung in anger across the ship and over the side of the deck. Magnus watched as the water broke under Alexander's weight and had only seconds to make a decision. Would he have enough energy to save Alexander and get the truck back to shore? Would he have enough energy to heal the wounded people who would need him later? Would he be able to save Alexander without killing the both of them?
He could only hope.
Magnus stretched his hands out in front of him and focused on the spot where Alexander had disappeared into the water. He found him a moment later and could feel the weight of him straining on his arms. He tried to lift him out of the water but failed miserably and, when he realized he was too weak to get Alexander out of the water mentally, he began to pull him in frantically, praying that he would make it to the truck before it was too late.
He climbed out the top of the truck with a burst of adrenaline and continued to pull Alexander toward him, feeling the boy's life force draining with every second he remained in the water. Magnus, who had lately felt more connected to him, felt cold, but wondered if it was simply mental.
Alexander was closer to the truck now and Magnus could see his pale skin in the dark water, surrounded by his dark hair. He reached into the water and dragged him onto the hood of the truck, gasping when the cold water touched his skin. He carefully pulled Alexander toward the back of the truck, up over the severed top of the cab, and laid him in the bed of the truck. His arms burned from the effort, but he cradled Alexander against him.
He could feel the boy's weak pulse and began to chant, surrounding them in a water-like bubble. Magnus wasn't going to give up, no matter how weak he was. There was no point in helping the other Shadowhunters anymore. As far as Magnus Bane was concerned, they were a lost cause. Alexander Lightwood, however, had a pulse. A pulse Magnus could never let fade again.
--
When Alexander woke, Magnus was sitting next to him, staring at him. The boy coughed violently and shivered before trying to sit up. He blinked several times and then looked around him before spotting Magnus.
"What—What happened?" He asked, his teeth clanging together violently in the cold.
"You tried to drink the East River," Magnus said. Alexander seemed to notice that Magnus was wet as well. "I pulled you out," stated Magnus.
After staring at Magnus for a long Magnus, Alexander remembered what had happened before he left the boat.
"Isabelle! She was climbing down when I fell-"
"She's fine. She made it to a boat. I saw her," Magnus said. He reached out to touch Alexander's head. "You, on the other hand, might have a concussion."
Alexander shook his head, a visibly painful gesture, and pushed Magnus's hand away. "You're a warlock. Can't you, I don't know, fly me back to the boat or something? And fix my concussion while you're at it?"
Magnus recoiled slightly and sat back against the side of the truck bed. He looked at Alexander, who seemed to realize how sharply he had said it. Neither of them said anything for several moments, just stared at each other in the darkness. There were sounds coming from the direction of the ship, but they ignored them.
--
"Sorry," Alec said. He knew it was rude, but he didn't understand why Magnus wouldn't just do this one simple thing for him. Didn't he understand that Alec had to get back to the ship? His family was there, fighting, and he was sitting here with Magnus, who was only concerned about a bump on his head. "I know you don't have to help us out—it's a favor—"
"Stop," Magnus said shortly. "I don't do you favors, Alec. I do things for you because—well, why do you think I do them?"
The way Magnus was looking at him made Alec look away. Lately he didn't know what it was, but he felt like there were no words to describe the way he had started to feel about the warlock. But whenever he tried to think about it, he couldn't actually come up with anything that summarized it properly. It was all too new and uncomfortable to him and he just couldn't verbalize it. Neither of them ever did.
And for now, Alec gave up trying and simply said "I need to get back to the ship."
Magnus replied, sounding as though he were too tired to fight anymore. "I would help you. But I can't. Stripping the protection wards off the ship was bad enough—it's a strong, strong enchantment, demon-based—but when you fell, I had to put a fast spell on the truck so it wouldn't sink when I lost consciousness. And I will lose consciousness, Alec. It's just a matter of time." He paused. "I didn't want you to drown," he said quietly, looking into Alec's eyes. "The enchantment should hold long enough for you to get the truck back to land."
"I—didn't realize," Alec said. He closely at Magnus for the first time since he had woken up. He looked truly exhausted in a way that Alec had never seen anyone else before, especially not Magnus. There were tired lines around his eyes, which wore no makeup other than eyeliner, and even that seemed to be smeared. His hair was strewn about his forehead and hung over his eyes in some places and it seemed like Magnus couldn't even muster up the energy to push the hair away.
Alec shifted his position so that he was on his knees and then shuffled closer to Magnus and adjusted himself to sit cross-legged in front of him. He held his hands out, slightly unsure, and looked up at Magnus, who was looking at his hands in confusion. Alec shifted again and their knees pressed together.
"Take my hands," Alec said. "And take my strength too. Whatever of it you can use to keep yourself going."
Magnus looked down at Alec's hands and then up at him with a tired sigh. "I thought you had to get back to the ship."
"I have to fight. But that's what you're doing, isn't it? You're part of the fight just as much as the Shadowhunters on the ship—and I know you can take some of my strength, I've heard of warlocks doing that—so I'm offering. Take it. It's yours."
Magnus looked at Alec for a moment and then took his hands. Alec was surprised to find that Magnus's hands were just as cold as his were, but then Magnus closed his eyes and seemed to focus. Alec closed his eyes, squeezed his hands slightly and Magnus squeezed back, followed by a warm tingling that went from Alec's fingers and up through his arms.
The cold he had felt a moment before was suddenly replaced with a warmth, but at the same time he was starting to feel tired and the throbbing in his head was becoming a dull ache that was second to everything else.
They were silent for a while, listening to nothing but the gentle sloshing of water against the side of the truck and feeling nothing other than the warm passage of energy from one to the other. When Magnus finally released his hands with a gentle squeeze, Alec started to feel dizzy.
He could feel the white light coming on again, as it had only twice since the first time, and he squeezed his eyes shut tighter. The nausea and dizziness that came with the light combined with the throbbing that was coming back into his head made him feel as though he was going to fall over.
"Alexander?" Magnus said, taking one of his hands.
"I'm fine," Alec said. The light hadn't come yet, but Alec knew it would soon. "It's—it's the light again."
He tried to lay back on his own but found it hard to do so from his current position. With Magnus's help, he was able to lie back against the cold metal of the truck bed, feeling stray water drops soaking into his back, chilling him.
The light still hadn't overcome him and Alec started to wonder if the sickness was just his exhaustion combined with seasickness from being on the truck for so long. He felt Magnus starting to lay down next to him and was thankful for the warlock's warmth, since the metal was so cold against him. Magnus reached around him and took his hands again.
"Maybe I took too much," Magnus whispered, "I should give you some of your strength back."
"No," Alec said, "I'm fine. It's just the light." He shook one of Magnus's hands away, but kept holding the other.
The light had only come when he was with Magnus, though he never knew what brought it on. Now, he assumed, if it was going to come, it was probably because of the toll that the day's events were taking on his body.
They were silent as Alec waited for the bright light to come over him. When he realized that maybe it really might be something else, he slowly opened his eyes.
But when he did, he was shocked to find that he wasn't on the truck anymore. Instead, he was in a strange room. The ceiling was the first thing he saw, since he had been expecting to see the night sky, and when he looked to his right, there were walls of plain wood with small shelves covered with assorted jars instead of the side of the truck. He looked to his other side, where he could still feel Magnus, and saw that Magnus was still there, but he was wearing an old cotton shirt instead of the jacket and button up he had been wearing several moments before and he looked different.
He tried to talk but found that he couldn't get the words to come out.
Alec sat up quickly, feeling the familiar pain in his head as he did so, and then looked straight ahead of him, willing the boat to come into view, but all he saw was a door to another room. The scene wasn't changing. Had Magnus done something?
"Alexander, what's wrong?" Magnus sounded different. The New York accent was gone from his voice and Alec felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to face him and looked at his face. He was no longer laying next to him and his hair was longer and pulled back behind his head into a leather ponytail. He wore no makeup.
Alec tried to speak again, but the words didn't come.
He looked down at his hands, expecting to see the dried blood on his fingernails, but his hands looked normal. Except there was a different rune on the back of his hand, one that he didn't remember ever receiving, but it looked familiar.
His head was pounding. He reached up to touch the throbbing part of the back of his head and found that his hair was no longer wet nor the same length it had been. Trying to remember to breathe, Alec began to panic.
"What's going on?" He cried, trying to stand but finding that he couldn't get up. His own voice sounded different.
"Alexander, you're hurt. Calm down," Magnus said, sitting beside him on the bed and rubbing one of his arms. "Is it your head? I told you you hit it hard."
"I—I don't know where I am," he said, looking into the new Magnus's eyes in desperation. He looked taken aback.
"You're with me," Magnus said. "You're safe."
"What happened?" Alec asked.
"You fell, remember?" Magnus replied, looking at him with concern.
"I—I... But what about everyone else?"
Magnus was staring at him, confused, and then looked across the room, through the window and into the night.
"Magnus, what's wrong with me?" He asked, feeling a lump rising in his throat.
Sympathetically, Magnus reached out and touched Alec's face. Alec could feel the tender concern in his familiar hands, even if nothing else about what was happening was familiar. Needing the comfort, Alec leaned into the touch, wishing he knew what was wrong with him.
He looked at Magnus, who was leaning forward hesitantly. This time it was Alec who closed the distance between them, kissing Magnus for all he was worth. It felt the same as always.
When they pulled apart, Magnus looked surprised. Alec swallowed hard, wondering if Magnus hadn't been intending to kiss him. Maybe he's still upset about earlier, Alec thought.
Magnus took both of Alec's hands looked as though he was about to lean in and kiss him again when there was a loud sound, like an explosion of metal, from somewhere in the distance. With a flash of white, the room and the bed and the warmth faded away and Alec found himself on the boat again, overcome with the nausea and dizziness he had been feeling before. He wrenched himself away from Magnus and turned to the side of the truck, vomiting into the ocean.
He turned back to Magnus and stared at him for a moment. Magnus seemed torn between looking at Alec in concern and looking at what had made the explosion.
"Are you all right?" Magnus asked.
"I don't know what just happened," replied Alec.
There was another metallic sound, like a tin can being crushed, but magnified by several hundred decibels, and Alec turned to see the outline of the ship seeming to fold in on itself, ripping apart, twisting, and turning in the moonlight.