Magnus POV:

I'd never liked Shadowhunters; maybe it was because they'd slaughtered several of my friends-Ragnor- or maybe it was because they brought attention to all of us, by lighting fires in clearly abandoned buildings, and taking obvious patrols.

I thought about leaving them to get shot by the next aerial wave, then decided against it when I heard one of them yell in pain. I was a medic; my job was to deal with that, it'd been programmed in, and so I did, reluctantly, sidle toward them.

'Hey,' I said, 'keep it down. Anyone could hear you.'

'Wha? Who are you?' A golden haired boy yelled, leaping to his feet. He was clutching a broken sword in one hand, with the girl's blood on his hands.

'A medic. I come under the Allied Force Trust,' I snapped, eyes already on the dark haired girl. She was bleeding, in obvious pain, but until he granted me access to her wound, I'd not be able to help her. The other dark haired girl and the red head were keeping pressure on the cut, but not enough.

'Push harder!'

The red head looked up, but the dark haired girl did it automatically. She'd obviously been in Valentine's Corps for far longer.

'Fine,' the blonde said, 'help her.'

I tried my hardest, but to keep a long story short, the girl didn't make it. The blonde and the red head both cried, but the other brunettes (the girl'd been joined by a boy- and what a boy!) kept their heads and got ready to bury her.

'I'm sorry,' I said, and I really was. 'I'm so sorry.'

'Her name was Aline,' the red head said, 'she was pregnant.'

'What?' I spluttered, 'I thought...'

'That's why she ran away. We followed her when Max died, because if they're killing kids mindlessly, well... it's not worth fighting anymore. And now she's dead, and her fight's over.'

That changed my mind about these kids immediately. No way were they spies. I figured I'd offer them a chance in Centreland, anyway.

'I'm sorry.'

'Nice to meet you, sorry, I'm Clary. And that's Jace, Izzy, Alec.'

'Magnus Bane.' I had to fight to keep from spouting, 'book, DQ, thumb', which showed my rank, job, and loyalties. I didn't have any of that now. 'Look, I'm going back to the city. I need to be back soon. It'll get that much harder to get through the border at night.'

'Uh,' Izzy said, 'we'll go with you? Also, it's Isabelle for now, okay?'

'Sure, do you have IDs? No, didn't think so. Lucky for you, I know a few guys.'

'How do we get into the city to get the IDs?'

'I know a guy on border patrol at eleven, which is in... fifteen minutes. He'll let you in, for a bit of cash. Got any?'

'Two hundred.'

'Probably enough, c'mon.'

We picked our way across the dirty, muddy grass and between old, crumbling, bomb-ruined buildings.

'Belcourt should consider moving her operation out here.'

'What?'

'Nothing.'

Lucky for us, I was right, and Elijah was on the gate. He took a hundred, scanned my ID and in we went. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Inside Centreland was completely different to outside. The buildings were perfect, people took babies out in prams, and the whole place smelt nice, clean, friendly. A man waved at us, took a glance at the others' clothes, and frowned.

'Shit!' I nearly yelled, 'c'mon. Let's get to the hotel fast!'

'Why are we staying in a hotel?'

'We're not, now hurry up.'