Expect the Unexpected

Chapter 3

SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ THE BOOK SERIES, THERE IS MENTION OF WHO CLARY'S BROTHER IS IN THIS CHAPTER, AND THEREFORE, MIGHT RUIN PART OF THE BOOKS AND/OR FUTURE EPISODES OF SEASON TWO FOR YOU. SO PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

By the time that Alec and Clary were standing outside the door to Magnus' apartment, they were both thoroughly out of breath. And after banging on the door for a few minutes, and no answer, Alec pulled out his stele and unlocked the door. Opening the door wide enough for Clary to slip inside and then following her in, Alec made sure that there wasn't anyone following them before closing the door and locking it again behind him. When he turned around, Alec saw Clary already going from room to room, trying to find the Warlock.

"Magnus! MAGNUS!" Clary called frantically before hurrying back into the living room holding a piece of clothing that Alec knew did not belong to his Warlock.

"Whose jacket is that?" Alec questioned suspiciously.

"It's Simon's. And this looks like a piece of Raphael's suit." Clary said as she held up the second piece of clothing in her hands.

"What the hell is going on?" Alec asked. "Magnus and Simon aren't answering their phones; and now we get to Magnus' apartment, he's nowhere to be found and Simon's jacket and a piece of Raphael's suit are both here. I'm starting to think that we aren't going to be able to get ahold of any of them." Alec said sullenly.

"Maybe we could find a clue or something here on where they are. Or how to save Jace, Izzy and Lydia." Clary suggested.

"I highly doubt that Magnus would leave a clue if he was going to disappear." Alec said with a guarded look in his eye.

"Alec, I think we both know Magnus well enough to know that he would want you to know that he's okay. He really cares about you Alec, he wouldn't want you to think he was in danger." Clary tried to reason.

"She's right Alec."

Alec turned quickly at the sound of Magnus' voice. But his Warlock wasn't there. Alec kept turning, hoping to see Magnus wasn't there. When he stopped turning, the look on Clary's face was one that he never expected to see from her. It was concern... concern specifically for him. It made Alec feel like he was losing his sanity.

"What's wrong Alec?" Clary asked slowly.

"I heard him." Alec said, his eyes still darting around the room.

"You heard who? Magnus?" Clary questioned.

"Yes Fray, I heard Magnus!" Alec snapped.

"He doesn't mean to take his anger out on you Clary."

Clary yelped at hearing Jace's voice. Doing the same thing that Alec had just done, Clary turned in a rapid circle, trying to find her brother. He wasn't there either.

"AHHHH!" Clary yelled as she fell to her knees and held her head in her hands.

"CLARY!" Alec shouted as he hurried to her side. "Talk to me Clary, what's happening?" He asked as he pulled her into his arms.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Clary screamed as she tried to push Alec away from her.

"CLARY, IT'S ME! IT'S ALEC! I NEED YOU TO RELAX!" Alec exclaimed as he tried to snap her out of whatever was happening.

Clary was frantically trying to get her seraph blade out of her thigh holster, but it wasn't working. Her hands were trembling and she couldn't get the clasp that held it in place undone to take it out. The harder she tried to get it out, the more her hands trembled until she just gave up and sobbed in Alec's chest, simply resorting to half-ass hitting him to try and get him to let her go. Not knowing what else to do, Alec just held Clary in his arms as she eventually sobbed herself to sleep. Once he was sure she was asleep, he picked her up and carried her to Magnus' room. Surely wherever his warlock was, he wouldn't mind that was essentially offering his bed to Clary.

After he had Clary settled, Alec walked back to the living room, half-hoping that Magnus would be standing there. Or Jace, or Izzy. But they weren't. Jace was with Valentine, again; and Izzy was in Idris, for whatever reason; and Magnus was only the Angel Raziel knew where. But it was still earlier enough in the day that Alec couldn't just sit around and do nothing. He knew that Lydia was being imprisoned at the City of Bones. And that was as good a place as any to start looking into things. And to do that, he needed to start from the top: Aldertree. He would have been the only one at the Institute that would have had any kind of authority to sentence Lydia to imprisonment, but Alec needed to figure out what motives Aldertree would have for doing that. Remembering Aldertree's words from earlier when he had taunted Alec and Clary about Lydia's location, Alec set to work.

S: TMI – ETU – S: TMI

The bow, burning white hot in her hands, slowly raised, a fiery arrow in place. Six posts stood 100 feet away, her friends, her brother, tied to them: Jace... Izzy... Simon... Lydia... Magnus... Raphael. Hot, thick tears fell from her eyes as a light voice whispered in her ear, telling her to let the arrow go free; to let it hit its target- her target. The voice was telling her to kill Jace first. To kill her brother. She could feel a body, warm and solid, mere inches from her back, hands lightly guiding her movements in drawing the string with the bow back. She couldn't do it. She couldn't shoot a flaming arrow at Jace. The voice told her to kill her brother. Closing her eyes, she took a step forward, away from the person standing behind her, aimed the arrow at him instead, and let the arrow fly the short distance. As the arrow hit his chest, he lifted his head with a yell of agony, and she saw his face. The boy from the City of Bones... Sebastian.

She couldn't focus. The images flashed in rapidly slow motion as she started to stir from a restless sleep. The voice, now being recognized as belonging to Sebastian, had told her to kill her brother, but she couldn't shoot Jace. No, not Jace. Jace couldn't be her brother. He just couldn't. It was her Shadowhunter instinct (if that was a thing) that was telling her that Jace wasn't her blood. And it was that same instinct that had led her to shoot Sebastian with the flaming arrow instead. But right before the scene completely faded, the white-hot burning coming from the bow started to burn her hands. She dropped the bow to the grass at her feet letting out a scream.

S: TMI – ETU – S: TMI

Clary sat up, frantically looking around. She didn't know where she was, but suddenly Alec was there, saying something, and it was at that point that Clary realized that she was still screaming. Taking deep breaths, Clary tried to stop screaming and to listen to what Alec was saying. It wasn't too hard... he was only saying her name and asking if she was okay. Not trusting her voice, Clary shook her head. With a sigh, Alec sat down on the bed by her legs and tentatively rubbed her leg in what she could only assume was supposed to be a comforting manner. It took a few minutes, but after some more deep breaths, Clary felt like she would be able to tell Alec what happened.

"I'll be fine Alec. It was just a nightmare." Clary said in a small voice.

"Clary, that scream sounded like you were being tortured in your sleep." Alec commented after a moment.

"Just my subconscious playing horrible tricks on my mind." Clary replied with a shrug.

"Are you sure that's all it was Clarissa?"

Alec was on his feet and standing in front of Clary in a blink of an eye, his seraph blade pointed straight at Sebastian. The more Clary looked at him, the more she lost what her nightmare was about. Usually that wouldn't have bothered her, but that's not how nightmares worked. They stuck with you while dreams slipped away. But no, what she had seen and experienced in her nightmare couldn't have been a dream, could it? No. It had to have been a nightmare. But then, why was it rapidly leaving her head the longer Sebastian stared at her, and she at him, both staring at the other around Alec.

"How did you get in here Verlac?" Alec asked.

"Not important Alexander. What is important is that Clarissa answer my question. Are you sure that it was just your subconscious playing horrible tricks on your mind, dear girl?" Sebastian asked again.

"That's none of your business Verlac. Now answer my question. How did you get in here?" Alec snapped.

"This isn't your apartment Alexander; you have no say on who does and doesn't get to come in. How do you know that I haven't met Magnus before, and he gave me permission to stay here if I were to ever be in New York? You are still only starting to explore your relationship with the Warlock. There is still so much about him that you don't know. It could take years to find out everything. After all, he is a few centuries old. It could take you centuries, centuries that you don't possess, to learn everything about him. Which could really put a damper on the relationship. Not that it matters really. Magnus Bane isn't going to be around here any time soon, so you might want to resign yourself to the fact that you aren't going to be getting to know him." Sebastian said with a smirk.

"Go to hell Verlac." Alec said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, I've already been there. It's quite nice." Sebastian replied and with that he was gone.

"By the Angel I hate him." Alec muttered under his breath as he turned back to Clary. "You sure you're going to be okay Fray?" He asked when she saw her blank stare stuck on the spot where Sebastian had just been standing.

"I think my nightmare had something to do with him." Clary said slowly as her eyes moved to look up at Alec. "I just can't remember what it was about anymore." She finished.

Alec watched Clary closely as she continued to stare at the spot that Sebastian had been standing in. The longer she stared, the more confused she seemed to be. Finally, Alec had had enough and snapped in front of her face to get her out of her daze.

"I think I found a way to save the others." Alec said as he sat back down on the bed.

"Where are we?" Clary asked.

"Seriously?" Alec asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, Alec, I don't remember where we are. I remember us waking up to an empty Institute, and then going to the City of Bones to try and save Lydia, but I don't remember much after that." Clary said giving the older Shadowhunter a confused.

"Clary... we're at Magnus' apartment. We came here after that jackass was waiting outside the City of Bones for us." Alec replied after a few minutes.

"But Magnus isn't a jackass..." Clary replied slowly.

"I wasn't saying that he was... I was talking about Sebastian." Alec said, trying to refrain from asking the girl if she was losing her mind at the thought of Jace being back with Valentine.

"Who's Sebastian again?" Clary asked.

"What the hell is wrong with you Clary? Sebastian was just here!" Alec exclaimed.

"Alec... I think someone is messing with my memory. But it's different than last time." Clary said as what she was feeling hit her.

Clary knew she had felt like this before. It felt vaguely like all the times that Magnus had taken her memories of the Shadow World while she was growing up. But at the same time, it didn't feel anything like those times. This was clearly different, and it had something to do with the guy... the one that Alec had mentioned... the one whose name she couldn't remember even though he had just said it. This was not going to help them in saving their friends.