Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over The Mortal Instruments or Buffy, unfortunately :(

Authors Note: Ghosts is an appropriation of the Buffy episode I Only Have Eyes For You, as I saw some cool parallels. Whilst not 100% Malec, the most important scenes are Malec and its very Alec dealing with the breakup. I hope you like it. Because it's based on a TV episode the P.O.V is a little wacked.

Ghosts

The music pulsed loudly through Pandemonium. The club was notoriously known for gathering an interesting mix of Mundies, Downworlders and Shadowhunters, teen and adults alike. Isabelle Lightwood and Maia Roberts were to be found in the middle of the dance floor, surrounded by mundane boys, (their boyfriend's Simon Lewis and Jordan Kyle being at the high school with their band to practice for the upcoming Sadie Hawkins Dance), whilst Clary Fray sat at a table in the back with her slightly distracted boyfriend, Jace Herondale, who, whilst she knew was in love with her and usually attentive, kept distractedly sending worried looks towards his parabatai Alexander Lightwood, who stood against the wall at the back of the back of the club looking decidedly glooming.

Alec didn't really want to be here. He would much rather be out fighting demons and hunting Sebastian or Jonathan or whatever his name was, but Izzy had said that that was the unhealthy Jace method of mending a broken heart and that the healthier Izzy method, was to go out and have fun.

"Hey, you alright? You look a little glum." A guy, a cute guy, Alec let himself think, had come to lean against the wall beside him.

"I'm good, this just isn't really my scene."

"Really? That's too bad. We could always get out of here?" The guy raised an eyebrow and Alec would be lying if he said he wasn't tempted, maybe in another time he would have said yes, but…

"That in theory sounds great, but I'm not dating anyone, possibly ever again."

"Oh, well that's too bad, if you change your mind-"

"I won't."

"Okay, well, I better…" The guy stepped away from the wall and melted into the large crowd. Alec chose to leave then, deciding it was about time he went home, where he could brood uninterrupted.

"You bailing?" Jace had come over, apparently after seeing him move towards the exit.

"Yeah, I might shoot for a while and then sack it." Alec answered.

"You've been doing that a lot, shooting and sacking." Clary told him over Jace's shoulder.

"I have fun; I came tonight didn't I?" He asked looking at her imperiously.

"You came, you saw, you rejected. And he was cute Alec… for a mundane." Clary replied in the mocking tone she always used when she referenced the way he used to refer to her as 'the mundane.' "Maybe Izzy's right, maybe you need to date, try being impulsive."

"Last time I was impulsive I made the worst decision of my life, secretly met with my boyfriend's psychotic vampire ex-girlfriend, considered taking away said boyfriend's immortality and acted like a complete ass. My next impulsive move is going to be saved for demon hunting." Knowing they had been defeated Jace and Clary allowed him to leave, exchanging worried glances as he did.

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The girl ran around the corner and into the next hall, as her boyfriend called out after her.

"Come back here! We're not finished!" The boy grabs her arm, stopping her in her tracks. "You don't care anymore? Is that it?" tears begin to slip down her face as she answered him, as though it is too painful for her to say it.
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I feel-"

"Then tell me you don't love me." She stayed silent and he shook her violently yelling at her to answer him "Say it!"

"Will that help? Is that what you have to hear? I don't. I don't. Now let me go!" She tried to yank her arm away but was unable to break his grasp as he clung on not believing her.

"No... A person doesn't just wake up one day and stop loving somebody." He used his other hand to pull an old fifties style revolver from the pocket of his jeans, angry and scared and so in love that he'd do anything. The girl's eyes widened in horror and she struggled again, trying desperately to break free of his grasp.

"Love is forever. I'm not afraid to use it. I swear. If I can't be with you- "

"Oh my God-" She managed to push him away from her and made a break toward a door that led out to the balcony and into the courtyard "No! Please!-" He ran after her and raised the gun to fire.
"Don't walk away from me, bitch!-"

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Jordan Kyle rounded the corner from a corridor to the right and made for the boy with the gun. The werewolf ran runs at the boy, knocking him to the ground, causing the gun to slide out of his grip, skittering down the hall and vanishing from sight. Simon came running up the same corridor and moved over to the girl, still crying. The boy blinked around as if suddenly awakened from a trance.

"What happened?"

"What happened? You just tried to shoot your girlfriend Jack!" Simon yelled, he couldn't believe what he was seeing Jack and Cara had been together since 7th grade.

"This is nuts... I don't know why I - I got so mad..."
"Because you're a jerk?" Jordan says, still pinning Jack to the floor.
"He's not. We weren't even fighting a few minutes ago." Cara said, equally as confused as Jack.
"We weren't. I swear to God..."
"If you weren't fighting - why did you have a gun?" Jordan asked disbelieving.
"I don't know. I - I don't even know where I got it"

"I don't see any gun." Simon said scanning the floor and then exchanging a baffled look with Jordan.

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The following morning, as it was a Sunday and the school would be closed, Simon and Jordan enlisted the help of Izzy, Maia, Clary, Jace and Alec to investigate the school.

"Have you ever thought that he was faking it and is actually a giant dick?" Jace asked, irritated that the vampire was wasting his time.

"I know Jack," Clary began, still unsure of what Simon and Jordan reported happening, "he isn't like that."

"If you say so…" Clary knew Jace was still sceptical, but he had agreed to help so neither Clary nor Simon was going to argue.

"Split up and investigate?" Maia asked, "It's a big school and I don't fancy being here all day."

"Yeah sure, the corridors fork off ahead so we can just branch off." Clary answered.

After breaking off from the group Alec found himself in a short corridor with only three classrooms to check. He walked into the first checking for the usual signs of Demon, Downworlder or Spirit activity, it yielded nothing interesting, nor did the second. However, during his investigation of the third classroom in the corridor, he felt something off, like a sudden change in the air, and found himself suddenly surrounded by people, who had apparently materialised out of nowhere. In front of him, two girls were giggling over a flyer promoting the 1955 Sadie Hawkins Dance.

"I told Mrs. Hall we'd go help decorate the gym. Who are you taking?" One of the girls asked.

"David said yes." The second answered

"You're kidding! He's so dreamy." The two girls ran out of the room giggling and Alec turned his attention to the only two people left in the room, a handsome teenage boy in one of those sport jackets and a pretty, young teacher. The boy handed her a paper and their hands touched briefly as she took it from him.

"Thank you, James. How are you enjoying that book I loaned you? The Hemmingway?" She asked somewhat awkwardly
"I like it. Very much." He answered simply, touching her hand again and moving closer. "It's honest."

"I... Yes. It's based on a true story, actually. He fell in love with his-" She broke of as the door began to open and they quickly pulled away from each other. The two figures dissolved and Alec was alone again in the classroom. He blinked twice, confused as to what the hell was going on in this school and set off to go and find the others again.

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"I'm telling you there's definitely some kind of ghost activity." Alec said after telling the others about what had happened in the classroom.

"Yeah, I was in the principal's office and this Yearbook pulled itself of the shelf and onto the floor" Izzy said.

"I tried to steal a bag of chips from the cafeteria and all of a sudden I was surrounded by snakes, and the chips were snakes!" Jordan exclaimed, clearly horrified that he had almost eaten a snake.

"I haven't seen anything weird." Jace said simply.

"Yeah me neither." Clary added.

"Well," Simon began, "weird flashback things, snake food, self-unshelving books, I'd say that counts as weird." He said opening one of the lockers lining the walls. "Eric still has my super smash bros game." He said in answer their questioning looks. He pulled open the locker and a decaying arm seized the neck of his shirt and began pulling him into the locker. He freaked and started scrabbling to get away while Alec, Jace and Jordan grabbed onto to him and pulled. Clary finally slammed the locker door shut on the arm and it let go. When they opened the locker again, the hand was no longer there. Simon grabbed his game and the seven teenagers quickly left for the institute, this situation called for a better explanation.

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"It definitely sounds like you're dealing with a restless spirit of some kind" Luke was saying as they sat in the institutes library several hours later.

"Poltergeists are actually real? That is so awesome." Simon said smiling at Clary like his birthday had just come early.

"No Simon, not cool, annoying." Isabelle corrected rolling her eyes.

"So why is it here and what does it want?" Clary asked the room at large.

"It doesn't know exactly what it wants. That's the problem. A spirit could be plagued by all kinds of troubles. But, being dead, it has no way to resolve them. So it lashes out, growing more confused, more angry..."
"You seem to be a bit of an expert there Luke." Jordan observed.
"I'm not an expert, I just have a lot of time to read."

"What can we do? Is there any way to stop it?" Clary steered them back on topic

"You would have to figure out what unresolved issues are keeping the spirit here and resolve them." Mayrse Lightwood answered her, looking up from the files on her desk for the first time since the teenagers had entered the institute.
"If only we could find out who this spirit is. Or... was." Jocelyn said looking thoughtful, Mayrse seemed to have had a thought and got up, promptly leaving the room without any further conversation.

"Nice of you to share your thoughts with the class." Jace said under his breath staring out after her.

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Late that Sunday night a teacher entered the school hoping to grade some papers whilst she had some free time, on the way in she passed one of the school's janitors, smiling kindly to him as she did so.

Three hours later the teacher emerged from the classroom to leave, running into that same janitor, mopping the corridor outside her classroom.

"Still working, Miss Frank?" he asks politely.

"It's my fault. Let myself get behind. Is it okay to walk here, George? It is... George, right?"
"Yes, ma'am. You go ahead."

"Thanks. You have a nice evening."
"You too. Drive safe." Miss Frank begins to walk away down the hall and George goes back to his mopping. Everything was fine for a moment, before he put down the mop and looked up.

"Oh, Miss Frank?" She stopped and turned back towards him

"Yes?" The air seemed to change, Miss Frank and George both changing with it, as if placed under a sudden spell.
"You can't make me disappear just because you say it's over." He spat in anger.

"There's no way we can be together. No way people will ever understand, accept it-"

"Is that what this is about? What other people think?" he seemed, if possible to get even angrier.

"No! I just want you to be able to have some kind of normal life. We can never have that - don't you see?" She pleaded with him, begging him to understand.

"I don't give a damn about a normal life. I'm going crazy, not seeing you. I think about you every minute-"

"I know. But... It's over. It has to be." She ran around the corner and in to another corridor and he followed calling after her.

"Come back here! We're not finished!" He grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks. "You don't care anymore? Is that it?" Tears began to slip down her face as she answered him, as though it was too painful for her to say it.
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I feel-"

"Then tell me you don't love me." She remained silent and he shook her violently yelling at her to answer him "Say it!"

"Will that help? Is that what you have to hear? I don't. I don't. Now let me go!" She tried to yank her arm away but was unable to break his grasp as he clung on not believing her.

"No... A person doesn't just wake up one day and stop loving somebody." George used his free hand to pull out an old gun from the pocket of his jeans, angry and scared and so in love that he'd do anything. Miss Frank's eyes widened in horror and she struggled again, trying desperately to break free of his grasp.

"Love is forever…"

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Mayrse Lightwood was walking around the high school, a book on communicating with the dead in her hands. She heard a whispery voice in the otherwise silent school and stopped reading, looking around the room for any sign that she was not alone.

"… I need you…" The voice is soft sounding and anyone in their right mind would immediately link it with a woman, but Mayrse is not in her right mind, at least, not tonight.

"Max?" She asked hopefully walking in the direction the voice seemed to have come from. She walked into the next hallway and heard a muffled argument coming from the outside balcony, through the glass door she could see a woman standing with her back against the railing, a man in a janitor's uniform standing between her and the door

"Let's both... just calm down. Give me the gun." The woman had tears in her eyes and Mayrse's years of Shadowhunter training kicked in at the mention of a weapon.

"Don't! Don't do that, damn it!" Mayrse registers the anger in the Janitors voice, threat. "Don't talk to me like I'm some dumb-" There is a deafening blast and the woman looked down at her chest before falling over the railing, Mayrse had no doubt that she was dead. The panicked janitor ran back into the school and Mayrse charges forward knocking him to the ground, the gun skidded across the linoleum and vanished. Then, like the boy the previous night, the Janitor seemed to awake from a trance, confused.
"What - what's going on?"
"What's going on?! You just shot a woman!"

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"It was just like what Simon and Jordan were saying the other night. The janitor remembered the argument and killing this poor woman but he had no idea why, he barely knew her, had nothing against her and the gun just vanished as soon as he let go of it." Mayrse told Luke, Jocelyn and the kids back in the institute library the following morning.

"So definitely a ghost then, probably a pretty violent death too given the strange phenomena surrounding the school." Luke said.

"I think…" Mayrse trailed of as though having an internal argument.

"Mom?" Alec prompted.

"I think it's Max." She was met with silence. "He was murdered, and I've been so busy with everything else and this is his only way to try and get my attention, I'm his mother I should have been there for him." There was a long pause and when Alec spoke again there were tears in his eyes and his voice sounded strained.

"Mum, it can't be Max. He didn't die at the school and Sebastian didn't shoot him."

"That doesn't matter. It's the violence of the thing that matters."

"I don't know. It seems like the fights these couples keep having are sort of... specific. You know?" Clary prompted tentatively.

She's right, mom. The gun, the place... It's like a pattern that doesn't fit with-" Alec paused and sucked in a breathe, obviously trying to hide his pain from his mother and now sobbing sister. "it doesn't fit with the way Max died." He stopped speaking and squeezed his eyes shut feeling the comforting presence of his parabatai grabbing hold of his hand.

"I appreciate your thoughts on the matter, but being a great deal older and wiser, I am quite certain I know what I'm talking about." She replied curtly and marched out of the room yet again.

"Great. Glad to know we have this open line of communication." Jace muttered irritably

"I've never seen mom like this before" Izzy said sitting down on one of the rooms lounges.

"She hasn't allowed herself to grieve yet and this is how she's coping, creating echoes of Max that aren't there, I used to do it with my son, when I though Valentine had killed him." Jocelyn said softly hoping to provide some sort of comfort to the remaining Lightwood children.

"Then we need to sort out this ghost thing stat." Maia said resolutely squeezing Izzy's shoulder. Despite initial tensions over the thing with Simon, the two had become friends in recent weeks. "Can we do a search for shootings at the High School?"

"Yeah, let me just…" Simon trailed off as he booted up the computer on the desk and loaded the internet browser, typing into the search box.

"What do we know?" Clary asked peering over his shoulder.

"It says here that a student murdered a teacher on the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance. The rumour was that they were having an affair and she tried to break it off. After he killed her, he went into the music room and shot himself." Simon answered.

"And you have your poltergeist." Luke told them. "Do you need a hand with it?"

"No there's seven of us so I'm sure we'll be fine." Clary said giving him and her mother a reassuring smile.

"Clary" Simon said suddenly alarmed. "The Saddie Hawkins dance is tomorrow night."

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The seven teens spent the next several hours going through books and internet sites searching for answers. About two hours in Izzy had disappeared saying she had something she needed to do and forty-five minutes later still hadn't returned.

"Where the hell is Izzy?" Jace groaned throwing down his book.

"No clue." Alec said curtly.

"She just took off so she didn't have to do the research didn't she?" Jordan asked.

"No I did not." Isabelle said indignantly marching into the room and slamming a 1955 Yearbook on the desk.

"A Yearbook?" Jace asked.

"This is the year book that 'un-shelved' itself at the school yesterday." She flipped to one of the back pages and pointed to a picture of a young woman. "They have an in Memoriam for the teacher Grace Newman."

"That was the woman I saw in that classroom at the school." Alec told them looking at the picture.

"So who was the guy?" Clary asked, Isabelle flipped through the pages and pointed at a photo captioned James Stanley.

"That was definitely him." Alec affirmed, "He couldn't make her love him, so he killed her."

"He looks so normal in his picture. He was smart, too. He made the honour role." Simon said reading the details in the yearbook.

"Smart?" Maia asked sceptically.
"He killed a person and then he killed himself. Those are pretty much the two dumbest things you can do." Jordan added.

"I know, but... don't you feel kind of bad for them?" Clary said sadly. There was a very pregnant pause before Izzy spoke again.

"Whose ghost do you think we're dealing with? His or hers?"

"Considering how violent it is, I'd say it's his." Jace answered.

"Maybe If we keep researching we can find a way to communicate with him. Find out what he wants." Simon suggested, turning back to the computer.
"Who cares what he wants? We gotta shut him down before some other innocent guy shoots some nice girl and blows his brains all over the music room wall." Alec said irritably going back to the book he was looking at earlier. The others stared after him shocked at the way he was acting.

Several hours later, they emerged from their reading yet again as Simon started speaking.

"Okay, so we're scraping the plan to talk to the ghost it's too violent. Alec's right the time for touchy-feely communication has passed, we only have one option," he paused for dramatic effect, "exorcism."

"That's so cool." Clary said perking up with excitement. "What do we do?" Simon turned the monitor around to show a floorplan of the school and started explaining.

"Okay. See here? The balcony? That's where the original teacher was shot back in 1955 and where Miss Frank died. It's the hot spot where all the bad mojo is coming from. We need to create a Mangus Tripod- One person chants here, in the hot spot, and the other three people chant in other areas of the school - making a triangle. It's supposed to
bind the bad spirit. Stop it from doing more harm."

"I'll take the hot spot. If there's real trouble, it'll probably be there. The rest of you can pair up and take the other three spots." Alec said getting up to go find his gear.

"Why would the one non-partner person take the worst spot?" Simon asked.

"Because I'm the oldest and if you guys get hurt, mum's going to kill me." He said with a finality that told them this wasn't open for discussion.

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"Okay, we all know where we have to be, so we just light candle and chant at exactly midnight." Simon reminded them all of the plan as they stood in front of the school ready to enter.

"So, what if this thing doesn't work?" Maia voiced the question on everybody's minds.

"We run screaming like babies?" He suggested.

"Fair enough, let's do it." Izzy said with fierce determination. The teens entered the school with that same determination, but it did not last long. With a series of echoing booms every exit was slammed shut, effectively trapping them in the building.

"Well, guess there's no turning back then." Clary said in falsely cheery voice.

"Guess not. We better get to it." Alec told them simply.

Isabelle and Simon were to stand in the teacher's lounge. The walk towards the lounge through the eerily silent halls was tense and they kept close together watching for any sign of poltergeist activity. They had very nearly made it to the place they had to be when they heard the bang of a door opening in front of them. They both jumped and Simon let out a, very manly, squeal.

"Isabelle, Simon! What are you doing here?" Mayrse Lightwood scolded from the recently opened door.

"Us? What about you?" Isabelle spoke back incredulously.

"Yes, well. I'm trying to - I think I'm close to contacting Max. You should hurry up and get out of here, there may be some paranormal phenomena if I make contact - you don't want to get in the line of fire."

"Okay, Night." Isabelle said walking off towards the necessary location just ahead, Simon trailing along behind her. When they finally reached their spot Isabelle set up the candle and checked her watch noting that it was five to midnight. She stood back up preparing herself for whatever this poltergeist had planned, when something grabbed hold of her leg and pulled. She looked down to see a decaying blue hand pulling her into the floor as though it were quicksand and she screamed.

"Simon!" He saw Isabelle sinking into the floor and grabbed hold of her arms and pulled as hard as he could, yelling uselessly at the hand pulling Isabelle. Mayrse hearing the screams rushed out of the classroom she was in and raced to her daughter helping Simon to pull her back out of the floor. Once they had managed it the three of them collapsed to the floor, panting.

"Mom," Isabelle whispers breathlessly "Max could never be this mean."

"I know I – it's not him is it?"

"I'm sorry mom."

"It's okay baby, we're okay."

Clary and Simon had been given a girl's bathroom in another section of the school. The room was cold and dark and gave both of them the creeps, although Jace would never admit it. Clary placed the candle on the sink and checked her watch, five more minutes.

"Is Alec okay?" Clary asked suddenly. "No, Sorry, that was a stupid question of course he isn't."
"I think… it's been hard, obviously, especially seeing as he came out and practically made half the clave ashamed to be in the same room as him because he loved the guy, and now..."

"Now?"

"Nothing." Clary new what Jace meant and felt bad for Alec, she knew what it was to need someone to be there and was glad to knew he had Jace. Alec and Clary may not have gotten along at first, but after everything they had been through, she, Simon and the Lightwoods had all become incredibly close. Clary looked back towards the candle and caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror, the skin on her face was black and decayed, like rotten flesh, and she started to scream. Jace seeing that the reflection was not real immediately grabbed hold of her shoulders and shook his girlfriend.

"Clary! Clary it's not real, it's just the poltergeist playing tricks! Clary it's not real." Clary stopped screaming and felt her face with her hands, feeling nothing out of the ordinary and buried her face in Jace's chest for a minute.

"Can we please hurry up and kill this thing."

Over in the Cafeteria Maia and Jordan were staring at a hoard of snakes writhing and twitching on the floor.

"I hate snakes, I hate them." Jordan said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, well, I don't think any sane person like snakes. Let's just hurry up and get this thing over with."

"Are you mad at me for something Maia?"

"No, why would I be mad?"

"You just seem a little distant lately."

"I'm just worried about that message Sebastian left I guess."

"Yeah I guess. We better light that candle, we've only got a few minutes."

Alec was the last to arrive at his assigned spot, having only two minutes to spare, but as he set the candle on the balcony railing, he felt the atmosphere change and was once again accosted by flashbacks of the 1950's. He saw James Stanley and Grace Newman fighting in the hall, heard the gun shot, saw Miss Newman toppling over the railing, James raising the gun to his head and all the while an old 50's song kept playing in the background. He clenched his eyes shut for a second and when he opened they saw two decaying hands grab hold of his shirt, coming face to face with James, decayed and dead locking as he hissed through cracked lips;

"GET OUT" And as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone. The school clock began to chime midnight and Alec swore under his breathe lighting his candle.

At the four points around the school, the teens lit their candles and began to chant in unison,

"I shall confront and expel all evil out of marrow and bone out of house and home never to come here again." The clock stops chiming and nothing happens for a long moment before a sudden gust of wind whips up blowing out each of the four candles. An ominous buzzing sound picked up around the school and a great swam of wasps began to gather within. Almost in unison the teens (and Mayrse) to the entrance and from the building stopping on the street and staring around at each other, confused, defeated and terrified.

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"Well then, we've established that we are definitely dealing with the spirit of James Stanley?" Maryse asked the seven teenagers on their way back to the institute to regroup.

"Yeah, so what do we do? About James?" Isabelle asked.

"He's obviously reliving the night he died. It's common for a spirit to do this – to keep recreating a tragedy. He's trying to resolve the issues that keep him in limbo. What those are, I'm not entirely-"

"He wants forgiveness." Alec interrupts.

"Yes. But when James possesses people they act out exactly what happened that night, so instead he's experiencing a form of purgatory. He's doomed to kill his Miss Newman over and over again – and forgiveness is impossible."
"Good. He doesn't deserve it."

"Alec-" Jace began.
"To forgive is an act of compassion. It's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it." Clary said imploringly.
"No. James destroyed the person he loved the most in a moment of blind passion. And that's not something you forgive. No matter why he did what he did. No matter if he knows that it was wrong and stupid and selfish. He's just going to have to live with it..." Now they'd really hit the issue Jace thought, now they knew why Alec was acting so irritably, because he identified with James, they'd both hurt the people they loved and Alec had hit the stage where he didn't believe he deserved Magnus forgiveness.
"He can't live with it, Alec. He's dead." Simon stated. They were at the instituted by now and Alec stalked up the steps and inside without saying another word.

"Okay... over-identify much?" Maia asked, as Alec's mother and siblings exchanged worried glances.

Inside his bedroom at the institute Alec puts his hand inside his jacket pocket pulling out a folded piece of paper that had not been there before. He unfolded it and realized it was the flyer advertising the 1955 Sadie Hawkins Dance that he had seen the two girls giggling over in the classroom. He puts the flyer down, puzzled as to why it's there and hears a woman's voice from somewhere far off.

"…I need you." He felt a sudden calm wash over him and turned and walked straight back out of his room and then out of the institute and towards the school.

"So what next? Do we go in again?" Clary asked the others. They were once again in the library, trying to come up with a suitable plan.

"Not now. The spirit is too angry. Too powerful... We need to figure out exactly how, and if, this thing can be defeated..." Mayrse replied.

"I'm gonna go get my angst ridden Parabatai and see if I can sort him out then." Jace said in a falsely casual tone. Jace followed the many halls to Alec's room and found it empty. He walked inside and found the flyer sitting on the bed, panicked, he ran back to the library and held out the flyer for the others to see.

"I think he's going back."

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As Alec approached the school the cloud of wasp's parted to let him through, as though expecting him, wishing him to enter. He walked to the corridor and stopped in the place the fight began, as if waiting for the other party, waiting for the fight to happen.

"Funny thing about wasps, they've never really seemed to like me much." Alec would know that voice anywhere no matter how long it had been since he'd heard it, but he couldn't bear to turn around and face him.

"You're the only one. The only person I can talk to."

"Alexander-"

"You can't make me disappear just because you say it's over." An anger washes over Alec, rage that he hadn't allowed himself to feel magnified tenfold by James' presence. Alec was angry, angry because yes he made a mistake but how could Magnus not understand doing something stupid because you're in love? How could Magnus not even give Alec a chance to explain the insanity of what was going on in his head. Magnus, on the other hand, couldn't understand what had drawn him here, didn't know where these words were coming from.

"There's no way we can be together. No way people will ever understand, accept it-"

"Is that what this is about? What other people think?" rage boils in Alec chest, except this time it is far beyond his own.

"No! I just want you to be able to have some kind of normal life. We can never have that – don't you see?" Magnus is pleading with Alec, whoever these words belonged to, they needed him to understand, to appreciate just how hard the situation is.

"I don't give a damn about a normal life. I'm going crazy, not seeing you. I think about you every minute-"

"I know. But…it's over. It has to be." And Magnus left rushing around the corner and into the next corridor, and like every time it had happened before Alec followed calling after him.

"Come back here! We're not finished!" He grabbed hold of Magnus arm stopping him from leaving. "You don't care anymore? Is that it?" Tears began to slip down Magnus cheeks and the parts of them that are still Magnus and Alec recall that day, the last thing Magnus had said, "I love you, not that it matters."

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I feel-"

"Then tell me you don't love me." Alec was crying now and it had nothing to do with James because it was what Alec needed to hear. When Magnus remained silent Alec shook him and yelled, "Say it!"

"Will that help? Is that what you have to hear? I don't. I don't. Now let me go!" Magnus pulled his arm away, but Alec's grip was strong and he found himself unable to break it.

"No…A person doesn't just wake up one day and stop loving somebody." Alec pulled that same old revolver from the pocket of his jeans, where the rational part of his brain knows it had not been moments before. He feels it, that anger and fear and passion that drove James to the edge. "Love is forever. I'm not afraid to use it. I swear, if I can't be with you-"

"Oh my God-" Magnus finally managed to push Alec away and run towards the balcony door, "No! Please!" Alec ran after him raised the gun.

"Don't walk away from me, bitch!" Magnus burst through the door onto the balcony, Alec only a step behind him holding the gun in his shaking hands. "Stop! I mean it. Don't make me." Magnus turned back toward him, terror etched on his face.

"All right, Just…You know you don't want to do this. Lets's both just calm down. Give me the gun." The part that is still Alec knows Magnus is right, knows he doesn't want to do this, but James is in control and he is just so angry.

"Don't! Don't do that, damn it!" He swung the gun wildly in his hand. "Don't talk to me like I'm some dumb-" The gun went off and Alec jumped in surprise not having meant to shoot. He looked down at the gun in horror. There is a red stain blossoming across Magnus chest, just above his heart. The warlock toppled over the balcony and Alec ran backwards through the door and into the corridor. Barely in control, Alec makes the trek to the school music room, moving over to the records and placing one on the old player, the music is eerily familiar, "I only have eyes for you". Alec raised the gun to his own head.

As he toppled over the balcony the part of Magnus' mind that was still him and not Grace Newman took over breaking his fall and beginning to heal the wound in his chest. He stood and walked quickly back up the stairs following Alec's pathway the music room. Alec stood there, gun in hand, angled at his own head. Magnus panicked and walked up to him and grabbed hold of the gun, as he did he noticed their reflection in the glass cabinet door, a pretty woman and a teenage boy he doesn't recognise.

"Don't do this."

"Grace?" Alec turned to face him and they both registered that the name was wrong, foreign, but barely. "But I – I killed you"

"It's not your fault. It was an accident,"

"It is my fault! How could I let this-"

"I'm, the one who should be sorry, James. You thought I stopped loving you. But I never did. I loved you with my last breath." Alec let out a sob tears pouring down his cheeks. "Shhh, no more tears." Magnus kissed Alec and it was loving and tender and sweet, and the trance is broken. James and Grace are gone, have moved on and its finally just Alec and Magnus. Alec broke the kiss in shock and pushed Magnus, backing away. Magnus, shocked and confused fled the room, running from the school, only stopping several block away when the effort of healing had become too much. He slid down the nearest wall and sat trying to make sense of everything that had just happened.

Alec, alone and feeling worse than he had in weeks, left the school out that same front exit, barely registering that the wasps had disappeared, barely acknowledging his family and friends out the front as they barraged him with questions.

"What happened Alec?"

"We heard a gun."

"Who else was there." Alec ignored the questions and squeezed his parabatai's shoulder. Jace, understanding, gave the others a look that told them to hang back and stop asking, Alec would explain later, right now, he just needed to be alone.

TMI-TMI-TMI-TMI-TMI

Jace entered the room and sat down next to Alec, close enough that their shoulders were touching, close enough for Alec to draw strength from him if he needed to.
"Are you feeling any better?"
"He picked me. I guess I was the one he could relate to. He was so sad..."
"At least they're at rest now."
"I thought I was getting over it, at least a little, but, now I just don't know."
"It'll happen Alec, time heals all wounds and all that shit."
"Maybe…"

Authors Note: Sorry this wasn't up yesterday, I had a massive power outage, so you get two today instead.