"Tell me again why I agreed to bring you along with me?" asked Jon, panting with the effort of running despite the fact no one was chasing them. The streets were eerily quiet, but it was still very likely that someone would spot them and raise the alarm for trying to leave the city undetected.

"Because the Avengers are better than Spiderman; why? Because they're a team that work together and get stuff done"

"You're such a geek, Greenshade"

"You're such a bitch, Trueblood"

"I was joking!"

"Errrrrrr so was I?"

Jon stopped abruptly at the corner of the street which was following by the square leading to the north exit, causing everyone else in the line to crash into the person in front of them like dominos. "Why did we stop?"

"Because if we go out there without being cautious we'll get caught by Shadowhunters on patrol and then we'll all be sent home and I'll be shunned by my family for starting all this and put on trial before the Clave and found guilty of Raziel knows what crimes and I'll be exiled and forced to spend the rest of my life selling my blood to vampires to buy food until I eventually die and end up half-eaten by an army of cats!"

"Don't be silly Jon" offered Sebastian cheerily, "you can come live with me if that happens!"

"As you can see, Horace, my options aren't good"

"Stop being so whiny and just get on with it" Jocasta urged, storming stealthy across the square before any of them could stop her.

Helen didn't like lying to them all, especially when they were about to go on a potentially dangerous journey together that was nothing like anything any of them had ever done before. But she had her reasons; admitting the real reasons why she was doing this were too much for her to say out loud.

Aline had come straight to her after her conversation with the Lightwoods, clearly worried and upset about something that Helen couldn't put down to something ordinary; "I need to talk you about something. Something important" she had said. They'd got upstairs together to Aline's bedroom and sat on the bed, Helen terrified the whole time about what they needed to talk about.

"You know I trust you, more than anyone?"

"Of course"

"I need to ask a favour, but I want you to listen to everything I have to say first"

"Okay"

"About a year ago now, near the time when we first became good friends, I was visited by someone. I don't know who he was but he said that the person he worked for needed my help; I was put in contact with Alexander and Isabelle Lightwood, who have their own reasons for being a part of all this, and needed to give them anything they asked for from my mother's Clave files"

"Aline! How could you?"

"Hear me out. The files they wanted came from a special vault that no one ever goes into, but when by bypassed the protection runes on it and found out some ... stuff"

"What stuff?"

"It was almost like a story. A story about us and our families and everyone we know but ... different; it was us but we were completely different people and the world was a much more horrible place, especially for the Shadowhunters. The rest of the files were the same sort of thing but about our actual lives, and the Lightwoods used it to track someone down in America"

"Who?"

"I don't know his name. Every time they go to see him he acts like he knows them (one of them in particular) and seems to believe that the story, the one where our lives are all different, is the truth"

"But it's not? It's not the truth?"

"Of course not; how can it be? We know what's real about our lives, he's probably just crazy. Although, however gives us our orders keeps asking me to find out where he is by handing over new files and the Lightwoods keep having to go back to question him again. His latest message was something about the missing piece being the circle; does that mean anything to you?"

"Eight"

"What?"

"What?"

"You just said eight in an eerie, foreshadowing voice"

"I swear I didn't, Aline"

"Whatever. I sort of remember something about it being mentioned in those notes but I never got a full read of them and now they've been handed over. My latest mission is to help the Lightwoods release demons in the city"

"You can't do that!"

"I need you to do it"

"No"

"Please! I can show you how to bypass the protection runes but I don't trust anyone else to help me do this. If I don't fulfil the contact's orders, if I fail to do what he says, you'll-"

"I'll what?"

"-die". The silence stretched out past the length and width of the room until nothing could be heard but the beginning of Aline's pained sobs, and Helen's deep breathing at the knowledge of this betrayal. "They're always watching you; the first time that stranger visited me he said that the person he worked for would have you killed if I didn't cooperate. That's what they do! They go after the person you love most!"

"What?"

"They go after the person you love-" Helen didn't care about what Aline had done anymore; she flung her arms around her dainty neck and merged their lips together in a kiss like no other. No boy had ever made her feel the way she did with Aline; she was brought up to think it was wrong to feel this way for another girl, and everyone used to say opposites attract, but they were wrong. It was everything about herself that she saw in Aline, and everything Aline portrayed better, that had brought out a love in her stronger than any words of disgust she could expect to here; her emotions were like an adamas shield, protecting them from any demonic prejudices that tried to tear them apart.

"You- you love me?"

"Of course I do!"

"I love you too!"

"Well then please do me a favour-"

"I- I still c-can't do something like bring demons into the city"

"I know, I shouldn't have asked I'm sorry. But do me the favour of getting as far away from the city as you can. Go into hiding or find a way to fix these problems because I need you in my life, always, and if you go away it'll break me but at least I can put the pieces back together; I couldn't do that if you were killed".

"I'll go; I can find a way to fix this, more both of us and for everyone else" they both laughed, but soon after Aline grew serious again.

"Jon overheard my conversation with the Lightwoods today. Find him, maybe he wants to go and find whoever the Lightwoods have been interviewing in America, heck go with Horace Greenshade if it'll at least mean you're safe!"

"I could easily get others to come with me, if I had the right excuse"

"Then go, please"

"I will". They hadn't broken physical contact the whole time since their kiss; Helen wished it wasn't the last time she would ever kiss Aline, especially now that she knew how symmetrical their feelings for each other were.

"Helen, come on!" someone was shouting, it sounded to Helen like Will. She had been daydreaming about her last conversation with Aline so much that she hadn't realised the others had already crossed the square and indicating that she follow them. "The patrol team will turn around any second"

"I'm coming I'm coming!" she stole one last look at the city she called home, peering over the tops of the buildings until she could just see the tip of the Penhallow's house. If I don't come back, find someone else who'll be proud to fall in love with you, despite convention she thought, hoping that she would come back and resume that role instead.

The group were just outside the city when the first cry of alarm from the patrol team could be heard.