ICraveYou: In Sebastians defense, you don't know if he lied yet lol As for Jace, keep reading to find out!
musicrules1923: Oh, you thought the Sizzy-Stuff was in the last chapter? Hmmm... keep reading ;)
ilyreid: You're right, I don't think he could forgive himself if he did.
RonaldGarcia91: lol Sorry, you just lost a bet. I have never watched a single episode of Grey's Anatomie. (Hospitals creep me out, even in tv lol) I can't wait for the movie either!
Guest: Thanks :)
Bluedreamcatcher99: Wow, thank you :D

Okay, so here goes Chapter 12. Enjoy (or something like that... you'll see what I mean)

CITY OF CRYING ANGELS
chapter twelve: Jace' Assignment

Magnus froze when he felt the energy in this place changing. It was hard to explain how he knew, because he still didn't see or hear anything but his own steps and breath (and occasional swearing) but he knew something had changed. And he knew exactly what. Daddy was home. Fallen Angels didn't open doors, shouting 'Honey, I'm home!' they simply appeared. Magnus had to admit - that was classy. If anything he might have his sense for style from his father, although he was not, and would never be, willing to actually admit that.

"My son."

The voice was nothing but a creepy sound, to everyone else this might as well could have been someone scratching on a chalkboard, but Magnus' mind was able to make out words. It was a very ancient demon language, his father had basically implanted this knowledge inside his head. However, he refused to reply in the same language. Mainly because his vocal cords would not be able to stand more than two words. He wouldn't be able to speak for weeks and considering how beautiful his voice was, he could not take it away from the world for that long.

"Obviously." Usually he would have come up with some feisty comeback but with his father, he couldn't. He didn't even want to. All he wanted was to get this over with as fast as possible and get back to Alec.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Everything around Magnus was still dark. He imagined his father had somehow managed to get his body even more misshaped and he didn't want Magnus to see it.

"Information. You have it, I need it."

A moment of silence.

"Why should I help you?"

Magnus' mouth formed a half smile. "I'll write you a card on father's day." No reply at all. Magnus could feel the presence of his father slightly vanishing and added quickly: "Wait! The Story you once told me. About the Tears of an Angel being about to restore the natural order of things. Is it true?"

The presence neither fainted, nor did it get stronger. Magnus took that as a good sign.

"You speak to me in the tongue of the unworthy and demand information?"

"A simple yes or no will do. That's barely information."

"That", he could hear his father getting upset. "is one of the greatest secrets no one should ever discover. I will not tell you so you can share this delicate information with the ones with the Angel's blood running through their veins."

"Have you been spying on me?"

"Spying is beneath me. I know how you feel about one of the Nephilim, I have known the moment you have entered this dimension. Everything you feel, everything you know, I know it."

Magnus didn't say anything.

After a while his father continued "You knew this before you came here. It is why you have not wanted the Nephilim to come."

Magnus snorted. "I sure as hell wasn't going to provide you with every bit of information that's in his head." Which was a lot, especially about the Shadowhunters. Being one himself, Alec would always know more about them than any demon would, even Magnus. This knowledge in the wrong hands could be dangerous.

"And yet you still want my help?"

"Hardly. I want you to tell me what I want to know and then I'm gone."

There was a very... very long moment of Silence – Magnus had just started to wonder if his father had fallen asleep – he replied: "It is true. But the Vampire has pointed out what is also the truth... you will not be able to obtain tears of the Fallen. We are able to create tears and yet none of us ever has. For there is nothing on any dimension we are sad about."

Magnus clenched his teeth. He would have loved to tell him that he was wrong, that there was a way to get what they needed, but deep down (which actually wasn't that deep) he knew that his father was right. "Then tell me another way. Isabelle can't stay this way."

Silence.

"Father... tell me."

Nothing.

"TELL ME!"

Finally, he replied. But it wasn't what Magnus had wanted to hear.

"There is none."

: : : : : :

Alec had never had such a headache. He had often been hurt but the instant he gained consciousness again he remembered who had hit him and it hurt even more.

Jace! He still had to be here! It took him a lot of energy but he managed to open his eyes and realize what situation he was in. Jace had used the chains Luke possessed to chain him to the wall, but there was no sign of Jace himself.

Maybe he was already gone? What had he come here to do? With a million questions in his mind Alec got up and tried to free himself from the chains, but it didn't work.

"Careful."

He jerked as Jace walked back into the room. "They'll hurt you if you try to get free."

There was no mocking in his voice, he actually sounded concerned that Alec was going to hurt himself. "I'm already hurt, thanks to you."

Jace frowned. "I said I was sorry. Parabatai's are supposed to forgive each other when they apologize, you know." He sounded so much like the old Jace, the real one, and yet he wasn't.

"I have always forgiven you, no matter what crazy situation you have gotten me into. I would even forgive you if you were yourself... I would forgive the real you everything. But you're not him."

"I really wished you'd come around. Clary did."

Alec snorted. "I'm not Clary."

"Yeah, I noticed. No offence but she's hotter than you are. Besides, you don't have red hai-"

It was too much having to stand here and listen to Jace being all himself and not being himself at the same time. He didn't even let him finish his sentence. "Why are you here?"

Jace was silent for a moment, before she said: "He says that sooner or later you are going to try and take her away from us again. Isabelle. And I agree with him."

Of course you do, you're his puppet. Alec thought but Jace actually was right about this... they were trying to get Isabelle back, but not just her – Jace as well. "She's my sister." he said, clenching his teeth. "I need her."

"She's also my sister... and you hate Sebastian so much that we can't exactly work out a system where you get her every second weekend of a month and every third she stays with us. Besides, she has made her decision. She's with us now."

"No she didn't! She's possessed! You didn't bring Isabelle back with you, you brought Lilith!"

Jace shook his head in disbelief and also sadness. "You really can't stand the fact that she made up her mind, can you?"

Alec looked at his Parabatai for a while before he said: "If she truly had made up her mind, she herself, I would try and respect that. I would." He didn't think he'd manage to be okay with such a thing but he'd at least try, because he loved his sister. "But I already told you that the girl you have brought to Sebastian isn't Isabelle." his voice was calm this time and he hoped he could be able to reach Jace that way.

"Enough talk." Jace sighted. "Where is he?"

"Who?"

"Don't toy with me. You know who I mean... and the sooner you tell me the sooner I can let you out of these chains. I really hate to see you like this."

While mumbling "I'm so sorry for you", he thought about Jace' words until it hit him. Simon, he thought. Jace was here to kill Simon. It only made sense, Isabelle was in love with Simon and Lilith was suffering from the echo of that emotion... Magnus had been wrong. Lilith would not avoid killing Simon, she'd want to get him out of the way so that he wouldn't be a distraction. They must have figured out a way around the Mark of Cain. Or – Alec thought in shock – maybe Sebastian was going to kill Jace with this and not Simon? Now that he had Lilith, would he need Jace any more? Did he send him on a suicide-mission?

"You're here to kill him." he shared his theory with Jace who couldn't meet his eyes anymore and looked away.

"Look, I'm not exactly happy about this. But it has to be done." he looked up again. "So. Where is he?"

Alec thought about Simon, sleeping in one of the rooms, completely helpless if Jace found him. Of course, there wasn't much he could to when he was awake either. He was a Vampire but, no matter how much Sebastian controlled him, Jace was still the best Shadowhunter of his age. Simon wouldn't stand a chance. Hell, even Alec wouldn't stand a chance... as if he needed proof to that he felt his wrist hurting from the chains.

There wasn't much he could do right now but he could to one thing: Lie. He had gotten pretty good at it, considering how easily he lied to Magnus about his meetings with Camille. Speaking of... she might be just what he could use right now. "He went through a portal. Simon went with Magnus. They're going to meet with Camille Belcourt. We... we wanted to check if she would join us in the fight against Sebastian."

Jace surveyed him, obvisouly trying to figure out if he would trust his words. "Why aren't you with them?"

"Camille used to date Magnus. He didn't think it would be wise if I came... Magnus was going to go alone, but Simon's a vampire. Camille approached him before, we thought he could try and convince her." While he was surprised by how convincing he sounded right now (Magnus would never believe he could lie that good) his facial expression remained steady.

"Very well." Jace said after a while and seemed to believe him. Alec's relief didn't stay long, because Jace threw himself on the couch, saying "I can wait."

"You're going to die, if you try to kill him. You know that, right?" Alec asked, hoping the thought of dying would at least hold back this Jace. There had to be at least one personality of Jace which would be afraid of dying.

But he didn't get an answer to his question.

: : : : : :

"Simon! We can't lose any more time, WAKE UP!"

"Yelling doesn't help to wake someone up, Izzy!" Simon thought about his words. "Or, I guess it does, but only if you do it from outside the actual dream."

Isabelle sighted and ran her hands through her hair. "This can not be happening..." She was starting to panic and Simon really couldn't blame her.

It was quite ironic that he had to fall asleep to get warned about what would happen... only to find himself incapable of waking up again, to prevent it. "I can't help it... I'm exhausted. I don't think I'd wake up if someone threw me into a swimming pool filled with blood."

"Well, in that case we're going to have to wake you up from in here." She went to her window, opened it and stuck her head outside. "This should work..." She turned around and said: "Jump." Isabelle actually sounded proud of herself for having come up with this. She seemed to consider this a genius move.

Simon blinked. "Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

"Iz... this is going to hurt like hell."

"It's just a dream, you won't really get hurt. But the physical drama could wake you up." she said matter-of-factly.

"I'll still feel the pain!"

Isabelle looked at him with a stern expression. "Do you want to avoid feeling pain or risk dying for real? Because I assume the missing Mark on your forehead in here is missing on the real you as well?"

Oh, so she'd noticed. He hadn't even told Magnus and Alec about that yet. Everything had been so crazy he hadn't even had time to think about all the things he wanted to tell Isabelle... everything that was on his mind. And his heart. But right now he was still in shock about all of this, all he could do was nod.

"Wow. That's amazing. How did you get rid of it?"

"The Angel took it away."

"What? Why?" she then shook her head. "No, we don't have time for this... just... wake up, get everyone out of that house and then come back and tell me... everything."

Simon hesitated for a moment but then walked up to the window. When he tried to take Isabelle's hands she pulled away. "Simon, don't" she said. "Lilith doesn't know I'm here. Yet. But if you touch me, I... I'm afraid it will trigger so... much... she might notice what I'm doing." Her eyes were shiny as she looked up. "As much as I want you to" she slightly shook her head and Simon could tell how hard it was for her to say these words. "you can't touch me."

It took him a while but eventually he nodded. "Okay. I won't. But I am going to say what I need to say because we don't know what's going to happen once I wake up." If he woke up and didn't spend the rest of this dreams lying on the ground as a pancake. "We don't know if I'll be able to come back again, so listen to me."

"Simon-"

He didn't let her finish. "Before I met you I was convinced I knew how it felt to be in love. I didn't. I never loved Clary the way I love you. People say Vampires don't need anything to stay alive besides blood. But that's not true, not for me. I need you. I will always need you." A rear ran down Isabelle's cheek. "I don't know what I'm going to do once you're gone. But I do know that this day is going to be far far away. You will not die because of any of this. I will make it out of the house, Alec will make it out and Magnus will make it out. And we will figure out a way to exorcise that demonic bitch out of you. I don't know how but I'm going to make it happen."

Isabelle looked like she wanted to reply but was lost for words. Finally she said: "Simon, I... I..." she frowned and closed her eyes. "Don't make me say it." She opened her eyes again. "If I do, I... I don't think I will be able to go back and seeing Lilith controlling my body. I don't think I'd be able to be apart from you without being destroyed by it."

Suppressing his disappointment he nodded. He understood. "But... you do... don't you?"

Breathing hard Isabelle nodded. A nod, that meant the world to him. He reached out for her face and when she didn't pull back he stopped right before it. In his mind his hand lay on her cheek and he leaned down to kiss her, but he knew he shouldn't. He pulled back his hand and crawled out of the window.

One last time he turned toward her. She had wiped off her tears but couldn't help new ones from coming. "I'll be back. And... you'll be back. And then we're going to watch Terminator and you're going to understand why I chose these words." Isabelle silently laughed and Simon smiled at her.

Then he jumped.

: : : : : :

"This is getting boring." Jace complained.

Alec grunted. "I'm not having much fun myself." He was still chained to the wall and it started to really hurt. Every bit he moved the sharp edges of the chains chafed his wrists.

His plan to protect Simon might have worked so far, but it was bound to fail at some point. Either when Simon woke up or when Magnus came back alone and by then he'd better have a Plan B. Simon and him were never going to be best friends but he certainly didn't want him to die. After all, considering how Isabelle acted when it came to him it was pretty much possible that Simon would one day become his brother in law – if Isabelle would return to normal and if they found a way around the whole Shadowhunter-Downwordler-Difficulty.

And then it happened. Sooner than Alec was ready a portal opened again and Jace was back on his feet in no time, drawing out his Seraph Blade. He said it's name and Alec was bound to watch the blade coming to life. Alec had always thought the glowing of a Seraph Blade was calming, reassuring. Now it was scaring the hell out of him.

As if it weren't enough the door sprang open and Simon stood in the living room, looking exhausted and panicked. Before anyone could do or say anything Alec said: "Jace stop! You don't have to do this! - Simon, by the Angel, don't just stand there get out of here! Jace is here to kill you!"

Simon frowned.

Jace frowned.

Both turned to Alec, both very confused and in the same moment Jace asked "Simon?" he asked "Me?"

"That's what you thought? Alec..." Jace continued, his voice as careful as if he was trying to balance a glass sculpture through a battlefield. "Why would I want to kill Simon? He's not the threat."

Alec suddenly felt like someone had punched him the stomach. Hard. "But... then..."

As something moved inside the portal time seemed to slow down. Alec saw Simon rushing towards Jace, but he easily fought him off and threw him to the other side of the room.

Magnus stepped out of the portal, already not looking happy, when confusion took over his expression. Right as Alec yelled: "MAGNUS, LOOK OUT!" Jace appeared behind Magnus and ran the blade through Magnus' chest. In his face Alec could see shock, horror and pain before everything got blurry, because tears shot in his eyes. "MAGNUS! NOOOOO!" He tried to break free from the chains more than ever as Magnus fell down on the floor. He was still breathing, Alec could see it, but Jace stabbed him one more time, ignoring Alec yelling at him.

And eventually Magnus stopped moving.

...

I really don't know what to say to leave you with. Believe me, writing the ending of this chapter has been very hard for me. I had to force myself to keep going. I am just as scared as I am curious to read what you think about this chapter...
(Oh, and: Please don't yell at me. I feel bad enough as it is.)

I'll try to update soon.