So I just saw Legion today and I'll admit, it was more epic than I'd expect it to be–although it could do better without my snide remarks according to my boyfriend (for example, "wow, if all waitresses in the world who work in bumblefuck towns like Charlie were bearing mini baby Jesuses necessary to save all humanity from the Apocalypse, they definitely deserve a better tip than just 15% tax"). I'd beg to differ on that one, but I'll let it go for now. Anyway, back to the matter at hand. First off, I'd like to–no, love to –thank the two people who have helped me a lot with fanfiction and in general, are really awesome badass mofos you really should get to know better who I think write better than me. Yes, if you haven't figured it out already, I'm talking about Kisstherain14 and Thunderboltsandlightning. No, I didn't pay them to promote my stories or whatever (they offered first! It was a money-exchange-free agreement! -cough excuses cough-), which I found to be very…warming, to say the least. So I'm offering this extra chapter for them, in thanks of what they've done. Cheers to the two of you! And for the rest of you, you all suck. I'm just kidding, without you guys, this whole fanfiction thing would've never happened and I thank all of you for not having social lives so you can spend more time reading these stories than hanging out :) I kid, but in all seriousness, thanks you guys. I digress, so long story short: ENJOY!
"Alec?" Isabelle's voice was laced with concerned. He turned around so that he was facing her; she was sitting on her bed, her knees drawn to her angular chin, her ink black hair pouring down her back like a waterfall. "I really don't think locking them up was a good idea…"
"I don't either," Alec admitted, plucking up a stray article of clothing off the chair near her vanity and dragging it to the bed. He spun it around and straddled it, resting his elbows on the chair's back and cupping his face in his hands. "But I'm so sick of their fighting, I think all they need is time and a place where they can finally settle their differences, and locking them up seems to be a good idea since they now neither of them can have a drama contest to see who has the most impressive storm-out."
"It's not that," Izzy hesitated–something she never did in her life, something that set Alec on-edge. She ran her hands through her hair and began to toy with a knotted strand idly. "It's just…remember what happened two weeks ago? At Magnus' party?"
Alec scrunched up his face as he tried to remember the party…then he did. "Oh, that hedge witch that tried and failed to get Jace to stop harassing her? What about her?"
"She tried casting a spell on him," Izzy whispered. "We all saw it. There were hot pink sparks but when nothing happened, Jace made even more fun of her for being a phony."
"Yeah, but why are you bringing this up now?" Alec asked impatiently. "Just tell me, Izzy. Stop beating around the–"
"I think that maybe whatever spell she cast on him is going to come true tonight," Izzy blurted out. "I've never seen hot pink sparks before so I did a lot of research these past two weeks that linked the sparks to an ancient transformation spell."
Isabelle hopped off her bed and strode over to her vanity, picked up a scrap piece of paper and held it out for Alec. It had a bunch of things scribbled out on all over the page but the words on the bottom stuck out the most:
FORTNIGHT=TWO WEEKS
SYMPTOMS: DELUSIONS LEAD TO DISTRACTION, ERRATIC BEHAVIOR, HOT FLASHES
TRANSFORMATION=IRREVERSIBLE UNLESS WITCH WANTS TO CHANGE IT BACK
CURE=UNKNOWN
"Izzy," Alec's voice was wavering. "Why didn't you show me this earlier?"
"He wasn't showing any signs!" Izzy yelled. "And I just pieced it all together last night."
"Jace is Jace," Alec felt like screaming at his sister for being so stupid, but he knew it was pointless. "He won't show weakness unless he's bleeding his heart out on the floor and even then he'd rather die than show us any sign of pain."
"Then stop yelling at me and take that damn Locking rune off the door," Izzy shot back, but Alec was already moving by the time she finished yelling.
Izzy caught up to Alec right as he withdrew his stele and watched as he completed the rune with a line going straight through its center, canceling it out. Once the door flew open, Izzy and Alec took a hesitant step forward, unsure of what they would find. But what they did find shocked them both down to the very core, rendering them speechless.
A few feet away stood a deformed purple blob that held barely any resemblance to a human at all, but the blond hair that surrounded his feet said it all.
"Jace," Izzy whispered, too weak to raise her voice. "What happened to you?"
A sudden wail alerted the siblings that they weren't alone and their hands went to their weapons simultaneously. But when Izzy spotted a familiar redhead a few inches away from Jace, she grabbed her brother's hand, stopping him from drawing his seraph blade.
"It's all my fault," Clary wailed. "He was trying to tell me something and I didn't let him so he just turned into–turned into…that." She spat the last word and threw an accusing finger at Jace, who twitched in response.
"It's not your fault," he warbled, just barely intelligible. He sounded as if he were talking with his head underwater. "Clary, I don't know how this happened but–"
"But I do," Izzy interrupted, her heart sinking lower into her stomach with every fleeting second. "Jace, do you remember that hedge witch from Magnus' party? The one you kept pestering until she flung some sparks your way?"
Izzy tried to keep the bile down that rose when one of Jace's eyelid-less eyeballs rolled around. "What about her?"
"She did this to you. She cursed you because you kept pushing her buttons. Jace, this was going to happen sooner or later because of your cockiness and look where it got you. You did this to yourself, really."
"Stop talking to him like that!" Clary said defensively, getting up to her feet. "And how do you know all this? Maybe she threw some sparks and that was that?"
"I did my research," Izzy said, keeping her eyes on Jace. "But Jace never told me he was having delusions, seeing things that weren't there that distracted him every now or then. Nor did he tell me that he was being more volatile with his emotions that a girl right before she menstruates. He kept this away from everyone because his ego meant more to him than anything else."
Clary shot a desperate look at Jace, but he didn't look at her. He couldn't; everything Izzy was saying was true and it tore him up inside–and showed on the outside. Unbeknownst to him, every flicker of pain he felt showed up on the paper-thin membrane that kept all his guts in place with a new tear on its surface.
"Jace," Izzy's voice had just a slight tinge of pleading in it. "Please, just listen to me. We need to take you to that witch again. She can help us, can help you. Please."
"And what makes you think she can help us?" he snarled at her. "She was the one who did this to me in the first place, so whatever ideas of begging for repentance you have, you can just roll them into a ball and throw it into whatever you're cooking for dinner tonight. I heard stupidity adds quite the flavor to anything."
"Jace," Clary snapped at him. "She's right; at this point, I'm pretty sure the only person who can help you is that witch…but why not Magnus?"
"Because this is an ancient spell," Izzy said with a hint of impatience. "I've done my research, like I said before. In all the old wizarding books, they all said that this is some sort of evil transformation hex rarely practiced because of its side effects. Only its castor can take it away, but even so the castor must know what he or she is doing or else it can have major fatal blowback."
"Blowback?" echoed Clary, Jace and Alec with identical questioning looks.
"The draining effect of using too much magic," Izzy explained. "Magnus can do pretty amazing things, but how does it make him feel afterwards? Like shit. Because the more powerful the spell, the more draining it is. And for this spell, the blowback is major and if done wrong, can lead to fatality."
"I don't get it," Clary mused out loud. "Why would some dumb hedge witch want to mess with Jace? I mean, he is belligerent"–Clary rolled her eyes when Jace shot her a dirty look–"but not to the extent where your only other option is to cast some sort of ancient spell that could possibly kill you from the blowback. That's like, suicidal."
"Not to mention completely moronic," Jace chimed in. "And maybe it's because she was driven by jealousy and hatred, knowing that there was no way in hell she'd ever get me to be her boyfriend with those warts."
"Jace!" Izzy shrieked. "Right now is so not the time to discuss her skin issues, especially when she's your only way out of this!"
"It's never the time to discuss skin issues, if you think about it," Alec mused. He gave Izzy an apologetic shrug. "But Izzy is right. We need to train you how to kiss up and real fast if we want to stop this…" Alec waved his hand at Jace "…to all go away."
"And fast," Izzy grimaced. "Because aside the fact that you're about as attractive as a Ravener demon turned inside out, I think that this 'transformation' might kill you–if the hedge witch doesn't try to kill you first."
