(( Disclaimer:Wow, it has been a little while since I have updated this story! I sort of ran out of my initial momentum, I guess. I'm trying to get it back now, though. I had/have so many plans for this story! Even a sequel. So you know the drill. I don't own The Mortal Instruments universe or any characters/plot lines indigenous to it. I do, however, own the plot line here, the writing itself, and any original characters I insert into The Mortal Instruments universe. This chapter was both fun and frustrating to write. I hope you guys are enjoying this story. Feedback is the best, so as if you like what you read please leave a review so I know what's on your mind! :D And now, ... enjoy! ))

"Would you have me
False to my nature? Rather say I play
The man I am."

- Coriolanus ( III, ii, 14)

Jace sprung forward to catch Alec as he staggered backwards, crumpling slightly in the blond boy's arms. "I'm fine, I'm fine," Alec said in a gruff voice, straightening his posture. He held a hand to the wound, letting the blood pool against his palm. "You'll have to do a rune on me," he spoke without looking at Jace. His eyes were ferociously fixed on a point ahead of them, almost at the end of the hall; Sebastian was on the ground, somewhere in the middle of getting up and brushing himself off, and the young woman was standing across from him, her eyes as transfixed on Sebastian as Alec's were on her. There seemed to be something defenseless and small in the way she stood. Considering the pace of their exchange since she arrived at the Institute, this meekness became instantly suspicious to Alec. He heard Jace repeating something to him, voice growing in pitch, but Alec could not tear his attention from the peculiar scene before him. He absently pushed Jace aside, breaking into a brisk stride as he approached Sebastian and the young woman. The blood had slowed considerably, but his palm was not large enough to contain the bleeding; it had spilled down his shirt, some of it dripping a trail as he moved towards them.

"What's this?" Alec stepped between the two as he spoke.

"I'm confused. What exactly are you asking, here?" Sebastian brushed off the front of his blazer, barely trying to shroud a smirk. He seemed to find Alec's intrusion entirely nonthreatening. In fact, his only concern seemed to be the young woman, as was evidenced by the few steps he took towards her, counterbalancing Alec's attempt at separating them.

"Do you two know each other?" Alec clenched his free hand into a fist. Jace had not been interested in speaking yet; he was too focused on the young woman, but for reasons much different than his dark haired friend. He silently zig-zagged down the corridor, settling comfortably against the wall just a few feet from the young woman's back. From here, he could see everyone's face but hers.

The young woman had not acknowledged any of them. Her eyes stayed on Sebastian, following even his smallest movements. Sebastian distributed his gaze between Jace and Alec as Alec's question went unanswered. Finally, the young woman punctured the silence with a surprising sentiment. "If you protect him, I will help you."

Jace and Alec both betrayed their shock with bulging eyes. "What?" They echoed each other.

"If you protect him," she spoke slowly, gaze still on Sebastian, "I will help you."

Jace laughed, pushing a few thick locks of hair from his face. "Protect him? From what? Himself?"

The young woman's stare finally broke, shifting onto Jace. When her gaze met his, an uncontrollable sensation washed over him, as though he had just been stabbed with millions of tiny, vibrating needles. His blood vessels steamed. He could feel his vision clouding with the memories of someone else. They came like broken reels of film, ranging from a crouched silhouette in the rain to a knife battle on what appeared to be the roof of a gothic church, and for a moment Jace saw the young woman and Sebastian darkened by the shade of a tree, her hand reaching out slowly to meet his. He tried to remember himself, slashing through the images intruding his mind. His hands felt nonexistent, and yet when he glanced down at them there they were, swinging lamely at his sides. "What is happening to me?", he slurred between heavy breaths. The images tossed his focus about, and yet they were cracking, spidery veins expanding from these weakening points, distorting the gothic roof and slicing a line between the young woman's extended hand and Sebastian's smiling face.

"If you protect him, I will help you." The young woman held on for another moment, and then she swept her eyes towards the ground. Jace gasped, taking in a quick breath as though he had been fighting to break his way through to it. His veins quieted, and the pounding in his head subsided. The images seemed to disappear with the quickness of a film snapping, leaving the screen blank. After a second, Jace could not recall what it was that he had seen; he only had the somberness blooming in his gut. "What was that?" He felt more cross and less hazy each passing second.

"You know nothing," the young woman spoke from under a bowed head. "Will you protect him? You are, supposedly, the most dreaded Shadowhunters by all Downworlders, which must mean you have... some... measure of abilities." She paused to raise her head, but her eyes remained on the floor. A smirk flickered across her shadowed face.

Sebastian, who had been quietly watching Jace react to the young woman's gaze, finally spoke up. "I am perfectly capable of protecting myself. Need I remind you all that I severed the wings off an Angel." He hummed the last part, as though it were an upbeat song.

"Do not-" the young woman began, and yet as her eyes seemed to travel across the others' faces her words were swallowed up, perhaps because she was weary of the presence of Jace and Alec. It was unclear to Jace, who had been speculating silently. He felt Alec behind him, and remembered the wound still dribbling out of Alec's chest. He checked a fleeting glance over his shoulder to see if Alec was any paler than normal. Alec noticed the look and he matched it with a waspish one of his own. "Do you just not have your stele? I'm still waiting on that rune." He whispered harshly.

"Yes, that is a pretty nasty cut." Sebastian chuckled. He evened the sides of his blazer with his slender hands, and the light in the corridor seemed to favor the angle of their movements for there was a paranormal quality to the way they handled the fabric. It became quite apparent in that instant how tall he was. As Sebastian took a step towards the young woman, losing the angle of light, Jace noticed something strange about Sebastian. He narrowed in on the silver-haired boy's eyes, and confirmed the unmistakeable glint of color in them. A murky, nebulous sort of green. Distracted by this observation, Jace did not return to comment until Alec's hand collided with his shoulder, stumbling for support. Stiffening his side to help Alec regain himself, Jace partitioned his gaze between the young woman and Sebastian as he let Alec lean on him. "You didn't answer my question. And, to be honest, I don't actually care, because there is no scenario where I will protect this primitive swamp bacteria."

"Bacteria is not primitive. It's elegant." Sebastian waggled his brows.

"Not even for Clary?" The young woman seemed to roll her words out like a thin string of chain, and Jace felt as though he was meant to wrap it around himself. He did not like the frequency with which this young woman was drawing compromise from them and not from her own agendas. It did not seem likely that she would follow through with a promise that went against her entire purpose for showing up at the Institute in the first place. She had been insistent, violent, about how much Clary was "never coming home", in her own words. Jace evened out his breaths. He refused to wrap himself with the possibility of her promise. "You're lying. There's probably a catch. You seemed pretty dead set on the fact that Clary couldn't be helped, earlier, and now-".

"Now I'm telling you I can help you get Clary back if you protect Jonathan. I'm glad you don't care from what. The less you know the better. But, if you agree to this, and anything happens to him, I will personally rip out Clary's heart and deliver it to you still fresh. Do you understand me?"

"Hold on a minute," Alec's pensive tone interrupted them. "Why did you just call him Jonathan?"