Hey everyone! I know, two updates in one week! I'm on a roll! I actually finished this chapter (along with an extra part of 1,066 words that I decided to put in the next chapter instead) back on Wednesday, but this week has been so chaotic, I haven't had a chance to re-read and edit it until now. Sorry about that...

So, I took a little creative liberty on this chapter. It's all still canon, and stuff, don't worry, but I did delve into a side of Magnus that was never actually addressed in any of the books. I've put a lot of thought into it and I have to admit, I'm proud of it, but it is definitely an interesting perspective to have on our favorite warlock. And, if nothing else, I hope you agree!

Enjoy :)

Clary sat in the library of the Institute, exchanging looks and hidden amused smiles with Simon, who sat in the chair across from her, while Izzy and Jace bickered with each other in between them. She didn't know what the disagreement was about anymore, or even how it had really even begun in the first place, only that it was still going on still getting the two of them absolutely nowhere. She hadn't been paying attention to the conversation prior to it, partly because Jace had been sitting beside her with his arm around her, and also because her extreme lack of sleep in the days following the demon attack made it hard to focus on much of anything anymore when she wasn't up and moving around. If she hadn't known before, she was now becoming very well acquainted with the definition of the word tired, and she didn't care for it very much at all.

Maryse sat, working, at the desk on the other side of the large room, ignoring them all completely.

"How do you manage to get your way every time?" Isabelle demanded of her brother. The two had taken to standing for the argument, having abandoned their previous seating in favor of the middle of the area for their face off.

Jace smirked, amused at Isabelle's frustration. "Easy," he answered coolly, "I have a dazzling personality," he snuck a glace beside him at Clary at the reference, "God-like looks, and a knack for getting what I want. It is a fact that is both a blessing and a curse…though I've yet to find a basis for the latter part."

Isabelle only rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and left them there, lingering for a second, before focusing again and leveling him with an annoyed glare. "You're so full of-"

"Well you all are as much fun as ever," A voice interrupted dully, one that instantly silenced the argument and had Clary whipping around in her seat, jaw falling open in shock. "I can see you all are absolutely beside yourselves in concern for me. Thanks for that." There was a beat of stunned silence. Clary was the first to break it.

"Magnus," she breathed in disbelief, eyes wide.

The warlock stood, leaning casually in the doorway as he watched them, looking slightly pale, lacking in glitter, and in need of a haircut, but worlds better than the last time she'd seen him, which had been the day he'd first become sick (Alec hadn't allowed visitors after that, and Clary would never have disrespected Magnus' privacy like that anyway). Alec stood next to him, looking not quite over his own obvious astonishment. He looked like he couldn't decide whether to laugh, cry, or give in to his shock completely and just pass out. "Hi'ya Biscuit," Magnus replied, unabashed, and walked further into the room. Alec followed and threw himself down in the nearest chair.

Clary snuck a glance back at the others, all of whom were still frozen in their various states of surprise, including Maryse, who had stood from her seat at her desk and was staring, open-mouthed. "How… when did you…?" Clary didn't know which question to ask first, or how to coherently form a single one of them.

"Wake up?" Magnus supplied, "About ten minutes ago." He seemed oddly cheerful for someone who was supposed to have just been dying. But then again, he was Magnus. He continued, "But that's not important. Sit down, all of you. You'll want to hear this." His tone, suddenly serious and commanding, left no room for discussion. Isabelle and Jace took their seats with no further dispute. "I think I may have figured out a way to defeat my father."

There was another moment of silence. It was Jace who broke it this time. "Go on."

"First, you need to understand how a warlock's mind differs from that of a human, or even a Shadowhunter or other Downworlder for that matter."

"How is that relevant?" Maryse, who had wandered closer, asked, her tone merely curious, not accusatory.

"Believe me, it's relevant. All warlocks' minds are divided into two parts. As we are half human and half demon, the same is true of our minds. Mine, as well as every other warlock's, has two very differing parts that make up the whole: a human half-what we get from our human parent, and a demon half-from our demonic parent. And this can happen because warlocks are born what they are, and not changed later in life like with a vampire or lycanthrope.

"When we are born, these two parts are very separate and distinct and the human part has the most control over the mind as a whole, allowing for a very human-like child, aside from the obvious physical characteristics that label us as different from the start. For the first few years of life, the human side of the mind rules because the demonic part only grows with knowledge. Meaning, only after a certain age is reached, and with it, a certain intellectual level, can that demon side of the mind begin to grow and take shape, as overall intelligence increases, with common sense, among other things. Powers develop, judgment is clouded, and most of the time, conscience is overruled by its own evil, demonic nature.

"As a warlock gets older, however, and becomes one with its magic, begins to get a handle on it as a whole, this forces the two parts of the mind together, as the human, logical side collides with the untamed, powerful beast that is its other half, in order to restrain it. The longer the warlock does this and the better it gets at it, those two parts of the mind begin to fuse closer and closer together, like an intricate puzzle, until, eventually, they become almost like one." Magnus stopped talking for a minute, maybe to let them all digest what they'd just heard. After a while though, Clary began to wonder if that really was all he'd had to say and, if so, what it really did have to do with anything. She was just about to speak up, when Simon beat her to it.

"And that's what happened to you," he said, "You mastered your powers and the two parts of your brain combined into one?"

Magnus nodded. It was another few seconds before he spoke again. "My father only has control over the demonic side-his side-of my mind, and even then, only to an extent because this isn't his dimension. When he first attacked me a few weeks ago, back when this all began, he only got to that part of my mind because it was the only part he could get to. The reason it affected me as much as it did was because of just how closely fused the two parts have become over the centuries." He paused again, taking a breath before continuing. "You all thought I was in a coma all that time, and I guess I was in a sense, but not in the way you'd think. During that time, my body was so dead to the world because my mind was that much more alert…" He trailed off again; letting that, too, sink in. He met Clary's eyes then, as if he knew she was close to getting it.

And then it clicked. "Wait…" she said, mulling it over once more in her lingering doubt. If she was right, it would at least answer the first of her questions, how he was so alive and well in the first place if he was under as great an attack as he was.

Magnus was already nodding. When he spoke a second later, confirming her suspicions, his voice was quiet. "It took me three weeks to separate the two. I didn't know it could actually even be done until I tried it." He shrugged, but shuddered slightly despite himself and Clary got the feeling that the process hadn't been a pleasant one. "That demonic part of my mind is still writhing in pain somewhere, but I've gotten far enough away from it now that it hardly affects me anymore. This," he gestured to himself, "is the completely human part of me. Being separated from that other half though, also means that I'm separated from my power. Right now," his tone dropped slightly, "I'm not much more useful to you than a mundane." He said the last word like an obscenity, clearly unhappy about it. "I couldn't do magic for you like this if my life depended on it."

Clary let that sink in, stealing a glance across the room at Alec, who sat, watching Magnus with wide, faraway eyes as he processed what all of this meant for him. It was clearly his first time hearing any of this as well.

"Being a mundane isn't so bad," Simon said.

Clary nodded her agreement. "Simon took out a greater demon while he was one."

Magnus set the two of them with a Not Helping look. "I'm talking about a normal, useless mundane. You two were Shadowhunters, even then." Simon looked sympathetic, if not slightly gratified with that answer.

"Sorry," Maryse said, not sounding it, "But I still don't see what this has to do with your father, or with helping to defeat him."

"I was getting to that part. This story has many layers. Like an onion." Magnus answered.

"Ah," was her only response.

"Anyway," Magnus continued, "This is the tricky part. There's a chance, not a great one, but better than anything else we've got, that we can use that other part of my mind against my father, since, technically, it is a part of him as well."

"How would you do that?" Isabelle asked.

"I need to speak to Catarina before any official plan is made, so I won't go into great detail because they aren't all worked out yet, but my thinking was this. Any powerful demon is going to require a sacrifice of some kind as a requirement for leaving you alone. We already know what my father's idea of an appropriate sacrifice looks like." Clary shuddered his words and Jace put his arm around her. "But, back in Edom, when I was willing to give up my immortality to get you all out of there, he seemed to deem that an appropriate offering before Simon interfered, and its possible something like that, on a slightly more complicated scale, would work here." Halfway through his last sentence, Alec's head had snapped up and he had stared at Magnus with wide eyes. Clary wasn't sure where exactly Magnus was going with this, but if her thoughts were anything close to it, she wouldn't like it. And from the looks of it, Alec was thinking the same thing.

"What are you saying, exactly?" Alec asked, his reservations about the answer obvious in his voice.

Magnus met his eyes and held his gaze for a moment before answering. Some kind of silent communication passed between them. "I'm saying, I think it may be possible to do that again, give up my immortality. Only this time, rather than offering it, we'd force it on him." There were a few soft gasps as the truth of his words registered with everyone.

Alec shot to his feet so fast, the chair he'd been sitting in slid backward about a foot. "Magnus!"

"Alec, it's the only way-"

"You'll die!"

"I have to-"

"No, you-!"

"Magnus is right," Jace interrupted, his voice so quiet, Clary was surprised he'd been heard over his parabatai's yelling, and even more so that it had stopped it. It was the first time he'd spoken since the start of the conversation.

"What!?" Alec turned on Jace now.

"Alec-"

"Don't 'Alec' me! You have no idea what you're saying! You're not the one who would lose on this deal! You're not the one who would lose the person that means the most in the world to you! You-"

"Alec," Magnus interrupted.

Alec stopped, and when he spoke again, his was the voice of a broken man. "What?"

"Don't blame this on Jace. It isn't his idea."

Alec's jaw clenched and loosened once in obvious pain before he spoke again, his tone angrier. "You're right, it's not. It's yours. And I'm not going to sit around and listen to you plan your own death because of some whim that probably won't work anyway." With that, Alec turned on his heal and stalked from the library with six pairs of eyes trailing after him as he did.

Silence reigned for a solid thirty seconds, and Clary didn't know what to think. Part of her wanted to cry because no, Magnus couldn't give up his life for them, that wasn't how any of this was supposed to work. The other wanted to be mad at Jace for taking Magnus' side on the matter, but she couldn't do that either, because, deep down, she knew he was right. Because what Magnus wanted to do, whether it worked or not, was for the right reason and was the best hope the rest of them had at coming out of this thing alive. And if Jace knew anything, it was sacrifice. Mostly, she just longed for something, anything, else that would fix this; something that wouldn't result in more loss or pain for any of them. All of her was just so sick of it all.

Magnus stared out the door where Alec had fled before facing around again and turning his face down to the floor with his eyes closed. He stayed that way for a few seconds before looking up again. He sighed. "I'll be right back," he said, before turning toward the exit and heading out the same way Alec had gone, leaving the rest of them to stare at each other in shocked, anguished silence.

Sooo? What did you think? I'd really love to hear your feedback. What could happen from here, will he make it, will he not? What do you think? I'd like to know. :)

Thanks for reading, and, as I pointed out earlier, chapter 15 is already about half-way finished from what I cropped out of this chapter and moved to that one, so hopefully that should be up pretty soon.

Review!