Sorry for posting this so late, but finals week was a living hell and I barely had time to edit lol. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. I don't want to say much about it, but take it as an intro to what you've all been wating for ;)

Happy reading! See you all next week!

Chapter 11

Alec was at his office sorting through some old cases and trying to analyze which one to take next. The investigation about Valentine, Magnus, and their possible alliance was still open; in fact, a few days ago they had had another attack and the Bureau had linked it to them, but even with everything that was happening they still had to work on other cases. Yes, finding Valentine and solving this mess was undoubtedly their top priority, but there were other cases that required their attention and that they had to try to solve. The world didn't revolve around Valentine, Magnus, or any other criminal for that matter.

"Alec, can we have a word?" Hodge, his boss, asked, knocking on the door and poking his head through it. Alec and Hodge's offices were practically one next to the other.

"Sure, come in." Alec said, setting aside the pile of files he had been examining and waiting for his boss to take a seat.

"Am I interrupting something? Were you working on something important?"

"No, just picking another case from the pile, you know? We cannot let work to accumulate or else the review board is going to kill us when they read the annual report."

"True." Hodge smiled, seemingly pleased with Alec's commitment to his work.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"About Valentine and Magnus, actually."

"Oh." Alec said. It had been weeks since the last time his boss had talked to him about that in private. All reviews on that topic had been in the presence of the entire team of agents from both the D.C. and New York City offices.

"I wanted to know what were your thoughts on the cases. With the attack to the private collector three days ago now we have four cases in which unfortunately innocent people have died. We haven't talked about that recently and, although in front of the others you have refrained yourself from sharing your opinion, I know what goes through that head of yours. I know that you think this person is not and cannot be Magnus Bane, but have you considered, I don't know, that maybe you could be wrong?"

"I'm not." Alec said sure of himself.

"Why are you so sure about it?"

"Because I know I'm not."

"Arrogance doesn't suit you, Alec."

"It's not arrogance, Hodge, I know what I'm talking about, you just don't want to hear it. I've been telling everyone since we had the robbery to the bank that Magnus Bane is not behind those deaths, he's not helping Valentine, but no one wants to believe me. And while we waste our time chasing a simple white-collar criminal, we're letting Valentine to keep laughing in our faces and worse, we're letting the real killer to walk free on the streets."

"You seem very convinced about Magnus's innocence in all this, can I know your foundation for that statement?"

"Experience," Alec said, "I've known Magnus for years, Hodge, not in vain he was my first case. I've been studying what he does and how he does it for half a decade. I think it's safe to say that I know him better than anyone in the Bureau. And that's precisely why I can assure you that he's not the killer we're looking for. The man behind those last four cases is not him—of that, I'm one hundred percent sure."

"Well, so far you haven't been able to prove it, have you?" Hodge said, and Alec noticed that his boss was smiling, as if he found that fact quite entertaining.

"And that's entertaining for you?" Alec asked a bit hurt.

"No, no, no, no, no...listen, Alec, don't get me wrong, you are one of our best agents. I know what you're capable of, I know that you and your team have the highest efficiency record in the New York City White-Collar division, but what you're doing with this case? Hmmm, well, you're not actually helping, you're just making things more complicated. We need you, we need that top agent of our division to solve this case, but you're not doing it. You're focusing on proving us all wrong instead of actually catching this criminal. We've told you this, Magnus Bane is the key to catching Valentine and you've done nothing to help us imprison him. Maybe, if you stopped making this something personal and-"

"I'm not making it personal." Alec interrupted, trying to defend himself.

"Of course you are, I know you, Alec. Don't forget I was your teacher back in Quantico. I know who you are and I know what you think of this criminal. I know that in some kind of way you admire him, and it's okay, we've all been there. The way these people think, the way they act, it's fascinating for us. Criminals represent a mystery and we love mysteries, we wouldn't be agents if we didn't, but it's important to draw a line between what you think of them and what they truly are. I know you think Magnus Bane—that criminal you've been studying for five years—can't be this cold-blooded murderer working with Valentine, but here's the thing, Alec, he's not a good person. He's a criminal. He's done terrible things in the past, why is it so hard for you to believe that he could be responsible for this too, huh?"

"Because not all criminals are the same, Hodge. Magnus, Valentine, whoever you want to name, all of them are different, and yeah, they aren't good people, but we aren't good people either, we all make mistakes, we all have our things. And ultimately, this isn't about believing if someone is good or not, it's about discovering the truth and doing justice, and that's what I'm doing. I'm doing my job and trying to put the people responsible for those murders behind bars, and maybe this will sound redundant, but Magnus is not that person, he's not guilty of those murders."

"Alec, if you keep refusing to see what's there in front of your eyes and accept the truth, you'll ruin yourself and drag your team with you. Don't let this criminal take away everything you've worked so hard for."

"I'm not letting anyone do anything, I already told you, I'm just doing my job. I'm doing what I learned from you, actually. We are special agents and our job is to make sure the law is followed and respected. Yes, Magnus Bane is a criminal, a thief and a forger, and one day he will have to face the law for that, but he's not a murderer. I'm not going to imprison a man and charge him with something he didn't do just because some people here refuse to listen to the facts and do what they're paid to do. I know it's easier to blame a well-known criminal for all this than to think there's someone new and dangerous out there killing innocent people, but I'm not like other agents, Hodge. I was trained to be fair and make sure justice was done, and whether you like it or not, that's what I'm going to do." Alec said firmly.

Now, more than ever, he was adamant to defend Magnus. He knew him, he really knew him, for weeks they had been talking non-stop and it was safe to say that he had come to know the man behind the criminal mask. Magnus was noble, sincere, and to some extent even compassionate, a man like that couldn't be a murderer.

"I know, Alec, I know." Hodge said. "I just want you to open your eyes."

"What if it's not me, but you the one who has to open his eyes?" Alec asked back, trying to keep his emotions in check. He knew his boss was just saying all this because he cared about him. He had always had Jace, Izzy and Alec's best interests at heart, but the fact that he kept insisting on the same thing infuriated him.

"I have more experience and knowledge than you, Alec." Hodge said, getting up from his chair and walking toward the door. "I opened my eyes a long time ago, so my advice? Focus on the investigation we have and stop with all this nonsense. Magnus is working with Valentine, and that's the end of it. If you keep digging where you're not supposed to dig, you could discover a thing or two that could put everything and everyone in danger." He said, walking away.

Alec frowned. What was that even supposed to mean? He thought, but shook his head, exhaling wearily. His boss was just acting like an overprotective parent. He had always been like that with them, but Alec was going to prove him and the rest of the agents in the Bureau that he was right about Magnus.

"You'll see." He said, picking a random file from the pile and opening it quickly. He had a lot of work to do.

o-o-o-o-o

Magnus and Ragnor had been these last few days at the old fire station that Ragnor had gotten for them assembling, or better said trying to assemble, the printer that Raphael had found for them. Unlike the modern ones that were very simple and hardly occupied any space on a desk, these old printers were very complex and as massive as small cars. They required three times more pieces to operate, and assembling them and understanding how they worked was a real challenge that required a lot of patience and very good mechanical skills.

Fortunately, both Magnus and Ragnor knew what they were doing, and although the whole process was taking them more time than originally planned, they didn't let the lack of progress to frustrate or discourage them. They had a lot of experience with these sort of things and knew that no matter how much they wanted to rush things, some processes in their heists couldn't be rushed. The printer would be ready when it had to be ready.

"I have a question." Ragnor said. He was currently oiling some pieces while Magnus tried to put together the two cylinders that according to the manual, would be some sort of paper feeding roller, as the ones used in plotters.

"What?"

"During the war, the American government issued a lot of bonds as a way to finance the conflict, right? But why didn't they just print more money and used it? It would have been easier. Printing bonds is much more difficult than printing bills."

"The problem with printing money was that during war time it meant voluntarily devaluing your currency and causing inflation. Printing money was a method of last resort for a nation, and it was never seriously considered to fund a war, much less a war as costly as the Second World War. Of course, the alternative would have been higher taxes and enforced borrowing, but instead, they opted to print bonds because they offered a propaganda advantage."

"Really?"

"Yes, they made people feel like they were actively participating in the war and that their sacrifices were voluntary. Bonds were available in small denominations, so individuals could buy them, rather than relying on borrowing in large amounts from the wealthy. I agree with you that printing bonds is more difficult than printing bills, but without bonds they wouldn't have been able to engaged people in the war."

"So they tricked them into thinking the money went to fund the war?"

"No, the money did go to fund the war, the thing is that many of these bonds were never redeemed. After the war ended, many people forgot that they even had them."

"So that's why they are so valuable now."

"Indeed." Magnus smiled, focusing on the task at hand again. He had always been very good at building things, but this printer was being a real challenge and he couldn't get too distracted or he risked breaking something. The pieces were old and in very poor condition, so he had to be extremely careful when trying to make them fit.

"Do you think there are more bonds out there that we could forge and redeem?" Ragnor asked, distracting Magnus again.

"I don't know."

"But if they were, we could use the same printer, right?"

"Yes. Oh, shit!" Magnus exclaimed, frustrated. The piece that was supposed to keep the two cylinders together had just broken into a million pieces.

"What happened?"

"I tried to force it into place and it just broke. I mean, it was a bit rusty, but I don't understand how it broke like this. Look at it, it's torn to pieces!" Magnus exhaled.

"We can fix it."

"No, I think we're going to need a new one, I don't see how we could fix this mess, some parts even turned to dust."

"Okay, don't worry, I'll add it to the list of missing pieces and replacements that we're going to ask Raphael to get for us."

"Okay, and speaking of Santiago...did he say something about the paper and the ink?"

"Yes, that he was going to send them to your place as soon as he had them."

"Good, good." Magnus said.

"Why did you ask him to send them there instead of here?"

"Look around, Ragnor." Magnus pointed to their surroundings. The fire station was a real mess. They hadn't finished cleaning it yet and all the pieces they still had to assemble were scattered all over the floor. They couldn't risk having the paper and the inks there. If some oil spilled or some accident happened while trying to make the printer work, they would lose a lot of money. The old parchment and the inks were very, very expensive. "We can't have the paper and the inks in here, at least not yet. We have to clean the place first."

"I could bring some men to help us with that." Ragnor suggested.

"I don't want to compromise the location just yet, my friend." Magnus said. He had already thought about it to speed up the whole process, but the more people knew about this place, the more they risked someone finding out what they planned to do and ruining everything. This heist was key to defining their future, and Magnus wasn't going to let anyone jeopardize it.

"But we will need help when the time comes. This thing can't be operated by two men, you know that. We'll need at least three more pair of hands."

"I know, but until we are ready to start printing we're going to keep this place and its location just to ourselves. We can't risk someone betraying us and alerting the FBI that we went into the National Archives and stole a war bond that we plan to duplicate wholesale and redeem for hundreds of millions of dollars, can we?"

Ragnor shook his head and sighed. It was clear that the idea of having to clean up all that mess on their own wasn't very appealing to him, but they had no other choice. Part of their success so far had a lot to do with the fact that they were very careful and discreet when it came to the planning of all their heists. The people they trusted and the ones they chose to include in their plans were always carefully selected. They never included more people than was strictly necessary. Yes, that made everything more complicated and slow, but their safety always came first.

"Should we start then?"

"No, no, no, I think that's it for today." Magnus said, calling it a day and admiring what they had accomplished so far. The printer although still in progress, was starting to take shape and look like something more than a huge pile of rust and metal. And although they still need to assemble a lot of pieces and change a few that weren't working properly, they were making progress and that was all that mattered.

"You have no idea how glad I am to hear that." Ragnor exclaimed relieved.

Magnus laughed. He shared that feeling, being locked up in this stinky place wasn't the best way to spend a day, and they had been there for quite a few.

They tried to organize a bit all the tools and things they had been using, and left the place as fast as they could. To their surprise, the day was just starting to turn into night and the moon was making its way up to the sky. It was amazing how quickly time could pass when they were busy doing something.

"What are you going to do for the rest of the day?" Ragnor asked as they closed the door and put the locks back in place.

"I'll go home to take a shower and then head to Alexander's place." Magnus said. He would have loved to just go to the agent's house without having to go all the way back to his loft, but he was all covered in grease and dust, he couldn't go see him in such deplorable conditions, could he?

"Did he invite you?" Ragnor inquired.

"No, but we have to start working if we want to put Valentine behind bars. You know there was another case this week, that makes four so far." Magnus said. He and Alec had been communicating non-stop, but since the last time, they hadn't had time to sit down again and try to solve this huge mess. "We can't let this man keep using my name."

"Okay, well, I'll go change too, and then I'll bring the list of the pieces to Raphael, maybe he can start ordering them. I don't want to be that person, but we need to hurry with the bonds, you-know-who won't take long to contact you again to ask for more money."

"I know, but don't worry, we still have time. Clear some of our assets if you must and tell Santiago to hurry up, okay? Especially with the pieces that are essential to make that thing work."

"Will do." Ragnor said.

"Okay, then, I'll see you later, my friend." Magnus said, walking away.

He could sense that his friend wanted to add something, probably about the risks of Magnus going to Alec's place, but luckily he bit his tongue. They had discussed the subject enough times already, Magnus knew what his friend thought, and Ragnor knew what Magnus thought, there was nothing more to discuss about it.

"Magnus, wait!" Ragnor exclaimed.

"What?"

"Are you really going to your fed's place?"

"Well, he's not my fed, but yeah, I'm going to Alexander's apartment, and before you start to lecture me about it, know that-"

"It's not that, I already told you what I think," Ragnor interrupted, "I just thought of something."

"What?"

"Well, maybe you should seize the opportunity and ask him if he can give us access to all the files the FBI has on Valentine. I was talking to Raphael the other day about this and he said it would be easier to ask around if we had more information about Valentine's old glorious days, you know? In theory, the man's been dead for more than two decades, so all the information we've been getting about him are just rumors, ghost stories, but maybe if we had real information about the man, we could track him down more easily, don't you think?"

"Good idea, my friend!" Magnus said. That was actually something he hadn't considered yet. He had figured he would learn what the FBI had on Valentine eventually, but asking for copies sounded like a better plan. "I'll ask him tonight."

"Okay, then I'll see you around."

"See you around." Magnus said, and with that he left, smiling at the prospect of ending his day in very good company.

o-o-o-o-o

Alec was working from home. The case he had chosen earlier was giving him a real headache and he wanted to make some progress. All day he, Jace, and Izzy had tried to solve it, but they hadn't been very successful.

It was a family feud over an inheritance. A wealthy old man had left a series of five wills in which he had named different members of his family as his rightful heirs. Naturally the five people involved in this case claimed to have the original one and wanted to receive the money they were entitled to, the problem was that since there were five wills, the bank refused to give them access to the money, and now the FBI had to try to solve this mess as fast as possible and in the best way they could.

Alec had been looking at the wills for hours and he still didn't know what to do. The forensic team had already determined that they all were authentic, so Alec was trying to find something, anything, that could help him refute that statement. There was no way that the five wills were legitimate, but then again, he had them before his eyes, so he literally had no idea what else to do. If he didn't solve it quickly the case would probably end up in court and most likely all the money this man had left for his family would be lost in lawyers and administrative expenses.

Alec rubbed his temple to try to relieve that pang in his head—he was so frustrated. How was it possible that he couldn't solve this? This case wasn't even half as hard as catching Valentine was proving to be. Actually, this case was nothing compared to that, catching Valentine was the most difficult thing-

A noise coming from somewhere outside the window distracted him, so very carefully, Alec grabbed his gun and got ready to stop the intruder, but the moment he looked at the window and recognized the man trying to break into his home, he lowered it—it was Magnus. One of these days that man was going to give him a heart attack.

"Good evening, Alexander." Magnus said, flashing a big smile.

"You can't keep showing up at my house without letting me know first. I could shoot you by accident, or worse, Jace or Izzy could discover you! They don't know about our agreement."

"Because you decided not to tell them."

"Well, I can't tell them, what we're doing isn't exactly legal, is it? I don't know how they are going to react, so until you prove yourself useful for this investigation, this is going to stay just between us."

"I'm more than okay with that." Magnus said, making himself at home. "So...were you working on the case?"

"No," Alec admitted, "I have some other work to do, cases that I have to solve. You and now Valentine have made me waste my time more than enough in the past few months...and years in your case."

Magnus just smiled and walked to the table. "What's the case about?" He asked, picking up the file. Alec wanted to stop him because, well, that was classified information, but Magnus was already reading it, and he was showing interest.

"Can I see the wills?" Magnus asked curiously.

Alec hesitated for a second, but ultimately handed Magnus the wills. He had already read the file, hiding the wills wasn't going to be of any help, right?

Magnus took some gloves from his pocket and put them on, making golden glitter to rain on top of the table.

"So that's how you do it." Alec said, smiling and looking at the gloves with wide eyes. Since the first time he had heard of the criminal, he had deduced that glitter was more than a signature for Magnus, but up until now he hadn't figured out how he managed to throw glitter all over the crime scenes without making it look like something done on purpose.

"You like them?" Magnus asked, winking at him. "I designed them myself, I have thousands of pairs, I change them to match my clothes and hair." He added, pointing to his red shirt with shiny gold stripes and the dyed locks in his hair.

Alec refrained himself from laughing. All these years he had wondered how Magnus left the glitter and now he had an answer to it, and it was as idiotic as the glitter itself. "And you always have a pair of those things in your pockets?"

"Yes."

"Isn't it hard to clean? I mean, afterwards."

"You get used to it." Magnus said, now pulling a loupe from his pocket too.

"Do you always carry one of those too?" Alec wondered in confusion. He didn't know how many more curious objects the criminal could have in his pockets. His pants were not exactly loose, on the contrary, they were very, very tight.

"Yes, I'm always prepared, Alexander, it's part of my job."

"Right."

Magnus just smiled and proceeded to examine the wills. Alec tried really hard not to look at him while the criminal worked, but he found the task almost impossible. His eyes betrayed him every few seconds and ended up fixing on the criminal more often than not. And, who could blame him? This was the first time Alec had a chance to see him work, and he didn't want to waste it. It was fascinating to see how Magnus grabbed each will and looked at it closely, analyzing the ink, the paper, the content, making it very clear that he knew what he was doing. Alec knew that that attention to detail was part of Magnus's success as a forger, but even so, it was truly astonishing to attest.

"They are all fake." Magnus announced after a while, looking up at Alec.

"What!?"

"They are all fake."

"How do you know?" Alec asked surprised.

"The signature of the witnesses." Magnus said, handing Alec his loupe. "Look here?" He said, pointing to the signature on one of the wills. "If you look carefully you will notice that it was made with a different ink. When these kinds of documents are made, it's a legal requirement that all of the signatures are made with the same pen. And well, all the signatures of the witnesses in these wills were made with a different ink, I can't believe that your team missed that. I mean, it's not that easy to see, but it's not that hard either."

Alec observed. The ink used for all the signatures did look alike, but Magnus was right, if he looked closely at the signatures of the witnesses he could see that the ink was different, the tone was a bit lighter—meaning that they all were fake.

"What's the point of leaving five fake wills?" Alec wondered out loud.

"I don't know, but the original must be somewhere and I bet it's for the same amount of money or even more, who knows, right? This man clearly wanted to mess with his family."

Alec looked at the wills, now thanks to Magnus's little help, he was even more curious about this case and was determined to solve it. "Where do you think it is?"

"Am I imagining things, or are you asking for my help?"

Alec felt the blood rushing to his cheeks. "I wasn't asking for your help, just for your opinion." He said quickly.

"Well," Magnus said with a smile, "I don't know for sure, but judging by the material, the ink, the amount of money and what your file says about this old man, I'm guessing that the answer to that question must be hidden somewhere in here." He said, pointing to the five wills.

Alec knew that Magnus was right, the problem was that he didn't know how he was going to figure that out. He had been analyzing and observing those wills all day and he didn't remember anything that could lead him to believe that there was some secret code hidden there. For him, they were just five useless pieces of paper that apparently weren't worth a dime.

Alec sighed. He would have to find a way to solve this mess later, but now he had to find out what the criminal was doing in his home again. "I'll try to solve it later, but tell me, why did you come?"

"To work on the new case, we haven't discussed it yet, so I figured we could do that and see if we could find a way to connect it to Valentine, you know? We have to find something that can get us closer to him. I've tried asking around, but the man's been dead for two decades, there's nothing about him. And speaking of which, since this is kind of getting serious and all, I was wondering if you could, I don't know, give me access to the information you guys have on him? That would probably help me see if I can find out more stuff about him in my world. My contacts could run his old aliases to see if he's made any noise in the underworld."

Alec was taken aback for a second, why hadn't he thought of that before? That was actually a brilliant idea. The FBI had run Valentine's aliases in all their databases, but so far nothing had popped up, but Magnus had access to other resources and perhaps if they used them, they could actually make some progress. "I'll make you a copy of all the files tomorrow."

"Okay, then I guess we'll start tomorrow." Magnus said, walking toward the window again. "I'll leave you to work on your other case."

"Magnus, wait!" Alec exclaimed. He didn't know what he was doing, but the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Would you like to stay? To help me, of course."

Magnus smiled. "So I wasn't imagining things, you were asking for my help."

Alec just rolled his eyes. "Do you want to stay or not?"

"If you insist," Magnus said, closing the window, "it'd be my pleasure."