Summary: After the battle at Burren Hill, the Shadowhunter community is allowed a brief reprieve. Glorious worked to sever the twining spell, Jace emerged unscathed, his veins free of heavenly fire, and although Sebastian and his Endarkened got away, things are nervously calm. That is, until they aren't. As demonic activity begins to rise throughout major cities, the Clave is thrown into a panic trying to balance preparations for a war that is sure to come while holding a front against demons, and Sebastian uses the chaos to take back his traitorous brother and sister. And this time, he's under no obligation to lessen his psychotic tendencies for Clary's sake. When he begins to torture them, he reveals just how dark his desires are, and Clary quickly realizes how far he will go to get what he wants. At the hands of her brother, Clary struggles to keep hope that she and Jace will ever be able to escape Jonathan Morgenstern for good—and his evil plans are only just beginning to unfold.

Disclaimer and Details: This is a fanfiction based around The Mortal Instruments series. I do not own any of these characters. In addition, I started this fanfiction a long time ago, when I was more familiar with the finer details of the series. Now, as I work towards completing it, there are certain parts of the plot that escape me, so, I appologize if certain aspects of my fanfiction do not align perfectly with the plot of the original series. Let's say this fanfiction generally takes place around the end of City of Lost Souls and beginning of City of Heavenly Fire, but has a few differing plot points, in that Sebastian's level of crazy is cranked up and, prior to the start of my story, Jace managed to escape Sebastian's possession without being infused by heavenly fire (this would complicate the, ahem, more tortorous parts of the story.) Lastly, I have to mention that this story is fairly dark. If you did not already notice, it is labelled Mature, and it is labelled that for a reason. There is rape, incest, torture, captivity, and lots of other horrible things, so please do not read if any of this may offend or trigger you. For those that do proceed to read the story, be advised, enjoy, and please feel free to leave reviews. Thanks to all of my readers and reviewers so far.

Author's Note: This chapter contains kidnapping.

Chapter One

Jace grasped Clary's hand in his, the warmth of his palm and his strong calloused fingers entwined in hers sending a comforting spark down her spine. Familiarity with his touch grew each day, but still, every time he did reach out to hold her, their contact was like a bolt of electricity sizzling through her blood.

Clary would never tire of this. These simple moments when they could just hold hands, breathe, and be in each other's presence, just existing in a world of only them. She'd come to cherish them a lot more recently, since getting Jace back and returning home.

It also wasn't lost on her that such appreciation for simple pleasures was always heightened after a fight, and she wanted more than anything to pull Jace to her, to brush her lips against his, to make this preciously mundane moment last just that much longer, but they were both filthy from battle, and Jace seemed eager to get return.

But she didn't want to go back to the Institute yet. This was the most alone time they'd had in days, and she wasn't quite ready to give it up.

Since Burren Hill, the two had been kept on lock down. Even after the Clave and the Silent Brothers finished interrogating them on their time with Sebastian, no one was keen on allowing Clary or Jace to be out on their own. When Clary was at the Institute, there were always people around, no privacy or space, and when she wasn't, Jocelyn or Simon was always with her.

At first, Clary hadn't minded too much. Even under the watchful eye of the Clave, it was the most peace they'd had in weeks, and Clary would take any time with Jace that she could—even if supervised—after everything they'd been put through. Even knowing Sebastian was on the loose with a small army of Endarkened soldiers, even as the entire shadowhunter community holding their breath, things had been quiet.

But it hadn't taken long for that silence to break.

Demonic activity had been spiking across major cities throughout the world at rates higher in the past three weeks than it had in the past three years. With more and more assignments to take up, and more resources being drained, the Clave was in a panic. And what no one would say, but everyone feared equally, were the two likely causes: that Sebastian was behind the demonic activity, and somehow gained the power to control demons, or that he wasn't, and they would have to fight him and hold off the demons.

According to Alec, the Clave was so concerned about Sebastian that they were even considering calling off all missions regarding demonic involvement to reserve resources—and bodies, as Alec so bluntly put it—for the war to come.

Not that Clary thought they shouldn't be concerned. They most certainly should. But surely hunkering down and leaving mundanes obliviously undefended to demons wasn't the solution. Surely, that would be something that would make Sebastian smile to hear.

The thought made Clary's blood boil, and suddenly, she did mind being kept inactive.

She couldn't stand sitting still any longer. She couldn't just wait for her brother to attack. She couldn't just idly stand by as Shadowhunters' lives were ruined, as mundanes went unprotected, as demons took over her world.

She needed to get out. She needed to do something. Anything. So Clary had talked Jace into going out with her.

It hadn't taken much convincing. They were both eager for some action, and investigating a report of a demon sighting in lower Manhattan seemed like the perfect way to do some good without putting themselves at risk and—although neither said it aloud—to pretend that, just for a moment, they were both regular, normal Shadowhunters.

Besides, no one had actually said they were required to stay in the Institute. It was just…strongly advised.

And Clary had been right. Doing the job, being a Shadowhunter, was the most fun she and Jace had had in ages. They'd taken out a group of demons that had been feeding off of drunk mundanes in an alley behind a bar. They'd done something good. But now that it was over, Clary wasn't ready to head back so soon.

Jace pulled her out of her thoughts and along behind him, Clary nearly stumbling over her own feet to match his pace.

"Jace, slow down," she whined, jerking him back by the hand. Jace stopped and looked back at Clary, really looked her over, perhaps sensing her hesitation to return so quickly, before he swooped her up into his arms. Clary yelped in surprise and laughed as Jace threw her playfully over his shoulder.

"I can't have you slowing me down, Fray." His tone was mock official, teasing, and Clary would have laughed anew if not for the sudden cramp that spread through her left calf, a pained gasp interrupting a snicker as her muscles spasmed.

She felt Jace tense under her. "Did I hurt you?" Worry wrapped his face in an unfamiliar expression, one he seemed to use only for her, open, vulnerable, and she balled her fists trying not to jerk at the pain.

"My leg," she gritted out. Jace immediately stepped off the paved walkway and laid her down in the grass, his hands patting down and inspecting the leg she clutched at. There was a small tear in the denim, and he pulled his knife from his belt to widen the gash, revealing an ugly, bruise-colored wound, slowly oozing puss. Just as quickly, he was removing his stele from its clasp and marking the skin near the wound.

She bit down on her knuckles to bear the pain, and suddenly felt small, childish. She didn't need Jace to draw her an iratze. But he didn't seem to mind, completely focused on the task at hand.

"Ugh, it hurts…" She groaned, pushing up on her elbows.

"I know, I'm sorry. Demon must have gotten under your jeans. You just didn't feel it until now because the venom numbs the area, specifically so that it can infect you without you being aware." Jace paused, returning his stele to his belt. "You'll be fine, but you shouldn't walk on it, ye—"

Just as Clary registered the catch in Jace's voice, she noticed the dark figure that appeared over his shoulder. Before a warning could escape her, Jace had pulled a seraph blade free and spun around, pressing Clary flat to the ground with one arm as he sliced outward at the thing behind him.

"Mariel!" He shouted, and the blade blazed to life, a bright white-blue glow engulfing his hands. Scrambling back, Clary tried to get to her feet as she heard Jace's blade clashing, but her leg nearly gave out beneath her. She cursed at her own helplessness, rolled over, and drew her own seraph blade from her belt.

Was there another demon that had gotten away from their fight earlier?

No. She could see the creature that had snuck up on them now, as Jace tried to push it further away from where she was stranded on the ground. It was tall, taller than Jace by more than a head, with dark, matted fur sticking out in tufts all over its lumpy form. The thing stood on two feet, but slouched forward like an ape, a pair of rounded, oblong arms draping from its sides. Two sharp horns protruded from the sides of its skull, conjuring the image of a minotaur in Clary's mind, but its face was not bull-like, its jaw pulled forward in a massive underbite that revealed row after row of teeth. She'd never seen anything like it.

Keeping himself between her and the demon, Jace lunged. The creature growled low in its throat, swung a lazy arm out in defense. Claws as thick as Clary's arms flashed in the sunlight, and Jace ducked at the last moment, slicing at its legs. Black ichor poured from the deep, resulting cut in the monster's hide, but it seemed altogether unaffected, barreling forward. Jace narrowly danced out of its reach again, before cutting back in with a jab to its side.

This time, the demon moaned when its skin broke and threw its arms around frantically, clipping Jace's shoulder with its claws. His gasp echoed through Clary's mind as she watched a thick gash open on his shoulder and a strength rune flare on his wrist.

"Clary, run!" Jace shouted behind him at Clary, still on the ground, not quite strong enough to stand yet. She growled in frustration and fumbled for her stele, as Jace hit the ground hard. She could hear the breath knocked from him as the demon placed a heavy foot on his chest, pressing him to the pavement.

She marked herself with several runes of strength and speed, letting the angelic energy flood into her, and finally stood—unsteady, but able to walk. Baring her sword, she advanced on the demon.

"Sorry, Jace," she apologized, feeling stronger with each step as the power of the runes coursed through her, ink sizzling on her skin. "I can't just leave you."

The demon turned its attention to Clary as she approached, Jace gulping air as its foot came off his chest, and she had to roll to avoid its massive arm. She hit the ground just as its claws flew by like a pendulum. She tried stabbing at its legs as she kept low, like Jace had, but she wasn't close enough, her blade whistling through air.

"Clary!"

Jace's warning was too late, and as Clary tried to stand back up, she noticed the demon's tail, barbed and thick, coming straight for her head. There was no time to move out of the tail's path as the demon's arm came from the other direction, her forearms coming up on instinct to lessen the blow, angling her blade to try and stop the claws.

Just as she braced for impact, and saw Jace running towards her, too far away to stop it, a voice barked a command in a harsh, foreign language, and the attack instantly stopped.

But Clary's blood still ran cold.

She had heard the language only twice before. Once when Lilith spoke to Sebastian, and the second when Sebatian himself had been speaking.

The demon winced and backed away quickly, like an abused animal, trying to curl in on itself as if it could shrink its massive size. Clary looked up in horror, already knowing just who was standing above her.

Jace shouted out a warning as he watched Clary lash out at the demon. He climbed to his feet, trying to steady his breath as he snatched Mariel off the ground, but he knew he was going to be too late as the creature's claws and tail swept towards Clary on either side.

Moving faster than he knew he could, Jace drew his dagger, pulled it back over his shoulder, aimed, and—

Sebastian seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The demon shrank back at the man's barking order, and Jace was so surprised by his sudden appearance that his knife slipped, landing meters off its mark, blade clattering along the pavement. Sebastian turned towards him, a cruel smile twisting the lower half of his face, eyes cold and black.

Jace's mind went white out with fury, and anger took place of strategy as he gripped his seraph blade and charged recklessly. Sebastian's smirk only widened as he easily stepped aside, sweeping Jace's legs out from under him. He slammed into the ground, face hot with ire, but rolled onto his shoulder, pushing back up with his heel without missing a beat. The pain of the laceration in his shoulder, and the bruises that were surely already darkening on his chest, were burned away as his body hummed with rage.

Of course it was Sebastian behind this.

"Is that the best my father taught you?" Sebastian drawled, eyebrows raised tauntingly. His smooth voice didn't betray his next move, and Jace only barely dodged as Sebastian swung his heavy Morgenstern blade, metal gleaming in the sunlight.

For a moment, the boys circled each other, neither making a move. Clary hovered just behind Sebastian, seeming unsure what to do. When Jace briefly caught her gaze, he willed her to run.

Get out of here, he thought desperately, but Clary didn't seem to acknowledge his attempt at telepathy, and he couldn't focus on Clary and Sebastian both. He had to hope she would take the chance, and get the hell out of here before things escalated. Still, some part of Jace knew she wasn't going anywhere—she was too stubborn for that.

Distracted, Sebastian again caught Jace off guard as he attacked, curling his blade up through the air like an uppercut. Jace bent back away from the metal, and for a moment, it went like that: Sebastian leisurely attacking, and Jace dodging and parrying, with all the rage of heavenly fire.

After what was likely minutes, but felt like hours, the blunt of the Morgenstern sword came down hard on Jace's already injured shoulder, the blow rekindling the pain there, and Jace stumbled back in shock as fresh blood soaked into his shirt.

He righted himself quickly, and flung himself at Sebastian full-force, only to be stopped short by an invisible wall.

"What?" Jace hissed, pounding his fist against the shield. "You can't hide in there forever, you—"

"I must say, Jace, you really are a poor fighter. And…" Sebastian lowered his sword, casual and unthreatened from behind his conjured shield. "…And, well, very bad at protecting the things you love," he finished, eyes flashing, a malevolence reflecting on obsidian.

Jace frowned, a beat of confusion passing, before he heard Clary's cry as an Endarkened soldier grabbed her from being, yanking her back by the hair. Where the man had appeared from, Jace was unsure, but his sharp elegant features were contrasted by his size, tall and bulky, and he easily wrapped a thick arm around Clary, who kicked and thrashed against his hold.

"Clary!" Jace again pounded against the transparent wall, and for a moment, the barrier seemed to bend under his fist, but Sebastian snapped his fingers and the soldier pressed a blade to his girlfriend's throat. Clary hissed at the Endarkened restraining her, squirmed under his arm as a thin line of blood spilled over the edge of the knife.

"Sebastian! Don't you hurt her! I swear on the angel, Sebastian, if you so much as—"

"Vernoc ka!"

The words oozed from the demon-boy's mouth, and Jace flew backward, moved by another invisible force, his back slamming against the wall behind him before he crumpled forward. Before Jace could even think to reorient himself, to form some kind of plan to get them out of this, the beast-demon, forgotten in the chaos, was lifting him by his throat.

He choked and clawed at the demon's hands, face paling as the breath was stolen from him a second time today. He managed to slip his second dagger from its sheath at his lower back, but the demon hardly flinched as he stabbed it into its arm, over and over, each puncture weaker as his vision began to blur and his hearing started to hum. When the demon used its other paw to smash Jace's wrist into the wall and send the blade flying out of his hand, it loosened its grip enough for Jace to suck down a breath.

As the static faded from his peripheral, Jace looked helplessly back towards Clary, watching in horror as the Endarkened began to pull something from his coat pocket. But before he could, Clary jammed the heel of her uninjured leg down on his foot. His grip loosened, just a bit, just enough that Clary managed to turn her chin and slip under the knife, free from his grasp.

She stumbled forward quickly, trying to put distance between them. Sebastian only leaned back loosely, confident to the point of appearing bored, save for the smirk still curling his lips. "Watch, Jace. We're almost at the good part."

Bile rose in his throat and Jace choked it down, swallowing against the pressure on his Adam's apple.

Jace watched as Clary ducked to grab her only weapon, the seraph blade just feet away, but her leg gave out beneath her, and Jace almost winced at her stifled shout. She reached out, her fingers barely gripping the hilt of her sword, before Jace saw the Endarkened, above her now, pressing the point of his own blade into Clary's vulnerable back, just between her shoulder blades.

"Throw it to the side, child of Jocelyn. I will not hesitate to impale you."

Clary froze at the order, but didn't release her sword, scoffing at the ground. "You would disobey your master, dog? We both know Sebastian wouldn't want you hurting me, now would he?" Clary spat, but just as the man began to growl a reply, she flipped onto her back, knocking the tip of his blade away with her elbow as she rolled, before using her sword to smack her opponent's needle-like sabre further to the side. It was just the opening she needed, and she swung her seraph blade again.

Jace needed to help, right now. He renewed his struggle against the demon, trying anything to free himself, but its grip seemed to only tighten the more he fought, and as his breath shortened, the static returned to the corners of his vision. Growling in frustration, he called out to Clary in a choked voice, attempting to tell her to run, to leave him. But he could only watch on as Clary, staying on one knee, batted the Endarkened's sword again with her own, and threw one leg around herself to collide into the back of the soldier's knee.

He collapsed, as Jace was sure Clary had hoped, but when his knees hit the ground, he threw his weight forward, and tackled her to the ground with him. After a moment of struggle, a knife was again pressed to her throat, and a heavy boot came down on her wrist, bruising bone until she released her weapon.

Jace beat weakly on the demon's hand at his throat, as Clary grit her teeth in annoyance, and hatred, and fear. Jace grimaced; if he could see the fear in Clary's eyes, so too could Sebastian.

The Endarkened lifted Clary in the air, one hand knotted painfully in her hair, as she continued to struggle against the knife beneath her jaw. At the same time, the demon holding Jace released him suddenly, and the rush of oxygen to his lungs left him hacking and gasping, helpless as the beast instead shifted to restrain his arms.

Sheathing his knife, the Endarkened went for his pocket again, this time succeeding in removing what he had been reaching for earlier: a white, silk cloth.

"No," Jace croaked, barely above a whisper, as the Endarkened pressed the silken fabric to Clary's nose and mouth. Her green eyes widened, and Jace saw her gasp in a deep breath in surprise. Her face paled instantly, her body spasming, writhing against the poison soaking into her bloodstream.

"No!" Jace exclaimed, louder now, "Clary!" He surged forward once more, but the demon dug its claws into Jace's twice wounded shoulder, pain and exhaustion numbing his body. He nearly sobbed as Clary caught his eyes, her own apologetic and wide with panic, before they rolled back to white, and her small frame fell limp.

Rivulets of fiery curls fell like a curtain over her face as her head drooped in the Endarkened's hold.

Sebastian's laugh seemed to drown out Jace's thoughts, pounding through his mind faster than his heart beat.

I failed you, Clary.

I'm so sorry.