Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prelude, or how the story works without Alec and Magnus having met from the start.

Alec doesn’t know what to do. These past weeks have been a nightmare, and even though he’s spent most of his life closing himself off to protect his secrets and his family, he has never felt so lonely before, so much like an outsider. Because even when his siblings didn’t usually understand him, and even when they complained about him being boring, grumpy and uptight, he never doubted that they would have his back if he needed them. And he yearns to feel like that again, but so much has happened.

He wishes he could put all the blame on Clary, he really does, but there’s that stupid part that makes him be honest with himself, that makes him realize that no matter how convincing Clary could be, all the decisions his siblings made, were their own. After all, that realization was what made him not tell them that he changed the Cup Tarot Card for a fake. But even when he tried to brace himself for the worst possible outcome, he was still stupidly disappointed in finding out that he ended up being right.

He remembers that day, how he was all set to marry Lydia, to protect them all. The silver lining was that his siblings, for all their faults, wanted him to be happy, even if it was impossible, so they tried to do everything to persuade him not to go through with it. It was almost funny how, at the same time, his parents kept pressuring him to make the wedding happen with the same intensity.

He had come so close, and he’ll be forever grateful that Lydia decided to put her faith in him, that she agreed to go through with his plan that afternoon, in what had become their office.

“Alec”, says Lydia, as she sees Alec enter their office, close the door behind him, and sit in front of her full of determination, “Anything I can help you with? Though if its wedding related, could we leave it for after work hours?”

“This is actually Meliorn and Mortal Cup related”, says Alec, getting a raised eyebrow from Lydia, “I’m sure you’re wondering about Meliorn’s comment regarding the Mortal Cup”

“Of course”, says Lydia, remaining cautious.

“I have it”, says Alec, as calmly as he can.

“What?”, replies Lydia, completely shocked, “You’re just… but it…”

“Lydia, deep breaths. I said I would just keep it safe, it wasn’t really mine to…”, but he doesn’t get to finish, before a slightly panicked Lydia interrupts him.

“Alec, it’s no one’s, it’s the Mortal Cup. At most it’s Raziel’s, but I doubt he’ll come reclaim it”, she says, standing up, unable to stop from pacing.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think I can keep it safe anymore”, says Alec, feeling heartbroken. What’s wrong with him that he can’t trust his own siblings?

“Who had it? Where was it? We need to inform…”, starts Lydia, this time getting interrupted by Alec.

“No, you can’t”, says Alec firmly, “I have three conditions before I give it to you”

“Alec, you can’t put conditions on something like this! Please, don’t force me to turn you in”, says Lydia pleadingly.

“I promise, that’s not what I’m trying to do, please hear me out first”, pleads Alec, and once he gets a nod from Lydia, he continues, “First condition, you can’t investigate or tell where the Cup came from. Second, you can’t tell anyone you have it. And third, you leave Meliorn’s case to me”

“The first and third I could manage, but I have to inform of this”, says Lydia, stopping in front of Alec.

“I fear there might be Circle Sympathizers in the Clave”, confesses Alec, and before Lydia can refute, he adds, “Please think it over and tell me it doesn’t make sense, because I would like nothing more. But why would my parents get the third biggest Institute as a punishment for being high ranking in the Circle?”

“They deflected, and while they have the Institute, they are being kept away from Idris and Alicante”, says Lydia, but a hint of doubt permeates her words.

“They just returned from Idris, so if that was the purpose, it’s not very successful. Also, they deflected when it was obvious they were going to lose, and the power they have in their hands is way too much for any kind of punishment. Even Hodge, because he might be confined here, but he’s in charge of training new trainees. An ex-Circle member is in charge of forming young minds. Valentine has been alive for decades, and not one person knew?”, says Alec, and he has to remind himself to keep calm. Because after finding out his parents were in the Circle, there are so many things he had to reevaluate, and it frustrates him deeply that he never questioned them before, and what’s worse, he never noticed all these things that don’t make sense.

“I… it’s always worked like this. And Valentine is a very smart man, so…”, Lydia trails off.

“It makes sense, doesn’t it? Because no one is that smart to go unnoticed for decades, much less while actively recruiting new Circle Members. And that’s not even taking into account those that were never captured”, says Alec, while putting a file on Lydia’s desk, “These I found after searching for an hour. These are complaints from the Downworld, all submitted to Idris and Alicante too, that detail of encounters with Circle Members, some with pictures. None were followed through, and what’s worse, they were all filed as ‘Resolved’”

Lydia pales as she goes through the file, and looking lost, she looks towards Alec and says, “I can’t hide the Cup forever”

“I know, but could you at least until Valentine is captured? If he’s captured, it means there are enough people in positions of power that are against him, and that would give us a small guarantee of protection”, says Alec, preparing himself to start begging.

“I can’t promise for more than a year”, says Lydia, and adds, “Who else knows?”

“Only we would know that you have it, and my siblings will remain under the belief that I have it. I promise to keep the information and you safe”, promises Alec.

Lydia takes a deep breath, and says, “I’ll probably regret this, but ok”

Alec wasted no time in replacing the Cup with a copy, and he finds it kind of funny that all he had to do was get a very good and expensive photocopy of the tarot card. While Lydia deals with how to keep the Cup safe, it gives Alec time to free Meliorn, using the same bureaucracy the Clave is so fond of. He uses every obscure norm and rule to his advantage, and after exhausting hours he manages to get the Claves agreement to free Meliorn. But it’s while he’s finishing the records of all the proceedings, that his siblings steal the Photocopied Tarot Card, and taking credit for Meliorn’s new freedom, convincing him to portal them to find Valentine, to get to Jocelyn.

And while Jocelyn remains unconscious, Dot claims to know where the book that could solve this is, they just need Camille Belcourt to access it. She says she’s not powerful enough to breach her wards, but that knowing her, they could use the ex-mundane, new-vampire, to bargain a deal with her. This to Alec it sounds like the worst kind of plan, a completely unpredictable one.

Maybe everything would have been easier, better, if they had been able to find the ever elusive Magnus Bane, whom according to Clary had all the answers, and her memories. And according to Dot, the power and connections to wake up Jocelyn and contact Ragnor Fell, to decode the Book of The White once they have it. Dot insists that he must be planning something important against Valentine, and that that’s the reason he’s not been found. Alec suspects it must be a mix between a guilty conscience and wishful thinking, since she was the last to see him, that night when she convinced him to help her look for Clary.

And Alec still doesn’t believe that one person could solve all their problem, no matter how amazing he sounds like. Sure, he managed to protect and give refuge to all the warlocks in the area before disappearing, but Dot did manage to keep Luke alive after defeating the former alpha. And at the moment she’s the one with the knowledge of where the Book of the White is, the one they need to wake Jocelyn up.

So, after feeling betrayed by his sibling’s antics and his parents lies, and dealing with all the life and death situations that seem so fond of him lately, he resolves to be as selfish as everyone else in his life is being, and comes out, ready to face whatever consequence comes his way. Sure, he might be seeing it in part as self-punishment for failing at being what he was supposed to be, someone worthy of honesty and loyalty, but it’s about time that someone put him first, and it looks like that person has to be himself.

He still decides to join them in their reckless mission, with the intention of keeping them as safe as possible, but he does come out to his parents before leaving the Institute, so he’ll consider that progress. Sadly, all this new resolutions go to nothing when he sees his parabatai being taken away by Valentine, prompting him to jump into the portal after them, barely managing to take hold of one of the guards. And he’s still not sure if Valentine deciding to keep him alive to control Jace better is a good thing or not.

Chapter Text

Alec moves as silently as the cold stone hallway allows him, analyzing every shadow thrice and paying attention to each whisper and rustling echoing sound. His imprisonment in what he assumes are Valentine’s Headquarters is a bit of a blur, so he’s not sure how long he’s been there. And he has no news of Jace either. He can hear the occupied jail cells he’s approaching, meaning he’s leaving the isolated sector they were keeping him in. This part has the potential of completely ruining his escape plan, but gong back the way he came from is not an option. There’s also the fact that Jace must be near the more populated areas.

When presented with the first fork in the way, he takes his left, if only because it’s quiet and his priority at the moment is avoiding recapture. It turns out to be a bad decision, since despite the empty cells, there’s only a dead end ahead of him. But just as he’s about to turn around and take his chances with the loud incarcerated people, a voice stops him.

“Visitors! If I’d known I would have rearranged the mold”, says what sounds like a woman.

It takes Alec less than a second to analyze the situation. The only thing at the end of the hallway are two cells, that he now realizes are both occupied. One cell contains a woman leaning against the bars, and the other contains a person shaped shadow shackled up in the farthest wall.

“It’s been a while since you guys have sent someone over here to torture us. I thought you finally realized it was useless, but I guess I shouldn’t have overestimated your intelligence”, says the woman, looking Alec up and down, “At least they sent a pretty one this time, though not very smart to send a recent convert”, and giving Alec what he catalogues as a disturbing wink, she adds, “Because I could totally seduce you around.”

Alec is about to turn around, deciding to just ignore her and find a new way out, because he’s not going to risk everything for the likes of her. The problem is that he can’t help noticing that in the other cell, two bright golden eyes shine through. Mesmerized by the gaze locking on him, he doesn’t even notice when he approaches the cell. And he doesn’t know why or how, but even if the person is slumped, visibly physically weakened, tangled shoulder length unkempt hair, with a mess of a beard and smelling like old urine, he finds him captivating. And he knows he should stop wasting time, otherwise he’ll get captured again, but he doesn’t seem to be able to move.

In a totally uncharacteristic move for him, he starts checking the lock of the stranger’s cell. Later he’ll rationalized it to himself as, any enemy of Valentine being freed, is a worthy diversion for his escape.

After only a few seconds of fiddling with the lock, he realizes this are high security locks, the ones only able to be opened by a Stele. So it’s with a preemptive wince that he bites down into the outside of his forearm, releasing the stele tip embedded under his skin.

“Don’t you smell delicious, delightfully metallic”, says the women, “Care to share?” And before Alec gets to decide if he wants to reply to the Vampire or not, a growl sounds from inside the man’s cell. And with a mouth filled with the coppery taste of his own blood, his eyes lock once again with the golden ones from the stranger, seeing a fierce gaze and shrunken pupils.

“Come on now, he could be our pet. You know, sharing is caring”, says the Vampire. And while it wasn’t Alec’s original intention to ignore her, he finds that not answering her and getting her more and more anxious because of it, feels very rewarding. He doesn’t know if some of that is reflected on his expression, but the golden eyed stranger grins at him, as if impressed and proud of his plan of action.

Taking the stele point out of his red stained lips, Alec proceeds to unlock the door, and without a word approaches the men. He briefly notices that the shackles are the magic-canceling type, so the rank of his Institute Head Stele should have enough extra strength to unlock them. He kneels to start with the shackles attached to his ankles, and finds himself frowning at dirt-caked bared feet. The cell is dark, cold and damp, so leaving him without shoes shows he’s a much more hated enemy of Valentine’s than he initially thought.

Once he’s finishes, he stands up to deal with the shackles at his wrists, and while working on the left one, he notices that, half covered by his beard, there’s a collar around his neck, so he goes for that one next. And Alec doesn’t know who this man is, but a five point skin on metal magic cancelation restraining system can only mean that he’s extremely powerful, and someone Valentine is very scared of. So maybe following random impulses shouldn’t be something Alec does for the first time by freeing a very dangerous and powerful stranger, no matter how much he captivates him.

Having only one last shackle left, Alec briefly rethinks what he’s doing. This doesn’t seem like the carefully overthought plans he usually follows, it’s more in line of what Jace or Izzy would do, fast and impulsive. He quizzingly locks eyes with the stranger again, and for a brief moment he sees himself reflected in this man. In the loneliness of never being what people want, but also in the fierce devotion of protecting others. He briefly wonders if the prolonged imprisonment and isolation have driven him insane, but he quickly decides that, even if this ends up with him dead, it’ll mean a bigger problem for Valentine. And if Jace can capitalize it well enough, he could get away. And wouldn’t it be worth it? At least so he’s not being used as a tool for Jace’s compliance anymore?

Alec doesn’t know if the last click of the unlocking shackle echoes louder because it seems to be timed with his decision, or if it has to do with the tingly sparkles that are suddenly emitting from the stranger. But whatever reason behind it all, and no matter how powerful this person used to be, he stumbles between the wall and Alec’s body, clearly too weakened to help with any escape plan.

Now that he knows he’ll be more of a burden than an asset, he should leave him behind, he knows he should. He’s already risking his escape too much, but one look at the man makes him realize he can’t just leave him. So he ignores the sickly sweet rotting smell coming off of the man and the stickiness of his clothes and skin, and wraps an arm around his waist, supporting his worryingly light weight. He also ignores the random sparks that keep tingling against his skin, or how his blood dripping arm seems to tingle the most when in contact with the man’s body.

They leave the cell slowly, and as they approach the woman’s door, she starts talking again.

“Aww, isn’t that sweet. The little angel imprinting on the needy warlock, like a little ugly duckling”, she says mockingly.

The man stiffens and stumbles a bit, but seems to somewhat regain his footing, with Alec’s help. And as they pass her door, the woman starts talking again, this time desperate instead of mocking.

“You can’t leave me here. You need me to make an escape, because a bleeding Nephilim and a magically drained and starved warlock, won’t be able to oppose a butterfly. Open my door, and I can help you”, she half pleads half negotiates.

Alec knows it’s a bad idea, because he knows her, he knows she’s not trustworthy. But, worst case scenario, she kills him, which means Jace is free to leave. Besides, he doesn’t have any proof that she’ll leave him, yet. If she’s smart, she’ll realize her chances are better if she sticks with them. So he sighs, walks the few steps needed to reach her door, and quickly unlocks it with his free hand.

As soon as the door is unlocked she goes out, vampire fast.

“Such a good naïve little angel. Sorry sweetie, but survival of the fittest and all that”, she says, before sprinting down the hall and leaving them behind.

“Camille didn’t deserve to be freed”, says the stranger, voice raspy and weak.

Alec shrugs to that. He’s been making many questionable decisions, and he really doesn’t want to dwell in this last one. “I think it’s better if you don’t talk, better to keep your strength. And if we’re lucky, she’ll be a big enough distraction”, says Alec, starting their way down the hallway, gluing his side to the strangers body to support him.

“You’re a strange one, pretty boy”, says the man, before falling silent and focusing on walking.

They have a couple of close calls, Circle Members hurrying down the hallway, toward the direction Camille left earlier, but Alec manages to shuffle the man into different corners and shadows, managing to remain undetected. After a while of walking towards what Alec hopes is an exit, he notices that the stranger’s steps become steadier, while the tingling on his skin remains constant. And it’s probably a testaments of how his own imprisonment has affected him, that he just now realizes what’s been going on.

“You’re taking energy from me, to regain your own strength”, says Alec in a whisper. The stranger freezes and looks towards Alec, unsure and scared. But this is not what Alec wanted to accomplish, so he adds, “You could have asked. I would have just given it to you” And Alec really didn’t expect that to shock the man even more.

“It’s survival instinct”, replies the man, voice steadier than when he tried to talk before, “And I can usually control it better, but your blood, being in contact with me, it’s basically a blood offering. Plus, the imprisonment didn’t help. I’m trying to contain it, as much as I can, but since the link was formed with your blood, my depleted body doesn’t let me severe it completely”

“Well, that’s not useful”, says Alec, dragging the man to a more secluded corner, “It’s easier if you take what you need, so we can get out of here easier”

The man looks at him stunned, and says, “You unlock me without asking for anything in return, and now you’re freely offering me your strength, even though I could drain you to death or bond you into servitude”

Alec just shrugs and replies, “You look smart, if that was part of your plan, you wouldn’t have told me the risks. Besides, if you gain enough power, you’ll either help me get out of here, or you’ll just leave me behind, like your cell neighbor. And in both options, I have more options of getting out of here faster. So, how do we do this?”

The man blinks a couple of times, and says, “It’s easier through blood, but since I haven’s showered or brushed my teeth in too long, I can’t in good conscious offer to kiss those red stained lips of yours”, and while Alec is trying not to blush too much, the man wounds the palm of his hands with one of his overgrown nails, and places it on top of Alec’s wounded arm.

Alec feels how the warm tingling intensifies, having to focus on not letting any embarrassing noises escape him. And while he doesn’t know if he’s supposed to do anything, he focuses on lowering his barriers, and pushing energy towards the man. It seems to do something, because the man gasps and his eyes flash. Alec feels relaxed, drowsy and warm. He can’t help his cheeks from warming and his heart from fluttering, and in what feels like way to soon, the intensity lowers, and he feels as the man detaches his hand from his arm, physically and magically.

The man looks at him bewildered, and tenderly? Before he seems to shake himself awake, and says, “That was very generous of you, darling. And thanks to that, we can now portal out of here”

“What?”, asks Alec, still a bit dazed, “Aren’t there barriers and wards blocking that?”

“Coerced and manipulated magic is never as strong as magic with full intent. So, these wards can’t keep me”, says the man, whom looks a lot less vulnerable and a lot more powerful now, “Unless there’s something else you need to do here?”

“Oh!”, says Alec, conflicted, because now that he has a real opportunity of leaving, one that might be his only chance of escaping, he realizes he can’t. “Then you can just leave.”, and at the man’s confused expression, he adds, “I seem to be unable to leave my brother behind, even if me not being here would make things for him easier”

“Wait, you free me from my bindings and cell, then give me part of your strength, and now you expect me to just leave you here?”, the man asks, looking slightly offended.

“I mean, if you could give the NY Institute the location of this place, that would be a huge help, but I can’t leave without my brother”, says Alec, shrugging a little.

The man inhales and exhales deeply, and says, “And your connection with this brother of yours, is by blood, bond, law, something else?”

Confused, Alec answers, “He’s adopted, but he’s my parabatai”

“Wonderful”, grins Magnus, “Then if you don’t mind giving me a bit more access to you, I can get us all out of here”

“You can? You would? Why now?”, asks Alec.

“Because I didn’t think anyone would be willing to share his strength the way you just did, so what I would need to accomplish didn’t seem possible. But I have to warn you, you could imprint on my magic, stronger than you already have. And we’ll come back to that later”, says the Warlock, looking at Alec confused, but he sounds oddly shy when he adds, “Also, there’ll be a … let’s call it a rope, binding us. At least until we go through the painful rituals to sever it”

“You wouldn’t mind? Having that kind of connection to me?”, asks Alec.

“I’d have more issues leaving my saving angel behind to be tortured and killed”, replies the man, looking serious and slightly haunted.

“Very well, what do I need to do?”, asks Alec.

Magnus inhales deeply and opens his arms, “Hug me, darling. And open up the same way you did when giving me strength”

Without saying anything more, but unable to control his blush, Alec wraps his arms around him and pushes everything he is towards this stranger. And Alec knows he’s usually untrusting and closed off, but it seems like this man is making him experience a lot of firsts.

The flash of light is blinding, the clash of metal deafening, and the sensation of swirling out of control overwhelming, but amongst it all, he feels cocooned and protected in this man’s arms. And in between all this out of control sensations, he feels a body latching itself on his back, and through the tugging of his parabatai rune, he knows it’s Jace.

As soon as it started, he’s suddenly sprawled on the floor, tangled between too many limbs.

“What the fuck?”, Alec hears on his back, “Alec?”

They manage to untangle themselves enough to manage sitting on the floor. And once Alec looks around, he sees he’s in a living room, with a breathtaking view of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The man suddenly stands up, smoothly and elegant like he’s never seen him be before, and says, “I don’t know about you, but I need a bath, clothes and a few hours to myself. Over there is a guest room you’re free to use, with its own bathroom. There must be tea in the kitchen, but I have no idea what the food situation is. Maybe there’re some crackers around, who knows. Just… don’t break anything. Oh! And don’t try to leave, the wards are in emergency setting right now”, and with that, he leaves them sitting on the floor, and goes to what Alec assumes is his room.

“Alec, what the fuck?”, asks again a bewildered Jace.

“We escaped?”, asks Alec, feeling very confused, and like he’s in the middle of a dream. “Did he say there was a bathroom?”

“What? Alec, focus, what’s going on!”, demands an exasperated Jace.

“Jace, I love you, and I’m really happy you are uninjured and looking like you’re ok, but they let me go to a bathroom only once in a very long while, so if there’s a bathroom available, I’m focusing on that. We’re safe here, so go make some tea”, says Alec, dismissing Jace.

“How do you know we’re safe here? Who’s that man?, asks Jace.

And now that Alec thinks about it, he never asked for his name. “He’s the man that saved us, and someone that had ample opportunities to hurt and kill me, and did neither. So I trust him. Now, I’m going to the bathroom”, declares Alec, leaving Jace frozen in the Livingroom.

Alec ends up taking a 10 minute shower, which is three times longer that his usual time, but he figures that being imprisoned by a genocidal psychopath with a god complex, gives him some leeway to spoil himself. And dreading putting on again his old dirty clothes, he leaves the bathroom in only a towel, just to be surprised by a pile of clothes lying on top of the bed. Clothes that weren’t there when he entered the bathroom.

He stills doubts for a second if he’s allowed to wear them, when he notices a note on top of them.

Please, feel free to use these. I know I won’t be wearing my prison wear ever again.

And Alec can’t stop smiling, while he dresses in the softest sweatpants and t-shirt he’s ever worn before. Sure, right now any small comfort feels luxurious, but something tells him that it would still be the same in regular circumstances. The shirt is green, with thin lighter green and purple geometrical designs, and the pants are a dark grey, with one purple stipe down the side of one leg, definitely the most colorful clothes he remembers wearing. He finishes putting on the slippers that were with the clothes, and he can’t help laying on top of the bed for some minutes. If he didn’t have Jace waiting for him, he would probably follow the yet unnamed man’s example.

So with a soul weary groan, he gets up and goes to find Jace.

He finds him in the kitchen, nursing a cup of tea.

“Do you have one for me?”, asks Alec.

“Only if you tell me how many years of your life you sold to that guy to get us out of there”, replies Jace, as he pours tea from a teapot and into an empty mug.

“None that I know of”, answers Alec, sitting in front of his brother, “And it was lucky I found him, otherwise I would still be trying to reach you, and that’s not even thinking of how we would have managed to escape”

“So you just found yourself a magical homeless guy?”, asks a doubtful Jace.

“First, he’s not homeless, as we are right now in his home. Second, even if he was, it doesn’t add or detract anything about his value as a person”, says Alec firmly, “And third, I couldn’t just leave him. I… he’s just…”, but Alec gets interrupted by Jace’s chuckles.

“I don’t know how I didn’t realize you were into guys before you came out. Are you blushing? Did you finds his eyes dreamy and his Body Odor intoxicating.”, says Jace, starting to laugh, a bit too mockingly for Alec’s tastes, but he still can’t help his blush from deepening.

“He doesn’t really smell like sweat… shut up, or you’ll find why he warned us not to try to breach his wards”, mumbles Alec, because even if it wasn’t his odor that attracted him, he did find his eyes mesmerizing. And he can’t say that it was just the tingling on his skin that attracted him to the man either, since that didn’t happen until after he had freed him from his shackles. So he avoids Jace’s eyes by searching through the kitchen. He know they have to talk about all of what happened, but for now he just wants to enjoy the feeling of safety a little longer, since he doesn’t know how long it’ll last.

Chapter Text

It takes Alec half an hour to find a whole of 2 cans of beans and a package of rice, and while there are spices in the Kitchen, he decides not to use any on the rice, since he doesn’t think that prolonged starving and spicy food would be a good mix. It takes him another half hour to find everything he needs to cook his findings, and keep Jace from ruining the food, because for as much as they know Izzy is awful, Jace is not too far from bad either. He usually gets a pass, because he has less potential of being actually harmful.

By the time he finishes, he hesitates on what to do with the food. Should Jace and he just eat, or would the man appreciate it if he took some food to him? He only manages to take a few steps away from the stove, when the Man’s Bedroom Door is opened. And he’s certainly glad he turn the stove off before his appearance, because nothing could have stopped him from burning the food or himself when presented with the most beautiful man he has ever seen. He’s dressed in soft, flowing deep purple sparkly fabric, an open shirt revealing soft looking skin and a smooth navel-less stomach. He also shaved completely, allowing Alec to see all of his stunning features for the first time, which are enhanced by some red lipstick that, now that he looks closely, matches perfectly with the red details on his shirt. And it embarrassingly takes Jace stumping lightly on his foot, for him to regain his cognitive abilities.

“Don’t you clean up nice”, says the man, focusing only on Alec and completely ignoring Jace. And that’s definitely not something Alec is used to.

“You too… I mean… you cleaned up… and you look… yeah”, manages to say Alec, and he can’t contain the deep red crawling across his cheeks. He doesn’t understand what’s wrong with him, he’s commanded thousands of people, he was the Head of the NY Institute before he was captured, he resisted every torture imaginable, he even came out to his parents, and now he can’t get through one sentence in front of this man? Good thing Valentine never found out of this apparent weakness of his.

“What’re you making?”, asks the man, clearly amused at his reaction.

“Rice”, says Alec, trying to ignore Jace’s half cough, half chuckle, “I thought it was easier on your stomach after… you know…”, he finishes, unable to keep his eyes from this man’s now brown eyes. And just now he notices the eyeliner, and the shimmering eyelids, and while a bit disappointed he doesn’t get to see the full effect with golden eyes, a part of him is glad he gets to retain at least a handful of functioning brain cells.

“Smart”, replies the man, gingerly sitting down in a stool in front of the brothers.

And Alec doesn’t really get what happens in the exchange of looks the man and Jace share, but something seems to resolve and settle itself in Jace when he says, “Yeah, my brother is usually the smart sort, though it would seem he can get distracted easily. That’s why he has me around”

Alec ignores Jace’s comment and the man piercing gaze, and concentrates on serving 3 plates of rice, pouring beans only on top of one. He also serves the man and himself some chamomile tea.

“I would recommend eating as slowly as possible”, says Alec, as he sets the food in front of the man.

“I know, sadly this is not my first time. Thank you”, says the man, looking softer than before, a bit vulnerable, but side-eying Jace, he seems to pull himself together in a second.

Jace, taking notice that Alec is avoiding the beans too, asks his brother, “He starved you too? That lying…”

But before he finishes the sentence, Alec interrupts him, “Not starving, but they gave me the minimal possible, I’m guessing they deemed that to be the minimal requirement to fulfill whatever agreement you guys made”

“Fucking genocidal maniac”, mumbles Jace, to which the man tilts his head a bit, analyzing Jace.

“You weren’t the typical prisoner”, he declares, “Are you perhaps his ever elusive offspring?”, but before Alec or Jace get to answer, he shakes his head and continues, “Nah! You don’t look like either of them, or any Morgenstern or Fairchild I ever saw”, and he looks for a bit longer, ignoring the brothers baffled expressions, “You look like the epitome of a Herondale. And sadly, you my dear”, he continues focusing now on Alec, “Look exactly like, I’m now guessing, a Lightwood. Are you Maryse Lightwoood’s firstborn?”, he asks with a grimace, obviously not liking the likely answer.

“I’m sorry?”, says Alec, uncertain. And he’s not sure if he’s asking for clarification or if he’s actually asking for forgiveness, for whatever his mother probably did to this man.

The man seems to take it as the second, as he says, “Worry not darling, it would be very hypocritical of me if I started judging people by the sins of their parents.”

“Cool, but I’m not a Herondale”, says Jace, interrupting Alec’s and the man’s staring.

“Ok, adopted Lightwood, whatever. Point is, you’re not related to Valentine”, dismisses the man.

“What? No, he told me. He pretended he was Michael Wayland, so he could hide himself and raise me”, says Jace.

The man looks at Jace again, squinting a bit, and answers, “Yeah, no, he lied. Maybe the rest is true, but he’s not you’re biological father. And I’m even willing to bet you have the Herondale Birthmark and all.”

“The Herondale what?”, asks Alec.

“Yeah, well, long story short, that I’m not sure I should really talk about it, since I just know from… never mind. It’s your family, so I guess it should be ok. All male Herondale’s, be them cis or trans, are born with a star shaped birthmark”, he says.

Both Alec and Jace are in shock. They’ve both seen it, countless of times.

“She’s not your sister”, realizes Alec, Jace’s eyes widened even more, and Alec can’t help himself from repeating it, even if he knows he should be focusing on the Valentine part of it, “Clary is not your sister”

“Fuck, Clarissa is in contact with Shadowhunters?”, says the man, frowning and looking distressed.

“You know Clary?”, asks Jace, suddenly suspicious, well, more suspicious. But Alec, feeling protective over the stranger, grabs Jace’s arms to keep him in place.

“Relax, we don’t know why he knows her”, says Alec, trying to calm his brother.

“I don’t even know what his name is”, replies Jace.

“But you know that thanks to him, we could both escape, with all our limbs still attached”, says Alec.

“He’s right in one thing”, says the man, “I still don’t know your name, other than deducing you’re a Herondale and you’re a Lightwood”

“He’s Jace Wayland, my adoptive brother and parabatai. And I’m Alec”, answers Alec, ignoring the distress sounds Jace makes.

“Is that short for something?”, asks the man.

“Jonathan Cristopher”, answers Alec, and at the man’s raised eyebrow, he blushes and adds, “Ah! You meant me. It’s Alexander, but everyone calls me Alec”

“And what if I don’t want to be just like everyone?”, asks the man, with a half smirk, and adds, “Would you mind terribly if I call you Alexander”

And Alec didn’t think it was possible, especially with his dreaded full name involved, but his blush darkens, and he barely manages to stutter an answer, “N-no, I m-mean, that’s o-ok. Y-you can call m-me w-whatever… A-alexander’s f-fine”

And before Alec can combust in his own embarrassment, the man grins and says, “It’s a pleasure Alexander, I’m Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn. Or at least I was, before Valentine made me an unwilling permanent resident in his establishment”

“Oh!”, says Jace, waking up from his shock at seeing Alec stutter, and pointing at Magnus continues, “You’re the one that stole Clary’s memories”

The sound of Alec’s hand slapping the back of Jace’s head echoes across the Kitchen.

“I apologize for his behavior, it seems his time with Valentine affected his manners and common sense”, says Alec calmly, but side-glaring at Jace.

“Just because it’s you, I’ll let this one go. But remember Jason, you only get one pass”, says a serious Magnus. “Now, I don’t know you, but I haven’t eaten in what feels like weeks”, he finishes, gesturing towards the food.

They eat in silence for a while, Alec and Magnus taking small bites and eating slowly.

“Magnus”, says Alec, briefly realizing that he likes how his name feels, “Do you have a phone I could borrow? Or can I get any fire message pass your wards?”

“I can give you access to send fire messages, and I also have a cellphone I can lend you. May I ask why?”, asks Magnus.

“I should inform the location of Valentine’s center of command, before they manage to raise their defenses”, says Alec, feeling a little ashamed, since he should have thought of this from the start. He’s totally blaming his imprisonment and Magnus… everything.

“Ah! No worries. I already informed the Spiral Labyrinth and the NY Institute. I didn’t say anything about you both though, I didn’t know how you wanted to handle it”, replies Magnus.

“Thank you”, says Alec, once again warmed by this man.

“Why the NY Institute specifically?”, asks Jace.

“Alexander mentioned it briefly before we left”, says Magnus with a shrug, and Alec can’t help but swoon a little. It was just a comment, a request that he considered null, since he actually managed to escape. And Magnus still went out of his way and shared important information to a group of people that he obviously dislikes.

“Seriously, thank you, you didn’t have to”, repeats Alec, holding his gaze, trying to convey how much he appreciates this.

Magnus eyes turn fond, and he says, “Well, you didn’t have to let me out of that cell, but I’ll be forever grateful that you did.”

“Well, we should be going”, says Jace, starting to fear for his brothers sanity. He’s never seen him like this, and he’s worried it might be some consequence of his imprisonment. He should at least be checked by someone at the infirmary. And if he’s honest with himself, he’s feeling a bit possessive of his parabatai, especially by being unused to not being the center of his attention.

Alec feels disappointment like a punch to his stomach. He doesn’t want to leave, but a lifetime of experience in suppressing his wants, allows him to respond, “Yeah, we’ve been imposing for long enough. Let me clean up a bit first”.

“No”, replies Magnus, and seeing Alec frozen in his movement to take his dirty plate, he hurries to say, “You’re not imposing, and you don’t have to clean up”

Alec doesn’t know why, but he thinks that Magnus looks a little lost. And it makes sense that he would be feeling a bit out of sorts. After all, he just spent a long time locked down. And for all that Alec’s used to prioritizing his Shadowhunter and Brotherly Duties above all else, he feels unwilling to leave the Warlock alone, when he clearly craves company.

“You go ahead Jace”, says Alec, not noticing Jace’s shocked reaction, since he seems unable from taking his eyes from Magnus, “I’m sure if there’s any emergency, I’ll be able to receive your fire messages”

“Alec, you should at least get a medical check”, says Jace, completely baffled at his brother’s reaction.

“I can give him a medical check. And here, Alexander can have my phone for a while, here’s the number. So you can call him anytime”, says Magnus, looking fidgety.

“I don’t know…”, starts Jace, but gets interrupted by Alec.

“If the Institute is going for Valentine’s Headquarters, its best if you’re there. You have way more Intel on the place than me. And I have some questions for Magnus, about some of the magical parts of our escape”, says Alec, looking for any thread of an excuse he can find.

He does notice that he may have said something the wrong way, because Magnus wraps his arms around himself, in a clearly protective gesture. But first’s things firsts, he needs to convince Jace to let him stay.

“But they’re your troops to command, and Izzy must be sick with worry about us”, says Jace, trying again, still confused.

“If I go now, I’ll go through an interrogation first, and they’re going to waste time on me. And you’ll make sure Izzy knows I’m ok”, replies Alec. Seeing Jace still doubting, Alec approaches him, because he gets it, this does look completely uncharacteristic of him. But leaving aside Magnus, he doesn’t know how to explain to Jace the confusion in power his return can create. He doesn’t even know who the Clave put in power now, since Lydia didn’t have a reason for staying any longer, and that’s not even thinking of how his coming out could have affected his unofficial command over his people. Yes, returning now would make the Clave and Institute lose focus on a raid to Valentine, and that’s what needs to be a priority.

Alec Presses his forehead against his, takes one of his hands and lays it on his parabatai rune, under his shirt, skin to skin, his hand on top of his. With his other hand he grabs the back of his neck, and says, steady and calm, “I’m ok. We’re alright, we’re both fine. We got out, and we’re ok”

Jace uses his free hand to grab the back of Alec’s head, and using his hold, he lowers Alec’s head a bit and kisses his forehead. He grunts a little as he disentangles himself from his parabatai and says, “Alright, but if anything happens to you, I’m not holding back. And I’ll be checking in every 2 hours”

Alec smiles and says, “Since when did we exchange roles?”, and at Jace’s pained expression, he winces and adds, “It’s ok Jace, I promise. We’re ok.”

“Ok, as long as we all know I’m the hottest one”, replies Jace, trying to lighten the mood and looking for reassurance at the same time. Magnus can’t seem to hold back a scoff.

“Sorry, I try not to lie when possible”, says Alec with a shrug, trying to ignore a frowning Jace and with a lightly warmer face due to his thoughts being instantly directed towards the hottest man in the room, at least to him, and asks, “If he tries to leave now, will your wards fry him?”

Magnus shakes off his pensive look and answers, “I’ve adjusted it to allow for both of you leaving, it’s ok”

“Alright”, says Jace, and before reaching the door, he adds, “And for the record, I’m not that much of an idiot, I know you’re way more powerful than me. But if anything happens to Alec, I’m resourceful, I’ll find a way”, and before either Alec or Magnus can reply, he’s already out, behind the recently closed door.

As Alec stays stunned looking towards the locked door, completely unused to being the one being protected, Magnus starts to walk towards his couch.

“Well, we better get that interrogation over with”, says Magnus, sitting down.

And the detached tone he uses works wonders for unfreezing Alec. He walks towards Magnus, sits on the other end of the couch and says, “Interrogation? What Interrogation”

“Didn’t you say you had questions about the magic I used, and what it means? You probably need to know if I have power over you now”, asks Magnus, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I mean no, they’re just normal questions. And they’re not mandatory, whatever you tell me, it’s just between us”, answers Alec.

“Oh! Well then, I thought… You know what? Doesn’t matter, asks away”, says Magnus, relaxing into the couch.

“First, and please don’t think I’m trying to underestimate you or anything, but do you have enough protection for when Valentine tries to take you back?”, asks an anxious Alec, and at Magnus silence, he hurries to add, “If I can help you in any way, please let me know. I’m not that strong, but I have resources I can use”

“You have to be the weirdest Shadowhunter I’ve ever met”, says Magnus, watching him with curious eyes.

Alec shrugs, squashing the slight fear of disappointing this man with his next confession, “Yeah… well… got kind of tired of pretending I’m not … me, especially when I was almost coerced into marrying a woman”, and as he awaits anxious for Magnus reaction, he catches how the curiosity in his eyes changes to interest.

“Were you against it because it was a particular woman, or just because she was a woman?”, asks Magnus, obviously going for subtle.

But Alec is not subtle, he’s strategic, polite at most, but not subtle, so he replies with a shrug, “It was because I’m gay, and I got tired of pretending I wasn’t”

And Alec feels as relief floods him, as he sees Magnus grin wide, and with a raised eyebrow, as if challenging him, he says, “I can partly relate, I’m bisexual”

“Oh”, manages to say Alec, unable to hold back a giddy smile, because even if by now Alec thinks Magnus is totally out of his league, that far away impossible possibility is suddenly a little bit closer. With a quick shake of his head, he forces himself to re-focus on what they’re actually supposed to be talking about, “Sorry, I got sidetracked, we were supposed to talk about what it means that we connected? Bonded?”, asks Alec.

“Well, not bonded, that’s more concrete than this, this is more of a link, I think…”, starts Magnus, straightening his posture, “Let me start by warning you that there might be some consequences that we couldn’t have known about beforehand. I’ve never done this before, and I don’t think it’s been done between a Nephilim and Warlock before either”

“Ok, so this is basically uncharted territory and a lot of educated guesses?”, asks Alec, leaning slightly towards Magnus.

“Basically” says Magnus, “I think it’s better if we do a full scan, and start by seeing what we’ve got. May I?”, he asks, reaching forward with his hands, that just now Alec notices have rings.

Magnus scoots closer to Alec, extending his arms, palms up. Alec reaches for him, moving closer until their knees touch, curling his fingers around Magnus’s wrist and pressing his palms against his. He didn’t expect the warm shiver that went through his body, but by Magnus’s gasp, he wasn’t the only one to feel it. And when he raises his gaze, he can see Magnus’s golden eyes once more.

“That’s not fair”, says Alec, not even realizing the words slipped from his mouth.

“What’s not fair?”, asks Magnus, looking completely distracted by whatever he found in Alec’s face.

Alec can’t help but blush once more, maybe he has a new found circulation problem? But as always, he sticks with what he knows best, being blunt, and says, “You. Every time I look at you, you’re impossibly more beautiful than before”

Magnus can’t hold in the strangled moan that escapes him, and asks, “And you say I’m being unfair?”, but at Alec’s completely confused expression, he takes a deep breath and continues, “I’m going to start the scan now. It’s probably going to feel uncomfortable, since I’ll have to use my raw unfiltered magic, but please bear with it. This should only take a moment”, says Magnus, apologetic.

Magnus starts pouring his magic into Alec, as gentle as he can, but somehow it’s like Alec is sucking it into himself, like his own self is starving for it, and it’s feasting on everything and anything he’s given. And Alec tries to stop it, the flow manages to remain slow and controlled at first, but it doesn’t take long for Alec to be unable to do anything other than cave in. The sounds his mouth lets go come from deep within his chest, pulled from down his stomach and behind his hammering heart. And he never thought that shivers could feel delicious, but he doesn’t know how else to describe it.

He feels dazed and drunk when Magnus finally let’s go of his hands, feeling the loss of his warm touch and his scorching magic, like a wound. Like a yawning void that hurts in its emptiness. And Alec tries to remember that this is how he’s always felt, that one experience shouldn’t be able to make painfully obvious that his normal usual self is severely lacking, that what he just felt is worlds apart, and that by being back to his normal self, he feels like he’s losing an essential part of himself. That’s definitely not what this was supposed to be about, he thinks frustrated, yearning.

And so much has happened in the last hours; escaping, finding Magnus, taking him with him, him basically rescuing him and Jace, the lack of sleep, food, rest… At least that’s the reason he gives himself for his lack of self-control. He reaches for Magnus hands, latching himself to them, needing to hold on, otherwise he’ll drift away and drown, and pleads hurriedly, “Please, don’t let me go. I’m sorry, but please, just for a moment. I’m sorry”

Without saying anything, Magnus pulls Alec into him by their renewed hold, manages to release one of his hands from the strong hold the Shadowhunter has on him, and wraps his arm around Alec. And for a moment Alec thinks he’s shaking, before he realizes that the one trembling against him is Magnus. Alec doesn’t know how long they stay like that, but he’s highly aware of when Magnus stops shaking and melts into him, almost nuzzling his neck, warming him with his breathing against his skin and feeling soft tingles of the few erratic threads of magic that reach from Magnus and slither randomly across his skin. And he doesn’t know how much time passes, but as their breathing slows down, feeling as he’s about to be dragged into the first peaceful sleep he’s had in a way too long time, the loud shrill of a cellphone shocks them apart.

Without releasing his hold on Magnus’s Hand, he’s about to suggest that they ignore whomever is calling, when the knocking on the front door starts.

“I need more than a few minutes to tell you what the scan showed”, says Magnus, looking towards the door with a frown.

“You can tell me later, unless there’s some life or death information I need to know now?”, replies Alec, deep down happy that he’ll get to see Magnus again, even if he hates the interruption.

“No, nothing life threatening, but potentially life changing…”, he’s interrupted by more knocking, and with a groan, he starts walking towards the door and says, “It’s important, so don’t leave before we talk?”

“Promise”, declares Alec easily, seeing as Magnus golden eyes almost sparkle before turning a deep warm brown.

Chapter Text

To say that Izzy was feeling overwhelmed would be stating the obvious. She never thought she would be grateful that Lydia stayed once Jace and Alec where taken, but she ended up being the much needed balance when dealing with Aldertree. And if she is completely honest with herself, If it weren’t for Lydia and her attention to everything Aldertree did, Izzy admits to herself she would probably be addicted to Yin Fen by now, when that asshole tried to prey on her vulnerable state after losing both of her brothers, and being left practically alone.

Clary for her part attached herself fully to Dot, desperate on trying to decode the Book of the White, and waking up her Mom. At least that gave Simon enough space to start accepting his vampirism, and finding support, weirdly enough, in Raphael. Izzy’s theory is that Raphael needed Simon to distract himself from being unable to find Magnus Bane. And Izzy can totally sympathize with the conflicting emotions of wanting to be distracted from your loved ones disappearance, while at the same time obsessing over it.

She never realized before how overwhelming Clary could be, now that Jace and Alec weren’t present. Jace giving her all the attention she was used to getting as an only daughter and being practically worshipped by Simon, and Alec being the ‘bad cop’ able to contain her more dangerous impulses, took a lot of effort to do all by herself. And it’s not like Clary is a bad person, It shows that besides obsessing over her mother’s spell, she cares deeply for Jace, but Izzy never realized how exhausting it was to analyze the risks of every new plan, and all the time she had to spent on arguing about the risks and consequences of them. Basically, always having to be the responsible one sucked, and she owed Alec a huge apology and a vacation.

Izzy also really missed her brothers, and the comfort and reassurance just having them nearby gave her. Maybe that’s why she’s been keeping herself as busy as possible, and why she’s once again on her way to see Hodge, hoping he had news on who the leak was, and especially who gave Valentine the opportunity to take Jace and Alec from her.

She should see if later she could get together with Raphael and Simon, because for a Vampire, Raphael’s cooking is delicious, and Simon’s rambling is simple and comfortable, perfect to unwind after a whole morning of meetings dealing with Aldertree, even if she had Lydia’s support. And since it seemed the High Warlock’s information about Valentine’s whereabouts seemed reliable, that meant her morning wasn’t over yet. Maybe she could ask her if she wants to join them to unwind, she’ll probably need it.

Since Izzy is so into her own thoughts, she can’t stop from bumping into an inconsiderable person that just deliberately decided to stand right in front of her, at least according to her. So of course she has to put them in their place. “Would it kill you to respect other people’s personal spaces? Or would you rather I kill you?”

“Oh come on! I just survived Valentine, and now I need to survive you?”, says a familiar voice, that has the effect of freezing Izzy, while at the same time making her heart speed.

“Jace? By the Angel, it’s you! You’re alive! Are you Ok?”, says Izzy, hugging him strongly , just to push him away to check him for injuries, just to repeat the process over and over again. And the only thing that manages to take her out of the loop, is not seeing anyone else close to him. She fearfully searches for his eyes, and whispers, “Alec?”

“He’s fine, don’t worry! He’s safe, I promise”, reassures Jace, prompting Izzy to hug him again, and practically melt into him.

After more hugs, and some rushed talking and hiding into corners, they ended up in a room together with Clary, Dot and Hodge. They ended up deciding to fill in Lydia later, so she would have plausible deniability when Aldertree finds out of Jace’s return. Jace explains to them what he knew about their escape, shocking everyone at the mention of Magnus Bane’s involvement. He also details all the information he could about Valentine’s Headquarters, and since Aldertree was still convinced that Jace’s was conspiring with Valentine, they also decided that Jace shouldn’t ‘come back’ until after they could use his information to raid Valentine’s Headquarters. So, even if it killed her, Izzy would stay and inform Lydia, so that they and Hodge could plan a raid of the place. Jace would have to stay out of sight until it was done, which meant she now has some Camera Footage to misplace.

All this prompted Dot to ask about Magnus’s actual location, because not only she wanted to check that he was actually ok, but he was their best option for decoding the Book of the White, or at least locating Ragnor. This lead to Clary wanting to go too, preferably right away, and since Jace’s needed to stay away anyways, so they agreed that Jace, Dot and Clary would go back to Magnus’s place. Izzy gave herself a moment to mourn not being able to see Alec, but as it was becoming her new routine, she pushed her disappointment deep down, and got ready to start planning Valentine’s Headquarters Raid. She did get Jace to promise that once he was back with Alec, they would call her, so she could at least listen to her brother’s voice.

“Come on”, says Clary, “Knock on the door”

“Wait, let me try to call them first”, says Jace, “We should have called them before coming”

“Jace, I can portal, it would have been a difference of seconds”, says Dot, “Besides, Magnus and I are close, don’t worry”

After a moment of Jace calling, without anyone picking up, Clary knocks on the door. Jace just prays that Magnus doesn’t get too annoyed and ends up changing the wards to not allow him in anymore.

Magnus is halfway on his way to the door, when Alec stands up and says, “Do you need help? With whomever is at the door?”

Magnus stops and answers, “Only your brother should be able to get to the door, but I feel others with him, and Dorothea?”

“Yeah, she’s been helping Clary, and trying to wake up Jocelyn”, explains Alec, “I could send them away if you want? If you’re not in the mood to do it yourself?”

“Thanks, but I should be fine”, says Magnus, and with an analyzing look towards Alec, it seems he makes a decision as he says, “I just don’t really want to be touched”, and at Alec’s slightly panicked look towards the couch, he adds, “Not you darling, that was fine”

Alec, feeling reassured, approaches Magnus and says, “I’ll help as subtlety as I can?”

Magnus exaggerates a shocked expression, and asks, “You know what subtle means?”

Alec chuckles a bit and answers, “Shut up, I’ll be polite then”

“Very well”, says Magnus, as he waves a hand and the door opens.

Almost immediately, a blur with brown hair goes directly towards Magnus, and Alec, without thinking twice, puts himself in front of Magnus, making the person crush against him.

“Ouch”, mumbles a female voice, “Alec?”

“Dot? What the fuck! We just escaped Valentine, I thought someone was attacking!”, exclaims Alec, feeling his heart pound loudly, trying to escape his chest.

“Sorry for wanting to reach a loved one that I thought was lost”, complains Dot, disentangling herself form Alec and trying to sidestep around him, but Alec just raises an eyebrow and blocks her way again.

“I understand that, believe me. But please, for my overworked nerves, could we all avoid physical contact? At least for now?”, asks Alec, and he is not even ashamed of using what Izzy usually calls his ‘bambi eyes’. Does he hate using them, especially since Izzy called them that? Yes. Is it worth it if it helps Magnus? Also yes.

Dot reluctantly agrees, and nods taking a step back. “Ok, but I demand at least visual contact”, she declares, crossing her arms.

“Thank you”, says Alec, taking a step to the side, and nodding towards Jace and Clary.

“Oh my dear Magnus, I’m so glad you’re ok”, says Dot, not taking her eyes from Magnus, now that he can see him.

“Yes, it’s been some very eventful… weeks?”, replies Magnus, unable to keep himself from trying to steal side-glances towards Alec.

“What happened? After that night, we couldn’t find you”, says Dot, and while Clary grabs her arm in an effort to call her attention, she places her hand on top of hers and pats her a bit, as if asking for patience. Alec and Jace can’t help smiling to each other, since Clary is as patient as Alec is subtle and Jace is cautious.

“Was Ellias able to close the portal and make sure everyone stayed in the safe house? I sent a message to the Spiral Labyrinth, but they haven’t answered yet”, asks Magnus, anxious to know that everyone was safe.

“Yes, they all took refuge there, until they could find long-term places. But about half are still there. I haven’t been able to find Ragnor though, and …”, she stops herself, clearly unsure if she should tell the next part or not, but Magnus gestures for her to continue, “Camille hasn’t been seen, so Raphael is now head of the Clan”

Magnus shrugs, and says, “Ragnor probably went into hiding. If something happened to him, I would have his Will between my pending messages. And Camille, I saw way too much of her, and she went away, so it’s completely up to her if she stays safe or not. I don’t really care anymore”

“I’m glad”, says Dot, smiling brightly, “It was time for you to move on to … better things”, she finishes with a wink.

“Yeah, well, right now I just kind of want to sleep for a month”, says Magnus, looking towards the other people in the room, “Why don’t we go sit down?”

Alec in momentary surprised when he ends up sitting next to Magnus, with the rest sitting in another couch in front of them. But thinking it better, it makes sense, since he knows Alec won’t try to touch him, now that he told him he doesn’t want that. He’ll just have to resist the impulse of reaching out for him. But suddenly Alec feels his growing anxiety dissolve, because he can feel one tendril of magic connecting with his pinky, and when he steals a look towards Magnus, he almost believes he can see a slight shade of pink on his cheeks, but it’s gone before he can make sure.

“After we separated”, starts Magnus, “My magic was still low, after the portal and the wards for the new refuge, so when I managed to lead the Circle Members away from you and Elias, I couldn’t do much more to keep from being captured. And Camille was put in the cell next to mine sometime after.”

“Probably around when we were captured”, says Jace, “We were all in the same place after all”

“Wait”, says Magnus, turning towards Alec, “You knew who she was”

“Yes…”, says Alec, a bit confused of where Magnus was going with this.

“And you still…”Magnus trails off, looking shocked.

“Of course, I wasn’t going to leave her there, to be tortured and experimented on by Valentine”, replies Alec.

“So weird”, mumbles Magnus, clearly to himself, while he smiles a little.

And Alec is a bit lost on how to reply to that, and for the first time in ever, he feels saved by Clary.

“I get that there’s a lot going on, and I’m really sorry because it’s not even a day since your escape, but my mom is still in a coma, and everyone keeps saying that you can wake her up”, says Clary, unable to hold back any longer.

“Yes, of course. What do you need me for?”, asks Magnus.

“We have the Book of the White, which contains the spell to wake Jocelyn up, but it’s coded”, says Dot.

Magnus, raising one eyebrow, asks, “Dorothea, did you have it coded and then forgot which code you used? Jocelyn is not a Warlock, she couldn’t have made the potion without magic in the first place. Because it seems unlikely that Ragnor gave that kind of potion without the antidote.”

“Magnus, please”, replies Dot, looking a bit offended at being underestimated, “It seems Ragnor wanted to make sure the book was returned to him. So after it’s used, it gets automatically coded, so it has to be returned to the previous owner”

“Oh! That’s smart, I should do that with mine”, says Magnus, but then looks shocked and adds, “Don’t tell him I said that”

“Promise. I won’t tell anything to the warlock I haven’t met. Now, can you decode it? Or help us find Ragnor?”, asks Clary, fearing they’ll get sidetracked again.

“I’ll have to look it over Biscuit, but I’ve decoded other things from Ragnor before, so the possibilities are good”

“Biscuit?”, asks Jace, getting more and more uncomfortable by the connection this man seems to have to all of his … important people.

“I’ve met her before, even if she doesn’t remember it”, says Magnus, and as Clary and Jace remember Magnus was also the one who took Clary’s memories, and they look like they’re about to protest to him about it, Alec glares their way and simply shakes his head. Magnus sends a quick smile towards Alec, turns to look at the couple and adds, “I’ll do one thing first, so would you rather waking up your mother or retrieving your memories?”

“My Mom. She’s the main reason I wanted to have my memories back in the first place, so please wake up my Mom?”, says Clary, without a hint of doubt.

“Very well, now that that’s been decided, I’ll ask you all to leave, so I can finally get some sleep. I can’t really do much decoding when I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks, and I’m pretty sure Ragnor would have also put anti-summoning spells in his books. You can drop the book off tomorrow”, says Magnus.

Dot looks reluctant to go, but they all stand up and head for the door. As Alec starts following, he feels Magnus take his hand and tug. And when he looks at him, Magnus mumbled question, his whispered ‘stay?’, is all it takes for Alec to make a decision.

“Alec?”, asks Jace, looking slightly concerned, at the same time that Dot seems to decide on something too.

She only manages to say, “Maybe I could…”, before she’s interrupted by Alec.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to return to the Institute yet”, says Alec, and turning towards Magnus, asks, “Sorry to impose on you again, but would you mind terribly if I stayed here? I can take the couch”

“You can stay with me”, offers Dot.

“Don’t worry, I have a guest room ready”, answers Magnus quickly.

And looking decisively uncomfortable by everyone’s reactions, Clary unknowingly saves Alec once again, and says, “Great, then Jace can stay with Dot, so we can lower the risk of Aldertree finding him. And now that that’s all sorted out, let’s go. We’ll see Alec and Magnus here tomorrow. Oh! And Alec, Izzy said you have to call her, otherwise she’ll cook for me”

Alec laughs, and says, “Ok, I’ll try to call her. I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy”

And before someone else says something else, Clary grabs Dot’s and Jace’s hand and drags them out, closing the door behind her.

Alec, unable to stop smiling at the door, says to himself “Oh crap, she’s growing on me.”

Magnus shrugs and replies, “She was always a polite and sweet girl when I saw her”

“We’ll definitely have to compare notes later”, says Alec, “What now?”

“Now, we go to sleep, because I can’t pretend to be functional anymore”, says Magnus, seeming to decide that he would remain completely honest with this Shadowhunter.

And with the sun not even gone, they both laid down on their own beds, and fell into exhausted sleeps, not even thinking of how reassured they were to be together under the same roof.

Alec can’t remember the last time he slept so deeply. Not only does it take some actual effort to wake up, but when he manages to regain some consciousness, he feels completely lost of where he is, or what forced him to wake up in the first place.

The ringing stops and starts again, before he realizes it’s the cellphone that’s ringing. He manages to grab it, answer it, and completely confused he asks, “Hello? Who is this?”

“Alec? Finally!”, says a woman’s voice, and some part of Alec kind of recognizes who it is.

“Yes?”, he asks, still not completely awake.

“That’s all I get? You’re so lucky I love you”, she replies, sighing deeply.

“Izzy? Sorry, I just woke up”, says Alec, unable to keep from yawning.

“Oh! I woke you up? I’m sorry, you must be exhausted”, says a regretful Izzy, feeling all her rightful indignation evaporate.

“No! I’m sorry I didn’t call you. I just kind of laid down on the bed and… passed out?”, asks Alec to himself, still not completely back to reality.

“Whose bed?”, she asks, with just a hint of humor, but by her gasp at Alec’s answer, she obviously didn’t expect Alec’s answer.

“Magnus’s guest room bed. Sadly that’s as close as I could get to him to sleep”, says Alec, still lacking his usual filter.

“Really? Would you have preferred sleeping next to him?”, asks Izzy, taking advantage of his brother’s unfiltered honesty.

“If it was up to me, I would have preferred his arms around me, but this was as close as I was going to get”, says Alec, mostly to himself.

“Would you now?”, asks Izzy, hopping it would prompt him to keep going, and she almost can’t hold back her giggles when he does.

“Anyone alive would have. He’s so strong, and warm, and hot, and smart, and kind”, answers Alec, finishing with a sight, basically daydreaming now.

“Wow, I need to interrogate you when you’re half asleep more often”, says Izzy.

“I know, it’s like my brain to mouth filter is completely gone”, replies Alec.

“Are you sure they didn’t experiment on you and have it removed?”, asks Izzy, both trying to as painlessly segue way to Alec’s imprisonment, and leave the door wide open in case Alec wanted to escape the subject. What she didn’t expect is the complete silence that follows her question. “Alec?”

“Izzy, I… sorry, but I … I don’t know…”, trails off Alec.

“Brother, we can talk about something else, I just want you to know, I’m here from when you want to talk, ok?”, says Izzy.

“Ok, thank you, it’s just that… thank you”, says Alec, and after a moment of silence, he asks, “Did you guys managed to raid Valentine’s headquarters?”

“We just finished our strategy meeting, that’s why I had a few minutes to call you. We’re going tonight, so that vampires can aid us”, answers Izzy, her tone turning more professional.

“Did you get a good enough layout from Jace’s information?”, asks Alec.

“As much as we could. I also wanted to ask you, did you see where they locked up their prisoners?”, asks Izzy.

“Not really, just saw Magnus and Camille Belcourt, before we escaped. I’ll ask Magnus if he has more information and text it to you. How’s Jace doing?”

“He’s focused on the raid. Victor Aldertree is half in charge at the moment, but Lydia managed to keep the focus on the raid, and not on where the information for it came from. She’s vouching for the source, without disclosing it to him. After the raid, when the layout information is proven true, we’ll bring you guys back”, says Izzy.

“Aldertree is running the institute?”, asks a worried Alec, remembering the few instances their paths crossed.

“Don’t worry too much, since Lydia stayed, she’s helped keep things reasonable and functional. I get now why you almost married her”, replies Izzy.

“Very funny”, deadpans Alec, “It’s great that she stayed”, says Alec, softening his voice

“Yes, she working on keeping Jace and you from being locked, and if she manages it before the raid, I think you could come back today without mayor issues. Maybe even oversee it, since we could totally use your strategic mind. Plus, everyone here would feel much more reassured following your command”

“Ok, I’ll try to, as long as it doesn’t distract from the mission”, agrees Alec, a bit surprised at how reluctant he is to distance himself from Magnus. “I need to talk some things with Magnus, but please keep me informed of everything that happens”

“Like Raj sighing for your absence? Or Underhill suddenly not bothering much with his hairstyle?”, asks Izzy, unable to contain her giggles.

“Oh shut up”, replies Alec, “Since you apparently don’t have anything important to add, I’ll hang up”

“If we were talking about Magnus’s arms it would be important, right?”, asks Izzy, to which Alec decides this is not going to get better for him, and just hangs up. And he can almost see Izzy’s satisfied look. But thinking about Magnus makes his sober himself up, because he needs to ask him if some of the things he found out yesterday, were his apparently missing memories of his time as Valentine’s prisoner.

Chapter Text

Alec takes a quick shower, in part to wake himself up and in part because of how wonderful it is to have access to a shower. When he gets back into the guest room, he finds a new pile of clothes on top of the bed, with a new handwritten note.

Your sister sent some clothes for you last night, with some new vampire called Salmon. I’ll join you in an hour or so, so feel free to use any of the new conjured food in the Kitchen. Also, please accept to keep the clothes I gave you yesterday, I’ll sleep better knowing your wardrobe has some color in it.

The warm feeling that spreads though him works wonders with his increasing anxiety at not being able to remember his imprisonment. Magnus is clearly kinder and more giving than people lead him to believe. Not that he puts too much value on the Clave’s records, but even other Downworlders painted him as aloof, egocentric, eccentric and shallow. Sure, they all praised how powerful, smart and desirable he was, but it always came with a warning, to be careful, to not give too much.

Alec finishes towel drying his hair and getting dressed, enjoying the nice sandalwood smell that lingers on his skin from the soap and shampoo in the bathroom. And when he enters the Kitchen is with the determination to make Magnus some breakfast. He stops himself from trying to be all fancy, because Magnus stomach must still be weak due to starvation, so he decides on poached eggs, white bread toasts and chamomile tea.

After some time, it’s like he feels the atmosphere shift, and lifting his gaze from where he’s finishing setting the table, he sees Magnus leaning against one of the walls, just watching him.

“Morning”, says Alec, feeling warm and nervous at having the full attention of Magnus. And that mix between comfortable and nervous seems to have the same effect as him being half-asleep, so he can’t help but start rambling, “I’m guessing we both still have weak stomachs, since it was only just yesterday that we were… you know. I made some white toast, chamomile tea and was waiting on you for some poached eggs? Unless you’d preferred something else? I just thought hard boiled eggs would be too dry, and I’m not terrible at poached eggs. At least I’ve never set anything on fire like Izzy once did, but those are really low standards, so maybe you would rather have something else?”

By the time Alec manages to stop himself, he doesn’t have enough courage to look Magnus’ way, and Magnus silence is not helping him feel calmer. Maybe he’s trying to find a way to ask this obnoxious Shadowhunter to leave? Now that he’s probably regained some of the common sense he obviously lost after being captured. Because why else would he have asked Alec to stay, when there’re obviously better people clamoring for his attention? Dot being only one of probably thousands better options

Even if he doesn’t manage to stop his brain from overthinking, he does hear Magnus’s mumble reply saying that eggs are perfectly fine, and manages to finish the eggs, toast and tea. It’s only after he sets everything on the table and sits down, then that he manages to look at Magnus. He knew it was a bad idea looking his way, but he didn’t realize right away why it was a bad idea. Because while Magnus looks between stunned and pensive, he also looks amazing.

His make-up is some gold eyeliner and dark bronze lipstick, his hairstyle looks artfully disheveled, with a glittering ear cuff, a necklace with a smooth round gold stone pendant, leaving all the rest of his wonderfully uncovered chest and shoulders bare. He also has a ring that matches the necklace, black soft looking fabric pants, and nothing else. That’s how he can see that his toenails match his hands, black with what looks like gold dust. And it’s completely stupid, because they couldn’t look more different, and black is a very neutral and commonly used color, but he’s glad that he matches him with his black shirt, pants and boots.

“And… I’m back”, says Magnus, finally moving and taking a seat in front of him.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you up earlier? I can leave if you’re tired and what to sleep more?”, asks Alec, praying that’s not the case.

“No darling, not at all”, reassures Magnus, “Besides we now have to enjoy this delicious breakfast you made for us”, he says smiling.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s super bland”, apologizes Alec, praying that his shaking hands don’t spill the tea he’s trying to serve. It’s as if all his Shadowhunter precision and steadiness vanished.

“Please, don’t apologize for that. You took time and effort to make something for me, with my needs in mind. That’s… thank you”, says Magnus, smiling tenderly towards Alec, making him lose his breath a bit.

Alec, trying to regain his composure, clears his throat, and tries to say nonchalantly, “Well, according to my siblings, my French toasts are pretty good, so I could try that next time”, and as Alec finishes saying that, he realizes that sounds like he’s proposing he stay the night again, under more romantic circumstances. He’s completely unable to keep his cheeks from heating up, or the tea he just drunk in a panic to go the wrong way.

While Alec is coughing, he chokes up a bit more when Magnus stands up and goes to help him, by rubbing his back. And as if that’s not enough, Magnus says, “Well, I don’t think I’m strong enough to resist a beautiful man offering to be all gorgeously domestic for me”

Alec is sure that it’s only because his Shadowhunters survival instincts are strong, that he manages to breathe once more. And in a very raspy voice, manages to say, “Thanks, I’m fine now”

“Yes, that you are”, replies Magnus, as he goes back to his seat. “Did you sleep well?”, asks Magnus once he’s seated again, thankfully not mentioning Alec being a mess of a person. His social skills were definitely better under high risk situations.

“Yeah, haven’t slept that well in a very long time”, says Alec, smiling.

Magnus smiles in return, and says, “I’m glad. I slept well too, knowing my Angel in gorgeous black was close by”

After Alec almost chokes on his eggs this time, he says to a laughing Magnus, “If you keep doing that, I’m not going to survive past breakfast.

Between chuckles, Magnus answers, “Losing you would be a disgrace. I promise I’ll behave while you’re eating”, says Magnus, placing his hand over his heart and smiling innocently.

Seeing Magnus hand resting on top of his smooth chest, Alec realizes that Magnus is promising something he won’t be able to accomplish, because his heart is already beating at double speed.

After Alec manages to barely survive breakfast, they move to the couch, where, while Alec doesn’t risk chocking on food, he does have a still bare chested Warlock sitting right next to him. And he’s close enough to almost feel his heat, and definitely close enough to smell him.

“Thank you for breakfast, that was great”, says Magnus, “I haven’t laughed that much in a while”

“I’m glad, even if I risk my life for it, your laugh is worth it”, says Alec, trying for humor, but his words sound, and are, much more honest that he intended. Before he can feel embarrassment flood him, he’s stunned at noticing that Magnus is suddenly looking shy and surprised.

Magnus recovers after a moment, and starts looking regretful when he starts speaking again, “I’m sorry, I forgot myself, you’re not here under normal circumstances. I’ve already taken too much advantage of you. I think it’s time we discuss yesterday’s scan.”

“Advantage of me? What are you talking about?”, asks Alec, not only confused by Magnus words, but also by the shift in his tone and posture. Going from relaxed to tense, and he almost looks guilty. “Sure, you asked me to stay, but I decided to stay”

“I’m not trying to imply you don’t have agency over your actions”, replies Magnus, at Alec’s clearly defensive tone. He takes a moment to pick his words carefully, and continues, “It’s just that, just as all that time in that cell left me a bit touch-starved and feeling …”, he stops himself at Alec’s resigned and disappointed look, and starts again, “More prone to being attached to you, not that I wouldn’t usually… it’s not that you…”, he sighs and takes one of Alec’s hands in his, “I’m sorry, it seems I’m more rusty at talking that I thought. But more important, this isn’t about me, it’s about you”, he takes a deep breath, and starts again, “The scans showed that, during your imprisonment, some things might have been done to you. Maybe it’s easier if you tell me what you remember first?”

“I don’t”, answers Alec, tightening his hold on Magnus hand.

“It’s ok, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t feel ready. I can just explain to you the effects…”

But Magnus doesn’t get to finish, because Alec shakes his head and says, “It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I don’t remember. At first I didn’t realize, because time there got confusing. I remember the first days, and some in between I think? And then all of a sudden I’m in a hallway, alone. And now I’m fearing that all I did was part of Valentine’s plan, and oh by Raziel! What if I put you in danger? Just by being here?”, and suddenly Alec can’t seem to stop himself from tightening his hold on Magnus’s hands, in what by now must be a painful grip. He also has no control over his breathing, feeling like his breaths are too fast to be deep enough, not enough to actually breathe.

As Magnus has no control over his captured hands, and Alec can’t seem to retain any of the words he’s saying, he keeps his voice in soothing tones as he leans towards Alec, close enough so his chest is in contact with Alec’s, and starts taking deep breaths. He starts hesitantly, being extra attentive to Alec’s breathing, in case taking away the Shadowhunter’s personal space turns out to be a bad idea, but it seems that, between his voice and the movement of his chest against his, Alec starts to slow his breathing.

“That’s it, you’re doing perfect, just focus on me. Deep in, one, two, three, four, hold in, one two three four, slow out, one, two, three, four, hold in, one two three four”, and when Alec seems to regain his own breathing rhythm, Magnus concentrates on his words again, “That’s great, you’re doing beautifully. That’s it my angel, you’re fine, I’m fine, your siblings are all safe. You’re doing everything ok darling. You’re perfect…”, and Magnus keeps talking slowly as Alec let’s go of his hands, to wrap his arms around him, to which Magnus holds him back, as tight as he dares, but trying not to hinder his breathing

As Alec manages to calm down, he feels warm and soft skin under his hands, feeling surrounded by Magnus, his touch, his sent, and his heat. And in that euphoric moment when pain stops and he feels ok, he doesn’t think twice before burring his face against Magnus neck, where he stays for a bit. Then, breathing deeply one last time, he forces himself to lean back.

“I’m sorry”, starts Alec, his voice shaking, “I didn’t meant to break down”

“Usually people don’t like breaking down, but it’s ok once in a while. I did a bit yesterday, and I can totally give as good as I take”, says Magnus, managing to sound tender and flirty at the same time.

Even though he wants to lean in to the more lighter atmosphere the joke would allow, the flash of vulnerability he sees in Magnus at mentioning yesterday, prompts him to say, “I know we just met, but I want you to know, you can always lean on me”

“Alexander”, says Magnus in a whisper, before he strengthens his posture and says more firmly, “It’s not fair to you, that you don’t have all the information, and that we both don’t know what all this means yet, but no matter what happens or what we find out, I also want you to know, that you can lean on me too”

“Ok, you keep hinting at the information the scan gave, and my breakdown delayed us enough. Please just tell me what you found out”

“Ok, fair enough. No more trying to sugarcoat this, even if you deserve all the sugar”, says Magnus, smiling a bit at Alec being unable to contain a reluctant smile, “Your lack of memories worries me a bit, and I’ll have to check how they did it later, and see if it’s reversible, if that’s alright with you?”, asks Magnus, and at Alec’s nod, he tightens his hands in the fabric of Alec’s shirt, not making any attempt at stop hugging Alec, and continues, “Nephilim energy, magic, blood or however you want to name it, resonates in a very specific way. Seelies and Unseelies, having a mix of both, feels like a duet, two different tones, creating different harmonies. Sometimes one is stronger than the other, or both are almost silent, but they belong in very distinctive scales. You… you have a very strong and distinctive Nephilim tone, but I can sense another one accompanying it. And even though I’ve never felt a tone and scale like that before, it seems like it would harmonize with a scale I’ve only ever felt in Edom.”

“Ok”, says Alec, realizing that he’s been unconsciously drawing circles with his hands on Magnus back, probably trying to sooth himself, but even if he knows he should stop himself, he doesn’t. Keeping part of his panicking mind focused on the feel of Magnus, he asks, “And, you think my missing memories means they did this to me? That they changed me? To do what?”

Magnus drags him into him, so Alec can rest his weight on him, and rubbing circles on his back, he says, “I don’t know. I didn’t knew you before, so I can’t really tell of any changes. But also, from your brother’s reactions to our interactions, I think maybe something behavioral was modified as well. It can still be effects of long term imprisonment, but I can’t be sure. And for all that Camille is cold-hearted, she’s very observant”

“You think she’s right? That I somehow imprinted on you?”, asks Alec, feeling his anxiety grow.

“As I said, I can’t be sure. I’ve been drawn towards you too, and other than having my magic and body locked up, plus some torture, nothing was really changed in me. It can still just be the imprisonment”, tries to reassure Magnus, but both can see it’s not very successful.

“Would I have imprinted on anyone? Did Valentine wanted me to imprint on him?”, asks a terrified Alec.

“I don’t think so. Remember that this is all conjecture, we don’t have any proof yet, other that something being different in you. Besides, you saw Camille first. If it could have been anyone, it would have been her”, says Magnus, this time managing to appease Alec a bit, “And I promise, we’ll get through this together, ok?”

Alec sighs as he forcibly separates himself from Magnus, and says, “You’re just unfortunate enough that I attached myself to you. You don’t have to stay in this mess with me”

“I want to”, replies Magnus quickly, “And how can it be unfortunate if it freed me, and brought me close to the kindest and prettiest angel I’ve ever seen. What I do want to make sure, is that you actually want me close. Now that you know that you’ve been influenced by whatever this is, you can see between what you actually want, and what this new instincts are convincing you that you want”

Before Alec gets to reply, the knocking on the door starts, sounding frantic.

“I’m guessing that’s Clary with the Book of the White?”, asks Magnus, sighing, “It’s like they have an alarm of when to interrupt”

“Well, Jace does have a piece of my soul, so it’s completely possible that he felt me…”, trails off Alec, as Magnus hugs him once more.

“It’s perfectly ok, it would just mean that he cares about you, and that can never be a bad thing”, says Magnus, and as he pulls back, he takes off his necklace, “While you’re deciding what to do with… this situation… you can wear this. It contains a bit of my energy, so we can prevent separation anxiety and things like that. It also lets you call for me, since it’s connected to my ring.”

“Would it let you contact me in case you need me?”, asks Alec, as he puts on the offered necklace, placing it under his shirt so that the warm stone can come in contact with his skin. When he looks up again, he sees Magnus stunned, just blinking at him.

“Darling, you’re so delightfully unique”, says Magnus softly, leaning forward to kiss his once again warm cheek, “Yes, it goes both ways”

Alec frowns a bit, not missing the phasing of Magnus answer, and says, “I promise to call you if I need you, only if you promise to call me if you need me”

Magnus smiles, “Ok, I promise. Now, let’s go open that door, otherwise, even with all my wards, they’ll break it down”, he says, standing up and with a wave of his hand he’s suddenly wearing a black vest with bronze details, as well as a few necklaces and more rings. And with a flick of his hand, he unlocks the door.

As soon as the door clicks open, Jace runs towards Alec, and as he’s still sitting down on the couch, he kneels in front of him, and grabs both of his hands.

“Are you ok? You never picked up the phone, and then the bond went all haywire, and I couldn’t…”, says Jace, but gets cut off as Alec pulls his panicked parabatai towards himself and hugs him.

“I’m ok, just a bit overwhelmed by everything catching up on me, but Magnus helped me out”, says Alec, low enough so only Jace can hear, “I’m perfectly fine”

“For a moment I thought they’d taken you again”, says Jace, against Alec’s neck.

“I’m fine, we’re both fine”, says Alec, in as calm a tone as he can manage.

“You didn’t answer the phone”, mumbles Jace.

“Sorry, I think I left it in the bedroom”, answers Alec, caressing his hair, “Why didn’t you fire message me?”

“I sort of panicked, wasn’t used to having the option. Only remembered the phone because I had it in my hand. Valentine kept saying that you were my new Falcon. Every time I took too long to do something he wanted. Kept repeating it”, says Jace, as he hold Alec tighter.

“I haven’t found a single feather yet, so we’re ok”, says Alec. Jace separates a bit, so that he’s face to face with Alec, glares at him and lightly slaps his head, and at Alec’s exaggerated shocked expression, he finally smiles.

“You’re an asshole, but I’m not leaving your side for a while. Just so you know”, says Jace, standing up and pulling Alec with him.

When they both look around, they notice they’re alone, and that Magnus is offering tea to the rest of the group in the Kitchen.

“Ready to join them?”, asks Alec.

“I think so”, replies Jace, staying close to Alec.

“After this, I promise we’ll talk this over, ok?”, says Alec, side-hugging Jace.

“I don’t want to talk about it, just need to keep you, close”, mumbles Jace.

“And you have me, I promise, but we need to talk, and we’ll both feel better afterwards, ok?”, replies Alec, and at Jace’s nod, he kisses the top of his head and leads him towards the Kitchen.

Chapter Text

In the kitchen Alec and Jace find a bored looking Clary and a clearly uncomfortable Magnus, while Dot is closely grabbing and looking at his necklaces.

“Dot, are you done yet?”, asks Clary, “Or do you need to count how many rings he’s wearing now?”

“Clary! Don’t be rude”, admonishes Dot, but takes a step away from Magnus, gaining Clary a grateful smile from Magnus.

“Sorry, we got sidetracked”, starts Alec, but he gets distracted by Magnus smiling at him.

 “No worries”, Clary says, not mentioning how Alec and Magnus are now just smiling at each other, “You guys have perfect timing, we just finished serving the tea. Mint tea for Alec, and Coffee for Jace, because he’ll melt like the Wicked Witch of the West if he drinks anything other than black or alcoholic”

“I thought you might want to change up the Chamomile a bit, and Mint is pretty tame”, adds Magnus, shrugging a bit.

“Thanks”, say Alec and Jace at the same time, both smiling surprised, getting them a few chuckles.

They all settled themselves around the nearby table, Alec being sandwiched between Magnus and Jace, with Clary next to Jace and Dot next to Magnus closing the circle. And while Alec wanted to lean into Magnus, he didn’t want to move farther away from Jace and give him the wrong impression, or give Dot an excuse to invade Magnus personal space again.

“So, we can finally start decoding the Book of the White”, asks Clary, unable to sti still in her excitement.

“We start by you giving me the Book of the White, and then I spent time and effort decoding it”, answers Magnus, softening his answer by smiling at her.

“Actually”, interferes Alec, stopping Clary from giving Magnus the book, “We start by negotiating your payment”

“Right, sorry”, apologizes Clary.

“You didn’t offer me payment”, complains Dot, crossing her arms and leaning towards Magnus, as if silently adding him in her team to complain against Shadowhunters entitlement over Warlock services.

“You didn’t really give me a chance. You guys just started doing things, and I can’t really demand the Clave to give payment for something I couldn’t even agree on”, informs Alec.

Magnus smiles, shrugs, leans towards Alec a bit, and says, “That’s why I’ve always said, it’s important to always know the rules and procedures.”

Alec turns towards Magnus and lifts an eyebrow, because in the little time he knows him, that’s definitely not the impression Magnus gave him, but before he can say anything about it, Dot scoffs and says, “Yeah right, because you’re famous for following the Clave’s rules.”

“I never said anything about following, but it’s always important to know them. Succeeding or failing due to ignorance is never attractive”, replies Magnus.

“I don’t know, you can do what you need to, without having to break any rules. You just need to know them very well and get creative”, answers Alec, causing Jace to look at him in shock.

“What? Since when? You’ve always been the Clave’s perfect straight-laced soldier”, says Jace.

“First, nothing straight about me… well, occasionally, when desired”, says Alec, pausing for a bit so Dot and Clary can finish chocking on her tea, for Magnus to hide his giggle with a cough, and for himself to blush at what he just unexpectedly said, “Second, how do you think you’ve gotten away with all the crap you, Izzy and now Clary get into? I almost got married to Lydia, before I realized I needed to start setting boundaries.”

“Oh”, says Jace, looking pensive and worried, as if reviewing the last years of his life.

Alec decides to give him a break about it, since they still had much to do now, and much to talk about later on, “We’ll pencil it in for tonight, alright?”, Jace nods, and Alec continues, “So, Magnus, what’s your fee?”

“You already saved me, so the scales are still leaning towards you”, says Magnus with a dismissive hand gesture.

“What are you talking about? You’re the reason we actually made it out. And besides, this would be a job between you and the Institute. Whatever we owe to each other is not included here”, replies Alec firmly.

Magnus look at him surprised for a moment, but then he smiles deviously and says, “Well, in that case, I want my ruby necklace back and 3 reviews of case sentences during, and close to, the last Uprising”

“But the necklace is yours to begin with”, says Alec, shaking his head, suddenly gratefull that he had to look Magnus up in the Clave’s Database when looking for him, “It was taken in an unsanctioned raid, that was led by later sentenced Circle Members, so that’s going to be return to you regardless”, he pins Magnus with a determined look, and when Magnus just looks at him stunned, he continues, “Would you be willing to change that to five reviews, whose reviewing team have to include at least one leader of the Downworldfor their re-evaluation? And since your people, vampires and the fairy folk are immortal, there shouldn’t be a time limit. It could just be limited to the person affected still being alive”, proposes Alec.

“Alexander”, starts Magnus, slightly breathless, “You need to stop surprising me this much, I don’t think my heart can take it”

“Or maybe you need to raise the bar when dealing with Shadowhunters. I know that past experiences haven’t been good, but there’re many of us working to improve things”, says Alec, tone full of conviction, willing Magnus to believe him.

“Darling, you’re way above the bar, even for Downworlders and Mundane standards”, replies Magnus. “Well, the price is agreed on, so let me see the book”, he takes te book from Clary and flips through it for a bit, just to leave out a frustrated exhale, “That devious little cabbage. I’m going to need some time to decode this, but by the flow this has, I should be able to do it”

“How long?”, asks Clary, at the same time Dot offers to help him.

“From a day to a week. After the week I either could do it, or I couldn’t and we’ll have to track Ragnor down. And thanks Dorothea, but this is not a strength or power kind of endeavor, it’s more a specific skill set kind of thing”, answers Magnus.

They talked a bit more, basically tuning out the details, but since the raid was already set for that night, and getting confirmation that Alec’s presence wouldn’t detour things anymore, he was running out of excuses for staying. He did somehow managed to get Magnus to ‘help’ him gather his things, but by the looks the group gave them, he probably wasn’t very subtle about it. Otherwise he couldn’t really explain Dot’s frustrated huff, Clary’s delighted smile and Jace’s worried look.

“So, now that you got me all alone, what’s your plan with me?”, asks Magnus, sitting on the bed, leaning back.

Alec flushes a bit, but manages to retain his focus, “Will you be ok?”

“Pardon?”, asks Magnus confused.

“I know you can handle yourself”, starts Alec, kneeling in front of Magnus and placing his hands on top of his knees, “But you went through something very traumatic, and it might not be the first time, but that doesn’t make it less painful. If you want me to stay, we can figure something out”

Magnus places his hands on top of his, smiles, and says, “Thank you darling, but I’ll be ok”, and when Alec maintains his uncertain look, he adds, “I was planning on calling a friend, see if she has my cat, and if she wanted an impromptu sleepover”

“Would I be too intrusive if I ask you to call her now? To check if she can stay over? It’s just, it’s easier to plan something else, if we know now if she can come or not”, asks Alec.

Magnus lifts an eyebrow, sighs, and says, “Ok, but only because it’s you.” He stands up and lets go of Alec’s hands, but something makes him stop when he has his cellphone halfway towards his ear. “Since you’re offering to help… and feel free to tell me if I overstepped… but it would help me if we could make the connection between the necklace and ring stronger”

“Sure, what do you need?”, says Alec, standing up in front of Magnus.

Magnus removes the ring and hands it to Alec, “Could you put a bit of your energy in it? Just a hint would be more than enough”, says Magnus, turning around right away and dialing his phone.

As Alec hears in the background how Magnus is talking with someone, sounding relaxed and happy, he focuses on infusing the ring with as much of himself as he can. He focuses on how it felt in the hallways near the cells, how Magnus makes him feel, and how much comfort Magnus has given him. Of the Warlock not even thinking about the risk he took on him, or by taking Jace in their escape, and how he wants to be there for him too.

“… OK Cat, I promise I’ll have a bubble bath set just for you, while I reacquaint myself with the Chairman. See you tonight dear”, says Magnus, as he hangs up. But as he turn around again, and before he can pocket his cellphone again, he loses his hold on it and drops it. Because Alec is glowing, and all his shine is being syphoned into the ring in his hands. “Oh Angel, please stop”, says Magnus, as he hurries towards Alec, taking hold of his wrists and being careful not to touch the ring.

“Is it enough?”, mumbles Alec.

“More than enough darling”, replies Magnus, and Alec stops flooding the ring with energy. The brightness dims and both can see that the previously gold stone now matches Alec’s eyes, but with bronze flecks. “Oh look, now it’s just like your gorgeous eyes”

“Yeah, except for the bronze in it”, says Alec, frowning a bit at the stone.

“What do you mean? It’s not always noticeable, but sometimes the bronze flecks in your eyes shine more”, says Magnus, looking at Alec curiously.

“No they don’t. My eyes are just brown”, he says confused.

“First, that’s hazel, not just brown”, starts Magnus and with a flick of his fingers summons a hand mirror and gives it to Alec, “And the bronze is particularly bright now, see for yourself”

Alec looks stunned for a moment, and then mumbles, “That’s new”

They don’t have much time after that revelation. Since they’ve taken too long already, Jace came to look for Alec. Magnus manages to thank Alec for powering up the ring, much more than he expected, and kisses the back of his hand. So Alec leaves with a new set of clothes, a warm golden necklace, a flush on his cheeks and a bronze kiss on the back of his hand.

When Alec arrives at the Institute, he finds chaos, and that’s before anyone notices him. At least he remains unnoticed until a shriek echoes through all the ambiance noise, and as well trained soldiers, everyone was armed and ready to face the mysterious threat in a second. They all relax slightly when they see that person that yelled was Izzy, and that even though she’s running, she’s smiling brightly.

“Finally!”, she exclaims, as she throws herself into her brother’s arms, “All I wanted was to go to you. I’m so over being the responsible one all the time. I promise we’ll share the burden from now on”, she says into Alec’s shoulder, “I’ll stop being so reckless and going out and spending the night elsewhere, and…”

Alec interrupts her, by hugging her a bit tighter and saying close to her ear, only for her, “Please, never stop being who you are. The being less reckless and sharing the burden sounds great, but only as long as you don’t change. I love who you are”

“Oh I missed you!”, replies Izzy, holding him for a moment longer, before reluctantly letting him go.

“So, I’m assuming all this chaos is not for me?”, asks Alec.

“It’s the raid, they’re preparing to leave”, answers Izzy.

“Wait, shouldn’t this be at night? I thought the vampires were joining”, asks Alec, confused.

Izzy sighs, and says, “Somehow, the Clave found out about the raid, and ordered that no Downworder could be involve in it”

“What? Why?”, replies Alec.

“Something stupid about Downworlders being unreliable and siding with Valentine if the opportunity arose”, answers an obviously frustrated Izzy.

“That’s beyond stupid. Why on earth would they side with the person planning on killing them? And how did they found out?”, asks Alec.

“We don’t know, we also don’t know if it’s the same person that revealed we were going to Camille’s house”, says Izzy, looking more and more anxious.

“It’s ok, we’ll figure it out”, start Alec, “Now, let’s focus on the raid, ok?”

“Ok, let’s go somewhere more private”, replies Izzy and with a mischievous smile adds, “At least so you stop distracting Raj and Andrew”

“Oh stop it! You know it’s not like that”, mumbles Alec, as he drags her to a meeting room. Jace, Clary and Dot follow them in silence, giving them time to reacquaint themselves.

“Dot, could you please place some privacy wards?”, asks Izzy, once she closes the meeting room door behind her.

“Shouldn’t we get Hodge and Lydia first?”, asks Clary.

“Is everyone ok with Lydia now? What happened?”, asks Jace, confused and a bit displeased.

“She’s been a huge help”, answers Izzy, “If it wasn’t for her, Adertree would have total control of this place, and would be freely chipping Downworlders and starting more civil wars”

“I’m glad she could stay”, replies Alec, smiling.

“I’ll look for them then”, says Clary, “I think Aldertree will notice me less”

As Clary goes to look for Hodge and Lydia, Jace turns to the group and says, “Are we sure we trust Lydia? This whole information leaks started after she arrived”

“I trusted her enough to almost marry her, and to be honest with her when I didn’t”, says Alec.

“I trust her”, agrees Izzy.

“I don’t. We barely know her”, says Jace, “Besides, the information leaked to the Clave, and she came here as a Clave envoy”

“I’m not sure if I trust her either, I agree with Jace”, adds Dot.

Before Alec can reply to them, already dreading getting into this kind of discussions again, Izzy surprises him by saying, “Ok, we don’t have time for this. The information of the raid has already been leaked to the Clave, so who is the clave spy is not important at the moment. And if there’s a spy of Valentine’s, they’ll have the information already, so the earlier we can do the raid, the better. And for the moment, we’ll keep discussions of leaks and possible spies for later, all agreed?”

Everyone agrees, just as Clary arrives with Lydia and Hodge.

It’s decided that since the Clave is forbidding help from the Downworld, the raid should be done as soon as possible. Hodge insists that they should at least try one more time to get their point across to the Clave, but it’s decided that the element of surprise is more important.

They move fast, needing all hands on deck, fast enough that people don’t even have time to react surprised that Alec is back, and lucky enough that Aldertree is at some meeting in Idris. The agreed mission never had a set time, other than not allowing Downworder participation, so they wouldn’t really be going against his orders.

Alec is afraid of going back to Valentine’s place, especially with the possibility that Valentine did something to him, something that might make him controllable, but he doesn’t really have time or a solid enough reason to get out of it. He finds himself grabbing Magnus’s pendant, feeling the warmth that radiates from it centers him. Even if there might have been something that forced him to imprint on someone, it wasn’t the first person that he came across from, it was Magnus, wonderful caring Magnus. And the decision of giving him his energy was his, he at least was sure of that.

And he knows that their connection was made faster than it would have been in other circumstances. He probably would have hesitated more, and his own insecurities would have made him keep his distance at first, because the truth was that, even if Magnus doesn’t want him in a romantic way, he is kind, supportive, strong and vulnerable, all at the same time. And it doesn’t matter what kind of relationship they end up having, he’s going to fight to keep him in his life for as long as he can, for as long as he’ll have him.

Yes, he can do this, as long as he has Magnus pendant against his skin, he’ll be focused and centered. And they’ll bring Valentine down, and protect the whole Shadow World.

It seems like only a few minutes go by before they’re ready. Well, all except Hodge, who can’t leave the Institute. He’ll stay at the communications center, with the team that’ll stay in charge of the place. They’re in total 30 Shadowhunters going on the mission, and all communications channels active to require backup if needed.

The tension is almost palpable around the preparing Shadowhunters, runes being activated, weapons being fastened, groups being established and communication channels checked. And thanks to Dot’s presence, they can portal as close to location as possible, saving a lot more time than scheduled.

Arriving at the place is a shock. Not because of the high security of it, or the danger of the situation, but because it looks empty. It’s a boat, right there at the port, but there’s no one on deck. They enter the ship with caution, fearing a trap, but it all point out to the whole crew leaving in a hurry. After they clear the deck and next level, they start finding the cells, all full of prisoners.  Downworlders in different stages of torture and/or experimentation in different stages of alive. And some dead, as if killed in a hurry.

Alec looks around in shock, recognizing the hallway he’s in, but what were rows of empty cells before, are now full of people. No, he can’t focus on that yet, he needs to see to all this people, and they need to find who is leaking information as soon as possible. Because this shows they had to hurry to escape, but more important, it shows they knew the raid was coming, and when it was coming, even with the time shift.

And seeing the rows upon rows of prisoners, he realizes he can’t fit all of them in the Institute. They need help, especially with the condition a lot of them are in. He really doesn’t want to call Magnus for something like this, especially since only about a day ago he was in the same situation. Maybe he could call Luke, Meliorn and Raphael first, since warlocks are always lower in numbers, so it would make sense for there to be less warlock prisoners, but it all depends on the state they’re in.

Alec manages to order that any file, research and information they manage to salvage, needs to be put under lock. They’ll review it later, and hopefully they’ll find a cure for everyone alive, himself included. He stays a bit longer, to insure that all the information found is taken, and that all alive Downworlders, no matter how little of alive they had left, are taken back.

Once he finally reaches the Institute, it’s only to find Dot on the phone, calling Magnus in. And he feels the impulse of just slapping the phone right out of her hand, but he stops himself, knowing it’ll be too late anyways, plus it being extremely rude. It seems there’ll be no rest for Magnus. At least since he didn’t end up fight anyone, his energy levels are full for Magnus to use.

He busies himself by calling the other leaders, all surprised at his return and that the raid happened already. And while anyone of them could be pretending, they’re the last ones on his list of suspects. What scares him is not knowing if there were two spies, one from the Clave and one from Valentine’s, or if there was only one and Valentine had people in the Clave.

Before he can delve too deeply into it, sounds of a struggle redirects his attention to the entrance of the Institute. As Alec approaches, he sees Magnus frozen in the entrance and three of his Shadowhunters struggling to contain Camille Belcourt.

“What’s going on here?”, demands Alec, and suddenly all the attention is focused on him.

“Sir, Miss Belcourt was found with the other prisoners, but since she’s already a fugitive, we can’t let her go”, answers Andrew, keeping his hold on her with a strong grip.

“Take her to one of the cells. We’ll wait until the head of her Clan arrives and we’ll decide together on the situation”, orders Alec

“Aw come on little bird, you let me go once, why not again? Besides, I have information about your little problem, unless you enjoy submitting to your glittery master, and want to keep things as they are?”, mocks Camille, looking suggestively between Magnus and Alec, “I mean, you smell delicious, and my pet over there has many neat tricks under his sleeve”

Seeing Magnus pale shocks Alec into action and he orders, “Gag her and follow my orders. No one is to approach her without my say so”

“Yes Sir”, reply the three Shadowhunters, Andrew managing to make a gag with a piece of fabric and putting it on her in a second.

Once they leave, Alec turns to Magnus and says in a kinder tone, “Sorry you had to go through that. I was planning on calling you once we had a better idea of the situation, but well…”

Magnus finally raises his gaze to Alec, and with a shaky smile says, “It’s ok. I was wondering when the raid was going to be, so it was the perfect update. I didn’t think Camille would be recaptured… twice”

Alec can’t help to chuckle on that last word, and proceeds to lead him inside the building, “Well, her Clan captured her first, and Valentine captured her twice, so this one would be the fourth”, and as Magnus laughs and relaxes, Alec’s smile widens, “Can I offer you something to drink? Izzy is an awful cook, but she has the best collection of teas I’ve ever seen”

In the end, they’re intercepted before they even make it to the kitchen, so they head directly towards the infirmary and its hallways, full with injured people. And despite Magnus initial refusal, he ends up accepting Alec’s energy. After a while, other Warlocks, Seelies, Vampires and Werewolves join them in healing their people, trying to save and stabilize as many as possible.

Chapter Text

They manage to stabilize the last patient at around 2 am, and while Alec feels drained and exhausted, he’s still struggling to contain his awe at having seen Magnus being all delightfully powerful for hours. And it was a good thing that he mostly had to focus on providing a stream of his energy towards the High Warlock, because he doesn’t think he could have paid much attention to much else. He vaguely remembers Izzy and Jace approaching him, but not much more. And he doesn’t really think he can be blamed, because Magnus is … well, magical, magnificent, marvelous, mesmerizing, miraculous, magnetic, muscular, masterfully mighty…

He’s taken out of his alliterating admiration of Magnus by the man himself, who sits in the floor in the hallway, right next to him.

“Alexander, here you are. Did I drain you too much?”, asks Magnus, too concerned to make any sort of innuendo.

“I’m fine, just tired. It’s been a lot these past … two days?”, says Alec, shocked that so little time has passed.

“Oh god, has it really been 2 day? I think by now it’s the third?”, asks Magnus.

“Well, it beats being incarcerated, by a long shot”, shrugs Alec, to which Magus tiredly smiles. And as if attracted by magnets, they’re suddenly leaning towards each other, shoulder to shoulder.

Magnus raises a hand and slowly rests it on top of Alec’s chest, right on top of the hidden pendant, and releases a thread of magic. Alec raises his to rest on top of Magnus hand, noticing it’s the one wearing the ring, and releases a thread of his strength into it.

“Stop it”, demands Magnus, looking surprised at what Alec is doing.

“You first”, replies Alec, defiantly.

“You’re exhausted, stop”, orders Magnus.

“So are you”, challenges Alec, lifting an eyebrow.

Magnus sighs and stops the flow of magic, raising an eyebrow until Alec stops too, but keeping his hand where it is, he says, “Well, sorry for trying to make sure you’ll be alright now that I have to leave”

Alec’s expression changes from stubborn to fond in a second, and smiling, he says, “And I really appreciate it, truly, but I also want to not worry about you passing out on your way home”

Magnus grunts softly and says, “Damn you and your logic”, which prompts a laugh from Alec, making Magnus smile. “But seriously, are you alright? It wasn’t too much?”

“Not at all”, replies Alec, and blushing a little he continues with something he’ll later blame on his lack of filter when tired, “And somehow I have a feeling that nothing regarding you will ever be too much”

Alec feels Magnus huff softly next to him and thinks he hears him mumble something about his heart, but he’s too tired to be sure. Probably wishful thinking, he thinks.

Their silence is broken by approaching footsteps, and releasing their hands from each other they see Clary and Dot approaching.

“Are you both ok?”, asks Clary, stopping in front of them.

“Yeah, just tired”, answers Alec, and then looking at them he asks, “And you? Are both of you ok?”

“I just assisted, so other that tired of carrying things around, I’m perfectly fine”, answers Clary

“I just woke up from a power nap, so while not back to full potential, I’m well enough to portal people around. I just sent Cat back home, and I came to offer the same to Magnus”, adds Dot.

Alec looks towards Magnus, trying to silently communicate that he should take the offer, but not wanting him to think he’s doubting his power.

Magnus sighs and with a dismissing hand gesture he says, “Ok, you can take me home, I wouldn’t want to end up in limbo due to stubbornness, you people still need me”

“Want you”, replies Alec, before he can think of his words, and even as he can feel his blush darken, he adds, “I meant, we all want you, it’s not just what you can provide, it who you are and… I’m going to shut up now”

“Oh no!”, exclaims Clary, “Please keep going, I like seeing you like this. You know, more human”, and at Alec’s glare, she adds, “And… he’s back”

“Ok, stop flustering the poor man”, says Dot, to which Alec huffs and Magnus coughs, trying to hide a laugh, “Let’s get going my dear, I want to sleep in the near future”

“Yes, let’s go. Thank you”, says Magnus, and as he starts turning towards Alec, and leaning his body closer, but Dot’s offered hand between both, makes him reluctantly stop his movement and take her hand to stand up. As he’s standing in front of Alec, he waves goodbye and says, “I’ll be coming back tomorrow at some point, to check on our patients”

Alec smiles his way and says, “Then I’ll see you tomorrow”

As Dot and Magnus turn a corner down the hall, disappearing from view, Alec can’t help the sigh that escapes him, prompting Clary to chuckle softly.

When Alec turns to glare at her, she raises her hands signaling innocence, and says, “I’m sorry, it’s just that smitten is such a good look on you. Plus, I’m really happy that this time it seems to be reciprocal and much less complicated”

“What do you mean?”, asks Alec, cautious.

Clary sits down next to him and says, “Actually, I wanted to take this chance to apologize. I mean, I realize I have a lot to apologize for, and you’ve tried to help me even when I haven’t made it easy, but one of the things I regret the most, is using what I found out about your feelings for Jace against you. And I would usually try to excuse myself saying I was afraid, lost, anxious, etc., but the truth is, it was inexcusable. And I’ve regretted that every day”, she turns to look towards Alec, and finds him looking at her in a mix of fondness and shock.

Alec thought briefly of telling her it was ok, but both already knew it wasn’t. They were advancing to OK, but for that, he couldn’t dismiss her apology, so he says, “Thank you, I appreciate that. And maybe I should have been more understanding”, and as Clary starts shaking her head, Alec raises a hand, to ask for silence, and continues, “But I felt I had to compensate for Jace and Izzy agreeing to everything, no matter how reckless. And that part is between me and them, you just benefited form it temporarily, to my detriment”

“But I saw it”, says Clary, “I was only thinking of myself and my mother in this new unknown world, and I saw the chance and took it”

“True, but there shouldn’t have been a chance in the first place. I know you’re still new to all this, and even though you’re now working to improve, you’re not a Shadowhunter”, says Alec, but at Clary’s devastated look he adds, “I’m not saying you can’t be. You were born a Nephilim, but you can become a Shadowhunter, if you’re willing to put in the effort?”

“Yes! Yes I’m willing. And I promise to train and become better”, replies Clary, looking towards Alec with all the determination she has showing in her eyes.

“You also have to realize that even if you have your own convictions, the chain of command is there for a reason”, warns Alec.

“Does that mean I have to follow Aldertree? And the Clave when they say Downworlders are less?”, asks Clary unconvinced.

“No. Well, not really. We can protect Downworlders, but we have to be smart about it, otherwise it can put them in a bigger risk. Like the whole Meliorn thing, taking the Cup with Meliorn opening portals for you, it could have been taken as a breach in the Accords”, says Alec, and at Clary’s gasp, he finally believes she’s starting to understand.

“There’s so much I don’t know yet”, starts Clary a bit dejected, but ignoring Alec attempt at interrupting her, she focusing her gaze on him and she declares, “But for the moment you’ll be my lead. I follow you”, and at Alec’s unbelieving expression, she smiles and adds, “And try to disagree with you only in private”

Alec can’t stop laughing at that, and following an impulse, ruffles her hair, earning a wide smile.

“Ok, time to sleep?”, asks Alec.

“Yes please”, replies Clary, as they finally head to their beds. But before each enters their room, Clary tells him, “You two would make a great couple. I’m totally on board with this ship”, and at Alec’s confused look, she just laughs, and goes into her room

By the time Alec reaches and enters his room, he’s still confused at Clary’s last words. Maybe he’ll google it, if he dares. And maybe it’s the distraction of that, or just that he’s beyond tired and just back in his room after weeks, that it’s only after he strips down to his boxers and gets into his bed, that realizes someone else is already in it.

Surprised, he turns around and sees a sleepily blinking Jace, and Alec whispers, “Jace?”

Jace shuffles until he’s sitting, the blankets pulling in around his hips and revealing a bare chest. He turns to a stunned Alec and says, “You promised me a sleepover, and that you would stay by my side, but you spent all this hours attached to Magnus”

“I know, sorry, but there were lives…”, starts Alec, beginning to stand up to go look for his discarded shirt, but Jace interrupts him by grabbing his wrist and pulling him closer.

“There are always lives at stake, and you were the only one letting a Warlock syphon energy out of you”, replies Jace, and Alec knows he should protest at that, but somehow Jace’s touch makes him feel confused, like he’s being slightly nudged towards an opposite direction.

“I didn’t mean…”, tries Alec again, but Jace pulls him in closer, draping an arm across his shoulders, making the skin to skin contact more, and the nudge to increase.

“I know, don’t worry, I’ll make sure you’re ok. I know a lot has been going on since Clary arrived, but I understand now. If something good came out of our time with Valentine, is that I know now that everything will be ok if we’re together”, says Jace, as he pulls him under the covers, his chest pressing against Alec’s back, and wrapping his arms around him, he places one hand on his stomach and the other on his chest.

Alec feels dazed, groggy, like his head started filling with fog. He knows he agrees with Jace’s words, he loves his brother unconditionally, wants to keep him always in his life, like Izzy and Max, but something about this situation, about the tone, feels off.

“Don’t you feel it?”, says  Jace, “This is how it’s meant to be. I’ll take care of you this time, I won’t make the same mistakes again, I promise”

As Jace tightens his hold, Alec regains a bit of himself to get some distance between the two, but he doesn’t get more than a couple centimeters before the movements makes Jace’s hand finds the chain attached to his pendant.

“What’s this?”, asks Jace, confused, and suddenly sounding more like himself.

“It’s just something Magnus…”, starts Alec, but is interrupted by Jace pressing himself against Alec again and tightening his hold on the necklace.

 “Take it off”, says Jace, in an uncharacteristically dead tone.

“What?”, asks Alec.

“You’ve been oddly attached to that Warlock, you even avoided coming to the Institute right away, and I fear he might be manipulating you somehow, keeping you under his control. Maybe even keeping his leash on you with this”, says Jace, tugging on the necklace.

“What? No, I’m always clearheaded around him“, starts Alec, and Jace’s scoff at that, makes him shiver due to the hot exhale of breath against the back of his neck. He takes a deep breath to compose himself before continuing, “I admit I’m attracted to him, and feel protective over him, but I’m always myself, haven’t done anything uncharacteristically, not like…”

He’s once again interrupted by Jace, who tugs once more on the necklace, and says, “Prove it then, remove this”

“What? No, this is for…”, starts Alec, but once more gets cut off by Jace.

“I don’t care whatever excuses that Warlock sold you, I can feel something coming off of this thing. It’s not a normal pendant, is it?”, asks Jace.

“No, but I knew that. If you let me explain…”, tries again Alec.

“If you can take it off, I’ll believe you this is willing”, says Jace.

Alec feels a dissonance between Jace words and their current situation, but that fog at the back of his head keeps distracting him. Maybe if he just takes it off, he can refocus Jace on his odd behavior. Because even though they usually have less boundaries than most people, and have no problem touching, hugging, sleeping in the same bed or being shirtless around each other, this feels different.

“Very well, I’ll show you, but we need to talk about this. There’s something going on”, says Alec, concerned and still unsure.

“Of course there’s something going on, we were imprisoned by Valentine, and then you were magically manipulated by a Warlock”, huffs Jace again, making Alec shiver uncomfortably once more.

As Alec grabs the pendant he registers a part of himself saying that removing it is a bad idea. As he gets the chain over his head and holds it in his hand, he can feel the fog getting stronger. He feels a numb sort of anxiety curl in his stomach, battling with the fog, but before he has enough time to understand what’s going on, Jace tugs the chain, releasing his hold on it and dropping it on the nightstand.

Alec feels the fog flooding him, making him completely relaxed and all anxiety to vanish. Why was he trying to hold on to that necklace so much in the first place? He just melts deeper into Jace’s embrace and breathes deeply.

“You seem more relaxed, feel better?”, asks Jace, wrapping his arms around Alec.

“Yes”, Alec manages to mumble.

“I know you wanted to talk now, but I think we’re both too tired. Let’s sleep and talk another time”, says Jace, nuzzling closer to Alec.

“Sure, whatever you think it’s best”, mumbles Alec, as he feels himself drifting into sleep, with Jace’s beating heart against his back leading him into unconsciousness.

A week goes by, and while people notice Alec and Jace are behaving different, they all realize that imprisonment at Valentine’s hands would affect anyone, even those two. Also everyone, Clary included, understands that Jace would keep his distance from Clary, since going from romantic feelings to being related was a process than would take time. What does have people a bit baffled is the fact that Alec checks every decision with Jace, and instead of Alec trying to retake his position in the institute, the two just keep to themselves, obsessing over Valentine’s location and the information leaks. And as Jace sets the pace for everything, they lack the efficiency and consistency that has always characterized Alec.

Maybe the thirst for revenge is stronger, and it’s diminishing his usually rational mind, but that’s something Izzy saw more as a possibility for Jace, not Alec. And that’s leaving aside that Alec hasn’t mentioned Magnus once after their first phone call. She finds it all very confusing, and even more so when Magnus has to contact her to inform them that the Book of the White was successfully decoded, because apparently Alec hasn’t answered any of Magnus messages.

It’s at this point that Izzy realizes that she hasn’t been able to spend any time alone with her brother, first with all the injured Downworlders needing all people that had even a minimal of medical and anatomy knowledge, and later dealing with all the information collected from Valentine’s Headquarters, and selecting what can be useful to heal those poor people that maniac decided to experiment on.

After attempting to get Alec alone, but finding it impossible, she decides to recruit help. This leads to Lydia, Clary and herself getting together in a random coffee shop, away from prying ears.

“Mmmh! I missed good coffee so much! For all the angelic blood and special abilities, the Institute’s coffee tastes like torture from hell”, says Clary, holding onto her coffee with desperate need.

Lydia shrugs, but still looks amused at Clary’s display, and says, “I’ve always been more partial to tea, so I can’t really empathize”

“I’m glad we can all enjoy these delicious drinks, but… can we get to the issue of my brothers, please? Something is going on, and they don’t even seem to notice”, says Izzy, leaving her own coffee untouched.

“Sorry, you’re right. I just got exited”, says Clary, “Thinking back, I think the last time I saw Alec acting somewhat like himself, was after the raid, before going to sleep. I mean, he was way nicer than usual, but he seemed more like himself than now. He was even all smitten with Magnus, and now he doesn’t even seem to recognize he exists”

Lydia takes a sip of her tea and says, “Well, I didn’t see him interact with High Warlock Bane, but most of the time it does seem like he’s not completely present. And the loss of his strategic opinions is a big loss”

“And he’s uncomfortably close to Jace. I mean, they’ve always been close, but I don’t think I’ve seen one without the other since the night of the raid”, says Izzy, finally taking her coffee cup in her hands, relishing in the warmth.

“There’s also something else”, says Lydia, looking uncomfortable, “I’m not supposed to say anything about it, since it’s still under investigation, and the interrogations are under a need to know basis, but Camille Belcourt had something interesting to say”

“She’s full of shit, how can we even believe anything she says?”, says Izzy.

“It’s not so much what she said, but how she said it. She seems to believe she has relevant information about Alec. At least she thinks it’s important enough to get herself her freedom back”, replies Lydia.

“Would it be useful if I went to see her? Maybe in trying to convince me to get Alec to talk to her, she’ll hint to some useful information?”, asks Izzy.

“We could try”, agrees Lydia.

“And what are we going to do about Hodge, Andrew and Jace?”, asks Clary.

“What do you mean?”, asks Lydia confused, and by Izzy’s expression, Clary realizes she might have been the only one who noticed.

“Haven’t you seen them? The few times Jace’s has not been attached to Alec, he’s in meetings with Hodge and Andrew. One time I stumbled on them, and they shut up immediately, only thing I managed to hear was something about Idris, but that could’ve been about anything”, explains Clary.

“There’s so much secrecy going on, I wish I could just lock them all up and put some sort of truth spell on all of them”, complains Izzy, and looks immediately towards Clary, “You think that’s possible? Could Dot know a way?”

Clary shrugs and replies, “I can try asking her, but she’s been pretty absent. At first I thought she was trying to help Magnus with the Book of the White, then that she was feeling guilty about his capture, but now I think she’s trying to rekindle whatever relationship she thinks they had”

“What? Dot and Magnus?”, says Izzy, looking disappointed, “But I just came up with a ship name between him and Alec. I mean, for after Alec becomes himself again”

“From the few times I saw them, it looks pretty one-sided. And the few times I saw Magnus and Alec together, they looked totally smitten with each other. That’s also what convinced me that something weird was going on”, explains Clary, and adds, “What’s the ship name?”

“Malec”, says Izzy, looking completely pleased with herself.

“Damn it”, mumbles Lydia, and at Clary’s and Izzy’s defensive looks, she raises her hands and explains, “Not what you’re thinking. It’s just that you’re ship name is so much better than mine, and I spent way too long to come up with Alnus”

“That sound like some type of chocolate”, manages to say Clary between giggles.

“I mean, it is kind of fitting, since it would be all about nuts with them. Double the nuts”, manages to add Izzy between hiccups.

And Lydia decides that since they’re already laughing about it, she adds what she realized while coming up with the name, “And they’re one letter away from being very obvious about what they’re into”

The three of them laugh for a while, enjoying the release of some of the stress and tension they’ve been carrying. Relishing for a moment in the comfort they find in their companionship and their shared mission.

“Ok, Malec mission number one, solve whatever is happening with Alec”, declares Clary, getting the two of them to nod enthusiastically.

It’s a few hours later that they start their way back to the Institute, each with their respective tasks and always keeping their goal in mind, to get Alec back.

Chapter Text

Izzy, Clary and Lydia do manage to interrogate Camille again, but saying that the little information they got out of it was confusing, would be an understatement.

The first thing she said once Izzy entered the room was, “I’m starting to doubt that your brother is a man of his word. He was so adamant of no one talking to me unless he wanted it. It made me feel special, you know? I almost understood what Magnus saw in him, but this is just neglectful”

“We haven’t even started and you’re already exhausting me. Does that happen to anyone in your vicinity?”, drawls Izzy

”Feisty”, replies Camille, and at seeing Izzy rolling her eyes, adds, “Come here to get the information I have on your brother? I honestly thought someone more high ranking would have come to ask after all this time, especially since the effects must be pretty evident by now”

“Well, you know, no one really wanted to have to deal with you, so we kept pushing it back”, replies Izzy, hoping Lydia and Clary are taking note of Alec dealing with possible side-effects.

“Oh come on, I’m the only one who knows what he’s been turn into, very few people have seen one, much less be able to figure it out. I would have thought your earlier attempt with that blond Shadowhunter would have made that clear already, that you have nothing without me”, says Camille, in a dismissive way.

“Really? Because Magnus seems to know quite a bit about it”, taunts Izzy.

“Oh please, Magnus doesn’t even realize he’s just drawn to him because he’s shiny, once he finds out that even him being a Warlock won’t protect him from unprotected sex, he’ll get over the chick”, she replies, laughing in that taunting and dismissive way that Camille’s famous for.

“What, just because Alec can get as shiny as Magnus wants him to be, it doesn’t mean he likes him less as a person”, says Izzy, but it seems that at least one of the words she said were the wrong thing to say, because Camille’s eyes change from taunting to analytical.

“You don’t know, do you?  You were just fishing, you devious little Shadowhunter. See, you have nothing without me”, says Camille, and before Izzy gets to deny anything, she coldly smiles and continues, “It doesn’t really matter, with what little you got, you won’t be able to make sense of it anyways”, shrugs Camille.

“What? Got tired of bargaining for your freedom?”, taunts Izzy, trying to bait her.

Camille just smirks and replies, “Let’s just say that I got tired of dealing with the clowns, so I’m going to wait for the ring leader to show up”

And after that, no matter what any of the three tried, Camille didn’t say another word. Worse than that, she was right, because none of the clues they managed to gather, led them anywhere. Especially since taking any kind of sample from Alec, blood or otherwise, turned out to be impossible due to his overzealous parabatai.

It takes about another week to get Magnus into the Institute. They should have been able to bring him in sooner to wake Jocelyn up, but Jace and Hodge kept putting roadblock after roadblock, which matched perfectly with Aldertree stance on the matter, because anything that involves a Downworlder stepping a foot in the Institute, he’s going to be against, no matter the reason for it. And besides the protection the Institute provides for a vulnerable Shadowhunter, like an unconscious Jocelyn, Lydia, Izzy and Clary also can’t waste one of the few chances they’ll get to get Alec and Magnus together. Alec, for his part, seems indifferent, which would be his usual state lately, complete indifference to everything that’s not Jace-related.

They gather in the ceremony hall. All in different corners, and after Aldertree showed up briefly, to make sure everything was going ok. That meant harass every Downworlder he sees, just to make sure they know their place. Luckily they all do, because they all see they are way above this petty insecure human.

As Magnus readies everything, neither Izzy nor Lydia manage to get Alec and Magnus closer together. And each time they try, someone always intervenes. Clary is not an active part of this plan, since she’s obviously focused on waking her mother up, so Izzy and Lydia resign themselves to search for an opportunity after Magnus preforms the needed spell. Maybe drag him to check on the wards or something?

Suddenly, and without any input from any of them, everything seems to align itself. Jace is brought to the front, since it’s his biological mother they’re waking up, even if he looks strangely uninterested with the whole procedure. This leaves Alec suddenly alone in a faraway corner, giving space for Jocelyn’s closer family and acquaintances to the front, anxiously observing the procedure.

And maybe it’s Magnus power and knowledge, or maybe the needed spell was really that simple in the end, but it seems like it only takes seconds and a few hand gestures for Jocelyn to suddenly open her eyes.

As almost everyone is intensely focused on the recently awakened Jocelyn, Magnus makes a beeline towards Alec. Izzy and Lydia look to each other, and decide without one word spoken, that Izzy will stay and divert, while Lydia would go support the pair.

Magnus doesn’t wait a second, and the moment he’s standing in front of Alec, he starts talking, “You’ve made yourself perfectly clear that you don’t want anything to do with me, your silence has been loud and clear. I don’t know if those few days were just the effects of being caged in, being helped by a Downworlder made you forget your prejudices for a while or whatever, and I don’t really care anymore. But what I do care about is that you return my pendant to me”, when the only reaction Magnus gets is Alec blinking slowly at him, seeming faintly confused, his gaze grows colder and more detached as he adds, “It seems this Institute as grown accustomed to taking things that are mine, without the intention of them being returned, but that stops now. Whatever aftereffects you have to face, are not my problem anymore. Without intention behind it, our connection will fade away soon enough”, and frustrated he extends his hand, palm up, waiting for the necklace.

Lydia, who is strategically standing near Alec, approaches them. She knows the window they have is small, and Jace won’t be distracted for long with Jocelyn, so while she has to interfere less subtlety than she might have wanted, she’s not going to let this chance go.

“Alec”, she says as she reaches them, “You probably have it in your room, right?” and at Alec’s still confused face, she adds, “Take Magnus to your room so that he can get his pendant back. It wouldn’t do to create conflict with a High Warlock. That would cause more problems for everyone, Jace included”

“Yes, that wouldn’t be good”, mumbles Alec, but he freezes once more when he looks towards Magnus again.

Magnus starts to frown slightly, and as he’s about to say something, Andrew gets closer to them and says, “Sorry to interrupt, but an escort would be advisable, especially when exchanging an important object, wouldn’t it? And I’m free at the moment Miss Branwell”

Lydia startles a bit at Andrews’s interruption, but recovers quickly, “Good idea Underhill, but I can escort them”, and as she sees Andrew about to complain, she adds, “I need you to help reschedule Miss Fairchild’s schedule, since she’ll obviously be spending time with her mother”

“Yes, ma’am”, answers Andrew, but as he’s leaving the room, he stops briefly near Hodge, prompting Lydia to lead Magnus and Alec outside.

It’s just before they enter the dormitories hallway that Hodge sees them, and hurrying up, he catches up with them.

“Miss Branwell, I’m sure you must be very busy, I can take over if you want”, says Hodge, eyeing Alec and Magnus carefully.

“Thank you for your concern, but I don’t think Mr. Bane here would feel very comfortable with an Ex-Circle Member as an escort. Besides, I couldn’t take you away from being reunited with an old friend. I know people say I lack social skills, but even I am not that heartless”, says Lydia, quickly dismissing Hodge, and closing the hallway door behind her.

Once the three are alone again, Magnus looks towards Lydia, stops, and says, “There’s something else going on here, and I’m not going anywhere until you explain”

At their sudden stop, Alec stumbles a bit, and while Magnus makes a move to catch him, he stops himself halfway. As Lydia holds Alec’s arm, he blinks faster, as if trying to clear his sight.

“Where are we?”, asks Alec, feeling barley awake. He has a slight recollection that he was watching Jocelyn being finally awake.

“We’re on our way to your room”, Lydia tells him gently, and that confuses him even more, because Lydia can be very caring, but she's not usually gentle.

“Why?”, asks Alec, and seeing movement form the side, he’s suddenly faced with Magnus, who as usual takes his breath away, which while pleasant, it’s definitely not helping things at the moment.

“So I can get my pendant back”, replies Magnus, starting to look a bit concerned.

Alec automatically raises a hand to touch the pendant, but he finds his chest empty, which confuses him more. And it’s such an annoying state to be in, dazed, groggy and confused.

“You want it back”, says Alec to himself, feeling oddly hurt at the prospect, but as he pushes that feeling down, he realizes he doesn’t have it with him. The last time he remembers seeing it was in his hand, in his room, while he was in his bed with Jace.

Without thinking much about it, not that he feels he would have the capacity at the moment, he rushes to his room, hearing Lydia and Magnus following him. All he knows is that he needs to find it, before the fog consumes him completely again.

Once he reaches his room, he’s startled. Things are not how he remembered them. This doesn’t look like a one person bedroom, it looks like a shared one. And while his siblings usually leave stuff in his room, this looks like Jace moved his whole room into his. He can’t seem to remember when he made that decision, but he vaguely remembers the last few days, or was it weeks? Sharing the space with Jace, sleeping together with Jace holding him, his possessive behavior and promises to protect him?

He’s startled from his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder, and that simple touch seems to clear his thoughts. Desperate to keep this newfound clarity, he puts his hand on top, and grabs that hand firmly. Taking a deep breath, he turns to see a very concerned Magnus.

“Alexander?”, asks Magnus, and Alec can’t stop himself from hugging the man, and hold on to him. And as Alec starts shaking, Magnus holds him back and rubs circles on his back, trying to sooth him.

Lydia quickly tries to overcome her shock at the whole situation, because it seems that their assumption of weird fell extremely short. She knows they don’t have much time before Hodge brings Jace over here, and she has no idea how Jace effect on Alec works.

“As much as I hate to interrupt, I think we need to get out of the Institute as soon as possible. Since I don’t know how any of this works, I think distance would be the safest bet”, says Lydia, trying to keep her tone calm.

Alec pulls himself together, or at least as much as he can. Separating himself from Magnus, but keeping a strong grip on his hand, he starts dragging him around the room in search of something. He finds it in the trash can, under crumpled papers, laying innocently at the bottom of the can and shimmering gold. But the happiness at having found it vanishes as he remembers that Magnus wants it back.

As Alec offers the necklace back to Magnus, and he takes it, he feels suddenly adrift. He still remains himself, but he feels slightly floatier. And even though he wishes Magnus still cared somewhat about him, at least a little bit, he understand that the Warlock, with all his centuries of experience, would know better than to stick around for this mess. Much less for someone like him. Which might be why he feels completely shocked when he feels Magnus place the necklace back around his neck, and he can’t help the probably stupidly dopey smile on his face.

“I think our connection helps you fight off the control that’s been put on you. Since ours would still qualify as only a partial connection, the necklace will help for when I’m not around”, says Magnus, sounding almost shy, as he softly drags his fingers along the chain of the necklace. Alec can feel the tingling magic that’s now running across the chain of the pendant, as well as Magnus hesitant touch on his skin. Magnus coughs lightly, and continues, “It’s so it’s invisible and only you can remove it, with full conviction. And if you have doubts but are in dire need of removing it, you just need to say the password”

“Which is?”, asks Alec, leaning closer to Magnus, in part to show him he’s okay with him touching him, and in part because he wants him to do it more.

Magnus approaches him and whispers into his ear, “Chupacabra”

“What?”, manages to say Alec between chuckles, somehow feeling as if laughing feels brand new.

Magnus just shrugs and says, “You won’t forget it and you won’t accidentally say it”. And as it gets him a smile from Alec, his smile widens.

“That’s all very nice, and I will totally go down with this ship if needed”, says Lydia, “But I’m hoping it’s not needed, so we should get going”

And just as she finishes saying that the door suddenly opens, revealing an angry looking Jace.

“Why is an unauthorized person in the dormitories?”, asks Jace, immediately putting himself between Magnus and Alec, making them release each other’s hand, and not taking his eyes away from the first.

“He’s not unauthorized”, replies Lydia, crossing her arms, “I authorized him”

“Aldertree has to co-sign all authorizations to private places in the institute”, answers Jace.

“Not when it involves the retrieval of personal objects or are deem necessary in the pursuit of de-escalating conflicts between communities and/or factions”, replies Lydia, a bit baffled that Jace of all people would dare to test her laws, norms and regulations knowledge.

“What personal object could he possibly be retrieving?”, asks Jace, reaching with a hand to grab Alec’s wrist. Alec can’t help flinching at the contact, but he’s fast to send a small smile Magnus’s way, to tell them that he’s still himself. Fortunately, Jace is too focused on Magnus to notice the interaction. It also helps that Magnus’s Poker Face seems to be unbreakable.

“A necklace that I lent to Mr. Lightwood here. A necklace that I need returned, but we haven’t been able to find it”, answers Magnus.

Jace looks panicked for a second, but recovers quickly, and shrugging says, “Sorry, can’t say I’ve seen it. And now that that’s solved, you can leave”

Magnus subtlety looks towards Alec, at the same time Lydia asks Jace for information on his last patrol, buying time for a plan. And somehow Alec knows that at one gesture, Magnus would take him away and somewhere safe, but he knows himself, he knows he’s conflicted. This is his brother, and even if the whole situation makes his skin crawl, he doesn’t remember one single instance where his possessiveness crossed over to abusive. Sure, it was borderline maniac, but it seemed to be more about possessing and keeping, than twisting or breaking, kind of what Jace used to think love was like when he first became part of the Lightwood family. And as long as he keeps Magnus pendant and reinforces his boundaries, he thinks he can reach Jace, again. He has no idea if he’ll be able to fully trust him the way he did before all this, but he needs to make this effort to salvage their relationship, however changed it might end up.

Alec softly shakes his head towards Magnus, and the warlock nods in reply.

“Very well, I’ll be going then. Please let me know any information you have about this, since it concerns me deeply”, says Magnus, and once Alec nods his way again, he doesn’t wait for an answer form the others and leaves the room.

Lydia leaves shortly after him, stops him, and whispers, “What are you doing? We need to get him out of there”

“From what I understood, it seems he wants to face this himself. Besides, he’s protected now”, replies Magnus, just as softly.

“I still don’t understand what’s going on, is he safe?”, asks Lydia.

“As safe as I could make him. And I don’t have all the information either, and what I have is not mine to share”, says Magnus.

Lydia remains uncertain and worried for a few moments, but with a resigned sigh, says, “I’ll try to convince Alec that he needs more protection after his talk with Jace, in the meantime, I’ll reschedule Andrew and Hodges schedule, to try to keep them as busy and away as those two as possible”

They continue their walk, and once they’re outside the Institute, Magnus stops once more and asks her, “Still, you’ll tell me if something weird happens again?”

“Promise”, declares Lydia declares in a second, her tone full of conviction.

“Why are you so willing to … trust me? You don’t really even know me?”, asks Magnus, baffled by her obvious trust in him.

“I’ll admit, I still had some doubts earlier. All I knew was that something weird was going on with him, that you could possibly be of help, and that Clary and Izzy talked about how he was with you. But now that I saw you two together, I’m totally and fully on board”, says Lydia, smiling at him.

“But I haven’t even met Isabelle. And on board with what?”, asks a still confused Magnus.

“Oh! She saw your effect regardless of physical presence, that’s just her way, you’ll appreciate it soon enough. And I’m on board of the Malec Ship”, answers Lydia, grinning to a speechless Magnus, before turning around and leaving a baffled Warlock behind.

All too soon, Alec finds himself alone in his room with Jace. This all feels too surreal. It’s like after their escape everything started happening at light speed, just to suddenly skip forward, and now he finds himself having missed days. He feels lost and like he just wants to sleep, but his room doesn’t feel like his anymore. He’s suddenly yearning for Magnus’s guest room, and he has only met the man for a few days at most. But then again, he’s known Jace for years and still… Maybe he should have asked Magnus to stay, everything seems less daunting with him present.

No, he can do this. He focuses on the warmth emanating from the pendant, the ghost of the tingling magic he can still feel on his skin, the memory of Magnus’s touch, and on the love he still somehow has for his brother. So he gathers whatever courage he still has left, and gets ready to confront his parabatai, and find out how redeemable this situation really is.

With a sudden pull, he frees his wrist from Jace’s hold and takes a couple of steps back. Jace’s turns towards him shocked, and Alec hurries to say, “This stops now. We need to talk, and you are not allowed to touch me until I say it’s ok.”

“Alec?”, asks a confused Jace, “What’s going on? Why are you upset? Did Magnus do something to you again?”

“No, you did something to me, and it stops now”, says Alec, taking a step back the second Jace takes a step forward. “And you go sit on the bed, and I sit on the desk. And if you move or come closer, this all stops now and you won’t be allowed to contact me anymore”

Baffled Jace moves towards the bed and sits down, looking stunned.

“I don’t understand”, mumbles Jace, looking lost.

“Really? You haven’t been taking advantage of whatever has been going on with me for your own benefit?”, asks Alec, staying standing up, on guard.

“What? No! That was all Bane’s doing! I was keeping you away from his clutches and making sure you were safe, until we figured out what was going on”, explains Jace.

“We? Who’s we! And I’ve never lacked agency when I’ve been in Magnus presence”, says Alec, and the clearly unsaid ‘unlike you’ sounds loud in the room.

“Really? Have you been completely yourself? Because since you’ve met him you’ve been hanging onto his every word, sticking next to him as much as you can and not caring about the Institute, or Izzy or me, your parabatai”, replies Jace.

“That’s because you guys were all safe, and I’m sorry, but I needed a little bit of time for myself, just a few moments to gather myself back into a functional human being again, away from all my responsibilities. Also, I’m into him. I really like him, even if he’s out of my league.”, answers Alec, blushing slightly.

“Then why haven’t I seen you act this way before?”, refutes Jace.

“Because I haven’t felt this way about anyone before”, says Alec, not really understanding why Jace had a problem understanding something that was crystal clear to him.

“Yes, because it’s some sort of spell, otherwise it would be like when you were into me, and you never behaved like that towards me before”, replies Jace.

“What? What kind of conclusion is that?”, asks Alec, completely confused, “Those are two completely different things! I love you, yes, but it’s not that kind of love, even if at some point I thought it was, it doesn’t change the fact that it wasn’t”, he takes a moment to soften his tone, and continues, “And… maybe it’s not the best time to bring this up, but I think your time with Valentine brought back some things to you? Like when you first came to us? Remember when even if your love for us was always good, the only ways you knew how to express it weren’t always so?”

“Why are you bringing back ancient history”, complains Jace, getting defensive, “Can’t you see I’m worried about you?”

“And I’m worried about you”, replies Alec, keeping his tone calm, “What did Valentine do? What truth did he try to twist? Did he do something to you?”

“He did something to you!”, exclaims Jace, pointing towards the door, “Why can’t you see it?”, he asks, frustrated.

“Valentine did something to me”, confesses Alec, because sparing Jace a bit is second to making sure he doesn’t decide to ambush Magnus, or himself.

“Yes, he imprisoned you and tortured you, I know. But I mean that Bane did something magical to you, something that you clearly can’t see. Andrew heard Camille, Magnus made you submit to him. He’s known for tricking people”, insists Jace.

“You’re taking what Camille Belcourt said as real believable information?”, asks Alec, stunned.

“Yes! She’s horrible, awful, heartless and whatever else you want to call her, but she’s not a liar”, replies Jace.

“That’s not what’s happening!”, exclaims Alec, completely frustrated. He knew this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation, but this was getting ridiculous.

“This is pointless”, says Jace, covering his face with his hands.

“At least there’s something we can agree on”, mumbles Alec frustrated, feeling completely drained, as he goes to sit down on his desk chair.

Alec manages to take three deep breaths before he realizes that Jace suddenly stood up and rushes to the door. Confused, but still having his Shadowhunter instinct, he rushes after Jace, but Jace’s pure angel blood advantage makes him too fast to stop. He only manages to stops a hair’s distance from the slamming door, and he immediately feels the energy of a locking rune thrum through the wood. And it’s then that Alec realizes that, not only is he locked in, but that Jace must have prepared the locking rune system before hand, because this is not something a simple unlocking rune can fix.

Alec searches the room to find out there are no weapons in it, or any Steele. Alec is usually the one that plans forward, when did Jace became so strategic? All the walls, ceiling and floor have un-breaking runes on them, and his cellphone is nowhere to be found. So Alec is stuck in his unfamiliar feeling room, without a visible way to get out.

He sits down for a bit, takes hold of the pendant, and takes a moment, before trying again. As he holds the necklace, he briefly thinks of using it to call on Magnus, but if he suddenly shows up again, wouldn’t it make it harder to convince Jace later? Is he wrong in still having faith that things with Jace can eventually be solved? Is he being too naïve? Maybe, but he knows it’ll be harder to live with himself if he doesn’t at least try. So he decides to give Jace one more chance, some time to cool off and be more perceptive to reason. But that doesn’t mean he can’t find a way to escape on his own, give himself more advantage in the situation.

How is it that he has to figure out how to escape a closed space? Again? And how was it that he got out of his cell? Maybe it can work now too. But it’s with a cold chill running down his spine that he remembers, that he doesn’t know, that he doesn’t remember how he got out of Valentine’s clutches. He briefly wishes he had enough time to re-embed the stele tip in his forearm again. And it’s as that paranoid part of himself that keeps whispering that maybe Valentine wanted him to escape gets louder, that he’s stuck with the realization that he doesn’t remember embedding that first stele tip in his arm in the first place. That all this time his suspicions where more right than he thought, but now he can’t even grasp how strong Valentine’s control of the whole situation was, or … is?

Chapter Text

It’s already been three hours since Magnus left, and Lydia is about to finish all her pending paperwork in a desperate attempt at distracting herself, and not just go interrupt Alec and Jace. She needs to remind herself that now Alec is protected, and she won’t have to see Alec make that expression of fear and desperation again, when he started to come out of Jace’s control. Izzy is not doing much better either, pacing back and forth in front of her desk. And both know that if Clary wasn’t reconnecting with her mother, she would have been here, as frantic as them.

Lydia makes a final signature, and finding herself done, she idly starts tapping her pen against her desk. Realizing that other than start scheduling patrols three months in advance, she has nothing to do, she looks up and asks Izzy, “Do you think they’re done already?”

“I don’t know”, says Izzy, stopping in front of Lydia’s Desk, wriggling her hands, “Sometimes they get super introspective together, just holding each other, so it could be possible”

“Alec didn’t look like he wanted Jace within touching distance, much less holding him”, says Lydia.

“Ignorance really was bliss. I never realized how centered in myself I was, how much I missed, and now that I’m paying attention, I have no idea what to do. And even what I thought would always be a constant, Jace and Alec, now is unstable as fuck. This is all so weird!”, exclaims Izzy, finally sitting down in the nearest chair.

“I know I didn’t know you much before, but at least, from my perspective, you are making progress, and more importantly, you’re trying. And we have to admit, even without you trying to better yourself, the situation is weird. And Camille’s information doesn’t make any sense either”, sighs Lydia, and checks her list once more, “So far, we have that the effects should be evident, he’s been turned into something/someone, she’s sure she’s the only one to have seen this, it’ll make Alec shiny, and somehow harmful to Warlocks if they have unprotected sex with him”

“Well, she didn’t say it was only Warlocks, she said that even Warlocks wouldn’t be immune”, answers Izzy.

“Oh dear Raziel, not even when we were engaged did I know that much sexual information about your brother”, despairs Lydia, to which Izzy can only laughs, more in a release of stress than humor, but she’ll take whatever she can to avoid a breakdown.

Lydia’s ringing phone distracts them for a moment, but as Izzy watched Lydia’s side of the conversation, seeing her in shock, just for the surprise to be replaced by worry, she can’t help the dread that starts consuming her.

Once Lydia hangs up, Izzy doesn’t even have to ask when she says, “That was Magnus, he felt something weird coming from a ring, something about it feeling muted, which I guess means something is going on with Alec. He tried to contact him, but fire messages bounce off and his phone seems to be off.”

After a few moments of silence, Izzy stands up and says, “Ok, I’ve had enough. I hope we don’t interrupt a heart to heart, but I can’t take this anymore”

Once Lydia and Izzy reach Alec’s room, they don’t find what they expected. When no one answers their knocking or calling, they open the door. And they can see Jace sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, holding his head and looking devastated.

“Jace?”, asks Izzy, as she approaches him slowly, “What happened?”, and it´s only when she touches his shoulder that he seems to come back to himself.

“Izzy?”, he asks confused, but when he sees Lydia, he zeroes in on her, and asks, “When Hodge has evaluations, does he get a special permit to leave the Institute? Or do they come here to see him?”

“What?”, asks Lydia confused, approaching him carefully.

“Please, it’s important, I promise”, pleads Jace, looking desperate, as if Lydia’s answer has the power to undo him.

“They come here. Hodge’s punishment is absolute, it doesn’t allow for any kind of leeway”, answers Lydia, watching as Jace pales, mumbling no, over and over again.

“Jace!”, exclaims Izzy, grabbing him by his shoulders and shaking him, “What the fuck is going on! And where is Alec!”

“I was wrong. By the Angel, I was so wrong”, mumbles Jace, and when Izzy shakes him again, he says, “Hodge took him to Idris … well, he was supposed to, but the warlock that opened the portal was looking all weird and now he hasn’t answered back. And Alec kept saying that Hodge shouldn’t be able to leave the institute, but Hodge kept insisting that he did it all the time for evaluations. And that he got a special permit from Aldertree, so we could protect Alec, keep him away from Magnus”

“Fuck”, says Lydia, completely stumped for a second, but just as she’s trained herself to be, she recovers quickly and says, “We need to plan for this, putting all the information on the table. I’ll contact Magnus. Izzy, you go look for Clary, and we meet in my office in 15 minutes”, orders Lydia, and when she turns towards Jace, it’s with steel in her eyes, “And Jace, you don’t speak with anyone, about anything, especially Underhill and Aldertree. Better yet, go now to my office, and wait for me. If anyone asks, tell them you did some reports wrong, and I’m pissed about it”

“But Magnus…”, starts Jace, but Izzy interrupts him.

“No. Enough. Now we have to save Alec, and the only way you’ll be able to help, is by giving information, not opinions or conspiracy theories”, says Izzy, standing up and leaving the room, consumed with worry.

Jace stands up, nods towards Lydia, and without saying a word, heads towards her office, looking completely defeated.

In the end, and after Magnus suggested it would be a bad idea to talk about this in the Institute, they decide to meet in the Loft. And since Simon was with Clary at the moment, and he didn’t feel secure enough to wait for sundown surrounded by unknown Shadowhunters, he was suddenly added to the meeting, thus giving the Shadowhunters an excuse to ask for a portal.

“Well, isn’t this an interesting group”, greets Magnus from his living room, using his couch like a throne. Zeroing his attention on Jace, he says, “You have 5 minutes to convince me not to make your future extremely painful”

“I have to convince you?”, says Jace, getting instantly defensive, “You’re the one that entranced him somehow”

“I think you got a little bit confused, I’m not the one that took his agency and consent away”, answers Magnus, and in the blink of an eye, he’s right in front of Jace, with sparkling red hands and flashing golden eyes, “The only thing stopping me at the moment is that I don’t know how far your abuse reached”

Jace growls and through clenched teeth asks, “What are you implying?”

“Did you rape him?”, asks Magnus, bluntly.

Jace pales and whispers, “I would never…”

Magnus interrupts him, barley containing his fury, “Just because someone is not able to say no, doesn’t mean it’s not rape”

“I know that!”, exclaims Jace, and tugging at his hair to regain some control, he continues as calmly as he can, not taking his eyes from Magnus, “I didn’t rape him and I didn’t sexually assault him”

“You slept in the same bed”, states Magnus, tone deceptively calm.

“Yes, and nothing remotely sexual ever happened”, insists Jace, but all his indignant fury vanishes as he continues, “But I did invade his personal space without consent, and took advantage of him not being able to refute what I decided. And I’ll forever regret that, but that’s an apology and penance that Alec deserves to receive first”

Magnus analyzes him for a moment and says, “I’ll accept that for now, at least until we can get Alexander back”, and turning towards the rest he asks, “So, who do we suspect has him? Valentine? The Clave to see what experiments they can do to him now that he’s not pure Nephilim?”

“We don’t know yet”, says Lydia in her formal voice, “But we appreciate all and any help you’re willing to give us”

“You’re mistaken pet, Alexander has been under my protection for a while now, and this is no help or favor. Now let’s put all the information on the table and get to work”, declares Magnus, waving his hand towards the dining room table, making tea, coffee and mugs appear, as well as notepads and pencils.

It takes them about two hours just to exchange all the information each of them have, from Camille’s comments, what Alec and Magnus figured out, what Lydia and the rest could gather about Valentine’s comments and Hodge ‘theories’.

“So, where Alec was taken depends solely on which side Hodge is on”, says Clary, and automatically Jace and Izzy start protesting.

“Hodge wouldn’t align himself with Valentine, he wouldn’t put Alec in danger like that”, says Izzy.

“Wouldn’t he?”, says Magnus, “Because he sided with Valentine once already, and directly afterwards he had part of his liberty stripped. Sure, it would be better than the Guard, but he sees everyday two of Valentines Commanders living their life basically punishment free. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was extremely resentful”

“He was in charge of our education”, adds Izzy.

“He practically raised us”, mumbles Jace.

Clary looks apologetic when she says, “Yeah, but so did Valentine”

Silence sets for a few moments, but its Lydia who gets them all back in track, by saying, “Ok, so the more likely situations are that Alec was re-taken by Valentine or that he’s being kept by the Clave. And according to Alec’s theories, and the obvious moles we’ve had, one wouldn’t really exclude the other”

“Lydia, Jace and Clary could tackle the Clave front”, says Izzy, and at everyone’s dubious looks, she hurries to add, “Lydia is an obvious choice, and Clary and Jace should stay as far away from Valentine as possible, since he’s targeted them before. And it’s widely known that Jace is protective of Clary, which would intensify especially after just losing his parabatai. That would help to keep suspicion away from the group.”

“Ok, that makes sense I guess, whatever’s needed to get Alec back”, declares Jace, and seeing Clary’s hurt expression, he hurries to reassure her, “Not that it’s wrong, I’m always worried about your safety. I’m sorry I let my instincts lead me wrong. I… I’m still not sure if it’s still Valentine’s after effects, me stupidly falling for Hodge’s manipulations or… I don’t know”, and with a wince, adds, “I can be more open with my reactions and emotion if it helps?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary yet”, says Izzy, smiling at him, and continues, “So, any ideas of what/who is it they tried to turn Alec into?”, asks Izzy, seeing how Magnus is processing all the information, somehow keeping an aura of hostility and anger around himself.

“A bear?”, asks Simon, and all the lifted eyebrows he receives in response, prompt him to add with a shrug, “What? No one said it had to be magical”

“Dragon?”, asks Lydia.

“I didn’t see scorch marks anywhere, so if he got powers, they wouldn’t have manifested”, says Jace.

“Manticore? It would explain the dangerous to Warlocks too part, due to the venom?”, asks Izzy.

“Imaginary”, say Magnus and Simon at the same time, surprising each other.

“Griffin?”, asks Simon.

And Magnus, smirking, answers, “Extinct”

“Giant?”, asks Simon, grinning.

Magnus chuckles, and shaking his head, he answers, “Possible, very, very possible”

Jace, Lydia and Izzy look at each other, and Izzy says, “I think they lost their minds, we should inform someone”

Magnus shrugs and says, “Who are you gonna tell?”, prompting Simon to start giggling. Magnus and Simon laugh for a moment, ignoring the shocked Shadowhunters, but all too soon, Magnus takes a deep breath and says, “Thank you Simon, I needed that. Raphael is being a great influence on you”, and leaving a blushing and shocked Simon at the correct use of his name and mention of his developing relationship with Raphael, he turns to the rest and adds, “I’ll use all the key words to search through my library, like bronze, venom/poison, and Camille’s comments of ugly duckling, little bird and chick are too repetitive for it not to mean some kind of winged creature, with feathers. And Valentine’s Falcon comments back it up. And we can use the knowledge of Alec being easier to bond with and control to narrow the information in a second search”

They all watch as Magnus waves his hands smoothly, making colorful flames dance through his apartment, presenting him with different books and papers that Magnus keeps dismissing with a quick flick of his fingers. It’s after a while that Magnus’s gasps alert everyone that he found something.

“Ha! That’s why she made the ‘unprotected sex’ comment. First, there are cleaning spells, and second, as if my father wouldn’t have taken care of making me immune to… ejem, not the point”, says Magnus, noticing that everyone is looking at him, “What’s important is I know what creature Valentine used to experiment on Alexander”

”You’re sure?”, asks Jace.

“About 90% Jake, but it all fits. It’s a Stymphalian Bird”, says Magnus, waiting for a look of realization to hit the group, but at their empty looks, he continues, “Greece native? Large man-eating bird with bronze feathers, metal beak and claws? With arrow-like feather they can throw like spears to kill their prey? And toxic… poop? Really? No one?”, he sighs and with a look of utter disappointment, he adds, “Not only do you not recognize your Sondheim, you don’t know your Greek mythology either”

“Be that as it may, for now we’ll better focus on how does this help us to get Alec back?”, asks Lydia.

“It makes Valentine’s motivations more clear”, replies Magnus.

“How? That he was more literal that I thought when he talked about my new Falcon?”, asks Jace.

“Honestly Jason? I would drop the ownership for a bit there”, says Magnus, and at Jace’s pained expression, he sighs and lets it go. He has to remind himself, this is not the time, and knowing Alexander, he wouldn’t be happy if he made his parabatai upset, even if he totally deserves it.

“Why this bird and not something more… I don’t know, like a Dragon? A Phoenix?”, asks Clary.

“Why would he give that much power to an enemy?”, asks Lydia.

Izzy shrugs and says, “I don’t know, so he can control Alec and use this new power for himself?”

“No, he would use Alec to control Jasper, that’s why he would choose a creature that is known to be some sort of pet to the Underworld, but he doesn’t understand how that kind of relationship works”, says Magnus, thinking fast on how all this would make sense to someone like Valentine.

“What do you mean? How does it work? Is that why he felt drawn to you? For your demonic… ancestry?”, asks Jace, stopping himself at the last second form being too offensive.

Magnus huffs and replies, “If you’re wondering if he was with me the same way he was with you these past weeks, then no”, he’s really trying to reign himself in, but Jace is not making it easy, “It would explain why our energies were so compatible, even with this new element that was introduced to him. What Valentine doesn’t understand is that what he thinks as pet/master relationships, it’s different for the Downworld, they’re reciprocal. What he sees as a pet, is not a tool to do with as you please. Both have to care for each other, have a connection, and it’s always a give and take, always keeping a balance, and always both parts keeping their consent and agency”, finishes Magnus, unable from narrowing his eye at Jace.

“So, Alec chose to imprint on Magnus”, states Clary.

“I don’t know”, says Magnus, looking unsure for the first time since they all arrived, “I’m not so sure how conscious the first imprinting was, but he did see Camille before he saw me, so it wasn’t because I was the first person he came across”, he finishes, almost seeming to reassure himself.

“Would you being a Warlock mean that the pull towards you would be stronger than to a Vampire?”, asks Lydia, trying to soften her voice.

“I don’t know how it would feel from Alexander’s side of things, since Stymphalides are not human, or humanoid, people couldn’t really ask them. Human communication is different than theirs, some parts overlap, but not in a way we are used to. There are many things that don’t translate well. But the records say that Warlocks would feel an affinity to them, as both have a connection to ‘hades’, ‘the underworld’, hell dimensions, or however you want to call them”, starts Magnus, thinking that due to him being the son of a Prince of Hell, affinity was an understatement, without even considering how beautiful Alexander’s soul seemed to be. He looks towards Simon as he continues “Vampires are more attracted to them, because they recognize a kind of kinship, due to their tendency to prey on flesh and humans, “Simon can’t help his blush, since he had definitely noticed that Alec looked hotter lately, “Werewolves have been noted to feeling torn, for one part seeing them as prey, wanting to assert dominance, and for another fearing them, since they are known to be strong and ferocious. And Seelies and Unseelies are mainly extra respectful, keeping their distance, treating them like a dangerous and unique animal that’s beautiful to watch, but you won’t be stupid enough to antagonize”

“Then why was his connection to Jace different? Was it because of being Nephilim? Because of the parabatai bond?”, asks Izzy.

“I can’t be completely sure”, concedes Magnus, and ads, “But, I don’t think so. It would make sense for Valentine to have done something to insure that Alexander not only became dependent on John here, but also make him obedient to himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did something to corrupt a possible bond, so that Juan and Alexander would stay a bit unhinged unless they were under Valentine’s command, explaining why Alexander became dependent and zombie-like, while his parabatai became paranoid and possessive”

Jace’s shoulders slump even more, and says, “So, not only was I completely manipulated by Hodge, but by Valentine too, even though I tried to brace myself for it”

Seeing the devastated man sitting in front of him, Magnus caves in and with a sighs lets go of another piece of his anger, and says, “Part of it could be because Valentine experimented with you too. Just part of it, tough”, and immediately he tries to distract the others of what just happened, and it was in no way an attempt at giving Jace time to recover, “So, talking about uncomfortable Shadowhunter’s family drama, how is Jocelyn?”

“Confused”, starts Clary, “And insisting that since we don’t have the Cup anymore, she thinks Valentine won’t waste time with us, and we should go into hiding again. Take our chance to disappear, before he thinks we could be useful again. Which seeing the lengths he went with Jace, Alec and Magnus, I doubt it would be much help in the end”

“More Jessica and Alexander than me. He just needed me out of the way and neutralized, since he didn’t even try to take information out of me”, replies Magnus.

“Wait, all the time you were there you weren’t tortured? That seems uncharacteristic”, says Jace.

Magnus shakes his head, “Oh no! He kept the torture steady and creative, but it wasn’t targeted towards anything”

“Well”, starts Izzy, “If he was similar to Hodge and my parents at some point, maybe that’s why he didn’t take you out of Alec’s way”

“What do you mean?”, asks Clary.

Izzy gestures towards Magnus, and says, “Valentine doesn’t see Magnus as an equal, as a human being, so it wouldn’t cross his mind that a Nephilim would willingly force any kind of connection to a Downworlder, much less the Lightwood first born, who was raised by a three former Circle Member.

“And?”, asks Simon, while all the rest seem to come to a realization.

“It means that Alec’s lack of memory of how he escaped his cell, might be because he was let go. That Alec’s suspicions were right”, says Izzy.

“But why?”, asks Simon, “Why let him go if he needed Alec for his plans with Jace?”

“Because the heightened emotions of finding his parabatai in an escape attempt, would have made Alec need to imprint, even more, need to bond, into something irresistible. And in that emotional state, with all these new instincts, it would have made it easier to corrupt the bond, and insert himself in the middle of it”, explains Magnus.

“But in all his plans, he never expected Alec to actually escape, or for him to connect in that way with a Downworlder”, finishes Clary, astonished by this lucky turn of events.

As if reading Clary’s mind, Lydia adds, “And I don’t think it was just a lucky coincidence either, because he may have been strongly lead by his instincts like Valentine might have planned, but those new feelings also lead him to Magnus, who’s presence would have attracted his Stymphalian part, because by submitting to one of “hades” people, he could find the necessary protection to escape… and save Jace.”

“That’s why Alec is so drawn to Magnus”, says Jace, looking relieved at finally reaching an explanation he could accept, feeling in control once more.

“What? No, I don’t think that’s the only reason…”, starts Clary, getting interrupted by Magnus.

“Actually, that makes sense, and it’s probably the reason for what seems to be very unusual behavior in him”, says Magnus, and as Izzy opens her mouth, he dismisses her with one hand and continues, “Anyways, that’s not important now. We need to finish our plan and set it in motion, getting Alexander back is the priority”

After that, they decide that Magnus and Jace will try to locate Alec through a combination of both of their connections to the missing man. Lydia and Clary would try to see what they can finds in Idris, using Jocelyn’s ‘Return’ to the Shadow World as a somewhat reasonable excuse. And Simon and Izzy would look for anything useful they can find through their connections to the Downworld.

Magnus is also adamant that no one at the Institute can know anything about all of this. Lydia agrees, adding that Jace must pretend with Underhill and Aldertree that, while he is a bit concerned at not having heard back from Hodge, he still trusts him and assumes the silence is for protection purposes.

After everyone leaves, and Magnus is once again alone, left to deal with his thoughts in his silent Loft, he can only sigh and hope that he has one more chance of having Alec under his roof again, safe and sound under his wards protections. And he knows it’s stupid, because the man is a Shadowhunter, and an amazing leader, but at the moment he can only feel the impotence of not being able to protect him; torturing himself as he remembers all the atrocities Valentine and his men have done in the past, and all of what their twisted minds can come up with now.

Chapter Text

“I knew I shouldn’t have laughed at Camille getting captured again. Fucking karma”, mumbles Alec to himself, once again in a very similar cell to the one he was in a few weeks ago.

“How heretic of you, saying such things”, says a man’s voice, startling Alec and making him find Valentine standing right outside his cell, “Must be the Downworlder influence you’ve been getting. Then again, maybe your feathers just got ruffled”

“Can you stop with the cryptic? I already know you experimented on me, so why don’t we just get to the point?”, asks Alec, feeling very uncomfortable by the sudden feeling of his blood starting to heat up.

“Come on, my little bird, you don’t really want to miss the fun part”, taunts Valentine, and at Alec’s silence and lack of reaction, he tries again, “Besides, I’m working on giving you all you ever wished for”

“Yeah, sure, because the genocidal maniac is the one person that knows my heart’s true desires”, replies Alec, rolling his eyes.

Valentine’s brow frowns more with every second he spends in Alec’s presence, “You left with that demon spawn. The Vampire we re-captured, but you left with that monster”

Alec huffs and replies, “We obviously have very different definitions on what constitutes a monster”

Valentine’s eyes widen and he points towards Alec, “There! See? That shouldn’t happen”

“What? That you couldn’t keep us?”, asks Alec, extremely confused by Valentine’s reactions. Was this how he always was? Is this what a power-hungry genocidal behaved like?

“Oh! No, you were supposed to escape, is your little detour that changed the schedule a bit, nothing we can’t fix. But something else happened…”, trails off Valentine, turning around and simply leaving the room, and if it wasn’t for the 4 shackles holding his body against the wall and the 6 Circle Members standing guard, he could have had a chance of escaping.

Alec doesn’t know how much time passes, but it’s been at least a few days. Valentine hadn’t showed up again, and even if the guards have their rotations, there are always 6 guarding him. And he knows he would have started crumbling if it wasn’t for the soft warmth of Magnus necklace and the dreams he has been having.

He strangely remembers all of them, and through the haziness that dreams usually have, every time he’s dreamt of Magnus, he always remains mostly clear. Sometimes Jace appears in the sidelines, less fuzzy than the other elements of his dreams, but never as clear as Magnus.

Dream Magnus says it must be the pendant, making an anchor that allows them to connect better than the parabatai bond, but Alec thinks that it’s because his bond with Jace is strained, after what happened between them.

“There you are darling. Anything new since last time?”, asks Magnus, sitting lazily on the low hanging branch of a tree.

Alec approaches, sitting on the ground, having learned already that every time he tries to touch him, he disappears. It makes him feel awfully touch-starved, seeing him right in front of him, but being unable to touch him. Also, the fact that during the day he has absolutely no human contact doesn’t help.

“Nothing new, still shackled to a wall. No one else around, except the 6 rotating silent Guards”, replies Alec, “Is Jace around? I can’t seem to see him”

“Not this time. This whole procedure leaves him more drained than me”, answers Magnus,

“Ah right! Forgot my subconscious keeps coming up with all this world building”, replies Alec.

“Honey, at some point, you’ll have to admit that this is real. Well, as real as oneiric connections can be”, says Magnus.

Alec shrugs and says, “Sure, if I ever manage to see you again, we’ve had enough conversations to check if this is real for you too”

“When you see me again darling. We won’t rest until we have you back”, replies Magnus.

They’ve had this conversation before, so Alec decides that this time he’ll just let it go, and enjoy this little piece of heaven his mind came up with.

Alec sighs deeply and confesses to Dream Magnus, “I like that”

“What, dear?”, asks Magnus, stretching and unintentionally mesmerizing Alec with his movements.

“That, the pet names, the terms of endearment you use for me. Makes me feel like I’m somehow special and that you care”, answers Alec softly.

“Darling”, says Magnus, looking surprised, “You are incredibly special and irreplaceable. And every time we meet, I’m more certain of it”

Alec takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, savoring the warmth Magnus words give him, “Sometimes I wish Valentine takes forever with whatever he’s planning, so I can keep this”

A hurt sound comes from Magnus’ way, and when Alec looks up, Magnus golden pained eyes are looking back, “Alexander, you don’t have to go through torture and confinement to keep me. And once we find you, I’ll make sure to make you see it. Make you see how important you are becoming to me”

Alec stares at Magnus for a little longer, and then can’t keep a humorless laugh from escaping him, “I never knew how creative my survival instincts could be”, and at Magnus protesting sound, he continues, “Could you tell me another one of your stories? We got cut off last time in the middle of the one about that female sculpture artist”

Magnus sighs and replies, “Of course sweetheart”.

Alec lets Dream Magnus voice lull him, painting wonderful stories of this incredible sculptor, more talented than her male counterpart, but due to initial wrongly-placed devotion and living in a society that couldn’t recognize her talent beyond her gender, lived in obscurity. Magnus tried to help her however he could, but she kept to the shadows, helping skyrocket her already successful lovers career. And it was evident to Alec when Magnus started to change the story, to give her the happy ending she deserved, the one she should’ve had, but Alec didn’t have the heart to tell him he saw right through him. And as it’s always the way with dreams, time seems to stretch forever and nothing at the same time. But even when Alec later wakes up to cold water being thrown at him, there’s an ember inside of him that they can’t extinguish.

It’s already been two weeks since Alec was taken, and Lydia can’t make sense of the conflicting information she keeps getting. On one side, Magnus and Jace insist that Alec is with Valentine. After the first few days, Magnus and Jace emerged from the Loft’s Guest Room, both looking drained, but Jace looking half dead. They were unwilling to disclose what they did, or how they got the information, but every once in a while, they gave more slivers of what they found out. And it seemed that whatever they did, Magnus did it every day, and Jace would join him every other day.

From Magnus and Jace they knew Valentine had new headquarters, located somewhere in the state of New York, and due to their inability to pinpoint the exact location, it must be surrounded by water. Sadly this didn’t narrow things as much as they wanted, due to the lakes, rivers and Ocean in the State, but at least it was something. Also, due to Magnus Intel, they couldn’t dismiss small islands either, since there seemed to exist a nifty little spell that changed earth for solid water, making Small Islands detached from the ground and thus untraceable.

But the conflicting part wasn’t so much Magnus and Jace’s information, but the fact that according to the Clave, Alec was being kept in a secure location, due to manipulation magic being used on him. And he was to be kept in an undisclosed location until it was proven that he wasn’t under any kind of influence anymore. The problem with that was, Hodge was in charge of determining if he was in the clear or not. The same Hodge that wasn’t supposed to leave the NY institute, and who couldn’t be contacted. And somehow the Clave didn’t find that weird at all. Lydia has been as of yet unable to get a meeting with the last two possible Clave members influential enough to be useful, but Harondale and Penhallow seemed to be barricaded behind a wall of bureaucracy.

And none of the rescued Downworlders had any information to provide. It appeared that they had their memories erased the day of the raid, and according to Magnus’s analysis, the memories weren’t just removed, but scratched off, meaning that they couldn’t be recovered. Maybe with time and healing they could recover a sliver of them, but nothing that could resemble regular memories.

“I don’t know what to do”, whispers Lydia to her empty office.

She’s finishing the forms to block the changes Aldertree keeps insisting on implementing, when there’s a knock on her door.

Raj comes in, and informs in his most derisive tone, “Ma’am, there’s a Warlock here that demands to see you. The Downworlder agreed to leave the premises without trouble if I informed you”

“What are you talking about, let them in”, orders Lydia. If this is the new way that Raj has of keeping Magnus away, he’ll get Ichor Duty until he learns his lesson.

Raj leaves, huffing and puffing, mumbling about missing when things were normal. It takes him no time to come back with someone, but to Lydia’s surprise, it’s not Magnus, but a tall middle aged looking women, with dark brown hair, brown eyes and light brown skin.

Lydia recovers quickly, and says, “Thank you Raj, close the door when you leave”, and once Raj leaves, closing the door with more force than necessary, she gestures towards a chair, “Please take a seat, and I think apologies due to my subordinate’s behavior are in order”

The woman sits down, shocked and confused, “Sure, it’s not the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last”

“I’m Lydia Branwell, Interim Co-Head of the Institute, what can I help you with?”, asks Lydia.

The woman tilts her head a little, somehow reminding Lydia of a bird.

“I’ve heard you’ve been working with the High Warlock of Brooklyn in the retrieval of someone”, says the woman, and at Lydia’s confused nod, she continues, “I have information regarding his situation, and I’ll provide it to you, plus my help, if you and Mr. Bane can guarantee the protection of my clan”, informs the determined looking woman.

“First of all, and whit all due respect, who are you? And second, why would you take such a risk?”, asks Lydia, wanting to be hopeful for this new possible lead, but she doubts this woman is risking herself just due to the goodness of her heart.

“I’m Echo of Arcadia, and I want revenge on Valentine, for what he forced me to do and lose”, she answers, irradiating determination in her every word.

Magnus hasn’t been there in his last few dreams. He thinks he can feel Jace there though, right at the margins, watching. It must be his subconscious telling him he misses him, how things used to be, before Clary, before Jace’s little rebellions were more dangerous than mischievous. And he loves his brother, he really does, but feeling him near doesn’t give him the comfort he needs. Maybe it’s because he never looked for comfort in him, or anyone really. That’s not what Alec was for, he’s meant to protect, he was made to comfort and help his loved ones achieve thing, not to be comforted and held. Besides, his siblings supported him more than enough when he came out, and that more than filled his quota. He’s supposed to not be a burden, and being comforted is not how he knows to be. He can be comforted by comforting others, by feeling useful.

But Magnus opened a door, showed him a bit of what could be. How it feels to be able to lean on another, and be able to break down, because he’ll be there to contain his scattered pieces. And he knows it was only for a few moments, scattered into three days, but it already feels like a part of him, like a part of his strength. Maybe that’s why Magnus kept showing up in his dreams, because he needed that security to keep his sanity. But he must be getting back to his normal self, if he’s not providing himself that comfort now.

He just wishes Jace wasn’t on the sidelines at the moment, reminding him that he has to keep it together. It’s just, he wants a few seconds to let go, to break down, to cry and purge a little bit of his pain. But his parabatai watchful eyes, that he seems to have constructed himself, keep him containing everything inside, feeling the internal pressure increase, not giving a second for any kind of relieve.

He pushes his tears deep down, locked away in the limited overcrowded space, struggling to contain it. He just wishes he could just hold onto someone, and just cry. But his mind must have put Jace here as a reminder, that he can’t, he’s not allowed. Dream Magnus was his reprieve, but he apparently took advantage of it enough, and he needs to lock up everything again. He’s managed for years, so what’s a bit more to hold on? He can do it, he knows he can. Besides, his goal is not remaining undamaged, unbroken, but protecting those he loves. So it doesn’t really matter what he fears, or the pieces Valentine could manage to carve out of him, as long as he can keep any damage or burden from falling on his loved ones.

But in the end, all of that is not what’s at the center of the picture, because what Alec wishes he could admit to himself in solitude, is that he’s scared. This is not the type of death he’s been prepared for since childhood, it’s not dying in the heat of a battle, physically defending someone. Or even keep secrets and information while being tortured. This is unknown, uncertain, and it can end up in so many unexpected ways. And how can he prepare for the unexpected? How can he rationalize his feelings, his insecurities, if he doesn’t know what he needs to rationalized them for?

He doesn’t even know what he’s physically becoming, his own body, the way it functions. His own self, what he’s always had complete control over, is turning into another unknown. And it terrifies him. It makes him an outsider once again, and forces him to remember how hard this was the first time around. When he had to stumble around to learn how to manage his emotions, understand his limitations and safe zones. What the consequences of pushing too much were, and how to control himself.

Now it’s just fear, cold and tight in his throat, and sharp and burning in his eyes. He has to tighten his teeth, because his jaw is threatening to tremble, like when he was 3, and even if it’s in his subconscious, Jace is still watching.

And just when he thinks he’ll shatter anyways, and his shards will just remain scattered, a new focus is pushed abruptly towards him, because he’s once again awaken with cold water, only this time, Valentine is there, right in front of him.

They’re all once again gathered at Magnus Loft, waiting for him to return. Lydia, Clary and Izzy are sitting in the couch, each checking different satellite feeds on her phones, from 3 different small islands that could contain Valentine’s Headquarters. Jace just came out of the guest room to join them, complaining about being unable to reach Alec properly without Magnus.

Dot made herself at home, playing host and offering tea to everyone. She’s been spending a lot of time at the Loft, now that Jocelyn was awake and she didn’t feel responsible for Clary so much. She remembers briefly how she was even willing to strike a deal with Camille in her desperation, and feeling extremely glad that’s behind her now, and she can finally focus on what she wants. But despite what she expected, she hasn’t been able to see much of Magnus, since he’s either locked up in the Guest Room, managing his High Warlock duties, searching for Valentine, or like now, building protections for a Warlock Clan in Greece. And she gets it, Magnus must feel indebted to the Lightwood boy, he did free him from that cell after all, but she fears this obsession might damage his health if he’s not careful.

After they spend an hour checking the satellite streams and Dot looks through Magnus potions books, looking for a couple things she will need for her clients, Jace grunts in frustration and stands up.

“I can’t sit here doing nothing, I’ll try to reach Alec again. Let me know when there’s something useful to do, like a real rescue plan”, he informs, locking himself back again in the Guest Room.

It takes another hour for a portal to appear in the living room, from which Magnus and Echo come out from. They both look paler than usual. Magnus somehow elegantly slumps himself in the closest throne looking chair, and gestures for Echo to take a seat.

“Well, I have to say, that was a totally new and unexpected experience”, says Magnus, and conjures himself and Echo a cocktail, “Since I’m guessing that now comes the information giving portion of our agreement, I think we’ll need this. Anyone else wants a drink?”

After everyone’s refusal, Magnus looks around, and noticing Jace’s absence, asks, “In he still in the Guest Room?”

“He came out for a bit”, informs Izzy, “But went back saying to only look for him when we have a definitive plan”

“Very well”, says Magnus, and gesturing towards Echo, continues, “Since I made you your requested sanctuary, I think I’m allowed to ask you to begin your story, dear”

Alec should be used to waking up with a gasp, every time they hit him with ice cold water. He can never seem to get used to this way of waking up, especially since he’s usually in the space he created for himself in his dreams. He wishes he had his books and data base at his disposal, to make sure it’s just a survival mechanism, and not just him losing his mind.

“I finally figured it out”, declares Valentine, and pushes a man in front of him, “Come on Walrlock, get to work. Unless you’re dying to see your little group show you if the effect of having Adamas poured into their veins is as entertaining to them as it will be for me”

“You never said he was under Magnus’s protection now”, says the Warlock, still looking doubtful

“Well, not for long, won’t he? Besides, if I were you, I’d be more concerned with your present deathly threat than a future one. And it’s not like you haven’t done this before, or do you think that warlock is going to care if it was 10 times or 11? Now, get to work”, demands Valentine, pushing the Warlock forward with the tip of his seraph blade.

Alec has no warning for the mental invasion he receives, seeing all his memories of Magnus go through in a flash, when suddenly it slows down, almost to a standstill, and he can feel Magnus warm body as he leans into him, and whispers softly in his ear. And he’s so whiplashed by the change, by all the twists and turns his mind has gone through in the last hour, and so lost in a sensation he’s been yearning for for days, that he barley hears the echo of his own voice repeating the word that was whispered to him. But what he does hear clearly, is the Warlock’s whispered apology.

Suddenly, the Warlock is pushed back, and right in his face is Valentine, watching his pendant with rage. He takes no time in grabbing it and yanking it off of Alec’s neck. And the effect is instantaneous, as Alec feels how a light fog drifts into his thoughts, making everything slower, numb. And how it gradually takes whatever warmth he’s managed to keep, and changes it into cold dark water.

“This is more like it”, murmurs Valentine, throwing the pendant far away, as if it was just a piece of garbage, “Finally you’re looking how you were supposed to. Now, be a good little bird, and give me your arm”

Alec briefly wonders why he even asked, since he just grabbed it toward him, but he does realize that his arm is numb, letting itself be taken. And he doesn’t even feel it when Valentine drags a dagger over his forearm, making a thin line in his skin that quickly drips blood.

“You’re sure that if we invert the order, it will still be as effective?”, asks Valentine to the Warlock, that quickly lifts himself from the floor to stand behind Valentine.

“Yes, sir. The process would have been smoother and less painful for them if it was the other way around, but this way, with his parabatai almost spiritually reaching him, it’ll be just as effective. The connection, and the blood, wants to complete the cycle, and however his parabatai managed to come this close to him, it makes this possible. Although, you’ll still need to finish setting the connection once he joins you”, declares the trembling Warlock.

“For you and your group’s sake, you better be right”, says Valentine, taking the dagger and slicing his hand open. With it he takes a painfully hard grab of Alec’s injured forearm, and gestures to the Warlock to proceed.

For a moment Alec feels so divided, like he’s two people at the same time. One, calm and obedient, just standing still at attention, ready for whatever is wanted of him, and the other rioting, screaming and using all of his energy to stop this. And the moment the Warlocks magic makes contact with him, he’s acutely aware of the different between this, and what Magnus’s magic evokes in him. Were Magnus magic feels warm, tingly and like the most tender of caresses, this feels sharp, cold, and like something he wants to scratch off until his skin is red and bloody.

But as the minutes go by, Alec can feel helplessness set in his bones. He remembers all the loneliness and hurt he felt minutes ago in his dream, and he’s unable to stop that intrusive thought of how nice it would be if everything just stopped. And beyond the awful feeling of this Warlock’s forceful magic, he can see there will be nothing afterwards, and right now, nothing looks so very tempting.

Alec let’s himself be consumed by the emptiness. He doesn’t want to be scared anymore, doesn’t want to yearn for people and things that will always remain out of his reach. He doesn’t want to feel betrayed anymore, even though he should know better by now. So, the temptation of letting all that behind, and just stop feeling and thinking for a moment, becomes too strong. And that one second, that short moment of wanting it all to stop, is enough for the spell to take hold of him.

Chapter Text

Echo was finally going to tell her story. All the pain, all the loss and all the self-hate these past months germinated in her, were finally going to take a new purpose. Because while revenge was her main motivation, there was something righteous in it too. There was a pure goal buried underneath all the hate, because she was going to do everything in her limited power to make sure Valentine wouldn’t try again the abomination he accomplished, that no one else…

“Echo, do you need more time?”, asks Magnus, unable to keep his impatience hidden from anyone in the room.

“I’m ready. And I promise to help in everything that will come”, she assures him, and taking a deep breath, she continues, “I think a bit of context might make this explanation easier. First of all, my clan, my family, has been around for thousands of years. There have been a few episodes of dissent, but mostly, we coexist with most of the Stymphalian Birds alive. Not only do we protect each other, but we’re family, we bond and become better for it. But, that doesn’t make us immune to greed or incapable of betrayal, because for all our abilities and powers, we remain human”

As Echo takes a sip of her drink, they all think of how is the same for all of their communities. Because not for being Warlocks they are completely demonic or evil, or for being Nephilim they are completely angelic or good.

“A few years ago”, she continues, “We discovered that a few people of our Clan had been trading information and ingredients for money. And sure, the Stymphalides’s Dung is always an issue to dispose of, and selling it as a powerful poison has been done for many years, but this group started to get greedy. Not content with the feathers they molted, they started harvesting them from the dead ones, unburying them after the rituals were done, because no one in their right mind would disturb the burial ground of our Familiars, our family. What made us notice was when they starting plucking primary feathers, and declawing live Stymphalides. The sentence was passed out quickly, and they were banished from the Clan, and were warded against approaching any Stymphalian Bird, dead or alive, including their own familiars”, Echo takes a moment to gather her thoughts, taking more sips of the much needed alcoholic drink.

 “I’m guessing that wasn’t the end of it”, says Clary, to which Echo nods.

“At the moment we thought it was”, replies Echo, finishing her drink and leaving it on the table, “Seeing their punishment as unjust, this group started to look for revenge. And the opportunity presented itself perfectly, because one of their former clients was looking for more than information and ingredients, he was looking for a live specimen. And as some of you can probably guess…”

“That person was Valentine? When was this?”, asks a conflicted looking Lydia.

“About 3 years ago, but they were in contact with him way earlier than that”, says Echo, looking satisfied at Lydia’s shocked expression when presented with irrefutable testimony that Valentine wasn’t as hidden as many Clave people pretended he was. “But 3 years ago was when the Shadowhunter attacks started. Since our former Clan members couldn’t come in contact with any of the Stymphalides anymore, they provided information on how best Valentine’s people could attack us”

“Why didn’t you ask for help in the nearest institute?”, asks Lydia, still trying to come to terms with the negligent functioning ways of her own people.

“We did”, answers Echo, lifting an eyebrow, “We were told that it was impossible, since Valentine was dead, and then they closed the case”

“Oh those fucking bigoted assholes!”, exclaims Lydia, surprising everyone with her outburst, and by her shocked expression, herself too. “I apologize, that was very unprofessional of me. And I know you have no reason to trust me, but I promise I’ll look into the behaviors that some Shadowhunters seem to be having. So I would appreciate it very much if you could later giving me the names of the people you contacted? And the case number?”

“Oh! I totally get it now”, says Magnus, and at Lydia’s inquisitive look, he explains with a shrug, “Why Alexander almost married you”

“What? You weren’t even around for that”, replies Lydia, baffled.

“Can you guys manage your dramas afterwards?”, asks Echo, a bit confused and a lot exasperated, “I want to handle Valentine as soon as possible, and if he finishes his little pet project, things are going to get harder”

“Right, I’m sorry. Please, continue”, says Lydia, covering her embarrassment in formality.

“So, a few months ago”, continues Echo, “In the middle of one of our, by now usual, confrontations, I got captured. Kalliope and me. Kalliope is … well, was… what most people would call a familiar”

“Like a pet?”, asks Clary.

Echo huffs, offended, while Magnus winces, but the Shadowhunters just look at them confused. Magnus intercedes in answering, “I know I used that word to try to simplify my explanation the other day, and while it’s easier to describe certain dynamics in that relationship, it has a bad connotation, so I think it’s better if we stick with Familiar. And their lifespans…”, Magnus stops briefly, and waits to continue until he receives a nod from Echo, “The connection between a Familiar and their chosen one is so deep and significant, that they elect to forego their usual lifespan. So, while they’re not invulnerable, their natural lifespan extends to that of their partner. And while one outliving the other is extremely painful, those chosen by a Familiar, are truly fortunate and remarkable people”

“My people”, starts Echo again, placated by Magnus’s deference and the clear respect in his voice, “are mostly Warlocks, and we’ve lived in community with the Stymphalides Flock of Arcadia for thousands of years, protecting each other. On some rare occasions even saving them from extinction, though I think only one was somewhat documented. We receive all the willing recently turned Downworledrs and Children in the area, and live in community with them. Since we are practically raised together, the bonds are common between us. Kalliope is … was my Familiar”

Silence sits heavy for a moment, and it’s Izzy’s soft voice that breaks it, “I am so sorry for your loss. I know we can’t come close to imagining … but if there’s any way we can help, please let us know”

“You can help me by helping me destroy Valentine”, says Echo, sorrow being replaced by fury, “He captured us, used us for his horrific experiments. The only reason I’m alive, is because he coerced me with Kalliope’s life into being his pet warlock for his raids, and I wasn’t locked down when I felt her die. I guess he didn’t take that part of the connection into consideration. He probably assumed I’d come back, thinking she was still alive”

“We’re definitely aiming to destroy him”, says Magnus, “But, do you know what he was trying to accomplish with his experiments?”

“Him and his people studied our connection, and took samples after samples from Kalliope and me, but I did overheard him in a hallway talking about a falcon for his son? It’s the only aviary theme thing I heard him say”

Izzy pales, and with a shaky voice say, “Then we have proof that it was to give Alec Stymphalides characteristics. And that he was aiming to use that connection to control Jace through Alec”

“Are you sure?”, asks Echo, “Because, even though we don’t know what Stymphalides characteristics actually stuck in Valentine’s experimentation, the connection is still very personal, and while it strengthens the relationship of the pair, it can’t happen without a real connection between the two. Besides, someone completely external to it shouldn’t be able to influence it.”

“They do have a strong connection already, they’re brothers, plus parabatai”, says Clary, but suddenly widening her eyes, adds, “Valentine is Jace’s Father, would that count as a connection?”

“Only biological? Or did he raise him?”, asks Echo.

“Both”, say Clary and Izzy at the same time, and Magnus looks surprised towards them.

“What?”, asks Magnus shocked, and he briefly wonders if he should keep this apparent secret, but it takes him a second to remember that this directly affects Alec’s rescue, and adds, “It’s not biological”

Echo, ignoring everyone’s shocked expressions, says, “A blood connection would strengthen the bond, but it can still happen if he impacted one of them enough”

“What can happen?”, asks Lydia.

“It’s extremely taboo, so much so that there’s a death penalty in my Clan if it’s done without the consent of all parts, but Valentine, theoretically, could force himself into the bond”, explains Echo, looking sickened at the mere idea.

“What would that mean? And does Jace need to be physically present for that?”, asks Magnus, palling quickly.

“It could mean that he dominates the bond over the others, and knowing Valentine, he would abuse it, and leave them completely under his control. And it can’t be completely set, unless all parts are fully present… but it can be done partially, if at least two are completely present, and the other parts are at least partially present”

“Partially?”, asks Magnus, looking panicked “Does oneiric and subconscious connections count?”

“Yes”, manages to say Echo, before Magnus is dashing towards the Guest Room. But before he reaches the door’s handle, blinding bronze light escapes from every open space the door allows.

Magnus freezes, hand hovering over the door knob, so it ends up being Izzy who opens the door, pushing Magnus aside. Clary rushes behind Izzy, but all the shoving forces Magnus to wake up, and he turns to Echo.

“I’m 95% sure that Valentine started the connection. What can it be done to make sure it doesn’t set?”, asks Magnus, taking hold of Echo’s arms, as if to make sure she can’t leave without answering him first.

“All this is just theoretical, it’s been thousands of years since someone dared corrupt a bond, much less force their way into one”, says Echo, keeping her voice careful and calm.

“Then we’ll have to act on theoretical, because it’s all we have”, declares Magnus, and noticing his grip on her, releases her.

Before Magnus can push Echo for more information, Lydia comes back outside, asking for Magnus help, since it seemed Jace was unconscious and they couldn’t wake him up.

Alec manages to have a vague recollection of being adrift, anchored to nothing, and being unable to control even his own breathing. He sometimes gets these pulses, of something hovering nearby, something temptingly warm in the nothingness he’s in, but it never makes contact, it never reaches him. And the lack of anything at all makes the time stretch into endless nothingness, making him forget those pulses even existed in the first place.

It seems like forever when, forgetting the pulses once more, he feels something join his space, something oddly familiar. Something alike himself, drifting near his space, as aimless as him. It stays longer than the pulses, some far away part of him recognizes it, but this drifting entity is not aimed at him like the pulses, but just taking the space, the place? that belongs to it, to them.

And as suddenly as it appeared, the something drifts away again, leaving him in nothing once again, drifting away, just like his feeling of self. He slowly forgets his fingers, his prickling legs, his tingling arms. He forgets the feeling of his own skin, his breathing changing into something beyond himself, but his heart keeps pulsing the same. And as he tries desperately to focus on its thumping, it’s rhythm speeds up slightly, making him loose track, and forget what he was focusing on in the first place, what it used to feel like.

And as he feels the last threads of anything that differentiates him from the nothingness that surrounds him, he senses a hook latching itself on him, pulling him somewhere deeper, finally completely detaching him from himself, and into whatever and whenever it pleases.

It’s been hours since Magnus last checked on Jace, who seems to be perfectly in health, with no visible trace of the bronze light affecting him at all, just unconscious. It’s been much less time since he tried to connect with Alec again, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t connect with the pendant. And when he tried to use the rope that connected him to Alec, he kept hitting the same barrier, as if Alec himself was shut down, or under lock down.

It doesn’t take long for all of them to converge in the Guest Room. And what started as a spirited discussion of what to do now, slowly devolved into oppressing silence, everyone at a loss. Every idea already shut down as impossible.

Clary, Izzy and Lydia start checking the satellite feeds again, even if they already have a whole team of Shadowhunters doing just that back at the institute. By now it’s almost a compulsion, something to do to avoid feeling completely helpless.

Magnus is once more checking his books on Stymphalides, it doesn’t matter that he already asked everything he could to Echo, or that he has read them already, at least over 10 times. He gives a huff, and with a flick of his hand, changes all the books to books about all types of bonds, which he has only read 4 times so far.

Echo for her part looks deeply concentrated on texting someone. Probably her family, or maybe doing something else altogether. And they all know they can’t keep this much longer, but distancing themselves from Jace seems impossible right now, each for different reasons.

Jace wakes up suddenly, sitting up as if he was never unconscious. He seems surprised at being surrounded by so many people, but is quick to recover when he informs them, “I can track him. I don’t have an exact location, but I can feel something pulling me towards him”

“That’s the unfinished bond, wanting to finish itself”, says Echo, and looking quickly towards Magnus, informs the others, “But the closer you get, the stronger the pull to set the bond will be, and the moment the three of you touch and add the missing blood, it will be completed”

Jace frowns, and shrugging off Clary’s hands trying to keep him in the bed, he says, “What are you talking about? We can actually find Alec, let’s go!”

“Jace”, says Clary, standing up after him, and grabbing his arm, forcefully siting him down again, “There’s important information that you don’t know yet, and if you care about Alec’s safety, you’ll listen”

It takes Clary no time to quickly explain the situation to Jace, leaving aside the more historical parts of Echo’s explanation, because while getting the basics of what the bond should be and what it could be corrupted into, Echo’s trafficking clan members are not relevant at the moment.

“I understand it’s not ideal, but we can’t leave him with Valentine any longer, just because we rather have another option”, insists Jace.

“But Jace, your option means you and Alec are under Valentine’s control”, says Izzy.

“What happens if the bond is formed and Valentine dies?”, asks Clary, looking to Echo.

“I think the bond should settle between the ones remaining, but since the bond was skewered from the beginning, one part will have complete power over the other, in this case the one with Familiar characteristics will be completely dominated”, answers Echo.

“So Jace would control Alec, again?”, asks Lydia.

“I can’t know for certain how the bond would look like, but them already being parabatai, plus the corrupted bond, is almost certain that this Alec won’t be able to refuse Jace, in anything”, answers Echo, solemn.

“But I won’t force him”, declares Jace, and at the uncertain looks he receives, and in Magnus’s case it’s completely accusatory, he adds, “I wouldn’t abuse it, not now that I know the effect it has, and how little Alec can control it.  But I rather have to be constantly on guard to not abuse it again, that risk him alone with Valentine, when I can get him back”, and looking pleadingly to all of those around him, he says, “Please, he’s my brother and my parabatai, I love him. I just want him safe again”

“This is the only real option we’ve had. It’s been over two weeks already, and we are no closer to finding him than when he was taken”, says Izzy, looking resigned.

Magnus looks at Lydia, pleadingly, but looking unsure all the same, and she admits, “I haven’t been able to locate Hodge”

“There’re no news in the Downworld either”, informs Clary, quietly, as if lowering the volume would lower the impact.

“And even with a partial bond, Valentine can still control Alec into doing horrible things, right?”, asks Izzy to Echo, to which she nods.

“Alexander wouldn’t want to”, says Magnus, sounding uncharacteristically fragile.

“He wouldn’t want to be Valentine’s tool either”, declares Jace.

“You would risk being under Valentine’s control too”, says Magnus, holding Jace’s gaze, looking for a way to make him see that while rescuing Alexander what the priority, protecting his free will wasn’t a secondary problem.

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take”, says Jace, looking challengingly towards Magnus, but after only a second he softens and looks to everyone for a moment, “You’ll make sure to defeat Valentine, right? Before he makes me…”

All the women reassure him, only Magnus remaining silent.

Before long, everyone is focused on Magnus, and with a deep sigh he nods, looking completely defeated.

The planning for this new mission doesn’t take much time. There’ll be a first small group for location, which will be Jace and Magnus. The moment they locate the place, Magnus will portal the rest to the group in. In the meantime Izzy and Lydia will organize a group to raid Valentine’s new headquarters, but this time they won’t inform the Clave. They rather face the consequences later, than to risk Intel being leaked again, since they can’t be completley sure Hodge was the only spy. Raphael and Luke will be informed of the situation, and they will gather the Downworlders and Shadowunters under the pretext of an official, mandatory meeting.

There are other smaller details that they deal with, but in general it’s a pretty simple plan. Capture Valentine, and if he ends up dead in the middle of it, well… things happen in this kinds of situations, Magnus and Echo being the most comfortable with the ‘things happen’ approach. Rescue Alec, no matter what shape he is in, or what they have to do, and at least most agree on that. Mainly Echo is indifferent, but the group knows her goal is revenge on Valentine, and after they force her to promise that she won’t risk Alec in the process, they agree to fully back her up.

And after a few instructions to their people, Jace and Magnus start their journey, Jace focusing on planning a way to rescue his parabatai no matter what, while Magnus was also desperately trying to think of how he could protect Alexander’s free will as well.

Chapter Text

A week later finds Jace fuming, sitting on a rock and a resigned looking Magnus, sitting on a low hanging branch of a nearby tree.

“Remove the spell”, demands Jace frustrated, once again.

“No”, replies Magnus, not even looking his way, just focusing on the two small islands in front of them, right in the middle of a lake.

“I need to save my parabatai! And I can’t do it with this stupid spell on me!”, yells Jace, standing up exasperated and throwing a punch to the tree, only for his fist to bounce back before making contact with it, “Seriously? A tree counts too?”

Magnus just shrugs and replies, “It’s alive, isn’t it?”

“Magnus, please”, says Jace, giving up his pride, “I need to save Alec, and I can’t if I can’t make contact with anything living”

“We’ve been over this. You can still stab them, you just can’t punch them. And this way, the bond won’t set, since you can’t touch Alec, Valentine or their blood”, repeats Magnus once more.

Suddenly Jace turns to face Magnus, determination mixing with desperation, and in a deceptively calm voice, he says, “You’re no better than Valentine”, and at Magnus shocked expression, he continues, voice turning cold, “You’ve twisted and manipulated everything to make sure Alec would become dependent on you, and I’m a risk to that, because you want him, only for you"

“You’re deranged”, says Magnus stunned, “He’s not a possession, he doesn’t belong to anyone other than himself”

“That’s what you preach, but all you’ve done is keep him away from his family, since the first day that you convinced him he had to stay with you”, says Jace, fury shining through his eyes.

“I’ve never forced any of his decisions”, replies Magnus, and the silent ‘unlike you’ is heard loudly by both, “Do you really put that little value on free will?”

“And do you value it that much more than Alec’s life?”, challenges Jace.

“I’m aiming for both”, replies Magnus, and at Jace’s look of pure desperation, he takes a deep breath and continues, “I know what’s like having your agency taken away from you, so yes, it’s pretty high in my list of priorities, but I promise you that Alexander’s wellbeing is number one on that list”

At Magnus’s words, Jace seems to deflates, and draining all anger from his voice, he says, “I’m sorry, I know I’m repeating old things that I’m not even sure I believe anymore. But it’s just, I feel more and more unsettled with each passing day, and I’ve never seen Alec behave the way he does for you. It’s like I have to sides of myself fighting, all the time. And I want to believe that this ugly possessive feeling inside of me is all Valentine’s doing, that it’s because of this unfinished bond thing, but…”, he tails off, looking completely lost.

Magnus gets off the tree branch, and standing in front of Jace says, “If you’re willing to trust me, I can give you a compromise”, and when Jace raises his gaze and locks on him, he continues, “I can’t give you control of the spell, because the control Valentine has over Alexander and you is still unpredictable, but by wearing this ring”, he takes off one with a white stone, “I can survey you. And if I oversee an extreme situation, where removing the spell is warranted, I’ll do it”

“I’m not a trusting person, but after everything I’ve seen between you and Alec… I do believe his well-being will be your priority, and I can trust you on that”, says Jace, but with a doubtful look adds, “Won’t you be distracted by everything that’s going to be happening?”

“It’ll be connected to my subconscious, so it’ll work even if I’m unconscious”, answers Magnus, extending his hand with the ring resting in the middle of his open palm.

Jace looks the ring for a moment, and sighing, he replies, “It’s the best I’m going to get. And it’s not like I want to take Alec’s free will either. It’s a deal”. He extends a hand to Magnus, but the High Warlock’s eyes suddenly darkens and he retrieves his hand, avoiding touch.

“I don’t make deals”, says Magnus firmly, but then softening his tone, continues, “But I do make promises. And I promise Alexander’s well-being is my priority”. He extends his hand once more, and at Jace’s nod, he drops the ring on the blonde’s hand. As Jace puts the ring on, a flash of gold momentarily colors the place, and when it vanishes again, the stone remains a mate gold color, with a black line running right down the middle of it.

After that they remain in silence, both retaking their initial places. And it’s after a couple more hours pass, that they see a small boat leaving the smaller of both Islands, and on board of it there’s a man with a circle rune on his neck.

“Finally”, says Jace, taking his phone, and as soon as he gets an answer on the other side, he says, “Found them! They’re in Dollar Island, Forth Lake, Hamilton County”, he listens for a while and then answers, “Izzy, it’s a small ass Island with a house on top, it being in Forth Lake is the best reference I can give you”, he listens for a bit more, and huffs, “No, the smaller one. I don’t know if they also have something in Cedar Island, but half of it is a camp site, so I doubt they would risk it”

While Jace is finishing with his phone call, Magnus is making similar ones. As Jace waits for Magnus to finish, he can feel the pull getting stronger and stronger, taking everything in him to resist it. To not cave in, to not find a way to get Magnus out of the picture, but he can feel as if there’s a clock ticking time off inside of him, running out of time. Since Alec was taken he’s been trying to fight those impulses, now that he knew what they are. He’s not sure if it’s the forced separation, the new proximity to his parabatai or if Valentine is doing something new to the bond, but it’s getting harder by the second, irresistible, like trying to hold your breath underwater, knowing that caving to the impulse of breathing will end up killing you faster, but your survival instincts working against you, making your participation in your own demise unavoidable, inevitable.

Hours later, once the sun has set, finds them all under heavy glamour, hiding between trees, all keeping close watch to the small Island. And never would have Lydia thought to see a group of Werewolves, Vampires, Shadowhunters, Warlocks, and surprisingly Seelies and Unseelies, united under a same propose, to stop Valentine. All sure of their common shared goal.

And it was thanks to a wonderful spell developed by Ragnor Fell and Catharina Loss, that they could pinpoint all of those that wanted something different. It basically showed the reactions of the whole group when they were informed they would be raiding Valentine Home Base. And as the reactions flourished, it read and registered all of them. The feelings of shock, fear or many others were normal reaction to the situation, but those filled with dread, trepidation, anxiety were not common in a group of people prepared for war, be that in the case of Shadowhunters that were trained for this since practically birth, or Downworlders volunteering to fight someone threatening your own kind. Setting the people with uncommon feeling aside, they did a second scan, and those that were honestly perplexed or confused at being set aside where easy to dismiss, but those filled with anxiety, fear and guilt where set aside, becoming their suspected moles. Surprisingly, there were only 7 in a group of 100, 3 Shadowhunters, Raj and Andrew included, 2 Seelies and 2 Vampires. They would need to inquire if they were coerced or not later, but for now, they were all taken into captivity, and more importantly away from the raid and any means that could be used to hinder it.

And for all the time spent tracking, and all the plans and preparations they’ve been undertaking, things start extremely fast. A few Warlocks and Seelies are focused on the wards, taking them down in seconds by sheer force of their combined strength. Ragnor, Magnus and Catarina take the lead, solidifying the water around them with every step they take, allowing all the rest to easily follow behind them.

They move fast enough that once they reach ground again, it’s the first time the Circle starts to attack. But being on ground means that Seelie magic helps them to diffuse most of the airborne attacks. In what feels like a matter of seconds, the clash against Valentine’s forces is upon them all, faster that any faction expected, even if they were prepared for it.

The battle yells and clash of forces kills the previous silence. And the flashes of magic lightens the growing splashes of red, in a gruesome mimic of an abstract modernist painting.

It takes only a few moments for Jace to use Magnus’s Spell for his advantage, pushing his way through the tightly closed in fight clusters that formed, and overly extending his seraph blade to help their allies, almost in an afterthought. Making it very clear that his focus was in getting inside the building and finding Alec.

Seeing Magnus look Jace’s way, clearly looking like he want to join him, Lydia tell him, “Go! We’ll manage here”

But although Magnus looks tempted for a second, he shakes his head and says, “Thank you, but Warlocks won’t follow your lead. Nothing against you, but immortality tends to make us very particular with our elected posts of power”, and with that, he refocuses fully into the fight, managing to set fire to the feet and hands of five Circle Members trying to hide behind some trees. And a bit farther away, Echo doesn’t stop at body parts, because with a dark watery spell, she’s dissolving everyone that gets in her way, leaving behind a puddle of clear water, the only remainder of what used to be a person.

And the NYI Shadowhunters don’t stay behind, and as Shadowhunters are raised and bred to fight for what’s right, Alexander’s people fight for his Commander with everything they have, and that includes all their viciousness. If their devotion is taught in blood and sacrifice, then this show is their ultimate proof of their devotion for who they see as the rightful head of the NYI, with swords clanging like bell and the groans of the wounded raising as prayers.

It takes no time for mud to form at their feet, a mix of earth and blood. And for all that the Circle claims to have righteousness on their side, the conviction of their opponents is stronger, giving them the upper hand for the moment. But all too soon the battle stretches into exhaustion, dragging into endlessness, as even their supernatural powers start to deplete.

It’s in the middle of the complete chaos of the battle that Magnus stumbles, almost getting beheaded for his lack of awareness. And it’s Izzy who rushes to his help, cutting off the daring hand with her seraph blade, and finishing her opponent off with an unforgiving whip latching to their neck.

“Are you ok?”, yells Izzy, trying to make herself heard in all the noise and preparing a quip about Magnus getting too old for this, when she notices he’s gasping for breath and clutching his chest, “Magnus?”

“I’m sorry”, yells Magnus to Izzy amidst the thundering sounds of battle, “I tried to, I swear I did, but I can’t, it wouldn’t be right. He’ll hate me for this, but I can’t”. And somehow Magnus’s magic dims, and instead of shining in his usual color and brilliance, it become opaque, absorbing what little light the night has to offer, before he shakes whatever happened off and refocuses on the fight. The only difference now, it’s that his magic doesn’t regain its glow.

Once inside, when the door closes at Jace’s back, leaving the battle behind, the silence is startling. There must be some kind of ward that keeps all the noise outside, but instead of it being a relief for Jace’s ears, it only feels unsettling, like losing a sense. Carefully, he starts walking down the hallways, following the pull inside of him. And now that he doesn’t need to concentrate on not attacking Magnus, the pull consumes all his senses.

It feels like no time has passed when he reaches a room, and what he finds chills the last warmth he had left. Because kneeling on the hard stone floor is Alec, hands kept neatly behind his back, with his head dutifully lowered, and holding the bronze colored chain attached to Alec’s ankle is Valentine, standing with all his self-proclaimed command.

“There you are my boy! Took you long enough. Though I didn’t expect you to bring a whole entourage. We definitely need to have a talk about those friends you keep, especially when they’re keeping you away from us”, says Valentine, starting light and ending with a threatening tone.

“I won’t play your games. Alec, let’s go”, replies Jace, but where Jace expected a reaction from Alec, he doesn’t even register Jace’s voice.

Smirking, Valentine put’s his hand on top of Alec’s head, and reclines on him, as if Alec was some sort of cane, “Don’t waste your breath, he won’t hear you, until you join us. Right now, he only responds to me”, he says, and as if to prove it, he lifts Alec’s head by his chin, who blinks blankly up at him, “Well, as much as I allow him to respond”, he finishes by grinning widely, clearly pleased with the results.

Jace can’t move, feeling the fury and disgust of Valentine’s action, but at the same time remembering the week he had Alec under a similar control, not to these extremes, but subverting his agency all the same. And mixing with his despair and guilt, it’s the irresistible pull he feels now, how everything aches, burns with freezing cold, and knowing that reaching Alec not only would relieve him of the pain, but also allow him to feel the warmth of his brother’s love.

Quietly observing Jace’s reaction, Valentine’s grin turns sinister, and moving Alec to lock eyes with him, he says, “You can see your parabatai, but know that he’s suffering, and the only way to alleviate his pain, is by taking him into our bond”

Suddenly Alec blinks quickly, like refocusing his gaze, and even though Valentine’s holds seems painfully tight, he turns his head to see Jace, surprise clear in his face. He stands up slowly, and as if part of the same fluid movement, he brings a hand up to his mouth, and he bites on the meaty part of his palm, right under where his thumb starts. By the time he is in front of a stunned Jace, he removes this hand, showing blood dripping from the newly opened wound. And as he offers it to Jace, as if presenting a gift, he locks his gaze on his mismatched eyes, as if seeing his soul.

And if he thought the pull was irresistible before, this is ten times worse. He doesn’t even notices that he mimics Alec’s move, but he realizes what he’s done when the metallic taste reaches his mouth. And watches baffled as his hand moves towards Alec’s, reaching for him without a thought.

Jace only realizes what reaching for Alec means, when his hand is forcefully stopped before making contact. In that second he remembers all of what finishing the bond means, all the impulses he’s been fighting for for days, Magnus’s words and that he told the warlock this wasn’t his aim, and he meant it. He only has a second to see Alec’s confused expression, before Valentine is right next to them.

Valentine takes a strong hold of Alec’s bloody hand, but when he’s stopped by an invisible force from doing the same with Jace, he growls and says, “What the fuck did you do! What is it with you two! Always making things more complicated than they have to be”, and with that he drags Alec away from Jace, now keeping his distance and guard up, “You know what? This has turned into too much effort for too little pay off. I’ll just keep your parabatai as my pet, and you’ll just have to live your whole life incomplete and full of regret”

With those last words Valentine runs off, dragging Alec with him. Watching the distance growing between them, Jace panics, and runs after them, noticing how Alec hasn’t taken his eyes from him. He briefly thinks that Alec is reacting, that there’s hope, but then he remembers it must still be the effect of Valentine’s instructions, making his despair grow.

It takes no time for all of them to reach the roof, and some part of Jace’s recognizes that Valentine behaves like a character in a horror movie, always escaping up, except that Valentine doesn’t look trapped at all. What’s more, the moment he sees that Jace followed him, his face brightens with satisfaction.

Once he’s at the edge of the roof, he turns, keeping his hold on Alec, “Now that you can’t bond with him, this is kind of useless, is it not?”, he says, continuing to drag Alec closer to the edge.

When Jace realizes that him blindly following Valentine without any kind of back up was exactly what the man wanted, he sees what he’s trying to do, and activates his speed rune to rush and stop him. What he doesn’t expect is for Valentine to have his speed rune activated too, and as he’s close enough to be unable to stop, Valentine moves Alec towards himself, leaving Jace to stumble over the edge.

It’s only Jace’s Shadowhunter reflexes that let him grab onto the edge with one hand, but this also leaves him with no leverage to pull himself up again.

As Alec looks at Jace, blinking slowly, Valentine grins and says, “Sorry my boy, but my little bird over here is so much more obedient than you ever were. And once this new lesson sets into him, he’ll be devoted only to me, without having to render his mind useless”, and turning towards Alec, he tells him, “Wake up pet, and see for yourself what trying to escape provokes”

With one deep and loud gasp, Alec jerk himself away from Valentine, but before he can even think about attacking him, he hears his parabatai calling for him. He rushes to the edge, kneeling next to Jace, to grab his hand, but once he realizes he can’t make contact with him, he starts to panic.

“Jace, why can’t I touch you? Please, whatever it is, take it off. Let me take your hand”, pleads Alec.

At that moment, Jace realizes that he can either beg Magnus to remove the spell through the ring, or pleads him to keep it. He somehow feels that Magnus is watching, and struggling with what to do, because Valentine is right there. He knows the second the spell is lifted, the bond will be finished. And as he senses that Magnus makes a decision and feels Alec’s falling tears on his hand, he pleads.

“Alec, please let me go. The spell can’t be lifted, there’s nothing anyone can do, it’s ok. And… I’m sorry I took advantage of the bond, I didn’t really thought of what I was doing, I just didn’t want you to leave me and I panicked”, Jace’s voice trembles a bit, in part from the effort of keeping his hold on the ledge, and in part from emotion.

“No, please no”, begs Alec, “Don’t you dare say goodbye. Well fight about it later, and then we’ll resolve it, because we’re brothers, parabatai, and I don’t want to leave you either. Please, there must be something…”, he trails off, as his sobs interrupt his own words.

Valentine just stands next to them, enjoying the show, because as he sees it, he can only win. Either there’s a way to break the spell, and he can complete the bond, or he can finish breaking his pet’s spirit, and gain himself a very useful slave, the perfect prototype.

Chapter Text

Magnus felt Alec’s change through the very thin thread that remained of their connection, and it broke his heart, much more than he ever expected, not that he expected it to be any sort of painless. And he knows it wasn’t his decision to make, and for all that he preached about doing everything possible to keep Alec’s agency, wasn’t what he just did just that? Stealing someone else’s agency? He feels his magic lose brightness, become darker, thicker, and being fed by his shattering heart, he lets it become deadlier. And the more he feels the emptiness the lack of a connection leaves inside him, the more his anger and vindictiveness escalates, making him take Echo’s place as the most disturbing thing in the already gory fighting ground. He lets aside any thought that may lead to any grain of compassion. He doesn’t care anymore if any of the people he’s fighting are being coerced, misguided by circumstances forced upon them, because at some point they all had a moment where they could choose, even if the options were awful. But not Alec, because everyone took that away from him, his parents, his family, Valentine, and now him.

Much too soon for his festering fury, he has no more enemies in front of him, and as he turns around, he realizes his temporary allies are keeping their distance from him. He can’t say that he blames them, but if he has had to cope with the countless moments when people had treated him, and thought of him, as a monster, then they can manage him being monstrous for a bit. Because now he has to find Alec, because no matter what state he’s in, or what’s left of him, he’ll take care of him. Not only does he owe him as much, but there’s nothing else the shards that make up his heart would let him do. But first things first, he needs to destroy Valentine. And the shrieking sound that cuts through the night gives him the perfect place to start. Right towards where the change is being finished.

Magnus doesn’t waste time on leaving the ground floor, or checking if the others follow him or not. He just levitates himself to the top of the building, following the sound. That now that he gets to hear it more than once, he recognizes it as something akin to a bird of prey about to attack. The thought that he maybe should warn the others last for a second, but not long enough to do anything about it. Besides, he only knows the bare basics, since there’s still so much that may not even apply to this situation.

He barely has time to compose himself, before he’s met with the image of Valentine and Jace standing next to a big bronze bird. And even though it looks majestic in its power, Magnus can’t keep himself from feeling pain, at the obvious proof that he failed Alec. Its bronze feathers glisten with whatever light they manage to catch in the dark night, and its eyes are a beautiful shining bronze, with what can only be described as hazel flecks.

Magnus doesn’t know how much of Alec is left, but he reaffirms his decision to himself. No matter what, he’ll take care of him. Because even if this was the better option to letting Alec shatter his own self at not being able to save his parabatai, it doesn’t mean this option doesn’t still suck. And the only way of making it better, is to first destroy Valentine.

“I should’ve guessed you were responsible for this too. If I hadn’t promised to deliver you, I would have killed you a long time ago”, says Valentine, using a hand to pet Alec’s head, while looking attentively for Magnus reaction.

“And are you telling me who you were giving me to? Or are you aware of how awfully cliché it would be for you to go all ‘villain monologue’ about your brilliant evil plan?”, asks Magnus, thanking his centuries practicing his Poker Face.

“I don’t know”, says Valentine, as he plucks a feather from the unmoving bird, and starts turning it over and over for it to shine in the light, “It’s less monologue and more informing you as was agreed”, Magnus has to struggle to rein in his magic for just a moment more, “You see, I’ve been trying for years to make this possible, but there was always something missing. Always getting almost successful subjects, just for them to die on me. But when I got you”, he says pointing at Magnus with the feather, “Well, let’s just say that a deal fell on my lap”

And at Valentine's pointed look, Magnus understands, and can’t help saying, “So what? You made a deal with a random Demon? And you what? Treaded me for the knowledge to succeed in your experiment?”

“Please, not just a random demon. I’m pretty sure you’re very familiar with this particular Greater Demon”, says Valentine, brimming with satisfaction.

“You think I would let you hand me over?”, replies Magnus, lifting an eyebrow in disdain, keeping his apprehension at knowing his Father’s involvement to himself.

“Of course you will, because I haven’t told you the best part yet. You see, my little birdie over here was just a sample. To be able to repeat this successfully, I just have to hand you over”, says Valentine, with a gleeful smile.

“Right. Not really convincing me yet”, answers a bored sounding Magnus.

Valentine shrugs and replies, “Well, if you don’t, I’ll make this beautiful specimen eat his parabatai. Dear Jace here is useful, and it would be a waste of years spend on training him to my liking, but he’s a bit too broken you see. And now that the bond is fully formed, he’s not as autonomous anymore. Kind of boring, if I’m being honest, more of a thoughtless lackey now. Besides, even if I don’t deliver you, I get to keep my new pet. And since eating his other half would finish breaking his mind, he’ll just be extra docile for me, when I get him to attack whomever I want”

“Right, then I give myself up and I just trust that you’d keep them safe?”, says a doubtful Magnus. He knows Valentine stands no chance against him at full force, but he can’t let him go through with any of his plans.

“I’m willing to give both of them up, though I can’t guarantee I won’t kill them if they fight me afterwards”, answers Valentine, using the feather he took to tap on top of Alec’s head, smiling when he sees him flinch each time.

“Sorry, I’m more valuable than that. You would need to guarantee their protection”, demands Magnus, because he might be willing to sacrifice himself as a last resource, but the outcome has to be more than the crumbs Valentine is offering.

Valentine smiles deviously and replies, “Are you following Daddy’s footsteps? Do you want to strike a formal deal with me?”

Magnus barely holds back a wince, because even if Valentine is just fishing for a reaction, he doesn’t know that every time a Warlock strikes a formal deal, their magic becomes more demonic and less human. There have been cases of Warlocks that have been taken over completely by their demonic sides, losing their humanity deal by deal, in an attempt of being as powerful as they can be. Magnus only made deals under his father ‘tutelage’, and it took him centuries to get rid of most the smudge it left in his soul, but a seed was left behind, yearning for just a drop to absorb and germinate stronger than ever. But, Magnus realized, it also meant that Valentine was darkening his soul too, and while risky, he could try to use that to his advantage.

Magnus shrugs, aiming for disinterest, and says, “Isn’t that too cliché? But then again, Shadowhunters are not really known for their innovating spirit”

“I’ve always been more of a traditionalist”, replies Valentine.

“Sure. I guess since you’ve already doomed part of your soul already by making deals with my father, what’s one more, right?”, says Magnus, trying to steer Valentine in the direction he wants. At Valentine's silence, Magnus takes a chance, and continues, “Wouldn’t it be funny if after all you’ve done, you do manage to ‘clean’ the Shadow World with all those you deem impure, just for you to become one of those that need to be cleansed out? I guess my Father didn’t tell you that part, but he probably wanted to see the joke develop on its own”

“You’re lying”, says Valentine, losing only a bit of his former confidence, but enough for Magnus to know this is affecting him.

Magnus shrugs and says, “Whatever, it’s not my soul that’s in jeopardy and I couldn’t care less for yours”, he’s careful to pause only for a few seconds, enough for Valentine’s eyes to widen a little, and with a deep sighs continues, “We’re getting sidetracked, and the others are probably on their way. I want protection for both of them, so it’s easier and faster if I just spell you to be unable to harm them”

Valentine straightens his posture and says, “I think it’s time we call your father to join this conversation. And that way he can clear some of these things up”

Magnus lets out a derisive laugh, “Sure, give the Greater Demon complete access to the person he wants to take, it’s not like he doesn’t probably have a hundred loopholes in your deal to declare it null and just take what he wants.”

Valentine, not taking well to Magnus mocking him, digs his fingers in the feathers of the back of Alec’s neck, “You’ll do well to treat this seriously, because right now there’s nothing keeping me from damaging big bird over here”, and after a moment of Magnus silence, he continues, “I know how untrustworthy your kind is, I checked the Deal a hundred and one times”, turning to Jace, he orders, “You, go make sure no one disturbs us. Use any means necessary, use your life if needed”, Jace passively nods and heads for the door that leads out of the roof, “And you”, he turns to Alec, “Go make sure the Warlock doesn’t move, especially his hands. And if he struggles, well I don’t need him undamaged, just alive”

Alec chirps, and flights like a flash towards Magnus. The High Warlock tries to stop him, but all containment spells bounce off his shining feathers. And in less than a second, Alec has him pinned to the ground, his claws immobilizing his wrist, and his body weight pinning the rest of his body down.

Magnus quickly discovers that struggling against the hold, only makes the claws dig into his flesh, and even the slipperiness provided by his blood can’t loosen Alec’s hold on him. He could always set himself on infernal fire, but either Alec is immune to it in his new form, or he gets consumed by the flames, rendering the whole rescue mission obsolete.

“Well, better get ready to call daddy dearest”, says Valentine, and as he starts drawing the needed pentagram, he hums happily.

As Magnus is contemplating other ways of freeing himself without hurting Alec, he gets distracted by a soft cooing sound, followed by Alec’s head very gently nuzzling the side of his neck. And while having that sharp deadly beak near such a vital part of himself should be terrifying, the soft cooing and the gentle tender motion just fills him with contentment and joy. Because somehow, and against all odds, Alec seems to have regained control of himself. Or at least regain enough of himself to not rip Magnus apart.

“Darling”, whispers Magnus against the feathers in Alec’s neck, feeling him shiver, “I need you to let go of one of my hands, I have to stop my father’s summoning” He gets a somehow worried coo in reply, so he adds, “My father is a Greater Demon, I’m sorry. But don’t worry, I won’t let him hurt you”. At that, Alec huffs, clearly conveying that his well-being is not what he’s worried about. Magnus can’t help closing his eyes and nuzzling Alec’s neck in return, “Sweetheart, if I can stop him before he fully arrives, we have a chance, but even I am no match for him when he’s fully present”. Alec’s soft trill manages to sound unhappy but conceding. And as the ground starts trembling, Alec frees one of Magnus’s hands.

Magnus raises his hand and concentrates on pouring a steady stream of magic to the glowing pentagram, and as he feels his power being syphoned too fast out of him, he can’t help but wince. Alec somehow feeling it, starts to pour his energy into Magnus, through his hold on Magnus other hand. And while this gives him a better hold on closing the pentagram, it also means that through his new bond with Alec, Valentine realizes what’s happening.

Furious he turns around, and taking his seraph blade in hand, he hurries their way and says, “What are you doing to my pet, you disgusting demon spawn!”

Alec reacts by unfolding his wings and using them to envelope Magnus, and tugging Magnus into his neck, he wraps him completely in his feathers. Magnus for his part immediately slaps his hand on the floor, using the concrete as his conduit into the pentagram. It requires more strength and concentration, but being that the pentagram is in a way made of the material it’s placed on, it’s more breakable once Magnus manages to make contact again. This doesn’t mean Magnus is not worried, one for the huge amounts of power it’s taking out of him and Alec, and two for the damage Alec must be sustaining due to Valentine trying to stab him through his feathers. And Magnus has read that Stympalides feathers are extremely resistant, but he doesn’t want to prove their strength by putting Alec’s life on the line.

When Magnus is about to block the portal opening from Edom, he’s too late to realize what Valentine has been doing. Because his purpose hasn’t been to just seriously injure Alec, but to create a wound that he’s now smearing with his own blood. Magnus is close enough to Alec that he clearly feels him shiver and then almost immediately freeze in place. Alec’s stream of energy towards Magnus stops abruptly, forcing Magnus to drain every grain of magic he has left, in one last desperate attempt at permanently shutting down the opening portal.

A loud crack signals the end of the quaking floor, making Magnus sigh in relief, because whatever happens next, at least his father won’t give Valentine more power to hurt Alexander, or just make things worse in general. The main downside now is that he doesn’t have one spark of magic left, and all his self feels in constant unignorable pain. Realizing that even if he succeeded in keeping his father away, the situation is hopeless with Alec under Valentine’s control again, and the rest being held up somewhere. He can’t help the wince and groan that slips his lips as he melts into the hard concrete floor as he’s forced to give up. He just hopes the rest manages to come in time to kill Valentine and free Alec and Jace from his control.

“You know what I’ve just decided?”, says Valentine, sounding uncomfortably close, “Having more pets like my bird here is not worth it having to deal with you. I’ve more powerful creatures I’ve successfully experimented on. Come on little bird, have a nibble on the warlock, so we can get rid of this annoying waste once and for all”.

Through his shock, Magnus can feel Alexander tremble, and he can feel his own heart shattering into dust, which surprises him, because resigning himself to be defenseless before Valentine is not as painful as knowing Alec will be forced to kill him. He slowly manages to lift one hand and rests it right above where Alexander’s heart should be, and taking a deep breath, he says, “It’s OK. Whatever happens is not your fault. Just remember there’s nothing you could have done to change this, and don’t let anyone, not even yourself, tell you differently”

“I’ll constantly remind him warlock, how he failed you, ate you and deep down enjoyed it”, says Valentine, his viciousness and hate dripping from his words, finding glee once more.

Magnus ignores him, not wanting to waste whatever limited energy he had left on him, and continues telling Alec, “Not your fault, none of this. And even with this being the end, I’m so glad I met you. Even if most of the time we spent together I couldn’t hold you, touch you. And I’m sorry to confess that Camille Claudel didn’t have the ending I told you she had, but maybe in the same way, you can give us the ending you would have wanted we had?”

Alexander gives a pained coo, and shakes as he starts moving, but the sound is overshadowed by Valentine’s maniacal laughter, “Whine and struggle all you want, I still control you. And in the end, it’s even better if you’re aware of what you’re doing, it’ll make you all the more pliable for me later”

And for the moment all Magnus feels is the constant pain of his drain magic, Alexander’s trembling body and shaky moves, and the clashing dissonance of Alec’s mournful warbles and Valentine’s deranged laughter.

A few floors lower a different fight is in full bloom, because even though Jace is only one, his extra angelic blood and the others reluctance to hurt him hinder their progress. And that’s not even taking into consideration that there are only 8 of them that are still fit for fighting, since most of the rest of their combined army were dealing with having diverse degrees of injuries or no more energy to give.

Izzy can feel her desperation grow, because there’s no way of snapping Jace from the control he’s in, and every second they spend here, is another second that can mean Valentine’s triumph. And all the earthquakes that were rumbling seconds ago, don’t help her keep her calm, even though she has a lifetime of training experience to deal with these kinds of situations.

“We need to do something, we can’t spend even more time and energy here, we’re already drained from the fight outside.”, yells Echo, trying to make herself heard through the sound of Ragnor, Raphael and Clary, who are now directly fighting Jace.

Izzy can almost see their defeat coming upon them if they keep as they have, so she steels herself and makes a decision, “Catarina and Echo need to reach Magnus and Alec, keeping them alive is priority, because if Magnus has not defeated Valentine by now, he must be in trouble. Ragnor, Lydia and Meliorn are to focus on Valentine. Raphael can stay here to help me and Clary, since the sun will be coming up soon.”

Through his enhanced hearing, Raphael hears her, and throws a glare her way, so she tells him, “You don’t think I also want to go separate my brother from Valentine? But you have to see that we can’t keep going on as we are”

Raphael nods reluctantly, and Izzy joins Raphael and Clary in their fight against Jace once more. Their movements are becoming sloppy, uncoordinated, while it’s clear that Jace’s focus is razor sharp and has at least three times the energy they have. And Izzy knows that what she’s planning on doing is risky, but they need to give the other the chance to go past her brother’s defenses. So, turning her survival instinct off, she gestures to Lydia’s group behind her and rushes towards Jace, barely avoiding the sharp blade that was aimed at her stomach, managing to only get grazed on her side. What she doesn’t manage to avoid is the dagger that slices her thigh.

The others barely make it past Jace’s defenses, quickly taking the window Izzy managed to open for them, and Raphael’s and Clary’s quick reaction to furiously attack Jace after Izzy got injured. They spent some time in an intense fight, giving it their all, almost managing to get the upper hand. Izzy can’t tell if it lasts seconds or hours, but their slight advantage doesn’t last long, as Clary’s shoulder gets its own dagger and her blood loss makes her even more uncoordinated. And just as Raphael is the last real obstacle standing between Jace and Lydia’s already vanished group, Jace suddenly slumps to the floor.

The only thing breaking their stunned silence is their heavy exhausted breathing, all three standing frozen in shock. It takes Izzy only a few seconds before she’s limping her way towards Jace. She manages to feel partial relief when she finds his beating pulse, but since his unresponsive state seems to be magical and not medical, she’s at a complete loss as to what's happening. She’s left feeling helpless, useless. Like the only thing she’s capable of doing at the moment is to pray to whomever is listening to help her get her brothers back again.

Chapter Text

Everything happens so fast, too fast. And in Lydia’s experience as a Shadowhunter, she should be more prepared for this kinds of situations, but for those first precious seconds, she can only watch in shock.

The second they step on the rooftop, they realize something unusual is going on. First, they can’t see Magnus anywhere, not even his dead body. Valentine is still very much alive, laughing like the maniac he is, and there’s a huge bronze shiny bird laying a few meters away from him, sounding in pain.

“Oh look! More food for you, pet. I was planning on us leaving as soon as you finished, but I guess I can wait for a bit, until you have your fill”, says Valentine, once he takes notice of their presence.

The bird’s head snaps up and looks at them, and letting out a distressed trill he starts to shake, ruffling his feathers. Ignoring everyone around her, Echo starts slowly approaching the bird, raising her hands in a pacifying gesture. The bird caws at her approaching figure, and she slows down even more.

It’s clear the moment Valentine notices her, and his narrowing eyes are all the rest of them need to go face Valentine, because whatever it is that Valentine doesn’t want to happen, can only work in their favor.

The first clang of Lydia’s blade against Valentine’s startles the bird, forcing Echo to stop her movements, but as the fighting sounds become more constant, she restarts her slow approach. When she’s about three meters away, the bird caws loudly, in warning, and she dutifully sits cross-legged on the ground.

She starts talking, loud enough to be overheard from the fight going on behind her, but soft enough to sound non-threatening.

“I understand you’ve been going through some changes”, she starts, and as the bird tilts his head to the side, looking somehow completely unimpressed by her choice of words, she smiles, “Yes, I know. Sounds like the puberty talk, but it’s still true. Although your changes are a bit more obvious. Are you Alec Lightwood?”, at the birds nod, she sighs, “Well, it looks like Valentine accomplished a total transformation then. I’m going to be honest, my clan has dealt with Stymphalian Birds for thousands of years, but this is the first time I’ve seen a human be transformed into one”, at Alec’s sad trill, she says, “That doesn’t mean I don’t have useful information for you, or that finding a way back shouldn’t be studied, but all of that we can look into after we kill Valentine. Agreed?”

Alec nods, but then he looks hesitant towards Valentine, who already defeated Lydia and is now blocking Ragnor’s magical attacks.

“You can fight it”, says Echo, regaining Alec’s focus, and it’s somehow this awareness that renews his shaking, “It’s not easy, and it might be extremely painful, but if you concentrate on who you want to protect and what you’re fighting for, I think you can resist his control, completely. It would be easier with more training and in a less corrupted bond, but Stymphades have more control in the bond than is assumed, but since they don’t function the same way as we humans do, it’s not usually acknowledged. Once I understood that, I could see that Kalliope did have as much, if not more, potential to control me than I did her. So don’t let your own mind limit you, you have the ability to defeat him”

Alec warbles with conviction, but he is still reluctant to stands up. At first Echo fears that maybe Alec is too unsure to be able to fight Valentine’s control, but she quickly realizes that his reluctance is for something else entirely, as he uncovers an unconscious Magnus that was laying under him.

“Oh!”, manages Echo, “I can shield him against Valentine, if you allow me?”

Alec nods, ruffling his feathers a bit, and with a final nuzzle of his beak against Magnus’s neck, he reluctantly moves away from him, leaving space for Echo to do her spell.

“Do you want me to shield him from you too? In case Valentine manages to strengthen his control on you?”, asks Echo, and Alec answers by ruffling her hair with his beak. Echo smiles at him, and with a simple hand movement, she has a shimmering bronze dome covering Magnus.

They focus back on the fight just in time to see Ragnor kneel over in exhaustion and Catarina starting to fight Valentine, but after just a few seconds it’s clear that while Catarina is extremely powerful, her expertise lays more in healing than fighting.

“Catarina, take Lydia and Ragnor to the shield, Magnus is in there too. We’re going to need you more for healing after we kill this asshole”, yells Echo.

Valentine turns to her, unconcerned by Catarina dragging two almost unconscious people, “That’s awfully optimistic of you, seeing as after months of trying, you still haven’t even managed to touch me”

Catarina finally gets Lydia and Ragnor into the dome, and starts immediately checking on all three of them. Echo and Alec quickly stand in front of them, making sure they are as protected as possible.

“What? You think you can replace your dead pet with mine? We’re bonded already, there’s nothing you can do now. Come on pet, kill her. And now that you have two unfulfilled orders, whatever tether you’re still managing to hold onto, will snap”, says Valentine, crossing his arms and relaxing his posture.

Alec’s eyes flash bronze and in seconds his dazed gaze turns towards Echo.

“Alec, you can regain control. Focus on who you are, what makes you the person you’ve always been. You’re not an empty vessel for someone else’s genocidal goals. Focus on what your goals are, who you love”, says Echo, trying to keep her voice calm, as she backs away from Alec’s imposing and approaching figure.

Suddenly Alec stops, and with a blood curling shriek he slumps on the floor, wings spread awkwardly across the concrete. The silent shock of both Echo and Valentine make for an oppressing silence. That is, until Valentine’s fury and frustration breaks it.

“You bitch! You broke my pet! I should have stuck with dragons, this is getting ridiculous!”, yells Valentine, approaching Alec in annoyance, “I should have killed you first and drown your pet later. What a waste”, he lifts one of Alec’s wings by a handful of feathers, and when he gets no reaction after shaking it and pulling it, he drops it, watching it smack the floor with a crack, face expressing only disgust. He sighs, crouches down, and starts plucking Alec’s primary feathers, “At least I’ll take these with me, fucking useless chicken”, he mumbles, with complete disregard to Alec’s unconscious body.

Echo has used the time Valentine has spent complaining gathering all the power she has left for one final spell. She ignores the pounding sound coming from the lot she caged in the dome and focuses on aiming towards Valentine. Setting her magic flying, and unable to stop herself from sinking exhausted into the floor, she zeroes in on her target, feeling dread consume her as she sees him smile and lift the wing he was holding, he uses it as a shield.

It speaks to how powerful her spell was, that she can smell Alec’s charred feathers, knowing how insanely resistant those are. But the problem is that behind that damaged wing, appears a grinning and uninjured Valentine. And as he starts to slowly stand up, Echo fears that her revenge will go unfulfilled.

Valentine takes three confident steps towards a magically drained Echo, when he suddenly notices something moving next to him. He only has time to see a blur of metallic colored feathers, when he’s knocked away against the nearest wall by a wing. Alec shakily manages to stand up, and while he’s unable to lift his injured wing, he wields his other one as a weapon, aiming its feathers to Valentines legs, watching them sink into his thighs.

A furious Valentine pulls the feathers out of his flesh, and as he stands up as if nothing had happened, he growls, “You think I haven’t enhanced myself? Fortified my skin, my resistance? A simple stab wound won’t stop me from destroying both of you!”

Alec readies himself to fight him back, stumbling a bit in his exhaustion, as he watches Valentine walk towards him. Echo can only look, stunned and unable to stand up, no matter how much she tries. And as Valentine takes his blade and Alec lifts his wing, the ground starts shaking. The opening hole on the ground is a surprise for all of them, and they only have enough time to manage a leap backwards to avoid falling in it. From it, hundreds of fast moving vines emerge, crashing like a wave against Valentine. The flurry of motion only lasts for a few minutes, because while Valentine manages to hack off most of the vines, it’s only two of them that seem to make him stumble. Because it’s the moment that two purple and yellow colored vines make contact with the recent wounds in his thighs, that his movements start to become sluggish, and the re-growing vines manage to grow enough wrap around him.

“Sorry, it took longer than I thought to grow these through all those floors”, says Meliorn, coming out of the growing hole on the floor that kept spilling more and more vines. And once Valentine’s arms and legs are completely immobilized, he approaches a gasping Echo and a huffing Alec. He focuses on Alec for a moment, and inclining his head, he says, “Greetings Alec Lightwood, glad to know you’re still alive and this rescue mission is being successful”, and with that he turns around to face Valentine, “Can we kill him now?”

Alec caws and stumbles towards Valentine. Even when looking dazed due to the poison on the vines, Valentine’s manages a confident smile, “What are you going to do pet? Nuzzle me to death? You can’t hurt me. And even if you manage to, you’ll never be able to become human again. And while you seem to be able to resist orders that make you an active participant, you can’t refuse the ones that make you, that turn you, into something else. I order you to be forced to stay a bird for as long as you defy me, defy what I see as the rightful Shadowunter way”, and his smile widens when he sees Alec’s feathers shimmer, setting the order into him. But once Alec is close enough, and without acknowledging anything that he said, he lifts one claw and digs it into his stomach, and when he drags and pulls it to the side, ripping him apart, Valentine’s lifeless face is left in an unmovable expression of shock.

The second Valentine’s eyes empty of life, Alec falls to the ground once more, unconscious. The pounding coming from the dome renews, and as Echo sees Magnus furiously smashing his fists against the transparent magical wall, she dissolves her spell, feeling how a bit of her magic comes back to her, allowing her to stand up again on shaky legs.

Magnus stumbles his way towards Alec, dropping to his knees the second he’s close enough, the little energy that his fear and adrenaline lend him, running out in seconds. With trembling hands he reaches Alec’s chest, and only manages to breathe again when he feels his rapidly thumping heart.

“Careful Magnus, you’re going to pass out again, you’re way too drained for you to be running around”, admonishes Catrina, knowing she would have probably done the same if she was in his situation, but needing to vent her anxiety and concern for their wellbeing. She lets a tendril of her magic touch Alec, and with a relieved sigh, she says, “He’s just unconscious, and the new change in his bond will probably leave him in stasis at first, but he’ll wake up eventually. Probably a good thing, since his injuries are going to be painful to recover from.”

Magnus stubbornly tries to heal him with his magic, but he only manages two small sparks and his skin loosing even more color. Devastated and exhausted, he turns to Cat and murmurs, “Please Cat, I don’t want him to suffer anymore”

“Of course, leave it to me”, she says, kneeling next to him and starting to tend to Alec’s injuries. Sadly, his lost feathers couldn’t be recovered, but she could try to tend to his burned skin, stab wounds and a few cracked bones. She knew she didn’t have enough energy to completely heal him, and the minute she starts, she realized that Alec’s new physiognomy blocked most of her energy. So in the end, she does as much as she can to stop anything bleeding and deathly.

It takes a week for Jace and Alec to wake up, and it takes double that for Alec to get a basic control over his new body, because without the life/death pressure of a battle and without Valentine’s control to give him basic movements, even standing up was a challenge. And in all that time, Alec has not been left alone. They learn that the week they were unconscious, Jace was easily healed by magic and iratzes, only having to wait for him to wake up. In Alec’s case, iratzes were no longer an option, and the damage he sustained couldn’t be easily fixed, because not only did his feathers protect him of unwanted attacks, but also of unapproved magical interventions, so while Catarina could infuse him with some magic in the places his feathers where ripped out, the amount and intensity was extremely limited. It was only when Magnus woke up 5 days later, somewhat recovered, that he could start healing Alec, due to their previous connection being somewhat acknowledged as approval.

They still had no idea how to make Alec human again, and Alec’s process of regaining his balance with one partially featherless wing was not only visibly frustrating for the former Shadowhunter, but heartbreaking for those that loved him. So it was decided, with Alec’s unsure approval, that it was best for him to stay with Magnus, whom is also momentarily housing Echo. This turns out to be the best option to avoid the Clave’s inquiries and having Alec be closer to people with actual helpful knowledge and magic.

Since Hodge was still missing, the Clave was still under the delusion that Alec was with him, in some far away location. Maryse and Robert were encouraged to believe the same, which ends up being not too hard to do, since they feared that the second Alec was fully back, he’d restart with his preposterous goals of Shadow World equality again, regardless of ancestry, blood status, gender or sexuality.

After moving in with Magnus, it takes a week for him to learn how to shrink himself enough to enter and exit the Loft on his own, and it takes three weeks for Echo, Magnus and himself to figure out how to reshape himself into a more humanoid form. He’s still not able to get his fingers back, or his mouth and vocal cords, leaving him unable to verbally communicate and unable to rely on his own for many things. And while the progress on that first week seemed fast and encouraging, his slower progress with all the rest is making him loose hope that he’ll ever resemble his human self again. It also doesn’t help that he has Valentine’s final words branded in his brain.

He tries to meet Magnus affection, but every time they touch, Alec can’t keep the dread from flooding his senses, remembering his lack of control, Valentine’s condescending petting hands, and the weeks when he didn’t have any contact other than biting freezing water. He does everything in him to bury his reactions, and he manages well enough with his siblings and friends on their weekly visits, letting Jace hug him to give him the contact his brother clearly craves, but he feels guilty in his relieve that they can’t come more often, so as not to arouse suspicion. But Magnus can tell, and unwilling to force him into anything, he completely stops attempting to touch him. And while Alec appreciates what Magnus is trying to do, that knowledge does nothing to quench his loneliness, or his craving for getting closer to the warlock.

“Sorry darling”, said Magnus, “Didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Just let me know if you need anything”, and he stats to uncharacteristically hold onto his own hands, as if to keep them from reaching out for Alec.

And Alec for his part, still unable to find an easy way to communicate clearly, can’t stop from flinching when Magnus takes a step his way, and caws in frustration. And the only thing he manages is for the warlock to keep taking steps back, giving him a sad smiles, and leaving him alone, with all the space he never wanted.

This drives him to make sure he has all his time carefully scheduled, between his siblings and friend, Catarina’s help with what he can only compare to physical rehabilitation and training with Echo to learn about his Stymphalian instincts and needs. Magnus help, mostly by magic now that they’re avoiding touch, is basically so he’s able to clean himself and eat.

And he never meant to eavesdrop, he didn’t really have the time for it, he was just on his was to meet Echo on the rooftop, when Dot’s insistent voice reached him.

“Magnus, come on!”, exclaimed Dot.

And in a much more subdued voice, Magnus answered, “I just don’t know what to do. No matter what, it seems all I can do is make things harder for him. I just want him to stop hurting, at least for a moment”

“You can’t keep going on like this!”, Dot’s voice echoes down the hallway.

“Going on like what?”, asked Magnus, sounding awfully tired.

“I get that you feel somehow responsible for this Shadowhunter, because he freed you from Valentine’s prison, but this can’t keep you from living your life”, answered Dot.

“I am living my life. And the only person that gets to choose how I live it, is me”, replied Magnus.

“Really? And is that why you’ve left your love life dead?”, asked Dot.

“What are you talking about?”, asked Magnus, sounding completely confused. And now that it’s brought to his attention, Alec has not seen Magnus with anyone romantically since he met him. At first he thought that maybe it was because there was something developing between them, but now that he’s not really human anymore, and that ship had completely sunk, he hasn’t seen Magnus with anyone.

“You’ve not been with anyone, or even interested in anyone, since you first escaped Valentine”, declared Dot.

After a few beats of pure silence, Magnus astonished voice said, “You’re completely blind”

“I’m blind? I’ve been by your side all this time, supporting you, being here for you, waiting for you to notice me, and you’ve yet to once focus on me”, said Dot.

“What? I don’t understand”, said Magnus, even more confused, “You never said anything. You’re my friend, and we supported each other, didn’t we?”

“That’s not enough, not for me, not anymore. I’m tired of waiting for you to notice me again”, answered Dot.

“We said, after we got together, that we were better as friends. Was that not true for you? We trust each other, right? If you changed your mind, why couldn’t you tell me, instead of resenting me?”, asked Magnus, sounding hurt.

“Yes, I agreed to stay as friends, for the time being. Until you got over Camille and your other holdbacks, but now you are over Camille, and I’m still not on your radar, aren’t I?”, asked Dot.

“I’m sorry. I care for you, a lot, but it’s only platonic. It’s not a matter of time, or because of my many issues. I’m sorry, but I’m not able to give you what you’re looking for”, said a sad Magnus.

“Then this mess is not my problem anymore. Have fun being miserable taking care of that ex-shadowhunter’s basic needs. Have fun in the certainty that he has to need you, and let it consume your life until you have nothing left”, she said angrily, and as her steps approach the door, she adds in a regretful tone, “I’m sorry. I don’t mean it that way, but for now, I need to not have you in my life”

“I understand”, said a pained Magnus, and offers “I’ll still be here if you want to restart our friendship”

Dot left without another word. Alec could hear Magnus’ irregular breaths, and wanted to go in and comfort him so badly, but as he took one step towards the door, he saw his clawed feet and remembered, he’s still part of the problem, the main part of the problem.

It’s been a long time since Alec’s had any real time on his own that’s not him being completely exhausted, what’s lost in his struggle to sleep or the seconds that lay in between one task and the next.

In this rare minute that Alec has for himself, to actually and properly take account of himself, he’s shocked to notice all those little things he’s been pushing to the back of his mind. All those sensations that, since he didn’t have an immediate solution for, went ignored. Overshadowed by always having a different priority to solve at the time; look fine for his family, follow Echo’s instructions to improve, find a way to stop hurting Magnus and just stop being a burden in general. But the shock comes from now noticing them all together, all those little drops suddenly coming together in an unsurmountable wave. How was he able to deny the obvious for so long? To truly feel that his body is not the same as before? But now he’s unavoidably and painfully aware of it. The ways he can and can’t move his body, what aches and what doesn’t, the energy levels he has, it’s all shockingly different to what he always was. How didn’t he notice before? Those pinpricks of new… something. How there are muscles that feel new, while others feel overworked. How his body wants to move in old learned ways, but it doesn’t feel quite right anymore, and the movements that feel easier are too new to feel natural. It feels way too disconcerting, because he’s a Shadowhunter, or… he was a Shadowhunter. And he’s just realizing that he’ll never be that again.

He has spent all his life training his body to learn it and wield it perfectly, but now it all feels tilted; new and unlearned, but at the same time old and strained. And it scares him, the feeling of his body not being his own, of it not belonging to him in the same way as before. Of realizing he’ll never have that back, no matter how much effort he puts or how much time he has. And the dread of the uncertainty, of what this would mean, what it would lead to. Would he ever be able to do the same things as before? What used to come to him without thinking? What used to come as easy as breathing? Because even breathing has changed, even the rhythm of his beating heart is not the same anymore. He’s not even sure if he’ll ever be able to shoot his bow the same as before, if it’ll bring the same satisfaction and comfort as it used to, even if he manages to get his fingers back.

But he can’t break down now, the others will come back any minute now, and he needs to push all this too big feelings into himself again, squeeze them into whatever space he can find, because all he has is a minute, and time is running out. These fears and insecurities are not useful right now, and he needs to be efficient. And they have all been worried about him more than enough. He can’t burden them with this things, especially since there’s nothing they can really do about it.

And for some incredibility frustrating reason, he still hasn’t managed to fool Magnus. He keeps seeing right through his attempts at masking his discomfort at being touched, at being reminded his body is not how he remembers it anymore, so he keeps his distance. He remembers the verbal encouragement Magnus maintained at first, but Alec feeling so openly seen by him only ended up in him lashing out his frustrations on the warlock. His only unconsciously perceived outlet, on the only person with whom he can’t pretend he’s ok. And Magnus just takes it, like this is just an old dance he has mastered long ago, so easy to follow the same steps once more. The third time this happens, and Alec sees what he’s doing, and watches the way Magnus reacts, the same way he himself reacted to his parent’s ‘discipline’, it breaks his heart. Because not only does this mean that at some point someone abused of Magnus kindness, of his beautiful golden heart, but that he’s willing to accept the same from him. As if this is his role to play, being useful to be worth someone’s attention. Like it’s something he deserves, like it’s the only price he can pay to have someone care.

And when Magnus sees Alec’s horrified reaction at this realization, and how this increases Alec’s frustration and pain even more, he gives him even more space. Space that Alec fills with more tasks and training. And no matter what he does, he can’t shed the constant reminder of his feathers, of his new unhuman state of being. And what remains constant, and one of the worst parts of this for Alec, is that he craves Magnus presence and touch the most. He yearns for his warm hands and soft golden eyes, but he can’t seem to break himself of this vicious cycle he’s stuck in. This unstoppable downwards spiral that can only hurt and burden Magnus.

So it’s after a month after Dot left that he comes to a decision. And it doesn’t really come as a reaction to any specific thing, but as more of an accumulation of a hundred moments, and suddenly he can’t ignore the massive wave they’ve become. He’s not going to be anyone’s burden anymore, he’s not going to cause Magnus anymore pain. He’s determined to break the cycle, even if it breaks him. He needs to leave.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Magnus couldn’t find Alexander anywhere. He hopes with everything he has left that this means he’s regaining his self-assurance again, starting to do what he wanted and not what was wanted from him. And mainly, he just hopes it’s not that something bad happened. He should at least stay close by if he was still unable to fly. But besides his protectiveness, he’s anxious to show Alexander what he has for him. He was finally able to find those spells he was looking for.

And he knows that constantly remembering that his father was responsible for Alec’s transformation, brought too many of his issues to the surface, but he wasn’t able to stop himself. He constantly relieved everything Camille told him, convincing himself that Alec was stuck with him because he didn’t have any other choice; that no one would actually stay just to be with him. That the second he could, he would get as far away from him as possible, especially since his father wanting his ‘son’ back was what got him in this situation. That he deserved Alec to hate him, he wanted him to angrily caw at him, to help him pay his penance. And he’d gladly take that, and more, because he deserved it. He needed it.

But this all changed in an instant. And he wished it was because he realized he was being self-destructive again, and falling into horrible old habits, but it was because the last time Alec yelled him away, he could see by the posture alone, that this was a completely different reaction to what he expected. He knew Alec wasn’t the kind of person to feel satisfaction at lashing his anger out to other people, like Camille and his father, but he was expecting that he would find some relief, that he would be able to let go of some of his pent-up frustration at the very least. But what he saw, was just self-hate increasing, and frustration raising even more. And it stunned him. Because in a single crystal clear second, he realized that the only thing they were accomplishing, was to destroy each other.

And it was this urgency that propelled him to find a solution. So besides looking for different glamours for Alec, for when he needed them, he started researching communication spells. And it was hard keeping his distance during this time, especially because of the way they left things the last time they directly interacted. But now he finally had the communication spell ready. And even if they don’t manage to solve it all, they can start to build bridges again, and stop hurting each other over assumptions and miscommunication. And he doesn’t care if they can’t start anything romantic again, as long as they regain their friendship. Because even when he’s right there, he misses him terribly.

But his renewed hope starts to dissolve fast, because after searching everywhere for him, he realizes he’s gone. But he’s not defeated yet, he could have gone out with Echo somewhere. He just needs to be a little patient and wait for his return. And it’s when he returns mindlessly to the kitchen, that he discovers a bundle of flowers on the table.

It’s a beautiful white and pink arrangement, where he can recognize white and pink Cyclamens, pink Camellias and Ferns. While he’s momentarily distracted by his admiration of the flowers, some part of his mind starts nagging him, something about the Cyclamen. Unable to settle his restless mind, or ignore the dread he feels growing in his stomach, he summons a book of flowers he had since the Victorian times. An old gift from Ragnor for when his friend didn’t want to socialize, but yes/no answers weren’t enough. He’s even more confused when the book comes not from his library, but from Alexander’s room. Magnus quickly looks through the book, finding the entry on Cyclamen, and he can’t hold a gasp when he reads it’s meaning, ‘Resignation, Diffidence, Goodbye’.

Alexander left. This was him saying goodbye. He somehow manages to sit himself on a kitchen stool, unable, or probably unwilling, to comprehend that Alexander was gone. And he doesn’t really know how long he stays there, frozen, when he hears loud and insisting knocking on his door. He mindlessly opens it, with a flick of his hand, and it’s only a second before Jace and Izzy storm in.

“Where is he?”, demands Jace, “He left a bowl of water with a lotus flower in my room at some point, and he’s somehow muted the parabatai bond again, and I don’t really know how the Stymphalian bond works yet, to use that one”

Keeping his silence, Magnus flips through the book, stops at a page and reads in a monotone voice, “Lotus Flower; purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration, and rebirth”, he turns towards Izzy, waiting patiently until she mutters ‘blue hydrangea and goldenrod’. He looks through the book and recites, “Goldenrod; encouragement, good fortune. Hydrangea; gratitude for being understood”, he doesn’t read the other meaning, it’s obvious it doesn’t apply.

“What does this mean?”, asks a confused and touched Izzy.

“This is what Cyclamen means”, he says, as he turns the book towards Izzy and Jace, “It means he left, and doesn’t want to be found”. Magnus stands up and looks manually for a vase. Finding it, filling it with water and arranging the flowers in it help him center himself, so when he’s finished, he adds, “This is what he wants, so there’s nothing for us to do about it. If he wanted to stay in touch, he would have left an address, a phone number or something”

“No, there must be something else. He can’t just give up”, says Jace, clearly upset.

Magnus shrugs and with some hand movements he summons a Coffee for Jace, a Tea for Izzy and a Chamomile Tea for himself. ‘Patience in adversity’ he thinks briefly looking at the book on the table while he drinks his tea, and says, “A lot of things have happened, and most people wouldn’t have been able to cope with even a fifth of what he went through. And if he decided that distance from you, or completely cutting ties with me, is the best for him … then I’m not going to impose my needs over his. You both should respect his decision too, I’m sure he’ll come back to you soon enough”

The silence that settles over them feels solemn, and as Magnus starts mentally planning the best ways to drown his sorrow and numb his broken heart, Izzy’s soft voice asks, mostly to herself, while her gaze is fixed on the flowers, “What’s the meaning of Fern and pink Camellias?”

 Magnus reaches for the book and flips through it, but this time he doesn’t read outload. Instead he slams the book closed, muttering about what an idiot he is, and without addressing the two shocked Shadowhunters looking at him, he opens a portal and goes through it.

“What did just happen?” asks Jace.

Izzy reaches for the book, looks though it, and starts smiling. “Couple of idiots indeed”, she says, and at Jace’s still confused expression she hands him the book.

Jace reads to himself ‘Fern, magic, fascination, secret bonds of love. Pink Camellias, longing for you’.

Jace turns to Izzy, stunned, but all he receives is a huge grin, and Izzy declaring, “My ship has officially sailed”

Sighing, Jace says, “Izzy, I know you’re doing this with the best of intentions, but meddling into others love lives never ends up with good outcomes”

“No Jace, I promise, I haven’t done anything. Well, except for getting Magnus and Alec in the same room after the first kidnapping, but that would have been needed anyways, regardless of any romantic potential between those two. I’ve been just been cheering from the sidelines. I may hyper-focus sometimes, but even I realized it wasn’t the right time”, she defends herself, unable to stop smiling for long. And while she knew nothing was fixed yet, hope was a good thing to have.

Alec’s first few weeks are a bit of a blur. There are moments that he only survived due to instincts and luck alone. And without being surrounded by other people, his new animalistic instincts took over in a way that hadn’t happened before. Because while his heart was bleeding for being away from the people he loves, this time he wasn’t being controlled by anyone, and didn’t have to prioritize other’s feelings before his needs. Here there were no family and friends for whom he needed to pretend he was doing ok, he didn’t have to push himself so they wouldn’t see the moments when despair and hopelessness consumed him. And here he didn’t have to see Magnus’ hurt eyes, when he tried to help him, approach him, but kept hitting this wall that formed between them. He didn’t have to feel the full force of the impotence it gave him when he wanted with everything he was to let Magnus in, to let himself be taken care of, but couldn’t find the way to let it happen.

Alone, in the middle of nowhere, the only thing he could focus on, the only thing he had left to focus on, was himself. What his new limits where, what it felt like when he shut everything human off, or when he managed to suppress his new side as much as possible. And in the midst of it all, Valentine’s last words kept repeating themselves, a constant loop in the back of his head. And interestingly enough, each time this happened, his new instincts started to thirst for blood.

It’s in the middle of one of those episodes that Echo’s parting words to him suddenly come to mind. “You need to stop obsessing over Valentine’s last order, you’re only giving it more power. And all the power you give it, is power and control that you lose over yourself. So maybe realizing that you can ignore a direct order, will make you realize that it’s possible. Because I recently found out that you have ignored an order already”.

Alec remembers how confused he felt, not remembering anything similar to that, but he notices how Echo’s expression softens before she continues, “You were probably still mostly under Valentine’s control at the moment, so it makes sense that your memories of that time are still fuzzy, but Valentine ordered you to kill and feed on Magnus” and as terror started to consume him, thinking of all the times in the Loft when that order could have strengthen, could have made him take advantage of Magnus trust and try to kill him. And as he starts spiraling, Echo lightly touches his wing to regain his attention, and making sure to keep his gaze on her, her steady voice says, “Alec, you didn’t. Even before regaining your control, you ignored his order. That’s what I’ve been telling you, you have more control over yourself than you think you have”

It’s some days later, after not having eaten for days, and feeling weakened by the lack of nourishment, that his most troubling thoughts finally quietened. And suddenly, almost out of nowhere, he can clearly see the connections linked to himself. He sees a thin thread that looks as if it was made by ephemeral glitter, which he clearly recognizes as his partial connection to Magnus. And it makes sense, since he’s been borrowing a bit of his magic for basic things, like hiding from danger and getting food when he doesn’t have any other choice. There’s a piece of rough rope, that’s not attached to anything, and he feels that that is the connection Valentine forced onto him. And it’s with great satisfaction that he uses a bit of Magnus fire to burn it to ashes, until there’s nothing left.

And the last one he finds is another rough looking rope, but this one has a white cord twined in. So this must be his connection with Jace, with the cord being the parabatai bond. And as soon as he thinks that, he feels the truth in this thought. And in what feels like days, and with a patience and focus that he never suspected he had, he separates the cord from the rope. And once he manages it, he burns that rope too. The pain now is excruciating, like a part of his very being, his essence, is burning. And he doesn’t know how, but he feels the same pain echoing somewhere far away. And in a completely instinctive move, before everything becomes too much, he latches on fully on the white cord, just in time, right before blacking out.

He’s not sure how much time passes before he wakes up, but then again, he lost track of time a while ago. When he manages to comes back to himself, it’s only thanks to Magnus magic that he can eat and drink enough to regain more of his senses. And as he does, a different hunger starts consuming him. Because he suddenly, and unavoidably, thirsts for blood and craves for flesh. So, it’s without a second thought that he prepares himself to go hunting, in a way he never did as a Shadowhunter. And it’s something that his instincts, his new nature, won’t let him delay anymore.

It’s been three months since Magnus arrived to Arcadia. To him it feels like so long ago and as if it was yesterday, all at the same time. That morning after finding the flowers, he went directly to Echo, hoping she knew where Alec’s instincts would lead him. But all she could tell him was that he could somewhat fly slowly with his damaged wing, and that he could use a small portion of Magnus’s magic now, through their partial connection. That’s probably how he got the flowers and moved from the Loft to the Institute. And knowing this helped him breathe normally again. Now he knew Alec had at least some kind of failsafe in case of emergencies, or at least that’s what Echo kept reminded him of, to try to keep calm him.

And apparently, Alec managed to use his new abilities to make himself untraceable. Jace couldn’t track him either, and after those first weeks of searching, they were shocked to discover that Alec somehow managed to cut off the Stymphalian bond he had with Jace. Now the only way Jace was able to contain himself, was by checking his still active parabatai bond. Only being able to function by constantly making sure that while in pain, Alec was still ok, still alive.

Magnus figured that since Alec found a way to sever the Stymphalian bond, he must be where most of the information of the bond was, so he went to Arcadia. And while the disappointment of not finding him there was strong, he stayed there. To keep searching and learning all the information he could. Anything and everything that could help him find him.

The first weeks after Alec went away were the hardest. First trying to track him desperately, in a way that was too reminiscent of when Valentine had taken him. Although later, when he was already in Arcadia, it became harder in a different way. Because seeing all those people bonded to different Stymphalides, made Alec’s absence somehow ache more. Which didn’t make any sense at all, since he never had that kind of connection to the man.

Suddenly, hope reached him in the most unexpected of ways. He still doesn’t know how it happened, without it being reinforced with the pendant it should have been impossible, but at the beginning of the third week he found Alec in his dreams. He finds him more or less once or twice every week. It was hazier than before without and anchor, and sometimes Alec was completely human while other times completely Stymphalian. There are some subjects that seem to, continuously and inexplicably, slip through his fingers. Topics like the flowers, why he decided to leave, if he’ll come back, or what he is doing. They all slip his mind the moment he sees Alec in the oneiric plane. Sometimes he feels him closer, and they manage to talk about that month at the Loft, what happened, about all their insecurities, their triggers, and fears that flourished. And other times it’s like they are strangers, completely closed off to each other, and like they’ll never be able to really reach each other again.

The last time, the one that completely shocked him, was when one night Alec appears for barely a minute. Only to inform him where they could find Hodge and Malachi’s mauled bodies. And even though he looks completely human, the look on his face, and the movements of his body, are completely man-eating bird. That next morning when he contacts Jace and Izzy, in their daily updates to make sure Alec is relatively ok trough either of the available connections, he informs them of Hodge and Malachi. And it’s only a few hours later that the Lightwood siblings confirm that Alec’s given location was accurate, as well as the state of both bodies. And as an added bonus, both bodies were surrounded by all of Valentine’s experimentation and battle plans, helping the NY Institute, and later the Clave, to condemn them posthumously as Valentine’s allies.

The only downside of all this was that it blew up Alec’s cover, being now two weeks since he was officially declared missing. This also meant that Magnus couldn’t leave Arcadia, even if he wanted, since he’s somehow suspect number one of the kidnapping of Alexander Lightwood. Because a couple of dried flowers and the Lightwood siblings testimonies weren’t enough to absolve him. But what has him feeling like there’s a constant itch underneath his skin, is the fact that since that last dream of Alec, he hasn’t been able to see or feel him again.

As he’s talking on the phone with Jace, looking for all he reassurance he can get, he unlocks the room he’s renting.

“Thank you. It’s a relief to know for certain that he’s alive” says Magnus into the phone, but he’s stunned into silence by what he sees on top of his desk, “Jace, I think he tried to contact me. I don’t have confirmation yet, but I’ll let you know”. Feeling as if he’s in a dream, Magnus approaches the single Iris flower that lays innocently right in front of him. He can’t help caressing one of the petals, as he mumbles to himself, “Iris; faith, trust, wisdom, hope, valor”

“I know it’s hypocritical of me, but you are a hard man to find”, says a voice behind him. Magnus takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, unwilling to confront reality, to confront even the possibility that Alec is not really there. And apparently taking his silence for something else, Alec starts talking again, “I’m sorry that I left without properly saying goodbye”

“Are you ok?”, manages to ask Magnus, unconsciously dropping the phone still in his hand.

“I think I’m getting there”, answers Alec, and after a few more beats of silence he continues, “I understand that the last thing you want to do is see me, especially when I still haven’t managed to look completely human, but…”, Magnus gasps and abruptly turns around, interrupting him.

But for all of Manus sudden indignation at Alec’s words, the second he finally looks at him, he can’t help himself from being stunned for a moment. In part because after so long, he can finally, physically see him, without all that hazy blurry quality that oneiric meetings have, but really solidly standing right in front of him. But also in part for how he’d forgotten how beautiful he is. A thin layer of bronze feathers cover his temples, as well as his neck. And while he finally has his fingers again, now topped with bronze-colored nails, they are a bit hidden behind bigger feathers, that seem to keep shrinking and enlarging themselves in turns, almost in anxiousness. And Alec’s unconscious shifting movements, are completely reminiscent to a bird. He’s amazed that even with all the obvious changes, he always manages to remain so Alec-like.

Mesmerized, Magnus can’t help taking a step towards him, but as Alec flinches slightly at the movements, Magnus stops his movements. This helps Magnus remember that there appears to be a very important misunderstanding he needs to clear, so he says, “Alexander, I always want to see you. And however I can manage that, I don’t care. Be that in dreams, in reality, full Stymphalian Bird, full human or any variation of those.”

Alec can only stare at him for a moment, a bit lost now that what he assumed was happening was proven wrong. “What if we can’t handle it? I’ve hurt you already, and this”, he gestures at himself, “it’s not going to get easier. And that’s not even thinking of all the problems I seemed to attract, even before I was experimented on”

“But I don’t want easy, I want you!” Magnus takes a deep breath before continuing, he needs Alec to understand that this is not in the heat of the moment, that he fully means it, “Besides, my life has never been easy, and you are someone that would make any hardship worth it.” And feeling completely vulnerable, he asks, “And since you haven’t yet said you don’t want me, I’m assuming you’re not adverse to having me near either?”

Alec frowns and tilts his head a little, “Of course I want you. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted someone more in my life. But you deserve so much more than someone that had to go through months of introspection and revenge, just to manage to be able to talk again. And that’s not even thinking of the whole touch thing.”

“Mmmh,, the thing is, the only one that gets to decide what I deserve or not, it’s me. And while I would usually take a step back, and be sure that you deserve someone better, I’m not going to do that anymore. I’m not going to be a hypocrite, because only you can decide what you deserve or not. So if you want to reject me, that’s your choice, and even if I would want something different, I have trust that we can at least remain friends? At least I hope that’s what the Iris hinted at?”, asks Magnus, unsure once more.

With a sad trill, Alec says, “At the moment, I don’t think I deserve anything good. But I want to have faith in us, whatever kind of relationship it turns out to be”. He gives Magnus a shy smile and a very bird-like kind of shrug.

With a blinding smile, Magnus says, “As long as I get to have you in my life, I’m happy with whatever we manage to have”

Making sure to not move closer to Alec, not to crowd him, and deciding that after everything, what’s one more jump into unknown vulnerability, he slowly extends his arm, palm up, he asks, “Would you be willing to start trying with a date?”

With a sad smile, Alec replies, “I don’t think I’m apt for public viewing yet”

Wiggling his fingers Magnus says, “I’m magic darling, if it makes you uncomfortable, I can glamor you so other people can’t see a difference”

With a pensive warble, Alec says, “That could work. Can the glamor also work for you?”

Magnus shrugs, and answers, “Probably, but unless it makes you uncomfortable, I would rather not deprive myself of any part of you”

Tentatively, Alec reaches with one hand to grab Magnus, and even though he flinched a little when his feathers brushed Magnus sleeve, he takes a deep breath and tightens his hold, “I would love to try. Yes, let’s go on a date”, he says with a brilliant smile, and it only diminishes a little when he adds, “After we get back, and resolve at least part of the mess I probably left behind”

Chapter Text

Sadly, and despite what both wanted, Alec and Magnus had to postpone their much anticipated first date. Magnus packed his things and moved back to NY, and thanks to an ancient and intricate ring that Magnus managed to finally acquire and magically enhance, Alec could glamor the changes he was still struggling to control. Well, glamour from everyone except Magnus. There were still days when the changes became too much, times when not even the ring helped, but there was always a ‘secret mission’ waiting around for those moments.

Another big change happened shortly after Alec returned. Since Valentine’s defeat was attributed to the Lightwood’s leadership, it didn’t took much effort for Lydia to make sure the Institute was returned to Alec. And although it look simple for people on the outside, there were a lot of compromises and promises that needed to be made, before they all decided they were on board with this.

At first the discussions started again that Alec needed to marry, since according to the Clave, he couldn’t lead the Institute alone. At least that was the official reason, and not that they feared that Alec would make bigger changes if he was on his own. And while they were all looking for ways to convince the Clave, Alec’s returned changed it all. Because Alec knew he wasn’t the same as before, and even if it pained him to admit it, he could now admit that he would never be again. And that’s presicly what he’s trying to make his siblings, Clary and Lydia understand.

“I have to be realistic”, starts Alec, and quickly silences everyone’s protests before continuing, “It’s taken me a long time to be able to care for my own wellbeing, and not only about others. So on one side, I can’t… no, I won’t fall again into old habits. And even if I aim to accomplish all the same things I wanted before, I now know I can’t leave myself into pieces in the process. And on the other side, even if it looks better now, I’m still struggling with this whole new side of myself. So, while I really appreciate everyone’s faith in me, I won’t be able to lead the Institute on my own. At least for the time being”

After a few moments of silence, is Jace who breaks the silence, “That’s more than ok, parabatai. I’ll always have your back. And seeing you take care of yourself… can I say I’m proud of you without sounding condescending?”

Alec can’t help the laugh that escapes him, but it’s the chirp that slips through that makes him blush, abruptly stopping his laugh to replace it with a wince. Thankfully, and before he can feel too embarrassed about it, the sound of Clary slapping the back of Jace’s head distracts him.

“What a liar, you love being all superior and condescending”, says Clary.

“We’ve all seen you training the new recruits”, says Izzy, “Other than managing to make Clary swoon, the only time I’ve seen you as satisfied, is oozing superiority around the newbies.”

“As if you haven’t loved being all superior while working with Lydia”, says Jace, at the same time that Clary mumbles “I don’t swoon”

“Oh! That’s an idea”, says Lydia, interrupting whatever Izzy’s response was going to be.

“What are you thinking of?”, asks Alec.

“What if you don’t have to run the Institute alone?”, asks Lydia, and at Alec’s confused expression, she continues, “I can’t really stay for longer to help with the Institute. Especially if we want to avoid more arranged marriages”, she shudders almost in sync with Alec, “But I’ve basically been mentoring Izzy for months now. And while she’s not ready to run an Institute on her own either, I think the two of you would be able to do it”

“You mean, Alec and me? Running the Institute together?”, asks Izzy.

“Well, they can’t force the two of you to marry. And Izzy has spent months coming up with good excuses of why Alec is unavailable”, contemplates Clary.

“And somehow Idris still doesn’t know about your relationship with Raphael and Simon, so we can still take advantage of their lack of Downworlder gossip knowledge”, says Lydia.

“Would you want to?”, asks Alec, turning towards Izzy, “I know you wanted to help, and share the burden, but I’m sure this is not what you meant”

“Maybe not at first”, admits Izzy, “But working with Lydia has been eye-opening. I don’t know if I can go back to having so few responsibilities, of pretending that making a change is not my responsibility too. Besides, me helping you in your love life has kind of been almost completely useless, so it’s not like I have a backup plan to help out”

“What? In what way have you helped in my love life?”, asks a completely confused Alec.

Izzy huffs, and groaning says, “I know! It’s just, it was never the right time, and it probably was for the best. Besides you were so much better at dealing with your own love life than anything I could have come up with”, and turning towards Alec and taking one of his hands in hers, she says, “Just know I support you in everything that leads to your happiness and I’m always available for any fashion emergency you have”, and at Alec’s confused nod, she adds, “And I would love to run the Institute with you, if we can convince the Clave to put us both in charge. It’s not like they think I’m more conservative than you, even if they don’t know my relationship status yet”

“I can help with that”, says Jace, “Since I made it public that I’m a Herondale, I apparently have a lot more say in a lot more things. And it looks like they think my last name makes me more traditional, and if you think it’s a good idea of course, you could put me in charge of training. To make them think that the Shadowhunters in the Institute will be kept within their traditional ways”

“And you are already basically in change of training since Hodge went away”, says Lydia, and turning towards Alec, she adds, “And he’s been doing a good job”

“It’s set then”, says Alec, grinning and feeling truly hopeful for his future as a Shadowunter, for the first time in a long time, “Izzy and I Co-Head the Institute, and Jace is in charge of training”

And looking at the group around him, Alec realizes that even while he still struggles with asking for help, and opening up about his fears and insecurities, he thinks it will become easier, now that he’s sure these amazing group have become people he can rely on. That they’ll now be there for him, every time he’s brave enough to ask for help.

It’s been such a long time since Magnus has been this nervous about a date. It’s been a month after Alec and he came back, and after a lot of meetings and paperwork and vouching for each other, Alexander and Isabelle are Co-Heads of the Institute and next week will be the first time the Shadow Word Council will be meeting. He also managed to recover his position as High Warlock after his second time disappearing, in part thanks to the NY Institute insistence than working with someone that had a huge hand in Valentine’s downfall was imperative. Especially when trying to convince the Clave of the changes that needed to be made.

And while Magnus has really been trying to keep those intrusive thoughts at bay, those that say that once Alec feels more secure of himself, he’ll realize he doesn’t need him anymore, he’ll realize he is too much. Or that he’ll be the most wonderful man ever and then when time rips him away from Magnus, it will destroy him. So to stop this downward spiral, he finishes his martini to calm himself and portals to the restaurant he’ll meet Alec at.

Magnus is about to walk through the front door, when he notices a shadow near the entrance, standing still. And looking closer he realizes is Alec, looking pale and in distress.

“Darling? Is everything all right?”, asks Magnus, approaching.

“I’m sorry”, mumbles Alec, trying to face Magnus, “I thought I could. I’ve been ok most of the time at the Institute, but between being nervous, the place being full of Mundanes, and everything about tonight, my control keeps failing. I’m sorry I made you come all this way, I should have cancelled earlier”

“It’s not a problem petal, we can do something else. How about a walk through the park? There are some really good Food Trucks around here”, offers Magnus.

Alec can’t keep the sad hoot that escapes him, making him blush a deep red, and even if he can’t face Magnus at the moment, he manages to say, “You got ready for a fancy restaurant, all elegant and gorgeous, not for Food Truck food at a park”

“Darling, I didn’t get ready for a restaurant, I got ready for you. And since you just said I look gorgeous and elegant, then I was successful. Besides, the only thing I want, is to spend time with you, I don’t really care how or where”, says Magnus, and tentatively, slowly, reaches for his hand, just softly touching the feathers that just grew out of his sleeve as he loses control of his shifting. “Would you go with me? Even if you’re also looking all fancy and beautiful?”

For a second Alec looks at Magnus stunned, but recovers quickly, and with a smile he nods, and taking hold of Magnus’s hands says, “I would love to. Lead the way”

It’s later, once they are sitting on a bench with some Hot Dogs, Waffles and Coffees, that both finally manage to leave any insecurities and nerves behind, and just share this moment together.

“You know what’s weird?”, asks Alec, “I feel like I know you more than anyone else, while at the same time I don’t really know you yet. I don’t even know your favorite color”

“I know what you mean. Most of the time we’ve spent together, it’s been through dreams, and those always retain that not quite real quality”, answers Magnus, removing a Hot Dog stain from Alec’s shirt with a flick of his hand, gaining himself a smile.

“The first times it felt more real?”, wonders Alec.

“The pendant. It solidified the connection. It makes it more stable, since you have a solid unmovable conduit. Otherwise random thoughts, emotions, and the same subconscious makes it flicker more”, explains Magnus

“That makes sense. Also, me changing more fully into a Stymphalian probably didn’t help things”, adds Alec.

“Maybe at the beginning while you’re getting used to the differences, but with time, it should be easier to connect with whomever you wish to connect with. It’s one of the abilities that Stymphalides have”, says Magnus.

“Is that why you were in Arcadia? To learn more of this new community you found?”, asks Alec.

A bit confused, Magnus turns to look at Alec, and when he finds only curiosity and no expectations of any kind, he has to give his shock a few moments to pass, before he says, “Darling, I was there for you”

Alec blinks at him slowly, and frowning, asks, “For me? How? Why?”

“At first I was hoping to find you there. Well, actually, at first first I was going to mope about my broken heart, until I realized what the pink camellias meant”, starts Magnus, and at Alec’s stunned and blushed face, he can’t help offering a piece of his Waffle. Alec accepts it, and shyly eats it while Magnus continues, “Then I went to find Echo, who told me you learned to use a bit of my magic”, and at Alec’s guilty look, Magnus bumps him slightly with his shoulder, “It was a huge relieve, to know you had my magic for protection. Which I now realize is not as relevant, since your Stympalian defenses are extremely strong”

“Yeah, I figured that one out later, but that bit of your magic I could access to, saved me many times, especially at the beginning. I thought at some point you would sever our partial connection, but I was really grateful when it stayed. Did you learned that in Arcadia?”, asks Alec in the end, trying to divert the subject a little.

Magnus laughs a bit and says, “Petal, I can recognize an intended change of subject a mile away, and I would normally let you get away with it, but I need to make something clear first. The only way our partial connection gets severed, is because you want it to. I selfishly like it, so I’m not going to do a thing to remove it”, after making sure Alec understood how serious he was about this, he continues, “Yes, I learned a lot of things in Arcadia. At first I went hoping you were heading there, to find answers, a community, or I don’t know. After I felt you in my dreams, waiting for you was easier, waiting until you wanted to meet again. And since I’m interested in anything relating to you, and Arcadia is the best source of knowledge on Stymphalides… well, I stayed there studying and waiting”

“I never knew you were waiting for me. I could have gone back sooner”, says Alec, anxiously trying to hold his coffee through his growing feathers.

Magnus conjures a small table for Alec to put his coffee on, and says, “Then I’m happy you didn’t know. That time you took for yourself, I’m glad it wasn’t rushed. And through our dreams and Jace’s parabatai bond, we knew you were alive, and relatively ok. So that made the wondering a lot easier. Besides, the flowers were a huge relief, knowing that this time it was by your own choice, and not…”, Magnus cuts himself off with a wince, realizing what he was about to say.

Alec laughs, letting a few chirps slip in between, and for the first time he feels no embarrassment over it. Especially not after seeing the brilliant smile Magnus is sending his way. “No, I didn’t get kidnapped, again. But after all the times it happened, I understand why you could assume that”, and taking the warm cup of coffee on his hand again, he confesses, “Since I couldn’t write, or speak, at the time, the flowers were the best way to relay messages. And the Camellias… at first I tried for something less revealing but… my feeling kept getting in the way of the conjuring, and it refused to give me something other than what I felt”

“They were perfect”, declares Magnus, “They saved me from a completely broken heart, and allowed me to have hope and patience”

“You’ll need a lot more patience with me though”, mumbles Alec.

“I don’t mind. Being immortal, I have nothing but time. Besides, you’re more than worth it”, says Magnus, grinning wider at Alec’s newest blush.

In the end the date lasts hours, many more than any Restaurant would have allowed. They talked about everything, how Alec had needed to be on his own to finally learn to focus on himself, without any distractions. How the one he had wanted to touch the most was always Magnus, and that he’s learning to enjoy his touches once more, and that lately the feeling of his feathers being touched are starting to feel nice and not so distressing. How the thing he regrets the most is lashing out on Magnus, and that he promises to avoid doing it again with all that he has, but Alec also makes Magnus promise him that he won’t let him get away with it, even when he fails.

Alec also tells him of how he tracked Hodge, and found Malachi with him. Hodge being desperate once he realized he simply changed one prison for a smaller one, both becoming even more fanatics of perusing Valentines ideals. And how it all ended with Alec unleashing his man-eating instincts for the first time. This also leads to Magnus and Alec to talk strategies of how to uncover other Circle Hard-Liners in the Clave, Aldertree being a huge suspect.

And in between they share irrelevant stories and jokes, laughing and just sharing space and time. Before the end, they spend some time just enjoying the silence together, Magnus arm around Alec’s shoulders, with Alec resting his head close to Magnus neck. Just immersing themselves in the sounds of the night and each other’s warmth.

It’s a year after their first date that Magnus arrives at the Loft, at their Loft. And even though it’s been half a year already, and he’s never felt more comfortable than sharing his space with Alec, he stills feels giddy at how new all this is. Who would’ve known that getting stupidly kidnapped by Valentine would lead into him finding his knight in shining feathers? And he can’t stop the dopey grin that stretches across his face when he mentally reminds himself to say exactly that to Alexander, just so he can enjoy that wonderful expression he makes when he’s fond, embarrassed and a little bit exasperated. But before he gets to look for Alec, he’s stopped by what he sees on top of the living room table. Two flute glasses, a bottle of champagne and a vase with flowers.

And even though he is happily surprised by Alec remembering and wanting to celebrate their first date, it doesn’t compare at what the flowers mean. So it’s with a shaky voice that he calls out Alec’s name, hearing his own voice echo through the apartment.

“Welcome home”, says Alec’s voice behind him, sounding nervous.

Magnus turns around, and unable to hold back his tears, he asks, “Do you really mean it? Are you sure?”

Alec smiles and answers, “I don’t think I’ve ever been surer of anything else in my life”

Magnus can’t resist diving right into Alec’s arms, too overwhelmed to even try to be coordinated enough to kiss him, just managing to hold him as tight as he can. And he would be concerned of bruising his angel, but he’s being held back just as tightly. In the end, it’s the enormity of this new development that manages to reach his more rational side. So with more self-control he ever thought he had, he untangles himself from Alec and takes a step back, doing everything he can to ignore Alec’s confused and uncertain expression.

“It’s not reversible”, states Magnus firmly, struggling not to go back into Alec’s arms, “It’s not like the one you and Jace ended up having, all unstable and eventually removable. You still have time to think this over, so you don’t regret it later. There’s no rush love”, he ends with a soft smile. Because as much as his entire being yearns this, it’s worth nothing if Alec ends up regretting it later.

“I don’t need more time. I don’t only know I’m completely sure, I know this is the only way I would have wanted this to be”, says Alec, holding Magnus gaze, irradiating conviction, willing Magnus to believe him.

“It’s not going to be easy”, tries Magnus again, knowing this is the last chance he has, because he’s not selfless enough, he’s not strong enough, for another one after this, “It’ll be overwhelming, and painful, and so very heavy to carry. And you might eventually get used to it, but that doesn’t mean it gets easier”, and as Magnus dares to briefly look at Alec, the pain and sadness he sees in his eyes, the same look he always has when he’s shared painful pieces of his past, makes him add in a trembling voice, “Sayang, I don’t want you to go through the pain I had to go through”

“Mi amor (My love), I won’t go through that pain, and neither will you anymore”, replies Alec, so softly, so tenderly, that the tears it evokes form Magnus feel like relief, “We’ll have each other, and all the pain we’ll have to endure, we’ll carry it together. But we also have endless opportunities of happy moments before us”, ends Alec with a smile full of love. Undeniable love against which Magnus insecurities don’t stand a chance.

Unable to hold himself back any longer, Magnus rushes to Alec’s arms and kisses him with everything he has, with everything he is. He grabs handfuls of him, always being careful with his soft sensitive feathers, but unable to stop himself from holding him as close as he can. Finally not having to restrain himself, not having to keep that last corner of himself locked away, his last protection to be able to survive the time when his angel was forced to leave him. Now he can finally let go, and whatever pains and joys that come their way, they will all be worth it.

And as they enjoy each other, the setting sun makes the flowers almost glow, shining in their purple and red colors. Purple Heliotropes for eternal love and devotion, Red Salvia meaning forever mine and Purple Sage, for wisdom and immortality.