Lily's POV
"I need to keep you safe..." Jace was saying to Clary as he grabbed her arm but was sending me a silent message, "I mean you too."
Since when have I been able to silently communicate with Jace. A complete stranger?
"I can get us help!" Simon said earnestly as he grabbed Clary's other arm.
I shook at my head at the mini tug of war game that the boys started and headed back into the church building.
I don't know what happened outside but Jace soon joined me in the confines of the church, Clary and Simon following after him as the former said, "Mundane." And he paused, "We do not have the time!"
I looked ahead of me and saw the shadowhunter institute in all its glory. When I went to walk forward, Simon reached over Jace and grabbed my arm, stopping further movement. He looked at me with a question in his eyes, wondering why I wanted to go further. I didn't answer him, instead I looked beside me, to Jace and nodded my head towards Simon. He sighed and drew a rune onto his arm causing Simon to get even more confused. He then grabbed on to Simon's hand causing Simon to yelp out, "Hey buddy! What's going on? I'm not your type."
As soon as he words left his mouth, I couldn't help but snort in amusement. Because of that, Jace couldn't help but let his lip twitch a bit as well. I knew he wanted to laugh but he has to be the serious shadowhunter otherwise we won't take him seriously! Yeah right.
"...I don't even... What's go– what's ga..." I don't know what Simon was seeing but I ignored it and carried on walking as Simon asked no one in particular, "Where are we?"
Jace and Clary answered his questions as I looked around in wonder at the strangely familiar sight...
Alec's voice broke me out of the day dreaming, "What's going on? Why is there another mundane in the institute?"
Jace sighed as I stepped up to stand beside him and consequently beside Alec and his murderous gaze, "Circle members followed him to get to Lily and Clary..."
The sound of another familiar term caused me to question aloud, "Circle members?" and then I continued, a bit more confidently, "Circle runes just like the guys that took our mother" as I pointed between Clary and I. Once again getting confused, Simon asks, "What exactly is a circle member? And why are they trying to kill us?"
Jace sighed exasperatedly and he and Alec explained who they were and further details about the circle. I rubbed Jace's arm in comfort when he mentioned his dad's death, the news not surprising me at all. He lent into my touch as we exchanged looks of confusion, me asking myself why it seemed so familiar and Jace... I don't know...
"...Coming?" Jace asked Clary as he grabbed my hand as walked past me. Why did he do that? He doesn't seem to know why either. He looked at our joint hands in confusion again but shrugged and went to carry on walking but when he saw Simon intending to follow us, so he stopped the two of them and argued with hen for a while until Izzy said she'd entertain Simon whilst we were busy. I wonder what they'd do... a tour?
As the argument escalated between the three of them. I couldn't help but giggle, causing Jace, Alec and Izzy to smile, when Simon hit Jace's arm and Simon waving his hand around in pain and when he got flustered... It was adorkably funny...
Jace tugged on my arm again - I didn't even realise that he had my hand still - and we headed off towards the training room.
Before we left I heard, Jace murmur to Simon, "Hey. Uhhhh... Don't eat the food. Dangerous!" so I tilted my head back along with Jace and let out a laugh as we continued after Clary. It's odd really... that girl sure knows where she's going despite being lost a half hour ago! Oooooo! Maybe she didn't get lost earlier but was actually waiting for Jace to show up... Hmmmm...
"Who is that guy?" Clary asks Jace and he replied, "That's Hodge Starkweather. Our weapons trainer and more importantly for us, a former circle member..."
I ignored the rest of what he said as I watched the fight in front of me intensely. I've seen that fighting stance before... what's going on with me?...
When the fight was over, we walked into the training room. He caught sight of Clary and said in awe, "Jocelyn..."
He went to turn to Jace but caught sight of me. His eyes almost seemed to glisten with tears as he murmured, "Vivienne? Is that you? No. It can't be! You're dead..."
(A/N: Vivienne is the one on the left and Lily's on the right.)
The last comment threw me off... I looked like a dead girl to him?!
The questions seem to shock Jace too as he questioned Hodge, "You mean Alicia's mother?" That name jolted me. It sounded so familiar! But Jace's question wasn't answered since Clary cut him off.
"I'm Clary" she paused a bit hesitantly, also confused with Hodge's ramblings, "...and this is my sister Lilianna" I elbowed her side in annoyance so she continued with a slight wince, "—I meant Lily. This is my sister Lily. And Jocelyn Fray was our mother..."
"Well she was Jocelyn Fairchild when I knew her..." that threw her and I off. Mom changed her name? Why? Maybe it was to hide from that powerful man that she spoke of? "...she was one of my best friends!"
"She's been kidnapped..." I stated and Clary took over the explanations.
I watched in concern as the man – Hodge writhed in pain. I stepped over to him as he almost fell to the floor and helped Jace hold him up. I felt curious as the circle rune glowed a fiery red so I reached up to touch it. When I came into contact with the rune, a white light circled the rune quickly causing me to step back in shock. Hodge stopped moaning in pain as he looked up in surprise.
The pain was gone. Because I touched the rune... how? Why?
Jace and Clary finished off the discussion and we all went to leave when Hodge said, "Lily. Stay for a minute. I would like to talk to you about something."
I nodded my head in agreement whilst my sister continued to walk out of the room, giving us a little bit of privacy. Jace on the other hand paused and looked at Hodge waiting for his next comment but Hodge shook his head, "No Jace. This is a private matter. One you don't need to hear."
"I helped save her. I think I have the right of hearing about her well-being" he countered.
I didn't particularly want to be alone with the man who said I looked like his dead friend so I said, "Please Hodge. What you say to me, you can say to him..." Jace have me a grateful nod and turned to Hodge a bit arrogantly, causing me and Hodge to shake our heads in amusement at his arrogance.
"What is your name child?" He started off, so I instantly replied, "Lilianna Vivienne Fray" at the sound of my middle name he looked up from sharpening his weapon. Even Jace looked up from staring at the swords that he was longingly looking at earlier. He gaped in shock causing me to ask, "Why? Is it of importance?"
They both ignored me and Jace asked the next question, "when is your birthday?" so I replied, "a couple of days ago. I share my birthday with my twin sister Clary but she's the the older twin 'for a while', that's what mom said anyway..." I rambled on.
Hodge paused me, "Twin? The two of you are twins?"
I answered him a bit amused, "Yes, we're twins. Well at least that's what the birth certificate says. Fraternal twins..." I paused and then did my signature smirk, "You should have seen it when we were younger! We looked nothing alike! I had blonde hair and she had her red hair. She had green eyes whilst I had blue. The only thing we had in common was that we both had clear, really pale skin. Even our heights were different, I have always been slightly shorter that her so I always wore heels. It always just came easily to me..." I trailed off when I realised that they weren't paying attention to me but were whispering to each other...
I heard whispers of 'Blonde hair... blue eyes.' 'Pale skin... short' 'Just like her... 'could it be?'
By the end of their discussion they looked even more conflicted than they were when we started.
Jace shook himself and pulled me out of the room as I shouted a hurried, "Bye Hodge. Nice meeting you" over my shoulder before turning to Jace and saying, "what was that about?" but he continued to ignore me as Clary started walking with us.
Clary was pacing at the entrance of the training room. When she saw us coming out, she looked up with tears in her eyes. She then ran off again. Due to her constant running and the constant headaches, I decided to stay out of this one and explore the institute...
*
I walked around the corner and crashed into a speeding figure.
"Ahhhh!"
Before I could fall on to the floor, strong hands grabbed my waist and caught me. I stared into the persons eyes. Alec.
We stared at each other for a while until he seemed to wake up from his thoughts. He coughed and pulled me up to stand straight.
We avoided looking at each other until I found it too awkward so I went to walk away but he grabbed my wrist.
I spun around, head tilted, with questions in my eyes.
What he said surprised me, "You aren't a mundane..."
Here he was. The guy who was adamant that Clary and I weren't shadowhunters, telling me I wasn't mundane.
"What makes you say that?" I countered, surprise in my tone and facial expression.
"Because I saw you fight at the club. No mundane would fight the way you did... you're different. You're a shadowhunter. You are one of us... The question is how did you learn to fight that way?"
I was baffled. I didn't realise the truth until he pointed it out to me. How did I do all that stuff? I fought like one of them but Clary didn't.
I thought back to my childhood, hoping for a clue to show up. But...
Nothing.
Where were my memories of before I was nine? What happened? What is going on?
"I don't know... you are a curious girl..."
"What?!"
"You were talking out loud..." he shrugged nonchalantly. "If you really can't remember anything from before you were nine then someone must have taken your memories."
I stared at him incredulously and he just nodded his head to show he was speaking the truth.
"Come on. I'll go tell the others about the change in situation. I'll take you to Izzy's room cause you're gonna need to change."
I looked at him affronted. He saw my look and backed up a bit... "I don't mean to offend you but you need new gear so... let's go!" He went to walk off but stopped and looked at me, "You aren't that bad you know... you remind me of a friend I had when I was little. Her name was Alicia..." he trailed off.
I paused hoping he'd elaborate but just like Jace, he closed the topic and moved on.
*
"Is this the least revealing thing you have?" Clary asked hesitantly.
"What?" Izzy chucked, "It covers all the naughty bits..." she sighed "...a little too much in my opinion."
Clary asked where Simon was and Izzy joked around causing Clary to tense up. As this went on, Izzy threw me a new set of clothes and I started getting changed.
All the while, my elder sister started questioning Izzy about her relationship with Jace as I listened in quietly.
"...Don't worry in every way, he's like my brother. Our parents took Jace in when he was twelve. We trained together. Trained to fight side by side. The three of us and Alicia..." she ended in a whisper as I came out of her bathroom and went to stand in front of the mirror.
They continued to talk about Clary's fears as I made sure the tarot card was still in my pocket. Check. Good.
"...This is who you are" Izzy finished and Clary replied, "Not exactly feeling that..."
Izzy then turned to me saying, "And you. If you're scared, then the world will come crumbling down. You are a natural shadowhunter! If anyone can survive this world, it's gonna be you!"
"Kay. But now we just have to find Dot." Clary began.
"...and track down and kill the most dangerous..." Izzy continued.
"...rogue shadowhunter in history before he kills us all!" I finished off with a smirk.
"You really know how to ruin a pep talk don't you," Clary said amused.
"Come on! Let's go!" I said as I headed towards the door but Izzy's words stopped me.
"Oh! Simon is kinda nerd hot!" I couldn't help but laugh as I left the room with Izzy. Clary followed us slowly, probably dreading spending more time with us...
*
I was standing with Izzy, in front of a rack full of swords, ignoring Simon and Clary as they talked behind us.
"Hey Iz, where's my seraph blade that I had with me at the apartment?"
She looked surprised at my sudden question but replied, "It's here," as she opened another rack.
"...No Izzy!" Jace's voice spoke from behind us. Izza ignored him and grabbed my blade, "Here you go," she said. I took it from her and placed it in the spare pocket of my leather jacket.
"Fifty bucks say he doesn't approve of this mission." Izzy casually spoke from beside me.
I smirked at her and said to Jace and Izzy, "I bet you both fifty bucks each that he'll say something on the lines of, 'I don't approve of this mission. I spoke with the clave... blah- blah- blah- blah- blah!'" They raised their eyebrows at me in amusement and confusion so I elaborated, "I don't know what he'll say next but he will say the first bit!" I knew I was right for some reason.
Alec's voice broke us from our amusement, "I don't approve of this mission. I spoke with the clave and they're sending seelie scouts to search for Valentine. But they made it clear. A little girl doesn't leave the premises."
I turned to Jace and Izzy. "You both owe me fifty bucks!" and they stuck their tongues out at me so I did the same and stuck my own tongue at them.
Clary decided to argue with the most stubborn person I had met.
"...Alec. This warlock could have the answers we need. With Valentine's men continuing looking after Lily and Clary, they aren't safe outside alone."
"Jace has a point." Izzy pointed out. Alec looked a bit offended that his own sister went against him and said, "Et tu, Izzy?" He looked mad and said to Clary, "Alright. Since you seem to have all the answers. Where do you suggest we search?"
I stepped up beside Alec, not liking the expression he had so I touched his arm. Oddly enough, he quickly calmed down at the simple touch. Izzy and Jace looked at me in confusion as I decided to answer Clary's question for her.
"We should start at Dot's apartment in Greenpoint and there's this thrift store..." I ended off with a gasp.