CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: IS IT FAIR?
" I don't wanna know who we are /
I don't wanna leave here without you. "
____
NARRATOR.
Jace's eyes flutter open as the same dizziness takes over his body, his heart pounding on his chest, his head aching. The first look he takes from this dimension is at his hand, and wrapped around one of his fingers was a platinum ring.
"Maybe we should leave, you two seem very distracted today." Clary says, looking strangely at Jace's furrowed eyebrows.
"Huh?." He asks, looking up from his hand – Only to look at Clary's bright green eyes and beside her the wolf he most despises; Ethan Wright.
"That's exactly what i'm talking about!." Clary exclaims, patting the table with her hand. "I think it's the wedding stress."
Jace's eyebrows knit even more close together.
"Yeah, can you blame them?." Ethan chuckles. "We'll come back another day, thanks for the beers, man." Ethan says and Jace lightly nods, and then Ethan stands up, walks over to the other side of the kitchen aisle and bro hugs Jace, whom only pats gently Ethan's back.
"You're welcome." Jace replies with a hint of confusion. Clary lightly chuckles before pecking his cheek. "I will see you two..."
"Goodbye, Jacey." Clary bids her farewells and they both walk out of the apartment with Jace shutting the door after them.
He licks his lips, looking around the unknown apartment until his eyes stop at the wall filled with framed pictures.
He took a quick glance and his brain made the connection, this was Arabelle's and his apartment.
His eyes go wide and runs to every door, opening each. If this is our apartment then surely she must be here.
The last door he opens is the one with the wide open window, leading to the dark and cold night of Brooklyn.
____
Arabelle sighs loudly, looking trough the contacts on her phone as she walks through the wet and cold streets of Brooklyn, making her way to the Institute — Hoping she'll find it —.
"Magnus must be in...Here!." She shouts happily and clicks the name on the screen, calling the warlock.
Hopefully there's Warlocks in this useless dimension.
"Hello! You've reached Magnus Bane, ordinary folk in this ordinary earth, call again."
Arabelle huffs, turning off her phone in anger. "I'm so stupid! I come to another dimension where Shadowhunters don't exist, without a plan." She groans, she stops at a billboard with the face of Magnus Bane, he looked very different from what he looked like in her dimension, his spiked hair was gone and so was the makeup around his eyes and he was wearing the most awful outfit Arabelle had ever seem. "By the angel, if Magnus saw this he would kill himself in this dimension. " She chuckles, before noticing at the bottom of the billboard, an address. "Bingo."
She smirks as she writes the address down.
____
"I'm not sure of this, Alec, there's so many risks." Isabelle says worriedly, looking at the two bodies — One laying on the couch and the other one laying besides the first, on the ground — belonging to her dearest family members.
"They are strong, all we can do is believe in them." Alec gulps down, convincing himself above Isabelle, he was worried sick. His little sister and his Parabatai were in an unknown dimension, and no one knew what was happening.
"How will we be able to tell if they die?." Isabelle asks Magnus, whom was sitting on the other couch with a Martini in his head, taking a sip of it as if there weren't to bodies laying on his living room.
"They'll start convulsing, and eventually stop breathing for good, at least that's what i think — I've never done this." He shrugs and Alec's head shots up at him, staring at him in disbelief.
"You've never done this?." Alec repeats in disbelief and Magnus' lips turn upwards.
"Oops, i should of mentioned that to you."
____
In the back pockets of Jace's pants was a cellphone.
"Out of all the instruments i would of thought of using to search for Arabelle, the last thing that could come up on my mind was a cellphone. Great." He says sarcastically, with a stern face as he takes the phone out and searches for Arabelle's name, although it appeared as 'My darling' on his phone, his eyes goes slightly wide. "So I'm whipped in this dimension, how ironic." He mutters to himself as he impatiently pace's through the living room of the cozy apartment.
"Jace? I'm sorry i left, i went to the store to buy some aspirins—."
Jace sighs in relief. "Arabelle..." he breathes out.
"Jace? Is that really you?." Her voice sounds the same, filled with worry and a hint of relief.
"Depends on what you mean, my soul is trapped on this dimension's Jace, which is fine since i'm hot in this dimension as well."
"By the Angel, Jace Wayland! What are you doing here?." There's a hint of happiness covered by anger.
"I couldn't jus-."
____
"Jace?." Arabelle asks on the phone, in front of Magnus' address.
Through the phone, she can hear how something falls on the ground, the sound of groans followed by a piercing scream.
Arabelle's eyes go wide. "Jace?!."
Oh how much she hated not knowing where he was.
For a second she doesn't hear anything, the silence eating her brains out.
"Hello sister, are you ready for another reunion?."
"You fucking bitch, leave Jace alone."
"Oh i don't know, i think i might just keep him..."
"Yeah right after i slit your throat and feed it to the demons, though they might not eat it, i don't think they like rotten flesh." Arabelle says sweetly.
"How sweet, at least i know we both got our fair share of kindness," Arabelle groans. "Anyway, you surely know where to find me, it starts with an I and ends with an E, do you know where it is?."
"The institute..." Arabelle figures right away.
"Bingo sister, I'm impressed..." Anastasia laughs an evil laugh. "You better come, or the only head that's going to be slit tonight is your dear boyfriend's." There's no humor, just the pure stern and evil – emotionless voice of her sibling.
She hangs up, and Arabelle's heart falls on her stomach — The desperation and frustration starts to eat her alive. She gulps down, knocking on the door of Magnus Bane.
"Coming!." A voice is heard from inside, minutes later he opens the door — Looking just like in the billboard, and wearing big and green vomit pajamas, Arabelle's nose scrunches up. "Can i help you with something?." He asks nicely and Arabelle nods.
"Please tell me you are a Warlock." Arabelle says hopefully and Magnus' eyes go wide, before peeking his head out of the window and cautiously motioning her to come in and as soon as he closes the door behind her, he turns around and with a very dumbfounded expression he says;
"Arabelle what kind of nonsense are you talking about?."
Arabelle sighs. "Crap."
"You know what i am as much as i know what you are, why are we having this conversation?." Magnus asks and Arabelle's head shots up, looking at him.
"So you are a Warlock?."
"As much as you are, dear."
Arabelle looks at him with both eyebrows raised. "Magnus, i'm from another dimension — I need your help."
"Oh dear."
____
Jace looks expressionless at Anastasia, who paces in front of him as if she was in a runway. She looked a lot like Arabelle, yet there was something about her that was so different from Arabelle; Maybe it was the way she looked at people, with that devilish grin and her gaze blank and predatory, the way she walked — Waltzed — it was almost as if her feet weren't touching the ground, she did it so gracefully that it seemed dangerous and of course, the burning Circle rune on her neck. Being near her was like being near an intoxicating bomb, and Jace felt it.
"What do you want from Arabelle?." Jace asks, choking a little bit with the blood on his mouth – A gift from one of Arabelle's minions, or Valentine's.
She simply chuckles. "Her power."
"To make everyone fall in love with her? I think that's a gift she was born with, not something you can learn or take." He says sternly, squinting his eyes a little bit you could tell he was containing a smirk, even when his hands were tied around a column of the training room, with his wrists and shoulders aching. Stupid mundane strength.
Anastasia scoffed, her head tilting back exaggeratedly. "You're so sarcastic, Jace. But no, she has a power like no other — But you Shadowhunters were so busy training her like one of you that you never saw it."
"What is she then?." He asks, curiosity growing on the pit of his stomach.
"It's a long story..." She trails off, and looks at him. "Let's just say she has more than one type of blood."
"She is a Shadowhunter, half angel, half human." He says, looking at her like she couldn't be more dumb. "Now we know who got the brains."
Anastasia looks at him more annoyed. "Valentine experimented with my dear sister, she has warlock blood and more angel blood than the normal Shadowhunter." She explains and Jace looks at her with an eyebrow cocked.
"And what the hell are you?."
"Warlock blood and more demon blood than usual."
"Oh so now we know why you're so evil." He says sarcastically and Anastasia approaches him with incredible speed, she takes his hand and snaps it, a deep groggy sound comes from Jace's throat.
"Don't underestimate me, Wayland." She threats, smirking a little at the last word ."I'm going to get her, she either unites the Circle or i'm going to drain her power and take it myself, either way we win." She says sternly before waltzing through the hall.
Jace breaths heavily, his eyes expressionless as he looks at the marbled ground.
"Let me see him first."
Jace's head shots up at the voice, her voice was a sound he would recognize everywhere.
The doors of the training room open wide, he sees her and she sees him. Arabelle's heart shrinks at the sight of Jace's bleeding mouth and twisted hand, as well as his eyes – That seemed to light up at the sight of her.
"There you go, you've seen him, now let's discuss the trading terms." Anastasia says, grabbing her arm before Arabelle yanks her arm out of her grip. It was a strangely comical scene, like a person looking through a mirror.
"I wanna see my parents." Arabelle says sternly, she will not dare to back off. Anastasia scoffs.
"Our parents." She corrects, two men appear from behind Anastasia, with identical suits and the identical Circle rune on their necks.
"If they are our parents, why do you have them locked up?." Arabelle asks, looking disgustingly at Anastasia.
"They are traitors, they aren't noble to our cause. Traitors get the treatment they are getting." Anastasia says, almost like she had been reading it off of a script.
"They are my parents, i want to see them."
Anastasia looks back at the two men behind her, they lightly nod and Anastasia sighs. "Fine, i'll take you to them — You will have a tough decision to make at the end."
Arabelle looks at Jace one last time, before they close the doors behind her – She gulps down.
As soon as the doors close behind them, a shadow appears from the dark corner of the room, the shadow starts to take shape, until Jace looks at his face.
"Magnus?." He asks incredulous. "The same Warlock that got us in this mess."
Magnus rolls his eyes and with the snap of his fingers, the runed chains on Jace's hands break off. "Arabelle told me everything, we need to get you out of here." He takes a step closer to Jace, grabbing him by the shoulders and helping him to stand up. "She broke your hand?."
Jace nods. "We need to help Arabelle, if she doesn't agree with Anastasia, better known as Valentine's new favorite minion, she will drain her of her powers."
"To do that she would have to take her back to your dimension." Magnus explains.
"Arabelle plans on taking her parents with her, but how will she be able to take them?." Jace asks, his mouth twitching in pain as he takes his hand and snaps it back into place.
"I'll portal the four of you out of here, but she needs to make the signal. But first i need to take you out of here."
Jace shakes his head, slicking his hair back. "I need to help Arabelle, this guys won't leave without a fight." His hands go down to the edge of his blue navy shirt, ripping part of it, before wrapping the piece of cloth around his swelling hand.
Magnus shakes his head. "No can't do, Jace. You're a mundane here, she is a Warlock — She can take them down."
"She doesn't know the spells." He says in defense. "I still know how to defend myself, i got my fists — I don't need my blade or my stele to be a soldier."
"I taught her the basics." Magnus shrugs. "Listen, Arabelle told me very specifically that i should take you out of here, and that's what i'm going to do."
Jace shakes his head, brushing past him, and walking towards the wooden doors of the training room.
Magnus snaps his fingers, paralyzing Jace on his place.
"Listen, Mundane. I owe Arabelle, and i'm going to do exactly as she said." Magnus says sternly, snapping his fingers again, Jace moves his arms and looks annoyingly at Magnus.
Jace groans. "Don't call me Mundane."
____
The containment cells were dirty, the walls filled with dust and splatters of blood decorated the floors. It looks more like a slaughterhouse.
She thinks as she follows Anastasia from behind, they suddenly stop, there was a glass in between them but she still saw them — In the corner of the cell, two people were cuddled against each other.
Anastasia very loudly knocks on the glass, making the two people turn their heads at them. Arabelle unconsciously approaches the glass, her mouth agape and her eyes showed mixed emotions, happiness and sadness towards the conditions of their meeting.
The woman and the man looked nothing like the people on the framed picture in the living room wall. Their eyes almost showed no emotion, the used robes with different kind of splatters on them — Though they looked clean, their eyes looked hollow and black shadows surrounded them.
They stare at Anastasia and then at Arabelle, and the woman gasped with tears in her eyes, quickly approaching the glass — Her hand laid out on it. The man approached the glass, with watery eyes as he laid a hand on the waist of his wife.
Arabelle feels a lump on her throat at the sight of the missing piece of the puzzle of her life, her hand lightly touches the glass as tears swell into her eyes and fall like cascades on her cheeks.
"Mom...Dad..." She breathes out, before Anastasia yanks her hand off of the glass and stares at her with pure despair.
"You've seen them, time to make a choice." Anastasia spits out, as if the scene she had witnessed was the most disgusting thing.
"Let's take this business to the hall, shall we?." She smiles devilishly as she motions the exit of the containment cell.
Arabelle yanks her arm out of Anastasia's grip once again, before glancing back at her parents. Walking out of the containment cell as the breath she didn't even know she was holding comes out.
-
They walk inside the dining hall, Anastasia with a grin on her face.
"So you've made your choice?."
Anastasia says as she lays her elbows on the table and Arabelle shrugs.
"Isn't there option C?."
"Now that you've mentioned it...Valentine wants something from you." Anastasia smiles devilishly.
Arabelle shifts her weight to her leg, looking at her sister with arms crossed over her chest. "What could Valentine Morgenstern possibly want from me?."
Anastasia's lips go upwards. "He wants you and your powers to unite the Circle."
"My powers?." Arabelle asks with a hint of humor. "I'm just a Shadowhunter."
"Yeah just like me, right?." Anastasia chuckles. "You have Warlock blood and Angel blood, more than the average Nephilim." She replies, walking closer to Arabelle. "If that stupid know-it-all family hadn't adopted you, you would of known that." She spits.
"Don't talk about my family like that." Arabelle growls, a warning tone on her voice.
"It's time you know the truth sister..." Anastasia says, carefully touching Arabelle's hand, motioning her to sit down. Arabelle does as motioned, Anastasia sitting right beside her.
"I'm listening."
Anastasia sighs. "The Whittle family was going to adopt us both, but they weren't able to adopt us together at the same time — They had to wait a few months 'til they could adopt again, when the months passed by and they went back to the Orphanage, you had been already adopted by the Lightwoood's." Anastasia looks down. "I have always known that you were alive, and that you were my sister — The Lightwoods took our bond! Our visions of each other, that's all i had from you and they took it, they made you forget about me and the visions." Arabelle looks at Anastasia, with understanding, she was just like her; with fears and emotions and with a missing part. "Valentine's plan has always been for us to be together."
Arabelle shakes her head lightly. "He is going to use us, he already used you! Don't you see it? We could take our parents and leave, and finally live like a family. Why do you still want to be with Valentine and his horrible cause?."
Anastasia looks at Arabelle with anger. "Because he is right, the Downworlders are nothing but traitors and the scum of the Shadow world." She spits.
"My best friend is a downworlder, he is not a traitor and certainly he is not a scum." Arabelle replies — raising her voice, Anastasia cocks an eyebrow and her mouth falls agape.
"But Ethan is the primary example of Downworlder treason." She smirks and Arabelle raises an eyebrow. "How did you think we even got pass the wards in the first place? You seriously thought i was capable of hurting you? The spell needed an emotional bond that you and i don't share, but you and Ethan in the other hand..." She trails off, tilting her head.
Arabelle shakes her head, repeatedly. Her head pounding as those words resonate in her mind, Ethan betrayed me. My best friend...
"He is here actually, that's how we knew you were here. He made a great performance." Anastasia chuckles. "The only motivation he needed was looking at me, knowing there's someone else exactly like you - Only i can actually reciprocate his feelings." She clicks her tongue and Arabelle stands up.
"Stop it! Stop lying, you won't make me join your stupid Circle." Arabelle shouts, anger filling her voice as her eyes turn yellow.
Anastasia stands up, her eyes blank and expressionless. "You need more motivation, i get it, maybe if your so called love of your life died in the hands of your traitor of a best friend-."
Arabelle grabs Anastasia by the neck, squeezing so tight her hands become red. Anastasia chokes, before one of the Circle members yanks Arabelle off of Anastasia, who's hands go up to her bruised neck and who's eyes show only despair.
"Bring me Jace."
Arabelle snaps her fingers, and with that single snap she is on the Containment Cell, along with her parents who looked at her shocked.
"As much as i would like to cry in your arms we need to leave now." Arabelle approaches them and with her hands she grabs their cold hands, thinking of Jace. Their eyes show a mixture of surprise and confusion as a violet mass takes over their bodies and with the blink of an eye they find themselves in the park, in front of a wide eyed Jace and an expressionless Magnus.
As soon as Jace sees Arabelle, he wraps her into his arms, with a sigh of relief. Arabelle is taken by surprise but immediately she smiles lightly and wraps her arms on Jace's shoulders as he nuzzles his head on Arabelle's neck.
"Don't ever do something like that again." He says, departing from the hug and looking straight onto Arabelle's hazel eyes.
"I can't promise anything." She grins and Jace rolls his eyes, she glances at Magnus. "Are you ready?."
"Always ready." Magnus says, closing his eyes as his palm faces the gap between two trees, a portal is made in matter of seconds — The light shade of blue blinding all of them. Arabelle looks at her parents who seemed disoriented, she grabs their hands and with a reassuring look.
"It's time to go home."
Suddenly they see as a squad of Circle memebers approach them with Seraph blades in hand, and Arabelle's gaze meets a now unfamiliar face. Ethan Wright, the biggest traitor of them all.
"Thank you Magnus." Jace says, patting his back before looking at Arabelle, who finally — After all these years held the hands of her parents. It was an emotional scene, the encounter of a family, Jace smiles briefly, happily and with a mixture of bitterness.
Arabelle is taken by surprise as Jace's hand wraps around her arm, she thinks of the Lightwoods as they walk into the blue portal, leaving everything behind. And as a weight falls on her shoulders once again.
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that was a long chapter, i'm drained. Please comment your thoughts!