The whole gang was gathered in the ops center, some were pacing around, some were just sitting on the tables or leaning against the wall, their bodies tensed with a horrified gaze in their eyes.
Simon was still a sobbing mess as he sat on one of the chairs placed around the monitors, his face buried in his wife's chest while Izzy kept rubbing her hand over his back in a soothing manner, trying to calm the man whose tears didn't seem to stop.
Alec was sitting on the stairs leading to the first floor, hands linked with his warlock's who was resting his head on his shoulder, their bodies tense with worry filled in their eyes. There was pin-drop silence in the hall, the only sound audible was Simon's sobs, no one dared to speak any word, that was until Stefan walked in with Rosette who were performing the last rights on the remains of Julian's body.
"So, um..." Stefan started, eyes gazing at every person who was now looking at them, feeling a bit uncomfortable under their gaze. "what's the plan? What are we going to do now?"
"Plan!?" Simon yelled, eyes burning with tears of fury. "Are you serious? Plan? Can't we just go and kill that Kai or whatever his name is! He murdered my brother! He murdered Jay in cold blood and we're here making plans!? I don't understand-"
"Si, hey, you need to calm down, okay?"
"I can't calm down, Izzy! Jay... he's... he's gone.... he's gone..." Izzy wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a comforting manner as he kept sobbing and crying in her embrace.
Everyone's heart broke seeing the most bubbly person of their group in a sobbing mess. Wiping his tears, Jace walked forward, put his hand gently over Simon's shoulder, and gave it a light squeeze. Slowly, Simon lifted his head and looked into those vulnerable mismatched eyes.
"Simon, I understand your anger, I understand that you feel like you're world has been ripped apart from you, but you need to listen and try to calm a little. Anger won't do any good, if anything, it'll hurt you more."
"But Jace, that Kai-"
"I know Simon and I'm as guilty as everyone here. Even after so many precautions, we still were not able to save Julian, and murdering Kai mercilessly is the first thing everyone's thinking about but we can't just go and put a dagger through his heart, he won't even flinch. We need a plan if we want to defeat him."
"He's right, Simon," Magnus spoke. "I understand your pain, you lost someone close to you but we can't act on our anger, we need to think things through before we act on them."
Simon wiped his tears and gave a slow nod. "Then let's think things through, let's make a plan. We all know what he had done, what he wants, what are we waiting for? His next attack?"
"He has a point," Alec admitted, exhaling a breath of frustration. Everyone's attention turned towards him. "We know that's Kasper, we know he's after Clary and me, and all the Nightstorms. Wasting even a second means giving him an advantage over us. We need to find his weakness. We need to gather information about his life. Daniel, you've fought him before, you must know something about him."
Daniel sighed. "Not much, but I'll tell you what we found."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Late 1800s*
Strong winds were howling in the sky, making the strongest of the trees dance on its rhythm. Darkness was slowly consuming the city of Alicante but in the midst of Brocelind forest, stood a man, holding a sword up at the dead sky, as if pleading to the god for mercy but the reality was much more menacing than it looked.
The whole of the Alicante and the shadow world was surrounding the man, but their focus wasn't on him. They were stuck in a trance, lifeless and motionless.
A woman, dressed in a royal white gown was kneeling in front, by her side, two people were standing, their faces dull and tear-soaked.
"Kasper Windermere Morgenstern," a heavenly voice echoed in the surrounding, "You have broken all the rules by going against the angels. Ithuriel has provided you immense powers, with immortality and you took advantage of your powers. Till now, your name was taken as respect, you were going to be the legend the shadow world was going to look up to, but now your name will be erased from existence. You will no longer be what you are."
A cruel, dark chuckle escaped from Kasper's throat. "And how will you do that Raziel? Aren't you forgetting that I'm indestructible? You can't kill me. No one can!"
"K... Kasper.. please.." The women sobbed. "Please stop this.. please come back to me... I want to take my last breath in your arms. Please, Kasper..."
"Stop it, Samantha!" He seethed with anger. "Stop with this love bullshit, love is a weakness, power is everything. The world will be under your feet, people will fear you if you have immense powers. I did a mistake by loving you, by marrying you. You were nothing but an obstacle in my way."
"K... Kasper..." Samantha sobbed, taken aback by her husband's harsh words. Even in old age, even after knowing Kasper's betrayals, more than once, she still loved him unconditionally. "Please Kas, don't say that..."
"That's what the truth is, Samantha. And you Raziel," he aimed his sword at the floating angel. "Let's see what you can do? Let's see how you're going to make me say those words?"
"I might not be powerful enough for that but I can assure you that no one will remember you. No one will remember who Kasper Windermere 'Morgenstern' was. From now on, your family line starts with your son, Roderick Windermere. And you will reap what you have sowed, Kasper. If not now then one day you will. Someone will come who will able to make you say those words, but till then, you are banished to Edom."
As soon as Angel Raziel finished speaking, a blood-curdling scream escaped from Kasper's throat and he fell to the ground. Slowly, his pure white wings burned and turned into dull black, his emerald eyes turned blood red and the sword he was holding fell too, emitting its bright light right onto his lifeless face.
Raziel gently flapped his wings and the sword that was fallen on the ground started floating until it reached right in front of him. He outstretched his hand and held the sword, then looked down at the fallen angel. "Morning star signifies light, prosperity, and ending of darkness. This sword doesn't belong to you Kasper. You don't have any rights to hold this sword."
Kasper grunted as he slowly stood up and looked directly into the eyes of Angel Raziel. "You... can't... take my belongings... my powers... from me, Raziel. I'll come back... I'll have my revenge." He then turned towards Samantha, grabbed her by her hair, and pulled her close. "And I'll start with you!" Within the blink of an eye, he pulled her heart out from his bare hands and licked all the blood that was dripping on his wrist.
"MOTHER!" Roderick screamed and ran where her body had fallen.
A sly smirk appeared on his face as he bore his blood-red eyes into the Angel's. "You can't stop me Raziel, this is the beginning of your end!" With that, he descended up into the sky, finding his way for his new home, Edom.
Raziel closed his eyes and slowly Samantha's soul came out of the lifeless body as it disintegrated into dust particles. "Ave atque vale my child."
The dark clouds that hovered above them cleared and bright white light shone from it, blanketing everything within its reach. It lasted for an hour and when it faded, all the shadow world was gone from there except for Roderick and his wife, Amalia who were looking around in confusion.
"Roderick?" Raziel spoke.
Roderick looked towards the source of the voice and his eyes widened when he noticed Angel Raziel standing just a few feet away from him. "A.. Angel... Raziel..."
"Here my child," he held out the sword and handed it to the shadowhunter, "this is a morning star sword. It signifies light and prosperity. You're the strongest shadowhunter of your generation hence this belongs to you. You will no longer continue as Windermere, you'll be known as Roderick Morgenstern- the possessor of morning star sword."
"Th... Thank you Angel Raziel. I'm honored."
"Bless you, child." With that he disappeared and so does the legend of Kasper.
***********************************
"We tried killing him with morning star sword, but that failed as well. Apart from his stories and how he fell, we know nothing about his personal life. Even if we were able to find someone related to him, they remembered nothing." Daniel finished with a frustrated sigh.
"This tells us nothing, Daniel!" Simon yelled. "How are we going to defeat him when we know nothing!?"
"I know Simon, I'm sorry. That's the reason we banished him, first to Edom then to another dimension, a prison world with no existence of any species. He wasn't supposed to escape for another hundred years."
"Is it just me or you people too despise angels now?" Magnus asked. "No offense to you shadowhunters but this happened in the late 1800s, that means my memories have been erased too because the story you told says the whole shadow world was present there."
"We never said we loved those higher beings!" Stefan spoke flatly.
Alec sighed and rubbed his face. "Guys, can we please discuss the problem at hands and not about the purity of so called angels?"
"Sorry," Magnus mumbled and nuzzled closer. Understanding the sudden mood swing, Alec wrapped his arm around his waist and let his husband get comfortable as he wanted.
"So what now?" Clary questioned. "How are we going to find his weakness? If Angel Raziel couldn't kill him-"
"Wait," Simon sniffed and wiped his tears. "Didn't you mention that Angel Raziel said someone will able to end him? What if that someone is Alec and Kasper knows it? That's why he returned and is hell-bent on creating a bloodbath? Did this happened with you guys as well?"
The Nightstorms exchanged a look and their eyes filled with horror when they realized he wasn't this powerful, this bloodthirsty, and this desperate back then. Yes, there was bloodshed in the battle but not like this. He wasn't able to control other bodies as he did with Julian's.
"N..No..." Bree stuttered, looked at her family then at Alec. "No, it wasn't this worse."
The tension in the room became heavier as everyone's attention turned towards Alec.
"Stop looking at me like that!" Alec stated, firmly and authoritatively.
"Okay," Jace spoke up, feeling the uncomfortableness through the heightened sense of their Parabatai bond. "Even if it's Alec we still need to find his weaknesses."
"But the question is still there Jace," Izzy said "how? How are we going to dig-"
She was interrupted when all the monitors started glitching uncontrollably. "What the hell is happening?"
"Hello, my dear enemies." Kasper's voice echoed in the whole room through all the monitors and soon, his face appeared as well along with another person's. "I have a message for you all. My dear servant, kindly tell them."
"Yes, Ebrithil. Dear all, Ebrithil asks you all to kindly give him his great(s) granddaughter back and for the life of Alexander Lightwood, he won't shed anyone's blood if you will oblige without any fight. But if you won't, the bloodbath will be worse than you can imagine and will start with mine's." The message ended and all the monitors went blank.
Everyone's stood frozen in their places, jaw dropped and horror-filled in their eyes. They were shocked beyond words could explain, and that wasn't because of the message, that was because of who that servant was.
"Max!"
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A/N
Sorry for disappearing for so long. I was having a bad writer's block for this story, but I was finally able to draft it. Hope you guys liked it.
If I'll be honest, my interest in this story fading but I won't leave my books in the middle. I'll try to complete it however long it takes. I know you guys love this story so I'll try my best.
Please keep sharing, commenting, and voting. It'll keep me motivated.
Piadreamer ❤️ ❤️