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“Floor cleared, keep moving.”
Five years. It had been five years of following dead leads, hunting down information, and begging, pleading, and bribing just about everyone and their cousin for even a shred of hope. Magnus had gone from enemy to occasional asset to a fully-fledged member of the intelligence organization known as the Institute. Once, he’d been nothing more than a simple thief (though, definitely one of the best in the business) and now he was a thief...and a spy. Oh, how the tables had turned.
The Institute had quietly hired him for his services a few times prior when their own in-house talent wasn’t quite up for the job even though he remained firmly on the side of illegal activity. Still, he remained at the top of their possible recruitment list and they’d sent teams after him time and time again to try and bring him in. It was during one of those missions that he’d met Alec - the up-and-coming young spy who might be stern and no-nonsense but had a heart of gold. Magnus had fallen head over heels instantly, something Catarina and Ragnor had mocked him for relentlessly, and, well, the rest was history.
But then Alec had gone missing while on a mission and even the deepest, darkest depths of the Shadoworld hadn’t been able to find him. Magnus tore the world apart, nearly going to hell and back multiple times for just a whisper of where his boyfriend might be. He wasn’t willing to give up until he had an answer...even if it took him to the end of his life to find one.
That’s how he ended up here - an underground bunker in Russia, Alec’s siblings beside him as they did a pre-emptive sweep of the building, and an entire task force outside waiting for their signal.
“Magnus...remember. We want to find him just as bad as you do but you have to be ready to accept that there may be nothing here. The intel was shaky at best...we’d be lucky to find a single sheet of paper with a mention to him,” Isabelle whispered, eyes darting back and forth as they continued down the darkened hallway. She had two blades in her hands, despite her preference for the whip. This was a stealth mission and, well, her whip was rather loud.
“But we will keep looking until we find something. We’re with you until the end, Magnus.” A man stepped out of the room in front of them, a confused expression on his face. He went to shout, to sound the alarm but Jace was on him too quickly. He slit the man’s throat and caught the body before it could make a thud. “We’ll find him,” He said as he quietly placed the body on the floor. “I don’t care how long it takes us, but we’ll find him. You’ve already done more than anyone at the Institute has.”
It was true that the leads that Magnus had brought to the table were the ones that they’d been following for the last two years. He’d reached out to contacts he hadn’t spoken with in years, threatened countless people, and paid others off. The Institute had been completely unable to obtain any information through legal channels. Luckily, Magnus didn’t mind a little illegal in his life. That’s how he got his start, after all.
There was a lab at the end of the hall and the three of them made quick work of the scientists inside. They may be members of the Circle but they weren’t deserving of death..not if they were just trying to make a living to support their families. They knocked out a few of them, tied up a few others, and got to work on the computers in the room. Magnus was good with computers but Izzy was better and after a few moments of silence, he heard her gasp and choke back a sob. “Isabelle?”
“He’s here. Magnus, he’s here. There’s some sort of… they call them War Dogs and he’s not the only one but if this is to be believed, Alec is somewhere in this building.” Magnus looked over her shoulder at the file on the screen - there were two photos that were without a doubt their Alec. The first showed him beaten, bloody, and looking how Magnus last remembered him...second? That was not the Alec that they knew - his eyes were cold and dead and there was a snarl on his face as two guards pushed him backward into a chair. “They’ve loaded them up with some sort of super-soldier serum and a chemical cocktail that does who knows what. My god, how can anyone survive having this many drugs running through their body?”
“Oh, petal...what did they do to do you?” Magnus whispered as he gently ran his fingers over Alec’s picture on the monitor. He gave himself just a moment for his heart to ache before he shelved his emotions and put his mask back on. This wasn’t over yet...not until Alec was safely back home.
“If there’s even a chance he’s here, then we tear this place apart.” He growled, turning back to Izzy and Jace. He pressed the com device on his ear. “Alpha, Beta teams...begin to move to our position.” Magnus wanted to move now but the best chance for Alec was if they stuck to their plan. The only sound in the empty lab while they waited for the others to join them was the occasional click of a mouse or typing on a keyboard while Izzy continued to dig deeper.
A sharp inhale from Alec’s sister snapped Magnus’ attention back to the present. “What is it?” She quickly clicked off what was on the screen but he could see the shock across her face and the tears welling up in her eyes.
“Magnus, I’m not sure you want to see this… I don’t want to see this,” Her voice was quiet and childlike - nothing of the hardened spy he knew her to be.
“No, show me. I can handle it. I need to be prepared.” He was sure she was right. He wasn’t going to like what he saw but he would do anything for Alec. If that meant a little brief discomfort, so be it.
He could see the hesitation in her face but they knew each other well enough by this point that she knew that he was not going to let up. She took his hand and gave it a squeeze before hitting play on the video.
He watched. He watched and the rage boiled in him - they’d tried so hard to find Alec and this is what he’d been subjected to.
Alec would tell him that he did his best and that it wasn’t his fault.
Magnus was going to blame himself anyway.
He heard the other two teams enter the hallway and he motioned towards a door in the back. “Let’s keep moving. If Alec is here, I don’t want to wait any longer than necessary. He deserves a rescue as quick as it can come.”
Over the last few years he’d spent working with Alec’s siblings, they’d fallen into an easy routine. Jace went first through the door because that had always been the position he’d taken, even before Magnus joined them. Magnus came next - he hadn’t been trained the same way that they had before he started to work for them full time and at his core, he was still a thief, not James Bond. Finally, Izzy brought up the rear.
The door led to a bleak staircase that went down a few flights before letting them out in a larger, emptier room. It had been a warehouse once - the rack markers still plain as day on the cracked concrete floor but they’d since filled the room to suit their needs. The front half of the room was set up like a center of operations. Computer fans whirred quietly and the monitors displayed projects in various states of completion. Farther back, separated by a temporary half wall, was a boxing ring, some mats, and an open space that was used for weapons practice (if the racks of staves and swords on the wall were anything to go by.) Behind that, there were a few medical tables and chairs arranged to form a temporary and seemingly mobile doctor’s office.
Along the very back wall, nearly impossible to see in the low lighting, were about 12 cells. A chill went across Magnus’ heart - he had a feeling he knew what they were about to find in there and he was hoping that he was wrong.
At this hour of the day, the room was abandoned. They’d disabled the CCTV when they’d first entered and had taken care of the sparse security left on duty as they’d moved through the building. They weren’t worried about being seen but they weren’t going to rush headfirst into anything - despite how anxious they all were to get to the back.
Jace silently pointed, sending Izzy to the right, and Magnus down the middle while he took the left. The emergency lights left just enough light for them to maneuver around the furniture and instruments that were set up. Jace passed a light switch and flipped the remainder of the lights on, fully illuminating the room.
They’d reached the back and now with the lights on, they finally were able to get a good look at the cells. There were twelve in total and every other seemed to be empty. “Delta team, please be at the ready with medical. We’ve found…” He paused as he tried to choose the right word. “Victims,” He said after a moment. “About six, they do appear to still be alive. More information to follow.”
Izzy and Jace had tucked their blades away so Magnus followed suit. The first cell they came to had a sign tacked to the outside that read ARGOS and a chart that was hanging on a peg underneath it that listed times and dates - from the last time a doctor was seen to the last time the poor man had been fed. The man himself was tucked into the corner on a cot, arms around his knees as he hugged them to his chest. He was looking at them but, Magnus noted, he didn’t seem to be registering what he was seeing. His eyes may be trained on them but his brain wasn’t registering their existence.
“Look at his eyes,” He said after a moment, continuing down the row of cells and pausing to glance in each one that was occupied. “All of them. Their pupils are blown. My guess is they’re drugged out the gills with whatever drugs Izzy found mentioned in the files upstairs. CABAL, SOTER, LAELAPS, BRAN…He read as he passed the cells. Magnus remembered that Isabelle had mentioned they’d been called War Dogs and the names on the cells each coincided with a mythological hound. “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war…” He muttered. The line from Julius Cesar crossing his mind too clearly for comfort.
Jace shot him a look as he tapped his com device and advised Delta team to enter. Alpha and Beta were finishing their sweeps and would be joining them shortly. He finally reached the last cell and froze. Alec. He was leaner, the sweatpants and t-shirt loose on his body. He had more scars than Magnus remembered, and his eyes had the same dead expression that the others had but Magnus would recognize him anywhere.
“Alexander,” He sobbed, noticing that there was a simple padlock on the door. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a simple set of lock picks but found his hands were shaking too much to pull them out. A few rakes slipped out and clattered to the ground, the noise nearly echoing in the room.
Izzy and Jace had joined him and he tried to focus on the lock in front of him. It was a simple padlock - child’s play. They weren’t trying to keep anything out of the cells - they were trying to keep the occupants in. “You’ve got this Magnus, we’re with you,” Jace mumbled behind him. The blond was one of the best agents that they’ve had in years but even he realized he couldn’t pull a padlock apart with his bare hands...despite how badly he wanted to.
Magnus glanced back at Alec and found the man had moved a little closer and was now looking at them with his head tilted. His pupils were blown like the others and he seemed almost sluggish - he was trying to work through the drugs but they seemed to just be pulling him back down. The thief closed his eyes and took a deep breath - he’d worked in the middle of active war zones before. He could manage to put his personal life aside and pick a simple fucking padlock. He had to.
“FENRIS,” Izzy whispered from his other side as Magnus pulled out his tools and began to work the lock. “It’s fitting almost. For Alec.”
“What do you mean?” He’d grabbed the wrong size rake by mistake and he quickly swapped it for a smaller one. Rookie mistake - he was better than this.
“Fenris could only be held by a chain made of impossible things. It would take something impossible to hold Alec here if he didn’t want to be held.” Isabelle responded, curling her fingers around the metal of the chain-link wall.
The lock popped open half a second later and Jace barely gave them time to step back before he was opening the door and pulling his brother into a hug. “Alec… We thought we’d never see you again. I’m so sorry it took us this long.” The older man flinched and froze as Jace wrapped his arms around him. Magnus frowned, remembering that Isabelle had said that the drugs' main purpose was to keep them compliant. Alec wasn’t moving away because he thought that staying put was expected of him.
“ Beta team to Shadow Team - We have a few remaining on-site staff - it seems to be mainly doctors and lab technicians. We’re taking them into custody now. Any of these names ring a bell?” Andrew Underhill’s voice rang through their com units. He read off a list of names that Magnus half-listened to before one sent a chill down his spine. “That one. Save that one for me.” That was the man from the video. He’d heard a woman call his name from offscreen. Magnus was going to make sure he took his sweet time when he took the man apart.
Izzy and Jace were whispering to their brother but he wasn’t registering either of them. Magnus knew, knew , that this entirely the fault of the chemical cocktail that was currently running through his veins but he if didn’t recognize his own siblings then there was very little chance that he’d recognize the man he had been dating for a little over a year. He hoped that Alec would regain his memories as the drug wore off...but what if he didn’t? What if these monsters had done more to him than just pumping him full of god knows what?
Magnus’ heart couldn’t take that thought...not right now. He could fall apart when he got home and was alone in his loft. He could drink himself stupid until Catarina or Ragnor came by to patch him back together. Or hell, maybe they’d send Raphael. Right now? Right now he had a job to do.
He started to quietly fold the bits and pieces of himself that made him Magnus into the hidden dark corners in his mind. Yes, he had a job to do but this job didn’t call for Magnus Bane, the light-hearted thief. This job needed his darker side, the one his father had beaten into and Magnus had lived as until he was able to break free. He was about to do things, dark, unspeakable things that Magnus Bane would never approve of. Alec wouldn’t either but he hoped that one day he would be forgiven. This was for him, after all.
“Magnus?” Izzy asked in between sobs, noticing that he was uncharacteristically keeping his distance after he’d fought so hard to find Alec these past few years.
“He doesn’t need me right now. He’s not recognizing any of us but you and Jace have a better chance of getting through to him than I do.” He heard the other teams arrive - Alpha and Delta - he noted, and he stepped out of the cell to allow one of the medical technicians inside. They were cutting the locks to the other cells now and the Institute agents would take care of the other victims. “I have something I need to take care of first.”
He turned on his heel and headed towards the door that would lead back upstairs, tapping his comlink over to a private channel and calling Underhill. He could hear Izzy’s protests behind him but he kept moving. He might not be able to help Alexander right now, as much as he wanted to, but at least he could take care of the man who had hurt him. If Alec recovered his memories and remembered who Magnus was? Well...he hoped his boyfriend would quite appreciate the gesture.
Taking care of him would at least help Magnus sleep better at night.
Andrew was good, Magnus thought as he arrived at the location that he had been guided to, Andrew was very good. He wasn’t sure if he’d seen the videos or had been warned or could just hear something in Magnus’ voice but he’d moved the man - one Nicodemus Proudfoot - to an isolated and empty storage room at the end of a hallway. Magnus opened the door and was pleased to see the man was tied to a chair, gagged, and had a look of pure terror in his eyes.
Magnus removed the man’s gag, intending to have a full conversation before he set to work. “Nicodemus Proudfoot… I’m so glad you chose to remain in-house tonight. That makes my job so much easier. Do you know who I am?”
“Magnus Bane,” the man growled, tugging uselessly at his restraints. “Petty thief. Not worth our time.”
“Thief I may be but there’s nothing petty about me.” Magnus laughed, taking a step closer and leaning close to the man’s ear. “Do you want to know a secret? I have another name - one that’s not used anymore except in scary stories parents tell their children in some parts of the world. I haven’t been that man in a very, very long time. I never planned to be that man again but you took something of mine. I saw the videos - I know what you did and that’s why I’ve tucked Magnus Bane safe away. You, Mr. Proudfoot, have the pleasure of meeting the Wraith.”
Nicodemus’ face paled, eliciting a wicked grin from Magnus. “I see you recognize that name. Good. It certainly makes this more fun.”
Andrew had helpfully pulled a table in and Magnus took his time unstrapping the various daggers he had hidden on his person. “I will admit I didn’t come fully prepared. While I’m sure we could find everything I need somewhere in this lovely facility, I feel that would cut into our valuable bonding time so we will just have to make do with what I have on me.”
As Magnus Bane, he only carried knives in a last-ditch preservation effort. He didn’t use guns so the knives were just in case he couldn’t get in and out of a situation as cleanly as he had hoped. A thief who got caught was a dead thief.
As the days and months and years ticked by without any trace of Alec, more and more of Magnus Bane had disappeared, leaving the Wraith in his place.
His introduction to the Shadoworld had been at his father’s knee. The man had taken him in after the death of his mother and had taught him everything he needed to be an up-and-coming criminal - from picking simple locks to stealing prized paintings from famous museums, Magnus learned it all, but Asmodeus hadn’t been keen on leaving it there. As he grew older, he began to teach his son how to use a blade. Against Magnus’ wishes, he’d become his father’s pet executioner.
It had taken him years to break free from his father’s hold and finally kill the man who had figuratively held his leash. To this day, he still had nightmares of the atrocities that he’d committed at his father’s hand. He knew that he’d never atone for those acts and they would haunt him until the day he died.
That was never the man he wanted to be for Alec but after seeing those videos… That's the man he was going to be. At least until justice was had.
“Do you know what this is?” He asked, picking up the wavy blade and letting the blade catch the light. “It’s a keris, though you might know it as a kris. The shape of the blade is iconic...and not just for aesthetics. A wavy blade means you bleed more when I use it...and trust me, I’ve gotten very, very good at using it. Oh, you’ll still die but you’ll do so slowly. Maybe, if you’re lucky, I’ll take your head before that happens.” He ran the tip of the knife down the man’s cheek, just hard enough for it to start to bleed.
He wasn’t sure if it was the name he had given or the blades of the table but the man was no longer trying to fight him. He’d switched to begging for his life as soon as Magnus picked up the kris. “Now, tell me about Alexander Lightwood and remember that nothing you say will prevent your death, you just have a choice on whether it will be slow and painful or a little bit quicker.”
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He worked Nicodemus over for an hour and the man had wisely chosen not to hold anything back. In the end, he’d taken the man’s head, the kukris he kept strapped to his back sharp enough to cut through bone with a little bit of effort. He took a moment to wipe the blood from the knives off on his jacket, sending a silent thanks to R&D that the black on his tactical gear was dark enough to hide blood.
As he stepped into the hall, he noticed that Andrew was still standing guard in front of the door. He must have heard everything but it didn’t seem he cared - his only reaction upon seeing Magnus exit with Nicodemus’ blood still warm on his hands was to blink and ask if he was finished.
“Quite. I don’t believe Mr. Proudfoot will be joining us for the remainder of the trip home. It got a little bit messy.” Magnus replied, taking the towel that Andrew had found somewhere and trying to clean his hands.
“I’ll have someone arrange for disposal,” the other man replied, glancing back at the blood that was slowly starting to leak out from underneath the door.
Magnus began strapping the remainder of his weapons back into their proper place. “How’s the rest of the operation going? I take it no one asked too many questions about my disappearance?”
“We’ve finished our final sweep of the building. They’ll send the techs in to recover the computers and take them with us. The clean-up crew will come after that. The…victims have been sedated and restrained and are being loaded on helicopters now. Once we get back to the airstrip, we’ll switch the planes and have them home by tomorrow morning.”
“Why sedated? Did they give the teams any trouble?” Magnus honestly hadn’t put much thought into exactly how the rest of the operation would go. He’d be… preoccupied.
“Isabelle’s suggestion - we don’t know how they’ll react to the drugs leaving their systems or when that will start to happen. This way was safer for all involved.” Magnus must not have looked pleased with that, despite agreeing with Isabelle’s decision. Andrew grabbed his arm, stopping them both in the hallway. “Magnus, you found him. Despite all the odds and everything stacked against you, despite the fact that you’re here with teams from the Institute - you were the one who did the heavy lifting here. No one could have done this without you. The hard part is done...we’ll get him home and we’ll get him better.”
“You can’t promise that. What happened here… nothing will ever be the same.”
“I can promise that because I know Alec and he’s a stubborn bastard. If anyone can overcome what happened here, it’s him.” Andrew gave his arm a squeeze before he released him. “Everything will be fine but we should join the others before they decide to leave us here.”
The helicopters carrying the victims had already left by the time Magnus and Underhill stepped outside, leaving two to carry back the members of the teams who wouldn’t be staying to help with clean-up. Jace was leaning against one, his arms crossed and a dark look on his face. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Taking care of some unfinished business,” Magnus spat back, the adrenaline of the mission finally wearing off and exhaustion catching up to him.
“That unfinished business more important than Alec, Magnus?” Jace had pushed himself off the helicopter to stalk closer to Magnus, looking every bit like he was ready to swing a punch.
“It was for Alec, Jace,” Magnus replied, lowering his voice so that only the three of them could hear. “That man from the video? Nicodemus? That was my unfinished business.”
Jace narrowed his eyes and snarled. “Did he walk away?”
Magnus heard the wheels of a gurney coming out of the door and turned towards the noise. A lone tech was pushing the body back towards a cluster of forensics vehicles off to the left. He turned his head and watched the man pass and shrugged. “More like rolled, really.”
Jace gave him a nod and pointed back to the helicopter. “Good. Now let’s head out. Isabelle has already left.”
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Magnus didn’t realize the scope of their rescue until the planes landed at a private airstrip and he found more alphabet agencies than he could count waiting for them. Apparently, the five victims had belonged to other intelligence agencies and had been missing for years and written off as killed in action. No one had expected them to turn up in a warehouse in Russia five years later.
Truthfully, Magnus hadn’t either.
Some small part of Magnus had expected that they would only find a body but they at least owed it to Alec to give him a proper rest.
After they’d turned up cold lead after cold lead, Magnus had started getting creative. Working Nicodemus over wasn’t the first time he’d stepped into the Wraith’s shoes since Alec had gone missing...but it certainly wasn’t Magnus Bane who had taken a dubious information broker apart to get the tip that had finally led to some good information.
He watched as Alec’s unconscious form was wheeled off the plane and straight into the building - to a secure and isolated room in the medical wing, he was sure. He hadn’t been able to look at Alec on the plane, not while the man had been sedated and tightly strapped to the gurney.
Alec hadn’t recognized him. The dead look on his (ex?) boyfriend’s face would haunt his memories forever. Alec hadn’t recognized him and may never recognize him again. Magnus would have to live with that if it were the case...and if he was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure that he could.
He hadn’t realized that the others had all followed the medics inside, leaving him alone with the mechanics on the tarmac. Well, almost alone. “Magnus, it’ll be fine. I meant what I said that Alec’s a stubborn bastard. He’ll pull through. If anyone can do it, it’ll be him. Let him get the drugs out of his system, let him heal, and you two will be okay.” Andrew said, giving him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder.
Magnus let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and bit back a sob. “I hope you're right. It’s hard to see that far into the future after what we found there today. What if it were Lorenzo? Would you still feel the same way?”
“If it were Lorenzo, I would have done exactly what you did back there...and I’d be on my way inside right now because you can be damn sure I’m not leaving his side after he’s been missing for years.” Underhill gestured towards the door and raised an eyebrow. “Go get him. You both deserve it.”
Magnus smiled in thanks and headed towards the door. He had to be strong. Alec would need him to be strong.
“Magnus, wait! One last thing.” He stopped and turned back towards Underhill. “What happened back there...what you did?” Magnus felt a chill run down his spine. What happened back in that supply closet could send him to a very secure, very secret prison for the rest of his life and then some. “Your secret is safe with me. And since Alec isn’t currently able to say it for himself and I’m sure you’re overthinking it - Nicodemus Proudfoot deserved everything he had coming to him and then some. The only thing you have to worry about is Alec tearing you a new one when he finds out because you didn’t save anything for him.”
Magnus laughed and felt a little more tension leave his body. “Andrew - thank you. For your help in finding him and for talking me off the proverbial cliff just now. Lorenzo is lucky to have you.”
“As lucky as Alec is to have you. Now go. Make sure Jace doesn’t glare the medics away as he tends to do.”
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It wasn’t hard to find the room that Alec had been taken to - he followed the trail of people and wasn’t surprised to find a whirlwind of chaos once he got there. Alec’s family was around the bed, making the doctors and nurses have to squeeze around them to get their samples. Magnus hesitated in the doorway and considered turning around - clearly, the family needed some time and while he and Alec had been together, their relationship hadn’t been that long in the grand scheme of things.
Maryse noticed him hovering in the doorway and gave him a smile. “Magnus, come here. You deserve to be here just as much as we do.” He shuffled in nervously and took the hand she offered him, flinching as she pulled him into a hug. “Thank you for bringing my boy home when no one else could.”
“I couldn’t live without him,” he whispered, trying not to look towards the rest of Alec’s family with the tears that were forming in his eyes. Magnus had been the backbone in their search to bring him. Now that they’d finally found him, that cold facade he’d had was starting to shatter.
“I promise you that Alec feels the same way about you,” she replied, pulling away and giving him that telling smile that only mothers had.
“He’s still unconscious?” Magnus asked after a moment, taking a step closer to the bed and running his fingers gently over the back of Alec’s hand. “And restrained?”
“He’ll start coming too soon - the doctors wanted to take samples before he woke up. The serum in his blood is burning through the sedation far too quickly and they don’t want to keep adding more.” Isabelle replied, flipping through the medical chart on his bed for what Magnus was sure was the hundredth time since they brought him in. “But until his body can start working through the rest of the drugs he’s on, they want to keep him restrained. We don’t know where his mind will be.”
Magnus hummed, “With as many things that were listed in that file back at the base, that could take days...or weeks.” Honestly, he was shocked Alec was still functioning as well as he had been considering. “You all should get some sleep. We’ve been at this for ages.”
Isabelle raised her eyebrow and pointed towards him accusingly. “Maybe consider taking your own advice then, mister. I don’t care how much make-up you put on, we can all see the bags under your eyes from here. When was the last time you actually slept in a bed and not a desk chair, the couch in the lounge, or leaning up against a wall during a debrief?”
He coughed out a laugh. “I don’t think I’ll be getting any sleep tonight. There’s still work to be done.” Like finding out how they’d gotten ahold of Alec in the first place and tracking down the other men who had been listed in Alec’s file. Not to mention… watching over Alec himself.
“Then go home and take something for it,” A voice said from the door, chucking an orange bottle of pills at his head. “Isabelle is right, you’ve been killing yourself over this. The rest of it can wait until morning. You need sleep, Magnus. You’re only human.” Catarina knew his self-sacrificing tendencies all too well. She’d been the one to stitch him up after countless missions while he was still a thief. They’d been friends for years but she wasn’t on staff at the Institute. What in the world was she doing here?
“You called Cat?” He asked, glancing down at the bottle she’d thrown at him. Sleeping pills… strong ones, at that. If he took these he’d be out for at least twelve hours which is probably why she gave them to him in the first place. “Why? How? Don’t you need some sort of special security clearance and like a thousand orientations to even walk in the front door?”
“We wanted the best just in case we did ever find him. Catarina’s been cleared for months. We called her on the plane home. Anyone who can keep your dumb ass alive with all the shit you got up to in Peru has got to be worth their weight in gold.” Jace replied, snatching the pill bottle out of Magnus’ hand and dumping two into his palm with a shrug. “What? Magnus isn’t the only one who hasn’t been sleeping.”
“Magnus, go get some sleep and trust me to watch over your boyfriend while I do. I will call you if there’s any update but I don’t expect there to be much change for another day, alright? It’s the perfect time for you to get some rest.” Catarina held up a finger when he started to protest. “Don’t make me call Raphael to babysit you while you sleep. He’ll sit there and stare at you all night. Do you really want that?”
No. No, Magnus really did not want that at all.
“Now go. I don’t want to see you back in here for at least a day. The same goes for any of you that haven’t been getting regular sleep. I’ve got your numbers and the best medical team money can buy. Let me handle this for now.” As much as Magnus wanted to stay, he’d been on Catarina’s bad side before and that was not an experience he was willing to repeat.
“As soon as there is any change?” He asked once again, already heading towards the door.
“The very second, Magnus. I promise.”
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With the help of Catarina’s sleeping pills, Magnus got exactly fourteen hours of sleep. When he woke up, he felt his muscles scream in protest. All the tension he’d been strung with over the last few years, finally releasing from his body. He knew that he could still use more sleep. He’d been running on a handful of uncomfortable hours a night for far too long. He blindly reached towards the end table for the bottle of pills before he froze.
Alec. They’d found Alec.
He grabbed his phone instead, sending up a silent prayer once he saw that he’d managed to actually plug it in last night before he’d collapsed.
Two missed text messages.
The first from Catarina - ‘He’s awake but he’s still out of it. The drugs are still in his system. No need to come rushing back yet.’
The second one was from Isabelle, who must have been there when Catarina texted him. ‘She means it, Magnus. He’s still in La La Land. Stay home but call me when you wake up.’
He pushed the call button and wasn’t surprised when Isabelle picked up on the first ring. “Is everything alright?”
“Magnus, calm down. Alec’s awake. His pupils are still blown. He’s still not aware of his surroundings. This is the same Alec we saw back in Russia. He’s still got to burn through all the drugs in his system. We knew this would happen, remember?” Magnus could hear the steady beep of machinery and realized she must be in Alec’s room.
Magnus sighed, laying back down and pulling the gold sheets back over himself. “Then what is it, Isabelle? I thought I was banned from the Institute for at least 12 more hours.”
She paused. “It’s Jace. He didn’t sleep last night despite the show he put on. He’s not...doing well. Honestly, he hasn’t been doing well for a while. I thought finding Alec would help with that but it may have actually made it worse.”
“And what would you have me do about Jace?” He could already tell he wasn’t like where this conversation was going. “I’m kind of a mess myself, at the moment. I believe you were kind enough to point that out to me yesterday.”
“If I send him over to your place, can you keep an eye on him? I’m still tied up in the lab running all these samples and I don’t want to leave him alone.”
“What do you expect me to do? Do you want us to braid each others’ hair and sing Kumbaya?”
“Make sure he eats something, try to get him to sleep for an hour or two. Hell, hit him hard enough in the head, I don’t care. At this point even being unconscious would probably be more rest than he’s gotten in a long time. Please, Magnus.”
Magnus was going to regret this. He and Jace had grown closer over the last few years but they’d never truly seen eye to eye. Magnus had been much closer with Isabelle instead. “ Fine. I’ll leave the door unlocked. Just tell him to come on up.”
------------------------
He lay in bed for another fifteen minutes before he painfully dragged himself into the bathroom for a shower. He hadn’t managed to take one before he crashed last night so he found that he was still covered in sweat. And blood. Nicodemus’s blood. That shouldn’t satisfy him as much as it did.
He stood under the steaming water for what felt like ages before finally getting enough energy to wash his hair and take care of the red that was underneath his fingernails. He shut the water off and eyed the robe that was hanging over the door. He should get dressed. He should also do his make-up. He was about to have company but he couldn’t find it in himself to care that the very carefully cultivated appearance he’d set for himself would be shattered.
He pulled the blue silk over himself and tied it around his waist before making his way into the kitchen. He was a little shocked to find an awkward Jace already in his living room poking at an antique statuette he’d rehomed from a museum in Prague that was sitting at eye level on the bookshelf by the door. “Well, I see you’ve started to make yourself at home. Take off your shoes, at least. That rug costs more than you make in a year.”
The spy was quick to pull his shoes off and set them neatly by the door. He looked back up at Magnus and blinked. “You look...different.”
Magnus scowled and continued his journey to the kitchen to start some coffee. “Well, I didn’t expect company today. I was about to go back to sleep when I saw your sister’s text so I apologize if I’m not entirely put together.”
“It’s not that, Magnus. It’s just...you’re always so sharp. You look...soft. This is the you that Alec saw...and that feels kinda dirty.” Jace was scratching at the back of his neck shyly as a blush rose on his face.
“I will go get dressed if that will save your delicate sensibilities,” Magnus replied with a raised eyebrow. “Why don’t you look through the take-out menus in the kitchen and pick something. Your sister told me to make sure you eat and she is not a person that I’m willing to cross.”
------------------------
When Magnus returned, this time dressed in basic black jeans and one of Alec’s old t-shirts but still without his make-up, he found Jace sitting on the couch with a steaming mug of coffee in his hand. “You know,” she said, slightly startling the spy who very nearly spilled his drink of Magnus’ couch, “I also told your sister I’d get you to sleep and caffeine is certainly not the way to do that.”
He plucked the mug from Jace’s hand and took a sip, maintaining eye contact despite the protests that he was getting. “I was also given permission to knock you out if I needed to. Surely, you don’t want to see what dastardly means I have to do that, do you?”
“I’m not a child, you don’t need to babysit me.” Jace looked like he wanted to argue more but he knew it would fall on deaf ears.
“Apparently, I do. I thought you were going to take some sleeping pills and knock out last night? What happened?” In good light, without the chaos of the medical bay around him and the after-mission adrenaline long gone, Magnus could clearly see what had Isabelle concerned. Jace was pale, the bags under his eyes darker than the ones Magnus’ had. He was paler than normal and he’d lost weight. “Alright, time to come clean. What’s on your mind?”
Jace had never been good with feelings , Magnus knew that. He wasn’t expecting miracles here but he couldn’t talk the blond off the ledge if he didn’t know exactly where that ledge was. The way Jace was wringing his hands though looked like he wanted to say something though he wasn’t quite sure where to start. “Jace, I am the very last person who is going to judge you.”
“I should have been there,” he said quietly. “That was supposed to be my mission. We found out the day before that they were sending me off the next day. We went out for a few drinks and when Alec left I stayed behind. I guess I had more to drink than I thought. I slept through my alarm and Alec covered for me. Told people I was sick, sent me a message to stay home and he’d fill in.”
Jace pushed himself off the couch and started pacing, the nervous energy in him too much to finish this conversation sitting down. “If I had been there instead, none of this would have happened. Alec never would have disappeared.”
“No, but maybe you would have. They took him for a reason, Jace. Until we talk to Alec or the computer techs get a chance to comb through the hard drives we brought back, we won’t know what their intentions were. The lives we lead are dangerous. We all know the risks we’re taking every time we step into the field. This isn’t your fault.” Jace was silent, so Magnus tried a different approach. “What would Alec say if he were here right now?”
The other man thought about it for a moment before letting out a sound halfway between a sob and a laugh. “He’d tell me to get my head out of my ass because not everything is about me.”
“Exactly. We found him, that’s all that matters. Now, let's order some food, watch some shitty reality TV shows and then pass the fuck out for a few hours to appease your sister. What did you decide is on the menu tonight?”
------------------------
Alec’s healing process was slow.
Each day the doctors came in and took more blood samples. Each day they found diminishing amounts of the chemicals in his body but he was still not speaking. They had noticed he started tugging at the restraints and looking at his visitors warily but until he showed signs that he recognized them, they didn’t want to let him up. They couldn’t be sure where his loyalties lie at the moment.
It broke Magnus’ heart. Spending hours sitting by his bed hoping for something, anything, was absolutely killing Magnus’ fragile mental state and he had noticed that Jace wasn’t doing much better.
He needed to get out of here and do something before he lost his goddamn mind. “Let’s spar,” he said one evening when he and Jace were the only two who remained in Alec’s room. Alec had been sleeping for an hour - he slept a lot these days. Catarina had explained that his body was using up its extra energy to burn through the drugs. He wouldn’t wake for another few hours at least.
“What?” The look Jace gave him was halfway in between shock and horror.
“You heard me right. Let’s spar. All we’ve been doing since we brought him home is sitting in this room waiting for updates or lying to ourselves about how much sleep we’re actually getting. I’m practically itching to do something... anything . I think it will be good for both of us if we get out of this room for a while. Alec won’t wake up anytime soon and if he does, we can trust that Catarina will let us know. Please, Jace?” Magnus was begging, he knew that, but he really needed this and he thought that Jace could use a change of pace as well.
“You don’t spar,” Jace said after a moment, still trying to process what Magnus had said. “I have never once seen you spar with anyone.”
Magnus scoffed, “Well, not with you lot, sure. You all would make mincemeat out of me but I do have other friends, you know. I happen to spar with them quite frequently. However, I’m willing to take a few bruises to my body and my pride in this scenario. What do you say?”
“Fine,” Jace sighed, pushing himself off the chair in the corner and strolling towards the door. “But don’t think I’m going to go easy on you. I’m antsy and you’re wiley.”
“Of course not, I’d be upset if you did.”
------------------------
After that, Magnus and Jace made a point to head to the gym at least twice a day. Unsurprisingly, the sparring led to better sleeping and that was something Magnus was going to consider a blessing in disguise. He could try and lie to himself all he wanted but he knew that continuing in the fashion he had been was starting to catch up with him.
It was a Thursday when Alec finally woke up with some degree of clarity.
The doctors had been reporting that a good portion of the drugs had disappeared from his body nearly entirely but Magnus had yet to see any sort of proof of that.
He was trying not to worry but the thought that Alec might never fully recover or regain his memories was always lingering in the back of his traitorous mind.
Alec had already awoken twice that day. Magnus didn’t think much of it when Alec started to stir again. He’d been curled in a chair in the corner, alternating between uncomfortably dozing off and trying to complete the last of the paperwork the Institute needed regarding Alec’s retrieval. He glanced up quickly to make sure nothing was amiss before returning to the tablet in his hand.
Jace and Isabelle were both in similar states - taking up the two chairs that were closer to Alec’s bed. They’d both froze when Alec began to wake up. “Alec, buddy?” Jace had stood up and taken a few steps towards the bed to put himself in Alec’s line of sight.
Alec glanced around the room with a frown and tugged experimentally at the restraints holding his hands to the bed. Magnus could tell by the small gasp that Isabelle gave that something in the way he woke was different this time.
“How did I get here?” Alec asked after a moment, his voice raspy from disuse.
Those were the first words he’d spoken since they’d brought him home. Magnus quickly dumped the tablet on the chair, hearing a loud thump as he missed and it slid to the ground instead. He only could pretend to care that he hoped he hadn’t shattered the screen. If Alec was awake, a slap on the hand and a requisition for a new one were the least of his worries.
He rushed to join Alec’s siblings next to the bed. “Alexander?” Please, he silently begged, let this be the start of his boyfriend’s true recovery.
Alec studied each of them carefully, the frown still written in every line of his face. He turned towards Jace. “I think I know you? And you…” He said, turning his head towards Isabelle as well. “Do I know you?” He asked, finally looking towards Magnus.
Magnus felt his entire world shatter. He’d been hoping for something, for anything, a small glimmer of hope, and now? Now there wasn’t one.
He took a step back, struggling to find any words to respond. He should be happy that Alec was finally awake and responsive. He couldn’t take this personally. He shouldn’t.
Isabelle shot him a look before turning her attention back to Alec and offering him a small smile. “Alec…we’re your siblings. That’s Jace, I’m Izzy. And you do know him, that’s…” she turned her head back to where Magnus had been only to find him gone. She sighed, “That was Magnus. It’s alright… he’ll be back. How do you feel?”
------------------------
Magnus returned only a handful of times after that. It seemed every time Alec woke, they went through the same process of him barely remembering any of them or himself. Magnus couldn’t bear the thought of not being important enough in Alec’s memories to not linger at the edges like the rest of his family members. He stopped kidding with himself after that.
The old Magnus Bane would have taken off for the hills to drink away his sorrows in some secluded beach house that had been purchased with un-reported offshores accounts but he wasn’t that Magnus anymore. He’d stopped his life of crime and joined the very men and women who had chased him halfway across the globe time and time again.
He was a shadow of his former self and this Magnus didn’t know what he wanted. This Magnus didn’t know how to deal with the hand that he had been dealt and the grief that came with it.
“Magnus, you’ve got to stop.” He heard a stern voice behind him pulling him from his reverie. He continued to wail on the punching bag in front of him instead. “I mean it, stop. For fuck’s sake, Magnus, look at your hands. You’re getting blood all over the floor and I don’t want to explain to Maryse why we have to call a clean-up crew when you’ve been in here alone for hours.” He went to throw another punch but a hand caught his fist mid-air.
He tried to pull his hand free but Jace was stronger...and more determined. “Let go,” he spat, the anger he’d been building the last few days still fighting to escape.
“No, you’re done. You are going to grab your stuff and we’re going to the infirmary to have someone look at your hands. I’m sure you’ve got some broken fingers underneath all that blood. You’ll be lucky if it’s just that. What the hell has gotten into you?” Jace released him but followed him across the mat to make sure he was actually going to do what was asked of him.
“It’s nothing, I’m fine.” Magnus was far from fine, he knew that, but Alec’s siblings had gotten so used to seeing him as the strong one, the one who always had a plan, that he didn’t want to spoil their opinion now. He’d dealt with all the chaos and trauma in his life by himself this long, surely he could still do it.
“You’re not fine. Don’t try to lie to me, that’s insulting. I’ve never seen you train yourself hard enough that your knuckles started bleeding.” Magnus said nothing and Jace crossed his arms before continuing. “You know who I have seen do that though? Alec. Any time we lost someone on a mission or we got close to you only for you to leave one of your damn calling cards and slip into the wind. After that stunt you pulled in Morocco, Maryse had to ban him from the gym.”
“He still doesn’t recognize me,” Magnus finally said quietly. He didn’t know why he was having this conversation with Jace of all people. Isabelle had a way of pulling information out of people but he hadn’t seen her since the last time he’d been in Alec’s room. “Every single time he wakes up, he knows that he knows the rest of you, even if he doesn’t remember how. He doesn’t even realize that he knows me. I’m not important enough for his mind to hold on to, even in the fragile state it's in.”
Jace snorted and collapsed onto the bench next to him. “Well, yeah. He recognizes us because we spent every waking day together for like twenty fucking years. It’s kind of hard to forget that. You guys were still new Magnus. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you any less. His mind is still healing and there are a lot more memories of us than there are of you. Catarina says in the next week or two the remainder of the ‘make him crazy’ drugs will be out of his system. Give him a chance.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do if he never recognizes me.” It might just kill him if he was honest. He’d never felt for someone the way he felt for Alec and he’d been looking for him for so damn long.
“Well, we will have to cross that bridge when we get to it,” Jace replied, hooking his arm under Magnus’ and pulling him off the bench to not put any more stress on his broken hands. “I can tell you one thing though - running away from your problems is not the way to deal with them. Neither is training yourself half to death. Come on, let’s get you to the infirmary. Catarina is going to have words for you.”
------------------------
“Alec recognized me today,” Isabelle said a week later as she joined him on the roof of the Institute. He was still struggling to visit Alec when he was awake. He didn’t want to give himself a chance to have his heart broken all over again. It was all he could do to protect his sanity. “He fell back asleep before Jace could get there but he looked into my eyes and said ‘Izzy.’”
“That’s good… he’s been sleeping a lot. I wasn’t sure if he’d ever wake up let alone start to remember any of you.” Catarina had told him earlier that day that the last of the drugs were finally out of his body and that today’s blood tests had come back completely clean. Theoretically, his recovery should move faster now. They’d already taken off the restraints - he was no longer a threat to the doctors and nurses who came and went during the day.
“Well, Sleeping Beauty he may be, but the point is, Magnus, he’s getting there, ” Isabelle said as the wind picked up and tossed her hair across her face. “I didn’t need to introduce myself this time. We’ll see what he remembers next time he wakes up. Maybe it’ll be Jace, maybe it’ll be mom, maybe it will be who he is but he can’t remember you if you don’t give him a chance to do it.”
“You know I can’t do that. I want to be there for him, I want that more than anything but what if he never remembers me? I’m not prepared to face that possibility.”
She grabbed his shoulders and turned him so that he was facing her, an accusatory finger poking him in the chest. “Then you, Magnus Bane, make him fall in love with you all over again. My brother was happy in a way I’ve never seen before after he met you. Then he disappeared and was put through literal hell, he needs you in this recovery, Magnus. We don’t even know what all of that is going to do to his mental state once he starts remembering it all, but I can tell you this. He needs the one person who refused to give up on him despite all the odds stacked against him. The person who would take off in the middle of the night with no warning who would come back two days later with blood staining his designer jacket and a new lead. Alec won’t recover if you’re not by his side.”
Magnus took a deep breath and nodded, a sob at the back of his throat. “I’ll try. Maybe not today...maybe not tomorrow, but I promise I’ll try. Keep me updated though...please?”
“You know I will.”
------------------------
Magnus did try. He hadn’t lied to Isabelle during that conversation on the roof. He’d tried daily but he always found himself hesitating outside the door. He was terrified . Magnus Bane didn’t get terrified; he was all confidence and bravado but the fact that he couldn’t even open a doorknob made him a coward.
Isabelle kept him updated, true to her half of their bargain. Through her, he knew that Alec was remembering more and more each day. They’d filled him in on what he had missed since his disappearance, asked him to start recounting what he was willing to share of his captivity and had him speak to multiple therapists regarding the state of his mental health.
It didn’t sound like he’d once mentioned Magnus.
Magnus continued to train each day while mentally starting to plan his escape. He was sure Ragnor and Raphael could create an identity for him that couldn’t be tracked and could help him get out of the country without being caught by the Institute’s ever-watchful eye. He heard Tahiti was nice this time of year - but did he really want to spend the rest of his life moping alone about the path his life had taken? He wasn’t even sure a beautiful island paradise could cure that.
“Well, brother, Catarina has signed off on the fact that you won’t keel over and die any time soon but you are on strict mobility limitations for the next few months at least. You’re supposed to meet with your therapists twice a week and report back to medical once a week for blood tests.” She watched as his face scrunched up in disgust. “Yeah, I know it sucks, but tough cookies. If you ever want to get back into the field or get a clean bill of health, those are the hoops you’ve got to jump through.”
Alec knew the protocols and knew Isabelle was just repeating what she’d been told but it still didn’t make it suck any less. “I guess you forgot to mention the glorified house arrest and what boils down to what is essentially babysitting to make sure I’m not going to snap and kill someone with my bare hands.”
“Well, I figured I wouldn’t insult you by telling you what you already know. You practically ran this place while Mom was playing politics in DC.” She crossed her arms with a fond smile on her face. “Alec, I know it will be a long, hard road ahead of you but for the record, we’re all glad to have you back. It’s not the same without you here. I missed my big brother, Jace practically faded away, Mom tried what she could but…” Her voice trailed off and Alec didn’t need her to finish the sentence to know what she was about to say.
“And Magnus?” Every time he’d asked about Magnus, Izzy had given him half an answer and changed the subject. She had told him that he was here, that he was fine, that she was sure he’d stop by later.
She hadn’t told him why Magnus had never come. Of all the people that Alec had wanted to see when he finally started regaining clarity, he’d wanted Magnus to be there more than anything else in the world.
Izzy sighed, handing him the sweater that was sitting at the end of his bed. “He’s been in a few times since we brought you in and he’s kept up to date on your progress…”
“But…?
“He’s afraid, Alec. A lot has changed in five years and you didn’t remember him for the first few weeks. You remembered Jace and Mom and I but you’d always look at him and ask who he was. After you disappeared, he devoted his entire life to finding out what happened to you. Hell, he joined the Institute as more than just an occasional asset because he wanted access to our resources. We’d been trying to get him to join for years and it took you going missing for him to finally bite. He’s an agent now...one of our best.”
“Where is he, Iz? Right now?” He didn’t know all of Magnus’ past but he knew the turmoil that must be going on in his head. He’d been tossed aside so many times previously in life, he must believe that the same thing was happening now. Alec was going to fix this, damn it. He was going to prove that it would take far more than being pumped full of drugs and five years of torture for him to forget Magnus Bane.
“Probably in the training room. He and Jace have been beating the shit out of each other on a regular basis since we got you back. It was tough on both of them, in the beginning. Neither were sleeping...then you started remembering and things got better for Jace but harder for Magnus. Jace found him pummeling a punching bag once with blood pooling on the ground. He broke almost all of his fingers that day. Catarina was livid.” Maryse had been pretty pissed off too since that took him out of commission for a while but none of them had wanted to bring it up. “Jace made sure to go with him each time he went to the gym after that.”
Without another word, Alec left the medical room he’d been recovering in and stalked through the halls to the training room, Izzy on his heels. “I’ve got this, Izzy. Please - we’ll be fine and if we’re not, I’m sure there are a hundred people within screaming distance who are secretly but not so secretly keeping tabs on me for you.” She gave him a knowing smile and squeezed his arm in good luck, letting him step through the door to the training room alone.
Jace was nowhere to be seen, despite Izzy’s previous words. He wouldn’t have put it past either of them to have expected this and set them both up. Magnus was there by himself - running through forms with the kukris that he often carried but Alec had never personally seen him use. He looked like he had been in here for hours. His shirt had been discarded haphazardly on the floor near a bench by the wall and the man was covered in a fine layer of sweat.
“Magnus,” He said softly, hoping to catch the man’s attention but not startle him enough that he injured himself. The kukris were too large to throw but that didn’t mean that Magnus wasn’t fast with them.
Magnus froze, slowly bringing the knives down to his sides. “Alexander?” He asked, a tremble in his voice as he turned back towards the door. That was permission enough for Alec and he made his way across the room to pull the thief into a hug. He could feel the tension in Magnus’ body and he squeezed him tighter, hoping that Magnus would realize that he had no intention of letting him go and relax.
“Let’s go home,” he muttered, his voice muffled against Magnus’ shoulder. “I’ve been cleared provided I follow the terms of my release.”
“Let me get one of your siblings, I’m sure they can take you..” Magnus sounded hesitant in a way Alec had never heard him sound before. And that hurt.
“No, Magnus. Home... with you. Back to the loft if you still have it...If you’ll still have me. Please?” He could feel Magnus melt underneath him as he ran a shaky hand up the thief’s back - some of the tension in his body finally releasing.
“I would honestly like nothing more, my love.”
------------------------
Magnus had several years of accrued vacation time since he’d spent nearly the entire time Alec had been missing looking for said missing spy. He’d submitted his request for an indeterminate vacation and knew that no one would argue. The terms of Alec’s release from medical stated that he needed to take it easy and be monitored at all times for any other effects from the detox or his captivity and who better to do that than Magnus?
They took it slowly - trying to ease back into a relationship that had permanently been changed. Alec had spent years being the Circle’s puppet and Magnus had spent every single one of those looking for any sign that the man he loved with his whole being was alive.
The dance was slow and sometimes awkward but they were starting to find their footing once again.
“Talk to me, Angel…” Magnus whispered one night a few months later as they were laying in bed. Alec had just woken up from a nightmare which was becoming more and more normal these days. “I know you don’t want to talk to another therapist..but you need to get some of it off your chest. Tell me something...anything.” Alec’s nose was tucked into Magnus’ neck as he fought back a sob. He wasn’t going to push Alec if he wasn’t ready but he wanted to help him start to heal.
“I had moments of clarity sometimes…” Alec started after a few quiet moments, weaving his fingers through one of Magnus’ hands. “I guess my body started to get used to the drugs...before they would up the dosage again. I still felt fuzzy but I could think...and I’d remember my siblings and my parents and you...I’d try to pretend like the drugs were still working because I knew if I could just get them out of my head then I could try to find a way out...but I was either too clumsy or they knew me better than I thought. There was a man… I never knew his name. I don’t think they ever said it around me when I wasn’t under the influence but he’d come and he’d taunt me and then he’d take me to this room…” He broke down again and Magnus pulled him closer.
“Shh, my love. There was a video… you don’t need to say what happened next if you don’t want to.” Alec continued his quiet sobs and Magnus just held him. “After we found you...I was heartbroken. You didn’t recognize me.”
“I will always recognize you, Magnus… I was drugged. I was so deep down I was just spinning and I didn’t know which way was up.” Recognizing Izzy that first day had been an anchor and slowly and surely he was able to pull himself out of the void. It had killed him a little when Magnus hadn’t been there the first day he finally felt like he’d stepped foot on dry land but that was a conversation for another day.
“Shh, love. I know...but when we first found you and I stepped into that cell, you didn’t react and my heart shattered. I figured if anyone should be around you, it should be Izzy and Jace. I was prepared to go back and help the teams finish the sweep of the building but then Andrew radioed that they’d found a few people and read off a list of names...one was Nicodemus Proudfoot.” He sighed, shifting their position so that he could glance down at Alec. “Did I ever tell you about my father? About the man that he made me?’
“Magnus, you don’t have to tell me…” Alec knew that Magnus’ life of crime hadn’t always been glorious, despite what all the Institute reports would have you believe. He wanted to know everything about the thief’s life but that time didn’t have to be now. There was always a time and a place for secrets to be shared.
“No, I want to. I need to… so that you’ll understand exactly what happened to Nicodemus.” He traced his fingers gently up and down Alec’s arm, trying to ground himself so that he could begin. “My father was a criminal,” He said finally. “He was a criminal...in every way that you can possibly imagine. He scammed people, cheated them out of their houses, their families, their very lives even sometimes. My mother raised me alone when I was little but after her death and with no other family… he found me. That’s how I first got into the business.”
“At first, it wasn’t terrible. He started small - locks, pockets… it was all a game to him. And I liked it - the thrill of solving the puzzle or not being caught and so as I got older, he’d give me harder jobs or harder puzzles. Kids didn’t look as suspicious as an adult in some situations. I robbed my first art museum at 16. After that… I guess he decided if I could do that and not get caught, it was time to teach me the other side of things…”
“The next day he started training me with knives...and swords...and clubs...anything that could be used to cause harm. And that? I wanted no part of that but he never gave me the choice to say no. He threatened me and my friends...he hurt innocent people until I had no choice but to keep working for him. I kept doing his dirty needs… I became nothing more than his blade. That’s when I stopped being Magnus Bane the art thief and because the Wraith.”
He couldn’t look Alec in the eyes - he’d seen the files the Institute had on the Wraith, even if no one knew the truth - that the man who remained on the top of their most-wanted lists had joined their ranks and become a friend to most of them. “I couldn’t break free, I couldn’t leave, not without causing unnecessary risk to my friends. Asmodeus had me well and truly trapped. I was his weapon...and I stayed that way for a few years.”
He sighed, untangling their hands and rolling to face the wall to put some distance in between them. He didn’t want to see Alec’s face when he continued.
“He asked me to kill a child,” he said after a moment, his voice barely louder than a whisper, “He wanted to teach her father a lesson. I can’t even remember what the man had done… maybe he didn’t pay quick enough, maybe he’d taken his business elsewhere… but that child was going to die for whatever mistake her father had made.”
His voice hitched and he squeezed his eyes shut, staving off the tears that he felt forming. “I might be a killer but I draw the line at killing kids. I...refused and things got...messy. I’m not even sure what happened, it was all over so quickly. I was the only one to walk out of that room alive.” Magnus had done a lot of truly terrible things in his time but that? That had been his darkest day. Even though Asmodeus was a truly terrible person, he’d just killed the last member of his family that remained.
Neither moved or spoke for a few moments and Magnus knew that he’d have to continue. The point of this was to explain to Alec about Nicodemus. He didn’t want the other man to have to live in fear.
“When Andrew told me that they’d taken Nicodemus into custody, having seen that video, it called out to the deepest, darkest parts of my soul. He died alone in a storage closet but only after I showed him how creative the Wraith could be. He won’t be coming back and if I could give it to him 10 times over, I would. But in the end? After he had told me of his sins and begged and pleaded for his life while blood bubbled out of his mouth, I still took his head. I’m sure your Institute has it in storage somewhere. I bet they’d let you see it if you asked.”
Neither moved before Alec scooted closer and pulled Magnus tightly against him. “Magnus, I’m sorry you had to be the Wraith again. I know you’re not that person and I can tell you never wanted to be him again -”
“Alexander, I would be that man every single day if it meant keeping you safe. I don’t regret it, not at all. I only regret that it couldn’t come sooner. I felt pieces of what made me Magnus fading out and pieces of the Wraith take their place. Maybe if I’d become him sooner, maybe if I’d worked a little harder trying to track down leads…” There’d been a few information brokers he’d come awfully close to becoming his darker self with and maybe if he’d had , Alec would never have had to experience half of what they did.
“Will you marry me?” Alec asked quickly, stumbling over the words as he reached into the end table to pull out a box. He’d called his mother and asked her to bring over the Lightwood family ring a few weeks ago. He knew Magnus liked extravagance and he had every intention of asking his sister to help him plan something big when the time was right.
Well, now wasn’t exactly extravagant but every bit of Alec’s being was telling him the time was right.
His hands were shaking and the ring fell on the sheets, causing him to swear. “Fuck, I mean... I had a whole speech. I was going to do this properly but after everything we’ve been through, I don’t want to wait. Magnus Bane, you waited for me when there was still no hope, you waited for me for 5 years, turning over any stone that might be a clue even after others had called the search off, you took care of my family when I couldn’t. You became the man you hate to take care of the one that gives me nightmares. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I never want to leave you again. I want you by my side for the rest of my life. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
Magnus still looked shocked as he glanced from Alec’s face to the ring in his hand. “I just told you I’m a killer that sits on the top of the Institute’s Most Wanted list and you want to marry me?” He wanted to ask Alec if he was delusional.
“Magnus, I wanted to marry before all this happened and I certainly still want to marry you now. Please - will you spend the rest of your life with me?” Alec tried to steady his still shaking hand as he waited for the spy’s response.
The silence was tense before Magnus let out a sigh, a grin plastered on his face as he pulled Alec in for a kiss. “Of course,” he whispered against Alec’s lips, “I would love nothing more.”
------------------------
Their wedding took place a year later in Marrakesh, against the background of the Palais Rhoul. Morocco had been a turning point in their game of cat and mouse. Even though it would be weeks later before they’d finally start seeing each other, this had been the real start of their relationship - the change from thief and spy to Magnus and Alec. (Magnus had jokingly asked if Interpol would be waiting for him when he’d stepped off the plain when Alec had first suggested the location.)
They’d kept the ceremony small and intimate, sharing the moment with those who truly had a place in their lives. Alec’s family, Magnus’ friends, a few scattered coworkers (Andrew had been slightly dumbfounded when Magnus had personally handed him the invitation) had all been in attendance as the two of them said their vows and shared their first dance.
It was the end of one story and the start of another and Magnus smiled to himself later that evening as they lay wrapped around each other. If Impossible Things couldn’t keep them apart, he’d like to see what the rest of the Universe had to throw at them. He was sure they’d make it through, however, because that’s what Magnus and Alec always did.