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Focusing on the screen of the control panel, Alec tried to ignore how hot it was watching Magnus so easily wield the power necessary to manipulate entire ley lines to his will.
Magnus’ golden magic crackling like lightning as it interacted with the blue-white of the pure Angelic Power from the Core.
He was torn between turned on at the incredibly masterful display of power and worry that this completely insane plan to flood the ley lines with pure angelic power from the Core in the hopes it would purge the as yet unknown demonic energies from them could and would very literally blow up in all their faces.
But Alec’s concerns turned out to be in vain when Magnus gave frustrated snarl as he let go off the power completely, withdrawing his magic from the Core’s power and dropping to the ground, one leg semi-curled beneath him. Abandoning the control panel, Alec strode the few steps forward to drop to a knee at Magnus’ side, letting his boyfriend lean back against him as he regained his breathe.
The blue tinted white of the Core’s power dissipated quickly in smug looking flourishes.
“What happened?” Alec asked, resting his hands on Magnus’ shoulder and tugging gently in encouragement until Magnus’ entire weight was resting against him.
Magnus’ head shook from side to side, the surprisingly soft tips of his mohawk brushing against Alec’s throat; mirrored in the glass that separated them from the Core, Alec saw the confusion in his eyes.
“I don’t know,” Magnus murmured. His arm came up of the floor from where he’d been bracing himself, crossing his body to grasp at Alec’s hand still on his shoulder. “I couldn’t make the connection,” he continued, his bafflement clear as day in his voice as he clung on to Alec as if he were an anchor.
“It resisted me,” Magnus continued, Alec remaining quite as he found the words. “It was like it something was blocking me from getting a grip in the Core’s power.”
Glad of the fact that Magnus couldn’t see his face, Alec shifted his gaze up from the reflection of Magnus’ face and to the Core beyond the glass and glared at her.
He’d had a suspicion not a few days earlier when Magnus had made a passing mention of how he’d had some issues making a portal into the Institute; though when Alec had expressed his concerns, that Magnus was the only Warlock to have worked on the wards in decades, he shouldn’t have any problems portalling through them, Magnus had just waved it off as just being down to his own exhaustion after a full day of using magic.
This just confirmed it.
Dropping his head so that he could press a kiss to the closely shaved side of Magnus head, Alec wrapped the arm not in Magnus grasp around his boyfriend’s shoulders, hugging him close for a moment.
“Okay, okay,” Alec mumbled into the short hairs. “Got any other ideas?”
“Maybe,” Magnus replied, his thumb rubbed against the skin of Alec’s wrist and his weight lifted slightly off Alec. Taking the hint for what it was, Alec unwrapped his arm from around Magnus’ shoulder and waited for Magnus to stop leaning against him before he stood up, holding out a hand to his boyfriend.
“It might be me,” Magnus offered, taking Alec’s hand and getting to his feet. “The wards are still Warlock magic, even if they’re connected to the Angelic Core. This is pure Angelic Power.”
“And?”
“You remember my friend Tessa, she may have enough Angelic essence to be able to make the connection,” Magnus said, though he didn’t sound convinced of it.
“Sounds good to me,” Alec agreed, despite knowing it wouldn’t work. This wasn’t a problem with Magnus and another Warlock wasn’t the answer. “Can you ask her to come? And then work with Izzy to figure out a plan if she can’t do it either. Raj was right that this plan is beyond risky,” Alec reluctantly admitted, the words sounding bitter in his mouth.
“You’re not coming?” Magnus asked, stopping at the door to turn to Alec.
Alec shook his head and gestured behind him to the control panel. “I just want to run a diagnostic and check a few things,” he mostly lied. Continuing with a promise of, “I’ll be right behind you.”
Magnus glanced down at their intertwined hands, using the connection to tug Alec towards him, his other hand coming up to curl around the base of Alec’s neck, flat over his deflect rune. “I’m sorry this didn’t work, Alexander.”
“If I’m sure of anything about this, it’s that it’s not your fault,” Alec swore, knowing it was true on every level, even the ones Magnus didn’t know about.
Magnus’ lips twitched up and he leaned in to kiss Alec. The current disaster meant it was only brief, but Alec sunk into the warmth and comfort of it nonetheless, keeping his eyes closed a moment longer even after Magnus drew back.
“I’ll meet you back in Ops, darling,” Magnus said, releasing his physical hold on Alec to leave the room.
The slight chill that had been lingering in the room since the moment they’d arrived together disappeared the moment Magnus was gone.
Alec waited a moment, watching Magnus disappear back up the sole staircase that led to the Core, waiting until Magnus was far enough away before he turned back to the Core herself.
Bypassing the control panel completely, Alec strode across the small room, coming to a stop right in front of the glass with his arms crossed over his chest.
“What the hell was that?” he demanded.
The lights flickered in time with the Core pulsing. At the same time, Alec felt her power covering him as if it were a pleasantly heated blanket being draped around his shoulder.
Alec sighed and rubbed tiredly at his eyes.
“Magnus apologised. I accepted it,” he told her tightly. “He wasn’t the only one to blame, and I wasn’t faultless in what happened.”
He’d already had this conversation three times now; once each with Jace, Izzy and, bizarrely enough, his mother. He really hoped this was going to be the last time it happened. It was his and Magnus’ relationship and they had worked things out between themselves, and honesty, Alec was getting sick of having to defend them and their relationship all over again.
The soft sounds of Chopin suddenly rose up from the access panel and Alec groaned; she knew he hated Chopin, that his music bored Alec to tears. The last time she’d played that particular piece for him he’d just proposed to Lydia.
“Stop that,” he glared and whichever damn piece of Chopin’s it was seamlessly transitioned into a far more preferable Swan Lake.
“Will you please just let Magnus or Tessa borrow your power to purge the ley lines?” he requested tiredly. Since Lorenzo Rey’s party the night before he’d only gotten a few hours of sleep and even those short hours had been restless from stress, nightmares and whatever the hell was leaking through the bond from Jace.
The non-existent blanket disappeared and the stubborn chill returned.
“Really,” Alec demanded, scowling at her again. “This is not the time to be holding petty, personal grudges. Not when all of New York, and possibly more, is at risk,” he hissed. “I don’t care what you have against Magnus, and if it’s only for my sake, then you better damn well get over it, because I have. Because he’s staying. It’s me he hurt and it’s me that’s forgiven him for it. The ley lines need to be purged and you’re the only way we can do that right now, before anyone else dies.”
There was moment after Alec fell silent and then both the Core and the lights dimmed in clear contrition.
Placing a hand flat on the glass barrier between them, Alec let his relief and thanks rise up in himself, his eyes slipping shut for a moment in knee-weakening relief that they wouldn’t have to search for another answer. One that could take who knows how long to find, and by the time they managed to find it and execute it, who knew how many more would be harmed or killed by the mysterious demonic corruption currently flooding the city Alec was sworn to protect with his life.
Though the chill still lingered in the air, Alec felt the glass heat up under his palm; comforting as always before it flashed a blinding hot, and then Alec’s world exploded into another plane of reality.
He knew, rationally, in some part of his mind, that he was still in the deepest parts of the Institute, falling to his knees before the glass in the Core’s access room, but despite knowing that, he could also see all of New York and even some beyond.
It was intense and overwhelming and beyond comprehension, but Alec paid it no mind; his attention almost immediately drawn to the mass of black and deep red energy, the same energy he just knew was the one behind the corruption of the ley lines, leaking out all over the city from the main source that was a spot in Manhattan, only just a few blocks away from the Institute.
Alec saw red, his eyes thinning in anger that this ancient and vile force was so close to his Institute. That it had made itself home in his city.
Lashing out, Alec flooded it with his own power.
“Lilith,” he growled, recognising her the moment their powers touched, but not even the Mother of Demons was enough to stand up to him, not now in her semi-drained state, and not even if she had been at full power. Her shriek of agony rose up above the rush of power in his ears, but he ignored it. Her only reasons for being here was to cause chaos and pain in. his. city.
As he smothered her, not just sending her back to Edom, but killing her forever, Alec noticed another signature mixed in with hers; similar to Lilith’s but with the barest seeds of humanity mixed in. But not enough. Still so overwhelmingly demonic, and familiar from just weeks ago when who it had been had resided in the Institute, Alec burned that to ashes too.
Despite his fury, Alec was careful with the others in the building, a church he absently noticed, but ignored because what the structure was exactly wasn’t relevant to purging the corruptions from his city. He was careful to drain them off Lilith’s lingering taint, her control over them gone with her existence; leaving them unconscious but alive as he spread his power out over the rest of New York.
Flushing the ley lines of any residual corruption and then going one step further and removing any and every demon from New York. A nest of Kuri demons just a block from Central Park, a shapeshifter in a mundane club in the Bronx, a pack of Moloch demons in the basement of an abandoned building in the Meatpacking District, over dozen other occurrences, one by one and all at once until New York was completely cleansed of demonic influences.
Retreating back, Alec paused, frowning. Correction; all but one.
Buried so deep in angelic energy, the demon had escaped his notice, hidden by Lilith’s reach. But now that it was the only one left, it stood out like smear of charcoal on the brightness of a newly cleansed New York.
In all of New York there was now one single demon and it was entirely too close to home. Reaching along that intangible line to Jace, Alec concentrated; being far gentler with this part of his soul than he’d been with the others as he feeds the power into Jace through their parabatai bond, because this demon wasn’t just on the surface of Jace like Lilith had been with the mundanes. This demon had buried deep into Jace, wending and welding itself to Jace all the way down to his soul. Alec was ever so careful as he pried the demon clinging to Jace from his parabatai until he could rip the demon out and destroy it down to atoms for daring to lay a claim what was Alec’s.
With the other part of his soul finally free, and his city void of demons –even if only temporarily–, Alec breathed out in relief and satisfaction.
With only the thought that the city was safe and the power was no longer needed, it retreated away, settling into his bones. But Alec knew, he could feel, that if he needed it, he would only have to reach out, to ask, and it would return.
The overwhelming awareness of New York falls away too. Folding in on itself and retreating away to a corner of his mind. He’s still aware of all of New York, but it’s akin to background noise now, similar to the presence of Jace in his mind.
Interestingly enough, Alec noticed, was that the awareness of the Institute wouldn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, go away as much as the rest of New York. It wasn’t taking up his mind, but the fact that Jace was in the Infirmary with a medic and a Warlock hovering over him, that someone in residential had tapped into the Institute network to get a better internet connection to stream movies, there was a couple kissing in the dry storeroom, the blatant and undisguised remains of someone’s tampering in the system; that, and so much more, all remained somewhere between the forefront and the back spaces of his mind.
Alec was only able to push it further back, dampening it down when he heard his name by yelled, actually hear it, not just because the Institute was telling him about it. Focusing, Alec discovered it was Magnus and Izzy. Both of them on the other side of the closed and locked door to the Core access room.
“Really?” Alec rasped out. Both incredulous and fondly exasperated at the ridiculously petty move.
But instead of lights flickering or bubbly pop music filtering in through the speaker of access panel, Alec felt her delight at the small win in his chest as if it were his own.
He’s always known his connection to the New York Institute was not normal by any standards. Years of research in the library here, in Alicante and various other Institutes around the world had provided Alec with exactly nothing for why or how he had this inexplicable bond with her. And in the end, Alec had decided he didn’t care. She was a part of him as much as Jace or Izzy or Max and now Magnus, the logistics weren’t important as far as Alec was concerned.
From across the room and with only the barest hints of a thought, Alec unlocked the only door to the access room and then either Magnus or Izzy was flinging it open for them both to rush in.
Leaning into the hands that fell to his face and neck, Alec followed them all the way into Magnus’ embrace. Giving over his body to his boyfriend who was steady and solid under him. Tucking his face into the safe space of Magnus’ neck, Alec inhaled deeply, letting the familiar scents ground him in the here and now, in the reality of his own body and not the Institute.
The main scent of sandalwood brought Alec back with the memory of earlier that day in Magnus’ loft, the lazy morning of planning their break in before Cat had called in a panic. But then below that, a burnt caramel Alec had come to associate with Magnus’ magic was tangled and interwoven with the smell of an open campfire, burning embers and woody smoke, the both of them growing stronger by the second.
See, he thought to her reflexively as he felt the familiar fizzing of Magnus’ magic against his skin, barely thinking about it before he let it in, letting Magnus check whatever he wanted. Understanding washed through him and Alec knew she’d finally gotten the message.
Thank you, he thought back, eyes prickling. It had never been like this before. It had taken months for Alec to originally decipher her unique way of talking to him, and then years before they were able to hold full conversations.
This was instantaneous. There was no need for a conversation anymore because whatever she’d done now meant that what she knew, he did. And what he knew, she did. And right now, they both knew which of them was needed.
The Institute retreated to join the rest of New York, but Alec remained, focusing on Magnus, on the way his arms were wrapped tight around him, and his voice in Alec’s ear saying his name mixed in with soothing words that Alec had a feeling were more for Magnus’ own sake than his.
Another hand fell to rest on Alec’s shoulder, it was smaller than Magnus’ and accompanied by a higher pitched voice, but was just as familiar.
It was the sound of Jace’s name that had Alec finally paying attention.
“…ary says Jace is fine, he’s woken up already. She says he feels like crap but it can’t be that bad if he’s already trying to escape the medics.”
“He was possessed,” Alec mumbled, reluctantly pushing himself away from Magnus.
“Darling,” Magnus said, Izzy falling silent. “Did you say something.”
Squeezing his eyes shut, Alec patted Magnus on the thigh as he shifted his weight up off Magnus before rising to his feet. Leaning into Izzy as he swayed for a moment, Magnus was quick to stand as well, supporting Alec on his other side.
“Jace was possessed, I don’t know how but the demon had a deep hold on him,” Alec said, giving most of the truth as he knew it. He already had a theory, but there was still one last missing piece and only Jace or Clary could give it to them.
“We need to…” Izzy was already saying before Alec could finish, tapping at the phone still in her hand.
Alec shook his head. “It’s fine. It’s gone. Jace is fine,” he reassured, as he opened up his side of their bond enough that he could feel Jace’s annoyance at being in the Infirmary conflicting with the fact he feels like he just got hit with a bus without runes activated.
“Call Luke. And Catarina, we’ll need them both,” Alec ordered, finally opening his eyes again now that he was on his feet and feeling steady. When both Magnus and Izzy just stared at him, shock on their faces, Alec raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Hermano, your eyes.”
“What about them?”
“They’re blue,” Izzy said slowly, her voice lilting up on the last syllable, making it sound more like a question.
Wordlessly, Magnus snapped his fingers before laying the same hand flat as a small compact mirror appeared in it. Absently, Alec registered a small pinging in the back of his mind, the part that now held the Institute. Holding up the mirror for him, Magnus reached out his free hand to cup Alec’s face.
“They’re beautiful, Alexander,” he said, though there was a hint of sadness in his voice that Alec didn’t miss despite being very distracted by his own reflection in the small mirror.
Instead of the hazel Alec was so used to seeing reflected back at him, his eyes were now a pale yet bright blue that was shot through with veins of very fine white.
Spinning on his heel, Alec turned away from the door to face the Core, giving her a very unimpressed look. And even before he started speaking, he could feel her amusement ringing like soft bells in his mind.
“We’re going to be talking about whatever it is you’ve just done,” he warned her sternly before softening to smile at her, unable to not fall back on old habits of speaking aloud to her. “But thank you. For everything.”
That oh so stubborn chill disappeared again and the glow of the Core seemed to get brighter, and Alec felt preening under the praise in the way his own spine straightened just a little bit more.
Taking Magnus by the hand to lead him from the room, Alec pulled his own phone from his pocket, unlocking it before navigating to hit Luke’s name in his contact list.
“Hey, Luke. Listen, 232 Riverside Drive, on the Upper West Side.” Alec said as he led Magnus and Izzy up the stairs away from the Core and back to Ops. “Need your help with clean up. Mass possession, no casualties. All mundanes. They’ll need memory wipes; I’ll have a team and Magnus meet you th…”
The phone got ripped from his hand by a rope of sparking red magic.
“Magnus will not be meeting you there, Lucian,” the man himself said into the phone before hanging up the call, lips curled up in a sharp smile.
Alec couldn’t really say he was surprised.
“Alec what in the Angel is going on?” Izzy demanded, finding her voice again.
“Ops,” Alec sighed. “I’m only doing this once.”
Alec didn’t drop Magnus’ hand as they walked into Ops but he pressed a kiss to Magnus’ knuckles as, instead of approaching the platform usually used to make announcements to all of Ops, Alec led them to the main table they had stood around not so long ago, the one where Alec had given the order to evacuate.
“It makes no sense. It has to be broken, or malfunctioning, there’s no other possibility,” Raj was saying as they approached. The group already around the table had several of the demon sensor maps up next to each other, all of them showing absolutely no activity. Clearly it wasn’t the first time Raj had said something along those lines if the way Hannah snapped at him to say ‘something useful or shut the hell up’ was to go by.
“Underhill,” Alec said quiet but commanding nonetheless. “I need a team of five to meet Luke Garroway at this address as soon as you can get them out,” Alec tapped one handed at the screen before flicking from his wrist to pull up a 3D hologram of the church Lilith had been holed up in as she attempted to resurrect Jonathan Morgenstern.
“What are we looking at?” Underhill asked immediately, professional as ever. Alec was keeping this man in New York for as long as he could.
“Over a dozen mundanes all recently possessed, the ones we couldn’t find a connection for.”
“Greater Demon?” Underhill guessed, coming to the obvious conclusion about how much power would necessary for the situation they’d been looking at.
“Lilith,” Alec answered, ignoring the outcries of shock from not only his people, but also Magnus. “But she’s not a problem, she’s dead. Luke’s going to need back up dealing with both the possessed mundanes and the police. And once the mundanes have cleared out, the church is going to need a full sweep. Magnus will…”
“I will not, Alexander,” Magnus snarled, his hand tightening in Alec’s as Underhill slipped away with a tablet in hand.
Alec sighed in frustration. “There’s seventeen mundanes who are going to need the memory of themselves brutally and callously murdering a loved one wiped from their mind. Magnus, you are the best at the mind magics and the only one I trust to check that every last drop of Lilith and Jonathan gets removed from that church. Besides, I’ll be busy here.”
“Doing what, exactly?”
“Kicking my parabatai’s ass,” Alec snarled, unaware of how his eyes glowed white for a second before dimming back down again.
“They’ll be ready in five to head out with Warlock Bane,” Underhill said as he returned to the table, continuing on to ask, “anything else, Lightwood?”
“Recall all patrols and give as many people the night off as possible,” Alec said. “Anyone who remains on duty tonight gets tomorrow night off along with whoever is currently on patrol.”
“But, sir, what about the demons?” Underhill said, remarkably more restrained then the other Shadowhunters around them who’d also heard Alec’s answer.
Impatient to see Jace with his own eyes, Alec finally dropped Magnus hand. Sweeping the holographic church off the table, Alec intuitively tapped into the part of his mind where an awareness of all of New York now lived and brought it forward just enough. Manipulating the holographic table and connecting it to the map of New York in his head, Alec pulled it up from the table and flung it up into the air, a hint of the Angelic Power that had made its home in his bones letting him expand the hologram of New York expand to fill the room. Another thought had the lights in Ops dimming just enough so the hologram was able stand out more in the semi-darkness.
It was the usual demon sensor maps they used, but those were limited to certain places at a time. Their tech just wasn’t advanced enough to show all of New York like this.
“What the hell happened to you, Lightwood?” Hannah demanded, her voice rising up over the others in the room.
“Not who am I?” Alec asked in return. He had figured the first response to him doing things he should be able to would be that he’s an imposter of some kind.
Hannah shrugged a shoulder, pausing in twirling her stele between her fingers to use it to point it at Magnus. “Bane hasn’t vaporised you yet,” she shot back flippantly. “I think it’s safe to assume it’s you, Lightwood.”
In the silence of Ops Alec’s surprised laugh was loud and ringing. “I guess now we know why they tell us not to go poking at the Angelic Core,” he replied, equally as flippantly before continuing on, ignoring all the outcries at that particular statement.
“As you can see New York is safe,” he announced, lips still curled up in a delighted grin. “And she’s going to remain that way for the next 24 hours minimum thanks to the sheer amount of pure Angelic Power that she just had washed through her. No demon will survive setting foot, claw or tentacle in New York before that power starts to disperse back to the Earth.”
And Raj,” Alec turned to pin the man with a pure white glare, “ignore or contradict an order like that again, put even one of my people at risk again and I will see you permanently transferred to Wrangel Island faster that you can beg Raziel to save you.”