Maya stared at Alex. His eyes were cast down in shame and he avoided eye contact with everyone.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly.
Maya felt her knees buckle. Carol appeared beside her, her arm around Maya's shoulders stopping her from falling. Maya looked at her gratefully. Maya could see tears in Carol's eyes too.
"Alex? Is that really you?" Bane called out to him.
Alex looked up. His eyes passed over everyone, resting finally on Maya. In his eyes, Maya saw nothing but pain. Maya couldn't help but feel that something was off, but she pushed it to the back of her mind.
Alex looked away again, only to look back at Bane and answer his question.
"No."
"It's not time to be funny."
"I'm not being funny."
Maya felt it again. Now she was certain that something was wrong.
"He's telling the truth." Maya concluded. "That's not Alex."
"If it's not Alex, then who is it?" Sam asked.
"I think that the answer is pretty obvious."
"Oh really? Then who is it?"
"That's Mike."
Everyone turned to look at her.
"How do you know that?" Clary asked.
"I thought something was off in the beginning. Then I looked closer. There's a scar on his left cheek. Alex didn't have a scar there, but Mike did."
"But Mike's dead." Alec said
"Uh, I'm standing right here you know." Maya heard Mike mumble and smiled.
From the corner of her eye, Maya saw Carol rush forward and tackle Mike in a hug. They stood in an embrace for a couple of minutes.
"I thought you were dead," Carol said.
"So did I." Mike remarked.
Carol slapped him on the head. "Don't scare me like that."
Maya cleared her throat. "We should go inside. It's best if we discuss this in Bane's study. I think Mike's tired as it is anyways."
"Who died and made you queen." Nate said under his breath, but it was loud enough for Maya to hear.
She glared daggers at him until he realized what he had said. He mumbled a sorry then hurried into the house. Everyone followed after him. Carol and Mike were the last ones in.
Everyone piled into Bane's study. Maya took her place next to the window and looked around the room. Mike was looking at her oddly.
"What?" she growled.
He chuckled. "You feel a lot like Alex."
Maya scowled and turned away, but she knew he was right. Like Carol had pointed out earlier, she had started acting a lot like Alex. She knew it was a side effect of the ceremony, but she secretly enjoyed it. It made her feel closer to Alex.
She turned back to Mike who stood at the other end of the room, directly opposite her.
"Start explaining. Don't leave anything out."
Mike grinned. "Just like Alex."
Maya ignored his comment and glared at him.
"Okay, fine. Well as you and Carol know, Alex killed me. He didn't really kill me. You see, Alex wasn't really under the control of Slade. He was just pretending."
"What do you mean he was just pretending?"
"In the beginning, for the first couple of days, Slade had control over Alex. Alex broke free, but thought it would be a good idea to pretend that he was still a puppet so that he could spy from within. That's when he contacted me. Together, we came up with a plan to take down Slade. But the two of us alone wouldn't be enough. We needed more help."
"You could've just asked us." Bane interrupted.
"Not now Bane." Maya scolded. She stared at Bane who huffed and crossed his arms.
Mike shook his head in amusement. "Anyways, we went to Juggernaut for help. Little did we know back then, that our own plan would turn its back on us."
"What happened?"
"Juggernaut played us. They were secretly working with Slade. It's a good thing that they think I'm dead. When Alex brought you all to Slade's hideout, we had already planned that Alex wasn't going to kill me. What you guys saw wasn't real. That was just a clone of me."
"Why didn't the clone crumble to pieces?"
"Alex was doing his best to hold it together. For Carol. He thought that he would let her say her goodbyes in case we really did die in the end. When he came out of the room you guys were kept in, he fell unconscious. I couldn't do anything but wait till he woke up."
"But wait, why did Juggernaut come and take Alex, then let him go?"
"I'm getting there. Didn't you realize that Slade wasn't at home when they came? Juggernaut and Slade were working together. We told Juggernaut our plan, and they told it to Slade, who reversed it so everything backfired. Yes they took Alex and released him because that was our plan. So when the deadline came for the two weeks, it was Alex's clone that went for execution."
"So Alex is still alive, right?"
"At least that was the plan."
"What?"
"It wasn't Alex's clone that got executed, it was Alex himself."
Maya's hope disappeared. She had known, from the very beginning that Alex was dead. Yet, as she was told the news, her heart broke again, and it took all of her effort to not break down.
"Slade ordered Juggernaut to kill Alex. Alex wasn't expecting it and he...." Mike clenched his hands. "If only I had known. I could've done something."
"It's not your fault," Maya found herself saying.
Mike looked up at her then quickly looked away. "Oh yeah, and another thing. Alex didn't lose his memory. He didn't forget anything. He remembered it all. Everything that he did to you guys, and if he was here right now, I'm sure he'd say that he was sorry."
"He didn't forget?" Jace said.
"He was acting the whole time?" Kate asked.
Similar comments of disbelief flew around the room. Maya, Bane, Carol and Mike were the only ones silent.
"I knew."
