Alec was always a very intellectual person and as such, when they studied warfare as part of their training, his favourite teaching was 'Know thy enemy.' To know your enemy, you must become your enemy, you must get into their heads and understand their fundamental way of thinking and only then would you hope to defeat them. And in this case, Alec had come up with a plan that involved his wife literally turning into one of their current enemies, Aldertree.
She could've used her Portal Pendant to escape, but that was only for dire emergencies as replacing it was a headache. It was also much more fun to parade around in Aldertree's skin and undo some of the things he'd already set in motion. For example, rearranging his office entirely whilst he was acquainting himself with the ops centre.
But after her little detour, Serena met Alec at Magnus' as he'd told her to, but when she found out what he was planning to do, she wanted to throttle her husband. She wanted to smack some sense into that good-looking head of his because her idiot husband wanted to use his parabatai bond to track Jace. It sounded simple enough considering their souls were connected but straining that connection could break it and it could kill him. Alec had been crafty about recruiting Magnus's help because he had hoped that the use of the warlock's magic would help reduce the risk of trying to track Jace whilst he was still on water.
"Are you out of your mind?!" she shouted at him.
"Serena, you need to listen to me -"
"I've been listening! I've been listening to how you're saying that you want to kill yourself trying to find Jace!"
"I'm not gonna die."
"You don't know that."
"If I may point out -"
"NO!" the couple interrupted Magnus who promptly backed out of the argument.
"Alec," Serena said softly as she took his hands. "Believe me, no one wants to find JJ more than me, but you need to understand that you could die if you do this. Izzy is half my soul but you, Alec, you are half my heart. I vowed to always choose you but I can't do that if you die."
"Hey," Alec said softly as he tucked her hair behind her ear and tilted her eyes up to his. "You said yes. You're stuck with me for good," he reminded her and she rolled her eyes at him.
"Alec, this is serious."
"I know and I know the risks. And if this gets Jace back and stops you from being in pain knowing he's in pain, I'll take the risk. But I'm not doing this unless you're on board with it. Please be on board with this."
Serena gave a heavy sigh as she glanced away from him. "I don't know, Alec. I just...I want to find my brother but not at the risk of losing you."
"But you're not going to lose me."
"And how do you know that?"
"Because our story is not over yet. Raziel knows I'm not done with you and he is not gonna take me away when we still have so much life left to live. It's going to be fine."
"You really believe that?" she questioned earnestly.
"I do," Alec answered without hesitation.
Serena was silent for a time before she let out another sigh. "Ok," she said at last.
"Ok?"
"Ok. I'm on board, but I swear to god Alec -"
He cut her off with a kiss as he held her to him, forcing her back to arch slightly.
"It's going to be fine."
Serena grimaced at his words before they moved to find Magnus and began preparations.
Alec had been lying shirtless on Magnus's couch as his wife sat next to him and Magnus stood behind the sofa. The warlock's blue magic wrapped around Alec's chest as Serena prepared to run her stele over his parabatai rune.
"Are you ready?" Serena asked one more time.
"Do it."
The crystal tip of the stele hovered over the bottom of the rune as it began to glow but before Serena could move, Alec grabbed her wrist.
"What is it?! What's wrong?" Serena asked nervously, worried she'd already hurt him.
"Nothing's wrong. I can sense Jace. He's on land," Alec revealed and Serena's eyes widened.
"Well, then let's go!"
"Oh, please. Allow me," Magnus said as he flourished his hand and opened a shimmering golden Portal.
"Thank you, Sparkles," Serena said as she kissed his cheek.
"Anytime."
"Do you trust me?" Alec asked his wife as he shrugged on his shirt and jacket.
"Always," she said as she took his hand and followed him into the Portal.
However, they weren't the only ones that found Jace.
Isabelle had mentioned to Clary the trick that Serena used to escape from the Insitute and Clary couldn't help but follow the example her big sister set. Except, she still had her mother in the picture.
Maryse had been icing the twins out since she'd discovered who they truly were, and not only had they also found Jace but Jocelyn had tricked her daughter and used her to find her son herself. However, this mother wasn't there to save her child either.
She had wanted to find Jace so she could level a crossbow at him.
"No!" Serena cried as they emerged from their Portal opposite Valentine. She shoved Alec out of her way and ran towards her brother, preparing to catch the arrow, but she wasn't fast enough as it sank itself into her shoulder.
"RENA!" Jace wailed as Serena let out a pained scream and he caught her as he lowered her to the ground, Valentine tugging at his arm but he didn't move.
Clary, Simon and Alec ran for Jocelyn to disarm her, and they barely ducked the second arrow that Valentine took in his own shoulder to protect the blonde twins that lay on the ground.
"Jacey, JJ, you have to listen," Serena panted as blood soaked her shoulder. "I will set the falcon free. You have to hold on. Please hold on," she begged before Jace simply kissed her forehead before he got to his feet. He grabbed Valentine by his jacket and he pulled their father into their Portal before it disappeared.
"Serena!" Alec called as he jogged back over to his wife, cradling her in his arms as he assessed the damage to her shoulder. And as her husband began the tedious process of pulling out the arrow and running his stele over her iratze, Clary was staring at her mother in complete outrage.
"What have you done?!"
Jocelyn just stayed silent.
********************************
Aldertree had soon arrived on scene and escorted them all back to the Institute. Alec and Izzy had gone with Serena to the infirmary while Clary had quite the discussion with her mother.
Jocelyn revealed that she never had twins. Or at least never remembered having twins. She couldn't remember giving birth the first time, but she remembered Jonathan. She remembered holding only one baby. And she remembered finding out what Valentine had done to the baby. How he'd injected demon blood into Johnathan when Jocelyn was still pregnant with him, thinking that it would make their baby strong. But it made him sick, evil. And she showed Clary the memory she had that proved it. How a newborn baby who couldn't do more than cry and laugh, killed a flower with nothing but his eyes. Jocelyn then told her daughter that she went to Ragnor Fell, who told her that Jonathan would only leave death and destruction in his wake.
That only confused Clary even more.
If Jace was Valentine's son and he'd been injected with demon blood that made him evil before he was born, why had he never acted evil before?
And Serena was definitely his twin, so why wasn't she evil either?
********************************
"Nice to see you again, Simon," Aldertree greeted as he had the vampire escorted into his office.
"Nice to be seen," the vampire replied nervously.
"Let's discuss the vampire den, shall we?"
"Yes. Completely disgusting. Absolutely unsanitary. Who does that?" Simon rambled, hoping these were the answers he wanted to hear.
"That's what I need you to find out," Aldertree explained.
"Me?" Simon laughed. "I'm not exactly in on the management decisions. I'm- I'm more on the ground floor."
"Which is exactly why I'm asking you, my friend," Aldertree said as he took steps closer to Simon and the vampire took one back. "After the recent unrest amongst the local vamps, I can't trust my intel."
"And how do you expect me to figure that out for you?" Simon asked as he backed away further but the Shadowhunter just continued to walk forward.
"You seem resourceful. You'll find a way. I need answers, Simon. And if I don't get them, I might just bar all vamps, from fraternizing with their Shadowhunter friends," Aldertree threatened and both men flinched as the door to his office was kicked open. The wooden panel splintered as it slammed back onto the wall and Aldertree had a seraph blade in his hand only to be faced with a royally pissed off Serena Lightwood whose left arm was in a sling.
"This meeting is so over," Serena drawled as Aldertree lowered his blade and gave the woman a tight smile.
"Mrs Lightwood, I wasn't aware you were out of the infirmary," he droned and her eyes narrowed at him.
"Clearly," she spat before her heels began to click on the floor as she came to stand between Aldertree and Simon. She pinned her superior with a glare, yet her words were addressing the vampire behind her. "Relax, Simon," she ordered, able to feel the anxiety radiating off him. "I have received no signed order from Inquisitor Herondale. So, now, I'm wondering why on earth Lydia is telling everyone that you're interviewing a Downworlder without the Envoy to the Downworld present? Simon?"
"Y-yes, ma'am?" he blurted and Serena just rolled her eyes.
"Did Mr Aldertree give you a reason why he denied your right to have the Envoy to the Downworld present in any and all meetings pertaining to a Clave inquiry or investigation?"
"No, he didn't," Simon answered with a smug smile, knowing now that he wouldn't be touched or intimidated.
"See, now that," Serena began as she pointed at Simon. "That just makes me more confused. Because you have no signed order and no valid reason to deny his rights, so to me, that sounds like you'd be breaking the law. And I, for one, sincerely hope that you are breaking the law, because not only will you have a pissed-off Downworld on your doorstep, but it gives me the perfect excuse to take back control of my Institute. So, please tell me that you were breaking the law."
Aldertree's smile was tight. "I can assure you that we were just having a polite chat between gents whilst we waited for the Envoy to the Downworld to grace us with her presence."
Serena studied him for a second, her eyes never leaving his before she angled her head back. "Simon?"
"After the vampire den, he says he can't trust his intel and asked me to give him intel on the vampires and Raphael's decisions or else I'd be forbidden from seeing Clary," Simon answered and Serena's grin was wicked. It was positively malicious.
"I am the Clave-appointed Envoy to the Downworld and any information you want from any faction of the Downworld has to go through me. So consider this my formal denial of your 'request' for a vampire informant. And you can rest assured that with Simon's testimony, I will be drafting a formal complaint to the Clave, requesting for your immediate dismissal." Serena may have had demon blood with the look on her face as she dropped into a curtsey. "Good day, Mr Aldertree," she with a salacious grin as she slid past him and toward the door. "Let's go, Simon."
The vampire had edged past Aldertree before following Serena out of the door and exclaiming, "That was badass!"
*****************************************************************
While Serena had been yelling at Aldertree before educating Simon on some specific laws that would prevent him from being alone in a room with him again, Alec was trying to take out his frustration on a punching bag. It wasn't working.
Again and again, he fought through his exhaustion as his gloved fists pounded into the punching bag. He only paused for a brief second when Clary walked into the training room.
"Alec, are you ok?" she asked.
"Pretty bold of you to show your face here," he retorted, just feeling so defeated after everything. He really believed that they were going to get Jace back.
"I can explain," Clary defended and Alec leaned on the punching bag for a moment.
"Unless your explanation can bring Jace back, save it."
"Alec, Jace is my brother too," Clary said and Alec moved to face her.
"Then why didn't you jump in front of that arrow like Serena did? Huh? You barely know Jace. We grew up with him. I grew up with him. I fought by his side. He's my brother. He's my best friend."
"Alec," Clary began as she tried to place a hand on Alec's arm only for him to move out of her reach, not even wanting to be near her much less touch her. "Alec, I want Jace back just as much as you do!" Clary persisted. "I... I am not my mother."
"How well do I even know you?" Alec asked making the girl blanch as she took a step back in confusion. "You show up outta nowhere, you convince my brother, you convince me to search for your mother. And the next thing I know, Jace is gone. And your mother is the one trying to kill him.
Clary's eyes filled with unshed tears as she all but begged the boy to believe her. "I had nothing to do with that, Alec. I would never hurt Jace!"
With their height difference, Alec looked down on her. "Since you've arrived, you've caused nothing but problems. My family lost their birthright. Izzy was almost de-runed. My wife almost died, twice! And she was shot by an arrow tonight that your mother fired! And now Valentine has my parabatai. And it's all because of you."
The finger Alec pointed at her may as well have been a knife that stabbed Clary repeatedly in the heart, because all these hurtful words Alec said were nothing but the cold, hard, truth.
"Alec," Izzy said as she walked into the room, having heard the confrontation.
"I'm sorry," Clary whispered.
"Alec, this isn't her fault," Izzy defended.
"You may be related to Serena by blood, but when are you going to realize that you don't belong here? You never have."
And Alec walked off, leaving Clary to play his words on a constant loop as she tried not to cry, because in a way, it was her fault.
"Alec..." Izzy called as she chased after him, and Clary was left alone.