City of Clockwork Soldiers

Confusion

Sebastian was unsurprisingly quick to his feet; Alec had been confused when he hadn't flown straight to his feet after Alec had knocked him to the floor. But as soon as Alec had flipped his body over, Sebastian leapt to his feet, lunging towards Alec, a murderous gleam in his eyes. This time, Alec was more than prepared. As Sebastian charged at him, he slipped back through the doorway and moved briskly to the side. Sebastian threw himself at nothingness, stumbling a little. Taking advantage of Sebastian's bewilderment, Alec pounced on him, thrusting him against the wall.

Numbly, Alec noticed that his attacker seemed to be much less... special than he had been before. His movement were not so sharp, fast and fluid - he seemed to be more clumsy and uncoordinated. He was also easily tricked and quite gullible. Before, he had never let anybody trick him as simply as Alec just had. Something had to be wrong. That was obvious, seeing as Alec was literally seeing the dead.

Alec moved his elbow up to meet Sebastian's throat, trapping the other man strongly against the wall. Sebastian writhed a little, helpless, but it soon became clear that Sebastian's strength had significantly withered. It was monumentally easy to trap him, like pinning a butterfly to a photograph album.

"How are you alive?" Alec hissed through clenched teeth, finally looking directly into Sebastian's eyes.

He almost choked.

His eyes were the same green as Clary's; almost brown towards the edges but rich Irish green around the pupil. It was the colour that had dissolved the blackness of Sebastian's eyes as he died - as Alec had watched him die. He was dead. So how come he seemed so alive?

Without taking his eyes from Sebastian, he yanked a Seraph blade from his weapon's belt. "Jophiel," he declared, his peripheral vision detecting the glare of light emitted from it as it claimed its name. He replaced his elbow with the blade, pressing it up against Sebastian's high-arched throat.

"How are you alive?" he demanded again.

Although he was weak compared to Alec and had a knife to his throat, Sebastian showed no evidence of fear. "The greatest man on Earth brought me back to life," he spat, glaring defiantly back at Alec. "And you just broke into his apartment."

                                                                          *****

Magnus had had the same song stuck in his head all day, and it was really starting to get on his nerves.

It wasn't as if he'd gone into the shop for a long time - only long enough to find a respectful brand of glitter - but 'Build Me Up Buttercup' had been playing over the sound system. And somehow, through no fault of his own, he'd found the song had buried itself in his head and seemed to have no pause button.

He was still singing it when he reached his apartment. "Why do you build me up (build me up) buttercup, baby, just to let me down," he sung softly - of course singing the backing vocals as well - as he wrestled with his pocket for his key.

But somehow, as soon as he swung the door open, his head fell into empty silence. Because two people were sitting on his couch, neither of whom he was expecting to be there. Their backs were to him, so he could only see the backs of their heads, but they were easily the most identifiable people he'd ever known.

Magnus's tongue felt suddenly swollen, too heavy to make a sound. Neither Alec nor Jonathan turned; he almost wished they would, so he didn't have to say the first word. They were sitting so calmly; the whole situation was overwhelmingly confusingly and unlikely that Magnus felt his head grow lift with a struggled attempt at comprehension.

It suddenly registered to him that an ex-murderer, who had commanded the deaths of hundreds of people - however changed he now was - was sitting right beside Magnus's fiancé. He rushed forward into the living room area, and they both lazily turned their eyes on him. He wheezed and stuttered, unable to utter a word to either of them.