We go from here

Chapter 1: Where it left off

Sunlight and golden clouds wrapped around her in a soft blanket. Jocelyn looked down at her daughter as her memory was warped and altered to perceive a new version of her life. She would be put into a home safely, as if nothing had ever happened. Jocelyn couldn't join her, that would be a long time yet, but she could still guide her from afar. The angels had discussed it as Clary had disobeyed and her runes vanished, but Jocelyn had had the final say. Clary would live as if she had lost her parents in an accident, when she was in her early twenties, and would now live on with the help of her friends from the Brooklyn Academy of Art. More than just Clary's memories were altered, as she had needed to be put into mundane life as if she had never left it. It broke Jocelyn's heart that her daughter's memories would be changed, but it was the angels will, and they were the highest beings on all of heaven and earth.

All angel blooded warriors lived under the watch of the angel Raziel. The angels willed what was needed and put a stop to what wasn't. There were events in nephilim history that appeared cruel or evil to the angel blooded warriors, but all of it was just part of the grand scheme that made all of the nephilim stronger, braver and better. Jocelyn looked down, she couldn't materialise for long, the angels didn't like the deceased to dwell on their living loved ones. A warm and comforting voice washed over Jocelyn, she couldn't see the figure, she wasn't even here really, but the discernible voice of Raziel hummed through her head and buried in her soul.

...Be at peace Jocelyn Fairchild, for it is all part of a bigger plan. When she is ready, everything will be laid down for her to begin again, and it will be glorious...

***

Soft and happy music drifted down the corridor, a complete contrast to the atmosphere in Jace's room. He stood with a letter in his hand and tears on his face as his eyes skimmed over the words. Her final message to him. The note that was supposed to make up for the life he had imagined them having together. Jace slid down against the side of the bed as his hands shook and his legs gave way; numbness washing over him. This can't be real. She wouldn't just leave me. She couldn't.

There was a gentle tap on the door as Izzy stuck her head in. "Hey, did you find-" Izzy paused, taking in the sight of Jace's distraught face as he lay half collapsed on the bedroom floor. Izzy took the letter from his shaking hands.

'...By the time you read this letter, my memories of you and the Shadow World will be gone. Even if I don't remember you, you will always be in my heart...'

Izzy's eyes raced as she took in the contents of the note, trying to hold it together not for her own sake, but for the sake of her brother. Jace was inconsolable as he knelt on the floor with his hands over his head. Izzy pulled Jace towards her, trying to get a response. "Jace look at me..." he shook his head as Izzy pulled him against her, the way she had when they were little and their biggest problems were scraped knees and not shattered hearts.

Tears poured down Jace's face as he tried to get his words out. "She's gone Izzy! GONE! She doesn't know who I am anymore! I'm..." He sniffled. "I'm never going to hold her again Iz." For the first time in their lives, Izzy couldn't think of a single thing that she could say to offer comfort to her brother, so she sat with him and waited for the storm to pass.

Ages passed before Izzy could get any kind of response from Jace. People would be looking for them soon, wondering where they were. She helped him stand up and then sit on his bed. Jace ran his hands over his face and then through his hair. "How could this happen Iz?... I should... I should have been watching over her!" Izzy grabbed her brother's face as tears finally fell down her own. "Listen to me Jace, no one and I mean no one, could have known this would happen okay?" Her eyes drifted down sadly. "It was the will of the angels Jace." Jace shot up, knocking over one of Clary's easels. She had been making a painting earlier that matched the wedding hall. She had needed to paint in Jace's room because of the open light. She was going to give the painting to Alec and Magnus, to go in their apartment, but it stood unfinished. More tears fell as he lifted the easel and clutched at the edge of the nearly filled canvas, a rainbow of colour was splashed over it. It would never be finished now. "My Princess Iz... My heart... She went and took it with her." His face contorted, the numbness and pain shifting to something else. He whispered softly, but with a harsh and avenging tone. "How could they do this Iz? After everything she's done, all the people she's saved Iz. What sick and twisted ideology have we been living under all this time? What do we even stand for? In the name of the angel..." He spat. "You'll never hear me swear to them again." There was cheering and clapping from down the hall.