Changing Power (TMI Fanfiction)

16- A thousand questions

Jace's POV

It was her. I was sure it was Clary. Except, I couldn't be sure. There were similarities, but there were far more differences. Like a sibling. Oh, by the angel, please don't let Clary have another evil sibling.
"Clary?" I asked again.
"Who else? Has it been so long that you don't recognize me Jace?"
And before I even knew what I was doing, I was kissing her. And she was kissing me back!

Third Person POV

Then Clary pushed Jace away.
"That's enough. I said no sudden movements."
"How are you here? What happened? Where were you all this time? What happened to y-" Jace was cut off.

"I will explain everything. Now that I know you're more inclined to kiss me than kill me," she put the blade away in a blindingly fast movement. Jace couldn't even make out where she put it. "Let's move to somewhere more comfortable, shall we?"
She turned and walked away and all Jace was left with doing, was following.
As he did, though, his shadowhunter training and instincts kicked in. He analyzed everything he could. He was in a shockingly modern bedroom all decorated in black and red, then a corridor that seemed longer than it should because of the black walls, with three closed doors. The floor was all made of polished black marble. 
Then, the corridor ended and they were in an open area. It had a two person sitting area with chairs and a table that looked a hundred years old, facing windows, a twelve person dining table, with two chandeliers, and a living room. Again, he was struck by the continuous combination of black and red. The chairs and couches were all red, while the table, floor, carpet and ceiling were black, and the walls varied from red to black to clear windows.

The windows interested Jace the most, but he couldn't make out where he was. All he could see was a white horizon, undefined by any beaches, cities, oceans. No clue as to where they were.

Clary took a seat at one of the chairs in the sitting area, so Jace did the same, but the chair he was left with only allowed him to see a fraction of the windows, the tea table, Clary, and the wall behind her. All of the doors, and other areas were out of his periphery, which wasn't lost to him and seemed purposeful.

"So you have questions, Jace. I'll answer as many as I can. But first, coffee?" Clary asked.
"Uhh, I- Sure." She smiled as he fumbled with his words. He, however, was incredibly frustrated. He didn't fumble and stutter. He had to get it together.

"So? One question at a time, okay?" She inquired.
"Okay... What happened?"
"Pretty simple. The ritual would've worked if we did it a day sooner. As it was, the evil, as we called it, burned stronger than the adamas." Clary answered.

"Where were you all this time? It's been almost two months!"
"I was everywhere. I always wanted to see the world, sketch it, paint it, but never could. Now, I can. I went to Greece, France, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Russia, the Caribbean. Basically anywhere you can think of. When you travel by portal and have stamina runes, time gets a little blurry. Of course, through all of that, I also had to juggle evading the lot of you. But that wasn't too hard. You were looking in all the wrong places. The funniest thing was, every few days I went back to New York. I stayed in one of the apartments right by the institute. I even went in once. Did you notice that one of the pillows went missing?"
"You... wha- you were there!? I was looking for you all over the globe! I talked to warlocks, seelies, vampires, I even checked the mundane news! I tracked down demon contacts! And you were right there?! You went in? You took a pillow? I was heartbroken! I was mourning!" Jace responded furiously.

"Enough!" Clary's voice still wasn't the same as before, and the tone she used now: it was so dark that Jace was brought short.

"I know you were mourning. I know you were all heartbroken. I saw you. It isn't hard, you know." With the flick of a stele an image of Alec and Izzy talking over the table at the weapons room appeared. As quickly as it did, Clary ran her stele through the image, and it disappeared.

"You could see us? The whole time?"

"Yes. And before you ask why I never came back, I'll answer you. I. Couldn't. I spent sixteen years thinking I was a mundane. Stripped of my powers and confined to a lie. Then I spent six months with my life upside down. First I had to save my mom, Simon, the downworld, the Clave! And just when I thought things were going to be okay, I had to save you, and from that I had to save humanity! I get that all of you had to go through that with me, but you grew up with that mission drilled into you. Save people. I didn't. All I wanted to do was become an artist, and see the world. When I had the chance to be free? I took it. I don't want to be consul of the clave, telling people where to go and what to do. I don't want to die in an epic battle. I don't want to walk the streets of Idris and have people whisper 'the little girl that won the big war'. I have no desire to be a hero! And so, I left. I created a life for myself in just sixteen hours. I got a mission. But I still missed something. And so I kept going back. But I can't give up what I got for only ever being in one place. Or living in between New York and Idris."

"But-" Jace was cut off again.

"I'm done with this topic, do you have something else you'd like do discuss? Something more to ask?"

Jace wanted to peruse the issue, but there were a thousand other questions.

"What happened to your hair? Your skin? Why are you covered in runes?"

"Those are interesting ones. My hair turned black during the ritual. I would think it would turn white like Valentine and Jonathan's, but it didn't. It might've been a reaction to the adamas. Either way, I can't change it. Paint doesn't work. The palor is also curious. I spent hours in the sun and it didn't change. Possibly something about whatever escaped Jonathan and came into me. And the runes, well, those are mostly ones I created, or the permanent ones from the Grey book. I got my hands on one of those."

"What do you want, then. What's your plan?" Jace asked, and Clary? She laughed.