sunlight | a.lightwood x male oc

Chapter Three: Dead Man's Party (part i)

It had been some time before the quintet arrived back at the institute, seeing as none of them had a mundane driver's license and they didn't trust Clary enough to just wing it, which put her in even more of a bad mood. She'd been practically interrogating each of them with questions about the downworld and the shadowhunters, and swiftly went on to rant about their prejudices against mundanes, to which Isabelle, Alec and Jace had raced to defend themselves.

"I still don't understand, how can shadowhunters be better than what you people call mundanes?"

"Believe me Clary, I've been asking the same question for a while." Teddy replied quietly, holding the door open, "That said we do protect humans so, y'know, comme ci, comme ça."

"Oh, no, you're right...humans," She whirled around to face the group, fixing each member with a glare "You protect humans. You left Simon in the van, alone. Great job, you guys rock."

"I hope you're not pinning this all on Belle, because that's completely unfair." Ted said, seemingly nonchalantly, but with a hard edge of protectiveness in his tone.

"Exactly, there is some truth to the idea that human beings should have a modicum of common sense." Alec stated, raising a fair point.

"Alec, not now." Izzy scolded, glancing back at Clary apologetically, as Jace explained in vain how Simon was just bait.

"Why does anybody think I have the cup? What, my mom lies to me my entire life, except 'Oh, by the way, there's this magic cup, that I hid on, like, the Planet Bongo, but oh, don't tell anyone'." Clary exclaimed in a way that would have been comical had she not been furious with the people in front of her, "What do I do now?"

"We have to report this to the Clave, tell them what we've learned about Valentine." Alec reminded everyone sternly.

"What? That he's my father?" Clary asked, looking impatient, "Great. Fine. Go tell them--what good does that do Simon?"

"Clary, you've got to understand that this is our world too, everything here is connected." Ted tried to explain gently, although her burst of selfishness didn't sit right with him.

"He's right, the vamps want the cup--" Jace continued, only to be cut off by Clary.

"Why? It creates new shadowhunters."

"Nobody wants Valentine creating an army loyal to himself."

"Plus, it controls demons." Isabelle added gravely.

"So the vampires will trade Simon for the cup, and Valentine will trade my mother for the cup." Clary breathed, as if the situation was sinking in, "Either way I lose someone I love. What if I just toss it up in the air and let them fight among themselves?"

"So, this doesn't matter to you?"

"Of course it matters!" She snapped.

Alec scoffed. "Funny way of showing it."

"Listen, when you saved my life, I put my trust in you," She looked at each of the shadowhunters, "Now I need you to put your trust in me. I can't turn into what you guys are overnight."

"She's right, she was raised as a mundane." Isabelle commented with a sigh.

"What're you, her spokesman now?"

"I don't need a spokesman, I need a plan." She huffed, storming off in a fit, despite not knowing her way around the institute.

"This is a bad idea." Alec commented simply, his jaw set firmly. Ted shrugged tiredly, and walked after Clary, thinking she could use with some supervision around the tech. His parabatai and Jace followed quickly, whilst Alec begrudgingly went with them, hanging back a bit.