Distractions - Chapter 68: Chapter 68

Everest and Izzy walked into the Ops Center hand in hand, clinging to each other like the lifelines they were to the other. The corpses followed. The others were already there.
"Sorry we're late," Izzy said. "We were looking for Max. Has anyone seen him?"
"Have you tried the armory? He's probably sharpening his blades for his first assignment," Jace suggested.
Izzy sighed. "We checked."
"We have more pressing matters," Alec interjected.
Everest bristled. Maybe it was lingering upset from their conversation the night before, but his comment didn't sit right with her. Max was nowhere to be found. What if he was hurt?
"Agreed." Everest blinked. What were they agreeing to? "Report back with any possible scenarios by which Johnathan and Valentine could attempt a breach."
Everest took a deep breath. She would be great at this. It would be terrible for her mental state, but she would be great at this.
Izzy squeezed her hand. Everest nodded. She would wait for Izzy in her room so they could talk more and do their assignment. Hopefully it wouldn't make the corpses even more prevalent.
...
Trigger warnings: Injuries/coma
Dusk:
Found Max. Infirmary now.
Please.
Everest swore under her breath and broke into a sprint towards the infirmary. This couldn't be good.
It was telling that no one so much as batted an eye at her sprinting through the Institute, swearing up a storm.
"Oh shit."
Max was lying in a bed, bandage around his head and blood staining his face.
"I tried using an Irate rune to wake him, but nothing's working," Izzy was saying.
Everest held Izzy's hand in a death grip, both watching nervously as medics examined Max.
"What happened?" Alec demanded as he and Clary ran in.
"I don't know. I found him like this in my room," Izzy explained.
Clary gasped. "Oh, my God, Max."
"We should send him to Idris. See what they can do," Alec suggested.
"The medic said that in his condition, he won't be able to survive the transfer," Izzy said, stress tainting her tone.
"And those medics don't Portal out of Idris," Everest said bitterly, having had this conversation before when Clary was poisoned.
"Max," Jace breathed out as he and Sebastian rushed in. "We checked the Institute's security camera footage. Whoever attacked him is somehow covering their tracks."
"Has he been able to talk?" Sebastian asked. Everest didn't like his tone.
"Not yet. He's unconscious."
Clary shook her head. "I don't understand. Who would wanna hurt him?"
Everest could think of countless people who would want to hurt the youngest Lightwood in order to get back at the others. She didn't say that though.
Alec's voice was low and threatening, "I don't know. But I'm gonna find out."
Jace put a hand on Alec's arm. "Hey. I'll get Robert and Maryse here. The rest of us, we'll find out who did this."
"Yeah, I'll stay with Max. If he regains consciousness, perhaps he can ID his attacker," Sebastian said, despite barely knowing the kid.
Like hell he would. Izzy would stay with Max and Everest would stay with Izzy. Sebastian had no part in this.
Trigger warnings over
...
"Do you want a social update?" Everest asked, sitting by Max's side while Izzy sat on his other. "It's about Jonathan and Max."
"Sure. It can't be worse than Max being in a coma."
"Dark humor for the win," Everest muttered, glancing at the corpses. "Anyways. The dynamic duo found mom's box of Jonathan's baby stuff and the running theory is that Max tracked Jonathan with the box."
"That means that he's still in the Institute," Izzy said slowly. She started to get up and Everest rushed to the other side of the bed. "Absolutely not. I'm going to kill him slowly."
"I'm sure you will, Dusk, but not right now." Everest coaxed her Parabatai-to-be back into her chair. "Max needs you right now. We don't know who Jonathan is pretending to be right now. Let the rest of us handle finding Jonathan and then you can kill him. Okay?"
After a long pause, Izzy sighed. "Fine. They better find him fast though. Or I'll deal with him before anyone can stop me."
"As you should."
...
"Drugs," Everest muttered as she stepped away from Max's bed, on the phone with Jace as he updated her on the search for Jonathan. "Drugs would help this."
"No," Jace countered. "No drugs."
"Yes, drugs."
"Only legal drugs?" he tried.
"All drugs."
"No."
"Do drugs kids."
"Everest no."
"Everest, yes."
"Both of you, no," Clary chimed in from Jace's end, exasperated.
What Everest didn't think either of them fully understood was that she wasn't even talking about other people doing drugs. She meant for herself, specifically pain meds for her headache that grew anytime Jonathan was mentioned or when she remembered that Magnus wasn't returning her calls. Drugs to make the corpses go away would be appreciated too.
...
It was silent outside the Infirmary where Maryse, Robert, Alec, and Everest sat. None of them said a word, even though Maryse and Robert were clearly curious about the tension between their son and Everest.
Everest was torn. She wanted to comfort Alec, she really did. She loved him dearly. But she was still pissed at him. She didn't know what to do.
"Anything?" Izzy asked as she rejoined the group.
Just then, the Infirmary doors opened to Brother Enoch and Magnus. They all stood.
"His injuries are too severe. Max's only hope for recovery now lies with Brother ENoch," Mangus said solemnly.
"There's got to be something, anything—"
Everest's heart shattered.
"Brother Enoch," Maryse interrupted sharply.
"No," Alec snapped.
Everest's hand found Izzy's. The other girl squeezed her hand tightly.
"Alec, I know you're scared." Maryse's hands gently squeezed Alec's shoulders. "We all are." A gentle, callused hand found Everest's. She nearly jumped. She looked up at Magnus, who just gazed at her sadly for a moment before looking at Alec again. She took a deep breath. It would be fine. It had to be. "But if Max is going to have any chance, we have to let Brother Enoch do this. Now."
The Silent Brother closed the door behind him and Izzy squeezed her hand once more before letting go. Everest looked to her to make sure she was sure. Izzy nodded.
Everest and Magnus approached Alec together. Each of them took a hand. Their boyfriend looked between them, wide eyes glistening with tears.
After a few moments of silence, Alec let go of their hands and sat by Robert. Izzy sat by herself and instead of letting Magnus wallow on his own, Everest brought him to sit beside her and Izzy.
The silence in the hall was deafening.
...
Pounding footsteps rushed down the hall and soon Jace was in view, skidding to a stop in front of their small group.
"Where is he? What happened?" Jace demanded.
"What are you talking about?" Alec demanded. Everest sat up from where she was lying on the floor.
"Max. I...I got your text."
"What text?"
"Jonathan..." Everest breathed out, horrified.
"Sound the alarm," Jace snapped, already rushing out.
Alec's phone beeped with an error message as he tried to do just that. "Son of a bitch."
Alec ran after Jace while the rest of them went into Max's room. Everest hesitated before joining the rest of the group. As she had learned the last time they faced Jonathan, she wasn't much help in a fight when she was hallucinating.
...
"How'd it go?" Alec asked when he returned thirty minutes later, after Everest had gotten several frantic updates from Jace, then several reassuring texts from Clary. "Is he okay?"
"He's okay, Alec," Izzy said as Alec took Magnus's place by the bed.
Max grunted a little before opening his eyes. "Did you catch Jonathan?"
They all laughed, out of relief more than anything else.
"You almost died, and that's what you're concerned about?" Maryse asked, chuckling.
"I should go," Magnus said. "Take care of yourself Max."
After a short pause, in which Izzy gave Alec the most obvious look possible, Alec followed after Magnus. When Izzy tried to turn the same look on Everest, she shook her head. "No, let them have their moment. He hurt Magnus more than me."
"What happened to you guys?" Max asked slowly.
Everest sighed. "Alec didn't tell us about the Soul Sword going missing."
Max gasped dramatically. "Rude!"
They all laughed again.
"You're not wrong, Kiddo," Everest said softly. "Not wrong at all."
...
"I didn't destroy the Mirror. These visions I've been having, they're a message from the Angel. The Mirror is Lake Lyn," Clary rushed out.
"The hell did I walk into?" Everest demanded, having just arrived.
No one had an answer for her.
...
"Why aren't you with the others at the meeting?" Maryse's voice, kind and curious, rang out into the training room.
Everest laughed gently, turning from the punching bag. "The Seelie Queen is here and apparently I'm a liability to her."
"What do you mean? How could you possibly be a liability to her?"
"I'm also a conflict of interest for her."
"How?"
"We dated years ago."
"Excuse me?" Maryse's composure was fading. Her eyes were wide and her jaw nearly on the floor, shoes off as per training room rules.
"Well, forever ago, I met this girl named Nettie." Everest couldn't believe she was rehashing her dating history with Maryse Lightwood, who happened to be the mom of both her best friend and one of her boyfriends. "We hit it off and started dating. We were happy for a while and then eventually we went our separate ways. I never thought I'd see her again. Then, while some of us were on a mission in the Seelie Court, the Seelie Queen started acting funny, too similar to Nettie to be a coincidence. Then when we were leaving, she called me a name only Nettie knew. When I got back to the Institute, I checked a video I have of Nettie and I, and sure enough, both her and the Seelie Queen have the same tattoo and mannerisms. So, now that everyone's learned that I used to date the Seelie Queen, I've been banned from all meetings with her unless she requests me there. For neutrality and all that."
Maryse's seemingly unflappable composure was long gone. Her dark eyes were wide and her mouth formed a small circle. Her hands wriggled at her side, forming senseless gestures. Finally she took a deep breath, eyes closing briefly. Then she straightened up, opened her eyes, and released her breath.
"Only you, Everest. Only you."
Everest grinned.
...
"Little larkspur," a soft, airy voice called. At first Everest thought she was dreaming. There was no way the Seelie Queen was actually calling out to her. "Little larkspur, please don't ignore me."
Everest turned away from the report she was filling out for the busted punching bag and there she was: the Seelie Queen standing elegantly in the Ops Center.
"Hi," she breathed out.
The queen opened her arms, and the room collectively held its breath. Everest didn't know what overtook her. She smiled a familiar smile, a smile she had once smiled daily but now only smiled every few weeks, and stepped into the Seelie Queen's arms. The embrace was soft and gentle, warm and comforting. If there had ever been any doubt about Nettie and the Seelie Queen being the same person, it was gone now. There was no way they were different people.
"I missed you, little larkspur."
"I missed you too...what should I call you?" Everest was a little perturbed by the fact that she didn't have to lift her head to look at the queen's face like she used to.
"You may call me Nettie, even when referring to me in conversation."
"Okay."
Everest almost snorted at the amused looks the Seelie Knights had, and at the horror on the nearby Shadowhunters' faces.
"Come visit sometime soon," the queen—Nettie—said. "I would love to show you around. No tricks."
"I'd like that," she said honestly. "Just let me know when."
"I'll send a messenger. Until the glade unites us again."
"Until the glade unites us again."
Everest watched, somewhat slack jawed, as Nettie walked away. What had just happened?
"I think she likes you, Kiddo," Luke's rumbling voice said behind her.
She jumped a little.
"Hey," she said, a little out of it.
"Hey," he said, amused.
"What's up?"
"I heard about your situation with Alec."
"Oh."
"Just don't let it destroy you, yeah? Be careful about how much energy you put into being angry. Don't tear yourself into pieces over something you had no control over, okay?"
She hugged him tightly. "I'll try."
His arms wrapped around her. "That's all I ask. I love you Everest."
"Love you too, Luke."
"I should get going. Besides, I think Maryse and Izzy want to talk to you."
Everest glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, the two Lightwoods were standing a little ways away, patiently waiting for her to be done talking to Luke.
"I'll talk to you later," she said, squeezing him again.
"I'll hold you to that. And you better elaborate on why the Seelie Queen likes you so much."
She chuckled, somewhat awkwardly. That would be a weird conversation, and it would be even weirder because Luke was basically her uncle. "I can do my best."
They parted and Everest approached her Parabatai-to-be and Maryse.
"What's up?" she asked, heart still warm from Luke's hug and still fluttering from the memories of Nettie floating around in her head.
"Well originally I just wanted to talk to the two of you about your Parabatai ceremony, but now I feel like I need context for what's just happened," Maryse said, already guiding Everest and Izzy towards an office.
"Well, as you know, Nettie and I used to date and so I'm not allowed to go to meetings with her anymore."
"I did not know this," Izzy chimed as she looped her arm with Everest's.
"Oops?" was all Everest could muster up in response.
"Nettie? Why do you call the Seelie Queen 'Nettie?'" Maryse asked, sounding as if she were a little scared of the answer.
"Because that's what I know her as and that's what she asked me to call her."
Izzy burst out in gasping laughter that only intensified when Maryse sighed deeply, facepalming. All three of them ignored Alec's obviously curious glance.
"You stress me out just as much as you amuse me, Everest," Maryse said, smiling indulgently. "I don't know which will give me gray hairs faster."
"Probably me in general."
Izzy's laughter doubled.
...
"No more Shadowhunters die today."
"Amen to that," Everest said, triple checking each of her weapons as she approached her siblings. Alec was just a few steps behind her. She was still somewhat ignoring him, mostly because she was pissed in general now, not just at him.
"Isabelle is on her way back with Rufus," Alec said, approaching the table. "Guess who just tried to Portal to Idris." There was a collective huff around the table. "Valentine must know that we don't have the Mirror. And, presumably, where the real one is."
Jace moved to stand between Everest and Alec. "Look, let's stay focused on what we can control, not what we can't. We will figure this out."
Everest really wanted to hug Alec.
"So we're stuck in the city alone with that man?" Alec said, frustrated.
Everest lost the boys' conversation as she watched her sister sway. Everest flinched, ready to catch her, when Clary blinked and regained control of her body.
"I might be able to speed things up. But I'll need Jace's help to do it," Clary said confidently.
"Got it," Jace said, and the two of them left the room.
"Everest—"
She cut him off, stopping beside him. "Not right now, Alec. I love you, I do, but not right now. Later, once this is handled, alright?"
He sighed. "Okay. Just—okay."
Her hand was warm as it grazed his arm. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," he whispered as she walked away.
...
Trigger warnings: Fighting, character death
It was dark when the five of them stepped out of the Portal, but none of them paused, not even Everest, to catch their balance. (She was particularly proud of herself for that.)
"Why would they hide in a graveyard?" Clary asked.
"No one expects there to be living people in a park full of dead people," Everest chimed in.
"They probably raided an old weapons cache," Izzy said with a small smile.
Everest liked her answer better.
"It doesn't explain what happened to everybody else here," Jace muttered
Alec sighed lightly, like he did when he saw something he didn't like. "I don't think they left."
Everest followed his gaze. There was blood on the headstones. They definitely didn't leave.
Izzy crouched down to look at something Everest couldn't quite see. "Another demon trap."
Aec faced the group again. "Let's split up. Teams of two and three."
"I'll go with Izzy," Clary said.
Jace said at the same time, "I'll go with Alec."
The other three shared a look.
"Okay weirdos," Everest said from where she waited for Izzy to stand back up again.
The boys went one way and Everest, Izzy, and Clary went the other. They sprinted for nearly a minute before they crept down the decrepit stairs. Everest batted away a cobweb, her nose wrinkling at the smell. It was too familiar for her liking. She just couldn't place it.
"Wanna talk about whatever happened between you and Jace at the Institute?" Izzy offered.
"There's no point in talking about any of that till we figure this out," Clary said.
Clary inched past the other two but stopped in her tracks when Izzy called, "Stop," upon seeing a woman dressed for a funeral.
"Is she hurt?"
"No," Izzy began, twirling her whip into a staff.
Everest remembered where she knew the smell from.
"She's Forsaken," Everest finished, pulling out her gun.
The woman turned, growling, and in an instant Everest fired her gun. She turned as more Forsaken piled into the small room. She couldn't use her gun. It was too cramped. She could hurt Izzy or Clary. She shoved it back in its holster, wincing as it burned her leg. She drew a seraph blade and dove into the fray. Slicing and stabbing, dodging and twisting. It had been a while since she felt this competent. It felt good.
It was silent once the three had killed all of the Forsaken. It was unnerving. Still, Everest grinned, full of adrenaline. She was about to tell the other two "Good job" when growling echoed in the room once more.
The three of them moved into a loose formation, but they were too late. An arrow shot through both Forsaken's heads, and the creatures slumped to the ground. Alec stood behind the creatures, bow still held firm.
"I think that's the last of them," Alec said, walking quickly. He hugged Izzy gently. Everest wished she could have a hug like that.
"Alec, are you okay?" Izzy asked.
"I'm okay," he said, even as he made eye contact with Evererst. She nodded. She was okay.
"Where's Jace?" Clary asked. That was a great question.
"Sebastian." Oh fuck. "We gotta find them."
"Guys!" Everest said, more aggressively than she meant to. But she thought it was warranted given the army of Forsaken running towards them.
"Izzy, we got this. You've got the whip, the electrum. We know it can hurt him. Everest, go with her. Go!"
Izzy and Everest didn't hesitate, running out of the building as fast as they could.
...
When they reached the bridge, Jonathan—he wasn't Sebastian anymore—had Jace on the ground, sword poised for a fatal blow.
"Stay away from him, you son of a bitch," Izzy snarled, snapping Jonathan's sword out of his hands. Jace lifted his head from where he lay on the ground and grinned when he saw the two of them.
The two advanced slowly, Izzy's whip grating against the metal of the bridge. Everest's gun glinted in the light. Her thigh burned from earlier, but she pushed through. Jace needed her.
"Well now, this isn't a fair fight."
"You didn't seem to mind when you took a run at my baby brother!" Izzy said. She lashed out, cutting just under his eye. "I trusted you when I was at my weakest, at my lowest. I brought you into my life, into my family, and you betrayed me."
She lashed out again, but he caught it.
"I saved your life. That should be worth something," he said, each word accented by another yank of the whip, pulling Izzy towards him inch by inch. Still, Everest was still. She wouldn't do anything until she had a clear opening. Jonathan made eye contact with her. "Everest, I'm your brother. That should mean something."
She said nothing as Izzy stepped in front of her. "That's why we're giving you a more honorable death than you deserve."
She let go of the whip and Jonathan fell back onto Jace's sword.
"That spot on a man's back? Father taught me too."
Jonathan tried to grab Jace, but Everest finally had her clear shot. She fired three times, each landing true in his chest and the man who, in another world, could have been her brother hit the ground just at the edge of the bridge. Jace went to kick him, but Everest held up a hand. She had something she needed to say first.
She looked down at Jonathan's pathetic, blood stained form. She sneered. "You're not my brother. You never will be."
She walked away and didn't look back. Instead she stood by Izzy, who said bitterly, "Hail and farewell."
And that was that.