Hi guys,

So, I had posted this story a few months ago and ended up taking it down because I was in the middle of writing some other stuff and I just seriously lacked the motivation and inspiration to continue with it. However, I have since finished those other stories and reread CoHF, and have changed my mind, because I am still not completely satisfied with how it left off with Simon and stuff, and I do actually like what I had started here.

As far as the writing style goes, I am trying to keep it as close to Cassandra Clare's as I can, hence the multiple POVs in a chapter.

For right now I am only going to upload chapter 1, even though I have 5 or 6 written already from what I had originally posted, just to get this going again and to give me some time to reread the other chapters and edit. I will post the other chapters over the course of the next few days as I get around to it.

As far as updates go, I will tentatively tell you about once per week, which is generally how I handled my other stories, but I haven't written very much over the past few months and I need to get back in the swing of it so maybe slightly more then that. Bear with me.

Anyway, please read and enjoy. And please let me know what you think.

"I can't do that!" Simon protested as Jace landed back on the training room floor, having finished demonstrating yet another of the many moves the former was supposedly required to know as part of his "basic training" regimen prior to Ascension. Honestly, he wondered if the Shadowhunters didn't just get a kick out of watching him mess up over and over again on stuff that was supposedly simple.

It had been a week since Jocelyn and Luke's wedding, the day that Simon had been (re)introduced to the Shadow World and to what had actually been his life for most of the past year. He still didn't remember everything, though Magnus' spell had worked wonders for him over the past seven days. The memories were still coming; a slow process that was kind of driving him crazy, but he would take what he could get.

Almost immediately after that, Simon had been thrust into vigorous training, both physical and intellectual, in preparation for becoming one of the Nephilim. He had spent every day at the Institute, from dawn to dusk, learning about Shadowhunters, Downworlders, and demons; everything from random facts to the Shadowhunter family trees (why? He didn't know); and of course, his personal favorite part: fight training. The Shadowhunters of the New York Institute were dedicated, to say the least, to teaching him how to fight like the rest of them. Personally, he thought he was doing pretty well, but the others, save Clary and maybe Isabelle, seemed to think otherwise.

"Why not?" Jace asked simply, as if he couldn't, for the life of him, understand what was so complicated about the jump sword (in Simon's case, a fake one) slash that had somehow involved multiple flips in the air that he had just performed and now wanted Simon to try.

"Why? Because I can't. I'll break my neck!"

"I don't think you will," Jace stubbornly persisted, "Clary learned how to do it and she had just about as much training then as you do now." Simon looked incredulously behind him where Clary and Isabelle sat on the sill of one of the training room windows, watching, and occasionally giving their two cents as Jace taught the lesson for that day.

Clary smirked, returning his gaze, and shrugged. "And I'm just awesome like that," she added unhelpfully.

"That too," Jace agreed. Simon gave the redhead a look, which she easily returned, before he turned back to Jace. "Now do it," the Shadowhunter commanded coolly, "Unless you want to chicken-out in front of your girlfriend. I mean, that's cool too…"

Simon sighed, "Fine. But if I end up paralyzed for the rest of my life, it's on you."

Jace grinned and picked up the end of the cord on the floor, the other end of which was tied securely around Simon's waist. He held it up for the other guy to see. "As okay as I would be with that, that's what this is for."

Clary watched as Simon attempted the move, throwing himself up into the air, clumsily striking out with his training sword and managing a single flip, one less than Jace had done, before landing-not so gracefully-on the floor again. She clapped her hands in applause for him. Overall, it wasn't a bad first attempt- way better than her first attempt at it had been (not that she would tell him that). But she had been scared of heights then and not fond of flinging herself into the air, chord tied to her or not, and Simon had never been. Even with only a week's worth of training under his belt, it was clear Simon would make a great Shadowhunter. He'd already taken to it so well, regardless of how hard Jace was pushing him. She was just grateful her boyfriend wasn't still insulting him every chance he got.

And Simon was making progress. He was already getting the hang of most of the basic techniques and, though he wasn't very fond of the book work, he was interested enough in it to remember most of it. And all the physical training was already paying off for him. Even in just a week, he had grown slightly more muscular and definitely more confident. He carried himself more like a Shadowhunter, which, in Clary's opinion, was half the battle. Then again, he had been a vampire for a few months. Even if he didn't remember all of it, that had to have helped at least a little. Somehow.

Simon, having ascertained that his feet were back on the floor again, shot her a sarcastic smirk before he turned back to Jace again. He bowed sarcastically.

Jace stood casually, arms crossed, as he had since he'd finished his demonstration of the move, looking cocky and cool as always. He wore gear, as did the other Shadowhunters in the room. Simon hadn't reached training with actual weapons yet and therefore didn't need it. "Not bad," Jace admitted, "But you need more height and better posture in the landing. Actually, just better posture all around would be good."

Simon took a deep breath. "Alright."

"Do it about a hundred more times," Jace instructed. "By then, you might have it down."

Clary continued to watch as Simon attempted the technique again. Her own training was barely underway, but she was more advanced than him by quite a few months, and she had learned a lot while in action, which had helped speed things along a bit. Right now, everyone's training had been put on hold for Simon's crash course. After his Ascension, which would be sooner than usual, given the circumstances, training schedules would go back to normal.

It was strangely wonderful to think about- Simon's joining the ranks of the Shadowhunters. He would be like her, like all of them, and not as a vampire who could never really fit in. He would be Nephilim, exactly like her. Granted, the thought of Simon Ascending kind of terrified her. Everyone-Jace, Maryse, her mom- had assured her that he was a great candidate for the process, having been a vampire, though that also made Clary more worried. No one to Ascend had ever previously been a Downworlder, so really, no one could truly know. Then again, no one had ever previously been a vampire and now wasn't either-that they knew of, anyway.

Simon's training lasted about another hour until it was almost ten o'clock at night and well past a decent time for both her and Simon to head home. Jace kissed her goodbye by the Institute's front door as Simon reappeared, probably from doing the same with Isabelle. "Ready to go, Fray?" he asked casually. Hearing him call her that again, after six months of him having not remembered she'd even existed, brought a smile to her face, as almost everything he said lately did.

"Yup," Clary answered easily, letting go of Jace's hand, which hers had rested in.

He let it go and kissed her quickly on the cheek and whispered, "Bye," before he proceeded to walk back further inside the Institute, though not without playfully mussing Simon's hair on the way. "Bye, Mundane," he called over his shoulder before disappearing around a corner.

Simon just grinned, looking unconcerned, and ran his hand through his hair, attempting to smooth it. "Not for long," he said lightly and led the way out the door, into the cool summer air of the night.

"So," Clary asked casually as they walked the sidewalks on the way to the subway- something you definitely should not do alone at night in New York. "How are the muscles?"

"Sore," Simon answered. Clary smirked like she knew exactly what he was talking about. She probably did, having been in the same boat as him not so long ago with the crash course in demon slaying she'd been put through upon discovering that she was a Shadowhunter. And with the constant abuse the training put his body through every day; sore muscles seemed to go with the territory.

"You'll get used to it soon," she said, and then pointed out, "At least you can walk normally now." It was true. The first day or two of training had left Simon barely able to move, let alone come back and train some more. The pain now had been reduced to a dull throb in his arms, torso, and legs; annoying but manageable.

"Oh, like you weren't using pain killing runes every chance you got when this was you."

Her smile widened. "No, actually. But there's a rune for sore muscles. It's a miracle worker, let me tell you." She said this very seriously, only a hint of amusement in her voice, but she started laughing when she glanced at Simon beside her and saw the face he was giving her. A lot of good a sore muscle rune would do him when the pain would have faded on its own by the time he Ascended. "No pain, no gain," Clary said, "Sorry." She didn't sound very sorry though, mostly amused.

"Oh, it's all good," Simon said sarcastically, "I'll just be that much better than all of you when the time comes."

She snorted, "Yeah, okay." They walked for a minute in comfortable silence. They were almost to the subway station when Clary spoke again, "So you're okay with this, right? This whole Ascension thing."

Simon looked at her. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

She shrugged. "I just don't want you to think you have to do this. I mean, I'm sure there's other ways for you to keep your memories." She didn't meet his eyes and it was clear that, though she said so, she obviously wasn't sure there was another way.

He looked at her, waiting for her eyes to meet his again, and grinned at her. "I want this. Trust me, Clary." He paused for a second before adding, "You can't be more awesome than me forever. I can't allow it."

Clary smiled and laughed lightly. "Okay. Just making sure."

The conversation after that lightened, the topic changing to a mundane one, partly because the streets had grown more crowded as they neared the subway and partly because Simon just wanted to have a normal conversation for once.

He wanted to Ascend. There was no doubt in his mind. He'd wanted to be a Shadowhunter ever since the first day he'd visited the Institute, and even more after he'd found out Clary was one. Granted, his motives for doing so were different now, but his point still stood. But still, after talking about almost nothing but Shadow World stuff for the past week, he was glad for the reprieves he got from it on his walks home with Clary.

Mostly he was just glad that he could remember most things again. In the time before Magnus and Isabelle had shown up in front of his school, which had actually only been six months but seemed way longer, he'd felt like something huge was missing somewhere, but he, obviously, couldn't remember for the life of him what it was. Things were working out now. He had his family, his life, and his girlfriend back. He was getting what he'd wanted for so long, even after he'd been Turned. And he had Clary, his best friend, back.

Frankly, he didn't care how difficult the training was or what trials the future would hold for him as a Shadowhunter. Right now, just having things back to "normal" was enough, no matter what happened.

He had subconsciously slowed his pace as his thoughts wandered. It wasn't until Clary snapped her fingers in his face that he was brought back to reality. He blinked and looked at her. "Simon, the train's going to be here in, like, two minutes. Unless you want to miss it and have to wait even longer, I suggest you hurry up." Her words were serious, but there was humor in her tone.

"That was very rude, Fray," he joked, but he picked up the pace to a fast walk, and Clary, being as short as she was, had to nearly jog to keep up.

"You'll live," she laughed, "I know you've put up with worse. You should probably get used to it."

"This is true," he said dramatically, "But from you-"

Clary laughed, interrupting him. She put on a burst of speed then, sprinting into the station and despite how small she was and how short her legs were, training had made her quick. Simon had to sprint to catch up with her and despite how stupid the two of them probably looked; he laughed the whole way.

Thanks for reading. Next chapter should be posted shortly.