Author's Note: After reading your reviews, I felt terribly guilty for leaving the situation so dire.

Chapter 21: The Queen Tells All

Clarissa couldn't keep the tears from blinding her eyes. She wasn't sure if she was crying for Jace or for Jonathan or for them both. Or perhaps she was just broken up over her own fate; her past and her future had been stolen from her in the briefest of moments. It was unreal. It was unfair. It couldn't be. She sagged onto the ground, overcome by the futility of breathing, the futility of being. She wanted to rewind and replay the situation. If she had chosen Jace, would at least he still be alive? They could have built a life together. They could have married and had children. How could he be gone as if he never lived?

"It is you, isn't it?" A voice, sweet and light and unmarred by human trifles, trilled the question.

Clarissa fought to clear the tears from her eyes, while struggling to choke the harsh burn out of her throat.

She looked up and found herself in a wooded glen, being addressed by a woman who glowed with an otherworldly beauty.

"Who are you?"

"I am the Queen of the Fae. I have been waiting for you."
"Waiting for me? Why?"

"You always come to me, when all is lost. There is much for us to speak of. But first there is something you must see, so that you may understand just how far we have fallen off course."

An image took light upon the air, exposing a battlefield scene. Hoards of minor and greater demons had fought there way into the center of Idris, and were clashing with Shadowhunters.

Lord Loss stood at the edge of the field, his hand firmly gripping, Jonathan's arm. Jonathan looked bloody and damaged, but alive. Clarissa gasped. She had thought her brother dead when she had turned the ring. Should she have stayed? Could she have saved him?

The scene shifted, and closed in on Jocelyn as she fell at the fist of an enormous greater demon. A dozen minor demons clamored at her fallen body, and Clarissa watched them feed on the woman who was likely her true mother.

Isabelle, Alec and Magnus stood back to back, felling one demon and then another. It seemed possible that they could save Idris with only their unflagging might and the deftness of Magnus's spells. They seemed so strong. They were the last standing. But as time passed, the demons kept coming, and it became clear that even they could not maintain their force. Four greater demons converged on them, and all Clarissa could see was a cloud of red mist, and when the demons separated, Isabelle, Alec and Magnus were gone.

The scene disintegrated. "I think we've watched enough, don't you?"

"Why would you make me watch this? It's so terrible."

"I want you to understand the danger we are in. Idris has fallen. The mortal realm will be next. The vampires and weres will try to protect it, but they will fail. I have made what provisions I could to protect my court. But it won't be enough. It never is."

"What are we supposed to do?"

The Queen sighed. "We must do what we always do, and hope this time we don't fail. Your brother's blood holds immense power. By merging mortal, angel and demon essences, your father created something that he could never fully understand. We can use your brother's blood to save ourselves, to save the future."

"How can we get his blood? Lord Loss has him held hostage."

"You're covered in his blood." She held a hand out and traced a line across Clarissa's jaw. When she pulled back her hand, it was smeared in red.

And Clarissa remembered. Lord Loss had slashed into her brother's flesh, while she stood by his side. She was indeed dripping in her brother's blood.

"We can use his blood to go back in time. But once we are there, we can only change one thing. And we can only make that change within the span of your brother's life. Last time, we chose to distract Valentine with Lord Loss, hoping that the demon's interest would unnerve Valentine enough so that he would betray himself to the Clave in time for them to step in. Clearly, we underestimated Lord Loss. We traded one evil for another."

"And what do we try next? I don't have any memories of these past versions of events."

"I remember them," the Queen said. "I think it's time we attempt the one thing you have been reluctant to try."

"And what is that?"

"We warn Jocelyn of Valentine's experiments on her son. It is possible that it will sway Jocelyn into revealing his plans to the Clave in time for them to thwart him."

"Why have I not wanted to try this before? It seems like a reasonable plan."

"You have been reluctant to risk what may happen to your brother. There is a chance that if Jocelyn is warned in time, she will run away with you and leave your brother behind. You will lose him. You will not love him. You will not know him. He needs you in order to have any hold on his humanity."
Clarissa looked away into the endless forest. "I can understand how I wouldn't like that. I don't want to give him up. But, if we've tried everything else, what choice is there? We can't let the demons gorge on the world this way."

The Queen nodded. "I'm glad you agree. We have much to do. Follow me."

"I won't forget him," Clarissa whispered to herself. "I won't."

But, after the Queen and Clarissa finished their work, and the world replayed itself, Clary Fray took Clarissa's place. And Clary Fray didn't remember her brother. Clary Fray grew up loving her mother and her best friend Simon, and grew enamored with a Shadowhunter named Jace. And Jonathan grew up alone.

So ends this story, allowing the birth of another more familiar tale.

~ The End ~

Author's Note: Thank you for reading. You guys are awesome. I'm considering a sweet Clary/Jace epilogue to really zip up this story. In the meantime, I've self-published two stories and I am giving them away for free on smashwords and amazon (check out 'Anais of Brightshire'). Thank you guys again for reading.