"Look, guys, we don't want any trouble," Alec said, standing from his seat in the library of the Institute. "It's just that, when a bunch of warlocks fly a giant battleship over the city of New York, it's Clave business."

"Majorly," Isabelle added.

"We've told you a million times," Percy sighed, "we aren't warlocks."

"We're demigods," Frank added.

"Demigods?" Clary repeated, raising an eyebrow.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Yeah. It means 'half-gods', like 'children of the gods'."

"We know mythology and word origin," Alec replied coolly. "We're Nephilim."

"Nephilim?" most of the seven repeated perplexedly.

"Humans descended from angels," Annabeth clarified, only to receive a bunch of bblank stares from the other demigods. "Yes, children of Athena like to know stuff," she added.

"Athena?" Clary repeated. "That's Greek, isn't it?"

"Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare, yeah."

"And owls and weaving," Jace added matter-of-factly.

"Don't remind me," Annabeth groaned.

"But that doesn't explain what's going on," Isabelle protested, determined to get the conversation back on track.

"You guys are shadowhunters, aren't you?" Nico said, speaking for the first time and startling Leo, who stood in front of him.

"See?" Jace said, pointing at the much smaller boy. "He knows us."

"I know of you," Nico answered with a shrug. "You guys are outside of my father's jurisdiction."

"Who's your father?" Clary asked warily.

"The Greek god of the Unerworld," Nico answered casually.

"Well, this is all great," Leo interjected, abandoning his mug of warm cocoa, "but can we wrap up this little meet and greet? I've got an immortal girlfriend trapped on an island."

"If she's immortal, then she's got plenty of time to wait," Jace said coolly.

Leo started steaming a bit at the comment, but his countenance broke into a tight grin. "Yes, but she's been waiting for several thousand years now, so it'd be great if we left, like, now."

"Guys, he's waking up!" Piper called from her spot on the floor, where the unconscious Jason was beginning to stir.

"Welcome back, Superman," Jace wisecracked.

"That hurt," Jason murmured.

"Yeah, sorry," Isabelle said, purely in the interest of social convention. "That was our warlock friend. He has a flare for the dramatic."

Jason sat up, bringing a hand to his head. "I thought this kind of thing would stop happening when we won the war."

"What war?" Clary asked.

"We do not have time to explain the whole Gaea thing," Percy protested. "It would take, like, a novel."

"Several novels," Annabeth agreed, running an idle hand through Percy's hair.

"We also don't have time for everyone to get all couply," Leo added.

"I don't see why not," Jace said, swinging Clary around and kissing her on the mouth.

"Hey, no fair," Isabelle whined. "Simon can't enter the Institute."

"And my boyfriend isn't here," Alec added.

"Boyfriend?" Nico repeated.

"You got a problem with that?" Alec asked.

Nico blushed and burrowed further into his aviator jacket. "No."

"Alec, he's like a mini-you," Isabelle crooned.

"Can we keep the focus, please?" Piper suggested forcefully.

"Quit trying to glamour us," Jace sighed. "We told you the first time; we're runed against that sort of thing."

"And we told you the first time that we have no idea what that means," Percy sighed.

"So, to recap," Annabeth began, standing to Percy's protests, "you guys are Nephilim, also called Shadowhunters, whatever that means. We're Greek and Roman demigods. You have runes, which protect you from stuff, and special weapons. We have powers, which protect us from stuff, and special weapons. Does that sum it up?"

This met general consent.

"We fight demons," Alec added slowly.

"We fight monsters, Titans, and giants," Hazel offered.

"Only bad Titans and giants, though," Percy pointed out, remembering Bob. "We're also friends with satyrs, cyclopes, and nymphs."

"We're friends with warlocks, vampires, and werewolves," Clary said.

"Vampires and werewolves?" Leo repeated, suddenly interested. "Sweet. So, like, I'm guessing your dinner guests take their stakes really, really rare."

"Can this guy meet Simon?" Jace asked. "Can we just agree that this guy has to meet Simon?"

"I think the world would explode," Clary mused.

"Back to the point," Piper suggested.

"We have a pet hellhound," Percy mentioned.

"We have…a cat," Alec said awkwardly.

"Guess we win that round," Percy chuckled.

"Look, guys, very seriously, my girlfriend is a goddess who likes to sing and make stuff, and I left her behind on an island and swore on the River Styx that I'd get her back, so if we could just make it back to Camp, that'd be super."