As said earlier, this is a double update. And we're on the Thirtieth Chapter! Unfortunately, the end is near...

Oh yes, I forgot: All characters belong to CC. This covers all of the chapters. XD

The Shadow World

Chapter Thirty

Clary stared at the Mortal Instruments and wanted to laugh.

The Mortal Sword was... Mortal Sword-like, at least. It was big and sharp with runic designs, but the Mortal Cup?

Ironically enough, the Mortal Cup was the trophy for the Monthly State Championships Varsity Girl's Volleyball 1967 she had polished during detention all those days ago.

"Seriously?" Clary said, staring at the shiny trophy cup.

"Yes," Valentine said, holding it up. "This is the Mortal Cup, the very one the Angel Raziel brought down for Jonathan Shadowhunter,"

Suddenly, a bubble of laughter burst through Clary's lips. She doubled over and started giggling. "Are you telling me that Angel Raziel gave Jonathan Shadowhunter the Monthly Sate Championships Varsity Girl's Volleyball 1967 trophy cup? Did that volleyball team even exist a thousand years ago?"

Valentine's face flushed into an ugly shade of red. Thank goodness Clary managed to force down her laughter before Valentine could get violent.

"You may not believe it," Valentine said curtly. "But that is the truth,"

"All right," Clary said. The thing is that she did believe it, but she was just so stunned she started laughing, maybe. "But how are you going to make it work? Do you have any angel blood handy? I mean, you're not expecting the Angel Raziel to donate some blood for your freakishly diabolical plans, right?"

Clary clamped her mouth shut quickly. Valentine's face was turning purple.

"Speaking of which," Valentine said. "I do have angel blood,"

Valentine pulled out the medallion from his pocket.

"Hey! Where'd you get that?" Clary yelped.

"This," Valentine continued. "is angel blood crystalized into a medallion shaped lump. And once I drop it into the Cup..."

Valentine dropped the medallion into the Cup.

The cup bubbled, and suddenly, the Volleyball crests melted away to reveal a small golden goblet filled with a golden liquid.

"I now have the ability to change a mundane into a Shadowhunter," Valentine finished, eyes glittering with malice.

For a brief moment, Clary was stunned, staring numbly at the Cup.

Once more, her world exploded again as Jace sprang in, tearing himself at Valentine. Once more, both began to fight.

"CUT IT OUT!" Clary shrieked.

Surprisingly, both of them listened.

"Jace," Clary said shakily. An incredibly foolish and insane plan locked into place in her mind.

"What?" Jace gasped.

"You need to leave. Tell everyone to get out of here as soon as possible. I can take care of this alone," Clary said slowly, enunciating every word.

"No," Jace said immediately.

"Trust me," Clary pleaded.

Jace didn't say anything, but the line of his mouth hardened.

Without hesitating, Clary leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.

Yes, in front of Valentine.

Jace froze, stunned.

In one fluid movement, Clary shoved Jace out of the room and locked the door. Jace's fists banged on the door furiously, and he yelled, but Clary didn't say anything. She hoped that he would stop fighting soon and get everyone out before her plan took place.

"I love you," she said quietly, knowing Jace couldn't hear. It was true, though. She did love him, more than Simon.

"How tragic," Valentine said, eyebrows raised skeptically.

"Shut up," Clary growled.

"Oh well," Valentine said airily. "I suppose it is down once more to you and me..."

"You got that right," Clary said.

In another fluid movement, her stele was out in her hand and she dug the tip into the wall. A picture of a rune was hovering in her mind as she drew it out on the wall...

"What are you doing?" Valentine demanded. There was a definite note of panic in his voice.

"I'm destroying your plan," Clary said firmly as she added the final stroke.

She remembered how she drew the rune while fighting Abaddon. She knew that she must have had the special ability to create runes of her own, and now, she was going to use her talent.

For a brief moment, there was silence.

Then, for the third time, her world exploded.

The ship burst into pieces, and Valentine was washed away. Dirty, salty water flooded in, and Clary writhed around as she tried to fight for air. The filthy water gushed into her mouth, and she retched, but ended up swallowing more water instead. Desperately, Clary's hands reached for floating debris, rope, anything, but found nothing.

Slowly, a slick, black darkness entered her mind, and Clary welcomed it in.

(((())))

When Clary woke, she was in the Infirmary.

Clary inhaled the sweet, fresh scent of the fluffy bedsheets as she tried to piece together what had happened. The rune, the ship, the water, the blackness.

"CLARY!"

Suddenly, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, Jocelyn, Maia, Hodge, Aline, Max, Church, and even Alec engulfed her in a massive bear hug.

"I can't breathe..." Clary choked out, but she was grinning so badly her cheekbones were aching like crazy.

Immediately, everyone burst into a flurry of how brilliant she was, how reckless, how wonderful, etc.

Once the chaos was over, all she really wanted to do was to spend a few moments with Jace and go back to sleep, but there were a few more questions to be asked.

"Where's Valentine?" Clary asked. "Is he dead?"

The cheerful mood turned dark and sullen.

"We couldn't find him," Hodge said grimly. "He, the Sword and the Cup disappeared. We pulled everyone out from the water and fished out the ruins of the ship, but Valentine was nowhere to be seen,"

"So he has two of the Mortal Instruments," Clary concluded.

"Right," Hodge said sadly.

"But he doesn't have the third one. Valentine doesn't have the Mortal Mirror. All we have to do is to find it first," Clary said.

The mood lifted a bit.

"How? When?" Isabelle asked.

"Once I can move, let's go to Idris. There's got to be some information there. Besides, I'd like to see Alicante. We won't give up hope, and once we do get the Mirror, we'll make sure Valentine would never get his hands on it, good?" Clary said.

Everyone cheered.

Finding the Mirror would be difficult. Sorting her feelings for both Simon and Jace would be even more difficult, but she had hope. Hope may be a fragile thing, but it would rest forever in her heart.

I know this might come as a shock, but I am ending the Shadow World for now. Once I'm done with Book Cult: The Son of Neptune, I will recontinue this fanfiction. This story hasn't ended yet. It has just stopped temporarily. I apologize for that. I'm really, really sorry.

So...

Signing off for now,

Chocolatebackground. ;)