I was furious, and lost. The place was a maze and I didn't think I would ever find my way to my room or anywhere else for that matter.

My mother had just told me that the incompetent shadowhunters that were helping us move had somehow misplaced the majority of our belongings. How did that even happen?

I groaned as I turned another corner and ended up in a hallway I had been in five minutes ago.

"Are you lost?" An amused voice asked. Just my luck. I turned to notice a blond boy leaning in the doorway of one of the rooms.

"I'm fine," I lied and started to walk past him down the hallway.

"You've walked this hallway three times now," he kept talking as I kept walking. He grabbed my arm. "Just admit it, Clarissa, you're lost."

I pulled my arm from his grasp. "It's Clary," I told him. No one called me Clarissa, not anymore. "And I'm not lost!" Sure, I wanted to get back to my room and unpack the small amount of belongings I actually had at the moment but I wasn't desperate enough to let Jace Herondale be the one who led me there. "Even if I was I sure as hell don't need your help, Jonathan."

Jace narrowed his eyes but before he could bark back some snarky comment, a voice sounded from the end of the hall.

"Clary! There you are!" I turned to the dark haired girl making her way towards us.

"I don't appreciate you telling people how much I hate my name, Isabelle," Jace groaned, annoyed.

"Yeah, well I don't appreciate you trying to hook up with my parabatai either," Izzy retorted back.

"I was only trying to help her make sense of the institute." Jace shrugged.

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Whatever, come on, Clary." I was glad when she pulled me away from the Herondale. I had only met him about three times previously, but that had been more than enough to instill a fierce hatred within me.

"Okay," Izzy started talking again as we reached my room. "Did Jace really rile you up that much? I can feel your anger pulsing through our bond."

Izzy and I were parabatai. Our relationship transcended friendship, even sisterhood. She meant more to me than anyone. We were bonded together for life.

"Jace is already an afterthought," I told her. "My mom told me that our belongings were misplaced. Everything's gone! All I have is what's with me in my backpack."

My parabatai was silent for a moment before breaking out in laughter. "Only you, Clary. This would only happen to you." I crossed my arms and glared at her. This wasn't funny. "Okay fine, I'll let you borrow some of my clothes."

"Thanks, Izzy." I didn't particularly want to wear Izzy's clothes. They weren't really my style but it was better than nothing.

"What are parabatai for?" She smiled before entering her room which was right across the hall from mine.

I turned and went into my own room. I dumped the contents of my backpack onto my bed. There were only a measly amount of belongs. My stele, drawing pad and pencils, one seraph blade, and other useless odds and ends. Then, under my drawing pad I found a picture frame.

The picture was of a happy family of four, taken not more than two months ago. I felt tears welling in my eyes and I stared at my father.

"Clary?" Izzy's voice questioned from the doorway. I hastily set the picture frame down on the bedside table and used my hand to wipe the tears from my eyes.

"Yeah?" I replied looking at her. She was holding a dress in one hand. Izzy made her way over to be and threw the dress on the bed before pulling me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Clary," she said. "I can't imagine what you're going through." She had said the same exact words to me a week ago at the funeral.

I pulled away. "I don't even know why I'm so upset. It's not like he was even around that much. He was always out training Shadowhunters. And when he was around he trained Sebastian. He never gave me the time of day."

"But he was still your father, Clary," Izzy told me. "You're allowed to be sad."

I sighed. "I've been sad for long enough." I picked up the dress she had thrown on the bed. "What's this for?"

"Magnus Bane is throwing a party; we've been invited."

"Why is he inviting us to a downworlder party?" I questioned.

"Beats me but when the High Warlock of Brooklyn gives you an invite, it's best not to question and just attend." Izzy shrugged. "But put that on, you'll look stunning."

I sighed picking up the dress and walking into the bathroom. I heard Izzy yelling something about us being parabatai and that I could get changed in front of her but I didn't care. I still liked to have my privacy.

I put the dress on and stared at myself in the mirror. Oh hell no.

"Izzy!" I shouted, barging out of the bathroom. "There is no way I can wear this!" It was very short, tight, and revealing. I didn't wear things like this.

"Sure you can! You look amazing," Izzy told me steering me to sit on the bed and she attempted to apply make up to my face.

"Izzy!"

"Fine, the natural look looks good on you anyway," Izzy told me. "Do something with your hair! Don't leave it a tangled mess! I have to go get dressed," she shouted leaving my room.

•••

Alec sighed, "Izzy what did you do to Clary?"

"What? She looks amazing, doesn't she?"

"She's your parabatai, Izzy, not your doll," the dark haired girl's brother said.

"We're going to a party Alec!" Izzy said. "We have to look our best."

"No," a firm voice said, entering the room. "You are absolutely not wearing that, Clary."

"Seriously Sebastian?" Izzy sighed. "You should be happy with how sexy she looks."

"Izzy! God, stop it! I don't want to envision my little sister like that!"

"What? I just meant maybe she'll finally get a boyfrie-"

"Izzy!" I didn't really want the entire institute knowing I've never had a boyfriend especially not-

"You've never had a boyfriend?" Jace said, walking into the room. "Poor little virgin shadowhunter."

I wanted to throttle him. But Sebastian beat me to it as he punched Jace in the face. Alec quickly stepped between them before anymore blows could be thrown. "Calm the hell down! We're already late. Let's go."

•••

"Well...here goes nothing," Alec said as he knocked on the warlock's door. It swung open revealing a man with yellow cat eyes.

"Hello! And welcome to Chairman Meow's birthday party-" he stopped himself realising who we were. "Shadowhunters. Lovely, you couldn't have looked less like a shadowhunter?" He signed and produced a bucket out of midair. "Weapons in the bucket. Can't have you killing my guests, can I?" I deposited my seraph blade inside as everyone else did the same.

"Herondale," Magnus said. "I know that's not it." Jace pulled a knife from his boot. "All you Herondales are the same." The bucket vanished. "You'll get your precious killing instruments back after the party." He stepped out of the way and ushered us inside.

"Why did you call us here, warlock?" I questioned, getting straight to the point. I wanted to go back to the Institute and get out of the dress as soon as possible. Some of the vampires were already staring at me like I was their next meal.

Magnus turned to me with curiosity. "And who might you be? I knew of the Lightwoods and the Herondale but not of you... Morgensterns." He must have noticed the family ring Sebastian was wearing. "No matter. There is a particular vampire who wishes to speak with you. His name is Simon. He's around here somewhere I'm sure." And with that the High Warlock of Brooklyn whisked away into the party.

"Split up and find the vampire," Alec ordered. He went off with his parabatai while I went off with mine. Sebastian went on his own.

"Trying to find one specific vampire here is like trying to find a needle in a haystack," I told Izzy.

"Were you looking for me?" A voice said from behind me. Izzy and I both whirled around to face a brown haired vampire. "Simon, the pleasure is mine."

"Isabelle, but my friends call me Izzy." Oh no she had that look in her eyes. "And Clary."

"Izzy, Clary," Simon let the names roll off his tongue. "We should take this to a quieter part of the party, don't you think?"

We ended up in a bedroom. There was glitter everywhere. "What did you want, vampire?" I asked shortly.

"My, no need to be so salty, Clary." Simon grinned. I could see his fangs. "But I'll get to it. I represent some very powerful vampires and they're rather angry about you shadowhunters killing off their fledglings."

"Well they must have been breaking the Accords otherwise we have no reason to harm them," Izzy told the vampire.

"But they weren't breaking the Accords that's what has my Masters so riled up," Simon informed us. "It's your trigger happy Ascended Shadowhunters. They see a downworlder, they kill said downworlder." The Ascended. That was the New York Institute's main function: training Ascended for Insitute life, or life outside of Idris.

Simon had began walking closer to us. He stopped in between us. "I suggest someone reel in the Ascended. Otherwise my Masters have no issue in killing a few. Have you ever tasted Shadowhunter blood? It is to die for." He licked his fangs before strolling out of the room.

I tugged on my parabatai's arm, she was still staring in the direction the vampire had left. "Come on, let's go find the others so we can get out of here."

Izzy followed after me but that didn't stop her from making a remark in Izzy style: "He was kinda vamp hot don't you think?"

•••

When we arrived back at the Institute Alec and Izzy went to talk to their mother and father - the heads of ine Institute - about the vampire problem. I was afraid I was going to be left attempting to find my own room again but Sebastian walked back with me. Apparently he had done more exploring then I had and already knew the ins and outs of this place.

"Thanks, Sebastian," I told him as we reached my room. But, I walked into Izzy's room instead.

"Clary? Did you forget which one was your room?" Sebastian asked from the doorway.

"No I just need some pj's," I told my brother as I started going through her drawers.

"She won't mind?"

I found what I was looking for: some sleep shorts and a loose t-shirt. "No, we're parabatai. You always seem to forget that. And she offered to lend me clothes anyway." I pushed past him and back into my own room.

"I guess I'll never really know what that means: parabatai." He shrugged.

"You know you're still 17, right? You can still do the ceremony," I told him.

"Yeah, but who would be my parabatai? There's no one I'm close enough too. I think I'm better off alone anyhow." I caught a different meaning behind those words.

"You're not alone, Sebastian. Me, you, Mom, we're all in this together. We're all going through the same thing." I hugged him. I knew he had been a lot closer to Dad than I had. I knew he was hurting more than me.

"Thank you, Clary," he said pulling away. "I'd better get to bed. Big day tomorrow right?" I nodded. Sebastian was attempting to fill our father's shoes by training newly ascended shadowhunters. Tomorrow would be a trail run with the ascended at the institute.

"May the angels be ever in your favor!," I called after my brother as he left the room, wishing him luck. Tomorrow would be a day for the books.

Author's Note: Thanks for checking out this story! It means a lot to me! This story is still a very rough WIP so it'll have some problems most definitely. This first chapter isn't structured very well but that's because I didn't intend to post this as a story when I started writing. The rest of the chapters will be better structured.

Some things you should know about this story:

-Isabelle and Clary are parabatai (obviously) and so are Alec and Jace

-The Circle isn't evil in this story. They just wanted to create more Shadowhunters to fight the demons (the Circle's original goal). Valentine was the one training newly made shadowhunters in Idris.

-Jace's circumstances are the same: his parents died and he was sent to live with the Lightwoods.

-Izzy and Clary became parabatai because Maryse typically brought Izzy to Idris with her when conducting business with Valentine and left Izzy to play with Clary at the Morgenstern Manor.

-I decided to name Sebastian, well Sebastian instead of Jonathan Christopher because that's Jace's name and I thought it would be too confusing having two Jonathan Christophers.

-Jace's treatment of Clary? Clary isn't some mystery in this story to figure out. She's just a shadowhunter. He's treating her like he would treat anyone.

-Character's OOC? This is an AU. They've grown up differently, they have slightly different personalities.