This started out as a silly "lol what if Magnus raised Clary and Alec raised Izzy" AU with my friend but then I turned it into angst. Why am I like this? Why does this happen?

In S1e10 of Shadowhunters, Meliorn mentions that in the other dimension, the war with demons was won and demons can no longer enter that dimension on their own. I wondered what that would do to the Clave in the earlier years after the war -and then I paired it up with the Circle. I love that pretty much all AUs can be canon via the show now, it's amazing.

I'm also going to mention Infernal Devices characters, if you haven't read the books. They probably won't show up. Probably.

Title from "Storm" by Ruelle.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.

Intro

Jocelyn brought Clary to Magnus' loft in Brooklyn when she was eight years old. She set down Clary's pink suitcase and her purple-and-blue backpack filled with Clary's toys. Jocelyn turned to Magnus as Clary squealed with glee at the sight of his cat. She rushed over to him and outstretched her arm so the cat could sniff her hand. She began to pet the cat, murmuring to him.

The two adults spoke to one another in hushed tones and Clary didn't catch much. She heard something about a Cup but she doubted they were talking about soccer.

Clary walked up to her mother, holding Magnus' big fluffy cat, whose nametag read The Great Catsby.

"Please take care of her," Jocelyn told Magnus just as Clary stopped in front of them.

"Why can't I come with you?" Clary begged her mother.

The cat was heavy and he squirmed in her arms. Clary yelped when Catsby scratched her as he tried to free himself, and she dropped him onto the floor. He hurried away, tail puffed and swishing back and forth.

Her mother bent down to check Clary's scratch, though it wasn't bad. Clary just needed a Band-Aid. Jocelyn gave her a smile and stroked her red curls. "You're safer when you aren't with me, baby. I'm so sorry. Magnus will take care of you."

"When will you come back?" Clary asked.

Jocelyn hesitated. She pressed a kiss to Clary's forehead and didn't make any promises.

.

Magnus wondered when he'd gotten so entangled with the lives of Shadowhunters. He certainly hadn't wanted to. Especially not when it came to Valentine's ex-wife and child.

He groaned and leaned back on his chair. Catsby sat in his lap and Magnus absentmindedly scratched the cat's head. He studied Clary Fray, asleep on the living room couch, a SpongeBob SquarePants Band-Aid now covering the scratch on her arm. Jocelyn had given him the same instructions she would to a babysitter: She's not allergic to anything. No TV after eight pm; nine is her bedtime—nine-thirty at the latest, Magnus!

(Magnus had let Clary stay up until eleven watching television.)

Well, Magnus thought begrudgingly, it wasn't quite like that. She had called ahead, in a hurry, said Valentine was onto her, that she would have asked Tessa and Will to take Clary, but they were in London and she didn't want them to risk coming to New York when Valentine was so close.

Part of him had wanted to argue that he wasn't exactly the safest option. He didn't keep as low a profile as Tessa and Will did.

"Tessa and Will have more connections with Shadowhunters," Jocelyn said.

Magnus understood her reasoning, but at least Tessa and Will would have much more experience in taking care of child, unlike him. And for how long would he have to take care of Clary? Jocelyn herself didn't know when she would be back. If she was going to be back. Magnus stopped that train of thought right there. Jocelyn loved her daughter. She would come back for her.

But, oh, God. He was going to have to call Tessa for help, wasn't he?

Only if he was truly struggling, he decided. They were probably already aware of the Valentine situation, but he would catch them up tomorrow. It was five in the morning in London, and although Will would no doubt still be awake, he wanted to tell them together.

Magnus sighed and snapped his fingers to magic a blanket on top of the sleeping child. Clary shifted, but didn't wake.

She had spent the hour after being dropped off as a crying mess. She vaguely recalled Magnus but it wasn't enough to put instant trust in him. She wanted to be with her mother. She felt safer with her mother. Magnus didn't blame her.

Jocelyn had lingered for a few moments before departing. She had looked at her daughter, now watching television in the far side of the room, and then turned her gaze back to Magnus and swallowed.

"I don't want you to tell her," she'd told him. Magnus was about to protest that he was a warlock and that it was ridiculous to expect him to keep the Shadow World a secret from Clary for too long, especially when it was the reason she was going to be living with Magnus in the first place. Before he could do so, Jocelyn continued, "But I won't stop you. When you think it's necessary, do it. It could be tomorrow, it could be in a month. But I know you have to tell her."

After that, she had left.

He had ordered Chinese takeout for dinner. Clary warmed up to him a little after that, but he still felt like a babysitter who would get in trouble for letting her eat unhealthily and stay up so late watching television. Only he was a babysitter who now had the responsibility of easing her into a world that her mother had wanted to hide her from. No pressure.

Magnus put Catsby on the floor. Despite Catsby's earlier disagreement with Clary, he gave Magnus a betrayed look and jumped up onto the couch, where he cuddled up with her.

"Traitor," Magnus muttered. He turned and went into his bedroom.

.

"Izzy, shut Max up," Alec said in a low voice.

He didn't look behind him, but he heard Isabelle shift and cover Max's mouth. His brother's quiet sobbing stopped and Isabelle sniffed. He hoped both of them would stay quiet. He knew it would be difficult –even now, he felt a lump in his throat. He couldn't allow himself to cry. They had to escape first. He couldn't risk being found by the Circle like his parents had been.

For the five years since they'd fled from the Clave to live among the mundanes, he'd been aware that this would be a real possibility. That Valentine Morgenstern would find his parents in search of the Mortal Cup. They had just hoped that it wouldn't happen. They had changed their last names. None of their children had runes. They had tried their very best to fit in the mundane world.

Alec had come home from school to a ransacked apartment. He had immediately known in his gut that Valentine found his parents. He looked at a photo of him and his family on the wall, now hung crookedly. There was a smear of blood on the white wall next to it. His stomach had felt like lead. The Circle members would have noticed the picture. He closed his eyes and sighed, thankful he'd been wearing his hood up so that it had been hiding his face when he entered his apartment building. Maybe there was a slim chance that the Circle members who were undoubtedly waiting for him and his siblings to return hadn't recognized him.

He'd almost stepped on his mother's stele. He took it and slipped it into his jacket pocket. His father's too, once he'd found that one, also on the floor nearby. No seraph blades in sight. Most likely the Circle members had confiscated them. Couldn't let the fifteen-year-old and his thirteen-year-old sister find them, could they? They might know how to use them. Alec had ground his teeth with frustration. They had fled the Clave when Alec was ten years old. He had never properly learned. He could barely even remember any runes.

He rushed to the room he shared with Max, dumped his books and folders on the floor, and stuffed as many of his and Max's clothes into his backpack as he could fit.

He'd gone to his closet, found a duffle bag, stuffed it with some of Izzy's clothes, menstrual pads, and some cans of food. He found a stash of his parent's money and put it in his wallet. It wouldn't last for long, but they needed anything they could get. He'd taken one last look around the apartment that he had called home for the past five years, and fled to Isabelle's middle school.

The three Lightwood siblings were together now, waiting in a subway station. A man was playing his violin in the corner. The instrument's case was open next to him, a silent request for money.

"Where are we going to go?" Isabelle asked. Alec turned this time to see that she and Max had eyes swollen from crying.

Izzy sniffed again and tossed a few coins from her pocket into the man's violin case. Alec had to bite back a reprimand when the man grinned at Isabelle and added a bit of a flourish to his playing for her. They needed all the money they could get, but it was only a couple of coins. Isabelle cracked a smile at the enthusiastic violinist and Alec knew he couldn't take away this tiny bright moment from her with his worry.

Isabelle looked at Alec expectantly, and he remembered her question. Alec was tempted to go to the New York Institute for a brief moment. Their parents' steles were still in the pocket of his hoodie, and his fingers curled around them. But who knew what had happened to the Clave in all that time since his family had gone to hide from Valentine? Maybe it didn't exist anymore, or had been taken over by the Circle. He didn't know what had become of the other Shadowhunters and he didn't want to find out. He couldn't trust the Clave to protect them from Valentine. Not even living in the mundane world had done it.

"We're going to go in hiding," he finally replied as a subway train screeched to a halt. He started walking forward to get on the train. He didn't know if there were Circle members still following them, but he was going to try to lose them underground if possible.

"I thought we were already doing that?" Izzy asked, following him with her hand tightly gripping Max's.

"We'll have to do a better job of it than our parents," Alec said. He sat down and Max climbed into his lap, even though they were the only ones in this train carriage.

"I miss Mom and Dad," said Max. "Aren't we gonna find them?"

"We can't, Max," Alec said. "I told you. We don't know where they are. And it's dangerous to try to look for them."

"Then why can't we go home? I want to go home," Max said, and the tears were starting up again and Alec let his baby brother cry this time. He hugged Max tight to his chest and let him sob into his hoodie.

"Valentine is probably looking for us too, Max. We can't go back home."

"I don't even know what the Cup is!" Max said. His voice came out muffled. He leaned back to meet Alec's gaze and wiped his eyes. "I don't know anything. Why would they be looking for us?"

"We might know something," Isabelle said. "Alec and I are a lot older than you, Max. We know more stuff about Shadowhunters."

"Draw one rune," Max challenged, and when Izzy hesitated, he narrowed his eyes. "You can't remember!"

"I can remember one," she said and turned to Alec. She knew that he had the steles. She stretched out her hand as if to ask him for one of them.

"Our parents didn't want us to be Marked unless it was completely necessary," Alec said.

"I'd say being hunted down by Valentine makes it necessary," Isabelle told him. "I'm just going to draw the angelic power rune. It's the only one I can remember to do because it's so easy."

Alec shifted Max in his lap so he could reach into his pocket. He took out his mother's stele and looked at it for a moment. He handed it to Isabelle. "Put it somewhere discreet."

Isabelle pulled the collar of her shirt to the side to draw the rune on her shoulder. It wasn't as discreet as Alec would have liked, but he supposed it was better than other places she could have drawn it. Isabelle hissed as the stele burned her skin. Clearly she hadn't expected it to hurt.

She gave the stele back to Alec and looked at Max with raised eyebrows. Max looked at the rune black on her shoulder. "It looks like a tattoo."

"I'll be the only girl in my class with one," Isabelle said, leaning back on her seat. Alec didn't bother commenting that they probably wouldn't be going to their old schools after this. Izzy knew. She was a smart girl.

"Did it hurt?" Max asked. "It looked like it hurt."

"It burns a little," Izzy told him. "I'm okay, though."

They rode in silence until the next stop, where they got off. Max was nodding off, so Alec gave Izzy one of his bags so that he could carry their little brother as he slept. He didn't know where they were going to go.

But he was going to take care of his siblings. They were going to stick together. They'd survive.

Review?

~Coqui's Song