Wow guys, I'm so sorry for the . . . two months? . . . delay. I just started college and I'm still technically in high school at the same time. It's confusing and basically means the classes are killer. Why I need to know how to program a computer when I don't want to do anything in computer science is beyond me. But I digress. I took a little break, but I'm back now. The chapters will probably bi or tri weekly now just because I have lots of work. However, I don't want to give this story up. Sorry if it's a little dialogue heavy, but the groups have to give a little of their backgrounds before the real work can begin. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Trust to Tell

Jace was not a happy camper at the moment. Not only was he up far earlier than he ever wanted to be, but he was going to be forced to reveal things to complete strangers that had no business being in the institute let alone knowing about Sebastian. But Maryse had insisted, saying they already knew about Nephilim and might as well know the whole story.

"Why are we doing this again?" Alec yawned, sprawled out in a chair in the library.

"Because it has a minuscule theoretical possibility of being hypothetically helpful," Jace retorted.

Clary rolled her eyes. "Why are you so against them? They saved us and seem nice enough. Besides, it's not like we're giving them total control over the Clave. We're going to explain the situation of what - - - Sebastian is doing and see if they know anything or can help. If they can't," Clary paused and turned towards Jace, "like Jace so vehemently believes, they'll go on their way, and we'll never see them again."

"Clary's got a point," Isabelle agreed. "What's the harm? We haven't had any leads on Sebastian since the wings and note."

"The Clave wouldn't approve," Jace countered.

Clary laughed. "Since when do you care about what the Clave does or doesn't approve?"

Jace just mumbled under his breath. Maybe the girls did have a point, but he wasn't completely convinced yet. Speak of the devil, Jace thought, as Sam and Dean opened the library doors and walked in. Dean looked barely awake, but Sam was in awe looking at the shelves upon shelves of books.

Even in his sleep deprived state, Dean took notice of his brother and grinned. "It's coffee that gets me going at this early in the morning, but I should of guessed what would get you moving, Dork."

"Ha, ha," Sam muttered, offhandedly as he went to go and investigate the nearest bookshelf.

"Maryse should be here in a minute," Isabelle offered.

Sam seemed to engrossed in the bookshelves to notice and Dean had just plopped himself in a chair at the table in the center of the room and closed his eyes.

Great, Jace thought, this is just great.

Just then Maryse walked into the library, her heels clicking on the hard floor.

"Good, I'm glad everyone got the message," she said as she entered with a member of the Enclave - Yalow.

Sam turned away from the book he had been perusing and Dean opened his eyes slowly.

"Sam, Dean, this is Yalow Greatspear, he is a member of the Enclave here in New York and has had a few run ins with hunters before. I thought he would be a good addition to this talk."

Jace frowned, he didn't really know Yalow all that well - only from Enclave meetings and such, but he couldn't remember him ever mentioning he had run ins with mundane idiots who liked to do their job.

Yalow looked about as pleased as Jace, though, and only confirmed his suspicions that he was not happy to be here when he spoke. "I have. They aren't usually pleasant, but as I'm generally one of the Shadowhunters who is sent away on assignment far from New York and coordinates with the other two American institutes - the one's in Los Angeles and Chicago, I have heard many stories and met a few of your . . . kind." He made a rather sour face at the last bit.

"Have we not been a dream to deal with?" Dean asked sarcastically.

"No," Yalow retorted harshly. "You most definitely have not. Most of the time you get in the way and have no clue what you're doing."

Dean laughed and Sam gave his brother a look.

"What?" Dean asked. "It's just that's exactly how Letta would have described Nephilim."

"Who's Letta?" Isabelle asked curiously.

"Just an old friend," Sam responded a little too quickly.

Jace didn't think that was even remotely part of the story, but Maryse was ploughing on. "Yes, well, maybe we can change some of that. Now, Yalow, this is Sam and Dean Winchester. They ended up giving some much needed aid to Jace, Isabelle, and Clary last night against some djinn. I thought, since we seem to be at our wit's end with Sebastian, I thought we could use a new perspective."

Yalow nodded curtly. "Winchester, eh? You two know a John Winchester?"

"Why?" asked Dean uneasily.

"Heard some story's about the bastard. Apparently he was one of the best of you lot."

"He's our dad," Sam said, softly. "And he passed . . . almost seven years ago, now. Demon got him."

"To bad," was Yalow's only reply.

There was a awkward pause among the group, which Dean - unable to dwell any longer on such old and sad things - broke. "So why was I told to get my ass down here at such an ungodly hour?"

Maryse fidgeted slightly and seemed at a loss at where to begin, so Jace began instead.

All he thought was these idiots had better have a way to deal with his . . . Well, Jace wasn't really sure how to categorize the relationship he had with Sebastian. Brothers was far to close for comfort, and they weren't actually blood. However, there was no denying they were raised the same way by the same man, and that in itself brought some kind of connection.

Jace shook out of his thoughts and spoke. "You two know anything about angels?"

Sam and Dean shared a look of apparent unease.

"Some," Dean replied cryptically. "Why?"

Jace moved over to a bulky object covered by a white sheet that was laying on the table and began lifting the fabric. "Because we received these a little over a month ago from someone named Jonathan Morgenstern."

Under the white sheet was a pair of white angel's wings - feathers stark white and fluffy. There were a heavenly picture if it weren't for the drops of blood staining them where the wings should have been connected to shoulders.

"What," Dean said. "are those?"

"What do you think?" Jace said snidely.

Dean gave him a dark look, but his younger brother interrupted before he could say anything.

"What Dean means is why do you have them and why are they corporeal?" Sam explained.

"Sebastian sent them as a warning along with a note that read - in ancient Greek of course, I am coming." Isabelle piped up.

"Wait, Sebastian?" Sam looked confused. "I thought you said this guy was named Jonathan."

"It is," Maryse finally took over. "Sebastian Verlac was an alias of his. What are you referring to by corporeal?"

"Most angels appear to humans as vessels and their wings are only some kind of spiritual energy. Even if they aren't contained in a human vessel, they're just this ethereal light. I know they can condense this light enough to have their wings become feathers, but I've never seen them detached and remain - well - wings." Dean commented.

"Wait," Clary interjected. "How many angels have you met exactly."

"More than enough," Dean muttered under his breath. A little louder, Dean said to his brother. "You think this Sebastian guy could be working with Metatron?"

Sam shook his head. "We don't know what happened was Metatron's doing. Besides that, I don't think Metatron was just play acting the hermit. I don't they're working together."

"What?" the room chorused at once.

"Long story," was the only answer Dean gave. "Well, we also can't assume it wasn't him. Guy rubbed me wrong from day one."

The younger hunter rolled his eyes at his brother. "I'm just saying we don't know since we haven't heard from Cas. Anyway," he turned back to the Nephilim. "Who is this Sebastian guy?"

"It's a long story, too." Jace narrowed his eyes at the brothers. If they wouldn't trust them, he sure as hell wasn't going to either.

"Jace," Maryse reprimanded. "Excuse my son, he's not a morning person."

"It's fine," Sam said. "We get it, why should you trust us if we don't trust you."

Jace's look became even more sour now that it looked like Sam was going to make nice. Couldn't the giant see that he was trying to pick a fight? However, the older brother looked just as thrilled as Jace as Sam building fences, which was a nice consolation.

"Metatron is an angel who was the Scribe of God meaning he wrote down God's word on a series of tablets which he then placed all over the earth. However, that changed when God took an unannounced vacation to only God knows where."

Jace snorted at the pun, but otherwise remained sullen with his arms crossed.

"Metatron then went into hiding fearing that the new bureaucracy of heaven would come after him in an attempt to get all of the tablets. He believed without God heaven had become corrupt and didn't want anything to do with it."

Dean picked up the story from there. "Long story short, he then went and holed out with a bunch of Indians in Colorado since forever ago doing nothing but reading literal mountains of books. Real firebrand, that one."

"Anyway," Sam said. "He went with our friend who is also an angel - Castiel - to try and shut the gates of heaven. However, something went seriously wrong and all the angel's fell."

There was absolute silence in the room until Jace couldn't take it anymore. "Well, congratulations, Maryse, you've opened up the world of the Nephilim to a couple of complete nut jobs. Fantastic."

Maryse shot Jace a glare. "Although he is being more than rude, Jace does have a point. The story is a little . . . hard to swallow."

Dean shrugged. "Believe us, don't believe us. We told you our story. Now you tell us yours."

Clary was the one who began to talk this time. "Sebastian -"

But Jace cut her off. "Seriously, Clary? You're going to go ahead and explain Sebastian to a couple of guys who are either completely crazy or just fed us the most bogus story ever?"

"I believe them," Yalow cut in, louder than all the others. "If even half the stories about John Winchester and that family your mother comes from are true. I'm sure you boys find yourselves in those kind of situations more often then most."

"What do you know about Mom?" Sam asked puzzled.

"She was a Campbell, right?" Yalow asked.

Sam nodded his affirmation.

"Hear loads of stories about them. That family's been hunting longer than Nephilim have been around. I've even heard a couple of stories about the first of our kind - Jonathan Shadowhunter - was apprenticed to a Campbell. And your mother made a bit of name for herself with that rat pack she trained back in the day."

"You don't say," was the only response the brothers gave as they shared a look, but refused to elaborate.

"Wait," Alec interrupted. "You actually believe them."

Yalow gave a half shrug. "I'm saying it's possible, hell anything is really. I mean you've got a maniac part demon Morgenstern idiot trying to burn down the world because his mother didn't love him and his daddy screwed him over. Why can't the angels have fallen? Makes sense actually because that would explain why there isn't any heavenly intervention with what's sure to be a massive demon invasion."

"Part demon?" the older hunter questioned.

The members of the institute quickly shut up. Jace didn't want to explain; it wasn't their business anyway. And it wouldn't help them find a way to put an end to Sebastian either.

But, of course, Jace thought to himself, Clary would feel differently about that.

"Sebastian's my older brother," Clary began, drawing surprising looks from the Winchesters. "My father, Valentine, experimented with him, having my mother drink the blood of a demon while she was pregnant. So now he has demon blood with in him."

The two brothers shared a quick look, but Jace didn't understand what could have passed between them. Both looked impassive.

"He's evil," she continued. "All twisted up inside and wrong."

Jace couldn't help but notice a pained grimace pass over Sam's face and Dean's expression hardening. But why, Jace had no clue.

"And, I guess, since he never had any other options, he turned to the demons and both serves and acts as master over them. The world kicked him out, so he wants to burn it down. And he wants to start with us, the Nephilim."

With that Clary finished, and took a seat in the library. Sam in Dean did nothing but glance at each other, but Jace could tell there was an entire conversation there.

Finally, Maryse spoke up. "Sebastian has already attacked Alicante - our capital city - along with his father, and has created a cup which, for lack of a better term, turns Nephilim to the dark side. Infusing them with demonic, along with their previously angelic, powers.

"We don't know what he'll do next, but we know he's dangerous and has the ability to overpower angels. We are certain he will attack and soon. I was wondering if you have ever dealt with anything like this, and if you would be willing to help. After all, once he's done with us, he'll come after everyone else."

There was a pause as Sam and Dean had another of their silent conversations. Jace knew if the pair stuck around he was going to get irritated with them fast. However, they chose to speak out loud to each other, too.

"What about Cas?" Dean said at last.

"We'll get Garth and everybody else on it and keep checking, but meandering around the country won't help us any. Besides, Cas can take care of himself."

Dean seemed reluctant to agree. "He's our friend, Sam. We owe him. And no, I don't think Cas can take care of himself as a human; he could barely function as an angel at this point."

"Dean, I'm not saying we stop looking. I'm saying we wait and see what pops up because we don't have any leads. And this Sebastian guy needs to be dealt with. It shouldn't take us too long."

Jace rolled his eyes at that. He hadn't thought Sam the exaggerative one, but clearly he didn't understand just who they were going to be dealing with.

Dean paused, but then agreed. "We've dealt with worse than a punk-ass kid with serious family issues who likes to deal with demons and rip things apart. You're right. But after this is finished, we throw ourselves into finding Cas. Got it?"

Sam nodded his head, and the brothers turned back to the Nephilim. "So, what do you have other than a pair of rip off wings and a note in ancient Greek?"

Great, Jace thought, these were two idiots who were just going to wind up getting themselves killed. But at the same time, Jace had this funny feeling when the had said they had dealt with "worse." Something told Jace that he didn't really want to know what that had meant if they had been telling the truth.