Chapter 1: Beginnings

The Institute was strangely peaceful. For all that had been going on in the Shadowworld, the past few days for the New York Shadowhunters had been remarkably calm. There were few demonic attacks, no one had gotten injured, Jace's fiery condition was gone, and Sebastian was keeping an extremely low profile. Everything was perfect. It was so quiet that—

"IT'S READY!"

The peacefulness, it seemed, had come to an end with Isabelle's voice. Jace and Clary, relaxing on the floor of the library, visibly shuddered.

"If she thinks for one second that I am going to eat whatever monstrosity she has cooked up, she belongs in a mundane psycho ward," Jace muttered, pulling his girlfriend closer to him.

"You think it's too late to run away to Taki's?"Clary asked desperately.

"It's never too late. Let's go." Jace stood up, pushing his golden hair out of his equally golden eyes and reaching a hand down to Clary. She smiled and took it. The couple ran out the door of the room, laughing, and were met in the hallway with an angry Isabelle holding a wooden spoon in her hand.

"There's no need to "escape" this time, guys," she said, putting her hand on her hip. "I followed the instructions just as they were written."

Clary blushed. "We weren't trying to escape, Izzy, we were, um, just… going on a date."

Isabelle rolled her eyes. "Please, Clary. You two don't go on dates, you just stay here and make out. Now, you are going to eat the food I made, and you are going to like it." She turned around, heading back toward the kitchen.

"Angel help me…" Jace whispered, squeezing Clary's hand.

"What was that?" Isabelle spun around, narrowing her eyes at Jace.

"Nothing."

Just as Izzy was about to whack Jace with her spoon, the elevator door at the end of the hall opened loudly, revealing an extremely panicked looking Alec.

"Guys, we have to go right now. I was just walking by Central Park, and picked up HUGE demonic signals—more than I've seen in a long time."

Gear was thrown on hastily, and the Shadowhunters were out the door, clueless of who they would soon meet.

It was an average day at Cap Half—Blood. The Apollo kids were practicing archery with the Hunters, the Ares cabin was practicing sword fighting, the Demeter cabin was chasing after Connor and Travis Stoll for pranking them, and monsters were howling in the woods. The Seven of the prophecy were simply resting after lulling Gaea to sleep in Rome. Jason had chosen to stay in Camp Half-Blood as a Roman ambassador, and Hazel and Frank went back to New Rome, seeing as Frank was now the praetor.

Percy and Annabeth were relaxing on the beach, her head in his lap, talking about simple things. Since they had fallen into Tartarus, the two had become almost inseparable. She even slept in his cabin (to the endless teasing by the children of Aphrodite).

"Percy, it's impossible for a dolphin and a lion to have a child, so it really doesn't matter what it would be named."

"Forget about that! Just choose which sounds better, Lolphin or Dion?"

"Percy, are you serious…"

"Yes!"

Annabeth sat up, putting her arms around his neck.

"Why do I put up with your insanity?" she whispered in his ear.

"Because you love me," he said, closing the distance between their lips. He kissed her softly, gently wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her onto his lap. She ran her fingers through his hair, sighing into his mouth…

"Oh! Sorry guys."

Their moment was interrupted by Jason and Piper. The two were standing close together, holding hands, with sheepish expressions on their faces.

"It's fine, Superman. What's up?" Percy asked, standing and helping Annabeth up.

"We were just flying over Central Park," Piper began, "and we saw a ton of monsters. I haven't seen that many since the war. I have no idea why they're all gathering now."

Annabeth glanced at her boyfriend. "Can you call Blackjack?"

"Sure."

"We'll take Tempest; it'll be quicker," Jason said.

She narrowed her gray eyes, staring at her three companions. "Be careful, everyone. We've made it through a lot, but still, watch out for surprises."

The demigods mounted their horses and flew off, unaware of who they would meet.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Just to avoid confusion, this is set after HoH and before CoHF (I'm ignoring the fact the Malec broke up).

Thanks again, and please review! —Madi