End Game

"This is it," Isabelle cried, waving the picture around, Max yipping like a puppy. He was dancing around Alec's legs excitedly. "This is the picture. This will take us to Jace and Clary!"

Alec took the picture and studied it carefully. It was a drawing of a pleasant Victorian house, sitting on a hill. A large green lawn reached up to the wrap around porch and flower beds trimmed the drive way, walk, and porch. From the windows, there were vague faces that he couldn't quite make out, and on the far side of the house, behind a wooden fence, was someone with curling brown hair. It was a quaint place.

"Clary drew this?" Alec asked uncertainly. He'd always thought she'd be given to anime. This was just a house.

"Yes, look, in the corner." Isabelle pointed to the lower right corner of the drawing. There is the green grass was a darker patch, supposedly cast by shadow, but Alec knew better. There was a rune in dark green. "She's left runes all over the paper, I'm sure. I think if we find them all we'll be to find where she is."

"Directions," Alec murmured.

"Hm," Magnus hummed. "You think she'd just tell us where she is."

"She couldn't," Isabelle said thoughtfully. "What if someone found this picture? They couldn't know what was going on. What if someone called the police?"

"She's right," Alec said. "We just need to decipher these runes. Can we go back to your house?"

"Opening portals all over New York state? Not something I enjoy." He tried to scowl, but the look of hope on Alec's face was too much. "But something I can manage."

Isabelle, Alec, and Max sat on a bench studying the picture while Magnus drew up the portal. Their eyes scoured the painting, finding more and more runes hidden in different places. It was tale of hiding and silence. Of control and submission. Isabelle shuddered as she read the runes. Something was bad here.

"Let's go, little ones. I want to be home in time for the new episode of Project Runway." He tapped his foot, but Alec knew he wasn't in any hurry.

As they came, the small group left. Through the portal, stumbling into Magnus's country house, and into his living room, they came. Isabelle managed to hold onto Max, but she flipped over a couch in the way and banged her head painfully. Alec flipped right into a chair. And Magnus strolled in with a relaxed smile.

"Let's get to work," Alec urged, staring at the picture in Isabelle's hands.

The three shadowhunters settled on Magnus's furniture and poured over the picture. Isabelle and Alec, who could spot runes better than Max, were in charge of finding them, and Max scribbled them down on paper. It took a while because Clary had hidden the runes well, but after an hour, they had a list that didn't bode well.

"What do we have?" Magnus asked as he came in a joined them. He had been working on putting up more wards around his home, so he was already worn when he joined them. "What are we dealing with?"

"Nothing good," Alec said darkly. "Do you know what these mean?"

Magnus looked them over and shrugged. "Binding runes."

Isabelle sighed angrily. "They're not just binding runes. They're used to hide things. To control people. To force a person's will. To keep help away."

"Do we know where we're going yet?" Magnus pressed. "It's all good that we know about this, but we can't do anything unless I know where we're going."

Alec and Isabelle exchanged a look. "No," Alec said finally. "It's like we're missing something. A key link. Every now and then, the picture does this weird, fuzzy thing. Like it's under water and the paint is running. But then it reassembles. I think if we find the last rune it'll change."

"That makes sense," agreed Magnus. "It sounds like Clary hid something in this picture. Directions to Lyle House."

"We need the rune!" Max cried frustrated.

"Why don't you all eat something?" Magnus suggested. "It'll help you think."

"We don't have time to eat, Magnus," Isabelle muttered. "We need to figure this out soon, before they move Jace and Clary."

"Isabelle, you're not finding anything now." Magnus looked gently over at Max, who was shaking. He missed that golden-eyed brat. "Come eat something."

Isabelle sighed and rose up, taking Max's hand. They followed Magnus into the kitchen to eat, while Alec glanced one more time at the picture. He couldn't stop his eyes from moving to the figure outside the house, the one with the dark curly hair. He was raking something. Alec blinked slowly. The rake, there was something with the rake.

With a sudden gasp Alec saw it. The head of the rake was a rune. The last rune. He traced it and the picture surged in on itself. The colors blended and the shadows dimmed. It was like viewing a painting under water. It swirled and churned. Alec called for Isabelle, for Max, for Magnus, for everyone.

The new picture fell into place.

"Get up, children!" crowed Nurse Talbot, pounding on the cage walls. "Get up, now."

Jace's eyes flew open, his fingers tightening instinctively around Clary's. He groaned and tried to sit up, though the cage bars stopped him from moving too much. Clary was stirring into life and she gave a small squeak when she saw the nurse. Their eyes met Clary relaxed, knowing Jace was right beside her.

"We're up," Jace groaned.

"Good, it's already late and you have to pack your things up." Nurse Talbot fiddled with the lock. "You need to pack and clean your rooms, bathe, and then come down in time for dinner."

Jace bit back any smart remarks and tried to quell his pride. It was hard for him to crawl on his hands and knees and not want to hit something. His knees protested when he stood up, but he grit his teeth and waited. Clary scrambled up and clung into Jace's hand like it was a life raft.

"Hurry now, downstairs." Talbot herded the children to the stairs, which they had to maneuver carefully. They were stiff and sore from the night in a small metal cage.

When Jace and Clary landed, they listened closely, and heard nothing. Clary looked uncertainly to Jace, who pulled her down the hall. Each room they passed was empty, the beds made perfectly, the desks set in orders, the windows closed permanently, and the floors swept and washed.

"Where is everyone?" Clary asked as she glanced in Chloe's bare room.

"The children are all downstairs, eating lunch and watching a movie. We decided that as a farewell gesture, we'd let the children enjoy themselves." She gave Jace a severe look. "The good children, that is."

Jace rolled his eyes and paused outside his door, still refusing to let go of Clary's hand. Her room was only a door away, but he didn't trust a single person in the house anymore. Nurse Talbot sighed and pointed to the bedrooms, staring pointedly at the cuffs on Jace and Clary's wrists.

"Just clean your rooms and we won't mention any of this," she said indulgently.

"Jace…" Clary murmured, and carefully freed her hand from his.

"Good, good," Talbot smiled. "Start packing up, there's a duffle bag for each of you. I'll be up in a while with cleaning supplies. We need the room to be spotless."

Jace and Clary turned to their own rooms with an aching need to be together. Clary threw herself on the bed, inhaling the almost familiar scent of Lyle House. She shuddered, the memories of the night in the cage surfacing, and had to clench her teeth together to stop from crying out. Then, as if to add insult to injury, she rolled over and remembered that she was supposed to be packing because she was being relocated to the Edison Group.

Clary managed to pull herself into the sitting position and she gazed around the room. It had been hers for just over two weeks, but it had to better than where she was going. The desk was heaped with tottering piles of books and papers. The clothes in the closet were hung crookedly on their hangers. Her shoes were gathered together in a mountain on the closet floor. There were bras hanging off doorknobs and chair backs, and her pants and underwear creeping out of the dresser. She twisted the strap of the duffle bag in her hands.

Might as well get to work.

Clary moved around her rooms like a zombie, going through the paces of cleaning. First she pulled all her pants and skirts from the dresser and folded them, next the shirts were folded, then the socks matched, the undergarments tossed together. The duffle bag was filled quickly, and Clary was staring around the rest of her room for anything else she might want to take.

There was her school work, her project she'd been working on since she'd arrived. It was the beautiful, leather bound book Dr. Davidoff had given her. Clary opened it and flipped through the drawings. Each one had the same rune on it, a rune of disguise and of knowledge. She decided to leave it. Someone would find it, someone would see the pictures. She hoped the Lightwoods would find it. They deserved to know the story that she and Jace and all the others had to tell. Someone had to know the truth of Lyle House.

Carefully, Clary pushed her bed and tucked the book into the farthest corner of the room. No one would find it there unless they scoured the bedroom for it. She new Isabelle would.

The sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs warned Clary that Talbot was returning. Frantically, she replaced the bed and sat on it beside her duffle like she had been waiting patiently like a good girl. Talbot came in with a bucket full of cleaning supplies in one hand and a Swiffer in the other.

"Is your bag all set?"

"Yes," Clary said softly.

"Good girl," she answered swiftly. "Just clean this place up and go take a shower. Once you're clean, come downstairs and eat. Then you can join the others for the rest of the movies." Talbot took Clary's duffle leaving her with the one change of clothes and the empty room.

Again, slowly, Clary went around her room in a daze. She swept and scrubbed the floor, washed the windows, wiped down the desk and head board and drawer, hung the hangers just right, and made the bed. It was as clean as it could possibly be. Clary hauled the cleaning supplies to the next door open and found Jace making his bed. When he saw her, he glanced up and smiled.

"Good to see your face," he murmured, and she noticed he was spinning the Morgenstern ring in his fingers.

"I brought these over for you," Clary said simply, and then joined Jace on his already made bed." She watched him play with the ring, and then grabbed his hands and squeezed. "Jace, I'm afraid to go. I'd rather spend the rest of my life here in this miserably happy place then even risk going to the Edison Group."

"I know," Jace said softly. "But with any luck, Isabelle and Alec will show up and save us."

"What if they don't make it?" Clary said, voicing for the first time, hers and Jace's fear. "What if they're too late?"

Jace pondered this for a minute. "I don't think Isabelle and Alec are going to stop looking for us. I think that if they find us gone from here, they will keep following our trail."

Clary breathed out. "I want to go home."

Jace stared at Clary in surprise. It was such a strange admission, something he could not fathom. Jace had been born and bred to fight, to not feel fear, and here was Clary, blatantly terrified. "I do too, Clary. I'd love to be back in the Institute. In my own room."

"I think we'll get there soon."

Jace considered this. "Even if we do escape the Edison Group, what will we go to? Back to Valentine? He's looking for us, too. And what about our…genetics? How can we be back in the normal world?"

"Maybe we'll just have to risk it," Clary said sternly. She reached out and kissed Jace firmly. "I'll take a shower while you finish cleaning."

"How about I join you?" Jace gave her a wicked smile. "I'm sure the nurses won't care. I'd think they'll encourage it."

"Clean your room, Jace," Clary sighed and left him smiling after.

The last few hours of the day at Lyle House passed in a blur. Clary took a shower, found Jace, who then took a shower, and they went downstairs. Nurse Van Dop drew them into the kitchen where they ate a small lunch of turkey sandwiches and potato chips. In the doorway of the kitchen, everyone's duffle bags were piled, and it made their stomachs turn.

As Nurse Van Dop picked up the empty plates she said, "You can go to the T.V. room now. Stay there."

Jace and Clary entered the room, and a sense of dread fell on them.

"You're okay!" cried Chloe, jumping up and throwing herself at Clary. "We didn't know what Enright was doing to you. We didn't hear any screaming after she came down." She pulled back and looked them both over. "You're okay, aren't you?"

"We're fine," Clary said. "It was just a night in the cages. She didn't…" Clary saw Tori looking at her in guilty horror. "She didn't hurt us."

"How are you?" Jace asked to the room at large.

"Fantastic," Simon said with a huge grin. "You know, enjoying Bambi. Snacking on chips. Waiting to be shipped off to a laboratory. It's the usual."

Jace nodded. "Sounds about right."

There seemed to be nothing more to say. As if they all came to a silent agreement, the six children gathered on the floor before the television. They pressed against each other, trying to take what little comfort they could in the other's company. No one knew when, but they had ceased to be separate kids, struggling against the Edison Group. They were all siblings, all friends, all lovers. They knew they were bound up in the same fate, and without each other, they weren't going to survive.

Chloe clung onto Derek, knowing that no matter how powerful she was, Derek's wolf strength would win out in a fight. He hummed deep in this throat like a wolf, and Chloe couldn't help but smile. Tori and Simon eyed each other curiously, trying to recognize each other in the other's face. And Jace and Clary sat side by side, their hearts beating in time together.

"Children," Dr. Davidoff said, pushing open the door. He smiled when he saw them all together. "It's time. Come into the kitchen. We need to give you a drug."

None of the children seemed fazed. They expected it. In a line, with Derek leading, they entered the kitchen and were faced with a line of unfamiliar doctors. Each one had a needle and a cold face. One by one, the children came forward and faced the doctors.

It was a tense moment. Derek wanted to lunge at the doctors for stabbing his brother with a needle, for pricking Chloe with one too. Simon and Tori were trying to swallow the facts that their mother was staring at them with cold, dark eyes. And Jace could hear his blood pounding in his ears again as a man jabbed a needle into Clary's neck.

But the tension abated as the drugs took effect. Jace made sure to settle on the floor beside Clary where she could see him. He hated when he saw fear in her eyes. He watched the doctors go from child to child, placing plastic restraints on their wrists, felt them secured on his wrist, and then he leaned back against a wall. Clary was beside him, she looked up with cloudy green eyes. There was no fear there, just that desperate longing and a heart wrenching trust. Clary knew that as long as Jace was with her, no matter where she was, she was going to be okay.

Jace knew it too.

Isabelle was standing on the sidewalk, one hand on the white picket fence, the other clenching a picture tightly. This was it. This was Lyle House. She could almost sense Jace and Clary, just up the hill. Her heart thumped faster in the chest.

"This is Lyle House?" asked Magnus skeptically. "Pretty swanky place to keep some genetically unstable kids. Wish the monks had had a place like this when I came into my powers."

Alec felt a smile pull at his lips and he squeezed Max's hand tightly. "Magnus can you check the place for that Enright woman before we go in?"

"Sure," Magnus said, and set to making a spell.

"Alec," Isabelle breathed. "Jace is up there."

"Jace!" Max cheered.

"Let me see the picture, Izzy," Alec said.

Isabelle passed him the picture, and he studied it again. After completing the rune, the picture had changed into something rather different. The house had morphed into a prison. The fence had lurched into the sky, spiked with tapering points. In each window was one of children, but the windows were barred and the children were staring out the windows in horror. The boy with the rake was chained to the wall. On the back of the painting were directions from the community swimming pool to Lyle House.

"This is it," he said, and felt the blades in his belt. If there was any Downworlders in there who were gonna try and hurt Jace and Clary, they'd be meeting his knife. "Magnus, did you check the grounds."

"I didn't sense any witches, but that doesn't mean Enright isn't blocking herself." He looked to the house. "Shall we?"

"Been waiting," Isabelle ground out. She took Max's hand and pulled him to her.

Alec pushed in the gate to the house and they began to creep up the drive. For a place that was supposed to be holding dangerous children hostage, it had very relaxed security. It was as if the children weren't even posing a threat anymore. Like the doctors who took them weren't even worried.

Blood singing, Isabelle trailed her brother, pushing Max behind her. They were up to the flowered side walk, the door was in sight. You owe me, Jace, Isabelle thought. It would be the first thing she told him. You owe me up and down Madison Avenue.

Alec came level with the door. He listened closely for any sign of danger, but the world was quiet. He pulled out the blade and held it tightly. Isabelle had her whip curled around his wrist. Magnus's fingers were glowing with white flame.

With a well aimed kick, Alec had the door in on it s hinges. He shot in the door, followed by Isabelle. Magnus shot a bolt of white light ahead of them. When the light faded, Alec and Isabelle stopped in shock, gaping at the sight before them.

Nothing.

The house was empty of life, it was obvious without having to check. There was no sound of voices. No creaks of people upstairs. No T.V. blaring a show. No humming electricity.

"No…" Isabelle whispered, dropping Max's hand. She dashed into the house, ignoring the cries of her brothers. She was in the kitchen, kicking over chairs, throwing open doors. She ran to the next room with the blank television and threw pillows all over the room. Up the stairs to the bedrooms, all empty and bare of life. "No!"

Alec had wandered into the kitchen in some form of shock, holding Max lifelessly. No one was here. They were too late. Jace and Clary had been moved to the Edison Group compound. He heard Isabelle screaming above him, throwing things, but that didn't matter. He went to the next room, Max by his side, shaking on the verge of tears. Magnus came up behind him wordlessly. What was there to say?

The desolation was too much. The loss of Jace and Clary was too hard. There just weren't enough words to explain the feeling of failure.

Alec looked around helpless. Max started wailing.

Nothing.

This is the end of part one

Part two will continue in Children of Genesis