less than two hours after the two were sleep, alarms went blaring as a result of which both Clary and Jace shot up from their sleep.

"it's a code red Clary we got to go." Jace said jumping to the closet to put on his combat suit.

"wait, Jace. we have been on a mission for three days strait two hours is not enough sleep, even with my runes we won't even be close to our top form." Clary said worried and clearly trying to dissuade Jace from going.

"Clary I know you're tired, I am too, but a code red means all hands on deck even if we're not in top shape we can still take care of some of the weaker demons, you know take some weight off the others." Jace said as he put on his vest that was covered in different runes.

"fine," Clary said as she pulled aside her covers, getting up, she also went towards the closet to put on her own gear. "but after this we are taking a vacation" Clary said with conviction as she hummed a tune.

"ok we will go on a week long vacation after this, we can go to Italy, the last time we went there, couldn't really be called a vacation." Jace said agreeing with his wife's proposal.

(A/N: I don't remember well but I think they spent some time in Venice alongside Jonathan in the books but if I'm wrong just assume they went there in the time between the books and this fic.)

"Ehh na-ah, at least two weeks and we're going to Japan its sakura season and I've never seen them before." Clary finished saying the same time she got ready.

"..." before Jace got to protest because of the long time off Clary demanded, he got a glare from her that suggested she would knock him out if he even got the idea of a protest, which shot him up as a result.

"fine." Jace said defeated and, as the two rushed to the briefing room.

later in the briefing room.

"for some reason we are still trying to figure out, an incredibly large demonic energy suddenly appeared in the middle of central park," the two heard Alec brief the other shadowhunters as they got in "even though it is just past midnight there are already reports of human death from the shadowhunters on the scene. we also have several packs and clans rooted in New-York and the surrounding towns to help deal with the chaos." as Alec noticed Jace and Clary in the room he looked at them with dissatisfaction but refrained from saying anything and continued "this is a code red and as you know it means all hands on deck unless," he said while looking Jace in the eye and emphasizing the next words "you have been on a mission recently and to tired to contribute. even if there are a lot of demons if it really gets bad we can have the warlocks to bring in reinforcements from other institutes or Idris, we don't want you to get yourself killed for no reason. got it?"

with a resounding yes every one started to move towards the entrance where one of the warlocks contracted to the institute had opened a portal that lead directly to the fight scene.

as Jace and Clary were about to set off, Alec stopped them by putting his hand on Jace's shoulder, "where do you think your going?" Alec asked even though he already knew the answer.

"Alec, I know what you want to say but, you know what a code red means even if we want to get reinforcement it will take at least a couple of hours buy then a lot of people might die." Jace reasoned while looking resolute.

Alec sighed looking at Clary "are you not gonna say anything? I'm tired of all his excuses you're the reasonable one Clary. " Clary looked at him with a wry smile "at least I got him to agree to a at least two week vacation to Japan."

"wow a full two weeks," Alec said with sarcastic surprise. "ok, there is no need to continue talking like I'm not here, there are demons to kill, you can talk all you want about my workaholic tendencies after." Jace said not at all impressed by their joint passive aggressive remarks. "ok, let's go" said Alec following " by the way Simon and Izzy already left on their vacation, and are not answering their phones" Clary with some envy looked at Jace and said "damn so lucky, Simon mentioned they were going immediately since things always happen and if they are here they will have to help and delay their trip, but I didn't think he meant within two hours, though he was right." Clary ended her sentence as they walked through the portal.

Clary POV:

as I stepped through the swirling mass of unknown green and gold liquid that was the portal, I felt the now familiar tog as if I was in the middle of a tornado and a strong water current simultaneously. 'damn I'm never gonna get used to that' I thought but I quickly halted my steps, we were currently standing on an elevated construct looking over the lands below and the only thing that could describe what I was seeing was mayhem.

literal seas of demons were present just in front of us less than 300 feet from us, the groups that had arrived before us were using the elevated stone building we were currently on as a temporary command room and med bay. in the distance I could see several distinct groups fighting the demons each having several shadowhunters to help get the job done, as killing demons without angelic magic of the Nephilim is several times harder, unless you are a warlock.

these groups were obviously the other residents of the shadow world, the downworlders. there were several groups of vampires and werewolves along with five or six warlocks here and there. the only group missing was the fey.

Alec ran from beside me toward a side of the battlefield were I could see flashes of blue light decimating the demons, with a little help from my runes of vision and clarity I saw the visage of Magnus, Alec's husband and the most powerful warlock I know, clearly. he was standing in the middle of a circle of scorched earth with traces of blue flame still present. just beyond the rim of the circle the sea of demons had stopped even these mindless demons didn't dare to continue swarming him.

"ok, can you draw the battle runes on me? " Jace asked clearly eager to join the fight, normally I should have drawn the runes before coming here but this time we were kind of in a rush. "yeah sure." I answered and got to work drawing on both him and myself.

(A/N: in the show they drew the runes on themselves once and each time when they needed it, activated it using their steles, but in the book the drawn runes except for some special ones the rest are temporary and disappear over time.)

after getting ready we both ran into the field Jace wielding a sword and I had my dual daggers. the demons looked like a mass of wine red ants from afar but when we got close we could clearly see them. they were for the most part, bipedal humanoids with sharp hands that came down to just below their knees. their faces looked completely inhuman with how it looked like melted red skin with a layer of black below. the were not very tall being slightly shorter than my 5'2" self.

as me and Jace were ripping through the demons we realized they were not that strong individually, being even weaker than the weakest demons recorded in the Clave's archives, their only problem being their immense numbers. but this brings us to another problem, they were a new type of demon, the Clave since it's beginning until now has dealt with thousands of deferent species of demons along with deals with warlocks who had connections to their demonic parents and even the Seelie court for information, due to all this the Clave has a record of all different species of demons, or at least we all thought we had until just today.

as we reaped through the demons I thanked all the angels I could name at the moment that they were barely considered cannon fodder, I was tired, I could already tell the only thing keeping me going was the runes and the adrenalin. as I was following after Jace I could tell he was getting bored with this demons, they were weak but they seemed endless.

"ROARRRR"

a roar that seemed to vibrate the ground snapped me out of my thoughts, and that's when I saw it, a huge demon the same wine red of the smaller ones but with four legs and four arms, a tail that looped to the front like a scorpion's but looked nothing like one. if I wanted to liken it to anything it would be an Arachne except for the tail, being male, and much, much more ugly. his head seated atop his body that looked like a body builder's, was any thing but human, looking more like a butterfly made of flesh, with no visible eyes.

about a year ago Jace and I went on a mission when Jace suddenly decided it was a good training opportunity for me so when we found the demon, I had to face it on my own. it was an incredibly difficult battle, it was against a water demon, about seven feet tall, dark blue in color and waist long hair than it could control to attack with. after two hours of grueling battel I finally killed it. that's when I heard the angry roar of another demon who immediately jumped out of the river ready to attack, however the moment his hair was about to reach me Jace appeared out of nowhere with a hand made torch that upon grazing the monster's hair, it caught on fire like it was doused in gas. the fire traveling through the hair instantly reached the screeching monster causing it to explode into a fiery and fleshy grenade. after that experience I had spent month memorizing different kinds of demons and their strengths and weaknesses, I might not be able to name all of them but I can definitely recognize all of them, that is why I am sure when I say not only is that abomination scorpion demon a previously unknown one, much like the swarm around, but it is also one of the strongest demons below the strength the ranks of arch demons like Lilith or Beelzebub can reach in the mortal realm.

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Jace and I now with somber expressions start to reap our way to the demon where we could see several others fighting it.

after getting close I could more easily see our teammates for this specific hunt. two shadowhunters both male one with dark hair, bronze sun tanned skin, and the other, a man looking to be in his forties with dark skin and a bald head. there were also three vampires two men and the other a woman all of whom similar in appearance with their pale skin and blond hair appearing to be in their mid 20's though appearances can be deceiving when it comes to immortals, speaking of immortals, there is also the most beautiful woman I have ever seen standing to the side providing support, she has two white horns on the top of her head silvery blue hair and jewel like reptilian blue eyes reminiscent of blue sapphires, a warlock no doubt but if I didn't know any better I would assume her to be a dragon in human form, the last person was Luke, my step-father and the Alfa of the biggest pack in New-York a pillar for the werewolves around the world.

as we get close, each of us got into the role we had to play in a fight. in our normal routine Jace is the main damage dealer and defender with me being the secondary damage dealer and support, however right now there are enough damage dealers so as Jace went to his usual role I ran towards the periphery of the cleared circle and started drawing runes on the ground using my stele.

a while back when I was studying runes for better ways to use my advantage I discovered, or was rather inspired to use the runes together. it was Simon's Idea saying if each rune is a word then I should try and form a sentence with them. unfortunately it wasn't that simple, how ever in the process I learned other things. for example what I'm doing right now is drawing the runes in specific strings which themselves are in the shape of other runes, I am basically drawing Runes using other runes as units. as I was nearing the last runes to draw, one of the small demons appeared behind me, if I abandoned the drawing to defend myself I would have to start from the beginning, just as I was about to turn around a white fireball crashes into the demon burning it into a crisp. sending a thanks to the warlock lady who's name I don't know I got done with the runic array as I called them and activated it.

this specific array, does a total of three jobs. first and foremost, it protects us from the outside making it so the smaller demons can't interfere in our fight with the big guy, second is a passive healing and stamina effect that I had to modify so it doesn't negatively affect the downworlders within the array, and the third and last is weakening. it as the name says weakens the demon in several ways. one of them being the forceful application of runes such as slowness, weakness, blindness and other negative effects to the demon. these runes not only affect the demon but their angelic nature will also have the same affect as having drawn the runes on a demon normally, albeit somewhat weaker, which is not only painful for the creature but also deadly. unfortunately these arrays are not perfect and can be destroyed from the inside otherwise all I had to do is trap the demon in the array and wait for it to die.

as the array activated what seemed like a transparent golden dome grew from the ground up, with all sides meeting in the middle, high in the sky. as the dome completed itself the demon screeched in what I assume was its attempt at displaying its pain, and with that pain it visibly slowed down as if it was now moving through a quagmire, it was still following its aggressors so I think the blind rune didn't really affect it, though it didn't have eyes to begin with so I thought that was understandable.

after being done with the array I ran to the side of the warlock who was throwing fireballs and other spells at the demon, she looked at me quizzically clearly confused as to why I was running toward her. I ignored her and bent down displaying the several stones I had collected on my way to her side in front of myself. I then used a special knife that I had the iron sisters make for me for this specific purpose, easily cutting the stones into sharp spearheads, after which i started drawing several runes on them imitating the process needed for making an array. this temporary weapon was the result of one of the many experiments I had done with Magnus some time ago when I had gotten the idea to see if I could recreate the effects of his magic using runes, like I did when I created runic portals. unfortunately this venture didn't give much result either but it also had other unexpected out comes when we consider the demon fighting aspect of things.

once when we were hunting a demon down, as I had wanted to see the effect of his magic, and try some of the things I had verified, I noticed something, even though Magnus' spells had much more power than my cuts and stabs, I was doing relatively more damage to the demon, that's when I got an idea, I would create projectiles and pump them full of angelic energy and different effects and then I had magnus utilize them by using telekinesis and continuously stab the demon over and over again. just after a couple of shots from Magnus we realized that these projectiles were doing much more damage than what either of us were doing, but the materials weren't very good as I had at that time used stone to make them.

later experiments showed that iron and steel were also not good replacements, even though they give stronger penetrative power and overall more damage, but their life expectancy was not much better than the stone ones. I had later applied to the iron sisters to make this sort of projectiles, but they had refused to make weapons for downworlders. having no other choice I had them make me the knife I now use to make these projectiles on the fly if the need arose.

as I completed the first batch of four, I motioned for the warlock whose name I still didn't know, to get her attention. "hi. what's your name?" I asked, looking at her from my sitting position, "Echo." she said throwing another fireball at the demon. "well Echo," I said pointing at the stone spearheads "use these against it instead. how many can you control simultaneously using your telepathy?" "ten I think." she said taking a closer look at them "what are these things anyway?" she asked as she lifted the four of the ground using her mind.

as I was making the other six she should be able to control I explained to her how demons are much more vulnerable to the angelic energy of the Nephilim than other types of energy and how I had packed these spearheads full of it. she quickly got the gist of what I was saying and started using them to attack the demon.

after completing my task I decided to take a break so I stood beside Echo and watched her as she expertly controlled the spearheads to attack the demon from different angles, what I came to notice almost immediately was that her magic was kind of weird, It didn't feel like the demonic magic that I could feel from Magnus or other warlocks I've worked with but it certainly looked the part.

after five minutes of rest I through that thought to the back of my head and decided to ask her after the fight. so wielding my dual daggers I also joined the melee against the demon. as the demon was moving around trying to hit the others or get close to Echo, I weaved between its spider like legs and cut at insides of it's knee joints. before it could fall on me though I rolled out from under him jumping on the base of its tail as its scorpion like belly fell to the ground. due to the effects of the array its powerful healing factor couldn't save him and he was stuck.

we continued our onslaught, the demon's already battered body was continuously gathering more and more cuts and slashes, two other vampires and I focused on its tail severing it completely from the demon's body by then the demon had gotten to its feet again and threw the three of us off of itself. we continued fighting and fighting about half an hour of this and the demon was finally at death's door.

the demon had managed to destroy some of the runes that made up the array rendering it useless otherwise the fight would have been over much sooner.

by the time Jace delivered the final slash that finally separated the demon's head? from its body, causing it to disappear as if burning in to ambers, the others had also almost destroyed the swarm of smaller demons only leaving one or two stragglers that were still mindlessly running to their deaths. as I felt the adrenaline and the runes' power leaving my body making me feel momentary weakness it happened, I suddenly felt the world had slowed down, with a deafening whistle in my head I saw with my blurring vision, Jace and Luke running towards me yelling things that I could not hear. my body was getting heavier perhaps the exhaustion of more than three days without rest is catching up to me, as I open my mouth to reassure Jace and Luke I feel wetness from my mouth, 'oh my angel, am I drooling?' I thought though the metallic taste that invaded my mouth a moment later suggested otherwise, that's when I saw it, a wine red spike identical to the hands of those small demons was protruding from the center of my chest right where my heart would have been, it was covered in a blood red color that shone against the dull red beneath.

ever since I truly accepted being a Shadowhunter I knew this day would most likely come that I am destined not to die a mundane death in some hospital when I'm old but rather against a demon on the battlefield, this sort of battlefield. I had always known and tried to live my life like that too, I had changed from before when I was a normal human or even after I had started training with the Lightwood family, the new me Clarissa Fairchild the Shadowhunter, I treated everyone I cared about with love, and I was not afraid to let people know if I didn't like them. I truly did my best to live every day like it would be my last, I might not have succeeded but I certainly tried. but even with all that, seeing the likes of my mom or Luke who had lived to their current age despite the dangers they had lived through I couldn't help but hope for a future like that too. fantasizing having children and watching them grow, but, now they will forever be just that fantasies.

as I fell down Jace caught me from behind having already killed the demon that brought my demise, he gently laid me down pushing the strands of hair out of my face and calling for healers as tears fell down his face, I wanted to calm him down tell him it's ok, that my destroyed heart couldn't be saved even by the best healers, I know even if I told him this it would not reduce his panic, grief or his attempts at finding someone who could save me, but I just wanted to talk to him.

it's funny that I am strangely at peace right now, disappointed perhaps, knowing non of those fantasies are ever going to come true, but I am at peace non the less.

I am kind of happy, I know if I was at Jace's place I would be in even worst shape than him right now. hell I saw him die once and I do not want to see it again, but I guess we're even now, huh Jace? I wanted to say but still had no energy.

the person I am most worried about right this moment though is Simon who, being my parabatai is also probably feeling the pain of my death. we hadn't been bonded for long certainly not as long as Jace and Alec but I like to think our bond was just as deep if not deeper than the one they had.

as I continue to loose my vision I see more and more people gather around me, shouting things I can't hear and doing things to I assume preserve my life if even for a little longer, but I know it's all futile, I'm sure they know it too, they just want to hold onto hope. actually the fact that I had my heart destroyed and I am still alive after so long can in itself be called a miracle. eventually though all good things must come to an end, and I with my last attempt at squeezing Jace's hand my vision finally completely falls into darkness, and I give myself to the embrace of death.

chapter title --- the end of a life