Previously:

"In battle, our hearts beat as one, you've got nothing to worry about, Rusty."

"Rusty? I'm flattered." Ted shrugged in reply, and started making his way out of the graveyard towards the Hotel DuMort, or, that's what he thought anyway.

As per, Jace had other plans, and soon the three of them found themselves outside a biker bar, 'Hardtail', where Ted could only assume Jace had planned to steal a bike, likely just to pass the time until dawn.

"Jay?" Ted whispered as Clary marvelled at the people inside, realising they were mostly vampires, "Look mate, I know what you're doing, I'm gonna go, alright, so just be careful, don't make anyone too angry, and don't put Clary in danger."

"Well, frankly I'm insulted you even feel the need to tell me that, Herondale." Jace smirked, "C'mon, when's the last time I had a bad idea?"

"D'you want them in a list organised by chronology, severity or failure rates?" Teddy quipped with mirth. The pair looked at Clary and then back at each other, nodded at the same time, and walked separate ways. Ted knew it was childish but he couldn't help but think how cool they'd have looked if it were a film—slo mo with some opening to an AC/DC song playing? Awesome.

He spent the next two minutes untangling his headphones, and then fumbled for his phone, slotting it in the jac, and shuffling his playlist. He'd fallen in love with mundane culture, and delighted in almost every artist he'd come across.

His mum had a wall filled with vinyls and CDs, and when things were quiet, they'd dance about to anything, whether from the '50's or '90's, they didn't care, they'd dance and sing and pray to the Angel that nobody would find the head of the institute making up a dance routine with her eight year old son to Uptown Girl instead of studying runes.

The Eurythmics cut out suddenly, as a buzz sounded from his phone, until he picked it up and saw the caller ID was Isabelle, at which point he began walking quicker and answered it.

"Couldn't you have texted me? I had a proper good walking down the street song and you stopped it at a really bad time."

"Oh what, no 'Belle are you okay?'; 'So good to hear from you my parabatai'; 'My dearest Bella, thank you for getting the information'?" Her voice called through the phone, in a poor imitation of an English accent which made Ted cringe horrifically.

"Bella, love, your impression was like, Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins bad." He remarked, earning a giggle from the girl, "Anyway, I'm sort of wandering around aimlessly about a block or so away from the DuMort, where exactly do you want me to meet you?"

"I'll text you the address."

"So you didn't need to ring me after all? By the Angel, you can be such a bitch."

"I do pride myself on it." He could practically hear her smirk as she hung up and soon received the text, and jogged off to a meatpacker's that led into the DuMort.

"Oi, Belle, you there?" He asked as he entered the building, carefully climbing metal steps, having activated his hearing and agility runes just in case of an early ambush.

"Pretty neat, huh?" she replied with her back to him, "It leads directly into the--"

"Izzy," A familiar voice cut her off, "I got your text, where are we exactly?"

"As I was explaining before I was so rudely interrupted, this is an old meatpacker's service entrance, leading directly to the basement of the Hotel DuMort--isn't it perfect?" She grinned, strutting off in the direction of the basement entrance, "We distract the vamps, Clary and Jace have time to find Simon."

"Okay." He replied simply, avoiding eye contact with his sister, making it look like he was surveying the area.

"'Okay'? It was hard work interrogating Meliorn for this intel." She glared, acting offended, which caused Ted to give a huff of laughter from the side of the exchange.

"Great job, Izzy." Alec beamed sarcastically, "You've got faerie dust on your dress."

"I would say something crude about your phrasing of 'hard work', but since your brother's in the same room, I think it's best to just let it hang in the air." Ted whispered to Isabelle, knowing that was the kind of thing she'd consistently snicker at--for someone so intelligent she really had the sense of humour of a 13 year old.

"And I hate being the distraction." the aforementioned brother called over his shoulder, either not hearing the pair or electing to ignore them.

"I don't," She mentioned needlessly, before a brief pause fell over the trio, "You know, you'd be a lot happier if you weren't so frickin' repressed."

Ted tensed at that; he and Izzy were the only ones that knew about Alec's crush on Jace, and even then Alec was reluctant to admit he was gay, so suffice to say, it was a sensitive topic that Isabelle had no qualms bringing up. He decided to linger back, giving the two siblings some level of privacy, although he realised his hearing rune was still activated, and thus it was sort of redundant to stick behind.

But, he supposed, It's the thought that counts.

Light vaguely filtered into the space, the colours cold, and the air tasted somewhat metallic; Izzy's attempts to capture Alec's attention bounced off of the walls, and the click of her heels vibrated through the floor. Tension stiffened Ted's muscles as he neared the building, which happened fairly frequently on missions like this--it was all well and good killing demons, but vampires? He understood they were a part of Camille's clan, and were notorious for running the line between abiding the laws and breaking them (moreso breaking them) and as much as he knew they were murderers, it didn't seem right, but he kept quiet, brushing his fingers through wavy, brown hair in frustration.

"You're seriously not talking to me?" Isabelle persisted, having to walk quickly to keep up, although her swinging arms made her look more like she was on a runway than keeping up with her brother in a dingey meatpacker's.

"That's because you have no idea what you're talking about." He huffed in response, his eyes not sparing her a glance.

"But I do—you're hiding from yourself, not me," she shot back matter-of-factly, "You have feelings whether you like 'em or not, Alec."

"This is not the time or the place, Izzy." He responded in a tight voice, not liking how openly she was talking, as he began to climb the ladder to a sharply lit room above.

"I don't know, seems pretty smooth so far, right E?"

"Key term 'so far'—you of all people should know that being the distraction means there's no time for chit-chat."

She shot him an exasperated look, rolling her eyes as her perfectly manicured hands found the rusting rungs of the ladder, almost certain he was only agreeing with Alec because of his not-so-subtle crush on him. He followed closely behind his parabatai, still keeping his ear out for any sounds of people following them. In a determined silence, the three ducked under low-hanging drainpipes and the generally low ceiling, turning corners with caution in their footsteps.

"This must be the way."

Isabelle was right, and for the boys that accompanied her (as so often was the case), this was not inherently a good thing. A hoard of vampires hissed on the other side of the door, lurching towards the trio with a violent intent.

Alec had the sense to immediately slam the door closed, and went fumbling for his stele, which was futile, since the door had some sort of anti-rune protection on it, rendering it useless.

"Xander," Ted addressed, his voice raised significantly in panic, pressing his full body weight against the door, "Now would be a great time to sling us the staff."

"I got it covered, Ted." His parabatai responded, withdrawing a seraph blade from Alec's quiver and slicing a (hopefully) useless pipe, which she then slotted through the door handle and a vertical yellow pipe.

"Whoever said 'The pen is mightier than the sword' is an idiot."

"When you're right, you're right."

"Poor bloke's probably turning in his grave at your lack of validation, Belle." Ted deadpanned, leading Isabelle to flick her hair dramatically and for Alec to roll his eyes in amusement.

"Do you think they know where we are?" She grinned with mirth.

"That's the idea, right?" Her brother replied with the ghost of a smirk, handing the retracted staff to the British boy.

Purpled fingertips snaked past the gap in the door, more wedging through in an attempt to dislodge the makeshift lock.

"How long d'you reckon we need to distract them for?" Ted asked, readying himself.

"About ten more minutes." Isabelle sighed breezily, obviously far more relaxed than she ought to be.

"Ten minutes? Are you kidding? We're liquid lunch in five." Alec remarked, a hint of concern underlying his words.

"So let's distract them."

"So let's distract them." He echoed with a shrug, drawing back his arrow.

"This is Camille's lot—I've heard stories about what goes on here, Raph's been earning her trust to stop her plans for a while now, so make sure if you see him, you leave him, right?" Ted explained, looking over at the two siblings.

"The rest are fair game?" Isabelle asked, out of curtesy rather than concern.

"As far as I know." He nodded, as the door rattled dangerously and finally the crowd of vampires swarmed them.

"You'd better get ready, they sound hungry." Izzy grinned, willing her whip to uncoil from its place on her wrist.

It was slow, at first, a hesitancy lingering in the air, until the youngest of the trio latched her whip around one of the vampire's ankles, before yanking him towards her with a chilling smile, promptly stabbing him with a seraph blade. Alec had been keeping a trained eye on the rest of them, calculating their next moves and firing arrows accordingly. Not one missed the mark.

Teddy meanwhile, was more reserved in his attacks, mostly sending the attackers in the direction of the Lightwoods; soon, though, he found himself overwhelmed, and opted to phase his staff into blades, which he wielded with a natural precision, and soon there was far more resistance to his attacks--even, after slipping into his 'shadowhunter mode', finding the whole fight rather therapeutic.

"This is fun." Alec commented briefly, letting yet another arrow soar as he predicted the next vampire's lunge forward.

"Keep coming boys," Isabelle taunted, a cocky smirk gracing her painted lips.

"Belle, arrogance is unbecoming on you," Ted quipped off-handedly, as if he wasn't stabbing a vampire in the stomach, "Though, I don't suppose you care."

"Oh come on, E: we're Lightwoods, you're a Herondale, we're not being arrogant, it's called 'knowing your worth'."

"Sounds like somethin' an arrogant person would say if you ask me, Iz." Alec joined in, finishing off the last of the group as he strolled towards the parabatai.

"Mh, but here's the thing, big brother-- we didn't ask you."

"Izzy! Don't be rude," Ted gasped slightly, swatting her arm, "Anyway, shouldn't we meet up with the rest of those lot? If Jace's history of shitty plans is any indication, they'll probably need backup."

"Wish I could say you were wrong." Alec sighed, though he offered Ted a small smile, before leading the way, rounding several corner before finally the grunts of fighting became louder, and their eyes landed on a scene of Clary being manhandled by a man, and Jace struggling against the grips of multiple vampires. A train-wreck, basically.

After a silent argument with the vampire grasping a resistant redhead, Alec hummed, and raised his bow off target, towards the wall, which he punctured with an arrow, causing a ray of light to beam through, searing the man, who hissed and shrieked until he disintegrated.

"Clever." Ted praised, before assessing the situation in front of him, and concluding that Jace and Clary probably had it covered, Jace having killed half of those who ambushed him (albeit dramatically), and Clary actually holding her blade with some confidence, even stabbing one attacker with a hint of shadowhunter grace.

"I killed him." She stated in a dazed sort of way, eyes wide.

"He was already dead." Jace remarked in an effort to comfort her, while still gazing at her admiringly.

"And he wanted to kill you, remember that," Isabelle said as she walked over to Clary, though she shot her parabatai a look that suggested the statement applied to him too, "She did great, right?"

"Too right, not bad for your first mission, Rusty." Ted gave an almost affectionate smile, though he stayed towards the back with Alec, who still stood stiffly, eyes darting around the entrance points, likely by habit rather than consciously.

"Yeah, you were amazing, you should be proud."

"Thanks, but it's not about me...let's go find Simon." She swivelled on her heel and walked out, her stance now with an air of confidence, which Ted expected was not from his or Izzy's feedback, but Jace's. Typical. Although he couldn't talk--all it took to make him feel better was a kind word from Alec, but that was rather besides the point.

It was minute or so of navigating the dimly lit place before the five of them turned the corner to be met with a long corridor down which faint voices could be heard. Clary spun her blade in her hand (a mannerism she had no doubt learnt from Jace), and Ted couldn't help but think about the two—they did have chemistry and he could see that the redhead was already softening Jace up (which could only be a good thing), but then there was Simon and Alec—

His irrelevant and ultimately unhelpful train of thought was cut short when they turned the corner into what he assumed to be Camille's room, to find Raphael with a knife pressed to Simon's throat.

"Simon--" Clary started forward, a horrified look marring her face, as Jace grasped her forearm, telling her not to do anything rash.

"Put it away," Raphael nodded to the weapons clutched firmly in the hands of each of the shadowhunters, "I've had more than enough of your friend today--I'd love to cut his throat, don't give me a reason to. Put it away!"

With a reluctant grimace, the five exchanged glances and tucked their weapons away, whilst Simon let out a terrified squeak.

"Y'know mate, scare tactics aren't usually your thing, are they? Why the dramatics?" Ted questioned, looking out of place with how calm he looked; though his demeanour went unnoticed by the redhead, it relaxed the Lightwoods slightly--their Teddy trusted him, or at least cared about him enough to put him on the 'No Hit List', and that was enough to ease any nerves they may have felt.

"Cut it, shadowhunter. Just because we're familiar doesn't mean I care about this mundane." Raphael snapped defensively, pressing the blade slightly closer to Simon's throat.

"Hey, listen, Simon, are you alright?" Clary questioned careful, taking an apprehensive step forward.

"I wouldn't say alright--" He began with a nervous chuckle, before being cut off with a hiss from his captor. Ted didn't even bother calling his friend out anymore, wondering if maybe he was having a bit of fun playing the 'bad guy' like he was--perhaps he'd been going to those Moonlight Theatre sessions Magnus had recommended?

Alec tapped him on the shoulder as he walked by, signalling that Ted should follow; the short trip from the "most secure room in the DuMort" up a few stairs leading to a sparsely lit corridor was filled with jerky movements from the vampire, as well as frequent threats and a general sense of hurrying. As Clary attempted to sooth the vampire, Ted and Alec exchanged eye rolls, although the former had a half-amused look on his face--the other half being rather annoyed.

"Open that door, or I'll kill him right now--"

"Listen to him!" Jace demanded, casting a glance towards Alec, who jerked the door open with a grunt.

"Take him! Go!" Raphael whimpered, hiding behind some thick piping.

"Listen, I don't know how to thank you--" Simon began, a look of appreciation and intense relief loosening his face.

"Don't. You mean nothing to me, now go!" As the blond and the mundane turned to leave, Raphael called out a last, ominous warning, "Jace Wayland...remember who your friends are."

After Jace gave an awkward and confused half-nod and walked out, Ted stepped back into the DuMort, with an expression that barely contained laughter.

"I take it Camille's in hiding now, then?" Teddy questioned, receiving a nod in response, "Raph, you're going to make quite the leader, just lay off the theatrics, and get out of this blummin' corridor you silly twit."

"You've got some nerve..." Raphael said through gritted teeth, shaking his head.

"You love me really," He grinned cheekily, "I'm sorry about your clan, mate, really I am."

"I mean, they were all assholes, about half of 'um had dens running, plus it's been difficult to do business with other clans, since, y'know, we're notorious for being the 'lowlifes' so, who knows, you may have helped there," He shrugged, "Still, it's half the clan, so maybe keep a low profile, I won't mention you were here."

"Cheers mate, ring me if you need anything, and I'll see you at Mags' place next Tuesday?"

"Tuesday after, I've got all night at Rosa's this week." He replied, a fondness in his voice. Ted nodded and smiled warmly before bidding his friend goodbye, making sure the vampire was far out of the way of the light before opening the door and bolting it shut.

The scene he stumbled out to was tense, not the relief-party he'd hoped to see in the slightest. He heard Alec's footsteps stalk away, saw Jace cursing under his breath, Izzy retreating with calls for her brother, all while Clary stared at the blond, and Simon fixated on his best friend.

"What the fuck have I missed?" He breathed tiredly, too done with everything already--and he had a feeling things would get a lot worse.

A/N: hello! this is late and unedited but here you go!