The blade flashed brightly in the moonlight beaming overhead as it clashed with Hijikata's katana. He pressed against it as the Shadowhunter wielding it darted around him faster than a human. With a grunt, Hijikata allowed his fury side to take control of his body and in a single, quick moment, his hair turned white, his eyes shined crimson, and he sprinted toward the Shadowhunter just as fast as they did. Two steps to the right and Hijikata found an opening. He stabbed the Shadowhunter woman in her side and shifted his blade up into her heart. That was the difference between he and Kanan, Hijikata realized as he briefly glanced around the battlefield. Kanan tried to avoid killing them, despite that his blue lightsaber easily sliced all of their glowing swords in half. Hijikata, on the other hand, killed them outright with the mercy of a quick death.

The next Shadowhunter charging at him was a male wielding two daggers that glowed white just like the other Shadowhunter swords. The man whirled and twirled the daggers around Hijikata, but he slipped in between the man's attacks and pierced the man's chest with his own blade.

Kanan used that mysterious energy he called the Force to shove a Shadowhunter toward Hijikata. He stabbed their neck and glanced up to see another one loading a bow from on top of a nearby roof.

Collin had them covered, standing in his ten-foot-tall, blue monster form with a rifle in his hands. If Hijikata remembered, Collin had called the monster form of his an Avatar, but to him, it was just another strange being from all these different worlds. Before the archer could aim, Collin fired his rifle and the Shadowhunter fell to the ground with a loud thud. They were an odd bunch – a Jedi with a lightsaber and the mysterious Force, an Avatar with a rifle, and Hijikata, a fury with his katana, the last of his kind.

Together they were sieging another realm for Klaus. Hijikata despised it as much as he did Klaus, but with Chizuru and Chiyo's lives on the line, he had to fight the Shadowhunters in their own home, a beautiful city of glass called Idris.

To do what he had to do, Hijikata shoved it all to the back of his mind and dashed toward the next Shadowhunter. She slashed her sword toward his chest, right and left, but Hijikata blocked her and shoved at her with all his strength. It caused her to stumble, but she righted herself faster than he thought.

She brought her sword toward his neck, but he blocked it with his katana. The moon shone on her smooth white blade, glistening off the glass towers in the distance. The city had four of them that Hijikata could count, meant as protection.

Not anymore; not with Klaus' witch spell.

"Fall back!" one of the Shadowhunters called.

Kanan lowered his lightsaber and glanced at Hijikata and then Collin leapt down from his position on a roof behind them and landed smoothly on his feet, towering above them to their left.

"Klaus wants us to chase them, right?" Collin frowned, looking as if he hated this as much as Hijikata.

It was Kanan who nodded. "He wants them dead or prisoners – preferably prisoners." He grimaced.

Hijikata gritted his teeth and sped forward at a human pace, with Kanan and Collin trailing behind him.

"There!" Collin pointed his long, blue fingers to an archway up ahead, guarded on either side by giant pillars. The Shadowhunters fled beneath the archway into a massive building with black spires.

Kanan stopped running and used the Force to yank on the pillars. Hijikata nodded his head to Collin. The blue-skinned Avatar took the left, while Hijikata sprinted to the right, surrounding the Shadowhunters as they were soon joined by Klaus' benders.

The pillars trembled and collapsed to the ground as several benders that wore yellow and green clothes used the stones from the collapsed archway to form a massive earth wall around the Shadowhunters in a circle.

To his right, another Shadowhunter tried to run away. Hijikata dashed toward him at Fury-speed and sliced his back before the man knew what had hit him.

"Klaus is moving the hybrids and other benders to take over the Gard!" Oscine, once a normal human and now a vampire just like the benders around them – all Sired and thus, loyal to Klaus – shouted as she darted by.

Hijikata met Kanan's gaze and then Collin's. None of them wanted to help Klaus take over the leaders, but what choice did they have?

*****

With a smirk on his face, Klaus Mikalson strode around the room with his hands held politely behind his back. His newly created hybrid bender-vampires hovered around the room, leaving Klaus' normal hybrids still dragging in more Shadowhunter prisoners to be thrown into the center of the room inside the Gard. "Quite an impressive place you have here. Now tell me, who around here is your leader?" Klaus gazed at each Shadowhunter with an amused expression.

In the front, a blonde-haired man with blood caking his face glared at him, struggling against the chains that had been placed on him and the other Shadowhunters. Each of the chains was interconnected, thus linking the two hundred or so Shadowhunters together.

"No matter," Klaus added, meeting the gaze of the still-struggling blonde man. "You've got some fight in you."

The man continued glaring at him. "Why don't you unchain me and you can see just how much fight I have?"

"Jace!" To the blonde's right, a brunette man shot him a glare, but Klaus could easily see the panic in the man's eyes.

"Brothers, I take it?" Klaus smirked again. He knew a thing or two about brothers.

"Well? What's it gonna be?" Jace asked, promptly ignoring the brunette man. "You a coward after all?"

Klaus shrugged and unchained him.

Jace stared down at the chains in shock for a split second, before he launched himself at Klaus, punching left and right. Klaus easily dodged, but kept himself moving at a human pace; he wanted to see what this Shadowhunter could do.

Jace had obviously been well trained. He shifted into a twist-kick that Klaus ducked beneath and at last, Klaus zipped around him and grabbed him in a headlock.

Most of the Shadowhunter's gasped, but the brunette man stared at Jace with widened eyes. Next to him, a beautiful brunette woman had the same look of panic in her eyes.

"Jace, no!"

Klaus stared at the man and woman. "Are you his siblings?"

"More or less," Jace choked, clawing at Klaus' hands to try to pry him off.

Klaus smirked and glanced at Jace and back at the two brunettes. "Well, well, this could work out for all of us." He met gazes with Oscine and Tyler who stood across the room. Fortunately, both had been Sired to him and were completely loyal to him, just like his hybrids, just like the benders.

Already aware of what Klaus wanted, Tyler started forward first, followed by Oscine. Behind her, Damon Salvatore leaned against the wall.

Tyler hoisted the brunette woman to her feet as Oscine grabbed the brunette man. The man tried to elbow her, but she ducked and slammed her hand against his head – quite hard considering her new vampire strength.

"Careful now, love. Wouldn't want to kill him just yet." Klaus smiled at Oscine as she glared back at him. She and Tyler both hated him as much as they hated the Sire bond, but there was nothing they could do about it and that made Klaus enjoy it that much more.

"Now..." Klaus glanced back at Jace, who had finally stilled from exhaustion by the look of him. "You're going to do whatever I tell you to or both of your... siblings over there will die. Understood?"

Jace growled but Klaus squeezed his neck so hard that Jace's face reddened. He choked and both of his siblings shouted for him in concern and thrashed to try to escape.

"Take them to the dungeon."

Tyler and Oscine dragged the two brunettes away and Klaus only released Jace when they were out of sight. Jace collapsed on his hands and knees on the floor, coughing and desperately trying to catch his breath.

"You see how easy it is for me to control you?" Klaus asked, sweeping his gaze across the crowd of captured Shadowhunters. At last, his eyes came to rest on Jace, who glared up at him. "I'm looking for something my witches say will help me out... A Mortal Cup?"

Jace's eyes widened in shock and a gasp rippled across the room.

"Take me to it, or I'll start executing everyone in this room and your friends will be next."

*****

Four realms. That was how many Klaus had already taken over and Kanan... Here he was, a Jedi meant to protect the innocent and keep the peace in the galaxy and so far he had done the opposite and had only helped this madman.

From what he knew, Furies like Hijikata had been left to keep control of Japan, Hijikata's home. Kiara's enemy had control of the Pride Lands in Klaus' name, and half the vampire-waterbenders had been left behind to rule their own people now that being vampires made them obey Klaus.

The Force trembled as if a rift had been torn in it. Whatever Klaus and other powerful beings across the Merged Realms were doing caused the rift. Kanan didn't know how to stop it – any of it. Too many innocent people had been turned against their will and now had no choice but to obey Klaus.

He had already told Kanan he planned to turn him and if that happened... Kanan cringed, unable to think about it.

"He's going to make this his base," Collin said as he ducked down and slid out the doors leading to the Gard. All of the captured Shadowhunters had finally been rounded up and chained up in there – totaling of about three hundred.

Kanan grimaced. Inside, Klaus held a cup of some sort, but the Dark Side danced around it as if the two were buddies. That made Kanan weary. "That cup is no good." Kanan crossed his arms, staring in the direction of Klaus and his new cup, trying to find a way to steal it from him.

Collin shot them a wave, but Kanan almost missed the movement since his concentration had been on Klaus and the cup. "I've been sent to round up any stragglers or survivors. See ya," Collin said.

Hijikata grunted in acknowledgment but Kanan said nothing.

"Too many innocent lives," Hijikata muttered.

Kanan nodded in agreement, pulling his concentration back to the area around him and Hijikata. They stood outside the Gard doors, guarding it, ironically enough, while Klaus performed some sort of ceremony with the cup and forced the Shadowhunters to drink from it. The Dark Side surrounded the room as the ceremony began and Kanan cringed. "We have to find a way to stop him before his army gets too big. Already, he's got hybrids, benders, now these Shadowhunters? Not to mention whatever that cup is doing to them."

"What do you suggest we do?" Hijikata growled. "I will not risk Chizuru and Chiyo! We – "

"I know," Kanan interrupted. "Klaus has my family too." Hera. Sabine. Zeb. Hera... Their names came to his mind and he realized they still didn't even know he was alive. "What if I could find their location? You and I could work together to free both our families and maybe even the rest and we could find a way to stop Klaus before he takes over any other realms or hurt anyone else."

Hijikata hesitated and Kanan could easily sense the war within him.

From the closed way the Force bounced off him, Kanan suspected his life had always been about warfare and fighting. "Don't you want it to end?" Kanan asked him truthfully.

Hijikata nodded.

"We need to do it now, while Klaus and his hybrids are all distracted." Kanan stretched out with the Force, trying to find the hybrid with the weakest mind.

*****

Clary. Just hours ago, Jace had found out she had died. Every time he thought about it, his chest tightened, but now... This...?

After losing Clary, Jace couldn't lose the two people who had been his siblings ever since he was a teen. Not Izzy. Not Alec. Especially Alec. As Jace's parabotai, they shared a special Shadowhunter bond that meant they were closer than anything, even family. When a Shadowhunter's parabotai died, they lost half of themselves. His thoughts annoyingly kept going in that direction as Jace stoically stood beside Klaus and watched as, one by one, each Shadowhunter came forward and drank from the cup.

It shouldn't surprise you, Jace, a voice that sounded too much like Valentine whispered in his mind. Once again, you're serving a great evil. That's all you do. You're a monster, the demon I raised you to be, with or without demon blood. The words haunted him and he tried shutting them down, but they wouldn't leave.

His impassive expression revealed nothing. Each and every Shadowhunter stepped forward, no one willing to risk every child under the age of twelve being killed. Klaus' Downworlders had them all in a room somewhere in Idris, ready to blow them all up at a moment's notice if even one Shadowhunter rebelled. So none did and all drank from the Mortal Cup, knowing it would turn them into Endarkened – evil Shadowhunters willing to do the bidding of the owner of the cup.

When Klaus was through with them, there wouldn't be a Shadowhunter left.

Jace clenched his fists, closing his eyes. I have to do something, he thought. Alec and Izzy... You've gotta escape. If they escaped and rescued the children, Jace could stop this.

He had to before it was too late for them all.

*****

Dried tears stayed firmly on Kiara's dirty cheeks as she stared out the prison cell. The walls were a cream color, blocked by iron bars that made the cell seem even smaller. Kiara paced, unable to sit on the cot or use the toilet or do anything other than pace. Her lion form longed to be released, but whatever witches Klaus had guarding the place with a few of his original hybrids, kept her from shifting forms.

The cell next to her held a woman who often whimpered. Kiara wondered if the hybrids had tortured her, or that Damon man – Kiara had seen and smelled him around, and with the coppery smell of blood and the screams of the prisoners following him everywhere he went, she suspected he was the one doing all the torturing.

"Try to talk or think about something else," Kiara whispered into the grate on the floor of her prison cell. She hoped in vain that the words would reach the woman next door and comfort her. The smell of the woman's blood reached Kiara's nose and she wondered what information the man had been trying to get out of her.

"Stop whining, Chizuru!" someone shouted. Kiara didn't know if it was a hybrid or another prisoner.

The whimpering next door quieted.

Footsteps thudded outside her cell door and Kiara paused her pacing long enough to see Damon strolling past. "Relax, little Geisha," Damon said in his typical, sarcastic drawl. "You're not being used for blood today..." The last part, Damon sang in a singsong voice. He continued on down the prison, heading to the back where the "mysterious prisoner" was kept. Rumors were that the mysterious prisoner had been Klaus' first.

Kiara prayed that no more prisoners would come, but deep inside she knew that far more would arrive before long.

*****

Damon glanced at Oscine and Tyler as they dragged two new brunettes – both beaten, bruised, and bloody – down the hallway.

"Open a cell, Salvatore?" Tyler shot him a glare.

"I'm not your babysitter, Lockwood." Damon smirked at him and continued on his way.

Tyler scoffed and unlocked a cell on the other side of Chizuru. He threw the female brunette in there and locked it back as Oscine unlocked the next one, threw the male in, and locked it back.

Damon ignored them both and stopped when he reached the cell at the end of this hallway. Unlike the others, this was made completely out of metal with only a little slit at the top. It reminded him too much of his Augustine days so he sighed and wanted to get this done and over with so he could grab him a strong drink. Blood and bourbon sounded just fine to him.

He unlocked the door and shut it behind him. His vampire eyesight didn't need any time to adjust. Sure enough, to his horror, surprise, hope, dismay, he wasn't certain, but either way, she was in there. She sat on a cot with her wrists wrapped up in cloth and her ankles chained to the floor as if this were medieval times.

His heart may have jumped a bit, but Damon instantly went into denial. No, you idiot. You do not still love her after she broke your heart, he tried telling himself in vain.

"Damon! Oh, Damon, I knew you'd come!"

Elena leapt off the cot but swayed and sat back down with a huge smile of relief on her face.

He furrowed his eyebrows with a frown. "That's an awfully odd reaction since the last thing you and Stephan said to me was, and I quote 'leave and never come back.'"

Elena frowned, shaking her head. "Wh – what are you talking about, Damon?"

Damon crossed his arms and smirked at her. "Playing dumb? That works for Blondie, Elena not for you."

She shook her head, tears in her eyes. "I – I knew you'd come to rescue me. I was just... worried you wouldn't be able to get past Klaus..."

Damon laughed mirthlessly. "Did you really think I'd rescue you after you broke my heart?"

"Damon, what are you talking about?" Elena frowned, staring at him in shock. "Wait, did Klaus compel you to think I broke up with you? He – he must have, I mean, what better way to make sure you don't rescue me, right? Pl – please Damon, you have to believe me! I have to get out of here!" Sobs tore from her lips as she yanked on the chains on her ankles. Tears fell from her eyes and even after all the pain she had put him through, he still wanted to put his arms around her, hold, and comfort her as long as he could.

He was still a sucker for her.

"Sorry, no can do. Klaus hasn't compelled me Elena, but apparently, you have a sudden case of amnesia now that you need my help. Convenient. Well, I'm not setting you free." With that, Damon stormed out of the cell, wishing he'd never gone to see if she had been down there in the first place.

*****

When Oscine and Tyler returned from their run to the prison, they arrived back in the Gard just as Klaus told Tyler to make sure the Shadowhunters kept drinking from the cup.

"Remember, if anyone steps out of line," Klaus started, as he stared at the group of Shadowhunters, "one phone call, and all of your children will die." He waved his cell phone in the air before he swept out of the room.

Oscine's blood boiled every time she saw him. If only she hadn't been so stupid, she wouldn't be one of the repulsive bloodsuckers. At least with vampire powers, she had a better chance of killing him, but this time, she would be more careful.

How are you going to kill him, Oscine asked herself, when you're Sired to him? You want to be loyal and you do everything he tells you to. Oscine hated not having control of her own body, but her body did whatever Klaus told her to do.

She met Tyler's gaze as he stepped up onto the front of the room in front of where the Shadowhunters drank from the cup one by one. Werewolf-vampires and bender-vampires stalked the room, keeping all the Shadowhunter prisoners in line.

At the door, Klaus motioned to her.

Oscine's feet headed that way before she even had a chance to try to resist it. No, she thought in horror.

Klaus and Damon met her outside the doors leading into the Gard. "Damon here tells me that someone wishes to meet with me," Klaus said with his arms crossed. "Someone who apparently also wants the Mortal Cup. You're both coming with me. Don't fall behind, love."

With that, Klaus took off at superspeed with Damon trailing behind him. Oscine followed them both, still trying to get used to her new powers as they made their way out of the City of Glass.

Green fields stretched out in either direction, ending in a forest to the right. It would have been beautiful if not for the smoke rising from Idris behind them from the battle.

Standing in the middle of the field was a beautiful man with dark hair grasping the arm of a redheaded young woman who had a bloody lip and bruised eye.

"Jonathan Morgenstern, I take it?" Klaus asked, zipping up to stand face-to-face with the dark-haired man.

"Niklaus Mikaelson." Jonathan glared behind them at Idris, as Damon and Oscine sprinted up to stand on either side of Klaus.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Klaus swept his hand over Idris. "As you can see, I've a city to rule and Shadowhunters to turn. You understand I'm sure... Or wait, maybe you don't. You never succeeded at taking over Idris, did you, Jonathan?"

Jonathan's eyes narrowed like daggers on Klaus but the Original Vampire didn't look the least bit intimidated. Even Oscine shivered a bit. "You've stolen my cup. I want it back."

Klaus laughed. "That isn't going to happen, I'm afraid."

Jonathan released Clary and unsheathed a sword. Oscine's vampire eyes followed the movement as Damon blocked the sword with his bare hands, giving Klaus a chance to dart around behind Jonathan. He plunged his hand into Jonathan's chest and ripped out his heart.

The redheaded woman stared at Jonathan's body in shock and then looked up at Klaus, swallowing deeply. "W – why do you have the Cup?"

Klaus reached out and grabbed her neck, choking her. "Oh, sweetheart, I'm afraid you're going to find out here very soon."

*****

As Tyler closely watched the Shadowhunter's drinking from the cup, Kanan leaned against the doorway into the Gard. He focused all his senses onto Tyler, using the Force to slip into Tyler's mind to try to find the location of their families.

Next to Tyler, grief, and hatred rolled off the man called Jace in waves. Desperately, he searched for answers, for ways to kill Klaus. We'll find a way, Kanan wanted to reassure him. This will be over soon, he mentally promised everyone suffering beneath Klaus' rule.

Memories surfaced in Tyler's mind, memories of an old, abandoned prison in the small town, the same one Kanan had seen in a hybrid's mind before. This time, he stayed inside the mind longer, searching for the location of the small town in the Neutral Zone.

Kanan followed Tyler's memories through his journey to the prison and back to the Gard. He opened his blind eyes and slipped out of the Gard, walking at a normal, calm pace until he reached Hijikata around the corner. "I've got it," he said.

Hijikata nodded. "Ikou!"

*****

Klaus stopped by the prison, giving Clary to Damon for a moment as he retrieved Alec, Jace's parabotai. From what Klaus learned of the bond, it meant they were closer than brothers, and this... This would be a perfect scenario to assert his control over Jace once and for all.

"You just brought me here, why bring me back?" Alec asked Klaus. Damon and Clary waited outside.

Klaus smirked at him. "Well, I've recently discovered that Clary is Jace's girlfriend and I'm going to have you both drink from the cup. Or I'll kill Jace."

Alec stared at him in shock in surprise. "Clary's alive?"

Klaus nodded. "Very much so. You will drink from the cup, or Jace will suffer the consequences."

Alec's eyes became pained. "I'll do whatever it takes to protect Jace."

"Alec, don't!" Isabel, his sister, screamed from the next cell. "Do not do it! He's just going to turn Jace after you drink anyway! We would rather die than drink from the cup!"

Klaus grabbed Alec's arm and dragged him to stand just in front of Isabel's cell. "Did I forget to mention my hybrids are standing by, prepared to blow up all captured Shadowhunter children under the age of twelve? You'll drink and become my Endarkened and Jace... Well, he'll learn to serve me willingly. I've known men just like him and that's why... That's why I want to break him."

*****

Jace couldn't take this anymore. His eyes darted around the room, searching for any exit point, any chance he could slip away now that Klaus was gone. It was in vain, he knew; the Gard only had one entrance and exit.

"Let go of me!" a familiar voice shouted, but that – that was impossible.

Jace whirled around to see Klaus throwing Clary into the room down on her knees. Klaus disappeared and returned, Mortal Cup in hand.

"NO! Clary!" Horror filled Jace, above even the confusion and questions as to how she was alive or why, and horror of what Klaus was about to do.

"Jace!" Clary shouted, but Klaus held the cup to her lips.

Jace sprinted toward her as fast as he could, but a vampire tackled him to the ground. He rolled up onto his feet and searched for anything he could use to kill him.

"Drink from the Cup, or Jace dies." Klaus glanced back at him, but Jace slammed his palm against the vampire's face and kicked him backward. Fortunately, his strength rune still remained, even if the others had faded from being used too much in the earlier fight. The vampire stumbled backward.

"Clary, don't – " Jace started, trying to reach her.

Suddenly, a hand entered his chest and agony seared him from the inside out. Jace froze and his body was no longer able to hold him upright, but he couldn't fall either.

Klaus smirked at him from where his hand had stabbed through Jace's chest to grab his heart. In his left hand, he held a stele. "I'll heal him if you drink..."

Jace tried to shake his head at Clary, to tell her that he would rather die, but the pain in his body was too much and he couldn't move or breathe or anything.

Meeting Jace's eyes with her own bright green ones, Clary clenched her fingers around the Mortal Cup, and then she drank.

Jace screamed, not from the pain as Klaus ripped his hand out of his chest and handed him a stele, but from the pain of knowing what Clary had just done to save him. No. He had already lost her, this couldn't – it couldn't happen.

He had to help her. Jace's vision started to fade from the wound Klaus inflicted – it was killing him. With shaking fingers, he traced an Iraze on his skin, and instantly, the wound healed.

Jace rolled to his feet as Clary's eyes turned coal black.

"Let's test how well this works, shall we?" Klaus said, lifting the Cup into the air. "Clary... Fight Jace and kill him for me, will you, love?"

Without hesitation, Clary picked up a sword – Jace didn't know where it had come from – and lunged toward Jace. He barely had time to dodge it just before it stabbed him. He twisted to the left and grabbed it with both his hands, trying to wrench it from her grasp.

She elbowed him in the side of the face and yanked back the sword as he reeled from the blow.

"Clary, fight this! I love you! Don't do this!" Jace tried but she kept swinging at him right and left, up and down. He could only dodge each of her attacks, unwilling to find a weapon and fight her. No, he couldn't. He had just gotten her back.

"Clary, please! I love you!" Jace kicked her wrist and she dropped the sword. He grabbed her shoulders, but she headbutted him. Jace stumbled backward and she kicked his feet out from beneath him. On the ground, he looked up at her as she stood over him, putting the sword to his throat.

Jace held her gaze with a steady one of his own, afraid. "I lost you once, Clary. I'd rather die than lose you again."

Before she could plunge the sword into his throat, a blade extended from her chest. Shock rippled through Jace as it was ripped out and her body collapsed onto the floor. His eyes followed the sword to its owner – Alec.

Alec had killed her.

Alec's hands trembled. "Jace – Jace, I'm – She was going to kill you. I – I had to..."

Jace stared up at his parabotai, feeling all his panic, guilt, and grief. Sorrow of his own consumed him and he pushed aside his parabotai's emotions as he crawled over to Clary.

Her green eyes stared at nothing and her chest stayed perfectly still.

Jace screamed as his entire world fell apart, as he lost everyone and everything he loved, as he lost the reasons he once had to live, as everything was destroyed. To love is to destroy, Valentine had told him as a child.

To love is to destroy and to be love is to be destroyed. The words had come true before Jace's very eyes as if they had been some ancient prophecy now fulfilled.

I had loved and now... I'm destroyed, Jace thought as he began to cry.

*****

Eileen can't be hurt. The phrase had become a mantra in Collin's mind playing on repeat every time he had to do something he hated for Klaus. The monster was more evil than anything Collin had ever seen or met, so after he overheard Kanan and Hijikata's plans, Collin walked up to Damon, still in his Avatar form as he tried not to glare down at Klaus' right-hand-vampire.

The idea that vampires, werewolves, and other strange aliens were real shocked Collin to the core. He was a man of science who studied the biology and wildlife of a planet, not this.

"What do you need, Blue Big-Bird?" Damon smirked up at him.

Collin gestured to the rest of the city in the direction where Kanan and Hijikata had left. "I think Hijikata and Kanan are planning to rescue their families." The words tasted like acid in Collin's mouth. After all, Eileen was imprisoned in the same place. But he could never risk her life by siding with them. Never.

"Let's gather the others." Damon started to walk away.

Collin frowned. "How are we going to beat them there?"

Damon smirked at him before heading deeper into the city to gather more hybrids. "I know a shortcut."

Ten minutes later, Collin and Damon gathered with the other hybrids inside the prison in preparation for Kanan and Hijikata's attempted rescue. Guilt made Collin's chest ache, and even though he barely fit into the lobby of the prison with the other hybrids scattered behind him in the main part of the prison, he still felt intimidated by them. After all, all it would take for them to find and kill Eileen was a split second, a second even his Avatar form couldn't follow.

Kanan entered the prison through the front door. He stared up at Collin with his pure white, blind eyes, as if he could see into Collin's soul. "You don't have to do this, Collin. Stand with us! Help us rescue our families and yours and we can rescue everyone and free the people from Klaus' rule."

Collin shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment to gather himself. "No," he said, opening his eyes. "I won't risk Eileen's life."

"Where's Hijikata?" Damon asked from where he stood behind Collin's towering blue form.

Instead of responding, Kanan threw his hand out and an invisible force of energy slammed against Collin and Damon. It sent them flying across the room, but Collin recovered easier thanks to his Avatar's carbon-enforced bones.

He pulled out a rifle and fired at Kanan but he twirled and spun his lightsaber, burning through each and every bullet.

"You handle him!" Damon called. "Hijikata's going for their families!"

"Don't do this, Collin!" Kanan pleaded with him and the words tore at Collin's heart. "We can still do this!"

Collin growled and fired another volley at Kanan. "No, you can't!"

Behind him, Klaus' loyal witches began to chant. Kanan groaned in pain, grabbing his head, but he stopped and leapt at Collin again. The lightsaber slashed through Collin's leg and he cried out in pain. The witches' chanting became louder.

Kanan's nose started to bleed as he collapsed on all fours, dropping his lightsaber. He grabbed his head. "Wh – what's – what's happening?"

Tyler walked forward as two hybrids grabbed Kanan on either side. "Giving your brain an aneurysm. Keeps you from concentrating and using the Force." His expression looked as pained and bitter as Collin felt.

Collin backed away and watched as Kanan tried fighting off the hybrids but couldn't. They threw him to the ground and his eyes closed, breathing shallowly.

He found a safe place to leave his Avatar – at the edge of the lobby, near the front office so that Collin could leave his Avatar and return to his own body. He shoved himself out of the link pod, breathing heavily. His consciousness returned to his own, human body as he sat upon the edge of the link pod.

Then he doubled over and threw up onto the floor.

*****

Hijikata breathed heavily as he and Damon charged toward each other again. Chizuru's cell was just down the hall. So close. There was no way he would give up now. "I will free my wife!" Hijikata screamed at him.

"Sorry, but the honeymoon's gonna have to wait." Damon zipped around him, but Hijikata slashed at him multiple times, leaving open gashes on Damon's body. They healed as fast as the wounds Damon inflicted on Hijikata did.

Hijikata could feel the Fury mode draining his life away by the second. He had to end this, now.

Sheathing his katana, he narrowed his eyes on Damon, who crossed his arms. "Huh. Giving up already?"

Hijikata charged toward him, darting past him as he unsheathed his katana in a quick draw. It sliced open Damon's side and the vampire collapsed onto the ground.

Hijikata darted toward Chizuru's cell. Through the iron bars, he could see her weak and frail body sleeping on her cot, breathing shakily. "Chizuru. I'm here." At last, he could free her, find their daughter, free them from this place forever. "I'm here, Chizuru," he kept whispering to her as relief started to flood through him. Using his katana, he swung up to break open the lock...

When something slammed his head against the bars and Hijikata's world went black.

*****

Ahyra wanted her bonded dragon, Dakyr. He waited outside the Gard building, while she stood inside with Klaus' other... servants, slaves, followers...? What was the right word?

Every fiber of her being wanted to hate this. She wanted to feel that this was wrong, to feel for the last few Shadowhunters lining up to drink from the cup, to feel for Jace, who just watched the love of his life die, to feel for Alec, who stood there in shock, not knowing what to do.

No, no, no. This didn't make any sense. Why was she here? You're going to stay here and serve me. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself. The words bounced around in her head and suddenly, the thoughts before vanished, replaced by a joy that filled her at watching the scene before her unfold.

Suddenly, the door to the Gard burst open with Collin, in his human form for once, Tyler, Damon, and other hybrids stormed into the room dragging Hijikata and Kanan into the room.

Both men stirred awake as Klaus held the cup out to the next Shadowhunter. She drank it as Klaus turned to the newcoming herd.

"Well, what do we have here?" Klaus asked them.

Damon glanced at Collin.

She tried not to think about how cute he looked, but then again, she'd been raised with dinosaurs and hadn't seen another human in... how long? Twenty years? Longer?

Collin cleared his throat, glaring at the ground. "Hijikata and Kanan tried to escape and rescue their families."

Klaus glanced up at Tyler and Oscine. "Please go retrieve Chizuru and Sabine for me."

Why don't I hate this? Ahyra mentally asked herself, knowing full well what Klaus had planned. After all, he was a predator, like ones she had seen and fought many times, but the difference between him and the most dangerous carnivores on The Island was that they only killed to hunt.

Everything Klaus did, he did because he enjoyed it.

*****

"Klaus, please!" Hijikata screamed and begged. His heart raced and pounded furiously in his chest as he entered his Fury mode and used all his strength to try to break away from the hybrids that held him back. "I'm sorry for betraying you, for trying to leave, just p – pl – please!"

"Hijikata-san!" Chizuru screamed as Klaus held onto her tightly. He kept her against his chest, his lips just near her right ear where her black hair fell loosely down her shoulders.

"Chizuru!" Hijikata's scream was inhuman, that of an animal – one about to lose everything.

Klaus dropped her to the ground and Hijikata kicked the hybrid on his left and bit the neck of the one on his right. He blinked and Klaus stood in front of him. "Kill her."

Every bone in Hijikata's body urged him to go over and stab Chizuru in the heart. His feet took a step forward as his hands clenched his katana hilt. N... no... He screamed and cried out in terror, begging and pleading and fighting this with everything he had.

"Hijikata," Chizuru cried.

"Chizuru!" He sobbed, collapsing to his knees, but Klaus stood directly behind him.

"Kill her!" His voice danced around Hijikata's entire body and it stood without his consent.

No, no, no, no, no... Panic and horror coursed through his blood, making his heart race. Raising the katana, he –

He stabbed it into his leg. Agony rolled through him and he collapsed onto the ground, but the desire to kill Chizuru had left him.

Klaus yanked him up by his shoulders and met Hijikata's gaze with a wild, insane rage. "Kill Chizuru!" he roared.

This time, the command took instant control of Hijikata's body and he stabbed her chest before he had time to blink.

*****

Jace briefly met Alec's gaze. For a moment, the anger at his parabotai for killing Clary and not letting him die instead vanished. At that moment as he and Alec looked at each other, their minds and hearts were one, just like they had been since the moment they became parabotai.

We have to kill Klaus, Jace thought and he knew Alec felt it too.

"Let this be an example," Klaus started, making the bitter ache and pain return to Jace's body. "I can force any one of you to kill your own loved ones. The rest of you Shadowhunters will finish drinking from the Cup and become my Endarkened or it will be your children that will die."

Jace clenched his fists. There was nothing they could do. How – how could they just sit here and watch this happen? Fury took hold of him and for a moment, Jace about launched himself at Klus, nearly forgetting everything that was at stake.

No. He had already lost Clary – her name brought a fresh wave of pain to his chest – so he couldn't lose anyone else.

*****

Kanan knew what was about to happen.

As Sabine, a girl who had been like a younger sister to him stared at him, Kanan wished he could see her one last time. What color was her hair? She had always been one to constantly change it. He imagined it pink with her Mandalorian Armor to match.

"Kanan! How are you alive...?" she whispered.

He shook his head, calling to the Force. "Doesn't matter anymore."

"I bet you're wondering why I killed Chizuru," Klaus murmured in Hijikata's ear.

Kanan wished he couldn't sense Hijikata's emotions with the Force. Sorrow suffocated Hijikata as he sat and held his dead wife, rocking her in his arms. Kanan's own heart hurt.

"Her blood was of no more use to me." Klaus zipped over to Sabine.

Kanan used the Force to shove back the two hybrids constraining him, but the witches in the back picked up their chanting again. Immediately, his head felt as if it was being split wide open and he lost all concentration. "Enough," Klaus snapped.

The pain stopped and Kanan called to the Force to sense what was going on.

Klaus plunged his hand into Sabine's chest and ripped out her heart.

The Force within Kanan trembled as he screamed and dashed to her body. It fell to the ground and warm, sticky liquid squirted from her chest onto his face and torso.

"Sabine...." Kanan cried, his blind eyes void of tears, but instead, those tears fell from his heart.

His mistake. He had done this. His reckless plan had gotten Sabine killed. Guilt and grief pulled him into a dark place, one he couldn't see his way out of.

"Let this be a lesson to anyone who dares defy me!" Klaus screamed. His words reached everyone – Jace and Alec, the remaining, terrified Shadowhunters, Collin – Kanan could barely think the traitor's name – Ahyra, Oscine, the loyal and Sired benders and hybrids, and even Tyler and Damon.

No one would ever dare defy Klaus again. Not even Kanan.

*****

The last Shadowhunter had been turned. Jace and Alec met gazes while everyone else in the silent, horrified, grieving room stayed absolutely quiet.

"I'll drink. Take Alec back to the prison." Jace met Klaus' eyes with his own, his expression sure and steady.

Alec shook his head. "No. Jace, I won't let you do it."

Klaus tilted his head back and laughed. "I do admire your brotherly bond." Klaus would never admit this to them, but it reminded him of his own brother, Elijah. Once, they had shared a bond that he had believed to be unbreakable.

No. Klaus had far too many other plans for Jace and now... well, now he had over three-hundred Endarkened Shadowhunters loyal to him. Why would he need two more?

*****

Jecht patiently waited for Klaus to meet him in the office above the Gard. Out the window, the newly Endarkened Shadowhunters were being assigned posts throughout Idris and along the city's walls. In silence, Jecht watched the people from his own homeworld, the benders, now all vampires forced to do Klaus bidding as they followed his orders to either help him take over the next realm or reinforce the last one. He couldn't hear whatever Klaus told them to do, but whatever it was, was wrong. Ahyra, Damon, Oscine, and Tyler left, so Jecht pulled his gaze away from the window.

Klaus threw the door open and glanced around the room. "Fine office, don't you think, Jecht?"

Jecht gritted his teeth and refused to answer.

Klaus gestured to a woman at the door. She came in and he bit her wrist and drank her blood.

Jecht swallowed deeply.

Klaus pulled away, his mouth covered in her blood as his fangs still stuck out of his mouth. "Have you made up your mind yet? Life as a vampire or as my new bending teacher?"

Jecht flinched. This monster was almost impossible to defeat as it was. If Jecht taught him to firebend... It would all be over. But could he really choose to become a vampire, trusting that Klaus wouldn't find another way to become a Firebender?

"If you keep me, human," Jecht began in a monotone, "I'll teach you to Firebend."

*****

Klaus had ordered Ahyra, Oscine, Tyler, and Damon to move the prisoners to another, prepared location. Damon had to give Klaus credit where credit was due; the Original Vampire thought of everything. He already had a plan B, C, and D thought out, just in case plan A had failed.

Moving the prisoners to the secondary location was plan B.

Damon glared at the door at the end of the hallway where Elena was being held. Tyler opened the door and glanced at Damon. "You want to do it?"

Damon knew Tyler was trying to give him a chance to set Elena free without directly disobeying Klaus' orders.

For a moment, Damon thought about it. You make all the wrong choices, she had told him. I just can't keep changing myself, my morals because of you!

"No," Damon answered Tyler. "You do it." He stood there and watched as Tyler opened the door and grabbed Elena to haul her out. Even now, it wasn't too late. He could tell Tyler he would do it and then set her free – easy as pie.

"Damon! Damon, please help me! I – I don't know what Klaus has done to you, to any of you, but please! He's using my blood, Damon, help me! I love you! I love you!" Her voice reached the deeper part of him he had pushed down, the part of him that still loved her in spite of what she had done to him.

Then he shoved that part back down and replaced it with the monster in him, the one he loved more than her.

He turned his back on her and grabbed the prisoner Kiara to take her to the new prison. From what he knew, the new prison would be enchanted by witches so that only those they allowed through could even get inside.

No one would be able to escape from Klaus' plan B.

*****

With a smirk on his face, Klaus met the gaze of the last loyal servant he needed to compel, Damon Salvatore. "You have no idea where the new location to the prisoners are," he compelled. Oscine, Tyler, and Ahyra had already been compelled to forget, and Klaus had already been busy compelling his hybrid guards of the new prison to forget where they even were located at. Between that, the Cup ceremony, and his earlier training with Jecht, it had been a full day and was almost night again, the evening after the Battle of Idris.

Damon blinked and sipped from a cup of bourbon. He opened his mouth to say something, but voices from downstairs caught Klaus' attention. Curious, he opened the door to his new office and looked at the massive chamber to the Gard.

Down there, Hijikata had unsheathed his katana and sliced at Collin. "Chizuru is dead because of you! Because of your cowardice!" Hijikata screamed.

"You shouldn't have tried to defy him!" Collin dodged his attack and Klaus rolled his eyes. Between the two men, Hijikata would no doubt kill Collin in another few seconds. His Avatar form, possibly not, but his human form...

Damon smirked from behind Klaus. "He's got a point. Dumb and Dumber lost their loved ones because of their own stupidity."

Klaus returned Damon's smirk with his own. "I must say I agree with him."

Kanan glared up at Klaus and used the Force to hold off Hijikata's katana. "If we take revenge against Collin, then we're no better than Klaus," Kanan said through gritted teeth.

Hijikata's entire body trembled.

Klaus could smell the anger and sorrow rolling off of Kanan in waves. Hijikata's fiery rage was a much stronger scent, overpowering all the others in the room. It's taking every ounce of will he has not to kill Collin or try to kill me, Klaus thought.

"Think of your daughter," Kanan murmured softly.

Klaus smirked. "Weaknesses. Men like us are lucky to avoid them." He spoke so that only Damon could hear.

Damon nodded, but his smirk disappeared.

Slowly, Hijikata lowered his katana.

Klaus absolutely loved having control of everyone and everything and it wouldn't be long before the newly Merged World belonged to him.