Chapter Text
“Can I say goodbye to my siblings?”
“No. They will be told you were killed in action.”
Alec wanted to protest but he knew he wouldn’t achieve anything.
“Then can I take any of my belongings at least?”
“No. It’s not like you have anything but clothing.”
Alec tried not to say something scathing to that.
“Just one thing then?”
“...What?”
“My bow and quiver. There is nothing magical about them, I rune them every time for a mission, temporarily. Please.”
“Alright. But you leave the jacket.”
“WHAT THE… Okay. Okay, take the fucking jacket! Leave me shirtless and runeless on the streets, but I take my bow and quiver.”
“Great. Now that we set the rules we can proceed.”
***
It happens on a day like any other.
Sometimes, Alec thinks that it’s strange that it’s not even raining, that the whole world doesn’t seem gloomy and dark and that nothing in the air would suggest what’s coming.
They just come and tell him someone saw him kissing a mundane boy and that’s it.
Alec, too shocked by the confrontation, doesn’t really deny it.
And so, it’s out of the bag.
No trial, no paperwork, nothing.
Just like they say, he was simply killed in action. Nothing to worry about for Alec. They will get rid of him, and all he has to do is lay there obediently taking their kicks. They will derune him and he will no longer be a Shadowhunter. They will deal with the rest.
He has to take care of himself after that.
He can go and kill himself for all they care.
But Alec? Alec isn’t that easily broken.
***
He barely had the time to take that jacket off before someone grabbed it and he was seized, his arms forcefully twisted behind his back, none too gently.
The led him to a room Alec has never been to before, dark and foreboding, with nothing in it but a long medical table that looked almost like an altar, door that must have led to an alley behind the institute and a small window with bars.
He was pushed on the table, his ankles strapped to the legs of it as someone tore his t-shirt away from his body.
He struggled, but stayed silent, glaring at them as they tied his arms too, too tight and cutting off the circulation and he only managed to spot his shirt hanging on his bow that was propped in the corner because suddenly someone was forcing a rag down his throat and Alec screamed, he screamed into the fabric and tears were streaming down his face and it hurt.
Each and every one of them hurt tenfold compared to what it felt like putting them on.
The temporary runes were quick.
The permanent ones, not so.
Alec could feel blood on his wrists and ankles as he struggled, shaken by pain, his throat hoarse and choking, unable to properly swallow with the gag in.
The deflect rune, with its unfortunate placing on his neck, was hell.
Alec still remembered how much it hurt to put it on.
But having it stripped off? That was a new kind of agony altogether.
Alec blacked out.
What brought him back to consciousness, was a pain even worse.
He was naked from waist up, all his runes gone now but the woman’s stele was back on his body, Alec’s eyes wet as they followed it, sobs shaking his body as pain that was not purely physical, pain indescribable spread through his body.
As so, the parabatai rune was gone too.
And as it was gone, it was as if it was never there.
He would have thought that it would feel empty or hurt. And it did, but it felt different than he expected. He just… couldn’t remember what having Jace physically there felt like suddenly.
It wasn't the familiar kind of emptiness threatening to drown him when Jace was severely hurt and close to death... No, this wasn't a feeling of a broken bond. The Bond was just... Not there. And it was a thousand times worse.
It rendered Alec numb, the pain still there, making him shiver as they untied him and barely gave him time to grab his bow and quiver, hot even bothering to put the shirt on, just holding to it on dear life as they literally threw him out of the door and shut them with finality.
And so, Alec was no longer a Shadowhunter.
He had no idea how long he sat there, aching and crying and cold, but when he finally managed to get his shirt on and stand up, he could feel nothing but numb.
Strangely, he wasn’t devastated.
With surprise, he realized there wasn’t anything in the Shadow World he would miss except for Jace and Izzy. He was different than them, he didn’t have their passion for demon hunting. He did it out of duty.
And so, with slight surprise, Alec realized that he would miss his siblings, but besides that, exiting the Shadow World suddenly felt more like… exciting. Liberating.
Alec felt relieved and light. And for once, like he had nothing on his shoulders.
He just need to work out how to live his life now that he could choose the way himself.