When Lou awoke, it was cold, dark, and her arms burned and with righteous fury. Probably because she was chained up by her arms, strung too high to be able to properly kneel on the ground (stone, she noted) below her. Her ankle was sprained and she was covered in bruises she couldn't see, but felt clearly. At least there wasn't a gag in her mouth, but gags typically weren't something that monster used, preferring to hear their victims scream instead.

Lou shuffled about, testing and trying her chains, being as quiet as she possibly could in order to see how much movement she had available to her and to attempt to find a more comfortable position. Her sprained ankle ached as she stretched it out, testing to see if she could hit a wall with her foot from her current position. She kicked bars about a yard in front of her, but she couldn't feel the walls to her left and right.

Conclusion: she was currently stuck in a cell, chained up by her arms at an intentionally agonizing length, and the cell was long and narrow. Lou was also pretty certain it wasn't a run-of-the-mill monster either. She was starting to worry that she might've run herself into a corner. It was more likely than not that the very person who she had been targeting had pulled a quick one on her and trapped her instead.

Lou could barely remember the events leading up to her current imprisonment. Just a blur of her following faint clues and rumors of both the Shadow World and the Greek World. A cloaked man with a black-silver sword, following a string of murders. Murders which she came to figure out were all downworlders. She should have known better than to get involved in Downworld affairs.

Lou's knowledge of the Shadow World was limited, but not nonexistent. She was a daughter of magic after all, and she could easily claim to be a warlock or magician if she wanted to blend in. She had come across it a few times, particularly the Shadow Markets, prior to her Camp days, not only to earn some easy coin with her blossoming magic, but to hide from the greek monsters constantly at her own heels. They tended to stay away from the Shadow World as a whole, but that overlap existed, and she could find protection there. But not now. Now she had run head-long into danger.

Lou had screwed up. Maria was dead, and now she was quickly following in her footsteps.

A door was pushed open, letting fluorescent lights stream in through the crack, before a hand snacked inside and flicked on the light switch. The light seared into her eyes, bright white fluorescent bulbs lining the ceiling, burning her eyes. She let out a pained groan, attempting to tuck her head down to hide from the white, artificial lights. She struggled and rapidly blinked, trying to clear her blurred and unfocused vision.

And then he was there. Less than a meter away from where she was chained, on the opposite side of iron bars that had definitely seen better days. The hooded murdered. The one who skewered both Maria and her boyfriend. He was right there in front of her, examining her with sickening interest like she was a dissected fetal pig. She hadn't heard him enter or approach, much less notice him crouch down to her eye level.

His hair was a bright platinum blonde, and his eyes were like someone had shoved two pieces of coal into his sunken eye sockets. He would've made a child of Aphrodite envious if he wasn't already past the brink of insanity. His features were sharp, somewhere between that of a fox and a viper, with a feral, mad glint in his eyes that made her situation that much worse. Particularly because she could still see the horrifying, twisted intelligence he still possessed. His sword was visible on his back, but the dark cloak covered the rest of his body. But at the base of his neck, she spotted something she was vaguely familiar with, especially since she had recently seen two individuals decked out in similar runes.

"You're a shadowhunter," Lou spat, venom lacing her tone.

His eyes widened for a brief moment in surprise, "I hadn't realized you knew of shadowhunters, little demigod."

Lou's blood ran cold. Oh. Uh oh. She visibly paled, and her arms began to shake violently from not only the strain but her rising fear. This was bad, very bad. She had gotten it all wrong. Maria hadn't been an accidental casualty of his spree, but the target. She had given herself away, revealing that she knew things that she shouldn't, and that she existed outside of those circles.

"Oh yes, I know all about you greeks, and your hidden world. So strangely linked yet completely isolated from the Shadow World. How interesting it was to discover that something like you existed all this time. My patron was very upfront with all sorts of secrets." His voice was silk-smooth, coercing her further along, tempting, but her blood only ran thicker through her veins.

He gave her a cold smirk, drinking in her fear, "But I have no quarrel with your portion of this world, I've merely made a simple bargain." He moved in closer, where his nose nearly touched the rusting iron bars, carved with all sorts of symbols and languages to prevent any matter of creatures from escaping.

"I need you to tell me the current locations of three particular demigods, then I can let you go free," He said, and Lou frowned.

"What does a Shadowhunter want with 'three particular demigods'?" She asked, putting up a front to hide her trembling behind a brave, animous face.

The Shadow World wasn't supposed to interact with the pantheons, for both convenience and safety. There was overlap, with monsters such as hellhounds getting seen as demons, and her own mother, Hecate, was supposedly a Greater Demon. There were lenses and veils that separated the two mystical worlds from one another, but this man now possessed both. He was so much more dangerous than Lou could've imagined when she set out on this stupid, naive quest of vengeance.

"I'm not a Shadowhunter anymore, little demigod." He said with a smile, "I've been chosen, chosen by God himself to right this horrid world of the spawn of demons and rebaptize a new age of Nephilim to purge this world of scourge." He gleefully explained to her, taking great pride in his apparent selection.

Lou doubted it and she voiced it, "You've lost it if you think God selected a nutcase like you to do anything. Who are you after?" she demanded.

His smile snapped off his face at the insult, but he never broke eye contact, he hadn't since she first noticed him so close. "Perseus Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Nico Di Angelo. I know the last boy is here in New York and has the aid of the New York Institute, but I don't know where the other two are. I need you to tell me where they are, and you will be spared, even rewarded if you help me capture them."

"Never," Lou spat, despite the questions running through her own mind.

Of course, they were involved. Percy himself was a trouble magnet, but he was keeping a low profile at the moment in California, finishing his high school education and attempting to get into the college in New Rome. Annabeth was with him. Nico, on the other hand, had one of the worst luck streaks in demigod history. She hadn't expected a Nephilim to know of demigods, but if there were any who would get in that much trouble, it would be Percu and Nico.

He sighed and shook his head, "You don't have much of a choice in the matter. The only choice you have is how close to death you want to be before you tell me anything I want to know, and I have quite a few questions I have yet to be answered. You can ask me one more thing before we begin." He explained like he was scolding her rather than threatening her life.

Just another Tuesday.

Lou knew better than to ask what they were going to begin, so she asked one of the ext questions on her mind not pertaining to Nico or her near future.

"Who are you?"

He nodded, apparently deciding it was a good question. "I am Valentine Morgenstern, God's chosen crusader, he who will raze the world and let it be reborn from the ashes. Shame then I don't particularly care who you are, not that it matters anymore. Now then,"

Lou knew that name, it was the name of dead-man, a monster who had ravaged the Shadow World for years who was still occasionally the topic of hostile whispers and curses. She watched as Valentine pushed back his cloak, revealing Shadowhunter's gear underneath, and pulled out a pen-like object with a crystal tip, and a set of keys before letting his cloak fall back closed.

Valentine unlocked the cell door and stood over her, gripping the exposed skin of her burning arms. He vice-gripped her shoulder and forced her back into a kneeling position, that yanked on her wrists, threatening to break them and dislocate her shoulder.

"My first question, can demigods withstand runes?"

He carefully held the stylus and pointed it to her skin, and it lit up with a deceptive, white glow.

Then it met her skin and she shrieked in agony.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alec's phone buzzed abruptly, cutting him off mid-sentence. He was in the middle of a meeting with Lily and Mia, trying to figure out Valentine's latest movements, and just outright informing the two heads that it was Valentine they were up against, and the implications that it implied. it lit up with an unknown number, a New York area code, but he didn't recognize it, but his number did tend to get passed around on occasion. Sometimes it was important.

This was one of those times.

Alec had no idea how Nico had gotten his number, but the teen was panicking. He mentioned Lou Ellen and the fact that she was missing, desperately if he'd been able to contact her. Alec struggled to get the boy to calm down enough to agree to meet him at the Institute, where Nico wasn't due to return for another few hours, but apparently, he was desperate.

Lou Ellen Blackwater, one of the sole witnesses of Valentine's murders, had apparently gone on a hunt for the disgraced and deceased Nephilim, only to turn up missing for the past 24 hours. Alec still wasn't very sure about what her and Nico's relationship was, other than both of them being strange, mysterious teens with bizarre and unexplainable abilities. But apparently, they were close enough for Nico to start panicking over her disappearance.

Alec was barely able to tell him to bring something that belonged to her before Nico hung up and Alec had to end his meeting so he could rush from his apartment and drag Magnus to the Institute, explaining to him what little he had managed to get from Nico and this new situation, same problem. Alec should;ve known it would've only taken a few hours for Nico to resurface in the center of this mess, just like he had the first two times.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nico had somehow gotten inside of the institute, and was actually looking for them, which immediately threw Jace on edge. Outside of the fact that Nico had broken into the Institute rather than out, this time, and was dressed in something as close to shadowhunter gear someone could get in normal clothes. He had on his thick aviator jacket, dark denim jeans, heavy boots, and his sword clearly displayed on a chair around his waist. All in all, Jace could appreciate the blend of fashion and practicality.

With him, Nico was carrying a worn orange t-shirt, and had somehow managed to gain enough attention to himself within the mostly-empty Institute to get everyone into the entrance hall and gave a vague explanation, rushing through, only emphasizing that they had to save Lou, before... something. Nico wasn't clear enough about that part. When he was asked about their relation, the answer was that she was a friend. Nothing helpful, and no one really knew how he had gotten Alec's number, which was why he had brought the shirt.

Jace felt just slightly overwhelmed at the moment. Were they really doing this right now? Jace wasn't sure he was ready to face Valentine again, especially after he grieved for him at his funeral. This just felt like sacrilege. Yet again, Jace had never felt ready to face Valentine, so really, this was no different. He would never admit it though, he had his pride to look out for, unless Claire asked him directly.

After a few minutes of intense arguing and Alec arriving to said arguing, they managed to hash out a plan, or at least something with a semblance of a plan, to go and rescue Lou while also capturing Valentine. Most of the argument wasn't about said plan, but about who should be allowed to participate. Magnus was going to stay at the Institute along with Maryse and, both to guard it and to be able to relay communications should something happen. Isabelle and Simon were going to be back up, and Clary was in the middle, while the vanguard was Nico, Jace, and Alec.

Nico had insisted on being involved in the fight, and no one could argue against that, especially after he brought up that he was close to Lou, had fought Valentine before, and could essentially teleport everyone out should something go wrong. Maryse still seemed to disagree, but the emo teen wouldn't be stopped, Jace had tried.

Nico watched intensely as Clary did the tracking rune on the orange t-shirt, it's black lettering to faded to read, and found Lou. It was a run-down building, the deceased remains of some sort of government building that climbed up 20 stories too high, and was set for destruction next week. Then came to the topic of what Nico was wearing, and how he would need gear.

"I don't need new clothes," Nico protested, crossing his arms.

Jace huffed, "After last time, I'm surprised you still have clothes, considering yours tend to get shredded on an everyday basis."

"I have plenty of clothes, thank you very much. And I usually fight like this."

"It's armor. It'll keep you from getting injured, like last time. Denim is good, but this stuff is better. Wear it or I'm not letting you go. This is a shadowhunter mission, therefore you have to wear shadowhunter gear." Maryse stated.

Nico grumbled under his breath about how he didn't want to wear gear, but only would because it was black. He was quickly fitted out in some simple, lightweight gear, and fitted his weapons onto the belt, complaining the whole time but doing nothing to stop them. Jace made a mental note that it was one of his old sets. It wasn't perfect, but it fit well enough. Nico was, however, forced to leave his aviator jacket behind, much to the boy's displeasure.

Jace gave Nico a good once over, and noted the unfamiliar weapons that Nico had armed himself with. Black sword now secure to the belt rather than a chain, and his three daggers slipped into various sheathes, two on his back and one in the sheath on his leg. Nico flexed and moved around in the gear, testing it out and complaining about how it definitely wasn't comfortable but gave in to it's practicality.

In less than a half-hour since Nico's arrival for the third time at the Institute, they were ready to go off on their mission. Jace gave a half-glance to Nico once more as they left the Institute, who looked much more worried than he ought to have for a mission as straightforward as this.

Jace thought this was it, but Nico knew better.