It was almost too much for Alec to process at once. He was used to the stress, not only as a shadowhunter in general, but due to all of the politics in the Downworldhe was used to navigating. But this, Alec didn't like this one bit, especially when there was nothing he could do about it.

The first thing that happened, was him and Jace sprinting out of the doorway onto the roof, and the surprise that came with the fact that the door had been kicked from its hinges, a large dent in the middle of it. Then there was the sight of Valentine himself, standing close to the edge with their missing girl in his arms, covered in her own blood. Nico was standing in the middle of the roof, white-knuckling his sword, dark eyes wide open in a combination of shock and horror.

Then Valentine casually shoved Lou over the edge of the building. Nico's sword fell to the ground with an echoed clang, a starting bell. Then Nico lunged towards Lou.

"Nico! Don't!" Alec cried out, but there was nothing he could do, Nico was already over the edge.

"Bastard!" Jace roared, seraph blade blazing as he charged Valentine.

Valentine laughed, a sick sort of glee, as he withdrew his own sword, the black behemoth of a blade glistening in the distant city lights. Jace and Valentine clashed, and Alec snapped his bow off his back and fired a flare-like arrow into the sky. That was the signal for backup.

Alec shifted gears, turning his bow onto Valentine, but careful to keep enough distance between him and the clashing pair. Jace with his angelic abilities was so closely matched against Valentine's own warped enhancements. Alec couldn't get a clear shot, not without possibly hitting Jace or missing altogether. He glimpsed a matching arrow fly into the sky from the other building. Signal received.

The only sound came from Jace and Valentine, as adamas met adamas. It would be at least another 3 minutes before Clary got to the top of the tower, and then another 5 for Isabelle and Simon. It all depended on how long Jace could hold off Valentine, which at the moment, was too close to tell. The physical fight could go on for either hours or seconds depending on when one of them slipped up, but there were other factors involved. A seraph blade, while good for fighting demons, wasn't the optimal choice against an armed opponent, especially one with a superior blade. Phaeshorores mix of adamas and gold, along with its weight and length, it gave Valentine a clear advantage, which Jace parried with extreme agility and speed, using his lighter, albeit more fragile blade to his advantage. But it would just take a few more hits from the giant blade to shatter the seraph blade. Then it did.

The seraph blade died with a burst of light, forcing the two clashing forces apart, and blinding anything with eyes. Using the blast as a distraction, Valentine whistled using his fingers, a sharp, piercing sound that mimicked the burst of light. Alec took the moment of separation as soon as his vision allowed him to loose an arrow.

The arrow cleaved through whatever Valentine was wearing, biting into flesh. He cried out in pain but tore the arrow from his shoulder just as quickly.

"Why would you kill the person you're after!?" Alec demanded.

Valentine barely spared Alec a glance. "And I thought he was so much smarter than that, especially with his skill. What a disappointment," Valentine hissed.

Jace charged again, but this time, Valentine was ready, and Alec could clearly tell Jace's head wasn't where it needed to be.

"You killed Nico!" Jace shouted in rage.

Now unarmed, it was no problem for Valentine to simply kick Jace away, forcing Jace to stumble back, before trying to physically grapple with Valentine. A sword pointed at Jace stopped him from charging again. Alec saw something pass over Valentine's features. Animalistic rage overcame what was once a logical, although morally corrupt, man. He was undoubtedly going to kill Jace right then and there.

Alec watched as Valentine froze for a moment before battling against his own impulse. Something was terribly wrong. This wasn't how Alec remembered him at all. Valentine was undoubtedly insane but too keen and clever to openly have such a self-conflict. He was cruel and calculating, not animalistic and wrathful like the man before him. Valentine clenched his jaw before speaking with visible strain.

"Abandon them, Johnathan, these Showdowhunter's are unworthy of your loyalty. I'm on the verge of God's plan. Take part in purifying the world with me!" Valentine pleaded, eyes wild in restraint.

"Go to hell," Jace spat, seething hatred.

"Been there, done that." Something in Valentine snapped then. He lost whatever semblance of control he'd managed to muster for human speech.

With a rabid roar, Valentine pulled out a knife and flung it towards Jace faster than he could respond.

A black blur crashed between Jace and Valentine, the knife sinking into the shadows and a voice crying out in pain. The darkness shifted and Alec registered what it was he was looking at. Black feathers turned to steel under the moonlight. The moonlight danced across them and was consumed as the monstrous wings moved and revealed their owner.

His gear jacket had been discarded and the undershirt town to shreds. In his arms, he cradled Lou Ellen gently. Nico. Nico was alive. Nico had wings. Wings as black as the night itself. He glared meaningly at Valentine, wings flared around him and Lou both protectively and to make him seem far more menacing than he already did.

Valentine snarled, mouth open and dark eyes wide, shell shocked, before bursting into full-bellied laughter.

"Di Angelo serves you well, son of Hades. But I'll be seeing you again soon. How about sunset over Long Island Sound? We can talk then, over the sound of flames," Valentine said, before something snatched him from the rooftop, carrying him into the air with wings of its own.

Valentine was gone, but Nico was still alive. Lou Ellen was recovered, but not all was well. Alec could barely process what was going on around him. He tried to meet eyes with Jace, who simply stared over at Nico in his own version of shock and confusion.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Nico was falling. He hated heights, but Lou was also falling and wasn't currently conscious enough to be able to save herself. In retrospect, maybe throwing himself over the edge was a bad idea, but he really didn't have time for much consideration beforehand. Nico angled himself to speed past Lou and pull her close to his chest, plummeting towards the ground. He quickly threw the gear jacket off of himself, probably ripping it in the process.

Wings burst in a blur of feathers from his back, the less-foreign sensation filling his mind as he registered the drag of the descent on them. He snapped then open, growling in effort as he struggled against the rush of wind and jerked himself and Lou into a glide mere stories above the ground.

Nico shifted Lou around in his arms, putting her into a more comfortable bridal hold, wishing he was both physically bigger and less exhausted. His muscles strained to hold her properly against the pull of gravity. He gave a heavy beat of his wings and tilted back towards the building, watching as a flare shot into the sky from a building out of his line of sight. That was the confirmation of the back-up signal.

Nico met Lou's bright green eyes as her hand tightened in the fabric of his shirt. Lou was alright, or she would be. She was alive, and that would do for now. He gave another burst of effort he gave several beats of his wings until he was gliding above the building. He didn't have the time to consider the consequences of his actions, only that he needed to act, and Lou was alive, but still seriously hurt. He should've flown directly back to camp right then and there, but he had to make sure Valentine wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else. It was his job.

There was a bright flash from the rooftop, a burst of yellow-white light, and Nico had to close his eyes to avoid being blinded as he circled the building, too far away to hear what words were being exchanged, as he prepared to land.

Valentine was getting ready to attack again, but Nico was faster, especially when he was the one airborne. He threw himself between Jace and Valentine just as the knife parted his hand, and the blade sunk into the flesh of his right wing, and Nico cried out in pain. His ankle throbbed from the harsh landing, probably sprained. The metal burned, shooting pain all the way through his body from its place embedded in his wing, and it ached even more when he pulled them back to try and keep his balance.

Nico's eyes met Valentine's and he glared, trying to locate his sword from where he dropped it, but it was too far from his reach. Valentine's laughter threw him off, and he clutched Lou with a tighter grasp.

"Di Angelo suits you well, son of Hades," Valentine chortled, "But I'll be seeing you again soon. How about sunset over Long Island Sound? We can talk then, over the sound of flames."

Nico stiffened, picking up the threat, and he watched helplessly as Valentine was snatched away by a Harpy into the night, unable to follow with Lou in his arms and a knife in his wing.

Valentine was planning to attack Camp Half-Blood tomorrow night, and almost worse, he had revealed Nico to the shadowhunters.

His knees buckled underneath him, and he slowly lowered Lou to the ground and she groaned, eyes glazing over in pain, waning in and out of consciousness.

"Nico?"

Nico turned, meeting the golden gaze of Jace Herondale. He didn't feel like explaining himself, or his wings, or what a 'son of Hades' was, and hoped Jace would know better than to ask any of that right now.

"Lou is hurt, really hurt. She needs help before you can interrogate me," Nico said, slowly rising to his feet again, despite the knife in his wing, the ache in his arms, and the throbbing of his ankle.

Jace nodded, and hesitantly approached, motioning for Nico to hand Lou over. He did. Nico knew Jace was staring at his wings. Feeling self-conscious, Nico slowly attempted to slip them away but found he couldn't, not with the knife still there. He also knew better than to remove the knife while it was keeping him from bleeding all over the rooftop.

Alec snapped out of whatever daze it was he had been shocked into, "We should head back to the institute, Magnus can treat you three."

Nico nodded, his mind reeling with what he was supposed to do. His phone vibrated from its place in his back pocket. He picked up his sword before following Alec back into the stairwell. Descending stairs with wings was also really inconvenient, messing up his balance even though they were pressed firmly against his back. He could feel Jace staring from his place behind Nico on the stairs, and Alec kept glancing back.

About a flight down, they ran into Simon, Clary, and Isabelle, who were rushing over to provide backup, called by Alec's flare. Isabelle openly gasped at the sight of Nico, while Clary and Simon just stared, wide-eyed. Before any words could properly be exchanged, Alec spoke.

"The mission was a success, but Valentine got away. We'll talk when we get back to the Institute and have Magnus look over Lou Ellen. We all have questions." Alec shot him a look, letting Nico pick up on the unspoken 'for him'.

Nico wasn't going to be able to get out of this easily and had the itch to check what the notification on his phone had been about earlier, but couldn't check it while walking down the stairs. His limp was also getting worse about 5 stories down and had to stop for a moment.

"Nico, are you ok?" Clary asked, apparently over her own shock by now compared to everyone else.

"Fine. Just sprained my ankle."

"You shouldn't be walking down 20 flights of stairs then!" Isabelle gasped, and the group stopped.

"How else am I supposed to get back to the Institute then?" Nico snapped, wings flaring a bit in response.

"You could always just fly." Jace retorted, glaring.

"Not with the knife I took for you in me I can't," Nico spat back.

"I didn't ask you to get in the way! Alec and I thought you were as good as dead when you threw yourself off a goddamn building!"

Simon stepped between them, holding his hands out to block them from each other.

"Let's just bandage up your wing real quick so that way you can fly back to the Institute and you can also warn Magnus we're coming back with someone heavily injured." Simon offered, and Nico huffed, before letting his shoulders and wings drop in acceptance.

Alec approached, and sat next to Nico, on his right, and pointed to his torn shirt.

"Since your shirt is already trashed, can I use that to bind the wound? I could also use it to wrap your ankle," Alec explained, and Nico just huffed and shrugged.

It was a bit of an effort, and with Alec's help, Nico was able to remove the tattered shirt and shivered at the night air. He felt exposed, but he didn't have another shirt. They were staring too. His torso was littered with scars, and he saw Isabelle tense at the sight.

Alec ripped the shirt into strips, and slowly and cautiously, grasped Nico's wing near the injury. Nico tensed, holding his wong there for a second before relaxing as much as he could allow himself. He bristled and yelped when Alec removed the knife, setting it down on the stairs before beginning to bind the now bleeding wound. The shirt fabric was tightly tied around the injury and pushed against a few of his feathers uncomfortably. They would have to be plucked to properly treat the wound. Nico picked up the knife and frowned at the familiar material. It glowed softly but was completely ordinary beyond that, and the fact that it was celestial bronze. He stuffed it into his gear's belt.

Alec moved down a few more steps and removed Nico's boot, and he nearly snapped at Alec for causing him pain but knew better after his time dealing with Will than to talk back to the person treating him. The rest of the shift was used to form a brace for his ankle, making it so he could barely move it, especially after the boot was put back on. The pressure made Nico feel like he was losing feeling in his toes.

"There, good to go. I trust you won't just fly off?" Alec asked, giving him a hard look, despite the pun.

"No," Nico responded seriously, "not with Lou injured like she is."

Alec nodded, satisfied, and helped Nico to his feet. He hobbled down a few more steps, and went onto the 14th floor, spotting a large enough window that was never installed. Nico made sure everything was properly fastened around his waist then put his good foot onto the window sill. He glanced behind him to see the whole group of Shadowhunter's and Lou, conscious for the moment, watching him.

Nico gave a small wave, and for the second time that hour launched himself from a building into the night air.

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

https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodfish_bowl