Chapter Text
Alec sighs and scrubs his hands over his face. This would all be so much better if Jace and Izzy didn’t keep setting such a terrible precedent and if Alec had been firm and not tried to give them time to adjust.
“Stop!” He calls out, because he doesn’t even get what Hodge is trying to do. He cared about the older man, as something of a mentor, but Alec’s not about to let things like this stand.
He sees the little redhead Jace is dragging around and rolls his eyes as Jace winces and steps back, bringing her with him. They haven’t been officially introduced as Alec was in a meeting but the fact that he’s trotting her out and about without a security detail already has Alec gritting his teeth.
“Hodge stand down.” He orders, watching as Hodge’s smug expression fades and Alec walks over. He steps behind Hodge, knocking the man down with a brutal blow to the back of his knees as he passes.
Hodge hits the floor, hard and the girl — Alec thinks Kaleb said her name was Fray which is fitting because she is fraying on his last nerve — gives a dismayed cry, like she’s going to come over and thankfully Jace stops her. Eyes glaring and arms around her as he keeps her from running over to Alec.
“Why do you have live weapons, Hodge?” Alec asks coldly as he circles Hodge’s knelt form. “This is a training floor, not a sparring one. Your opponent has a weapon that can barely hold up to your own and is doing admirably and you act like this?” Alec scoffs and shoves his boot to Hodge’s back, kicking him over and flat, heel on his back.
Alec has been the official Head and Commander for a week, he’s not going to allow any of this to continue. He’d been trying to be nice and ease Jace and Izzy into it but now Jace is trying to shut Alec down in his own Institute, trying to override his orders.
“Someone get me Kaleb.” He orders, “and when are my new assets scheduled to arrive?” The hunter Hodge had been miss-training approaches him when he holds his hands out and gives him the two pieces of her broken rattan when he beckons.
“In two days, sir.”
“Tell them to speed it up. It seems I have insubordination rife within my Institute. Hodge is no longer a member of this Institute, he will be exiled to another Institute.” Alec sees the shock and fear, even the hint of betrayal in Hodge’s expression and he scoffs.
“I am not my parents, Hodge. I’m not going to let anyone take your pain and shame and anger out on my people. Especially not someone who once betrayed everything we stand for, even if you did help raise us.” Alec sighs in disappointment and five of his hunters flinch before realizing who the culprit is and their turn icy glares at Hodge’s prone form.
“Someone get a tracker ready for the new nephilim,” and when Jace steps in front of Clary, Alec stares him down. “No Jace. I let you push before because you are a brother to me,” Alec says and he’s their Commander now, not Jace’s brother. “If you act against me one more time. I will ship you both to Idris, and it won’t be enjoyable for either of you.”
Alec takes the two pieces of rattan and gets a grip on the unbroken ends.
“On your feet Hodge.” He demands as he steps back, allowing Hodge to get up and when he does and turns to see Alec, Hodge pales.
“Alec, you can’t be serious.”
“It’s been a long time since we’ve sparred. I think you could use a reminder of just who is in charge of this Institute. You are a traitor who was spared but you didn’t repent. You got scared and tucked your tail. I’ve seen the reports Hodge, you are a liar and a coward. So get on your feet, and face me.”
Hodge is stricken by Alec’s remarks, but Alec is withholding no blows, not even verbal ones. He refuses to have any mercy, he can’t afford to and his own anger won’t let him. Not after he came out of a meeting and found that Jace had illegally runed a possibly mundane — because Jace hadn’t had proper proof and the risk if she had been one is immense. Not since said possible mundane now definite nephilim hadn’t been secured properly, or been run through the mundane and shadowhunter databases alike.
And especially not since he opened Hodge’s and his parents' unredacted files a mere five hours ago.
So no, Alec is furious and he is about to unleash his carefully controlled and maintained anger.
Hodge strikes first, quick and low, flexible and shorter and Alec just kicks him. His long legs have a depth of range that Hodge lacks and his adamas tipped boots hit Hodge’s adamas weapons with enough force that painful reverberations go through them both.
But Alec’s trained for this, meticulously and he drops, catching himself with palms and rattan flat before he kicks out with his other leg, throwing himself towards where Hodge is backing up, trying to regain control of his still shaking hands.
And Alec gives him no reprieve and attacks with no hint of patience.
He hits Hodge in a precise flurry of strikes and kicks. Hodge is talented, but he’s been stuck in an Institute for twenty years and his weapons are live but they would have to reach Alec to hurt him. The only fights Hodge has now are the ones in training and sparring and Alec has been on the streets hunting since he was fifteen. He’s been summoned to Idris for classes and rigorous training and beaten back and forth across a mat until his mother came to retrieve him and had to drag him bloody and dazed from it.
Again and again.
Until it took.
Until Alec was the one leaving people on the floors. Letting their blood stain the wood as he walked out, leaving them to nurse their injuries and with their blood smearing his mouth in a smile that has never reached his eyes.
So Alec knows that Hodge has grown soft, that he lacks the edge that Alec’s forced himself to reach and maintain and it shows, here as they fight.
Hodge has live blades and Alec a broken rattan staff but Hodge is the one disadvantaged and everyone else can tell.
Alec plays with him, lets him think that this is a desperate battle when he’s being toyed with. No one, especially not a traitor, gets to belittle and degrade Alec’s people with such dishonorable actions.
When he’s finished, Hodge is a mess but somewhat conscious and Alec signals to Raj, who arrived with Kaleb and his two hunters follow Alec and drag Hodge over to Jace and the redhead.
“Do you recognize her, Hodge?” Alec asks, when Raj forces his head up by his hair, and Hodge does, Alec can tell. “Identify her bloodline, now.”
“Jocelyn Fairchild.” Hodge says, a gasp and Alec hums consideringly, because Hodge is panicking, there is something else there. Something he’s hiding.
“Who was Fairchild’s husband?” He asks and Hodge’s eyes blow wide open and Alec smiles, it’s not a nice smile. “Hodge, you can either tell me. Or I can tell the clave you’re withholding information, or I can put you back on the mat and beat it out of you, I can even take you to the Silent Brothers and have them extract it. But if you tell me and mind you, this last time I’ll ever show mercy, I’ll let you walk away after. No further consequences.”
The quiet murmurs filling the hall since Alec won halt immediately.
Alec’s hunters thought the beating and exile to another Institute was the punishment, it is not. It is what’s going to happen, but more could happen in between.
Because Alec will protect his people from threats both inside and out.
“Valentine.” Hodge gasps out and his circle mark flares up in pain, “Jocelyn’s husband was Valentine.”
It’s processed in about three seconds and then Alec is barking orders and Jace is yelling, arguing and trying to block the redhead but Alec wants her in an isolation room now.
It’s a mess and it takes four of Alec’s shadowhunters to subdue Jace and Alec pulls up his shirt and draws a rune on Jace’s stomach, to keep him unconscious, as his brother looks at him with betrayal before his eyes slide shut.
Alec scoffs and lets him drop, caught by the ones holding him down.
As if Jace putting Alec’s entire Institute in danger, a mere week after Alec became its leader, isn’t the first and biggest betrayal.
“Put them both in isolation rooms.” Alec orders because he is done being soft, “and someone get Hodge somewhere secure. He can get treatment in Idris if they want to give it to him.”
No one argues and Raj and Kaleb both step up, one behind each of his shoulders and a step away, giving him space to move and attack if he needs it.
Alec isn’t going to allow one more rune to be put on Valentine’s daughter and he’s going to get her and Hodge out of his Institute as soon as possible.
“Sir!” Someone yells behind him and he turns to see Alyssa, someone he’s trained with and trained personally running up. “The portal from Idris activated, Lakecastle’s arrived.”
Alec internally thanks the angel and resists the urge to close his eyes and sigh in relief. He needs good, competent help and his parents have always been more focused on politics and their family name than training shadowhunters and protecting their territory.
Alec’s Institute is weak in a way he can’t afford and his people need him, to know that Alec won’t be like his parents, that he’ll protect them.
At least, he’ll protect all of them that are loyal.
“Show her to my office, I’ll talk with her and send a missive to Idris requesting clave officials to come pick up Hodge and the girl. We’ll need coffee and food, a lot of it. This isn’t going to be an easy night—”
“Commander!” Alyssa is rushing up with a snarl on her face and a small phone in hand. “The girl’s phone is ringing, it wasn’t turned off and our wards and sensors detected a mundane, being trailed by two nephilim, neither of them have the markers of our Institute.”
“Get an anti-tracking rune on that phone, now!” Alec says, voice carrying with the depth of his authority and frigid anger.
Alec summons his bow and quiver and nods to his shadows. “Take the lead.” He orders, because it is his job to lead, to survive and to protect.
They step in front of him as soon as they reach the door. Two steps to either of his sides, giving him a range of view and exposure while still guarding him. The problem is easy to recognize.
It’s a young mundane, nervous and pacing as he desperately talks into a phone even though it doesn’t seem like anyone is talking back. He’s pulling at his own hair and shaking in his panic but it’s clear he knows the girl is in the Institute.
Which is unfortunate, for everyone involved.
Alec notches an arrow and aims, catching the glint of buttons in the shadows and he shoots and there is a thud. The mundane remains unaware, just like he should, when there is hoarse yell and another traitor is running, at the mundane instead of Alec’s team and Raj moves, getting behind him and cutting him down while Kaleb knocks the mundane out and moves him out of the way.
“Incompetent.” Raj spits, hitting the body and Alec can’t disagree. They don’t act or move like actual shadowhunters and Alec wonders how much of their skills they lost, lapping at Valentine’s feet.
“Annoying.” Kaleb mutters, the mundane over his shoulder as he bends and picks up a body. “Izzy’s lab?” He asks and Alec shakes his head.
“No, the other teams can have first go. Izzy is on probation for now. Make sure to search for traces of where they could be staying, we’ll send anything they can’t deal with to the claves labs.” Which means that Alec’s people will take it as a challenge to give the clave as little as possible, like they always do.
“We’re going to need a warlock to wipe the mundanes memories or he could just keep showing up.” Raj mutters, “dammit Jace.” And then he winces like Alec’s going to glare at him or demote him but Alec is his leader right now, not Jace’s brother.
“Kaleb, stash him in one of the crypts with a guard, I’m not bringing a mundane into my Institute. Raj, get the other body.”
He’s especially not going to bring a mundane into his Institute during his first week as leader, it would be self-sabotage of the kind Alec refuses to allow. He’s protecting the mundane by keeping him out of the shadowworld, ensuring he doesn’t get tangled up with things that could kill him or worse.
“The High Warlock of Brooklyn, Magnus Bane is our best bet. He did the warding on the Institute so he’s powerful and competent which is good. We don’t need any more problems,” is all Alec allows himself to say but he claps Raj on the shoulder when he returns with the body, because he did good tonight and his irritation and anger is valid. “Dismissed when you’re done. Finish up and get some rest. I have a second to meet.”