Centuries have passed since the fall of the Fair Folk. The world has fallen into chaos, burdened by decades-long Nights interspersed with brief intervals of Day. Despite their best efforts, Werewolves have fallen slave to the Nights - between them and the ever-rampant scourge of demons, all the rest of the Shadow World has been forced to reveal their presence to Mundanes, organizing into territories protected by what few Institutes remain. Even still, tensions run high between the Nephilim and Downworlders, their alliances tenuous at best.
But in the thick of darkness, a new light has been born, holding in him the promise of a brighter future - if only a particular Shadowhunter can find it within himself to see past their differences and let this light bloom.
Genre: Crossover
Rating: General Audiences
Chapters: 1
Word Count: 4.8k
Characters: Erwin Smith, Hanji Zoë, Levi Ackerman, Eren Jaeger, Magnus Bane, Alec Lightwood
Primary Relationships: Levi Ackerman x Eren Yeager, Alec Lightwood x Magnus Bane
Written as a gift for @kionemv
Levi stormed into the ops center, his pace swift but his demeanor as calm and blank as always. Whether he was actually alarmed or not was always a mystery to the other Shadowhunters. No matter what activity buzzed through the Institute, he seemed impossibly ready for any threat, and beyond confident in his abilities to address it - not that anyone could honestly blame him. Indeed, most of his peers swore he'd seized his first Seraph blade the minute he broke free of his mother's womb, and slayed his first demon before he'd even drawn his first breath. In another time, they might have feared him for it...
...but now, in a world overrun by darkness? They found space in their souls only for eternal gratitude.
"Where is the threat, Commander?" he blandly asked of his leader, his expression betraying nothing of his state of mind.
Erwin raised a brow at him. He wished he could say he was surprised by Levi's concern with "where" over "what." With a mild sigh, he replied, "Werewolves. East district, thirty miles out."
Levi's eyes slid over towards one of the irritatingly loud, flashing red alarms, and Erwin knew he was silently questioning how something so small as a Werewolf attack could warrant such a ruckus. Ultimately, however, he did little more than shrug as he turned to take his leave. "Very well. I'll take care of it."
If I’m gonna be 100% hoesnt this is the first time when I hear this name, BUT. Scrolled through her blog a little and it’s really good! And she blog A LOT about Malec and Shadowhunters in generall so she gets points for that <3
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I would just like you all to know that @kionemv approves of the next chapter of Interstellar, based on the excerpt I just sent her from today's progress.
DARE was the first official collab project between me and @kionemv, and we couldn’t be more honored by the love you all have shown the project! Thank you so much for the support, everyone!!!
If you aren’t already, I highly encourage you follow her RIGHT. THIS. SECOND!!! Kione’s such an amazing, talented, and driven artist, and is only getting even better with every work she produces ❤︎
Check out all three of Kione’s illustrations for DARE here and here!
Thanks for bringing us so far! I hope our future collabs bring you just as much joy as DARE!
As the bassist of hit rock band DownShadow, Alec’s pretty satisfied with life. He gets to travel the country, with his sister and closest friends, performing music for all the world to hear. But when DownShadow’s band manager, Luke, arranges a surprise party with DJ Bane to celebrate the completion of their tour, Alec finds himself caught between the stage and his true self, and is forced to resolve the rift between the two once and for all.
Inspired by Gorillaz. Illustrated by @kionem.
Read the fic on AO3.
Genre: Band AU
Rating: General Audiences
Chapters: 1
Word Count: 15k
Characters: Alec Lightwood, Magnus Bane, Jace Wayland, Isabelle Lightwood, Clary Fray, Simon Lewis, Luke Garroway
Primary Relationships: Alec Lightwood x Magnus Bane
Secondary Relationships: Jace Herondale x Clary Fray
Port of Call: MALEC!Itinerary: ghosts! 👻👻👻Captain: @kionem 😘
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Alec shifted uncomfortably on the sidewalk, hands shoved into his jacket’s pockets. Anxiously, he glanced up and down the street, keeping an eye out and wincing every time Jace’s struggling summoned a high-pitched rattling from the chain link fence. “Come on, man, this is stupid. Let’s just go home.”
“You kidding me?” Jace grumbled, a final strike at last breaking the fence’s padlock. The gate swung open, and he shot a wide grin over his shoulder, the streetlights giving his golden eyes a wild gleam. “This place is perfect. If anywhere in this dumb town is haunted, it’s here.”
Well, he couldn’t argue with that. The lot had been closed off for about a decade now, the yellow police tape stretched and discolored from years of neglect. It sagged from where it’d been wrapped around the house’s porch entry, hardly posing any kind of barrier to the two teens. Of greater concern was the way the wooden steps and floorboards creaked loudly beneath their careful footsteps, threatening to give way at any moment. The entire house was charred black, and the charcoal smell of flames still tinged the air, as if they were breathing in fresh embers and ash.
Alec shuddered, his hands gripping the camera hanging from around his neck. “It’s also an active crime scene. If we get caught in here—”
“The cops haven’t been here in years,” Jace interrupted, rolling his eyes. “Everyone dead, and any hope of evidence burned to a crisp. It’s a cold case no one cares about anymore.”
Despite everything else, Alec couldn’t help but sigh at the remark. Jace was right, and the reminder made Alec’s heart go out to the mysterious trio. The reported story was there’d been an accident, a gas leak or something, that killed the couple and their young child, but no one in town believed it. If that were the whole story, why was the place still closed off and protected by the city a whole decade after the fact? Most of the townsfolk whispered of foul play, but whether it’d been the mother, the father, the child, or maybe even someone else, no one could say for sure - not even the cops, apparently.
They steadily made their way into the master bedroom, white police tape barely visible upon the floor through layers of caked dust. They outlined two bodies, an adult’s and a child’s. “The dad’s, right?” Jace asked, crouching beside them.
Alec’s eyes shifted warily towards the bed. It was one of those fancy, four-post beds, or had been anyway. The sheer drapes had been eaten through in multiple places first by flames and then by moths, and whatever remained was so dirtied it looked nearly opaque black, much more like cobwebs than veils. “Yeah,” he finally replied, slowly moving from the bed towards a nearby dresser. “They found the mom in—”
His heart skipped a beat, and he whirled. Jace sprung to a stand, camera raised. “What is it?!” he hissed, his heart racing.
A cold sweat had formed on Alec’s skin. He swallowed, gathering his strength before answering, but still his voice shook. “I… I thought… I saw someone,” he managed to reply. “In… In the mirror…”
Jace eyed the mirror mounted above the dresser. It was just as dusty and charred as the rest of the house, only tiny blotches of its metallic backing still intact. He smirked, eyes sliding back to Alec as his pulse returned to normal.
Alec screamed, feeling fingers upon his back. Jace caught his punch in one hand, bursting into laughter at Alec’s terrified expression. “Asshole!!!” Alec yelled, yanking his fist free and shaking off his nerves.
Wiping the tears from his eyes, Jace stepped around him and back out of the room. “Let’s split up. We’ll cover more ground and can get out of here quicker that way.” He paused in the threshold, turning a raised brow at him. “Unless you’d rather spend the night here?”
“Fuck off.”
Jace snorted and took his leave, Alec glaring after him the whole while. Only when his friend was completely out of sight did he finally release his breath, turning back around towards the bed with a groan. “I’m gonna kill him,” he muttered under his breath.
But when he opened his eyes again, he froze, his heart gripped with so much fear he swore it’d stopped beating entirely.
The round face of a small boy stared up at him, quiet and still. His eyes were as dark as his straight, black hair, and his face would have been something like bronze were it not for the pale of its translucency. Alec’s eyes grew wide, and wider still, his entire body shaking. He begged himself to scream, to run, to do something, but no amount of will could break through the horror…
…and, through his wide-eyed staring, he eventually came to notice the slight glistening at the corners of the boy’s eyes. He blinked, his brow slowly furrowing, and he gradually came to realize the boy looked just as scared. Bit by bit, he managed to calm down, and eased himself lower to the ground. “H… H-Hey, there,” his trembling voice whispered, one hand raising before him.
The boy shied into himself, eyeing Alec’s hand. He realized something about his hand appeared to bother the boy, so he quickly lowered it again with a soft, mumbled apology. As he’d guessed, it got the boy to relax again, his face turning back to regard Alec’s.
“Um…” Alec murmured, wracking his brain for what he should do next. This is insane!!! I’m… I’m talking to a ghost??? What the hell?! “M-My… My name’s… Alec…”
The boy didn’t respond, only continued to stare.
Alec closed his eyes, thinking back to all the news stories that’d come out at the time. “Your… Your name is…” He remembered thinking the name sounded peculiar. That, ultimately, is what made it stick out, and he couldn’t keep a triumphant smile from brightening his face as he finally declared, “It’s ‘Magnus,’ right? That’s your name?”
To Alec’s great relief, the boy managed a small smile, then slowly nodded. A moment later, however, an anguish consumed his face, and the glistening at his eyes worsened. He turned around and began staring at the bed, a tiny hand reaching out and slipping its fingers through the mattress’s edge.
Alec followed the boy’s gaze towards the pillows. As it dawned on him what the boy was thinking about, his heart fell, taking his voice with it. “You… miss your mother… ?”
The boy wiped at his eyes, then twisted around to regard his father’s outline upon the floor. His brow narrowed, the pain in his expression worsening.
“Your father killed her?” Alec asked, a strange kind of anxiety swelling within him. He was now the closest anyone had ever gotten to actually uncovering the truth, but though he knew others would want to know the story he loathed the thought of sharing it with anyone. Magnus was telling him, and that made it feel somehow personal and special, like a close-kept secret.
The boy shook his head, then turned to a toppled nightstand. His finger lifted, its point directing Alec’s attention towards a wooden box.
It was decaying and misshapen, its fire-exposed splinters the home of maggots and probably a roach or two. Still, as Alec moved closer and knelt beside it, he could still see with a tilt of his head the box’s once-velveteen interior and its shallow, long indent. He frowned, puzzling out the silhouette, then finally looked back over his shoulder to the boy. “…a dagger?” he asked.
A half-pleased, but half-saddened look touched the boy’s eyes and smile. He looked back to the bed, where his mother’s corpse had been found, and Alec’s heart broke.
“She… took her life,” Alec murmured, raising back to a stand. Why did he feel so helpless? He looked back at Magnus. “I’m sorry.” His eyes drifted to the father’s outline. “…Your dad got upset?”
The boy’s lips pursed, and his hands balled into fists. He was now all but glaring at the outline.
Alec frowned. “Your dad… burned the house down… ?” he asked, but even as he did he doubted that was the right answer - he could see the guy being angry about it, even going so far as blaming his kid, but burning the place and killing them both in the process seemed a bit… much…
Magnus was sad again, but it was a kind of fiery sadness. Hands still fisted, he turned his head, and Alec’s eyes trailed over towards a bronze candle holder, discarded and forgotten where it’d rolled and bounced and came to rest under a fallen standing lamp and armchair. A few feet away was a thin, dark blotch that sported a muted shine in the sparse moonlight piercing the house.
“Wax,” Alec realized in a hushed whisper. “A candle.” His eyes crossed back across the floor, connecting in a fairly straight line the candle holder, the father’s outline, and Magnus’s outline. Magnus himself had come to sit there, face hidden in the wrap of his arms around his raised knees. It took a while, but finally Alec pieced it all together, and hesitantly moved closer to Magnus. “Your mother killed herself… You found her here, and your dad walked in…”
As he sat beside Magnus on the ground, he reached out to lay a hand on the boy’s back, remembering at the last minute he couldn’t. Somehow, it’d become easy to forget he was interacting with a ghost. A ghost. He blinked and shook his head, still marveling the phenomena, but continued. “Your dad got mad at you, and it upset you. You threw the candle you’d been holding at him, and…” He sighed, looking around at the destroyed home.
I guess the story’s truer than people think, even though it’s not the full story.
He glanced back at Magnus. The boy was still hiding his face, but he’d stopped shaking. Alec’s expression softened, and when he spoke again it was filled with sympathy. “Hey… It’s… It’s alright. You were upset, and you made a mistake.”
Slowly, Magnus lifted his head, peering quietly over his arms. His eyes were reddened from crying, but the tears had ceased to flow. Still, he seemed wary, eyeing Alec in a silent anxiety.
Alec considered things for a moment, then offered a smile. “I won’t tell anyone. We can… keep it between us, if you like. And…” He hesitated, then slowly extended his hand between them. This time, rather than holding up to wave, he laid it flat, palm-up, like he was offering something. “…I know I’m nobody, and I certainly don’t hold any significance in your life, but… Well, for what it’s worth, I forgive you, at least.”
For a long while, Magnus stared at Alec’s hand, and Alec grew nervous. Was that the wrong thing to say? Had he upset the boy further? What was he doing, conversing like this with a ghost?! But then, Alec caught the subtle lift of Magnus’s small mouth, until a small, sad smile pinched his cheeks and softened his eyes. At long last, the boy extended his hand, moving his fingers toward’s Alec’s…
“Alec?”
Alec started, eyes snapping up to the threshold.
Jace was standing there, a brow peaked. “What… are you doing… ?”
“Uhhh…” Alec looked to his side. The space beside him was completely vacant - not even the dust upon the floor had been disturbed. “…Nothing,” he mumbled, standing up and dusting himself off. “Just, uh… thinking…”
Jace rolled his eyes and turned around. “Let’s get out of here. I didn’t find so much as a shifting curtain, much less any actual ghosts.”
As he followed his friend, Alec glanced over his shoulder to the body tape on the floor. He couldn’t tell if he was relieved or disappointed to find nothing there. “…Yeah, me neither,” he softly lied.
Jace whined and complained the whole way out of the house, declaring the whole thing a “waste of a perfectly good night” and wishing they’d gone for the hospital one town over. Alec droned most of it out, still contemplating his encounter with the little ghost boy and offering little more than the occasional “yeah” and “uh-huh” to appease Jace.
At the gate, Jace gave a final groan, then wove as he departed into the night. “Well, whatever. We still on for karaoke tomorrow?”
Alec glanced up at him as he pulled the gate shut, awkwardly wrapping the chain through its frame to keep it closed. “Uh…” He cast one last look across the overgrown lawn to the crumbling house. There, in the window… He swore he saw a tiny face, and beside it a tiny, waving hand. Alec smiled, nodding at the foggy silhouette, then looked back at his friend with a goofy smile.
