Shadowhunter in the Apocalypse

After they cleaned themselves up, neither of them bothered to mention what had just happened. That was the way it always went between them. They just moved on. Boss and assistant but with extra benefits. Nothing more unless she said it out loud one day, and he wasn't holding his breath.

She set her laptop on the table between them, the soft glow from the screen lighting up her sharp features. When Jasmine worked, the world around her faded into background noise. Reed leaned back in his chair, watching her fingers move across the keyboard with practiced ease.

"All right," she said, her voice crisp. "Let's start with Web."

She cleared her throat and began, tone professional.

"Subjects real name is Ava Quinn. Hunter designation, Special Class. Age twenty-six.." A pause as she clicked to the next file. "She was a talented hunter when she started out, scores always above average but not exceptional. She was talented yes, but not enough to warrant a special class"

Reed crossed his arms, waiting. Jasmine didn't like to be interrupted, he had learned that the hard way.

"Five years ago," Jasmine continued, eyes on the screen, "that changed. She was deployed on a standard hunt outside Budapest. The mission should have been routine. Instead, she encountered a Spider-type Spirit Beast. The file marks it as unidentified, never seen before or since. She fought it for nearly an hour without back up. Alone. According to her logs, she killed it but then she said it had merged with her right after"

Reed's eyes blinked at that, but really he wasn't to surprised. Spirits were the most mysterious beings in the supernatural world, far from understandable and some were terribly powerful, like the earth spirt that legend said had set up the veil that covered human's eyes and minds from the supernatural and banishing two entire powerful races to their realm, or the spirit of death responsible for the creation of the first vampire.

Jasmine scrolled down, the light catching on the edge of her glasses. "Her Lab results showed abnormalities. Reflexes, bone density, recovery rate. Within weeks she displayed abilities that had never been recorded in any other hunter. Enhanced mobility. Wall-scaling. And—" she tapped the screen "—the most unique trait: the production of Shadow Webs. Not tied to ambient shadows like regular shadow magic. She can generate them freely and almost endlessly. Strong enough to restrain a vampire and an Alpha werewolf."

Reed let out a slow breath through his nose.

"She was promoted to Special Class immediately," Jasmine continued. "Over the next two years she completed dozens of missions. Three of those were suicide-rated. She returned every time." Her tone wasn't that impressed, she had worked with someone like her after all, that specialized in throwing away his life and someone got it back every time.

Reed let the silence linger a beat before asking, "And then?"

Jasmine's jaw tightened just enough for him to notice. She clicked to another tab, a map blooming across the screen. Bold words glowed on top, Romania. Hoia Forest. Red markers dotted the edges like warning signs.

"A month ago, Ava Quinn was sent into the Forbidden Forest," she said. "Her orders were to find out exactly why no one comes out of the forest, the reason it is forbidden." Jasmine enlarged the map, zooming in on a pulsing red dot buried deep in the treeline. "This was the point of contact. After that, silence."

Reed leaned forward. The dot blinked steadily, fixed in place.

"She had on a microchip implant for precautionary measures," Jasmine said him. "Vital signs. Location. Ava's chip is still transmitting. Still alive. Still stationary." She glanced at him now. "She hasn't moved in a month."

That sat heavy in the air.

Reed rubbed his jaw. "Maybe it's broken…."

"That's what five Special Class hunters already said," Jasmine replied flatly. "One after another. They all turned down the mission. They think the signal is a glitch. That she's long dead, and the chip is lying. But House of Black disagreed stating the chip they used is state of the art and specially calibrated for her. They believe she's alive. Or at least… not fully gone. And they want her back."

Reed's eyes narrowed. Even if she wasn't fully gone, she was probably suffering from a fate worse than death. And he was sure the House wouldn't be this passionate after a month if she didn't someone achieve her mission.

"You aren't the first to go after her" Jasmine tapped the edge of the laptop. "Three hunters, not special class but powerful in their own rights have entered this forest together, they met the same situation, their trackers are active and they are alive but no contact, You would be the fourth hunter and the first special class to go after her"

"Why didn't they tell me to save the other three?"

Jasmine replied in a disdain filled tone, "I guess their analysis was that in a mission like this it would already but hard to save one person not to talk of three, so of course they prioritized the S class"

"That's….messed up not going to lie"

"Right?" She agreed "But let's push that aside, the general analysis for this mission is-"

Reed let out a humorless laugh interrupting her. "Is that I'm fucked."

"You kinda are, not going to lie, in fact as your PA who cares about having a good boss, I recommend rejecting this mission." She pressed on, shifting the map wider. "The Forbidden Forest is as you know one of the 5 cursed locations on earth. Completely inhabited by spirit beasts, it's a graveyard for any Shadowhunter, apart from the Originals…maybe even them to be honest."

"Don't go in this forest Reed, it's bad news."

Jasmine's tone was almost pleading, but he still had to go, he just couldn't leave Mia high and dry to be beheaded especially after her surprise kiss, it wasn't even about that, this was his pride on the line, he had accepted the mission, he would simply complete it.

So he said nothing in response to Jasmine's pleading look, he couldn't allow himself to think there was any other way but into that God forsaken forest. He tried to think of the positives, what would happen if he came out alive, that would be a shockwave around the supernatural world, he would be even more terrifying. Besides from her picture this Ava was pretty cute, and he had always loved a good damsel in distress mission.

"I can see you are determined so let me continue, Locals in the area have reported weird dreams, in fact it's basically expected from the humans there that their dreams are either really good or bad…..no sign it is anything supernatural though"

Reed leaned back, trying to analyze that bit of information, but no matter what he tried to place it too he couldn't come up with anything, he started thinking about how hopeless this seems, he didn't like suicide missions really, this mission seemed pretty suicidal and he couldn't even find anything to give him an advantage, he was spiraling deeper and decided to change his direction, so he started thinking about all Ava might have gone through in those she had been gone. It was either she was dead, and the chip was lying, or she was alive and trapped in something worse than death. Neither option sounded appealing.

He glanced at Jasmine. "So I'm supposed to walk in, find her and the rest if I can, and drag them out while a forest full of nightmares tries to rip me apart."

"That's the mission," she said evenly.

"And if she's dead?"

Her eyes didn't waver. "Then you bring back the chip as proof. Either way, you don't come out empty-handed."

Reed exhaled slowly, the weight pressing into his chest. He reached up, thumb brushing the edge of the ring in his pocket.

Raven. If he didn't return before the forty-eight-hour mark, the spell binding her would break. Every hunter, every apostle, every warlock in range would feel her presence. She'd have to disappear again. Maybe forever.

Failure wasn't an option.

Jasmine shut the laptop with a snap, breaking the silence. "We'll be staying in a hotel near the forest for tonight." She leaned back, slipping into her casual tone again. "Don't worry, I booked something decent this time."

Reed gave her a sidelong look, unconvinced.

She smirked, then added, "And who knows, maybe it can be like old times, we can find some pretty thing to keep us company….you know professionally." A wink followed, playful but carrying weight.

Reed's lips tugged at the corner. It was nice to see she hadn't changed. He was always ready for some fun with her.

It was time to sleep, the trip would take them roughly 10 hours.

He leaned back ready to go to bed, but then he heard Jasmine again.

"Did you actually mean it when you said you wanted to stay in New York?"

He nodded.

"Oh." She simply said "And it's because of Mia? The one who kissed you?"

He would have teased her if her tone wasn't a bit….wierd.

"She's part of the reason yes," he started then turned to her, she was leaning back on her own seat too "I was always going to come back to New York eventually, I just needed to get rid of the accusations at the time"

"Yeah I remember that time, the whole Daughter of Lilith thing" She laughed softly looking up like she was imagining the details, "You were so pissed, all the time, and for a good reason too, a thrall would never agree to leave their mistress, you had proven them wrong just by leaving New York but they still didn't let you go back."

"Exactly" he replied "And then the missions started coming in, one after the other, I think they planned for me to just completely forget about new York but I never did, too much was waiting for me back at home"

"I know you don't have a family so I'll assume you meant Hale?" She guessed.

Not really he said internally.

"Among other people yeah" he simply said, he didn't care if she believed him or not, he couldn't tell anyone about Raven, especially not now.