Disclaimer: The Doctor Who ideas, main characters, and places all mentioned in the BBC show do not belong to me. They belong to BBC. The only things that belong to me are the new characters and the story line. The references to the fairytales belong to the Brothers Grimm. Enjoy.

Doctor Who: Magus's Mirrors

Chapter 5: Alone

Something was wrong. Something was very different and very wrong. The Doctor stood up from his seated position on the ground inside, what looked like, a fourteenth century stable.

"What?" he asked incredulously looking around.

This couldn't have been right. He looked down at himself, now completely confused at the different attire he was wearing. Royal attire that matched the era of the stable he was in.

"But—how—what?"

He tried to dig for his pockets only to be highly troubled when he found he hadn't any. No pockets meant only one thing: no sonic screwdriver. He was severely in trouble now. He suddenly realized what had happened.

"No!" he yelled out to no one. He looked around, as though expecting to see someone there, but no such luck arose. "You weren't supposed to take me!"he yelled to the air. "You were supposed to take Emily! The one who knows which bloody fairy tale this is!"

He sighed, pacing a few places where he stood. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Emily was supposed to be the one to go into the mirror, not him. He tried to remember back to what the two fairy tales the mirrors were. Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, right? Now all he had to do was find out which one he was in.

"I wish I had my sonic screwdriver," he mumbled to himself. "At least then I'd have something recognizable in this place."

"My lord?" a voice called out. The Doctor turned to face a man watching him curiously. The Doctor glanced around before pointing at himself.

"Me?"

"Of course, My Lord," the stranger replied. "Are you ready to go on your riding hunt with Lord Herald and Duke Jacob?"

The Doctor thought about this for a moment. If he was going to find anything out, he may as well play along until he knew which story this was.

"Yes," the Doctor finally replied smugly, acting more as a royal he thought would act. "Yes, tell them I'll be out shortly."

The Doctor did not return. Several hours had passed and still, there was no sign of him. Just as all the other townsfolk before him, he too had vanished into the looking glass. He was the only one who could possibly know how to break the mirror's curse from the outside of the fairytale world itself and he was gone.

The Doctor had left Emily utterly and completely alone.

Emily had been forced to tell Magus exactly what had been going on. His reaction, as she had expected, was pure horror. Having been isolated from everyone else, he hadn't known all the horrid things his masterpieces had done.

Determined not to do anything horrid to another soul, he had determinedly resolved to destroy his final mirror, but Emily had refused. She had insisted he finish his latest work, though she never told him why.

The Doctor had said Emily might be able to break the code from the inside. She was part of the species that made these tales and grew up on them. If there was anyone on the planet that could stop the fairytales and bring everyone back, it was only she. She shuddered at the thought of what would happen if she wouldn't be able to succeed. Emily shook her head. Not succeeding wouldn't be an option. She had to bring the Doctor back.

Eight hours after the Doctor's disappearance, Magus was still working hard on the mirror. All the carving had been finished not too long before and now he was working on the glass part. The frame was just as magnificent as any of the others. A single shoe Emily supposed was supposed to be made of glass sat in the top center circle of the frame. She had been right, it was Cinderella's story. As Magus had been working on the mirror, Emily had taken the time to reread Grimm's version of Cinderella so as not to be confused with any other version she might have heard about.

Emily wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do when she found whatever it was out of place. In truth, she wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do period. All she knew was that she had to do something.

"Finished, ma'am," Magus's voice came from the back room. His cheeriness had changed to pure fear combined with guilt. Emily didn't blame him.

"Great," Emily replied, coming over to help him carry the mirror over to the frame. There was no need to break it. It had taken long enough to make the piece and they didn't need seven years of bad luck; they had enough bad luck at the moment as it was.

With Emily's help, Magus carefully placed the mirror into the frame with almost no difficulty. Emily stood back to admire the tall frame before turning to Magus.

"Aren't you going to write your name on the back?" she asked.

Magus shook his head in disbelief. "Madame," he implored. "You have told me terrible things that have happened with my mirrors. And then you tell me to finish this final one so you yourself can be consumed by its treachery? I cannot allow it. If I do not finish the mirror, the magic cannot be done and you will not become victim as well."

"You don't understand," Emily tried explaining. She knew he'd never understand anyway. "I've got to go inside. If I don't, who knows what will happen. It's the only way to save everyone."

"I'm begging you, ma'am," he whispered. "Don't make me grow a guilty conscience. I am horrorstruck at what I have done already. I want nothing more to do with it."

"Please," Emily demanded more than asked back. "Don't ask me to ignore the fact that people need me."

Magus watched her with sad eyes. He took a deep breath and walked as one condemned around the mirror to inscribe the final five letters into its back. Emily followed to make sure he finished his final masterpiece.

Once his name was inscribed Emily stood in front of the mirror. She wasn't sure exactly how this was supposed to work. If the mirror was a portal, or a doorway, she'd be able to walk right through it right. Tentatively, very aware that Magus was watching her with wide eyes, she reached out to touch the glass.

Her fingers were forced to stop as they hit solid surface, doing no more than producing a reflection. Emily sighed in disappointment. Now what? She was sure they hadn't done anything wrong. Magus himself said this was how he finished mirrors. His name was the final touch. To her dismay she heard the carpenter breathe as sigh of relief.

Emily turned to glare at him. "You're thankful that people are still trapped inside your handiwork?" she asked him with eyebrow raised. That kept him quiet.

Emily thought hard. They had to be missing something. The mirror itself looked finished, it was done. She had helped him complete it so it would be done faster. It suddenly clicked inside Emily's brain. Without warning she grabbed the carving tool out of Magus's hands and ran around to the back of the mirror.

"What are you doing?" he asked, completely confused, and following her.

"Finishing the mirror," Emily replied.

Emily was no carpenter; she knew that. She had no knowledge of how to work with wood or carving tools. In short she had no idea what she was doing in the slightest. But not knowing how to carve wood into a masterpiece art didn't stop juveniles from carving their names into park benches. Knowing she was probably ruining it, she took the tool and carefully inscribed five more letters onto the back of the wooden frame.

E-M-I-L-Y.

Now the mirror was finished. It couldn't have worked before because she didn't have her name on the back. She had helped put the mirror together, that meant she also needed to signify the mirror was finished.

"What good will that do?" Magus asked, completely bewildered.

"It will make all the difference," Emily replied, replacing herself in front of the mirror once more. She was beginning to feel fear once again, but it was still over mined by the determination to save the Doctor and everyone else. She might not have been helping everyone for hundreds of years, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying.

Once again, she reached out her hand in front of the mirror, slowly bringing her finger toward the reflective surface. She wasn't sure, but it seemed by a trick of the light, the mirror was luring her forward for a closer look. She reminded herself to remember that she had to keep focus. She was thankful, in the least, that she wasn't condemned to sleeping one hundred years.

This time her hand didn't stop at the mirror's edge. Instead, it sunk into the surface. The mirror iced over instantaneously where she touched it, climbing up around the edge of her finger where it was closest to the mirror. Damn it! Emily thought to herself. That was really cold!

"Miss, pull away!" Magus cried suddenly in frantic yells. "You mustn't get trapped! Please! Pull away!"

"I can't!" Emily cried back. It was true. Even if she had wanted to pull back, she wasn't able to. The mirror was holding her fast and even pulling her inward. She was partially fearful, but she knew she couldn't back out now.

Magus quickly grabbed her other arm and attempted to pull her away. But the more he pulled, the harder the mirror pulled her back in.

"Let me go!" Emily cried. "That hurts!" She pulled back on Magus and quickly pulled out of his grasp. The force made her arm go farther into the mirror, it was now up to her elbow.

Emily began to panic. What would happen if it reached her face? Would she be able to breathe in the mirror? The Doctor may have been wrong all along. What if when someone went into the mirror they died?

She looked around and noted Magus had disappeared. She was thankful for that; it might be better if he didn't watch, seeing as he felt that it was his fault. On some degree it was, but mostly it wasn't. He couldn't have known something like this could happen. At least it was stopped before any more damage could be done.

There was a sound of things crashing to the floor in the other room before Magus appeared, this time carrying a huge hammer. Emily's eyes widened.

"Don't you dare!" she yelled, now severely panicked. What would happen if he smashed the mirror and her arm was still trapped inside? It wasn't something she was very eager to find out at the moment.

"I can't let another person fall victim to my monstrosities," Magus cried, walking forward raising the hammer to break his newest mirror.

Emily couldn't let him go through with it. He wouldn't create another mirror and she wouldn't be able to help anyone. Taking a deep breath, Emily lunged forward into the mirror. All she left behind was a cry of agony as her body went into the ice-tempted mirror that was to be her prison until she could find a way to escape.

Emily felt as though she were being consumed by an iceberg. Her skin was so cold it burned intensely. She wanted to scream but she found she was unable to move. Her vision was completely black. Her head was swimming as if she was on a full speed merry-go-round that had no intention of stopping.

And then, suddenly, it stopped. She was on her back, lying on some sort of blanket on top of a hard surface. Her clothing felt different as well. Her skin no longer felt cold, but more like it had been newly covered with warm ashes that rose from a kitchen fire when one sat close.

Emily opened her eyes and looked around. She was inside an old kitchen, lying on the hearth in front of a dying fire. Her hair was held back by a scarf and she was dressed in an old patched dress and apron.

A sudden bell on the wall made her jump. She looked around and noticed it, along with two others, attached to a string that went off into the roof. Emily sighed. It had worked, she had made it into the mirror. But now she was stuck as Cinderella until she could find out how to get out of this fairytale nightmare.