The events of the last chapter grew out of a response I wrote to the IC challenge where canon Daria meets her AU counterpart, in this case Mageborn Daria. This was actually written before the last chapter and is from the perspective of Daria Morgendorffer from the original TV series. The events are identical, only the perspective was altered. I include it here for anyone who might be interested in my creative process, think of it as a DVD extra.

Mirror, mirror

Daria Morgendorffer sat at her dressing table brushing her hair. The table was much smaller than Quinn's with only one mirror and it was devoid of the ranks and files of cosmetics that covered every inch of hers. OK there was that one little packet she kept at the back of her underwear drawer for "Special Occasions" but it was barely used. The one little bit of vanity she indulged herself was her hair. She loved it. She loved the weight of it and it's colors that ranged from brown through bronze to copper in the right light. She also knew that this and her naturally creamy complexion were things that Quinn with her much drier ginger hair and a galaxy of freckles would happily kill for. Smiling contentedly, she brushed.

What is that? She turned to look around the room to see if something was reflecting weirdly in her mirror but could find nothing. It was still there, getting bigger in little pulses. The word exponential rose up in Daria's mind. She started to push back from the table and was on the point of running out of the room when the... the... the... vortex expanded impossibly out of the mirror and filled the whole wall of her room. Daria stared at it wild-eyed for a second before gravity flipped through ninety degrees and she fell into what was now a gaping abyss.

There was no air! Her lungs were bursting as she tried to hold in the last breath she'd taken. She tumbled wildly about as she fell through what seemed to be a vacuum. She couldn't hold it any longer... she was going to die now... what? Light? Bottom... oh no...

Without warning she was catapulted out of the nothingness at speed and thrown across some.. what... grass? before she landed unceremoniously in a bush. She dragged a breath into her lungs and realized very rapidly that the bush that had saved her from breaking her neck was a bramble hedge laden with blackberries and a seemingly infinite amount of thorns. Clad as she was only in her t-shirt, black skirt and a pair of socks it felt like her whole body was suspended on hooks... sharp, nasty little hooks. She struggled but couldn't free herself as she was a couple of feet off the ground and couldn't gain purchase against anything solid. She forgot her situation a moment later when she was startled by a loud detonation close by followed by a shower of sparks and splinters. She whipped her head around to the right and her jaw literally dropped when she saw the scene in front of her.

Not twenty feet from Daria a slim petite girl stood calmly in the midst of swirling chaos. She was dressed in a full length plain black dress and a large black cloak hung from her shoulders with the hood pulled up so Daria couldn't see her face. In her right hand the girl had some sort of long... cane?... walking stick... staff. She seemed to be just holding it and not leaning on it. Her left hand was extended in front of her, palm out as if stopping traffic. Her fingers making odd gestures... almost as if she was typing on an invisible keyboard. Daria noticed the fingers of her other hand were also moving. A string of what could only have been curses even though in an unknown language drew her attention to the other figure.

Some yards down the path a man stood, rage evident on his face. He stood like an archer and held a staff over his head in both hands. He was gray haired with a deeply lined and embittered face, his clothes old and patched and torn. His staff looked as if it had been broken in two at some point and repaired with splints bound around it with crimson cord. From the end of the staff something... energy... power... a bolt of something came out directed at the black-clad girl accompanied by another loud detonation. The girl appeared to catch the whatever it was in her outstretched palm and in an oddly familiar voice said something contemptuous in a language Daria didn't know.

With a sneer and an insult the man turned his staff and pointed it at the vortex that Daria had just emerged from. The whirling lights within stopped for a moment, then reversed direction. Even from where she was Daria felt the pull of the thing. It didn't seem to affect the trees or even the leaves on the path they stood on but she saw the other woman stumble and take an involuntary step in that direction. Then she steadied herself and waved her hand at the phenomenon, nothing happened and the man laughed. She made a different gesture and the earth in front of the... thing rose up and formed a wall blocking it. Daria felt the pull drop away considerably but not completely. The man started screaming in impotent rage and hurled bolt after bolt of energy at the girl. She stood firm but the ground around her started to bubble and seethe like lava. Daria heard gasps of fear behind her and turned her head to look that way. An impossibility looked back at her. Two impossibilities in fact.

Jane and Quinn. JANE AND QUINN! What? The two girls stood with their arms around each other and their heads touching. They each held a short stick... wand? Pointing away from the other girl's back. Daria could... not see... perceive a sphere of... a force field?... surrounding them apparently emanating from the wands. Quinn was dressed in a full length dress of green silk and Jane wore one in a dark burgundy, both in what Daria's addled mind told her were cut in the empire line. Both also wore cloaks but their hoods were down about their shoulders.

They stared at her, obviously as amazed by her as she was at them. Jane... it looked like Jane... asked a question but Daria couldn't even place what the language sounded like... not French or German or Russian certainly... maybe something East European but it may as well have been Martian for all she could make out of it. She shook her head and turned back to the conflict.

The man, desperate now, still screamed imprecations at his opponent but his bolts of force seemed to be weakening. The woman, and this time Daria knew she spoke with her own voice, said something that sounded like a question, or an offer. The man shouted defiance. The woman shook her head sadly and made what looked like a summoning gesture with her left hand. In under a second something that Daria only realized afterward was a huge boulder flew down out of the sky and struck the man in the back. Splashing him like a bug on a windshield and forming a large crater in the path. Daria turned her head quickly but was still hurt by a shower of flying rocks and dirt and what from the smell she took to be bits of a person. Blackness engulfed her.

Some time later, she had no idea how long, she opened her eyes and found herself lying on the path. The girl who looked like Quinn was leaning over her and waving her wand over Daria's body, where the wand passed over the pain from a thousand cuts and scratches melted away and Daria felt her strength return. She struggled up on to her elbows and then sat up. The Quinn person nodded to her and smiled. Daria looked around and saw Jane and... Dad? No... it looked like him but this man was both fatter and much more muscular than her Father. He looked like a middle-aged Mister D'Arcy in an uncomfortable high collar and too tight cravat. The woman in black still had her back to her as she conversed with Jane and the Jake clone but she stopped and turned when Jane pointed and said something.

The girl pulled down her hood as she turned and gave her full attention to the girl sitting on the ground. Daria was both repulsed and strangely drawn to the crystal lenses where glass should have been. The early morning sunlight prisming rainbows off the multi faceted gems. How could she possibly see through them? Otherwise the girl had Daria's own face but there was something about her bearing, how she held herself, that Daria found intimidating. The girl approached and waved for Daria to stand up, which she did. They were exactly the same height. Jacob said something and turned his back on her... almost as if she'd been undressed or something. From behind her she felt Quinn put her cloak around Daria's shoulders and the black robed girl indicated that Daria should hold it closed, which she did. The girl spoke to her father who turned back and nodded to her approvingly. The girl then said something that was obviously a question. Daria shook her head and said 'My name is Daria Morgendorffer, from Maryland, USA. I'm sorry but I don't understand you... or know what's going on.'

The other girl had cocked her head, listening intently to Daria's speech. She noticed the others had expressed surprise when she said her name. The other her shook her head and turned to Jane. She made what seemed like a formal request and Daria distinctly heard "Jane" spoken.

Jane shrugged and then answered just as formally, giving assent. OtherDaria turned and said something that began with "Quinn". Daria felt a hand touching the crown of her head and cringed away from it only to find the tip of OtherDaria's staff under her chin, pointing at her throat. It looked like a stick but the threat was unmistakable, having seen what the dead man did with his staff Daria was going to treat this one like a loaded shotgun. She stood still and let OtherQuinn put her hand on her head. OtherDaria spoke again but this time Daria heard like an echo in her mind the words instantly translated into English.

'Who are you and why did you come here?'

Daria repeated her name and where she lived. As she spoke Other Quinn simultaneously repeated whatever she said in her own language. At least now they could communicate and maybe, just maybe she would survive whatever this was and get to go home.

'Please I don't understand what's happening. I don't know how I got here or where here is, I just want to go home.' She felt the hand lift from her head and the others conversed for a while. A rumble from down the lane drew her attention and she turned to see what would have been a horse drawn carriage except there were no horses come to a halt on the other side of the crater and two people emerged. Ms. Li and Mr. DeMartino! What? Both dressed in black and carrying staves like OtherDaria. The newcomers joined them and a discussion ensued which Daria was excluded from.

After a while they returned their attention to her. She had a strong sense of being on trial and obscurely wished her Mother was there to defend her.

'Why did you come here and do you customarily go about in your underwear?' OtherDaria asked.

'First of all this is not underwear where I come from.' Daria began, a little annoyed. 'I was in my own bedroom brushing my hair when that... thing... came out of the mirror and swallowed me.'

'She could be lying, what if she's a demon disguised as you?' OtherJake asked.

'She cannot lie, Quinn is a truthsayer. I trust I can depend on your discretion.' OtherDaria asked DeMartino and Li. 'Quinn is going to be an ArchMage, not a slavey in a courthouse or a convent.'

Both of them nodded their acquiescence. She noted how both seemed deferential and respectful to otherher, treating her like an equal rather than a student. The girl was impressive.

The crystalline gaze returned once more to Daria, making her feel like a specimen being studied.
The girl asked Daria several more questions which made no sense to her as they were about places she didn't know and names of people she never heard of, including some entity variously referred to obliquely as the Exile or the Other. Daria answered honestly and as directly as she could but what she said amounted to "I don't know". OtherDaria seemed satisfied. She asked did anyone else have any questions for her.

The other DeMartino, who seemed to have similar quirks to her own asked 'I see you are not puissant, Miss. Are there many Mages where you live or have they been eliminated?'
'I'm not sure what you mean but if you mean people who can do magic like... like that guy did... then no, nobody can do stuff like that... just tricks or special effects... illusions you know?'

'Where could she come from, how does she look like you, Daria?' Jane asked.

'I do not know, she may be a simulacrum manufactured to take my place... but why would someone do that?'

'Many worlds theory.' Daria murmured.

'What did you say, imposter. Speak louder.' Quinn said from behind her and then slapped her head.

'Gah! Stoppit Quinn! That hurt! I am not an imposter, I am Daria... just... just from another reality... an alternate reality... that's the only thing that could explain this... madness... unless I'm gone mad... Quinn will be so happy they can lock me up and she can use my room for a closet.'

'What are you saying? I wouldn't do that... I have heaps of closets.'

'Not you, my Quinn, my sister... she looks like you.'

'What is this many worlds theory of which you spoke?' This Li seemed more kindly and matronly than her own.

'It's a theory posited by certain... writers... that for every decision that is made another universe is created for the alternate choice. An infinity of infinities of universes each branching from a nodal point.'

'So...' Li began 'You were summoned here from another world where magic does not exist. Why though? What did our late friend hope to achieve.' She said indicating the detached head of the dead man which had rolled into a nearby ditch. 'Well, I suppose we can ask him, Anthony, would you mind...?' From thin air DeMartino produced a burlap sack, he gestured at the head which rose up of it's own accord and flew into the sack and Anthony tightened the drawstring.

'I have a theory.' OtherDaria began 'You know we can summon things through the aether, even other people, but not Mages... and any Mage who's ever tried to transport herself through the aether has simply not emerged...' The older Mages nodded. 'Can any of you feel the pull of that thing?' She pointed at the wall she'd constructed. They all said variations of "No" except Daria.

'That could account for it then, it was a trap laid for me... with me as bait... or perhaps... it required another me to imprint it with my essence... a me from a world where I had no power. It should have dissipated when he died but it has not, I tried to close it but it was beyond me, could you...?'

Li and DeMartino raised their staves and pointed them at the anomaly. Alarmed, Daria called out. 'Wait... wait a second... how can I get home... I'm not wearing ruby slippers you know...'

They all looked at her stripy socks in puzzlement. Daria was acutely aware of the hole caused by the nail on her left big toe. OtherDaria asked 'Would you risk that abyss again? It is darkmagic unlike any I have heard of...' She looked at the others and they shook their heads, she continued ' and there may be no soft brambles on the other side to catch you. If you wish to stay I can offer to shelter you, there are schools for non Mageborn and you may find employment or even a husband.'

'Gee thanks.' Daria answered sarcastically. 'I'd rather take my chances and besides, it's not much but I have a life at home... my own friend to talk to...' She indicated Jane as she said this who raised an eyebrow in response. 'Even a sister to tolerate. Look... thanks for the offer but I don't think I could live here in Middle Earth or Neverland or Barsoom or whatever this is. I can't do your magic and I don't think I want to... I want TV and my computer and... and... pizza! Do you have pizza?'

OtherDaria shook her head bemusedly. 'I would like to spend some time talking to you.' She began. 'But that... portal may not be stable... and you may be missed in your home. Are you happy there?' She asked, gently.

Daria considered her reply. 'That's not a word that applies much to me... or didn't, anyhow. I don't know I suppose I... I'm happier since we moved... I have a friend now, a real friend... and Quinn is still... my Quinn I mean... well maybe we can get along better... you two seem to be close.'

OtherDaria nodded and favored her sister with a smile and said 'We have our moments but I love her dearly... she is precious to me.' Daria could feel the warmth of the blush of the girl who still held her head. 'Tell me, Daria...' OtherDaria began, hesitantly. 'Is the Lord of Hell in your world seeking your death and sending assassins to pursue you?'

'WHAT?! No... I mean most people don't even believe... I mean a lot do but not in...' She shook her head. 'I would not have believed anything like that if I hadn't seen... this!'

'That is good news then... perhaps there is less risk than if you remain here. What of the physical danger though... you said you were in your bedroom, are the walls of stone?'

'No, actually they're padded and soft... I'll take the chance.'

'Hmm, maybe these will help.' OtherDaria reached into nothing and produced some cushions and what looked like rope for holding back drapes. Daria went to take off the cloak but OtherQuinn said 'No, keep it on, it might help and it's not cold today, I have plenty more. If her clothes are as drab as yours your sister might like something nice to wear so give it to her, from me.' She then removed her hand and helped OtherDaria strap the cushions around Daria's body. Daria thought she must look exactly like Tenniel's drawing of Tweedledum and Tweedledee preparing for a battle in "Alice through the Looking Glass".

Once more with Quinn translating OtherDaria addressed her. 'Are you prepared? Good, Father will hold you until you are at the portal, it might slow down your passage through it. Farewell... sister.'

The others also bade farewell and Quinn kissed her. Jacob held her as OtherDaria removed the wall and used it to fill in the crater. She immediately felt the pull but Jacob held her tightly. DeMartino and Li were holding OtherDaria just in case. Jacob walked her slowly up to the surface and asked her a question which she assumed meant 'Are you ready?' She nodded and took a deep breath and was surprised at the kiss on top of her head from Jacob as he let her go.

Blackness engulfed her once more and she tumbled and rolled. At least she had more breath in her body this time which made it more bearable. A disc of light came up to meet her and she shot out of her mirror, barreling into someone before connecting heavily with the padded wall uttering a loud Oof! as the breath was knocked out of her. There was a loud Pop! and the vortex vanished as if it had never been.

'Daria! Oh my God Daria! Where have you been, what did you do... what are you wearing?' Helen asked.

'I'm Ok, 'm ok.' Jake said as he struggled to get up off the bed where Daria had knocked him.

'Omigod Daria... is this some sort of joke? I'm late for school and I'm...' Quinn's whine was cut off by a sudden hug from Daria, still bound up with cushions.

'Thank you Quinn.' Daria said in her ear. 'Now I know I'm home. Guess what... I went to another world and all I got you was this lousy green pure silk lined woolen cloak!'