Part I:
Shōjo To Kagami
The last of the seal slammed shut on the Shadow Realm, cementing the second victory of the Chan family over the Oni, and Tarakudo roared with rage.
His eight generals were quick to flee, eager to save themselves from the sonic blast of their lord's telekinetic powers – and whatever other destruction would fall in their King's wake.
Their Queen, a mirror spirit and a powerful sorceress, had already shut herself away in a silver sphere, safe from whatever her husband wrought on his surroundings. Ikazuki, his second-in-command, envied her as he witnessed the molten glass and metal encasing her at her command – she now had the honor of being closest to their king, and she didn't have even have to suffer the brunt of his wrath, as Ikazuki once had.
Hours, perhaps days later, found Tarakudo leaning on the sphere, tapping on it with his claws as the generals peered cautiously from a distance.
"Yuu-tan," he whispered into the sphere with a sing-song voice. "Oh Yuu-tan, my shin'ainaru joō, won't you come out? I need your help."
A moment passed, and then Kagami Yuu, Queen of the Shadowkhan and bride of Tarakudo, appeared in the reflective surface of the sphere.
Her body was white and shiny as porcelain, but the robes she wore were an unreflective black, signifying where her loyalties lay. Her hair, too, was black, but it shone like polished jet, done up in an elaborate coiled bun, save for her bangs.
But her eyes had no whites, and no pupils; they were simply small, rounded mirrors, set into her face. One was cracked and shattered from where Jade Chan had punched her in the face, after the Queen's penultimate attempt to end the young woman's life.
"I'm not coming out until you've had some time to calm down," Kagami Yuu said with a frown, putting her hands in her sleeves, "and until you get that psychotic look off your face."
Tarakudo blinked, and moved his head to see his reflection over Yuu's shoulder. Sure enough, his eyes were hollow and baggy – his clothes looked disheveled, rumpled from wear, a five-o'clock shadow dotting his jaw like snow, and even in his mild surprise, a manic grin was still fixed to his face. "I'll take that, I guess. But this is important, Yuu – it was you who broke us out of the Shadow Realm last time, when my mask was destroyed. Can you do it again?"
"That's not how it works," Yuu said flatly. "In the Mirrorside, I had links to both this place and the Netherworld strengthening the spell – when I broke out of my own prison, the Shadow Realm opening was a side effect. I can't do that again now."
"You're in the Mirrorside right now," Tarakudo pointed out, leaning in so close to Yuu's face that his breath was visible on the glass. "So what do you see?"
"It's not the same Mirrorside. It's limited to the reflective surfaces here, in the Shadow Realm, with no links to any outside dimensions." A sneer crossed Yuu's face. "The Chans were unfortunately thorough."
Tarakudo snarled, slamming his fist into the mirror and leaving cracks. His generals quickly hid once more as he stomped off, and Yuu vanished from the surface of the mirror, the cracks slowly melting away and smoothing it once more into a flawless sphere.
Days, or perhaps weeks later, Tarakudo was at the sphere again, tapping with his claws. His generals were nowhere to be found, having been sent away to search the ruins of the Shadow Realm for anything that might be useful.
"I know you probably thought it was a bad idea to mention it in front of the generals," he said quietly into his own reflection, "but I know that last time, you captured and sacrificed one of them to break free. Could it work again?"
Yuu did not appear, but her voice could be heard, not from the reflection on the surface, but from inside the sphere itself. "Same story. The sacrifice only opened the way to allow me to use other powers to break free – it gave me the strength to open the floodgate, and the flood broke the door, if an analogy helps. I would still need the chi of at least one other realm to break this seal – trust me, I've done the math. It's pretty much all I've been able to do, so far." The muffled turning of pages could be heard behind the glass.
Tarakudo hissed in irritation, but destroyed nothing. He sat down, leaning his back against the sphere and looking out into the formless dark that surrounded them. "So, what's our best hope? We're awake this time, at least – not like we were when my generals were sealed in the masks, so that's a resource we have at our disposal."
A sigh of frustration could be heard, along with the closing of a book. "Well... Probably, our best bet would be to look for flaws. Not in the Chans' work – in the Realm itself. If this is the same Shadow Realm that you were imprisoned in before... Then it's an ancient world. There's a remote possibility that there could be more links to other realms, a tear we could exploit."
He turned to glance at the sphere over his shoulder. "And we could use it to break the seal?"
"That... depends."
"On what?" he growled.
"On where this hypothetical tear would lead. If it's a strong link to a single place, sure, we could break the seal. If it's weak, could lead anywhere? Well..." the thoughtful tapping of nails against the hard cover of a book could be heard by Tarakudo's keen ears, "We wouldn't get our revenge; we couldn't beat the Chans, which would be ideal. But if someone locks one side of a cage and forgets the other side is open and leading to somewhere else...?"
"I like it!" Tarakudo clapped his hands, the manic grin returning to his face. "I'll have them scour the Realm."
"It could take centuries," the voice in the sphere warned.
His expression turned dark with hateful resolve as he stared into space with a cold, calculating glare. "I've waited before. I'll wait again."
Weeks, perhaps months later, the sphere was rolled away from its place, near the original seal where it was made. Soon after, it was carried up the steps to the ruins of a Japanese castle, made entirely from jet-black stone.
Kagami Yuu appeared in the outer surface of the sphere as it was carried by Shadowkhan, and turned to face Tarakudo, now perfectly serene and impeccably groomed, waiting at the door to the palace. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked.
"Since you refuse to come out of your hamster ball, I'm moving you up to the throne room," Tarakudo said, casually inspecting his claws. "It'll save me the effort of going to give you updates – you'll hear them right there while you're rolling around to nibble carrots."
Yuu responded to this with a derisive snort, and the surface of the sphere warped. Soon, the mirror was gone, and Kagami Yuu stood alone in it's place.
Tarakudo sauntered forward to greet her, banishing the Shadowkhan as he did so. "Good to actually see you again in the flesh," he purred, leaning over her with a smirk.
Yuu smacked his chest with her palm, pushing past him into the courtyard – it could only be seen in the one that was cracked, but she rolled her eyes. "Later. You said there were updates?"
"We've scoured this entire aspect of the Realm," Tarakudo replied, sidling forward to match her stride as she ventured further into his old castle. "The generals have all reached the edges of the seal, and found nothing. At least, nothing we could detect at first glance. I don't suppose you have a handy little spell to go searching for what we're looking for?"
"How big is the aspect we're stuck in?"
"In terms of literal space, about ten thousand cubic miles. Metaphysically speaking, it's nearly infinite. It's a much bigger disparity than it was before; I've lost almost everything I actually built on. I think the old man shrank it on purpose."
Yuu sucked in a breath through her teeth as they came into the throne room, where some of the generals were already gathered, passing around a bottle of sake. "A lot of potential tears we've been cut off from accessing. But its reduced size means a seeker spell will be more effective – if we still had access to all the aspects, it might've taken centuries to get the results back."
"And how long will it take us now?"
"Five to seven years, tops." Tarakudo tsked with disappointment as he knelt down on the cushioned throne at the head of the table. "Oh don't be such a baby. That's nothing to you. I may be immortal now, but that's a long time for me still."
"It's still seven years in this wretched place. Every time I leave it, I hope I never have to see it again, and every time, my hopes are dashed." With a wave of his hand, Tarakudo produced a second throne at his right, and gestured for Yuu to sit. She did so, and a Shadowkhan appeared with a set of cups and a pitcher of sake. "The only thing to eat or drink that survived all these years is wine, so I hope you like drinking."
"I wouldn't know," Yuu said wryly as the Shadowkhan poured them both the rice wine.
"You don't? Didn't we have sake at our wedding feast?"
"We were about to have the feast, but then we got a lead on the seventh Vessel, and we had to cut it short before the Chans could get a head start." Yuu took a sip of her sake, and smacked her lips thoughtfully. "And then there was that whole three-week back-and-forth chase through Berlin, and we just forgot to have the feast after that."
"Damn." Tarakudo knocked his drink back in one gulp. "I'd offer to have it now, but it wouldn't be much of a feast with just sake."
"When we get out."
"If we get out."
"I thought you weren't a pessimist?"
"This is just being realistic, baby."
"...Never call me 'baby' again. Ever."
"Not even in bed?"
"If you call me that in bed, I'll make you a eunuch."
"Point taken, darling."
"Hmm... I like that one better, actually."
Months, perhaps years later, Kagami Yuu sat in her laboratory (formerly the castle library) resting her head against her desk, drumming her silver nails into the surface of her grimoire.
Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap.
She had read it a thousand times, edited sections of it, added more spells and rituals to it after some research, edited those, and read it a thousand times more, even though she knew it by heart and didn't have to look anymore. The books in the library were all annoyingly backwards (from her perspective – years living in the Mirrorside changed how you looked at writing) and she was losing patience with what little else there was to do here. In the Shadow Realm.
Where she'd followed Tarakudo. The demon she'd married for the sake of a convenient alliance.
Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap.
"You knew it was going to take years," her husband pointed out as he searched the shelves behind her for some historical text.
Yuu was silent, her gaze boring into the side of the wall.
Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap.
From one prison, to another. From her own version of Hell, to his. She could hear the blood roaring in her ears.
Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. TAPTAPTAPTAP –
Ikazuki phased through the wall, and Yuu's hand stilled as she witnessed the first interesting thing happen in a while. "Lord Tarakudo, my lady, there's an escaped prisoner in the palace!"
Yuu sat straight up with an eager snarl, and Tarakudo whirled around with a glare, his book forgotten.
"WHAT?!"
An eleven-year-old Jade Chan fled through the halls of the strange black palace, breathing hard and fast.
What was this place? There were those ninjas of Valmont's here, did this have something to do with the Dark Hand? But this place seemed way too magical, even for them...
Jade had been walking to school one moment, wishing she could just use the Rabbit talisman to get there faster, and then the next thing she knew, she'd felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise, a shiver run down her spine, she'd blinked - and here she was, in this dark, cold world, being chased by red-eyed shadow ninjas and real monsters. It wasn't exactly anything new, Jade supposed, but she always had Jackie with her when she encountered something this weird and dangerous! How did she get out? What would Jackie do?
Suddenly, a massive shard of glass flew straight into the wall beside her. "YOU," a strange voice hissed in her ear, and Jade found herself unable to breathe, lifted up into the air by her throat, sharp metal fingernails digging into the skin of her neck and making her bleed.
Kagami Yuu held the little girl aloft like a tiny stuffed animal, closing her fist tighter and tighter around Jade's throat, until a Shadowkhan barreled into the Queen's side.
As she lost her grip on the child, Jade, seeing stars and gasping for air, was quickly bound in strange black ropes by a blue monster in samurai armor.
Shards of glass began flying as Yuu roared with fury, destroying the Khan that had held her down, and Ikazuki winced and held up his arms to protect his face. "What is the meaning of this?!"
Tarakudo flowed up from the shadows of the floor, and caught his queen's arms by the wrists. Though not physically strong enough to break free of his grip, Yuu sent long shards of metal and glass towards the terrified girl, pinning her against the wall and holding the glass against her throat. "Let me go, Tarakudo!" Yuu shrieked. "You know I want my revenge, just let me have it! I don't care that it's not really her, that's another version of her, I still hate her! Now let me kill her!"
"Don't you mean another version of you?" Tarakudo said coolly, looking down passionlessly at Yuu's enraged face, a woman twisted and driven mad by isolation and dark magic, her hair mussed and cracked eye weeping red blood. "If this is a real Jade Chan, and not an imitator, then she's you."
"You're the one who said it doesn't matter what's true anymore, and I don't care! She has everything that should've been mine, everything that was stolen from me! I WILL see her DEAD!" Yuu, who had indeed once considered herself Jade Chan, tried with all her might to twist out of Tarakudo's grip, snarling like a vicious, wild animal, her voice already hoarse from furious screaming.
"Believe me, I understand perfectly," said Tarakudo, his voice perfectly calm as he restrained her with ease. "But I can't let you do that just yet."
"WHY?!"
"Because, darling, she came here. She is not from here. And if she's not from here," and he turned his wife's chin to face the terrified form of the girl pinned to the wall, "then she's from somewhere else."
The crazed look melted from Yuu's face as the realization dawned on her. The blood in her cracked eye faded away, and Tarakudo released her wrists as she straightened up and put her hands in her sleeves, the shards of glass retracting away from the bound Jade and letting her fall limply to the stone floor.
"Where was she first discovered?" Yuu asked Ikazuki as he clicked his heels together and made an effort to pretend she hadn't just flown into a lethal rage.
"Off the west path, by the old dojo. She just appeared out of thin air. I had the Khan apprehend her and bring her here, but she somehow managed to slip away when she arrived."
"A tear!" the King exclaimed, "So close, wouldn't the seeker spell have detected it?"
"Not necessarily," Yuu replied, biting her thumbnail in thought. "Some tears can only be detected from a specific side, essentially because they don't exist going in the other direction. The spell might've passed through it, and then years from now, when it ricochets off the edge of the aspect and back onto the tear from the other side, it would ping us."
"Who are you guys?!" the wide-eyed girl on the floor, finally, foolishly brave enough to speak, cried out. "Why does she look like me?! How did I get here?!"
Yuu clenched her fists. "Gag. Her," was her hissed command, and a Shadowkhan's arms came up from the floor and tied a black cloth around Jade's mouth, muffling her demands to know what was going on.
"This is a good lead, better than I was actually hoping for," Yuu continued, stroking her chin. "It's a strong enough connection to allow a person to just walk through; if it's stable, this may just mean we can break the seal and open a pathway to the other side where she came from..."
"So we could have two realms to conquer?" Tarakudo purred, rubbing his hands together.
"Down, boy. One thing at a time. Take off the gag," she ordered, it was done.
"You won't get away with it!" was the first thing Jade said, but it was spoken with the trembling uncertainty and fear of a mere girl, who hadn't yet seen more than twenty would-be world conquerors fall, as her capable and confident adult self had. "Captain Black and Section Thirteen will stop you!"
"Where were you in your universe when you came through to our side?" asked Yuu, ignoring her younger self's weak threat.
"What's it to you?"Jade demanded, jutting her chin with a sense of daring she clearly didn't entirely feel.
Yuu's cracked eye twitched. She leaned in, slowly wrapped her fingers around Jade's throat and growled, "Where. Were. You?"
Jade whimpered. "I-I was on my way to school."
"What streets?"
"P-Pacific and Battery."
"Wrong. I know the route I took to middle school – so where. Were. You?" Yuu's grip tightened around Jade's throat.
"Pine! Pine and Larkin!"
"That's better. What happened just before you came here? What did you see?"
"N-Nothing! One minute I was walking, the next I was here! I didn't see anything happen - I just blinked, and everything changed!"
Yuu released her, and almost pitied her as Jade collapsed into herself and cried. She could remember when she was that inexperienced and helpless – barely.
She turned away, putting her hands back in her sleeves. "Let's go check it out. Bring the girl."
The ancient dojo was torn in half, the rest of the complex seemingly sheared away into the ether by the sealing of the aspect. Beyond it, the void had the appearance of extending infinitely, but anyone who tried to venture beyond it would surely find themselves lost forever, in every sense they could imagine.
On the path to the dojo's entrance, the Oni generals gathered around their King and Queen, a tiny prisoner bound and gagged at their feet. The Queen flipped through her grimoire, skimming over backwards characters in nearly a hundred languages, and then shut the book closed. Folding it neatly back into her robes, she outstretched her arms, and began to circle the spot around which they were gathered, chanting: "Jiē, Kāi, Dàmén, Jiē, Kāi, Dàmén."
Soon, a glittering light began to shine from a crack in the air. It was bright, and flickered with a rainbow of a thousand different colors. Tarakudo and his generals leaned forward eagerly; Yuu tsked, and waved a hand over Jade's head before making a grasping motion. Green light poured from the girl's eyes and into Yuu's palm, settling into a small glowing orb as the gag muffled Jade's cries of alarm.
Holding the swirling orb up before the column of light to compare them, Yuu scoffed. "Damn it. It's not stable."
"But?" Tarakudo prompted, having noted his wife's lack of frustrated rage.
"We can probably use it to escape somewhere else. It's unpredictable, though – like it's constantly flipping through an infinite number of pages in an infinitely massive book. There's almost no telling what kind of universe we'll land in – everyone could be squid, the world could be flat, some other demon could be ruling over Earth. Or we could just end up somewhere normal, where the only difference to our world is that a leaf falling off a tree in Iowa landed a few inches further to the left. We can stop it from moving, but there's no way to determine exactly what place we stop it at, and that'll need to be the one we walk into. No turning back."
"No matter what happens, that sounds excellent!" Ikazuki cried joyfully, slamming his fist into his palm. The other generals clearly heartily concurred, joining together in a raucous cheer. They had been imprisoned here for centuries, and what respite they had gotten from it was incredibly brief. Few could understand the desperation they felt, and their Queen was among those few.
"It's certainly better than we ever expected," said Tarakudo, clapping his hands together with a wicked grin. "Well then, my queen? What are we waiting for?"
Revenge aside, if there was one positive she could find to being married to Tarakudo, it was that his positive moods were strangely infectious. Yuu allowed herself a smirk, and turned to the prisoner.
"Sorry, kiddo," and she almost meant it, if this wasn't going to be so, so satisfying, "but your world's long gone, you're never getting back there." Jade's eyes widened in realization, the prick of tears starting. "And frankly, well," Yuu tossed the orb back into Jade, hitting her in the chest and knocking her backward, "there's no longer a reason we should keep you around."
And the last thing that version of Jade Chan ever saw was the flickering of rainbow light in the darkness, reflected off a shard of silver-bright mirror.
Fourteen years ago...
Jade had gotten lost.
She wasn't too concerned – she'd heard Jackie and the university crew's voices just five minutes ago, so they couldn't be far away, and Tohru and Uncle were going to be staying on the second floor to translate those books, so she knew where they were. Sort of. They could do a locator spell if they got worried.
The thirteen-year-old was pretty bored by the ruin so far – Jade found herself almost wishing she'd stayed with Tohru and Uncle while they went through the archives.
The ruin was a castle in Pakistan, built and then abandoned by the Mongol Empire – Jackie's university had secured it as an archaeological site, to prevent it from experiencing further decay, and Tohru had said that it was reportedly used to gather and store magical objects found all over the world, during the conquests of Genghis Khan. Uncle and Tohru were translating the catalogs, to see if Section Thirteen needed to get involved.
Jade had gone exploring, hoping for trouble, but so far there was only dust, moldy rugs, and broken furniture. Nothing that indicated a locked-up artifact, or a trapdoor, or a secret passage – not even a hidden room.
It had been months since they got rid of Drago – it was about time something happened, for them to get sent on their next big adventure! But so far, this place was Dullsville, it was the most boring thing she'd seen since that fake haunted house with the stupid doorknob collection. Jackie said she would find these places more interesting when she got older, for different reasons, but Jade just couldn't see that happening.
She entered a room with a balcony. This part was the most intact she'd seen so far – only one chair without legs, and only half a piece of graffiti on the broken ceiling. Standing by the wall, next to what looked like a moth-eaten scroll hanging, was a rectangular shape covered by a sheet.
The sheet looked weirdly new, Jade noticed as she pulled it off. Some vagrant must have put it here – strange of them to be so conscientious.
Beneath the sheet was a flat, standing mirror. Its frame was gold, delicately decorated with carnelian and mother-of-pearl in geometric patterns. (Jade only knew to look for these things because Jackie talked about them all the time, and it sometimes helped her out on history tests.)
It was probably a silver mirror – Jade could see Latin characters carved into the metal behind the glass. She couldn't read them, it was literally Latin, but she did notice something strange. In the reflection, the room behind her was slightly dim and out of focus, taking on the the colors and qualities of the silver. But her own reflection? It was clear as day, perfect, like what you'd expect in a modern aluminum mirror.
Her reflection's brows creased and her hand stroked her chin as Jade thought about this.
She leaned in closer, trying to get a better look – her knuckles brushed up against the glass -
And her reflection's hand shot out, snatching her wrist, pulling her forwards, an expression of dark glee on her face.
Before she could even process what was happening, Jade found herself thrown against a hard stone floor. Her vision refused to clear for a few moments, leaving her blindly groping against the ground, sputtering cries of shock and indignation.
Once Jade could finally see, she found herself alone in a vast, gray landscape, littered with junk – primarily, more mirrors. Some were floating in midair, like a photograph taken of something falling, others were stacked and piled high in huge mountains of stone rubble and glass shards, and right in front of Jade was the edge of a cliff, overlooking a sea of what looked like shimmering mercury. The place immediately struck her as being similar to the Netherworld, minus all the colors, and this quickly filled her with a sense of wary dread.
Against all possibility, Jade heard her own voice call out behind her: "Tohruuuuuuuu! Uncle! I found something weird!"
She spun around, and before her stood the same mirror as before – the frame now tarnished silver, the Latin characters in the mirror now backwards, and on the other side of the glass was Jade's own reflection, moving independently and looking puzzled.
Realizing what must have happened, Jade ran up to the mirror and tried to force her way through. To her dismay, it behaved just like normal glass, and the evil spirit that had pulled her into the mirror and replaced her simply folded her arms and raised a skeptical brow as Tohru and Jackie came up behind her. "What is it, Jade?"
"Jackie, that's not me!" Jade screamed, pounding against the glass, praying he could hear her.
And apparently he could – his head shot up to look at her, and then at the fake Jade. The mirror spirit did a great job of looking shocked and nervous. "Uh," Fake Jade began, eyes darting worriedly to Jade in the glass, "What she said."
Tohru pulled out his blowfish in alarm, but seemed hesitant to pick a target. Jackie opened his mouth, closed it, and motioned for Tohru to put it away as he covered his eyes with his hand. "Jade," Jackie asked, careful not to look at either of them, "did you touch the mirror?"
"Of course not!" Fake Jade replied quickly, before Jade could say anything. "I'm not that dumb!"
"It was an accident! I was just trying to get a closer look!"
Tohru put away his blowfish decisively. "Jackie, I don't think we should waste time trying to resolve this here and now. Let's take the mirror and...er, Jade, back to Sensei, and we'll find a diagnostic spell to tell which one is real – if there is, in fact, a fake one."
"How could there not be a fake one? There's two of us!" Ironically enough, it was Fake Jade who pointed this out.
Tohru simply held up his hands. "Let's not rule anything out just yet." He then went over to the mirror, and he disappeared from Jade's view as he went behind it. Jade braced herself for the mirror to start moving on its own as Tohru lifted it, but the moment never came. Instead, the view inside the mirror simply changed, like a camera shifting positions. Given how high up it was now and the fact she (thankfully for him) couldn't see Tohru's fingertips, Jade guessed he was holding it by the stand, so he wouldn't touch the glass by accident.
As they moved through the corridors (or rather, the other three did, Jade just stood there as they took the mirror with them) Fake Jade anxiously asked Jackie, "I mean, you believe me, right Jackie? That I'm really me? You can't let her trick you into letting her escape – I mean, just look at her."
"Oh, please!" Jade scoffed, "Seriously, when is it ever the real person in these situations who asks that kind of question?" Then the rest of the sentence caught up to her. "Wait, what do you mean, look at me?"
She looked down at herself, hoping she wasn't covered in blood or something, and discovered, to her horror, that her skin and clothes were now dull, pale shades of gray, taking on the qualities of the silver in the mirror. "What did you do to me?!"
Fake Jade was walking ahead of her, and Jade couldn't see her expression, but she was making the head-rolling motion that she knew she did when she was rolling her eyes.
"Like Tohru said, we can't rule anything out," Jackie replied, not looking Jade in the eyes or acknowledging that she'd even spoken, "but for the moment, yes, I believe you."
And Fake Jade had the audacity to sigh in relief and start running ahead as they came into the archive room. Jade's view dipped and then rose again as Tohru ducked under the doorframe, and she clenched her fists as her own voice rang out outside the mirror: "Hey Uncle! I found a cursed mirror with a creepy doppelganger of me inside."
Jade had rarely ever been too hurt or angry to speak – Hsi Wu's deception had brought her close, but the last time it had really happened to her was when her parents had first shipped her off to America, so she'd be someone else's problem. Jackie's welcoming attitude and affection had made her feel less alone, more willing to try harder to be able to call the strange country home, to call her stranger (and downright strange) relatives her real family.
He had never, ever rejected her so carelessly before. That he could so easily pick the wrong version of her out of just two, that he could so quickly choose the Jade that looked more familiar and take that one's side, it hurt, like a knife to the chest.
But Jade was resilient – she prided herself on this. If Jackie wouldn't defend her, she'd defend herself, the best way she knew how.
"Uh, excuse me, you're the creepy doppelganger. I'm the one you dragged in here to replace you or whatever. So let's get this over with so Uncle and Tohru can shove you back in here!" Jade finished her retort just as Tohru set the mirror back down on the ground.
Uncle adjusted his glasses as he looked from Fake Jade to Jade. "Uncle already see problem. Jade, did you touch mirror?"
Both of them answered at once. "No, duh!" - "Well, yeah, but it was an accident!"
Uncle closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "One of you! Ask something only Jade knows."
Jackie's silence was telling, (even though he couldn't see her, Jade crossed her arms hide her hurt feelings) and so Tohru moved to face the two of them. "Which one of the Oni masks did you end up putting on, even though Jackie told you not to?"
"Too easy! Trick question, it was just half a mask, and it was the one with the lobster claws!" This would've been a great test, if the both of them hadn't answered with the exact same words, confidence, and tone of voice.
Uncle stroked his chin in thought. "So both Jades have same memories. Jackie! My eyesight is terrible, and my Latin is rusty. Come read inscription!"
Jackie reluctantly came forth, peering at the letters in the silver, careful not to get too close. "There's no coherent sentences – just a bunch of nouns strung together in random order."
"Rudimentary magic – probably clumsy, uneducated work." Uncle clucked his tongue. "Say what they say anyway!"
"There's 'Carcarem,' or 'to imprison,' and there's 'Animo,' or 'mind.' 'Imago,' which means 'likeness,' and – oh, there's 'Argentum Sanctus,' for 'holy silver.' 'Relligo,' which I think in this case means 'to bind,'" and then Jackie glanced at her, gulped, and looked hastily away, "And-and there's 'Adsimulo,' 'to copy.' 'Maledictum;' I think that's fairly self-explanatory. 'Vitreus,' which is 'glass.' 'Perditum Hominem...'" He paused. "Without context, that's kind of vague – something to do with not having humanity, or not being human."
"Well she's obviously – Mmmph!" Fake Jade found herself cut off by Tohru covering her mouth and shaking his head. Jade couldn't quite see them, but she did her best to flash him a grateful look; still, like Jackie, he refused to look her in the eye. Her heart sank to her knees.
"There's three more. 'Inter' which just means 'between,' and that's also meaningless without context. Finally, there's 'Invorto' for 'reverse,' and Lucilius, which is just a name."
Uncle tutted. "Inscriptions are useless, except for name. We must do research! Find out what two-bit Roman hedge wizard thought this was good idea. We take mirror home with us, do tests if we can't get answer!"
And so it was done. Jade sat on the cold, gray rubble before the mirror, as on the other side, it was wrapped with plastic and boxed in to prevent anyone touching it. Jade had attempted to say 'goodbye' or 'see you on the other side' before they packed it away, but no one responded with more than a nod, and Jade was left alone as the mirror went dark.
Jade had hoped she would be able to at least pretend she wasn't lost, far away from home, that her family would keep her company while she was stuck here, but they all seemed skeptical at best. Jackie, apparently, had already decided.
She shook herself, and stood up with a stomp. Well, she'd show them! A diagnostic spell would prove she was the real Jade, and the other was the impostor! If the Fake Jade tried to delay the spell, that would only cast suspicion on her, and prove Jade right. Just because she looked all gray now, it was no excuse for them to brush her off like that! They'd regret it when this was all over!
(This wasn't exactly comforting, but it was the only part of this situation she could fixate on without crying.)
In the meantime, she was stuck here, with nothing to do and no one to talk to. At least, she hoped no one to talk to. Jade found herself glancing nervously over her shoulder as she picked up a nearby metal rod in a pile of sand.
To her surprise, the rod weighed almost nothing. It was pretty much a short sliver of rebar, and looked quite heavy, but in her hand it felt more like a stick. She'd hoped she could use it as a weapon in case there was something bad in this place, but it could probably at least still serve to mark a line in the dust, to lead her back here after she went exploring.
So Jade set off. Might as well look around – it wasn't every day you got stuck inside a mirror after all.