"It is pretty bland, isn't it?" you admit, putting down your own half-eaten slice. "That one's on me. Sorry. I'll try to do better next time - you know, assuming that there is a next time."
Mirror-You nods. "Good to know. If dreams of pizza are going to be a thing, I will accept only the finest." He pauses, looking around at the dome and the rows of spikes. "On that note... who does your decorating? And should I be worried that my mind is cooking up places like this to hit me with when I sleep?"
You consider how to answer that, then decide to go for broke. "Alright, Alex - may I call you Alex?"
"I prefer Xander."
"And I prefer Alex, so that works for both of us. Alright, Xander." You take a breath, and let it go. "The truth is, this isn't a dream - at least, not on my side."
You proceed to explain that you are a young kung fu wizard on a quest arranged by the mother of an important friend, both of whom are magical beings, to determine if you are worthy of hanging around said friend.
Gained Honest D
"Xander" listens to you without interrupting. When you've finished your brief summary of current events, he's quiet for quite some time. Finally, he speaks.
"I could say a lot right here, about how that's exactly the kind of story I'd expect to hear in a dream, except that I know I'm not this imaginative. And if I were, I'd expect my dream to be more superhero sci-fi than modern magic, y'know?"
"Then, you believe me?"
"...yeah, I kind of do." Xander smiles faintly. "Maybe it is crazy, but you sell it well."
Gained King of Men E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"So all that stuff earlier, about me being you but you not being me," he continues. "We're, what? Alternate timeline instances of Alexander Harris?"
"That's my theory," you agree. "I mean, you came out of a magic mirror after I looked into it, so it's possible that you're a projection of what I might have turned out like, but you feel too real for that."
"To your mystical kung fu senses and all," Xander says a bit sourly. "How did that happen, anyway? I mean, I don't remember there even being a regular karate class in town, so unless your Sunnydale is a whole lot different than mine..."
"I think our worlds must have diverged when we were born," you say, not wanting to get too far into the specifics of your life, and how they contrast with your counterpart's. Aside from the headache of tracking all the details, Xander is visibly upset by the fact that you're awesome, while he's... kind of not. "You got born with a normal soul, while the one I got was, well..."
"Doctor Strange?"
You make a face.
Ganondorf as the Sorcerer Supreme? Well, he was the most powerful magic-user in Hyrule, and that sort of mystical preeminence is technically a prerequisite for the job - assuming you don't want your dimension to get invaded and yourself killed when next Tuesday's cosmic threat rolls around. Of course, Ganondorf usually WAS the cosmic threat, not unlike Dormammu, although Baron Mordo or Doctor Doom might make for the more accurate simile... and you're getting off-topic.
"It's a lot more complicated, but let's go with that," you say quickly. "And since my life started in supernatural comic-book style, it will probably come as no surprise when I say that it's continued as such, particularly in the last few months."
"Sudden plot twists, threats to life, limb, and secret identity, and bad guys lurking nearby to make life more difficult and dramatic than it needs to be?" Xander sums up.
"Pretty much."
"...okay, I have to ask." He faces you, and in a tone of deadly seriousness, says, "Do you fight crime? And almost as important, do you wear a costume while doing it?"
You consider that for a moment. The answer to the latter question is pretty definitively, "No," but as for the former...
"I suppose if you consider beating up monsters to be 'fighting crime,' then yes, I do," you say slowly. "I mean, I'm much more interested in defending myself, my family, and my friends than I am in going out every night to get my Batman on, but I have done the hero thing a few times now when I didn't really need to. There was this plot to assassinate a ninja clan leader, and the bad guys were setting off bombs, which is definitely against the law, even in Japan-"
"You've been to Japan?" Xander interrupts.
"My teacher was invited to a tournament, and since there's a division for kids our age, he decided to see if me and Cordy wanted to go along."
"Cordy," Xander repeats flatly. "Would that be 'Cordelia Chase,' by any chance?"
You frown, sensing a sudden hostility. "...yes?"
"And what, exactly, is the nature of your relationship with her, other me?"
Yes, you're definitely sensing hostility here. "We're friends."
"Ah!" he cries, pointing the dramatic finger of indignant accusation. "Traitor!"
"I'm a what, now?"
"I'm the treasurer of the We Hate Cordelia Club! It's against club rules- no, forget the rules, it's completely against the purpose of the Club's existence for me to consider Cordelia Chase a friend! Or any alternate reality, not-a-dream version of me!"
"What's wrong with Cordelia?" you ask.
"What isn't?" Xander retorts. "She's rich and she shows it off all the time, she's mean to everybody, she makes the whole school treat you like dirt if you get in her way - she's evil!"
How do you react to this accusation?
On one level, Xander's brief description of Cordelia amuses you. Yeah, Cordy's your friend, but you can admit without malice that she is not the easiest person in the world to get along with. She has high personal standards, a fundamentally forthright personality that occasionally crosses the line into brutal honesty, and limited reserves of patience. You can deal with her as easily as you do because you have a far more adult outlook than the rest of your age group, and can appreciate the positive aspects of Cordelia's often-critical nature without being upset by the negative ones - that, and shameless exploitation of your past life's experiences in dealing with strong-willed girls and women. Everybody else in your age group either gets swept up by the force that is Hurricane Cordelia or stays out of her way, and from Xander's account, the Cordelia that exists in his mirror-world is much the same as the one you know - implying that, on some level, Cordelia Chase is a universal constant.
You suspect she'd approve.
That said, you restrain your impulse to smile. You seem to have managed to upset Xander twice now, between your demonstrated abilities and your choice of friends, and you don't particularly want to worsen his mood by rubbing salt in the proverbial wound. Instead, you try to be patient, raising your hands in a conciliatory gesture.
Gained Cool D (Plus)
"Okay, Xander," you say calmly. "It's clear you've got issues with the Cordelia in your world-"
He snorts.
"-but try to remember: alternate universes. If Alexander Harris is so different between our respective realities, why shouldn't Cordelia Chase also be different? And even if she isn't, the fact that we are would have to affect how we get along with her, wouldn't it?"
Xander scowls, but after a long moment, he reluctantly nods.
Gained Acting D (Plus) (Plus)
"I still don't like it," he adds sourly.
"And you don't have to. Odds are if we sat down and seriously compared life histories, we'd find plenty of things about each other to dislike." You shrug. "Chalk it up to divergent timelines, and let it go."
"...has anyone ever told you that you talk like a grown-up?"
"It's been pointed out to me a couple times."
"Is that a monster-fighter thing, or a wizard thing, or what?"
You consider how to answer that.
Your shrugging, off-the-cuff response is perhaps not the most scrupulously honest, but it's not a complete falsehood, either. Engaging in mortal combat against horrors from beyond the world almost can't help but instill a certain maturity in a person, if only when it comes to threat-assessment and situational awareness, and the root cause of your adult-like thought processes IS pretty inextricably tied to your magical abilities - though it's the source of said powers, rather than a consequence of them. Sad to say, but "maturity" has never been a prerequisite for the ability to tap into phenomenal cosmic power.
Xander, for his part, merely shakes his head. "You know, the more I hear, the more I have to wonder what in the world I'm doing here. I mean, come on! Not only are you Mister Monster-Fighting Kung Fu Wizard, but you also talk like a high school student or something - which means you're WAY smarter than I am, on top of everything else."
"'Why me?'" you guess.
"Exactly!" Getting angry and frustrated, Xander starts to rant. "You can steamroll me so many ways it isn't even funny! Where's the test? What's the challenge? How is my coming out of this mirror-"
He turns around and looks into the glass.
The mirror gleams darkly, just as you sense a sudden upwelling of power.
Uh-oh.
"-supposed to... be a..." Xander trails off. "Why is my reflection moving like that?"
"Craaaap," Briar groans.
"That would be because we've got another version of us incoming," you say, as you lean forward, grab Xander by the shoulders, and drag him bodily across the table. Bad pizza and flavorless fizzy water are knocked aside as you wrangle the smaller, startled boy over to your side of the table by main strength.
"Whoa, what, whoa!"
Gained Strength E (Plus)
"Sorry," you apologize, setting Xander on his feet, "but we don't know what this guy will be like, so we need to be careful."
Xander gives you a dirty look.
You consider giving your counterpart an inspirational speech about the power of self-confidence and the dangers of self-doubt, but before you can get the words out, you hear the sound of glass cracking, and turn sharply to face the mirror.
Xander's reflection has extended its - his - hands through the dark glass to grasp the edges of the frame. The surface around them is covered by a spider's web of glowing white cracks, the various arms of which are fading in and out almost like tiny, time-lapsed thunderstorms. Without even raising your Mage Sense, you can feel the mirror's magic blazing through those ruptures, alternately pushing and pulling at you, Xander, and the figure that is trying to haul itself out. Another fracture-pattern appears as the reflection overcomes the resistance of the mirror and brings his face partway through the surface of the glass.
"Oh, fuck," Briar whispers.
You can't blame her at all. Where Xander seems to be what you'd have looked like with no mystically-ingrained Gerudo traits, the face you're seeing now is very much the opposite, classic Gerudo features having overwritten any traces of the California boy. Really, the "reflection" doesn't look like Xander at all; it's only when compared to your face that any kind of resemblance becomes noticeable.
Golden eyes fall on you, and the mouth below that high slash of a nose shifts into what could be considered a smile - one devoid of any warmth or humor.
"Stop him, Alex!" Briar screams. "Don't let him out! Break the mirror if you have to, but DON'T LET HIM OUT!"
...that sounds like a REALLY good idea.
Xander lets out what he will doubtlessly later insist is a manly bellow of surprise as you burst into golden flames, draw your sword, and leap over the table.
Gained Maximum Power D
Calling on your flight spell, you pull yourself towards the straining mirror as fast as you can go, taking your Blessed Blade in both hands as you move and turning about so that, when you land just to the left of the dark glass, you're positioned to strike.
Gained Leap Attack F (Plus)
The face emerging from the mirror has tracked your movements and is now glaring at you, mouth opening as if he means to speak. At this range, with your senses expanded by your surging aura, you have no trouble picking up the miasma of black magic, demonic corruption, and just plain HATE that radiates from the young-looking Gerudo figure. The twisted energy spikes noticeably when his left hand lets go of the frame and begins gathering sorcerous power.
Gained Spiritual Sense D (Plus) (Plus)
Any lingering doubts about your course of action fall away as that toxic aura registers on your senses. With a wordless roar of effort, you bring your shining sword about with all the force your body, mind, and soul can muster, channeling the lingering momentum of your hasty advance as you strike the mirror lengthwise below the line of its escaping image's hands.
Gained Sword Training D (Plus)
Not surprisingly, the dark glass shatters under the blow, light and shards spraying in all directions as a massive network of jagged cracks race out from the plane of impact. The "reflection" looks down, visibly surprised, as the shatter-pattern spreads to his hands, and then roars in protest as his face is also covered by the rapidly-expanding factures. The light given off by the spreading fissures intensifies, and you instinctively turn your head and shield your eyes right before - with a furious howl from your dark counterpart - the mirror's face explodes outwards.
Then there is silence. Opening one eye, you glance around.
The floor in this little blade-lined corridor is covered with innumerable shards of dark glass, ranging in size from glittering grains to a very few almost palm-sized panes. Fortunately you were off to the side, out of the main path of the eruption, and between your aura - which you dismiss now - and your weakened but still-active defensive spells, you were sufficiently well-protected to avoid any harm. Xander didn't have any such benefit, but in a show of common sense, he overturned the table and ducked behind it, quite handily averting injury to his person. His wide, staring eyes now peer over the edge of the tipped-over furniture, not far from where Briar's glowing form is doing the same thing.
"...is it over?" Xander asks cautiously.
"No way it's that easy," Briar mutters.
You look around, this time using both eyes and your other senses besides. You'd like to believe that Xander is correct, but you suspect Briar has the right of things, as usual.
A disturbingly high-pitched chuckle draws your attention to the floor near your feet, where you find... um.
"You have got to be kidding me," you say out loud.
Disbelieve it all you like, there is still a four-inch-tall Ganondorf replica pulling itself out of the glass. A quick glance shows that the other scattered fragments of the mirror are also producing copies, of which the one by your feet appears to be the largest; the smallest ones that you can see are bug-sized, and there are quite a lot of those.
"Gah!" Xander shrie- uh, yells. "What the- get it off, get it off!" He starts kicking at something behind the table.
"Whoa!" Briar dodges a tiny purple fireball. "Oh, you did NOT shoot that black sorcery at me, half-pint! Let's see how you like being the little guy for once!" And with that, she dives out of sight with a wordless battle-cry.
Since it's right there, you take an opportunistic swing at the four-inch Mini-Ganondorf with your sword. The shrunken mirror-spawned clone of the King of Evil has enough time to see the attack coming and squawk in outrage before the blade bites home - at which point the tiny figure discorporates into a cloud of gold-tinted black smoke that kind of looks like a skull.
Seeing that image takes a certain weight off of your shoulders. You were briefly concerned that, like Xander, these runaway funhouse reflections of Ganondorf might have been living beings in their own right, but the abrupt dissolution tells you that they're just embodied masses of dark magic. That doesn't make them any less dangerous - in some ways, they're actually more of a threat than they would be if they were proper life-forms - but it does make dealing with them a lot easier.
First thing's first, though.
Focusing your ki, you Body Flicker towards the overturned table and then around it on the side where Xander is shouting, kicking, and flailing at a growing crowd of Mini-Ganondorfs. Five or six of the larger specimens are grappling with the body's lower legs, in what you guess is an attempt to break his balance and knock him over. A dozen or more of the smaller ones have taken to the air via flight spells and are harrassing Xander with tiny electrical discharges, weak enough not to do him any harm, but more than sufficient to keep his attention away from the crowd by his feet.
You can think of a number of reasons why the fragmented Ganondorfs would want Xander restrained, and none of them are good. Time to spoil their plan.
Your ki-accelerated appearance has clearly taken the army of imps by surprise, because it's not until you gather your mana to cast the spell you have in mind that any of them so much as twitch in your direction - and when they do, Xander's flailing catches several of them off-guard, swatting four or five of the fliers from the air and crushing one of the ground-bound grapplers badly enough that it bursts into dark smoke. You hear several high-pitched shouts - mostly variations on "Stop him!" - and a number of the Mini-Ganondorfs are quick to start casting spells of their own, but your unexpected speed has given you enough of a lead to finish first. You still have to run forward, arm extended to touch Xander, to focus the spell on him, and that gives some of your diminutive doppelgangers a chance to let fly with fireballs-
Gained Fire Resistance F (Plus) (Plus)
-but unfortunately for them, the difference in scale, your existing tolerance for intense heat, and your mental focus all mean that their attacks are mere irritants, easily set aside in the face of completing your spell. Which you do.
The moment your outstretched hand comes into contact with Xander's arm, there is a pulse of mana as the Magic Circle takes effect, spreading outwards in all directions. The Mini-Ganondorfs howl in protest as they are carried along by the wave of Abjuration magic, until not a one of them is within ten feet of Xander.
"Hey!" you hear Briar protest from near the far end of the table, just four feet away. "I wasn't done with that one yet!"
"Focus, Briar!" you reply. "You okay, Xander?"
He gives you a wild-eyed look, but when he speaks, his voice is level. "I just got mobbed by evil magical midgets coming out of a shattered mirror." Then, he starts to crack. "Where. Is. My. Boomstick?!"
You blink. You get the reference, of course - late-night TV movies are good for something after all - and it occurs to you that if you really wanted to, your magical skills are sufficient to complete the homage. On the other hand, do you really want to give a deadly weapon to a kid who seems to be on the verge of losing it?
Do you really want to give a deadly weapon to a kid who seems to be on the verge of losing it?
You consider that question for a moment, and then grin.
Yes, you do. If anything, it's the only sane response in this situation.
Calling on your magic, you envision the perfect weapon, capping its summoning by invoking six words of terrible power: "Alright, you sorcerous screwheads; listen up!"
Gained Intimidating B
Gained King of Men D
Gained Words of Power D (Plus)
And they do. The entire dome momentarily falls quiet as its occupants stare at you, momentarily overwhelmed by the force of your presence. On cue, you raise your left hand, grasping at empty air - a space into which mana flows and solidifies, overcoming the resistance of the Silent Realm to complete your spell. A shotgun materializes in your grasp, along with a plain leather satchel of spare rounds.
"You see this?" you proclaim, brandishing the weapon. "Do you know what this is?" When the only response is silence, you roar, "DO YOU?"
Several of the Mini-Ganondorfs shake their heads.
You smile, turn the twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington shotgun around, and hand it to Xander. "Tell them what it is, Xander."
Slowly, your alternate takes the gun. You can see the moment when the Enchantment you wove into the weapon's summoning takes effect, as Xander's grip goes from that of a stunned, nervous eight year old who's likely never held a gun in his life to that of a proficient user. Slinging the satchel over one shoulder, he checks the chamber of the gun, then snaps it shut, tucks the stock against his shoulder with a two-handed grip, and takes aim at the nearest group of Ganondorfs.
"This... is my BOOMSTICK!"
And he pulls the trigger.
The report is like thunder, and the blast sweeps away close to a dozen of the clones.
Mayhem ensues. Several mirror-clones begin casting what you recognize as attempts to Dispel Magic, trying to bring down the Magic Circle that prevents them from swarming Xander. You make a point of stomping or stabbing those that you see, and while you're pretty sure that you miss a few, the critical difference in your respective sizes - and accordingly, your magical reserves - is illustrated when their attempts to bring down the Circle fail. It would take probably a dozen of the Mini-Ganondorfs working together to successfully break your spell, and any time that such a group attempts to form up, Xander blasts them. His aim is not spectacular, but with a shotgun, that's not a particular issue, as long as he doesn't aim the thing at you or Briar - and whether due to the effects of your weapon-skill enchantment or simple good sense, Xander never puts you in his sights.
Briar makes a point of getting back on your shoulder, and then staying there.
Gained Crowd Control F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
After a couple minutes, the dome again falls silent. All that remains of the Ganondorfs are fading skull-clouds of dark magic, the scent of gunpowder, and the shards of the mirror.
Xander looks at you, shotgun aimed towards the floor and off to one side, and smiles. "Well. That was... groovy."
Only one response to Xander's statement comes to mind, and you voice it without hesitation.
"Hail to the kings, baby."
Xander grins back at you - and then blinks in surprise, as the shotgun discorporates from between his fingers, and its paired satchel vanishes from its place at his side.
"Ah, nuts," he mutters. "Guess what the magic gives, the magic also takes away, huh?"
"Pretty much. Still, I think 'Summon Shotgun' is going down as my new favorite spell."
"Mine, too," he agrees, looking around at the damage he managed to inflict with a certain proprietary smugness.
Briar sighs.
Finally, Xander's cheerful expression fades slightly. "So, um... what now?"
"Good question." Sheathing your sword, you walk up to the broken frame of the mirror. "This is just a guess on my part, but I don't think the mirror was supposed to spawn Tall, Dark, and Evil."
"What makes you say that?"
"Two parts evidence, one part experience. You're alive; he was a construct of magic. You stepped out of the mirror pretty casually; he was fighting it the whole way. And in the last trial where I specifically had to fight a monster, it left behind a little stone triangle when it was beaten; he didn't." You glance about at the glass-strewn floor, just to be sure of that. Xander peers around himself.
"Besides," you continue, "there has to be SOME kind of limit on the power of an item like this. I mean, I looked into it, and got you; you looked into it, and somehow got him; are we supposed to believe that if he'd looked into it, a fourth version of us would have showed up? And so on, and so forth, until the whole place was wall-to-wall Alexanders?" You shake your head. "Nah, I'm betting this thing is usually one-per-customer. Whoever it brings forth is technically a manifestation of its own magic, and shouldn't be subject to it."
"Then why did I get the snarly version of you?"
You think about that.
You know what happened here, if not exactly how or why it happened, and it makes you nervous. You're tempted to cover your fear by making a joke about too much of the excellence that is you and Xander overloading the mirror, but that impulse passes; sighing, you decide to just admit your suspicion and get it over with.
"I think that 'snarly me' was actually my Dark Side deciding to take advantage of the mirror," you tell Xander.
"...you have a Dark Side?"
"Yeah, it's part of the whole magic soul thing. To make a long story very short, my past life was Big Time Evil with a tendency to resurrect, reincarnate, or just plain not die when he was killed. And while I am personally very firmly opposed to the idea of turning into Darth Harris, there's enough of the other guy still kicking around for it to be a real concern."
"Past life experience intruding on present time," Xander mutters. It sounds like he's quoting something, but you don't recognize the source. "So that's the big catch to the phenomenal cosmic powers, huh?"
"Pretty much, yeah. Kind of puts a damper on the spectacle of magic, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, kind of."
There is a pause.
"You still totally want magic powers, though," you add.
"Totally," Xander admits without shame.
Before either of you can continue in that vein, you notice the fragments of the mirror beginning to glow. Xander lets out a yelp and backpedals away from the largest clusters of broken glass, while you crank up your senses. You don't detect any of Ganondorf's corruption, only the magical essence of the mirror itself. As to what it's doing...
*Click*
You, Xander, and Briar all turn to face the mirror, where one of the smaller fragments that landed near to the frame has just gone back to its original place. It's followed by another sand-sized shard, and then two more, and then a larger piece.
"Self-repair feature," you muse. "Handy."
Gained Mage Sight C (Plus) (Plus)
If the rate of reconstruction stays constant, you estimate that you have a minute, maybe two, before the mirror is restored. What happens then is anybody's guess.
With bits and pieces of the mirror floating through the air back to their point of origin, you turn to Xander. "Okay, big question time. First of all, do you have a Stone Triangle in one of your pockets?"
"What?"
"It's important!"
"I don't! I don't have anything in my pockets!" Xander goes so far as to pull his pants pockets out, proving that they are indeed empty, apart from a little dryer lint.
"Alright, second question!" You pause, leaning back as a jagged pane of glass cartwheels past in front of your face. A definite breeze is starting to blow, and the slowly un-breaking face of the mirror is glowing faintly. "Do you want to learn how to fight evil?"
"Is this a trick question?"
"Yes or no!"
"Yes!"
"Okay! Hold still and don't panic!"
As Xander obliges, you awaken your supernatural senses.
His eyes bug out when he sees yours glowing gold, but aside from a pronounced gulp, Xander does as you told him and remains still. You quickly sweep the boy from head to toe, probing his physical being, his mystical essence, his mind, and his spirit.
Gained Corruption Sense E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Ki Sense C
Gained Mage Sense C (Plus) (Plus)
The results confirm what your passive scans picked up before. Magically, Xander Harris is as close to a null-talent as you've ever seen; without accessing external sources of power, it would take him years, possibly decades of dedicated training just to build up the skill to levitate a pencil. He's a bit better-off physically, if only because he's no more unhealthy or unfit than the average eight year old American; if he were to shape up and start taking his diet and physical conditioning seriously, he might make a decent amateur athlete by high school. Mentally... you're no expert in this field, but Xander's head doesn't show any signs of physical damage, so you're willing to say he's got an acceptable brain. As for his spirit, it reminds you a bit of Larry's, back before he started taking lessons from Lu-sensei. Not exceptional, but not crippled, either.
From what you can see, Xander's main problem is the Hellmouth and how it's gotten its hooks into him, particularly around the mind and spirit. The corruption there bears a passing resemblance to some spells of Enchantment, when focused on memory-manipulation and will-sapping. It's nowhere near as active or personal as the binds you found on Tatsuki or the Kurosaki men; it's just the background noise of the Hellmouth encouraging an unprotected mind to ignore the unusual and potentially dangerous things it sees, to not bother trying to defend itself, to stay quiet, blind, and docile...
Right. Shutting off your boosted senses, you begin casting a spell. The basis of it is a simple magic that allows you to share a single memory, up to a minute long. That's nowhere near enough for your purposes, so you expand on it, pouring more mana into the matrix and building it up. A minute becomes ten minutes, then an hour, then ten hours, then a hundred... and you get the feeling that's as far as you can go while maintaining some semblance of order. That settled, you delve into your memories, assembling a basic survival package for life on the Hellmouth. Exercises to strengthen the body and hone the mind. Simple purification rituals to counteract the grip the Hellmouth has on its residents. Warnings against the dangers of magic, and a bare-bones introduction to vampires and demons. You even manage to slip in the meditative exercises that should allow a normal person to build up their ki.
A hundred hours isn't much, but it's more than Xander had before. When the spell is ready, you reach out and tap the smaller boy on the forehead, passing a complete copy of the knowledge to him.
You can tell he's received it when he goes cross-eyed. "Gaaaah..."
"Don't fight it," you warn him. "That's your basic training plan. Study it, learn it, live it."
"You're giving me HOMEWORK?" Xander protests, one hand still pressed against the side of his head. Glass is zipping past the two of you almost at bullet-speeds now, wind gusting fiercely and the mirror shining like the sun.
"What, you thought I'd snap my fingers and turn you into Spiderman or something?" You shake your head. "I appreciate the vote of confidence, Xander, but I'm nowhere near that good yet. The best I can do for you is to give you the information you need to have a fighting chance to survive Sunnydale - and that's what you've got! Call it homework if you want, just be sure you get it done! Because the test you're preparing for won't be on a sheet of paper in a classroom; it'll be in a dark street, with a gang of vampires looking to make you into their next meal! If you've done the work, if you've built up the skills and got the gear you need, you'll survive. If not... then it's up to chance, and faith."
Gained Teaching E (Plus) (Plus)
Xander looks like he's going to say something, but the wind suddenly dies, and there is a final, echoing *CLICK* from the mirror. You both look at it, to find the glass wholly restored and glowing steadily.
You, Xander, and Briar stand there in silence, looking at the shining mirror. Lit up like this, it bears a distinct resemblance to a doorway, leading from the relative dimness of the trial dome to a brighter "outdoor" setting.
"Wow," you muse. "Subtle."
Xander glances at you, then back at the door. For a moment it looks like he's about to agree, but then he shakes his head and turns his attention back to you.
"You never answered my question, you know."
You think back. "'Why me?'" you repeat.
"Yeah. I mean, you already said you didn't think Evil-You was supposed to show up at all, let alone turn into an army of midgets... so what is it that makes me a mystical challenge for a guy like you?"
You let out a breath.
"I think part of it was a test of how I'd react to the unexpected." You gesture around at the dome. "I mean, a dark, scary set-up like this, and instead of a big nasty monster, a regular kid steps out of the mirror? It's not the likely scenario, and it certainly wasn't what I thought was going to happen. The lady who arranged all of this may have just wanted to see if I could control my fear, instead of giving in and attacking an innocent - or a potential ally." You shrug. "I'm guessing, to be honest, but how many comics have we read where the good guys screwed up and fought each other when they should have been teaming up? I think it fits."
Xander regards you blankly. He would seem to disagree, or perhaps he just couldn't follow your argument.
You sigh. "Okay, there's another reason. A lot of what I've got in this life, comes from my evil past life. The magic, my size, my face - the kung fu is me, but even there, I'm drawing on the power of his soul and his physical talent. And it scares me. Not just because I'm worried that I might turn into the latest version of the guy, but also because, without him - what would I be?"
"...me."
"Yeah." You smile. "And from where I'm standing, being you isn't nearly as bad as I was afraid it would be."
Xander frowns.
"Think about it. Regular kid, snapped up by magic, dropped in a situation completely outside of his experience, and then thrown to an army of evil mirror midgets, and what do you do? Freeze? Run away screaming? Heck no. You fought back. You cracked a joke. You were outnumbered, outclassed, and afraid, and you acted anyway. That takes courage."
And now he's flustered. He may actually be blushing; the way he's silhouetted by the light from the mirror makes it hard to tell.
"Yeah, well... um... I should probably be going, now. You know, before any more magical surprises pop up and try to eat my soul."
You nod, and wave. "Take care of yourself, Xander."
"You too, Alex." He says, stepping up to the mirror.
"And remember! Shop smart."
At the threshold of the glass, Xander stops, snickers, and half-turns. "Shop S-Mart."
Then he steps through the mirror.
With your mystical senses up, you get a momentary hint of Summoning Magic, but the energy involved rapidly grows too intense for you to follow. You're forced to avert your gaze as the mirror lets out a final burst of brilliant light.
When you look back, Xander Harris is gone. All that remains is the mirror, dark once more, and your reflection within it. You quickly gesture with one hand, just to make sure- ah, good, your reflection is following your movements, like it's supposed to, instead of going off and doing its own thing. That just leaves...
There is a faint chime as a Stone Triangle appears within the mirror, at about the level of your reflection's chest, and begins floating towards you. The surface of the glass distorts around the item as it emerges.
Without hesitating, you reach out and take the final item in your quest.
You got the final Stone Triangle!... but now what?
With Xander safely away, the last Stone Triangle in your hand, and the dark mirror having gone inert, there's no more reason for you to linger in this dome - and the faint, fading, but still-lingering dark magic thrown off by the death-bursts of the mirror clones provides a very good reason for you to leave.
As you gingerly take to the air on your weakened but still-functional flight spell and beging to soar towards the exit, you mentally probe at the spiritual binding you wrapped about your damaged soul. The results make you wince. When you unleashed your aura for those few seconds against the mirror-spawned image of Ganondorf, it didn't QUITE burn through the dressing, but it certainly did the soulstuff no favors. Just as bad, you can feel that the outer layer of the bandage has been contaminated by Ganondorf's lingering black magic. It didn't penetrate to your wound, but it's still far too close for comfort, and you quickly reach out to tear the material away.
"Alex, what-" Briar breaks off as the spiritual bandage blurs into view, its once-white material stained with a greasy, purple-black. "Oh. Oh, ick! Gah, throw that away!"
"Already on it," you reply, as you fling the substance back into the maze of spikes. As soon as it's gone, you surge your aura around your hands, burning away any of the darksome contamination that remained.
Gained Corruption Resistance E
"We're going to have to clean and bind that again," Briar notes as you near the door.
"I was planning on it."
"Good. And don't forget that we need about three months' worth of material for extra bandages."
"I haven't forgotten, Briar."
She pauses. "Do you suppose Xander got any of that gunk on him?"
One foot through the doorway, you halt, momentarily worried. Then you breathe a sigh of relief. "He was still until a Magic Circle when he left, remember? Ganondorf's magic won't have been able to touch him. We, on the other hand, had to fly through the stuff getting out."
"Gah, don't remind me. Yuck!"
Once back out in the open, you take a moment to probe the area. You're dismayed but not overly surprised to discover that the local spiritual space is duller and darker than it was when you entered the dome. Not that it's been irreversibly contaminated or anything like that, but it's clear that just a few minutes of Ganondorf's presence - even in the form of those projected images - was enough to destroy the original purity of the Silent Realm. It's a stark example of just how powerful, evil, and opportunistic the man was.
Moving away from the dome, you hurry through a ritual for a short-range spell of teleportation spell, which returns you and Briar to the entrance to the dome dedicated to Nayru. After confirming that the spiritual essence here is still clean and clear, you proceed to cleanse and re-dress your spiritual wound. The presence of the everful bowl of water is helpful in this endeavor, allowing you to add a level of physical cleanliness to the rite; while not strictly necessary for the purification to be effective, the symbolism of being clean of mundane dirt and grime adds a measure of weight to the process of spiritual cleansing. Then, while you're busy spinning spiritual material from the Silent Realm into bandages and then stowing it in a new dimensional pocket, Briar takes advantage of the water to clean herself up.
Gained Spiritual Bandages
At last, there's only one thing left to do. After taking a long moment to enjoy the peace and serenity of the Silent Realm, you draw the three Stone Triangles from your first dimensional pocket and bring them together in the shape of the Triforce. The Triangles begin to radiate the colors of their respective Goddess, red, blue, and green mingling for a moment before a golden glow surges from the center of the crest. The Silent Realm resounds with a single gong-like tone as a pillar of light descends from the sky to touch you and Briar, and then draw you upwards - slowly at first, then a bit faster, then faster, the Silent Realm falling away below you, and then faster still, so that you have to close your eyes...
Light and darkness, air and vaccuum, energy and matter surge and swirl around you, and then go still.
When you open your eyes, you're no longer in the Silent Realm, but you're not back in the desert where you started, or anywhere else you recognize as being on Earth. You appear to be standing in the center of a circular platform, some twenty-five feet across. There's no obvious light source, but you can see - to a point. Beyond the visible floor is only impenetrable darkness. The air is cool and dry, if not uncomfortably so, and it is very, very quiet.
Briar is at your shoulder, looking around.