I had been thinking, at first, to have Buffy do this. But while she has the concern she'd never get the right words. My next thought was Giles, but while he could reliably produce the right words he'd never find the courage. So I cast my mind about, wondering who could tell Willow this. Then I thought, "Too bad Cordelia is unavailable, as the type of blunt honesty this requires is typical of her. But she's part of the problem."

Then this scene occurred to me.

"Alright, that's enough!" Cordelia broke the kiss and slapped Willow's hands away. She then turned and began to roughly and angrily pull her underwear on. "I'd hate to think I'm *boring* you!"

"No! I'd never!" Willow protested, while simultaneously drawing her mind back from wherever it had been wandering.

Cordelia was not amused. She spared a soft-ish glare for Willow, backlit by the burning building behind her. "Arson and sex, Willow. Arson and sex. If those can't keep your attention there is no point trying." she finished softly in a cold declaration, almost daring the redhead to deny it.

That redhead froze, eyes wide, instead of answering.

"That's what I thought." Cordelia turned back to angrily dressing herself. "And it's not like I don't know what's bothering you. Xander and you have had that goofy-love going on between you since forever. Dumping him that hard..." Cordelia omitted her part even in her own mental dialog, "...had to be rough on you. But I'd thought I could focus your attention on what you gave that dweeb up for. Sadly, you just have to keep proving my worst estimates of you to be overly optimistic, don't you?"

Willow's mouth had opened in shock and hurt. "Cordelia! This is the mirror realm! We've always been nice to each other here!"

Cordelia yanked her skirt into place. "You mean like burning everything Xander owned? I come here to get away, Rosenberg. That doesn't work when you bring all of your problems in with you."

Willow sputtered, trying to speak but not even able to babble; her thoughts caught in an infinite loop and too jumbled to articulate even at warp speed, stunned to complete silence for perhaps the first time in her young life. Having her feelings hurt by Cordelia was familiar territory. But always before the solution had been to seek comfort from Xander. Only Xander was not in her life at the moment, having been displaced by Cordelia. So the slot for Comforter was now filled by the one hurting her...

Her mind was just not able to resolve that.

Cordelia paused before pulling on a shoe. "Look, Xander loved you. He always had. Nobody gives up as much as he did to follow you around and protect you without love. He put up with abuse from everybody to stay by your side. That's love." The cheerleader yanked her shoe on as roughly as though it was responsible for killing her favorite pet. She pointed straight at Willow with the other. "And I get resenting him! If he had these!" she cupped her lingerie-clad breasts to demonstrate, "he shouldn't need any others! So we both wanted to hurt him, make him choose. Only we both miscalculated and went a few miles too far. Now we both lose. About the only thing that could bring him back into our lives at this point was if one or both of us were pregnant."

Both girls froze, turning white.

Both lunged for the car.

- - -

Off to obtain test kits obviously. I wonder if either of them will even think of questioning whether kits obtained in the mirror world will function properly.

The connecting bit between escapes me, but Cordelia having kicked off the "What do I do" now Buffy could say something into that opening, even going so far as to seek advice from Giles on what kind of things to say.

End result is, pregnant or not pregnant, Willow at least (and possibly Cordelia) kick off an effort to bring Xander back into the group - only to discover they've got almost no access to him, along with almost no hold over him even when they do make contact. He's busy. The only person in the group he maintains any kind of contact with is Giles, and that is more of a business arrangement where they trade research and favors. So they have to go from a point of view where Xander was the loyal puppy, always hanging around eager for scraps, to having him actively avoiding contact with those who have hurt him, from 'return-the-money' Buffy on down. And the multiple gear shifts as they try to even realize that is their new arrangement.

Lots of feelings get explored.

The Scooby gang would, of course, be having much greater success but for the fact that Xander has his own group now, one who are actively assisting him in whatever he wants to do, and being all subjects of enough abuse to want to flee reality entirely, none of the Wonderlanders are too trusting of the old group's intentions, so are more or less deliberately nudging Xander's attentions away from them.

I do not imagine they find this not too hard, as all they must do is bring other problems to Xander's attention, asking for his help tracking down other runaway teens in LA, perchance?

From that setup, I don't fancy the Scooby gang's chances to reconnect at all, ever, without a little help. So I tell myself that Cordelia and Willow's breakup occurred at the burning down of their mirror's City Hall, and that several rooms of that building stand prominent out of the ashes after the fires have all gone out. Investigation reveals they are magically warded - which means their original world counterparts must have been too.

Which means that magical objects could have reflections that are, themselves, magic.

Suddenly, the Scoobies have something to draw him back with. They need him to go into reflections to fetch back duplicates of magic objects, while he needs them to research what objects exist and possibly even where they are. His Wonderlanders follow, of course, playing emotional bodyguards, and Willow, for one, is frustrated not to have exclusive and unlimited Xander access, and...

You know, stuff happens.

I miss this one, too... Cheshire was so great. 3

ah right a looking glass is a mirror so it fits and is still unflattering

Kind of a shame Xander wasn't already into carpentry and didn't mean dancing, he had an actual instrument at home filled with sawdust that he doesn't know the name of, and it has a groove he uses to hold things.

update for the love of all that is holy, olease!

So does this mean he can also step into the reflections of other realities using the tv/movies/pictures?

And we are back to world hopping lol.

Mirror master probable has easier access to Captain Colds gun

SAY, KNOW ANYONE WILLING TO COME UP WITH A STORY BASed on this shit?

- 'Beware the Superman' Trope
- Fallen Hero (Malin Rydén)
- Irredeemable (Mark Waid)
- Kingdom Come (Mark Waid)
- Lady Justice (Ken Ogino)
- Marshal Law (Pat Mills)
- Planetary (Warren Ellis)
- Powers (Brian Michael Bendis)
- Rising Stars (J. Michael Straczynski)
- Squadron Supreme (Mark Gruenwald)
- Supreme (Rob Liefeld)
- Supreme Power (J. Michael Straczynski)
- The Boys 2019 (Eric Kripke)
- Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons)

Emphasis on Fallen Hero (Malin Rydén), Irredeemable (Mark Waid), Kingdom Come (Mark Waid), Lady Justice (Ken Ogino) and The Boys 2019 (Eric Kripke).

Wtf

XD
Nah, technically Xan did "make it himself", because he didn't have it earlier thus he must have made it since Halloween, he just has the know-how to do so from some of the Mirror Masters knowing Captain Cold's schematics well enough to duplicate it. Stolen memorized blueprints, perhaps, but still technically "made it himself". Cold ain't there to argue, after all. XD
Or Freeze's, yes, though I am most familiar with both MM and CC being among Flash's Rogues and Freeze primarily a Gothamite thus Batman's problem. Both of them have ice-guns, basically, so I suppose it doesn't matter much, especially if different MM's that were in Xan's head met one or both freezing-villains at various points. It probably happened more than once over the collective...

I love Wonderland, btw. A very fun and fitting theme for a mirror-realm livingspace. I'm delighted at how well the group living there are taking to the theme and all of it. Xan needs more and better friends that are not constantly almost-deadified by spooks. They're going to have a lot of fun messing with everyone before explanations are given, and possibly more after as there will only ever be so many people who merit proper full explanations and ever so many more to prank.

"Friends from the other side", eh?
I can see it now. The birth of a new secret order.
Hm, June 2019 and we are still waiting for the next chapter *sigh*.

And just here I thought you cold do with a bit of plot again...

You know, the most simple explanation for there being no things that go bump in the night in Mirrorverse are that it's a superpower. At the core you have Cthulhu and at the other side the magic-that-happens, together with the hellmouth and assorted... things. Superpowers are just mirrored from there.
And just because there are demons doesn't mean there are no aliens. And vice versa.

You could live in one of those mirror universes, you would just have to grow your own food, with seeds brought from the original universe, if Xander could make a reflection with no living things in them, then he could spread some seeds, and have a nice place to live as a hunter gatherer, in a few years to a decade.

Of course to be not just gatherer, he also have to add animals, which take the time needed up to a minimum of a decade, as you want to wait a few years before adding the animals.

please write more i like your stories a lot