Broken Reflections

AN: Hello and welcome to the Mirror AU! This is a sever AU, but much of the canon-verse things will remain as much unchanged as they possibly can. This story will cover every episode save Phantom Planet, and will include many headcanons, original characters, and original storylines. For the headcanons used, I claim ownership to non of them, though the concept of the Mirror World and much of its reworkings I do claim. Without further adiue, lets get this monster started! It's gonne be a wild ride!

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"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty took a great fall. All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again."

-o-oOo-o-

"Come on, guys, we shouldn't be doing this..."

Sam paused, turning, "Oh come on, Danny, this stuff is awesome!"

"No its not, its weird." Danny muttered, fallowing his friends tentatively into his own basement. The HAZ-MAT jumpsuit clinging tightly to his body was hot and uncomfortable, plastered to his skin like a coat of paint.

"Dude, seriously? Of coarse its weird, its your parent's work we're talking about!" Tucker stepped out from behind one of the massive mirrors suspended from heavy duty chains attached to the ceiling. "Everything your parents do is weird, but this? This is cool. Where'd they even get mirrors this big?"

Danny just shook his head. All around the room were dozens of mirrors and machines in varying states of completion. Crudely constructed lab tables made from industrial grade steel were pushed against the walls, tarps and floral patterned blankets draped over near everything. Screws, bolts and scrap wiring littered the floor, giant spools of chain wider than his arm span in the corner. Hospital-like rolling dividers were installed on the ceiling, criss-crossing over the textured metal like ancient runes from a long dead civilization. Empty frames, broken rims, distorted mirrors, jagged glass, bent planes-they all joined in the overall mess of the room. Nothing was in its proper place. Nothing, except for the crown jewel of the lab.

Two perfectly straight, massive mirrors hung in the center of the room. Reaching cleanly over seven and a half foot in height, and nearly five in width, they clearly dominated the entire area. Their frames were a simple two inch think reinforced plastic, glossed a shiny black. The non-reflective side of the mirrors were covered in a plain cardboard-like parchment, complete with company logos and coffee cup stains from when his parents were cutting it to size. Tucker puled the corners of his mouth up with his fingers, sticking his tongue out at his reflection. The reflection matched him perfectly, without even a hint of blurring or fog.

To say in the least, they were impressive.

"Some Dalvco company, I dunno." Danny stared at the front-most mirror, tilting his head to the side. The surface was the clearest he'd ever seen, and given the fact that his parents had been obsessed with mirrors his entire life, that was saying something. "My parents don't even have any proof that doing the stupid Empty thingy will even do what great great great granpa said could happen. He certainly never managed to 'open' the darn thing, and my parents haven't either. What makes them think that two outrageously huge mirrors will do it?"

"Danny, come on, your parents may be crazy, but they seem to have a lot of solid science behind this idea." Sam said, shooing away Tucker from the plane. She carefully began to nudge it along the ceiling track that would turn it the opposite direction. "Besides, a MIRROR world?! That's like, every superstitious mystery author's dream come true!"

"Sam, they've already tried to open it. For like, 20 years. Either it can't be opened the way they and grandpa thinks it can, or it doesn't exist. And track record says its the latter." Danny shook his head, but grabbed the other side of the mirror, helping her to ease it around the sharp curve.

"Well, your triple great granddad had to be onto something, if HE dedicated his entire life to the study too." Tucker shrugged, hoping onto one of the only clean-topped tables.

"Or, he was nuts" Danny challenged, "Which he was, since he was kicked out of no less than 53 towns for his 'research.'"

"But what if there WAS a mirror world? What if he and your parents are right and there's a way for us to enter it? Seriously, Danny, you gotta admits is pretty awesome to think about." Sam goaded.

Danny gave her a pointed glare, "You're just into this because we're breaking that superstition about not lining up two mirrors and breaking superstitions is what gives your goth soul life essence."

"I am innocent until proven guilty." She sang, flashing a toothy smile his way.

"And I'm gonna make a snow angel on the moon-naked." Danny replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. The mirror's roller creaked and the chains moaned in protest to the movement. Danny eyed the mechanism with wary eyes. He would be worse than dead if he broke one of the mirrors. They had cost a small fortune. He was pretty sure his mom would kill him, invent a way to bring him back, they kill him again.

Tucker snorted, lifting his gaze from his PDA."Is that a promise for it this actually works?"

"It would be if I wouldn't die doing it."

The mirror stopped in front of the second, a seemingly endless trail of mirror reflections disappearing into the depths of both. Carefully, Danny let go of the slightly swaying pane, holding his hands near it for a few seconds in case it spontaneously dropped, despite the fact that trying to catch it would do nothing. Once satisfied that it wouldn't break off its chains, he stepped away, in between the two mirrors. Sam joined him, her hands on her hips and tucker by her side. They're reflections mimicked them, taunting in their mere existence.

"Okay, what do we need to do to make this work, Danny?"

"Line the mirrors up-perfectly. Supposedly if there even the tiniest bit off, it won't work." Danny supplied. "It opens up the Empty, or something or another. I kinda turn my folks out when they go on their spiels."

Sam frowned as she stared into the depths of the mirror. "Empty is a dumb name. I'm renaming it to the Endless."

Danny frowned, sharing a confused look with Tucker, "Why?"

Sam raised her brows and pointed to the mirror on her right. The line of reflected mirrors seemed to disappear into infinity. "Because that's cool, okay?"

Danny shook his head, but a small smile graced his lips. "Alright, lets try this. Can't hurt to be a little crazy every once in a while."

Tucker first pumped the air, jumping a little, "That's the spirit!"

"How do we know its open? Does it flash or do tendrils connect the two mirrors or...what?" Sam tapped the glass with her nail, slightly dismayed when it didn't ripple and suck her in with a giant goopy hand or something.

"I don't know, no one's done it before, remember? But grandpa theorized that it was like a portal if it was opened. So maybe the mirrors stop being physical and start acting like doors or windows?" Danny said, more to himself than to his friends. He placed his gloved hand against the glass and pushed, but it did nothing. He turned towards the other two again. "I'll keep my hand pressed on this one, you keep fiddling with that one."

Sam and tucker stationed themselves on either side of the mirror, muttering as they inched it ever so slightly to the sides. They moved it an inch at a time, then half and inch, then minuscule amounts. For a while, Danny thought they weren't even moving it, but Sam assured him they were. Pressing his entire weight on the hand pressed against the mirror, Danny waited and supplied suggestions every so often. Glancing at the clock, Danny watched an hour slip by, then another, and another. He was quite frankly surprised he parents weren't home yet. They'd just gone out to get groceries and to take Jazz to her weird psychology study thing. Maybe they'd gone out to eat too? Either way, they needed to get out of the lab before they came back-he'd be throttled if they knew he took 'unauthorized personnel' down here.

Danny grunted as he stretched his back, rolling his neck. It popped loudly, earning a glare from Tucker. Shrugging in apology, Danny waved his hand to the left.

"Maybe a little to the lef-AHHHHH!"

"DANNY?!"

The solid support that had been firmly under his hand simply disappeared, sending him flailing to the ground -inside the mirror.

Sam and tucker raced over tot he frame, staring wide-eyed as Danny pushed himself up on his elbows. Blinking, Danny looked around, dreading what he'd tell his parents if he's somehow broken straight through the mirror. But his horror turned to pure shock as he looked beyond the frame of the mirror. The color practically drained from his face and his friends called out to him again. He hesitantly lifted a fingered and pointed.

"I-i-i-i-it!? HOW?!"

Sam stepped over his legs and over the frame, peeking around the corner. Her jaw fell and she swung around to stare at Danny and Tucker.

The latter peeked around the opposite side of the frame, then jabbed a finger towards Danny, "HAHA, Point for granddad Fenton! Dude knew what he was talking about, apparently!"

"T-th-this...!? This is the Mirror World...?" Danny stuttered, holding his hand out to his friends. They grabbed it and helped hoist him to his feet.

The area beyond the frame was just nothing. Nothing but pure, plain white as far as the eye could see. Or perhaps there was a wall there somewhere, none of them could tell. The sheer amount of white stung their eyes and Sam began to squint, searching to anything amongst the bright void.

"This is awesome! It goes on forever!"

Danny observed the reflection of his parents lab, which he was currently standing in. Everything was exactly the same-the texture of the walls to the askew nature of the visible tables-except for the fact that it was backwards. What was on the left was now on the right. He knelt down and felt the floor. It was just like the tile in the real lab. Cold and smooth through his gloves, slightly shiny. It seemed unaffected by the brightness of the void around it. He moved a piece of wiring, and looked back through into the real world. It remained unmoved there. He looked into the other mirror, deeper into the endless, and the piece was reflected being moved. Everything in every consecutive reflection of the Endless seemed to mirror his parents lab perfectly.

Tucker was standing at the edge of the floor, pointing his PDA at it, "I'm grabbin pics, no one's ever gonna believe this! Danny, come check this out!"

Danny got to his feet and walked over, observing the difference between the two sides. What was reflected in the world just...faded into the whiteness. Tables speckled off into nothing right in half, only technically having two legs to stand on. The floor and walls looked like they'd been airbrushed on a giant canvas. The outcropping to the stairs was visible, but lead to nowhere, only part of the wall, railing and side of the first step existing. Cautiously, he tried to step off the floor, only to find that the white wasn't a hard surface he could walk on. He felt like he was standing at the edge of a giant cliff, that the entire reflected area was a platform suspended in space. His stomach squirmed and he took a couple steps back.

"I don't like this, I think we should leave." He called, looking back towards the mirror they'd come through."Before something happens."

Tucker raised his head, confused and reluctant to be pulled away from poking the void edge of a table. "Like what? Come on dude, we can't leave so soon!"

Danny's jaw fell open and he stared at Tucker like he'd grow a second head. "Like what?! Like the mirrors getting knocked out of alignment! We'll be stuck in here! Or obliterated or something! Come on, it's not safe." He argued, waving his hands above his head in an attempt to convey how incredibly uncomfortable and dangerous it would be to stay. Sam rolled his eyes at his antics, but trudged over to him anyway.

"Fiiiiine, but we're coming back in when your parents make the Endless permanent!" she glared at him coldly, making sure he understood that that was a requirement, not a suggestion. He shrugs in response, and she rolled her eyes.

"Just-don't touch anything. Try to not even breathe." Danny said, allowing Sam to use his arm as she stepped over the frame and back into the real world. Tucker fallowed, careful to not jostle the frame at all.

"Come on, the things aren't that finicky." He joked, waving a hand at his reflection, "Hey, what do you think happens to our reflections when we enter the Mirror world?"

Danny shrugged, taking one last look at the freakish void. "I dunno-"

His foot caught on the bottom of the frame. He felt the frame move before he saw is. He saw his friends' eyes widen as he tried to jump to his aid. He knew they wouldn't be able to do anything. The glass materialized in place as the Endless was broken, the figurative door slamming shut right on top of him. Thousands upon thousands of blazing hot needles pierced his body, stabbing and twisting and digging around in his flesh, scratching caverns into the very bone underneath. Blazing, unfathomable agony shot through his nerves, the blood in his veins felt like it was freezing and boiling at the same time. His bones bent and creaked and his muscles pulled taunt like a tiger to pounce on her prey; he felt like he was going to snap. He was just barely aware that he was screaming, a sound too, too loud in his ears, his brain, his mind. He couldn't see, couldn't stop screaming, he was dying, dying, dying, being ripped apart and pushed together, bitten and chewed and swallowed down the suffocating, sweaty, burning gullet of death's decaying maw. Something snapped inside him, pain searing from every single nerve in his body, and he couldn't help it; he screamed louder still.

And everything went white.