Chapter Text
" STAY AWAY FROM ME! The next one of you who comes near me: I swear to God, I WILL KILL!"
Laura kept playing that moment inside her head, hearing Carmilla's destroyed voice over and over again. This was so wrong, in so many ways. She never meant for any of this to happen; the only reason she told Danny was to keep her safe. Mattie was evil, or so she thought at the time, and if she knew a way to prevent a catastrophe, she'd do it. She never thought that action would actually start one, rather than prevent it.
And Carmilla, God Carmilla, she would never forgive her; and why should her? She was right: Laura was a child, and she knew nothing. All of this time, trying to change Carmilla, forcing her to be someone she's not, to make her see the world is not always a dark place, to make her care for other things and not only her; and she ended up proving Carmilla that she was right all along, everyone, even those who love you, will hurt you, will betray you and leave you to bleed to death.
Even if Carmilla forgave her, she'd never forgive herself, she didn't deserve it. She'd been wrong all along. The world, as much as she hated to admit it, is not black and white but filled with shades of gray. Maybe Nietzsche was right when he said all good things approach their goal crookedly (yes, she had been reading Carmilla's books, looking for answers). You can do bad things, but have good intentions. You can do good things and have bad intentions. And sometimes, you could do good things and have good intentions, and yet manage to create even a bigger mess. She understood now.
That meant she had been wrong in a lot of things. Like when it came to Mattie. Mattie, who claimed she had never killed those kids at The Voice, much like Carmilla did last year when it came to the missing girls. If she believed Carmilla then, why didn't she believe Mattie now? Was it because she was jealous of Mattie and her relationship with Carmilla? Maybe, but if that was it then she really needed to kick herself. A who-knows-how-old vampire had been killed because she was too jealous to see she was telling the truth? Mattie, Carmilla's closest thing to family, the only one who never tried to abuse her or force her in any way, had died because Laura was behaving like a toddler? God, this was so messed up.
"Ugh, I really don't have time for this," she thought, sitting with a book in her hands trying to figure it out "I have an attack to plan."
Even if she didn't know who killed the newspaper kids, it was still true that Vordie was in control of the school -Good move there, Hollis- and she had to put an end to it. It was her mess after all, this was all Laura's fault and she was going to fix it, even if she had to die to make it right.
And so she worked, all night. Perry and Laf had gone to find weapons for the troops, Kirsch had gone to get the Zetas and the Summers, and Danny had gone with Theo and Mel in an attempt to get the people they needed to fight. Danny, who would do anything for her, who always came like a white knight, trying to protect her. She remembered feeling trapped last semester. Every time she wanted to do something, Danny seemed to want to control everything; control her. She knew Danny meant well, but this was not the way. It wasn't the way then, and it isn't now. And even if Mattie had done a lot of bad things, she wasn't going to kill Danny, at least Laura didn't think so. She had thought about it a lot and came to the conclusion that if Mattie wanted someone dead, she would have killed them. If things were actually gray, then maybe Mattie wasn't to blame, maybe Danny was wrong. She was scared to think of what that meant.
And so she pushed all those thoughts aside. Complaining and crying about the past wasn't going to change anything, and if they really wanted to take the school back, they would need to do it themselves. Besides, she had a lot of files to read if she wanted to find the answer, and they had very little time. The plan was pretty much settled: once Danny and Kirsch were back with the troops (by that time, Laura would already have a way to take away Vordie's power), and Laf and Perry had the weapons (Laf mentioned something about a warehouse near the Alchemy Club HQ having a few pieces of wood and tools), they would charge into the Dean's old office (now known as Vordie's HQ) and hit them with everything they've got. Sure, maybe it wasn't complex enough, but they managed to defeat the Dean with a similar strategy, right?
Just as Laura finished reading the files, a very excited LaFontaine entered the room followed by a very alarmed Perry.
"L, you need to check this out!" Laf said, an enormous grin on their face.
When Laura turned around, she saw LaFontaine grabbing a green chainsaw, and a wide-eyed Perry holding a giant bag filled with... stuff.
"Holy Hufflepuff Laf! A chainsaw, really?"
"Hey, if this doesn't finish Vordie off, nothing will"
Just in that moment, Kirsch and Danny came in. "Little Laura," Kirsch said "the troops are ready."
So this was it. They didn't know how to remove Vordie's power, the only thing they've managed to find was that it required some sort of blood ritual (most of the books were in Latin and, sadly, the only person who could read it was... Gone). Now is not the time, Laura. Get it together. They had hoped to find the answers by the time the troops arrived, which wasn't possible now.
"We didn't find anything in the books, at least not the ones we were able to read. We'll have to hold off the attack. Danny, I'm gonna need you to-"
Before she could finish the sentence, a husky voice she knew only too well said, "Oh no you won't, if I have something to say about it"
Everyone turned around, Danny with a stake in her hand, and stared at Carmilla, who was languidly standing at the door, a hard expression in her face. Laura looked right into her eyes, and when she did, she realized they weren't Carmilla's any longer. They were dark red like the blood she always used to drink, and seemed different, rougher, emptier. Her clothes were torn and her jaw tense. As soon as she was her, Laura knew: she had drunk the Anglerfish's blood. This didn't look like Carmilla at all; what Laura was looking at was a monster, an abomination and still... It was somehow the woman she loved, even if she never had the courage to say it out loud.
Anyone could feel the tension in the air, and the world seemed to stand still for a moment. Before anyone had time to say or do anything else, Laura stood up and, knowing that hell could break loose at any moment, she said: "Guys, calm down. Danny," she said staring at her "step back. I'll handle this."
Carmilla snorted, actually snorted, and looked Laura right in the eyes "Oh please, as if any of you were a match for me. Besides, I didn't come here to fight but to do you a favor. You see," she said as she grabbed one of the books Laura had been reading, the one in Latin, "the only way to defeat Grandpa up there," she said, pointing towards what used to be the Dean's office, "is to, well, use another kind of power, as strong as his, against him. You know, fight fire with fire. And, you see, as much as I would love to face him alone, it hasn't proved to be a successful idea so far. He has an army, and I need that army gone if I am to make a move."
"You've come to... help us?" said Laura, doing her best not to cry or run to hug her.
"Not precisely. I've merely come to offer you a deal. We have a common goal, you want him gone, I want him gone. You can't do this without me, and counting with your help would make things easier for me. So, do we have a deal?"
"Carm, what happened to you?" Laura whispered, and she was sure no one other than Carmilla could hear her. Carmilla stared at her, and Laura could swear she saw her eyes go soft for a moment before they turned even emptier than before, when she said:
"I said, do we have a deal?"
Laura turned her head back towards the rest of the group. Laf and Perry nodded, while Kirsch simply smiled like the puppy he is, and Danny stared at Laura as if to say 'are you sure about this?'
Laura nodded, turning around to face Carmilla and said "Deal."
"Good. We leave at midnight" she said as she walked out of the room, leaving Laura with an aching heart and with the weight of her decisions.