Chapter Text
The Mavis clones tried to spring at them, but they were easily knocked over.
Hordes of them flew up into the air as Dracula and Mavis barreled through, and then landed one on top of the other in a sort of teetering tower that keeled over. The rest of the awful doppelgangers closed in, but Mavis and Drac leapt triumphantly over their heads and up to the stone pillar with the gem. The vampire ripped it from its place, and it pulsated to life upon touch. The Mavis clones beneath shrieked in anger, and then something else began to happen. It started out with one of them at first, when a brilliant light began shining through from her black-nailed fingertips, up her arms, and then throughout her entire body. She became translucent, and then vanished entirely with a poof! And the very same thing was happening to the other evil clones.
Poof!
Poof!
Poof!
One by one, they all crumbled to dust, their only remnants being a couple of black ashes on the ground. Drac’s friends noticed too.
“Woo-hoo! They’re gone!” Murray cheered, speaking for all of them.
But the victory was short-lived. Everyone suddenly remembered the ferocious monster that was Ericka outside the cave when she roared powerfully. A fist against the cave wall crumbled more of the back wall, the morning sun blaring through. A ray caught Drac on the shoulder, and he fell from the air with a cry, taking Mavis and the Monsterfication Ray to the ground with him. But, despite the setback, Dracula was not about to give up on his wife. He clutched the ray in his hands and set off towards her.
“Dad, no, don’t! Let me!” Mavis cried, but it was too late.
“No! I have to do this!” Drac insisted. “Ericka saved me once, now it’s time I repay her the favor!”
The determined vampire bolted through as the wall that separated the Crystal Cave from the outdoors was starting to become no more. More rays of sunlight streamed through, each one striking Drac on his exposed skin, causing him to wince and gasp out loudly in pain. His body was smoking, brilliant red welts forming from where the beams touched his pale flesh. But none of that mattered, Drac knew he could handle it. He just had to get to her.
Just a little farther…
As Drac pushed himself forward, Ericka let out another rage-driven smash against the cavern wall, causing it to fall away completely this time. The sun, once bringing warmth and safety to Mavis, mercilessly bore down all its power upon the Count.
And Dracula just couldn’t take it anymore.
He fell to his knees, the ray clattering to the ground in front of him as he tried to shield himself, allowing his hands to take the brunt of the burning as he placed them over his head. He was to burn to a crisp, a failure, as his wife would succumb to the monstrous virus that had overtaken her system.
But just as he thought all hope was lost, a great looming shadow fell over him. He opened his eyes, and saw Frank!
“I saw you get burnt once,” the Stein said, referring to the time Drac had flown out to go get Johnny from Air Transylvania. “And I’m not about to let it happen again!”
Drac smiled gratefully up at his friend, and got his confidence back. Using his vampire vision, he quickly scanned the cave, and found a great stone ledge where he could mount himself upon to get just the right aim at Ericka. He pointed it out to Frank. “There!” he said. “I need to get up there!”
“No problem, Drac! We’ve got you covered!” Frank ran alongside the vampire, using his hulking shadow to protect his friend.
Eunice noticed what her husband was doing, and called order to the other humans and monsters around her. “Hey! What the heck are we standing around here for? We gotta help Drac! Go, go, go!”
The call to action was answered as they all came together and functioned as well as a team of the best trained soldiers, passing the shady protection from one to the next. When Frank covered as much space as he could next to Drac, Wayne, the wolf pups, Dennis, and Winnie stepped up, all in a neat row. Johnny leapt forward and used his kaki safari jacket to block out more of the sun than his thin frame could.
“Okay, Crystal,” Wayne called out. “You’re up now!”
“Got it!” she answered back. “Ready Wanda?”
Wanda, who was hoisting her upward on her shoulder, nodded. “Yes. But just hold still up there, sweetie!”
“I’m trying!” Crystal responded. The two women cast their shadows towards Drac, and he ducked under them.
Euncie clambered on top of another crystal piece. Her large do was able to cast a protective shadow for Drac, and he shapeshifted into a bat to fly over to where she was.
“Okay, Murray,” she called up to the other crystal pillar. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah!” he answered with a big thumbs up. He turned to Mandy, who he was holding onto by the waist. “Are you ready?”
“Absolutely!” she replied.
Murray lassoed his bandages onto a crystal shard on the ceiling and tugged it to make sure it held fast. Then, with a firm hold on his girlfriend, he swung himself on the bandage like a vine, an exact replica of Tarzan and Jane in the jungle. They whooped in delight as Drac flew alongside their shadows and finally landed on the stone ledge where he needed to be.
Wasting no time, Drac turned back into his humanoid form, switched on the Monsterficaiton ray, and aimed it right at Ericka, who had shoved her head inside and peered inward at the cave with an expression that seemed to be a mix of disgust and indignation. The Count looked at her with worry.
“Oh, please, Ericka, don’t let it be too late!” he whispered. With that, he sent a blast of the ray’s powerful green energy at her. It hit her squarely between the eyes, encompassing Ericka completely in a thrash of electric currents that would likely have killed any ordinary human being. It carried on for a moment more, before all went silent, even her roaring had ceased. But when the lights died down, and visibility was clear once again, nothing had changed. The monster-fied Ericka blinked once or twice in surprise at what had happened and then let out an angry bellow.
Drac’s face fell in devastation. It hadn’t worked. All this work, all this effort to find the crystal, and it really was too late.
Ericka shoved the rest of her body inside, causing the cavern to rock about and sending Drac falling down from his ledge and back to the ground next to Mavis. The girl saw the look of plain hopelessness on his face. He was losing his zing again, just like he did the night that Castle Lubov was burned to ashes by the angry human mob.
But Mavis refused to let it be this way.
“No, Dad!” she yelled to him. “It can’t be too late! It just can’t be!”
The vampiress-turned-human scaled up the crystals in swift, desperate strides until she came up to the ledge. Ericka saw this and swiped at the ledge with her massive tail, causing a break in the stalagmite. It gave way, the shattered pieces fell apart like glass, sending the girl tumbling through the air with a scream. But before she hit the ground, Ericka caught her and held onto Mavis with a steadfast, crushing grip. Flames begging to be released billowed in her throat as her angry red gaze zeroed in on the one woman who had caused her so much pain.
Mavis almost struggled to breath as she felt her ribs being compressed in Ericka’s hold, but she managed to push her words out.
“Ericka,” she wheezed, “you have to listen to me!”
A roar of fury erupted from her throat.
"YOU WANTED ME TO BE THE VILLAIN. SO, HERE I AM!!!" She bared her fangs and squeezed even tighter. Mavis was certain that the next thing she'd hear would be bones breaking, or that she'd see flames shooting straight toward her body. Her human heart beat erratically as she fought the urge to give in to her fear. With resoluteness, she spoke. "No, Ericka! This is NOT who you are! You're not evil! I know that's what I forced myself to believe, and that’s what I made you believe too. But it was so wrong of me to keep thinking like that!"
Ericka still seethed, but was not continuing to crush her in her grip, so Mavis continued talking as quickly and as soothingly as she could.
"It was really horrible what I did - lying to you, lying to the one person my dad found love with again and accepted into our family, and to his hotel. I was so caught up with what happened in the past, that I didn’t see you for who you were now. The kind, caring, and loving person who just wants to be there for my dad and find acceptance. And if you don't forgive me for it, I completely understand. It’s my fault that I didn’t realize this about you any sooner. If you eat me right here right now, and you stay a monster permanently, this is all on me, no doubt about it. But I need to tell you this before anything else happens..."
Mavis paused to draw in a deep breath. She closed her eyes, tilting her head up as some loose tears began to stream silently down her cheeks, hoping beyond hope that she would not die right there and then. Her family watched from down below, holding their breaths in anticipation as they watched the curious exchange between the human Mavis and the monster Ericka.
Then, as calmly as possible, Mavis continued.
"Ericka… my mother was a really special person that I never had a real chance to meet or grow up with… but…. But just because you’re my dad's second zing shouldn't make you any less of a person. It’s wrong.” She shook her head and opened her eyes to stare the woman right in her glowing red ones. “Yes, you’re human. Yes, you used to be a Van Helsing monster hunter… but more than any of that, you are also my Mom!"
Something clicked within Ericka.
Suddenly, her brilliant red eyes reverted back to normal. They were no longer filled with the burning hatred from before. They were soft, and kind, and full of compassion for the girl who was in her grasp. Mavis could see it too. She was back to herself, in her mind at the least. Now, it was only a matter of getting her back down to size.
“Mavis,” she breathed out. Then she yanked the girl toward her in a great big hug.
Mavis gave a little oof as her small body was squished tight against the monster woman’s chest. She smiled with contentment and returned the hug.
“Yes,” she replied. “I’m here, Mom. I’m here.”
Down below, Drac smiled in satisfaction as his two girls finally hugged it out. Johnny came up alongside him and swung an arm around his shoulders for a side hug. Drac rolled his eyes in annoyance at first, but then returned his son-in-law's hug with a little smirk playing on his lips. Then, the vampire lifted the ray and fired it at Ericka. The beam pulsed with a glowing green color and successfully began to shrink Ericka, reverting her monstrous features back into her regular human form.
She and Mavis were still locked in their hug when the last of the green light had drained away. The evidence of the exhausting day was clear in the torn clothes and dark circles beneath both of their eyes. But the only thing that mattered to them was the fact that they had each other now. Drac came up to his girls and wrapped his arms around their shoulders, drawing them in close.
“Thank goodness you're both okay," he murmured softly.
Johnny couldn't contain himself any longer. "Awww, come on everyone!" he called to the others. "Group hug!"
Mavis and Ericka laughed as they were squeezed in from all sides, each of their arms - furry, bandaged, stitched, invisible, or just plain human - wrapped around them. The love was real, and the joy was mutual.
They'd made it through another adventure together, and now they could finally start heading home.