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Castle Fullmoon and Franklin's warriors are no more, the survivors having been brought into line by Jeanne and the rest of the Raven's Guard (though a few may have been dragged off by some of Drusilla's family).\n\nI've been dreaming up these ideas since last October and it was a real joy to finally be able to use them, though there were several changes that wound up happening. For one, it was originally going to just be Arja, Simoni, Nelen, Dawn, Drusilla, and Natasha... as in [i]just[/i] them. I wanted to keep the group small so we could focus on individual characters easier... so much for that idea though.\n\nAlso, I had toyed with the idea of Dawn actually dying. The Arcane Blade managing to push the Mundane Blade to the very edge, but needing one final push to shatter it which Dawn would wind up giving by throwing herself on Franklin's sword in order to protect her family... but yeah, I liked this outcome better. Its a real downer to have to kill the heroes, so in the end I decided that Arja and Simoni were enough on their own... that and it'd kinda cheapen the whole 'divine intervention' thing if it didn't actually work.\n\nSo what happens now? Well, as Nelen observed all the monsters, demons, and whatever that were inside the Mundane Blade are freed now, as well as every drop of magical energy that it had stored up since it was forged back in the days of prehistory. The world is beginning to become a very different place thanks to that. More people are awakening to magic, monsters and other creatures are being sighted all over the planet (the Mundane Blade didn't just always stay in Ireland after all), and humanity... as blind as they are... might be getting the idea that something is up.\n\nThis isn't the end, oh no no no it is -not-. Paale is still out there, a whole mess of nasty things just escaped their eons-long imprisonment, and magical energy is seeping throughout the world. Things are going to get very interesting very soon.\n\nConsider this basically the end of Season 1... :3","description_bbcode_parsed":"<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>And yes, that&#039;s the end for Franklin Fullmoon. Castle Fullmoon and Franklin&#039;s warriors are no more, the survivors having been brought into line by Jeanne and the rest of the Raven&#039;s Guard (though a few may have been dragged off by some of Drusilla&#039;s family).<br /><br />I&#039;ve been dreaming up these ideas since last October and it was a real joy to finally be able to use them, though there were several changes that wound up happening. For one, it was originally going to just be Arja, Simoni, Nelen, Dawn, Drusilla, and Natasha... as in <em>just</em> them. I wanted to keep the group small so we could focus on individual characters easier... so much for that idea though.<br /><br />Also, I had toyed with the idea of Dawn actually dying. The Arcane Blade managing to push the Mundane Blade to the very edge, but needing one final push to shatter it which Dawn would wind up giving by throwing herself on Franklin&#039;s sword in order to protect her family... but yeah, I liked this outcome better. Its a real downer to have to kill the heroes, so in the end I decided that Arja and Simoni were enough on their own... that and it&#039;d kinda cheapen the whole &#039;divine intervention&#039; thing if it didn&#039;t actually work.<br /><br />So what happens now? Well, as Nelen observed all the monsters, demons, and whatever that were inside the Mundane Blade are freed now, as well as every drop of magical energy that it had stored up since it was forged back in the days of prehistory. The world is beginning to become a very different place thanks to that. More people are awakening to magic, monsters and other creatures are being sighted all over the planet (the Mundane Blade didn&#039;t just always stay in Ireland after all), and humanity... as blind as they are... might be getting the idea that something is up.<br /><br />This isn&#039;t the end, oh no no no it is -not-. Paale is still out there, a whole mess of nasty things just escaped their eons-long imprisonment, and magical energy is seeping throughout the world. Things are going to get very interesting very soon.<br /><br />Consider this basically the end of Season 1... :3</span>","writing":"Its about a day after the group's impromptu detour to England and the plane is just about over Jaipur. Stephy is still sore after overusing his glamour like that, but otherwise seems to be recovering... as they get to where the pilots begin their usual descent however, Nelen gets called up front to the cabin. A few minutes later he emerges and glances out one of the windows. \"Huh, weird... Pilot says he can't raise anyone at the airport and I can't get Edwood or Rajesh to answer their phones...\" he comments, gazing down at the city below.\n\nA look out the window would reveal something odd... Its almost nighttime, but there's no lights in the town either.\n\nArja tilts her head as she looks down out of the window, \"That's... not good. Like, this is super ominous...\" she frowns, pulling her dampener bracelet off. \"Something's coming, fuck stealth mode.\" she nods firmly, already standing up. Drusilla frowns softly as she gets ready as well, shaking her head, \"We'd break lamps during our raids to make things too dark to see in towns we attack, we can see just fine in dark so we had an advantage, think it's something like that?\" \n\nSimoni sits up herself, her own bracelet already off. \"It does seem weird but, I dunno, maybe it's just a blacko-\" she starts to say, right before a bright flash lights up the ground under them, followed swiftly by a loud explosion. Simoni goes rigid as Lupe yelps, growling as she looks out the window. From down below smoke is rising up into the twilight gloom and a bright fire is crackling.\n\nNelen's face goes ashen as he stares down, \"Son of a bitch! That came from the house!\" he yells, \"I'm heading to the cockpit. Stay put!\" he nods firmly to the group, heading back up to see if he can't convince the pilot to try for an emergency landing.\n\nArja frowns as she pushes her face against the window, trying to see the fire, \"What the fuck, the house is warded against everything from napalm to random lightning strikes! Mom made the runes herself!\" despite her angry look her breathing was shallow, it was obvious she was afraid under all of that...\n\nSimoni is staring out the window as Lupe growls low and long, her claws lengthening. Dawn is looking out the windows as well before she suddenly yowls as three more explosions shake the plane. There's no mistaking it, this isn't one of Lara's experiments fouling up or something. They're under attack! \"Holy crap, whoever is down there means business...\" she hisses as Simoni shakes her head, \"Its Clan Fullmoon, it HAS to be.\" she nods as the plane continues to circle, the pilot refusing to land without some indication of a runway or landing lights.\n\nSimoni hesitates, glancing around the cabin, then nods and grabs Arja's wrist. \"This way!\" she says, pulling her out of her seat and back towards the back of the plane.\n\nArja nods to simoni \"Dru, you come too.\" she nods, grabbing the cyclops’s wrist, \"I know it's a lot of weight but we need someone who can handle ‘it’ in case...\" she trails off, looking at Simoni \"We can clear the fire and you handle... yea... you handle it...\" she nods firmly. The unspoken ‘it’ was, of course, Franklin’s sword. The Mundane Blade, empowered to devour all magic that it came into contact with, was impossible for all but three members of their group to fight directly. Drusilla the cyclops, Aisha deLane the knight, and Alice the blind hunter could handle it because, unlike the others, none of them actually used magic to fight. To them the Mundane Blade was just a huge sword.\n\nSimoni nods, heading back to the plane's cargo hold. \"Nelen is going to scream so loud about this later...\" she sighs, then makes sure the door behind them is closed tight before hitting the emergency button, causing the hold's door to open. There's a sudden rush of wind all through the hold as the darkened skyline appears below them... and then a green blur as Simoni, in her garuda form, darts out of the plane with Arja on her back and Drusilla holding onto her legs. Despite her determination she's having quite a bit of trouble holding up both of them, having to use twice as much wind magic just to clear the plane's jet stream without getting knocked out of control.\n\nLuckily as soon as the group is nearer to the ground, Dru lets go, the cyclops girl dropping herself like some kind of orbital strike as soon as they were low enough where she wouldn't break her bones as her dense body hits the ground with a rather loud crash. She goes right into 'battle mode', eye scanning the area to get a count for how many soldiers there were, and who was in charge...\n\nThe house has definitely seen better days. There's fires everywhere and the front door is smashed right off it's hinges. There's a sudden loud yelping sound and a wall of fur and muscle comes flying backwards out of the house as Sandra, in full werewolf form, almost crashes right into Drusilla. She's looking pretty bad too, several large cuts on her chest, sides, and arms that were most likely inflicted with silver given that they're still there at all. Despite the injuries she’s still growling with fury as she tries to limp back towards the house.\n\nNearby is Edwood, apparently an early casualty of the fight. He's breathing, but he's got a head wound and there's a lot of blood on the ground near where he's laying. The sound of fighting is coming from inside the house, loud voices yelling in both English and Hindi as well as lots of crashes and the sound of metal on metal. Clan Fullmoon is definitely here, but whoever is left inside is still putting up a fight.\n\nArja has a moment of totally freezing up as she sees the damage to her house before she shakes her head clear, \"Alright, we have to be fast!\" she nods to Simoni, \"Start circling the house, I'll pull the fire up and you snuff the air out, that'll handle it fast, from there we have an easier time...\" she says as Drusilla grabs Ed, pulling him free of the battle area before charging through the front door, bashing through anyone with red hair and muscles in her way \"FRANKLIN!\" she roars angrily, the cyclops in proper rage mode as Fullmoon troops go flying out of her way...\n\nSimoni nods to Arja as they begin work on the flames, trying to douse them as quickly as possible before they can spread. Inside several of the warriors are surprised by the sudden appearance of the one eyed girl, keeping their swords pointed at her but giving her a wide berth at the same time. They heard about what happened to Robert Fullmoon... Before Drusilla can locate the patriarch however she realizes she's surrounded by warriors in a circle. They're not moving, keeping her in the middle, but if she dives for one three others will attack her from behind.\n\nArja begins pulling the fire upward, making a rather overt pillar of fire in the night sky, but at least keeping the house from being covered in flames anymore, shifting into her monkey form as she taps into more and more of her magic, \"Alright, go faster, we can pull the air out!\"\n\nDrusilla, meanwhile, takes in a deep breath, looking at the circle. This was how warriors fought cyclopi in the old days, you can't stand up to one face to face, but swarm it and make it unable to attack without opening itself up to a death blow and you can at least contain it. She keeps her war face on though, glaring at the men as she looks around, \"So, which one of you am I going to tear up first?” she grins menacingly at the swordsmen around her.\n\nBack outside Simoni nods, channeling her wind not to blow towards the flames, but away from them, pulling any oxygen from the fires to suffocate them. Slowly, the flames begin to die down and, after what feels like several minutes, nothing but embers remain.\n\nInside the house the men stare down Drusilla, none of them flinching at her threats. It seems these ones are the ones that Franklin trusted to do this assault above all others, the cyclops can't psyche them out. As she stares she notices one of them glance across to his friend behind her and nod... and then suddenly he lets out a yell in gaelic and pulls a small tube from his pocket, pulling a pin on it as all the warriors quickly cover or close their eyes. From outside it's like a miniature sun went nova inside the house, all the lower floor windows lighting up at once. Inside... well, it sucks having one huge eye and having THAT happen right infront of you, thats for sure! Their tactics may be based on old fighting styles, but it seems that Franklin, or someone anyways, had made sure that Clan Fullmoon was at least somewhat modernized.\n\nDrusilla screams as she grabs her eye, falling down to her knees as she takes the entire blast right in the face. Indeed just like in the stories, a cyclops's eye is a very vulnerable target, all those receptors and such that already were working overtime, getting flash-banged was as painful as an actual physical blow to their sensitive eyeballs.\n\nMeanwhile, in her lab, Lara watches the scene above through video cameras, frowning. This wasn't good, historically an angry mob and fire tended to end badly for people like her. \"Alright, Simoni's gonna kill me, but fucked if I'm going out like this…\" she says, walking to a storage fridge and pressing a button on the side, the metal door sliding open with a low hiss... and then another low hiss coming from inside. The invaders above had about a minute before a very angry stitched together naga corpse was barreling through them, razor sharp claws and fangs trained to eat anything that wasn't part of the house... It was a dangerous enemy to have, but it wasn't sentient like Lara, more like a well programmed robot vs her as HAL.\n\nTHAT gets their attention! Several of them fall to the sudden appearance of the undead serpent before one of them manages to get his arm around the thing's neck long enough for his buddy to stuff another incendiary down it's throat. The men all dive away at once right before another explosion rocks the house and repaints the hallway with naga bits. These weren't just the ordinary grunts it seemed, Franklin sent his elite to deal with this battle. As the survivors of the undead naga's attack shake themselves off one of them puts a finger to his ear, then yells \"We got what we came for lads! SCATTER!\" as they all go for whatever is the nearest exit. Front door, back door, side doors, windows, whatever, each one picking a direction and running like the devil itself was on his heels... though with how Arja probably is right now it would be hard to tell the difference.\n\nArja roars angrily as she sees the men running, each warrior taking a different route so that they couldn’t all be followed together. She snarls, sending the final bits of the fire remaining at whatever fleeing Fullmoon was closest before the fire dissipates, Drusilla still recovering from her blinding and Lara making mental notes to figure a more fire resistant method of embalming. \"What did he mean 'what they came for'? Everyone get together, we're doing a headcount!\" Arja yells to the group, they didn't have many artifacts or the like, knowing the Fullmoon 'what they came for' sounded a lot more like a 'who'.\n\nSimoni nods as the survivors come back in. Sandra is injured badly, but nothing vital. It'll just take a long time to heal. Edwood appears to have a concussion and is being half carried in by the werewolf, the man's eyes refusing to focus. \"I dunno... I mean, why would they come here if it wasn't for us?\" she asks, then almost falls over as Dawn, Nelen, Lupe, and the rest of the group appears in the middle of the room, Dawn falling onto the floor and shaking her head as she tries to clear it. \"Dammit I HATE having to do that from a vehicle... Y'know how hard it is to make sure we don't wind up appearing inside of something?\" she growls as Lupe immediately begins sniffing around, trying to pick up anything she can. \n\nAfter a few minutes Lupe tilts her head and rrfs in a confused way, \"... Fire hair hunters here... but old hunter not with them...\" she says, flicking her ear curiously, then puts her nose back down and continues along the floor, heading towards the bedrooms.\n\nArja frowns, following Lupe, \"Dads in New Delhi for a conference, Fullmoon isn't stupid enough to play actual terrorist and make a move on him, even he got him alone everyone would notice 'oh hey our diplomat randomly didn't show up today, we should call the cops or something’…\" she says before her mind goes to the next step, eyes moving around the crowd of gathered people, \"Anyone seen mom?\" she asks, not sure if her mother was here or at the temple today...\n\nSimoni shakes her head... but then they enter the master bedroom. Its a disaster inside. The bed is split in half, there's holes in the walls, and in the corner is... well, it used to be a Fullmoon warrior... but now, at least from the elbows up, it's a pile of charcoal... Iravati was here, and she definitely put up a fight... but...\n\nLupe pads over to a wall, looks up at something on it, and lets out a low whine. There's a knife driven into the wall, pinning two things to it. One is a Polaroid photograph, the old instant kind that developed themselves, of a masked Fullmoon warrior holding a struggling Indian woman, a metal cuff with the symbol of Manannin mac Lir etched into it around one of her wrists. The other is a note reading 'The monkey and the bird will surrender themselves at Castle Fullmoon in one week or she dies'.\n\nArja just stares at the photo for a minute, breathing in and out deeply. In Hindu myths compassion and mercy was a virtue, and even the most war like god was shown to have moments of kindness even to their enemy, but one sure fire way to ensure that even a peaceful god will demand vengence and blood is to harm their family.\n\n\"I'm going to burn his castle down... I'm going to burn his ISLAND down... I'm going to lead an army to his door, and I'm going to make him watch as I disembowel everyone he loves in front of him, only after that am I going to cut his head off...\" her voice was calm, even, almost emotionless as her eyes remain locked on the picture, her breathing getting heavier.\n\nNelen looks at the note, his expression grave as Arja feels a pair of arms wrapping around her from behind, Simoni pulling the furious monkey girl into her. \"... yeah. You are.\" says Nelen, nodding, \"I know Franklin. She won't last a week if he's got her.\" he frowns, \"Arja, your family still eager for payback against him?\" he asks, though he hardly needs to. If they weren't before then doing something like this would definitely re-ignite that spark.\n\nArja nods, lightly pushing Simoni's arms from her as she's already walking to the door, \"Come on, we're marching tonight, this is over. Franklin wants to fancy himself a big mighty crusader then I'll give him a proper army to crusade against. If he thinks what he saw at the temple was the worst we can do he doesn't know anything...\"\n\nNelen nods as Simoni hesitates for a moment when she's pushed away, but immediately falls into pace behind Arja. Dawn slips over next to her as they walk, \"Question. If she's headed to Castle Fullmoon, and that's in Ireland... how are we getting an army there?\" she asks, giving a meaningful glance towards Nelen as she says it.\n\nArja makes her way to an intercom on the wall, punching the button hard enough to crack the wall around it, \"Lara! I'll forget about you making abominations in my basement if you get your undead ass up here RIGHT now! We need a portal.\" There's a pause before Lara's voice comes through the speaker, \"Yeah I heard. Look, Fullmoon castle is in a place I've never been, I'm going to need some time to get the materials and get things ready and even then I can like, put you NEAR it but there's no way I'm gonna be able to make a portal to his front door for you.\" \n\nArja just nods, \"You have an hour while I get my family ready, get us as close as you can, we're not afraid of a little marching though.\" When Lara agrees she moves her hand from the button at that, taking another step before stopping suddenly, letting out a choking noise as her shoulders begin to rise and fall rapidly.\n\nNelen winces as Simoni quickly pulls Arja to her again, this time not letting go even if she tries to push her away. \"Arja, it's going to be alright. We'll stop him. We'll get Iravati back.\" she says in as soothing a tone as she can manage, her own voice cracking a bit. Iravati had accepted Simoni as her own daughter from the minute she'd first arrived in India, it wasn't easy for her either.\n\nArja held Simoni close as well that time, just whimpering softly for a moment before composing herself again, keeping herself together as they get to the temple.\n\nThings move fast after that. Lara gets her portal set up as Nelen goes to explain to Jeanne and the rest of the renegade Fullmoons what's happened while Simoni goes to tell Lakshimi and see if any of the Garuda would be willing to offer their aid, leaving Arja to explain things to Akul.\n\nShe takes in a deep breath as she walks up the temple steps. No more scared young girl, even though Iravati was his daughter, Arja asking to take the temple to war was a huge request. The monkeys of the temple were, primarily, defensive. They remained in the temple and through the cities to protect people. The only time they ever marched under a war banner was when a threat was so great the world itself was in danger, such as a demon king or, well, a genocidal hunter with a magic-eating sword.\n\nAs Arja heads in she hears a voice, \"Hey, monkey.\" it says. Leaning against one of the walls is Dawn, her tail around one of her legs as she glances over at Arja. \"... look, I know I'm not always the best houseguest here and stuff but...\" she squirms, letting out a low mrowling sound, \"... just... I know how it feels okay? What you're feeling I mean. So... yeah... I'm here if... y'know, stuff.\" she mutters, looking away before grumbling something under her breath.\n\nArja smiles softly to Dawn, nodding \"Yea, thanks. I know you do the whole... acting like a cat ‘thing’ and all but... I know you're good, and I know that my home is your home by now. I appreciate it.\" she says, reaching to rub the cat's head softly, \"We're gonna end it, not just for me, but for everyone he's hurt. He's not gonna break any more families.\"\n\nDawn's expression flickers at that, but she pretends not to show it, \"Yeah, well, whatever. I need to go see if Nelen is all set.\" she nods, teleporting away rather abruptly. Eventually Nelen, Simoni, Arja, Lakshimi, Akul, and Jeanne all gather as Nelen tells them what he knows about the current state of Castle Fullmoon.\n\n\"Right... Dawn and I have been spying on Franklin for a while now, so as far as I know here's how he's going to work this. Normally he'd have sent Iravati to a private cell in Inishmor but, well, we saw to that a month ago... so odds are she's going to be in the Castle dungeons.\" he nods, \"First things first, we need to get Iravati out. I'm going to need as many of us as we can get to distract the bulk of Clan Fullmoon's army while Dawn and I teleport in a group to get her out. The dungeons are warded against teleportation but the rest of the castle isn't... after all, it's the headquarters of a clan of hunters. You'd need to be a special kind of crazy to try to teleport INTO a place like that.\" he nods, \"I'll take our group in and find where they're holding her, then get her back out and behind our lines as quickly as I can. Once she's out, we go all in. Don't stop until the castle is in ruins if we have to, but this has to stop tonight. Franklin has shown he's ready to risk an international incident to get to us, so it doesn't just affect us anymore.\" he nods firmly.\n\nClan Fullmoon may not have actually kidnapped Rajesh, but they took his wife hostage… and Rajesh is an Indian diplomat. This is the kind of act that wars are started over. If they didn’t rescue her and the Indian government found out, it could be considered an act of war by Ireland, even if the act wasn’t committed by the Irish government. This could very easily involve the mundane population.\n\nAkul nods softly at the blood mage’s words, \"We are taught to be slow to war, even in cases like then when my heart breaks for my daughter's capture, but this man has shown he has nothing but hate and darkness in his heart. He is a threat, not just to my kin, but to the kin of every non-mundane in the world. Arja will have full command of the temple, as long as his men don't have blades like his we will be able to provide all the 'distraction' that's needed.” Arja nods at that as well, growling angrily, \"We're done showing mercy. We saved their women. Any man who still has any love for family in his heart is gone from that castle, we're going to end the Fullmoon line as far as I'm concerned, burn his banners and break his throne. If anyone wants to rebuild it will be from ash.\" \n\nAkul frowns softly, but nods, \"Your rage troubles me, granddaughter, but it is understandable, if I were your age, facing such a thing, I cannot claim I would be as calm as I am now. As I said, the temple is yours to command...\"\n\nNelen nods, \"Yeah, still... we want to be ready in case Franklin has any other nasty tricks up his sleeves. Probably be best to have some other non-magic types around who can put up a good fight. Arja, we're going to make one stop before we go to Ireland.\" he nods, \"I'm going to need Lara to make another portal, to Sicily. I want to see if we can recruit Drusilla's tribe for this one.\" he nods, \"We're attacking Franklin in his home turf, we need to stack the deck in our favor as much as possible.\"\n\nDrusilla grins, \"My mom should go along with that, it's been a while since we've been able to siege a castle...\" she replies as Sammi frowns softly. \n\n\"If you want,” the fae boy adds, “I could ask grandmother for help. I mean, if the castle can be teleported in, we could send our soldiers inside while the fight is going on outside... double pronged hit. I can't promise you an army like the monkeys, grandmother's court is not very militaristic, but we have some... ‘specialists’... that can be called on.\" \n\nThis causes Arja to stand, nodding firmly, \"We're going to throw everything at him. He's hurt so many of us, he's done so much damage to the magical world, we're going to drown him in the blood he's spilled. We're going to call in every favor we can, every grudge. Get Alice and Aisha to meet us at home we're going to need mundane fighters who can get close to him. Find everyone he's hurt or taken a loved one from and offer them a chance to finish this. He's going to feel the wages of his sin long before his soul is judged on the cosmic cycle.\"\n\nNelen nods to both ideas, \"Good thinking Sammi. You and Stephy go talk to Sera. Drusilla you, me, Dawn, Arja, and Simoni will go to Sicily to get your tribe's help. Anyone who's wounded should stay here, and Natasha should probably guard the house... well, what's left of it anyway. I can't guarantee that this'll be over before the sun becomes an issue for her. Everyone else, get to Ireland and get ready.\" he nods, standing up and heading out with the others. \n\nAs they leave Simoni eyes him suspiciously, \"Nelen, how long have you been planning this?\" she asks. He shrugs and replies, \"A while. I kinda figured this would be the only way to put a solid end to it.\" he nods, heading back through the portal to the mundane world and going to Lara's laboratory. He explains the situation to her and asks if she can make another portal on short notice.\n\nLara nods and starts getting her materials out, \"Sicily I can do pretty easy. I went there for summer once, I can put you in a nice little fishing village.\" says the zombie girl as Drusilla nods, \"The clan likes sea food.\" she comments.\n\n Lara starts smearing ink on a doorframe in the basement, writing Hebrew characters all around it \"Ready?\" she asks before taking a handfull of dirt from a small jar and tossing it into the door, the dirt seeming to hang in midair before shaking and expanding into a black void...\n\nNelen nods, he's seen this sort of magic before... hell it's how half the ways into the Nightside work. He steps through with the group and, after a few minutes of walking in darkness combined with searing existential horror, they emerge in a little fishing village around lunchtime (time difference from India and all that). Nelen looks around, then sees several large women at a local bar, one of whom is wearing a purple toga while all the others are wearing white. \"Well, thats convenient.\" he nods.\n\nDrusilla smiles, happily making her way to the woman \"Mom!\" she calls out happily, the woman turning to look at the group, breaking into a wide smile of her own, \"Drusilla, and your friends! Wonderful to see you again!\" the Cyclopi seem as friendly as ever, though the multiple broken kegs that once contained beer scattered around them probably helped that.\n\nNelen nods politely to her, \"Hello again. Sorry if this is a bit sudden but... well, shit has kind of hit the fan for us and we could use some large and ridiculously strong help...\" he says, then goes on to explain the situation and the upcoming siege... \"... so yeah, this is your chance to get back at that man who sent Edwood after us and caused all that trouble for you guys a while back. Interested?\" he asks.\n\nThe woman frowns softly at that, listening quietly to his story, but to Nelen’s dismay she shakes her head when it's finished, \"I'm sorry, truly I am, especially for you little Arja…\" she says, turning her one eyed gaze to Arja before looking back to Nelen, \"But I simply can't give my tribe to such an attack...\" \n\nDrusilla looks legitimately shocked by that, staring at her mother, \"But why? Don't you want revenge on the man who almost enslaved our tribe?\" she demands… though ‘almost’ is a bit of a stretch. Edwood couldn’t have controlled them indefinitely and even if he could he had no intention of doing so.\n\n\"I do,\" she replies, \"And believe me, I wish you all luck. If you would like weapons or armor you're welcome to our supplies, but... Drusilla, our people, among all the giants' blood, have been ground into the dirt the hardest through time. Enslaved, hunted, destroyed, we are... an endangered race... I simply cannot send the few we have left across the sea to fight an Irish castle for an Indian's war... for too long we have done things like that, and in every war we have been the ones left to bury our dead while the armies sing of victory...\"\n\nNelen falters a bit, \"I... you're sure? I mean, this is your shot at striking back at the man who attacked you and...\" he stops, seeing her reaction as his shoulders slump a bit. He was so sure... \"I... well... alright, I mean, I can't force you to.\" he nods, looking a bit disheartened... until Dawn looks at him in a confused way, \"Nelen, why didn't you tell her?\" she asks.\n\nNelen looks back at the cat and frowns, \"I did tell her. I told her the whole thing.\" he replies, to which she shakes her head, \"Not the whole thing. I mean, do you not want Simoni to know? Are you guys keeping it secret or something?\" she asks. Nelen raises his eyebrow at her, \"Know what? What are you talking about Dawn?\" he asks as she sighs, \"Look, I get it. If you wanna keep it private for some weird ‘human’ reason then thats all well and good normally but this is a bit of a big deal right now...\" she says, putting emphasis on the last few words.\n\nNelen glares at her, \"Dawn, what the HELL are you talking about?\" he demands as she replies, \"Oh come on, drop the act. You...\" she pauses, \"... holy balls you really don't know do you?\" she asks, looking at Arja and Simoni with an incredulous look on her face, \"He really doesn't know...\" she says again. Lupe earflicks and shrugs, \"Lupe know.\" she barks. Dawn gestures to the werewolf as she looks at Nelen, \"See? Even Lupe knows!\" she protests as Lupe growls, \"What cat mean 'even Lupe'?!\" she demands as Dawn waves her into silence. \"You really, HONESTLY don't know?! I've been able to tell since we got to Japan! How do you humans deal with living like that? It must be like having plugs up your noses your entire life!\"\n\nNelen is getting pretty annoyed now, already upset that the cyclopti refused to help, as his eyes begin to redden around the edges. \"Dawn... if you don't get to the point RIGHT-\" he starts as Dawn just throws her arms up and yells, \"SHE'S PREGNANT YOU IDIOT! DRUSILLA IS PREGNANT! YOU KNOCKED HER UP! SHE HAS A BUN IN THE OVEN! YOU ARE HER BABY DADDY! YOU NEED TO GET A REINFORCED CRIB! SHE IS GOING TO GIVE BIRTH TO YOUR KITTENS!\" she yowls.\n\nNelen's eyes go from reddening to white... then his face joins them, then it seems his hair and beard are starting to turn pale as he stares at her... then looks to Drusilla, then back to her... and then replies in a small, high, squeak... \"... what.\"\n\nDrusilla blinks a bit at Dawn, face turning bright red as she seems to freeze up at that, which is probably good for the cat because in her mind she was thinking 'crush the fuzzy one'.\n\nThe matriarch raises he brow at that \"Wait... is she telling the truth?\" she asks, standing, the other women standing with her as she towers over Nelen, looking down at the human, \"Is what your little cat friend saying true?\"\n\nNelen doesn't seem to notice them... or anything around him really. It seems that he's having trouble remembering things at the moment, like how his lungs work. Dawn sighs and shoves him in the arm, \"Humans...\" she shakes her head, \"Yeah, its true. I guess he didn't know... I can't imagine how, I mean one sniff will tell you that her hormones are all weird and that she's starting to lactate and stuff.\" she nods, \"And given that Nelen is the only male she's been doing anything with it's pretty obvious who the sire is.\" she adds, \"So yeah. Drusilla is pregnant and Nelen is the father.\" she says matter of factly, then looks around at Nelen (who looks like he might have a stroke), Simoni (who looks about ready to faint), and Lupe (who looks like Lupe always does). \"... what?\" she asks.\n\nArja just kinda stares, unsure how this is going to play out as Drusilla's mother stares at Nelen for a moment long before surging forward and picking the man up into a rather tight, bone-creaking, hug. \"I had no idea! Well then, this does change some things, you're a part of this clan then!\" she laughs loudly, Drusilla still standing frozen in shock next to her.\n\nNelen barely moves, his legs even stay straight, and it seems he's in shock through the whole thing as Simoni leans into Arja. It seems that her own head is caught between 'I'm going to be an aunt!' and 'OhgodohgodewewewNelendidstuff!' and something got stuck as Dawn shrugs, \"Whats the big deal? I mean you just find a decent warm box, she squirts out a litter, and life goes on. Right?\" she asks as Simoni seems to shake herself loose, \"Um... Dawn... its different for... um... not cats.\" she replies, sounding a bit dazed as she watches the other cyclopti congratulating Drusilla. Its true she had been eating more than she usually did (though it was hard to tell with her) and that she seemed to get tired faster than usual... but...\n\nDrusilla lets out a sigh of relief as it seems everyone is taking this well, not sure how the clan would react to 'the blood' being further watered down. They were hardly racial purists or anything, but considering what her mother just said about them being 'endangered' she wasn't sure how her having a human's kid would go over... especially if her mother found out where Nelen’s magic actually came from. \"So... yea... since Nelen isn't just some guy asking for us to be involved in a war between outsiders...\" she offers, her mother nodding, \"Of course of course! The father of my grandchild needs help getting his friend's mother back, and will allow us revenge on someone who wanted to enslave us! How can I say no to that? Come on girls, get some more kegs and we're going to take a castle!\" she calls, the others cheering loudly for that.\n\nDawn grins widely, \"Alright! Lets go get tore up and hurt someone! WOO!\" she cheers, then looks up at Nelen, then reaches up and slaps him across the face, \"Snap out of it Wizzo. Its not like you didn't get to practice raising a kid with me all those years.\" she smirks as the cyclopti get ready to head back through the portal, then through the second one in India, emerging in the woods about a half mile from Castle Fullmoon in Ireland.\n\nStephy walks up as they arrive, wearing a knee-length white sleevless tunic under a thin silvery hauberik. \"Finally! We were starting to get worried. Mom pulled some strings and we have a bunch of ogres and redcaps ready to...\" he pauses, \"... um, what happened?\" he asks Nelen, noticing his expression. \"I'll tell you when you're older.\" he replies, to which Stephy frowns and says, \"You do realize, given our lifestyle, that doesn't really fl-\" he starts to which Nelen replies, in the same tone of voice, \"Shut up or I'll let Merihim out.\"\n\nStephy simply nods, making a quick retreat, as Nelen gathers up Simoni, Arja, Drusilla, Lupe, and Dawn for the infiltration. \"Alright... despite... that... we need to get in there and get Iravati out. Dawn can teleport us in, and from there we'll follow Lupe's nose. Remember, they're going to be focused on the group at the gates, not us. We get in, we find her, we get her out... and THEN we deal with Franklin.\" he nods firmly.\n\nSammi nods, slapping Stephy's back, dressed in a similar outfit as his brother, though his tunic was shorter with black pants. \"It was mainly Stephy's doing getting the extra forces, good job putting on the big teary eyes.\" he teases, \"When you guys get in there'll be some guys waiting for you, just let them do their thing, spoiler alert their thing is freezing people and using ice blades to slit throats.\" \n\nArja nods at Sammi, then looks to the others, \"When we get in there I want all of you to charge the gate, we're going to split his forces and force him out to command the battle.\" she says to her army, a chorus of shrieks and howls from the monkeys coming in response, the Cyclopi stomping their feet and roaring as well as the renegade Fullmoons wave their swords above their heads and roar a battle cry in gaelic, all their men wearing a black tabard with a green raven over a shield on it, the symbol of their new ‘Raven’s Guard’. \n\n“… and when he comes out, we'll kick his ass!\" Drusilla calls with a grin, cracking her knuckles loudly. Alice and Aisha have taken a place among the cyclopi, Aisha holding a sword similiar to her ancestor's, curved blade with a traditional english pommel, wearing new looking chainmail armor. Alice was dressed about the same as always, her cane 'unsheathed' to reveal the blade hidden inside...\n\nSimoni wondered for a moment why Aisha didn't have Claim Solias with her, until she remembered that Nelen had told her to leave it behind. It was too big a risk that the Mundane Blade would destroy a magical weapon outright, so she'd be better off with a normal weapon instead of the Sword of Light.\n\nNelen looks around the armies, then nods. \"Right, we're going in. Press them, keep them off balance, but don't move in for the kill until after we get Iravati out. Anyone who is magic or can use magic do what you can, but if Franklin shows up get the hell away and let the Cyclopti or our own Fullmoons fight him. His sword is a Mundane Blade, it will destroy your magic if he uses it on you.\" he nods firmly, moving back to the group, then nods to Dawn. \"Do your thing.\" he says as Dawn quickly glomps the six of them. \"Group hug!\" she grins as they all vanish with a small thunderclap, appearing in an out of the way and disused corridor inside the Castle.\n\nIt looks just like one would expect from an old Irish castle. No fancy carpets or hanging tapestries, but stout stone walls with small slits just big enough to fire a weapon through. The only difference is the electric lights above them. As soon as they're inside Lupe gets down to all fours and sniffs at the air, \"Lots fire hairs... old man came here few times...\" she sniffs more, then her ears perk up, \"Smell curry, fur, soot. Monkey mom this way!\" she nods, heading quickly down the hall as, outside, the siege begins, the castle suddenly shaking as if, say, a tribe of cyclops women had tossed the biggest boulders they could find at the walls. With friends like them who needs siege weapons?\n\nArja nods, moving quickly behind Lupe. As the group moves they'd see shimmering bits of air, like hot asphalt on summer, bits of pure glamour left behind as those 'specialist' forces from Sera teleport around the castle, Fullmoon soldiers dropping dead with frostbite around wounds that seem to come from nowhere. \"Let's move fast, this is good chaos but it'll only last so long, once Franklin joins the fray our forces are gonna be reduced to just Dru’s family and our mundanes.\"\n\nNelen nods as he tries to keep up with the werewolf, Lupe quickly running through the corridors, then down another hallway, then another, and then suddenly skittering to a halt as she freezes right before another turn, letting out a low growl as her back arches. At the end of the hallway is a reinforced door with two warriors standing guard. Dawn pulls Lupe back as Simoni frowns, \"Thats gotta be where she's being kept... only two of them though... Dawn could make them go nuts and attack each other or...\" she starts, but pauses as Nelen simply walks out, heads down the hall, and says, \"Hey guys. We're here, you can drop the act now.\"\n\nThe men look up at him, then visibly relax as they move to the sides of the corridor. \"Ach, Nelen. Thank th' lady yer here lad. Ah dunna know how much more ah could stand o' this.\" says the one on the left as the other takes a key ring off his belt. \"It was bloody disgraceful! Franklin struttin around sneerin' at her th' whole time while she couldn't even fight back! Ah felt sick ta me stomach just watchin' it!\"\n\nArja blinks \"Wait, these guys are on our side?\" she says, looking at the men cautiously, clearly still expecting some kind of trap, \"How long?\" she asks Nelen.\n\nThe mage nods to her, \"It was Jeanne's idea. She said that some of our guys should stay behind just in case one of us actually did get captured. The original plan was that we'd sneak in, they'd let us have whoever got caught, I'd use my blood magic to knock them out so it'd look like they put up a fight, and we'd run for it before Franklin even knew we were here.\" he replies, then looks to the men, \"Situation has changed though guys. Get what you need and get out of the castle. We're ending it tonight.\" he nods firmly.\n\n\"Aye lad, about damn time... but... er, ye may have wanted ta end it sooner...\" he says as Nelen pauses. \"Why?\" he asks with a suspicious tone in his voice, \"What happened? She's not...\" he looks into the cell as the guard shakes his head, \"No no! She's alive, but... well...\" he sighs, \"Ah'm sorry lad, ah really am, but... we tried ta say it wasn't worth it... that Manannan mac Lir's seal was enough... but Franklin was determined an we couldnae stop him without blowin' our cover...\" he replies as his friend nods, “He had ah good eight o’ his loyalists with ‘im! If we tried ta stop ‘im ‘e’d have taken us both an’ probably killed ‘er outright!”\n\nIravati is in the cell, beaten unconscious. One of her eyes is swolen shut and her lip is split, her clothes torn and ragged... and on her upper arm is a stab wound caused by a long iron sword. Simoni shudders at the sight, her eyes welling up as her hands cover her mouth, and even Dawn falters, the cat looking like she might be sick herself.\n\nNelen walks forward and examines the wound with one of Merihim's tendrils, then shakes his head sadly. \"She's been cut by the mundane blade... her magic is gone.\"\n\nArja just stares from the doorway, eyes locked on that wound as her breathing gets shallow again. For a minute it looks like she's about to start crying again before she lets out a howl of rage, echoing in the dungeon as she shifts into her monkey form, screaming in anger as she turns with literal fire in her eyes, trailing smoke and embers behind her as she races back up the stairs. A loud explosion rocking the castle soon after...\n\n\"Alright, let's move.\" Drusilla says quickly, looking to the men who let them in, \"If you have some signal or whatever for any other double agents, use it now because she's gonna murder anyone named Fullmoon up top.\" she says, moving over to help get Iravati stood up so she can be moved.\n\nNelen nods, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out one of the spare bandage rolls he uses for his hands. They may be enchanted, but they work just fine as normal bandages too. He wraps it tightly around her wounded arm, then picks her up and looks at Simoni. \"You know where she's going and what's going to happen when she gets there.\" he says. Simoni nods in reply, then races after Arja as the others get out of the sealed area and teleport back out with the others.\n\nSimoni catches up to Arja in the midst of what was some of the members of Clan Fullmoon who'd attacked their home earlier, or at least what was left of them. \"Arja!\" she calls out, running up to her as she quickly pulls her back. Franklin isn't there, but she can tell where he is. Hell she can FEEL it. The presence of the Mundane Blade is like a saw running across her mind. She knows he's nearby. \"Arja! I know! I know you're angry, I know you want to hurt him and we WILL, but if you just charge in he'll kill you!\"\n\nArja pauses when her name is called, iron clawed hand dropping the head of the 'elite' Fullmon it had just removed from the rest of him. \"He has to pay\" she growls, her voice sounding almost feral, \"He has to suffer for what he did... he took away divine blood... he upset the celestial order... he... he... HE HURT MY MOTHER!\" she screams, falling down to her knees at that, slamming her fists angrily into the ground, sending ripples of fire around her as she keeps punching the floor...\n\nSimoni nods, \"He hurt my mother too, both of them…\" she replies, pushing Arja up and locking eyes with her, \"Arja. Do you trust me?\" she asks, her voice trembling a bit.\n\nArja nods, still looking full of anger, but at least physically calming as her eyes meet Simoni’s, \"I do... of course I do.\"\n\nSimoni nods, closing her eyes and letting her magic sense feel out where Franklin is. \"... Right... That thing we did last time. I know why it didn't work, or at least I think I do.\" she replies, \"We need to get outside...\" she squeezes Arja's shoulders, seeing her expression, \"We're not running away Arja! He's on the roof!\" she says quickly, \"We get outside, we do it again, and this time we do it right!\" she nods firmly looking around and seeing a large stained glass window in the front of the room. Priceless, antique, irreplaceable... and after one well-placed wind blast little more than shards. A moment later she and Arja are airborne, gaining altitude.\n\nIts a literal warzone out there. The combined forces of Drusilla's tribe, the fae, Arja's kin, the garuda, and the rebel Fullmoon warriors and witches are pushing what's left of Franklin's men, but despite their numbers his loyalists are managing to hold the line... and up atop the castle, on the highest battlement, stands Franklin Fullmoon as he surveys the battle below with a cold, detatched calm.\n\nHis eyes flicker upwards as he sees someone moving out of the corner of his eye, and he sneers up at them. \"Well well, I was wondering how long it would take.\" he laughs.\n\nArja nods to Simoni as they gain altitude above the castle, \"We'll do it this time, we have to…\" she says in a harsh tone, whipping up another firestorm around them, fueled by the anger and hate she felt for Franklin. Before she had thoughts that maybe he could be 'fixed', at the very least locked away if taken from his blade, but after recent events she knows there's no solution for him. Franklin liked the old ways, well this was how Hindu warriors solved things in 'the old ways', with all the fury and rage of a vengeful god...\n\nFranklin watches them, laughing as they hover in the air above the battlements, \"No tigers to save you this time, though I am surprised that you managed to get your magic back. Just what exactly do you think you can do here girls? Any spells you throw at me will be devoured by my sword without so much as singing my eyebrows. You may as well surrender, it'll be easier for you that way.\" he smirks, reaching down and pulling his sword from his sheath.\n\nA wave of icy cold washes over the battlefield, several of the fae stumbling as they feel the presence of the sword when he reveals it. To the cyclopti or the Fullmoon men it's just a normal, if ugly, weapon. To anyone who can use magic... it's a black hole shaped like a sword. \"You know you can't stop me. Go ahead and try your little spell again, it'll end just like last time.\" he taunts, \"With you two powerless and at my feet begging for mercy...\"\n\n... and thats when Drusilla tackles him. Behind him, on the battlements, are Dawn, Nelen, Aisha, Alice, and Drusilla. A gust of cold air reveals Stephy and Sammi nearby as well.\n\n\"Not today grandpa...\" whispers Simoni, \"Arja! Fire, now!\"\n\nArja lets out a roar of rage at that, summoning her flaming aura around the pair, Simoni safe from the fire as it whips around them almost like a shining cocoon. In response Simoni summons her wind, wrapping around Arja's flames, shaping and molding them, feeding them and making them hotter and brighter until, once again, they take on the form of a giant flaming bird. \"... I really hope I'm right about this...\" she whispers, then takes a deep breath and calls out, using the wind to carry her voice. \"Everyone! Children of Hanuman, Garuda, Witches of Clan Fullmoon! We need your help! We need more magic! Any you can spare, send it to us!\" she yells across the battlefield.\n\nFor a moment, nothing happens, and then several flames shoot up into the sky, soon surrounded by a whirlwind to carry them on higher and higher to join with the flames in the air. Then more join the first salvo, and more, and more, until it's like watching a meteor shower in reverse as flames leap up from the ground and fly towards them. Sweat begins to bead on Simoni's face as the flames grow hotter and the winds grow wilder, the girl having to use all her energy just to keep them in the same shape as the flaming bird grows bigger, burning almost white hot now... and suddenly...\n\nNothing... absolutely nothing. The sounds of battle stop. Simoni blinks as she looks down and sees a battlefield frozen in time. Franklin fighting off Drusilla, Aisha, and Alice all at once, but frozen in the middle of his attack. Nelen, Stephy, and Sammi blocking his reinforcements with Dawn's help, frozen in the middle of casting their spells...\n\nAnd suddenly, right next to them, a voice says, \"See! I told you she'd figure something out Hanny!\"\n\nArja blinks a bit as she looks around in confusion, \"Did he throw the sword or something and we're dead?\" she asks as a loud monkey laugh comes from where the other voice was, \"Yeah, yeah that would be the first question she asks... No kid, no warrior's death for you two yet...\"\n\nFor a moment there's nothing. Then suddenly, as if they were always there, are two people standing next to Arja and Simoni. Literally standing in midair. On the left is a tall Irish woman with her hair tied into a long braid, wearing chainmail under a green tabard with a black raven over a sword painted on it. She's got several scars on her but seems to be the type who'd be proud of every single one. At her hip is a long slender blade, tucked into her belt. Not a magical sword, or an enchanted sword, but the kind of sword a soldier might have carried into war centuries ago. A sword that, when you got right down to it, was meant to be put inside of an enemy soldier. \"Had some close calls didn't you kids? I mean seriously, almost going up against Vritra by yourselves? Just be glad I was nearby.\" she smirks.\n\nArja blinks, \"That was... you were... you're...\" she stammers, a bit dumbfounded as that monkey laugh comes again, a low rattling sound heralding the appearance of the other visitor. He's a tall, bipedal, monkey, short hair over his body to look almost human save for his monkey face and tail and claws. His body was covered by golden and red armor, a matching helmet resting on his long black hair as he grins a row of pointed teeth at Arja. \"Was worried you would be joining us in the cosmic cycle instead. To be honest, kiddo, you were pretty wild back there...\" he says, slapping Arja's head lightly, \"Be happy you chose someone to cool you down... it's what most of us who are smart do.\" he chuckles with a playful wink.\n\nSimoni has about the same reaction, unable to really reconcile what she's seeing. Its one thing to know the gods exist on some level, its quite another to literally have a case of divine intervention. \"Right, well, as much as we'd like to congratulate you two on this one... we don't have a lot of time.\" nods Morrigan, \"You guys got enough magic together for us to re-enter the mundane world, but we can't stay for more than a few minutes, even with us stretching out time.\" she adds, a tone of urgency in her voice. \"Look, this is your one real chance to destroy the sword. Franklin will go down too, but he's the symptom, not the cause. Even if he dies another lunatic like him will take it up again eventually... and thats why we're here. It'll take the power of the gods to break his sword, but we can't stay long enough to do it... which is why we need someone tied to Earth to hold our power long enough to do it for us.\" she nods firmly, holding out her hand and waiting for Hanuman to do likewise. \"Take our hands Arja, don't worry, it'll pass to both of you... but take our hands and, for tonight, you'll have the might of the gods.\" she grins.\n\nArja nods slowly, still looking a bit slack-jawed in surprise. Hanuman chuckling as he holds his hand out \"Her grandpa got that look a lot too...\" he teases as Arja takes their hands, taking in a deep breath as she recenters herself, opening her energies up to accept the divine boost, wrapping her legs tighter around Simoni to be sure she felt it too.\n\nTime returns slowly... and in an instant several things happen. The flaming bird changes from white to a bright shining gold as the sky lights up brighter than a cloudless day at noon, all the fighting stops as both sides suddenly look up in awe or terror at the sight as Franklin, knocking away all three combatants at once, turns and stares.\n\nIn orbit on Bethandi's spaceship the alien almost falls out of her chair as all the instruments on her computers go haywire at once, registering a massive power spike coming from Earth.\n\nIn the middle of the ocean Thea stops chasing her dinner and stares as the tides suddenly shift and change, the seas rippling outwards from around Ireland.\n\nIn Egypt Sadeh steps out of her Pyramid, looking off to the north as she feels a sensation both strange and very familiar.\n\nIn Japan Paale stops dead in his tracks while stalking a new victim, hesitating as he looks towards the west and mutters 'dollies?'.\n\nIn Arcadia Sera suddenly goes rigid, sensing what her two grandchildren are seeing, the fae shivering from the sensation.\n\nIn the Nightside the Street of Gods is in chaos. The gods of whores and credit cards and casinos and all other things in a panic. They know when the real thing shows up.\n\nIn Hell Mammon grins widely, his gemlike teeth glinting in the hellfire as he watches the show, wanting to see what happens next.\n\nAnd in the Underworld the ghost of Eliza Fullmoon looks up and smiles. “When ah child o' th' west rejoins 'er cousins in th' east, there will come a reckonin'. Its gluttony will be yer undoin'…” she whispers, “… and now Franklin, we’ll see if ah was right.”\n\nBack in Ireland Simoni doesn't even look remotely like Simoni now... in her place is a human-sized green bird with black tipped feathers, a razor sharp beak and talons, and a long plume coming from her forehead of several crimson feathers, draped over the lap of her passenger... and Arja...\n\nArja looked just as out of the norm for her. While Hanuman still was more 'humanoid' than the Garuda was, the raw power of his divine energy has changed her a good bit as well. Her fur went from gold to white, save for the long black hair she had reaching down to her lower back in a top knot braid. Her iron claws and fangs were shorter, normal sized now, in a form that was more enlightened than an enraged 'war monkey', and her eyes... well she had a lot of eyes now. Her head wasn't so much a head anymore as it was an assortment of faces, protruding monkey faces sticking out facing north, south, east, and west. On all of them her eyes had gone pure gold, no pupil or iris to be found... \"Franklin Fullmoon…\" she says through all her mouths, voice echoing, yet for once in this fight not a shout. \"You've spent your life keeping your clan from unity, keeping your people from enlightenment, keeping the world of magic from peace... now you will be judged for your sins!\"\n\nSimoni responds with a loud birdlike screech, echoing through the skies as Arja feels a weight in her lap. Looking down she'd find a trident, the head of which is made from a shining incadescent metal that seemed more magic than real. In contrast to the Mundane Blade it glowed with an inner light, seeming to overflow with energy as Arja hears a voice in the back of her mind. \"This weapon was created to counter the Mundane Blade, but it couldn't be wielded by anyone in your world without our help. It's forged from an ore found in the heart of the Supernatural World. Think of it as... the Arcane Blade.\"\n\nArja nods, gripping the trident in her hands, holding it steady as she aims it at Franklin. \"What do you think is more powerful, Fullmoon, the hate and spite of one bitter old man, or the magical energy of everyone you've victimized in your quest for power?\" she asks, her voice coming out of all four mouths at once as she talks, giving it a strange stereo quality.\n\nSimoni begins to angle downwards at that as Franklin glares back at her, the old man refusing to show fear as he raises his own sword. \"Freaks... nothing but inhuman, monstrous FREAKS! COME THEN! LET US FINISH THIS!\" he roars as Simoni begins to dive, channeling the divine flames around them as she does. Nelen and the others quickly retreat, knowing that whatever happens they want to be behind something solid for it as, with a sound that echoes across the area like some great bell... the Arcane Blade and the Mundane Blade meet.\n\nThe air all but rips apart as the two forces collide, the Mundane Blade absorbing the magic as it reaches it even as the Arcane Blade amplifies and forces the divine aura surrounding the two girls forward, smashing into the sword. The battlements begin to shake, stones breaking free and crashing down onto whatever or whoever happens to be unfortunate enough to be below them, until... finally... with a loud crash and an earth shattering crack...\n\n... Simoni and Arja land past Franklin, back in their human forms, with the Arcane Blade in pieces.\n\nFranklin turns, breathing as if he's just run a marathon, sweat dripping down his face, and then his lips twitch upwards. \"Haah.. haha... hahaaaahahaAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAH! YOU FAILED! YOU FAILED AGAIN! NO ONE CAN STOP ME!\" he roars, holding the Mundane Blade up over his head in triumph.\n\n... and then, like a gunshot, a sound fills the air.\n\n[i]CRACK![/i]\n\nArja pants heavily, feeling exhausted after channeling all that energy, but grinning wildly as she hears the sound, \"The Arcane Blade broke because it was meant to break, Fullmoon.\" she retorts, moving to stand between him and Simoni, \"Magic isn't afraid to dissipate or fade away, but your little toy is... the blade was just a vessel for its energy, now that it's empty it's served its purpose... What's going to happen when yours breaks?\"\n\nFranklin's eyes widen, staring at the Mundane Blade as a piece of it breaks off, in the middle of the blade, near the tip, and a shining golden light emerges from within it. For the first time, perhaps in years, he looks afraid. \"... no... no, this cannot be... I... I CAN'T FAIL!\" he protests as another crack fills the air, a chunk falling off to reveal more of the magic trapped within the sword as it begins to shake violently in Franklin's hands... and then Arja remembers Mammon's words...\n\n\"Tell me young lady. What will happen when the blade is destroyed?\"\n\n... all that magical energy, centuries... hell, eons worth... the power of two gods just now...\n\nArja grins, but then looks a bit worried herself as she sees it shake, \"Alright, enough gloating, we need to get off this wall! Frankie's stuck with his blade but we're not!\"\n\nSimoni nods, getting to her feet as Nelen and Dawn come rushing out of the castle. Without a word Dawn pounces the two and grab's Nelen's hand, teleporting them away as more and more of the blade cracks and flakes off, the glow from the top of the castle almost blinding now. They reappear in the middle of the armies, surrounded by monkeys, garuda, witches, and all others, as Simoni sits up and yells, \"The Mundane Blade is shattering! Its going to explode! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!\"\n\nA sudden loud rumble from the top of the castle adds emphasis to her words as both armies perform one of the most tried and true battle manuvers of any war, the 'frantic withdrawl' or the 'oh hell here it comes run goddammit run'!\n\nThey don't get too far before, suddenly, the blade shatters. The entire world turns white as a pillar of golden fire erupts from the top of Castle Fullmoon, quickly engulfing the entire building as it blasts both up into the sky and down into the earth. Bits of masonry, the odd charred piece of furniture, and other assorted things go flying from the magical tempest as the sky lights up, the magical energy rippling outwards from the castle. It doesn't seem as... violent... as it did when Carman died.\n\nArja pants harder as she looks back to the golden flame, nodding, \"Well at least this is a more controlled explosion, I don't think we can all fit on a boat…\" she says, grinning just a bit as she looks around \"We all here? Everyone ok?\"\n\nSimoni nods, hugging Arja tightly as Nelen leans against a tree, taking a deep breath and muttering 'I'm getting too old for this shit'. Dawn wanders a bit closer and watches the show, whistling. \"Jeez, so thats what happens when one of those things goes boom. Hell of a show isn't it?\" she grins, \"All that stuff flying right up into th-\" she starts and then suddenly yelps and goes flying backwards, laying on the grass stunned with a small creature laying atop her.\n\n\"OW! Jeez what the hell! That really... hurt...\" she says, her words going faint as her eyes go wide when she sits up and looks at the thing sitting on her. Her jaw drops as her ears splay flat against her head as a female cat with bright yellow eyes sits up and shakes its head as if trying to dislodge something from it's ears, then sniffs at her, \"... kitten? Where are we? Why do you look so weird?\" it asks.\n\nDawn doesn't reply, it seems like she can't reply, her mouth is moving but nothing is coming out. The cat cocks it's head and speaks again, \"What's going on? Is that nasty human with the sword gone? He almost stabbed your brother!\" she frowns as, finally, Dawn manages to croak out, \"M-mom?\"\n\nArja blinks, just kinda staring at the scene in front of her, \"What the hell...\" she mutters as Sammi chuckles softly, \"Well that... kinda makes sense. The blade didn't just get destroyed, it BROKE, it's a big magic sponge right? Break a sponge when it's full and water goes flying...\"\n\nNelen nods at that as, suddenly, several more kittens land ontop of Dawn leaving her, for once, totally speechless. \"Yeah... I guess. Um... y'know, as awesome as it is to see, well, this happening...\" he gestures to Dawn who's hugging her mother tight to her, burying her face against the cat's neck and sobbing softly, \"Well... this could be a big problem...\"\n\nSimoni looks at him, then at the magical eruption, \"How so? We beat Franklin. The Mundane Blade is destroyed. Thats the end of our troubles right?\" she asks as Nelen replies, \"Well... here's the thing. Franklin 'killed' Dawn's family right about a year after I went on the run... and that was ten years ago, yet here they all are as if only a few seconds has passed... and that blade had been used to seal monsters, demons, and other nasties for several eons.\" he nods, looking back at the eruption, \"... what else got out?\" he asks.\n\nSimoni looks at the torrent of magical energy again, then winces, \"... oh.\"\n\nArja sighs, \"Of course, because we never can have just one win...\" she frowns, shaking her head, \"No, fuck it. We won. Fuck Franklin we beat him and we broke his magical weapon of mass destruction. Yeah there may be some fucked up things we let out, but I bet there are a LOT more situations like that…\" she gestures to Dawn and her family, \"… in there, and just one of those more than outweighs all the demons and monsters and nasties.\"\n\nNelen shrugs, \"I really hope you're right Arja...\" he sighs as Simoni looks around, then sees Iravati sitting amongst her relatives, still mundane. While the magical creatures trapped in the blade seem to be released, the energies from it are just going everywhere they want to it seems. She walks over to her and kneels down, giving her a sympathetic smile. \"You alright?\" she asks her.\n\nArja sighs, \"Guess that was too much to hope for…\" she says sadly, walking over to Iravati as well. The woman looks very tired, but nods weakly, \"I will be... thanks to you girls.\" she replies, reaching to pull both her daughters into a hug, biting her lower lip softly as she tries not to worry them too much with her own feelings on losing her powers.\n\nSimoni hugs back tightly, then sits back and reaches into the pocket on her skirt. \"Mm... yeah. Hey, um, just wanted to say this... if this doesn't work... I'm really really really really sorry in advance.\" she says, and then she stabs Iravati in the arm. Before Arja can throttle her however the broken prong of the Arcane Blade that she'd pocketed seems to melt into Iravati's wound and, with a burst of golden fire, her arm heals. Simoni quickly scoots back as Iravati's body begins to steam, then smoke, and then suddenly erupt into flames. When they clear the woman is sitting there, but as a red-furred monkey-like woman rather than a human one.\n\nArja did indeed look about ready to tackle her sister before the burst of fire came, staring in shock as she sees her mother shift back into her natural form. \"Oh wow...\" she gasps with a smile, Iravati beaming wide as she grabs the girls again, pulling them into an even tighter hug, \"Thank you Simoni!\" she grins softly, Arja nodding \"Yea... good move there sis... maybe a little heads up next time a remedy involves stabbing family, but still, good.\" she nods at Simoni as all around them the monkeys begin to cheer, seeing Iravati’s powers restored.\n\nFranklin’s blade ate magic, consumed it all… but the Arcane Blade was made to CREATE magic rather than destroy it so, up on the battlements, Simoni had an idea. Before they made their escape she grabbed the biggest piece of the Arcane Blade she could find and pocketed it. Most of it’s divine power was gone, but she figured that maybe… just maybe… there’d be enough to undo what Franklin had done to her.\n\nSimoni giggles a bit, \"Maybe... but magic is weird sometimes.\" she winks, hugging them both tightly.\n\n... three weeks later...\n\nSimoni and Arja are sitting in the Harem Quarters watching the news as the repairs continue, and have been going day and night for the past three weeks. Clan Fullmoon did a LOT of damage. The newscaster is going on about another sighting of what people are referring to as 'criptids' as the fallout from the destruction of Franklin's Mundane Blade continues. Every other night something weird has been seen or attacked someone or somebody has suddenly gained magic or something weird has happened. It seems all that magical energy getting released at once was having repercussions far and wide across the entire planet.\n\nArja sighs a bit as she watches the news. It was hard sometimes, she still felt they did the right thing by breaking it, but Nelen wasn't wrong, there's a lot of stuff attacking people now. Either they're actual creatures of evil, or just scared barely sentient monsters lashing out at a human with a cellphone camera...\n\nAs Simoni leans into Arja there's a knock on the door and Jeanne Fullmoon enters, followed by two younger witches. She's leaning on a gnarled old cane and wearing a long raven feather cloak. \"Evenin' lasses. Hope this old biddy ain't interruptin' anything.\" she chuckles, \"Just wanted ta tell ye that we've finished our search of where Castle Fullmoon used ta be. No sign o' Franklin's body anywhere. Musta been burned ta ash when th' sword broke.\" Arja nods at Jeanne’s words, smirking, \"Well good, getting a proper burial is too good for him.\"\n\nJeanne sighs, \"Aye, 'e may have been mah brother, but 'e almost brought both my own clan an' yers ta ruin... though, we did find somethin'...\" she nods, reaching into the folds of her cloak and taking out a burned and soot-stained sword hilt, putting it on the table infront of the girls. \"We know how ye warrior types like yer trophies, so we figure ye should have this. Its th' only piece o' th' Mundane Blade we could find. Ye dunnae need ta worry, it lost all it's power when ye shattered it.\" she nods.\n\nArja nods, picking it up, a bit carefully at first, and looking it over, \"Yeah, this'll make a good trophy…\" she grins softly at the elderly witch, \"Thanks. So how's the clan doing these days? I know I was a bit... angry... before, being all 'kill the family line' and all but, ya know... present company excluded and all.\" she says, blushing a bit as she remembers how enraged she was.\n\nJeanne chuckles, \"Speakin o' that, ah wanted ta personally thank ye both. Because of you ah'm finally able ta take me mother's place as Matriarch o' Clan Fullmoon.\" she grins, showing more gum than tooth at her age, \"An' ah wanted ta make this official.\" she nods, tapping her staff against the floor, \"As Matriarch, ah hearby revoke the banishment o' Nelen Fullmoon an' his wee sister Stephanie, who now goes by Simoni Barjar. They, an’ alla their friends, are ta be welcomed among Clan Fullmoon as heroes who saved th' Clan in it's darkest hour.\" she nods, then drops the formalities and smiles sadly, \"We were so focused on th' monsters without that we fergot about the ones within until it was too late. That’s nae ah lesson we’ll be fergettin’ soon ah promise ye that.\" she nods firmly.\n\n\"We're not gonna rebuild on th' old site... not much point since it's a bloody 'uge hole in th' ground, but we're gonna leave it an' every generation, we're gonna bring our young warriors 'n witches there 'n point to it 'n say 'this is what happens when ye go too far'.\" she nods firmly.\n\nSimoni giggles a bit, \"So... full Matriarch now? With all the Matriarch's powers?\" she asks. \"Aye, that's right lass.\" she responds. \"Including... seeing the future?\" she grins mischeviously.\n\nArja smirks, \"That's a good idea, you tell ‘em if they go too far again the mean monkey and bird will come get them.\" she teases before raising her brow at Simoni, \"You got something you wanna see?\"\n\nSimoni grins, \"Oh come on Arja... you're not a bit curious about our future?\" she winks as Jeanne looks between the two of 'em. \"Hm, ye want me ta precognitizize yer future gel? What about you?\" she asks, turning to Arja. The monkey girl smirks, nodding to Jeanne, \"Yea, I am pretty curious, alright, lay it on us.\"\n\nJeanne looks between the two girls, then smirks, \"Well... ah could use me magic ta see yer future...\" she replies, then leans in a bit, \"But... why don't ye gels look at each other, then you tell me what yer future holds?\" she asks, raising an eyebrow.\n\nArja blushes and smiles softly, looking over to Simoni, \"I see a very long life together, be it fighting demons or raising little... flying monkeys I guess.\" she says, reaching to hold Simoni's hand, \"I know that no matter how much my anger takes over, she'll always be there to keep me grounded, as my better half.\"\n\nSimoni giggles and squeezes her hand, \"And I see the same, and I know that no matter how nervous I get that she'll be able to push me beyond my limits when I need it.\" she replies as Jeanne chuckles, \"Aye, thats what ah thought.\" she replies, \"Well, ah'd best be off. Me old bones need more rest than ye young gels. You give that grandfather of yers mah best lass, he was good ta us when we stayed at yer temple.\" she nods, heading out the front door and to her waiting car.\n\nBefore she gets in she turns back and looks at the house, closes her eyes, and Sees.\n\nIn her mind she sees two Hindi woman, one wearing all green with long black hair that has a green feather with a black tip clipped to it as a decoration and the other dressed in red with short wild hair and several scars on her body as they walk hand in hand through the temple. As they walk several young monkeys run past, pursued by a fully grown werewolf with blonde fur as it barks and play-chases them. Nearby a man with a full beard, old scars on the palms of his hands, and graying hair is sitting reading while a woman with one huge eye watches a young cyclops girl playing with the garuda, the girl whistling up small gusts of wind to lift her playmates. Up above in the rafters a whole gaggle of yellow eyed cats watches, several of whom have tortiseshell markings, but some have a mix of that and some Indian breed on their coats.\n\nAs the two women walk along they pass by a mural depicting a battle between a white haired man in green armor wielding a pitch black sword, against a multi-faced girl riding astride a green eagle-like bird and holding a glowing white trident. Above the battle is a depiction of Hanuman, riding atop a gigantic raven, as he gives the warriors his blessing. Under the mural, wired to the wall, is a blackened and twisted sword hilt.\n\nShe blinks her eyes, then smirks and turns to her car, chuckling. \"Like ye needed me ta tell ye that.\"\n","writing_bbcode_parsed":"<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Its about a day after the group&#039;s impromptu detour to England and the plane is just about over Jaipur. Stephy is still sore after overusing his glamour like that, but otherwise seems to be recovering... as they get to where the pilots begin their usual descent however, Nelen gets called up front to the cabin. A few minutes later he emerges and glances out one of the windows. &quot;Huh, weird... Pilot says he can&#039;t raise anyone at the airport and I can&#039;t get Edwood or Rajesh to answer their phones...&quot; he comments, gazing down at the city below.<br /><br />A look out the window would reveal something odd... Its almost nighttime, but there&#039;s no lights in the town either.<br /><br />Arja tilts her head as she looks down out of the window, &quot;That&#039;s... not good. Like, this is super ominous...&quot; she frowns, pulling her dampener bracelet off. &quot;Something&#039;s coming, fuck stealth mode.&quot; she nods firmly, already standing up. Drusilla frowns softly as she gets ready as well, shaking her head, &quot;We&#039;d break lamps during our raids to make things too dark to see in towns we attack, we can see just fine in dark so we had an advantage, think it&#039;s something like that?&quot; <br /><br />Simoni sits up herself, her own bracelet already off. &quot;It does seem weird but, I dunno, maybe it&#039;s just a blacko-&quot; she starts to say, right before a bright flash lights up the ground under them, followed swiftly by a loud explosion. Simoni goes rigid as Lupe yelps, growling as she looks out the window. From down below smoke is rising up into the twilight gloom and a bright fire is crackling.<br /><br />Nelen&#039;s face goes ashen as he stares down, &quot;Son of a bitch! That came from the house!&quot; he yells, &quot;I&#039;m heading to the cockpit. Stay put!&quot; he nods firmly to the group, heading back up to see if he can&#039;t convince the pilot to try for an emergency landing.<br /><br />Arja frowns as she pushes her face against the window, trying to see the fire, &quot;What the fuck, the house is warded against everything from napalm to random lightning strikes! Mom made the runes herself!&quot; despite her angry look her breathing was shallow, it was obvious she was afraid under all of that...<br /><br />Simoni is staring out the window as Lupe growls low and long, her claws lengthening. Dawn is looking out the windows as well before she suddenly yowls as three more explosions shake the plane. There&#039;s no mistaking it, this isn&#039;t one of Lara&#039;s experiments fouling up or something. They&#039;re under attack! &quot;Holy crap, whoever is down there means business...&quot; she hisses as Simoni shakes her head, &quot;Its Clan Fullmoon, it HAS to be.&quot; she nods as the plane continues to circle, the pilot refusing to land without some indication of a runway or landing lights.<br /><br />Simoni hesitates, glancing around the cabin, then nods and grabs Arja&#039;s wrist. &quot;This way!&quot; she says, pulling her out of her seat and back towards the back of the plane.<br /><br />Arja nods to simoni &quot;Dru, you come too.&quot; she nods, grabbing the cyclops&rsquo;s wrist, &quot;I know it&#039;s a lot of weight but we need someone who can handle &lsquo;it&rsquo; in case...&quot; she trails off, looking at Simoni &quot;We can clear the fire and you handle... yea... you handle it...&quot; she nods firmly. The unspoken &lsquo;it&rsquo; was, of course, Franklin&rsquo;s sword. The Mundane Blade, empowered to devour all magic that it came into contact with, was impossible for all but three members of their group to fight directly. Drusilla the cyclops, Aisha deLane the knight, and Alice the blind hunter could handle it because, unlike the others, none of them actually used magic to fight. To them the Mundane Blade was just a huge sword.<br /><br />Simoni nods, heading back to the plane&#039;s cargo hold. &quot;Nelen is going to scream so loud about this later...&quot; she sighs, then makes sure the door behind them is closed tight before hitting the emergency button, causing the hold&#039;s door to open. There&#039;s a sudden rush of wind all through the hold as the darkened skyline appears below them... and then a green blur as Simoni, in her garuda form, darts out of the plane with Arja on her back and Drusilla holding onto her legs. Despite her determination she&#039;s having quite a bit of trouble holding up both of them, having to use twice as much wind magic just to clear the plane&#039;s jet stream without getting knocked out of control.<br /><br />Luckily as soon as the group is nearer to the ground, Dru lets go, the cyclops girl dropping herself like some kind of orbital strike as soon as they were low enough where she wouldn&#039;t break her bones as her dense body hits the ground with a rather loud crash. She goes right into &#039;battle mode&#039;, eye scanning the area to get a count for how many soldiers there were, and who was in charge...<br /><br />The house has definitely seen better days. There&#039;s fires everywhere and the front door is smashed right off it&#039;s hinges. There&#039;s a sudden loud yelping sound and a wall of fur and muscle comes flying backwards out of the house as Sandra, in full werewolf form, almost crashes right into Drusilla. She&#039;s looking pretty bad too, several large cuts on her chest, sides, and arms that were most likely inflicted with silver given that they&#039;re still there at all. Despite the injuries she&rsquo;s still growling with fury as she tries to limp back towards the house.<br /><br />Nearby is Edwood, apparently an early casualty of the fight. He&#039;s breathing, but he&#039;s got a head wound and there&#039;s a lot of blood on the ground near where he&#039;s laying. The sound of fighting is coming from inside the house, loud voices yelling in both English and Hindi as well as lots of crashes and the sound of metal on metal. Clan Fullmoon is definitely here, but whoever is left inside is still putting up a fight.<br /><br />Arja has a moment of totally freezing up as she sees the damage to her house before she shakes her head clear, &quot;Alright, we have to be fast!&quot; she nods to Simoni, &quot;Start circling the house, I&#039;ll pull the fire up and you snuff the air out, that&#039;ll handle it fast, from there we have an easier time...&quot; she says as Drusilla grabs Ed, pulling him free of the battle area before charging through the front door, bashing through anyone with red hair and muscles in her way &quot;FRANKLIN!&quot; she roars angrily, the cyclops in proper rage mode as Fullmoon troops go flying out of her way...<br /><br />Simoni nods to Arja as they begin work on the flames, trying to douse them as quickly as possible before they can spread. Inside several of the warriors are surprised by the sudden appearance of the one eyed girl, keeping their swords pointed at her but giving her a wide berth at the same time. They heard about what happened to Robert Fullmoon... Before Drusilla can locate the patriarch however she realizes she&#039;s surrounded by warriors in a circle. They&#039;re not moving, keeping her in the middle, but if she dives for one three others will attack her from behind.<br /><br />Arja begins pulling the fire upward, making a rather overt pillar of fire in the night sky, but at least keeping the house from being covered in flames anymore, shifting into her monkey form as she taps into more and more of her magic, &quot;Alright, go faster, we can pull the air out!&quot;<br /><br />Drusilla, meanwhile, takes in a deep breath, looking at the circle. This was how warriors fought cyclopi in the old days, you can&#039;t stand up to one face to face, but swarm it and make it unable to attack without opening itself up to a death blow and you can at least contain it. She keeps her war face on though, glaring at the men as she looks around, &quot;So, which one of you am I going to tear up first?&rdquo; she grins menacingly at the swordsmen around her.<br /><br />Back outside Simoni nods, channeling her wind not to blow towards the flames, but away from them, pulling any oxygen from the fires to suffocate them. Slowly, the flames begin to die down and, after what feels like several minutes, nothing but embers remain.<br /><br />Inside the house the men stare down Drusilla, none of them flinching at her threats. It seems these ones are the ones that Franklin trusted to do this assault above all others, the cyclops can&#039;t psyche them out. As she stares she notices one of them glance across to his friend behind her and nod... and then suddenly he lets out a yell in gaelic and pulls a small tube from his pocket, pulling a pin on it as all the warriors quickly cover or close their eyes. From outside it&#039;s like a miniature sun went nova inside the house, all the lower floor windows lighting up at once. Inside... well, it sucks having one huge eye and having THAT happen right infront of you, thats for sure! Their tactics may be based on old fighting styles, but it seems that Franklin, or someone anyways, had made sure that Clan Fullmoon was at least somewhat modernized.<br /><br />Drusilla screams as she grabs her eye, falling down to her knees as she takes the entire blast right in the face. Indeed just like in the stories, a cyclops&#039;s eye is a very vulnerable target, all those receptors and such that already were working overtime, getting flash-banged was as painful as an actual physical blow to their sensitive eyeballs.<br /><br />Meanwhile, in her lab, Lara watches the scene above through video cameras, frowning. This wasn&#039;t good, historically an angry mob and fire tended to end badly for people like her. &quot;Alright, Simoni&#039;s gonna kill me, but fucked if I&#039;m going out like this&hellip;&quot; she says, walking to a storage fridge and pressing a button on the side, the metal door sliding open with a low hiss... and then another low hiss coming from inside. The invaders above had about a minute before a very angry stitched together naga corpse was barreling through them, razor sharp claws and fangs trained to eat anything that wasn&#039;t part of the house... It was a dangerous enemy to have, but it wasn&#039;t sentient like Lara, more like a well programmed robot vs her as HAL.<br /><br />THAT gets their attention! Several of them fall to the sudden appearance of the undead serpent before one of them manages to get his arm around the thing&#039;s neck long enough for his buddy to stuff another incendiary down it&#039;s throat. The men all dive away at once right before another explosion rocks the house and repaints the hallway with naga bits. These weren&#039;t just the ordinary grunts it seemed, Franklin sent his elite to deal with this battle. As the survivors of the undead naga&#039;s attack shake themselves off one of them puts a finger to his ear, then yells &quot;We got what we came for lads! SCATTER!&quot; as they all go for whatever is the nearest exit. Front door, back door, side doors, windows, whatever, each one picking a direction and running like the devil itself was on his heels... though with how Arja probably is right now it would be hard to tell the difference.<br /><br />Arja roars angrily as she sees the men running, each warrior taking a different route so that they couldn&rsquo;t all be followed together. She snarls, sending the final bits of the fire remaining at whatever fleeing Fullmoon was closest before the fire dissipates, Drusilla still recovering from her blinding and Lara making mental notes to figure a more fire resistant method of embalming. &quot;What did he mean &#039;what they came for&#039;? Everyone get together, we&#039;re doing a headcount!&quot; Arja yells to the group, they didn&#039;t have many artifacts or the like, knowing the Fullmoon &#039;what they came for&#039; sounded a lot more like a &#039;who&#039;.<br /><br />Simoni nods as the survivors come back in. Sandra is injured badly, but nothing vital. It&#039;ll just take a long time to heal. Edwood appears to have a concussion and is being half carried in by the werewolf, the man&#039;s eyes refusing to focus. &quot;I dunno... I mean, why would they come here if it wasn&#039;t for us?&quot; she asks, then almost falls over as Dawn, Nelen, Lupe, and the rest of the group appears in the middle of the room, Dawn falling onto the floor and shaking her head as she tries to clear it. &quot;Dammit I HATE having to do that from a vehicle... Y&#039;know how hard it is to make sure we don&#039;t wind up appearing inside of something?&quot; she growls as Lupe immediately begins sniffing around, trying to pick up anything she can. <br /><br />After a few minutes Lupe tilts her head and rrfs in a confused way, &quot;... Fire hair hunters here... but old hunter not with them...&quot; she says, flicking her ear curiously, then puts her nose back down and continues along the floor, heading towards the bedrooms.<br /><br />Arja frowns, following Lupe, &quot;Dads in New Delhi for a conference, Fullmoon isn&#039;t stupid enough to play actual terrorist and make a move on him, even he got him alone everyone would notice &#039;oh hey our diplomat randomly didn&#039;t show up today, we should call the cops or something&rsquo;&hellip;&quot; she says before her mind goes to the next step, eyes moving around the crowd of gathered people, &quot;Anyone seen mom?&quot; she asks, not sure if her mother was here or at the temple today...<br /><br />Simoni shakes her head... but then they enter the master bedroom. Its a disaster inside. The bed is split in half, there&#039;s holes in the walls, and in the corner is... well, it used to be a Fullmoon warrior... but now, at least from the elbows up, it&#039;s a pile of charcoal... Iravati was here, and she definitely put up a fight... but...<br /><br />Lupe pads over to a wall, looks up at something on it, and lets out a low whine. There&#039;s a knife driven into the wall, pinning two things to it. One is a Polaroid photograph, the old instant kind that developed themselves, of a masked Fullmoon warrior holding a struggling Indian woman, a metal cuff with the symbol of Manannin mac Lir etched into it around one of her wrists. The other is a note reading &#039;The monkey and the bird will surrender themselves at Castle Fullmoon in one week or she dies&#039;.<br /><br />Arja just stares at the photo for a minute, breathing in and out deeply. In Hindu myths compassion and mercy was a virtue, and even the most war like god was shown to have moments of kindness even to their enemy, but one sure fire way to ensure that even a peaceful god will demand vengence and blood is to harm their family.<br /><br />&quot;I&#039;m going to burn his castle down... I&#039;m going to burn his ISLAND down... I&#039;m going to lead an army to his door, and I&#039;m going to make him watch as I disembowel everyone he loves in front of him, only after that am I going to cut his head off...&quot; her voice was calm, even, almost emotionless as her eyes remain locked on the picture, her breathing getting heavier.<br /><br />Nelen looks at the note, his expression grave as Arja feels a pair of arms wrapping around her from behind, Simoni pulling the furious monkey girl into her. &quot;... yeah. You are.&quot; says Nelen, nodding, &quot;I know Franklin. She won&#039;t last a week if he&#039;s got her.&quot; he frowns, &quot;Arja, your family still eager for payback against him?&quot; he asks, though he hardly needs to. If they weren&#039;t before then doing something like this would definitely re-ignite that spark.<br /><br />Arja nods, lightly pushing Simoni&#039;s arms from her as she&#039;s already walking to the door, &quot;Come on, we&#039;re marching tonight, this is over. Franklin wants to fancy himself a big mighty crusader then I&#039;ll give him a proper army to crusade against. If he thinks what he saw at the temple was the worst we can do he doesn&#039;t know anything...&quot;<br /><br />Nelen nods as Simoni hesitates for a moment when she&#039;s pushed away, but immediately falls into pace behind Arja. Dawn slips over next to her as they walk, &quot;Question. If she&#039;s headed to Castle Fullmoon, and that&#039;s in Ireland... how are we getting an army there?&quot; she asks, giving a meaningful glance towards Nelen as she says it.<br /><br />Arja makes her way to an intercom on the wall, punching the button hard enough to crack the wall around it, &quot;Lara! I&#039;ll forget about you making abominations in my basement if you get your undead ass up here RIGHT now! We need a portal.&quot; There&#039;s a pause before Lara&#039;s voice comes through the speaker, &quot;Yeah I heard. Look, Fullmoon castle is in a place I&#039;ve never been, I&#039;m going to need some time to get the materials and get things ready and even then I can like, put you NEAR it but there&#039;s no way I&#039;m gonna be able to make a portal to his front door for you.&quot; <br /><br />Arja just nods, &quot;You have an hour while I get my family ready, get us as close as you can, we&#039;re not afraid of a little marching though.&quot; When Lara agrees she moves her hand from the button at that, taking another step before stopping suddenly, letting out a choking noise as her shoulders begin to rise and fall rapidly.<br /><br />Nelen winces as Simoni quickly pulls Arja to her again, this time not letting go even if she tries to push her away. &quot;Arja, it&#039;s going to be alright. We&#039;ll stop him. We&#039;ll get Iravati back.&quot; she says in as soothing a tone as she can manage, her own voice cracking a bit. Iravati had accepted Simoni as her own daughter from the minute she&#039;d first arrived in India, it wasn&#039;t easy for her either.<br /><br />Arja held Simoni close as well that time, just whimpering softly for a moment before composing herself again, keeping herself together as they get to the temple.<br /><br />Things move fast after that. Lara gets her portal set up as Nelen goes to explain to Jeanne and the rest of the renegade Fullmoons what&#039;s happened while Simoni goes to tell Lakshimi and see if any of the Garuda would be willing to offer their aid, leaving Arja to explain things to Akul.<br /><br />She takes in a deep breath as she walks up the temple steps. No more scared young girl, even though Iravati was his daughter, Arja asking to take the temple to war was a huge request. The monkeys of the temple were, primarily, defensive. They remained in the temple and through the cities to protect people. The only time they ever marched under a war banner was when a threat was so great the world itself was in danger, such as a demon king or, well, a genocidal hunter with a magic-eating sword.<br /><br />As Arja heads in she hears a voice, &quot;Hey, monkey.&quot; it says. Leaning against one of the walls is Dawn, her tail around one of her legs as she glances over at Arja. &quot;... look, I know I&#039;m not always the best houseguest here and stuff but...&quot; she squirms, letting out a low mrowling sound, &quot;... just... I know how it feels okay? What you&#039;re feeling I mean. So... yeah... I&#039;m here if... y&#039;know, stuff.&quot; she mutters, looking away before grumbling something under her breath.<br /><br />Arja smiles softly to Dawn, nodding &quot;Yea, thanks. I know you do the whole... acting like a cat &lsquo;thing&rsquo; and all but... I know you&#039;re good, and I know that my home is your home by now. I appreciate it.&quot; she says, reaching to rub the cat&#039;s head softly, &quot;We&#039;re gonna end it, not just for me, but for everyone he&#039;s hurt. He&#039;s not gonna break any more families.&quot;<br /><br />Dawn&#039;s expression flickers at that, but she pretends not to show it, &quot;Yeah, well, whatever. I need to go see if Nelen is all set.&quot; she nods, teleporting away rather abruptly. Eventually Nelen, Simoni, Arja, Lakshimi, Akul, and Jeanne all gather as Nelen tells them what he knows about the current state of Castle Fullmoon.<br /><br />&quot;Right... Dawn and I have been spying on Franklin for a while now, so as far as I know here&#039;s how he&#039;s going to work this. Normally he&#039;d have sent Iravati to a private cell in Inishmor but, well, we saw to that a month ago... so odds are she&#039;s going to be in the Castle dungeons.&quot; he nods, &quot;First things first, we need to get Iravati out. I&#039;m going to need as many of us as we can get to distract the bulk of Clan Fullmoon&#039;s army while Dawn and I teleport in a group to get her out. The dungeons are warded against teleportation but the rest of the castle isn&#039;t... after all, it&#039;s the headquarters of a clan of hunters. You&#039;d need to be a special kind of crazy to try to teleport INTO a place like that.&quot; he nods, &quot;I&#039;ll take our group in and find where they&#039;re holding her, then get her back out and behind our lines as quickly as I can. Once she&#039;s out, we go all in. Don&#039;t stop until the castle is in ruins if we have to, but this has to stop tonight. Franklin has shown he&#039;s ready to risk an international incident to get to us, so it doesn&#039;t just affect us anymore.&quot; he nods firmly.<br /><br />Clan Fullmoon may not have actually kidnapped Rajesh, but they took his wife hostage&hellip; and Rajesh is an Indian diplomat. This is the kind of act that wars are started over. If they didn&rsquo;t rescue her and the Indian government found out, it could be considered an act of war by Ireland, even if the act wasn&rsquo;t committed by the Irish government. This could very easily involve the mundane population.<br /><br />Akul nods softly at the blood mage&rsquo;s words, &quot;We are taught to be slow to war, even in cases like then when my heart breaks for my daughter&#039;s capture, but this man has shown he has nothing but hate and darkness in his heart. He is a threat, not just to my kin, but to the kin of every non-mundane in the world. Arja will have full command of the temple, as long as his men don&#039;t have blades like his we will be able to provide all the &#039;distraction&#039; that&#039;s needed.&rdquo; Arja nods at that as well, growling angrily, &quot;We&#039;re done showing mercy. We saved their women. Any man who still has any love for family in his heart is gone from that castle, we&#039;re going to end the Fullmoon line as far as I&#039;m concerned, burn his banners and break his throne. If anyone wants to rebuild it will be from ash.&quot; <br /><br />Akul frowns softly, but nods, &quot;Your rage troubles me, granddaughter, but it is understandable, if I were your age, facing such a thing, I cannot claim I would be as calm as I am now. As I said, the temple is yours to command...&quot;<br /><br />Nelen nods, &quot;Yeah, still... we want to be ready in case Franklin has any other nasty tricks up his sleeves. Probably be best to have some other non-magic types around who can put up a good fight. Arja, we&#039;re going to make one stop before we go to Ireland.&quot; he nods, &quot;I&#039;m going to need Lara to make another portal, to Sicily. I want to see if we can recruit Drusilla&#039;s tribe for this one.&quot; he nods, &quot;We&#039;re attacking Franklin in his home turf, we need to stack the deck in our favor as much as possible.&quot;<br /><br />Drusilla grins, &quot;My mom should go along with that, it&#039;s been a while since we&#039;ve been able to siege a castle...&quot; she replies as Sammi frowns softly. <br /><br />&quot;If you want,&rdquo; the fae boy adds, &ldquo;I could ask grandmother for help. I mean, if the castle can be teleported in, we could send our soldiers inside while the fight is going on outside... double pronged hit. I can&#039;t promise you an army like the monkeys, grandmother&#039;s court is not very militaristic, but we have some... &lsquo;specialists&rsquo;... that can be called on.&quot; <br /><br />This causes Arja to stand, nodding firmly, &quot;We&#039;re going to throw everything at him. He&#039;s hurt so many of us, he&#039;s done so much damage to the magical world, we&#039;re going to drown him in the blood he&#039;s spilled. We&#039;re going to call in every favor we can, every grudge. Get Alice and Aisha to meet us at home we&#039;re going to need mundane fighters who can get close to him. Find everyone he&#039;s hurt or taken a loved one from and offer them a chance to finish this. He&#039;s going to feel the wages of his sin long before his soul is judged on the cosmic cycle.&quot;<br /><br />Nelen nods to both ideas, &quot;Good thinking Sammi. You and Stephy go talk to Sera. Drusilla you, me, Dawn, Arja, and Simoni will go to Sicily to get your tribe&#039;s help. Anyone who&#039;s wounded should stay here, and Natasha should probably guard the house... well, what&#039;s left of it anyway. I can&#039;t guarantee that this&#039;ll be over before the sun becomes an issue for her. Everyone else, get to Ireland and get ready.&quot; he nods, standing up and heading out with the others. <br /><br />As they leave Simoni eyes him suspiciously, &quot;Nelen, how long have you been planning this?&quot; she asks. He shrugs and replies, &quot;A while. I kinda figured this would be the only way to put a solid end to it.&quot; he nods, heading back through the portal to the mundane world and going to Lara&#039;s laboratory. He explains the situation to her and asks if she can make another portal on short notice.<br /><br />Lara nods and starts getting her materials out, &quot;Sicily I can do pretty easy. I went there for summer once, I can put you in a nice little fishing village.&quot; says the zombie girl as Drusilla nods, &quot;The clan likes sea food.&quot; she comments.<br /><br />&nbsp;Lara starts smearing ink on a doorframe in the basement, writing Hebrew characters all around it &quot;Ready?&quot; she asks before taking a handfull of dirt from a small jar and tossing it into the door, the dirt seeming to hang in midair before shaking and expanding into a black void...<br /><br />Nelen nods, he&#039;s seen this sort of magic before... hell it&#039;s how half the ways into the Nightside work. He steps through with the group and, after a few minutes of walking in darkness combined with searing existential horror, they emerge in a little fishing village around lunchtime (time difference from India and all that). Nelen looks around, then sees several large women at a local bar, one of whom is wearing a purple toga while all the others are wearing white. &quot;Well, thats convenient.&quot; he nods.<br /><br />Drusilla smiles, happily making her way to the woman &quot;Mom!&quot; she calls out happily, the woman turning to look at the group, breaking into a wide smile of her own, &quot;Drusilla, and your friends! Wonderful to see you again!&quot; the Cyclopi seem as friendly as ever, though the multiple broken kegs that once contained beer scattered around them probably helped that.<br /><br />Nelen nods politely to her, &quot;Hello again. Sorry if this is a bit sudden but... well, shit has kind of hit the fan for us and we could use some large and ridiculously strong help...&quot; he says, then goes on to explain the situation and the upcoming siege... &quot;... so yeah, this is your chance to get back at that man who sent Edwood after us and caused all that trouble for you guys a while back. Interested?&quot; he asks.<br /><br />The woman frowns softly at that, listening quietly to his story, but to Nelen&rsquo;s dismay she shakes her head when it&#039;s finished, &quot;I&#039;m sorry, truly I am, especially for you little Arja&hellip;&quot; she says, turning her one eyed gaze to Arja before looking back to Nelen, &quot;But I simply can&#039;t give my tribe to such an attack...&quot; <br /><br />Drusilla looks legitimately shocked by that, staring at her mother, &quot;But why? Don&#039;t you want revenge on the man who almost enslaved our tribe?&quot; she demands&hellip; though &lsquo;almost&rsquo; is a bit of a stretch. Edwood couldn&rsquo;t have controlled them indefinitely and even if he could he had no intention of doing so.<br /><br />&quot;I do,&quot; she replies, &quot;And believe me, I wish you all luck. If you would like weapons or armor you&#039;re welcome to our supplies, but... Drusilla, our people, among all the giants&#039; blood, have been ground into the dirt the hardest through time. Enslaved, hunted, destroyed, we are... an endangered race... I simply cannot send the few we have left across the sea to fight an Irish castle for an Indian&#039;s war... for too long we have done things like that, and in every war we have been the ones left to bury our dead while the armies sing of victory...&quot;<br /><br />Nelen falters a bit, &quot;I... you&#039;re sure? I mean, this is your shot at striking back at the man who attacked you and...&quot; he stops, seeing her reaction as his shoulders slump a bit. He was so sure... &quot;I... well... alright, I mean, I can&#039;t force you to.&quot; he nods, looking a bit disheartened... until Dawn looks at him in a confused way, &quot;Nelen, why didn&#039;t you tell her?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />Nelen looks back at the cat and frowns, &quot;I did tell her. I told her the whole thing.&quot; he replies, to which she shakes her head, &quot;Not the whole thing. I mean, do you not want Simoni to know? Are you guys keeping it secret or something?&quot; she asks. Nelen raises his eyebrow at her, &quot;Know what? What are you talking about Dawn?&quot; he asks as she sighs, &quot;Look, I get it. If you wanna keep it private for some weird &lsquo;human&rsquo; reason then thats all well and good normally but this is a bit of a big deal right now...&quot; she says, putting emphasis on the last few words.<br /><br />Nelen glares at her, &quot;Dawn, what the HELL are you talking about?&quot; he demands as she replies, &quot;Oh come on, drop the act. You...&quot; she pauses, &quot;... holy balls you really don&#039;t know do you?&quot; she asks, looking at Arja and Simoni with an incredulous look on her face, &quot;He really doesn&#039;t know...&quot; she says again. Lupe earflicks and shrugs, &quot;Lupe know.&quot; she barks. Dawn gestures to the werewolf as she looks at Nelen, &quot;See? Even Lupe knows!&quot; she protests as Lupe growls, &quot;What cat mean &#039;even Lupe&#039;?!&quot; she demands as Dawn waves her into silence. &quot;You really, HONESTLY don&#039;t know?! I&#039;ve been able to tell since we got to Japan! How do you humans deal with living like that? It must be like having plugs up your noses your entire life!&quot;<br /><br />Nelen is getting pretty annoyed now, already upset that the cyclopti refused to help, as his eyes begin to redden around the edges. &quot;Dawn... if you don&#039;t get to the point RIGHT-&quot; he starts as Dawn just throws her arms up and yells, &quot;SHE&#039;S PREGNANT YOU IDIOT! DRUSILLA IS PREGNANT! YOU KNOCKED HER UP! SHE HAS A BUN IN THE OVEN! YOU ARE HER BABY DADDY! YOU NEED TO GET A REINFORCED CRIB! SHE IS GOING TO GIVE BIRTH TO YOUR KITTENS!&quot; she yowls.<br /><br />Nelen&#039;s eyes go from reddening to white... then his face joins them, then it seems his hair and beard are starting to turn pale as he stares at her... then looks to Drusilla, then back to her... and then replies in a small, high, squeak... &quot;... what.&quot;<br /><br />Drusilla blinks a bit at Dawn, face turning bright red as she seems to freeze up at that, which is probably good for the cat because in her mind she was thinking &#039;crush the fuzzy one&#039;.<br /><br />The matriarch raises he brow at that &quot;Wait... is she telling the truth?&quot; she asks, standing, the other women standing with her as she towers over Nelen, looking down at the human, &quot;Is what your little cat friend saying true?&quot;<br /><br />Nelen doesn&#039;t seem to notice them... or anything around him really. It seems that he&#039;s having trouble remembering things at the moment, like how his lungs work. Dawn sighs and shoves him in the arm, &quot;Humans...&quot; she shakes her head, &quot;Yeah, its true. I guess he didn&#039;t know... I can&#039;t imagine how, I mean one sniff will tell you that her hormones are all weird and that she&#039;s starting to lactate and stuff.&quot; she nods, &quot;And given that Nelen is the only male she&#039;s been doing anything with it&#039;s pretty obvious who the sire is.&quot; she adds, &quot;So yeah. Drusilla is pregnant and Nelen is the father.&quot; she says matter of factly, then looks around at Nelen (who looks like he might have a stroke), Simoni (who looks about ready to faint), and Lupe (who looks like Lupe always does). &quot;... what?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />Arja just kinda stares, unsure how this is going to play out as Drusilla&#039;s mother stares at Nelen for a moment long before surging forward and picking the man up into a rather tight, bone-creaking, hug. &quot;I had no idea! Well then, this does change some things, you&#039;re a part of this clan then!&quot; she laughs loudly, Drusilla still standing frozen in shock next to her.<br /><br />Nelen barely moves, his legs even stay straight, and it seems he&#039;s in shock through the whole thing as Simoni leans into Arja. It seems that her own head is caught between &#039;I&#039;m going to be an aunt!&#039; and &#039;OhgodohgodewewewNelendidstuff!&#039; and something got stuck as Dawn shrugs, &quot;Whats the big deal? I mean you just find a decent warm box, she squirts out a litter, and life goes on. Right?&quot; she asks as Simoni seems to shake herself loose, &quot;Um... Dawn... its different for... um... not cats.&quot; she replies, sounding a bit dazed as she watches the other cyclopti congratulating Drusilla. Its true she had been eating more than she usually did (though it was hard to tell with her) and that she seemed to get tired faster than usual... but...<br /><br />Drusilla lets out a sigh of relief as it seems everyone is taking this well, not sure how the clan would react to &#039;the blood&#039; being further watered down. They were hardly racial purists or anything, but considering what her mother just said about them being &#039;endangered&#039; she wasn&#039;t sure how her having a human&#039;s kid would go over... especially if her mother found out where Nelen&rsquo;s magic actually came from. &quot;So... yea... since Nelen isn&#039;t just some guy asking for us to be involved in a war between outsiders...&quot; she offers, her mother nodding, &quot;Of course of course! The father of my grandchild needs help getting his friend&#039;s mother back, and will allow us revenge on someone who wanted to enslave us! How can I say no to that? Come on girls, get some more kegs and we&#039;re going to take a castle!&quot; she calls, the others cheering loudly for that.<br /><br />Dawn grins widely, &quot;Alright! Lets go get tore up and hurt someone! WOO!&quot; she cheers, then looks up at Nelen, then reaches up and slaps him across the face, &quot;Snap out of it Wizzo. Its not like you didn&#039;t get to practice raising a kid with me all those years.&quot; she smirks as the cyclopti get ready to head back through the portal, then through the second one in India, emerging in the woods about a half mile from Castle Fullmoon in Ireland.<br /><br />Stephy walks up as they arrive, wearing a knee-length white sleevless tunic under a thin silvery hauberik. &quot;Finally! We were starting to get worried. Mom pulled some strings and we have a bunch of ogres and redcaps ready to...&quot; he pauses, &quot;... um, what happened?&quot; he asks Nelen, noticing his expression. &quot;I&#039;ll tell you when you&#039;re older.&quot; he replies, to which Stephy frowns and says, &quot;You do realize, given our lifestyle, that doesn&#039;t really fl-&quot; he starts to which Nelen replies, in the same tone of voice, &quot;Shut up or I&#039;ll let Merihim out.&quot;<br /><br />Stephy simply nods, making a quick retreat, as Nelen gathers up Simoni, Arja, Drusilla, Lupe, and Dawn for the infiltration. &quot;Alright... despite... that... we need to get in there and get Iravati out. Dawn can teleport us in, and from there we&#039;ll follow Lupe&#039;s nose. Remember, they&#039;re going to be focused on the group at the gates, not us. We get in, we find her, we get her out... and THEN we deal with Franklin.&quot; he nods firmly.<br /><br />Sammi nods, slapping Stephy&#039;s back, dressed in a similar outfit as his brother, though his tunic was shorter with black pants. &quot;It was mainly Stephy&#039;s doing getting the extra forces, good job putting on the big teary eyes.&quot; he teases, &quot;When you guys get in there&#039;ll be some guys waiting for you, just let them do their thing, spoiler alert their thing is freezing people and using ice blades to slit throats.&quot; <br /><br />Arja nods at Sammi, then looks to the others, &quot;When we get in there I want all of you to charge the gate, we&#039;re going to split his forces and force him out to command the battle.&quot; she says to her army, a chorus of shrieks and howls from the monkeys coming in response, the Cyclopi stomping their feet and roaring as well as the renegade Fullmoons wave their swords above their heads and roar a battle cry in gaelic, all their men wearing a black tabard with a green raven over a shield on it, the symbol of their new &lsquo;Raven&rsquo;s Guard&rsquo;. <br /><br />&ldquo;&hellip; and when he comes out, we&#039;ll kick his ass!&quot; Drusilla calls with a grin, cracking her knuckles loudly. Alice and Aisha have taken a place among the cyclopi, Aisha holding a sword similiar to her ancestor&#039;s, curved blade with a traditional english pommel, wearing new looking chainmail armor. Alice was dressed about the same as always, her cane &#039;unsheathed&#039; to reveal the blade hidden inside...<br /><br />Simoni wondered for a moment why Aisha didn&#039;t have Claim Solias with her, until she remembered that Nelen had told her to leave it behind. It was too big a risk that the Mundane Blade would destroy a magical weapon outright, so she&#039;d be better off with a normal weapon instead of the Sword of Light.<br /><br />Nelen looks around the armies, then nods. &quot;Right, we&#039;re going in. Press them, keep them off balance, but don&#039;t move in for the kill until after we get Iravati out. Anyone who is magic or can use magic do what you can, but if Franklin shows up get the hell away and let the Cyclopti or our own Fullmoons fight him. His sword is a Mundane Blade, it will destroy your magic if he uses it on you.&quot; he nods firmly, moving back to the group, then nods to Dawn. &quot;Do your thing.&quot; he says as Dawn quickly glomps the six of them. &quot;Group hug!&quot; she grins as they all vanish with a small thunderclap, appearing in an out of the way and disused corridor inside the Castle.<br /><br />It looks just like one would expect from an old Irish castle. No fancy carpets or hanging tapestries, but stout stone walls with small slits just big enough to fire a weapon through. The only difference is the electric lights above them. As soon as they&#039;re inside Lupe gets down to all fours and sniffs at the air, &quot;Lots fire hairs... old man came here few times...&quot; she sniffs more, then her ears perk up, &quot;Smell curry, fur, soot. Monkey mom this way!&quot; she nods, heading quickly down the hall as, outside, the siege begins, the castle suddenly shaking as if, say, a tribe of cyclops women had tossed the biggest boulders they could find at the walls. With friends like them who needs siege weapons?<br /><br />Arja nods, moving quickly behind Lupe. As the group moves they&#039;d see shimmering bits of air, like hot asphalt on summer, bits of pure glamour left behind as those &#039;specialist&#039; forces from Sera teleport around the castle, Fullmoon soldiers dropping dead with frostbite around wounds that seem to come from nowhere. &quot;Let&#039;s move fast, this is good chaos but it&#039;ll only last so long, once Franklin joins the fray our forces are gonna be reduced to just Dru&rsquo;s family and our mundanes.&quot;<br /><br />Nelen nods as he tries to keep up with the werewolf, Lupe quickly running through the corridors, then down another hallway, then another, and then suddenly skittering to a halt as she freezes right before another turn, letting out a low growl as her back arches. At the end of the hallway is a reinforced door with two warriors standing guard. Dawn pulls Lupe back as Simoni frowns, &quot;Thats gotta be where she&#039;s being kept... only two of them though... Dawn could make them go nuts and attack each other or...&quot; she starts, but pauses as Nelen simply walks out, heads down the hall, and says, &quot;Hey guys. We&#039;re here, you can drop the act now.&quot;<br /><br />The men look up at him, then visibly relax as they move to the sides of the corridor. &quot;Ach, Nelen. Thank th&#039; lady yer here lad. Ah dunna know how much more ah could stand o&#039; this.&quot; says the one on the left as the other takes a key ring off his belt. &quot;It was bloody disgraceful! Franklin struttin around sneerin&#039; at her th&#039; whole time while she couldn&#039;t even fight back! Ah felt sick ta me stomach just watchin&#039; it!&quot;<br /><br />Arja blinks &quot;Wait, these guys are on our side?&quot; she says, looking at the men cautiously, clearly still expecting some kind of trap, &quot;How long?&quot; she asks Nelen.<br /><br />The mage nods to her, &quot;It was Jeanne&#039;s idea. She said that some of our guys should stay behind just in case one of us actually did get captured. The original plan was that we&#039;d sneak in, they&#039;d let us have whoever got caught, I&#039;d use my blood magic to knock them out so it&#039;d look like they put up a fight, and we&#039;d run for it before Franklin even knew we were here.&quot; he replies, then looks to the men, &quot;Situation has changed though guys. Get what you need and get out of the castle. We&#039;re ending it tonight.&quot; he nods firmly.<br /><br />&quot;Aye lad, about damn time... but... er, ye may have wanted ta end it sooner...&quot; he says as Nelen pauses. &quot;Why?&quot; he asks with a suspicious tone in his voice, &quot;What happened? She&#039;s not...&quot; he looks into the cell as the guard shakes his head, &quot;No no! She&#039;s alive, but... well...&quot; he sighs, &quot;Ah&#039;m sorry lad, ah really am, but... we tried ta say it wasn&#039;t worth it... that Manannan mac Lir&#039;s seal was enough... but Franklin was determined an we couldnae stop him without blowin&#039; our cover...&quot; he replies as his friend nods, &ldquo;He had ah good eight o&rsquo; his loyalists with &lsquo;im! If we tried ta stop &lsquo;im &lsquo;e&rsquo;d have taken us both an&rsquo; probably killed &lsquo;er outright!&rdquo;<br /><br />Iravati is in the cell, beaten unconscious. One of her eyes is swolen shut and her lip is split, her clothes torn and ragged... and on her upper arm is a stab wound caused by a long iron sword. Simoni shudders at the sight, her eyes welling up as her hands cover her mouth, and even Dawn falters, the cat looking like she might be sick herself.<br /><br />Nelen walks forward and examines the wound with one of Merihim&#039;s tendrils, then shakes his head sadly. &quot;She&#039;s been cut by the mundane blade... her magic is gone.&quot;<br /><br />Arja just stares from the doorway, eyes locked on that wound as her breathing gets shallow again. For a minute it looks like she&#039;s about to start crying again before she lets out a howl of rage, echoing in the dungeon as she shifts into her monkey form, screaming in anger as she turns with literal fire in her eyes, trailing smoke and embers behind her as she races back up the stairs. A loud explosion rocking the castle soon after...<br /><br />&quot;Alright, let&#039;s move.&quot; Drusilla says quickly, looking to the men who let them in, &quot;If you have some signal or whatever for any other double agents, use it now because she&#039;s gonna murder anyone named Fullmoon up top.&quot; she says, moving over to help get Iravati stood up so she can be moved.<br /><br />Nelen nods, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out one of the spare bandage rolls he uses for his hands. They may be enchanted, but they work just fine as normal bandages too. He wraps it tightly around her wounded arm, then picks her up and looks at Simoni. &quot;You know where she&#039;s going and what&#039;s going to happen when she gets there.&quot; he says. Simoni nods in reply, then races after Arja as the others get out of the sealed area and teleport back out with the others.<br /><br />Simoni catches up to Arja in the midst of what was some of the members of Clan Fullmoon who&#039;d attacked their home earlier, or at least what was left of them. &quot;Arja!&quot; she calls out, running up to her as she quickly pulls her back. Franklin isn&#039;t there, but she can tell where he is. Hell she can FEEL it. The presence of the Mundane Blade is like a saw running across her mind. She knows he&#039;s nearby. &quot;Arja! I know! I know you&#039;re angry, I know you want to hurt him and we WILL, but if you just charge in he&#039;ll kill you!&quot;<br /><br />Arja pauses when her name is called, iron clawed hand dropping the head of the &#039;elite&#039; Fullmon it had just removed from the rest of him. &quot;He has to pay&quot; she growls, her voice sounding almost feral, &quot;He has to suffer for what he did... he took away divine blood... he upset the celestial order... he... he... HE HURT MY MOTHER!&quot; she screams, falling down to her knees at that, slamming her fists angrily into the ground, sending ripples of fire around her as she keeps punching the floor...<br /><br />Simoni nods, &quot;He hurt my mother too, both of them&hellip;&quot; she replies, pushing Arja up and locking eyes with her, &quot;Arja. Do you trust me?&quot; she asks, her voice trembling a bit.<br /><br />Arja nods, still looking full of anger, but at least physically calming as her eyes meet Simoni&rsquo;s, &quot;I do... of course I do.&quot;<br /><br />Simoni nods, closing her eyes and letting her magic sense feel out where Franklin is. &quot;... Right... That thing we did last time. I know why it didn&#039;t work, or at least I think I do.&quot; she replies, &quot;We need to get outside...&quot; she squeezes Arja&#039;s shoulders, seeing her expression, &quot;We&#039;re not running away Arja! He&#039;s on the roof!&quot; she says quickly, &quot;We get outside, we do it again, and this time we do it right!&quot; she nods firmly looking around and seeing a large stained glass window in the front of the room. Priceless, antique, irreplaceable... and after one well-placed wind blast little more than shards. A moment later she and Arja are airborne, gaining altitude.<br /><br />Its a literal warzone out there. The combined forces of Drusilla&#039;s tribe, the fae, Arja&#039;s kin, the garuda, and the rebel Fullmoon warriors and witches are pushing what&#039;s left of Franklin&#039;s men, but despite their numbers his loyalists are managing to hold the line... and up atop the castle, on the highest battlement, stands Franklin Fullmoon as he surveys the battle below with a cold, detatched calm.<br /><br />His eyes flicker upwards as he sees someone moving out of the corner of his eye, and he sneers up at them. &quot;Well well, I was wondering how long it would take.&quot; he laughs.<br /><br />Arja nods to Simoni as they gain altitude above the castle, &quot;We&#039;ll do it this time, we have to&hellip;&quot; she says in a harsh tone, whipping up another firestorm around them, fueled by the anger and hate she felt for Franklin. Before she had thoughts that maybe he could be &#039;fixed&#039;, at the very least locked away if taken from his blade, but after recent events she knows there&#039;s no solution for him. Franklin liked the old ways, well this was how Hindu warriors solved things in &#039;the old ways&#039;, with all the fury and rage of a vengeful god...<br /><br />Franklin watches them, laughing as they hover in the air above the battlements, &quot;No tigers to save you this time, though I am surprised that you managed to get your magic back. Just what exactly do you think you can do here girls? Any spells you throw at me will be devoured by my sword without so much as singing my eyebrows. You may as well surrender, it&#039;ll be easier for you that way.&quot; he smirks, reaching down and pulling his sword from his sheath.<br /><br />A wave of icy cold washes over the battlefield, several of the fae stumbling as they feel the presence of the sword when he reveals it. To the cyclopti or the Fullmoon men it&#039;s just a normal, if ugly, weapon. To anyone who can use magic... it&#039;s a black hole shaped like a sword. &quot;You know you can&#039;t stop me. Go ahead and try your little spell again, it&#039;ll end just like last time.&quot; he taunts, &quot;With you two powerless and at my feet begging for mercy...&quot;<br /><br />... and thats when Drusilla tackles him. Behind him, on the battlements, are Dawn, Nelen, Aisha, Alice, and Drusilla. A gust of cold air reveals Stephy and Sammi nearby as well.<br /><br />&quot;Not today grandpa...&quot; whispers Simoni, &quot;Arja! Fire, now!&quot;<br /><br />Arja lets out a roar of rage at that, summoning her flaming aura around the pair, Simoni safe from the fire as it whips around them almost like a shining cocoon. In response Simoni summons her wind, wrapping around Arja&#039;s flames, shaping and molding them, feeding them and making them hotter and brighter until, once again, they take on the form of a giant flaming bird. &quot;... I really hope I&#039;m right about this...&quot; she whispers, then takes a deep breath and calls out, using the wind to carry her voice. &quot;Everyone! Children of Hanuman, Garuda, Witches of Clan Fullmoon! We need your help! We need more magic! Any you can spare, send it to us!&quot; she yells across the battlefield.<br /><br />For a moment, nothing happens, and then several flames shoot up into the sky, soon surrounded by a whirlwind to carry them on higher and higher to join with the flames in the air. Then more join the first salvo, and more, and more, until it&#039;s like watching a meteor shower in reverse as flames leap up from the ground and fly towards them. Sweat begins to bead on Simoni&#039;s face as the flames grow hotter and the winds grow wilder, the girl having to use all her energy just to keep them in the same shape as the flaming bird grows bigger, burning almost white hot now... and suddenly...<br /><br />Nothing... absolutely nothing. The sounds of battle stop. Simoni blinks as she looks down and sees a battlefield frozen in time. Franklin fighting off Drusilla, Aisha, and Alice all at once, but frozen in the middle of his attack. Nelen, Stephy, and Sammi blocking his reinforcements with Dawn&#039;s help, frozen in the middle of casting their spells...<br /><br />And suddenly, right next to them, a voice says, &quot;See! I told you she&#039;d figure something out Hanny!&quot;<br /><br />Arja blinks a bit as she looks around in confusion, &quot;Did he throw the sword or something and we&#039;re dead?&quot; she asks as a loud monkey laugh comes from where the other voice was, &quot;Yeah, yeah that would be the first question she asks... No kid, no warrior&#039;s death for you two yet...&quot;<br /><br />For a moment there&#039;s nothing. Then suddenly, as if they were always there, are two people standing next to Arja and Simoni. Literally standing in midair. On the left is a tall Irish woman with her hair tied into a long braid, wearing chainmail under a green tabard with a black raven over a sword painted on it. She&#039;s got several scars on her but seems to be the type who&#039;d be proud of every single one. At her hip is a long slender blade, tucked into her belt. Not a magical sword, or an enchanted sword, but the kind of sword a soldier might have carried into war centuries ago. A sword that, when you got right down to it, was meant to be put inside of an enemy soldier. &quot;Had some close calls didn&#039;t you kids? I mean seriously, almost going up against Vritra by yourselves? Just be glad I was nearby.&quot; she smirks.<br /><br />Arja blinks, &quot;That was... you were... you&#039;re...&quot; she stammers, a bit dumbfounded as that monkey laugh comes again, a low rattling sound heralding the appearance of the other visitor. He&#039;s a tall, bipedal, monkey, short hair over his body to look almost human save for his monkey face and tail and claws. His body was covered by golden and red armor, a matching helmet resting on his long black hair as he grins a row of pointed teeth at Arja. &quot;Was worried you would be joining us in the cosmic cycle instead. To be honest, kiddo, you were pretty wild back there...&quot; he says, slapping Arja&#039;s head lightly, &quot;Be happy you chose someone to cool you down... it&#039;s what most of us who are smart do.&quot; he chuckles with a playful wink.<br /><br />Simoni has about the same reaction, unable to really reconcile what she&#039;s seeing. Its one thing to know the gods exist on some level, its quite another to literally have a case of divine intervention. &quot;Right, well, as much as we&#039;d like to congratulate you two on this one... we don&#039;t have a lot of time.&quot; nods Morrigan, &quot;You guys got enough magic together for us to re-enter the mundane world, but we can&#039;t stay for more than a few minutes, even with us stretching out time.&quot; she adds, a tone of urgency in her voice. &quot;Look, this is your one real chance to destroy the sword. Franklin will go down too, but he&#039;s the symptom, not the cause. Even if he dies another lunatic like him will take it up again eventually... and thats why we&#039;re here. It&#039;ll take the power of the gods to break his sword, but we can&#039;t stay long enough to do it... which is why we need someone tied to Earth to hold our power long enough to do it for us.&quot; she nods firmly, holding out her hand and waiting for Hanuman to do likewise. &quot;Take our hands Arja, don&#039;t worry, it&#039;ll pass to both of you... but take our hands and, for tonight, you&#039;ll have the might of the gods.&quot; she grins.<br /><br />Arja nods slowly, still looking a bit slack-jawed in surprise. Hanuman chuckling as he holds his hand out &quot;Her grandpa got that look a lot too...&quot; he teases as Arja takes their hands, taking in a deep breath as she recenters herself, opening her energies up to accept the divine boost, wrapping her legs tighter around Simoni to be sure she felt it too.<br /><br />Time returns slowly... and in an instant several things happen. The flaming bird changes from white to a bright shining gold as the sky lights up brighter than a cloudless day at noon, all the fighting stops as both sides suddenly look up in awe or terror at the sight as Franklin, knocking away all three combatants at once, turns and stares.<br /><br />In orbit on Bethandi&#039;s spaceship the alien almost falls out of her chair as all the instruments on her computers go haywire at once, registering a massive power spike coming from Earth.<br /><br />In the middle of the ocean Thea stops chasing her dinner and stares as the tides suddenly shift and change, the seas rippling outwards from around Ireland.<br /><br />In Egypt Sadeh steps out of her Pyramid, looking off to the north as she feels a sensation both strange and very familiar.<br /><br />In Japan Paale stops dead in his tracks while stalking a new victim, hesitating as he looks towards the west and mutters &#039;dollies?&#039;.<br /><br />In Arcadia Sera suddenly goes rigid, sensing what her two grandchildren are seeing, the fae shivering from the sensation.<br /><br />In the Nightside the Street of Gods is in chaos. The gods of whores and credit cards and casinos and all other things in a panic. They know when the real thing shows up.<br /><br />In Hell Mammon grins widely, his gemlike teeth glinting in the hellfire as he watches the show, wanting to see what happens next.<br /><br />And in the Underworld the ghost of Eliza Fullmoon looks up and smiles. &ldquo;When ah child o&#039; th&#039; west rejoins &#039;er cousins in th&#039; east, there will come a reckonin&#039;. Its gluttony will be yer undoin&#039;&hellip;&rdquo; she whispers, &ldquo;&hellip; and now Franklin, we&rsquo;ll see if ah was right.&rdquo;<br /><br />Back in Ireland Simoni doesn&#039;t even look remotely like Simoni now... in her place is a human-sized green bird with black tipped feathers, a razor sharp beak and talons, and a long plume coming from her forehead of several crimson feathers, draped over the lap of her passenger... and Arja...<br /><br />Arja looked just as out of the norm for her. While Hanuman still was more &#039;humanoid&#039; than the Garuda was, the raw power of his divine energy has changed her a good bit as well. Her fur went from gold to white, save for the long black hair she had reaching down to her lower back in a top knot braid. Her iron claws and fangs were shorter, normal sized now, in a form that was more enlightened than an enraged &#039;war monkey&#039;, and her eyes... well she had a lot of eyes now. Her head wasn&#039;t so much a head anymore as it was an assortment of faces, protruding monkey faces sticking out facing north, south, east, and west. On all of them her eyes had gone pure gold, no pupil or iris to be found... &quot;Franklin Fullmoon&hellip;&quot; she says through all her mouths, voice echoing, yet for once in this fight not a shout. &quot;You&#039;ve spent your life keeping your clan from unity, keeping your people from enlightenment, keeping the world of magic from peace... now you will be judged for your sins!&quot;<br /><br />Simoni responds with a loud birdlike screech, echoing through the skies as Arja feels a weight in her lap. Looking down she&#039;d find a trident, the head of which is made from a shining incadescent metal that seemed more magic than real. In contrast to the Mundane Blade it glowed with an inner light, seeming to overflow with energy as Arja hears a voice in the back of her mind. &quot;This weapon was created to counter the Mundane Blade, but it couldn&#039;t be wielded by anyone in your world without our help. It&#039;s forged from an ore found in the heart of the Supernatural World. Think of it as... the Arcane Blade.&quot;<br /><br />Arja nods, gripping the trident in her hands, holding it steady as she aims it at Franklin. &quot;What do you think is more powerful, Fullmoon, the hate and spite of one bitter old man, or the magical energy of everyone you&#039;ve victimized in your quest for power?&quot; she asks, her voice coming out of all four mouths at once as she talks, giving it a strange stereo quality.<br /><br />Simoni begins to angle downwards at that as Franklin glares back at her, the old man refusing to show fear as he raises his own sword. &quot;Freaks... nothing but inhuman, monstrous FREAKS! COME THEN! LET US FINISH THIS!&quot; he roars as Simoni begins to dive, channeling the divine flames around them as she does. Nelen and the others quickly retreat, knowing that whatever happens they want to be behind something solid for it as, with a sound that echoes across the area like some great bell... the Arcane Blade and the Mundane Blade meet.<br /><br />The air all but rips apart as the two forces collide, the Mundane Blade absorbing the magic as it reaches it even as the Arcane Blade amplifies and forces the divine aura surrounding the two girls forward, smashing into the sword. The battlements begin to shake, stones breaking free and crashing down onto whatever or whoever happens to be unfortunate enough to be below them, until... finally... with a loud crash and an earth shattering crack...<br /><br />... Simoni and Arja land past Franklin, back in their human forms, with the Arcane Blade in pieces.<br /><br />Franklin turns, breathing as if he&#039;s just run a marathon, sweat dripping down his face, and then his lips twitch upwards. &quot;Haah.. haha... hahaaaahahaAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAH! YOU FAILED! YOU FAILED AGAIN! NO ONE CAN STOP ME!&quot; he roars, holding the Mundane Blade up over his head in triumph.<br /><br />... and then, like a gunshot, a sound fills the air.<br /><br /><em>CRACK!</em><br /><br />Arja pants heavily, feeling exhausted after channeling all that energy, but grinning wildly as she hears the sound, &quot;The Arcane Blade broke because it was meant to break, Fullmoon.&quot; she retorts, moving to stand between him and Simoni, &quot;Magic isn&#039;t afraid to dissipate or fade away, but your little toy is... the blade was just a vessel for its energy, now that it&#039;s empty it&#039;s served its purpose... What&#039;s going to happen when yours breaks?&quot;<br /><br />Franklin&#039;s eyes widen, staring at the Mundane Blade as a piece of it breaks off, in the middle of the blade, near the tip, and a shining golden light emerges from within it. For the first time, perhaps in years, he looks afraid. &quot;... no... no, this cannot be... I... I CAN&#039;T FAIL!&quot; he protests as another crack fills the air, a chunk falling off to reveal more of the magic trapped within the sword as it begins to shake violently in Franklin&#039;s hands... and then Arja remembers Mammon&#039;s words...<br /><br />&quot;Tell me young lady. What will happen when the blade is destroyed?&quot;<br /><br />... all that magical energy, centuries... hell, eons worth... the power of two gods just now...<br /><br />Arja grins, but then looks a bit worried herself as she sees it shake, &quot;Alright, enough gloating, we need to get off this wall! Frankie&#039;s stuck with his blade but we&#039;re not!&quot;<br /><br />Simoni nods, getting to her feet as Nelen and Dawn come rushing out of the castle. Without a word Dawn pounces the two and grab&#039;s Nelen&#039;s hand, teleporting them away as more and more of the blade cracks and flakes off, the glow from the top of the castle almost blinding now. They reappear in the middle of the armies, surrounded by monkeys, garuda, witches, and all others, as Simoni sits up and yells, &quot;The Mundane Blade is shattering! Its going to explode! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!&quot;<br /><br />A sudden loud rumble from the top of the castle adds emphasis to her words as both armies perform one of the most tried and true battle manuvers of any war, the &#039;frantic withdrawl&#039; or the &#039;oh hell here it comes run goddammit run&#039;!<br /><br />They don&#039;t get too far before, suddenly, the blade shatters. The entire world turns white as a pillar of golden fire erupts from the top of Castle Fullmoon, quickly engulfing the entire building as it blasts both up into the sky and down into the earth. Bits of masonry, the odd charred piece of furniture, and other assorted things go flying from the magical tempest as the sky lights up, the magical energy rippling outwards from the castle. It doesn&#039;t seem as... violent... as it did when Carman died.<br /><br />Arja pants harder as she looks back to the golden flame, nodding, &quot;Well at least this is a more controlled explosion, I don&#039;t think we can all fit on a boat&hellip;&quot; she says, grinning just a bit as she looks around &quot;We all here? Everyone ok?&quot;<br /><br />Simoni nods, hugging Arja tightly as Nelen leans against a tree, taking a deep breath and muttering &#039;I&#039;m getting too old for this shit&#039;. Dawn wanders a bit closer and watches the show, whistling. &quot;Jeez, so thats what happens when one of those things goes boom. Hell of a show isn&#039;t it?&quot; she grins, &quot;All that stuff flying right up into th-&quot; she starts and then suddenly yelps and goes flying backwards, laying on the grass stunned with a small creature laying atop her.<br /><br />&quot;OW! Jeez what the hell! That really... hurt...&quot; she says, her words going faint as her eyes go wide when she sits up and looks at the thing sitting on her. Her jaw drops as her ears splay flat against her head as a female cat with bright yellow eyes sits up and shakes its head as if trying to dislodge something from it&#039;s ears, then sniffs at her, &quot;... kitten? Where are we? Why do you look so weird?&quot; it asks.<br /><br />Dawn doesn&#039;t reply, it seems like she can&#039;t reply, her mouth is moving but nothing is coming out. The cat cocks it&#039;s head and speaks again, &quot;What&#039;s going on? Is that nasty human with the sword gone? He almost stabbed your brother!&quot; she frowns as, finally, Dawn manages to croak out, &quot;M-mom?&quot;<br /><br />Arja blinks, just kinda staring at the scene in front of her, &quot;What the hell...&quot; she mutters as Sammi chuckles softly, &quot;Well that... kinda makes sense. The blade didn&#039;t just get destroyed, it BROKE, it&#039;s a big magic sponge right? Break a sponge when it&#039;s full and water goes flying...&quot;<br /><br />Nelen nods at that as, suddenly, several more kittens land ontop of Dawn leaving her, for once, totally speechless. &quot;Yeah... I guess. Um... y&#039;know, as awesome as it is to see, well, this happening...&quot; he gestures to Dawn who&#039;s hugging her mother tight to her, burying her face against the cat&#039;s neck and sobbing softly, &quot;Well... this could be a big problem...&quot;<br /><br />Simoni looks at him, then at the magical eruption, &quot;How so? We beat Franklin. The Mundane Blade is destroyed. Thats the end of our troubles right?&quot; she asks as Nelen replies, &quot;Well... here&#039;s the thing. Franklin &#039;killed&#039; Dawn&#039;s family right about a year after I went on the run... and that was ten years ago, yet here they all are as if only a few seconds has passed... and that blade had been used to seal monsters, demons, and other nasties for several eons.&quot; he nods, looking back at the eruption, &quot;... what else got out?&quot; he asks.<br /><br />Simoni looks at the torrent of magical energy again, then winces, &quot;... oh.&quot;<br /><br />Arja sighs, &quot;Of course, because we never can have just one win...&quot; she frowns, shaking her head, &quot;No, fuck it. We won. Fuck Franklin we beat him and we broke his magical weapon of mass destruction. Yeah there may be some fucked up things we let out, but I bet there are a LOT more situations like that&hellip;&quot; she gestures to Dawn and her family, &quot;&hellip; in there, and just one of those more than outweighs all the demons and monsters and nasties.&quot;<br /><br />Nelen shrugs, &quot;I really hope you&#039;re right Arja...&quot; he sighs as Simoni looks around, then sees Iravati sitting amongst her relatives, still mundane. While the magical creatures trapped in the blade seem to be released, the energies from it are just going everywhere they want to it seems. She walks over to her and kneels down, giving her a sympathetic smile. &quot;You alright?&quot; she asks her.<br /><br />Arja sighs, &quot;Guess that was too much to hope for&hellip;&quot; she says sadly, walking over to Iravati as well. The woman looks very tired, but nods weakly, &quot;I will be... thanks to you girls.&quot; she replies, reaching to pull both her daughters into a hug, biting her lower lip softly as she tries not to worry them too much with her own feelings on losing her powers.<br /><br />Simoni hugs back tightly, then sits back and reaches into the pocket on her skirt. &quot;Mm... yeah. Hey, um, just wanted to say this... if this doesn&#039;t work... I&#039;m really really really really sorry in advance.&quot; she says, and then she stabs Iravati in the arm. Before Arja can throttle her however the broken prong of the Arcane Blade that she&#039;d pocketed seems to melt into Iravati&#039;s wound and, with a burst of golden fire, her arm heals. Simoni quickly scoots back as Iravati&#039;s body begins to steam, then smoke, and then suddenly erupt into flames. When they clear the woman is sitting there, but as a red-furred monkey-like woman rather than a human one.<br /><br />Arja did indeed look about ready to tackle her sister before the burst of fire came, staring in shock as she sees her mother shift back into her natural form. &quot;Oh wow...&quot; she gasps with a smile, Iravati beaming wide as she grabs the girls again, pulling them into an even tighter hug, &quot;Thank you Simoni!&quot; she grins softly, Arja nodding &quot;Yea... good move there sis... maybe a little heads up next time a remedy involves stabbing family, but still, good.&quot; she nods at Simoni as all around them the monkeys begin to cheer, seeing Iravati&rsquo;s powers restored.<br /><br />Franklin&rsquo;s blade ate magic, consumed it all&hellip; but the Arcane Blade was made to CREATE magic rather than destroy it so, up on the battlements, Simoni had an idea. Before they made their escape she grabbed the biggest piece of the Arcane Blade she could find and pocketed it. Most of it&rsquo;s divine power was gone, but she figured that maybe&hellip; just maybe&hellip; there&rsquo;d be enough to undo what Franklin had done to her.<br /><br />Simoni giggles a bit, &quot;Maybe... but magic is weird sometimes.&quot; she winks, hugging them both tightly.<br /><br />... three weeks later...<br /><br />Simoni and Arja are sitting in the Harem Quarters watching the news as the repairs continue, and have been going day and night for the past three weeks. Clan Fullmoon did a LOT of damage. The newscaster is going on about another sighting of what people are referring to as &#039;criptids&#039; as the fallout from the destruction of Franklin&#039;s Mundane Blade continues. Every other night something weird has been seen or attacked someone or somebody has suddenly gained magic or something weird has happened. It seems all that magical energy getting released at once was having repercussions far and wide across the entire planet.<br /><br />Arja sighs a bit as she watches the news. It was hard sometimes, she still felt they did the right thing by breaking it, but Nelen wasn&#039;t wrong, there&#039;s a lot of stuff attacking people now. Either they&#039;re actual creatures of evil, or just scared barely sentient monsters lashing out at a human with a cellphone camera...<br /><br />As Simoni leans into Arja there&#039;s a knock on the door and Jeanne Fullmoon enters, followed by two younger witches. She&#039;s leaning on a gnarled old cane and wearing a long raven feather cloak. &quot;Evenin&#039; lasses. Hope this old biddy ain&#039;t interruptin&#039; anything.&quot; she chuckles, &quot;Just wanted ta tell ye that we&#039;ve finished our search of where Castle Fullmoon used ta be. No sign o&#039; Franklin&#039;s body anywhere. Musta been burned ta ash when th&#039; sword broke.&quot; Arja nods at Jeanne&rsquo;s words, smirking, &quot;Well good, getting a proper burial is too good for him.&quot;<br /><br />Jeanne sighs, &quot;Aye, &#039;e may have been mah brother, but &#039;e almost brought both my own clan an&#039; yers ta ruin... though, we did find somethin&#039;...&quot; she nods, reaching into the folds of her cloak and taking out a burned and soot-stained sword hilt, putting it on the table infront of the girls. &quot;We know how ye warrior types like yer trophies, so we figure ye should have this. Its th&#039; only piece o&#039; th&#039; Mundane Blade we could find. Ye dunnae need ta worry, it lost all it&#039;s power when ye shattered it.&quot; she nods.<br /><br />Arja nods, picking it up, a bit carefully at first, and looking it over, &quot;Yeah, this&#039;ll make a good trophy&hellip;&quot; she grins softly at the elderly witch, &quot;Thanks. So how&#039;s the clan doing these days? I know I was a bit... angry... before, being all &#039;kill the family line&#039; and all but, ya know... present company excluded and all.&quot; she says, blushing a bit as she remembers how enraged she was.<br /><br />Jeanne chuckles, &quot;Speakin o&#039; that, ah wanted ta personally thank ye both. Because of you ah&#039;m finally able ta take me mother&#039;s place as Matriarch o&#039; Clan Fullmoon.&quot; she grins, showing more gum than tooth at her age, &quot;An&#039; ah wanted ta make this official.&quot; she nods, tapping her staff against the floor, &quot;As Matriarch, ah hearby revoke the banishment o&#039; Nelen Fullmoon an&#039; his wee sister Stephanie, who now goes by Simoni Barjar. They, an&rsquo; alla their friends, are ta be welcomed among Clan Fullmoon as heroes who saved th&#039; Clan in it&#039;s darkest hour.&quot; she nods, then drops the formalities and smiles sadly, &quot;We were so focused on th&#039; monsters without that we fergot about the ones within until it was too late. That&rsquo;s nae ah lesson we&rsquo;ll be fergettin&rsquo; soon ah promise ye that.&quot; she nods firmly.<br /><br />&quot;We&#039;re not gonna rebuild on th&#039; old site... not much point since it&#039;s a bloody &#039;uge hole in th&#039; ground, but we&#039;re gonna leave it an&#039; every generation, we&#039;re gonna bring our young warriors &#039;n witches there &#039;n point to it &#039;n say &#039;this is what happens when ye go too far&#039;.&quot; she nods firmly.<br /><br />Simoni giggles a bit, &quot;So... full Matriarch now? With all the Matriarch&#039;s powers?&quot; she asks. &quot;Aye, that&#039;s right lass.&quot; she responds. &quot;Including... seeing the future?&quot; she grins mischeviously.<br /><br />Arja smirks, &quot;That&#039;s a good idea, you tell &lsquo;em if they go too far again the mean monkey and bird will come get them.&quot; she teases before raising her brow at Simoni, &quot;You got something you wanna see?&quot;<br /><br />Simoni grins, &quot;Oh come on Arja... you&#039;re not a bit curious about our future?&quot; she winks as Jeanne looks between the two of &#039;em. &quot;Hm, ye want me ta precognitizize yer future gel? What about you?&quot; she asks, turning to Arja. The monkey girl smirks, nodding to Jeanne, &quot;Yea, I am pretty curious, alright, lay it on us.&quot;<br /><br />Jeanne looks between the two girls, then smirks, &quot;Well... ah could use me magic ta see yer future...&quot; she replies, then leans in a bit, &quot;But... why don&#039;t ye gels look at each other, then you tell me what yer future holds?&quot; she asks, raising an eyebrow.<br /><br />Arja blushes and smiles softly, looking over to Simoni, &quot;I see a very long life together, be it fighting demons or raising little... flying monkeys I guess.&quot; she says, reaching to hold Simoni&#039;s hand, &quot;I know that no matter how much my anger takes over, she&#039;ll always be there to keep me grounded, as my better half.&quot;<br /><br />Simoni giggles and squeezes her hand, &quot;And I see the same, and I know that no matter how nervous I get that she&#039;ll be able to push me beyond my limits when I need it.&quot; she replies as Jeanne chuckles, &quot;Aye, thats what ah thought.&quot; she replies, &quot;Well, ah&#039;d best be off. Me old bones need more rest than ye young gels. You give that grandfather of yers mah best lass, he was good ta us when we stayed at yer temple.&quot; she nods, heading out the front door and to her waiting car.<br /><br />Before she gets in she turns back and looks at the house, closes her eyes, and Sees.<br /><br />In her mind she sees two Hindi woman, one wearing all green with long black hair that has a green feather with a black tip clipped to it as a decoration and the other dressed in red with short wild hair and several scars on her body as they walk hand in hand through the temple. As they walk several young monkeys run past, pursued by a fully grown werewolf with blonde fur as it barks and play-chases them. Nearby a man with a full beard, old scars on the palms of his hands, and graying hair is sitting reading while a woman with one huge eye watches a young cyclops girl playing with the garuda, the girl whistling up small gusts of wind to lift her playmates. Up above in the rafters a whole gaggle of yellow eyed cats watches, several of whom have tortiseshell markings, but some have a mix of that and some Indian breed on their coats.<br /><br />As the two women walk along they pass by a mural depicting a battle between a white haired man in green armor wielding a pitch black sword, against a multi-faced girl riding astride a green eagle-like bird and holding a glowing white trident. Above the battle is a depiction of Hanuman, riding atop a gigantic raven, as he gives the warriors his blessing. Under the mural, wired to the wall, is a blackened and twisted sword hilt.<br /><br />She blinks her eyes, then smirks and turns to her car, chuckling. &quot;Like ye needed me ta tell ye that.&quot;<br /></span>","pools_count":0,"title":"Part 1.26: The Siege of Castle Fullmoon","deleted":"f","public":"t","mimetype":"application/msword","pagecount":"1","rating_id":"2","rating_name":"Adult","ratings":[{"content_tag_id":"5","name":"Strong Violence","description":"Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death","rating_id":"2"}],"submission_type_id":"12","type_name":"Writing - Document","guest_block":"t","friends_only":"f","comments_count":"0","views":"56","sales_description":null,"forsale":"f","digitalsales":"f","printsales":"f","digital_price":""}