The group makes landfall on the Isle of Sicily following the events in part 6. The magical shockwave created by Arja and Simoni's sudden manifestation caused Arja's mother to faint (as well as giving anyone even remotely sensitive to magic a nasty headache. Hell three psychics actually had their heads explode from it) so Arja's father decided a vacation was in order. They hoped that by going in a private boat they could avoid being followed by anyone from Clan Fullmoon. The town they land in is very rustic, many of the villagers still dressing in togas and living without electricity... though Arja notices that several villagers seem to be in a very desperate hurry to get home as the sun goes down... 

Simoni nods, "Yeah... seems like they're almost scared of the dark for some reason..." she replies, then she, Nelen, and Dawn all glance towards Natasha. "... Nah." they shrug, looking back ahead, "Never even heard of greek vampires." comments Nelen.

As they walk along Arja spots some odd shadows in the distance, shadows that appear to be moving around. Dawn teleports atop one of the roofs nearby and uses her feline eyesight to confirm that there is indeed something big there, her eyes able to see something moving around in the twilight but unable to tell what it is. They ask Nelen what he knows about the island and he says that he remembers it being mentioned in Odysseus's legends, as well as one of the entrances to Hades being on the island, but otherwise comes up blank. 

Then the sound of chanting carries across the air and Nelen recognizes the sound of a Cycloptian glory chant. Basically a bunch of boasting about who has won more battles and who has defeated the more dangerous foes. Nelen decides that they should be fine so long as they leave the Cyclopi alone, the one eyed giants basically having their version of a night at the bar, or they will be as thats where they're heading. 

The singing gets louder still until the group would see a small army of massive women coming into the town. Some massive, as tall as towers casting shadows over the entire town...those were rare, though. Most of the 'great' Cyclopi had been slain, a combo of the race's natural warlike nature and human expansion wasn't good for the giants who couldn't hide. Most women were simply 'very tall', ten foot or so, still looming over most as they march and cheer. Funny enough the group seemed to be led by a woman who was 'only' about eight feet, towered over by her fellows, but they all seemed to follow her as she made her way to the tavern of the town. It'd take a bit to notice, though, that mixed in with the crowd were...young girls! Well, young one eyed girls, but they all, thankfully, seemed to be around the girl's size. Most all the women and girls were dressed in leather and hide armor, though the woman at the lead, and one of the young girls, were dressed in purple cloth togas, the woman wearing the hide of what looks like...is that a sabertooth fucking tiger?!

As the group observes the cycopti, one of the younger ones seems to notice them. Getting curious, she comes over for a look. She introduces herself as Drusllia [f-list.net], the daughter of the cyclops tribe's 'Basílissa', or cheftainess. She invites them to join the party, though Simoni tries to decline... and then suddenly an ear piercing squealing sound splits the night. When it clears the group sees someone ontop of the bar doing something, all the cyclops watching him closely without moving. 

The girls and Nelen rush to the bar to find a large man in black leather playing an electric guitar on the roof, a red bandanna around his head and a long scraggily beard covering his face. Nelen recognizes him as 'Edwood Vargas, the Metalgician'. Edwood is revealed to be the second of Franklin's assassins, though he does seem apologetic about it. 

"Well how about dat shit? Nelen Fullmoon! Guess it would make sense you'd be here. Yer grandpappy sent me to sort out yer sister and her little fuckbuddy." he smirks, "Nothing personal man, just business, you know."

He then strikes a loud chord on his guitar, causing the giantkin to all rise up as one, their faces blank and their eyes empty. He continues to play as they move forward, attempting to capture them as Simoni lifts Arja up into the air in her garuda form. She tells her to make fire so she can shape it into weapons, hoping that she can create something like a javelin or anything that can have some range to it, trying to keep away from the massive cyclops women below as Nelen and the others keep them distracted. 

Simoni creates a javelin for Arja, who throws it home the second the cyclops have been lured away, but Edwood counters with a sonic shield around himself, sending the spear spinning away until the magic runs out and it vanishes in a puff of smoke. Following this Arja and Simoni attempt to dive bomb him, Arja conjuring fire and Simoni using her wind to coat themselves in a shell of flames, to which Edwood counters by shooting a large cone of sound at them, stunning Simoni and knocking them both from the sky. 

When they land however Simoni notices something... 

"Ow ow ow ow... stupid freaking electric guitar..." she pauses. "Wait... electric? Arja, where's he getting the power for that thing?" she asks.

They realize that while he channels his magic through the guitar, it still requires an external power source to play music. Arja calls Drusilla over and the girls tell her that she needs to find whatever the guitar is hooked up to and smash it. If the guitar can't play then Edwood can't work his mind control spell anymore. While Simoni and Arja keep Edwood distracted, Drusilla searches frantically around the bar for Edwood's power source. Simoni almost runs out of magical power before Drusilla finds a large black generator set up behind the bar, which she smashes with her bare hands. 

Simoni falls to her hands and knees, totally spent and unable to maintain her garuda form as Edwood grins and raises his pick, "Alright ladies, lets show these girls a real monster mash!" he laughs, bringing the pick down across his strings. 

... plink... 

He blinks, then tries it again. 

... plink plink... 

He looks up, the cyclops women shaking off the effects of his magic and looking around in confusion, a few of the smarter ones starting to figure out what had happened. "... ah shit..." he mutters as they start to turn towards him, looking not at all happy. "... Alright!" he grins, "I give, you win! Good game! Thank you and goodnight!" he says, quickly reaching into his vest and pulling out a small gray stone with a blue swirl of paint on it. There's a flash of green light and Edwood vanishes from the roof, leaving nothing behind but what's left of the cable to his guitar.

He escapes via the use of a hearthstone, leaving the girls exhausted but unmolested. However, Drusilla's mother is not happy about this, demanding to know who Edwood was and why he attacked her tribe. Fortunately Nelen plays diplomat and smooths things over with the cyclops's leader. 

Simoni eeps and steps back from the large woman as Nelen teleports into view, Dawn and Natasha with him, "Many apologies Basílissa, but I'm afraid that he was after us and not you. That man knew of your tribe's strength and prowess in battle and wanted to use it to his own advantage. I would believe that he spiked the beer you drank before you arrived, knowing that once intoxicated he would be able to manipulate you through his magic." he explains. 

"Honestly, it is we who owe you a debt. Were it not for your daughter Drusilla's great strength and quick thinking he may well have forced you to kill us. She alone resisted his mind control and found the box that powered his magical instrument, destroying it and freeing your tribe." he says. He tries to be very diplomatic about it, flattering them for their strength and suggesting that Edwood had to resort to trickery and deceit to even be able to control them at all.

Yes he's kissing a good bit of her ass, but then this woman could probably smush his head with one hand. Fortunately she seems to accept this and after some thought decides it's time for a celebration, sweeping up Arja, Simoni, and Nelen into a bone-crushing hug (Nelen flailing a bit as his ribs creaked under the woman's strength, he was still recovering from Arja and Simoni's training), then they join the cyclops tribe for drinks at the bar now that the danger has been dealt with. 

Over drinks Nelen discusses how he knew Elwood and his surprise that he'd be willing to take a job where the targets were two young girls, saying that Franklin must've either found some leverage on him or offered to bury him alive in money. Drusilla asks about where they're from and Nelen rambles on, the lightweight sorcerer going on a bit more than he possibly needed to. Drusilla gets suspicious when Nelen mentions how Arja basically kidnapped Simoni (Cyclops and other giant-kin were slaves to the Titans, and then the Gods of Olympus, so they take a very poor view of enslavement), but Arja and Simoni explain that it's totally consensual and that she would have let Simoni go if she'd just asked (though Simoni doubts that, but then she doesn't want to leave so who cares?). 

In the end Drusilla offers her services as a harem guard for Arja and the others eagerly accept (well, except for Nelen and Dawn who are passed out drunk at this point, but they wouldn't mind). Simoni points out that nobody went back to check in with Arja's parents, causing her to have a mini panic-attack, grabbing Nelen and Dawn and dragging them back to the boat as fast as she could run as Simoni and Natasha flew after her. 

The episode closes with Arja getting a scolding from her mother, Simoni having to force herself not to giggle at seeing 'Princess Arja' get told off for being late for dinner. Though her mother doesn't seem fazed by the noises and magical chaos that came from town or the fact that a cyclops girl carrying a huge two-handed mace plopped down at the dinner table with them and helped herself to the entire curry pot. 

In Nelen's cabin he holds an icepack to his head and grumbles. "Is this gonna, y'know, be a thing now?" he asks Dawn, "We go to a new country, we bring home some magical monster girl with us?" he mutters, his blood removing the alcohol as fast as it got it into him, leaving him hungover. Dawn just throws a balled up sock at his head to shut him up, the cat facedown on the floor and looking as if she would refuse to move.

As the ship pulls out of port Arja comments that it'd be nice to have this all over so they can settle down for a bit, to which Simoni replies that she feels she left 'normal' behind a while ago. A while later Nelen enters their cabin, then whips his glasses off when he sees what they're up to. 

"Don't get too comfy now that we're back in India girls. One of my contacts in Clan Fullmoon is ready to talk on the condition that we meet him in neutral territory." explains Nelen, "So we're going to be leaving for London." 

"London?" replies Simoni in a muffled voice, Nelen shuddering a bit as he tries not to think about why it's muffled. "London isn't neutral..." 

Nelen shakes off his queasyness at seeing his kid sister and Arja having their 'fun', then says, "No... but no territory is more neutral than the Nightside." 

Meanwhile, at Castle Fullmoon... 

Franklin glares at the computer monitor, the email he just received simply reading: 

"Sorry boss man, 

Ur grandkid is badass. No need 2 pay me, she 1 fair n square. 

Maybe u should just leave her alone man. 

- Vargas" 

He grits his teeth, then punches the monitor, knocking it off the table and causing it to shatter before stalking to the window. "Paale is dead, permanently it seems, and that moron Edwood ran away with his tail between his legs..." he growls, "Something has changed... there's no way that they could have fought them off by themselves... even with Nelen helping them." he shakes his head, "I've been going about this wrong. They're not humans, they're monsters. A winged witch, an ape-girl, and a boy who sold his soul for power..." he grins then, walking to his desk and pressing the speakerphone, "Duncan. Contact the Templars and let them know I need to speak with them at their earliest convenience... oh, and have the tech boys send up a new monitor. This one broke."