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"I'm sworn to my Wonder," replied Babylon, although he knew that would likely do little to quell the lieutenant's skepticism. At face value, it was a selfish thing to swear yourself to, or at the very least a foolish thing. Sworn to ego, or else a rock out in space that owed him nothing. But for Babylon, being sworn to his Wonder meant being sworn to himself and his truest power, to respect the ordeals his lineage had survived so that he could return to their ancestral homeworld.

He just didn't think he could explain that nearly so eloquently as he could think it, and it would probably be pointless to try. He'd just ruin the moment. Besides, he had a job to do.

Babylon opened the compass case and flashed the dial at Aluminite, showing him the ring of planetary sigils inscribed on the face. "I point the arrow on the outer band at you," he explained, holding the compass out between them, "and then it tells us what we want to know."

As soon as Babylon had rotated it into position, the dial began to spin of its own accord, symbols blurring together. And then it began to slow, moving in tighter and tighter arcs, swinging back and forth until it finally settled, the indicator pointing squarely at a sunburst shape.

"Chronos," said Babylon, looking up at the lieutenant.

He thought he could kind of see it, if he squinted.

Babylon nodded. "Yeah," he said. "That Chronos." As if there were any other. It was puzzling to him that Aluminite knew the name of the Surrounding. Either the Negaverse was really getting in-depth in schooling their lieutenants in a way he'd never encountered before... which seemed weird given the entire conversation they'd just had... or...

"There was a battle there," he said. "Years and years ago. Between Order and Chaos. I was there. Were you?"

Babylon nodded. It wasn't unheard of for people to come back from the dead, although getting a starseed back from the Cauldron before the full reincarnation cycle had worked itself out took tremendous amounts of power. Still, he supposed that anything was possible when great cosmic powers were in play. The Surrounding, while not something you could sit down and have a conversation with, had magic of its own - and likely a will of its own, as well.

"I can see why that would be upsetting," said Babylon, fighting the very strong temptation to go and, like, pat Aluminite on the shoulders. He could do that with other knights, but with a Negaverser... better to keep his hands to himself.

"Was it the Surrounding that brought you back?" he asked.

Babylon took a hasty step backwards as the fountain of vomit erupted out of his new friend (because once you'd puked all over someone's boots, you were on that level). "Woah," he exclaimed, bile rising in his own throat. He swallowed it down - one of them needed to keep their wits about them, and seeing as Aluminite was indisposed, that burden had fallen to him.

Babylon shoved the alethiometer back into his pocket and set a careful hand on the lieutenant's shoulder. "You okay, man?" he asked. Something had triggered that, he thought, eyebrow furrowing. Something about this subject matter was negatively charged; traumatic.

"We can - we can change the subject," he said, despite his desire to prod further. Aluminite had gone from saying Metallia resurrected him to questioning the memory within a few breaths. There was more to the memory than that, beneath all the brainwashing... but you had to move carefully. Memory was a tricky thing.

Babylon hesitated as Aluminite vomited again - puke was never one of his specialties. Neither, for that matter, were panic attacks, but he was just going to muddle through somehow.

"You're right," he said, inching towards Aluminite. He didn't want to crowd him, but then again Babylon always thought he worked best with physical contact. "I've got know way of knowing the thing's accuracy." Except that it had been right in every test he could think of. Titan. Camlann. But if knowing there might be some doubt would ease Aluminite's panic, then Babylon was willing to undersell his own tech.

He just wouldn't tell Mistral he'd done so.

"I'm going to put my hand on your back - is that okay?" he asked, reaching tentatively for the lieutenant. "Can I, uh, can I do that?"

Babylon pulled his hand back, quietly said, "Sorry," and then watched to see what the lieutenant would do next... which was try to run away. Babylon didn't expect him to get far, unstable on his feet as he was. He chased after Aluminite, hoping to catch up with him and talk him through his panic. In his experience, it wasn't good to leave people scared. Not when you could still try to talk to them.

Fear being a thing that lead to the dark side. Or whatever.

"Wait up!" Babylon called. Maybe he could still fix this. He hoped he could still fix this, since he'd kind of forced the issue and caused this mess in the first place.

Babylon caught up to the lieutenant again.

Looked him over.

Thought he was probably doing more harm than good here.

Took a few slow steps forward and offered him a hand. "Sorry about..." he pulled a face. "This. You can go. Just... be careful."

He'd definitely ******** this one up, he thought, looking down at the lieutenant's clammy face. It didn't look like there was any saving this situation, so he'd might as well just... abort mission. The best he could hope for was to leave the proverbial door open and hope Aluminite sought him out again later.