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This was a total leap of faith, thought Babylon, leaning against the railing of the pier. A collection of yachts and motorboats bobbed up and down in the water below, retired for the evening; midnight had come and gone, and there were no pleasure boaters out on the lake enjoying the last dying breaths of summer.

The squire thought he saw a glimmer of fire on the far side of the lake, but maybe not. He shot his senshi companion an inquisitive look. "Have you ever been to a cliff party?" he asked. It was difficult to imagine prim and proper Euanthe at a drunk and rowdy bonfire, but more bizarre things had happened.

There were no promises that Lina Knight would appear out of the mist. Babylon's letter had gone unanswered, so the only thing they could do was sit and wait and hope. Part of him had felt nothing but slick apprehension towards the bluenette since he'd learned she was a reformed Negaverse officer, but cooler (or more desperate) feelings won out.

The fact remained that Lina was Lina, and Babylon desperately wanted to impress her by showing her how far he'd come since May.

When the piece of paper had materialized in front of Lina Knight, she had been standing in the middle of the candy store thinking about a pile of mail that she'd been meaning to look through. It was the constant sorting of Elzo's bills and mail, taking them by the hotel when she knew he would be otherwise occupied in his office and unable to corner her.

The idea of her getting something in the mail was what tripped the metal switch that had Babylon's letter popping out of whatever magical place it all was contained, laying in front of her in his scrawl. Thankfully Daphne had been alone at the time so her squeak of surprise before the note was shoved into the pocket of her jeans was contained simply to her own shame. The idea that he knew something that she didn't wasn't really disconcerting as much as surprising, curiosity rising as to what exactly this whole thing was.

So, true to form, Lina was ten minutes late. One day she might be on time and maybe for her funeral but it was always hit or miss with her. Usually miss. Babylon was unmistakable by his sandy fluff of hair though his colors had deepened and now were remarkably similar to her own. The senshi was pretty and elegant in all of her muted colors, looking oddly sleepy. The bluenette didn't blame her -- it was one freaking am.

"Babylon." Water lapped at the things around them for a soothing sound that had her shoulders and whole body relaxing. Something about water really just did it for Lina Knight. She couldn't explain what it was or why she loved the water so much, it was just a fact of life for her. "Congratulations. You're looking quite interesting. What do we call you now? And your friend?" The smile was a bit hesitant but polite. This wasn't a senshi she had seen before though that was obviously nothing unexpected.

Her reception, however, would be.

It was a little too late to look alive, but Euanthe couldn't think of anything to say except for a weak little "how?" in protest. Thankfully, Lina made it quite a bit easier.

Oh, good, she was here. And she was something else glowy to look at. Actually, Euanthe was quite enthralled with the outfit the Knight of Mercury sported, it was very flattering. Euanthe, ever a girly-girl, was soon finding that the most enjoyable part of being a Senshi was the constant fashion parade aspect of it. Sure, it was silly... but come on, clothes were fun and she had to take whatever joy she could get out of this where ever she could get it.

Though she was slowly regaining a semblance of functionality Euanthe was still quite slow on the uptake. Introductions were being made at almost too fast of a pace for her. Babylon was bowing, and 'Knight' was a pretty important sounding title... she wondered vaguely if it had anything to do with Senshi royalty, which was a confusing matter in and of itself. Unsure of what the proper protocol was she decided to take her cues from her squire companion and so Euanthe stumbled into a rather graceless, if sincere, curtsy. It wasn't exactly a motion she'd ever had to seriously perform in the past. She wondered if this was to be the first of many.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, trying to sound as lucid as possible as she folded her hands in front of her in order to eliminate the temptation to rub her eyes again. Her words hung at a pause, unsure if she should continue. Euanthe couldn't exactly say she'd been told much about Lina Knight, and even in her sleepless brain she had a hunch that bringing up that whole Negaverse thing on such unfamiliar terms would be well... probably pretty rude. Even if that was one of the main reasons why they needed to talk to her.

"I'm sorry," blushed Babylon, glancing from his sleepwalking companion to the knight he held as a sort of mentor. "Dragged her here is probably too strong a phrase... But it's sort of what I did." How awkward. Clearly his plan to make friends in the Jovian court and distinguish himself as something other than Vindemiatrix's hanger-on wasn't going as well as he'd thought it would.

With the bluenette now in front of him, Babylon's earlier plan to launch right into questions about the negaverse suddenly seemed exceptionally stupid. So, he was both relieved and surprised when she gave him something else to talk about. His mouth dropped open in shock - just for a second, but it was undeniable that it had.

"You don't know?" the squire stammered. Well, this was certainly a surprise! He'd always expected himself to be way behind the times with Lina; never right on top of the ball. But there was no reason to keep secrets in a meeting he'd intended to be all about dispelling them.

The squire raised his right hand and waggled his ring finger, showing off the heavy blue-silver ring he wore. "I found it," he explained. "On Mercury. It was in a lamppost at Babylon. If I stamp letters with it, they go immediately to the person I addressed them to."

He pursed his lips for a moment, studying Lina's expression. "Was that a test? Or did you really not know?"

Lina snorted at the idea that she was 'testing' Babylon this way. "No way! Give me a little credit. I know what I'm doing as far as beating things into dust and the whole magical Terran turf war goes but I'm still totally learning the ropes of this Knight thing. For instance, I didn't know that I could drop a senshi with my Interference before." There was a pause as she smirked a bit. Old habits did die a little hard when someone was being an a*****e. "Now I know. The more you know, right?" Her finger traced a line across the sky like a shooting star, mimicking an old after school special logo.

"I suppose I'm going to have to return to my park and see what I can find. It might be something that I can't have because of...well. You know." It was a delicate subject that she was more than happy to abandon for Euanthe's mention of Sailor Pollux and what he'd said about her and Castor. "You met Pollux? And didn't get frostbite?" Eyes narrowed. "Did he say much about me? I might have to hang him from my balcony if he wasn't nice." Violence was always the answer but it probably was not making the terrific first impression that was now critical to Lina Knight's station.

Hands spread themselves in a 'stop, I'm done' gesture that was purely for her own benefit. "Sorry. Personal history there but yeah. I'm uh. Well. I guess you can say I'm married to Castor. He's the prince. Big gray wings, short white skirt, metal breastplate." Her face softened a bit at the mention. It was hard for her to not get all mushy talking about Castor, even if they were in the midst of fighting over him being a huge jackass.

There was, however, one more question. "What, or maybe more accurately who, are the Jovian Court?" Information! The idea warmed the cockles of her newly uncorrupt heart.

"Y- you're married to a prince?!" Euanthe tried not to look too amazed at that revelation. Wait, that didn't make Lina a princess? King and queen? Apparently not, since Castor's brother Pollux wasn't a prince himself and... oh it was just so confusing. Neat, but confusing. She answered Lina with a slightly far-away smile, attempting to ease the puzzled crease out of her brow. "Oh, ah- Pollux was very polite when I met him. I don't really recall if he mentioned you, I'm afraid, only that his brother was a prince." Euanthe wasn't sure if she should mention the slightly envious tone in which he'd spoken of Castor. Frost from the earth, hail from the heavens... That Euanthe could remember clearly.

But then it was time to actually talk... business. In the same moment she glanced over at Babylon for help he inclined his head towards Euanthe to indicate she should be the one to talk. "I- oh, well." She couldn't really argue with that, could she? "You're more than just that," Euanthe said with a half smile, but she was the official spokesperson in this case it seemed. The meeting was such a mess in her head that Euanthe wondered if she'd be able to summarize the Jovian's principles in any coherent manner. The senshi took a deep breath, laced her hands together, and tried to focus.

"I think... in its most basic principle, we came together to protect and help each other, and other people who need it too. With, um, training and education about the war and just general support. Oh! And the Jovians themselves are the moons of Jupiter." That was kind of important. Her mind fought to to locate some detail (or large concept even) that she was missing from her description, but the pause was growing awkward so she had to give up. "In the first meeting we talked a lot about senshi who were fighting for the Negaverse and about what we should do about that. I think everyone agreed that killing people wasn't the answer. Apparently there's a way to help them. That was why we came to you."

Babylon nodded to Lina's brown-eyed gaze. "Yeah," he confirmed. "Europa's got Pasiphae and some of the others working on... well, I don't even know what it is, really. Kind of sounded like a 'build a better mousetrap' game to me." The squire was staying out of it - he was pretty sure Valhalla had volunteered to help on that project, and anywhere Valhalla was Babylon would not willingly be.

"Europa doesn't strike me as someone too keen on killing people, if you ask me." Not that he blamed her. Babylon wasn't totally clear on what had happened with the Blood Moon Court, but Europa and Kallichore were both really torn up over it. "And she said all that stuff about corruption, too," he agreed. How it broke people, turned them into twisted parodies of who they were supposed to be. "Apparently it comes in two flavors, now? Negaverse, and something about the Blood Moon Court."

He glanced down at his feet. "She and Kallichore both seemed really pissed at some chick named Ares." Of course, if someone had corrupted his cousin (or sister, as the case may be), Babylon would have been pissed, too. He knew how it felt to have someone close to you almost snatched away - for Europa, where the darkness had prevailed, it had to be ten times worse.

"Anyways," the squired concluded, fumbling with his lantern, "We wanted to ask you... about how you got un-corrupted." Not the best terminology, but it was too late to be particularly exacting.

There was a frozen-solid moment as Lina tried to choke back her feelings about Ares and the Blood Moon Court. They were the ones that had captured, tortured, and tried to kill Tanzanite. Had actually killed Tanzanite really if you thought about it properly. She had fallen into a sleep and emerged a Greater Youma that had turned into the General-Queen that now tormented the senshi and Destiny City on a whole. There was probably something wrong with the knight that she still found Tanz's deadly monstrosity beautiful.

Euanthe's comment about how the Blood Moon had employed the same tactics as the Negaverse had her snapping, just a bit. "They did not. I have killed, oh have I killed." She was not proud of it but it was a fact that Lina had learned to live with. "I've held lives in my hands and devoured them for my own benefit but never once did I torture any of them. All of them died swiftly with as little pain as possible. I taught all of my Captains, everyone I could, that was how you killed. We weren't beasts. The Blood Moon and its senshi are a menace." Fists clenched at her side, eyes dropping to the pavement as she struggled for control.

"I'm sorry. What they did haunts me...I can't." A deep breath. "I have trouble brushing it off. Yes, Sailor Cosmos was the one who purified me. But I'm not entirely sure why she did. Castor was...well. Castor was being Castor. I'd lost to him and told him...begged really, for him to kill me." Leaning against a nearby box Lina's eyes were a bit hazy and warm with the memory of it. "I loved him for a long time and my queen tried to force me to kill him to prove my loyalty. I botched it so badly I was done for anyway. I didn't want to give Beryl the satisfaction of being able to do it herself, you know?" No, they probably didn't.

Sighing she continued. "So before I know it he's holding me, telling me everything will be alright, and then Cosmos shows up. I find out that idiot," her finger jabbed at nothing, as if Castor were there and she would poke him, "That idiot was going to kill us both. Like this is some Greek Shakespearean tragedy or something! So Cosmos gives me a minute to tell him how stupid he is before offering me a choice. I can let Castor kill us or I can change my allegiance and fight with him." Hands spread. "The choice was fairly obvious. I was willing to give up my own life but his? Never his." And that was love.