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"You and me both, buddy," came the reply, from somewhere on the roofline. A moment later, Babylon hopped down from the top of a payday advance outlet and waved to the other knight. He was glad to see a friendly face tonight - even if it wasn't someone he'd ever met before. With Avalon's bounty on his head, he'd been trying to keep a low profile, and that meant changing up his patrol patterns and heading to a new area of town. He'd always stayed away from the area by the racetrack - and possibly with good reason.

That reason being that, tonight at least, it was pretty dead.

But at least dead meant he didn't need to fight off any lieutenants with delusions of easy wealth and acclaim. So there was an upside and a downside to everything. Still, he wouldn't mind a youma. It would make tonight seem like less of a waste.

"So hey there," he said, looking the knight up and down. He knew their faction was a small minority in a larger war, but it was still interesting to come across another knight, especially one properly knight-ranked, who he'd never met before. "My name's Babylon. Wee you thinking of looking for trouble?"

"Yeah, I-" Babylon glanced at the lantern."Yeah, I've heard it's pretty awful to get hit with." It was, after all, pretty effective at knocking off youma - or he would have never survived this long. Karaitos, he observed, held a net - he bet it was a major drag for anyone caught in it, and knowing knights, there was undoubtedly some sort of magical quality as well that he could barely even begin to consider.

"Mercury, yes," he answered. It was plain as day to anyone familiar with the symbol he wore, but it was a lonely post. Once, he'd shared it with Lina and Hesperis. But Lina had fallen back into the Negaverse, and he had heard nothing of Hesperis in years. Perhaps she'd left the city, same as he had, only never to return. He didn't really look, because he was afraid of what he might find out.

"And you're Mars?" he asked, gesturing to the older knight. "I've never met a knight of Mars before."

Babylon shrugged. Themiscyra he didn't know, Camelot he did - although it had been a long time, and Babylon hadn't really kept up the relationship in order to be able to just call him up and ask. But Avalon had been an earth knight, as well, although she wasn't properly one anymore. All her sigils stood broken. "I knew two other Mercury knights," he said, trying to not let his sadness show. "A long time ago. One corrupted. The other, I've got no idea. I knew an earth knight, too - Avalon. She's corrupt now, too."

He felt like that little cartoon dinosaur. All my friends are dead. Pathetic.

"Anyway, I like the way you think," Babylon added, returning Kairatos's grin. Fighting was the most manly way to get your emotions all worked out - right? "Let's go find something and beat it up," he said, pounding a fist against his chest.

"Yeah, Lina," said Babylon, not able to keep the sigh out of his voice. He knew who she'd been and who she'd returned to being - but she'd always be Lina to him, and her betrayal would always sting. "She was my mentor when I was just starting out as a page. I thought that the sun shone out of her a**, but, you know." He shrugged. He'd come to terms with the facts, and that meant he was allowed to be sentimental - right?

Still, there was a way to how Kairatos talked about the Negaverse that made the gears in Babylon's head spin, and suddenly, he suspected there was a reason they'd never met before, beyond just the luck of the draw. "Hey," he said hesitantly, unsure whether the question he was about to ask was a huge faux pas or whatever. "Were you purified?"

"I'm twenty-two," he added. His birthday had passed almost a month ago without much fanfare, but then, he'd been busy with a lot of other things at the time. "Anyway, it's usually pretty easy to find a youma if you kick around in the alleys long enough. They like dark places. Easy traps for people taking out the trash in their bedroom slippers."

Not that there was really anywhere around here that might fit the description - this neighborhood looked mostly industrial.

"I fought Zinkenite once," said Babylon brightly. "The senshi I was with got some kind of lucky shot with her attack and we were able to get away. He - uh - he doesn't do real well against sensational magic, I guess." Not really his finest hour, but any fight you made it out of alive was kind of a win - right? Well, no. Not really.

"You won't be offended if I admit I've never heard of you, right?" he asked apologetically. "I mean, don't take it the wrong way - I was out in Alaska for about a year and a half. I missed a lot. I'm sure you were fearsome as all get out - but I'm also sure glad you're on our side now."

Really, he was just glad that anyone would come over to Order. Seemed like people spent most of their time corrupting, after all - and he liked to see proof that the things he was trying to convince other Negaversers were possible actually were. "You know, I really hate to be that guy, but can I pick your brain about the whole purification thing for a second, if you don't mind?" Babylon asked. He felt like a rubbernecker at a traffic accident - but Kairatos was too good a resource to pass up.

Babylon smiled a little disbelievingly - but then, after his recent spate of rotten luck with Avalon, he supposed it was only fair that his ship come in eventually. "Really?" he asked. "You're sure?" It had felt like a massive faux pas to ask, but different strokes for different folks. But now, he really needed to get his head in order and ask the hard hitting questions. Best to stop with the name Kairatos had dropped - right?

"Iris is - is Iris a princess?" he asked. He'd met Iris, in what was probably one of the grossest and smelliest battles in the history of the war. Next time someone got the bright idea of turning a port-a-potty into a youma, Babylon was going to find them and kill them before they could. But back to Iris - the girl he'd met's attitude was about as far from Royalty as he could imagine, but then, lots of things were surprising him lately. And maybe being a loud-mouthed senshi with a knack for destroying things was good cover.

"Okay, good to know," he said. "Mostly I've just been shrugging and telling people to find Zirconia in hopes that she'll point them in the right direction." He sort of had yet to learn if any of his efforts had been successful. "But that's good to know. Thanks, man."

"So, uh, how long ago did you... do the thing?" Babylon continued. Wow. Verbage was hard. He was embarrassed by his lack of vocabulary.

Babylon nodded. He didn't know Psyche, or *********, really, but any idea of how things had actually gone down could help for future reference - especially if her were to run into Spinel again, and could offer him better advice than Find Zirconia. "I can see why she'd want to make certain that you're serious," he said, fiddling with his lantern, "If it takes that much out of her."

"Knights just kind of power up randomly, in my experience," he added. "It's like, the universe sees you need the power, and it hands it to you." At least, that had been his experience both times - He'd gotten in over his head, and the cosmos had delivered. "Maybe it saw that you needed strength for something." It wasn't like you could really complain about being stronger - sure, it made you a bigger target, but he'd be dead by now if he hadn't powered up when he had.

"Did they welcome her back?" he asked. The question had been bugging him for a long time - and even though Kairatos had already made clear that he didn't know why Lina had switched sides twice the way she did, well, turning your back on the negaverse didn't seem like something they'd take kindly to. "Or was she punished?"

Maybe she'd been too valuable to them to let go. He didn't know. And nothing was going to make him rest any easier on the subject, so he'd might as well stop trying. "I know a few people who are looking at getting out," he admitted with a shrug. "I'm trying to help them however I can, so I'm glad I ran into you tonight."

Even if there were still no youma on his radar anywhere. What the hell, the one night he actually wanted to find one!