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If Babylon had ever met subtlety, he certainly hadn't taken any lessons from it. Of course, when your uniform consisted of arctic survival gear, a fur cape straight off the set of Game of Thrones, and the whole look was brought together by glowing piping and a rather fancy magical lantern, going undercover was not exactly an option.

So instead, he kept to the roofline and alleys, navigating carefully through the campus he'd come to know by heart, coming up on the meeting place he'd arranged with Alexandria without much hassle and certainly no intervention from any less savory characters. Babylon dropped from the rooftop, landing quietly a few feet from the page. He waved.

"Hiya," he said, and when Alexandria acknowledged him, continued, "Let's get going. Good to see you."

He led the way up to the top of the medical school, where higher buildings on all sides would shield them from being seen. "I was thinking we could do a bit of sparring," said Babylon, shedding his cape. He'd been practicing with Gunn since moving into the building, focusing on defensive techniques despite her insistence he learn more offensive attacks. "And maybe do some quick getting-to-know-you stuff?"

"So, hi, I'm Babylon," he continued. "I'm twenty two, and two hours ago I turned in my last term paper ever for a bachelor's degree in environmental science. How about you?"

Babylon gave pause at Alexandria's mention of not knowing how to properly utilize a key. Sure, it was old-fashioned, wouldn't be as good a weapon as a sharp, modern key - but there was plenty you could do with it! He loped over to the younger man and, briefly vanishing his lantern, held out his hands demonstratively. "A key's a good starter weapon," he said, pointing to the palm of his hand. "You want to hold the ring in your palm, and then stabilize the shaft between your index finger and your thumb."

He closed his fingers into a loose fist, showing off the technique. "A lot of people, they think you're supposed to make it stick out between your fingers. That's like, cool, if you want to pretend you're the Wolverine? But it's not going to save you when someone tries to take your wallet. Or your starseed. Or both." After all, he knew there were certain members of the negaverse who were hurting for cash.

"Once you've got a steady grip on it, aim for the eyes or, like, the kidneys?" He gestured vaguely to his stomach and then turned around, craned his neck, and pointed to the rough middle of his back. "Avoid bone. And if you're against a youma, s**t man, I don't know, kick it or drop a dumpster on it or something, just take it out before it kills someone."

Lesson finished, he called his lantern back to hand. "I don't usually fight to kill," he said. "I've had some success convincing people to reconsider their shitty life choices. Oversaw a purification a few weeks back, even. That was cool. So maybe we should start without weapons, so we don't like, accidentally maim each other, and then go from there? How's that sound?"

And then the lantern was gone again.

"True that," agreed Babylon with a nod. "You're gonna have to get in to melee length to use this thing. Getting in close can open you up to attack, but it can also mean you can get a more effective hit in. It's all a balance you've got to strike. If you ever find yourself in an encounter you don't think you can win, there's no shame in running or stalling long enough to find help."

He wished someone had told him that when he'd just been starting out, but supposed that was part of his responsibility to the younger generation of knights - just because no one had been there to guide him when he'd awoken didn't mean that they were obligated to the same path.

"He's fine," he said, smiling. "Came through it like a champ. Civilian memories intact, doesn't ever remember being evil. Kind of the least-dramatic outcome you could hope for. Only side-effect is that now his crazy commanding officer is after all his last known associates instead of after him. Word of advice, you ever come across a general named Avalon, you get out of there and you get out of there fast."

Because she'll kill you really should not have needed to be said, and he trusted Alexandria to be clever enough to figure that out.

"Anyway, let's just go over some basic sparring, to start. Punches and blocks," he said, taking a ready pose, feet shoulder-width apart. "Hit me."

Babylon blocked the punch easily, deflecting it with a shove of his palm against Alexandria's wrist. "Your form's okay," he said, taking a step back. "All your fingers are in the right place. Some people, they make their fists all wrong. It's a good way to break their thumbs - but you're doing good."

"Avalon was a knight of earth. A friend of mine," he explained, taking a step back. My best friend, he thought, but that didn't quite matter right now. "She corrupted to the side of the Negaverse, and she forgot all of her civilian memories when she did. She remembers I was important to her. She knows I know who she used to be. But chaos has driven her mad. She's not that person anymore."

"Our duty, like the code said, is to repel Chaos wherever we find it," he explained, correcting Alexandria's posture with a light touch here and there on the young man's arms and back. "Try throwing your weight into the punch - follow through with your shoulder. You'll do more damage." Really, the code had said that their duty was to find balance, but given how much of the galaxy was already consumed by Chaos, Babylon didn't see the difference.

"There are plenty among the Negaverse's numbers who can be convinced to come to our side if they're shown kindness," he explained. "But you have to be careful. A friendship where you you surrender your trust too blindly can quickly turn sour. Chaos is a drug. It twists people, brings out their worst and darkest. You have to be careful when you deal with them."

Babylon was not about to lose another friend to corruption. Stepping back, he raised his hands defensively. "Try another punch," he instructed.

Babylon demonstrated, holding up a hand with his fingers wrapped around his thumb. "See this s**t?" he asked. "Don't do this s**t." It even felt wrong - so go figure why anyone even had that problem in the first place. He repositioned his fingers, so his thumb rested on the outside. "You hold them like this, and you hit with your major knuckles. Anything else and you're courting and injury. But your form's already looking pretty good, so don't overthink it."

About Avalon, he shrugged. Her betrayal was no longer recent, and he didn't need to be apologized to. Alexandria had done nothing wrong. "You're fine," Babylon said, trying to remain casual. "I spent a year and a half in Alaska. You don't get much more squirrelly than that."

He had... regrets, to put it mildly.

Babylon stood only two inches taller than Alexandria at most, and he snorted about the younger knight's comments about his size. "And you think I'm a giant?" he asked, eyebrows rising. He was muscular, sure. Ripped, even. But no one would ever contest the adjective compact being applied to Babylon's frame.

He considered the question. "We purify the people we can," he said. "And we identify those on our side whose positions are precarious and we sure them up and support them." This was the philosophy he'd shared with Gunn, and she'd seen it sound enough to put... a significant financial investment behind it. "We... we defeat the people who are beyond our saving," he sighed. Babylon was not a killer. It was not in his nature.

He blocked the next punch, but winced as it connected with his forearm. "Oof!" the knight exclaimed. "Good. Damn, that smarts. Told you you could do it."

Babylon shrugged, equally baffled by what some people thought qualified as proper self-defense technique. Maybe they thought their thumb would be protected inside their finger? Still, weird. And not a natural way to bend your hand at all.

"Uh, no, I did not do that," said Babylon, and stuck a mental pin in Alexandria's comment so that he could address it later. "But a lot of s**t did happen that I didn't feel like I could deal with, so I ran from it. Teammates falling ill, mentor figures corrupting. Heavy stuff. So I applied to study Wildlife Conservation at University of Alaska Fairbanks and spent three semesters hiding from my troubles. And in the meantime, my best friend decided that she couldn't handle being a knight anymore and joined the Negaverse and now she's batshit insane."

Which was, you know, putting it mildly and completely skipping the part where she was bribing subordinates to attack him. "So I guess the whole takeaway from that experience is that when you run from your s**t, it only gets worse."

He was pretty sure that was, in fact, the moral of The Lion King.

Anyway, back to sparring. Babylon smirked at Alexandria. "Dude, I think I'm going to have a bruise. I'll snapchat you a picture of it in the morning if you don't believe me. Anyway, try hitting me a few more times and then I'll teach you some of these blocks. My usual sparring buddy's in the Air Force and she's taught me some neat tricks."

"Pics or GTFO?" Babylon repeated, eyebrows rising. "Them are fighting words, baby page," he said, "But you have my word. First chance I get, I am blowing up your phone with pictures of this awesome bruise you totally just left on my arm." He tossed off a salute that probably would have made Eternal Sailor Gunn shudder if she'd seen it - so, luckily, she could not see it.

Babylon took Alexandria's scoff as a challenge, though. When the younger man charged at him, he grabbed him and flipped him easily - but gently. He offered the page a hand, helping him up to his feet. "Someday," he said, "You're gonna do that." It was not up for discussion - he was going to make it happen.

"Anyway," said Babylon, "You aiming to keep your word and go home? Or can we go over those blocks?" Alexandria's attitude might need some work, he thought - but he knew lots of people who'd started out reluctant and turned into fine warriors of justice and light.

So there was plenty of hope for Alexandria.

"You're doing fine, seriously," he said. "I had a glowstick when I first started and I had no idea what the ******** I was doing. You'll level up in no time and get some magic, and then the real fun begins."