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Babylon had been wary of encountering negaversers lately, knowing full well that Avalon's bounty was still posted, but the Dark Mirror was more of an enigma for him. He was close with Zirconia, so he knew plenty about their origins and goals, but in terms of actual interaction, the truth was - he was lacking. He hadn't ever stopped to gab with one the way he did with white moon senshi and lieutenants like Thraen. Their faction was pretty much faceless to him, but he remembered their attack on the surrounding and couldn't help but shudder.

You say we're close to one, said Menachem curiously, from the back of Babylon's head. The knight nodded, crossing the roof towards the strange, dark power signature.

"Yeah," he said, "A super." He looked down. The senshi was sitting harmlessly on a bench, not bothering anyone. Not doing much of anything, really.

He looks fearsome, said Menachem, dryly. Babylon snorted indignantly. I have limited time in this era, but I'd like to know more about the threat you face. Let's go talk to him.

Babylon was not particularly keen. Pain scorched through his frontal lobe. His vision swam. "Did you do that?" he asked in surprise. Zia had been anxious about him taking on a second starseed, and he was beginning to see why. Their connection had been less stable today than it had been previously.

No, said Menachem, But I'd still like to go investigate.

"Okay, fine," said Babylon through his teeth, leaping from the roof. He landed a little clumsily, still dizzy, and waved to the senshi to show his good intentions. "Hiya," he said. "Nice night, huh?"

Babylon had had it mentioned to him once or twice this week that his aura was distinctly weird as ********> since the weirdness on Mercury had gone down, but it wasn't as if he was in any position to go sensing himself. Auras, in that way, were similar to body odor and breath.

Anyway, he wasn't really used to getting treated respectfully by chaos agents, so he sort of had to wonder if the senshi was being flippant with him.

But then again, it was kind of nice to be called sir. "Bit of a funny story," said Babylon, rustling his own hair. "I've got a bit of a traveling companion inside my head who was curious about your whole shtick. He just got here from a thousand years ago and the dark mirror senshi thing's a bit new to him. You guys have a weird aura, you know?"

"Sorry," he said hesitantly. "That sounds totally wackadoodle, doesn't it?"

Songstress Kitsune

Babylon laughed a little - he'd missed the homicidal clones, but he'd heard plenty about them from his friends and it gave him a good benchmark for how experienced the senshi was. That put his awakening around September? October? Maybe November at the very latest. "Well, glad to push the bar for suspension of disbelief a little higher," he said.

To Menachem, he said lowly, "How do you want to do this? Should I translate, or-"

It was a sensation similar to having someone shove him out of the way, only entirely inside his own head. One second, Babylon was watching the senshi and trying to get an answer out of his ancestor, and the next, he was mentally tumbling sideways.

The knight's eyes flashed with blue light. His posture became tighter, his back straighter - Babylon had changed. "I have never seen your kind before," said Menachem, frowning at the senshi before him. "And I have seen Chaos's many forms. I have see how it twists senshi."

He felt a little like Zirconia, but not quite. Strange.

"Where did you come from?" he asked.

The knight's expression hardened. He did not care how these corrupt senshi differed physically from those held in the rebellion's dark clutches, and he said so: "Chaos is chaos," said Menachem with a frown. This mirror universe that Zirconia, and now this boy, mentioned was more than he had time to deal with in his limited time on Earth. "You say you are rather different from them, but these are superficial reasons only."

"I am from the Silver Millennium, boy," he said, "I have seen Chaos take many forms. It is always Chaos beneath, no matter what mask it wears, and you delude yourself if you say you are not like them. However, I can understand why the rebellion would want you dead." Beryl had wanted the universe for herself. She would not take kindly to anyone encroaching on her turf.

Besides, did the phrase not go--

"Better the enemy you know than the enemy you don't," declared the knight. "If you are chaos, then you are a blight. I do not believe in choosing the lesser of the two evils. I was taught to walk the higher path and destroy darkness wherever I find it. You are not better for your physical differences from them. You are two symptoms of the same disease."

The lantern in his hands was strange. He wished for his own. It did not change.

Menachem was unmoved, and he gazed impassively at the senshi before him. "That is Chaos speaking," he said. "Do not tell me it is not, for I have fought its power for longer than you have breathed, boy. I have spoken to Zirconia. I know of your parallel universe. If you are what you say you are, then you are not only a blight but an invasive species as well."

His sister had been a horticulturalist. She had coaxed flowers to bloom beneath Mercury's permafrost. These dark mirror senshi were nothing but weeds in a garden, thought the ancient knight.

"You are just as corrupt as they are," he said, watching the boy flop over. Menachem had no plans to fight him. Not in this borrowed body, with this unfamiliar weapon. His war was long since passed. This was Finn's watch to stand now, his battle to fight. "I can sense the Chaos in you. Your failure to recognize this demonstrates a stunning lack of self-awareness. You say the philosophical debate is above your pay grade - you mean to tell me you are a mindless drone? A soldier who has never asked what their master will give him in return for his service? If you do not question your place in this conflict, I can assure you."

He leveled his gaze. "You will not survive it."

His head ached and he wanted to leave. All he had found here was laziness and a lack of conviction.

Menachem scowled, frustrated with this foolish boy and his impertinence. Children ought to not muck around in conflicts they did not understand, and Tantalus was the worst kind of ignorant, and disrespect did not go far to impress a man who had trained in the golden age of the Academy, who prided himself on upholding a knighthood thousands of years old.

Quick as he could, he reached out and grabbed Tantalus by his collar, hauling him to his feet. This body was short. Menachem was only barely taller than the senshi, but he tightened his grip and held him aloft. "My war is not lost because my war is not over," he said, finding a deepness and richness of tone that Finn Derouen always distinctly lacked. "I have stood my vigil, a thousand years on that mountainside, and this war is my war. You think that because you are young, that so too must be the conflict. You are a child and a fool. This war has been fought for as long as the galaxy has spun. For as long as there has been shadow and as long as there has been light. It does not matter which figureheads lead Chaos's army. I do not care how benevolent your royals are, how grateful you are to them, what petty bickering goes on between darkness's generals. Chaos has always worn many faces. It borrows them and then discards them. You serve a destructive force. One day, it will even destroy you."

He let go of the struggling senshi, dropping him roughly back onto his feet.

"You'd do well to reevaluate your position," Menachem said, holding the lantern high. "There is no such thing as luck, only blind acceptance."

This was exhausting and he wanted to go home.

"If you've heard it before," said Menachem irritably, "then perhaps it is time you give it some credence, for it is true." Honestly, he was done here. He'd made Finn come over because he was curious to learn more about Chaos's latest guise, but Tantalus had left him absolutely underwhelmed. The boy was insolent and irreverent.

He was not worth the knight's time.

Straightening his back, he made his stand against Tantalus's last barb. "I did not fail," Menachem declared. "My city stands tall. Its lamps burn bright against the darkness, and the valley was never taken. My line is unbroken and my heir is strong in his convictions and his power and that is my victory."

Menachem frowned, and turned to go. "I thought perhaps you would be a worthy adversary, but you are trifling compared to the enemies I have faced in my time. If you are to serve Chaos, then embrace the cruelty inherent in your nature. Do not lollygag about and split hairs about how you are the lesser evil."

Although he did not know his way in this unfamiliar city, he strode off all the same - Menachem had limited time on Earth, and he did not plan to waste it talking to pitiful creatures.