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He'd woken up this morning with a splitting headache that had just refused to go anywhere the whole day long. It was bad enough after work that he considered just going home and passing out, but his ancestor dug his heels in. If I only have limited time in the here and now, said Menachem, then I want to see everything that I can. And he was pretty sure he could hear Kaatje's voice sneering about how he couldn't slack off on the job.

So Babylon suited up and pressed out into the night, not exactly sure what he was going to accomplish because he was in no condition to be fighting anyone, but, hey, at least he was on the streets making Destiny City a safer place. Or something. He decided to stick close to home for the evening, and the historic district had the kind of population density required to make it into a worthwhile hunting ground, so it wasn't a total waste.

Still, he was planning to call it a night and pack it in when the captain's power signature came into range. "I have a duty to check this out," he sighed, and tried his best to not trip over anything as he changed his course. Grace under fire was one thing, but grace under a migraine was another.

The Negaverser in question came into view, and Babylon bit back a sigh of relief. Titan required no intervention, although the rank was new and officers did tend to become increasingly unhinged as they advanced.

You know this man? asked Menachem.

"Yeah," said Babylon. "He's, uh, a friend. I'm trying to get him to reconsider some major life choices."

We should say hello, said Menachem. I would like to meet him.

Babylon sighed through his teeth. "Okay," he said, and leaned forward to call, "Hey! Titan! Good to see you! I'm coming down, okay?"

He managed to land without breaking his ankle, but it was still not nearly as graceful as his usual footwork.

God, was it really so obvious that there was something wrong with him? Well, no point in trying to hide that there was something wrong - he trusted Titan more than that. The now-Captain was in no danger of taking advantage of him, so Babylon took off his visor and rubbed his temples.

His eyes were glowing faintly blue, although the knight didn't know it.

"I've got a bit of a weird magical thing going on," he said, tucking the visor into his coat pocket. He hadn't done any more work on Titan's questions since their last meeting, but then he'd had a lot going on. His father had been murdered by an omnicidal maniac who happened to be his childhood best friend between then and now, after all - everything had sort of become less of a priority in comparison.

But he trusted Titan well enough to let him know what was up, and for someone so interested in knighthood, his current situation might well be a fascinating bit of trivia. Babylon still considered Titan to be a prime candidate for purification, and every little bit helped that case.

"This is going to sound completely bonkers," he said, slipping off one of his gloves to pinch the pressure point between his thumb and forefinger. Were his fingers glowing, leaking light from his cuticles? They were. "I've got, uh, so the previous knight of Babylon's starseed was still at my Wonder? Just kind of, hanging around?"

Menachem made an indignant noise at the back of his mind.

"So I, uh, I've got his starseed inside my chest and he's inside my head and I'm trying to take him back to the Galaxy Cauldron but I guess it's kind of unstable magic," Babylon said. God, he was such a sitting duck right now to anyone who might be watching. "Anyway, that's what's up with me. What's up with you? I like the, uh, armor. You look fancy."

"I didn't know it was possible, either," remarked Babylon, watching the captain move. It wasn't that he expected him to try anything untoward - the Titan he knew was a gentle giant - but it was entirely possible that he might try to do something with good intentions that would end disastrously.

Thankfully, no attempts were made to reach inside his chest, and Babylon laughed a little bit at Titan's notion that he could walk to the Cauldron. "No, um," he began, and paused, because he wasn't actually sure where the Cauldron was.

It is somewhere near the galactic core.

Well, that was helpful, thought Babylon, and said, "It's somewhere near the center of the Galaxy," to Titan. "So no, uh, I don't think we can walk there." He'd be very interested to know if it were that simple, but it was not, and he was not going to get out of this just by taking a hike.

Anyway, he reached up to pat Titan companionably on the shoulder. "Well, good for you," he said, trying to hide his bittersweet mood. Titan had always struck him as exceptionally stable, but advancing in rank would mean that Chaos had a stronger hold on his friend. His kindness would start to fade. And that made Babylon profoundly sad. "Moving up in the world," he said, forcing his smile. "That's great."

Babylon nodded. "Knights can only go to their wonders," he said, "And I doubt there are any mirrors all the way out in the center of the galaxy, but I do hope to find someone who can get me close to the cauldron, be they senshi or knight." A knight of Cosmos to be specific, but he didn't have time to trouble Titan with explanations of who Cosmos was, because he barely understood that himself.

Besides, it seemed like he'd gone and messed up his congratulations, and that was the last thing he'd meant to do. Just because it saddened him to think of Titan falling deeper and deeper under Chaos's influence didn't mean he wanted the captain to go around thinking he hadn't deserved his promotion. "What makes you say that?" Babylon asked."Why wouldn't you deserve your promotion? I mean, from what I know of the Negaverse, they are like really intense. They don't promote people who don't deserve it."

Though they did have some kind of weird criteria. He was pretty sure Avalon had been promoted as a reward for cutting Babylon's face open.

But, like, moving on.

"Yes, in my head," said Babylon, giving his noggin a gentle knock, which turned out to be a not so great idea because it hurt. "I can't hear all his thoughts, but he can talk to me, and he sees and hears everything I see and hear. You could talk to him, if you wanted? He can sort of. Um. Borrow my body, when he wants to."

Maybe talking to an ancient knight would be a good thing for Titan - Menachem might have answers to questions that Babylon didn't.

"Oh," said Babylon, finally understanding Titan's low mood about his promotion. His devotion to Obsidian sounded lopsided, like Titan had made his lord much more of a priority than his lord had made him. Perhaps the Negaverse's numbers were such that it could afford to neglect its lower officers this way. He frowned. This all reminded him of how his singleminded devotion to Lina had gotten him absolutely nowhere at all.

Perching his visor on his nose once more, Babylon said, "that's - That's not right, if you want my opinion. You've done so much for him. The least he could do in exchange is show up for your promotion." If he had poorer impulse control, he would have suggested this be a reason to leave Chaos behind. Being under-appreciated had been a good enough reason for Kairatos to purify. But, he thought, the situation with Titan was so delicate - he'd better not push it.

Which reminded him that he'd done some research for him a few weeks back. "Yes, he hears everything," said Babylon. "This conversation. My thoughts." It was weird not having any privacy inside his head, to be honest - he wanted to be through with this for that reason alone, before any of the weird physical side effects. "I've given him control a few times with no complications, but if you're nervous, I'll just mediate. You can ask questions if you want."

I don't want your body, boy, said Menachem. It's not right for me. Your lantern is shaped all strangely.

"He says he doesn't want my body anyway," said Babylon, laughing. "I talked to Camelot for you, by the way. He says there's no way that he knows of to find out what a Negaverser would have been the knight of, short of purifying them. Emphasis on that he knows of, though. I'll keep looking. Okay?"

How to best explain this without freaking Titan out further? wondered Babylon. He wasn't quite sure what 'put aside in your starseed' meant, but it kind of sounded like something that had already happened to him. "No, uh, it doesn't hurt," he said reassuringly. Not any more than this whole situation already hurt, anyway. "I just sort of - I close my eyes and go away for a while, and then he comes out and talks to you. But I can hear him inside my head, too, so if you'd rather just talk to him through me, that would work too."

He hoped that Menachem might have some answers for Titan that he himself lacked, but didn't want to get his hopes up about some of the more far-fetched possibilities. I know no way of discovering who he would be without Chaos's taint, warned Menachem. In the past, I could have recognized a fallen comrade easily... But not in this age. The faces are too strange. I knew Aria because she is Virgo still.

Oh, thought Babylon. Well it was worth a try.

"He says he doesn't," sighed Babylon apologetically. One day, he'd crack this puzzle, and when he did, he'd probably expect Titan to purify on the spot for his trouble. Which was probably selfish and deeply, deeply problematic. "He says it has been too long for him to recognize anyone he used to know. The faces have changed too much."

But at least he could give Titan a name to call his ancestor. That much was easy. "His name is Menachem," he said.

I have not been Babylon in a long time, intoned his ancestor mournfully.

Babyon frowned. He knew that his ancestor knew the answer to all these questions and could just as well relay them through him as answer them personally, but wasn't sure whether the words would be more convincing coming from himself or... whatever happened when Menachem had control of his body. He'd been told it was unsettling, to say the least. Perhaps, seeing as he'd so far felt the need to treat Titan with kid gloves...

"He does," he said, not closing his eyes nor letting his ancestor take control.

Beryl lusted after the prince of earth and grew jealous of the moon princess he loved, and so she called forth the powers of Chaos and built an army from the wreckage of our order, said Menachem, which Babylon had known before.

"It was a war between Chaos and Order, yes," he relayed to Titan. "Beryl started it because she wanted the moon princess's boyfriend. So she, like, assembled this big bad chaos army by making the knights' Academy into the rift."

The war consumed the galaxy. Earth is the last battlefield, and once Chaos extinguishes Order...

"He says that Chaos destroyed everywhere else," said Babylon. Of course Beryl would not destroy the world she had set out to conquer, he thought. "So it's just as we had guessed."

Babylon stood still, listening to his ancestor's reply. There is no compromise with Chaos, he said. We tried and we failed to reign Beryl's rebellion in, but there is no reasoning once the balance is tipped. There is no reason for Chaos to strike a truce when it has the upper hand. There is nothing we can offer it for bargain. It will not stop until it has everything it wants and we have no barter and no power.

The knight exhaled. "He says that Chaos has always had the upper hand, since the start of Beryl's rebellion," reported Babylon. "And that Chaos does not accept bargains or offers of peace. It just consumes. The time for striking truces is past - at least until things become more balanced."

He'd heard the same logic at Olympus, voiced by modern knights. Why should Chaos strike a truce with them? They had no power. He remembered the Code's illustration, the breadth of Chaos's influence.

"I'm sure you've been told that your position is dire, that at any moment Order will wrench control from Chaos's hands," shrugged Babylon. "But that's not the case. We fight an uphill battle." Thinking of a useful metaphor, he gestured to the night sky. "Do you see how much is dark and how much is light?" he asked the captain. "I'm not speaking literally right now, but the amount of empty space versus the amount that is stars is sort of equivalent to how much stronger Chaos is than Order right now. Would you strike a truce with an enemy who occupied so little of the sky? Or would you just finish wiping it out?"