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So, basically, she wasn't supposed to be out on her own. That hadn't changed, not even a little bit. In fact, it had the opposite of changed. But she was out on her own anyway, because Wednesday was Babylon's patrol night, and he'd stayed home with her last week but it didn't mean he did every night. So she'd climbed out the window, and there was this tree, and she'd climbed down the tree and now, here she was! Being Avalon. Being Avalon was fun, and natural, but she kept in mind what exactly it was that she'd been told by Marlo: keep your mouth shut, don't tell anyone what it is you're thinking, you can't trust anybody. Except Marlo and his brother and Babylon. Cool. She could do that. She was so good at not trusting.

SO good, you guys.

What she wasn't good at was avoiding people. It didn't even occur to her that she might be quasi-stalking Oenone, or someone who might know who she was and that she wasn't supposed to be out. Actually, she'd kind of hoped it was Auriga; she liked the senshi of pestilence, and kinda wanted to hang out more. Yessss. They could beat up bad guys and monsters together! But no, she didn't see her sorta-friend. She saw some totally badass looking senshi with long long hair and a tiny tiny uniform.

"Boo!" said Avalon, popping out from the alleyway in which she had been hiding. She laughed, as if this were the most amusing thing she'd done all day, which it was, to be fair. "Hi! I like your hair."

Avalon giggled, because, um, curse words much? Did anyone ever watch their language? She sure did. "That is a quarter in the swear jar, sailor," she said, covering her mouth with her hands. The eyes crinkled at the corner with delight were still visible, even if her smile was hidden. "You know better'n to talk like that, it's sooo rude." And rudeness, rudeness was bad. She knew that because of science.

Or, no. Not science. But Tallulah seemed to think being polite was important, and Finn was always going on about how she needed to be gentle and kind and stuff like that. Bullshit and nonsense, that was for sure. Except she liked being nice. It made her happy when people smiled. "I'm Avalon," she said, holding out one hand for a handshake, because that seemed like the right thing to do. Who knew why, though. It didn't make sense, conceptually. You know what did make sense? Birds. Mostly birds made sense.

Uh... where was she? "What're you doing? Can I help?"

"We knew each other?" Oh, that was so cool! she'd only met Finn and Hvergelmir and--uh, she guessed Oenone and Tallulah?--who had known her before, so far. Wait! Marlo. Right. So, that was like, five whole people. "That's six people," she informed the senshi. "But no. I don't remember anything. I was really sick for a long time, and I did a lot of terrible things, like cut Babylon's face, because I was sick. Not in here--" she tapped the side of her head "--but in here." She put a hand over her chest, where her starseed was. "That's what Babylon told me."

Then it occurred to Avalon that the senshi hadn't actually answered her question. "...Were we not friends, before," she asked, because... Penthesilea didn't seem very happy to see her. "I'm sorry if we weren't. I guess I was a really bad person."

"I scarred a lot of people," acknowledged Avalon solemnly. She looked at the scar, but it made her feel all wiggly inside, like something was knocking on wood, but like... inside her soul. Knock knock! Avalon, are you there? It wasn't nice. She didn't like it. "I can't stab anybody anymore," she said, and she produced her apple from where-ever it had been, bright red and too perfect to be real. But it was real. She took a bite out of it, to prove its harmlessness, and it was like someone had grabbed her and shouted the word apple in her ear.

She offered the apple to Penthesilea. "I'm sorry you're not having much luck," she said. "I've never met someone who's Chaos."

"You can eat it, if you want," said Avalon. "It'll grow back. It's like magic, that way." She could do so much magic. It was beautiful, really, she really really liked it.

She linked her fingers behind her back and smiled, shyly. "I would like to see some of the city with you," she said. "I just have to be home before three, or Babylon will know I left by myself." She looked up along the street, and said, "Where should we go first!"