Training and Armor:

On a wide open field, two figures clashed with the sounds of metal crashing through the air. One seemed to have more of an edge on the other as they whipped around and forced the other to remain on the defencive. The one on the offensive, was Skuld. Her long black hair flowing behind her while her short black jacket with pink belts around the sleeves fluttered a little with her movements. The one on the defensive and struggling a bit from the surprisingly heavy blows, was Ephemer. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he had to parry or block many of the strikes. Even being forced to try and sidestep a few times just to try and get enough space so he could actually try to hit her.

Skuld gracefully flipped right over Ephemer's head, as he tried to finally get a hit in on her, then swung her keyblade, a short silver and pale pink colored blade with crescent moons and three stars making up the teeth of the key, with all her strength at the white haired boy's unprotected back. Ephemer, swung around as fast as he could with his own keyblade, his trusty Starlight Keyblade, to try and block the heavy attack… only to get it knocked out of his hands instead and Skuld's Keyblade, Moons Light, to be pointed right at his chest.

"Point, me." The black haired girl smirked as she made her weapon vanish till it would be needed again, then held her hand out to Ephemer.

"Ever thought of going easy just once?" Ephemer chuckled lightly as he took her hand.

"Right and have you boys take advantage of my Keyblade's shorter reach as well as my poor magic skills?" Skuld scoffed a little with a playful smirk and letting go of Ephemer's hand. "No thank you, I'm gonna stick to giving it my all and pushing you boys."

"Hey, I just had to ask." Ephemer shrugged, before glancing over to the large chalkboard they had set up with everyone's "Scores" from their training sessions. "Tomorrow we're going to have to reset that again from the looks of things."

"Just when you were two points ahead of Blaine this time as well." Skuld sighed as she saw right underneath her large tallied wins, Ephemer had the second highest amount of wins, while Blaine was third and Ven seemed to be off by one point… Lauriam seemed to have his, by now, standard three points though which always made Skuld feel a little bad for the pink haired boy.

"Doesn't mean I can't try to beat that score next time."

"Dunno. Maybe Lauriam will pull a fast one next time."

"Only if we all have Panacea's on hand. His keyblade leaves behind some serious poison." Ephemer shuddered, remembering how the first time they all trained he had been put up against the pink haired boy… only to be practically losing his lunch as well as the feeling in his limbs after being hit with his "Dark Hellebore". He still remembered the absolute terror on the other boy's face when he realized how badly Ephemer was poisoned… and the guilty, haunted look on Lauriam's face that followed afterwards for a week.

"I could ask Blaine when I go to the workshop later. Pretty sure he's got the recipe nailed somewhere and a stock of herbs somewhere in there." Skuld offered, determination to help her fellow Union Leader improve and overcome his fears making their way to the forefront of her mind. Whatever was eating at any of her friends, she was determined to make it her mission to get them through it however she could… When she wasn't helping Blaine with their current project. Making Armor was a new thing for her as well, but she did at least know how to do a little bit of metal work, so they were at least making progress.

Yeah… Underneath a whole bunch of Theories and Science/Magic papers probably. Ephemer thought, his face contorting into a grimace for a moment.

"I'll head over there now actually. I think Blaine might be tainting Ven's mind with more of his mad science with Lauriam on supply run duty today." Skuld stated after thinking it over for a moment, then turned to Ephemer. "Besides, it's your turn to check on the Dandelions today."

"Right… Good Luck."

….

"...And that's how I nearly got first place in a Magic competition." Blaine concluded as he smoothed out a metal piece in his hands.

"No fair! You really should have won!" Ventus exclaimed from his seat next to the dark teen.

"Kinda hard to be a winner when everything's on fire." Blaine shrugged before turning over in his seat to fully face the youngest Union Leader. "Wanna try this on kiddo?"

Blaine held out a silver looking piece that seemed to be the lower half of a helmet. It was very close to one of his original sketches with curved points that would go up one's cheeks and protected mostly the lower jaw and back of the head. Ventus glanced over it, feeling a little hesitant but one look up at the older teen and the young blond soon felt that fade away with a bright smile.

"Heck yeah I do!" Taking the armor piece from the older teen Ventus was about to put it on before pausing with a confused look. "Uh… how do I?"

Blaine couldn't help the smile that crossed his face, nor could he help the small chuckle that came from his throat.

"Here, let me help you."

Reaching over and helping Ventus slip the helmet piece over his head before securing it in place, Blaine took note that it did seem just a size or two to big as the metal around the chin and the cheeks seemed to leave a little extra spaces then originally intended… though it did seem to hold firm around Ventus's neck and back of his head pretty well.

Nothing a little charm work can't fix. The dark haired teen thought for a moment before grinning and giving Ventus a thumbs up.

"Looks great Ven."

"Really?" Ventus's bright blue eyes practically began to shine in his excitement.

"Yeah, now we just gotta test one last thing with it. Just to be sure." Ven's excitement turned into a moment of curiosity as his head tilted a little at Blaine's words.

"It's gonna be real easy, trust me."

"Okay."

"Alright, I need you to take some of those magic lessons I gave you-"

"Like making a normal fire spell to make a mini fire tornado? OH or like those Ice Spikes you used on Ephemer during a sparring session?" Ven gasped a little in excitement. "OR is it gonna be like the time you made a Thunder spell charge into your keyblade instead of around you?!"

"Close but less destructive and painful." Blaine had to hold back the slight chuckle at seeing the eleven year old deflate a little in disappointment. "Nah, I need you to focus a little bit of your magic into the helmet piece."

"That's all?"

"Yup. Easiest thing to do."

"Aw… fine." Ventus sighed and closed his eyes, focusing his magic into the armor piece around his head. He had no idea how long he was supposed to do it for, or what was even supposed to happen really.

"How you feeling Ven?"

"Huh?" Opening his eyes Ven was actually surprised to see the world around him looking darker. Like he was looking through a pair of sunglasses. Reaching a hand up to his face, Ventus found his hand touching an almost glass like surface that covered everything around his head that wasn't already protected by the metal piece. Thankfully it seemed like he could also breath pretty easily in it still.

"From that response, I'm gonna say that you're fine. Looks like Prototype-13-D's heading in the right direction." Blaine grinned as he saw the dark glass like dome protecting Ventus's face, and obscuring his view of the blond beneath it. "I'll have to run some tests later on how it holds up to protecting against Darkness later… but for now I'd say it's looking pretty cool so far."

Though it went unseen, Ventus felt a lot of joy building up in his chest.

"Blaine what the hell?" Skuld's voice startled both Blaine and Ventus, making both of them turn to where the brown eyed girl stood with her arms crossed and a disappointed look on her face. "I thought we'd be testing the armor together."

"... Oh crap I forgot." Blaine winced as he put a hand to his forehead, lifting his hat up a little bit from his face and letting the scar across the bridge of his nose become just a little more noticable. "Sorry Skuld, I got a little caught up in finishing one of them-"

"Save it." Skuld sighed before turning her attention to Ven. "How's it feeling Ven? Not to tight? Uncomfortable?"

"Oh, uh… No I'm feeling pretty good. I think it's a little wide, maybe I uh… I don't really know. Blaine says I look pretty cool though!"

"Well he's not wrong on that one." Skuld laughed a little, walking over and patting Ven on the shoulder, seeing as she couldn't really ruffle his hair like she usually would with the helmet up. "He tell you how to turn it off yet though?"

Though his face wasn't visible, both teens could tell Ventus's face went from excitement to contemplative, to kinda worried, all from how his shoulders moved.

"Uh… no… not yet."

"Same way you turned it on. Just put a little magic into it and it'll go back to normal." Blaine explained, and soon after Ventus had the black dome of the helmet fade away into the metal once again. The young blond was about to take it off but Blaine stopped him. "You can keep that one. I've got a spare we can work on."

Skuld raised an eyebrow at Blaine but Ventus gasped.

"Really?"

"Yeah, in fact you should go show Ephemer. Then Lauriam whenever he gets back from the supply run."

"Okay! Good Luck you guys!" Ventus exclaimed and practically jumped out of his seat in excitement, leaving behind the two teens… one smiling as he watched the young boy leave the room while the other was giving a minor glare to the other teen.

"I think I'd remember if we had spares of any of the armor pieces we made Blaine. That was the only helmet piece we made." Skuld pointed out as soon as Ventus was a good distance away.

"Yeah… I know. But did you see how happy he was?" Blaine's smile fell a little till only the corners of his lips were raised a little in a slightly saddened smile.

"... Yeah. Yeah I get it." Skuld sighed, a small smile slowly made its way onto her own face… before she punched Blaine in the shoulder. "Don't go testing the rest of the Armor without me though. We are a team after all."

"Okay, Okay. Sheesh."