Chapter 19

"So, when you say, 'kitted out' you mean…?" Jayson made air quotes around the words kitted out as Ventus continued to lead him through the winding corridors of the castle, down several flights of stairs, and finally into what looked like an armory of some sort. Many pauldron like items lined the walls, all suited for a different part of the body, the left and right shoulder, a gauntlet like design, and one near the elbows to name a few. Ventus turned towards Jayson with a flurry of jazz hands as he smiled widely.

"We're giving you a set of Keyblade armor of course! Just look around and find a set that feels comfortable to wear. Call me if you need any help, I'll be over here searching for spare parts." Ventus walked over to the corner of the room, by a chest and began to rummage through it, throwing pieces out and shuffling the contents up, with that Jayson turned to the pauldrons and inspected each one. He went up and down the line of them all until he found one that seemed different, somehow, like it was calling out to him. He picked it up and a symbol appeared in his mind, like the one on the back of Ven's Chirithy. He immediately knew it was the one for him.

"Hey Ven, I think I found it!" Ventus gave an affirmative grunt as he pulled out a few spare pieces of metal and set them on the ground. After helping Jayson with fitting the pauldron on, which strangely wrapped around his middle, right near where the belt would be. He stood up in pride as he wiped away a fake tear.

"I can't believe I was finally able to help someone into their very own Keyblade armor! It makes me so proud…" Jayson gave a small laugh as Ven motioned for him to try it out. He slammed his palm on the center and a light engulfed his form, and once it dissipated a bulky armored suit remained. Its base colors were blues and blacks accented with reds and whites, on the top of the helmet, near the visor, the sigil of a dream eater was branded on, Jayson looked down on himself and nodded in approval.

"I could get used to this." Ventus nodded as well, smiling from ear to ear. He stepped away and motioned for Jayson to step forward, and once he did, he was met with the two pieces of metal Ven had pulled from the chest, he used some magic to weld the pieces on and they were soon on their way back up the castle, armor disengaged and Jayson quietly following alongside Ventus, thinking of how best to bring up… well, the whole Keyblade War. It seemed that it was already getting dark out, and Ventus dragged Jayson down to the mess hall of the castle. It was an enormous room to say the least. Three massive tables spread evenly out on the floor, and put near the opposite side of the room was a large main table with enough room for each guardian to sit, and most seats were occupied, Aqua and Terra sat near the center, with a seat to the left of Aqua remaining open. Lea, Roxas, Xion and Mickey sat to Terra's right, and beyond the empty seat – Jayson assumed it was meant for Ventus and was proven right as he took the seat as if he had been born in it – Were Four more seats, probably for Riku, Kairi, Yen Sid and one more. "Probably Sora, since he was a guardian too." He took the seat next to Ventus and smiled down the line of people. Dinner went on without much incident, Jayson couldn't see where the food was coming from, and decided not to question it, and let his mind wander instead.

"Ephemera… My Nightmare Chirithy… Ventus… what does it all mean? How does Ava fit into all of this? Why do I feel like I'm close to something big?" He shook his head "I'll find out if I just keep going…" Jayson felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Lea standing over him, waving him away from the table with Roxas and Xion watching not far behind. He smiled at them and excused himself from Ventus' company and walked over to Lea before following the three wielders out of the hall and into the courtyard, suspended high on the mountain top. They sat at the edge of the courtyard and Lea whipped out four bars of sea salt ice cream, from where, Jayson couldn't tell. As they all began to munch on the bars Lea coughed a little to get their attention and turned to Jayson.

"You know, you have every right to not go, right? You could get some training here and go when you have more experience." Roxas and Xion were dumbfounded but didn't respond to his claims. Jayson took a contemplative bite of his ice cream as he mulled it over. He turned to Lea with a determined look, "I messed up in Atlantis… I don't want that to ever happen again. I still have so much to learn. But If I don't do anything, and stay here, more worlds will fall than if I did something about it, and Ven said he'd be coming with me now, with a master by my side, this should be a piece of cake, right?" Lea looked on, smiling softly,

"Yeah, of course." The rest of the conversation was uneventful, Roxas messing with Lea, saying he was acting like a 'big brother' again, which he adamantly denied, sounding quite embarrassed, and soon they were all going their separate ways, back home. Jayson made his way back to the castle, into a room that Terra led him to where he could sleep and prepare for tomorrow, when he and Ventus would depart for the next world, whichever one that may be.

Shortly after Atlantis fell, in the Keyblade Graveyard…

Luxu stepped out of the corridor of darkness with the other foretellers in tow, turning to them with a large grin on his face. "We're one step closer to getting our master back, isn't that great guys?" No one seemed too enthused about it, and Gula stepped forward, face frowning under his leopard mask.

"Why do we have to force these worlds to fall to darkness? Furthermore, that kid, Jayson, his name isn't Jayson, so why are we humoring him? Not to mention you never told anyone your role yet, we all came clean to each other, everyone except you…" Luxu just smiled even wider, before turning and lifting his arms to the sky, gazing with his singular eye towards the heavens.

"My role was to hide the box, and to view history without taking part, which I may or may not have followed… But that's in the past, I have a new role now that fate isn't tying us down."

"And what would that role be, hmm?" Ira moved forward, too close for Luxu's liking, and poked him in the back. Luxu only huffed before turning around and pointing an arrow gun at him.

"My new role is to bring the master back, using you guys to help me, now you and Gula go to that strange world, connected to data yet just as real as all the others, I'm sure the guardians will go there next, too many clues were left behind, and make sure to not fail this time!" Ira growled softly as Gula huffed, they both turned and summoned a corridor, walking into it and leaving the other three alone. Aced grunted something about 'training' and walked off. Invi turned to walk away as Luxu spoke again,

"Have you figured it out yet?"

"You mean the traitor among us? Honestly, given the way you're going about all this, it could be all three of them, but I haven't found anything yet. That boy however, Jayson… he knew something about Ava, he was part of her union and the catalyst for the war, yet until Atlantis he was oblivious to it all… He isn't dead, is he?" Luxu only nodded his head, putting both hands behind his head and gazing upwards once more.

"The kid is sturdier than he lets on, and with that nightmare becoming his darkness incarnate, he'll be damn hard to kill. But don't worry, I've prepared for every eventuality, just keep up the good work Invi, toodles!" Luxu then summoned his own corridor and walked through it, leaving Invi to search for the traitor.

Gummiphone Entries:

Keyblade Armor: A specially made Armor for Keyblade wielders. It wards off Darkness and increases the strength of the wielder. Using it for travel yields no negative repercussions but using it for combat requires a cooldown time of three hours.

Catalyst: The person who set off the first Keyblade war by 'falling to Darkness'. It was a front used by the Master of Masters to get the Foretellers at each other's throats, yet no one knows of this.

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