Carmen:

Roxy: …

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Chapter 6

Vincent walked into the club and sat down at the bar hoping to find some clues. He tried to remain inconspicuous and unrecognized and ditched his headband and boots. His hair was in a ponytail and he had removed his trademark golden claw.

"Hey hon what would you like to drink?"

Vincent peered up at the woman who was giving him a warm smile and was polishing a wine glass. He closed his eyes and opened them again speaking in his deep voice with a small smirk plastered on his face.

"Do you have a bottle of 1994 red wine?"

"Oh I think so hon. A fancy pants 1994 glass of wine coming right up."

When his wine arrived Vincent sipped it with contempt at first then savored the taste. Roxy was right. This year of wine was pretty good it has a unique taste to it for sure. He let his thoughts wander while looking for any participants who might know any information on the Oni Slayer's whereabouts.

"Hey there sexy."

He heard a few times and ignored them. But when a girl sat beside him and gave him a long hard stare he finally turned to see who it was. Kaitlin, the girl Roxy had tried to make amends with. Did she recognize him?

"Hello there. May I ask you to please stop with the staring it's quite rude."

Kaitlin ordered a glass of pop and spoke cheerfully.

"I don't know but you look familiar a bit do I know you anywhere?"

"No."

Vincent wearily spoke while downing his glass of wine. If she recognized him, and people found out whom he was his chances at finding anyone, Oni or Slayer, would be blown. He asked for a martini this time and continued his conversation with Kaitlin.

"Hi I'm Kaitlin you?"

Vincent frowned and scrolled his mind for a name. He remembered Roxy calling him Vinnie-baby all the time and altered it.

"Sven."

"So Sven what are you doing here?"

Vincent finished his martini and ordered another one. He was really nervous and knew that if he was careless his plan would fuck up and Roxy would be pissed at him for not finding where her friend is.

"Relaxing."

"Cool. So are you single?"

What should he say? If he said no would she start to recognize him? If he said yes then what? Could this Kaitlin girl hold any useful information, could she gain any information for him?

"It depends who's asking."

"Oh so the mysterious type hm?"

Vincent's head was feeling a bit fuzzy as he downed his third glass of alcohol. The barkeep arrived with another martini and gave him a wink. He was losing his focus but he didn't seem to mind. Downing the martini which seemed to be really strong, Vincent stumbled out of his chair and turned to Kaitlin.

"Would you please excuse me miss. I need to freshen up."

He spoke smoothly; he headed towards the restrooms and tried to clear his head of these thoughts. It had to be the alcohol he assured himself. But was it really his buried feelings his heart told him vacantly. A man brushed past him on the way to the door and when Vincent stood in front of the sink staring at his image the same man came out of a stall and washed his hands.

"Vincent Valentine ex-Turk, member of AVALANCHE and currently dating Roxy Yang, what ever are you of all people doing here in a club of all people?"

Vincent's intoxication made his mind slow but he still registered the sign on the man's hand; the Oni Slayer's mark.

"An Oni Slayer hm? Just the person I was looking for. I was sent on a mission by Ms. Yang to find the whereabouts of her dear friend Carmen Lowe. She is part of the Oni Slayers, I presume you know where she is. Am I correct?"

As a Turk it was important to be formal when dealing with business. Vincent had a knack for calling upon those skills when he needed them.

"I do. That is classified info though."

Vincent grabbed the guy's shirt and pushed him up against the wall, snarling.

"You better tell me. I'm not in a good mood and if you knew I was an ex-Turk then you must know my past with Hojo. Chaos lusts for blood right now."

Maybe it was the alcohol he wasn't even sure anymore. Vincent felt like he could do anything right now and right now he wanted the information. It was his mission and he was going to complete it.

"S-Sure. Carmen's on a mission right now exploring the Oni Lair. We heard Deepground were still lurking around the w-wreck and got our best team to check it out and gather d-data."

Vincent stopped growling menacingly and dropped the man. He walked to the rest room exit and stopped at the door.

"Where are the sightings of the Deepground?"

"It s-seems they've created a portal between Gaia and this world. More are coming here wreaking h-havoc. It's keeping most of our S-slayer's busy. Th-they're after your girl but we've managed to stop them from reaching her in a 10 mile r-radius. I don't want to admit it but soon they'll override us and…I don't want to know what will happen then."

"What are your plans at stopping this threat?"

"The only way we can is to stop it from the source. The Slayers we've sent so far have been…Killed in Action…"

"How do you know this?"

"Their heads have been sent back to us perched on the weapons they use. We've closed our portal to Gaia in order to block off Deepground. We don't know any other way to enter other than falling right into their lair on the other side."

Vincent left and relaxed. He held onto this information while his head cleared of anything else. He was now completely drunk and Vincent had no idea what he was doing.

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"This is…incredible."

Carmen whispered. Rango had been searching through the Oni Lair and came upon a locked door. He finally managed to break it down and found this.

"Because of the reality we live in, stuff like phoenix downs and other stuff from Gaia do not affect us here. It seems the Oni Leader was experimenting with phoenix downs. It shows right here in the formula that by altering the base of the item he was able to make it work in this realm. Though by the looks of it he only accomplished in completing one."

"…I get most of it but Rango you're speaking mostly nerd."

"Rug maybe still alive."

"…Oh…What do we do about this? Does the Elder already know?"

"We have him on the phone. He's been notified."

"Okay then what about the murdered squad?"

Rango looked away and placed his gloved hand on the marble counter that had millions of experiments performed on top of it. Carmen sighed and lifted her hand up. Rango placed his palm pilot in her hand and when Carmen looked at the pictures there she gasped.

The missing heads were placed upon the weapon. A sword stabbed cleanly through one head, a gun blade shoved into another head, a spear through an ear and out the other, a rapier stabbed head first through another head the end of it showing through where the head and neck were suppose to connect, and finally the leader's wave sword stabbed into his head like antlers.

The sight was gruesome and Carmen almost threw up from staring at the digitally taking photos. She handed the palm pilot back to Rango and ran a hand through her hair. What the hell were Deepground after? Was Rug controlling them?

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Roxy sighed and tried calling Vincent's phone for the fifth time. He still didn't answer and she was getting really worried. Yuffie stopped Roxy from pacing and dangled the keys of her motorcycle in front of her face.

"Come on we can go to the club and get him."

"That's three on a motorcycle that's only for two people."

"I'll take a taxi."

"Let's go."

Roxy revved her motorcycle while Yuffie clung to her, scared about the fact that she may fall off and crack her skull open spilling her brains all over the pavement, which made Roxy wish she hadn't made the comment earlier.

When they arrived at the club Roxy walked in and immediately spotted Vincent kissing Kaitlin who was wide-eyed and motionless. When Vincent saw Roxy shocked he snapped out of his intoxicated state and ran up to her.

"Look I was drunk and didn't kn-"

"Cut the bull shit Vincent the evidence is plain and visible. I'm not blind."

"Sven? Roxy what are you doing here?"

"Leaving."

Roxy turned to leave and Vincent grabbed her arm. She turned to look at him and Vincent's heart painfully banged against his chest. Her eyes… were so hollow it made him want to fill them up with the emotion that use to be there.

"Please just let me explain. Please."

Vincent begged as he whispered the last word out. Roxy shook herself out of his grip and walked outside getting the motorcycle started. Yuffie glared at him and put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot.

"Man Vincent I knew you were heart-broken about Lucrecia and yada yada. But think about others for a change, Roxy is feeling like shit now! Why did you have to go and do that? I thought you were a gentleman not some degrading ass-sucker! You know what? Leave Roxy alone until you're fully ready to accept the fact that you hurt her a lot! Geez that was like giving her a slap across the face you know! You better apologize big time mister; god just looking at you makes me wanna rip your eyes out! You're a disgrace Vincent!"

Vincent watched Yuffie stalk out of the club and heard a motorcycle drive off into the distance.

He had to leave.

It was for the best.

He would fix this by himself.

And keep her safe.

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Carmen finished up her inspection of the Oni Lair and her squad headed back to her house. Rufus greeted Carmen cheerily but dropped the smile when she gave him a scowl.

"Oh your friend called. In fact I believe she left two messages on your phone."

"Thanks Rufus."

Carmen walked over and picked up her personal cell. As Rufus said two messages were left, she checked them.

"God dammit Carmen answer your cell! Once I find out where you are I'm going to give you a hard kick up the ass! Anyways Vincent is back to the club we went to for my stupid party so if your still there notify him. You can't miss him he's pretty recognizable anyways later and tell Rufus to stop answering your frikken phones!"

Carmen rolled her eyes and listened to the next message. Her eyebrows furrowed when she heard Yuffie's voice she checked the number and it was Roxy's cell. Why was Yuffie using her cell?

"Hey Carmen, Vincent went to the club and he got… well drunk. Roxy finally got too worried and drove there I went along and she saw Vincent kissing Kaitlin. She's pretty torn up and…-a few held in cries- He left. She doesn't know yet, she's still asleep but please if you hear this message get over here. I don't know what to do."

Carmen froze. Vincent left? He kissed Kaitlin? What the hell exactly happened while she was gone? 'If that's a prank call from Yuffie and Roxy I'm so going to kick both of their asses.'

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