Hello my dear readers and once more thank you for reviewing and subscribing. I totally forgot to change dollars to Gil money.

This chapter is going to be a bit longer than the other chapters that I've written, so please enjoy and tell me if I could improve on anything else.

A puffin for anyone who reviews! (Look them up, for they are very cute!)

The One They Call Beautiful

Chapter 3

One Year Later

"Dr. Crescent, are you alright?"

"Hm? Oh yeah. I'm fine Vincent."

"Are you sure? You seem a bit…more distant than usual. You started to act like this about a year ago. I just never thought to bring it up." His eyebrow rose in suspicion trying to figure her out. She seemed so nervous that she kept playing with the sides of her lab coat and avoid eye contact.

"I've just been busy with research is all, nothing more." Lucrecia smiled at Vincent in reassurance and glanced at the clock. It was almost two o'clock in the afternoon. Her eyes widened in panic and started to clean up her research papers that surrounded the lab. "I'm late." She whispered.

"Dr. Lucrecia-"

"No time to lose! I have to go! BYE!" She almost ran into the door as she opened it.

Vincent looked around and noticed she had forgotten her bag. He sighed as he took it and ran after her. Unknown to them both, a computer had turned on by itself and started to download information about Chaos.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so late!" She ran around the corner and saw just in time to see the young violinist ending her melancholy song, "Why must you always play such sad songs? A happier would one probably bring in more money." She smiled and ruffled the girls' long, black, dirty hair. The violinist smiled slightly and looked up at her, but the smile was gone when she looked behind Lucrecia.

"You promised you wouldn't tell anybody about me." The scientist looked confused and looked behind her as well and was surprised. Vincent was running towards them carrying…her purse.

'That's what I forgot.' She mentally face palmed.

As Vincent gave the purse back to Lucrecia he noticed a little girl hiding behind her with a violin clutched in her slightly small hands. "Thank you Vincent." Lucrecia looked back, "You don't have to hide sweetie. He's not one of the men here who are evil, Vincent Valentine-"she gestured towards him "-is actually one of the few men you can actually trust." Lucrecia moved out of the way and gently pushed her towards Vincent.

The little girl shuffled her feet and looked down shyly, "Hello Mr. Valentine."

Vincent leaned down on one knee, "You may call me Vincent if you'd like."

The violinist kicked an invisible pebble, "I think I'll stick to Mr. Valentine."

Dr. Crescent replied to Vincent's confused face, "She speaks very formally for a twelve-year old girl." When he looked back down to her, he noticed that her hand was out to him. She was waiting for a handshake. He was shocked due to her shyness and not wanting to make eye contact with him.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," and shook her hand.

3 months later

Vincent POV

Three months have passed and she still hasn't given me her name. Then again she's been with Lucrecia for over a year and has yet to tell her…I'm still one year behind. I sighed in annoyance and waited for Lucrecia to finish her experiment with Hojo. If she doesn't finish early, we're going to be late. I couldn't get this nagging feeling in the back of my head that something bad was going to happen.

"Vincent," her soft voice took me out of my musings, "could you do me a favor and give this to our little friend?" She handed me a small black box with a white ribbon on it and said 'Happy Birthday' on it…wait was todays date again?

"Don't worry; I put both of our names on it because I knew that you would forget. You never really were good with dates." She giggled a little but soon turned into a frown. "Please tell her I'm sorry. Hojo needs me in the lab- we've yet to finish experimenting. I hope she doesn't hate me."

"It's alright Dr. Crescent, I'll tell her and don't worry, she won't hate you. I'm curious about one thing though; does she know that this is your line of work? She said to me that she didn't like scientists because they could unbalance the rules of nature."

Lucrecia's frown went even lower. As she was about to answer my question Hojo interrupted. "Dr. Crescent! Stop dilly dallying, your assistance is needed."

Lucrecia left toward the entrance to the lab. She stopped and her head turned to the side. Lucrecia was about to answer me but she hesitated and went inside. I already knew what her answer was.

I arrived at the usual area where the violinist was but was nowhere to be found. Actually there was on one in the streets or stores. Creepy. "This isn't right," I told myself, "she never leaves this area." I started to walk around looking for any source of life but there was nothing. I went through alleys and I found her violin on the floor… but not the girl. I started to panic and took it with me. I took out my gun in case I needed it and loaded it. Running through the alleys once more, I heard yelling.

"It's her!" I sprinted towards the scream and let the violin drop from out of my hands.

"Leave me alone!" She wasn't fast enough to outrun the four elder men but was able to outmaneuver them.

I sprinted down another alley for a shortcut and heard a crack followed by an earsplitting scream. "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH." I ran even harder. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins as the scream was forever embedded into my head.

I found her lying on the ground clutching onto a dislocated shoulder and a stab wound on the right side of her hip, with four men surrounding her. One of the men pulled a gun on her.

3rd Person POV

The Girl flinched under the man and stopped crying. She was no longer in pain. Only anger and sorrow -she had to die like this.

BANG!

The girl closed her eyes waiting for death but it never came. She looked up and saw the man who was about to pull the trigger on the ground clutching, to his leg and noticed that Vincent had fired the gun and was in front of her. The three other men were astonished at the man's speed. "If you don't leave right now," his voice was calm and menacing, "I will put a bullet through every single one of your heads." All of them left taking the injured man with them.

Vincent kneeled by the girl and tried to sit her up but was in too much pain to be moved. He saw that her blood was coating his black suit and floor painting it in red. "Damn." The Turk whispered and took off his jacket and wrapped it around the girls' fragile body.

The girl turned to face him, "I'm dirtying your suit," the Turk only nodded his head.

"I'll have to pop your shoulder back in place," the girl nodded.

"On three…One-"Crack. The girl gave a silent scream and knocked out. The girl was lifted up into his arms but for some reason felt a little 'too light'. She was supposed to be gaining weight from the money Lucrecia was giving her, but only a few pounds. She still looked like she was starving herself. The Turk raced through the nearest hospital to save the girls' life.