Note: Hello everyone, and welcome to the newest installment of Baroquen Heart. I hope you like it, and thanks to everyone for the reviews. In the past few weeks, I had been a little down because of a lack of hits, but now I've adopted a new way of thinking: any number of hits is fine, as long as I have reviews and people who show an interest. I would rather have a lot of reviews than a lot of hits, anyway.

Chapter Six- The Fifth Ace

There was never an easy way for Vincent Valentine to look or act simply. As he strode firmly into the Costa Del Sol Convenience Store, the various faces all focused on the mysterious man in the red cape. Vincent drifted slowly to the back of the store, stopping in front of the video poker machine. By law, the machine was not supposed to be there, but Vincent was never one to complain. It was always his tradition to play only once.

The caped stranger shoved a ten-gil coin into the machine as he asked the cashier, "What's the max prize for this game?"

"It's just a tiny machine. Max is only 100 gil."

Vincent turned his eyes back to the game where a 'draw cards' button was flashing. When he touched it, a hand of cards was dealt to him. His first draw consisted of five aces. Vincent raised an eyebrow and queried to the cashier again, "Sir, I think there's a glitch in the machine. It's showing five aces."

"No way. You're just pulling my leg."

"I'm as serious as herpes."

When the cashier walked over and saw the five aces, he whistled and yelled out, "Hey, Jaynie! We've got ourselves a winner!"

Vincent instantly guessed that Jaynie was probably the store manager. He half-expected to see a lady walk out of the back office who looked like a cross between a duck and radioactive sludge. Much to his surprise, when Jaynie walked in, Vincent saw that she was a very attractive woman. The first thing that caught his eye was Jaynie's shoulder length black hair.

The female store owner had a cute young face that belied her age of thirty-one. Overall, Jaynie appeared to be a very beautiful woman, except for two flaws: she was rail-thin, and had cuts on her arm that Vincent immediately recognized as being made by a needle.

"So, who do we have here?", Jaynie queried. Her voice sounded deep and rough, like someone who had been inhaling a lot of bad smoke.

"The name's Vincent. I think there's a problem with your poker machine."

"You don't have a badge, do you?"

"No, I don't."

"Then let's have a look-see."

When Jaynie saw the image of the five aces on the screen, she placed her hands on her hips and nonchalantly ordered, "Come with me."

Vincent followed Jaynie to the back of the store. Her office was very small, and seemed to have once been used as a supply closet. There was a small desk in the corner with a laptop computer sitting beside a lamp that shone fluorescent green.

"Have a seat, Vincent."

"Excuse me, but what's going on here?"

"There's nothing wrong with that machine. There's something right with it. Do you know how we first came into possession of that game?"

"No. I'm not a local."

"That's alright. I wasn't either, once upon a time. It was a morning just like any other morning. The clouds outside were dark and stormy…"

Vincent interrupted, "So you're saying that the mornings here are always dark and stormy?"

"No. It was just for emphasis. Anyway, one of my rookie employees had quit on me. It was on very short notice, so I had to man the register by myself. Business was moving slow, because it was a winter day like this one. So I'm sitting in my chair behind the register, listening to old rock tunes when I hear a buzzing noise. All of a sudden, this big video poker machine comes flying through the ceiling, and lands right there where it's standing today.

I looked around to see if there were any witnesses, but like most other strange events, there was no one around. I propped the game up, and plugged it in. It worked perfectly fine, except for one glitch. There was a small message at the bottom of the machine that said:

'The man who has deflowered immortality will be the key to Eden. He is the fifth ace.'

"And you think that man is me?"

"The machine seems to think so. I think you're just trying to hide some kind of secret."

"And what kind of secret would that be?"

"You know how to contact the realm of the dead."

"Woman, I am dead."

Not fully believing him, Jaynie jokingly stated, "Ooh, scary!"

"Yeah…well…I did the impossible. Now can I get my prize?"

"Sure. Anything you want. You can take the 100 gil. You can have a bit of my stash. Heck, you can even have me, if you want me."

"Tempting, but no. My wife just took off my money and my car. I still have my cell phone, but she won't pick up."

"…And you need a ride?"

"Yes."

"Well, I can't give it to you, because I'm busy here. But I'll call one of my friends to take you. She's supposed to be on vacation, but if I know her like I think I do, she'll enjoy a road trip even more. Let me call her."

After Jaynie's friend had been contacted, Jaynie instructed, "She'll be here in a bit. Follow me. I want to show you something."

Vincent followed her once again, this time back into the store. They walked down the aisle of snacks and potato chips until they came to the freezers in the corner that held the beverages. Jaynie opened the freezer door, picked out an energy drink, an asked, "How much do you think this costs?"

"The sticker says 20 gil."

"Yes, but do you place your faith in that sticker?"

"If you've done your job right, then yes."

Jaynie removed the price tag, and replaced it with another. "Now do you trust the price?"

"No. You changed it."

"What if I told you that the first sticker was incorrect, and this was the right one?"

"I wouldn't believe you."

"Well, let's check it at the register, won't we?"

Jaynie scanned the item, and the price on the register was different from both of the stickers. "You see, neither one of us knew what we were talking about, did we? And take this bag of chips, for example."

Jaynie picked up a random bag of chips and read from the bag, "Made by the Midgar Chip Factory. How do we really know that? Did you see the Midgar Chip Factory make this bag of chips with your own two eyes?"

"Well, no, but what are you getting at?"

"I'm talking about the message on the game machine. I've never trusted Eden, whatever it's supposed to be. I mean, look at me. I shoot up. Do you think a place like Eden interests me? Well, I can't lie. It does. But would it accept me? That's an altogether different proposition. So in turn, I don't think that I trust you, and my friend shouldn't either. Speaking of my friend, she's here now."

When Jaynie's friend walked through the door, Vincent could tell that this particular road trip would not necessarily be a carefree one. Standing in the doorway, talking on her cell phone and jingling her car keys in the air, was Reno's hermaphrodite girlfriend, Sakura.