Real Name: Vincent Lant
Room: M49
Age: Unknown (looks to be around 20-25)
Hair Color: White (Blue eye dyed onto front)
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5'10"

Backstory
As a boy, Venom was found in England by the Assassin's Guild, a group of assassins that was originally created in order to punish those "outside the law," yet had recently turned to more political matters and therefore had a lot more influence. The Assassin's Guild regularly took in orphans and trained them to be as their own but, unfortunately, Venom turned out to be too kind and reluctant to take any lives. Since they were dealing with orphans, there was never any qualms about simply executing the useless children. As Venom was one of those useless children, his story really should have ended right there.

Fate stepped in, however, in the form of the Guild's newest leader, Zato-1. Zato rose to the top of the ranks after receiving a creature known as a Forbidden Beast (a bio-weapon being parasitic in nature, created to fight off another type of bio-weapon called Gears) to inhabit his shadow, allowing him to use it as a weapon at the cost of his sight. Zato personally ceased the execution, seeing potential in Venom where the rest of the Guild did not. Zato took it upon himself to train the new assassin over the years and eventually made him his right-hand man. Venom quickly became a powerful, trusted, and capable member of the guild, imbued with deep respect and devotion to Zato for everything he'd done.

Sadly, this loyalty of his went into some extreme, almost disturbingly so, measures. Every single part of his life became dedicated to Zato and the Guild, hero-worshiping and (although unrequited) loving him with all his heart. If anyone dared insult Zato, threatened him or the guild in any way, Venom would be there in an instant like a guard dog. While he still felt uncomfortable taking lives, he would do absolutely anything Zato ordered of him without question.

When Zato began showing signs of getting into a more than work-related relationship with Millia Rage(another assassin Zato taught essentially everything to, even having her receive a Forbidden Beast in order to wield her hair as a weapon), Venom immediately took to hating her, constantly getting after her for everything he could, reminding her that it's against the rules for affairs like that, and repetitively reminding even Zato that she couldn't be trusted and he should stop what he was doing. Millia and Zato continued their affair regardless and these events went on for quite a while--Venom would be a bother and the other two would brush him off. They both knew how he felt about Zato, despite him never fully admitting it (really, Venom's as see-through as sheet of cellophane when it comes to his emotions), but neither one of them really cared all that much.

Whether Venom's warnings were only a ploy to break them up or not, he was right and Millia eventually left the Guild. She just couldn't handle it any more, seeing just what sort of people the Guild was taking money from. As much as she had loved Zato and as much as he loved her, her love dissolved and began to turn to disgust and hatred as she blamed him for turning her into the murderer she had become. When Zato sent assassins to bring her back, she collaborated with the police, leading Zato into a trap where he was promptly arrested. For his capture, all charges against her were dropped. The Guild slowly began to collapse without their leader, sparking major in-fights over who, exactly, would take over in Zato's absence.

A few years down the road, Zato escaped prison with the help of a Gear named Testament, and was evidently determined to win a tournament that promised to grant any one wish to the winner (his wish was going to be revenge on Millia). Millia caught wind of this and joined in as well to defeat him, not wanting for him to go free after all his crimes. This tournament was, unfortunately, a giant ploy by Testament, who was attempting to revive the first original Gear, Justice, in order to destroy all of humankind. While Testament was stopped and Justice defeated, all the fighting had taken its toll on Zato--he had become weak enough for his shadow, who had begun calling himself Eddie, to possess him, controlling the host who once controlled the parasite with ease.

Once it became clear that Zato (who at this point had been completely driven insane) was too weak to serve all of Eddie's needs, he began to search out the rumor of a living Gear named Dizzy in order to take her as a his new host.

Word of Eddie's actions got back around to not only Millia, but the Assassin's Guild. Venom didn't want to believe that Zato had begun falling to his shadow and, in a fit of desperation to restore both Zato and the crumbling Guild, he went out to pursue his beloved Master and save him from his fate.

Millia got there first. Zato didn't survive.

Eddie, on the other hand, did. He continued to use Zato's corpse as a puppet, ensuring that not only did he constantly haunt Millia and taunt her for her failure to do away with Zato completely, but also Venom for his inability to save the one person he cared for most in the world. Unfortunately, as much as he enjoyed tormenting the two, a Forbidden Beast only has a certain life-span after its host is destroyed, meaning Eddie was on the fast track to dying along with Zato. While he searched out a new host (along with having a constant existential crisis as he came closer and closer to death) and Millia tracked him down in order to destroy what was left of the man she despised, Venom decided that the only thing he had left of Zato and therefore the only thing worth living for was the Assassin's Guild. He vowed to build it back up to its former glory and even sent members of the Guild to pursue and kill Millia for what she had done.

The original founder of the Assassin's Guild, Slayer, did not concur with Venom's wishes. He had been keeping tabs on the Guild since Zato's rise in power and, while upset by how his Guild was being run, did not step in until after Zato's death was confirmed. Even then, he only stepped in to formally announce to everyone left within that the Guild was hereby disbanded.

Venom did not take this very well. At all.

After beating his way through various test-subject to see if he was, in fact, powerful enough to defeat Slayer, Venom confronted the man and told him that he would be the new leader of the Guild, being Zato's second in command, and expand its business in Zato's memory. He then proceeded to attack Slayer, who refused to allow such a thing, but couldn't win. Even still, Slayer could see how dedicated and desperate Venom was to keep it up and running, so he finally changed his tune and allowed ownership of the Guild to fall in Venom's hands. Slayer did, however, tell him that it was silly of him to live his life for the dead, since Zato couldn't be happy regardless of what happened to the Guild, but otherwise left the assassin to himself.

>Since there are actually two endings for him in Accent Core Plus, I may as well explain them both, even if I'm only going with the First Ending.

Since having the Guild passed to him, a non-disclosed amount of time had passed. Sadly, while the Guild was eventually strengthened back to its original state, Venom never grew any happier with running it like he thought he would, constantly plagued with nightmares of Zato attempting to murder him. Being the sane and totally non-grudge holding type of man he was, he immediately blamed this on Millia still being alive and sought out to kill her in order to find some sort of peace within himself.

Once they finally met, (and I'm combining both the conversation from Millia's Story Mode and Venom's) she told him that she was tired of being followed by the Guild and she'd kill him if it means destroying it. He explained that the Guild would never die at this point, even if he was killed, and that he actually counted on that since it would forever be the only proof of Zato's life. He then went on to tell her that the only way to end his nightmares was to destroy her for what she had done.

There are two ways the story can go now. If you beat Millia normally, Venom admits that he doesn't know whether or not Zato would have really wanted her dead and therefore doesn't have it in himself to murder her. He figures that, really, all he really wanted was an enemy and something to fight against to make him feel as if he had a purpose, so he decides to take it out on the Post-World Administration Bureau (a shady group that was supposed to have disbanded after the Holy War and have lately been making a note to piss off every single character in the game by attacking them, collecting data on them, and generally just being annoying). After finding that they are creating clones of Justice, Venom declares war against them, ordering the Guild to take them down. (First Ending)

[As an interesting note, in Millia's Story mode, after beating Venom, she'll tell him to leave. When he wonders why she won't kill him, Millia asks if that's what he actually wanted her to do all along, to which he has no answer. She then says she'll let him live if he and the Guild leaves her alone. He calls her naive for even suggesting he'd leave her in peace, but they end it at that. Later, she finds Eddie and kills him, but not before he tells her that he finally realized what he was living for, that only thing important in life is that you actually live while you can, and he asks her to remember him. Millia promises to remember the both of them--Eddie and Zato--and pledges that she'll keep on living, if only for a little while, to remember everyone she has killed. This also coincides with one of Eddie's endings, meaning this is probably the "correct" ending and that Venom's second ending is bunk.]

If you use an instant-kill on Millia, however, Venom really does murder her. It doesn't bring him any more joy or a feeling of completeness, though, and he slowly realizes that the only reason he isn't happy, the only reason he can never be happy, is because his inability to let go of Zato. During another nightmare (in which there was one of the most bad-ass fight scenes I have ever had the pleasure to play out in a video game, fyi), he finally takes it upon himself to do away with that constant loyalty, effectively understanding the meaning of Slayer's words from before and chastising himself for it taking the deaths of two people for it to sink in, and wakes up feeling better. He then disbands the Guild, saying there can never be progress in life with an organization like that holding people back, and becomes a wandering pool hustler, moving on with his life. After another undisclosed amount of time, he comes across a little orphaned boy named Eddie (if that wasn't ironic enough, he also looks exactly like Zato) and offers to take him in and teach him how to play pool. (Second Ending)

Personality
Despite the regular assassin upbringing and having enough of an icy outward persona that it could sink passing cruise-liners, Venom is... surprisingly more complex than that.

The most noticeable thing is how he can be totally blinded by love (and yes, this has been confirmed as canon and isn't just a "reading too much into it" thing), willing to do anything and everything for Zato--in one of his non-canon GGX+ endings, he even tricks Eddie into going into his body in order to save Zato, hinting that he was willing to commit suicide and take Eddie with him, so long as it meant protecting Zato from further harm. He always follows Zato's and the Guild's wishes, uncaring of the lives he takes or the consequences of his actions so long as it was ordered of him. Millia (who tended to receive the brunt of this loyalty even before she killed Zato), Eddie (who has Zato's memories and made a note to rub in his face how Zato thought of him as an attention hungry dog. Whether he was lying or not is up to debate), and occasionally even Slayer (who hardly even knows Venom. He's just very perceptive) let him know that this is a constant problem of his and, really, it is. He can be easily manipulated using this information, either through using Zato as some sort of bait or angering him to the point where he doesn't think of anything but revenge (this sadly occurs more than you'd think it would).

Aside from that important tidbit, some of that kindness from when he was a child still remains. He despises murdering people when it isn't a job and refuses to turn to darker sources to make himself stronger (unlike the rest of the group having turned to Forbidden Beasts to gain their strength). He's an honest person and is very straightforward, but considering what he does that is maybe not for the best (there are many instances of him waltzing up to an interesting person and asking if they'd join the Guild, or even just moments were he calmly states that he's going to test his skills on them. It never seems to go over well). He has sympathy for other people regardless of his profession, even if he tries not to let it show all that often. Speaking of, he's absolutely terrible at hiding his emotions (another thing Millia used to tell him, much to his annoyance) despite all attempts to bottle them up. But he's also intelligent, having a fondness for reading and playing chess (which he used to play with Zato quite a bit. Who's surprised?) and is always willing to discuss things civilly over a game of it. While he acts cold and calculating, his mind tends to wander to the emotional side of things, always questioning what he's doing in life and if it's really what he wants. He's currently unhappy, extremely hateful, and jaded after everything that's happened to him, but carries on regardless because of that undying loyalty and fierce protectiveness of the Guild.

Even still, he is an assassin and as such does not take bunk from anyone whose name is not Zato-1. His anger is something you really don't want directed at you, because, while he isn't the strongest man in the world, he is both an extremely deadly and extremely influential person, being the current leader of the Assassin's Guild. Even if he decides not to kill you, he would still give you a severe beatdown to make you think twice about crossing him in the future.

In general, he just comes off as a polite, honest, yet incredibly aloof person who can kill you with a stick.

At Landel's
TBA when I'm not lazy.