Hello all! Yuki ni Kanashii Ryuu here and this is my first submission. I hope you all enjoy it and I'd like to get a lot of feedback (it may get me to keep writing. I'm rather lazy if I don't have any motivation! () ) That's about all I have for now, except for the bugging disclaimer...

Disclaimer: All characters from Final Fantasy 7 are copyrighted by Square-Enix and I do not own anything except my original characters (although, having Vincent in my possession would be nice...rowr). So yeah, don't sue me!

Aurarius:
Prologue: Awake, the Nameless Power

"Professor? What is my name?"
Professor Hojo of Shin-ra Inc. gave the little girl at his side hardly a sideways glance and continued to scribble down on the extensive lab report on his desk. He pushed his glasses father up on the bridge of his nose as he let out a sigh that sounded more like a growl.
"How many times do I have to tell you, child? You have no name. Why should failures have names? That is what you are, after all… A useless failure…" He ended his sentence with an air of certainty, as if signaling an end to the conversation. The girl, however, was not satisfied with this response and continued to watch him with the ever inquisitive and demanding eyes of a child. Her brow furrowed overtop of her gleaming golden eyes, she seemed entranced in thought as she contemplated Hojo's words. She asked again, this time more forcefully.
"What is my name?" Hojo paused in his writing, his patience with the girl's questioning growing steadily thinner.
"If you are determined to continue being a pest, you shall get no dinner tonight." He said warningly, resuming his work.
"But…" she continued, refusing to abandon the subject, "I can't be THAT useless…After all, if I'm such a failure then why do you still keep me around? Why teach me how to use a sword and handle Materia? That seems stupid…"
Hojo's irritation had finally reached its peak. He threw down his pen with a clatter and stood up, advancing on the child.
"It is that VERY question that I ask myself every…single…day!" He bent over until he was eye level with her and brought his face so close she could feel the warmth of his breath as he spoke in a dangerous tone. "You really don't want me to answer that question, do you? I'd be more than happy to oblige." The girl did not answer and merely glared back at him defiantly. The strings of his oily black hair fell in front of his cold gray eyes as he sent her a warning. After a few moments of silence he stood back up and went back over to his desk, dismissing her with a wave. "Get out of here before I remind you how worthless you really are and lock you up again."
Realizing she wasn't going to get anything out of him, the girl slowly turned and trudged out bitterly, making her way back to the small, windowless room that she stayed in.
'I'm not…really worthless…am I?' she thought as the door shut her once again into darkness.

(1 year later...)

08:23:00 – Entry by Hojo; Science Department Head, Shin-ra Inc.

In my attempt to recreate, expand, and even surpass the works of Professor Gast in the JENOVA Project, I have, so far, been unsuccessful in producing the perfect clone. My first few attempts were all but worthless, none of them surviving long enough to provide useful information. My next few experiments were slightly more productive, the specimens being infused, not only with Jenova cells, but with Mako, which yielded positive results. However, in the end, these clones were also failures. The one known as Cloud Strife, in particular, was an interesting subject but somehow escaped along with another. I still have yet to find his current whereabouts along with the one known as Zack. However, their retrieval is not necessary. They were not perfect clones and more than likely failures as well…

My most recent endeavor, only known to me and a select few, is so far unsuccessful. Experiment 00 has been subject to several errors from the start. I had not planned on 00 being a girl, for instance. The introduction of some new factors may have been the cause of this. Trying to overlook it, I continued with the experiment anyway. However, as of now, 00 has shown no positive response to any form of stimuli introduced. I have yet to uncover the reason why it hasn't worked and I'm beginning to fear another dead-end. Ironically though, out of all of the clones created thus far she is the most successful in terms of physical appearance, looking more like him than all the rest combined.

Although the girl is growing rapidly, she has shown no signs of hidden power or magical prowess. I have even tried exposing her to stronger substances than the last subjects and her count of Jenova cells is significantly higher. The only effect of this so far as I can see is her accelerated aging, her body already roughly equal to that of a 14-year-old. I believe she will reach full capacity soon.

Maybe she will still be of some use…

She stood in front of the full length mirror, examining herself from every possible angle. She paid particularly close attention to her face, which was looking more and more womanly every day, along with the rest of her body which had developed pleasant curves. (She hadn't gotten knew clothes in a while though so her tank top and shorts were tight and ragged.) She wasn't sure why her body was growing so quickly, but when she addressed the question to Prof. Hojo he had assured her that it would level out once her body reached the approximate age of about 18. She didn't fully understand what this meant but it seemed pointless to try and pursue an explanation. Prof. Hojo never seemed willing to divulge information to her, even when it was about her own identity.
The part of her that she was most fascinated with, however, was not her body, but her eyes. From what she could tell they were very abnormal. Their golden color and mysterious glow were no doubt out of the ordinary. Her long, shimmering silver hair was another point of irregularity, but nevertheless beautifully stunning. They fascinated her to no end and she would often spend hours in front of a mirror examining them. She had nothing better to do, after all, then to just sit there and contemplate the mystery of herself.
Even though she had very little contact with the outside world, the few people she had seen looked nothing like her. Was she this different from everyone out there? Did everyone have a name except her? An identity? A purpose in life? Was she simply special…or was she nothing at all? Useless? No… She couldn't believe that. There had to be some reason she was alive. There had to be answers to her questions. So why wouldn't the Professor answer them?
Her bitterness towards Hojo had grown excessively over the years. His refusal to give her a name had no doubt contributed to this, as well as his stubbornness at never letting her leave the confines of the laboratory. Her curiosity was constantly growing stronger and she had often had thoughts of sneaking out to see for herself. Hojo never paid much attention to her except during her training sessions (which she still found rather pointless, but it was also the only thing in which she found any pleasure nowadays). It might be possible to sneak out seeing as Hojo was only one besides her who lived in the laboratory. Maybe she could…
As if on cue, the voice of Hojo came through the intercom on the wall. She had been so lost in thought that it made her jump.
"Get down here! It's time for practice!" Came Hojo's sharp command. He didn't even let her reply before the intercom clicked off again. She growled lightly under her breath. He was always ordering her around. It wouldn't kill him to say please, would it? She let out a heavy sigh and marched out of the room with her arms crossed.

When she entered the room and looked around, the Professor was nowhere to be seen. The area in the center of the room had been cleared away as usual for sword practice, and a number of swords and weapons had been lined up along the far wall. However, Hojo had seemingly disappeared. The girl placed her hands on her hips and struck an aggravated pose.
'Huh…He could at least have the decency to actually be here when he calls me,' she thought irately. She sighed and walked over to the far wall, picking up one of the swords. She already knew enough about it that she didn't need him here to supervise. In fact, she preferred it this way. She wouldn't have to look at him.
On her way back over to the practice area she glanced over to the far left of the room where a long control panel covered with dials, keys, screens and monitors stretched across from one wall to the next. The lights on the panel were actively blinking and it appeared from the things displayed on the monitors that Hojo had been in the middle of something before he left and forgotten to turn it off. She stared at it for a few moments until she was so drawn by curiosity that she moved across the room to the main screen upon which a written report of some kind was displayed. She look back over her shoulder briefly to make sure Hojo hadn't come in, then she turned back to the report and started to read.

"Project 00 is not progressing the way I had hoped. While her physical and mental capabilities are substantially higher than a normal human's, she is still nowhere close to the level of power and aptitude of Sephiroth……"

(Later...)

As the laboratory began to crumble around him, Prof. Hojo managed to make his way over to the control panel. He punched the 'record' button and through the chaos and destruction going on behind him, began to speak.

"As of now…this will be my last report on Project 00…"

(End of Prologue)