Prologue: Honoes, scientists?
"...Where did you find this?"
"In the Northern Crater."
"How long ago?"
"A few hours ago."
"...Thank you. You can leave now." The scientist said briskly to the two children standing in front of him. They exchanged glances then looked back at him, not budging. "Hey mister!" Piped up the girl. "Is it worth anything?" The scientist shot her a calculating look, then answered "That remains to be seen." "What is it?" The boy asked. "Lindsay said it was a piece of turtle shell, but I told her she was stupid because there are no turtles this far north, and Holy wiped out everything living in the crater when it passed through anyway." "Nuh-uh! I bet it is a turtle shell! From...a rare undiscovered species of turtle that can live in cold weather!"
"You're stupid!"
"I know what you are but what am I?"
"Stupid!"
"Jerk!"
"Moron!"
"Mamma's boy!"
"QUIET!"
The children abruptly stopped their squabbling and looked at the scientist sheepishly, who was glaring at them from over his desk. "I appreciate that you brought this to me, but do you know what would make me even more happy?" The children shook their heads silently. "If you would be so kind as too leave. Now." He continued to glare at them until they hurriedly scampered out the door, letting in a draft of cold air and a few flakes of snow before it closed behind them. He muttered something inaudible about 'children' and 'spoiled brats' before returning to the thing before him.
He and a few other curious scientists had come to the Icicle Inn village to study the Northern Crater, and figure out some of the mysteries of Jenova, or 'The Crisis of the Skies' as the Centra referred to her. They had found nothing. Those inconsiderate 'heroes' had no clue what they had done by killing it. Years and years of scientific studies, gone! His predecessors had learned next to nothing about the creature in the time they had had it, and the scientific community would never learn anything more about it.
Or so it had seemed.
He pulled his glasses out of his breast pocket and put them on, turning over the thing the children had brought him in his hands. It did almost look like a piece of turtle shell, but it was too soft, and more bumpy. Almost like...skin?
The man jumped out of his seat and ran to the back, pulling out a high-powered microscope and scraping a quick sample of the shell-like object and looking at in under the microscope. He took out the only records of the JENOVA Project that still survived from a nearby filing cabinet. They had been salvaged from the Shinra Mansion soon after the fall of Shinra, for their 'protection'. He took a quick look at Jenova's cell structure from the old records, then looked at the sample before him. A gleeful smile spread across his face and he raised his arms in the air, letting out a small "Whoot!" before jumping to his feet and quickly grabbing the nearest phone.