Final Chance

Prologue

The laboratory, being funded by ShinRa Inc., was rather large and rather strange. Computers were sprawled everywhere, large test tubes were scattered throughout the lab in a random pattern and assistants were everywhere, recording, studying, adjusting.
The lab was sterile looking, as were most labs, and was somewhat disorganized. Metal encompassed the floors, walls and ceilings, computer terminals took over large portions of two of the four main walls, beeping and chirping in its own musical rhythm. There were some assistants at the terminals, trying to figure out complicated formulas or trying to review on new information that had been found over the past week. Many things happened in this lab and it was funded for a very good reason.
People were trying to play God.
Of course, human kind has always tried to do this, be on equal grounds with their Creator. Most ended up failing. ShinRa Inc., being a head supporter of scientists who tried to play God, happily funded the project, hoping to get some very savory results. The project to create human life from scratch had been in operation for quite some time and yet with not many results. Many tests were tried, many failed. Just before the head scientist, Dr. Heiger, reached a breakthrough President ShinRa was killed by the one and only Sephiroth. It was then that Rufus Shinra took his place and felt that the operation was somewhat foolish and cut back on funding. The mass production of artificial human life could not be completed without proper funding.
"If you can make one, just one functioning human, ready and waiting to take orders from ShinRa Inc., I will increase funding to 120% of what it was originally." Stated Rufus ShinRa.
Later, Rufus ShinRa died by WEAPON. The good doctor had to do with what money he had.
So most of the project was shut down, staff members were let off and it ended up being one last assistant and the doctor himself working on the project together. The assistant was one of the more promising ones and Dr. Heiger had much faith and trust in him. He renamed the project from Project EDEN to Project TERRIANA, the name of his deceased daughter. Project TERRIANA was Dr. Heiger's last hope. It was the last Artificial Human that he could experiment on and it was the one that had the best results out of all the other test subjects. Because of this, Dr. Heiger began to "tweak" the DNA, giving the embryo the characteristics of his actual daughter with some exceptions. The project worked.
It took months for the embryo to grow into a baby and then into a small child. When it grew into four human years old the doctor released the child from the test tube and began tests immediately to see if everything had worked to his specifications.
"Terri" as the doctor called her, was in perfect health with no signs of deterioration like the other project failures had been. Almost every movement she made was recorded by the doctor and he was amazed by her progress. As Dr. Heiger's assistant, Dr. Snow, began his studies, he was explained Terri's enhancements.
"Terri is an outstanding child." Dr. Heiger began "She's ten times stronger than a normal man, maybe even more so, she's immune to any sicknesses or ailments that isn't man made, she's faster than anything I've ever seen. Her bone structure is harder than normal but still flexible which will give her the opportunity to grow like a normal child and mature into an adult with even more exceptional skills. She's been given knowledge that precedes even me and can access anything at anytime. She is not psychic, however, so anything she accesses is within her own mind."
Dr. Snow looked at the child "I thought you said she was the spitting image of your daughter, Terriana." he said
Dr. Heiger began to move where Dr. Snow was, looking Terri up and down as she stood silent and unemotional, staring into space like a porcelain doll. Dr. Heiger nodded "She is. Their hair is even cut in the same style. Why did you bring that up?" he asked
"She has green eyes." Dr. Snow said flatly "I was under the impression that Terriana had brown eyes." he said "Not only that, the eyes have a glow to them, like..."
"Like Mako energy does." Dr. Heiger interjected and gave Dr. Snow a hearty laugh "Forgive this old fool for being forgetful. Believe it or not, Terri has a lot of Mako energy within her. More than any human could even imagine of having within their systems. The test tube that she resided in was nothing but Mako energy. I'm surprised you didn't notice that. It was the substitute of using a mother, since both have the ability to create. I simply used it to my advantage. Because of this, however, she can sometimes use Materia as if it were a part of herself and she has the ability to cast magic without the aid of Materia. Of course it would probably only be low level spells at first but as Terri grows she'll be able to master her powers, as would one if they were mastering Materia, and use higher level spells. Maybe she could even create Materia!" he exclaimed and laughed
Dr. Snow didn't look too happy, but said nothing "Well anyway, what about her personality? She doesn't seem to have one."
This got Dr. Snow a sad look from Dr. Heiger "Sadly she doesn't have much of one. That was the one thing that I just couldn't get right." he walked over to a small compartment and opened it up, taking out something small and shiny. It looked like Materia but as Dr. Snow stated his thoughts on that, Dr. Heiger shook his head.
"This is Materia, but not the kind you're thinking. As I stated before, Terri has the ability to use Materia as if it were a part of herself. Since I couldn't give her a personality I've divided it up into three small pieces of Materia which is spread out in places. Since I want her to interact with the world I haven't told her the location. She can absorb this materia after a while and make it her actual personality. Until then she can use it. This one will only give her a bit of a personality and some feelings. Until she gets the other two pieces, she won't be able to mature emotionally."
Dr. Snow nodded "I see. That's understandable. So then now what will happen to Terri?" he asked
"I'll send her out into the world. Naturally I'll have to do it once the riot outside dies but once they do, Terriana Lapis will stay here."
"Lapis? As in Lapis Lazuli?" Dr. Snow asked, slightly confused
The older man began to pace the room "Yes, as in Lapis Lazuli. You'll know why I said that soon."