Batteries Not Included [Nina]

[Auric]

Batteries Not Included
Activation Required

Nina. Project 19. I guess, since the moogle eventually comes out of the bag, I'll admit to it now. It was my idea to wake her up. Her existence itself wasn't something you could really question... a pet project of Hojo on his attempt to bring out the benefits of a peculiar piece of materia by implanting it within a young a human and hastily matured. It wasn't one of his most well-known ventures, either... but I guess you could say that if she had the ability to think for herself then she had as much right as anybody to walk the world. The truth is that despite it all I still had some ideals... not that it was my primary motivation for setting her loose in the first place.

I guess all events unfold with time.

---

Life was a game people played; you win and you lose. You take your chances when you know you shouldn't and sometimes you get lucky... most end up falling short. Nina was a person who should have fallen short. The odds of anyone discovering her sleeping form was minuscule especially when compounded with the fact that the stasis pod keeping her alive would eventually run out of power. Her time was running out... for when that power eventually ran dry, the oxygen feeding into her would stop; the fluids that kept her in perfect shape would lose their quality and she would drown in suspended animation. And that was assuming the process was quick.

It wasn't.

When ShinRa designed their technology, they were constantly victim to one ongoing sin... oversight. That and a distinct lack of ethics. To have learned that Hojo had stayed project lead for so long was actually quite disgusting. But for all his flaws, the many did have a rare moment of genius every now and then but that paled to the general crimes he'd committed. But when it all came down to it, he was very much the perfect representation of ShinRa; a company in control of its entire world -- driven by profit, powered by greed. Immediate results were everything; short term leaps in profit were preferable over long term financial security. Suffice to say their business ethic was questionable but that didn't concern Auric at this particular moment.

It was quite some time since he'd stolen information from ShinRa... the summary of information of an entire realm was at his finger tips but in the end he was still (somewhat) human.... he could only process so much information in a single day. Reading over files wasn't his ideal way of passing the time... even writing a synthetic intelligence to compile a catalog, he was still sifting through over three decades of interesting information of an entire world. It took some time to get himself up to speed... it took four months for him to find information on the Protomateria and when he'd done so he'd come right here... to Nibelheim hoping to find further answers to questions he hadn't yet asked.

And instead? He ran into Vincent. But that was a story for another time... now? He was surprised to find himself back here. The tunnels going beneath ShinRa mansion was quite vast and he had no doubt whatsoever that there were more rooms than was initially presented... sealed labs which had their doors jammed and concrete poured over to keep it in place leaving behind a very rustic looking wall. Auric was wearing his usual attire... adding on a beige traveler's cloak with a hood which concealed the majority of his features.... obscuring his face with a dark shadow while his eyes searched the vestiges for a clue as to what he might find.

It was a long search. His partner wouldn't be here for this... she was out on a mission while he had time to spare to pursue his own business. And that, right now... was precisely what lay in front of him. The tank was fairly large... filled with what should have been a clear liquid; but the temperature mismatch between the tank's interior and that of the room had perpetually bathed the glass surface in fog. The tank itself had a large '19' printed on its side. He leaned in and pressed his hand against the surface, wiping away some of the vapors so he could peer inside. He stood close, observing the nude form of a young woman. She was physically an adult and was quite the specimen, at that... certainly fine company he wouldn't have minded keeping if he didn't know better.

But after a second of admiration, he stepped back and consulted the console's interface as to the status of her life signs. She was in perfect condition... the power to her capsule was running low. Primary systems had been compromised due to certain protocols conflicting with hard-coded commands... one system had dumped its settings after having rebooted while another was completely gone due to external damage. A few non-essential systems had been shut down, as well... the power had been rerouted towards the auxiliary systems which was burning up juice and damaging itself in the long term having operated on overdrive for longer than it had been built for. Another week and she'd be gone...

"Well, aren't you lucky I found you..." he murmured, typing in 'subject19 /release -f' on to the console...

Status: Releasing Subject19 Initializing
Initiating Release Protocol OK
Systems Check OK
Releasing...
Powering Internal Tank Hardware FAILURE
WARNING! Tank release latch compromised!
Rerouting secondary power to internal hardware... FAILURE
WARNING! Reserve power depleted! Can not initialize release protocols!
ERROR! Process #01:AE has terminated.
WARNING! Life support systems failing!
ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!
ERROR! ERROR! ERR...

Auric grumbled impatiently at the archaic technology... looking around the room for something to use. Time was running out... but he kept his calm, watching the projected life signs beginning to fail before pulling out his pistol and pointing it at the console. His finger caressed the trigger, ready to simply destroy the damn thing in what you might perceive as a last ditch effort to save Nina's life. Before he suddenly spun the pistol around and struck the interface with a solid thwack.

All Systems Nominal
Draining Tank OK
Releasing Life Support OK

Auric sighed as he looked to the tank... the liquid within was draining... and he could only shake his head at the stupid solutions he tended to bring to the table.

Actually, Faye would have loved that one...