Chapter 5
"Ready or not, here I come!" Erika was out playing with her few friends in Wutai. The children that were raised by Wutai natives did not fear her, but the immigrants who came to the town did. Erika ran to find her friends. "I found you Mei Mei!" Erika found her best friend, Mei Mei, behind a bush.
"You found me!" She jumped up and hugged her. Erika laughed. "Now we have to find Lu Xun!"
"Right!" Erika smiled. Lu Xun was another boy from the village. He was named after the famous lover of the goddess, Da Qiao. "But we also need to find Cecily!" Cecily was a girl from outside of the village. She had moved to Wutai just recently.
"Boo!" A voice yelled.
"Kya!" The two girls screamed, and Lu Xun laughed his head off.
"I got you, Erika!" He tackled her.
"Lu Xun! That's not the point of the game!" Erika said this, trying to be angry, but she laughed too. Cecily sneaked out behind him.
"Hi!" She perked up.
"You weren't supposed to come out."
"But I didn't want to wait for you, Erika!" As they stood around the forest, making a hustle and a bustle, two boys from outside the village approached them.
"Ooh, it's monster girl!" The two of them stuck out their tongues.
"Shut it!" Erika put her arm in front of her friends.
"She doesn't even know she's a monster, does she?" One cackled.
"What are you talking about?" Erika had never been told about her possession.
"Listen, Cecily! That girl's Jenovah's vessel!-"
"Shut up!" Lu Xun punched one of them in the face. Mei Mei tried to push away Erika from the scene.
"What… Did you just say…?" Erika tried to grasp what they had spoken.
"Stop it Erika, don't listen to them."
Swio "You knew?" Erika looked at her best friend.
"Erika…"
"Did you know?" She finally demanded. Mei Mei looked away.
"YOU BROUGHT THE METEOR TWELVE YEARS AGO!" The other boy yelled.
"Shut up, SHUT UP!" Erika screamed, and the earth around her shook. Parts of it started to come out.
"Ow!" One of the boys yelled in pain as a chunk of rock hit him in the face. His nose started to bleed.
"Roy!" Cecily ran towards the boy. Tears dripped from her eyes. "What the heck are you doing, you freak?" She lashed out, and Erika gasped. The three outsiders ran off back to their houses, and Erika dashed back to her's.
"Erika!" Her two best friends called after her. Erika slammed the door as she came in.
"Erika?" Vincent swifted over to her and wiped off her hair that was covered in dirt. "What happened?"
"Where's mommy?"
"She went to Midgar… To work on something." In fact, she was trying to find other preparations to try and save her and her daughter.
"…Daddy…" She looked up at them. "Am I Jenovah's legacy?" Their eyes widened. Yuffie stumbled back and put her hands on her mouth. Vincent caught her as she started to fall.
"Erika, where did you hear about that?" Vincent asked sternly.
"So it is true." She confirmed. Vincent averted his eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"If we told you, what would you do? You would have never thought of yourself as a normal girl." Vincent rebuttled quietly.
"And now I'm not normal! I just made the earth shake with my power and hurt someone, and Cecily hates me…!" Erika cried. "Why did this happen to me…?"
"…Come with me, Erika." Vincent walked out towards their wide yard that went farther than the eye could see. "This is the real me." Vincent transformed into the behemoth of omega. Erika fell to the ground.
"You see, Erika… 12 years ago, we fought with your aunts and uncles to save the planet from the meteor that was to fall. We succeeded… With the help of your father, who had been experimented on… And placed inside him was Omega. Jenovah maneuvers her way through the lifestream. She wanted to get revenge on us, so she came into your mother through her womb. She decided that you would be her successor… And soon… You will die."
"What?"
"You could become a danger to the world in about two weeks, so they're taking you to Shinra to stop us-"
"I'm dying?" She demanded. "This isn't fair…!" Erika angrily cried. "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO HAVE ME? Dad's a monster, and mom acts on impulse…! I just wish I were dead!" Vincent looked away painfully. "I…" Erika fainted all of a sudden, her shoulder falling to the ground.
"Erika!" Vincent screamed for her.
"The doctor… Says that she won't wake up. She's got a lot of brain damage for some reason, and she's so in a coma that it would take a miracle for her to wake up…" Yuffie sat on a crate in the hospital. "Why didn't you do anything Vincent? You right there with her!"
"…I apologize." He looked very grim.
"…Sorry. I… Have no right to say that." Yuffie walked over to her husband and hugged him tight. "I know you did your best… I'm… sorry I wasn't there.
"Erika…" A voice called. "Come here."
"Who… Are you…?" Erika disconnected her IV and wrapped a bandage around it. She walked right out the hospital and off to somewhere unknown.
"Erika's gone missing!" Yuffie ran into Vincent. "I don't know where she went, but she's not in the hospital…!"
"It must be Jenovah…"
"But what about Wutai? She could have gone home!"
"I'll check there." He assured her.
"Then I'll go to the forgotten city." Yuffie nodded. Let's meet at the Forgotten City in an hour."
"Right."
"Who are you…?" Erika yelled out in the dark forest in front of the lake. "What do you want from me?"
"I'm you!" The voice cried. "I just want to help you. I'm here to grant your greatest desire."
"Oh… So this is a dream…" Erika sighed. "A wish, huh…?" She clasped her hands together. "I wish… That I didn't exist. That way, mommy and daddy wouldn't have to suffer. And they'll forgive me." Erika really did want to be forgiven for the horrible things she said about her mother and father. The voice giggled.
"Understood." Erika felt a shiver down her spine as the voice changed to one that was deep. "I'll make you disappear."
"AAAAAAHHHH!" Erika felt a shock of electricity.
'No…' She whispered in the darkness, 'This isn't what I wanted…!'
"Erika! What are you doing here?" Yuffie dashed to where her daughter looked at the lake.
"…Mom… I'm not your real child, am I?"
"What are you saying? Of course you are! You're Erika Valentine! You're the daughter of Yuffie Kisaragi and Vincent Valentine, leaders of Wutai!"
"But… I have different blood in me, don't I?" Erika didn't look at her mother.
"Erika… What's wrong? You don't sound all right." Yuffie put her hands on her daughter's shoulders, trying to look in the girl's eyes that were looking down at the ground.
"You have the blood too, mom… The blood of our goddess."
"Wha…?"
"When you gave birth to me, we both got it. It was a present from the life stream… Jenovah-sama gave us her legacy."
"Erika…! Wake up! Open your eyes! Don't you dare lose to her!"