Author's note: I should've mentioned in the previous chapter, but instead of Manikins, I named the smaller opponents Diminias. Okay, now that's seen to, this chapter follow's Cloud's storyline, much like in the original, but with a few differences.

Oh, and warning, this story also has course language(in other words, some bad-mouthed, but not too much).

Remember, I own NOTHING!

Chapter Two: Heavy Weighted Burden-Destiny Realms VII, Part one.

Destiny's burden weighs heavily on Cloud's giant sword.

He travels in search of his crystal

together with Jack, Rick, and Ash & Pikachu.

But his eyes always gaze out to the distance,

searching for what awaits at the end of his struggles.

If he obtains his shimmering crystal,

will he be able to cast a light

on the shadows hiding within?

Near the place that resembled to Port Royal, two villians, Imhotep and Pete, warriors of Chaos(though how in living's name did Pete end up as the Warrior of Chaos and not either the Phantom Blot-wait, bad idea- or Mizerbel, even I don't know), were discussing matters to themselves.

Imhotep, in his human form, spoke in english in his heavy ancient egyptain accent, "What does he know? What is he after?"

"Who cares? He's just another sadist with a god complex...like THAT'S something special!" Pete carelessly shrugged.

The Mummy begged to differ, because he pointed out, "In the previous War, he sought out another warrior of Cosmos whom is now trapped in the realm of sleep in order to gain his memories, and had his nemesis to fight him."

This was news to Pete, as he suttered in shock, "Wha-? What did he do THAT for!?"

"He must have had some ulterior motive. We'd best keep an eye on him..." says the Undead Priest.

Fighting is one thing, but to continue to fight constantly without a purpose, Cloud was very uncertain, as he stood by himself, thinking. He didn't remember much after coming to this strange world thanks to Cosmos in order to end the War that's been going on and on without stopping.

Come to think of it, the only thing he could remember were his close friends back in his home world, and his enemy whom he once idioled but now hated, the man who burned his childhood hometown, killing his mother, injuring his childhood friend, and nearly destroying the Planet.

That man was Sephiroth.

"Oy, Spiky!" a rum-soaked, Pirate american accent called out, causing Cloud to turn and his companions, one of them being a Pirate named Jack Sparrow who was the one who called him, the other two being a man with a gun named Rick O'Connell and the last one being a ten year old boy named Ash Ketchum with a small companion and best friend named Pikachu, a pokemon, approached him before stopping.

"Any luck on finding a bloodly crystal?" Jack asked, sounding a bit irritated, and, frankly, who'd blame him? This quest was not easy.

Cloud shook his head, "No, nothing..."

Ash placed his hands behind his head in a confused frown, as he muttered, "So, these crystals can save the world, huh? I wonder how we're supposed to find them."

"Pika." Pikachu said in agreement.

"We'd probably have to fight some more...unless there's a chance that we can dig them up-unlikely-"

"Don't know if we should be running into battle without knowing what's going on." Cloud cuts Jack off(much to the Pirate's annoyance as Jack muttered to himself, "I was talking here."), "After all, most people can't win every fight." the blonde man continued.

Ash then just shrugged, "Guess we'd better rest up sometime."

There was a pause, before Jack agreed with a small toothy grin, "There is some truth to that."

"Wait a minute?" Rick spoke up, sounding more irritated, "'We'? What 'We'? I didn't ask or even signed up for all of this." he then turned to Cloud and added, "No offence, Cloud, and I like how you've the sense to think things through."

"You could learn something, Rick." Ash smirked teasingly.

"Look who's bloodly's talking!" Jack pointed out, and all men, except for Cloud who remained stotic, laughed.

Once the guys stopped laughing, Jack admitted, "Maybe we all need some of that sense!" referring to Cloud.

The group then moved on, but Cloud stayed behind a little to think to himself. 'Sense? No, that's not it. I'm just-' maybe he was scared? He couldn't tell.

Without coming up an answer, Cloud proceeded to follow his comrades in search for his crystal.

Having made it out of the gate world, Cloud and the others found themselves near the shorelines, knowing that their adventure leads to another gate on the otherside of the ocean, which was not too far away thankfully.

The sad thing was, just as our heroes were about to discuss out to get across, they heard laughter and on the ocean, was a huge Ice berg that acted like a Pirate's ship, and their recent enemy, Captain Gutt the giant Monkey, was laughing with a couple of Diminias on board.

"It's Gutt!" Ash exclaimed, as he and Pikachu prepare for battle. Cloud took out his sword and Rick held a tight grip and a perfect aim with his shotgun.

But Jack, being the man that he was, smirked and said to his comrades, "I'll handle this, mates." much to their confusions.

"What is he doing?" Cloud asked, a bit dumbfounded.

"I don't know." Ash shrugged.

Jack went up to a tall rock and once he was at the same height as the ship, he called out, "Oy, monkey-face!" suddenly holding up a jar of dirt.

Gutt looked down, having ceased his laughter as he stared at Jack who continued while side-walking, "Lookin' for something? Eh-Hey-whoa!" he didn't look where he was going, and suddenly with a yelp of surprise, he tumbled down on the rock towards the ground like a human ferris wheel.

Ash, Pikachu, Rick and even Cloud who normally wasn't a humorous type, cringed at the sight, feeling sorry for their Pirate companion.

As usual, Jack was unharmed, as he held up the jar, "Got it!" then stood up, his grin still on his face, making Gutt even more dumbfounded, and sadly for Cloud, that grin gave him memories of a certain red-haired man about his age named Reno who was with the Turks in his world and held a similiar childish grin.

"Come to do Bahamut the honors and burns us, have ya, you flea-git. Look here what I got!" Jack called out, he then spoke in a sing-song voice, "~I got a jar dirt, I got a jar of dirt, and guess what's inside it~!"

Cloud, Ash, Pikachu and Rick could not believe what they were witnessing, as they all glanced at each other, all thinking of the same thing; 'What in the world made him this crazy?'

Even Gutt felt stupid, as he groaned, then shouted, "What does a jar of dirt got to do with anything!?" before deciding to turn to his 'minion's and ordered, "Kill them!"

To his words, about eleven Diminias appeared around the group, as Jack's grin flattered to a scared and faulted frown, while the others got ready to fight.

"Whatever Jack tried to do, it failed miserably." Cloud muttered.

"I was just about to say the exact same thing." Ash admitted.

"I hate these guys." Rick grumbled, referring to the Diminias, "They're just as worse as Mummies."

The fight was then on, and while his companions(including Jack eventually), were in a group fighting, Cloud took on three Diminias on his own. Dodging, clashing and slashing against the enemies, Cloud then leaped into the air and preformed his limited Omistate(or whatever) attack, in single five hits, the enemies were destroyed.

He then went to help out his friends and slashed on that was trying to attack Ash from behind. Ash was amazed as he shouted out, "Whoa! Thanks, Cloud!"

"Let's head over to the gate, now!" Cloud instructed.

Ash, Pikachu and Rick nodded, while Jack pouted, "Oi, I'm the Captain here."

"Who cares?" Rick grumbled to him.

Not wanting to argue, the group then raced towards their next destination, almost leaping into the gate to avoid more Diminias.

Once inside the gate, they now found themselves on the Tower in Japan, high up from the city, and once after checking that the coast is clear, they all sighed in relief that they were okay, for now.

"Is everyone alright?" Cloud asked to his group who all nodded.

"Perfectly fine, mate." Jack replied.

"It would've been better if you didn't go and act like an idiot over a jar of dirt." Rick pointed at to the Pirate.

Jack glared at him, "Hey, I was trying to Negociate, and I haven't even got the chance to say 'Parlay', savvy?"

"Parlay?" Cloud asked in confusion.

"Pirate's code, mate." Jack explained, "Even Pirates are bond by a certain law in privacy."

"Since when did Pirates follow rules?" Rick asked.

This lead to the argument of Rick and Jack, so Cloud decided to stay out of it and went over to Ash and Pikachu who were silent as they witnessed the fight.

"Ash, are you and Pikachu alright?" Cloud asked.

Relieved to be taken out of the stare of the argument, Ash looked up at the blonde-spiky haired man and replied, "Yeah, I'm okay." then admitted, "Man, that was a close one."

"Pikachu, Pika pika." Pikachu nodded in agreement.

After a little while, the two other adults stopped their arguement(which in the sight of Cloud and Ash, it was more like witnessing a couple of five year olds fighting), and the group decided to rest for now.

"Hey, Cloud." Ash spoke up, "How about you and me have an exhibition match some time?" as he looked up at his blonde friend.

Cloud was silent at this comment, then politely replied, "No thanks."

Disappointed, Ash grumbled to himself, then decided to change the subject and asked to the others, "So, can anyone tell me what the Crystals are, anyway?"

"Not a damn clue." Rick shook his head. "Cosmos just told us to find them."

"But what are we- What exactly are we fighting for?" Cloud spoke up, sounding and feeling uncomfortable, causing the others to look at him in confusion.

Jack was the first to ask the blonde young man, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's like Rick said." Cloud began, "Cosmos only said that we had to get the crystals. There's no guarantee that defeating Bahamut or Chaos will bring peace. Nobody knows for sure what's going to happen to the world."

Ash on the other hand said in determination, "We can't just give up now! Aren't the crystals meant to help us?"

Captain Sparrow then just shrugged, "I suppose we don't need too much a reason to fight, do we?"

"I just...need some convincing. I don't want to find myself swept into more battles... without knowing why I'm there." Cloud admitted.

Rick nodded in understanding, "You're not the only one..."

The young swordsman then looked at the others, saying, "Can any of you guys tell me? If there's a good reason to be here fighting, I want to hear it."

The other three males all glanced at each other, then looked back at Cloud, and Rick said, "A reason to fight...I guess I never thought of it that way. I usally just point in head first and kill the bad guy."

"I'm fighting to protect everyone and all of the Pokemon from Giovanni." Ash spoke up, then shrugged and admitted, "But that's just me..."

"Good for you, Ash." Cloud said.

Jack looked a bit uncomfortable, then asked, "Do you mind giving me a some time?" then pointed out, "I'd like to come up with an answer that would convince you. Savvy?"

"Hey, guys. Maybe we should get going." Ash then suggested.

The others agreed, but as they began to move again, Cloud thought to himself about what Jack just told him. "An answer... Hm..."

Sorry for the cliff-hanger, if that's what you want to call it, but Cloud's story continues in the next chapter, so don't go away without reviewing.