Author's note: Nothing much to say here, except that I'm still hoping for a new sequel to Dirge of Cerberus-Final Fantasy VII which will solve the mystery behind Genesis's return(and the absence of Rufus, Tseng, Reno, Rude and Elena, and the other Turks, and maybe the return of Zack and Aertih, and maybe Angeal if we're lucky), and I'm not certain if the remake of Final Fantasy VII being shown at next year's E3 show is true or not.
Anyway, let's continue on and remember, I don't own anything here, except for Diminias.
Chapter Twelve: Egyptain Warriors-Part two.
In the area that resembled to Port Royal, Imhotep, in his decaying form, was looking rather pleased with himself after his conversation with his mortal enemy Rick O'Connell was going rather smoothly. He planned on finding the man's weakness and then kill him, leaving Cosmos one warrior short. At this time. Barbossa approached, seeing the decaying mummy smiling.
"Not a single soul around me are aware of my goal. Once Cosmos is lost, I shall take on all others and became supreme!" Imhotep said to himself in his own language, before laughing evilly.
"You seem to be in a good mood, Imhotep." Barbossa spoke up once he got up close. "Waiting to defeat your mortal enemy?"
The Mummy looked at the Pirate and replied, "It is impossble to conjor the immortal." in english, but in a...uh, undead speech, I guess?
The Pirate nodded in agreement, "Aye, but overconfidence can destroy you if you are not careful." he said however, learning that from a certain silver haired man earlier.
Imhotep merely just laughed, "Your words are trust worthy...but hardly necessary."
Meanwhile, Rick, Ash and Pikachu all arrived on the tower in Japan area after entering the gate, and found their pirate companion leaning against the post, looking miserable, a bit bruised, but still alive. They rushed over to him and Jack noticed them and waved sarcastically.
"Where the hell have you been?" Rick demanded.
It wasn't until Ash noticed a redish pink mark on the left side of Jack's face, and asked, "What's that mark on your face?"
At first, the two men were dumbfounded, before Jack remembered something and sourly replied, "Oh. As I was still fighting silver-haired o'l what's-his-face, lovely young miss Sailor Moon interrupted...and slapped me before she, 'shooed' me away to find the bloodly crystal, and I still haven't got me bloodly compass back, no thanks to bloodly stupid chaos lacky." as he was saying this, he was doing a drunken-version of a dramatic movements of what happened to him.
"So lemme get this straight." Rick thought, summing up on what his comrade had just said, "You were fighting against Sephiroth, all in for getting your compass back?" he said the last part in an annoyed and dumbfounded disbelief. It was like he was talking and summing up on what his former friend Beni were doing, in his own theory of taking americans in the middle of the desert and then leaving them to rot and roast to death. This happened when Rick was taking Evy and her older brother Jonathan to the city of the dead after the woman saved his life(and his neck) from being hanged.
"Pretty much." Jack sheepishly admitted, "Time and tide, mate."
"Hey, at least you're still alive, and I'm sure Sailor Moon will be okay too." Ash pointed out, with Pikachu nodding.
The ten year old boy had a good point, so, the group decided to take a break for now, and Rick, still having his mind on what Imhotep told him earlier, was looking at the scenery below and far away from him. His mind also wandered to Cloud's question in the reason why they fight and why they were brought here by Cosmos in the first place. It made Rick wonder about that himself, but he knew that as long as Bahamut and the warriors of Chaos lived, there was no way in ending the war or returning home.
"Whatcha doin' out here?" Ash's voice asked, as the boy walked up from behind and stood by the older man's side. He noticed Rick's sour-mood look and was a little concered.
"Like I have any other choice." Rick grumbled.
Ash somehow knew. "You're worried about what that Mummy-guy said?"
The gunman sighed in irritation, and said, "I can't just stand the thought that mortal weapons can't kill him."
"Well then, find 'Immortal' weapons to kill him." Ash suggested.
"Why me?" asked Rick.
"It's like that with all of us, but I'm not willing to give up and call it quits." The boy said a bit wisely but with determination and excitement. "You shouldn't either. Don't listen to what that guy says, Rick. Listen to what you want to do with him."
"Jack said something similiar." Rick admitted.
Ash shrugged, "Well, whatever he said is right. Though going into things head first isn't such a good idea. In a battle, you need to come up with a stragety to win!"
"When you mean strageties, you don't just mean gunfire, right?" the man asked.
The boy shook his head, "Nope. One weapon isn't gonna solve anything. What matters is that you go beat him up and come back in one piece!"
"You sure that'll work?"
"Try listening to your friends more often!"
Rick had at admit, Ash had a good point. Besides, if it was Evy, she would probably say the exact same thing the boy was saying...well, not exactly the same, but pretty close enough, and that made the older man realise that ancient weapons and magic did kinda solve the problems in fighting immortals...unless it's summoned mummies that didn't suffer the curse like Imhotep suffered 3,000 years ago in his old.
Finally, he smiled and said, "Okay. I'll do that. Thanks, kid." and with that, Rick walked away to begin his journey to find and beat the living out of Imhotep, while searching for his crystal at the same time, doing something similiar to what Cloud had done earlier.
"Fighting enemies." Ash said to himself, just as Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder, and the boy said to his best friend, "I'm sure Jack will understand."
"Pika..." said the small Pokemon.
Little did the two know, the that said pirate was approaching them from behind.
After leaving his friends, Rick went through the land by himself, going through gates and battling against the annoying Diminias, and finally, entering another gate(which was getting very old for the adventurer), and entered the Planet's core of the Lifestream area from Cloud's world, which, at the moment, Rick didn't know about.
As he thought, Rick spotted Imhotep who noticed him and looked with a smirk. "I knew you would come, O'Connell." said the Mummy.
"Why are you telling all this crap about your version of the Crystals?" Rick immediately asked.
"You fool. You should know by now that my powers are too great for a mere mortal like yourself." said Imhotep.
"Shut up!" Rick snapped, before asking, "So you want to destroy the world the most, huh? So what's the scam-bag? You join up with other bad guys, and then you leave them to rot?"
Imhotep laughed, "You are too gullible for your own good, O'Connell! Let someone else handle you for now."
As if on cue, another laughter was heard, and as the two looked, an over-grown and ugly monkey teleported in, looking like a Pirate and looked just as evil and crazy as the other villians Rick had met earlier, and suddenly he realised that this was the same monkey he, Jack, Ash and Cloud encountered earlier, the one whom Jack tried to (stupidly) reason to with a jar of dirt.
Gutt.
"Quite a show, Skeleton-boy! Say no more, because I'll handle this idiot with ease!" Gutt says to his comrade.
Imhotep smirked, "Do not fail us, Gutt." before walking away and teleported out of sight, much to Rick's dismay.
"Hey! Don't you run away from me! Don't you run off!" Rick shouted and tried to stop him, but it was too late and he stopped in frustration.
"Give it up, mate. You'll be having the taste of my fury!" Gutt sneered, brandishing his shark-teethed blade and got into a fighting position.
Rick, having no choice but to fight, got into a fighting position as well, grumbling, "As much as I don't want to fight a monkey, I guess I have no damn choice."
The large monkey laughed, "This is gonna be fun!"
And the fight began, and neither of the two were willing to give in easily. Rick fought as hard as he could, and dodged Gutt's sword, before responding with several punches and kicks, being hit a few times himself, but not calling it quits that easily.
As a warrior of Cosmos and not to mention a fighter in other wars, Rick knew that he was winning against the monkey who was getting frustrated in losing to a human who was smaller than him.
Finally, after a while, Rick won, and Gutt, who was panting and angry, sneered, "Just you wait! You may have...*Ouch* defeated me, but you won't obtain your crystal."
"Why don't you just shut the hell up, banana-boy?" Rick asked.
Gutt scoffed and muttered, "I'd rather go and fight off a Mammoth!" before he stood up, and jumped away in search of his own enemy, just as Imhotep returned with a disappointed frown.
"Hmph, that Chimpanzee is no use against humans." said the Mummy.
Rick looked at him annoyed and asked, "You guys don't know when to quit, do you?"
"It's merely simple." Imhotep replied, "You will never obtain you Crystal by brutal fights." and with that, he teleported away again.
It was then that Rick realised the truth and looked down at the ground, saying to himself, "Now I get it. I can't get the Crystal unless I beat him up." then asked, "But...how can I do it if not by using guns?"
Realising that stand around isn't getting him anywhere, Rick decided to move on to try and find his own answers, hoping to find a way to defeat Imhotep and gain his crystal, but he knew, it wasn't going to be easy. It probably isn't easy to begin with.
A little while later, Rick arrived in the area that resembled to Hollow Bastion, one of the worlds from Sora's realm, but Rick didn't know that at the moment, and was still thinking about his own situation. He was thinking about heading back to the others, when unfortunately, Imhotep teleported in and approached him, this time in his human form.
"Don't you know when to stop harrasing me?" Rick asked in irritation.
"You always harrassed me in my plots. I'm just returning the favor." Imhotep said, not speaking in decaying voice at the moment.
Rick rolled his eyes, "One I don't want."
Imhotep smirked, "Then you and I are similiar, but on different sides, O'Connell." he then explained, "You cling to the skirts of your companions. Is that the sign of a strong will? The crystal will never shine on those who always depend on others. You must act alone to accomplish the goal you have been given."
"Oh gimme a break." Rick muttered. "All I want is to find the Crystal and get the hell outta here."
"I see...In that case..." without a warning, Imhotep slammed at Rick in the face, and due to the mummy's supernatural powers, the latter was thrown back several feet away and landed hard on the ground, and Rick groaned in pain at the strength of the punch and the hard landing on the ground on top of everything else.
Imhotep laughed evily, "Now do you see? The bonds between people are unreliably fragile. The friendship you believe in is nothing but an illusion." and once again, he teleported away.
In the meantime, Rick sat up, staring at the spot where his arch enemy disappeared to, and grunted in sheer disgust, "Oh, I hate mummies."
The next chapter is the last of Rick's journey for his crystal, and as you guys know, I'm kinda in a fork in the road on whether I should to a prequel or sequel or just leave this story as a one-time Dissidia Crystal series story.
With this one, it's easier to concentrate on, since the original game is easier to follow, but in writing my other story "Where Are They", it's hard since I have to come up with ideas that isn't part of Dirge of Cerberus-Final Fantasy VII.
I'm also hoping that we'll see a bit more info on Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy XV next month, and no more delays!
Anyway, don't forget to review before you leave, and look out for the next chapter.