Here's the promised second chapter. :D Enjoy.

Chapter 21: Chocobos, snake-thingies, and Turks…oh my

Kira was walking at the back of the group and yawned, covering her mouth with a hand. She glanced down at Red, who was walking next to her, as he asked "Tired?"

She smirked slightly at the feline as she answered "A little. I spent most of my time in Kalm talking to Crystal."

The feline lifted his red head as he asked "Who's Crystal?"

Kira looked up and grinned as she saw that the others were listening in before turning back to Red as she answered "Crystal picked me up off the road about a year ago. She and her husband Yuba helped me out, taking me into their home and welcoming me like family. I gotta admit it was an…unusual experience. About four months after they picked me up Yuba died and I stuck around for a couple of months to give Crystal some emotional support. About six months after they took me in, I headed off to Midgar. I got a house, a job, and stayed under the radar." Kira gave a sheepish grin as she said "I've also supposedly have been dead for the past five years…as have a few other people that I know." Red blinked slightly before chuckling quietly in amusement at the girl he was walking next to. Kira blinked as they came upon a swampy part of the land and paused. The others glanced back at her as Kira's eyes narrowed as she tracked a shadow coming towards them. Kira tilted her head slightly before yawning again and saying "You guys can handle it, I think I'm just gonna sit here and watch."

Barret blinked in confusion asking "Wha…?" They watched as Kira folded her legs and sat down cross legged, her head propped against a fist, closing her eyes. The others whipping around as a large snake-like creature popped out of the swamp. Red laying down behind her, laying his head on his paws and looking at the resting girl he was sitting next to. Aerith sat down next to Kira and watched as Barret, Tifa, and Cloud attacked the snake. Aerith glanced over at Kira as she breathed lightly asleep.

It wasn't long after that the snake fell. The three combatants walked back over to the three that had stayed out of it and paused as they saw Kira asleep. Barret stared at the girl for a moment as she slumped forward her chin against her chest. The large man growled and took in a deep breath only to stop when Kira opened a single eye and said "No need to shout. I'm awake…somewhat." Kira got up and covered a yawn before scratching the back of her head as she followed the others to the farm that was nearby.

They walked into a barn and Kira finally tuned into the conversation when the others exclaimed "2000?!"

The former SOLDIER sighed and pulled out a card, handing it to the guy she said "Lure and Gysahl greens."

The guy glanced at Kira, then the card before grinning and saying "You sure you want Gysahl greens they are the lowest quality."

Kira glanced over at the salesman and said in an annoyed tone "Just fill the order." The guy blinked rapidly before turning around and running to the register to fill the order.

The group turned to Kira and Barret asked "Where'd you get all that money?"

Kira smirked as she answered "I'm not dumb when it comes to money. When I still worked for Shinra, I put savings into a different account under a false name. It was a little something that I learned from some friends of mine." Kira wasn't going to tell them that 'those friends' were actually amongst the Turks though.

They blinked simultaneously before Aerith asked "How much do you have in this account?"

Kira smiled innocently as she answered "It's just a little nest egg. Only a couple mil."

Tifa stared at the girl before yelling through Kira's hand "A couple MILLION!!!"

Kira chuckled slightly as she removed her hand from Tifa's mouth and glanced at the stunned faces of her companions as Barret asked "If ya had that much money, why work at the bar?"

Kira tilted her head before giving a small smile as she said "I always prefered the slums."

Aerith blinked as she asked "Why?"

Kira grinned and winked at the girl, as the guy came back with their purchases, saying "Well, I'll never lose my slums rat heart." They blinked again as Kira turned back to the salesman and took back her card and pocketing it while Cloud took the bag that was held in the arms of the salesman.

As they headed outside Cloud dug through the bag before pulling out the Chocobo Lure materia and offered it to Kira saying "Here. You bought it; you should be the one to use it."

Kira blinked for a moment staring at the material an unreadable expression on her face before shaking her head saying "That's alright, you can have it." Cloud nodded and retracted his hand and he, Tifa, and Barret went to track down and capture some Chocobos. Aerith sat on the fence of the pen of the chocobos, as Kira leaned against it and Red sat down at the woman's feet.

The large feline glanced up at Kira asking "You have no materia and you refuse to take any, why?"

Kira glanced down at the observant feline for a moment before shrugging and answering vaguely "I've got my reasons." Red's eyes narrowed slightly as he stared up at the girl for a moment, he could feel her hiding something. He stared up at her as her own eyes watched the others, Cloud wrestling a Chocobo in the mud no one could really tell who was who, and blinked as he sensed something from her, a power he had never sensed before. Kira glanced down at the feline and frowned slightly at his stare, her vivid blue eyes narrowing slightly before she fished her dark sunglasses out of her pocket and placed them over her eyes hiding her vibrant eyes from the world.

The three of them glanced up as Cloud, Tifa, and Barret returned Chocobos in tow. Kira smiled slightly as Aerith clapped happily at the Chocobos that were following the other three calmly. They panicked slightly at Red but the group managed to calm them down. As Kira walked through the group of large yellow birds she paused as one of them bumped its head gently into her shoulder. Smiling she reached up and patted its neck as she murmured "So, you wanna stick with me, boy?" The bird leaned up against her and seemed to shut its eyes causing the girl to laugh and push it up saying "I'm not a post for you to fall asleep on, …Ramiel." The large bird "Warked" and allowed the girl to get on after she adjusted her bag behind the saddle. As the others got situated onto their own Chocobos Red walked over to Ramiel and the Chocobo blinked and bent its head down to inspect the large feline. Kira raised an eyebrow at the bird and sighed as she muttered to the thing as it "warked" happily at Red "You would probably be eaten if there wasn't someone to keep an eye on you. Ramiel you really need to reacquaint yourself to your prey-predator instincts. You're a giant chicken dinner to some creature out there ya' know." The large bird raised its head slightly to look back at its rider and "wark" at her. Kira smiled slightly and patted its neck and clucked slightly setting the bird into motion, Red trotting next to her. Kira glanced down at the feline as he jogged next to the bird before training her eyes on the non-existent road that they were following into the swamp. Kira glanced back slightly as they moved towards the other side of the swamp and her eyes narrowed as she spotted the snake-like shadow that was following them. Red glanced up at the former SOLDIER and was about to ask what was wrong when she glanced down at him and shook her head, a frown evident.

The good news was that they made it to the other side without having to deal with their very large follower; the bad news was what was in front of them. The coppery smell of blood was thick and they had a hard time getting the Chocobos to move any further without them trying to turn and run away every three steps. Even Ramiel who had turned out to be a calm, patient, instinct-less dinner on legs was trying not to go any further despite Kira's gentle urgings. One of the large snake-like creatures that had attacked them earlier in the swamp was dead, a tree through its skull. Kira got off of Ramiel and, holding onto its reigns, patted its neck gently. Standing there with narrowed eyes she heard Cloud ask in shock "Did Sephiroth…do this…?"

Kira looked up at it, her grip on the reigns tightening slightly, as she said quietly "It's a warning."

Red looked up at the girl before turning his attention to Barret as he remarked "This Sephiroth guy's pretty strong, I'd say."

Tifa was staring up at the snake a mixture of awe and disgust on her face the three front runners turning to Kira as she said in Barret's direction "You have absolutely no idea who it is you're dealing with. Do not expect mercy or second chances with him. Very few have lived once he has set his sights on his prey."

Barret growled something under his breath, causing Kira to raise an eyebrow at him, before calling over to her "What would you know?! You may be ex-Shinra but I don't think you'd a had much contact with Sephiroth. Cloud and him are war-buddies, I think he'd know better than you would!!"

Kira blinked slightly before calmly answering, her eyes hard, "Is that what Cloud told you? I guess he forgot to mention that of all the people that Sephiroth knew, I was the only one that he considered family. He and I were friends, far closer than any 'war-buddies' could be." The entire group stared at the girl in front of them, she stared right back before looking up at the snake thing again. Her eyes softened slightly as she stared at it for a bit longer. Sighing she turned away and got back onto Ramiel, heading away from the dead creature.

It took them a little longer to get the unhappy birds into the caves but it did eventually happen. The ceilings were too low to ride them so the group had to string the birds together and walk them through the caves. It was slower going then any in the group liked, what with panicky giant birds and monsters showing up trying to devour the walking dinners at every turn, so they eventually had to camp in the middle of the caverns. Kira was on watch and the others were sleeping, no one could actually tell what the time was. Kira's hand fished into her pocket as she felt her phone buzz and flipped the thing open, the Shinra logo having been scratched off of the back long ago, surprised that she still received a signal even deep within the caves. Glancing at the text she smiled slightly as she read the news that Reno had woken up. Kira glanced back as she closed it and shoved it back into her pocket as Red stalked over to her. Sitting down next to her the large feline glanced up at the girl, as she sighed slightly, before asking "You have a long history with this Sephiroth don't you?"

Kira glanced down at the feline's intelligent eyes and nodded before propping her head onto her fist as she answered "There was a group of us, we were all very close. The original 1st Class SOLDIERs and I, the ones who helped to start it all. Sephy and I were close, he was like a brother to me and we even called each other as such. There was another in our group, his name was Angeal, he was like the older brother or the father-figure of the group he kept an eye on all of us, even if this meant he lectured us a lot. Genesis was my closest friend but…some major shit went down and a lot of bad stuff happened even before Niebelhiem. Angeal ended up dying in front of me and my partner, Gen well who knows what happened to him…though I have a feeling he isn't dead. Sephy, well...he went insane and tried to kill me and the others. There was a whole series of events that was a bunch of shit and stuff going down that split us all up. Cloud, unfortunately, got pulled in over his head and got sucked into something that he couldn't or shouldn't have had to deal with." Red watched as she let out a sad sigh before continuing "He shouldn't be the one that has to deal with Sephy…but I have a feeling that's what's going to end up happening."

Red stared up at her for a moment longer before commenting "I have a feeling that that is a very watered down version of the story."

Kira blinked before grinning and saying "You caught me but there's no real reason for anyone to know the whole story just yet." Red's eyes narrowed slightly at the wording of that statement but let it go as she glanced at the clock on her PHS and getting up with a slight groan. She paused for a moment her eyes narrowing as she heard movement from outside of their camp, a small smirk passing over her face for a moment before being replaced with a neutral expression as she looked down at Red asking "Would you mind helping me wake these guys up? We should get going soon." Red got up stretching and nodded as he set off for the guy's side of the camp, Kira heading over to wake up Tifa and Aerith. Bending down she shook both of the girl's shoulders gently causing them to both blink and sit up, Aerith rubbing her eyes slightly as she yawned. Kira smiled slightly as she straightened up and walked over to the Chocobos and patting Ramiel's neck as he bumped his head sleepily into her chest. She chuckled as Cloud brought over some food for the giant chickens and both of them headed back to the fireside to have breakfast, no one asking what it was exactly they were eating…it was probably better if they didn't know.

They had finished breakfast and had spotted the exit when Kira's head snapped up and saw Rude standing on a ledge, her eyes flicking up to the blond female that was standing on a ledge above them. Red, who had been walking next to her, looked up at her as Kira's eyes narrowed and he looked in the direction that she was staring at. Moving quietly she gripped Aerith by the arm and tugged her behind a large rock, out of view from the Turks, her eyes never leaving the man in front of them. Looking down at the group below him, Rude wasn't surprised to see Kira's attention focused on him, as she moved towards the front, before he called down to the group "Just a second!" Everyone stopped and got into defensive positions once they spotted the Turk.

Kira watched the man in front of her and held up an arm blocking her companions with a quiet "Wait."

Cloud's blue eyes shifted to her for a moment as she stared at the man with the sunglasses before relaxing slightly as Tifa called over "Who are you?"

Rude smirked for a moment before his stoic expression returned and he replied "Why don't you ask Kira, she should know?"

The others turned to the former SOLDIER and she smirked a hand on her hip as she said "His name's Rude, he's a Turk."

Their eyes widened as Rude said, gaining their attention once again, "It is difficult to explain what the Turks do…"

Cloud cut in quickly "Kidnapping, right?"

Kira shook her head in amusement, Red not missing the smile that had formed on the girl's face, while Rude replied dryly "To put it negatively…you could say that. But that's not all there is to it, not anymore."

Kira's eyes shifted to the blond woman as she called out "Sir!"

Raising an eyebrow Kira muttered quietly "Well that was a random shout out."

Red restrained a chuckle as the blond woman continued "It's alright, Rude! I know you don't like speeches, so don't force it!" Kira sighed quietly as Rude handed over the explanation to the, what Kira had deemed, somewhat hyper girl who continued with the explanation "I'm the newest member of the Turks, Elena. Thanks to what you people did to Reno, we're short of people." Rude glanced over at Kira who bristled at the comment about Reno and could practically feel the dark waves of anger coming off of her.

Red glanced up at his companion and backed away slightly as he sensed a barely restrained anger, while Kira was chanting in her head 'Don't bite her head off, don't bite her head off.'

She glared at the woman unnoticed as the blond continued, "Although because of that I got promoted to the Turks. In any case our job is to find out where Sephiroth is headed. And to try and stop you every step of the way. Wait a minute, is there another way around they're the ones that are getting in the way."

Kira's eyes flickered over to one of the entrances as Tseng walked in saying "Elena you talk to much."

Kira rolled her eyes as she turned to the head of the Administrative Research Department muttering under her breath, though Red was the only able to hear "Seriously that girl needs to learn the meaning of discretion."

Standing at the front of the group Kira noticed the small smile that flickered across Tseng's face for a brief second as he spotted her and she winked as he turned back to his subordinate "No need to tell them about our orders."

Kira didn't look back at the girl as she said quietly in a regretful voice "Sorry…Tseng."

Tseng's eyes hardened as he addressed his people, ignoring the group of rebels, "I thought I gave you orders. Now go. Don't forget to file your report."

Kira rolled her eyes as the female Turk became chipper again happily saying "Oh! Right! Very well , Rude and I will go after Sephiroth, who's heading for Junon Harbor!"

Kira slapped a hand to her forehead causing the large red feline to glance up at her as she called over to Tseng "How the hell did she ever qualify? You must have really been desperate to turn her into a Turk."

Tseng glanced over at the former SOLDIER before sighing and looking up at Elena, who was glaring death at the young woman, "Elena. You don't seem to understand."

She was still glaring at Kira, who raised an eyebrow and smirked at the flushed Turk in front of her in challenge, before Elena jerked up in shock as Tseng's words penetrated her brain and she said "Oh! I-I'm sorry!"

Tseng sighed in resignation before ordering wearily "Go. Don't let Sephiroth get away."

Kira saw Rude salute the Wutai man with a "Yes sir!"

As Rude moved up to the exit that they were leaving by he paused and turned his shaded eyes locking onto Kira's own and said "Reno said he wanted to see you again after his injuries have healed." Kira gave him the smallest of nods before Rude continued saying to the group in general "He wants to show his affection for you all…with a new weapon."

Red looked up at Kira seeing her mouth twitching into a small fond smile as she shook her head amused 'That boy he never did learn to give up. To damn stubborn for his own good sometimes.'

Kira blinked as Tseng walked forward and said "Well, then… Where's Aerith? Isn't she with you?"

Kira broke in as Cloud opened his mouth, lying through her teeth "She's with others, safe."

Tseng's dark eyes turned to her and narrowed slightly as she stared back raising an eyebrow daring him to contradict her before he relented and said "Oh…Then give her my regards." With that said he turned and stalked away Kira watching him for a moment before turning to the group in amusement as they gave a collective sigh of relief.

Kira smiled slightly as Aerith came out from hiding and walked over to her asking "Why'd you lie to him?"

Kira blinked and tilted her head slightly in confusion before grinning as she answered easily "Unlike his newbie of a subordinate we shouldn't just hand them the information that they want."

Cloud sighed and shook his head before turning around saying "Let's go." Kira grinned as they started to walk off slinging an arm around Aerith's shoulders and giving the young woman a comforting squeeze before releasing her and dropping back to walk next to Red, who looked up at her for a moment. Kira's eyes were trained on the people in front of her as small conversations ensued. She glanced down at Red and gave the feline a quiet smile before looking ahead.

Aerith glanced back as they walked and asked "Kira, have you ever been to Junon?"

Kira blinked before nodding as she answered "Yep, though…it wasn't exactly the greatest trip."

Red looked up at her curiously asking "What do you mean?"

Her shaded blue eyes flicked down to him as she answered "Well, the last time I was at Junon it was under attack and me and my partner had to go chase an escapee while protecting the citizens. Not a lot of time to sightsee during a battle."

Tifa raised an eyebrow asking "An escapee?"

Kira looked over at her wincing as they stepped into daylight, everyone groaning as they let their eyes adjust before Kira shook off Tifa's question "He's dead now, there's no need to worry about it." Tifa's eyes narrowed but she let it go quietly as once again Kira avoided questions about her past, ever since Katsu had changed to Kira Tifa always felt that she was hiding something from the group. Once out of the caves the Chocobos "warked" happily and allowed the group to get back on and ride them as they headed to Junon.