Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine. This chapter was written kind of quickly, so I apologize if I missed any typos or anything. Enjoy!

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022 – Blue Screen of Death

Rinoa cursed and flung up her hands, using her foot to kick the coffee table away from where she was sitting on the couch. Her laptop on the coffee table just mocked her.

"That's it! I give up!" She exclaimed in exasperation.

From her spot at the dining room table of Rinoa's apartment, with personnel files spread all across the surface of the table, Yuffie sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"No, you don't." She exhaled.

"No, I don't." Rinoa repeated, sitting forward with her elbows on her knees. "But I don't know anything about computers either."

"Well, apparently, I don't know anything about the interns in any of the other departments." Yuffie sat back and rotated her neck. "Seriously, why in Kingdom Hearts does Aerith have 78 people in her magical herbs and remedies program?" She gestured to another open file. "And 53 more people in her program researching spellwork to combat various Heartless poison and chemical warfare in the field." She pointed, "Not to say anything about the 92…92!...interns that she shares with Merlin's magical combat department in training on potions and elixirs."

Perusing her Computers for Dummies book, Rinoa ran a hand through her hair. "I don't even know how to install updates on my computer, let alone write software to…to…to do whatever software does!"

"I've got 43 people in my department." Yuffie went on. "Cid's got 52. Leon has…17." She smacked the file in front of her. "That's more like it! No wonder he knows them all by name."

Rinoa looked up. "You don't know all of your interns by name?"

"I did when I picked them. That's why last names are printed on uniforms!"

Rinoa quirked an eyebrow, "How many soldiers do you have to pick again?"

"Fifteen." Yuffie slumped back in her seat. "I thought it would be easy, but so far I've only got one slot filled."

Rinoa pecked at a few keys on her computer. "Well, that's something."

"It's Jake." Yuffie confessed.

"He's not even in the Alliance."

"Neither are you." Yuffie pointed out.

"Nuh-uh." Rinoa pointed at her. "My paperwork's been filed. See?" She gestured to her laptop, "This is me, trying to learn computers so I can work in the IT department."

"Why IT?" Yuffie grimaced. "Why not…ANYTHING else?"

"None of the other departments thought I was qualified. IT was the only department that would give me a shot. I didn't even get a sympathy accept from Squ—Leon."

"Seventeen people have been accepted from roughly 500 applicants." Yuffie pointed out, "There was no way in Hell you were getting into his department. Why didn't you try Aerith's?"

"I did…I'm not…very…magic savvy." Rinoa conceded.

"I've met a few of her interns; they're not very savvy either." Yuffie shrugged.

"Then I just suck." Rinoa confessed, "There. I said it. Ugh, I can't do this."

"Yes you can." Yuffie said flatly.

"Yes I can." Rinoa responded despondently. Then, "Why Jake?"

Yuffie closed a few of the files, plucking up a few for her 'possible' stack. "Well, odds are that most of the soldiers that I choose are going to be from Leon or Tifa's department. Leon's soldiers are just like him as far as stick-up-assery goes, and Tifa's soldiers are fun…but…kind of intense sometimes."

"What about your soldiers in your department?" Rinoa asked.

"Oh, they're all total bad asses like me." Yuffie beamed. "But Jake…I guess he'll keep things lively, if nothing else. Besides, even though he's not letting on, I think he's kinda bummed that McCallister rejected him."

"See? Sympathy accept." Rinoa said.

Her laptop suddenly made a loud humming noise.

"Ack." Rinoa started punching at more keys. "I don't know what I did—Ah! Blue screen of death!"

"Force-power down." Yuffie indicated.

Rinoa depressed the power button on the laptop. The humming only got louder.

"We just made it angry!" She yelped.

Yuffie stood up, "Is it SMOKING?"

Rinoa picked it up, standing and looking helpless. "What do I do? This isn't in the manual!"

"Uh…put it in the freezer!" Yuffie gestured.

"What? That doesn't make any sense!" But Rinoa hastily chucked the humming computer into the freezer without waiting for an answer, slamming the door of it shut.

After a beat, Rinoa and Yuffie looked at each other. Then they both started laughing.

..:-X-:..

023 – Long Distance Phone Call

"—and, I swear, it's like watching a baby giraffe stumbling around in a watering hole." Cid remarked, cell phone wedged between his ear and his shoulder as he worked on the Gummi's engine in front of him.

"Surely, it can't be that bad." Beverly replied on the other end of the line.

"It's that bad." Cid snorted. "And to top it off, Yuffie's got her first mission next week."

"But…that's good, right?"

"Good is the operative word. She's nineteen fucking years old," Cid said. "By the time Leon and Aerith were nineteen…" He cursed under his breath, "She's a good kid, but I don't know about this whole 'command' a mission thing."

"You're the one who gave her a good recommendation." Beverly pointed out.

Cid frowned. He hated when she made sense.

Straightening, he moved out from under the hood of the Gummi and climbed up into the cockpit, swinging into the pilot seat and testing the engine. The motor chugged and whined, but it didn't turn over. Cussing again, Cid climbed back down and squinted at the mess of an engine. Lieutenant Pike from Aerith's program had been the last one to sign this ship in to the log. Cid had no idea what Pike had done to mess the Gummi up like this, but it was royally fucked.

"Dammit, this is why there's an entire Aeronautical division in the Alliance." He snapped. " 'Cause these other boneheads don't know jack shit about Gummis."

"Hm." She sounded thoughtful on the other end.

"What?" Cid grumbled.

"Nothing…just…thinking." Was the slow response.

Cid inwardly groaned and rolled his eyes before painfully asking. "About what?"

"Don't roll your eyes at me." She said tersely.

Cid blinked and glanced around the hangar. He was alone.

"How did—"

Her tone changed like a flash of lightning. "There's another bar opening in Traverse Town."

The change of tone almost gave him whiplash, and it would have, if half of the conversations with her didn't go the exact same way.

"Oh really." He gave the obligatory response, squinting at the mess of oil around the transmission in the ship.

"Yeah, some hoity-toity prat who's always smoking pipes." Beverly sounded irritated.

"Hoity toity? Doesn't sound like there's any customer competition there."

"Oh, but there will be. Alcohol is alcohol, Cid—"

"Preaching to the choir, woman."

"—and if he's bringing in some of that expensive, fancy-named, strong shit, then I might as well start looking at other prospects." She ranted. "Because he will run my ass out of town."

She was overreacting. She tended to do that when the topic was her tavern.

"You're underestimating your fans."

"My 'fans'? If you're talking about my loyal customers, they can't even spell 'underestimating'!" She snapped. "They're like kids with a new brand of candy."

Cid twisted the knobs on the engine, tweaking some of the gears so that they would turn more smoothly. "Well, you could always relocate." He mumbled absently.

"Pfft." She snorted.

"I'm serious. There is a severe shortage of bars in Radiant Garden. As in, we have ONE, and it's a karaoke bar." He grimaced to even confess that.

Beverly laughed on the other end. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, avoid the place on Thursdays in particular when Jake and Tifa make an appearance." He snorted.

"No…you're serious about me relocating?"

Cid paused. It had just been a throwaway idea that he had thrown out for shits and giggles, but she was actually considering it? Worse, she thought it was HIS idea?

"This Gummi needs a proper burial…and then Pike is going to need a funeral for this."

"Just admit that you aren't opposed to the idea." She pressed, and he could practically hear her grinning like an idiot.

"I ain't admittin' nothin'." He barked.

"C'mon, Cid. Don't you ever get tired of all this song and dance?" She teased. "Youuuuuu like meeeeee." She said in a sing-song voice.

Cid's eye twitched, "Oh, go to Hell."

"You first."

"Bitch."

"Ass."

And with that, he hung up the phone and went to hunt down Pike.

..:-X-:..

024 – Light of Life

Aerith tugged off her shoes and stepped out onto the grass. Shortly after returning to Radiant Garden from Traverse Town, one of the Restoration Committee's primary goals was to bring life back to their home. There had been too much rocky, barren wasteland, just peppered every so often with a resilient plant or patch of brown grass. It was still too rocky and barren, but these small plant sanctuaries had become the pride and joy of Radiant Garden.

They were no rain forest or wildlife preserve, just glorified handfuls of trees and grass, really, but they were magnificent and flourishing. There were close to two hundred trees now stretching up to the sky thanks to the efforts of the people of Radiant Garden. Flowers and grass and all sorts of bushes and shrubs now. Which made this decision very difficult, and Aerith wasn't sure she could follow through with it.

It didn't help that Cloud looked FAR from enthused.

"It'll be fine." Aerith assured for the umpteenth time. "I've been doing this for a few months now."

"Yeah…on rocks…and concrete." He pointed out, arms folded. "Never on anything alive." He looked to the gnarled up tree that she was standing in front of. "I don't like it."

"Oh, you're only happy when you're miserable." She teased lightly, enjoying the coolness of the grass and the dirt under her bare feet as she approached the tree.

The tree stood apart from most of the others. The branches were thick and bent in that willowy way that some older trees adopt. The bark was thick and gnarled. It had been struck by lightning no less than three times during the last stormy season. The attacks had rendered the entire left side of the tree barren and very pale. No leaves grew on one of the broken limbs, which hung like an open wound on the back.

It was dying, and it was heart breaking to look at. It was scheduled to be cut down in two weeks; a bright orange X had already been spray painted on the side of it that wasn't dead. While initially excited about the idea of trying this new magic with organic material, the idea of experimenting on a living creature made her feel inhuman. The entire planet was alive, she had concluded. Yet, they still used dynamite to blow away parts of the landscape, and they carved tunnels and walkways into the weathered rocks. They cut grass and they uprooted trees.

Besides, she wasn't going to hurt this dying tree. It was old, crippled, and on the chopping block. There would be no better opportunity for her to measure the light essence of magic in organic material. And because this was the next big stepping stone in her undercurrent theory, she had invited Cloud to tag along and be a witness. He was acting more like a bomb squad, watching her like he expected this to go very badly.

Well, she would show him.

Aerith reached out a hand and touched the coarse bark of the tree. She had to ignore Cloud for now. She had only been able to draw the essence out of inorganic matter with intense concentration that resulted in migraines; she had no idea what kind of focus it would take to do the same to living matter. So she would give all that she had.

Closing her eyes, she lifted her other hand to the tree and breathed slowly. Over these past months, she had grown so accustomed to pushing her mind to her fingertips that it happened almost absently. She let her mind absorb the grain of the wood and the cool fiber of the bark. Then, again almost by habit, she pushed farther, deeper, letting her consciousness penetrate the wood and into the being of the tree.

What greeted her nearly blew her mind open.

Rocks and concrete had yielded nothing, just that emptiness that housed the vapor of light. This…this was so…so much more.

Bright green light blasted into her mind, reaching down into her chest and squeezing her heart. She gasped as warmth reached out of the cold wood, as though it was trying to read her instead of the other way around. She felt like she was being analyzed.

"Aerith—" Cloud's voice reached her, sounding concerned.

She shook her head. No, she was fine. This was…amazing!

In her mind's eye, she could see into the essence. The same gently undulating furls of green light that she had been drawing out of the concrete floors of the castle ruins, only this time they were moving so much faster, with purpose, pulsing like a heartbeat. Like simultaneous bolts of lightning, the essence barreled into her. The power sizzled across her skin and danced through her blood.

"Aerith—" He sounded closer this time, like he was about to stop her.

No! No, she had to keep going. She was so close! Close…to what, she wasn't sure. Laughter suddenly bubbled up from the core of the tree. Laughter like a child's, but at the same time, the kind of laughter you hear from an old soul. Was she laughing with it? If she wasn't, she should be. A sudden urge to join the laughter overwhelmed her, but before she could cave in to it, it stopped. The laughter and the warmth and the power and everything; it just stopped.

Aerith opened her eyes and found herself standing there, both hands pressed to the bark of the tree, an involuntary smile plastered across her face, and Cloud standing right beside her, eyes wide and looking worried.

"It's real." She murmured.

"Aerith, what did you just do?" Cloud steered her away from the tree.

Her vision was tunneling, but before she fainted, she murmured. "I think I just looked into the heart of Radiant Garden."

..:-X-:..

Preview for next week: "I'm not beautiful. I'm not that smart. I'm not…anything. I've accepted that. Why can't everybody else?"