REMIX

A/N: The long promised sequel to Mix. However, it can be read alone. How handy!

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...

"So yeah, it's been going pretty good so far," Reeve sighed, exhausted but satisfied. He lazed back in his plush chair. "We haven't hit any major barriers working in sector eleven, where we started, but some of the sectors are more damaged from meteor fall, and we don't know how much we'll be able to salvage or rebuild."

Although three years ago the chairs in this room would have been in the Shinra boardroom straining under the weights of the executives, now it held only exhausted warriors, wanting to get updated as quickly as possible so they could head home for some rest. However, the embrace of the far too comfortable padded chairs held them there for a moment longer.

Reeve looked around the room and took in the faces of his companions. They had all been pushing themselves to the limit these last few weeks, and he could see the strain in their faces. But there was an element of satisfaction there, too. It took a ruthless company like Shinra to create the thing that the world had been, but it took the strong and selfless group in front of him to try to undo the chaos that had been created.

Although everyone felt too tired to do anything apart from sit there and listen to the rhythm that Cloud was tapping out with the end of a cheap pen, Tifa stretched languidly and inquired as to how Marlene's health was to Barret.

This action seemed to remind the group of people that this was the first time they had all managed to convene in one place for a while and a few small conversations started.

Slowly Cloud leaned towards Yuffie, who was lounging in the seat next to him.

"So, I heard you found yourself a new guy?"

"Yeah," Yuffie sighed, "but I broke it off yesterday, actually."

"Oh yeah?" Cloud asked, feigning disinterest. "What, did he try to make you eat your vegetables or something?"

"Oh noo," Yuffie crowed, ignoring the jab and instead fixing the blonde with a coy look. "He wasn't a good boy- quite the opposite. He was into some stuff even too weird for me!"

Cloud snickered, and Tifa (who had overheard) looked slightly scandalized but she smiled wryly. There was A confused expression on Vincent's face, until Cloud leaned over and slapped the him on the back.

"She means in bed, Vinnie!" Cid laughed raucously, even more as a slight flush appeared on Vincent's face.

"You would go around freely telling people about your sex life? Even the idea that you'd jump into bed with someone you barely kno-"

"Is upsetting your delicate sensibilities?" Cid interrupted. "Vin, these are modern times! You were born back when people got married before bumping ugl-"

"I'm not as old as you seem to perceive me as being," Vincent frowned.

"Hey, settle down!" Tifa looked like a mother hen, scanning everyone's faces and although she hadn't heard the clatter of Cloud's pen hit the table or his quiet grunt, she started when she saw the look of pain on the blonde's face, hidden behind his hand.

"Cloud?" she asked worriedly. "Are you okay?"

Cloud looked up, blearily. "Yeah- I just... aah!" he sunk a little lower into his chair, paling.

Conversely, Reeve sat up ramrod straight with a jolt.

"Augh!" he looked frantically at his watch, then glanced back to the blonde with a strange expression of guilt on his face. "The sector three reactor should have just been deactivated. All that mako... Cloud, is that.... can you...?"

Nanaki shifted on the seat he was curled up in. He was well aware of Cloud's predicament, but by the dawning looks on some of his human friends' faces and the blank look on others', it was a concept they were still grasping.

Shrugging off Reeves stuttered apologies, Cloud attempted to straighten in his chair again. "Dun worry..." Cloud muttered thickly. "I- I can deal with it. Vincent, could you give me a hand...?"

Rising, Vincent draped the blonde's arm over his shoulder and gently eased him up. "To the medical bay?"

"Mmm." Cloud breathed out, glad for his support. "Morphine... or a Sleep, both sound pretty good right now..."

"Hey guys…" Cloud addressed the worried members of AVALANCHE, half of them looking ready to spring out of their seats. "Don't look so worried, it's not like I've got Mako sickness or anything. B-besides, this is a good thing,"

Tifa frowned at that statement as she had frowned at the bags under Cloud's eyes earlier in the evening, but said nothing as Vincent escorted him out of the room.

The meeting broke in an uneasy silence.

---

The needle pierced his skin and with a practiced ease Cloud slowly depressed the plunger. Both he and Vincent looked away as the fluid emptied into Cloud's veins.

"I thought pain killer didn't work effectively?" Vincent enquired softly. "It never seemed to work for me after I was woken."

"This one Reeve had custom made for me," Cloud murmured, sliding the needle out again and capping it. "One of those new-age drugs, it'd probably knock out an elephant. I can't pronounce the damn thing's name, but it helps at least."

"Surely you would object to such gratuitous use of drugs?" Vincent enquired, thinking briefly of his memories of being injected with dozens upon dozens of mysterious cocktails, knowing that Cloud had shared the same experience.

"Anything to stop the feeling that the planet just dropped that accursed reactor on my head, really," Cloud replied with a shrewd smile, trying to settle on the thin mattress.

"So... what you are feeling is definitely related to the movement of the lifestream?"

"Yeah... I know you're skeptical, Vincent, but between all my dips in Mako and Lifestream alike the planet seems to have claimed me as an extension of the lifesteam."

"...Then, your connection to the planet? They turned you into a cetra, Cloud?" Vincent breathed, no little note of incredulity in his voice.

"More like a battery, really."

"That sounds... ridiculous."

"I know. I mean, I sound like a hippie, right? But I can feel it. I can feel the Planet, and the lifestream in every living thing. Open your hand, Vincent."

Vincent lifted his closed fist, and gave Cloud a confused look. He opened his hand, and watched bemusedly as a very confused beetle flew out.

A moment passed. Finally, Vincent sighed. "I guess I've seen enough impossible things in my life. And Reeve seems to believe you at any rate; prone to whimsy as he is, he's also an engineer. He tends to believe in things he sees."

He looked at the blonde's slightly dilated pupils. Cloud's eyes were an amazingly bright blue that seemed to pierce through Vincent's own eyes even in his slightly stoned state.

"So tell me then, oh extension of the planet, why does the lifestream hurt so?"

"All of the reactors are being decommissioned," Cloud sighed. "That's a great thing, but all the processed mako is just gushing back down into the raw lifestream. It's like...." Cloud searched for a suitable metaphor for a second. "Like, ever tried to put something back into the original wrappings, and you can never get it to fit? It's just not... not fitting right now. The planet just doesn't know what to do with all this lifestream, since Shinra had kept it apart for so long. It'll settle down eventually, but for now it's just churning around and... urgh....." Cloud stared at the blank white wall, and reached out to lovingly stroke it, to Vincent's amusement.

"Right now it just feels like my head is splitting apart, and it's not very pleasant as you could probably imagine...." Cloud sighed. He started a little when Vincent gently applied a wet flannel to his head.

"Aah, thank you..."

"So, there's all this lifestream sloshing around and nowhere for it to go?" Vincent inquired, watching the blonde rearrange the flannel with slender fingers.

"Yeah, the planet doesn't know what to do with it all, really...."

"Well, why don't you make a suggestion then?

Staring up at the roof, Cloud froze.

--

So I have a little more than a half of this whole thing written up, but It needs some pretty serious editing before it's readable. For now, I just wanted to get something out there. Hopefully this won't take me too long, huh? :D There'll probably be about two or three more parts. I want to finish this before the end of the year, if I can.