Prophecy's Refrain

*CRASH!*

Harmony jerked awake when the loud sound echoed through her apartment. She threw her robe on and rushed out to the living area. Her guests were all awake, gathered around the television, and Zack was in the kitchen. She walked around the bar to see what he had dropped. Her coffee pot was on the ground in a million pieces, and Zack was standing over it, looking sheepish.

“Oh hell no…” Harmony said. “You’re all in for it now…with as busy as this day is gonna get…and I don’t get any coffee? You’re fired.” she pointed at Zack. “Now I see why they-”she pointed at Genesis, Angeal, and Sephiroth as all three tried to contain their amusement, “call you puppy. You’re as destructive as one.”

“Sorry.” he said.

“Rrg. Its okay…accidents happen. Just don‘t let me catch you chewing on my shoes.” That earned sharp laughter from Genesis and Angeal, and a real smile from Sephiroth. She took a deep breath. “Okay guys, patience today. I’ll try not to be too bitchy. I’m going to need someone to come with me while I get clothes for you, and hair color, and contacts.”

“I’ll go!” Zack offered.

“Pup!” Angeal said.

“No no, I’ll watch out for him, he can come. Any one else?” Harmony asked.

“I’ll go.” Cid said.

“I will join you as well. I would very much like to see this…new dimension.” Hojo said from his position on the couch.

Harmony zeroed in on him, advancing slowly.

Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz prepared to intercept if they needed to, noticing that Angeal and Genesis were doing the same.

“You,” she said angrily, “are already on my shit list. Twice.” She growled low in her throat. “Fine. But the only reason I’m allowing this is because I don’t want you snooping around my books and my computer while I’m gone. I want someone else to come too, because if you try to get away, you’re going down. Do you understand? If for two seconds I can’t see you, I’ll make sure its because you’re dead. Comprende, Mad Scientist?”

Her tone actually impressed the triplets. She COULD be scary.

“I’ll go.” Kadaj said.

Harmony seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. “Okay.” She finally said. “But you have to change. Come with me, I have some jeans and a few t-shirts that aren’t too girlie. A hoodie to hide your hair would probably be best, too. Cops will be looking for you.”

She led him to her room and he watched as she dug through her dresser drawers to find what she was looking for. “Aha!” she exclaimed. She threw a pair of ratty jeans and a black t-shirt at him, and then went to her closet to retrieve her own clothes. She picked out a pretty yellow three-quarter sleeve button down shirt, and khaki shorts. Her white tennis shoes were in the living area.

“Put those on, your sword stays here.” She said. She left him to get dressed and changed her own clothes in her library.

“Zack, can the shoulder straps come off?” She asked as she sat down next to Loz to put her shoes on.

“But it’s to hold my sword…” Zack said.

“Well you won’t need it.” she said in a patronizing tone. “Here.” she threw another hoodie at him as Kadaj walked out of the room fully dressed. “Hood up, please.” she said when she saw him.

He flicked the hood up, trying to look ‘cool’ as he did it. Harmony couldn’t see a single strand of silver hair.

“Good.” She said. “You too.” she said to Zack. “I don’t want them recognizing you as one of the terrorists that attacked the police station yesterday.”

“Okay.” Zack put the hoodie on and pulled the hood over his hair.

“Alright!” Harmony said, turning to face the rest of the group. “Please…! All of you please stay inside. Do not leave unless you have to. It’s a possibility that the cops have traced you guys to my apartment. I do have a past with the authorities and they have security cameras. If they come here, go out through the attic window. It goes to the roof. I want you to take my cell.” She tossed Rufus a small phone. “Call my pager if you have to leave. The number is in there. Otherwise, I’ll be back in a few hours.”

She turned to Zack, Cid, Hojo, and Kadaj. “Hojo, lab coat off.” The old man grumbled but did as he was told. With that, the five left the house.


“Come on, I think you’d look good with black hair. So would Yazoo.” Harmony said.

“What, you want me to look like him?” Kadaj pointed at Zack. “Shut up old man!” He said to the laughing Cid.

“Whatever you say kid.” said pilot retorted.

“Know what?!” Harmony said cheekily.

“What?” Kadaj drawled.

“You don’t have a choice. You can kill me later. After we get rid of that-” he gave her a hard look, “ahem-Jenova. After we get rid of Jenova and figure out how to get you home. It can be my farewell gift to you.”

She hurriedly tossed at least four boxes of each color into the cart, just to make sure she had enough. “What about Sephiroth? I mean, we’re gonna need like, twelve bottles for his hair, unless he’d let me cut it…”

“That depends…do you like the placement of your head?” Zack said, bouncing next to her as he held onto the squirming Hojo’s ponytail.

“What do you mean?” Harmony asked, confused.

“Do you like your head where it is…on your shoulders attached to your neck? Or would you rather it be rolling across the floor?” He clarified.

Harmony made a choked sound and placed her hand on her throat. “Okay, no cutting. Twelve boxes of chestnut brown it is!”

The four men chuckled at her discomfort.

“Christ, what kind of psychos am I allowing into my home?” she joked.

“About the same kind that already lives there.” Kadaj said dryly.

Harmony shoved him and the force knocked her to the side where he didn’t budge. Cid watched the two as they laughed and scratched at his chin. He’d be damned if those two weren’t flirting.


“Okay!” Harmony said as the group re-entered the apartment. “Over here! Vincent, I got you brown contacts. They’ll make your eyes kind of amber, which is more acceptable. Angeal, Your contacts are the same color, but I think they’ll cover the glow. Genesis, Sephiroth, yours are the same. Sephiroth, You can’t put yours in until I color your hair. Don’t look at me like that, you stick out too much. You go last anyway. You’ll take too long to wash it out. Cloud, contacts. The rest of you, clothes. Go by size. Barrett…” she tried to think of a way to phrase the question. “Is there any way to…disguise you arm?”

The big man nodded his head and pulled a large glove from his back pocket, slipping it over his mechanical arm.

“Thanks. Vincent, get rid of the gold. I found you some heavy-duty boots that will make up for the armor if that makes you feel better.”

The men started digging through bags to find what was theirs, including Loz and Yazoo.

“Not yet, crazy clones.” She said, smiling affectionately. “Loz, You’re first. Ever thought of becoming blonde?”

He was silent for a moment. “…Are you serious?” He dead-panned.

“Excellent, I’ll take that as a ‘Yes Harmony, I’d LOVE to be blonde!’.” Harmony said. She grabbed the surprised clone’s hand and dragged him to the bathroom. “Take that off.” She looked at his suit, realizing that it was a one-piece. “On second thought…I’ll just get a towel.”

Loz smirked as did Kadaj and Yazoo as they strolled into the room as well. They watched Harmony open the bottle of dye and pour it into the solution, then put the gloves on and shake the bottle before cutting the tip off and beginning to pour the mixture onto the clone’s head. Before long, the dye saturated his whole head, she even went against the rules and used a q-tip to put some on his eyebrows.

“Do NOT let that get into your eyes, or you’ll be very, very sorry.” she warned. Loz nodded and then smirked when Harmony snagged Kadaj.

“Dammit! Why do I have to be next?!” he whined. Harmony froze and started giggling.

“You know, considering how menacing you were day-before yesterday…you sure are a wuss.” She laughed again. “I can’t believe that when all this is over, a WUSS is going to kill me.” she joked.

Yazoo and Loz looked confused as she began pouring the newly mixed solution onto the middle clone’s hair.

“What?” Yazoo asked.

“Oh yeah, I promised Kadaj that if he still wants to kill me, he can AFTER this is over.” Harmony said with a wink and a smile.

Kadaj smiled also, but the other two didn’t, knowing full well that as tame as their brother was acting, he was no where near as socially inclined normally, and was fully capable of doing what he promised.

Soon, it was Yazoo’s turn. It took longer to do his hair than the other two, and when he questioned the reason, Harmony laughed and explained that his hair was longer than the others, and making him gasp when she speculated that Sephiroth’s hair would probably take her a couple of hours.

By the time she finished putting the dye in Yazoo’s hair, it was time for Loz to wash his. Harmony decided to wait until the triplets were washed before starting Sephiroth’s hair. In the meantime, she had to figure out how to do it without being murdered. She instructed Kadaj to shower after Loz, and Yazoo immediately after that, and then left the room before she had the chance to see naked clones.

She nearly ran into Vincent, who was making his way to her room to use her bathroom. “Oh, sorry!” she said, looking up. “Holy cow!” she softly cried when she saw vivid amber eyes. The color was perfect…but still didn’t cover the glow as much as she had hoped.

“I take it the color is satisfactory?” He said with a hint of amusement.

“Its great…but why are you still wearing the gold?” she said, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.

“I’m actually on my way to change in your bathroom, if that’s not a problem. Its my turn, everyone else is changed. If that obnoxious little SOLDIER kid tries stripping down in my presence again, I may just shoot him in the foot.” He said.

“Vincent, did you just crack a joke?” Harmony asked.

“I do not ‘joke’. I am all too serious.” Vincent assured her.

“Haha, okay…go get changed…” She said, waving him down the hall. She turned away from him mouthing ‘crazy!’ and continued to the living area.

“You!” she pointed at Zack, “Exhibit a little modesty, please, or someone will shoot you. And it won’t be who you’d think!” she threatened.

She quickly gathered up three piles of clothes and stuck pieces of tape to them, writing each clone’s name on their clothes. She thrust the clothes in Cloud’s hands. “Take these to the crazies.” She glanced at his contacts, relieved to see that they covered the glow much better than Vincent’s did his. “Nice, they work.” she commented.

She looked around as he did as she asked. “You all look great. I’m going to have a hell of a time keeping the floosies away. Great. I did my work too well…” she muttered the last part to herself. “All except you.” she said to Hojo. “You’re still nasty.” She noticed Loz standing in the hall. “You look great.” she threw over her shoulder.

“What is your issue with me, my dear?” Hojo growled at her just as Loz walked out of the hallway, hair still wet.

“You don’t want to go there, Hojo.” he said.

“Do not speak to me. You’re nothing but a failed experiment!” Hojo snapped at the now-blonde. Everyone in the room watched as Harmony froze and turned around to face the old man on her couch.

“What did you just say?” She said very quietly.

By the time the other clones emerged from the bathroom sporting darker hair and more practical clothes, Hojo was sitting on the couch holding an ice-pack to his already green-and-purple bruised eye.

“What happened to him?” Kadaj asked, pointing to the scientist.

“He called Loz a failed experiment and told him not to talk to him.” Tseng said, trying to hold in his chuckle. No one liked the scientist, it seemed.

“So Loz hit him?” Yazoo asked.

“No.” Rufus cut in.

“Then who-” they both started at the same time.

“Are you going to keep your nasty remarks to yourself now, jack-ass, or do I have to hit you again?” Harmony asked sweetly. Well - as sweetly as she could while waving a fist in his face and some pills in the other.

Kadaj and Yazoo looked shocked. Then amused.

The scientist said nothing, just took the pills from her and dry swallowed them.

“That’s what I thought.” Harmony smirked. It was then that she noticed the men.

“I was right!” she crowed. “You both look GREAT!” She grinned evilly and turned to Sephiroth.

The great general felt a cold chill take him as he took in her expression, and he knew that unless he intended to kill her…which he knew he could not afford to do…he was getting his hair colored.

“Your turn!” She sang.