Zelgadis winced as he felt the needle pierce his skin, trying not to think about the liquid being forced under. "Just let this work. For once, let Lina know what she's doing..." Zelgadis held his breath, waiting for the inevitable...but nothing happened. He opened an eye he hadn't been aware of shutting and blinked in confusion. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, he felt a great pain in his arm. It spread down his arm and eventually throughout his body, the pain so great he collapsed onto his side, crying out in agony.

Everyone gasped in shock, backing away as Zelgadis began to thrash about.

"Mister Zelgadis!" Amelia quickly leapt to his side. She looked down at his pained face, waiting for some type of response, but all Zelgadis could do was look at her, too overtaken with the pain to speak. She wanted to do something to lend him strength, but any time she touched him, Zelgadis cried out in even more pain. Amelia finally resigned herself to sitting nearby, feeling completely useless as she watched in alarm.

Everyone else did the same, not sure what else there was they could do. Lina leaned into Gourry, silently pleading and praying to whoever would listen that she had done the right thing. Dorel watched in fascination; he had never seen anyone undo a chimera before, so he was eager to take notes!

After a few agonizing moments there was a visible change in Zelgadis. He was slowly becoming smaller, and if one looked at him just right, the spiky ridges all down his back were receding back into his skin. Then Zelgadis did something unexpected. He rolled onto his stomach, then spit out a vile green liquid from his mouth. Everyone watched in disgust as he continued to cough out more of the nasty stuff.

"What is that?" Gourry wrinkled his nose.

Dorel lit up, furiously scribbling in a note pad. "Of course! It makes perfect sense!"

"What does?" Lina asked, pointing at the mess Zelgadis was making on the floor. "That?"

Dorel nodded his head. "I told you I injected various essences into him before. What you came up with is counteracting that, but what I originally injected in him cannot remain inside if he's to regain his original form, so his body is rejecting, or ejecting if you will, the unwanted essence." Dorel scribbled a bit more on his notepad. "It's all rather interesting, really."

"What it is is disgusting," Lina also wrinkled her nose. "Why couldn't I have come up with a clean and simple fix?"

Amelia was only just listening to the conversation. She was noticing something rather drastic happening, but she wasn't sure if her eyes had gone screwy (for all she knew she could be colorblind now), or if Zelgadis was in fact losing his familiar blue hue. Already his tail and wings had receded back in, and he was taking on a more human shape. But what she had been noticing was that as his scales became smaller and also started to disappear, a normal flesh tone was hidden underneath. Come to think of it, the rocky ridges she had become accustomed to being on his face were...gone!

Amelia gasped.

Lina looked up from her conversation with the others to see Amelia...bouncing? Lina quirked her brow, until she saw what had Amelia so excited. "I really am a genius!" Lina breathed.

"Huh?" Both Dorel and Gourry replied, then gaped when they saw a rather human male laying on the ground.

"A-are you sure this was the same person who came to me?" Dorel sounded very confused. "The one I, er, experimented on didn't look like that."

Lina didn't reply, instead watching the scene playing out before her.

Zelgadis groaned, still a bit woozy from his ordeal. As his eyes came into focus, he saw a big furry face peering down at him. It chirruped at him, then nudged his side. Zelgadis let out another groan, bringing an arm up to rub his eye. The big furry thing chirruped at him again. Zelgadis shook his head in an attempt to clear it, pain still fresh on his mind.

Amelia frowned at Zelgadis' lack of response. "Mister Zelgadis, look at yourself!" She nudged his arm again, trying to prod it into his line of sight.

Zelgadis, to his credit, did attempt to say something, but it was so garbled no one knew what he was trying to say. He shook his head again, still rubbing at his eye. He suddenly stopped, as if a thought had occurred to him, then slowly held his hand out in front of his face. He peered at his hand in curiosity. Something didn't seem quite right...

He glanced over at the large animal sitting next to him, noting it had rather large claws. He again looked to his hand, wondering why he wasn't seeing the same. Again to the large animal, this time noting the large fangs jutting out below its jaw line. Zelgadis reached out to touch where his should have been, smacking his hand into his face instead. What was going on?

The creature chirruped at him again. Zelgadis had no idea what it was saying, if anything, but it sounded excited about something. Something... Zelgadis' thoughts were starting to clear, so he wracked his brain. There was something about being trapped, but he seemed to have been trapped for a long time before now. Yet something told him something had happened more recently, throwing a major spin to his earlier ordeal.

The creature knelt down next to him, Zelgadis finally noticing some more details, mainly the large wings and dragon-like tail. This obviously wasn't a natural creature, but a combination of various sorts. What was the word...Kai? Cha? ...chimera!

Zelgadis bolted upright, but then fell back onto the ground. Unable to stand, he instead peered about the room, finally recognizing the people standing around.

"You okay, Zelgadis?" The tall blond asked.

Zelgadis shook his head one last time, feeling satisfied when the brain fog finally lifted. "Ow..." he replied.

"I'll take that as a yes," the girl replied. Lina was her name... "If you're feeling pain, that means you're going to live," she grinned.

Gourry, that was his name, leaned down next to Lina. "Think we should give him some clothes now?"

"Wha..?" Zelgadis glanced down, horrified to see he had been laying buck naked on the ground. The really cold ground, now that he thought about it. Zelgadis shivered as he looked for something to hide behind, being saved by a large feathery wing covering him.

Amelia kept her gaze diverted, not wanting to shame Zelgadis any more than he already had to be.

"Oh, right..." Lina suddenly blushed, turning her gaze on Dorel. Without a word Dorel signaled for Servee to fetch something to remedy the situation, the obedient little chimera dashing off to return a moment later with what looked like a blanket. Lina accepted it, thrusting it at Gourry to pass along.

"Thanks," Zelgadis mumbled when Gourry handed the blanket off, being quick to cover himself.

Lina walked up to Zelgadis, offering him a hand up. She staggered a bit under his weight, but was able to remain standing. "Careful there, don't step on me! Anyway, you haven't said anything yet. What do you think of the new you, Zel?"

"New me?" Zelgadis asked. He flinched when he received a pinch on the arm in response. "Ow! Why'd you do that?"

Lina smirked. He really didn't have a clue! "Just testing your senses, Zel. Sheesh! I mean, I only found a way to give you what you've wanted all this time." She reached up and tussled his hair, enjoying having the advantage.

"Stop it," Zelgadis swatted Lina's hand away.

"Wow, what a grouch. I thought you'd be happy." Lina held her offended hand, sticking her tongue out at Zelgadis.

Zelgadis did look at his hand again, noticing that it no longer was blue, or hard. He reached up to touch his chin, then his brow, amazed to feel nothing extra jutting out. A small smile came to his face.

"Now that's more like it," Lina grinned. "Do I get a thank you at least? You better believe you owe me big for this."

Zelgadis lost the smile. Great, just what Lina needed. Something else to gloat about. He felt someone looking at him, turning to see Amelia still seated on the floor, giving him a curious look. "I can't thank you yet, Lina. You're not done yet. Or did you forget about Amelia?"

Lina stiffened. "Er, no, of course not! Just wanted to collect you off the floor and make sure you were okay before we do the same to Amelia." Lina turned to face the person in question. "You're okay with that, right, Amelia?" At the chirped response, Lina turned back to Zelgadis. "See, she knows she wasn't forgotten. Now let's get you cleaned up before we go through this again..."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Zelgadis sat against the wall, not yet being used to walking on only two legs without a tail to balance. He adjusted the itchy clothing, not yet used to the feel of cloth on his skin, either. He glanced over at his constant companion, watching as Amelia looked worriedly at the closed door.

"Don't worry, Lina knows what she's doing this time. It shouldn't take as long." Zelgadis gave her a small smile, but frowned at the yowled response. "Amelia, I...I can't understand you." He frowned more as he watched her drop her head back down to rest on her front feet, sighing in defeat. Okay, that he understood easily...

Unsure what else to do, Zelgadis twiddled his thumbs. He had become used to having a softer hide in the past few months, but having regained his normal human skin was still something of a novelty. He just wasn't sure what to do with himself, having devoted so much of his life to serving Rezo, and then searching for a way to regain his humanity...what was he supposed to do now?

He must have been showing outward agitation, because Amelia chirped at him, placing a paw over his hand. Zelgadis had to stop himself from recoiling at the sight of those claws, even though he knew Amelia would never purposely harm him. Instead he gave her a small smile, placing his free hand over her paw. First, concentrate on getting Amelia back to how she should be. He could worry about everything else after that.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: Man oh man, I'm glad to be able to attend university to extend my learning and get into a better job and all, but it really cuts down on the writing time. I wrote this about a week ago, then had no time to really even look at it at all. I was wanting to right more (as per usual), but it'll have to wait after I get through four tests and various homework assignments. Sigh...

Anyway, whee. Can anyone tell I like science? I have too much fun writing Dorel's dialogue. And as far as Zelgadis goes, I couldn't put him through that and be like, "Oh no, sorry, you're only getting half your cure." The logical person in me couldn't see that happening.

I feel this story is drawing nearer to a conclusion, but there are still so many loose ends to tie up. I just really hope I can keep my wits about me and remember everything I originally thought up when the time comes to finish this off. My little pet project really got out of hand...

Next time: Zelgadis and Amelia get to experience the positives and negatives of their situation...plus more as I remember it.