"Oh Gods, I was right!" Zelgadis breathed in a horrified whisper as he opened his eyes, "I didn't WANT to be right! I wanted to be WRONG, damnit! I REALLY wanted to be wrong! Oh Lina..." Zel touched her face lightly in sorrow as he observed the changes the guarding curse of Ura no Shinden had imposed on her.
Lina opened her eyes then, and looked at him curiously, then, reading the anguished expression on his face, became worried.
"Zel, what is it?" she asked.
"You were trying to find my cure for me, weren't you?" he asked, that same anguish clearly evident in his voice.
Lina looked down at the floor. "Yes." she admitted, "but how did you..." she caught sight of her arm and trailed off into shocked silence. Then she began to laugh.
"Lina?" Zel tried to interrupt her, but she just laughed harder, "Lina, don't go all hysterical on me now!"
"I'm sorry Zel but...hehehe...it's just I...hic...was so...hic...worried that the...hic...result would be you...hic...never finding a cure, and now...sniff...this..." she started to sob as she looked down at her arm again.
Zelgadis hugged her tightly...he had no fear of hurting her now...and tried to sooth away her tears.
"I'm sorry Lina, it's all my fault. If I hadn't been so obsessed with finding my cure, you never would have ended up like this. I PROMISED myself I'd never let anyone make another chimera, but because of my single-minded search for my cure I failed in that promise. I'm so, SO sorry."
"Zel, it's not your fault." Lina said softly, "I'm experienced enough to make my own decisions, and if I make a mistake it's on my shoulders, not anyone else's."
She sighed as she looked at her arms again, examining the now yellow colour of her skin and the garnet-coloured pebbles embedded there. If Zel's skin was granite, hers was more like sandstone, she decided. Reaching up, she pulled a lock of hair forward to examine. It looked and felt...and bent, she relized...like copper wire.
Hmm... she thought, Everything a little softer than Zel, must be some kind of male/female thing.
Zel watched her examine her new self and blushed a little. I guess if you're used to it, chimeras can look pretty good. He thought.
"Zel, I want to see my face." Lina announced, "Is there anything like a mirror in here?"
"There's a pool over there that should be reflective enough." he suggested. Lina went over by the pool and kneeled down, tracing the new contours of her face as she looked at her reflection. It was now almost exactly like Zel's, except that she could still recognize the basic chape of her face, but somehow it managed to look more...delicate...than his face. Her ears were just as pointed as his, though. She tried to push her bangs out of her face to see her forehead better, but only succeeded in bending them.
"Damn!" she swore, "I've had bad hair days before, but this is rediculous!"
Zel laughed softly. She seemed to be taking all this pretty well, he thought, but then, this WAS Lina, after all.
"What's so funny, Stone Boy?" she growled menacingly.
"I've never had that problem. My hair just doesn't move at all."
"Yeah? Well copper's a hell of a lot softer than steel, okay?"
"I suppose." Zel admitted and kneeled by her, helping her straighten her hair out in apology.