"WHAT?!" Was more less what everyone said in very loud and shocked voices after Mr. Hender spoke.
"Yes I might have a way to cure Mr. Zelgadis." Mr. Hender went back to flipping through the books in front of him. Everyone just glanced at him blankly.
"How though?"
"Sit down at the table and I'll explain." Everyone complied and seated themselves at the table and awaited for Mr. Hender to speak. "Alright know that we have to return Mr. Zelgadis back to his physical form soon or he dies right?"
Everyone nodded deftly.
"And you all know that his chimera body disappeared right?"
Again silent nods.
"So basically we have no traces of his chimera body to work with." Everyone just gave him odd looks.
"And your point is?"
"My point is that what we need is a trace of his normal body to work with." Mr. Hender was given more odd stares only these were ones of confusion.
"And just how and why would we need to do that?" Lina prompted.
"Well if I could get hold of some of Mr. Zelgadis' current body cells I can create a koppi of his body to return his soul to." Mr. Hender marked a spot in one of his books and went looking through and another.
"But making a good koppi takes at least a week to make! Zel doesn't have that long!"
"Miss Lina calm down. Actually with my resources and current knowledge of creating koppis I can make a very good koppi within a few hours. The only difference is that the koppi wouldn't have a mind, meaning it would really have no soul. Making one with memories and a mind would take longer but that isn't needed. If I can make a mindless and soulless koppi of Mister Zelgadis I can with the information in this book (Mr. Hender points at the book that he put a bookmark in) I can create a spell that will put Mr. Zelgadis' mind and soul into that koppis body making it him truly." The book Mr. Hender had pointed at was one that appeared to have been written in a similar language of the book Zelgadis had used that caused this whole mess. It wasn't the same language but it was very close. Everyone looked at Mr. Hender with hopeful eyes. Well almost everyone.
"But Mr. Hender you are forgetting one detail." Lina said in a very calm and serious tone.
"Oh what?"
"Just how are we supposed to get some of Zel's current body cells? He doesn't have a body to get them from." Lina gave him a very dark look. Everyone's hopeful expressions were lost and replaced by ones of disappointment.
"Actually Miss Lina that is were you come in. Since Zelgadis entered your dream you were able to touch him after you woke up correct? If he enters your dream tonight you should somehow be able to get some of his cells. Like a bit of his hair would do." Lina gave that some thought. Yeah that could work. A small smile spread on Lina's face. Zelgadis on the other hand was a little more concerned with something else. He fingered out the word 'mind' on Lina's arm.
"Mind? What would that have to do with anything? Oh wait. Mr. Hender you said that you could pull Zel's mind and soul into the koppi body, but Zelgadis' mind is already going on him. He's losing his memory. If this works will his mind be the same as it once was or will some of his memory be permanently lost?" Again everyone's hopeful faces darkened. Mr. Hender himself didn't seem as sure as he was before.
"I'll admit it might be a gamble, he might not remember anything that he lost. But there is still the chance that he might gain his full memory back once in physical form. That or he could just have some of his memory lost temporarily. We really wont know till we try now will we. What's better, a Mr. Zelgadis whom cannot remember some things but at least is alive or one that is dead?"
Everyone looked at each other. There was a bit of uneasiness about the whole thing but there was a unanimous agreement.
"Alright we'll go for it. Is there anything we can do right now?"
"At the moment some of you could help me prepare the apparatuses for the experiment." Mr. Hender went and got his keys and unlocked a door that lead downstairs to the library basement. Everyone followed and they were surprised to see a very large laboratory. "I used to be a science teacher as well as many other things at the school I used to teach at. That's part of the reason why I know so much about koppis. When I came back here to take over for my dad I move my lab here into the basement. I figured that it might come in handy someday. It seems that I was right." Mr. Hender then said something softly under his breath and four staffs around the lab lit up with light spells.
"Mr. Hender since Mister Zelgadis needs to enter Miss Lina's dream again in order to get the cell samples shouldn't she be put to sleep now with a sleep spell?" Amelia looked around the room and screamed when a creature jumped on her from behind.
"Popo there you are! I've been wondering where you have been." Mr. Hender said to the little creature whom had scared Amelia. It was about the size of bowling ball and it was blue and had a spiky back with a little purple and blue tail that had a little puffy ball like thing at the end. It's eyes where closed and it was smiling plus his belly was purple.
"What is that?" Everyone came around to see the blue creature which was currently floating around.
"You know I really have no idea." Mr. Hender said in a thoughtful tone. Everyone facefaulted. "He was found floating around a town somewhere lost. I've had him around here for a few months and in that time I've managed to find out that his name is Popo and that he can control the element of ice."
"Control?"
"Yeah he can make things of ice, freezing winds and other cold things appear and he can move and control them. He's a bit mischievous but all in all he's good natured and doesn't like to hurt people. Popo why don't you go back upstairs and watch over the library for me?" Mr. Hender said with a smile to the little thing.
"Pido pwapsssppl." Popo grinned larger and disappeared.
"What happened to him?"
"Oh he just disappeared and reappeared in the library. Makes me wonder if he's got some monster part of him because I don't know of anything else that can teleport like that. Funny thing is that he can't teleport if there is something touching him. Anyway what was it that you were asking me?"
"I was asking if Miss Lina should be put to sleep now with a sleep spell so that Mister Zelgadis can enter her dream."
"No we can't do that. It has to be a natural sleep, not one induced by magic. And second they have to be alone. So we'll just have to wait till night."
They started the setup until they heard a large banging sound. They rushed upstairs to find that one of the older and more fragile bookshelves had fallen on Popo whom wasn't very happy about it. When they managed to get the bookshelf off him, Popo floated around making whimpering noises. But after a little healing spell he was fine. After that little incident Mr. Hender decided that it would be safer for Popo to stay with them where they could see him. Popo sulked on one of the steps next to where Zelgadis was sitting.
"You okay there little guy?" Zelgadis though knew it was silly asked Popo. First of all he couldn't understand anything that Popo said and chances are that Popo doesn't understand humans himself. Second no one could hear him anyway let alone a little blue creature. But to Zelgadis' surprise Popo nodded his head they turned to Zelgadis and smiled.
"You can see me?"
Again Popo nods.
"Well I'll be damned. You don't by chance speak human do you?"
Popo shook his head.
"Oh well better then nothing."
So while everyone was working on the setup Zelgadis and Popo where having their own little chats even though they were a bit one sided. Mr. Hender and everyone did take their breaks to eat and stuff but no one seemed to notice Popo and Zelgadis' little chats. But Zelgadis ended his conversation with Popo when Lina was going to leave and get something to eat. It wasn't quite time for dinner yet but Lina was being forced to leave and try to get to bed early. He followed her into restaurant and watched her eat a relatively small amount of food. But Lina wasn't really that hungry. She was actually very tired due to the fact of all the thinking and working she had been doing these past few days not to mention the fact that he hadn't been sleeping well. But neither saw that there wasn't something right about her sleepiness or did they see the dark figure staring at both of them.
"Looks like something is going in our favor huh Zel? I can barely keep my eyes open." Lina yawned and went to her room where Zelgadis soon followed. She crashed on her bed and fell into immediate sleep.
Zelgadis tried to enter her dream as he had did the night before but something was wrong. A darkness surrounded Lina and her face contorted into one of silent pain.
"What's going on?! Lina!" Zelgadis yelled trying to shake her or something but his hands went right through her. He could see her screaming or at least trying to.
"Oh so concerned about her are we?" A darkly toned voice spoke.
"Who are you?" Zelgadis dared to ask voice.
"Oh you don't know?" The voice cackled. Zelgadis was getting dizzy. The voice was coming from all around him from very direction like there were many people talking all at once from all around him, yet it sounded singular like one voice.
"No I don't." Zelgadis was having trouble standing. He looked in horror as Lina did scream this time, she was in a lot of pain. "Stop it! Leave her alone."
"Oh but I can't Zelgadis. I've been denied too long of what I want." And then horror set in, Zelgadis recognized whom the voice belonged to.