"The tree of three trunks," Gippal said, looking up at the seemingly endless expanse of forest. He was still a bit disoriented from having just re-emerged from the dress sphere after another pointless incident with Rikku. The Gullwings, at least, were taking care of the physical problems caused by the virus and keeping people from entering the Macalania area. That was helpful, Gippal supposed.
"Might as well start looking," Baralai added, starting down the pathway through the woods.
They walked for a few minutes, and Gippal wound his way through the brush looking off the path for the tree. Something that important wouldn't be right on the pathway, would it? He found that he had to climb up into the trees and swing from branch to branch at times since the brush was so thick. The other two laughed and made monkey jokes, which, oddly enough, Gippal wasn't taking so much offense to anymore. Maybe it was because of all the time he had spent as a monkey.
Ghiki...
The voice was so soft and distant that it confused Gippal. Normally Rikku was louder than that. It was, however, just enough to startle Gippal into fall off the branch he was currently sitting on.
"Damnit, Rikku, not now," Gippal muttered as he picked himself up out of the leaves.
"Did you guys hear that?" Baralai asked, looking around in mild confusion.
Gippal opened his mouth and started to speak, "I just fell out of a tree--"
"Not that," Baralai replied, looking at Nooj now. "Did you hear it?"
Nooj simply nodded.
"What was it?" Gippal pulled himself out of the underbrush completely, returning to the path that the other two stood on.
"Someone calling 'Kogoro'," Baralai responded nonchalantly, as though everyone would have heard it.
"That's not what I heard," Nooj said flatly, turning and looking oddly at Baralai.
Gippal smirked. "Let me guess; you heard someone calling 'Flurry', right?"
Nooj blinked. "How'd you know?"
"I didn't," Gippal replied, "but I know I heard someone calling 'Ghiki'. It seems the girls are calling us."
"Is that what it is?" Baralai didn't look so convinced, but he reached into the pouch and removed the dress sphere covered in the white cloth. "They do have bad timing, don't they?--"
"Wait," Nooj said, and it only then occurred to Gippal that the man had been moving away from him. "Look at this."
Gippal instantly bounded over to Nooj, and Baralai followed.
There is was. A tree with three trunks, split from the bottom and twining around each other in an eccentric pattern. It was hunched over and shriveled, looking older than most of the other trees in the forest, but it definitely was still alive and also had three trunks.
"Think that's it?" Gippal reached out and ran his fingers along the bark.
GHIKI.
"Whoa!" Gippal jumped back, surprised.
"Guys," came Baralai's unsure voice.
The other two turned to him. The dress sphere was glowing brightly in his hands and pulsating with a white light so strong that Gippal had to shield his eye.
"You two ready to find out what this is all about?" Nooj asked as he looked down at Gippal.
"Hell yeah," Gippal replied, hauling himself to his feet. The three of them huddled around the sphere, squinting their eyes to be able to see past the brilliant light. "Let's do it," he finished, positioning one palm above the sphere while he held Baralai's elbow with the other. He felt Nooj's mechanical hand gripping his own elbow, and felt the light grazing of Nooj's fingers on his own.
Baralai looked up at the other two and nodded, placing his palm similarly to the other two with their fingers all interlocked. He smiled and inhaled deeply, then guided their hands downward.
Three palms simultaneously connected with the sphere, and the three men disappeared.
------
------
"Watch him."
"Where are you going?"
"To scout the area. Make sure he's warm."
"Don't go too far."
Gippal felt very, very cold, but very warm at the same time. He realized he was shivering. The last thing he remembered was a tree... and the sphere... and locking hands with the guys and touching the Totem Sphere.
And after that, there was nothing but cold.
He felt hands in his hair, and then something wrap around him. He had touched the sphere... so did that mean he had been transported to Rikku? Was this Rikku cuddling him again? No... no, it didn't feel like that. And the voices didn't match up.
He smelled something burning.
Nooj and Baralai had been there. Were they still here? Had those voices belonged to the two of them? And why the hell was it so cold?
"Hey, you coming around?"
Gippal blinked, looking up. His vision was strangely blurry, like half of his vision was being obstructed, and he shook his head dizzily. "...'Lai?"
"Hey," Baralai said, and Gippal realized that he was wrapped up in Baralai's arms, "good to see you awake."
"What... happened?"
"We're not sure," Baralai replied with a soft smile, running his fingers along Gippal's eyepatch at his forehead, "but you've been unconscious since we got here... about ten hours ago or so."
"Got... here?" Gippal was confused, and his eyes were still blurry. "Where are we?"
"We can't figure it out," Baralai explained, sighing softly and shifting his body against Gippal's. "A forest of some sort, but not the one in Kilika. We're knee-deep in snow and the temperature is below freezing. Nooj is scouting the area right now, but niether of us recognize it."
"So that's why it's so cold..." Gippal shifted uncomfortably. "Why are you holding me?"
"You were turning blue," Baralai said matter-of-factly. "Shivering, shaking, freezing. You weren't waking up. We were worried, so we're doing our best to keep you warm."
"Desert boys," came another voice -- Nooj's. "Need to watch out for them in the low temperature. Though it's good to see you awake, Gippal."
"Ugh," Gippal replied wholeheartedly, nuzzling his nose back into Baralai's shoulder. "I hate the cold. And I can't see straight."
Baralai's form stiffened slightly around Gippal. "Do you think--?"
"It's possible. Check and see," Nooj replied.
Gippal was confused. "What's possible?"
"You might have your eye back," Nooj answered flatly.
That was officially the most ridiculous thing Gippal had heard in years. "My eye back? Man, it's been gone for five years..."
"Weirder things have happened," Baralai said with an odd smirk on his face. "Can we have a look?"
Gippal was increasingly aware of Baralai's fingers running along the edge of his eyepatch. Finally, he sighed. "Okay, go ahead, it's ugly though -- don't blame me if you have nightmares."
Baralai's soft fingers pressed lightly against Gippal's skin, pushing the eyepatch back over the ridge of Gippal's right eye. Gippal, of course, closed his eyes firmly to try to hide from the prying stares of his two closest friends.
That was, until he heard a soft gasp from Baralai, followed by, "Gippal... open your eyes."
Eyes?
Gippal did as he was told. He felt strange, his vision was odd... but it focused. His sight was still a little blurry from disuse, but the fact was that he was seeing now, and seeing with depth.
He had two eyes.
"Two handsome green eyes," Baralai assured him.
"How is this possible?" Gippal wondered out loud.
"We're not sure of that either," Baralai answered, but pulled back the hood of the robe he was wearing. Gippal's eyes widened -- Baralai's normally shock-white hair seemed to be gone now, replaced by a full head of dark brown, almost black hair. It completely changed Lai's appearance, making his chocolate brown eyes even more striking against his olive skin. "But probably the same thing that caused this."
"And this," Nooj said, sitting down between them and what appeared to be a crackling fire. The first stunning thing was that Nooj was sitting on the ground. The second was that he had gotten there rather nimbly. Of course, it made sense when Gippal forced his eyes to focus and he saw that Nooj, in fact, had an entirely human body. The machina arm and leg were gone, replaced with two completely human limbs with full joint capabilities.
"Nooj," Gippal mouthed, sitting up and sliding over in the snow to the other man. "That's... you have... how?"
"What Lai said," Nooj replied, "we're not sure. As far as I can tell, we were all knocked unconscious as soon as the sphere dropped us. Lai and I woke up at about the same time, and just found ourselves... like this."
"All the marks on our bodies have been erased," Baralai said, looking at Gippal expectantly. "Have any scars? Check them."
"I... there's one..." Gippal looked down, and then suddenly realized that he was curled up under Baralai's New Yevon robe. That was unnerving. He reached underneath it and pulled aside the material of his shirt under his shoulder armor. "I've got quite a few, but this is the big one--"
Gippal stared at his skin. Not only were goosebumps already developing from being exposed to the freezing cold air, but there was supposed to be a football shaped scar there, on his shoulder. From a bullet. From when Nooj shot him.
There was supposed to be a scar there.
Gippal swallowed, choking on his words. "It's... it's gone." He pulled the material of his shirt back up -- he was getting cold -- and immediately pulled his gloves off his hands. The cuts and scars from all those years working with machina that lined his hands... they were gone too.
Gippal looked up and met Baralai's gaze across the snow.
Baralai smiled. "Past imperfections..."
Gippal looked over at Nooj, who, strangely, was also smiling as he added, "...erased."