Neo Dissidia Special: Happy Birthday, Terra!
The Party
In a room hidden within the Goddess's Tower, a special celebration was taking place. At this big ballroom were the Warriors of Cosmos + Locke, Celes, Setzer, and Relm (Strago had passed away, leaving Relm in Terra's custody; the other FFVI party members were unable to attend), and Cosmos herself was here to celebrate the birthday of one Ms. Terra Branford.
This would be Terra's first real Birthday since her birth date had only been discovered recently: October 18th. The date had been the day Terra was sent to Narshe by the Empire and had also been when her adventure had first began. For Terra, having been four years since that day would be turning 22.
When Neo Dissidia was formed, the worlds were put together with time differences in how long it had been since their adventures ended. For the Warrior, the Onion Knight, and Zidane: it was 1 year, for Firion, Bartz, Tidus and Yuna: 2 (technically meaning for Tidus not very long after he was brought back in FFX-2), Cecil and Kain: 5, Cloud and Tifa: 4 (so when Advent Children Complete's Secret Ending takes place), Vaan: 1 1/2, and Lightning who knows how long because of how screwed her world is at the moment.
The date had been uncovered by Cloud, Onion (Luneth, but still the Onion Knight from Dissidia, not from the DS version), Vaan, Celes, and Locke with help from the author's original OC's and now also Cosmos's assistants/butt-monkeys/associates/comic relief, Mike and Mew from the author's first works. Duane and Katarin were at Mobliz watching the other orphans while the ceremonies were taking place, having already had a smaller party with her earlier.
Terra was seated at a big table at the north side of the room, with her closest friends from her world on the left side of the table (in the order of Celes, Locke, Relm, Setzer) and her best friends from the War of the Gods (Cloud, Luneth, and Vaan in that order) on the right. Cosmos sat across the table (wanting to celebrate with them personally) with the Warrior next to her (he had no intentions of leaving her side, so Cosmos invited him over).
On a table at the east side were Lightning, Firion, Kain, Tifa, Cecil, Rosa (Cecil's wife if you didn't know), Maria (Firion's stepsister), Tidus, Yuna, Laguna (who tried to get on the table that his son was seated, but was kicked out by said son because he was getting in the way of his date with his girlfriend), and Gil, a female Red Mage that was one of the Warrior's comrades.
The Table at west end seated Bartz, Faris (his guest), Squall, Rinoa (Squall's now wife), Zidane, Queen Garnet (Zidane's new fiancé), Vivi Jr. (one of Vivi's sons; Cosmos rest his soul), Penelo (Vaan's girlfriend), Prishe, Shantotto, and Mike and Mew (who tried to get on Terra's table but failed since it was full, and didn't get on the East table because Lightning drove Mike insane and they would be likely to torment Firion for no reason other than he's there).
Terra seemed a bit uncomfortable since she wasn't exactly a big fan of crowds, but was very happy to have almost all of her friends here and had good smile on her face.
Cosmos then called for everyone attention as she then said, "It now time for the gift giving to begin. Everyone come up here and present them one at a time when I say your name. First up is Tidus and Yuna."
The couple came up and presented her with…season tickets for the Gullwings Blitzball team (Which Tidus had become Captain of following his return). "Blitzball?" Terra questioned, slightly unsure at the gift.
Yah no, because big, loud, roaring crowds are TOTALLY Terra's thing. It's not like they trigger panic attacks sometimes or even rarely trigger horrible war memories from her time in forced servitude in the Gestahlian Empire or anything (okay, I made up the symptoms mentioned in the last sentence, but the part about her not liking crowds IS a fact; I just came up with reasons why).
"Tidus thought you might like to see a Blitzball game sometime, so we got you season tickets so you come anytime this Blitzball season. If don't want to go, you can give them to friends." Yuna turned to her lover with a slightly annoyed glare, "Of course, that gift would have been great if we knew whether you even liked Blitzball or your fear of crowds."
Tidus nervously scratched the back of his head, knowing he'd be made to pay for that possible waste of gil.
"It's okay!" Terra said. She didn't want to hurt their feelings, "I might try to go to one sometime. Thank you." Terra smiled and Tidus and Yuna made way for the next batch.
Next came Vaan and Penelo; Vaan holding a decently-sized box in his hands with very big smile on his face. "We got you something AWESOME! It is really a work of ART! It is-!"
"That's enough, Vaan. Here you go." Penelo handed Terra their gift, which was a… airship model. At that, nearly everyone in the room facepalmed.
The Esperkin herself had a chuckle at it, "Thank you! This is… Setzer's Falcon, right?" Terra asked.
Setzer nodded, "I pitched in for the construction process. Also, here's my gift." He handed her a check, "It's for 1 million gil; trust me, I'm good for it."
Terra looked at him blankly, "You just got this from a bet, didn't you?"
"What can I say? Other than, I'm good at what I do."
Terra smiled and shook her head, "You never change, do you? Thank you!"
Lightning just plain got up into her face and gave her a survival knife, "Use it- to keep you safe."
Terra was stunned by this, "O-okay. Thank you?"
Lightning nodded and walked back. Next came Bartz, Zidane, and Squall, "We got you this AWESOME Chocobo we found!" Bartz explained excitedly.
"By that, he means he took us on a wild goose chase for some rare species of Chocobo until we finally found it." Squall elaborated, clearly irritated by the memory of what the man-child put them through.
Cosmos realized what that might mean, "You-you put it in somewhere in the tower, didn't you?"
Squall and Zidane turned to their friend with apprehensive looks on their faces, "Please tell me you didn't" Squall said, not wanting to face the consequences if that was the case.
Just as he said that, a shiny Silver Chocobo burst into the room, looking around for some food.
"Damn it, Bartz!", Squall sweared.
"Squall!" Both Terra and Rinoa chided, "Don't say that in front of the children!"
Cosmos had closed her eyes, then said, "It seems the Chocobo made a mess of my tower. Realize that you three are going to have to clean up for it."
The former Thief and the Lion glared daggers at the Mime, who tried to changed the subject by explaining, "Silver Chocobos can do everything Gold Chocobos can, and their feather coats are all sparkly and shiny."
"So they're like the Twilight version of them?" Cloud snarked.
"More like the Shiny Pokémon version." Mike mused. They all gave him confused looks (except Mew), "What? It makes sense in context!"
"Right…"
Meanwhile, the Chocobo and Terra were getting off to a great start. The Chocobo had immediately warmed up to her and was already letting her pet its beak, "You're a good girl, aren't you? What should we call you?"
"How do know it's a girl?" Luneth asked.
"I can just tell. I've always a sort of empathy with animals. Now, what should we name you… how about Stardust?"
"Taken by the Unknowing Herald." Said Mew.
"Coco?"
"Also taken." Faris responded.
"Chocolina?"
"Again, taken." Lightning commented.
"Okay then…how about Silverette?"
"That'll work." Mew agreed.
"Alright then, Silverette it is. Good thing we have stables at Mobliz."
"Good, Now then, Cloud, Luneth, you're up." Cosmos said, wanting to get things moving along.
"Okay, I just want to note this was Cloud's idea. He helped me come up with the gift and I helped get it. Here you go!" Luneth motioned to Cloud, who handed Terra one of her favorite things in the whole-wide-world.
A baby Moogle.
"Aaaaaaawwww! It's so cute!" Terra eagerly took the sleeping small creature into her arms lovingly and began fluffing its fur. She then gave it to Cosmos to hold it for a moment so she give the Cloud and Luneth a big hug. "Thank so much! All of you! You're best friends I could ever ask for!"
"I wouldn't thank us yet." Cosmos interjected, "You still haven't been given your last gift."
She then handed Terra a piece of paper which she then read aloud, "This document, upon delivery to its proper recipient, will give the birthday girl one all expense paid date with…" Terra blush upon reading these next words, "C-Cloud Strife…"
"Wait, what!" Cloud looked at the remaining Warriors, Locke, and Celes, who each gave the two a mischievous grinned.
Celes explained, "You need get out more, Terra, and we figured that getting you on a date would be a good remedy for that. Cecil's providing the funds, I'm providing you Opera tickets to Draco and Maria, where I'm reprising my role as Maria."
"Wait, what?" Maria asked, a bit confused
"Different Maria." Firion answered.
"Right..."
"Still can't believe Setzer actually managed to get the real Maria in the end willingly as his wife." Locke commented.
Tifa joined in, "The rest of us will be helping you two every step in the way."
"Et tu, Tifa?" Cloud asked, looking at his childhood friend/Ex-girlfriend with a betrayed look on his face.
Meanwhile, Terra was fretting to herself, having never been on a real date before and filled with anxiety at the prospect. 'I can believe I'm actually going to go on real date. And with Cloud too! This seems almost too surreal…"
"Terra?" Luneth asked, snapping her out of that train of thought.
"Yes?"
"If Cloud ends up hurting you in any way, can I beat the crap out of him?"
Terra bent down to his level and said, "I doubt he'd ever do something that. Cloud's one of my best friends, just like you. But yes, if he does, I give you full permission to do so."
Luneth smiled. One way or another, he would be happy with the outcome.
"When is that date again?" Terra asked.
"In three days. Make sure to have fun." Cosmos answered, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Michael tapped Mew's head to his/her attention and whispered, "What about our gift?"
"We'll give it to her later. Besides, Cosmos wouldn't be happy if she found out what it is." Mew whispered back.
Author's note: Edited 12/2/2012. This will only be 2 or 3 more parts. This will likely be on hiatus till next year, but after this story recently got another review, perhaps...
