"Yes!" Garland exclaimed, fists to the sky in a victorious pose. "Centuries of waiting and effort have paid off! All who would stand in my way are gone! I have fulfilled my purpose in life!"
Those of you wondering why a crazy old man like Garland would be screaming such words to no one in particular will not be kept in the dark for much longer.
Garland, being the crazy old man he was, had come into this unusually cheerful mood earlier that morning as he sat down to breakfast, bacon and eggs as a matter of fact. He had, completely by accident, looked out the window of his castle, Pandemonium. The insane geezer saw, to his own disbelief, that the blue pillar of light, which had stood erect in the city of Bran Bal for so long, had turned a shade of red.
Garland's mission in life had been completed. Gaia was finally turning into Terra. Unable to hold his excitement in any longer, the old man gleefully galloped down the stairs to proclaim his wonderful news to his genomes.
"Hey you soulless monkeys! Gaia is turning into Terra! Your mission in life will soon be fulfilled too! Everyone let us cheer together! Hip hip hooray!" So enthused was the mentally unstable senior citizen that he didn't even notice the blank stares he received from said "soulless monkeys." After all, they had no souls, how would they possess the capacity to give a heartfelt cheer?
Deciding he no longer had time for a pep rally, the senile old fellow decided to run to the red–formerly blue–pillar of light. He had to be present for the grand event himself.
No less than 15 minutes later, Garland was sitting next to the lake (home of the pillar of light) with a bowl of popcorn he had forced one of his genomes to cook up for him. He sat for another 15 minutes before he ran out of popcorn and "asked" another genome to make some more. Finally, 15 bowls of popcorn later, the elderly man with an intense feeling of euphoria finally noticed the planet visible through the light pillar shift in shape.
"This is the moment I've been waiting for, for a good 500 years at least!" he bellowed joyously. "Mikoto, I need my medicine!" he sent his right-hand genome, Mikoto off, and then went back to observing the brilliant show of light and color. After awhile he turned to another random genome and posed a question.
"How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? This has been bothering me for some time now, look into it for me." The said genome left to do his master's bidding. Garland then turned back to the beautiful light.
Mikoto, back from her mission, watched the shape forming in the light before turning to her creator with a confused expression on her face. "Master, forgive me for questioning you, but why is Gaia morphing into something that isn't remotely planet-shaped?"
She received no reply. However, the question was forgotten as a human-like figure burst from the lake. The pillar of light simultaneously vanished, never to be seen again.
The being that emerged from the medium sized, nonmoving, body of water gazed around at her surroundings dazedly. She was a tall well-built woman in red armor with teal-green hair pulled atop her head in a high ponytail. She scanned the faces of the crowd of blond, monkey-tailed creatures, before her eyes settled upon Garland.
"Um, excuse me," she said. "Might you be able to tell me where I am for I haven't the foggiest?"
"Master, wasn't Gaia supposed to be assimilated by Terra? So why did Gaia turn into a woman?"
"Relax, my loyal vassal. It will all become clear soon enough," Garland replied to Mikoto's question. "Now, my dear," he drooled lecherously at the strange woman. "You are in the city of Bran Bal on the planet of Terra."
The woman, weary of the way she was being stared at, but nonetheless wanting to be polite, said to the man, "Well, that is funny, my name is Terra as well. Anyway, I'm searching for a man named Locke, have you seen him?"
Mikoto suddenly understood. Gaia wasn't supposed to be assimilated by the planet Terra, it was supposed to turn into this woman named Terra. It was all so clear, why hadn't she seen it before? And who was this Locke? Oh well, doesn't matter. Noting the way her master gazed at the woman, she decided it was best to usher the innocent genomes away, to give the two non-genomes some alone time.
"All right everybody, come, off to bed with you all. It has been a big day." At that, Mikoto did usher off the innocent genomes to give Terra and Garland some alone time–unfortunately for Garland. For Terra, disliking the way she was being ogled at, along with the fact that no one bothered to answer her question, waited until the little ones were absent before morphing into her Esper form and finishing off the despicable old man.
Thus, Terra was left in complete control of Terra, and she sent her genome army to invade and conquer numerous planets before her death at the ripe old age of 2005.
Somewhere, on a little planet called Gaia (which was inside of a woman named Terra), in the luxurious city of Lindblum, an old man named Locke serenely drank his coffee, all the while pondering what had happened to his old friend, Terra.