As promised, here is the third to last chapter of this story. It certainly will not be pleasant, but it must still be posted, to set up many more future events in the applicable timeline or timelines related to this series, in any case. And to further illustrate the natures of those fighting for the Negaverse, especially those who are working to take over as much of Earth as possible in it or them, in this particular time period, for sure.
With no further ado, then, let's get back to the story. I'll say more later, no doubt, but not just yet, of course, folks. TUS out.
Rainbow Garden In The Imperial Palace
Cuzco, Peru, Earth
February 27, 987 - March 1, 987
Meanwhile, as the Negaversers were trying to gain the necessary strength to push the Peruvians and their allies out of the rest of South America, Mara and at least a dozen or so other people were spending time with each other in the Rainbow Garden. Also in the garden with her were Serena and the rest of the Moon Kingdom Princesses who were currently with Queen Serenity and her cats, as well as Sylvia. And seven of her fellow Monitors were there, as were the Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, and the Crown Princess.
They were all sitting near each other in that garden whenever possible. And Mara was conversing with all of them, but mainly with her parents and her grandparents, for the night before, she'd had a very disturbing dream or two about their current situation.
At the current time, she was discussing those dreams at considerable length with all of her present companions. Especially with her grandparents, for much of that dream, or much of both dreams, had to deal with them, mainly with them both at the same time.
Mara was currently asking the Emperor not to go to the front with her father the Crown Prince, and leave his wife the Empress and his son's wife the Crown Princess behind in Cuzco. She was asking, "Grandfather, why do you and Father have to go to the front in the next few days? If you both go to the front, how are you two going to protect Grandmother and Mother?"
"Mara, I realize that you want us to stay behind. But our presences are going to be needed at the front, so that we can buy more time for at least some of you to evacuate what's left of our Empire, I think."
"But I really don't think that our Allied lines will hold much more than another day or two against our enemies, Grandpa."
"Maybe so, but your Grandma and I are now quite old. True, we may still have a few good years of life left in us. But we've never been people to run when adversity comes to our Empire. We may only have a few days before they're able to move toward Cuzco again, Mara. But if that's the case, so be it. We'd rather buy you youngsters time to escape from here, if at all possible. And Grandma, the Crown Prince, and the Crown Princess all agree with my thoughts on this particular matter. We are all ready to possibly go to the Celestial City. Your parents didn't tell you this, Mara, but I will. Your parents are going to die within a few days or weeks, at most. They'll be killed in battle. Or they'll be poisoned by people who are posing as royal bakers. As will I and your Grandma. We've all experienced visions too about such things. But we agreed not to tell you all this for a while, for the obvious reasons."
"But you could have told us all this right after you had these visions, Grandpa."
"Maybe so, Mara. But we didn't fully understand those visions until late last night. And that's why we didn't tell you of them until just now, Mara. Do you want to know why we sent away all your siblings that we could find, to hide underground for at least a little while?"
"I suppose, Grandpa."
"We sent them away just in case things would happen as we thought they might possibly happen, no matter what we did. We haven't sent you all away yet, for we need you here. You'll be the future leader of our nation, God willing, Mara. At least for a time, anyway. You'll need to make sure that our Imperial Palace here doesn't fall into enemy hands, if you can all possibly do that. We'll be leaving you and your friends behind here in no more than a day or two. We won't want to go, of course. But from the way things look right now, Mara, our Empire will fall, and you all will need to do what you can to make sure that this Palace of ours, at least, doesn't fall into our foes' hands. In the Hall of Memories, and in the Hall of Messengers, there'll be certain panels that you ladies will have to access. Half of you are to be in the Hall of Memories, and half of you are to be in the Hall of Messengers. I've told you Monitors all the necessary things that have to be done and said by you and others with you, so that you can try your very hardest to make sure that our foes never gain sufficient enough control of this Palace, at least. And I've done it at least once for each of you Monitors."
"How many Monitors do we have left at our disposal?"
"About a thousand, at most, I think, Mara. Why?"
"Because, Grandpa, I want to know how many of them we might be able to save if they're on the grounds of this Palace, at the very least, if not other Palaces of ours as well."
"Not many, if any at all, Mara. I believe the only Monitors that'll survive here easily enough, for a long enough period of time, will be those Monitors who are in either of your groups elsewhere in the Palace."
"Mother, I'm scared here."
"Maybe so, Mara, but as your Grandpa's saying here, we have very little time left to us, apparently, and we have to do what we can to protect you all, no matter what we might have to do in order to possibly do that. God willing, of course. I'll miss our chats, Mara, and I'll miss your stories, but it can't be avoided. My time on Earth's very short, and I expect to see God within the next week or two, at the very latest, if at all possible, Mara."
"But I don't want you all to go."
"When God sees fit to call us home, then He'll call us home, even if we might prefer otherwise, Mara. Listen, Mara. Unless God chooses otherwise for a particular person, all of us will eventually die. We may not like it. But as long as we have a chance to live in God's Universe, we should do what we can to live it to the fullest, and in a way that glorifies Him, His Son, and the Holy Spirit, if possible. That way, we may all eventually make it to the Celestial City for the rest of eternity yet to come. Now I don't know about all of the rest of you. But I'd rather be in the Celestial City, than to be in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone forever if I had a choice in the matter. I've made my choice already in the matter, and so have your father and all of your grandparents. I don't know how many of you have also made your eternal choice in a matter like this. But I hope that you have enough time to make the right choice, if you haven't already made it by now."
"Aunt Voriskana, what of our relatives and friends that we've not seen for a while?"
"As far as we know, Ginkya, they're all quite safe from our enemies. Of course, I could be wrong. Though I hope I'm not."
"Then my mother and siblings, at least, should be safe?"
"I don't know for sure, Ginkya. I really don't know, and I wish I did. But God chose not to tell us if she's safe, at least for the time being, right now."
"And my family, Aunt Voriskana?" asked Yazmis.
"The same, Yazmis."
All the other Monitors present essentially asked Crown Princess Voriskana the same thing. Though not always with the same words, of course. And she said basically the same things to each of them, in turn, when the need arose for her to do so.
Prakelena asked Serenity, "Do you have the necessary coordinates for a large enough area on the Moon to relocate this Imperial Palace to, if at all possible, Queen Serenity?"
"I suppose so. I suppose that we could maybe try to teleport it, everyone, and everything in it, to somewhere near our city of Crescent, Empress Prakelena."
"And if you can, what might it take?"
"The help of as many of your Monitors as possible, Empress Prakelena."
"Well, you all know what my husband the Emperor has just said in that regard, Queen Serenity. We may not be able to spare you many more Monitors than the Monitors that are now with us all here, if any more at all. But if you can possibly have their lockets and Crystals available to you, somehow you might be able to use them when you try to keep this Palace, at least, of ours out of the evil hands of our Negaverse foes. All of the Negaversers apparently haven't yet realized that Master Hidden Pouch Back has been able to recover many, if not all, of our fallen Monitors' lockets and Crystals and bring them back here to us, so that we can keep them out of their hands, or whatever limbs they might have that function just like hands do for us."
"And if he has, then where have you been keeping them, Empress?"
"Mainly in the Hall of Memories or in the Hall of Messengers, whenever possible, Queen Serenity."
"I see, Empress. Crown Prince Ritolepano, will we likely also need to have control of all your crowns or tiaras, by any chance at all, to somehow manage to keep the Negaversers from gaining sufficient enough control over this Palace and its grounds?"
"I think so, Queen Serenity. But you most likely won't be able to gain control of them until we're dead, at the very earliest, as far as I know here."
"Then how are we going to be able to gain control of them, Crown Prince Ritolepano?"
"When we each feel we're about to cross the river, we'll each raise our hands, and some condors will see our hands up, even through walls and doors, and they'll come to save our tiaras or crowns, if nobody else we love well enough in our lives is sufficiently near us then. They'll snatch our crowns and tiaras off our heads somehow. And no matter what the cost might be to any or all of them, they'll somehow manage to get those crowns and tiaras to you, and they'll somehow keep them away from our foes. An invisible series of shields will form around them, once they've taken our headgear off each of our heads, and those shields will stay around them as long as possible, while they're bringing those things to you. Even if they come under attack from our foes as well. When you see them flying toward you all, you're all to prepare to teleport the crowns and tiaras, at least, if you can't also do the same for any or all of those condors, to wherever you all might be. But in no case at all, if possible, are you to somehow reveal your position to our foes. Even if you must just teleport the crowns and tiaras, and leave our condors behind, ladies. The condors are expendable, if the need arises. But you all and our pieces of headgear are not. And the same thing is true for all the lockets and Crystals that you can keep out of our foes' hands, Queen Serenity."
"Understood. Girls, do you have any other questions you want to ask the Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, and/or the Crown Princess?"
Serena asked, "How big is this palace, by any chance, Emperor?"
"Maybe not as large as the palaces that you might be used to back on the Moon, but it's still fairly large, I think. At least compared to other palaces I've seen before in my life, that is, Moon Princess Serena."
Destiny asked, "If we're able to bring it to the Moon, how might we be able to return it to here, if it's at all possible to do that?"
"I think that maybe your mother might use it to hold several of the people that she's somehow able to save from your Moon Kingdom, Princess Destiny. And then send it back to here, when she sacrifices your Moon Kingdom to save as many of you as she can."
"I understand, Emperor. Though I don't yet see how it'll be possible for her to do just as you're obviously suggesting here, if I ever will, Emperor Isumelico."
"I'm sure that she'll find a way, if it's at all possible. If nothing else, those of our people who survive easily enough might be able to recreate it eventually. Sure, it might not be the exact same Imperial Palace, Princess Destiny, that this one is. But I suspect that if she can't return this one to Earth, our people might be able to build a new Imperial Palace for our people eventually."
"Perhaps you're right, Emperor. Only God for sure knows what's ever going to happen in the future. Unless He chooses to reveal His plans for the future to any of His many creatures. Including, of course, humans or humanoids just like us, Emperor."
Each of the other Princesses who weren't actually from Peru asked at least one question of one or more of the four oldest Peruvian royals who were still present with them in the garden, if not more than one. And each of those four royals answered those questions to the best of their respective abilities to do just that, somehow. No matter what those questions might be, of course, they answered each of those questions to the best of their respective abilities to do just that.
Eventually, Serenity thought that all her girls had asked enough questions of their Peruvian friends. And she soon left the garden with all of her girls, even if they weren't all actually her girls biologically. She soon had them each go to their respective chambers and gather all their things up as quickly as they could. She split up her girls into two teams. With the eventual help of Mara and her fellow Monitors, of course. Half of them would be going with Ginkya's group to the Hall of Messengers, while the other half of them would be going with Serenity and Mara to the Hall of Memories. Naturally, Destiny and Bethany would stay together, of course, just in case they weren't going to be able to transform into their respective Scout states.
When they weren't sleeping or doing anything else at all, like training, for instance, everyone was putting all their things in the proper area of the Imperial Palace. No matter what those things were, they were often putting them in either of the two aforementioned Halls in the Imperial Palace. And they were all quite earnestly doing this for all the obvious reasons, of course. They were especially intent on trying to make sure that as many of the things that could be moved elsewhere in the palace were moved to either of those two areas, if not to both of them, as well. Mara and her fellow Monitors most especially, for the simple fact that they were Peruvians, quite naturally.
About ten hours after everyone moved as many things to those parts of the Imperial Palace's grounds as they could, Mara's grandparents and her parents left the area of the Imperial Palace behind, if they'd not already done so, as they'd earlier planned to do. Of course, Mara and her cousins didn't really want them to go, but they still let them leave the area of the Imperial Palace, if they'd not already done so. Her father and grandfather joined their people about a mile or two away from the parts of the Imperial Palace nearest the front, and by the time that they joined their people there, Mara's mother and grandmother had begun to die as they'd predicted they would, due to poisoning of their food. Mara's mother succumbed to the poison seconds after the Empress had, and minutes after the Emperor and Crown Prince had just been killed by their Negaverser opponents. Voriskana saw her husband and his parents just ahead of her, as they began heading to the Celestial City at least a few seconds before she did the same. Seconds after she did so, she then succumbed. When Mara realized that she'd done so, she and Serenity ordered both their assembled teams to go to the necessary parts of the Imperial Palace just as quickly as they could, if they weren't already there waiting for their teams' leaders. Mara couldn't take off her grandmother and mother's tiaras, for they were still quite firmly on their heads. So she reluctantly left them behind on their heads, and hoped that they could both be brought to the necessary parts of the Imperial Palace before it was too late to keep them out of the hands of their Negaverser foes.
No more than about five or so minutes before it would've probably been too late for everyone to get to their assigned parts of the Imperial Palace somehow, everyone eventually checked in with Mara and Serenity. And they prepared for the hopeful transfer of the Imperial Palace to the Moon from the Cuzco area of Earth, of course. Seconds before it'd have been too late, then, for them to control of all of the needed headgear, they were brought to either of the already-named Halls, if not both of them, by condors. When that was done sufficiently well, and other condors had brought as many lockets and/or Crystals as they could to the teams, if not all of the needed lockets and/or Crystals to the teams, both teams began the required process to quite hopefully transfer the Imperial Palace to the area of Crescent on the Moon. After they'd done all that they could in that very process, at least for the time being, they all waited to see if that process would allow them to arrive on the Moon inside the Imperial Palace easily enough, and safely enough. This, of course, was for all the obvious reasons.
The Imperial Palace soon began rising into the sky. And it also began disappearing completely, even with all the surviving Monitors and the Scouts inside it at the same time. The Negaversers who saw it rising and disappearing from their sight at the same time naturally tried to keep it from doing either or both of those things, of course. But they weren't able to do that easily enough. As soon as they got within two hundred yards of the Imperial Palace's location, the Imperial Palace's defense systems, which were currently being boosted in their strengths by all the lockets and Crystals that were plugged into those defense systems for the Imperial Palace, blasted them all. They had no real chance to withstand the counter-attacks of the Imperial Palace's defense systems before the Imperial Palace completely de-materialized about 40,000 or so feet above the surrounding ground area. The Imperial Palace had gone straight up in the sky, once it'd left the ground area around it. And it hadn't gone in any other direction at all as it rose into the sky above, and proceeded to de-materialize itself.
The Imperial Palace soon became a comet-like flash of light, as did everyone who was, and everything that was, now within its now-vanished walls. So it stayed, as did everything and everyone still inside it, at least until it had orbited Earth at least once in a north polar orbit, then had done the exact same thing for the Moon. Several orbits later, at most, the Imperial Palace began changing its direction, at least gradually, if it'd not already done so, so that it could eventually land in the area of Crescent on the Moon when the time was right for it to do just that. Time continued to pass, at least until the Imperial Palace was about to start reappearing again elsewhere in the Terran solar system. A minute before it was about to start reappearing again there, the flash of light locked its likely final destination on the Crescent area of the Moon, a short distance away from the Double Earth Palace there, as a matter of fact. About twenty or so seconds later, the destination coordinates were accepted by the Moon's lunar defense systems. And those defense systems established at least two possible landing corridors for the Imperial Palace, just a few seconds before the Imperial Palace would begin appearing in the nearby lunar skies. One was the primary one, of course, while the other or others were backup corridors, just in case the primary one could not be used for any reason whatsoever at all.
Then the Imperial Palace began reappearing right on schedule, and so did everyone and everything that was still within its own walls. It streaked across the nearby skies toward the chosen landing zone, as its shields absorbed most, if not all, of the obvious stresses relating to its current entrance into the Moon's own atmosphere. When it was about five hundred feet away and about a thousand feet above the surrounding ground terrain, in the Crescent area of the Moon, the Imperial Palace had completely reappeared, as was everyone and everything else still within its own walls. Then the Palace soon landed in the chosen landing zone near the Double Earth Palace of Crescent on the Moon. The obvious forces caused by the landing were still somewhat strong, of course, but they weren't too strong to shake up everyone and everything still within the Palace's walls.
As a matter of fact, nothing and nobody that was still within the Palace's walls when it landed near the Double Earth Palace of Crescent was damaged beyond hope of total repair, nor were they hurt in permanent enough ways. Which made everyone still within the walls of the Imperial Palace quite happy indeed, when they all learned that, of course. Especially the Monitors and Serenity, for all the obvious enough reasons.
Even all the condors that'd managed to get the necessary lockets, Crystals, crowns, and tiaras to both Mara and Ginkya's teams made it safely within the walls. Supposing, of course, they weren't shot down or otherwise killed first by their Negaverse enemies. And those surviving condors were quite naturally led by Master Hidden Pouch Back, as both teams' members had quite obviously hoped when they'd seen the condors heading right to them as quickly as they could get there. If they'd gotten within the Imperial Palace's shields easily enough, and hadn't been killed in the process either by the Negaversers or the Palace's defense systems, they all made it within the walls of the Palace safely enough. No matter what, even if they were quite hurt, they still made it safely enough inside those walls if they weren't killed either by the Negaversers or the Palace's very own defense systems. Master Hidden Pouch Back had led many, if not all, of them to a place of safety within the walls of the Palace by following one of only two rather space-related entry/exit corridors to that very place of safety. And those two corridors were established by Mara and Ginkya's teams as their situation required them to do during the battle that they'd just escaped from. He and another condor had each led many members of their very own group of condors to that place of safety, simply by using the necessary corridors at least one time apiece, if not more. And no condors were lost, if they stayed within either or both of those corridors at all times, once they'd been established by the two teams then in the Imperial Palace's Hall of Memories or the Hall of Messengers.
After everyone who was still within the walls of the Palace saw that everyone and everything had made it through their journey from Earth to the Moon easily and safely enough, they were quite naturally glad about that fact. Of course, their gladness about such a fact was also quite tempered by the simple fact that many Peruvians had been lost at the very same time, or not long before, as they were themselves leaving Earth in the Imperial Palace from Cuzco in the now-fallen Peruvian Empire.
Whether those Peruvians were civilians or not, they'd still obviously been lost in any number of ways, especially because of the Negaversers' new presence on Earth's South American continental landmass. And because of that, all the survivors of that battle in the Cuzco area of Peru were quite sad that more of their people hadn't also survived it.
Of course, for as long as each of those survivors somehow survived in God's own Universe, they'd all never forgive and/or forget what all of the aforementioned Negaversers had just done to the Peruvian Empire and its people, as well as to anyone else who'd just opposed them in the area of Earth that was now in Negaverse control. Especially those that'd been from that very same part of Earth, of course, as another human, or another humanoid, being might ever conceivably expect from people who were actually of Earth origin.
Even if they somehow managed to survive after the end of the Moon Kingdom's Silver Millennium, they'd never totally forgive and/or forget what the evil beings from the Negaverse had just done to the Peruvian Empire of their current time period. And even if they managed to somehow survive at least into the 20th or 21st Centuries, if not at least into the 30th Century, they'd still never forgive and/or forget what the Negaverse had just done to the Peruvian Empire of the late 10th Century. Or at least not as long as they'd not yet made it to the Celestial City forever, if they'd ever do that eventually in any or all of their lives, somehow, they'd never forgive and/or forget the South American War they'd just escaped from with their very own lives, and probably not much more than that in each of them.
Eventually, then, all the survivors that'd been transferred to the Moon from the Cuzco area of Earth left either the Hall of Memories or the Hall of Messengers in the Imperial Palace, of course. Before they did so, they all gathered up their things again. When that was done, they eventually left the necessary parts of the Palace.
Before too much longer, then, they all found some horses they'd forgotten about several days before. They'd all forgotten about them while they'd each been gathering up all the required items and they'd each been bringing them to either of the already-named Halls in the Palace. They'd forgotten about all of the horses hours before Mara's now-dead parents and grandparents had each left their mortal bodies behind in the Cuzco area of Peru on Earth. Fortunately enough for the horses, though, they all had sufficient enough amounts of both food, water, shelter, and bedding for at least as long as everyone else had just forgotten about them. And because of that, all of those horses actually made it safely to the Moon with no problems at all whatsoever for any of them. Even while they were all inside the Palace's comet-like flash of light for a certain still-unknown length of time.
As Mara and Serenity had been running to the necessary Halls in the Palace, they also didn't see that her mother and her grandmother's bodies were quickly sent elsewhere, so that they were temporarily, if not permanently, next to their spouses, before all four bodies were then just as quickly transported to the traditional burial locations of her family's members quite a distance from the Cuzco area of Peru. They didn't see this all take place, simply because they were essentially running for their lives, perhaps, of course. And they didn't have a lot of time to kill before they'd need to be in the proper places elsewhere in the Palace. Those four bodies were eventually buried by God. But they didn't yet know that, if they ever would, in each of their lives. In the case of Serenity, at least, if not the rest of them as well, they'd most likely never know that.
They'd all grieve for a time, of course, if not forever. But eventually, they'd have to adjust to the loss of many, if not all, of their lives' various friends and relatives, if they ever wanted to make the Negaverse somehow pay for the things they'd just done to their people. Especially the last surviving Monitors who were still being led by the new yet-uncrowned Empress Mara Zimak, for all the obvious reasons.
Everybody soon found a horse for themselves, and they all prepared to ride it or them. Even if they'd have to ride it or them while they were in any of their own respective Scout states. Meaning, of course, at least Destiny and Bethany, if not anyone else as well who was still on the grounds of the now-transplanted Imperial Palace of Peru. When Queen Serenity was sure that all her current companions were quite safely and quite securely on each of their horses, even Luna and Artemis, she eventually led them out of the nearest gate of the Imperial Palace. And she led all her companions out of that Palace, so that everybody would know that she and her Scouts were now on the Moon once again.
But before she did so, she and her surviving Peruvian friends first chose to release all of the condors that'd just helped them back on Earth for a time. As if by natural instinct, they all began flying toward Moon City, very soon afterward, with nothing apparently keeping them from doing so at all. Which was a considerable surprise to all their human and humanoid friends, of course. The condors also flew quite high, just in case there were any number of lunar birds that'd be in the area between Crescent and Moon City. And they all eventually landed in Moon City safe and sound, as their human and humanoid friends would eventually learn, once they went back to Moon City, or they went there for the first time, in each of their own lives.
Two more chapters now remain for this story. Both will take place on the Moon, and we will finally see all of the babies born that Queen Serenity has now been carrying for quite some time. Plus we will also the return of Darien and a few others to their own respective nations elsewhere on Earth besides South America not long after that happens.
But, of course, there is still much more that can and will and must ultimately happen before the fall of the Moon Kingdom happens, folks. Most of it will be quite bad, and quite sad, for sure, but the ultimate fall of the Moon Kingdom will eventually happen, as it must, in order to set up the necessary time transfers later on of many people and things into the future.
Until next time, then, I'll close this. TUS out.