The cry of some pour helpless soul in pain.
The wicked laughter of those who enjoyed inflicting said pain.
And the sickening sound of bones breaking and living flesh being beaten.
These three equally terrible noises were the only things Wander could make out in the darkness as he desperately searched for the source of such anguish. Every 'Good Samaritan' bone in his body was screaming for him to put an end to the cruelty that he could only hear, and it wouldn't take him long before he finally discovered what could only be described as a scene to shatter the strongest of hearts. Within a clearing of light he saw several dark shadowy figures with looks of pure glee on their faces, towering over a shaking and very bloody individual curled up in pain. Not wasting another precious moment he sprang forward, yelling for the dark apparitions to back away; they did so but the looks of pleasure still remained as Wander scrambled towards the source of their sadistic merriment. The galactic traveller collapsed to his knees before the injured victim, he saw that they wore a dark coloured cloak that shrouded most of their body and was becoming soaked with their blood, and needless to say the sight pained his kind heart.
He reached out a hand towards them.
"Here, let me help you friend"
The supposed 'friend' said nothing at first and just continued to lie there panting and occasionally coughing up blood from their injuries. Wander then shifted forward as if to help them up, when a sudden tight grip on his wrist stopped him. The unknown person had grabbed onto him tightly and the ghostly figures that were still present began to snicker and giggle at the sight before them. As Wander struggled to break free of the stranger's vice-like grip, the ground started to swallow his feet like quicksand and he began gradually sinking bit by terrifying bit! The laughter around him intensified with each second as if his plight was the most hilarious thing ever, he desperately tried to call out for help but his voice wouldn't come to him, leaving him feeling even more trapped than ever!
The stranger then finally lifted their head to reveal their face to Wander. Lying there, blood dripping from her wounds and mouth, with fiery pink eyes staring daggers into him, was Lord Dominator!
"I told…you! I…I'm not…your…FRIEND!"
Before he could react she then immediately let go of his arm leaving him to sink to his doom!
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
The orange furry nomad screamed as he bolted upright, panting heavily and sweating profusely from his latest nightmare.
"WANDER! Calm down buddy! You're having a nightmare again!" exclaimed his Zbornak companion Sylvia who began rubbing his back comfortingly as he tried to regain his composure.
After five minutes of back rubbing and deep slow breaths, Wander was finally calm enough to talk to his friend.
"Whew! Thanks Syl, I feel better now"
"No problem Wander, that's the fifth time this week you've had a nightmare! Is it still the same one?"
Just as Sylvia said this had become a very recent reoccurring problem. Wander had been experiencing the same nightmare for the past few nights, which needless to say had both him and Sylvia especially worried. However up until now his dream would often end with him trying to run towards the group of wicked figures and instead ended with him falling into darkness again, he never discovered the identity of the stranger in trouble until now.
"Well actually, this one was a little different tonight, and boy was it a doozy!"
"Really what happened?"
He then began re-telling his nightmare to Sylvia right up to the part before he woke up.
"And just before it ended, the stranger looked up at me and…and it turns out it was Dominator!"
"Dominator!?" exclaimed Sylvia in disbelief, "you dreamt that she was the one in danger?"
"Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but it was definitely her. She also spoke to me in the dream, she said 'I told you I'm not your friend'" replied Wander with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Well that part sure doesn't surprise me" snorted Sylvia before noticing her friend's concerned expression.
"Hey Wander, what's up? You look worried"
"Well… it's just… at first I didn't understand why I've been having this same dream over and over, but now that I know who I've been dreaming about, I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something important…something about her" explained Wander with a slight whisper to the last part that did not go unnoticed by his zbornak companion.
"Hey pal listen why don't we continue talking about this in the morning? You're probably still shaken from this one, maybe you should get some rest before we start jumping to conclusions"
"I…I guess that sounds like a good idea"
With that the two explorers resumed their usual sleeping position with Sylvia wrapped in a ball on the ground and Wander tucked into his hat. However sleep did not come easily to the orange nomad as he lay there looking up at the stars above with his mind still reeling with conflicting thoughts and emotions. 'What did that dream mean? Why was Dominator there? Could this be some kind of sign or something' these questions kept replaying over and over in his head but despite his efforts to make sense of them, he just kept coming up blank for answers to them. His mind then began to focus more on the former villainess which had made her surprise visit into his dreams; he started to wonder what she was doing now, where she was living these days and if doing she was alright, 'she just stormed off in a huff going nowhere, even if she didn't want to be friends, the universe is an awfully lonely place to traverse completely alone, but then again…ugh! It's too late to be ruminatin' right now, Sylvia's right, sleep now, think more in the morning!'.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
It had been three months since it happened, since she was beaten by, in her opinion, the dumbest bunch of dorks she had ever met and stormed off with what little dignity she had left to hold onto. And now here she was, someone who was once feared across multiple galaxies, the once dreaded bringer of destruction and despair formerly known as Lord Dominator, was reduced to a lowly small-time thief. After her defeat she spent the next few days just wandering aimlessly, the jam jar she had snatched out of Wander's friendship basket had long since been emptied of its sweet contents and the empty container tossed away in her frustration. Eventually she came upon a rough looking desert planet (think of Tatooine), and with no other options available to her, Dominator landed her orble bubble there and went about trying to find her bearings. She came across a few small alien towns and using her usual tactics of threatening, bullying and beating up some of the inhabitants, she managed to scrounge up some cash, extra clothing and even a cheap pistol with ammo.
On this particular day she had managed to hijack a high powered hover cycle from a passing biker and was making her way back to her makeshift hideaway within a narrow gorge system known to locals as Medusa's Ridge, her mind started to wander back to the events three months ago. At first whenever she thought back to it, she would seethe with anger and become very irritable all day, but when she took a step back to think more closely about those events she couldn't help but wonder to herself 'what if I had accepted his offer to be friends?'. The thought of it still sounded incredibly dumb and corny in her opinion, but it still niggled at the back of her mind making her wonder what might have been? Would it have lasted? Or was it just a ruse to get her to lower her guard? Dominator dismissed that last one, among her talents she was pretty good at telling when someone was playing her, and from what she could see, he was being 100% genuine. This both intrigued and intimidated her, hardly anyone she had ever met in her life had been so unwaveringly kind to her. Plus he had saved her life! He could have easily just used his orble juice to protect himself from the blast and leave her to perish in the explosion of the ship, but he didn't despite all the rotten things she had done to him, his friends and their galaxy.
"Ugh! Dammit! I just don't get any of it! What benefit would there have been for him or for me to be friends!? I never needed anybody before, and I sure as hell don't need anybody now!" she grumbled aloud to herself. Once she came upon the entrance to the gorges she slowed down the hover bike before driving in; the area was like a twisting turning labyrinth making it easy to get lost in, but it also made it a perfect place to hide, deep within she had found a large cave-like crevice to shelter and keep her stolen loot. She parked the bike by the opening of the cave, went inside, turned on some lanterns and began going through her latest load of stolen goods in the hope that it will help take her mind off of a certain orange vagabond and the rest of his dork-filled galaxy.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Unbeknownst to Dominator she had been spied on by a shady goblin-like alien bandit that had been tracking her movements up to when she entered the gorges. Once she entered them, he picked up the communication device on his belt and dialled a number before putting it to his ear.
"Yo Boss! It's Zeek. Just tacked the little rat to her hideout in Medusa's Ridge, you want I should follow her in there?"
A gruff Southern accented voice from the other line then replied "Naw Zeek, Ya'll just keep doin' reconnaissance, lemme know if that li'le skank leaves. I gotta go to a meetin' with our employer, but when that's all sorted, then we'll make our move".