Hello everyone, and Merry Christmas. As a special present to all my faithful followers, here's the latest chapter of The Breakup. As always, Wander over Yonder is owned by Disney, and Nefarious and everything else is owned by Insomniac Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment. So with that out of the way, here it is. And Happy Holidays.

The Breakup: Chapter 4.

BOOM!

The walls rattled as the ship took yet another direct hit to the starboard hull; the ninth one in the last ten minutes.

The mighty warship was indeed taking a mighty pounding; although you'd never know it to look at it. For every time a bomb or plasma blast would pierce its thick exterior, the hole would almost immediately seal itself up. It would seem that even with all their forces combined, the villains of this galaxy were no match for the awesome power of Lord Dominator.

However, that didn't mean they couldn't give her a good shakeup.

"Uggggghhhhhhhhh…" the former villainess groaned as she fell to her knees yet again; the third time in the last five minutes. "What's happening to me…"

A very good question.

And here's the answer.

Shortly after exiting her private bath, Dominator was struck by a sudden attack of nausea, followed swiftly by an equally unexpected loss of equilibrium. Apparently, whatever mystery ailment she was suffering from affected the inner ear as well as the stomach. And with the whole ship shaking like a paint mixer every five seconds, it was all she could do to stay on her feet.

So with all of that working against her, coupled with the fact that she was currently wearing nothing but her favorite bathrobe, the once great and terrible Dominator was now little more than a child trying to take its first steps; a wet, naked, and unbelievably nauseous child.

"Ugh… what else could go wrong…"

WHAM!

Before she even knew what had happened, the former villainess was lying flat on her back like a turtle in the sun; her jaw throbbing like crazy.

Moments later, she felt something cold and metallic clamp down around her wrists; presumably handcuffs, not that she had a chance to look, mind you. For shortly afterward, something grabbed her by the collar and jerked the reformed marauder back to her feet.

That's when she saw her.

Those flaring nostrils. Those gnashing teeth. Those eyes so full of rage. They could only mean one thing.

"Sylvia?" Dominator asked groggily as her senses began to return.

"That's right." The blue Zbornak said menacingly as she let out a snort of contempt. "And as much as I'd love to stand here and break your neck, I have a deal to complete. So you'd better not give me any trouble, otherwise I just might…"

WHAM!

Without even thinking, Dominator headbutted her would be captor right in the face; causing her to let go of her robe and stumble back a few steps. Then, letting her warrior instincts takeover, the former villainess smacked her attacker upside the head; which in turn caused the cuffs restraining her to shatter into a million tiny pieces.

"AKK!" Sylvia howled as she feverishly tried to soothe her aching cheek. "Good Grop! That stings! How did you even do that?"

"Easy. I just swung my arms and let the momentum do all the work."

"Not that, you idiot!" the aching Zbornak replied sharply. "Those were Level 10 Stasis Cuffs. You shouldn't even be able to move."

"Level 10 what?" Dominator asked disbelievingly, before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"And just what the heck is so funny?"

"I… I'm sorry… it's just… just…" she said as she struggled to reign in her girlish giggles. "It's just… there's no such thing as Stasis Cuffs."

"What?"

"Yeah, I mean, the whole concept behind them is totally ludicrous. That's why they only exist in crappy, low budget sci-fi movies; like 'Tears from Talos 3' or 'Secret Agent Clank'."

"But… but that's impossible. He swore to me they'd work."

"Yeah, well, I hate to tell you this, but it sounds like you got ripped off. Those were just ordinary handcuffs. And pretty cheap ones too."

"But he said… And I and… And Hater… And the guys and… Oh Grop, not again."

"Yeah… I have no idea what you're talking about, but I assume it has something to do with whatever's happening to my ship."

"Yes, I mean no, I mean… I don't even know what's going on anymore."

"Yeah, well, while you're figuring it out, maybe we should go find Wander. He might know something. And even if he doesn't, I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

"Wait, are you saying Wander's here? As in right now?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Oh… Grop." The blue Zbornak said as the color drained from her face. "I think I've been double-crossed… possibly triple."

XXX

(Elsewhere on the Lava-Ship)

BOOM!

And down went another Dom-Bot.

The twelfth one in the last eleven minutes.

Lord Hater was in rare form today.

He didn't quite understand why or how, but for some strange reason the dark lord was on fire.

It was almost as if the last two years had never happened and he was once again the Greatest in the Galaxy.

He was at an absolute loss to explain it, but he liked it.

He liked it very, very much.

"Whoo-Wee!" Ripov exclaimed as she walked over to give the cloaked skeleton a hard yet congratulatory pat on the back. "That was some fancy shootin' there, Killer. Nice work."

"What, that? PFFFT! That was nothing?" Lord Hater replied boastfully. "You should see me when I'm actually trying."

"Well, the days not over yet. Maybe I'll get lucky." The camo-clad female said with a wink. "Anyway, we're almost there. We'd best keep moving."

And with that, the dastardly duo pressed onward to their destination.

"So Killer, about what you were saying before. You really have no idea what your origin story is?"

"Yeah, well… it's not like it's a big deal or anything. I just woke up one day and I was like this. So what?"

"I wasn't judging you. I was just curious. And besides, a lack of an origin story can be very beneficial to someone in your line of work. It gives you an air of mystery. Chicks dig that kind of thing."

"Really?"

"Totally."

Were it not for his total lack of flesh and blood, Lord Hater would've started blushing right then and there.

Never in all his life had he felt so… giddy.

He did not understand this strange new sense of euphoria, nor did he recognize its source, but the dark lord did not care. For he was certain that nothing could ever bring him down from such a high.

"Hey, Killer. Hold up there a second." Ripov said suddenly, bringing the cloaked skeleton back to reality. "There's something screwy going on here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, according to the Doc's instructions we should've reached that storeroom by now. But just look around you, we haven't passed a door in almost twenty minutes."

"Oh yeah, I guess that is kinda weird. You think Nefarious got his intel wrong or something?"

"Maybe, but there's something else that's been bothering me. Did you notice anything strange about that last wave of Dom-Bots?"

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

"Well, it might just be my imagination, but it almost looked like those last ones were moving slower than normal. And I think I saw one of 'em freeze up for a second."

"Maybe Dominator's trying to download something." The dark lord reasoned. "The computers on my Skullship always get a little glitchy whenever we do a systems update."

"Maybe… but I'm not so sure." The purple-skinned female replied suspiciously. "Hold on, let me take a look at something."

And with that, Ripov removed the duffel bag from her shoulder and proceeded to examine its' contents.

"Oh boy." She said dumbfoundedly. "Killer, you might wanna have a look at this."

Without hesitation, Lord Hater complied, and upon examining the inside of the open duffel bag he found not a powerful incendiary device like he'd expected, but rather what appeared to be an alarm clock meticulously jury-rigged to a golf cart motor.

"What the heck?" he exclaimed, clearly stupefied.

"Killer, I hate to say it, but it looks like we've been snookered."

XXX

(In a Hallway near the Throne Room)

"You idiot!" Dominator exclaimed as she and Sylvia continued their journey to find their mutual fuzzy friend. "How could you let Nefarious onto my ship?"

"Cut me some slack, I'd never even heard of this guy until last month. I thought he was just some ran-do villain you screwed over." The blue Zbornak said defensively. "Besides, what's the worst he could really do?"

"That's just it, you never know what this guy's gonna do; he's insane! One minute he's declaring war on all organic life, the next he's trying to destroy the whole dang universe; he's all over the place!"

"Okay! I screwed up! But what are we gonna do about it now?"

"Well, first thing we gotta do is find Wander. Then we…we…URK!"

The words died in Dominator's throat as it quickly filled with bile. Another sudden attack of nausea; this one much stronger than the last. Fortunately, she was able to force the unspeakable mess back down her esophagus. Unfortunately, much like before, the nausea was accompanied by a sudden loss of equilibrium, and her knees soon buckled under the weight of her own hair.

"Oh no. Oh no no no!" the former villainess cried as she nearly fell flat on her face.

Luckily, before she could hit the floor, someone took her by the arm and used it to prop her up like a scarecrow. To her unimaginable shock, that someone turned out to be Sylvia.

"Are you okay?" the blue Zbornak asked, her voice containing only the slightest trace of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a little bug." Dominator replied, before she felt the sudden urge to bring up something that had been eating at her for quite some time. "Look, I know this probably doesn't mean much, but… I'm sorry."

"What?" went Sylvia, clearly not believing what she'd just heard.

"You heard me. And I don't care if you forgive me or not. Heck, I don't even care that you tried to have me killed. I mean, it's not like you're the first." The former villainess continued, feeling quite vulnerable, both physically and emotionally. "Just please, stop taking it out on Wander. You have no idea what this is doing to him."

"I… I don't know…"

"Look, what happened to Zbor wasn't his fault. It was all mine. Wander wanted to try and stop the drill but I convinced him it was too late, which it was FYI, but that's not important. What is important is that Wander doesn't deserve all this hate you're giving him. If you wanna hate someone hate me, I'm used to it. But Wander, he's like…"

"The greatest guy in the universe." Sylvia cut in; finishing Dominator's sentence.

"Yeah, exactly."

"You really do care about him, don't you?"

"Of course I do, I love him."

"Huh…" the blue Zbornak said; her tone an odd blend of sadness and relief.

Unfortunately, before the conversation could go any further, the duo suddenly found themselves in Dominator's Throne Room; where they were met with a most alarming sight.

There, in the shadow of Dominator's infamous suit of armor, they found the very drifter they'd been searching for; though not as they would've hoped. For you see, dear reader, the orange nomad was trapped in the molten grip of one of the former villainess' very own Dom-Bots.

"WANDER!" they both shouted, but it was Dominator who sprang into action.

With her equilibrium suddenly restored, the lime-skinned woman ran to her beloved's aid. But before she could even get close enough to hear him try to call out her name, she was quickly blocked by a wall of her supposedly loyal lava-bots; each one with a death ray trained directly on her head.

"Hey! What's the big idea!" Dominator shouted furiously. "Get outta my way, you stupid rust buckets!"

But alas, they did not budge; not even a single inch.

"What's the matter, you broke or something? I said, MOVE IT!"

But again, they did not comply.

"UGH! What is wrong with you tin cans? Will one of you at least say something!"

"Alright then." Said the one in the middle. "Piss off, you Cow."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard him." Said the one on the far right. "Go stuff yourself, you inbred Slut."

"Why you insolent little…"

"Ah, shut up." Said one just to her left.

"What the… where did… Hey! You can't talk to me like that! I'm your master! I own you!"

"AH-HA-HA-HA-HA! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" went a familiar and bone chilling voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once. "Not anymore~"

Just then, the air was shattered by a horrifying sound; like liquid metal scrapping against a solid.

On a reflex, Dominator turned toward its source, and there, to her great alarm, she saw a most unbelievable sight.

Her armor.

The symbol of all her dark and violent deeds.

It was moving.

All. By. Itself.

Then, before anyone could even try to react, the empty suit looked down at her, its visor glowing a sickly green, and in a familiar voice, it spoke.

"SURPRISE!"

End Notes:

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. I'm gonna try to pump out at least one more chapter before the new year, but just in case I don't make it, I'll see you all in January. Peace.