The plan had been to monitor Dominator's surveillance cameras until an opportune moment to grab Wander and flee the ship, ideally allowing them as much time as possible before Dominator noticed their absence.
Sylvia put a three-fingered fist right through that plan (and the computer monitor) the moment she glimpsed what was transpiring in the hall.
After that, all bets were off. Sylvia went careening out of the control deck, with Hater and Peepers flying after her.
"UGH, I can't believe she smooched WANDER!" Hater screamed.
"Sir, that's really not the point here!" Peepers yelled back.
"Why couldn't she have smooched ME?"
"With all respect, Lord Hater; she's a monster! You're lucky you dodged that bullet!"
"Doesn't mean I'm happy about it," Hater grumbled.
Peepers rolled his eye. "You don't have to be happy about it, sir. Now let's get Wander and get off this ship!"
Of course, that was easier said than done. Peepers scooped up the star nomad and went racing down the hall, trusting Sylvia and Hater to be able to hold off Dominator. Wander, for his part, made this as difficult as possible.
"Wander, focus!" he yelled. "How do we leave!?"
"We can't leave without Sylvia!"
Peepers growled and scrabbled to maintain his hold on the struggling creature that was, in all reality, taller than him and much squirmier. "Look, I don't even like you! All you do is get in Lord Hater's way, and he was never as good of a conqueror after you showed up!" But nobody deserves what Dominator has been doing to you. Peepers shook the thought off. "So just, focus here and let me know which way to turn!"
"Please, please, no, Syl-" Wander pawed weakly at Peepers' shoulder, straining to return to his friend. At this point, Peepers decided that there was no way Wander could be using his full strength – otherwise, based on previous experience, he should easily be able to worm out of Peepers' hold.
In fact… Wander overall wasn't doing very well. Peepers could feel him physically shaking in his arms, and his tiny heart skittering along like a rabbit's. The commander had never seen Wander so… so wrecked.
"Keep it together," Peepers snapped, unsure if he was talking to himself or to Wander. He let out a frustrated noise, and bolted to the left. Had to choose one path. Had to keep moving.
This swiftly turned out to be a mistake as an army of bots appeared at the end of the hallway.
"Ohhh grop grop grop-" Peepers turned around and high tailed it away from the bots, "should have turned right, should have turned- AAGHH!"
He skidded to a halt.
Lord Dominator smiled. Her helmet was gone, and her white hair stuck up in odd, tussled places. Bruises littered her body, and a sizeable scrape over her ribs welled with dark red liquid. Her eyes, too, were swollen and red from allergies. But she was still standing, and she was here, and Peepers dreaded to think about what that meant.
Peepers turned to run, only to find the bots had formed an impassable barrier behind him.
"Heeeyy," Dominator said slowly.
Wander jerked his head up. "Where's Syl? D-Domi, where's Syl?"
"Oh, your little horse friend?" Dominator snucked up snot and pulled an ugly expression. "Stupid flowers…. Whatever. I made Sylvia go bye-bye."
The sound that ripped from Wander's throat was somewhere between a wail and scream of fury; any intended words were lost to the emotion. He finally tore out of Peepers arms and thumped to the floor.
Peepers couldn't see what expression it was that Wander then fixed at Dominator – in hindsight, he was glad he didn't. Dominator's eyes widened, and a feral grin lashed around her mouth. "Oh-hoh, wow, Wander! Isn't that so scary?~ Whatcha gonna do? Kill me?"
At that moment, there was a loud crash distantly in the ship and an enraged yell that was very plainly Sylvia's. Wander and Peepers froze.
Dominator's expression went flat. "Ugh, fine. I was just messing with you. I left her to play with the bots."
With a muffled sob, Wander collapsed in relief.
"You're a monster," Peepers said, his single eye wide.
"Aw, thanks. I love compliments!"
His blaster let out a menacing whine as he drew it and pointed it straight at Lord Dominator. "No more messing around! This isn't a game! Step away from Wander, now!"
Dominator quirked an eyebrow. "Wow. I'm so terrified. The little Hater-bot wants to fight."
"I am NOT a Hater-bot. My name is Commander Peepers, and I-"
Dominator swiped her arm through the air; a spike of lava burst from the wall and speared the gun. Before Peepers' eye, it crushed the blaster and cast the useless metal scraps aside.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Dominator smirked. This was following rapidly with a sneeze, and she growled in irritation. "Ugh! Stupid allergies. Look, isn't Wander your enemy, anyway? Is he really worth dying for?"
Peepers cast a frustrated glance towards Wander, who, concerningly, hadn't really moved from the floor. "This isn't just about Wander! I serve Lord Hater, and before you came along, he -"
A lava fist punted Peepers into the wall. The commander struck hard, and then slumped to the floor, groaning.
"Oh, I'm sorry, were you talking?" Dominator feigned a yawn. "I got so bored I stopped paying attention."
"Stop!" Wander found the energy to cry out. He raised himself on feeble arms, and struggled to get his legs beneath him.
Dominator snorted. "Stop Dominator, waa, you're so evil!" Her foot slammed down on his back and she ground her heel into his spine. "When are you ever going to learn- OW What the Grop!?"
She clutched her arm, right beneath the now smoldering shoulder plate. Her narrowed eyes curved to the side. There stood Peepers, trembling behind a red blaster bigger than his body.
"So," she said. "you've got more weapons, huh?"
"More than you know, and I'm very ready to use them on you. So stand back!"
Dominator stepped off of Wander. "Woow," she drawled. "You know, that's really impressive. Seriously, I'm-"
Peepers squeezed the trigger, once, twice, thrice.
Three thumps, Dominator stumbled back, and three new quarter-sized holes, two in her side, one in her left arm, joining the fourth that had fried her shoulder plate. Eyes round, Dominator touched the blood seeping from her side. "You – you shot me! Again! I was talking!"
Her look of shock satisfied Peepers to no end. "You interrupted me. So I did the same! That's how it's gonna work around here."
"What the…" her finger prodded the newly formed holes, and she winced. "Grop, that hurts!"
He wrapped a finger threateningly around the trigger. "Stand back. Away from Wander."
Rage contorted her bruised face. Her fist glowed with molten lava, its heat cauterizing and sealing the two wounds on her side.
"Don't kill her," whispered Wander.
"I won't unless she gives me reason to," Peepers assured him.
"You're going to wish you had," Dominator said. The wall behind Peepers morphed into liquid lava; coils wrapped around his wrists and ankles and wrenched them apart, stretching him like taffy.
"No, let me go!" Peepers thrashed, but the lava had solidified. He strained to twist his wrist, to point the blaster at Dominator again – but she stalked closer and yanked it from his fingers hard enough to bruise them.
Her cold crimson eyes examined the surface. "Nice weapon, nerd. I can tell you've got an eye for guns. Get it? Get it, 'cause you're just – oh, whatever." She leveled the blaster at Commander Peeper's chest. "I don't like people messing up my plans."
Wander cried out, "Please, Domi, no-"
"Try this for a change: Dee, yes." She pulled the trigger; Wander screamed. The only noise Peepers let out was a soft mph, and the force of the shot made his body jolt in the restraints.
His eye lost focus, and agonized tears appeared.
"Oh, you think that's bad?" Dominator snorted. "You shot me four times! I mean, I guess one of them mostly missed me, but still. I'd say let's make it even." She ignored Wander's protests and leveled the gun at his chest again.
This time, she fired in quick succession; three times she pulled the trigger, and three times he twitched violently, grotesquely, like a puppet pointlessly yanked on its strings by an ill-practiced hand.
Breathing hard, Dominator stepped away and threw aside the gun. "There. Even."
The lava released Peepers; he collapsed, and didn't move.
"Huh," Dominator said. "Now that I think about it, it's probably overboard, since it's same number of shots but you're only a pipsqueak. Oh well."
Wander made a strangled noise.
"Aww…" clicking her tongue, Dominator turned her attention to him. "Was he a fwend of yours? Pfft. Maybe you shouldn't let your friends onto this ship, idiot. I don't like them very much." Another loud crash erupted from the hall, this time closer. Dominator flicked watery red eyes towards the sound, frowning. "And it sounds like the Zbornak is headed this way."
She grabbed Wander by the scruff of his neck before he could flee, and dangled him gleefully before her face. "Would you like me to do the same thing to her?"
Trembling, Wander met her gaze. Deep red and unrepentant, merciless. Soulless. Not for the first time, he glimpsed an emptiness inside her, an emptiness that he previously thought hid personal hurts, an emptiness that could be filled with friendship, or love, or happiness.
For the first time, he looked harder at that emptiness, and he found only more hatred, more sadism, more cruelty. And no matter how hard he tried, or how much he wanted to, he couldn't find anything else.
Tears welled in his eyes.
"Are you dumb?" Dominator was saying, shaking him. "I asked you a question! Do you want me to shoot Sylvia? It'll be just like hunting!"
"I'm sorry, Dominator."
"Sorry?" She snorted. "What, are you going to go on one of your stupid little rants about how sad you are that I'm lonely?"
He shook his head. He glimpsed Hater and Sylvia appear at the end of the hallway behind Dominator, both beat up and worse for the wear, but both still standing.
"PEEPERS!" Hater cried out, and lunged for the fallen commander.
Dominator tossed an arrogant glance over her shoulder, mouth opening to undoubtedly make some derisive taunt, and that's when Wander twisted around in her grip. His teeth sank into her wrist, and swiftly after, needle-like claws popped into her forearm and clung tight.
"FFFFH – OW, what the Grop!?" Dominator flailed her arm in a frantic effort to fling Wander off. Snarling, Wander bit down harder and shook his head. The taste of blood welled on his tongue, and he shuddered, fighting down the need to gag.
"Get off me, what are you doing?" she cried as she scrambled to peel him off with her other hand.
A blue fist sailed in from the side and clocked Dominator hard across the face; she staggered hard, blinking furiously. Wander quaked, for he could practically feel her fury radiating from her blood.
"I WILL DESTROY YOU!" she dove at Sylvia – Wander raked his claws along her forearm, anything to stop her – but she grabbed Sylvia with one lava-strengthened fist, and physically threw the Zbornak halfway across the hall. Next she grasped Wander's scruff and ripped him off her arm, along with a good amount of skin, and threw him after Sylvia.
Wander heard rather than saw the crackle of lightning, and an infuriated cry from Hater; he heard rather than saw Dominator's retort, and the crunch of bones. By the time Wander whipped his head around, Sylvia was already up and running towards Dominator.
"No, Sylvia!"
Dominator grinned manically, eyes blazing with unhinged fury. Sharp icicles sprouted from her open palms. "Come on, show me what you've got."
"Sylvia, DON'T!"
The two collided; Wander cried out and his eyes screwed shut the moment he glimpsed blood. Yet again, he heard lightning, and enraged screaming. Flecks of something very, very cold spattered across his face – jumping, he opened his eyes in time to see Dominator crash down beside him, ice spraying around the entire hall.
"ENOUGH!" Dominator howled, slamming her fists onto the floor. Immediately, the temperature in the hallway shot up. Wander's next breath felt thick, like inhaling hot water or molasses. Primal fear gripped him, but he had not a second to dwell on it before Sylvia's hands wrapped around his midsection. In the next moment, he was pressed safe to her chest as she ran for life itself. Behind Sylvia, he heard Hater in pursuit.
Sweat prickled beneath his skin as the temperature bore down, hotter, hotter, hotter – above him, Sylvia panted, and swore beneath her breath.
"R-Right!" Wander cried out.
"What?"
"Turn right!" Sylvia didn't question, but immediately obeyed.
"Left!" Another turn, "right!"
Sylvia let out a soft hiss. The floor was turning colors, at first black, then deep red, easing towards orange –
"There, right there!"
Sylvia barreled through the doorway, and launched into blessed cool dark space. Distant stars from foreign places twinkled reassuringly. Hater floated past, Commander Peepers clutched tight in his arms.
Wander gave a small, exhausted smile.