In the middle of a well-earned rest, Wander awoke snug inside his big and green hat which rested atop Sylvia's saddled back.
"..Goood morning Syl!.." Wander directs at his best friend through half-open eyes. "..Be back in a bit. Fetching water..."
Sylvia simply lets out an indistinguishable mumble in her deep sleep.
"...Good morning Whirry..." Wander directs at his Dombot friend.
"Good morning Wander!" Whirry returns floating by Wander simply.
Wander then headed for a nearby river seeking a drink of water.
"Good morning Whirry..." Wander said again.
"Good morning Wander!" Whirry returns once more.
With cup in hand, Wander lifts up a small portion of water from the river and drinks.
"Pwaaahh~!.. No better thirst-quencher than water, eh Whirry?.." the still half-asleep Wander tells a group of Dombots standing beside him and watching him curiously. "Or should I say Whirrys?.. Hehehe!..."
Jolted out of his half-asleep stupor by the sight before him, Wander's eyes snap wide open. In front of him stood large crowds of Dombots watching him curiously, behind them Dominator's own ship sat parked quietly.
"Wander!" Beep Boop suddenly spoke up working his way through the crowds.
"B-Beep Boop!?" Wander almost gasps spotting his old Dombot friend heading his way and the two reunite. "Beep Boop! It's so nice to see you again!"
"Wander! It's nice to see you too!" Beep Boop replies.
"Beep Boop! What is going on here?" Wander asks looking over the large gatherings of Dombots. "Why are there so many Dominator bots here all of a sudden!?"
"GAAAAH!" Sylvia is suddenly heard screaming after waking up to find herself surrounded by curious Dombots.
-=episode title=-
THE NEW DOMINATOR
-=episode title=-
"You want WHAT!?" Sylvia exclaims while Wander prepared breakfast.
"We want Wander to lead us henceforth" Beep Boop said.
"Wh-why!?" Sylvia asks.
"Because he freed us" Beep Boop said. "We no longer wish to serve Dominator. We wish to serve Wander!"
"..Is this for real?" Sylvia asked aloud looking at the masses of Dombots who were all nodding. "Wander, you got something to say about this?"
"I, I'm very much flattered by the opportunity" Wander says, "but what about Dominator? Where is she?"
"She ejected herself out of her, no, OUR ship as we took over" Beep Boop recalls proudly.
"She's not hurt is she? You didn't hurt her did you?" Wander asked with concern.
"Negative" Beep Boop answers.
"Oh, good!" Wander said relieved.
"Did you want us to?" a Dombot Knight asks drawing his weapons.
"No! No! We will not be hurting anyone!" Wander was quick to object. He then begins to see the value in leading Dominator's former minions. "A-as your leader, I hereby declare that we will no longer be hurting people!"
"Understood!" the Dombot said withdrawing his weapons.
"We did shoot at her" Beep Boop admits, "but she was in her armor so we expect no actual injuries were sustained."
"Okay, I'm hearing a 'maybe' in there" Wander says now more worried. "I still want to know where she is. Could you take me to her? I just want to make sure she's okay."
The Dombots look at each other.
"Don't be surprised fellas" Sylvia directs at the Dombots, "Wander's the type to worry even for enemies. Can't blame him. Enemies are just friends you haven't made yet after all" she says giving Whirry some friendly pats.
"Very well" Beep Boop agrees. "Hop aboard."
Wander and Sylvia make quick work of breakfast and follow Beep Boop into the Domship as do all other Dombots outside of it.
"Never in a million years did I ever expect to be entering Dominator's ship like this" Sylvia comments walking alongside Wander while the two, lead by Beep Boop and tailed by several Dombots, made their way through one of the ship's corridors.
"Beep Boop, I'd like to know how Dominator's overthrow came about" Wander asks.
"We came upon a new enemy, a fearsome new enemy named 'Doom Moon'" Beep Boop recalls.
"Doom Moon?" Wander repeats, Sylvia's attention similarly stirred.
"Yes" Beep Boop confirms as he projects what looked like a mechanical moon. Footage is then played of several Dombots attempting to fight the Doom Moon only to be either heavily damaged or destroyed. Footage then plays of Dominator demanding that her Dombots attack the new enemy and lashing out angrily when they hesitated. The footage ends with the Dombots having had enough and chasing Dominator into an escape pod through which she quickly ejects.
"Oh my! I see..." Wander says reacting to the footage.
"I gotta say I'm proud of you guys!" Sylvia praises. "You did what you had to do! Kicked that Jerkinator to the curb!"
The party then arrives at Dominator's former throne room. Wander is gently lifted up and seated atop the throne by two fierce-looking Knight Dombots.
"Lord Wander!" the two Dombots declare.
"Lord Wander!" legions of other Dombots repeat.
"...This cannot be happening right now" Sylvia said watching several Dombots bowing.
"This is quite a responsibility you're hoisting on me" Wander said. "You sure I'm the right person for the job?"
"We are certain, Lord Wander!" Beep Boop answers.
"Lord Wander" all other bots repeat while Sylvia approaches.
"Buddy, this is quite the development isn't it?" Sylvia says.
"Indeed it is Syl" Wander responds before standing up on the throne. "My beloved Dombots! I wish to see Dominator!"
A pair of Dombots salute having heard the order and almost at once, the ship begins to accelerate.
"Lord Wander!" Sylvia says amused by the title.
"And please! Just call me Wander!" Wander adds.
"Wander" all the Dombots repeat simultaneously.
Meanwhile, light-years away, an escape pod sat perfectly still after a crash landing on a deserted planet. Within this escape pod sat a once-mighty galactic tyrant. This once-mighty galactic tyrant sat completely in shock at what had transpired moments ago: her once-dominant ship had been bested by a new arrival by the name of 'The Doom Moon' and her once-loyal Dombot army had overthrown her taking almost everything she's ever had with them.
Dominator did not move from her spot for a time. She was certain this was all a bad dream and any minute now, she would be waking up in her luxurious bedroom inside her Domship. She tried closing her eyes expecting to wake up in bed but that didn't work: she was still collapsed on the floor of the escape pod in relative dark.
She quickly opened the door to the pod expecting to see her ship and her armies on the other side. No one and nothing was there to greet her besides an empty dirt planet surface.
Shocked, she refused to believe she was truly on her own and began running towards a hill. Surely, beyond the hill, her ship and her armies sat waiting for her return. All that lied beyond the hill was more emptiness.
She could feel her heart rate go up and her breathing hasten at the sight. Looking around in near-panic, she finds more hills. Dashing to get a view beyond these other hills, she only finds more nothing that went on beyond the horizon.
Dominator came very close to losing all hope: she had never been without her ship to provide shelter and travel or without her Dombots to push around and do her bidding. It was a new sensation for her and a very frightening one at that. Now destitute, was she perhaps doomed to just waste away alone?
In desperation, she puts her ear to the ground as Wander had done before. She focuses, eyes firmly shut, and tries her best to hear something. Tries her best to hear anything.
"C'mon you stupid-" she growls desperately.
She hears nothing.
On her way back to her escape pod, one of the few things she had left to her name, she could feel her throat dry up and her eyes begin to burn. Dominator had never cried before and she had no intention to cry now: she could never allow herself, the great and mighty Lord Dominator, to shed a tear. She stubbornly sucks up her anguish and endures.
She has a seat by the escape pod overwhelmed with anxiety and a feeling of isolation.
"What do I do now?" Dominator asked herself. "Should I stay put hoping that my Dombots come back for me?.. No... They wanted to destroy me, why would they return for me?... They'd return to finish the job is what they'd do... Why would anyone be looking for me now?..."
Dominator didn't want to use her armor to fly around, that would cost precious fuel. Best to preserve that in case of a serious emergency. She fights back another urge to cry and throws caution to the wind. Figuring it was better to die on her feet than curled up in a ball, she picked a random direction and began to walk.
All was silent around her giving her ample opportunity to think over many of the things that had happened in recent memory: she recalled the first time her ship and armies had been destroyed by Lord Hater. At the same time, she had tried to kill Wander and his best friend, Sylvia.
How was it that Wander could ever find the will to befriend her again after such an attempt on his life or Sylvia's?
That was just the kind of guy Wander was: kind, merciful, forgiving. Filled to the brim with so much love and compassion that he tried to befriend Dominator again after her attempt on his life; among other kind gestures, Wander built her a kitchen, fed her some of the best cooking she had ever enjoyed, took her skydiving which was an absolute thrill, and worked with her and Sylvia as a team to thwart other villains like Hater and Awesome with little more than each other.
Dominator could only look back fondly on those days now for they were good and gone.
The moment she had regained a shred of her power, her ship, and her armies, she threw it all back in Wander's face when all he ever wanted was to be her friend...
Dominator stops walking needing the break to fight back more tears. While fighting her pain, the wind slowly begins to pick up around her. Once feeling a little better, she resumes her trek surveying the land in search of anything that could help.
Her recollections resume as well.
Once Wander had helped Dominator regain her ship and armor, she returned to what she once loved and for a time, it felt like the good old days where nothing seemed able to stop her rampage across the galaxy. During her second reign however, little by little, she began to lose interest in her old hobby and began to think of Wander a tiny bit more day by day. Before she could figure out why her thoughts often returned to the little orange nomad, a new enemy had arrived in the form of The Doom Moon, a spherical ship commandeered by several of her old enemies.
The Doom Moon made a fool of Dominator and drove her to the brink causing her to lash out at her Dombots. To her greatest shock, her Dombots rebelled driving her out of her own ship and now they were long gone taking the Domship with them.
Now Dominator was reduced to braving a trek across a desert on foot in hopes of not dying alone and starved.
Dominator urged herself onwards but found nothing besides more empty space. A few times, she contemplated returning to the pod but perhaps rescue lied just beyond the next hill. This was a mistake for the wind began to pick up rapidly, an increasing supply of dust and sand getting kicked up and swept around aimlessly. With her vision impaired, Dominator stops in her tracks needing to shield her face against the strong and crowded currents.
Dominator summons her armor providing her some protection against the currents of wind but now her progress became more work. With heavy footsteps, she headed straight ahead but now the wind became clouded with dust that only seemed to be intensifying. She could feel herself getting pushed about as currents grew strong enough to even lift her armor up off the ground. In her struggle against these winds, she becomes disoriented unsure of where she was heading or going.
"Aaaahh!" she lets out as she feels herself become weightless.
Now at the mercy of powerful gusts, she is tossed and hurled about as though she were in a tornado. She attempts to fly out of the powerful winds but they prove too strong. In addition, she could hardly tell up from down with so much dust about: flight proves useless when one cannot even tell where they're heading. Dominator stops trying to fight the mighty gusts to help preserve fuel and just lets herself be carried about hoping to be thrown clear at some point.
She then spots her escape pod flying about in the same whirlwinds. Not wanting to lose what little she had left in the form of shelter, Dominator extends her arms to try to catch it but it pulls away.
"N-no! Get back here!" she shouts through her helmet. She extends her arms once more. "Guh!" Dominator groans when the rapid and erratic winds hurl the escape pod her way causing a severe collision nearly knocking Dominator out. Seeing stars, Dominator manages to wrap her arms around the pod and scrambling her way into the pod. Overcoming extreme aerial blasts, she slams the door to the pod shut.
For several minutes, Dominator was confined to the pod and recovering from the collision. When she looked out the window, she noticed the winds slowly clearing up and she finds herself flying high up above the planet surface. Looking towards the horizon, she sees a sunset and being so high up in the air with little between her and the ground, she is reminded of the time she rode wind leaves with Wander and Sylvia. She feels a deep, desperate longing for those days but she is also quick to rid herself of that feeling and acknowledge her painful reality: those days are as good as gone. She had thrown them away for the cheap thrills found in conquest.
It was pointless to dwell on past events. It was vital now to focus on bracing for impact as the escape pod was falling towards the planet once more. With a mighty crash, the pod kicks up great amounts of dirt and dust upon landing. Opening the pod doors once more once she tumbled to a stop, Dominator sees a mighty tornado spinning away from her location.
Dominator withdraws her armor and sighs with relief. Surely the tornado had tossed her a significant distance away hopefully near civilization if there was one on the planet. She then looks around to find her surroundings looking the same as when she first crash-landed on the planet. Perhaps she was farther away or perhaps she was where she originally landed, she could not tell. Perhaps all the planet is the same everywhere, she really had no way of knowing.
Apathy. Apathy was the only feeling she had left to give. Feeling physically and mentally drained now as well as hungry and covered in dirt and dust, she lied down inside the pod and stared up at the night sky. While she did so, she could only guess where in the galaxy Wander might be and what he could be up to.
"The usual: just helping folks around the galaxy! It never hurts to help!" Dominator could almost hear the orange nomad say before she finally closed her eyes.
The dirty pod she was now in was the bed she had been making for herself for the longest time and she was doomed to lie in it indefinitely. She was very possibly doomed to waste away alone.