Author's note: I'm trying to make the chapters on the shorter side but sometimes, they end up longer than anticipated. Here's a longer one, hope you don't mind!
Wander over Yonder Season 3
"I never knew hugs could feel this nice..." Dominator said softly.
"Now you know why I love giving them so much!" Wander replies happily.
After a long while, Wander and Dominator start to release their hug.
"Feels kind of good just letting my emotions out like that" Dominator admits.
"Emotions are meant to be shared, not withheld" Wander taught pulling out a box of tissues. "Here you go!"
"Thanks Wander" Dominator says cleaning up her face with tissue. As she does so, Wander approaches their productive little patch of land to examine giant spherical fruits that looked like giant grapes. "What are those things?"
"These?" Wander asks lifting one up. "These are the fruits of our labor!" With a gentle tug, Wander snaps the giant fruit off the vine and brings it over to Dominator. "This one's nice and ripe! Give it a feel!"
The fruit didn't just look like a giant grape, it felt like one too. With the giant, grape-like fruit in her hands, Dominator gives it a shake.
"What's in this?" Dominator asks.
"I'm glad you asked!" Wander says. "What do you say we open it?"
"Open it?.. Why not?" Dominator asks. "How do we open it?"
"With this!" Wander says pulling out a large, sheathed knife with rounded point out of his hat.
"Th-that's a big knife!" Dominator comments.
"Gonna need your help here" Wander says handing the knife over. "We're cutting it down the middle" Wander says placing a hand on opposite sides of the round fruit.
"I gotcha" Dominator says unsheathing the knife and positioning it. With a thrust downward, the knife cuts straight down.
"You nailed it!" Wander celebrates holding up the two halfs of the fruit.
"Cool! What did I nail?" Dominator asks before she's handed her half.
"You cut it in half perfectly!" Wander praises handing Dominator a spoon. "Now we eat!"
"Wasn't much. Really" Dominator says curiously eyeing her half which was shaped like a bowl with more solid edges and more liquid center.
"Eating this is easy by the way!" Wander explains. "Start from the center like eating a bowl of cereal or soup! Except the bowl is edible too!"
Dipping her spoon in, Dominator lifts up a portion of what looked like gelatin and has a taste.
"...This is pretty good!" Dominator praises.
"I know, right!?" Wander agrees eating from his share. "And to think! We started with just this!" he says handing Dominator a tiny seed.
"..It's amazing!.." Dominator replies examining the seed. She looks at Wander who was smiling broadly at her before looking over at the garden that was producing more fruit. It contrasted sharply with the emptiness of the rest of the planet.
At one time, Lord Dominator took great pleasure in arriving at lush and vibrant planets, drilling them to extract everything they had, and leaving behind planets covered by wasteland.
Now the same sight shamed her.
"Wander... What would it take to make more gardens like this one?" Dominator asks.
"How many more gardens are we talking here?" Wander asks.
"The whole of this planet" Dominator elaborates.
"Oof!" Wander exhales. "That would take quite a bit!"
"I figured as much" Dominator says.
"Wanted to bring this entire planet to life?" Wander asks surprised.
"...Yeah" Dominator reveals. "I look back and all I recall is leaving planets devoid of life... I was just thinking it would be nice to do the opposite for a change... You okay!?"
"Ye-yes! I'm okay!" Wander says sucking up the ecstatic tears in his eyes.
-=episode title=-
THE NEW LEAF
-=episode title=-
"Bringing this planet to life is going to be a seriously big undertaking!" Wander explains.
"You're probably right" Dominator says sounding disappointed. "We can at least plant some more before we get out of here!"
"It's not that simple" Wander begins. "We can plant more gardens but without a consistent source of water, the gardens will wither and die! A living, breathing planet needs a sustainable source of water. We'll need to study the planet to find out if that's feasible."
"Okay, I think I know what you mean" Dominator says in thought. "..Mountains are covered in ice and when the ice melts, the water flows downwards. That way, it hydrates the land!"
"That's one way, yes!" Wander agrees with a smile.
"...And from there, the water below gathers in oceans and there it evaporates forming clouds which eventually rains down resupplying the mountains!"
"That's very good!" Wander celebrates. "That's definitely one way the land rehydrates. The key question we should be asking is does this planet have oceans?"
"We dug up some water earlier" Dominator recalls, "so there's gotta be more like it in other places!"
"Very possible!" Wander says.
The two stare at each other for a moment.
"So let's go find out!" Dominator implores.
"Yes! Let's!" Wander agrees.
"So are we walking?" Dominator asks. "Don't you have those bubbles we could travel in?"
"A bubble would work but I have a better idea!" Wander says. "Beep Boop!" he suddenly shouts at the sky.
"Beep Boop?" Dominator repeats before a Dombot descends from the sky.
"Beep Boop!" Wander exclaims greeting the Dombot with a hug.
"Wander!" Beep Boop replies.
"Bot 13!?" Dominator says in near shock.
"The name is Beep Boop!" Beep Boop is quick to clarify after getting in his fomer master's face. "Don't forget it!"
"...Beep Boop" Dominator repeats. "...So if Beep Boop is here?.. Are there others!?" Dominator begins to speculate looking upwards. It's then she spots large gatherings of her Dombots swarming her old Domship above. "Gaaah!"
"No need to panic, Dee" Wander assures. "They're with me!"
"They're with you?" Dominator asks unsure of what to think.
Almost as if called to action, throngs of Dombots suddenly descend to join now-growing ranks behind Wander. Dominator was left speechless before this display.
"Lord Wander" the Dombots salute.
"L-Lord Wander!?" Dominator repeats.
"Guys, just 'Wander' is fine!" Wander says before standing between Dominator and his Dombots. "Now everyone, I know things haven't been perfect between you all but it's never too late to make up and become friends! We are going to shake on it!"
Dominator, hearing Wander's request, steps forward ready to shake hands. Beep Boop, also heeding Wander's wish, levitates Dominator's way and extends a robotic arm. Hands joined, Dominator and Beep Boop shake hands.
"L-like Wander said, things weren't always perfect between us" Dominator begins, "so here's hoping we can do better!"
"So YOU can do better!" Beep Boop states firmly.
"..So 'I' can do better. Definitely. Yes" Dominator agrees.
"Beep Boop! No need for that!" Wander is quick to discipline.
"Apologies. We can ALL always do better" Beep Boop corrects.
"My Dombots! Let it be known that henceforth, Dominator is our friend and we are not to harm her!" Wander announces before his Dombot ranks on the scene. "This is an order from myself! Your leader Wander! Your Lord Wander!"
"Yes Lord Wander!" the ranks reply before some bots break away to ensure the information reaches all in the Dombot armies.
"There you go!" Wander directs at an astounded Dominator.
"Lord Wander?" Dominator asks.
"That's what they insist on calling me" Wander reveals. "I prefer just Wander though."
"...I see..." Dominator says. "...Wander... At one time, I used to command these Dombots. They've since left me and it seems they've found you a better fit for leader... If they are to no longer serve me, I'm happy to know you'll be the one leading them instead. I know you'll take good care of them!"
"Oh~! That's a very nice thing to say!" Wander praises before giving Dominator a hug. "Thank you! I promise to take excellent care of them!"
Dominator, enjoying Wander's hugs more and more after each one, turns red briefly and hugs back. "I-I know you will."
Just then, Sylvia descends from the ship and is quick to march up to Dominator and stare her down. Dominator makes to say something but Sylvia speaks first.
"Dominator, I just want to make something perfectly clear: Wander is my bestest friend in the whole, wide, universe!"
"I-I know" Dominator acknowledges.
"I want you to consider yourself VERY lucky!" Sylvia emphasizes. "Lucky that I love my best friend so many more times than I could ever hate you!"
"Sylvia, 'hate' is a very strong word!" Wander chastises.
"Well it's true!" Sylvia says firmly. "Dominator needs to understand that if she wants me to tolerate her, she better take good care of you! And if she doesn't, there'll be trouble! You better believe it!"
"Sylvia, I want to leave everything in the past" Dominator says.
"Oh! I'm sure you do!" Sylvia snaps.
"I know I've screwed up far too many times already and it's by rotten luck that Wander's here with me right now. Anyone else would have given up on me a long time ago... Losing him would truly mean losing everything!.. And it's because of that, I do NOT intend to screw up again!" Dominator declares looking Sylvia in the eye.
Sylvia continues a firm stare down of Dominator.
"..Good.." Sylvia says. "I'm going to be keeping my eye on you."
"Understandable" was Dominator's simple reply.
"..Good" Sylvia finishes before marching off to a nearby hill and sitting atop it, arms folded, and breathing out her nostrils loudly like a grumpy bull. From this hill, she kept a close watch.
"I'll go talk to her" Wander says releasing his hug and approaching the grumpy Zbornak.
"Take me with you" Dominator asks wary of the nearby gangs of Dombots she designed to be killing machines.
"Sure!" Wander answers and leads Dominator by the hand, a gesture Dominator found more intimate than Wander.
Wander and Dominator join Sylvia atop the hill, Dominator making sure to sit on the side of Wander opposite Sylvia.
"Syl~! Everything okay~?" Wander asks in a semi-playful voice.
"I'm fine" Sylvia says simply.
"I'm glad!" Wander answers.
"Wander" Dominator suddenly speaks up, "my, erm, your probe bots are capable of detecting water. We can use them to search this planet for bodies of water."
"We can!?" Wander asks incredulous.
"They don't listen to me anymore. You'll have to be the one to issue the order" Dominator points out.
"Okay" Wander says standing up. "My Dombots! I wish to find water on this planet!"
"Scan the whole planet for water" Dominator whispers Wander's way.
"Scan the whole planet for water!" Wander orders.
"Yes Lord Wander!" a Dombot salutes and at once, several probe bots begin to scan the entire planet.
"And there they go!" Dominator remarks.
"What are you two up to?" Sylvia questions.
"We're going to try to bring this planet to life!" Wander reveals. "Just like Dominator and I planted a little garden on a little patch of this land, surely we can start a million gardens all across the planet!"
"...That sounds like quite the undertaking!" Sylvia remarks impressed.
With so many probes at work, the planet was scanned and a visual on water deposits had been put together swiftly.
"Substantial water reserves found throughout planet" reports the Dombot projecting the visual.
"These are immense deposits!" Dominator remarks at the report. Wander and Sylvia move in for a closer look to behold a 3d model highlighting large bodies of water that exist under the planet's surface.
"Wow!" Sylvia lets out.
"Well? What're we waiting for!?" Wander asks eager to start digging.
"You'll need more than shovels" Dominator says. "I've spent enough time extracting Volcanium X from planets to know that we're gonna need more than puny shovels to pierce the planet's crust and get to all that water."
Wander thinks for a second before excitedly exclaiming "Oh! Oh! I know! The drill on your Domship!"
"You catch on quick!" Dominator praises. "And it's not my ship anymore. It's your ship."
"Right! My Domship!" Wander corrects. "Alright everyone! We're drilling the planet! Back in the ship!"
"We should bring our garden along" Dominator says.
"Oh, right! I almost forgot! Thanks Dee!" Wander thanks.
"Sure!" Wander replies as Dombots dug up the garden Dominator and Wander had worked on and distributed it among several plant pots. Dombots also gathered Dominator's escape pod while Wander gathered up his tent.
With things gathered, Wander's Dombots all line up neatly and re-enter the Domship.
"Now this I gotta see!" Sylvia says following the Dombots into the ship.
"Let's go!" Wander tells Dominator.
"Let's" Dominator agrees.
Once in the command room, Wander looked down on the planet, the controls for the drill before him.
"Initiate drill spin" Dominator instructs.
"Initiating drill spin" Wander says pressing a red button labeled 'drill spin'. The ship drill begins a spin.
"Hand on the lever" Dominator instructs and Wander places his hand on the lever that controlled the drill's height. "Now we lower" she goes on and Wander carefully lowers the drill until it touches the planet surface. Intense amounts of dust and debris is kicked up as the drill begins to penetrate slowly but steadily.
"How long we doing this for?" Sylvia asks.
"Not until we hit water" Dominator says, the drill kicking up more and more dust and dirt.
For several minutes, the drill continued, Wander very slowly lowering more and more.
"Slow and steady..." Dominator instructs.
"Slow and steady..." Wander repeats.
The drill continued but little progress was evident.
"I think I see a trickle" Wander says.
"...Not sure" Dominator disagrees. "The water could be under intense pressures so-"
"Oh for crying out loud!" Sylvia lets out before pulling the lever all the way herself.
Before anything else could be said, an ocean's-worth of water as well as steam explodes out of the planet, some of it hitting the ship and pushing it away briefly. Luckily, the crew quickly recovers from the sudden impact.
"Sylvia!" Wander chastises.
"I couldn't take it! We were getting nowhere!" Sylvia complains.
Looking towards the planet, a large, misty fog had taken over obscuring the sight of any attempting to see the surface.
"Look!" Dominator says once the fog had disappeared.
"Water! And clouds!" Wander announces.
The planet, once dull, dry, and brown, now had a large body of water on a part of its surface and clouds populated some of its atmosphere.
"We did it?" Dominator asks.
"Let's find out!" Wander says excitedly.
The ship re-enters the planet atmosphere and begins to survey the land and sky. Above it, some thick clouds were forming and others poured rain down on the dehydrated land below. Even more surprising, small rivers were starting to form flowing from high mountaintops and ending at the newly-formed ocean.
"Water cycle!" Wander celebrates.
"We did it!" Dominator announces proudly.
"Yes we did!" Wander exclaims leaping up to give Dominator a celebratory hug, his cheek on her now-red one.
"Hey Whirry! Beep Boop!" Sylvia directs at the two friendly Dombots, "What do you say we drill into the other major water pockets and really get this water show going?"
"Understood!" Whirry answers.
With drill out, the Domship continued piercing the crust and freeing more water from underground prisons thus creating more oceans, more lakes, more rivers that started high up in the mountains and emptied into greater bodies of water, more clouds that dumped rain across the land.
"Just one last thing" Wander says directing some Dombots towards a small pile of seed sacks. "Dombots, I want you to fly around the planet dumping seed across the land!"
The Dombots each lift a bag and begin flights across the planet dumping slow but steady streams of seed wherever they went.
A short time later, gentle clapping of thunder followed occasional flashes of lightning in the distance. Wander, Dominator, and Sylvia had descended back to the moist planet surface with the ship serving as a giant umbrella.
"Water is life" Wander says as the three admire their accomplishment, "and this is the start of something amazing! It's only a matter of time now!"
"Certainly a little more chilly than before" Sylvia observes shivering.
"Perfect weather for hot cocoa!" Wander sings before having Dombots lower a large couch and a fireplace for placing under the Domship's protective mass. "Fetching cocoa! Be right back!" he says before heading into the ship. This leaves Sylvia and Dominator alone in front of the unlit fireplace.
The two don't speak at first, both enduring an awkward silence.
"Let me light this up" Dominator says approaching the fireplace. With a flick of her wrist, the fireplace comes to life. "Much better, right?"
"Yeah" Sylvia agreed pulling the couch up before the warm glow of the fire. The two sit on the couch on opposite sides.
"Nice and warm, huh?" Dominator asks.
"Yeah. Very nice" Sylvia agrees.
"...So, how long have you known Wander?" Dominator asks.
"Quite a while" Sylvia answers. "Enough for him to become my best friend. Put it that way."
"I see..."
"How long have you been dominating planets before wisely quitting?" Sylvia asks.
"..Too long" Dominator replies. "Was that what you were hoping to hear?"
"..Yes" Sylvia says. "Very good."
To both Sylvia and Dominator's relief, Wander returns with a thermos and three mugs.
"Ladies" Wander says distributing the mugs and then pouring hot cocoa into each.
"...This is delicious!" Dominator praises.
"Wander's a culinary wizard!" Sylvia lauds.
"Marshmallows?" Wander offers holding up a bag of said treats.
"Hit me!" Sylvia says and receives marshmallows in her mug. "Oh yeah! That's the stuff!" she says after another taste.
"Dee?"
"Yes please. Thank you" Dominator says.
"Of course!" Wander says happy to hear politeness out of Dominator. He then has a seat between Dominator and Sylvia.
A flash is seen and a thunder clap is heard in the distance while the sound of rain drops continued their steady beat.
"This is... This is really relaxing" Dominator says. "I've never realized how soothing this could be..." she says before sipping some more from her cup.
"Oh yeah, very relaxing" Sylvia says finishing her drink.
"What Syl said!" Wander agrees afer a sip from his mug and before whispering "so relaxing, Syl seems to have dosed off!"
Looking over, Dominator confirms Sylvia was asleep leaning against the couch arm rest.
"She was awake seconds ago!" Dominator whispers. "Is she okay?"
"She's fine, don't worry" Wander whispers back. "She's a heavy sleeper who loves her nap time and warm drinks can knock her out good sometimes."
"Oh... So what sort of seeds are we spreading here?"
"All sorts!" Wander answers. "Gonna guess you don't care to hear the full list."
"Right. We can survey the planet later when things are growing" Dominator reasons.
"That's definitely a more exciting way of doing it!"
Another flash goes off in the horizon and thunder is heard seconds later.
"...Lord Hater and his cohorts are still out there..." Dominator suddenly brings up.
"..Yes, he is" Wander agrees.
"Wander, I get you're not the violent type but I don't think that new ship of theirs is one that can be dealt with peacefully" Dominator says.
"...You may be right but I'm sure we'll figure something out" Wander assured in his usual optimism. "Anyways, let's not worry too much about that. Let's just take it easy and relax. And let's admire what we're doing here today!"
"...You're right. I just need to relax" Dominator replies trying to put her worry in the back of her mind.
To Dominator's great surprise, Wander suddenly rests his head on her arm.
"I can tell you're still worried about it" Wander says. "When people rest their head on me, it always makes me feel better. I hope it does the same for you."
"..Y-yeah" Dominator answers uneasily.
Unknown to Wander, his simple gesture had gotten Dominator's heart pumping faster. More importantly however, Wander's gesture worked: Dominator felt better. She felt as though if the Doom Moon were to rear its ugly head, she would be able to handle things better with Wander's help. As a bonus, she had played her part in breathing life into a previously-dead planet, something that filled her with a better pride and satisfaction than decimating planets ever had.
Best of all, Wander had returned to her life and she intended to keep him there by her side.
Today had been a very good day.