"Everyone stay close to me."
Sylvia cautiously and quietly crept into the surface of the ship, while keeping an eye out for Nate and RS Wander; as well as Dominators robots.
"This is insane, you know that, right?" Nate hissed under his breath.
"What choice do we have?" Sylvia shot at him in a harsh whisper, "And besides, I've done this a million times."
They furthered down the corridors, and felt tremors from further away, Sylvia knew some brawling was going on. She had asked herself hundreds of times if it this was worth bringing Wander back, but her heart furiously told her to get him back, even if she found him as not the same person she knew.
"May I suggest something?" RS Wander raised his voice, making the others flinch.
"Make it quick." Nathan replied.
"We should split up." Wander sighed.
Sylvia and Nate stopped in their tracks, and turned to look at him, shocked.
"What?"
He tried to sound convincing,
"Nate can't fight like I do, and I don't think you can, too Sylvia-"
"Whoa, whoa, hold it," Sylvia stretched her hands into his face," I can fight just fine, if you're thinking about your Sylvia, I'm not like her."
Sylvia didn't know what to say to him.
"Well she's right, I don't know jack-squat how to defend myself." Nate shrugged.
"But I'm not confident with leaving you alone, either." Sylvia admitted, pointing at him.
"Sylvia, he needs to stay here." Wander insisted.
"And do what? Be found by Dominator's minions, then what? or worse, be found by Wander and get killed-"
Sylvia stopped herself, letting out a stressed sigh. She let out her personal feelings nearly spill out for the world to hear...
The ship shook again, but none of them acknowledged it, too busy thinking what was the best thing to do.
"I'll just go, I know you Wander; can fight, but like you said, Nate can't be alone."
"What do you mean by "you go?"" RS Wander stomped his foot, "You going alone isn't the best idea either, what can you do by yourself?"
Sylvia had enough of arguing and was going to shout back when,
"I found you!"
Not knowing the new voice that yelled, they looked behind from where they came, a young dog in a black combat suit holding a gun at them, she smiled.
"I'm so glad I found you guys, looks like the situation isn't as bad as I thought!"
She put her weapon into her holster and got closer,
"Let me introduce myself, I'm Deena."
The three of them just stared, confused. Sylvia noticed she kept her attention mostly at alternated Wander, then she looked at this young woman more closely...
"How are you, Wander? It's been awhile, we met back at that club ship a few weeks ago," She held out her paw to him,
Wander backed away slightly, glaring at her as if she would attack him at any moment,
"Come on, don't be shy," Deena made a forced chuckle to lessen the awkwardness, "I'm here to help you."
"I don't know you, lady." Wander said bluntly.
Deena raised her brows, surprised.
"What do you mean? of course you do! especially her." She pointed at Sylvia.
Now being able to see her face up closer, Sylvia's temple pulsed, as if someone had hammered needles into it...
...
Sylvia replayed the night she was at that club, making everyone miserable, she tried so hard to forget the selfish acts she committed. How she made Deena fall to her knees and laugh at how pitiful she looked...
...
It played like an hour-long movie, but to the others, it was only a minute, worried what was wrong. Sylvia held her head, and bit her lower lip. She couldn't bear showing her own face to her, ashamed.
"I'm...I'm sorry..I humiliated you."
She breathed heavily, guilt struck her being.
Deena sighed, making a somber tone.
"I know, it's alright. I know you didn't mean it."
Sylvia heard the words, but she could hear that Deena was still hurt over it.
"Can you please explain what's going on?!" Nate couldn't bear with being out in the dark.
"Exactly what I was going to ask." Wander stared dully at Deena.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Deena shook her head,"I work for a corporation, I've been watching and making sure you two are fit for the job my bosses need you to do."
Nate and Wander only dead-panned at her, not understanding.
"That's just in a nutshell, I would go into the more detailed if you want-"
"No thank you." Both replied at her.
Sylvia had recovered from the grief and glared at her.
"Whatever it is you're after, save it," Sylvia pushed the other two out of the way,
"We have to get Wander out of Dominator's grasp before it's too late."
Now it was Deena's turn to become puzzled,
"What are you talking about, he's right there." She pointed at RS Wander.
He folded his arms. "I'm not the one you want, mutt."
Deena gasped at the name-call.
"Rude! I'm here to help you all, Wander is the one I need to get the job done, you must've hit your heads or something, Wander is right here-"
The ship shook again, almost knocking them over. It subsided, as it became less shaky, everyone heard a beeping noise,
"What is that? Have we been found out?" Sylvia panicked, as well as the other two.
"No," Deena spoke, and the three of them looked at her.
"My transmitter is going off."
She looked at her forearm and switched off a watch-looking tool, confused.
"Transmitter for what?" Nate and Sylvia said at once.
"I put my tracking device on Wander here," She pointed at him, thus making him mad that she put something on him without his knowing.
"What?!" How could you?" He growled at her, looking to throw in a punch.
"But that can't be right!" Deena exclaimed, "It only goes off if the person I put it on is at a distance where I can't see them, so how-"
It went off again, this time more visible to everyone as it rapidly blinked blue on her arm.
"What's wrong with this? Is it broken?" She tapped on the face of the transmitter.
As soon as she raised it to turn it off, it went off again.
"Deena." Sylvia spoke.
"What?"
"It went off when your arm was at your side, and he's standing next to you." She pointed to Wander.
"What do you mean?"
"Hold it in that direction!" Sylvia pointed down the corridor.
Deena didn't question this time, and held out her transmitter,
It blinked and went off again, she watched it carefully. Then she put her arm down and it went silent.
"Keep doing it, you'll believe us when there's another Wander." Sylvia grinned with confidence.
She did as she was told, and each time she was shocked and glanced at RS Wander, and questioned why it wasn't going off on him and in some random place she didn't know.
"What does this mean?" Deena asked.
"The Wander you want, is out there. And he needs us." RS Wander put one hand on her arm.
She stared at him, wide-eyed, as it begun to sink in...
"I must be going crazy."
"You're not." Nate said suddenly.
"How would you know?" Deena grinned at him.
"Because I didn't believe it either, until now." He admitted, and giggled.
Nate being on their side completely, RS Wander was content seeing him so relaxed, and smiled with him.
"Two of them..." Deena ruffled her own hair.
"I shouldn't be surprised, I've seen a lot more weird things in this job."
"Yeah, yeah, can we go now?" Sylvia was becoming impatient.
"Before we do, Nate..." Wander tugged one of his tentacles, "Deena, will you stay here, and make sure he doesn't get hurt?"
She gasped, "Well, yes but I need to go with you and help retrieve the Wander I need."
"We'll get him, just stay here?" RW Wander begged.
Deena stood and folded her arms, thinking it over and taking glances at Nate, and after a moment made a sharp nod,
"Deal. I'll look after him, and you go get Wander. I wouldn't want a civilian to get dragged into this."
"Ah, it's not a big deal," Nate patted her back," I've already been dragged into this little adventure, the least I can do is support Wander."
Sylvia gasped at him. Nate and the other two wondered why; "Something wrong?" RS Wander asked.
"Um, it's nothing. Let's go!" Sylvia started to trail off and for a brief moment Wander glared at Deena,
"If anything happens to him, I will haunt you." He made his last warning to Deena, then followed after Sylvia.
"Nate." Sylvia stopped and called for him,
"Yes, Miss Sylvia?" He called out.
Almost teary-eyed, she smiled,
"Thank you for believing in him."
After separating, Sylvia and RS Wander went deeper into the ship, looking for signs of life.
"Hey, I know I'm gonna sound crazy..." Sylvia started, but paused.
"What? Say it." Wander replied, although disinterested.
"Probably me, but this place seems to be stretching itself."
"What do you mean?" Now, he looked at her.
"I don't remember it being this big. I know Dom's ship is almost a maze, but something's weird about it."
Wander rolled his eyes, "Yep, you're crazy."
"Hey!" She whipped her head to him, "You're supposed to agree with me!"
"I'm special, I don't need to agree." He posed a laid-back posture with his arms and stuck out his tongue.
She sighed loudly.
"I forgot you're not Wander."
"But I kinda get it." He input unexpectedly.
"Huh?"
"I think this place has been warped, and not in a good way." Wander stood and walked straighter, his eyes narrowed.
"I'm so afraid to tell you, and Nate." His voice almost whimpered.
Sylvia stopped, making him almost a tail behind... he noticed she had stopped and looked at her.
"Wander, are you scared?" She asks sympathetically.
No anger, but blush poured on his face.
"No! I'm not-"
"Oh grop." Sylvia appeared to be in search of something.
"What is it?" Wander raised an eye at her,
Sylvia pulled the hat he saw earlier, "I forgot I had Wander's hat with me and I thought I dropped it."
Luckily it stuck to her back, by whatever reason how, no one knew.
"Just dump it." Wander shrugged it off.
"NO way! You have any idea how much this hat means to him?"
"It's just a hat." He said flatly.
"Yeah sure, deny that it's magic and it helped you out in some way." She put her hands on her hips,
"I need someplace to hold it, and I can't wear it myself." She shrugged, defeated about what to do.
"It's not magic, that's just some kid's imagination would say." Wander argued.
"You're definitely helpful." Sylvia muttered.
"Well I'm not holding it." Wander pouted.
"I didn't say you should, but that's an option."
Sylvia gave in and put it on herself."Whaddya think?"
RS Wander stifled a laugh.
"You look ridiculous!" laughs and points at Sylvia
It made the shape of her face and skull goofy, that's what he found funny.
"Oh yeah?! I'd love to see how you look in it!"
Sylvia smirked and with no struggling she put it on Wanders head. He simply puckered his lips.
"Haha, funny."
He tried to take it off, but for some reason it wouldn't budge.
"Huh?! It's stuck!"
He pulled, and pulled making the outer socket stretch and it tugged painfully on his fur. Sylvia watched him struggle and laughed at his misery. He moved around trying to pull it off and then tried scratching it with only stub fingers as a way to make it fall.
"Get it off!"
The ship shook violently again, ending the comical sight, the two of them jumped, even the hat bounced off and fell to the floor.
"Come on!"
Sylvia picked up RS Wander, along with the hat, and dropped him on her back, he almost fell over and immediately tugged her reigns for support.
"I'm starting to recognize where we are, it's as if someone was purposefully throwing off my sense of direction!" She called back.
The same look of uncertainty fell on RS Wander, but she didn't see it this time, she focused on running.
"Wander!" She called.
She could hear her Wander's cries and yelling, they were so close! She even heard him call her name back. The more Sylvia ran, the louder and clearer she could pinpoint where to turn, she saw a corner turning to the right...
She spotted him just feet away, and he was on the floor,
"Wander!"
The overwhelming relief hit her, then to horror.
"S-Sylvia!"
Something was so wrong with Wander! He almost didn't look like himself, he was six times his size, fur disheveled, razor sharp fangs, and claws the size of kitchen knives. One of Wander's eyes rapidly transitioned from normal to black and green, and held one side of his face.
Wander held out his hand to her, "Please, help me."
Sylvia said nothing, too stunned in utter fear to do anything.
This is not my friend! He's a...
"Sylvia, we're not safe here."
RS Wander tried to hold her from getting near and took one look at the struggling Wander..
Both eyes met...It was like an inaudible signal between the both of them, only the two could hear what they said to each other...
"HELP me KILL..."
Wander unwillingly ordered RS Wander to follow his lead, his instincts drilling into the other's mind like mad locusts greedy for food, and made him fall to his knees.
"AAAAAAAAAAUGH!"
RS Wander held his head, trying to stop the subliminal message from continuing any further, he rocked back and forth.
"No, please! don't make me do it!" RS Wander whimpered like an injured dog.
Sylvia snapped out of her shock,
"Hey! What's wrong-? Why are you-"
Claws appeared and snapped out of his finger tips, RS Wander covered his mouth, pain arose from his gums and teeth, as fangs began to emerge.
"No, not here!" He continued to beg to some invisible person no one could see.
RS Wander's mind flashed a memory, Nate was trying to crawl away from him, and cowered. Only Nate was three years old...
Back into the present, the now Furnicle Wander continued to mentally attack him, ordering him to do his bidding.
"Either help me destroy, or I kill you." Wander growled, "What will it be?"
Now Sylvia was in full panic of the two. She backed away, and didn't notice until then she had backed into where Dominator was. Her foot touched her leg. She jumped, thinking something was going to attack and looked down.
Dominator was unconscious; her arm bleeding. Sylvia realized the shaped of the mark and wound on her arm was caused by none other than her former friend..
She squeezed her eyes shut, suppressing tears. She was so petrified.
"What do I do? We're going to die..."
"What's going on?!"
Sylvia opened her eyes to see Nate and Deena on the other side of the room, just as frazzled. But when they saw Wander, all mouths dropped.
"What the flarf..." Nate's eyes shrunk in terror.
Deena held her paws on her mouth to suppress a scream. She shook her head fearfully at the monster before them,
"No...it can't have come to this..!" She began to cry.
"Wander-!" Nate called for his guardian, who was still fending off the temptations to turn on his comrades. Nate tried to get to his side, but RS Wander held his sharply-clawed hand to stop him,
"Don't come near us!" He growled at them, making the two freeze, afraid to take another step.
The second nomad lifted one knee to support himself, and shakily stood up. He unwrapped the mace from his back, and let it drop side-up to the floor,
"W-Wander." He hissed,
The monster before him growled angrily and with disapproval, "Join me."
"If you're in there, and can hear this.." He tried to form his sentence,
RS Wander took the risk of looking into his eyes again, but it was the only way..and it forced his own eyes darken to black and blue irises. Tightening his fists, he declared:
"FIGHT it! Only you can help yourself. If I can hold back the thing that can easily hurt the one's I care about, you can too!"
The other three witnessed an astonishing sight, the fully-formed Furnicle appeared to hold back on attacking and restrained his arm, and whined..
"FIGHT IT!" RS Wander put every ounce of mental strength into his emotions to bring him back. It was one of the few things he could control; his emotions, he hoped Wander would get the message.
"LET ME GO!" Wander cried in agony,
He let out his roar, trying to find relief in his confusion and despair...
A white room.
Wander laying down face first onto a hard floor. He moved his hands and then legs. His eyes hurt from the brightness of the place, and felt groggy. He supported himself up and looked around, but it was just an empty, white void.
"Hello?"
The only reply was the echo of his own voice, it made him feel isolated alone.
Wander walked around to see if there was something he could find and get out. Until he heard the sounds of air moving;
He turned to find a small black hole, with air going into it.
Then he panicked,
"A black hole! I gotta get out of here!"
He ran in an attempt to get away before possibly being sucked in, but he bumped into something and fell.
"OOFH!"
He looked to see what stopped him... and slowly gazed upwards.
"There you go, running away like a coward. It really doesn't help."
A replica of Wander stood over him, arms folded with a dull face. His green hat sat on his head.
"Long time, no glad I haven't seen ya."
Wander at this point, wasn't too surprised he was seeing another one of himself, but stared confused.
The other one's eyes glowed with white light.
"It's me."
"I thought you were gone." Wander smiled.
Mirror Wander ticked his head in annoyance,
"Please, I can't die if you're living." He made a dirty look at him then frowned, "And why are you so happy? You do know you're not going to live long-"
Wander scooped him up and hugged him. Which ultimately confused his reflection.
"I know you don't like me very much, and I forgive you for everything you did, you just needed some help." Wander said closely to his ear.
Mirror Wander pushed him off,
"You're insane if you think we're friends, but that's not important right now, I, no...WE have to-"
The floor under them rumbled and shook, clusters of the room fell and broke into pieces, and each of them a black empty space sucked in the air into them.
"What is going on?!" Wander cried, obviously panicked.
Mirror Wander stayed close to him and stood up against his host's back,
"It might be too late." He growled; he sounded angry, but Wander had paid attention, he could feel that under his spiteful interior, he was scared.
"What should we-"
Wander stopped mid-sentence as his body began to convulse with pain. He yelled and fell to the breaking floor.
"Grop!" his other self cursed, helplessly staring down at Wander.
Wander felt the temptations and hunger getting stronger by the second, eyes dark-colored again, and claws returning. "What do I do? Please, help!"
Mirror Wander was torn, between helping him, or going by his instincts. But if he stood there and let Wander's heart and mind crumble, he too would cease to exist.
For now, he decided to listen to his heart and help...
"Right now, you're shattering. If you don't consume something to eat, we both go. There's only one way..."
More pieces fell, more air blew around them like a strong thunderstorm, Mirror Wander brought his arms closer to Wander's, ripping some fur off and exposing pink skin.
"Eat me."
Wander thought he misheard at first, but knew he didn't. His eyes widened in shock.
"HURRY! There isn't much time left! Don't worry about my consequences." Mirror Wander shouted at the top of his lungs, "Just worry about you!"
Wander thoughts raced, he had no idea in what shape and form by eating himself would help, he knew the moment he discovered this other side of his personality, he only wanted to hurt others, including Sylvia. His eyes stung from the air whipping around as well as the morphing change of colors in his irises, making it hard to think clearly. At this point he too, was just as scared, and it bred distrust of this Wander. But needed to do something, and for now he put aside all doubt...
"I believe you." Wander said softly.
The wind was so loud at the point you couldn't hear yourself talk, but somehow Mirror Wander heard him.
"Do it."
The space was now near black, only part of the floor kept them up, the Wander offering himself however; remained perfectly still, and Wander struggled to hold on tight, but he no longer was conflicted with himself:
He bit him.
Immediately a change happened to both of them, and the space around them: The wind stopped, but somehow proceeded to suck in everything into nowhere, the room became lighter, to blinding, and Wander's eyes returned to normal...he took another bite, and crimson seeped out of his mouth and into his face and his own hands.
Mirror Wander smiled mischievously.
He continued to scream in despair, until beams of light surrounded Furnicled-Wander, seeping in random parts of his body, his messy fur began to fall off, fangs and claws began to shrink back to their original size. Wander also began to become smaller, and smaller. Even though it appeared to be over and he was going back to how he was, everyone still kept their guard up, preparing for any means of attack.
The only one who didn't, was RS Wander, he watched weakly, but with pride of what was happening. He closed one eye shut, as to not reveal his transformed eye, the other one black and white. He couldn't fully stand by himself, so he sat on one knee.
"I knew you could do it." He smirked.
Wander was now back to his original height, smoke arose from his surroundings, as they saw him lay-face down. He didn't move, no one could tell if he was still breathing or alive.
"Is it over..? I was trying to sleep."
Everyone looked at Dominator, who had watched it all unravel. She managed to sit up right, while clinging to her injured arm that Wander had given her.
"What a freak. And I thought I had issues." She snorted rudely.
Sylvia wasn't far from her, literally less than five feet where Dominator sat, and has been silent since arriving in the room and Wander reformed back to normal. RS Wander took notice at how she didn't react to Dominator's insult at Wander, but he put that aside. The mental strain took a toll on his strength, and he let himself lay flat down.
Everyone else somewhat relaxed a little more, feeling assured it was over. Nate went over to his once-guardian and peered him down.
"Having fun yet?" He teased.
"A flarfin blast." RS Wander said flatly, he blew a tuft of his fur out of his face.
"Well, jokes aside, what do we do with him?" Nate turned his attention to Wander still laying lifeless.
"Just hope he wakes up and isn't trying to make me "do that" ever again." RS Wander put some fingers on his temple to sooth the headache he had.
"What about you, Deena?"
Deena who also had been watching carefully, wasn't in the same spot as she was before.
"Miss Deena?"
Nate looked around, and thought maybe she ran off, but then... spotted her to where other Wander was.
"Oh, there you are, I was beginning to worry-"
Deena revealed to hold a weapon in her paw, and held it right above Wander's head!
RS Wander had stopped laying down and saw her threaten him with it. The other three, including Dominator watched Deena begin to activate whatever the weapon she had and held one finger on the trigger, she glanced at the two from behind, one tear clung under her eye, almost beginning to fall.
"I'm so sorry. The circumstances didn't change like I was desperately hoping it would."
TO BE CONT.
"He has to be exterminated."