Chapter Text
Time was irrelevant in this pocket dimension.
Hater wished he knew how long he’d been trapped here in the Pit of Perpetual Pain with no real company other than the singular individual he hated most in the entire galaxy. But it seemed there was no such luck for him. He watched the annoying little furball bounce right up to him once again, with that little glint in his eye that Hater despised, and a bright, warm, sugary sweet smile.
He thought they were friends.
But there was nothing but hate in these bones.
Yet for now, he’d have to put up the facade in order to avoid getting a side order of knuckle sandwich from the very prisoners he’d thrown down here. It was humiliating.
Wander was already yapping before even coming a few feet from Hater. He seemed to notice the look on the skeleton’s face.
“Aw Hater, cheer up! I know this situation ain’t seem the most appealin’ and, this place may appear pretty drab n’ dreary, but look on the bright side! At least we’re here together! And I’m sure there’s more here to find than just death and bones, if yer lookin’ in the right place!..” He paused, waiting for Hater to respond. When he didn’t, he prompted,
“Wanna come with me and explore?!”
Hater grunted and was prepared to give an "absolutely not,” until suddenly remembering the unseen threat of those banished here turning against him. Every time he thought he was alone there always seemed to be someone lurking around every corner, waiting to scrutinize his every decision, and turn against him if he didn’t play along with Wander’s sappy nonsense. In Hater’s rightful opinion, every single one of them deserved to be down here for that reason alone.
With no other choice he stuttered,
“Y-Yes, yes, of course I do, ffffrieeend…” That last word was dragged and insincere, but the fool bought it with his stupid little beaming grin of approval.
“C’mon, Hater,” He held out an orange paw and beckoned with dumb shiny eyes, “enough sittin’ ‘round, lets go have some fun together!”
Hater hesitated, but eventually brought his hand forward and awkwardly held on. Wander’s paw was so small and fluffy, gentle and delicate in a way that made Hater wonder how this little fuzzball was the guy that was responsible for derailing so many of his plans.
But he knew better than to fall for Wander’s small and unassuming position. He knew very well what this conniving nomad was capable of. No matter what harm Hater tried to cause the nuisance, it always seemed to backfire somehow.
Even the very event of ending up in this place was no different. Another disaster in the long line of things that were all Wander’s fault.
Wander led the two out and away, skipping and rambling excitedly as he guided them through the barren landscape of jagged rocks that jutted out against the wispy sky. He yapped excitedly as if this place was something akin to a carnival, pointing and gawking at every minute detail with cheerful sappy excitement. There wasn’t even much here to take note of besides endless spikes and bones, yet Wander treated everything like it was brand new.
Hater was almost amused by how dumb and oblivious one must be to see any sort of beauty in such a horrible wasteland of eternal torment. He knew this realm was forged with the very essence of pure evil, malevolent malice, used for chucking people he didn’t like mercilessly into its depths, and yet the little goody-two-shoes do-gooder Wander still managed to try and force a positive into all this!!!
Of course he did! Why wouldn’t he?
“Oh, look over there!” Wander pointed yet again to probably another nonspecific formation of rocks out in the distance, but this time, Hater looked up to see something that actually caught his attention as well. Wander’s finger trailed up to a particularly tall spire in the distance that stuck out against the landscape compared to the others.
It wasn’t really anything all that interesting, but he supposed it was something somewhat intriguing compared to empty jagged stretches of nothing that’d single-handedly littered the skyline prior. Still, it’s not like it was anything worthy of Wander’s unrelenting fascination, and Hater couldn’t help but snap back,
“That thing looks dumb.” They were far away enough from the main area that he felt it was safe to voice his true feelings now.
“Aw Hater, I know you don't mean that! And I bet ya’ the view from up there is fantastic!”
The view? Wander wasn’t actually considering climbing that thing, was he? You’d have to be insane to even consider-
“-race ya’ to the top~”
“OH IT IS ON!!!”
The moment Hater was challenged by Wander in that infuriating little sing-song tease, The two were off sprinting, Wander giggling joyously in the lead with an enraged screaming Hater on his tail. All the anger and hatred he’d been pushing down throughout this whole incident came spilling up, threats and insults spewed from his mouth as the chase ensued, and to his frustration, it seemed that no matter how hard he ran, he couldn’t manage to catch up enough to pass Wander.
It seemed at that moment, with every fiber of his being, that this was the singular most important possible achievement. Hater knew that in the grand scheme of things, this was all irrelevant, but every time the image of Wander’s gleeful victorious grin flashed in his mind, it made something within him snap. It was a deep boiling rage that he couldn’t control, the desperate desire to see the fuzzball lose after all he’d caused.
Wander had a way of making him lose sight of everything like that.
In Hater’s mind, all repercussions were void. Pure desire drove him to insanity.
The two ran up and up and up, climbing and sprinting to the peak of the spire. By the time Hater made the final stretch, spiraling up and swinging around to see the stature of Wander standing patiently up there in front of him, He dived at him in a blind rage.
Wander ducked out of instinct, sending Hater flying over and yelping in terror as he flew off the edge. He was suspended in a fall for a few terrifying moments, tumbling and clawing frantically at the flying wall of stone and sand that whizzed by until he eventually managed to snag a branch, snapping his eyes shut as everything suddenly came to a startling halt.
Hater's electric green heart was thundering wildly against his ribcage. He slowly opened his eyes to see a spoon of a silhouette peering over the ledge. The fall wasn’t even all that far, not nearly as far as it felt, but still not close enough for either to reach to the other’s hand…
….which was a good thing actually! Yes, yes, a good thing. Hater didn’t want to hold Wander’s stupid fluffy little hand any more than he had to anyways! This was just a small obstacle! just a stupid wall of rock and stone! He could climb up himself!
Hater gathered all his strength and dug his claws into the stone, pulling up and scratching away at it in a messy climb. The gritty gravel and sand dug under his fingertips and crumbled away in heaps of dust, but he remained latched on, clawing and straggling as more slipped away. Minutes of this went by, and his bones began to ache with the effort, but he persevered. A true villain never gives up until they achieve total victory. His feet kicked at the slope, his arms trembled with every lift as he heaved himself up the cliff face. The angle was inclining sharper and sharper now, till it was near 90 degrees.
Then, by some miracle, a rope fell beside him. Hater blinked. He was in disbelief. He reached out with instinctive rejoice, until it suddenly hit him who had to be holding it.
He tilted up to see Wander smiling over the edge, the rope falling from his hand.
Hater flinched away and shouted in outrage,
“NO!!! No, I don’t need help from you!!” He batted the rope away, but it wouldn’t give up dangling in his face.
RRRRGH FINE HE’D JUST IGNORE IT THEN
He crawled up another push, but it was becoming increasingly more difficult. His grip was slipping, and his limbs were trembling and aching from supporting his massive body weight. But no, he couldn’t just give up like that and let Wander win.
“Hater, come on! I’m jus’ tryn’a help ya!” Wander called down and tugged gently on the rope.
“I DON’T NEED THAT!! Get it outta my face!!” He batted away at the stupid pesky rope in his way again.
“It’d be a lot easier than doin’ it on yer own!”
“No no no! Stop it!”
Of course, of COURSE!!!
Of course Wander had to be all Wander-y about this and wouldn’t accept No for an answer! Well guess what!?! Hater wasn’t gonna accept YES for an answer!!! He pulled up again, swatting at the rope, but this time, it didn’t work out so smoothly. In the process of lightly loosening his grip for a split second, The wall took its opportunity to crumble away again in a massive flurry of gravel and dust from underneath him, and this time, Hater slipped with it. He yelped and the peak went rushing up and away from him again. He flailed and scratched as he slid down down down, until finally his hands hit something, and he locked around it in a death grip. With wide terrified eyes, his gaze fell on the exact same branch he’d clung to before. And with it, the rope again.
He was livid.
In an Instant, Hater was clawing and digging at the cliffside again, this time with a burning fervor of rage. He was sore, exhausted, and furious. He scrabbled up and up, over and over again, sliding back down each time, clawing and grunting as each step up turned into 3 steps down. The rope still dangled tauntingly.
Stupid rope, STUPID ROPE!!!
He grabbed at the rope and yanked it furiously, strangling it as if it was responsible for every single thing that went wrong in his life.
And then the rope yanked back. In an instant, Hater went flying up and landed in a heap at the top of the cliff.
He sat there for a few moments, dazed and trying to process what just happened.
“Whew, Finally! See Hater, I told ya’! Look at what’cha can accomplish with the power of teamwork!”
Hater growled and brushed the dust off his cloak. Oh, the things he was about to do to-
“Oh hey, is that a river?!”
“I DON’T CARE!! I’M GONNA-”
But Wander was already bolting down the cliffside, too far away for Hater to hear.
.Grop, how was he so fast?!!
Hater kicked into action and slid down after him, a continuation of the prior chase.
A few minutes later, the small winding path of water in the distance was a raging road of rapids a few feet away, and Wander halted at its ledge with a screech. An exhausted Hater stopped and stumbled trying to catch his breath. He looked, a bit dazed, into the rushing river. In this place, he would’ve expected the liquid to be like, acid, or something, but no, it just appeared to be regular water. Well, as regular as it could be when it was raging and gushing like it was. Hater supposed he did remember that snow storm from a day or two ago. This place could be unpredictable in all sorts of ways.
It lapped and roared at the edges and there was a small ledge that fell off into its tumultuous depths.
Hater forgot all his anger and backed away slowly. He’d had enough ledges for today.
Wander was at a standstill.
Great! Maybe Hater could take this opportunity to sprint as far away as possible! He was just about to do so, when a tug at his cloak stopped him in his tracks.
“Hater, look!”
He whipped back around to the sight of Wander glancing longingly back and forth between him and then the center of the river. Hater didn’t see anything, and turned back around to try walking away again.
“Where are you going, there's somebody in trouble!” Wander exclaimed. He swerved around and spun an annoyed Hater towards the water again. This time he actually spotted it.
There, in the middle of the river, was a small cute and fuzzy creature shivering and clinging to a rock. It had floppy little ears and massive shiny wet eyes that swam with terror. It was falling and kicking repeatedly against the water, sopping wet and pathetic. Hater was confused for a second, because he knew that there was no natural wildlife down here, but then he vaguely remembered tossing it in here for being dumb and stupid and annoying. And also because it tried to snatch the keys to his ship, but mostly because it was dumb and stupid and annoying. And Wander was now going to foolishly try and save the stupid creature.
Of course.
He was still carrying that rope from earlier, and now it served as a lasso.
It looped above his head and then dived out towards the water and fell around the creature’s tiny shivering body. It was at that split moment that a memory flashed in Hater’s mind. The other reason he’d banished that thing here-
While, yes, initially it had, of course, just been because he found its stupidity and pathetic-ness insufferable, he’d found out quite quickly while trying to wrestle that little demon up and grab it that there was another side to its face of fluff-
And now from across the river, he watched it unfold again, One by one spines flaring across its arching back, and rows of razor teeth curled up in a snarl. Its fur flared and its face scrunched up in feral rage.
Then it yanked and pulled at the rope, putting it and Wander in a tight game of tug-of-war. The furball seemed unphased.
“Whew! You’re a feisty one, ain’tch ya?”
Instead of running like he’d initially planned, Hater decided he’d stay and watch, at least for a little bit. This was far more entertaining than he imagined.
He, of course, did know in all likelihood that Wander would probably be victorious in the end, and save the stupid creature and probably tame it with the power of love or something dumb like that, but at least Hater would hopefully get to watch him struggle for a few minutes before it happened. That was a bit satisfying at least. Better than whatever else he’d be doing on his own in this wasteland
But unfortunately, it seemed their little tussle would come to an end quite quickly. The creature, with the rope still attached, kicked off the side of the rock and flew towards the edge, scrabbling up and making it safely to land all on its own.
Except there was one small problem-
The side it fled to was the one opposite to where Wander and Hater stood. And Wander was still hanging onto the rope.
It all happened in a blur, one moment, the nomad was tugging tightly and shuffling backwards, the next, tumbling and plunging into the rapids, becoming a smear of orange that vanished between the dark roiling waves. His hat flew off and was abandoned back on land.
Hater was stunned. The sight he’d just witnessed almost didn’t feel real.
He’d only caught a glimpse of Wander’s face before it’d been swallowed under, and in the nomad’s eyes, he’d seen real fear. Real, genuine, terror, a fleeting glint of something Hater’d rarely, if ever, witnessed from him before. He thought that it would’ve felt good, he thought he would’ve felt victorious at that moment, but instead, something else flared up inside. Some unidentified twinge that made Hater second guess everything and stare hollowly at the roaring water.
That had felt…. Anticlimactic, almost.
He’d just watched his worst enemy, the singular person he’d been trying to get rid of for well over a year now, plunge in an instant to his demise- Just like that.
And Hater hadn’t even had to do anything at all.
Wait– that was it. HE hadn’t gotten to do anything himself, had he?
Hater rationalized this as the reason he felt this sudden burst of- of- some other weird emotion that wasn’t joyous victory at Wander’s demise. This stupid river thought it could take all the credit for getting rid of his most hated enemy??
Hater was just about ready to show this river what it had coming when he caught glimpses of an orange blur of fluff poking through the water, thrashing and flailing against the current and being sucked back underneath it just as quickly as it had appeared.
Wander was alive.
Hater slapped a palm to his face.
Of flarping course he was still alive!! Why did Hater even think for a second that he wouldn’t be? The darn furball was near impossible to get rid of.
He was alive, but he wasn’t okay. He was still in danger-
Hater didn’t care at all about Wander or anything dumb like that, but nobody was allowed to destroy Hater’s most hated enemy but him.
Also if any of the guys down here knew he’d gone off with Wander, and then he returned without him, they’d immediately suspect he’d done something and then he’d be in trouble for sure.
This was the line of thinking that led Hater to doing possibly one of the stupidest things he’d ever attempted. He dived headfirst right into a violent current of rapid water just to save the one person he hated the most