Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stars.

Too many stars to count, twinkling in the distance and dancing with various gasses to create a rainbow of colors against a backdrop many would see as a void, but Wander and Sylvia knew better. As the duo relaxed in their orbal bubble, lollygagging towards yet another planet, they were treated to the latest in a long line of dazzling cosmic phenomena on their journey. But always, it seemed like the stars reflected in Wander’s eyes the brightest, easily his favorite feature of their long voyages through the universal sea. Sylvia could tell because they’d get him to stare in silence for a few seconds before he’d continue his barrage of gab that only usually stopped when they used the downtime to take a nap.

"Wow… I’ve never seen stars like these before!" And truly, that was quite the statement coming from Wander. "Have you Syl?"

"Can’t say I have. If you haven’t, I probably haven’t," the zboknak replied, tempted to add how she didn’t pay much attention to things like this until she’d gotten her enthusiastic companion.

He seemed to read her mind. “You remember how we met, right?”

Sylvia rolled her eyes. Of course she did. Wander had asked her that before far too often for her taste; it was a tale he seemed to look fondly back on but one she found mortifying. From his point of view, he’d simply made a dear friend on yet another planet. Sylvia, on the other hand, had a clearer view of the entire story.

"And you’re sure you didn’t add an extra zero? Or ten, for that matter?”

Sylvia’s client confirmed the price on the other end of the line, his voice deep and intentionally scrambled, before hanging up without so much as a “good luck,” leaving her to stare at the bounty poster again.

Sylvia was far from one to complain about being paid well enough to take an extravagant year-long vacation, her career as a bounty hunter taken less out of her desire for violence (although she did occasionally enjoy punching chuckleheads faces in) and more out of necessity. After all, her other option was to return to her “home” galaxy and deal with anything from passive-aggressive stares to full-on violence, depending on where she landed. With her temper, one usually lead to the other in short order anyway.

Her galaxy hadn’t always been so xenophobic, but Sylvia had been too young to remember the golden years first hand. Her elder refugees would tell her of when Zborna was inhabitable - before what was known as the Great Implosion. They said a gigantic black hole had appeared one day and had just… eaten everything. And then the black hole had vanished, like a bubble popping. Those who were lucky enough to escape with their lives crowded on surrounding planets, creating a population boom and a war over resources.

Sylvia wasn’t sure she believed there had ever been a black hole. The idea of one just coming and vanishing as quickly with so much still around to fuel it seemed like a fairy tale. More likely, Sylvia theorized, that was the story told to children so they would believe the war wasn’t anyone’s fault. But Sylvia had seen enough darkness in the universe to know living beings were selfish. They’d break their own toys and then try to take somebody else’s when they could have fixed them just as easily. More likely, Zborna was still out there called by a new, less notable title, waiting for the elders to head back and hold themselves accountable for whatever havoc they’d reeked on their home planet.

She continued to stare at the poster. Even if the client did insist on having their bounty alive, the offer seemed far too high for this guy.

This.. orange lollypop with a smile that took up half his face, and a gigantic hat dwarfing him even further.

Sylvia had a feeling her client was hiding something from her, and secrets always had the potential to get her killed.

Chapter Text

If this excursion turned out to be a dead end, Sylvia's next headhunt would be going after her bozo of a lead.

Thousands of gallons of lava bubbled in the lake before her, heating several feet of the surrounding rock enough that standing on it was just as dangerous as trying to take a swim. Even far enough from the lake to safely stand, steam leaked out of vents and cracks in the rock, brushing Sylvia's face and adding to the sweat pouring off of her. Minutes after her arrival on the planet Fogo, already felt wrung out from all the fluids she'd lost.

Fogo was easily the hottest planet Sylvia had ever visited, a massive desert dotted with volcanoes and lakes like this one that had been burning steady for centuries. Even the planet's most livable territories never saw temperatures below 90 degrees.

But it still could have been worse - Sylvia could have been her ship.

Before Sylvia's ship had made it very far in Fogo's baking atmosphere, the heat had proven too much for the experienced single-passenger ship. The old vessel's engine finally gave out and Sylvia made a leap to safety with her backpack, leaving her ship to splat into the lava lake. After checking her pack to make sure she had her rations, various supplies, and enough weapons to take down something five times her size, she watched the remains of her ship melt away.

After so many years of service, it didn't seem right for the vessel to meet such a gruesome fate, but it helped to imagine she was performing a burial at sea. A sea that just happened to be on fire.

Her positive spin on the situation shattered with the ship's gas tank. The tank abruptly exploded and Sylvia ducked to dodge several pieces of shrapnel.

Ohhhh yeah, she'd definitely use this bounty to take a vacation. A vacation somewhere freezing. Once she'd heard of a planet that was so cold, it was one big ski resort. That sounded like a blast.

"Oh my lands! Are you alright Ma'am?"

Sylvia nearly jumped out of her skin, not often one to be snuck up upon, and her eyes only grew wider when she turned to see who'd addressed her.

Her bounty.

Not only was the orange lollypop actually on this rock, but he had walked right up to her in the middle of one of Fogo's most dangerous regions. He looked exactly like his wanted poster, except he sported a worried frown instead of a goofy grin. "I saw a ship falling from the sky, and not a moment after I figure out where it landed, boom!" His imitation of the gas tank exploding was far too loud on Sylvia's ears, which were still tender from the real thing. Her head spun and she placed a hand on her forehead, letting one of her eyes rest while the other remained on her target trying to assess what she was dealing with. The lollipop seemed to mistake her calculating silence with confusion. "Oh, where did my manners mosey off to?"

Ah, there was the grin from the poster.

"Name's Wander, and I've been sightseeing on this here planet for a few days now. Aren't these lakes just the most amazing thing?" He pulled a camera from his hat, snapped a picture of the lake, and returned said camera to his hat so quickly Sylvia might have missed it if she'd blinked.

Amazing? What was so amazing about a bunch of melted rocks? Sure, maybe the way the red and orange lava swirled and glowed among the pitch-black obsidian was kind of...

Wait, no. No. There was nothing amazing about the crazy lake that had eaten her ship. She was about the protest when her target continued yapping. "I'm betting you could use a breather after what you just went through, am I right? If you like, I can help you back to the nearest town. There's the nicest people and this little hole-in-the-wall everyone says has the coldest drinks this side of Fogo! What d'ya say?" Andfinally, he shut up, awaiting her answer, but Sylvia couldn't form a response. During the long maze of leads she'd traversed to find this guy, Sylvia had theorized extensively on the reason for such a generous bounty offer. All of these theories had stemmed from the idea that the lollypop's innocent look was a far cry from his personality. But instead of a cold-blooded killer, a miniature demon in disguise, or even a mischievous intergalactic prankster, Wander seemed to be even more jubilant and friendly than she'd have expected if she'd taken his posted at face value.

But was that a bad thing? If the little guy was so trusting he'd travel alone with someone he'd just met, she could go to the town with him, find a way to contact her client, and continue to play along with the whole instant-friends thing until there was money changing hands. This would be the easiest vacation she'd ever earned. "Sure, alright. Lead the way and we can try that hole-in-the-wall you mentioned for dinner tonight."

Wander cringed and looked away from Sylvia. "Weeelllll actually, reaching town will be more of a 'tomorrow afternoon' thing." Sylvia visibly slumped, but Wander's grin returned as quickly as it had gone. "But don't you worry a thing! There are tons of amazing sights to see along the way!"

"...Right." Wander's definition of 'amazing' seemed opposite her own and gave her no comfort. What didn't this guy find amazing? Lint? "Let's just get going."

"Yes'm! Oh, wait!"

Before Sylvia could ask 'what now?' she felt herself become lighter. In one fluid motion, Wander snatched Sylvia's backpack and stuffed it into his hat. "Let me take that heavy load off you, friend!"

She twitched as he walked ahead. She'd just let her target steal every weapon to her name with a single swing of his arm. It all made sense now - Wander may have actedall adorable and sweet, but deep down he must have been a conniving little weasel who planned to backstab her with her own knife.

The world made sense again. After all, nobody was that positive.

Chapter Text

Sylvia had only been traveling with Wander for five hours, but it felt like they should have reached town yesterday. While the zbornak was no longer standing right next to a lake of lava, sweat continued to seep from every pore, making her feel disgusting, and no amount of water kept a fuzzy static from curling around the zbornak’s brain.

Then again, was her brain garbled from the heat, or from her target’s incessant babbling? Wander had spent their entire trip so far pointing out volcanos that all looked the same to Sylvia. Wander insisted otherwise, pointing out some unique detail in each fiery mountain and remembering stories from his adventures on countless other planets that only made him stop to catch his breath even less. 

He never asked Sylvia for a ride, even though it would have made both traveling and backstabbing easier. Instead, he skipped along in front of Sylvia, taking his role as the tour guide comedically seriously.

Not that Sylvia would have given Wander a ride had he asked. She was not anybody’s steed - not even if they paid her. And there had been a few offers from spoiled rich kids who saw her as some rare vehicle and had no qualms with enslaving another intelligent species. 

“So, Sylvia, how long will you be sticking around this fine planet?”

“I just have to… run an errand, and then I'm booking it as fast as I can.”

“Isn’t traveling for your job the best?” Wander asked, as if he could relate. 

“‘Job’? Weren’t you just talking about how you run around the universe goofing off every day?” Between the heat and Wander being a walking cacophony, Sylvia was getting too cranky to avoid dripping her usual sarcasm. Thankfully, Wander didn’t seem the least bit offended with her quip.

“Nnnnnnope. I mean, yeah, I get to see the universe and it’s awesome!” He squealed. Sylvia rolled her eyes. “But I have a super important job, and that’s collecting memories and making lots of folks happy!”

There was no way this twerp was for real, Sylvia told herself yet again.

“Why, you must love to travel as much as I do, being so far from the galaxies bordering where Zborna used to be!”

Wander’s latest comment stuck out from everything else he’d said in the past five hours - he couldn’t have gotten her attention better if he’d let off a firecracker next to her ear. She stopped walking and her eyes widened as she stared at her target. Wander, not hearing Sylvia’s footsteps anymore, turned to check on his traveling companion. He looked concerned even before he saw Sylvia’s expression - he’d realize the implications of his words as soon as they left his mouth. 

Wander walked back over to Sylvia, looking like a foot had been taken off his already tiny frame. He stared at the ground and took off his hat, wringing the fabric as he selected his next words with more caution. “I… I’m sorry Sylvia. That wasn’t a very nice thing for me to dig on up, was it?”

Truthfully, Sylvia was more surprised than hurt by Wander bringing up such a dark topic. She was surprised the little guy even knew about where Zborna… ‘used to be’? This moron didn’t believe the black-hole thing too, did he? Somehow, Sylvia had expected her well-traveled target to be smarter than that. 

Sylvia chuckled dryly. “Let me guess - you went to Zborna for ‘work’ once too, right?” she asked, hoping the joke could ease both of their minds. Sure enough, Wander grinned and Sylvia felt lighter. 

“You know it!”

...What.

“I’m sorry to say I don’t remember much about it, but I remember a lot of relaxed zbornaks and little streams…” He kept describing little fragments of a memory like the elders would back home - the stories, however vague, matched. “It really is a shame I can’t go see it again and get some of those memories back…” He shrunk with his last sentence, worried he’d stepped on Sylvia’s toes again.

However, Sylvia had no brainpower available to be upset with Wander, between handling the nostalgia for a place she remembered even less than Wander chipping at her heart and dealing with the ludicrous factoid that Wander was significantly older than her.

“…Yeah, well,” she said, trying to brush off the whole thing, “space work can be fun, I guess. It helps me feel like less of a waste of space.”

She wanted to kick herself as soon as the words left her mouth. The heat was frying her brain like an egg if she thought that voicing her deep-running refugee’s insecurity was a good idea. The last thing she needed was for her opponent to have something he could use against her, and Wander’s gasp at this information seemed to confirm that he was intrigued. 

But what Wander said next didn’t make any attempt at exploiting this. At bringing her down. At doing any harm to her whatsoever. 

“Sylvia… Why would you ever think that you’re a waste of space?”

That tore it. Sylvia let her scrambled brain and its equally scrambled emotions crash through any strategic thought and she growled. At first, Wander’s little sweet-and-positive act had been making her job easier, but now it was just patronizing. “Oh, don’t give me that clueless frown. You already said you knew about Zborna.”

That reminder changed nothing in Wander’s disapproving expression. “Now Sylvia,” his tone was on the cusp of scolding, and made Sylvia feel like a child, only enraging her further, “I’ve been a lot of places, and I gotta say - in my professional opinion - that you have a bad case of stinkin’ thinkin’.” She didn’t have a chance to ask what he was getting at before he continued his gentle rant.

“Not once - not in all the galaxies - have I ever met anybody who didn’t matter.”

Sylvia’s rage drained from her faster than her sweat had been for the past five hours. 

She tried to repeat her mantra in her mind - that there was no way Wander was actually like this. That nothing he said could be taken as face value. Nobody was this positive. Nobody was this friendly. Nobody was so kind to a stranger. The light that shone from Wander was artificial and would be switched off under the right circumstances. 

But all of Sylvia’s fabricated warnings that had been echoing in her head were beginning to fade, exhausted. The little, compassionate smile Wander was giving her and the sentence it had come with had a sincerity and warmth that she’d never seen even the craftiest bounty fake. It pierced her and made her feel queasy - like her heart was being squeezed. 

“…Right,” was all Sylvia said as she started back on their course towards the city, trying to forget that she was experiencing all the telltale symptoms of guilt.

Chapter Text

Sylvia grabbed her canteen from over Wander's shoulder - the nomad had insisted on carrying everything for his companion, even if it wasn't practical to keep in his hat - and took a large gulp. It was finally nighttime, and water actually brought some vitality with it rather than being sweated out almost instantly. Still, the active volcanoes nearby kept it from feeling like a genuine desert night. Gusts of hot wind would hit Sylvia and remind her how much she hated this planet, but the molten rock also lit everything in a dim orange hue. With a light source, her and Wander could keep traveling until they became too exhausted to continue. Sylvia had long since reached her second wind, and she wasn't sure if Wander slept at all. If they could somehow reach town before Sylvia got sleepy, she could avoid all the challenges of trying to rest with a bounty in tow.

But soon, they reached a sign for the bridge that was a shortcut over a permanent river of lava. Instead they found a second, brand-new lava spout; an overflowing river; and the remains of a historic bridge burning into nothing.

Of course.

Sylvia was long past being surprised by bad news, but Wander looked at the mess before them and scratched his head. "I'm not gonna lie to ya, Syl. Without that bridge I'm not really sure which way we're headed."

'Syl'?

'Syl'?

What about their interactions, Sylvia wondered, had given Wander the idea that it was alright to nickname her? And why was she letting Wander being, well, Wander bother her more than being lost in such extreme weather? Wander may have been resistant to dehydration, barely sipping any of his own water the entire trip, but Sylvia would use up her water reserves sooner than later, and asking Wander to share anything with her was out of the question.

"Okay, my turn to play tour guide," Sylvia said. Wander perked up instantly - his apparent level of trust in Sylvia freaked her out, "we walk upstream, around the other side of the lava spout, and rework our course from-" Sylvia heard a voice that wasn't Wander's interrupt her.

Two voices, in fact, echoed in the distance and moved towards them. Sylvia recognized both.

She grabbed Wander and ducked behind the nearest heap rock that wasn't on fire and closed her eyes to augment her hearing. She didn't need to look out from their hiding place to match the bickering voices to Lyle and Arma.

Lyle Scoobak and Arma Simon were both particularly notorious bounty hunters - the more harm a job could do to somebody innocent, the more excited it made them. Lyle was of the beetoid species, only about a foot tall including antennae that were the same height as the rest of him. He'd found hundreds of ways to use his easy-to-miss size to his advantage. Arma was - Sylvia wasn't exactly sure of the name of Arma's species, but all anybody really needed to know was that she was snake-like and six feet long. As dangerous as them being around was, the zbornak got the mental image of the vastly different bounty hunters working together, standing next to one another and had to hold in a chuckle. The only thing the unlikely duo had in common was how loud and crass they both were. The sterile version of their conversation went something like this:

"I'M DYING."

"Yer not dyin'."

"I AM. IT'S LIKE THIS ENTIRE PLANET IS UNDER A GIANT MAGNIFYING GLASS."

"Ya? Well, ahm col' blooded. Suck it up."

"Cold blooded? How is that a problem?"

"...Yer a moron."

As Lyle and Arma passed, going the opposite direction the hiding duo was planning to, Sylvia tried to figure out what scenario would driveany two bounty hunters together. The reward would have have to be massive. The quest would have to be risky. Like if... Like if...

...Like if a very rich client seeking an energetic orange fuzzball had gotten impatient waiting on the bounty hunter he'd hired to come through, and had posted the job and massive reward publicly to be fought over.

That little flarging scuzzmonkey.

As Sylvia waited for her rivals to travel a safe distance away, she mental ran through the full spectrum of Zbornian profanity.

After Wander and Sylvia made their way around the lava flow, the terrain smoothed out significantly. While a few caves and buttes still sprinkled the now sandy landscape, overall it was a more traditional desert than the lava beds where Sylvia had crash landed. It made for a smoother walk, but also meant their light source was gone.

Still, Sylvia refused to get some shut eye. She knew it was stubborn, dumb, and dangerous to walk in the dark on an unknown planet but she just didn't care anymore. Maybe she didn't want to risk being spotted by other bounty hunters. Maybe she still didn't trust Wander not to stab her or at least run for it while she was asleep - she told herself this reason made the most sense.

Really though, Sylvia just hated Fogo so much that she didn't want to spend any more time on it than she had to - even if that time was spent unconscious. It was hot and humid and she was amazed she hadn't run out of water yet and Wander was moving to slowly with his stubby little legs and she was cranky.

"Hey Wander, pick up the pace!" Sylvia yelled forward to him. She was so frustrated she actually considered offering him a ride for an entire 1/12 of a second. Alas, Sylvia's barking didn't seem to motivate Wander.

In fact, he seemed to slow down. Sylvia felt herself boiling and the heat had nothing to do with it.

"Can you hear me you fuzzball? Move it!"

Instead of moving it, Wander stopped walking altogether. He didn't look back, or sideways or at anything Sylvia could see. He just stood in front of Sylvia silently.

Sylvia's eyes narrowed and she balled her hands into fists. She'd had it, and no amount of daydreaming of snowy vacations could keep her patience up any longer in her tired and overheated state. "Ohhhh, I see how it is. Finally got tired of playing the softie and putting up with me?" Sylvia put her fists up. "Well, you're no prize yourself, lollypop! Let's get this over with! I'm gonna knock you out so fast you'll-"

Sylvia's fighting words died in her mouth when she realized her opponent was swaying in the hot breeze.

"...Wander?"

Wander's only response was to collapse in the desert sand.

Chapter Text

Wander wasn’t immune to dehydration, as Sylvia has assumed. He wasn’t immune to dehydration at all.    

    After dragging Wander to a nearby cave to get him out of direct sunlight, Sylvia was able to take her first good look at Wander since they’d met. Even without his sudden bout of exhaustion, Wander was experiencing every other symptom of overheating and, from the looks of things, had been suffering silently for at least a few hours. Although she knew little about Wander’s biology, including his regular body temperature, his beet-red cheeks and his shivering as he slumped against the cave wall made it obvious he had a fever. 

    But... how did his condition get this bad to begin with? Nobody too dumb to realize they needed water before it got this bad (although Wander had redefined ‘nobody’ several times already that day.) Thirst was a basic instinct she’d never met a species lacking. 

    Maybe his sips only looked small, she thought, and grabbed Wander’s canteen to see if it was empty. Water sloshed and echoed against the metal canteen, but Sylvia’s attention was shifted by something more baffling. She shook Wander’s canteen a second time, then took her own canteen in her other hand and shook that as well. She fiddled with both canteens for a pregnant moment before a rush of truths she’d been denying all day slammed into her.

    Both her canteen and Wander’s weighed exactly the same. Despite Sylvia’s chugging and Wander’s sipping, both canteens now held the same amount of water. 

    She could only come to one conclusion and she prayed Wander would set her straight. “...You’ve been,” she realized she wasn’t wording it as a question. 

    “Have you been putting your water into my canteen this whole time?” 

    The wait for Wander’s tired mind to process her question was grueling. He was crawling into his hat, curling up like he was in a sleeping bag. The move seemed to be performed entirely by instinct - his eyes were closed and he slipped into the hat like a glove. Was he used to doing that? Was that hat all he had to sleep in? He’d just... sleep wherever he fell every night? 

    All by himself? 

    Finally, Wander responded to Sylvia’s question with a labored nod.

    Sylvia scoffed. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

    Wander’s jubilant voice had deteriorated into a murmur, and hearing his attempts to raise his voice to a conversational volume made Sylvia feel empty - useless - more-so than when she was being looked down upon as a refugee.

    “Didn’ think you’d let me.”

    Sylvia stammered. She’d been right all along - Wander had known more than he’d let on. Even in his current condition, Wander could see right through to her gross pride and distrust, and she wondered if he could see all the way to the bounty hunter planning to sell him to the highest bidder. But instead of using that knowledge to hurt her, he’d used it to help her. 

    Was it really possible? For somebody to so clearly see the darkness in the universe without harboring darkness within themselves?

    “A-Are you a complete and total larpsnorp?!” Sylvia shouted. “You just... what, do you go around giving limbs away to anyone who is missing an arm?! You think getting yourself killed for some refugee you met yesterday makes you some kind of hero?! Well you know what? No! That’s selfish! What about how that makes the person you help feel? Do you know how I’ll feel if you don’t make it out of this?!“

    Wander’s grumbled.

    “What did you just say to me?!” Sylvia marched closer to Wander. “You got something, say it so I can hear ya, you little fuzzball!” 

    “...Amazing...” 

    “What?!”

    Sylvia hovered over Wander and realized he was just mumbling in his sleep. 

    She sighed and plopped down next to him, leaning against the cave wall and taking deep breaths as Wander continued to dream. If his awestruck “look at that”s and “wow”s were anything to go by, even Wander’s dreams were full of new places. But even as Wander’s mind was on adventures, his body continued to shiver and curl deeper into his hat. “Okay,” Sylvia said, more to herself than Wander, “you’re really sick. We don’t have a lot of water left. We’re going to bake like snickerdoodles if we sit around much longer. C’mon Sylvia... if you can’t solve problems on your own why did you even leave?”

    Eventually, Sylvia decided the only way to get moving was to just keep traveling and hope they’d make it to town. She got a half-conscious Wander to sip some water and scooped him up, still curled in his hat. She considered securing Wander to her back with some rope and traveling that way, but she still had too much pride for that - she was not anyone’s steed. Not even now. So instead, Sylvia just wrapped her arms tighter around Wander’s tiny body and carried him as a biped, his head dangling past his hat’s rim a little and brushing against her neck. With Wander so close, Sylvia realized his breathing had become shallow. 

    Her stomach lurched at the idea of Wander dying, but what really scared Sylvia was realizing she hadn’t thought about the reward money since she’d first picked up Wander’s canteen.

Chapter Text

In Sylvia’s line of work, hearing someone else’s breathing was a sign of failure. It meant your target was too close. It could be the last sound a bounty hunter ever heard. But as Sylvia continued marching through the desert, Wander’s heavy-but-stable breathing was everything standing between her and a nervous breakdown.

With the route changes and the breaks the duo had taken, Sylvia had no idea how far town was... or if they could make it before their canteens went bone dry. She considered asking Wander if he could tell how far was, but he needed rest and knowing wouldn’t change how fast they got there. So she tried not to think about the trek at all - one foot in front of the other. Like a machine. Unfortunately, letting her feet go on autopilot left her mind to ruminate in her pessimistic imagination. She imagined passing out and being buried in waves of sand. She imagined making it to town, but with a lifeless orange body in tow. She imagined what might have happened to her past captures - some of the more recent of which she wasn’t fully convinced had been guilty of any crime. She imagined becoming known as Sylvia the Mercenary rather than Sylvia the Bounty Hunter, and she wasn’t sure she was imagining her perspiration-rate increasing. She-

Buildings.

She squinted, and she enough she could see buildings in the distance, sheltered from sandstorms by a large wall. It wasn’t far. Wander was still breathing. They could make it off this rock alive.

“That’s fa’ enough, Ma’am.”

Sylvia knew what two blasters charging sounded like and froze, baffled by Arma and Lyle managing to sneak up behind her. The bounty hunters circled around Sylvia while keeping their aim on her to meet her face-to-face. Lyle was standing on Arma's head - it looked ridiculous, and it might have made Sylvia chuckle if she'd been in a laughing mood.

"Wow," Lyle said, playing with his gun in his hands, "our plan totally worked!"

Arma hissed. "Our plan? Excuse you, varmint." The snake cocked the gun she was holding with her tail. "Hand over the star nomad, Sylvia."

Star nomad, huh? "You followed me this whole way," Sylvia said, less out of surprise and more to buy time. 

"How perfective of ya. Did you really thunk we… I'd be dumb enough to go downstream back thar?"

"And now you think you can show up after making me do all the work of lugging the bounty here and I'll just hand him over to you?"

"Well, no, I mean," Lyle scratches his head, "that's why we're armed, y'know? Why, were you just going to hang him over? Because that'd be so much better. I mean, don't you guys just hate this heat? It's like I'm under a giant magnifyAHH!" Arma decided one blaster was plenty and bucked Lyne off her head. He rolled across the ground and settled unconscious nearby. 

"City boy." Arma rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to Sylvia. "What'd really make this easier for all us is sharin' the reward money - the reward that's been on the rise since your client got all whiny. So, you could either work wit' us and still git a bigger pile of credits than you thought you would, or we could just shoot ya. Frankly, I'm doin' you a service here." And she meant it, which only disgusted Sylvia further. Apparently, Arma could see Sylvia's distain, because her tone shifted even more toward's phony compassion. "C'mon now, Syl."

"Don't call me that."

"Sylvia - whatever - You gotta take what you can git in this line of work, especially if you don't got a natural talent."

"...And what do you mean by that, exactly?"

"Everyone knows yer not cut out for this, Sylvia. With this many creds, none of us will have to answer to anybody for a looooong time." Sylvia's eyes shifted at Arma's words. The snake had managed to read the mindset she'd come into this whole mess with like a book, and she knew it. She'd just wanted to not have to be around anybody anymore. Not clients, not the natives on the refugee planets who glared down at her, and not anybody else if she could help it. Between people who hated her and people who just wanted to use her, Sylvia had started to accept that there seemed to be no light left in the universe, but then… Then… 

Arma smoothly put her blaster down and moved her tail towards Wander. 

"So if you'd jus-"

"Don't touch him!!" Sylvia's recoil was violent enough for Arma to scramble to reclaim her blaster. "I don't care how many credits that brat is tossing around! If you want Wa-"

The loud vibration of a blaster shot by a frazzled bounty hunter echoed and Sylvia tumbled out of the way with Wander in tow. She tried not to think about how the sudden action might hurt for Wander's frail body as she dodged another haphazard blaster shot and stomped  on Arma's tail. The already frazzled snake screeched and let go of the blaster, which Sylvia kicked away from both combatants with her other foot - she was sick of the 'dead or alive' way of doing things. 

Now having the advantage and a little time, Sylvia shifted Wander to one arm. She raised her free fist ahead of her in a fighting stance. Despite the baggage, it felt natural to Sylvia to fight this way - as if Wander had always been attached to her.

"If you want Wander, it'll be over my dead body."

She didn't wait for Arma to fully recover before punching the mercenary square in the jaw.

When Lyle's head stopped spinning, he found his partner disarmed and unconscious.. She had no blaster burns - just bruises from hand-to-hand combat - and she'd later wake up thoroughly shaken. She'd spend well into the night whimpering to her partner about how Sylvia had been tricking everyone all this time - how only today had she seen how strong the Zbornak really was. 

Many bounty hunters and mercenaries would spread the story of the time Sylvia didn't hold back, but none of them would know it was also the day Sylvia realized she preferred defending to attacking.

Chapter Text

    Passing through the gates to Fogo City with textured stone underfoot was surreal after Sylvia had felt her feet sink into mile after mile of sand for the past two days. As the day was almost over, the sun just peeked over the capital’s protective wall, casting long shadows that helped bring the temperature down to an almost tolerable level. But Sylvia and the star nomad still wheezing in her arms needed more than shade. They needed… 

    Sylvia looked around frantically and spotted an ornate fountain in a nearby square. 

    She galloped over to the fountain and dropped her entire head into the lukewarm water. To the overheated zbornak, the fountain might as well have been made of ice. A few locals were starting to wonder if the traveler who had collapsed by the fountain was still breathing when she finally came up for air and let the moisure her hair had soaked up drip down her back. 

    Wander was next - Sylvia, in her state of worry, started to lift him out of his hat with the plan of just dunking him into the water to cool him down as quickly as possible, but she knew better than to shock his system like that. She took a deep breath, returned the nomad to his hat, leaned him against the fountain and filled both of their canteens. 

    “Wander?” she said, shrinking a little to meet him at eye level. “I’ve got some water for you, okay?” Wander didn’t seem fully conscious, but he moaned a little bit at Sylvia calling out to him. She brought his canteen to his mouth and sure enough, he downed several gulps of water with Sylvia’s help. He emptied his canteen a couple of times and Sylvia filled it a third time only to find he’d went back to sleep while her head was turned. Vibrancy started returning to Wander’s fur and his breathing settled a bit, but Sylvia knew she couldn’t let herself feel exhausted until they got out of the open - Lyle and Arma couldn’t have been the only other bounty hunters to be looking for a head worth so much. 

    Such a large hub for travelers on an otherwise barren planet had to have quite a few places for visitors to stay. She scooped Wander back up into her arms and looked for the nearest safe place to get some sleep.

    Sylvia heard the nearest inn before she saw it - every external window of the single-story building had some model of air conditioner in it, and each machine made its own variation of an overworked whirr. Using so much electricity made the otherwise regular inn cost a pretty credit, but Sylvia was willing to pay double what was asked of her as soon as she opened the door to the lobby and the cool air slammed against her.  

    She purchased a double room even though she knew she’d have had no trouble sleeping on the carpet in a single, and realized she’d made the right decision as soon as she fell onto her bed. She’d never heard her spine crack in so many ways and every muscle in her body ached. Her racing mind was all that was keeping the rest of her awake as she looked over to Wander as he slept on the other bed. He already looked much better, and she could no longer hear labor in his breathing as he slept off what remained of his illness. In rather short order, Wander had gone from being near death to just looking like he’d just had a long day, and Sylvia realized he may not be as frail as she’d thought.

    But still, Sylvia knew, Wander’s ability to bounce back quickly could only take him so far. She thought about other bounty hunters and mercenaries who might be in the city looking for him - even if she didn’t call for the client and schedule a meeting herself, somebody else would spot him and finish the job she’d started. She thought about how easily Wander’s kindness could be taken advantage of. She thought about Wander jumping from planet to planet - danger to danger - curled up tightly in his hat at night, sleeping alone under the darkness of space. She thought about how she’d always been running away from her home and her problems while Wander seemed to be running towards something, although she hadn’t a clue what that something was. 

    And as sleep finally overtook her body despite having so much more to think about, Sylvia decided that her life couldn’t just go back to the way it had been 48 hours ago.

Chapter Text

Sylvia had fallen asleep at 8PM and didn’t rouse until 12 hours later the next morning. Still, the zbornak felt like she could hide under the blankets from the sun intruding through the curtains and snooze past noon. She might have done exactly that, but in the moment she had her eyes open she realized Wander was missing.

Seeing the other bed in the room empty sent Sylvia into a full-on panic. Any leftover aches from the day before were forgotten as the zbornak leaped from her bed and ran out of the room like it was on fire. A new, horrifying scenario involving Wander being captured by bounty hunters ran through her mind with every step she took through the hallway. She zoomed across the lobby, nearly caused a few groggy guests to spill their coffee, burst out the front door… 

…and tripped over herself so she wouldn’t run over the little orange star nomad taking in a breath of fresh air right outside the inn.

Wander exhaled dramatically while Sylvia straightened herself out. “Man Syl,” Wander said, somehow able to tell it was Sylvia behind him yet completely oblivious to her stress level, “isn’t the desert air great? It’s like all the toxins just… burn away!” 

“Are you nuts?!”

“…What?”

“Don’t just go running off like that! If we got separated you-“ She froze. Even after everything, even though she had no plans to turn in Wander and he seemed to trust her completely, Sylvia couldn’t bring herself to tell him about all the danger he’d been in over the past two days. “Yooooooooouuuuuuu… wouldn’t be able to show me that great hole-in-the-wall you told me about when we met! And boy, am I starved! That place wouldn’t happen to be open for breakfast, would they?”

Wander grinned. “Why, I seem to recall they are! Hmm…” Wander looked around at the landmarks and street signs. His brow furrowed. “It may be a bit of a walk from this part of town though. That alright with you?”

After two days of travel through the desert, “a bit of a walk” sounded like crossing the street in comparison. “Sure, I mean, if this place is as great as you made it sound before.”

“Oh, you bet it is! Coldest drinks in town, remember? Follow me!” Wander started down the road with all the energy he’d had back when the duo had met by the lava lakes. Sylvia followed after him with a grin on her face until she looked around more and realized just how many people were out and about in the city - how easy it’d be for her to lose sight of her companion.

“…Wander, wait.”

Wander stopped and turned around, letting Sylvia catch up, her face showing a level of concern for Wander she wasn’t ready to express. “Syl? You alright?”

“Y-Yeah, I just…” Neither of them spoke for a long moment. Sylvia looked at Wander, one of her hands crunching her hair as she thought. Wander waited patiently for Sylvia to finish her sentence. 

Finally, Sylvia smiled at Wander and knelt down so she’d be easier to mount.

“Hop on.”

The hole-in-the-wall was actually outside, and that was exactly what made it so special. While other businesses didn’t dare to ask their customers to sit outside on a boiling Fogo City day, the shack situated in the middle of a small park was so confident in their ice cold drinks that they didn’t even have umbrellas shading their glass tables. The cart seemed to have every right to brag, as when Sylvia arrived with Wander on her back most of the tables were already full of morning patrons. 

Soon enough, Sylvia and Wander were each sitting at one of the available tables with sandwiches and the biggest cups Sylvia had ever seen. Wander grinned at Sylvia, waiting to hear her thoughts on the food he’d insisted on selecting for her because it he somehow knew it was “the most deeeelish thing” the cart had to offer even though he’d only eaten at the cart once before. Sylvia chuckled a bit at Wander’s childlike enthusiasm and started eating. The sandwich was good, but paled in comparison to the drink - every sip felt like it was turning her into ice at a molecular level and she loved it. 

Too hungry to respond, Sylvia appeased Wander with a thumbs up as she continued to devour her food with her other hand. Wander’s grin grew bigger for a moment before he seemed to remember that he too hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon. The duo didn’t say another word until they’d both inhaled their sandwiches five minutes later. 

As Sylvia sat back in her chair and digested, she could finally think again. Her thoughts circled back to where they’d been the night before - how Wander was in danger. How Wander would probably be in danger for a long time to come. How Wander traveled the galaxy alone and slept outside in his little hat every night. How she was finally starting to piece together what she wanted to say to Wander when he spoke up from the other side of the table. 

“Hey Syl? I know you have your business to handle while you’re in town at all,” Sylvia felt her full stomach twist into knots as she remembered what she’d been planning to do to Wander just a day ago, “but if you have time, there’s something else I wanted to show you.”

“…Sure, but we’re bringing another round of these drinks. Otherwise I’m gonna pass out.”

Fogo had permanent lakes and rivers that flowed molten rock like most environments flowed water, but Fogo didn’t have a traditional water cycle for its untraditional resource. There was, thankfully, no such thing as lava rain anywhere on the planet. This meant that, without some way to control the lava, it’d eventually spill over onto the capital. So Fogo’s original settlers figured out a way to stop lava lakes from overflowing and thus make the planet inhabitable for future generations - they drilled holes deep into the planet’s core where the rivers of molten rock naturally gathered, creating a geological recycling system. These massive holes became known as simple “The Wells” by residents, and the most decorated of The Wells was right on the edge of Fogo City, opposite the main gates. Lava glistened as it creeped down a backdrop of reinforced, ivory metal before falling into the massive hole and rejoining the planet’s core. The entire well glowed so brightly that the plaza around it would no doubt remain bright at all hours. 

The site of Fogo Geographical Preservation Act Reverse Well #5 was a city landmark, surrounded by a massive force field that both reflected most of the heat away from spectators and kept anyone from falling in. Wander and Sylvia took the entire spectacle in as they sipped another round of icy drinks. Standing just on the other side of the forcefield, the wall of lava filled Sylvia’s entire field of vision. It was beautiful, if intense - she couldn’t imagine living in a place with something like this, even with all the safety precautions. Wander, on the other hand, looked as comfortable here as any of the town’s residents, who lounged nearby playing with their pets and having picnics like they were next to a regular waterfall. The only thing that separated Wander from them was his level of enthusiasm. He must have already known about The Well from the way he’d described it while traveling on Sylvia’s back, but he took everything in like he’d not expected anything like it. 

Sylvia was impressed too, but… her thoughts were still on Wander. Her eyes kept shifting between the falls and the star nomad next to her as she finally found the courage to speak.

“…Listen, Wander…” Sylvia said as casually as possible. “You know, I gotta be level with you. You were saying how it’s so fun to have a job where to travel the universe but… ehhh… my job is kind of boring.” Wander gave Sylvia his full attention. “In fact I kinda sorta… quit. Yesterday, in fact.”

“Oh, well, I mean, you gonna be alright without your job and all?”

“Oh yeah, I don’t need those clowns. In fact, I was kind of thinking…” Sylvia rubbed the back of her head. “What you do sounds a whole lot more fun, and maybe you… wouldn’t mind if I tagged along with you for a bit?”

Wander’s expression shifted to surprise and Sylvia shrunk. Had she been wrong in assuming Wander would say yes? He really seemed to enjoy her company, but now… Now Wander was looking at the ground with a serious expression that didn’t suit him. He actually looked a little… scared? Had he known all along about her background and was still expecting her to turn on him? Did he not actually like hanging out with her and had just been being polite all along? Sylvia would admit Wander had surprised her with his actions several times already, but this just didn’t make sense at all.

“Uh, hey, I didn’t mean to force that idea on you or anything. Believe me, I know about being more comfortable by yourself. I just thought-“

“You… sure you wanna come with me?”

Sylvia blinked. “Uh, yeah?”

Wander kept his gaze at the floor for a moment longer. When he looked up at Sylvia again, his signature grin was back on his face. “Well alright then!” Wander jumped up and hugged Sylvia. Sylvia flinched. “This is gonna be great! We’ll just have to be the best of pals now, won’t we! We’ll see sights and camp out and help folks and make tons of amazing memories and have lots of fun!”

As awkward as she felt about Wander’s sudden burst of affection, she couldn’t bring herself to pull the happy nomad off of her. She awkwardly patted Wander’s head and thought to herself that yes, that did sound like a lot of fun.

But grop, she’d have to have a talk with Wander about personal space. 

“Yeah, yeah, I remember how we met,” Sylvia replied as she stretched as much as she could in the orble bubble. “Uuuuugh my back.”

“Well hey, looks like we’ll be able to stretch our legs soon! Look!” 

Wander pointed outside of the bubble to a planet they were closing in on that looked a lot like a Yin and Yang symbol - one half of the planet was a brightly lit, colorful, fun-looking metropolis. The other half seemed lifeless, flat, and was cloaked in nighttime. Sylvia stood up and started walking the transporter towards the populated sector.

But after all of their time traveling together, Sylvia knew better than to expect anything to go her way.

The duo tumbled and bounced about as a solar gust blasted against the side of the orble transporter. Sylvia screeched and scrambled to regain control of the vehicle, but by the time the solar wind had settled, they were already moving too fast towards the planet to safely change direction before landing, and they were going to land smack dab in the middle of the darkness.

“Ooooooof course.”

End of Act 1