“Thank you,” I told the bartender as he handed me a beer, some Mexican brand that I’d never heard of. “Gracias.”

The bartender gave me a nod and a smile, not to mention an appreciative look. I was getting similar looks of appreciation from some of the other people around me, which was a little odd. I kind of enjoyed the attention but was self-conscious and even embarrassed about it at the same time.

I was currently wearing a nice dress, for the first time ever…not counting that one undercover mission back in the day, which I swore I’d never talk about. Maya had said that she’d dress up nicely if I did, so here I was, hoping she liked the way I looked. I’d bought some makeup at the same time as the dress, but I hadn’t gotten around to experimenting with that yet.

With beer in hand, I turned and walked back across the bar to the table where my friends were waiting. They already had their own food and drinks, and I was the last one to show up to the party.

It had been three days since we’d finally dealt with the rogue players, and we were still in Taxco Mexico, just outside of the Labyrinth zone. That meant we had electricity and other modern conveniences, such as cold beer and TVs that played sports, albeit soccer matches for teams that I’d never heard of.

There were multiple reasons that we were still hanging around, not the least of which was bureaucracy and all the paperwork we needed to fill out due to our part in the activities. Considering all the beaurocrats we’d faced since emerging from the Labyrinth, I was more than a little tempted to just turn around and head right back in. I might actually have actually done that if it wasn’t for the fact that most of our gear had been trashed by everything that we’d gone through.

Since we were hanging around anyway, Bunny went through the trouble of selling the unobtainium and other treasures that we’d found inside the Labyrinth. The loot had just been a side benefit of that last delve, but it had also been quite a profitable one. We each had enough money now to pay our bills for six months, and to replace much of our gear as well. Today, we were celebrating our financial windfall.

“Hey,” I announced as I reached the table and looked over at the others.

Ace was leaning back in his chair, wearing a new sports jersey, though I didn’t know which sport much less which team it was for. His attention was on the strange book that he’d taken off of Mad Mike, the one that had originally been stolen from those grey dwarves.

Turtle, Bunny, and Godiva seemed to be in deep conversation, while Maya was sharpening her knife, the same one that had saved her life against Raze. I nodded approval since a good knife had saved my ass on more than one occasion, and it always paid to keep yours clean and sharpened. There was a reason I’d once gifted my best knife to Simon. In fact, Maya’s knife looked a lot like that one.

Maya paused from what she was doing and took a sip of her drink, then greeted me with a smile. I took a moment to look her over and appreciate just how well that dress hung to her curves.

“About time you got here,” Maya told me with an amused look.

“I just had to pick up a few things from the store,” I responded, trying to keep from grimacing.

My fight with Raze had left me pretty banged up, and that wasn’t even counting the rest of the injuries that I’d picked up in the Labyrinth. Fortunately, high vitality and a couple days of rest had done wonders for all my bruises. However, it turned out that there was a downside. Since the stress was finally off, my body had apparently decided that it was time to move onto another kind of discomfort. My damn period. I’d woken up with it this morning.

I kissed Maya before taking my seat beside her. She gave me an amused look and asked, “How are you handling it?”

“Not a fan,” I assured her, knowing that it could have been a lot worse. Apparently, high vitality was good for reducing menstrual cramps. “But I’ve been expecting it since I was respawned.”

I leaned back took a sip of my drink, trying hard not to think about what my body was doing. Sure, I’d been expecting this, but it was disturbing on so many levels. However, disturbing or not, having a period was something that I’d just have to get used to from now on.

Then I looked to Maya and smiled, pleased by the fact that another aspect of my new life was as good as my period was bad. Our relationship was new, and I had absolutely no idea of whether or not it would even last. There were a few potential problems, such as my age and the fact that I was also attracted to men, and sooner or later, that could become an issue with ‘us’. But that was a problem for future Maggie. For now, I was simply going to enjoy what we had.

Maya gave my hand a gentle squeeze, then echoed my own thoughts with, “You’ll get used to it.”

“Maybe,” I responded with a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

She burst out laugh. “No, you don’t.”

Then I turned to Ace and asked, “How’s the book?”

Ace looked up and shrugged. “I can’t make out a single word.” In spite of that, he seemed cheerful about it. “I just need to get it translated.”

“I know someone who is good at translating languages,” Olivia commented. “She has an ability for it.”

“That would be great,” Ace replied with a grin.

“Are you going to give that back to the dwarves?” Bunny asked with a thoughtful look. “It is their treasure.”

“Maybe,” Ace responded with a shrug. “I can always copy the book first. The real problem is that it would be a pretty serious delve, and there’s no guarantee that we’d even be able to find them again. You know how the Labyrinth works.”

Olivia nodded agreement. “The deeper you go, the more frequently routes change.”

“Another problem for later,” I said, refusing to dwell on any of those issues at the moment. “Today is for relaxing.”

“Cheers to that,” Turtle agreed.

I finished my beer a short time later, and just as I was thinking about getting a second, Bunny tensed up and looked towards the door. I immediately followed her gaze, but it was Ace who announced, “Men in Grey, incoming.”

Diego Jimenez had just stepped into the bar, and he wasn’t alone. Three other Wardens followed right behind, each of them in a familiar grey uniform. After taking a couple seconds to look around, they began coming straight towards us.

“Crap,” I muttered, my eyes not on Jimenez but the Wardens behind him.

Eileen Davis, the head Warden from Gideon Heights was there, with her arm wrapped in a sling. It almost matched the one that Jimenez himself currently worse. Her presence was surprising but made sense in the context of following up on the rogue players who’d attacked her town.

Right beside her were Simon Harris and Lewis McNichols, which also made sense. Simon and his trainee had come for Maya, probably to debrief her and to take her home. Before they even reached our table, Maya stood up to greet them.

“Congratulations on making player,” Simon immediately told Maya. “I hear that you’re a stalker now.”

“Yes, I am,” Maya responded proudly.

McNichols gave her a friendly nod and added, “My money in the pool was that you’d end up as a hunter, so you lost me a hundred bucks.”

“Did anyone bet on stalker?” Maya asked curiously.

“Lawson,” McNichol’s answered with a sigh. “He’s going to be insufferable for awhile.”

Simon chuckled at that, then told Maya, “You know, you’re out of uniform.”

“I don’t have any on me,” Maya responded with a shrug.

“I hear that I also owe you congratulations on taking down those rogue players,” Simon told her with a nod of approval. “I wish I could have been here for it.”

“Me too,” Maya told him with a serious expression. “We could have used more backup.” Then she gestured around the table. “But I couldn’t have found them much less taken them down without my current team. All the details will be in my report.”

“Good to hear,” Simon said before he looked around at my friends. Then his eyes settled on me. “You know, I hear the weather is nice in Peoria.”

I froze at the familiar phrase, one that I hadn’t actually heard in a couple decades. At one point, Simon and I had used that pass phrase quite frequently. We’d been on a mission to chase down a rogue player, a shapeshifter who could impersonate other people.

For a brief moment, I considered playing ignorant and pretending that I didn’t know what he was talking about. Instead, I answered,
“I’m actually thinking of vacationing in Dubuque.”

“What are you talking about?” Bunny asked blankly.

Simon’s eyes widened a bit. “It really is you.”

“It’s been awhile,” I responded with a wry smile. “Not counting Gideon Heights.”

“Why didn’t you say something then?” he asked.

I snorted, then gestured down at myself. “Would you have?”

There was a moment of silence before Simon chuckled. “No, I wouldn’t have said anything either.” Then he broke out into a broad grin. “I’m glad you’re still around, even with the new hardware.”

“Seems more like software to me,” Maya quietly joked.

Jimenez gave Simon a curious look. “You know who she is…or who she used to be?”

“This is…or WAS, Carl Upton,” Simon answered. “One of the original founding Wardens.”

The local Warden’s eyes went wide at that. “That is…amazing.”

“I’m just glad you all nailed the bastards,” Davis said. “Now Owen can rest peacefully.”

“I left his knife resting in Raze’s head,” I said. “It was the least I could do for him.”

“I’m sure he’d appreciate that,” Davis told me with a faint smile.

Simon cleared his throat. “I’d like to talk about this…and about old times,” Simon told me. “But later. For now, I need to focus on business.”

“Debrief,” Maya said for the benefit of the others. “They need a debrief with everyone involved.”

“Another one?” Ace asked with an exasperated sigh.

Maya chuckled at that. “Welcome to the world of the Wardens.”

I snorted at that. “I don’t miss this part in the least.”

“If it helps make things easier,” Davis told us with an amused look, “There were bounties on Raze and Mad Mike, and it looks like you’re all eligible for a share.” She looked to Maya apologetically. “Except for you, of course.”

“Of course,” Maya responded with a shrug.

“You still get a share of our loot,” Bunny consoled the stalker.

“A debrief will be good,” Maya told Simon. “There are a few things that I need to tell you, and not just in the report.”

“Oh?” Simon asked, having shifted back to his calm and professional tone. “What would that be?”

Maya chuckled faintly. “Nothing too important, just that we learned a few things about how the Labyrinth works, such as why certain people are respawned and why they always come back with different bodies.”

“You’re kidding,” McNichols’s exclaimed. “People have been trying to figure that out since the Labyrinth first appeared.”

“It’s all in my report,” Maya added.

“We finally have some answers,” I said, enjoying the look of surprise on Simon’s face. “And some evidence to support them.”

Simon shook his head. “This, I have to hear…along with everything else.”

“Might I suggest our local office,” Jimenez asked. “We will have more privacy for that discussion there.”

I looked down at my empty beer and regretted that I wouldn’t be able to start on the second one anytime soon. Then with a shrug, I stood up, straightened my dress and readied myself to leave. Simon watched me with a strange expression, but I pretended not to notice.

“There’s something else I needed to talk with you about as well,” Simon told me. “Maggie.” He said the name as though testing it out.

“Oh?” I asked.

Simon nodded. “You may not be aware of this, but before your previous identity was known, you were already recommended for possible recruitment to the Wardens.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I blurted out.

Ace burst out laughing. “Yeah, I can see it.”

Davis chuckled and nodded. “Between your previous identity and what you’ve accomplished with these rogues… Well, we’d love to have you back.”

“And I can put in a good word for you too,” Simon told me, seemingly amused by the entire situation. “Of course, you couldn’t use your previous identity.”

“I’ve already put in my time and retired,” I reminded them with a scowl. “There is no way in hell that I’m going to start over as a new recruit.”

“We’ll see,” Simon commented as he turned and began leaving the bar. “Being a Warden is in your blood. Some things never change.”

“He has you there,” Maya said, grabbing hold of my hand so that we could walk out together. “He has you there.”