A human bartender with a prosthetic arm polished a glass mechanically as he listened to his patron bitch and moan.

"You have it easy Wolfie." Wheezed an overweight department head who was already more than a few bottles deep. It was early morning so the two of them were alone in the bar. "All you have to do is serve booze."

"And listen." Wolfgang Sacher replied, sliding another order of fries across the bar. "Don't forget about the listening."

"But you have to agree that I'm right." Pressed Maddox as he doused the fries with malt vinegar. "Things have gone to the dogs."

Theatrically Sacher looked from side to side. "I don't see any hunds here." He lifted up a coaster and peeked underneath. "No katzen either."

"Oh fuck off. You know what… what I mean." Maddox said angrily. "We're glorified caretakers. We've got no future, no chance of building anything worthwhile. We just maintain… whatever… whatever this is." He gestured wildly.

"The bar?" Sacher asked.

"No, smart ass. Haven."

"Oh." Sacher went back to polishing the glass, his mechanical hand spinning at the wrist.

"But things are going to change, and soon." Maddox leaned in close and winked conspiratorially. "Soon I'll be running things."

"Oh?" Asked a short woman with chestnut brown hair and a vague air of authority as she sat down at the bar next to him. "Tell me more."

"Gotta buy me a drink first." Maddox winked again, it still didn't suit his pudgy features.

The woman gestured to Sacher and held up two fingers. "Dos Diablos, fuerte y dulce. Por favor."

"Sí claro." Sacher replied back in Spanish before leaning in. "¿Estás bien?" He asked quietly.

The Warden shrugged. "Me van a matar mañana."

Sacher cocked his head to the side with confusion. Either his Spanish was worse than he thought, or the supreme ruler of Haven had just told him she was about to be murdered.

"Forget it." The Warden said in human common. "It's not your problem."

"Fair enough." Sacher made the drinks that had been requested and slid the two tall glasses across the bar.

"What shall we drink to?" Maddox asked, raising his glass to clink it against the Warden's.

She was about to say something cloying and disingenuous, something that would make him like her. But a little spark inside her soul rebelled.

"Let's drink to the memory of Oswald Laurence." She said as she took a sip. As requested, the drink was strong and sweet.

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"Who's Oswald Laurence?" Slurred Maddox.

"An actor from old earth." She looked across at Sacher, he knew the story. It was an illegal story, but one worth telling. "He was a nobody, a nobody's nobody. He died never really having achieved much, but thousands of people heard his voice every morning on their way to work, including his wife Margaret. You see, because he wasn't some big famous actor he did a lot of small jobs, including the 'Mind The Gap' announcement for the London underground."

The fat department head looked at her without comprehension. "If he's a nobody why are we drinking to him?"

"To his memory." Corrected the Warden.

"Yeah, whatever. To his memory."

"Because, when he died his widow used to sit on the bench when she was having a hard day and listen to his voice… it was only three words but somehow it made life without him just a little bit more bearable." The Warden smiled, it had been so long since she smiled. Fuck, why had it been so long? When had she stopped smiling? And how long had it been since she laughed and really meant it? Years? Decades? Centuries? What had happened to her?

The Warden continued. "But one day she was going to work and a new voice came over the speaker. Her husband's recording had been replaced with someone new. So she did what any sensible British person would do, she wrote a letter. And by good fortune, someone was kind enough to do something about it. They understood her suffering, how hearing that voice had eased her pain, just a little bit. Just one tiny fraction."

"So it took time, and effort, and it was inefficient, and it was sentimental… but one day as Margaret was going to work she heard her husband's voice over the speakers again. 'Mind The Gap' it said, but it meant as much to her as 'I love you' because she never thought she would hear it ever again."

Sacher nodded approvingly. It was a good story.

"Something about her story resonated with people, so they did what they could for her and that's why the Embankment station on the northern line of the London underground had a different voice than any other station." She took another long pull and finished her drink before slamming it down on the counter with a noise that made Maddox jump.

"So I drink to his memory because that's what it means to be human. And it may be sentimental, it may seem unimportant to you, but fuck you and fuck your little coup d'etat." The Warden got in close to Maddox until they were nose to nose and she could smell his rotten breath. He tried to scramble backwards but she grabbed him by the collar of his jacket.

"I am Esmeralda Oz, the last of the wardens. I have been here since the beginning, and I will be here at the end." She snarled. "I am human, and I am done playing games with you fucking arrogant pricks. I was going to give up, let you toss me in the shredder, call it quits on this whole fucking endeavor. But no, I refuse. I will not leave Haven or the fate of this planet to the likes of you."

She threw him to the ground, her rage multiplying her strength exponentially. The pudgey department head looked up in horror as he realized who and what stood above him.

"I am power! I am rage! I AM DEATH!" Screamed Esmeralda Oz, she screamed so loud it made her own ears hurt. "And I will not let you fucking fucks take my duty away from me!"

She kicked Maddox, felt ribs break. "You think your little power play was ever going to work? Pendejo, I let you idiots win! It was all so I could go out on my own terms… but I'm changing the fucking terms."

Maddox was sobbing now, he was unused to this abuse. He hurt, he hurt too much to speak.

"FUCK YOU!" Screamed Esmeralda Oz as she kicked and stomped the piece of human waste beneath her until it was nothing but goo mixed with fragments of bone.

She stood there in the puddle that had once been Maddox and to her surprise, Sacher started clapping.

"Wunderbar!" He shouted as he continued to clap, his metal hand making an odd ringing sound as it collided with the flesh one. "Einfach wunderbar!

She slowly turned to face him, her face eerily blank. There was no more rage, no more anger, just cold calculating menace. "Sacher, clean this mess up. We've got things to do and people to kill."

"Natürlich ja!" He exclaimed happily. "I was getting tired of listening to them bitch and moan anyway. Oh warden my warden, direct me and it will be done!"

Yes, it would be done. And she was going to do it her way.