As soon as Juana asked Arjun to help us locate a priest, things spiraled badly out of our control. The next thing I knew, Mama Grace and Rosa were planning an elaborate wedding, inviting everyone we'd ever fought beside or even met. Mama Grace was in her element, beyond overjoyed that her inventory allowed her to place perfectly cooked meals in days in advance, then deploy them on the day of the event still piping hot.

So soon after our triumph, it felt like I hadn’t had a chance to get my feet under me. I tried to protest a bit, saying we should postpone or keep it lower key until Grandpa took me aside.

"You serious about this marriage?" he asked me. His dark eyes bored intently into me.

"Yes, of course.”

“I mean it, boy. Your abuela and I had 30 good years and a couple of really bad ones. It was the hardest and the best thing I've ever done. She followed me around the world, and I moved to the ass-end of nowhere for her. I want to know that you're ready to make that same kind of commitment, or else I'm going to put a stop to this right now."

I returned his steady gaze and nodded. "I mean, I know our relationship's been a little unconventional, and we haven't had much time for traditional dating. But Juana and I have been working together for over a year now, known each other for almost twice that. She's had my back in plenty of situations and seen me do things I'm not entirely proud of, yet she still seems to like me."

Grandpa laughed at that and slapped me on the back. "Always a good sign. Remember, boy, you may never know why a woman likes you, but if she does, don't take it lightly. Guess your timing wasn’t too bad.”

I hesitated. “I’d been thinking about where we'd go next. You, me, Sage, and I realized I was picturing Juana there, too. I didn't want to let that slip past.”

"Not just because of her skills, is it?" Grandpa's eyes narrowed. "She's good to have around, but that's no reason to propose marriage."

"No, sir." I shook my head. He wasn't really going to make me talk about how I felt, was he? But he just kept looking at me, so I finally took a deep breath and admitted that I wanted to marry Juana because, well, I was in love with her.

Grandpa nodded sagely at that. "Good. Then do it, boy, and don't let anyone else stand in your way and ask you stupid questions. Since we've got the important part settled, that you want to marry this girl, my advice for you is step back out of the way and let them plan this party."

"It just seems like too much," I said.

"It's because you're thinking about being you and her. This isn't about that. This is a chance for all of us to celebrate what it is we've done here and kind of affirm that there's going to be a life for us. We don't know what it looks like, but we do know that we'll be finding out together. You and Juana are going to be a symbol of that, and you're just going to have to deal with it. So, let them have their party. Besides, you're the groom. All you've got to do is show up on time and remember to bring the rings."

And then we'd gotten word from Veda that she was being shipped out in a week. So I went and talked to Juana, and we talked to her mom, and then we all talked to the command staff of Misfits Guild. And the next thing I knew, the wedding was in three days, and we'd ended up inviting a whole bunch of Galactics. Veda and our Grignarian mercenary crew, of course, Mak’gar and his brother and a bunch of the orcs we'd fought beside, but a smattering of different aliens that we'd faced in combat and bested. None of the conglomerate business assholes, obviously.

Patriarch Kvaltash reached out to offer to officiate the ceremony, but I turned him down. Told him Juana was a devout Catholic and would be having a Catholic priest do the ceremony for us, thank you very much. Which was true, but also a convenient excuse not to have that creep at our ceremony.

Father Brendan had been here all along, one of the ten million taken from Earth by the aliens almost two years ago now. He'd spent the time working diligently as a crafter, applying his [Basket Weaver] class and offering his services as a priest to the lost souls of Earth. Juana had been attending mass when she could, and now she roped the priest into wedding planning.I hadn’t spent much time thinking about religion in the past few years, but Abuela had baptized both me and Sage as kids, and that made everything easier on the good father’s end, apparently.

The wedding itself was held in what had once been the Lotus Eater level. It was a lovely array of Mediterranean islands full of stark beauty. Pale blue skies, white cliffs, green grass, tiny fishing villages clinging to the slopes of the rocky islands, and we'd arranged for it to be just sunset, the sun touching the edge of the waves while the sky around changed to gold, tinged with little pink clouds. Thanks to some help from Kronos, the sun remained stock still all through the ceremony, which seemed to be both interminable and incredibly short. The next thing I knew, the priest was pronouncing us man and wife and giving me the go-ahead to kiss my bride.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

And then Mama Grace's army of minions produced the feast. The sun set, giving way to early twilight. Stars spangled the sky as a full moon rose. We had an enormous tent pavilion set up for the closest guests and dozens of smaller tents dotting the green meadow. I was terrified we'd have to go and greet all of the guests personally, but Grandpa and Colonel Ames ran interference for me.

Veda got through the cordon. She looked more relaxed that I’d seen her in a long time, wearing a simple white dress. I supposed aliens didn’t have the same “no white at weddings” rule as Western Earth culture. Juana didn’t seem to care, so I followed her lead. Veda offered her hand and I shook it. “Congratulations, both of you. On the wedding and the win.”

“Sorry it worked out so badly for you,” I said. “I feel bad. I asked if we could see about buying your contract ourselves, but…”

“I explained our finances to him and he eventually shut up about that,” Juana interjected.

Veda smiled, shaking her head. “That would have been a turnabout, wouldn’t it? Having my first-ever sponsored miners buy me out? It’s all right. I’m actually excited about this. I’ll be managing a team of Galactic miners with your weird Earth classes. It’s going to be exciting. I can’t wait to go up against you all again.”

“Looking forward to it,” I said. “No hard feelings about the whole indentured service thing, either. You kept your word and did us a good turn. How’d your family take it?”

Veda’s smile faded. “I’m no longer permitted to use the Tvedra name, not until my debts are paid off. That — hurts,” she admitted. “But I’ll show them they’ve made a mistake. It’s Proxima who’s behind all this, and once they forget about this whole fiasco, I think my siblings will talk Mother down. She’ll need to offer me a pretty solid apology though.”

“See you round the galaxy,” I told her, and turned back to my bride.

Juana had her hair down and a wreath of pink and yellow roses without thorns decorating her hair. She laughed in the torchlight as our friends sang and wished us well. I couldn't stop smiling every time I looked at her.

Sage came up beside me and grabbed my arm. "What is it?"

“I just wanted to make sure I said congratulations before you disappear,” she grinned, "and to remind you that we've got work to do once you're done with your honeymoon. The first of the outsiders will be here in a week."

I groaned. "Don't remind me."

"Don't worry," she said cheerfully. "I'm going to work with Grandpa and the Colonel to come up with a nice training program for them. I want to teach a class called 'What Not to Do.' I'm going to use you as an example a whole lot."

I grinned and ruffled her hair. As I looked around, my heart was full. Future challenges lay ahead. I was excited to greet them alongside my friends and family. We'd come such a long way from that first terrified day in the swamp.

Despite everything we'd been through, I was glad I was here. The reality engine had taken so much from us, our home, our futures, but it had given us so much in return. My grandfather sitting here with me on my wedding day, to a woman I would never have met otherwise. My little sister growing up in such a strange and bizarre place, but becoming a woman I was proud to know.

Sage planted her hands on her hips and scowled at me. "You look like you're about to try to say something pithy," she said. "Don't. You should take Juana and get out of here. I'll get Dwight to help me with a distraction. He was setting something up a few minutes ago as a surprise, so just be ready to go."

She vanished into the crowd before I could ask her what. So instead, I leaned over to Juana. "You ready to get out of here?"

"I thought you'd never ask.”

“Just wait for the moment. Apparently, we'll know it when we see it."

The words were barely out of my mouth before the air was rent with explosions. I leapt up, instinctively Quick Drawing, but none of our skills worked here, and my hand stayed empty. Juana got to her feet too, and then we heard the whistling and popping of fireworks and tumbled out of the pavilion to see explosions of red, blue, green, yellow streaking the sky. Our guests followed, oohing and aahing.

I grabbed Juana's hand. "Let's get out of here."

I pulled her over to the side where Colonel Ames was waiting for me. He produced a door from the air. "See you in a few days," he said cheerfully.

We stepped through and onto a golden beach with lapis lazuli waves gently lapping at its strand. Green palm trees waved overhead, and I could hear the faint sound of an island reggae band drifting across the water. Behind us was a low, one-story thatched wooden beach house, its whole front open to the sea. Inside was a beautifully appointed bedroom and a little sitting area, and outside a lanai.

Juana gave a whistle of approval. "This'll work," she said.

I pulled a device from my inventory, a wedding present from Dwight, and tossed it up onto the lanai.

"What's that?"

"A privacy beacon with an emergency code that only Grandpa, Colonel Ames, or an act of God can breach," I said. “Dwight offered to program your mom in as an override, but I asked him not to.”

Juana giggled. "Sounds good to me."

"They know when we'll be back, and if an emergency crops up, they can get hold of us. I just want to make sure it's a real emergency, and not something that someone else should be able to handle."

I took Juana's hands in mine.

"Now, a while back, you said something about my timing?"

She leaned in. Just before our lips met, she murmured, "I think you've got the timing down now, Shad. We'll make a progression raider of you yet."