As the echo of the shot died down, everyone stood perfectly still, nobody making a sound; and so, the thud of the body hitting the ground was quite loud, a few more seconds ticking by in terse silence afterwards – until Minako let out a heavy breath and lowered her gun, sweat forming on her brow as she realized what a close call this had been.
"Thank you", Michiru finally was the one to speak up, turning to look at her, and making her smile wryly, "if you hadn't acted so fast…"
"…Steele would have shot you", Haruka finished for her, with a tremble in her voice, her heart cramping up at the thought of losing Michiru just moments after confessing her love to her; sending her turmoil, Michiru rubbed her back soothingly in response, silently reassuring her that it hadn't happened and that she was okay.
"We better make sure she's gone for good now", Minako stated, making them both nod; gun still in hand, the barkeep moved to where the Commander laid lifelessly on her back, a puddle of blood having formed around her head by now, the wound hidden from view as Minako had shot her from behind.
Not wanting to get a nasty surprise, Minako poked the body with her foot first, then used said foot to turn Steele over; and moments later, they could be sure that the Commander indeed was dead, most of the back of her head gone, and what was left of it was a sticky, red mess, splinters of bone poking out here and there, one of the Fyrestone men puking noisily at the sight.
"Damn", Haruka commented, not letting it show if the mess upset her, "what the Hell did you shoot her with? That's not your regular bullet, is it?"
"Hollow point", Minako told her, Michiru nodding along, having seen the effects these bullets had before, "figured they would be more useful against those armoured jerks than the regular ones. But still a good thing she took off her helmet. Hey, why did you never mention you're a Siren?"
The change of topic came so unexpected that it boggled Michiru's mind, and for a few seconds, all she could do was blink; Minako smiled back at her innocently, while the rest of the town people now was looking at her, too, making her feel quite uncomfortable.
"I didn't know", she finally regained her ability to speak, making Minako raise an eyebrow, "until we got into a firefight against those Crimson Lance goons, Haruka got hurt, we found a key piece and it… activated my powers, for lack of a better word."
"You got hurt?" Minako immediately demanded to know, glaring at Haruka, "how come this wasn't the first thing you told me!"
"Cause Michiru healed me", Haruka shrugged, deciding not to mention what the Crimson Lance torture guy had done to her, suddenly fearing that Minako might find some warped way to bring Steele back so she could kill her all over again in revenge, "I'm perfectly fine."
"Fancy powers then, I guess", the smaller blonde commented, earning a shrug from the sniper, "and, well, even though you went a bit scary there for a while, at least you took care of the Crimson Lance. Now you can search for the other pieces in peace!"
"Oh, no need for that", Michiru smiled, making the barkeep raise an eyebrow; before Minako could inquire though, the sniper reached into her pocket and brought out the key, a series of gasps coming from the watching people as they realized what it was.
"I do believe there was talk of free drinks all night once we show you the whole key", Haruka said, somewhat smug, "and while it's not quite night yet, I'm gonna hold you to that promise later, Minako."
"I never should have said that", Minako groaned, earning a chuckle from Haruka while Michiru smiled slightly; it astounded the sniper a bit that nobody looked at her with fear or even just dismay, despite the rather frightening lapse of control she had suffered just minutes ago, but apparently, the people of Fyrestone were quite willing to ignore what had happened, as it meant that for a while, the Crimson Lance would be out of the picture and would leave them in peace.
"We'll drop by at the bar later", Haruka told her, smirking again, "for now, I think we should all get some rest, after all that excitement."
"Yeah, we can clean up the mess later", Minako agreed, earning nods from the people around, some of them smirking when she raised her voice as she continued, "and I expect you Crimson Lance guys to get the bodies of your buddies out of here, and if you don't, or try something, Michiru will go Siren on your asses again!"
Michiru wasn't quite sure if she could do a repeat performance, but didn't bother to mention that; she just tried to look menacing, in case any of the few soldiers still left were watching, nodding her agreement when Haruka suggested that they should retreat to her house.
"Should we really sleep?" Michiru wanted to know once they had made their way there, "what if they attack again?"
"They won't", Haruka gave back, making the sniper wonder how she could be so sure, "their Commander is gone, and there's barely any of them left. They'll collect their dead and then retreat to headquarters to lick their wounds, and probably start killing each other while trying to decide who's gonna be their new commander."
"Ah", Michiru let out, figuring that this kind of made sense; suddenly feeling awkward, she started toying with the first random object she got hold of, some lengthy piece of metal, focusing her gaze on that as she all at once found it difficult to keep looking at Haruka, the blonde immediately picking up on her changed mood and giving her a worried look, concern also in her voice when she asked her if she was alright.
"How can you all just accept this so easily", the words practically burst out of the sniper in response, Haruka a bit taken aback by the sudden emotion in her voice, "I completely lost control, I could have killed you all! And I hurt you…"
"Not much", Haruka told her, making her raise an eyebrow, "honestly, I won't even get a bruise. You didn't hit me that hard."
"I shouldn't have hit you at all!" Michiru pointed out, not willing to let herself off the hook that fast, even though Haruka apparently was, "how can you just shrug it off like that? I could have seriously hurt you!"
"But you didn't", Haruka shrugged it off, unperturbed by Michiru's apparent disbelief, her gaze softening though as she saw how distraught the sniper was.
"Michiru", she stated, moving closer to her and putting both arms around her, prompting her to put the piece of metal back on the small table where she had found it before she returned the embrace, "we live on a planet where giant creepy worm things blast out of the earth to eat people and where bandits mutate into bigass psycho creatures. Getting tossed around a bit by a Siren is nothing all too special here."
"Still I'm sorry", Michiru sighed, allowing herself to relax into the embrace, even managing a small smile when she felt Haruka rub her back tenderly, "I never should have allowed myself to lose control like that, and hurting you… If you hadn't stopped me…"
"We're not big on dwelling on the What Ifs here", Haruka let her know with another shrug, "if one might get eaten by crazy wildlife every time they leave town, pondering such things kind of… loses its appeal. It doesn't matter what could have happened, alright? It all ended well, we got rid of the Crimson Lance, and we got the key, so tomorrow, we can go find the vault!"
"If you're not too hung-over after all the free drinks you're going to get at the bar", Michiru gave back, smiling at the huff Haruka let out at once.
"I'll let you know", she then primly said, "that I can hold my liquor very well. Drinking is one of the few pleasant things one can do around here, so we start training early. Now you, on the other hand…"
"I never drink", Michiru reminded her, "so I'd probably be drunk after one beer. I'll stick to water even tonight."
"You being drunk after one itty bitty drink is what I was pointing out", Haruka chuckled, making it Michiru's turn to huff; then, she decided that she could forgive some teasing, especially after what had happened, and pulled the blonde town for a tender kiss, relaxing even further at the feeling of Haruka's lips on hers.
"So", she then murmured, "there was not only talk of free drinks, but also of rest, I believe?"
The way her hand slid beneath Haruka's shirt to rub her back skin to skin made it quite obvious what sort of "resting" she had in mind; Haruka smirked at her as she nodded, then suddenly grimaced, Michiru giving her a questioning look in response and prompting her to elaborate.
"I'm not sure my bed is made for that kind of… resting", she pointed out, reminding Michiru of the first night she had spent in this house, when Haruka had remarked that her bed wasn't all too stable; briefly, she was tempted to make use of it, anyway, then decided against it, figuring that there were other ways which would not endanger the bed.
"Well", she thus said out loud, gently pushing Haruka until her back hit the wall, "the bed might be a bit flimsy, but the wall looks sturdy enough."
She gave the taller woman a brief smile, then pulled her down for another kiss, simultaneously moving her free hand to undo Haruka's belt, her heart skipping a beat when in response, the blonde quickly unbuttoned her shirt, her guilt forgotten as all the good feelings this brought easily pushed it aside.
To Michiru's delight – and slight surprise, after the amount of beers she had watched Haruka gulp down during the night – the blonde wasn't hung over in the morning, just as she had claimed; she was just as awake and fresh as the sniper herself, and clearly eager to get going, her excitement about the possibility of finding vast treasure rather soon quite infectious, making Michiru feel uncharacteristically giddy, as well.
"So how we are we gonna do this", Haruka asked as she loaded the Crimson Lance car she clearly considered theirs now with fresh supplies, "do we have any idea where the vault actually is located?"
"No", Michiru had to admit, not letting this lessen her good mood though, "but I do have an idea. Perhaps the key, in combination with my Siren powers, can lead us there. I'll only try this though if you're willing to talk me down again, in case it goes wrong."
"Sure I am", Haruka told her at once, earning another smile; the sniper took the time for a brief kiss, then carefully removed the key from her pocket, holding it in both hands and focusing on it, not quite sure what she was doing, but figuring that it was worth a try, anyway.
She tried to keep her focus on the key while she reached for the power within her, finding it and tapping into it easily after how she had used it the previous day; briefly, this frightened her, as she wondered if she'd lose control again… and then, the key began to glow brightly, forcing Haruka to look away, the glow dying down again a few moments later.
"So?" the blonde dared to ask, when it didn't seem as if Michiru would go into rampage mode again, "did that work?"
"Yes", Michiru breathed in response, a tremble in her voice as she felt the power crackle within her, but, to her relief, managed to keep it under control, "it did. I know where we have to go now."
