After leaving the tribe after a week of trying to get themselves back together, the three woman left to start their journey to Dodge City. Setsuna took the lead riding Dart as Graywolf insisted she take the horse as hers. She finally gave in leaving him her paint horse in exchange making a pact with him in friendship. Haruka still seemed out of it as she rode slowly alongside the law woman with Michiru's arms around her waist. The violinist had tried her best to help Haruka anyway she could finding it was difficult. However, together they had to face their ultimate fear of returning to where all the trouble began under the watchful eye of Setsuna. The blonde owed it to her fallen mentor and she knew she probably should have done it in the first place in order to avoid the amount of bloodshed that had happened. She couldn't help but blame herself for Jak's death even if it was out of her hands.
They continued to ride stopping every once in a while to rest their horses and to try and eat themselves. Setsuna had observed that Haruka had grown more reserved since Jak's death and knew she was slowly going to boil over at one point. However she had no idea just what would set off that inner turmoil going on deep within the blonde, and soon she felt it herself. In the pit of her stomach she could feel a great pressure building which would probably explode once the group got within Dodge City again. It had been the governor who had placed the bounty and caused this entire mess and she couldn't help but feel a bit of fury beginning to eat away at her senses. After a few hours, they all mounted up and continued on before reaching Dodge city in four days times.
They carefully walked into Dodge where a mob of people started shouting at the blonde rider calling her a murder and a kidnapper. Haruka ignored the people's calls hearing absolutely nothing as she walked forward on her horse to the jail house with the Marshall. She dismounted and helped Michiru down before tying her horse up and stepping away looking around slowly with cold emerald eyes. The emotions were riding high within her but she felt a calming sensation strike her down as Michiru's hand grasped hers softly.
"I'm not leaving your side, Ruka." she murmured gently.
"Thanks, Michi."
Continuing to hold her hand, the blonde rider walked with her toward the saloon where Governor Kaioh was busy hosting a rally for his supporters. He had no idea his daughter had returned and that the kidnapper was also present in town. However, he was about to find out as Haruka stopped at the doorway. Looking down, she closed her eyes before squeezing her lover's hand a bit harder out of fear. She had been fearful of returning to face the people of Dodge in fear of dying on Michiru. After seeing Jak's body it made the woman realize she had to stop running and do the right thing before more people were hurt because of her and her foolishness. She took a long breath before entering the saloon letting go of Michiru's hand only to step onward through the crowd to stop just a few feet away from the main stage where Haru Kaioh stood. He stopped talking recognizing the woman before having his guards got toward her to grab her. They lunged toward her but soon stopped having pistols aimed in both their directions. The blonde's eyes were cold and heartless as she slowly raised her head up to allow her eyes to lock onto Haru's. The look in those eyes of hers caused the man to shiver with quite a fear. His body refused to move causing him to remain stuck in his position upon the stage.
"Governor Kaioh, you have cost me a great deal with your blasphemous accusations of me stealing your daughter away from you. I never did such a thing as Michiru decided to come with me of her own free will which is something you don't seem to be able to comprehend. I kept her safe from any harm as your fucking dogs tried to corner me. I fought hard to keep them from taking away Michiru's freedom and new life but in the end your hounds won. They killed the only person out here in this country that taught me the meaning of being a free rider. She died because of your bounty crazed citizens and because of your greed, your fucking greed, she was shot in the back!" hollered the enraged blonde.
Her hands quivered causing the pistols in her hand to shake as well. It caused the men the weapons were pointed at to gulp and pray they didn't fire off. Closing her eyes, Haruka fought back the urge to let her fingers pull the hammers back and to pull the triggers. She kept shaking in anger but it all stopped suddenly as a pair of soft arms circled about her waist. The sensation of feeling a loving embrace brought the woman out of the depths of her emotional hell and she slowly lowered the pistols dropping them onto the floor closing her eyes. It had been so tempting to shoot the guards but that was not the reason she had returned to Dodge. Opening her eyes slowly, she felt the arms slip off of her and she watched as Michiru walked to stand in front of her glaring up toward her father.
"You are nothing but a pompous, greedy bastard, Father! Ever since my mother died you have become a tyrant to everyone you used to love and care for and that includes your own people. Have you not ever stopped to think what kind of hell you creating for me by posting that ridiculous bounty?" she roared causing Haruka to be stunned as a result.
"Daughter I-" started the governor before being cut off.
"Don't you dare daughter me you son of a bitch! You caused the only one in this world I love extreme pain by your selfishness and hunger for power. You have no right to call me your daughter any longer you bastard! As far as I am concerned you have no daughter and you can take that five thousand dollar bounty of yours and shove it right up your ass. It means nothing as I wasn't kidnapped in the first place. You're just a deranged man trying to control every aspect in your family's life. Well thanks to you, you have no daughter and you sure as hell aren't going to see me again after today." growled Michiru. She was shaking severely at this point and Haruka moved to grab her shoulders with her hands to steady her.
The governor grew angry and soon moved off the stage toward the two women fully intending on making Michiru pay for her insults. He grabbed one of his guard's sides removing a pistol and aimed toward Haruka's head pulling back the hammer.
"She's corrupted my little girl. You she devil! You caused her to turn into a demon!" he snarled fully intent on pulling the trigger.
People all around backed away from the governor in his deranged state of being in fear for their own lives. Haruka shifted pulling Michiru behind her standing right in front of the governor's loaded gun. Her eyes narrowed and she forced Michiru to stay behind her not wanting her to get injured because of her father's stupidity.
"Do you really have the guts to pull that trigger on someone who has done nothing but protect your little girl from those renegades? Do you really have the balls to kill me out of your own greed and anger? If you kill me, you are no better than the man that killed your wife!" shouted Haruka.
"Who did you...know that?" murmured a rather stunned Governor.
"Because your daughter told me what she remembered after your hired killer slaughtered my one and only family member. She may not have been of my blood but damn it she was like a sister to me!"
Feeling anger rise into his system once more, the man finally got the resolve to pull the trigger. However, with Haruka's last statement about his wife, his aim had lowered from her skull and instead the bullet lodged itself into her right shoulder. Grimacing in pain, the blonde grabbed the injury and watched as the governor aimed again to shoot higher. As he moved to pull the trigger a second time, the sound of gunfire went off but it was not from his gun. The pistol he held dropped to the floor along with the rest of his body as a hole showed through his chest where a bullet had hit him. His body struck the floor boards bleeding out only causing everyone to stare toward the door of the saloon to the shadowed figure with a rifle in hand. The governor's assistant moved forward to check for a pulse but it was useless as the man was dead before he hit the floor.
"He was about to kill someone in cold blooded murder and you were all witness to it." remarked the shooter slowly stepping forward into the light.
Haruka and Michiru turned to look only to relax seeing it was Setsuna who held the rifle. Grimacing, the blonde kept a tight hold on her bullet wound while feeling Michiru hold her around the waist. The Marshall stepped forward before looking to the blonde and her lover. Making a motion with her head, the two began to leave the saloon to find a doctor to repair the damage done to Haruka's shoulder. Michiru didn't even bother to look down to her father having lost all respect for him months ago. She stood by what she said as he was no longer her father. Her only family was the blonde she helped get to the town's doctor to be tended to. Within the saloon, the Marshall took statements to document that she had done her duty protecting an innocent life when they had been threatened. No one objected to that and soon the undertaker came and took the body away. People started to drink again needing the liqour to calm their shaking nerves after what had transpired within the building not noticing the Marshall leave the place.
Setsuna walked on down to the jail house where she took a seat only to grab her bottle of whiskey off the desk uncorking it. Looking to the liquid, she took a few light swigs of it before corking it again and looking all around the office. It no longer meant anything to the woman as it had in the past. Back when things mattered, she had enjoyed her job protecting people from renegade idiots and murderers but not it all seemed too gone for her to handle any longer. She partly blamed herself for not being steadier with her gun two weeks earlier but soon shook the thoughts away remembering what Graywolf had told her. He had been right when saying not to mourn for the loss but rather to move on. Nonetheless, she found herself removing the badge that had been on her chest for the last six years of her life. The metal star gleamed a bit in the light but it no longer held the pride she had those year before. It was dull to her red eyes and slowly, she dropped it and rose gathering up her things out of the jail house. She had no intentions on remaining a Marshall any longer as her heart was no longer in the business and not to mention the federal government could very well come down to investigate the death of the Kansas Governor. They wouldn't be able to prove her at fault though in the future.
Over the course of the next five years, Setsuna had traveled to stay with Graywolf and his people aiding them anyway she could. She taught the native the English language slowly while immersing herself into their culture while remembering where she had come from. The tribe brought her in with open arms and she soon found herself raising an abandoned little girl who she named Hotaru. The girl's mother died during labor and the little child had no one to care for her but Setsuna offered to take the baby in as her own. She bonded with little Hotaru and soon felt more at peace with herself than she had in a long time. The little purple eyed girl was only three years old when Setsuna decided to take a ride up to the old burial grounds in order to put her mind to rest. She ended up taking the young girl with her without expecting to come across the sight she found when she got there.
Over the course of time, Haruka's injury healed thanks to the hands of a talented doctor Mamoru Chiba. He had saved the use of her arm which she was grateful for often giving him money here or there when she could afford to give it back to the town. Since the death of the governor, the town seemed to have settled down enough to be back to as normal as it was before the head hunt for her occurred. She had remained their for a year recovering before taking Michiru with her to settle up in land in Wyoming to start life away from politics and away from the bad memories plaguing her. Michiru had no problem moving on in her life with her beloved lover. She had given up all material things and thrived off living off the basics helping Haruka start a ranch with cattle. She continued to learn many things as Haruka hired native people to aid her with her work. Together they formed a bond and whenever a cow died, she allowed the Indian workers to take the meat without charging them knowing how scarce food was becoming for them. As the fifth year approached, the couple decided to take a trip to the Indian territory to make a visit to a specific location they had not been to in five years. They crossed into the lands and moved on to the burial grounds where they both dismounted and approached the one mound which held special meaning to them both and especially to the blonde. Leaning down, Haruka softly placed the old set of pistols she had been given by the deceased rider onto the Indian spear making the grave. The pistols had served her well over the course of six years but she no longer needed them to survive in the lands. The times had changed and the blonde felt she had to give the pistols back as a gift in thanks to the memory of her fallen mentor. Feeling a tap to her shoulder from Michiru, she turned to look in the distance.
"Who is it, Haruka? I can't make it out." murmured the teal haired woman gently.
"There's only one other person I would think of that would travel to this location. It has to be Setsuna." responded Haruka.
As they watched, the rider emerged closer to the burial mound and soon offered a gentle smile to the two familiar faces. The three women together all smiled remembering one another though soon the couple were introduced to the young Hotaru who remained a bit shy around the new faces. Setsuna chuckled lightly at the sight though soon silenced herself noticing the pistols hanging off the spear on Jak's grave.
"I see you brought them back." she sighed gently.
Haruka nodded. "Yeah, I don't have use for them anymore so I figured I'd bring them back here where they rightfully belong. I mean, she would have wanted them back eventually."
Michiru smiled a little at the memory of Jak joking with Haruka and her calling her Blondy quite a bit. "Well, she seemed that kind of woman. After all, Blondy you sort of drifted away from needing to use guns like you had to as a Pony Express rider those years ago."
The blonde chuckled at the nickname her lover spoke. "Yeah, I don't need em and damn I miss her too."
"We all miss her, Haruka. Believe me we all do but I think she'd be proud to see what you have accomplished with your life with Michiru included with it." remarked Setsuna softly.
Hotaru stepped forward to the burial mound not really understanding what it was since she was so young. However, she removed the small little necklace she wore about her neck with a few wolf fangs placing them on the ground next to the base of the spear. Watching the sight, the women all couldn't help but smile faintly but they all stopped looking to one another as the sudden cry of a hawk echoed all around them. They all looked up to the air finding a large hawk circling above them before giving off another screech. In turn, they all smiled but Setsuna couldn't help but let a tear fall remembering the final words of her lover those years ago. While the adults were distracted, Hotaru looked up to the sky and watched as a feather came floating down from above. She reached out and caught it before lightly touching the edges keeping her eyes on the wing feather. After a few minutes, Setsua glanced back toward her daughter and smiled even more noticing the feather in her grasp. Haruka and Michiru gave each other soft smiles and kissed one another before looking toward Hotaru as she handed the feather to her mother.
Softly stroking the feather, the woman closed her eyes as another screech sounded off. "I'll always love you, Jak. Thank you..." she whispered.
The hawk soared down lower and lower toward the group of people before veering off away from them flying above the plains. The animal eventually vanished off in the horizon as the group of friends made their way to the tribe grounds for a feast in honor of the fallen in the past.
There we go, that's the end of the story. For some reason, I just couldn't stop writing today and had to finish it. I hope you all enjoyed reading it and I want to thank all the reviewers for all your comments. I hope to write something else in the future. Thank you all for sticking around to the end.^^