Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.

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A Broken World

(thrid draft)

By Kimra

Part One

She twisted in her sleep, trying to find that perfect spot on the over heated bed. The weather had never returned after the cataclysm, and the air had forever been a thick hot sludge that pooled around you until you couldn't move. She was used to it, of course, fifteen years gave you an acceptance and adaptation to the environment around you that made it possible to function in. Besides she had never known the weather before the breaking of the world she had only heard tales of it so there was no comparison to make.

Some nights long ago she dreamt of the clean water that fell from the sky and engulfed the world, washing away the stains of blood that had long lingered on it's surface. But they where dreams she couldn't have anymore.

She flipped onto her back with a groan, staring at the patterns of peeling paint across her roof. Sweat trickled and collected down her sides, across her brow, between her thighs, at the arch of her back, and at every joint in her body. A groan of resentment escaped and she kicked the sheet off her body. Usually she clung to the security of it, but today she had no energy to waste on fear or worry, all she could do was prey for the sleep that still refused to take hold of her tired and aching head.

The pure need for rest began to weigh over her stubborn body's need to cool down, and fingers of sleep began to pull her into the dream realm. She surrendered to its thrall.

Abruptly noise blared, shaking the walls around her, and waking the mind that was shutting down. Her body jerked up, the dagger below her pillow in her grip without a conscious thought to retrieve it. Tired and weary eyes jumped about the room ready to find the carrier of danger. The noise pulsed on, not in her room, beyond and tired ears began to notice the patterns in the sound as she tried to decipher it's origin.

Time was slowed by the adrenaline her body had pushed through her at the intrusion to her sleep, so what took her mind too long to figure out was mere seconds of reality and then she was aware it was music that had woken her. Another second and she knew the source of the music was near, beyond her door, not beyond her home.

Her breathing calmed as the reassurance that immediate danger was not present penetrated her tired yet alert mind. Then she realised with anger that the adrenaline that had just pushed through her system would take hours to wear away and the sleep that had been so close had just been stolen from her. A scream shuddered in her mind, her throat ready to voice it, caution held it back and she grabbed up a pillow squashing her face below it, mocking the very action she wanted to take as she almost noiselessly released her frustration.

When breath was gone from her lungs she threw the pillow to her door, waiting for the noise on the other side to stop of quieten, another problem penetrating the fog of her awareness. The noise was still there, the music was still playing.

Another scream lingered, she glared at the door, trying to silence the noise by pushing her anger towards and through the door but the action was pointless and did nothing to appease to frazzled mind.

A voice penetrated the pulsating rhythms of music that threatened to drown her ear drums, it was female and recognisable. "Are you crazy! Turn that off!" Usagi knew the voice as Alina's a girl two years her senior in body and ten years her junior in mind.

The music stopped and Usagi threw herself back against the bed releasing the anger that had begun to well in her chest. Silence settled back into her bones, the adrenaline still mindlessly demanding action be taken her heart still beating a fast rhythm that the rest of her body throbbed with. She tried to force calm back into herself.

Alina's voice disturbed her attempts at peace. "Hey Usagi! You awake yet?"

Usagi's body jerked back up into a sitting position her fist's clenched her head pounding with a headache that wanted to overwhelm her. And she screamed her response at the door with no regard to who could hear and what the repercussions where. "What?" Anger flushed through her body and the adrenaline took triumphant hold of her sense's waking her another notch. Silence met her scream and the anger began to double in upon itself. She breathed deep through her nose, trying to keep the calm but with each passing second of silence she felt control slip. "What?" She shouted at the door again. The silence that greeted her second demand for a response overpowered rationality. She jumped to her feet, naked, not caring as she flung her bed room door open and stormed into the lounge room.

Alina was white, her features shocked and fearful, the man by her side, the newest person to take sanctuary in the house looked casual and unaffected. Usagi reeled in the anger and glared at Alina, choosing to ignore the man's leering expression and a little angry she had left her dagger on the bed in a moment of thoughtlessness.

This time when she asked her voice was smooth with the control she exerted over it but it did not seem to reassure the skinny girl before her. "What?" She was aware her voice had those deadly undercurrent suppressed rage made but had no care to try and hide them, she was angry and she didn't care if the world knew about it.

Alina wet her lips and flicked her glance to the new man. Then began to stutter, "I was wondering if you told Ric the rules yesterday."

Usagi forced the name into her memory, Ric wasn't going to last long, she could tell from the music stunt, but it never bode well for you if you didn't memorise the information at hand. At the same time she stared at the girl she had only known for a few months, and as carefully and forcefully as she could replied to the question. "It's, not, my, job." She punctuated each word with a breath and a spark of anger, forcing the girl to accept and remember what she was saying. "It's-" She waved her hand at the leering man "-Jasmine's friend, it's Jasmine's job."

And with that she turned from the two and disappeared once more into her room, slamming and locking the door behind her, letting her anger into each move she made in the hope of seeping it out of her soul.

*****

Usagi rolled her head back on her shoulders, letting the noise of the tavern filter through her hearing and merge into a mindless blur that pulsed against her temples in time with her migraine. As a single entity, migraine and crowd became bearable and she was free to watch and scrutinize the taverns patrons with more alacrity.

This was her third home, if you where allowed to have three homes. She felt no comfort, no safety, but familiarity bleed from every grain of the building that surrounding her.

At the counter Wade gave her a quick salute acknowledging for the first time in the hour her presence in his bar. She returned a quick head-nod jarring the migraine back into a separate rhythm. She raised a finger to her head and she forced the pain back to where it was manageable. Her hand dropped back to the table.

With a sigh she lent back in her chair, eyes jumping through the bawdy and rough crowd. These where the people she lived by, these where the people she faced every day and the people she hated. One the other side of the tavern someone fell to the ground, blood pooled out from the body across the floor, no-one paused and her eyes barely lingered on the prone figure.

A glass settled before her, Wade standing behind it with a pleased expression. She flicked a quick smile at him, wondering if one day he would take by force what she refused to give willingly. There were no rules, there where no laws. Not really. And no one would care if he took her without consent, and there was no one left to take vengeance.

She took the glass and raised it to her lips, watching the brown haired bar tender retreat to his place in the universe, then sipped at the searing liquid. It burnt a path down her throat to her belly, sitting rebelliously with the quick meal she had taken before coming. The glass went back to the table, she released it, not sure if her stomach would keep it's control.

Something as simple as throwing up could kill her, she remembered a time, too long ago now to be anything but dreams, when she had not been so afraid of the world. Once she had even loved it.

A pair of gloves slapped against her table, a body following them and taking the seat opposite her. Mentally she tested for the cold press of metal against her ankle and wrist, then the familiar straps about her leg where she kept her exposed blade. Meanwhile a smile slipped to her lips, not a nice smile, but a business smile.

The man who sat opposite her was dressed well, pre-cataclysm clothes, the stitching was perfect the fit undeniable. She re-evaluated, they where made well but for him, they where new but made with a skill she hadn't seen on any of the middle city streets. He was rich then, and from the beyond of the Inner City, she hoped for the former.

"Yes?" She picked her glass up again taking a small cautious sip, still examining him over the brim. His hair was shoulder length, cut perfectly, by a slave she guessed. His eyes where an elusive green that seemed content to remain expressionless as they evaluated her.

"I'm looking for a Seeker." His voice was smooth, and quite enough to reach her and no one else.

She took the cup from her lips and raised her left eye brow at him, keeping her expression neutral. "Seeking's illegal." She told him her voice matter-of-fact.

"So I'm told." His voice was dry then he gave her a smile to disarm and her guard jumped higher, she checked once more that her weapons where in place.

She rubbed her chin with her left hand, right hand delivering the cup to it's resting place on the table. "I don't think there are any Seekers around these parts." A brash hand movement towards the crowd and his eyes never left hers. She brought her hand below the table and fisted it. He was too focused, and she did not like being the sole object of anyone's attention.

"There's a Seeker in every Outer Region. I've been told there are at least six around old Tokyo."

Gods she hated her heart, because it jumped into overdrive as his words filtered past the throbbing noise and into her brain. She told herself to calm but her nails begun to dig into her palm her fist tightening. "I've heard no such rumour." She managed a half smile, more friendly then before and forced herself to look away from him. It was an attempt to look less focused then she was, it was an attempt he wasn't bothering to make as his eyes bored into her. "There was a Seeker here-" She looked back to him, her smile larger now "-about five moons ago, they say she could find anything."

He lent against the table towards her, the look in his eyes told her he knew the game she was playing but she refused to budge to the worry that wormed through her. "And where is she now?" His voice was low, harder for others to hear.

She met the unspoken challenge and lent in towards him, her smile slipped into coy shyness as she held his eyes. Then abruptly she broke the stance, lent back into her chair and let her smile fade completely. "She went away. Nobody knows where."

"Maybe she died in the Inner City." He sounded like he was trying to be helpful, the glint in his eyes denied the possibility.

"Maybe she died in the Outer Regions. It doesn't matter where you are, every where's just as deadly."

"Well, if you happen to see her, alive, of course. Then you might tell this prodigy Seeker that I'm in need of her services."

"It's not good to be in need of anything." She drawled uncaringly. It didn't bother her if he displayed weakness, it was in fact better for her. "What kind of thing do you need?" She gave him an obviously fake smile, the game was easy enough to play and he knew she was playing. "In case I see her."

"The kind of thing that would be strictly between me and the Seeker." He was giving away hints of annoyance, and she became amused. Obviously he didn't like the game very much.

"Not afraid the Hunters will cut your gut for breaking one of their laws?"

He met her eyes firmly. "If she's not afraid, then neither am I."

She tried not to choke at the display of over bravado impressed now by nothing but the man's stupidity.

"Besides, the man at the door told me if I was after a Seeker you'd be the way to go. 'Can find anything' he said."

"He wouldn't know the difference between his mother and his whore. So I wouldn't give much credit to anything he had to say, if I where you." She clicked the bones in her neck as she rolled her head, wishing she had gotten more sleep the night before but dreams had a way of depriving her of the things she needed.

"So you can't find anything?" He smirked and she nearly laughed at the blatant trap. If she hadn't been feeling so ill she wouldn't have humoured him and let him think he was winning the silent debate, as it was she really didn't care that much.

"Lets talk about this somewhere a little less public." As she stood from the chair she became away of something her tired brain hadn't yet taken into account. There was someone else in the bar who had taken an interest in their conversation. She flicked her attention about the room, searching, as the man before her stood. She found the focused attention of two men on their discussion, both of the men where in different places in the bar, places she considered fairly strategic.

Testing she let her hand drop to the hilt of her blade and watched as the two men moved as one and began towards her defensively. They weren't so obvious that it would be noticed unless you where paying keen attention and she cursed herself as she released the blade and sat back in her seat for not paying enough attention.

Before her the mans he had been speaking with stood looking puzzled. "I thought we were going somewhere privet."

She waved her hand vaguely her attention focused now on the three men who where all part of this deal. "I changed my mind." She tried to sound lofty, didn't want him to realise that his friends had been spotted. "Why don't we discuss it right here, unless the noise bothers you. And if that's the case we just wont discuss it."

Her heart was beating fast again, he had given it away when he had called the Inner City 'old Tokyo' but she hadn't paid too much attention. Sometimes, rarely, a person his age would call it that, but it was a habit that belonged to the generation who had experienced the cataclysm directly. Names for cities weren't necessary now, you didn't travel, you didn't explore not if you wanted to survive. The only people who used the names where the people who travelled and that meant Hunters. That he had two men guarding his back hidden in the chaos of Wade's bar only further proved the accusation. Only a hunter would hide his guard, only a Hunter could afford a guard.

Now sat before her a Hunter asking her to do a job that his kind had outlawed. The Inner Cities all belonged to the Hunters and the Youma's. The humans who had allied themselves with the Beast who destroyed the world, who sold their souls for the power it would give them they where the Hunters. And the only things worth Seeking where in the Inner Cities, so her entire profession was to invade their territory. That he was sitting there, asking for her help scared her nearly senseless. There was no way this confrontation would end well. Even if she found what he wanted he would probably kill her.

"What do you need?" She emphasised the word as she stared at him, her hand resting on the blade handle below the table. She felt the other two men draw closer, aware of her actions even from a distance. The man before her however appeared ignorant.

"I need to find a person." His voice was stone, his expression unmoving. She forced breath into her lungs as she stared into his passive eyes. Her heart rate picked up pace again, her stomach tightening into painful knots.

"I'm not really into people." She forced herself to say, trying to back away from the whole thing as calmly as possible.

"You'd be well compensated. Better compensated then you have been for any of your past jobs." He was trying to be persuasive and all she could do was try and get herself to calm down.

"I'm not a mercenary." She hissed, unable to hide the anger without displaying the fear.

"No one's asking you to kill him. Just find him for us." He sounded smooth, calm. This was why he was here, which mean it was a mission a task set for him by the higher powers. The chances of survival if she accepted or rejected the offer where beginning to dwindle. She could take it, she guessed she would survive if she was willing to continue to do their bidding, but that would do little but make her a Hunter herself and she still had some morals that would refuse any such action.

"And how'd you lose him?" She mocked, still trying desperately to think of a way out of this man's control.

"That's classified." He replied. If she hadn't known already that one word would have given him away as a Hunter. The rest of the world had no use for classification when it was having a hard enough time simply surviving.

She let out a shaky breath and stared fiercely at him. "I'm not a mercenary."

"I just want to find my brother. What's mercenary about that?" He put on an innocently puzzled expression.

"Listen." She hissed at him sternly. "If your brothers missing, his dead." She paused for emphasise then stood from her seat. He made a grab at her arm to detain her escape and she responded with violence. She drew the blade on her thigh out and spun around slicing his arm swiftly and making him release her.

Nothing in the pub paused as the Hunter yanked his arm away trying to cover the wound, shocked eyes fixed on her. The two men who had been stationary where moving fast and she sent a pray to what ever gods where left in this forsaken world before rallying her courage.

"I don't deal with Hunters." She shouted it, and a wave of silence settled over the tavern, eyes fixing on her and the Hunter. Nothing moved or breathed and she gave him a quick smile. "And you can tell that to your two friends over there if you like." She nodded at the two men, singling them out for the crowd as well.

Calmly she picked her bag up, slung it over her body and walked to the door, the thud of her boots on the dirt floor resounding through the silent room. She didn't pause in the door way or flinch when noise once more began in the tavern. She knew with a certainty that was born from knowledge that it would take less then a minute before the three hunters met their deaths. Nobody liked the hunters, but that particular crowd, she knew, had a powerful hatred for them.

Letting out a shaky breath she began her trek home wanting to be safe in case the hunters did manage to survive the melee.

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I was really discontent with the whole tone of the previous draft. If you think this draft is worse or better please tell me and I'll work it out. I much much happier with this now. But as I said, the judgement lies with the readers.

Kimra