Once Again, With Feeling!

Chapter One: Friend of a Friend

Sugar looked around the park lazily. So, this was Sunnydale, huh? Not very impressive; but, then again not that shabby at all. She twirled her cotton- candy pink hair around in her fingers, chomping on pink bubble gum loudly. All in all she seemed human, if you didn't include the bright pink hair and baby blue skin. Oh yeah, and the pointy ears. Sugar began to walk through the park. Her mission: Finish what her Big Bro, Sweets had started. The weather was pleasant, not too hot, not to cold. It was comfortable out, but never the less, Sugar could feel tension radiating from this town. She smiled, no worries, she'd break it.

It didn't take long to track all the prospects down. Sugar just followed the trail of pain she could smell in the air. The first one she had found was the boy. Tall with dark hair and eyes, she had used her telepathy to read him like a card. Apparently this was the one who had summoned her brother in the first placed. He had naively thought that all those wonderful dances and songs would come without a price. What a fool. His fiancé had left him and become a vengeance demon again because he had left her at the alter and she had slept with a Vampire who was now with a soul and a little less with sanity than when he had left. Sugar shook her head, dissipating into air.

The Vengeance Demon was the next to be found cleaning out an old Magic Shoppe, which looked like it was about to collapse. Sugar idly wondered if that was what was keeping it stable. The Red-headed Witch had attacked in livid fury after her lover had been undeservingly murdered before her eyes. Poor girl. Dark Magick was never something to be trifled with. But what Sugar wondered was how the sweet Witch had gotten involved in the black arts. Evil didn't just emerge through too much Magick over time. No, in order to become truly evil, one's innocence had to be stolen and then replaced with a hatred bred by Magick. Who had stolen her innocence? Sugar went off in search of the witch to find out.

The Witch was found sitting alone on an old swing set in the park Sugar had arrived in not a day before. Sugar read the girl eagerly, curious beyond what she knew Sweets would deem acceptable. Oh, so read had gotten involved with Rack through yet another inexperienced witch friend. Sugar was familiar with Rack, he had been around for longer than he let on. Centuries almost. It was sad really, the witch had trusted her friend so much she had leapt into his arms without and reserves. The power rush she had been feeling with Rack was him stealing her innocence from her, replacing it with a Magickal high. But of course, innocence cannot be lost, just maintained. That's why the witch felt like shit every time she opened her eyes and it wasn't to Rack. Her soul and her conscience had been reasserting themselves and it hurt, physically. Poor Kid, only 19 too.

The next Sugar stumbled upon was the Watcher. If this wasn't the most mixed case she had ever seen. The Watcher would dive right in to self-pity as his mind went on and on about how he failed because his slayer didn't need him anymore to a charity case as all his reasons for leaving were brought forth by a fatherly urge to protect his 'not-so-biological' daughter from the demons of the world the best way he knew how. Figuratively speaking.

Then there was the Slayer and of course her secret demon lover. Sugar already had a headache. She wasn't going to get started with these two until she absolutely had to. And she would too, with song. See, that's the great thing about song. The total raw emotions, whatever you're feeling you just sing it out. Nobody has any secrets. Then of course there is the price. The human mind just isn't strong enough to handle raw emotion. So, spontaneous combustion is the body's reaction to the mind's pain.

Funny thing really. This whole town seemed to exist solely on Pain.