A/N: Alright, guys, you may have noted in the opening that I said these chapters might look into some pretty dark themes at times, depending on what scenes I use involving what characters.

This is one of those times where I take a look at a decidedly not-child-friendly character's mind thinking family-unfriendly thoughts. Don't worry - I will keep it within the teen rating I gave this fanfic on the front end; just know that this is one of those darker moments I was referring to.

Okay, warning aside, let's begin this next round of 'Whose Mind is it, Anyway?'

This one's from a musical...

Anger stood in disbelief as Fear trembled beside her. "Oh, no..." the purple emotion muttered, "Oh no oh no no no no no..."

Flinging her hands up into the air, Anger screamed, "You fool!" and then slammed them down into the console, damaging it. Not that the two fresh dents made much of a difference; its once-shining brass frame had been reduced to a bent, bruised, and battered network of copper cogs, wooden gears, and a slew of steam pipes whose functionality was falling by the day.

"Calm down, there, Anger, calm down-" Fear began, but was punched away for his efforts.

Snarling, Anger turned back to the window above. The scared face of their "friend" stared back at them. He was trying to explain himself, but Anger was having none of it. She let loose a roar, then threw the console into overdrive, scaring the young man out of the room and away from the building. "Good riddance," Anger added, "Stay away and don't come back!"

Red memory orbs came roaring in, clattering to the ground as they came. Fear scurried over and did his part to pick them up and pile them back in some semblance of order, but as he tried, Headquarters began shaking violently. "Not again!" he shouted. He dropped the orbs as quickly as he'd picked them up, then ran over to the steam engine in the room's center. Pulling a crank, it rotated and swiveled, and the core memories came up. Their flickering lights looked like the fighting, struggling kicks of an animal dying. Fear bit his nails, trying hard to remember what to do. 'Joy,' he thought to himself, 'Why can't you be here now? Why?' Joy was the one who first attacked the console over a decade ago in a fit of rage. It was a contradiction, the happiest emotion feeling so full of turmoil and anger, but it's what happened - and nobody could reign her in. She attacked them all, damaged the station, and very nearly shut it down completely. Only quick thinking on Fear's part allowed the mind workers to arrive in time to drag the rogue emotion off to the subconscious, "Until she could be rehabilitated."

She had never come back.

And now, even more violently than ever before, Headquarters was shaking, and Fear was doing his best to keep things held together. The core memories struggled and fought as he tried to keep them steady, but to no avail; every time he shoved one back into place, another came loose.

While his purple coworker was fighting the orbs, Sadness had run up and convinced Anger to let him handle the situation. Anger shoved himself away from the controls, head alight. Sadness stepped in. That, at least, let headquarters stop shaking. The metal walls slowed to a steady vibration and the emergency cooling system came to life; water flooded the heated metal area, letting steam rise and moisten the air around. Sadness looked up at the outside world, where they had collapsed into a chair, hands buried in their face and crying their worries away.

Hesitantly, Fear let go of the cores and tried comforting Anger. He tried substituting for Joy, tried explaining. He tried to show that they need not worry, and that everything was going to be fine. He sounded as convinced as he felt, and Anger knew it. The hot-headed feeling shoved Fear away and yelled at him, "It's not okay!"

Stuttering, Fear said, "B-But we can just wait; there's still- we have time! We can still fix-"

"Fix this?!" Anger yelled, pushing Fear again, "We can't! It's too late! This whole place is going to fall apart!"

It was about that time that Disgust showed up from below. "What on Earth is going on?!" he demanded, "Why are we-"

Then he saw the screen, glanced at the memories, and it all made sense. His face contorted into an image of pure contempt, and he marched over to the controls. "So... he got away, didn't he? I've told you once," he said, jerking a handle into place, breaking it in the process, "I've told you a thousand times; but you never listen to me!"

Sadness scoffed, "It's because you never make any sense! Why cast the blame on-"

"But It's true! It's their fault!" He gestured his green hands at the window, indicating the brick buildings and city far outside. "They are to blame!"

"Wh-who?" Fear asked from the back.

"Everyone!" Disgust shouted at him. He turned around, matching Fear's eye, challenging him to contradict it, "It's this miserable city that's ruining us!"

"It's their wretched laws!" Anger added.

"Exactly!" Disgust said, "They're to blame! Those pathetic rats don't deserve the pavement they walk on!"

"E-E-Even if that's true..." Fear tried saying, scrambling away from Anger and Disgust as the advanced on him, "Even if it's true; what can we do about it? Huh? What can we-"

"Ahem."

Everyone looked up and froze in place.

Amid the violently shaking headquarters and the puddles of hot water, a single glowing figure was descending from the train-of-thought's platform outside.

Her white gown was untouched by time, and her flowing hair and wonderful, beautiful eyes were only matched in brightness by the physical radiance of her glow. In fact, she looked to be the epitome of virtue. It was everywhere, all over her as she took slow, deliberate steps down to the others. They all made a move away from Joy, as though she were a dangerous, rabid animal. It was her grin. It was a large, awful, toothy sneer, accompanied by a soft, menacing chuckle, clicking away from the back of her throat like some sort of clockwork. In her hand was held a single idea-lamp. "Did you miss me?" she asked.

"Where were you?" Anger asked.

As she dove into a story about how she busted out of the subconscious in time to hitchhike up, Sadness snuck around and helped Fear to his feet. "You okay?" he asked.

"No!" Fear hissed, "Get security up here!"

"I'll try..." Sadness muttered, adjusting his suspenders, "But there's nothing we can do now. If they see us try to stop Joy, we're dead."

Fear was about to reply, but then he noticed the way Disgust and Anger looked at Joy, with awe filling their features to the brim. Never mind how that grin was a little too bright, never mind how those eyes gleamed too happily; in the eyes of Anger and Disgust, Joy was a savior, come to sweep up the mess and set things right. Only Sadness and Fear were well aware of how far gone she was.

Casually, the two stepped to join the others, trying to draw as little attention as possible. Joy was just finishing her tale, and happened to catch Fear's glance.

He couldn't help but shudder, and she noticed. With a soft touch on his shoulder, she patted him comfortingly, saying, "Now, now, don't be so alarmed; I've come back because I finally found my way... after all those years, I'm back... and you know what?" She looked around, frowning at the walls lined with red, blue, green, and purple, and the machinery rapidly running out of life. Then, flashing that smile again, she lifted up the idea-lamp, jangling it in front of the others, "I have just the solution to our problems."

With a flick of her wrist, she shoved it into the console.

"What- what are you gonna do?" Fear said, unable to help himself.

Joy beamed. "I'm glad you asked - we're gonna kill them!"

Even Anger flinched at that.

"What?" The purple emotion tripped and landed back on the ground as he backed away from Joy.

"You heard me," Joy said, taking a lunging step forward every time Fear stepped back, "We're gonna kill them! It's brilliant, isn't it?"

"Who are- you don't- we can't-"

"We're gonna kill each and every one of them! Everyone! They deserve it, after all!"

"You can't be serious! We'll be caught! We'll be hung! And what comes after that? What if we burn in-"

Joy smacked him. "Don't be ridiculous! We can't be punished for doing a public service; as a matter of fact, when we finally do bite the big one..." at this, she gazed up into the ceiling, as if she could see beyond it, "Heaven's gates will swing wide open for us!" She began pacing around, gesturing wildly as she explained, "There are only two types, ladies and gents: good and bad. Nice and mean. Virtuous and evil. Now, obviously, if someone's evil, they should be killed right away, so they can't perpetuate their deeds any more! And then they'll face a higher judge, one who will ensure they get exactly what they deserve!"

"But what about the innocents?" Fear said, hoping against hope that he could find a way to call the mind workers again.

"Hahahahah! Oh, Fear," Joy said, "That's easy: they - too - must die, and be relieved from the horrid suffering this world has to offer!" Gesturing at the broken machinery all around her, she added, "Why allow anyone else to go through this? The least we can do is spare them that fate! Who's with me?!"

"Yes!" Anger yelled.

"Agreed!" Shouted Disgust.

"Y-Yeah..." Fear said, glad that none could see through his lie.

Suddenly, a bright blue light lit up, and they all turned to see Sadness tinkering with the controls.

"What do you think you're doing?" Joy demanded.

The pudgy emotion spun around and - without missing a beat - began crying, "But our family! It's gone! We might have a purpose, but- but they're gone! Can't you see that, Joy?" He threw a weak gesture at the screen, trying desperately to stall Joy's plan. "We have to have time to mourn, we-"

But Joy snapped her fingers, and Anger dove, tackling Sadness away. "We're finished here!" Anger shouted, "No more mourning! It's time!"

Joy seized the mostly-ruined controls, and the mind shook yet again as she looked out the window. Sadness flung Anger off, then leaped to his feet and began wrestling the controls away from Joy - blatantly insisting that they needed the time to mourn, that they couldn't act yet. The harder he struggled, the more she fought back. The two fought recklessly over the controls, damaging the console more and more with each push and pull, until Joy won out at last. Kicking Sadness away, she slammed her fist into a button, and a blinding golden glow erupted. A new memory.

A new core memory.

Joy picked it up, gazing at it for some time, before she began laughing. It started as that ticking chuckle in the back of her throat, slowly growing until a torrent of guffaws blew up in the room. Her laughter grew and grew, and she barely had the strength to catch her breath as she yelled, "We have it!" She walked to the center of the room and pulled up the main engine. She threw away all but two of the cores; a red one and a golden one.

Soon this new, brightly shining core was placed in and a new personality island jolted to life outside; Salvation Island.

Joy's smile grew and grew. In the back, Fear helped Sadness to his feet. Seeing that nobody else was looking, they ran off to another room to discuss a plan. Joy's smile only got bigger, and - laughing that wretched laugh again - she climbed the engine in the middle and threw her arms in the air, shouting, "I'm back at last!"

Meanwhile, on the outside, a sullen barber stood in the middle of his bare room and shouted, "I'm alive at last, and I'm full of joy!"

Hands frozen in the air, he was staring up into the ceiling. Silence quickly descended. It enveloped the shop like a blanket, and seemed to freeze time in place. Across from Sweeney Todd, the only other person - Mrs. Lovett - broke the quiet.

"That's all very well," she said, as casually as if they were discussing plans for the weekend and not talking about mass murder, "But all that matters now is him." She gestured to the trunk where they'd stored the dead body from earlier. "Listen to me," she said, "Can you hear me?" Taking a few more steps closer, she leaned in and asked, "What are we gonna do 'bout 'im?"

After a thoughtful pause, Sweeney nodded and said, "Later on, when it's dark, we'll take him to some secret place and bury him..."

And that's it! Told you it was dark. Anyways, what were the clues I gave for this one? Well, I hope it wasn't too vague, but here they were.

1. The control room was in shambles, so - clearly - it's someone who isn't thinking straight, whose mind is broken.

2. Everything's powered by steam - so the person's likely from the Victorian era. This is supposed to be enforced by the lamps that are used as idea bulbs.

3. Joy was mentioned as having been gone for over a decade. In the play, it was fifteen years since Sweeney Todd was taken from his wife and child and sent away to a prisoner's camp for a crime he didn't commit. Also, Joy's being locked away all that time was supposed to reflect Sweeney's fate.

Also, the adjectives I used to describe Joy were similar to the ones Sweeney used to describe his wife. As I had pointed out to me in a PM - his wife was the only thing that brought him joy, so it's not too far of a stretch to think that Joy would resemble his wife in a way, looking "Beautiful" and "Virtuous," as Sweeney put it.

4. Fear and Sadness were the only two emotions not bent on killing everyone; in the play, those were the only times Sweeney even hesitated - if he was scared he would be caught, or if he was too distracted by all the misery he'd been through. Also, note that Disgust referred to everyone else in the world as "rats" - this is a call out to how Sweeney views London: "The vermin of the world inhabit it."

5. The argument that Joy made to Fear, explaining why they ought to kill everyone that came in for a shave, was the same argument Sweeney made as he explained to Mrs. Lovett, "They all deserve to die.../Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why.../Because, in all of the whole human race, Mrs. Lovett/There are two kinds of men, and only two/There's the one staying put in his proper place/And the one with his foot in the other one's face..." and "The lives of the wicked should be made brief/For the rest of us death will be a relief/We all deserve to die."

Additionally, Sadness's attempts to intervene was supposed to reflect the mood swings Sweeney went through during the song, alternating between depression and elation. In the end, though, he says he feels "alive at last," and "full of joy!" signifying that his mind is officially gone for good, taken by the obsession with revenge on the world.

6. The personality islands, though I didn't describe them, were supposed to be small hints; one was golden (his knowledge of being a barber) and one was red (his need for revenge against the corrupt Judge Turpin, who was responsible for all his suffering - that drive for vengeance never really left him, even as he decided to kill everyone - Judge Turpin still was a special target in his mind).