Who: Ash
When: Immediately following Lucy's death, and the days afterward.
What: This is a mishmash of sorts. Ash discovering Lucy's body, and a few small ripples felt through the community
Ash had gone to the Van Warren house, expecting to pick up Lucy for an evening at Avarice. The minute he got there... he felt it. A horrible, nauseating tremor in the aura he always felt near her. Something was painfully, horribly wrong. He ran into the house... and his eyes fell upon Kevin, on the floor... sobbing and tied to what Ash quickly realized was the horribly maimed body of the young woman he loved...
His light.
His Lucy.
Gone.
One would expect Ash to snap. Go thermonuclear. What was scarier, if you truly knew Ash... was the utter CALM he showed in this instance. He quickly untied the two, and his eyes went jet black, as he channelled his darkest magic, his most luminous powers of illusion.
First... he placed a hand upon the forehead of the inconsolable Kevin.
"When you wake... you will unfortunately remember what happened... but you will not remember seeing her like THIS. You will remember seeing her only as she deserves to be remembered. I'm taking this image from your mind. Consider this... the final act of mercy I ever grant another living being."
Kevin trembled for a moment, before falling limp. Ash then crumbled a bit, holding Lucy in his arms, his hands grasping what was left of her face... his magic reshaping her, restoring her former appearance. He couldn't bring her back, he knew that. But he could spare her this one indignity.
"My love... my only light..." he muttered, not entirely sure if he was talking more to her or to himself. "I couldn't protect you... the least I can do is make sure you remain as beautiful in death as you were in life."
Of course... when he took that memory from Kevin... he also took the mental image of WHO did this. And he filed it away... just for a while. He calmly took the phone, his voice barely holding it together as he called the police, informing them there had been a murder... that he'd walked in and found this scene.
He stuck around... answering the few questions he could, since Kevin was still too... catatonic to be much help. When he was finally let go, Ash felt his eyes go black again.
He was finished. Finished being nice. Being... normal. Michele wanted to see what true darkness was?
Bitch was going to find out. She was going to suffer as no being before her had EVER suffered.
-------------------
The two days following the discovery were hard. On everyone. The newspapers couldn't get enough of the story: "Young Heiress Murdered, No Suspects In Custody"... a rich, beautiful, well-liked girl dead? It was like vultures to carrion.
The students at Reagan High planned a candlelight vigil, and walked through the halls not unlike shocked zombies, unable to comprehend one of the most popular girls in school being suddenly taken from them.
Kevin Van Warren holed himself in the huge Van Warren home, barely able to blink, much less make conversation with anyone.
Rachelle Martin, a longtime family friend, sat in her home and merely sobbed. Uncontrollably. For hours.
And as for Ash? He was frighteningly quiet. He left a note in the door of the homes of Buffy Summers and Rupert Giles, each with the same message: "I'm done. No more playing games. No more 'watching'. This is the end of the line." And then... he began to plan his revenge. He was about... to reinvent pain and suffering.