As Julian stood there, trying to force himself to hit the call button on the device to contact Riley, his courage failing him yet again – he couldn’t do it, he just *couldn’t*! – the choice was taken from his hands as the light began to blink again, faster, indicating that Riley was calling again. The signal from the device was accompanied by a sharp twinge of pain from his chip – a warning.

Riley was pissed off – and Julian had *better* answer his call.

With trembling fingers he pressed the call button, raising the device to his ear. “H-hello?” he spoke hesitantly into the microphone, flinching when he heard the immediate angry response.

“You useless little piece of shit!” Riley snarled over the speaker, fury and menace in his voice. “You. Are. *Dead*. You know that, Julian? I’m going to kill you.”

“Wait!” the young vampire pleaded, his voice trembling. “Please, wait! I’m sorry, I – I don’t know why I…”

“I do,” Riley interrupted, his voice calmer now, and with a soft cruelty to it that sent a shudder of dread down Julian’s spine. That tone had always preceded vicious punishment, in his experience. “Because you’re a worthless, stupid little piece of garbage that I should have dusted a long time ago. I don’t know why I ever thought you could handle an assignment like this, Julian. Sending you there was the biggest mistake I ever made.”

He paused, and Julian could hear the smirk in his voice as he went on, “But I’m about to fix that mistake.”

“Please,” Julian begged him, tears streaming down his face. “Please don’t! Please – give me another…”

“Another *chance*?” Riley cut him off with a sneer. “You’ve had enough chances, boy. I told you what would happen if you screwed up again.” He gave a short, disgusted laugh. “I should have just killed you the last time. I knew you’d only fail me again.”

“Please, I – I can do it,” Julian insisted tearfully, though he honestly had no intention of making another attempt to kill Giles or the others. He had proven to himself with the last attempt that it was something he simply could not do, no matter what the consequences. But if he could find a way to stall Riley – if he could just buy a little more time…

“I know I can do it,” he insisted in a pleading voice. “I just need – I just need a little more time…”

“I don’t *have* any more time to give you, Julian!” Riley spat the words out at the terrified boy, who flinched as the cruel man’s temper rose again so suddenly. “I told you this had to be done *tonight*! And how exactly do you plan to do it now, anyway, now that you’ve told Giles everything? You don’t think he’s gonna be watching your every move now, you little moron?”

Julian was silent, unsure how to respond to that, feeling trapped by his words. He had not really expected Riley to know that he had told Giles – or at least, how much he had told him.

His unspoken question was answered in the next moment, as Riley went on, “What, you think I didn’t know? You think I couldn’t tell just by watching what was going on? I didn’t exactly need the soundtrack, Julian. You completely blew it. *Completely*. I only have so much patience, kid – and you just used up the last of it.”

“Please – please, I’ll find a way,” Julian begged him, searching desperately for some convincing argument to get the man to give him just a little more time – in which hopefully, the Watcher and the witches could find a solution.

Riley’s next words sent a cold chill through him with the realization that he was hopelessly caught. There would be no reprieve.

With a soft, knowing tone of menace, Riley went on, “Yeah – that’s what you’re really hoping for, isn’t it?”

Julian was speechless, having no answer for the truth that Riley had spoken.

“Giles and the witches are in the next room, looking through their books, trying to come up with some way to save your pathetic life with magic – aren’t they?”

Julian’s shocked, guilty silence was all the answer Riley received – but it was all he needed.

“But you see, Julian – I know a little more than the rest of these guys around me about the way these things *really* work. I’ve been married to the Slayer for the past five years, for pete’s sake! Unlike half these guys who think there’s a technical solution to almost any problem, and what’s left over they can just shoot – I’m aware that sometimes there are forces involved that are beyond our understanding.”

He paused, allowing his words to sink in, before going on to explain in a cold, pitiless voice, “I have my own team of magic ‘experts’ if you will, Julian. And there’s enough magic protecting your chip and its signal right now that they’ll *never* get through it. At least – not in time to save you.”

Julian flinched at the cruel, matter-of-fact tone of Finn’s voice, speaking of his death so casually, as if it were utterly meaningless to him – and it was, he realized with a sense of hopeless terror. Finn would have no problem pushing the button that would begin the slow ending of his life.

“So,” Riley went on. “they can try all they want to find a way – but there isn’t one. When I get tired of this conversation and hang up this phone, they won’t be any closer to finding an answer than they are right now. But you’ll be a *lot* closer to dying, Julian.”

“Please,” Julian sobbed softly in a broken, desperate voice. “Please don’t – please don’t do this to me…I’m sorry…”

“I know he thought he was helping when he told you to try to stall me,” Riley went on, ignoring the pitiful pleas of his victim. “But he’s not. You’re only prolonging your own suffering. See – in a situation like this – time is not a gift. It’s nothing but torture, Julian. And trust me – you’re gonna get enough of that as it is.”

*No – no – please…* was all Julian could think, but he could not make his mouth form words anymore, shaking his head, gasping in deep, sobbing breaths.

“You get to spend that much longer, wondering how bad it’s gonna hurt – thinking of all the ways you might have prevented it – all the while knowing that it’s too late. Your life is over, no matter what you do. Having just a little more time to think about that – that’s not a good thing, Julian. Time is your enemy…”

*No – no -- *you’re* my enemy…*

“But you’re lucky, Julian,” Riley’s cold, vicious words, spoken with a deceptive softness, went on relentlessly, without mercy. “Do you know why?”

*No -- not lucky – gonna die…*

“Because *your* time – just. Ran. Out.”

And with those words, and a barely audible *click*, the line suddenly went dead in Julian’s hand. He listened for a moment, fighting off a sense of panic at the total silence, aware of what that silence was the herald of.

His own destruction.

“No,” he whispered, shaking his head slowly in denial of the terrible truth. “No…” Desperately he pressed the call button, again and again – but received no response.

Riley was finished with him – he was of no more use to him.

He hardly even noticed when the communication device fell from his violently shaking hands, as he stared into the space in front of him with panicked, disbelieving eyes. His whole body shook uncontrollably with terror.

He was going to die. There would be no escape, no defeating the cruel electric current that would soon be coursing through his body, soon claim his existence. Any moment now, the pain would begin, and it would not end until he was dust, no matter how hard his friends tried to help him.

His friends – Giles – Tara…

Suddenly, he wanted desperately to get to them, a terror of being along, of *dying* alone in this place, coming over him and forcing his trembling legs toward the door leading out into the living room.

As the door was flung open and Julian suddenly appeared in the doorway, pale and trembling, his eyes wide and distant with shock and terror, the little group frantically poring over several huge books in the living room, froze, staring at the traumatized vampire.

Tara was the first to reach him, wrapping steadying arms around him without hesitation, without needing to hear exactly what had happened. Giles stood from his seat on the sofa, but he and Willow both stayed where they were as Tara led him gently toward the couch, sitting him down between her and Giles.

“What happened?” Giles asked in a low, urgent tone, raising a hand to turn Julian’s face to look at him, searching the wide, shocked dark eyes that looked past him, not meeting his gaze. “Julian, what happened?”

“I – I…” he began, attempting to explain, but unable to form a coherent answer, still trying to process the terrifying facts for himself. “I…I don’t…” Suddenly, his eyes focused on Giles’ with a panicked, desperate look as it all finally began to sink in, and he finished in a strangely calm, almost awed whisper, “I don’t have much time…”

A sick feeling came over Giles as he realized the truth, that Julian had not been able to convince Riley to give him any more time. Obviously the conversation had gone badly.

And his boy was dying.

“No,” he objected sharply in a trembling voice. “Julian, listen to me…*no*! We are going to find a way…”

A soft laugh that chilled Giles’ heart with its calm, hopeless resignation to what he could not change, escaped the young vampire’s lips, as he shook his head and gave him a sad smile. “No way,” he whispered. “There *is* no…”

His words were cut off with a sudden sharp intake of breath, and Julian’s hands flew to his head, as he doubled over, his smile crumpling into an expression of pain and despair. Giles fought back a sense of panic as he realized what had happened. Riley’s punishment had begun.

And now, it was only a matter of time.


“No…you have no idea what you’re asking me to do!” Buffy’s hostage protested in a trembling voice bordering on panic, as she shoved him forcefully down into a chair in front of the main computer. “Are you absolutely insane?”

“No,” Buffy answered calmly with a smile, crouching down beside the man to meet his eyes, as she raised the gun and held it near the man’s head menacingly. “And in case you didn’t notice,” she went on in a voice barely over a whisper. “I’m not exactly asking.”

The doctor stared at her, a look of horror on his face. “Okay then…this is all going to be on your head, Mrs. Finn. You need to understand what it is that you’re doing. You’re talking about unleashing hundreds – maybe thousands by now – of evil, soulless creatures on the unsuspecting public…people will die. Do you really want to be responsible for that?”

“I won’t be,” Buffy shot back, her voice and expression hardening with anger as she suddenly stood up straight, her powerful presence towering over the seated man causing him to flinch – just before her sudden movement to press the gun to his temple caused him to flinch again.

“I’m not the one who kept those ‘evil, soulless creatures’, tortured and abused them for months, and then sent them into hundreds of human homes, to be abused and mistreated some more! Whatever they do now, I can hardly blame them! And that’s *not* my fault, it’s yours! Yours and the rest of this *evil* organization!” the Slayer declared with an air of righteous fury, glaring down at her prisoner with an intensity of anger and accusation that made him look away.

In truth, she *had* thought about the possible consequences of her actions, and a plan was beginning to form in her mind of how to deal with them. At any rate, she felt that they would have a little bit of time to work with, as none of the enslaved vampires and demons would have any idea that their chips no longer functioned, and had been so deeply conditioned against resistance, that they would not do anything to give them the opportunity to find out, before she and her abolitionist Watcher could get to them.

And when they *did* get to them – well, she had seen for herself that her teaching about the irredeemable evil of vampires and other species had been false. Spike, Julian, Aaron – each of them had shown her that it was possible for a vampire to make the *choice* to do the right thing – and she had to believe that the other slaves, with the right guidance and assistance, would make the same choice.

At least – she desperately hoped that they would.

At any rate, her mind was made up. Spike was not going to be a helpless slave for another moment. He had proven himself to her beyond all doubt, and she trusted him completely. She was determined to give him the power to defend himself, to make his own choices without being controlled by anyone else -- to be everything he had once been.

It was time to truly set him free.

“I’m the Slayer,” she declared in a voice of strong conviction that had been absent from her for a very long time. “It’s my business to deal with vampires and demons and such – not yours. You just get the chips down, and I’ll worry about the consequences. Just do it.” As she spoke, she pressed a bit harder with the gun, her eyes narrowing menacingly as she added, “*Now*.”

The future threat represented by the consequences of shutting down the chips was nowhere near as powerful as the very real, very present threat of the pistol aimed at his head, poised to end his life at the whim of the girl who was holding it. Reluctantly, the doctor entered the password that would give him access to the highest classified programs and information on the main computer.

“It’s going to take a little while, what you’re asking,” he warned her. “The computer’s gotta scan through thousands of chips…”

“How long is ‘a little while’?” she demanded, suspicion in her voice.

“A – a couple of hours, maybe?” the man suggested, wincing at the increased pressure of the weapon at his head.

“I think you’re lying,” Buffy informed him coldly. “Don’t think for a second that you can play me because…”

“I’m not!” the doctor insisted, his voice shaking with fear. “I’m not, I swear! Look, I’ll do it! Okay? I’m gonna do what you say – but it’s gonna take a couple of hours, and that’s the best I can do! So you can shoot me now because you don’t like the facts, and get nothing – or you can wait a couple hours and get what you want…”

Buffy raised her eyebrows, surprised at the sudden boldness from the prisoner, raising her eyes to meet those of her most trusted advisor, lover, soon to be her equal in every way. He nodded just slightly; the doctor *did* have a point.

The Slayer released a slow, impatient sigh before finally speaking again in a tone of resignation.

“Fine. Do it. We’ll wait.”