“You’re out of your bleedin’ mind.”

Spike’s words were spoken slowly, emphatically, and he bravely met Riley’s eyes as he spoke them, knowing beyond all doubt that there was nothing Riley could do to him that would ever make him hurt Buffy.

Riley was determined to convince him otherwise.

With a cold smile the soldier advanced on the vampire, who was trembling slightly despite his best efforts, but firmly holding his ground. He was standing so near to Buffy that she felt the fractional movement of his body backward toward her, a subconscious need for support, for the strength he found only in her love.

It drove through her heart with an almost physical pain, the cruel knowledge that no matter how badly she wanted to, she was physically prevented from offering him that support. Strangely, she felt no fear for herself.

There was no question in her mind as to whether or not Spike would obey Riley’s demand. She knew without a doubt that he would die before he would hurt her. And therein lay the source of the fear that was creeping slowly through her – because she knew that Riley would stop at nothing in his attempts to force compliance to an order that the vampire would never obey.

“Stall him,” she breathed out, softer even than a whisper, only audible to Spike’s sensitive hearing. “Just a little more time…just a little longer…”

She had no idea how true or false her words might be – no idea how much time remained of the two and a half hours that the doctor had predicted – but it was the only hope she had to offer him, and she could not withhold it. If they could only hold out until the chips went down…

She saw the brief, nearly imperceptible nod of Spike’s head, letting her know that he had heard her, as he moved instinctively, protectively in front of her, just as Riley reached them.

“See – I really don’t think so,” Riley smiled as he stopped a bare foot from the smaller man, meeting his eyes intimidatingly in an attempt to stare him down. “See – I think you might *think* you love Buffy – but you don’t. A demon like you’s not capable of love.”

Spike did not bother arguing, just glared defiantly back at the larger man as he went on.

“You *want* her,” Riley explained patiently, a condescending smirk on his face. “I mean, come on! She’s a beautiful girl. You’d have to be blind or crazy *not* to want her…” As he spoke, he glanced over Spike’s shoulder at the bound form of his wife with a lecherous grin, his eyes roving invasively over her body.

The soft warning growl that rose low in the vampire’s throat surprised him, and Riley gave a short laugh, his eyebrows raised in an expression that was both amused and challenging – but then, the laughter faded completely from his eyes in an instant, replaced by dark, vindictive menace, as he pressed the button on the controller again.

Searing, crippling agony tore through Spike’s body, driving him to his knees once more, despite his struggle not to fall. He had to stay strong – he had to protect Buffy…

His desperate thoughts were interrupted as strong, rough hands dragged him back up, only to throw him down again hard, several yard away from where Buffy was chained. The Slayer’s furious, fearful cries for Riley to stop went unheeded, as the soldier relentlessly jerked the shaken vampire, still suffering the aftershocks from his chip’s firing, back to his unsteady feet.

“I know you want her,” Riley reiterated calmly, as if he was merely having a casual conversation with a friend, instead of savagely torturing his rival, whom he had every intention of killing before he was through. “But it all comes down to what you want more,” he went on with a cruel smile.

“Buffy…” He smashed his fist down across Spike’s face again, releasing his hold on his shirt and allowing him to drop to the floor, dazed and struggling against the flashes of light that obscured his sight, the combined effect of the shocks from the chip, and Riley’s brutal blows to his head. “…or your own life…” Riley went on coldly, glaring down at him with contempt.

“And I think I know which one the *monster’s* gonna choose!” he taunted.

As the colored light that danced before his eye faded into the receding haze that blurred his vision, Spike stubbornly got back to his feet. “You ought to,” he retorted in a voice that w as quiet but strong. “You’ve made the choice so bloody easy.”

Riley frowned, puzzled by his words, and waited in suspicious silence for Spike to go on.

Clear blue eyes focused, unwavering, on those of the soldier, and Riley was stunned to see the beginnings of a smirk on the vampire’s face as he explained, in a voice that trembled slightly with physical exertion, but held a defiant note of courage that was infuriating to Riley.

“Let’s consider the options, shall we?” Spike said with a slightly patronizing note to his voice, though it was ragged with pain and exhaustion. “I can take the beautiful, incredible woman who loves me – whom you’ve so foolishly rejected time after bloody time – and not only take her life, but turn her into the very thing she’s spent her life fighting, just so that you can make her your bloody sex slave for the rest of your life. Or hers, rather,” he corrected coolly with a little shrug. “Because I know for a fact she’d rather dust herself than *touch* *you* again…”

Riley’s eyes hardened with a cruel glint of anger at the insult, but he waited as Spike went on.

“…just so that once I’ve done what you say, you can just dust me yourself, most likely after a few hours of torture anyway, just for the bloody fun of it…”

Riley’s face broke into a falsely apologetic smile and he gave a “you-got-me” sort of shrug of acknowledgment at Spike’s correct assumption that obedience would not save his life – he would be dusted in the end, regardless of his choice.

“Or,” the vampire went on, his voice increasing in strength and conviction as he did, “I can endure the torture and death – because we both know that’s what’s coming to me either way – without betraying said amazing woman, who’s given me the first taste of freedom and love and happiness I’ve had in years – and die knowing that she loves me, and that in the end – I won.”

Riley’s expression gradually changed from patient amusement, to controlled annoyance, to barely restrained rage, as Spike spoke his piece. When he was finished, he could not hold back any more. “What are you talking about, you *won*?” he demanded in a disgusted, angry tone. “You lose either way, Spike. We’ve just established that.”

“No,” Spike declared boldly, a light of triumph in his eye that was terribly unsettling to Riley, considering the current circumstances. What did the vampire have to feel triumphant about?

“I’ll win,” Spike went on confidently. “Because no matter how hard you try, what you do to me, or even what you do to Buffy – though I can tell you now, just for the record, I’ll tear you apart through the pain, until I’m dust, before I’ll let you hurt her – regardless, no matter what – she’ll never be yours.”

Riley was utterly speechless with shocked rage, amazed and incredulous at the vampire’s nerve as he went on in a voice of quiet intensity.

“She’ll die before she gives herself to you again. You can kill her, but you can’t have her. And you’ll always know, for the rest of your life, that she had the choice. She could have chosen you, with all the money and power and prestige that’s a part of the package – but she didn’t, did she?” Spike paused, a mocking smirk on his lips as he concluded, “She chose *me*. Seems if the girl can’t have a man either way – I’m her choice of monster.”

Buffy’s eyes welled with tears, her heart full of a swelling sense of pride for her brave, wonderful, amazing vampire, somehow finding the courage to stand up to Riley in spite of his painful history, in spite of the odds against him, using his brilliantly sharp tongue to say just the right thing to put the pompous, self-important soldier in his place.

Unfortunately, it also put him in a violent rage.

“Oh yeah?” Riley snarled. “We’ll see how quick she changes her mind when you’re draining the life from her body! Because you *will* do it, Spike. You might not want to, but you will.” He punctuated his words with a vindictive smile -- and another push of the button on the device in his hand.

“*No*!” Buffy cried out in anguished, helpless frustration, her face streaked with tears as she watched Spike fall again under the merciless force of Riley’s punishment.

Vicious shocks racked his body without pity, the punishment for his “crime” of daring to speak his mind – to speak up for *her*. Her husband ignored her as he stepped nearer to the trembling, suffering creature on the floor, staring impassively down at him for a long moment.

A thoughtful expression on his face, Riley turned a tiny dial on the device in his hand, surprisingly, easing the pain that the chip was administering, though not stopping it completely. He wanted the vampire to be able to hear what he was about to say.

“I know your type, Spike,” he said softly, standing over the kneeling, shaking blonde with a cold, derisive smile. “And you like to pretend that you have a choice – that you could really care about Buffy – really love her – but you’re not human, Spike. You can’t love. Anything you feel for her is selfish – sheer instinctive desire. You might *want* her – but you don’t *love* her. And I’m gonna prove it. Because when it comes right down to it – which it will – if given the choice between her life and yours, sooner or later, you’re gonna…choose…*you*!”

There was a cruel triumph in his eyes as he finished his words, slowly, emphatically. “The only question is – how much convincing will it take?”

The room was quiet for a moment. No one spoke, Spike’s ragged breathing and Buffy’s quiet sobs the only sounds to break the stillness, as the vampire still suffered under the painful electric current coursing through his body, though it was not as unspeakably extreme as it had been before Riley had turned the dial back.

The pain was bearable – but just barely.

Riley smiled to himself. He knew exactly what he was doing. He had years of experience in torture and coercion techniques, and it might take time, but he was going to break Spike, to make him do his will.

The behavioral modification chips were really quite the invention, he thought with a smile. He had never felt the sort of electric shocks they delivered for himself, but he knew that it had to be quite painful – to reduce this former master vampire to a trembling, agonized wreck at his feet.

It was certainly very effective.

It was only a matter of time before he managed to convince the vampire to…

*Wait…*

*What…?*

Riley’s eyes widened in disbelief as he watched Spike struggle up straighter on his knees, his jaw set with determination despite the pain of the continuing punishment he was experiencing. He was still kneeling, but the expression on his face, his furiously blazing blue eyes as they glared defiantly up at Riley, told the soldier that he had no intention of staying there.

And the very act of rising would be a triumph, no matter how small.

A victory that Riley had no intention of allowing him.

A small, cruel smile turning up the corner of his mouth, Riley’s thumb nudged the dial up, just a very tiny bit – but enough to cause a slight grimace on Spike’s face as the searing, burning pain of the chip increased just slightly. Still, the vampire held his gaze and braced his hand on the floor in preparation to rise.

Feeling a rush of anger at this silent defiance, Riley’s eyes narrowed as he raised the level of the electricity again, a bit more.

Spike closed his eyes for a moment, breathing hard, trying to maintain the control he was gradually taking back against the increase of the pain coursing through his body. With an extreme force of will, he managed to fight back the weakness brought on by the agony, and bring himself to his feet, leaning slightly back and bracing himself on the wall behind him.

Furious – and feeling an irrational sense of fear at the unexpected success of his supposedly helpless captive, no matter how small, Riley’s own jaw set with determination as he twisted the dial up higher. And why should he feel afraid? he wondered angrily, a bit frantically. This was a powerless, chipped vampire! He decided that he was *not* going to allow Spike to best him, not even in this small way.

But Spike did.

He leaned heavily back against the wall for a long moment, gasping in deep breaths as he fought to stay on his feet. Then, to Riley’s amazement and dismay, he slowly stood up straight, relinquishing the support offered him by the wall behind him, meeting the soldier’s eyes with a fierce, defiant gaze, despite the pain that was clear in his own eyes.

Buffy had been strangely silent through all of this, staring in wonder and horror at the brutal struggle for power. A part of her wanted to scream at Riley to stop, at Spike to back down before he was dust, and all of her wanted to shatter the chains that held her and rush to the rescue of the man she loved.

But none of those things seemed possible, as she stood mesmerized by the silent struggle. She stared, fascinated, at the powerful emotions in Spike’s pain-filled eyes as they met those of her cruel husband – and then her eyes widened with a sudden realization…

In that moment, Riley lost it.

“You *won’t* win this!” he snarled furiously, his voice trembling with a frighteningly out-of-control rage. “On your knees!” he demanded threateningly.

Spike just stood there, staring at him with an odd light of triumph in his eyes, breathing hard, but unmoved.

Buffy cringed as she watched Riley viciously twist the dial up the rest of the way, unable to hold back a strangled cry of fear and dismay when Spike suddenly dropped to his knees with a gasp, his eyes closed, his body shaking uncontrollably.

Riley glared down at him with a smile of cruel satisfaction, breathing hard himself with the mental and emotional exertion of the encounter. His smile began to fade again however, his mouth opening in disbelief, as before his eyes, the demeanor of the vampire at his feet began to change again.

With a visible effort, Spike managed to control, and then nearly still, the shaking of his body, his eyes remaining downcast for a long moment. Then, very slowly, in a cool, confident manner that sent a chill of fear down Riley’s spine, the master vampire raised his head to meet his eyes again, a wicked gleam in his blue eyes and a triumphant smile on his lips.

As the vampire before him slowly climbed to his feet again, Riley pushed the button again and again, desperately, but was confused and horrified to see that it had no visible effect on Spike at all. It was almost as if he couldn’t even feel…

Riley’s eyes widened with sudden horrified understanding, as he stared at Spike, shaking his head slowly – wishing suddenly that he had taken the strength-enhancing medications he had given to his men, after all.

“You ‘know my type’?” Spike echoed Riley’s earlier words with soft mockery, holding his gaze with a sharp, penetrating look, his lips forming a dangerous smile. “No, Soldier Boy,” he shook his head pityingly, his expression hardening on his last words.

“You don’t know the first thing about me.”