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A/N Thanks to my betas Carol and dawnofme both amazing ladies.


Chapter Three


Number Seventeen



“What did you say?” Maggie asked Buffy sharply.


“Er…he looks like he’s been stabbed with a spike,” stuttered Buffy, pointing at one of the larger wounds on his torso.


Maggie gave her a strange look but let it go.


“As I was saying it is completely voice activated,” said Maggie with a rare smile. “A remote control vampire if you will.”


“And how long have you been, um, working on him?” asked Giles, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice.

“It was one of our first captives to be implanted with a pain chip. Unfortunately it escaped shortly afterwards and eluded capture for the next year or so despite us nearly getting it several times. It was very resourceful. We got lucky just over twelve months ago when a patrol came across it in one of the graveyards. It was an easy recapture. It was so unbelievably drunk we didn’t even need to stun it to bring it in.”


Buffy felt sick. He’d been recaptured the night she’d told him it was over between them. It was her fault he was here!


“Why do you call him ‘it’ when he’s, er, quite obviously male?” asked Buffy flushing slightly at seeing her ex-lover standing naked before them.


“It helps to keep a professional distance from them,” replied Maggie. “Let me put it through its paces for you. Number Seventeen, go to training room three.”

She opened the door and the vampire walked towards the room she’d ordered him to go to. Buffy and Giles noticed that he walked with none of the swagger they were used to seeing, but with shorter quicker strides. He’d walked past them without even looking at them - let alone recognising them. He paused in front of a large room, stood for the room to be open, then walked in. He turned back to face Maggie Walsh awaiting further instructions.


She ordered him to use a crossbow, an axe and, to Buffy and Giles’ surprise, a gun.


“This is the first time we’ve asked Number Seventeen to do these tests since we put his favoured hand out of action,” said Maggie.


They watched as he went first to the crossbow. As he loaded the bolt, they saw him glance down at his left hand. He struggled to load it single-handedly but managed it, taking careful aim at the target and hitting it right in the middle. The axe flew through the air and embedded itself in the centre of its target too. He picked up the handgun.


“Number Seventeen,” said Maggie. The vampire paused and looked at her. “With the silencer attached,” she added.


He turned back to his task. The silencer had to be screwed onto the muzzle of the gun. Again, there was the little look at his useless hand before he put the gun between his knees and screwed the silencer in. He took aim at the target and emptied the gun into it, all of the bullets hitting dead centre.

“Take the silencer off,” ordered Maggie.


“But it will be red hot,” protested Giles. But even as he spoke, Spike calmly took hold of the silencer and, putting it between his knees once more, unscrewed it before putting both the gun and silencer back in their place.


“Show me your hand,” ordered Maggie.


Spike stepped to the front of the room and held out his hand. It looked raw and sore. Maggie turned to the others.


“It just shows that its level of obedience has now been established to such an extent that it overrides its normal sense of self preservation,” she said with pride.


“Oh my God!” cried Buffy. She could take no more and stormed away.


“Where is she going?” asked Maggie. “I was hoping she’d test him out in hand to hand.”


“Good Lord, is that the time?” said Giles, covering for Buffy’s abrupt departure. “I’m afraid we don’t have time today. We, er, have other things scheduled.”


“I’ll walk you out,” she said. “Number Seventeen, go back to your cell.”


The door opened and once more Spike walked along in front of them and went into his cell, standing to face them until they went out of sight. He then turned and sat on the floor and reached out for the half full bag of blood, wincing as he picked it up with his sore hand. Once finished he lay on his side and went to sleep.


Ooooooo



Buffy and Giles rushed through their farewells with Maggie and walked silently back to Giles’ car. Their silence lasted until they were in the basement at Buffy’s house, with Buffy fiercely pounding the punching bag.


“We’ve. Got. To. Get. Him. Out,” said Buffy, punctuating every word with a punch.


“Agreed,” said Giles. “What they are doing is totally reprehensible. Not only do we need to get Spike out, but we need to shut the whole place down.”


Giles was doing the Giles equivalent of pounding a punching bag. He was furiously cleaning his glasses, pressing so hard he actually popped one of the lenses out of the frame.


“Damn,” he muttered as he tried to push it back in place. “The question is, how do we get him out of there? The place is a fortress.” He added, “Buffy, just sit down for a minute. You’re going to hurt yourself.”


Buffy gave the bag a final thump and flopped down on the basement stairs.


“Oh, Giles, what have they done to him?” She put her head in her hands and burst into tears. “Will he be OK again?”


“I honestly don’t know, Buffy, but when we get him out of there we need to get hold of one of those little hand held computer things that holds all the data and get Willow to work out how to both deprogram him and deactivate that bloody chip.”


“I thought you approved of the pain chip?” said Buffy, sniffing a couple of times.


“This goes way beyond protecting people from vampires. Goddammit Buffy, they’ve turned him into a weapon, and he’ll most probably be killed during the mission. Nothing deserves that, and certainly not Spike after all the help that he’s given us in the past.”


“We’d better get the gang over and start planning. He needs to be out of there as soon as possible,” said Buffy, pulling herself together and racing up the stairs to call Willow and Xander.


Oooooo


Xander and Willow joined Buffy, Dawn and Giles at Buffy’s house that evening. Willow had started living back on campus, having resumed her studies with a vengeance. Xander was still in the apartment he’d once shared with Anya before their split.


Buffy had waited until they were all together before telling them of their discovery. Dawn burst into tears.


“Poor Spike,” she sobbed.


Willow too was crying and even Xander looked choked up. He’d never been Spike’s biggest fan but no creature deserved this. They sat and talked for hours trying to think of something to do. In the end there was only one thing that they realised they could do.


“Buffy, you’ve got to fight him,” said Giles.


“What? No. No. I can’t do that. Please don’t ask me to do that,” said Buffy, her eyes widening in horror and glistening with tears.


“I’m sorry, but it’s the only way, and you’ll have to do it twice.”


“Twice?” She could hear the strain in her own voice.


“Yes, we have to get you to spar with him in their training rooms, then get them to try a test with him outside of The Initiative. If we can get him out, we’ve got a good chance we’ll be able to get him away from them,” said Giles.


“He’s right, Buffy. I know how hard it’ll be, but there’s no way we can take on The Initiative in their own building,” said Willow.


So it was agreed. Buffy would go to The Initiative the next day and do the sparring Maggie Walsh had wanted her to do that morning.


Ooooooo


“I’m so glad you’ve found the time to do this,” said Maggie as they were walking towards Spike’s cell.


“Uh, well anything to help,” said Buffy. She was glad that Giles was there with her, as this was going to be difficult.


“Here we are,” said Maggie. “Number Seventeen.”


At her words, Spike got up from where he was sitting and stood facing them.


“Hey,” said Buffy. “I want him to have some clothes. I’m not wrestling a guy who’s naked.”


“I agree with Buffy,” added Giles. “I don’t think it’s appropriate - surely you have something that he could put on?”


For a moment, Maggie frowned, “Very well.”


She turned to her assistant Michael.


“Bring a pair of scrubs from the supply cupboard as quickly as you can.”


Michael ran away and reappeared a few minutes later with the pants. He then opened the door and handed them to Spike.


“Put these on, Number Seventeen,” he ordered.


Obediently Spike put them on. It was a little awkward for him to do one- handed but he pulled them up. He fiddled with the drawstring on the waist for a moment but couldn’t tie a knot, so just left it.


Buffy looked at Michael and Maggie whilst Spike tried to tie the knot, they didn’t even register that he couldn’t do it at all.


“God, they’re completely heartless,” thought Buffy.


Soon they were in a room with soft padding to the floor and walls. The front of the room, like the front in all the other rooms, was glass.


“Aren’t you going to reactive his arm?” asked Buffy. “Doesn’t seem very fair when I’ve got two.”


“No,” replied Maggie sharply. “It won’t be reactivated until a few weeks have passed. Otherwise, it’ll just revert to using its left hand too much again.”


“Nice try, Buffy.” thought Giles. He was seething with anger at the indifference this hateful woman was showing, treating Spike as a lab rat and nothing else.


“What about the pain chip?” he asked. “Surely you’re not going to have that active and still expect him to fight?”


“Since Number Seventeen has reached this level, the chip in his brain is no longer programmed to giving pain should he attack a human, as ultimately his targets could be human when he’s used in the field.”


Buffy and Spike stood facing each other. Buffy looked at her lover’s face; looking into his eyes trying to see a sign that he recognised her, but nothing showed. He just stood there impassively, waiting for his orders.

“Are you ready?” asked Maggie.


“Just a minute,” Buffy went to Spike, reaching for the drawstring, pulling it tight and then tying it in a secure knot. “Didn’t want them falling down,” she added.


Spike looked down and touched the knot with his right hand then looked at Buffy, slightly tilting his head to one side. Buffy choked back tears as for a second when their eyes met, something flickered across his face, but it was so fleeting that she wasn’t sure that she hadn’t just imagined it.


“Ok, ready,” said Buffy.


“Number Seventeen, fight but do not kill,” ordered Maggie.


“Gee, thanks for that,” muttered Buffy as Spike stepped forward.


Even with one hand useless to him, Spike was a formidable opponent. Buffy had held back a little to start with but Spike, or rather Number Seventeen, as Buffy realised it wasn’t really Spike she was fighting, had no such conscience. He hit her with all his vampiric strength, which surprised her since his face didn’t change. Finally, when both were breathing hard and not a little battered Maggie stopped it. The instant she ordered Spike to stop he did, even though Buffy landed another blow she couldn’t stop in time. He just took the hit and didn’t retaliate, then stood facing Maggie Walsh.


“Thank you, Buffy,” said Maggie as they were following Spike back to his cell. “That was very helpful.”


“Have you thought of testing him outside of the training rooms?” asked Giles. “I mean, it’s one thing to control a creature in a laboratory, but in the real world…” He let his words trail off, holding his breath, hoping Maggie would take the bait.


“Yes, obviously that’s the next step,” answered Maggie.


“Hey, why don’t we do a rematch tomorrow?” said Buffy. “I’m game if you are?”


“Yes, that would be useful. Tomorrow it is. If you get here just before dark then we can begin.”


Buffy and Giles left and went to tell the others that their plan to get him outside of The Initiative had worked.


When Spike had been returned to his cell they’d left the trousers on him. After he’d fed, he sat in his usual spot, his hand absently touching the knot Buffy had tied.


To be continued…….