Thank you all for your reviews! It really helps to hear that you guys enjoy my story! This chapter is beta'd by 'ummm. Okay I got nuthin' but I will be posting more often so not all of them will be beta'd. I think everyone wanted more chapters sooner, so I'll post more often.

Anyway, on to read Neal getting beat up again!

Peter thought the worst when the laptop didn't show Neal for eight minutes and seven seconds. Yes, he counted each second. He thought that maybe Neal died from internal injuries or something while Keller was out of the room. He thought that Keller had gotten bored or thought that his plan wasn't working fast enough and just killed Neal and dumped his body in the Hudson, never to be found.

What Peter really saw was Keller blocking the view of the rest on the room until Neal came up and put a knife to his throat.

The first time Peter had a spark of hope in a long time was when he saw Neal press the knife against Keller's neck. He thought that maybe Neal might be able to overpower Keller, but obviously his injures had weakened him.

After Keller knocked Neal out he turn to the camera and said "you need to stop dragging your feet, Burke. He may not last much longer," then turned off the camera.

If Keller gave Peter the slightest chance to shoot him when they found him, Peter would take it. No hesitation. He would definitely sleep better at night knowing that monster was dead. The only problem with that plan was that Peter still didn't know where the bastard was.

The recording from the watch was finally fixed, but it didn't give them any clues as to where Keller took Neal.

No one could find the little guy. He just seemed to drop off the face of the earth right when things went to hell.

The hardest part of all of this was watching Neal go through hell and knowing he couldn't stop it. He felt completely useless.

WCWCWCWC

The next time Neal woke up his whole body was a mess of pain. His head was pulsing and he could feel blood from his new wound dripping sluggishly down his face. His foot, wrists and thumb were throbbing and his chest was in agony. Breathing was becoming a painful chore.

He really didn't want to, but he opened his eyes to see that he was back in that Goddamn chair. At least he wasn't hanging from the ceiling by his wrists or something. 'You know that your life is bleak when that's the silver lining,' Neal thought to himself.

Neal looked down and waited a moment for the room to stop moving. When it did, he could see that his blood and sweat soaked shirt was missing. He could feel that his hands were bound by a wire this time, a very tight and painful wire. If the zip ties were hard to get out of, the wire would be nearly impossible, and the ankle cuff was back on his ankle.

The timer that counted down to more pain said that there were eighteen minutes left until Keller came back in. Neal closed his eyes again and just wallowed in his misery and failure for a minute.

So this is how it ends for The Great Neal Caffrey.

Before he was caught, Neal didn't really think he could die, but if he did he thought he would be shot in some spectacular heist gone wrong by a security guard, or fall to his death after losing his footing from some impressive height.

Then after he met Kate, he thought they would buy a house with a white picket fence and they would have their happily-ever-after. They would have kids that they would love and cherish. They would grow old together and one day he would die, but he would die happy that he had such a great life with the ones he loved.

But that dream died with her.

But after he started working with Peter again, Neal thought he would die saving innocents, or jump in front of a bullet meant for Peter. It sounded like something that Peter would yell at him for doing, but also like something Neal would do and not think twice about it.

It would have been very dramatic. Peter would hold him in his last moments while he tried to stop the inevitable. Neal would tell him how much he enjoyed working with him and the Bureau, and Peter would do the same. Peter's eyes would get misty, but he wouldn't let the tears fall until Neal closed his eyes for the last time. Peter would mourn, but eventually move on with the life that Neal sacrificed his own for.

But now it seemed like he was going to die at the hands of his enemy. At the hands of a sadist. That was not how The Great Neal Caffrey was supposed to die. But if Peter didn't get here soon, that was what was going to happen, sooner or later.

Three sounds he's grown to hate brought him from his dark thoughts - the beeping of the timer, the heavy metal door scraping against the cement floor and Keller's cocky voice.

"It's time to wake up, Caffrey," Keller said and, just like every time, turned off the alarm and on the camera. 'Wait, how many times has Keller come in here and tortured me?' Neal wondered to himself. 'Far too many, that's for sure.'

He came over and grabbed Neal's chin and forced him to look him into his eyes. Keller looked a lot blurrier than he did last time - everything did really.

"Do you think that Burke doesn't want you, or is he really that bad of a detective?" Keller asked, but went on without an answer, knowing he wouldn't get one. "I mean he has so many resources at his disposal, you'd think that he could find where you're hiding your little stash. I'm really starting to think that he's not even trying. I mean you're just a criminal, he probably values you as much as a cheap pair of shoes - to be used and thrown away when no longer useful." Keller leaned forward and whisper in his ear, "Are you still useful, Caffrey?"

"You know, Keller, I have a question for you," Neal whispered back. "Do you think you'll enjoy the treasure more than you've enjoyed torturing me?"

Keller thought about that for a minute. "I just might. That is if your master can give me what I want before I get carried away." Keller pulled pliers out of his pants pocket and brandished them. "But I'm definitely gonna have my fun while I can."

Keller grabbed the chair and turned it ninety degrees so the camera could only see one side of him. The legs of the chair and the chain scraped against the floor and Neal winced when the noise made his headache worse. He went behind the chair and Neal instinctively fisted his hands, knowing exactly what Keller was going to do.

Keller forced Neal's left hand open. He was far too weak to be able to resist much. "Now, now, Caffrey, no need to be shy," he said and Neal could feel the pliers clamp over his fingernail. "It looks like you started without me," Keller said, referring to his dislocated thumb.

Neal pinched his eyes shut and prepared himself for the pain.

WCWCWCWC

Two more hours and they still weren't any closer the finding where Neal was being held captive.

"If you get Caffrey back in time, do you I think that he'll ever forgive you?" Keller asked after Peter regretfully told him, once again, that he didn't have the treasure. "He's a bit of a mess now, so how do you think he'll be in two hours? Or four? Or six?" There was a fittingly evil laugh on the other end of the phone, then a dial tone.

Peter knew that Neal wasn't a petty man, but he wasn't sure if Neal could forgive him for not saving him yet. Of course, he had to find the young man first, and then deal with forgiveness after he was safe.

Two minutes later, the laptop showed the room that Neal had been in for over ten hours.

Peter's blood boiled when he heard Keller compare Neal to cheap shoes. Neal was probably the best asset the division had, not to mention Peter's friend. He was anything but useless.

The only thing worse than the manic look in Keller's eyes was the look on Neal's face when he knew what Keller was doing. It was painful to see. He was so scared, but he tried his best not to show it, tried not to let everyone see the raw terror that Peter saw in those startling blue eyes.

"Now, now, Caffrey, no need to be shy," Keller said. "It looks like you already started without me."

'Is Neal's thumb dislocated?' Peter wonder to himself as he saw that it was at a strange angle and was swollen. 'Is that how he got out of his restraints before?'

Peter focused back on Neal's face as he squeezed his eyes shut and screamed and arched his back when the fingernail of his index finger was pulled off.

Keller pulled off the nail on his middle finger next. Neal's scream was somehow worse than the last.

Peter was wrong. The agonized look on Neal's face when Keller pulled nail after nail off his fingers was the worst thing he's seen. Neal was in so much pain and Peter couldn't do anything about it.

"You're right-handed, right?" Keller said conversationally after he ripped off all the fingernails from his left hand. Neal's eyes widened in response and he tried to pull away from Keller's grasp, but was too weak.

A chill ran down Peter's spine at those words. Neal's talented hands were what made countless works of art. Most were forgeries, but masterpieces nonetheless that fooled countless people into believing that they were the real thing. The original artists would probably be impressed by their beauty if they saw them.

Peter had no doubt that Keller would break Neal in every way he could, and stripping Neal of his ability to paint or sculpt would be devastating to the young man.

Keller put the index finger of Neal's right hand between the pliers. "You wanna beg?" He asked. "You still have a chance for me to stop if you ask nicely."

"You've always been jealous of my ability to make masterpieces," Neal panted. "I guess this is the only way for you to better than me." Neal was obviously trying to hide his emotions behind words, like he always does, but his eyes were telling a different story.

Neal's cry of agony and anguish almost covered the sickening sound of Neal's bones snapping.

"I've always been better than you, Caffrey," Keller whispered in Neal's ear. "You just could never admit it to yourself."

There was a sudden noise in the background and Neal perked up a little. A moment later he said "bread," like he just solved the world's greatest mystery. He turned to the camera and it seemed like he was looking straight at Peter. "Peter, I smell br-" he was cut off by a hard slap to the face that seemed to daze him.

With that, Keller turned off the camera, leaving a room full of agents to stare at the blank screen.

The ringing of a cell phone brought Peter away from the staring contest that was losing with the screen. It was his phone that was lying on the table. Keller wasn't supposed to call for two more hours. Peter looked up to see everyone was watching him.

Reluctantly, he picked up the phone and answered it. "Hello?"

"Suit, I would usually never stoop so low as to call a device that was undoubtedly bugged by the corrupt government that you work for," Mozzie ranted, then took a breath. "But we need to talk." There was another pause and Peter waited as patiently as he could for Mozzie to work up the courage to tell him what he wanted to say. "I think something happened to Neal."

Bad, bad Keller! Does he deserve to die, or rot in prison?