After observing Alexander Harris for three days, Colonel O'Neil was getting pretty close to his deadline without much progress. SG-1 was an important resource to the SGC and couldn't be out of commission for long. Carter had returned from her conference and, after some convincing, had skeptically agreed to helping in his little surveillance project. It was good to have the help, but he knew that when Teal'c returned on Sunday, he would have to leave the matter unresolved unless he could produce some form of evidence of the Harris boy's allegiance to the NID or some darker force.

Even he had started to feel like he couldn't play civilian for much longer when it happened. Harris had been talking with someone who seemed like a comrade. Jack had really wanted to get some feeling of what they were talking about, but for some reason whenever they tried to tap his phone the connection would go crazy and then just fizzle out. Jack was just about ready to put on a cap and glasses and attempt some old school eavesdropping when a van pulled up behind the youth. It shouldn't have been too alerting, but it gave Jack a bad feeling. As he got out of his own van to get a closer look, two men stepped out of the car and put a bag over Harris' head and proceeded to kidnap him.

The whole event was so unexpected that Jack's instinct to draw and intervene weren't able to kick in before the van's door was already closed and it was driving off. "Shit," Jack cursed under his breath, as he ran back to his own vehicle and leapt into the back. "Follow them!" He shouted, not having time to revel in this cliched development.

"Already on it," Carter called from the driver's seat, shifting her weight from the break to the gas.

What followed was a very low speed chase. In theory whoever took Harris didn't know about the surveillance. Otherwise, they simply didn't care. Either way, following them back to an abandoned, half constructed building on the edge of town was a simple matter.

As they drove, Jack was uncharacteristically quiet, ignoring Daniel and Carter's attempts at conversation. He was too focused on the events of the past several days. What was supposed to be a relaxing, if delayed, Thanksgiving holiday had morphed into the clumsiest and least productive game of spy vs spy seen outside the pages of Mad Magazine.

He just couldn't quite get a handle on what was happening. In theory, Alexander Harris could really just be some drifter with a bad personality and the worst luck in the world. That possibility seemed slimmer every passing second, but it was still possible. It was also possible that Harris was the only competent agent of the NID either the legitimate or illegitimate sides, and this was all some convoluted plot to overtake the SGC or something. That didn't feel right at all, though. Then there was the third option, that he was something... else. The leader of the sticks and stones army.

When they had arrived and were idling on the street a few blocks away from their target, Carter turned to Jack and asked, "What do we do now?"

"That's right," Jack thought at his sub ordinate's gentle prodding. "It doesn't matter what is happening, there's really only one thing to do."

"We go in there and take everyone in for questioning and/or their own protection," Jack answered with a smile.

"I don't think Hammond would agree it's that simple," Carter commented nervously.

"That's why we won't tell him," Jack replied as if this was completely natural. "Now then, back to base. We need supplies."

"How pragmatic," Daniel observed with a sigh.

They wasted no time in returning to base and sneaking into the armory to steal a zat for each of them and some flak jackets. Never the less, it took several hours and the sun was already setting by the time they returned to the hideout. Briefly Jack considered waiting for another hour or so to give themselves a firm cover of darkness, but then his conscience kicked in. If that Harris kid really turned out to habitually be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or at least one of the good guys, then making him stay in there any longer was inexcusable.

"We're going in now," Jack said resignedly as their car pulled to a stop near the decrepit building.

"I figured as much," Daniel said, unstrapping himself and stepping out of the car.

"Obviously," Carter said, putting on her vest. She had a more anxious energy about her than the other two. It made sense, she believed in her companion's stories, but she had only seen Harris walking around being a normal kid of his age. Well, normal drifter of his age... ish. Either way she couldn't abide by letting him stay in the hands of whoever had captured him, it was against her principles.

"You know, he still could be working with them," Daniel cautioned quietly as the three approached their destination.

"I know that, but it doesn't make any difference. If he's working with them than we just knock him out and lock him up, saying that we are worried he might be attacked again." Jack replied calmly.

"Yes, I guess there is always the 'I didn't know any better,' approach to avoiding Court Marshal," Daniel observed snidely.

"We're close, quiet," Carter chastised and they all fell silent.

They snuck through what was probably going to be a door that was never quite added and drew their Zat'nik'tels, anticipating trouble. They found it soon enough, as a short balding man stepped out into the corridor in front of them, yawning. His eyes met Jack's and he hesitated for half a heartbeat, before tearing at his clothes in search of a weapon as he backpedaled furiously and screamed to his comrades. This response was the complete opposite of what Jack had expected and the blast of blue lighting he had sent at the man dissipated harmlessly on wall.

The three pursued the enemy as quickly as they dared, but when they rounded the corner, the man was nowhere to be seen and a few voices could be heard arguing in the distance. The team tried to follow the sounds, but they kept getting farther away. Then they heard a car start up and drive off.

"Did they really just leave like that?" Carter asked skeptically.

"That doesn't seem like the NID, it must be some sort of trap. Be careful," Jack cautioned before slowing down to start investigating the side rooms along the hallway.

Most of the building seemed abandoned, but they eventually came upon a room that showed signs of life. There were some signs of hurried clean up, with miscellaneous equipment and papers strewn across the floor. Overall the room gave the distinct feeling of quick flight, taking only what you could grab. As Jack crept through the room, he felt something bounce off his questing foot. He stooped down to pick it up and found it to be a small digital video camera. Finding it on the floor, he had the feeling that the residents had dropped it in their hurry to escape and he pocketed it, as much out of curiosity as anything else.

That was as much investigation he could allow himself at the moment though, and he signaled his team forward. There was no hope of catching up to the the fleeing car at this point. However, based on how quickly whoever it was had taken off after seeing him, there was no way they would be able to force an unwilling victim into a car that quickly, even if he were unconscious. Assuming Harris hadn't been working with the NID, which Jack found increasingly unlikely, he was still in the building, they just had to find him.

A task that actually turned out to be easier done than said. Two rooms down from the base of operations, the team found a room which stood out from all the others in that it still had a door. "Just screams, 'I'm trapped in a warehouse,' doesn't it?", Jack observed as Carter checked the handle.

"Sometimes, cliches exist for a reason," Daniel observed, taking up a position on the opposite side of the door.

Jack felt like retorting, but he held his tongue as Carter carefully swung the door open and the team rushed inside. As expected, it was empty save for one solitary man, tied to a column in the center of the room. What wasn't expected, was the state he was in. The boy was slumped in on himself, his clothes were torn, and blood was running from his mouth, down his chest to form a small pool on the floor. As the team looked him over, Daniel cursed under his breath and Carter slowly started forward to look over the poor boy.

For some reason, something didn't fell quite right about the whole situation to Jack though, and he held out an arm to stop Carter's advance. That was when he really perceived the thing that was giving him pause, the kid's eye-patch was missing and, as he looked closer, he could see a faint glint near his right hand. "There's no reason not to be cautious," Jack thought and he raised his zat to point it at the seemingly defenseless boy.

Before his subordinates could question Jack's decision, the boy heard the sound of the weapon readying itself and raised his head to look. His eye was clear and he simply said, "Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me." before Jack pulled the trigger and he was rendered truly unconscious.

"Even if he was awake, you didn't need to shoot him," Carter protested as Jack moved towards the boy.

He said nothing and merely knelt down to examine the kid's hands. The ropes that were supposed to be binding his hands had been cut and lazily draped back around his wrists and in his right hand there was... Jack picked up the strange object and looked it over for a few seconds before properly identifying it. It was the boy's eye-patch, but it had been crumpled down, as if crushed in a fist, and from inside the cloth that would cover his eye there emerged a small knife. Jack held up the weapon for his colleagues to see and said, "It pays to be cautious."

After finding Harris, they reported back to the SGC and took the boy into their protection for the time being. At least that was what they were calling it. Even after giving him that convenient excuse to lock the kid up, it still took hours for General Hammond to be satisfied with his "surveillance does not equal breach and clear" lecture.

Once things had settled down and the boy had been shackled to a bed in the infirmary, Jack had retired to his room on the base and retrieved the camera he had confiscated from the kidnapper's base. His curiosity kept him from giving it to the men who were left to investigate the other papers and objects found at the building. With nothing better to do, he removed the memory card from the camera and hooked it up to his computer.

After about an hour of watching the tape, someone knocked on his door twice before opening it without even waiting for a response. "Hey, Jack, want to go grab some dinner?" Daniel asked nonchalantly as he walked in.

"No, I've lost my appetite pretty thoroughly," Jack answered dazedly, without even turning to look at Daniel. "Instead of that, come over here and look at this."

"What's up?" Daniel asked, stepping over to look over Jack's shoulder at the computer screen as he rewound through the video he was playing.

"Just watch this part, it bothers me." Jack responded, gesturing towards the screen.

As Jack pressed play on the video, to show a full screen of Alexander Harris convulsing under electric shock, Daniel jerked back on impulse, saying, "What the hell are you trying to show me, Jack!?"

"Just watch," Jack said, grabbing Daniel by the arm and pulling him back over. "It comes up in a bit."

Daniel couldn't help but go along with Jack's insistence and turned his attention back to the screen. As he watched, the current was removed from the kid's chest and a male voice angrily asked, "Are you ready to talk?"

"You know, the fact that you haven't gotten even one of my references makes me question your life. What have you done wrong to not even have seen Star Wars?" Harris responded in a weak tone that otherwise showed no awareness of his situation.

"This isn't working," a second faceless voice said nervously.

"You're right. Get me the pliers," the first voice responded menacingly.

There was some shuffling as one of the men left the room and then Harris turned his attention to an area a little to the left of the camera. Looking into his eye gave Daniel a chill, it wasn't the joking look he had seen the kid wear before and it showed no signs of fear. The closest thing Daniel could think of to describe the look was disdain. Then, Harris started to speak, "You know you are really bad at this. Torture is all about making me fear you more than I would fear God himself. That's the only way to get real reliable information, and you, you don't even know what fear is. I have met nightmares, and you are not one of them."

The next thirty seconds was dominated by silence, but the torturer seemed to recover when his assistant re-entered the room. There were some faint metallic noises as the he must have received the pliers before stepping in front of the camera and saying, "Yeah, well, we'll see how long you can keep that opinion."

At this, Jack stopped the video and turned to Daniel, his eyes questioning. "This wasn't the first time he was tortured..." Daniel observed slowly. "It wasn't even the fifth time... He was like you, but... well, more eloquent. He's supposed to be less than thirty years old. Even we weren't that screwed up back then, right?"

Jack didn't respond and just turned his attention back to the screen. He could barely see Harris' face through the crook of his torturer's arm. All he could do in that moment was ask himself the same question he had been asking for the last three days.

For the third time in less than a week, Xander found himself creeping back to consciousness in an unfamiliar place. As his wits came back to him, he quickly grabbed control of his body and kept himself from showing any unnecessary signs of his consciousness. Every time he thought about it he couldn't help but bemoan the fact that he had developed an SOP for kidnapping, but now that it was part of his life he could do nothing but accept it.

He felt like every type of hell rolled into one, but his muscles were listening to him and that was something. If he couldn't deal with pain like this, then he wouldn't have made one of his major hobbies in high-school being thrown into walls. He gently cracked his eye open and did his best to emulate tossing and turning as he surveyed the room. He found himself laying on a bed with railings in a concrete room that was covered in blinking equipment, tubes, and various containers of various chemicals, each of which presumably had some medical use... hopefully. It seemed like a hospital, but lacked the overwhelmingly bleached feeling of every hospital room he had been in. In that case maybe infirmary would be the best word to describe the room. For the moment, this at least seemed like an improvement on his previous situation.

He shifted his body again, but his right arm didn't quite follow him. It was caught in something and as he paid more attention, he could hear a faint metallic jingling as he moved. He was handcuffed to the bed, that was a decided decline in his situation. He took a second look around the room and saw a lone woman who seemed like a doctor sitting at a desk in the corner. She hadn't looked up at him yet, so he could only assume she was already used to his restlessness from when he was legitimately unconscious. "A doctor should be good," he thought hopefully. "It's about time I got some attention."

With that thought, he started to groan as painfully, pitifully as possible. It wasn't exactly acting, as much as letting loose all his body's pent up complaints and it wasn't long before it had the desired results.

The doctor rushed over quickly and asked, "Are you all right?" worriedly as she bent slightly to look him over. In response, Xander let out another groan and shifted restlessly. "I'll get a sedative," she said after looking over his anguished face.

She rushed over to a cabinet along the wall and quickly came back with a syringe full of sedative. She approached the bed and started to wrestle with the IV line, but before she could inject anything, Xander was on her. She was completely surprised, but even if she wasn't, she was no fighter. He grabbed hold of the arm with the syringe and wrapped his other arm around her throat.

When she stopped struggling, he counted his heartbeats till he got to thirty, just to make sure she was properly unconscious, and then released her onto the bed beside him. Then he took the syringe, which he had secured from her, and started shoving it's tip into the keyhole of his restraints. After several failed attempts and almost stabbing himself three times, he managed to liberate himself.

The newly freed Xander explored the room and found there to only be one exit, which he was sure was guarded by a pair of unfairly large men. After some thought he scrounged together some surgical tubing and tied it in front of the door about halfway up his shin. Then he picked up a beaker and stood to the right of the doorway. He took four deep breaths before throwing the beaker against the opposite wall.

The guard's reactions were commendably fast. Less than four seconds later, the door was pulled open and an intimidating man was rushing through it yelling something like "Whats going on?" Of course his intimidating air didn't last long as his leg got caught in the tubing and he immediately fell flat on his face, the damage received multiplied significantly by his hurry.

The second guard was a bit quicker on his feet and was able to almost completely avoid the trap. After crossing the threshold, he keenly turned to examine the rest of the room before addressing his fallen companion. This was as far as he got, however, as Xander was prepared for this and had thrown himself at the guard, sending his elbow into the guard's neck. There was a disturbingly clear crack as the man's head hit the opposite wall and he collapsed into a pile at Xander's feet.

Xander then turned to the first guard, who was still trying to make a compromise between pushing himself to his feet and drawing his weapon. Before he could properly do either, Xander put a foot in the small of the man's back, knelt on the back of his neck, and swiped away the strangely shaped gun the guard was reaching for in one smooth motion. As the guard below him sputtered into unconsciousness, Xander examined his new weapon. It looked the same as whatever the colonel had shot him with back when he had been rescued from one kidnapping into another.

The design of the weapon was surprisingly sleek with one just two buttons resting on the otherwise unblemished surface which seemed to be modeled into the shape of a snake, or perhaps a scorpion's tail. As he held it aloft, he pressed one of the buttons and the gun reared up as it had for the colonel before. He then experimentally pressed the other and fell over in surprise, as a streak of blue lightning shot out of the tip of the gun and dissipated across the room's ceiling.

After recovering from the shock, he looked down at the weapon and thought about what had happened before. It was all a little hazy, but he had definitely been shot with one of these things, which meant they were non-lethal, since he was still alive. As the reality of the situation sunk in all he could do was weakly voice his jumbled thoughts to himself, "I have an Egyptian phaser... This is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me."

As the nearly orgasmic sense of self satisfaction faded, the reality of "trapped in giant concrete prison," flooded back in to fill the void. He quickly got to his feet and left the infirmary behind. As he ran through the maze of corridors, he "stunned" every person he ran across. This was the only strategy he could really come up with considering he didn't know anything that was going on at this point and what side was what. It was the best idea he could come up with, but still absolutely terrible. It didn't take long for alarms to sound and the generally relaxed staff in the hallway, to be replaced with people who had a more seek and destroy feel to them.

He had no idea where he was or where he was going, but when he came across a large half-open blast door his thoughts ran down the line of "sturdy door equals exit," and he rushed through it. What he found on the other side, however, wasn't brisk mountain air or the welcoming light of day. Instead, he found himself standing in the middle of a concrete room which was dominated by a large metal disk, the edge of which was covered in arcane symbols. As he stared up at it in confusion, a new alarm started to sound and orange lights around the room started to flash. He was immediately brought back to reality and turned to search for a path to escape.

Before Xander could make any moves towards flight, the room was suddenly flooded with an army of very alert and very armed soldiers all of whom were pointing their guns at him. Xander swallowed hard as he held his hands up and slowly backed away from their imposing presence. Dozens of possible futures were running through his head, and none of them seemed particularly pleasant.

As Xander tried to recover from this hopeless situation, he heard a monstrous roar from behind him which demanded his attention. When he had turned around, the center of the metallic disk was spinning away and revealing a light blue wall of what seemed to be standing water. At this point, he was just confused. Without any lead or path to follow, he could do nothing but stand there, staring at the ring.

That was when three new soldiers came through the wall of water at a dead run, stopping at the base of the ramp below it to turn around and point their own weapons back at the water that had just produced them. It was then that Xander decided that the soldiers weren't there for him, and it would be best for him to get the hell out of there before he found out what they were waiting for. As he was slowly turning away from the ring to put his new and complicated plan of just running away into action, his entire vision went white and his face suddenly felt like it had taken a trip to the surface of the sun. This froze him in place as he listened to the the world explode around him. When his vision returned, he looked back towards the water ring and saw what had just passed in front of him. It must have been one of the dozens of little yellow spears of light which were coming out of the water all around him. At that point he gave up. In favor of keeping his body free from having holes the size of a fist punched right through it, he sank down onto the floor and just lay there, not even bothering to move when the surrounding guards turned their attentions to him.

"What do you think?" General Hammond asked, staring through the one-way mirror at the disgruntled youth who was sitting at an otherwise empty table.

"I think he was pretty well shocked by the gate," Sam Carter observed.

"I think he looks grumpy," Daniel commented thoughtfully. "You aren't supposed to look grumpy when being held by the US government. It's one of the rules."

Silence dominated the small observation room as the three of them turned to look at Jack, who refused to acknowledge their gazes as he studied the boy in the other room. After about a minute of this, Jack finally said, "We've been observing him for days and all that we are finding are more questions... I think I'm gonna try talking to him now."

"I'll go with you," Daniel said, moving to follow Jack out the door.

At this, Jack stopped for a second before saying, "No, I think I should go in alone."

"I suppose that's fair," Daniel responded. "He is like a little pirate version of you."

Jack grunted distractedly in response, as he tried to come up with his approach. He then left the observation room and turned to step into the interrogation room for the second time in a week. "How are you feeling? You've been through a lot over the past few days."

"The concern is a little unconvincing coming from the man who kidnapped me... twice," Harris answered irritably. His attitude was completely different from the last interrogation, and he lacked all the bravado and cold anger he had shown in the video. He just seemed... petulant, it would have even been a little cute if he were fifteen years younger.

"Brought in for questioning, and protective custody," Jack answered, holding up a finger for each. "No kidnapping."

"Semantics," Harris answered moodily. He then seemed to think of something else and his expression soured further as he grumbled. "Three times in five days. It's a record even for me... It's like I'm growing up into Princess Peach or something..."

As the boy in front of him descended into inaudible grumbling, Jack decided to try and change the pace a little. "Listen, Alex"

Before Jack could continue his thought, however, the boy's head shot up and he said, "Xander."

"Sorry, Alexander," Jack said trying to start again.

"No, just Xander," the boy corrected once again.

"Alright, X-" Jack started for the third time before he actually processed the word he was about to say and he said,"Wait, really? Xander? Why?"

"Why not?" The boy answered in mock defense.

"Oh, don't give me that. There has to be a story there."

The newly named Xander seemed to think about this for a moment before holding out his hand and saying, "Twenty bucks."

"What?"

"Give me twenty bucks and I'll tell you why," Xander answered, his face lightening somewhat. "Or you could always agree to release me, but I don't see that happening, so, twenty bucks."

"I'm not paying you," Jack responded after taking a few seconds to see if he was really being extorted in an officially unofficial interview.

"Then you'll never know," Xander answered with a grin. "Not knowing will eat away at you every day from now on, until one dark night, when the curiosity gets too much and you can't help but track me down or go insane. Then... you'll give me twenty dollars."

"Your elementary school teachers said you had problems with authority figures, didn't they?"

"Maybe, maybe not. You can know for just twenty dollars."

"Is that your going rate for information?"

"For now it is, but who knows how long it'll last. Gotta always been considering the changing cost of living and whatnot. You should act fast while supplies last."

With that, Jack took out his wallet and placed a twenty on the table. "Then can you tell me why you hold yourself like a soldier?"

Xander just looked down at the money before moving his gaze back up to Jack's eyes and rebutting, "Can you tell me why you have a hole in the space time continuum in your basement?"

"I want to remind you who is being interrogated here, but I don't feel like that would help all that much," Jack answered with a sigh.

Xander just stared back at Jack, his slightly jovial expression slowly souring once again. As he watched Xander, Jack remembered what the kid had been through in the last 24 hours and sighed again. The kid had been so rambunctious, what with knocking nearly a fifth of the base unconscious, that he had completely forgotten about the pain that the boy must have still been feeling. Put in that context, his being able to carry on this lively of a conversation at all was impressive... Jack sighed again. "Listen, I really don't think you have anything to do with us, right?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell everyone, though apparently, not very convincingly."

"I believe you have nothing to do with us, yet..." Jack started again before letting his thoughts collapse once again. "I am old, but I am still a soldier. In fact, I'd say I was a pretty good one, after all I spend about as much time rolling around in the dirt as I do walking on top of it."

For the first time Xander looked at Jack with an expression which Jack logged as genuine puzzlement, but he didn't interrupt and Jack slowly meandered on. "You are a civilian and I am a soldier, but I really think you are better at fighting than I am. At least in a melee. Why is that? That's all I want to know right now. You don't learn to fight like that unless you experience real combat. What are your experiences?"

"So you're trying to say that you really only want to satisfy your curiosity?"

"Yes."

"And then we'll be done?"

Jack simply nodded at him, confident that Hammond would back up his promise... fairly confident. Xander looked across the table at Jack ponderously and silence reigned once again. That continued for several minutes until Xander suddenly opened his mouth to speak. "I won't tell you other people's secrets." With just that, Jack had all but given up on getting anything when Xander continued. "But, I'll tell you mine... and the government's, cause screw them."

Jack wasn't quite sure how to answer this, so all he said was, "Yeah?"

"Well, not that I don't have my conditions," Xander answered with a smile. "Firstly, I will trust you for now, but I don't trust your boss, or his boss, and I sure as hell don't trust the pentagon. I'll talk to you, alone, in a place of my choosing."

Jack only took a second to consider this before agreeing. Then Xander continued. "Secondly, I expect an equivalent exchange. I will tell you my secrets and the government's, if you will tell me yours, and the government's. That's the deal."

Jack was stopped dead at that. He had no idea what his commander would say to this little exchange, but he was certain it would be negative. "You're asking a lot from me here. I can tell you whatever you want from my life or whatever, but classified is classified."

"Oh, come on, Jack. I've already seen enough here, that if this was a spy movie I wouldn't make it through this sentence alive, unless my last name was bond," Xander responded, quickly cutting through Jack's defense. "All I want is for you to fill in the holes. Really it would be better for you to just tell me, cause otherwise I'll probably end up snooping around and you won't have any control over the flow of information... At least that's what you can tell your boss as justification." He said all this with a smile, but Jack was certain the last part was more than just a convenient excuse.

After thinking it over a bit more, Jack answered simply, "I guess there's no way around it." With that he stood up and led Xander out of the room. As he passed the observation room, Hammond and his teammates emerged and moved as if to stop him. Jack merely brushed passed them and they didn't quite have the fortitude to follow. With that little show of force, Xander's mood seemed to have brightened a little and he smiled all the way to Jack's truck.