Hey guys! I'm back again, with a new chapter full of, well, stuff. I hope you enjoy! Love ya! :o)

BluJay: Hey sweetie! Oh, I'm so glad that you think I'd make a good filmmaker! It really means a lot to me, since I try to translate what I see to the page. ;o) Yikes! You were in a hurricane? You must live down south, huh? Being in California, I have to worry about earthquakes, but no hurricanes, luckily! Helicopters are pretty cool pieces of technology, and so tempermental! An Army truck must have been cool, though! Keep trying- eventually you will be able to write what you see. Study people, try some acting. LOL, it really does help you to see what body language and facial expressions really mean. ;o)

As for Jonas... I know! It's so sad that he's all alone... and I have no one to blame but myself...:o(

Don't worry 'bout it. I may not have remembered Aiyanna if the episode didn't involve the ever-elusive Ancients.

Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Lots more explanations for ya! :o)

Drakcir: LOL, Man, I'm sorry man, that was like, a total downer man. I hope I didn't like, ruin your day or anything man. Like, don't worry man, the rainbow will come back at the end (assuming the rainbow is reconcillation/happiness...)... LOL, no worries. I'm a Californian, so "man" is part of my every-day vocabulary. ;o) Love ya sweetie, and hope that this chapter isn't as disturbing as the last!

Pike: My sweet and loyal friend! I'm sorry for making you sad, but as weird as it sounds that was also what I was hoping for, LOL. I'm SO glad that you noticed the attention I paid to bring to life the image of Eiffy running through the trees. That was the highlight of the chapter for me, as a writer. I had this image of her in slowmotion... being a LOTR fan, I'm sure you can appreciate the power of slowing down footage a bit (FOTR does it a lot and beautifully so!). I hope you like this chapter too, sweetie! :oD

Rowe: Why thank you! I'm glad that you appreciated the last chapter and didn't only see it as sorrow. Sometimes that's how life is, as I'm sure you know, and I'm at peace having seen your wisdom in understanding the situation. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us! :o) I love your name! :oD

Lori: Uh oh! I hope your art assignment didn't suffer too much! LOL, I'm glad that you like the story. I hope you also enjoy this part. :o) Please come back again. :oD

Aerafel: What a lovely name! It sounds Elvish,(like Lirenel's name, too!)

;o). I'm so glad that you, too, appreciated this last chapter. Thank you so much for your support! :o) I really appreciate it! :oD

To all others who have not reviewed, thank you for reading! As you can tell, we're a little family here and would love to hear from you! :oD

Now we step out of the shadows of this path, and let us breathe a sigh of relief in the light. But linger we shall not, for unforseen tendrils of evil may yet lie ahead...

Snow: VII

"So it appears that Jonas' ancestors have evolved along a line very close to ours. Daniel actually believes that they were the people who ascended and are what we now call the Ancients. They started here on Earth, but like many other ancient peoples, were taken through the stargates to different planets." Janet paused and lowered her laserpointer as Colonel O'Neill made his 'I'm not completely buying this' face. She looked across the briefing room from her position by the pull-down screen to him.

"Maybe I'm just the... idiot of the group... but I still don't see how they became... 'special' in the first place."

"Jack," Daniel attempted to answer his CO's question. "If our theory is correct, then all human beings evolved to be the way we are because at one point in our evolutionary history, before we took to the plains, we began to become marine mammals."

"Jack's eyes became widened in shock at the term and he leaned forward as he nearly shouted "Ex-cuse me?"

Daniel closed his eyes. "Okay, poor choice of words. What I mean is we became aquatic apes. We took the step that none of our evolutionary cousisns have yet taken."

"So... we went from the trees to the water? Honestly, Daniel, where's my fin? I mean, didn't Kevin Costner try this once? If I remember correctly, that movie was a big ole flop-"

"Jack," Daniel chose to ignore O'Neill's Waterworld reference. "Even whales and seals were once land mammals, but millions of years ago, they took to the sea. Now, we obviously never took that great leap, but we took to the seashores, at least."

Jack rested his chin in his hand, finally able to understand where his team's nerds were going with this.

"For one reason or another, our species never took that final leap to become a full-fledged marine mammal and instead turned towards land. Yet still, all of human civillization began at water sources. The Fertile Crescent is full of ancient Empires, all built around rivers."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "And where is this 'Fertile Crescent'?"

Daniel scratched his head a bit nervously. "Around modern Iraq..."

"Okay- you are not poking around there for evidence, so don't even ask."

Daniel looked up from the table, raising his eyebrows. "I wasn't going to."

Jack raised his in response as if his child had just realized his point. "Good."

"Sir," Sam decided to tactfully intervene. "What Daniel is saying is that these people stayed near water. All civillizations start near water, but once they reach a certain technological level, they can branch out and populate other areas. However, we believe that these individuals didn't, at least not at first, and stayed near the water, thus giving them the apparent evolutioary advantages that Jonas exemplefies."

"Large lungs, agile swimmers," Janet offered.

"So," Jack drawled as he turned to face the Kelownan. "You're not human."

"Technically he is, Colonel, just a ... more highly evolved form of us. Or not. His people evolved to adapt to their marine climaes, which doesn't really help one somewhere like this."

"Okay... but... how does this whole Atlantis thig fit in again? I saw something about it in an episode of MacGyver-"

"Jack," Daniel placed his hands on the table in front of him, as if illustrating the scenario with a 3-D model, yet there was no model. "Imagine if, as other peoples moved, these didn't. That's how they built great empires. Somehow, this adaptation that they have has given them the ability to process knowledge, to... become inventive, creative, intuitively genius individuals. They could have created great wonders. No one really knows anything about Atlantis except what Plato says, that in a single day and night it vanished into the sea. What if it wasn't really a sea? What if they really left through the stargate that they created?"

"To anyone who doesn't know better, a stargate's event horizon would look like water, Sir." Sam chimed in.

"True," the Colonel conceded. "So there was a whole island of these water people?"

Sam grinned.

Janet spoke up. "Actually, Colonel, evolution on that scale would be very rare, if not impossible for human beings over the course of only a thousand years or so. What I actually think is the case is that there is some sort of recessive gene that crops up every once in a while in these individuals. Theoretically, it could show up anywhere in the world since our aquatic adaptations took place while we were still in Africa, before our species spread out all over the place," she paused, careful of her next words. "Daniel and I believe that some knew of the existence of such individuals. Perhaps one him or herself, and gathered them from all over the world to this one island, Atalntis. There they may have even created the stargate, then traveled through it."

Jack gave her an inquisitive look. "But where'd they gate to? There'd have to be more than one gate."

"True," Daniel responded. "And that's where our theory gets a little bit sketchy. By this time, some or many of these individuals may have ascended and begun to create stargates on other worlds. The best I can gather is that there was a... interplanetary migration. The people of Atlantis left this world behind them, millions of years ago. However, all of these individuals couldn't possibly have left.Some must have remained long enough for the Goa'uld to take them to other worlds, whether knowing of their abilities or not."

"So this is something that one of your close ancestors passed down to you, Jonas," Janet looked the young Kelownan in the eye.

"Maybe it was my mother. She was the one who taught me the song in the first place."

Daniel and Janet nodded simultaneously.

There was a moment of silence.

"So... where does this leave us?" General Hammond prompted.

"Well, for one thing it's given proof that Aiyanna was an Ancient."

"It also gives, for the first time, a plausible explanation for the Ancients."

All around the table could agree with that.

"...And...?" Jack prompted.

More silence, then Sam spoke quietly to him. "Well, that, and we now know why Jonas is...well... the way he is."

Jack smiled, watching as the Kelownan doodled on a piece of paper in his folder, oblivious to Sam's statement. "Oh... I wouldn't say that," the Colonel replied out loud.

The rest of the people at the table looked up and over to them, Jonas included, and Sam unseccsessfully hid her smile.

"All right people," Hammond ended the silence. "I'd say that while the findings are fascinating, they give us no real technological edge in the fight against the Goa'uld or Anubis. Not immediate, at least, as far as I can tell."

"I'd say that's a fair assessment, General," Jack tipped his head toward the older man.

Hammond nodded back. "Dismissed."

~*~

Jack knocked on the side of the doorframe to Jonas' office. The younger man looked up from his book and smiled. "Colonel."

"Hey Jonas... whaddya readin'?"

The Kelownan smiled and sheepishly held up a copy of Angela's Ashes.

"Ooo," Jack whined. "Good ole Frank McCourt. Better skip that one, Jonas. Unless, that is, you don't mind reading depressing autobiographies. Hell, I could just tell you the O'Neill family history if you're interested in the Irish..."

While Jack had made his remark in jest, Jonas took it in all honesty and his face fairly brightened at the idea. "I'd love to, Sir."

Jack skipped a beat as the younger man's response sank in. He raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked with a cautiously optimistic "Really?"

Jonas closed his book he'd barely begun. "Sure."

Jack gave one of his rare full smiles. "Well, then." He pulled up a chair and sat in it backwards, arms criscrossed on the top of the back. Jonas leaned back in his chair slightly, his body language answering that he was ready for a long tale.

"Well," O'Neill began. "My great-grandfather was the bastard son of a British soldier and a young Irish woman. As soon as he was able, he sailed into Canada, snuck into the good ole US of A, married another Irish immigrant and one of their nine kids was my grandfather. He became a police officer, stayed in the New York Irish area... married, again, an Irish woman. Then there was my dad, who moved to Minnesota to get away from his dad whom he had disagreements with. Fell in love with and married my mother, and here I am." He smiled and Jonas returned the gesture.

Jack slightly furrowed his brow. "Don't know what it is with the Irish and sons and fathers butting heads, but I soon fell into that trap as well. Except... I joined the Air Force thinking I was teaching my old man something..." Jack trailed off, suddenly guarded. After a pause he broke the reflective silence. "So," Jonas looked up from the desk he'd allowed himself to stare off into. "What's the Quinn family history like?"

Jonas only glanced up momentarily and gave a slight, uncomfortable grin. "Sad."

"Well," Jack gave him a small smile back. "Must mean you're Irish, then."

Jonas looked up at that as Jack rose. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "So, I see you've already started your weekend, but I was wondering if you'd like to go fishing with me, seeing as you've never gone before and all."

Jonas brightened like a child who'd just met Santa Clause. "That'd be great," he half exclaimed then looked suddenly crestfalllen. "Only... I promised Daniel I'd help him with some translations."

Not really knowing what elese to say, Jack conceded without further argument. "Ah. Well, have fun with your... tablets, or whatever it is now..."

Jonas gave him a 'you-know-I'm-never-down' smile. "I will, Sir."

Jack turned to leave. He was almost through the doorframe when he heard the younger man speak once more. "And Colonel?"

Jack turned, raising his eyebrows.

Jonas was now standing, looking uncomfortable himself. "Thank you, Sir."

Jack gave him once more a rare real smile. "Don't sweat it, kid. The offer still stands if you ever actually get some free time on one of these in-between mission weekends."

Jonas grinned. "I'll remember that, Sir."

Jack left it at that, but for some reason felt a foreboding tugging at his heart, telling him not to leave. Ridiculous. I finally start to warm up to the kid and now I'm feeling wrong about it? I've never even really given him the chance to bond with me the way I did with Daniel.

As he passed the comissary and spotted Carter and Teal'c within, all previous intuitions of foreboding were lost.

~*~

Two Days Later

~*~

Colonel Jack O'Neill pushed his way through the hallways of the SGC, still in civillian garb.

He stepped into General Hammond's office and paused when he saw the older man using his red phone.

"Yes, Sir... no, I understand, Sir. Of course... I will. Thank you, Sir. Goodbye." Hammond hung up the phone then stood to greet O'Neill. "Colonel, thank you for coming in on such a short notice, but we have a situation here."

Jack bit back a sigh. Don't we always...

Hammond gave him a rare, almost pitying gaze.

When Jack noticed this he straightened his posture, now tense. Whatever this was was serious and involved him directly. "General?"

"Colonel, as commander of SG-1, I felt that you should know first."

Jack took a step forward, his voice grave. "Know what first, Sir?"

"This morning two representatives of the NID came into my office. They handed me this," he passed the official-looking paper over to the colonel.

O'Neill glanced at it. "What the hell did they want?"

Hammond looked patronizing. "They've taken Jonas Quinn into custody."

~*~