Edit: wow, first upload it curtailed it. Guess servers are having more troubles than I thought. Fixed with a template. Thanks for staying subscribed all, sorry about the delay.

The metal bridge hummed with power. She was a relatively modern ship, by Asgard standards. Since the war with the Replicators had begun winding down, the Asgard had begun expanding further out, enforcing their treaties with more muscle. It was no secret why, either. SG-1 was becoming quite the talk of the interstellar trade routes. Their association with Earth, and vice versa, had done the Asgard many favors in trying to advance their ability to move away from cloning.

"Welcome." Thor seemed genuinely pleased to see SG-1. Then his eyes fell on The Doctor. The Asgard looked at the Doctor for a full second. There was an awkward pause.

"You are not supposed to be here." The normally flat tone was replaced with one that was very sharp.

"Yeah, well, here I am," the Doctor countered, stubbornly, jaw clenched.

"Doctor, calm down. Thor's a friend," Sam said. "He's come to Earth's aid many, many times."

"Yes, sure he is, a friend," the Doctor said sarcastically. He whipped out his sonic screwdriver, held it above his head, thumb over the trigger. "A real friend! Someone who's there when you need him."

"Don't," Thor said quickly, almost pleading.

"All friendly, all smiles, begging for help and then stabbing you in the back. I could start my revenge right now, you know. There's nothing you could do to stop me, either. Just one thing you could do to stop me from blowing you sky high!"

"We did what was necessary. Your kind-"

"Died." The Doctor interrupted. "And it was all thanks to you. We gave you time dilation technology, and advanced your cloning technology centuries ahead of what it was. You're lucky you didn't meet me a couple centuries earlier, or I'd have already done what I've half a mind and heart to do to you now. Now, before he loses his patience," the Doctor gestured towards a very confused but angry looking Rory "I suggest you return her, or he'll do to you what I no longer have the stomach to."

"Alright," Jack said, annoyed. His gun was now leveled at The Doctor. Her'Shir's jaffa and Teal'c had followed his lead and were all pointing weapons at Rory. "For crying out loud, Doctor, put that device down. Explain it on your own time, settle it on your own time. Thor, we've gotta get back down to the surface, before the other Goa'uld we invited to the assembly warp back to-"

Thor said nothing, but pressed a button on his console, and the Stargate appeared next to Jack.

"Or, you know, that works," Jack said, shrugging.

"The Goa'uld are now unable to leave the Planet," Thor said confidently. "Whatever use you have of their diplomats you can use on your own time. As for you, however-" Thor turned to face The Doctor full-on, who had slowly lowered his sonic screwdriver. "I have much to apologize for."

The Doctor bit on his lip in consternation. "You know what happened, then."

"We, too, paid a price. They promised their genetic research to undo our reliance on cloning. Their armor was impenetrable, even to replicators, their weapons de-atomized the replicators to a level they could not recover from. They scoured the replicators from almost every planet. Entire civilizations were repopulated."

"And?"

"All they asked in turn was for our time dilation technology. It was in its infancy, even now we can barely use it to slow an area's time field-"

"Give the Daleks anything and they'll make it monstrous. You know what happened next."

"They disappeared, all at once. The Replicators, limited to only a planet or two, scourged our planetary systems all over again. We had bought ourselves time, Time Lord, but both the Daleks and the Time Lords had disappeared at once from the galaxy, along with hundreds of systems under our protection. Even some of our own mysteriously vanished. We did not understand what had happened, especially given the panic of losing all we had just gained."

"The Time War began, because we trusted you," The Doctor said sternly. "My people burned, all of them, because of your decision to trust the Daleks. and our decision to help you, and you want to talk to me about 'necessary'? Your civilization still stands, and I'll bet that I still know the next words out of your mouth."

Thor paused. He was silent.

"Help us, Doctor."

The Doctor and Thor spoke the words at the same time, in the same intonation. The Doctor said it with a mocking sneer that Rory had never seen on the Doctor's face before. Thor sat back in his seat.

Jack tapped Daniel with his elbow, keeping his gun trained on The Doctor. "So...we've just met Thor's...boss?"

"Sort of? I wouldn't say boss, though, I don't think he's Asgard.."

"Then what is he?"

"I think 'Time Lord,'" Daniel said quietly. "I mean, if my understanding is correct-"

"Later," Jack promised.

The Doctor continued, oblivious. "And why would I want to do that?"

A picture floated up from the command console and spread itself into three dimensions. Rory stepped forward as the Doctor stepped, working his way behind the Goa'uld, who gave him a wide berth, but kept their weapons trained on him. Rory's hand brushed across the hologram's face. "Amy," he said softly. He tensed. He turned on Thor. "Where is she!?" He yelled. Everyone turned to face him. His voice rose as he continued. "I am the last centurion. I've burned Cyberman fleets to get a hint as to where my wife is. Now you tell me, right now you freak, where my-"

With an electronic shriek of a zat, Jack shot the back of Rory's knee with a zat. It exploded outwards in blue ribbons of electricity, and Rory knelt before Thor, grabbing him by the leg, murderous rage on his face. "Let him go, Rory," Jack warned. "That's Earth's one credible negotiator in the eyes of the Goa'uld. You damage him, Earth doesn't have anything protecting it. You probably owe your life to him, so stop threatening him, and let's talk this over in the med bay while you reflect about what a dumb idea that was. Your wife? She's from Earth? Kiss the whole planet goodbye if he dies."

Rory held tight. "I don't think so. In fact, I really don't think so." He struggled to stand, panting. "And while you're all so busy staring at me, maybe you should consider that The Doctor has been unusually quiet."

Everyone turned and looked around. The Doctor was, in fact, nowhere to be seen.

"That's trouble," Rory warned. "Real trouble. A Time Lord lost in the halls of a ship? He can get up to all sorts of trouble. Now," he said, voice a growl. "Where. Is. My. Wife."

Thor didn't hesitate to explain, whether motivated by fear or annoyance was impossible to tell. "We took her. There was no way of knowing without an earlier genetic sample, we assumed we had found a band of Time Lords traveling, and we wanted to negotiate-"

"For what purpose?" Rory asked, furiously.

Teal'c, was incredibly stealthy for his size, and had used the opportunity of Rory's intense focus to quietly maneuver himself behind Rory. Arms went across Rory's shoulders and yanked, pulling the centurion off his feet, letting him kick fruitlessly at the air, but his grip was steadfast. "Enough," Teal'c roared. The echo carried itself down the halls and back. Everyone was silent for a moment. "Threatening Thor will not accelerate the return of your wife, nor will damaging his ship. Clearly, the Asgard value human life, or they would have not saved Earth, or come to the aid of human beings in the system whenever they could. I doubt she is in danger, Rory Williams."

Rory looked at the Asgard. "Please," Thor said patiently. Rory released his grip.

The ship's engines changed pitch a note down. Over the comms, The Doctor's voice echoed. "Ah, there we are. Thank you Rory! Always travel with a companion, Thor. That's one little piece of advice. Now, I've been over your records. Fascinating stuff, Asgard history. Skip the stuff about Replicators and the whole race has been almost as busy as I have. Technological innovation is really taking off with you guys. Maybe you're getting desperate. But I will say, honestly, maybe with Time Lord time technology, you could bring a lot of balance to the galaxy. You seem to mean well. But!" Then there was a shudder throughout the ship. "Let's not find out. I was technically President then. So I'm going to be making an Executive decision. Maybe it'll be retroactive! You never know with time, do you?"

Thor stood still. "No."

"Why not, then? Come on. You don't deserve this level of technology. You don't deserve to live. You lot should have died off, would have been better for everyone. No time war, no second Renaissance, no Goa'uld negotations-"

"No Earth," Her'Shir interjected.

"What?"

"When did you meet her, Rory?"

"When I was a child."

"When was that, exactly?"

"It's a long story. Time travel," Rory said with a little smile.

"A date, please?" Hammond asked. He wasn't sure where the Goa'uld was going.

"Born nineteen-eighty-nine," Rory said. "We grew up together." Teal'c lowered Rory so his feet were on the ground, facing him away from Thor.

"You'd be dead at the age of three if it wasn't for Thor. Or at the age of Six. Or any of the centuries prior. Doctor, do you think the Shadow Proclamation alone could have stopped Ra? Apophis had the right idea. We should have crushed Earth; Ra urged patience until The Asgard fell to the Replicators. The Asgard prevented us from doing so. We'd have taken the planet, billions of hosts, if not for Thor."

"Why are you defending-"

"Better that than he cast us into the system's star," the Goa'uld said, sweeping away Amy's 3-D display and showing a giant blue star. "You want revenge, and aren't afraid to burn things to get it. A most admirable trait, 'Doctor.' You would be a most worthy host."

"Oh, is that what you think I'm doing?" The Doctor's voice was no longer on intercom. His head poked around the corner. "No. No no no," he said shaking his head and waving his hands in a jovial manner. "I'm just getting us around the Sun, away from the interference. We're just following the ship that took Amy."

"What ship?" Thor asked.

"The one that took Amy, weren't you listening?" The Doctor asked. "We passed where the warp was a minute ago. We'll catch up with it in a minute," he said. "Then you can negotiate to get Amy back, we can put the Gate back on the planet, Her'Shir can stop sounding like they're the only rational one on board this ship, and we can pretend like none of this ever happened."

"How did you do that? Doctor, Time Lord, what exactly is that?" Daniel asked.

"And did you do something to the Engines?" Asked Sam. "We shouldn't be moving this fast."

"Probably," answered Rory wrly, wriggling free of Teal'c.

"Yes," The Doctor said. "It's temporary, of course. Burns through energy like you would not believe," he said with a chuckle.

"But what is a Time Lord? You made the Asgard who they are?" Sam asked.

"Oh no, the Asgard have always been one of the higher races. But you heard it. And...well, Time Lords aren't a thing. Not anymore. Right Thor? Whole race died off, almost overnight. They kept time in order. I'm just someone who stole one of their machines, they all died."

"Your vitals say otherwise, Doctor," Thor said. "What ship?"

"Oh well, it was worth a try. Ah, there we are! That ship!" The ship went from speck to full-size. It was shaped roughly like the one they were on.

"Yes, now raise him on the communicator. Go on, or I will, and tell him to give her back. Snatching life forms off wandering ships. That's not your place," he said as though he were a teacher disciplining an unruly student.

Thor tapped the communicator. Nothing happened. Then he hit it again. "They are not responding." The Doctor pulled out his device, activated it with a thrumming noise. Everyone raised their guns, but nothing happened.

"Auto-answer," he said. The Communicator switched on. The captain's chair was empty.

"No pilot," The Doctor said, worriedly. "Scan it for life forms. Come on."

"No life signs detected," Sam read aloud.

"Well, it's not drifting. This is a programmed set of coordinates; equidistant between the asteroid belt, that moon over there, and...It's powering up weapons."

"Incoming transmission."

The entire display was at first a group of concentric circles. Each was removed, then re-arranged themselves to spell in English: "Doctor."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it means something bad. Possibly something very, very bad."