(Edited 11/1/09)

Chapter 10 - Actions and Consequences

Denver International Airport, Terminal 2

Standing invisible inside the terminal, Harry was preparing to board a flight to Baltimore. There was only one powerful individual that Jack and Sam both thought might be involved with the NID that was not a member of the NID itself, and that man was a United States Senator. When both asked what Harry was planning for his time off, Harry had been pretty vague. Harry just handed them a couple of hundred dollars and told them to take the team Cassie and the Doc out to dinner tomorrow night on him.

They immediately became suspicious but house cleaning, and planning was all he would tell them. In a way, he didn't lie. He was cleaning house in a manner of speaking, and he was doing a lot of planning at the moment. Hammond was scheduled to be out of the mountain on Friday in two days, and his replacement was arriving on the following Monday. That gave Harry 4 days before the NID patsy was inside the mountain. That should be enough time to knock some heads against some trees to see what falls out.

Leaning against the wall, Harry was once again glad he had convinced Dumbledore to teach him this form of invisibility. It didn't rely on a cloak, and it didn't cause any type of detectable visual distortion like disillusionment charms would have. It basically took the body shield Harry had learned to wandlessly project, and make it bend light and heat, rendering what was in it invisible to both visual and heat sensors. This definitely proved to be an asset in shaking the 3 men that had been following him since his departure from Colorado Springs. All he had needed to do was go into a large mall's busy department store, find a hidden corner that lacked any security camera coverage, and become invisible. That, and one of the 1100 doses of Polyjuice potion he had in his trunk got him out of the mall and to the airport, where the invisibility got him through security and would soon be getting him on a red eye flight to Maryland. It was critical for his travels to be untraceable. What better way than not even being seen?

Maryland, BWI Airport, Taxi Stand

Dressed as a businessman and disguised as a man that looked to be around 40 that shared a similar build to him, Harry grabbed a cab and gave directions to a park he had looked up that was near the good senator's home of residence. From the park, he planned to find a dinner for some food, then find a quiet corner and get his little kit organized. He was not looking forward to hiding out in the Senator's house for the next 12 or so hours, but considering the security system the man probably had installed, it made more sense to follow someone inside during the day and hide out and wait for the best time, than to try to break in at night while they slept. Hopefully he would be able to find a nice quiet rarely used room to catch up on a little sleep.

Maryland, Residence of US Senator Robert Kinsey

It had been a long and boring day, but the wait was worth it. The wife was downstairs watching TV, and his target was in the study typing away on his computer. It looked like he was communicating on some type of chat website. Harry idly wondered if that was how the NID communicated with its covert assets.

Using a syringe full of dreamless sleep potion on the wife had been easy. In the morning she should wake up thinking she fell asleep watching TV. After making his way upstairs Harry quietly walked up behind the sitting senator before placing his hand on the man's shoulder and willing him to be immobile.

To outside appearances, the white haired man's entire body seemed to tense for a second before it went completely still. Using a device to scan for surveillance equipment, he quickly found a hidden video camera and microphone and quickly disabled it before he willed himself visible. As he picked up and moved the still frozen Kinsey from his desk chair to a couch, Kinsey got his first look at his attacker.

Harry was dressed in black and was wearing a black mask that had reflective lenses over his eyes to hide them, and a speaker where his mouth would have been. That speaker was in fact a voice distorter. After placing him down, Harry immediately set up a small video camera, gave him a dose of truth serum, freed him from is paralysis and after pressing record, asked his first questions.

"What is your name?" Harry asked in the highly synthetic voice provided by the voice distorter.

"Senator Robert Kinsey" said Kinsey in a flat voice.

"Are you involved with the NID?"

"Yes" was the man's flat reply.

"What do you do for them? And what do they do in return for you?"

"I am a strong political ally for them and ensure they are allocated a large indescretionary budget. They in turn provide me with information about my political enemies, finance my campaigns, and give me any information which might aid in furthering my political career."

Harry wasn't surprised by that response. Kinsey wasn't the type of man that gets his hands dirty himself, he's the type that asks others to do it for them.

"Did they give you any instructions with regards to the SGC? If so, what were they?"

"They first wanted me to have them shut down so they could use the second gate they had stolen to run their own operation. Then when it looked like the president would never approve a full shut down after Apophis' attack, it was to help them maneuver a man into a position to step in and run the SGC. The man they supported would aid them in their goals while General Hammond would not."

"Who is behind the illegal actions of the NID and more specifically the group of agents that the NID says are rogue."

"Several powerful businessmen and the head of the NID are in control of everything. They use the NID to gain political power and aid in their businesses."

"What are the names of these businessmen?"

As Kinsey listed 10 businessmen, Harry couldn't hide the surprise on his face under his mask. These 10 men were some of the wealthiest individuals in the country, if not the world. Taking these people down would be almost impossible, and the odds were that whoever did try would end up dead pretty quickly. This had to be handled delicately. Harry can't just go around executing these men, let alone a United States Senator. It wouldn't take people long to connect his disappearance with the murders of so many prominent individuals. Even if he did that and got away without being taken out in retaliation, like a hydra, 20 more businessmen would take their places, with a dozen more dirty politicians.

"Have you or these men ordered the deaths of anyone? If so, who was ordered killed, who gave the order, and who executed the order." Harry asked, almost afraid of the answer he would receive.

The list was long, too long. These people, using about 20 highly trained agents that worked within the ranks of the NID, had assassinated anyone that either looked too carefully into the actions of the NID, was in the way of one of the businessmen, or had developed or had access to technology that they were interested in. After Kinsey had finished naming people, Harry asked a question that might just solve many of his problems.

"Have you or any of these men sold any classified information to enemies of the United States, if so, what did they sell and to whom." Harry eagerly asked.

This list blew Harry away. These people sold classified technology, classified information and highly restricted materials to almost all of the US's global enemies. They even sold information on the stargate program to Russia for a hefty fee and drilling rights to several oil fields in Russia. They further had the nerve to sell a blasted live Goa'uld symbiote they captured using their illegal gate operation. The greed and corruption Harry was hearing about simultaneously frightened and angered him.

"What are the NID's current illegal plots, and are there any big plans in the planning stages? If so, what are they?" asked Harry.

"We have just successfully forced George Hammond into retirement by kidnapping and returning his grandchildren as a warning to cooperate. After the swearing in of Vice President Robert Russell, a plan to assassinate President Bartlett will be put together. Our hope is to suitably frame an opponent of the NID to both maneuver a NID sympathetic man into the White House, and to warn others off that are trying to get the NID disbanded." droned Kinsey.

Harry almost fell out of his chair at that announcement. To actively plan the assassination of a sitting US President was a line he thought even these bastards wouldn't cross.

"Who ordered the kidnapping of Hammond's grandchildren and who were the operatives that carried out the mission."

"Major Franklin gave the order, I do not know who carried out the task."

"How do the head of the NID and the 10 businessmen you mentioned make decisions, are there any records of their meetings and conversations, and how do you all communicate?" asked Harry hoping to find the evidence necessary to put the nail into the coffin of many truly dark and selfish people without involving the SGC.

"We use several secure roving servers on the internet to communicate. The head of the NID keeps records of the large meetings in a secure safe in his office. I do not know if the businessmen themselves keep records."

"Do they have a name for themselves?"

"They like to call themselves the trust." Kinsey replied.

"How do I access the online database without triggering any alarms?" asked Harry.

As Harry carefully listened to the instructions, and prepared the portable hard drive he brought with him to download all of the necessary information, Harry was putting the finishing touches on his plans for the good Senator. Harry had the name of the person that gave the order to kidnap the little girls. Now he would engage one of his late godfather's favorite pranking tactics. The long distance prank. The best way to insure you are not only not implicated, but don't get splattered. After downloading the entire online database, thankful he had the modified Goa'uld crystal tech hard drive with him considering the size of the database, Harry made his way back over to the still glassy eyed Senator.

"Well Senator, let's get you organized here. Can't have you remembering this conversation can we? And I think it's about time you had a change of heart and started truly serving your country...even if that change of heart puts you in prison for life." concluded Harry as he removed the lenses from his mask, made solid eye contact with Kinsey and easily slipped into his mind.

While Harry really abhorred entering another's mind without permission, he had a job to do, and a surrogate family to protect. While erasing the memories of this interrogation was more difficult than it would have been in his old universe since he had to physically go into his mind and erase those memories, being in the man's mind gave Harry the opportunity to enact his plan. Ironically enough, he got the idea from the Goa'uld. While he could no longer cast strong compulsions with his wand, nothing prevented him from placing suggestions and commands directly into someone's mind once already in there. While he would never do this under normal circumstances, he wasn't about to let some power mad group of businessmen and politicians take over the US government.

Placing strong commands to covertly gather all evidence he had of the treason committed by these people, including the planning of the President's assassination was easy. Putting a qualifier to ensure the secrecy of the SGC was a little more tricky, but not impossible. Ordering him to produce two versions of the evidence, was the hardest part of Harry 's task.

The first version was the complete version. Kinsey was ordered to create 3 copies, one to be mailed to a PO box Harry had set up and rented for 3 years under a false name in Washington, one to be couriered to General Hammond in Colorado Springs, and one to be delivered to the White House and addressed classified, eyes only, the president.

The second version was to include everything except any mention of the SGC, aliens, or alien technology. Harry wanted to ensure that the secret behind the important job the SGC does isn't compromised. This package was to be delivered to every major news organization in addition to the attorney general's office, the head of the FBI, since the man hadn't been implicated by the Senator, and the white house. While a good deal of classified information would be released to the public by this delivery, none of it would have anything to do with the SGC, none of it would put any human lives at risk and such release might just be a death blow to the NID since it will bring to light many of the NID's illegal actions.

Kinsey was then given a command to hold a press conference at noon on Monday, just after the packages would be scheduled to arrive at their destinations, confessing his crimes to the public, the involvement of the influential businessmen, and the fact that after having a bad nightmare the night before, realized his mistake in participating in the planning and supporting the president's assassination. Kinsey was commanded to say that he had decided he should come forward with his information and evidence and had consequently set up this news conference to do just that, in addition to having copies of the evidence delivered to the attorney general, several reputable news organizations, the President and the head of the FBI.

Finally, Harry placed a strong compulsion in his psyche to call up his various wet works teams he had access to on Sunday morning, and set them after each other, and the other assassins the NID had employed to kill the innocents he had mentioned in his previous disclosure.

After making sure there would be no sign of his presence in the house, Harry injected the Senator with a dose of sleeping potion and placed him in the chair in front of the computer he had been working on when Harry had entered the room. Harry had a busy few days ahead of him. He had three days to visit 10 of the most powerful business men in the world, who lived in 4 different cities spread out over the US.

He had to be sure these men wouldn't use their or any of their people's knowledge of the SGC as leverage to escape prosecution. Also, considering the powder keg that was about to go up, maybe it might be a good idea to encourage them all to put their final affairs in order before the big bang so that their vast resources could be put to good use after their exposure. Harry hated influencing a person's free will. He found such actions truly disgusting. But in this case, it was the lesser of two evils. While Harry knew he would be having nightmares for some time once everything was said and done, he was glad, because so long as he had such nightmares, or such regrets, or such disgust at his own actions despite the consequences he knew would occur if he didn't act, he knew he still had his soul.

Stargate Command, The Gate Room

Harry walked into the gate room and got in line standing in between Dr. Lee and Teal'c. He had a lot of trouble keeping the yawn from escaping his lips. It had been a long 4 days, but he had been able to reach all 10 of those that Kinsey had named. They all had very strong compulsions planted into their minds to maintain the secrecy of the SGC and the stargate, so he knew that when the shit starting to splatter on them after it hit the fan at the NID, that they wouldn't try to use the gate as leverage. Because time was tight, he couldn't spend as much time as he would have liked interrogating all of those men so Harry had to hope that the compulsion would encourage them to strongly discourage their underlings from compromising the SGC as well.

When they saw him enter the formation, both Sam and Jack shot him questioning looks, wondering what he'd been up to over the past 4 days. Harry just shook his head. While they might have some suspicions of what he did, especially after the big press conference that was set to air at noon eastern standard time, Harry would never tell them the specifics. That information would likely die with him. The video of the interrogations would stay safely tucked away in his trunk if Harry had anything to say about it.

"So what do we know about this new guy?" Carter asked O'Neill.

"Not much." responded O'Neill

"Lets hope he's not some sort of spit and polish, brass tacks..." Daniel trailed off, trying to find a tactful way to put it.

"Hard ass?" Jack asked, having no such tact.

"I was building up to that" said Daniel.

"TEN HUT!" O'Neill announced to the room after seeing the new General approach the doors to the gate room.

The way the man walked in, not even taking a second to appreciate the stargate was all that Harry needed to see to come to certain conclusions. This man was a willing patsy. He was probably hand fed information by his contacts that would provide the right motivation for the man to do exactly what the NID wanted. While Harry hoped the man was not soulless, the General's greeting to the men and women that sacrificed their lives on a daily basis for the protection of the planet did nothing to reassure him.

"My name is Major General Bauer. I'll be your new commanding officer. I'd just like to say I look forward to working with all of you. Thank you." After finishing his dry greeting, the man continued to walk through the gate room and exited the door on the opposite side he entered from, his entourage of two diligently following him in silence.

"Squadron at ease." ordered O'Neill. "Always leave 'em wanting more." Jack joked to those around him.

"I wouldn't be too worried Jack, something tells me he's likely to not be staying here very long." Harry commented as he made his way to follow Daniel and Sam as they exited the gate room.

"What do you know Harry?" Jack called out to Harry's retreating back.

"Nothing more than you do Jack" Harry replied over his shoulder with a look of complete innocence on his face. "Honest." Harry threw in as he rounded out of the room.

Harry caught up with them at the elevator and rode down with them to level 19.

"Why do you look so disappointed Daniel?" asked Harry.

"I don't know, I guess I was expecting someone a little more inspiring." responded Daniel as they approached the entrance to Sam's lab.

"I guess when you spend that much time at the Pentagon it's easy to become a bureaucrat." joked Sam as they entered her lab.

Harry almost had to choke back a snort when they saw General Bauer waiting for them in the lab reading from a manila colored folder. Sam looked wide eyed at the General and quickly came to attention.

"Or a diplomat. Depends on where your interests lie." replied the General.

"General, I..." Sam began before she was interrupted.

"At ease Major Carter. At ease. I've been going over your research into naquadah reactors. Yours too Mr. Potter. Very impressive." the General commented.

"We are really just beginning to scratch the surface of the incredible potential of this element." Carter responded with the light of exciting science in her eyes.

"It also demonstrates some interesting properties when used in conjunction with nuclear ordinance." stated the General.

This comment brought a frown to Daniel, Sam and Harry's faces. "It does tend to increase the explosive effect, yes sir." Sam dutifully replied.

"The Pentagon feels that the Stargate project, while exposing Earth to considerable danger has yet to produce any practical returns. Now we've been working on a device designed specifically to take advantage of this Naquadah enhancing effect. I'd like you to take part in the operation" ordered the General placing a folder on Sam's work bench.

"I'm curious General." Harry opened, "is that the Pentagon's feeling or the NID? Last I heard the Pentagon was quite happy with the strides we have made to not only protect this planet, but to the future construction of vessels, one of several modes we are working on to actively protect this planet and any future colonies we start." finished Harry in a challenging tone.

The General frowned at the mention of the NID, and seeing the man's curiosity toward the bulk of Harry's statement, Harry decided to go for broke.

"You do know that after numerous lapses in security, and almost being the catalyst for earth's removal from the Asgard protected planets treaty, not to mention their active stealing from some of our allies, the NID was forbidden access to the SGC and off world technology, don't you General? Or did the people who gave you your obviously inaccurate information along with the plans for this rather destructive device fail to mention that?" asked Harry as he picked up and glanced at the designs of the device the General asked Sam to build. Harry made a face after seeing the design and doing a quick calculation of the potential destruction such a weapon would cause.

"I would watch your tone Mr. Potter. It would be very easy for me to have you fired, let alone court marshaled once you enter the Air Force. Don't think you aren't expendable." Bauer replied in an icy voice.

Harry finally allowed a snort to escape his lips, to the astonishment of Daniel and Sam who were watching this tennis match with open mouthed fascination.

"If you did such a thing, my friends on Orban would likely be very put off. Not to mention all of the aid I've provided with my designs and insights with the x project, Prometheus and the SGC rebuild. Lets also not forget the favor Air Force one told me he owed me for saving his life a few months ago, and the icing on the cake would be the several billion dollars I loaned the SGC, at a very favorable rate of interest, to fund not only the Prometheus shipyards construction but the SGC remodel while the SGC builds its marketable patent portfolio." Harry finished shaking his head and chuckling.

Daniel and Sam's eyes had widened at the mention of the large loan. Many had been wondering where the flood of funding for all of the construction was coming from. Yes they were making a lot of money selling power, and they had several ideas for marketable technology and medical patents, but the money from the electricity sales couldn't have covered the massive projects currently ongoing in addition to ongoing operations. And no one believed the previously stingy Pentagon had finally recognized the critical needs of the SGC.

Bauer himself also seemed surprised. It seemed his source didn't know where the money came from either. Not knowing probably really pissed them off too, Harry thought to himself. Looking at his watch, and not wanting to engage in a pissing match at the moment, Harry turned to Sam and Daniel, who still were staring at Harry and Bauer with wide eyes.

"Anyway, I have some work to get done. See you two at lunch by any chance?" Harry asked.

Receiving stunned nods, Harry walked out of the room whistling a happy tune. Things would hopefully work themselves out here rather quickly. At least that was what Harry hoped. Hearing Bauer's shout of POTTER!!! brought another smile to his face. Looks like he finally came out of his surprise Harry thought. Took him long enough.

Stargate Command, Briefing Room

Harry had just turned on CNN in the briefing room when Master Sergeant Walter Harriman, who had been walking up the stairs from the control room, saw him.

"Harry, this might not be the best place for you to hang out right now. Word on the grape vine is that General Bauer is looking to have you thrown in the brig." said Walter with a worried frown on his face. Harry had always gotten along well with Walter and was touched at the risk the man took by giving him such a warning.

"Don't worry Walter. I think everything will work itself out" replied Harry with a confident tone. "Besides, a friend of mine from the Pentagon told me that there would be an interesting press conference held at noon Washington time, so I thought I'd tune in."

Walter looked at Harry in confusion. If a 2 star was out for his blood, he'd be hiding, not sitting 15 feet from said General's office getting ready to watch the news with what looked like a large cup of soda, package of peanut M&Ms and a large container of popcorn.

"You mind paging Teal'c down here? I think he might get a kick out of this, Jack too." Harry politely asked the confused Master Sergeant.

The sergeant was a smart man. He had been in the Air Force a long time, and he quickly recognized the mischief in Harry's eyes. Something big was about to happen. Something so big it was going to be on the news. And Harry knew about it ahead of time. As the news caster announced that the press conference was set to begin, the picture changed to show Senator Robert Kinsey, standing on the steps of the Capital Building, in front of a large collection of reporters and News Cameras.

"Ladies and Gentleman, I'd like to thank all of you for coming on such short notice." the slimy Senator opened the press conference with a modest frown on his face and solemn eyes. "It is my greatest displeasure, this afternoon, to bring to light several conspiracies perpetrated by influential members of this government. I am ashamed to say I was a willing participant in many of these conspiracies, conspiracies that include such treasonous acts of trading classified information and technologies to enemies of this great nation, and the most heinous, and the reason I have decided to come before you today, the planning of the assassination of President Bartlet."

Stunned silence met this announcement. Harry heard Walter's holy shit before the sound of Walter's dropped mug of coffee breaking on the floor reached his ears. Harry turned to see Walter sprint down the stairs, obviously to try and get as many TV's turned on as possible.

Kinsey took advantage of the reporters, for once, stunned silence and continued, "this morning, I had packages delivered to the White House, other high government officials, and several major news outlets that contain the evidence of my, and my coconspirator's crimes. It is my hope, that by making such information so wide spread will make it more difficult for my powerful coconspirators to cover up their involvement with bribes, threats, black mail and in some cases, assassination, like we have done in the past." Kinsey paused, only to be assaulted by an onslaught of yelled questions from the frantic press. Hearing the sounds of a large number of people entering, Harry saw Jack and Teal'c entering the room at a run, followed by what looked like at least 50 people, all trying to squeeze their way into the room from all doors. Those closer to the front sat on the floor to prevent their bodies from blocking the projection. Everyone caught the last sentence Kinsey spoke before the reporters started shouting their questions, and everyone appeared to be in a state of shock.

At that point, General Bauer, stomped into the briefing room, and having seen Harry began to make his way through the crowd toward him, not even noticing the news conference taking place on the projection screen. Seeing the angry General, Harry thought of an idea that might buy him some more time until this man was removed from the base.

"Threats, blackmail and assassination..."Harry commented out loud, grabbing everyone's attention. Everyone saw Harry look right at Bauer before he continued, "Is that why Hammond unexpectedly resigned? Was he threatened? Knowing the man, it probably wasn't him that was threatened, but his family. Were you involved in this as well? Considering your quick assignment, and all of your 'sources'" Harry air quoated. "Did you know about all of this?" Harry asked, standing up and setting his bucket of popcorn on the table.

At hearing this, everyone in the room turned as one to focus their eyes on the General. All were angry, and all were trying to determine if this man might have contributed to their old commander's hasty and unexpected departure.

Seeing the open hostility in most faces that looked at him, Bauer turned to leave, and caught sight of Kinsey standing in front of a podium, with the message bar on the bottom of the screen stating "Kinsey came forward stating involvement in massive conspiracies, admitted to using threats, blackmail and assassination to accomplish goals with coconspirators. NID thought to be at the head of conspiracy."

Everyone saw Bauer pale after reading the text since the loud shouting of the reporters prevented Kinsey from continuing his prepared remarks. As Bauer made a hasty retreat, Harry sat back down, placed his tub of popcorn in his lap, picked up his packet of M&Ms he then turned to Teal'c who had taken the seat next to Harry. "Popcorn, M&M?" Harry asked his massive friend.

Teal'c looked long and hard at Harry for several seconds, before he raised an eyebrow, and the closest thing to a smirk Harry ever saw on the man, appeared on his face. "An M&M would be satisfactory, Thank you Harry Potter."

"Anytime, Teal'c, Anytime," responded Harry as he handed the man the open package of M&Ms.

Jack, who had taken the seat on Harry's other side reached for a handful of popcorn and whispered, "what kind of trouble have you stirred up now Harry?" while he shook his head and chuckled, thinking about the long time in prison Kinsey was facing if just half the stuff scrolling on the information bar on the TV was proven to be true, and knowing the man, it probably was all true.

"Me? Trouble?" Harry asked the Colonel in an innocent and slightly offended tone. "You are the one always getting into trouble Jack, not me." Harry concluded, turning back towards the screen. As the reporters finally appeared to be quieting down, realizing Kinsey couldn't continue to talk if they kept shouting, Harry commented with a mouthful of popcorn, "This ought to be good."

"Indeed" responded Teal'c as he took his own handful from Harry's bucket.

Stargate Command, General Hammond's Office

Harry knocked on the General's door and entered after hearing the General's order of "Come."

"General, good to see you back under the mountain sir." stated Harry as he saw the General organizing some of the books on his back bookshelf.

"Harry," the General smiled slightly at seeing the man that appeared to have dropped the equivalent of a nuclear bomb in the middle of the NID and got away without even the slightest bit of suspicion falling on him. Last the General heard, a good quarter of the NID went quietly underground 5 minutes after Kinsey opened his mouth on CNN. Another quarter were engaged in a bloody battle with themselves, and with the other half of the NID who after seeing what was happening, and putting two and two together, tried to capture those that they thought might be implicated to show both their honesty and willingness to cooperate in the soon to be coming investigation.

The billionaires involved were all busy trying to deny all of the accusations made against them. Seven of the ten names that came out were already in custody, the other three were wanted, and were suspected to have fled the country. Kinsey, who was in protective custody, had already escaped 4 assassination attempts. Consequently, the shadier elements were on the run. While the General didn't believe they were all out for the count, he hoped they wouldn't be heard from for some time at least.

"So how did you do it?" asked Hammond.

"Is the room clean?" Harry asked.

"Cleaned out the last of the bugs earlier this morning. Cleaning out the rest of the base, let alone all of the computers for possible infiltrations will be a pain, but Major Carter says she should be done by the end of the week. Luckily, it looks like they weren't able to access and copy any of the sensitive technologies or information we have on base." Hammond replied.

"Good." said Harry before turning thoughtful. Hammond saw the small frown appear on the his friends face and was wondering what the young man he was beginning to truly respect was thinking. "Having the ability to invade another beings' mind is not an ability I covet, or enjoy having. It's scary, and the chance of losing your moral bearings should you engage the ability to often or frivolously is high." started Harry, as the frown turned deeper.

Hammond was trying to think of something to say, but still didn't quite understand where Harry was going. Hammond knew the young man didn't use his abilities often, and when he did, he never used them for personal gain. Him loosing 200 dollars to Colonel O'Neill in poker was one of a thousand situations that highlight the iron clad control Harry exercises on his abilities when they are not needed to protect himself or others.

"I did several things that you might not approve of General, but I hope you understand I did them for a very specific reason, and to counter a very real threat to the people that sacrifice so much to defend this planet."

Now the General was frowning, wondering where Harry was going with this.

"In my old universe, the enemy kidnapped a good friend of mine's baby niece and sister." continued Harry. "She was told if she didn't cooperate, they would be tortured, raped, killed and then delivered to her doorstep. Not knowing what else to do, she did as she was told, she gave up the information that was requested from her, but nothing more. That information led to the deaths of many of her friends." continued Harry.

Hammond could see that Harry's eyes were wet. Thinking back, Hammond could not ever remember Harry being this emotional over anything. Yes, the young man liked to joke and laugh, but it was always controlled, a bit like Colonel O'Neill's joking and laughing.

"After getting what they wanted, or I guess what they thought they could get out of her, they had the mutilated and dead bodies of her sister and baby niece delivered to her doorstep" stated Harry. "I found her hanging from the rafter's of her families barn the next morning with a note apologizing for her actions."

The bitterness and rage in Harry's voice was evident as he talked about his dead friend, and Hammond could sympathize. To do what your told, especially when it is against your beliefs, and still have your loved ones killed in such a brutal way could drive anyone to suicide.

"It was at that moment that I took the gloves off in the war. I made a vow that day to seek out those who perpetrated the kidnapping, and those that knew about it. I showed the enemy the consequences of involving uninvolved innocents in our conflict in the only way they would understand, with violence" finished Harry. Harry looked up at the General to see the man looking at him with compassion and understanding.

"After hearing about your granddaughters, I felt that this would probably be only the beginning. So many people working here have loved ones, and the only reason anyone would betray this command is if those loved ones were threatened. If they succeeded with you, who would be next? Doctor Frasier? Walter? Who?" Harry asked, his voice rising.

"So I sought out the highest ranking person I could think of that might be connected to this, got every last bit of information I could get from him using truth serums and probing his mind, then implanted strong suggestions and commands to gather evidence against his coconspirators, to protect the secrecy of the SGC, and to come clean to the world about his sins. You wouldn't believe some of the things those people have done and planned..." Harry trailed off shuddering slightly.

"I loathe that type of telepathy. To alter someone's mind in such a way as to seriously compromise their free will? I only did it to protect, but it will never feel right." concluded Harry in a quiet voice.

Hammond stood up, and walked around his desk to place his hand on Harry's shoulder. After Harry looked up at him, Hammond said, "Thank you Harry. Thank you for protecting my family, and for protecting the people on this base from those people. In war, we all do things we wish we don't have to, in the name of protecting ourselves, our comrades, our country, our planet. And while this was not your typical type of war, it could be considered one of the most important wars fought on this planet. The covert war to control the stargate, and the future of the SGC has real global consequences should we fail. You should know I think nothing less of you, in fact, I think more of you." Hammond paused, as if trying to find the right words to convey what he wished for Harry to know. "Find comfort like I do...knowing that such actions disgust you, not pleases you. That such actions are your last resort, not first thought." concluded the kind General.

"Thank you sir." said Harry as he stood and wiped his eyes with his left hand. "Anyway, I better get back down to the lab. Dr. Lee, Siler, Malnik and Talon were arguing over an idea that could increase the output of our best Naquadah Matrix reactors by up to 60% when I left. They are all brilliant, but all think very differently, and somehow, I act as a buffer for them most of the time." Harry sighed as he made his way to the door. "I'm really glad to have you back General. And I think I speak for everyone when say we're not likely to let you go again" joked Harry with a small smile as the General waved him off in dismissal.

"He'll be ok." Hammond commented quietly to himself. "Now let's see what else that pompous ass screwed up on my base" finished the General as he sat back behind his desk and began reading through the reports he had the department heads write up.

A/N: Credit to AlexMcPherson for the general idea for the fic, and credit to Keiranhalcyon for the Matrix reactor idea, and the show for used dialog...hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thanks to all of you reviewers, in all honesty, they really help to motivate me and push through the more boring scenes needed to keep the flow of the story. Hopefully this chapter will satisfy those of you who want to hear more about Harry's darker past during the war. While I didn't give you much, I hope I increased the depth in Harry's character at least slightly.

Anyway, looking forward to the reviews...while this chapter wasn't betaed I'm hoping my next will be. Ciao