A/N: So, here's another chapter for you who have been reviewing. It's nice to know that his is being read. This is the chapter where you begin to have your questions answered! So, more talking this chapter and less action, but don't worry, the action will pick up again very soon.

Chapter 12

"You must be AN," Jack said, gaining his confidence. Now that he wasn't in danger of having that parasite eat him again, he felt the fear leaving him. Compared to that, he had nothing to worry about. Hopefully.

Instead of answering, the creature stepped forward, and Jack got his first real glimpse of his new enemy. For starters, the guy was huge. He was at least ten feet tall and bipedal, and he wore comfortable looking pants on his very human looking legs. As Jack's eyes traveled up, he witnesses a narrow waist and very broad shoulders. The man wasn't wearing a shirt, and he was a very hairy guy. Jack swallowed as he felt, more than saw, the power behind the man's stature. He looked entirely human, until Jack reached his head. His neck bulged with muscles and he face was clean shaven, but coming out of the sides of his head just above his ears were two massive bull horns. No wonder the guy's neck was so muscular, Jack realized. Otherwise, the guy wouldn't be able to hold up his head. His head was covered in black silky hair, and his nose was flat and smashed looking.

AN bowed his mighty head in a respectful gesture. He was analyzing Jack from every angle, and Jack felt a pressure building up within his skull. It felt like someone was trying to pry it open with a sledgehammer.

"Wow," Jack continued, fighting to regain some control in this situation, "that's a lot of bull."

"Silence," AN said, but he didn't sound angry; just a little distracted. A few seconds later, AN looked away, and Jack's headache disappeared. Shaking his head, he lipped, "I bet you get that one all the time. Well, how about this one: There was a bull who walked into the bar..."

AN ignored him. Instead he turned to Ba'al and said, "Thank you, Ba'al for detaining this human for me. What would you like as your reward?"

Jack's voice continued in the background, though it was obvious both 'gods' were ignoring him, "..and he said, "Ouch!"

However, for the moment, Ba'al was utterly enchanted by what AN had offered him, and he took no notice of O'Neill's impudence. He looked like a kid at a candy store. "AN," he said respectfully, "with your permission, I would like some more schematics of the gate system."

AN sighed and then smiled patiently like a loving father. "Of course you would," he said, "that's what you always want."

"Merry Christmas," Jack muttered sourly.

AN's head whipped around and once again, Jack's head was pounding with a massive headache. "Please subdue him," AN said, "it is time for us to depart." One of the Jaffa instantly lifted his zat gun, and that was the last thing Jack knew.


As the human's body shook and then slumped, AN motioned for the Jaffa to fetch him. Ba'al smirked and moved his hand over the controls, releasing the gravitational field. The Tau'ri's body fell to the ground. The two Jaffa went to pick up his still form, but AN stopped them with a motion. Then he turned to his servant.

"Samoth," AN said, and though his voice was gentle, Samoth broke into a cold sweat.

"Yes, my Lord," Samoth said, kneeling in front of his master.

"I am disappointed in you, child," AN growled, a note of true anger coming into his tone. "I had expected you to be successful long before now. And even now, it is a Goa'̀uld who turns my prize over to me, and not my most trusted servant. What do you think the consequences should be?"

Samoth could tell that AN was truly angry with him, and he felt fear shoot throughout his frame. Hoping to reduce the punishment, he decided to play nice. "Whatever you wish, my Lord," Samoth said, not moving a muscle.

"We'll decide that later. You shall carry the human."

Samoth nodded and started over to O'Neill. Throwing the lanky human over his shoulders, he staggered momentarily and then waited for the next command. AN gestured and a black hole sucked Samoth from Ba'al's ship and deposited him on AN's.

Once that was accomplished, AN turned to Ba'al. "It is a risky think bartering with me, Goa'uld," AN said, his voice deceptively soft. "However, since you didn't know I was after the human, and you did treat my servant well, and will give you what you have asked. For now."

Ba'al swallowed nervously as AN handed him a crystal. He knew that he had barely escaped, and could only be grateful that AN hadn't killed him for his insolence. As AN disappeared in a black hole of his own, Ba'al stared into the distance for a moment and then sighed in regret. For a moment, he felt that he and O'Neill would meet again, and strangely the thought made him . . . happy. But that was impossible. No one escaped from AN.

However, as Ba'al strode toward his consul to connect his new crystal, he couldn't help but see the defiance still in Jack's eyes as he had stared down AN. A smirk made its way to Ba'al's lips.

No one escaped from AN. But there's always a first time. Maybe he would get a chance to finish this after all.


"Major Carter," Thor's voice came from over the ship's speakers, "we are approaching our destination."

Sam stood up and wiped her hands on her pants, trying to look presentable. Thor had also shipped up their dress uniforms so that they could look their best, and now Sam was wearing her dress blues. She quickly walked back to Thor's control room.

"So, Thor," Sam said cheerily, "who is it first? The Nox, the ancients?"

The Asgard blinked at her a moment and then he said, "The Furlings."

Sam didn't know what to say for a moment. Then she grinned brightly. "Really? Thor that's awesome! We've been wondering who they are for ages."

Thor nodded, but remained quiet. Sam wondered what the back story was here. Why was everyone so reluctant to talk about the fourth race?

General Hammond, Daniel, and Teal'c quickly came in behind her just in time to here what Thor had said. Daniel was practically bouncing. Sam could see the familiar excitement gleaming in his eyes as he looked forward to meeting this new race of people.

General Hammond looked a little nervous as he adjusted his collar and Teal'c was as stoic as ever.

"It's this way!" an annoyed voice shouted from the corridor. "I know where I'm going!"

"That's what you said last time," another voice grumbled back as the camera man and the reporter came through the doorway.

"Nice of you to join us, gentlemen," the General said, a small grin on his lips.

Todd, the camera man, grinned shyly and held up his camera. "Sorry, sir," he said, "but Brad was a little lost."

The reporter shook his head in irritation. "I told you I knew where I was going."

Sam smiled gently at the two. New recruits, they were both good kids. Though they bickered a bit and teased, Sam could see that they were fast friends, and had been a welcome addition to their voyage. In only their few hours here, they had managed make friends with the members of SG-1.

"Get ready," Thor said, "they are signaling us."

At that moment, the vid window opened and the face that stared back at them was not one that SG-1 expected to see.

Large, iris-less black eyes stared at them, and Sam jumped back in fear. "Samoth!" she squeaked.

The face on the screen cocked its head at her in puzzlement for a moment before wheeling on Thor.

"What is the meaning of this, Thor?" the man growled. "You know better than to be in our section of the galaxy. Are you trying to begin a war?"

As the voice came through the window, Sam sagged with relief. The voice was different, and now, as she regained control of her pulse, she realized that the face was not the same either. It was a wider face with a larger nose. Though the eyes were the same, Sam didn't feel the same sense of danger that she had from Samoth.

Thor nodded his head solemnly at the man. "Greetings, Eridu. I'm afraid the matter is most urgent, or I wouldn't have bothered you."

"Well, what is it?" the man grumped.

"It is time to reunite the four races and face the Sumerians once more," Thor began, but the man quickly interrupted him.

"No, Thor," the Furling said, "you know why we broke it off. We aren't fighting your petty battle. We are . . . " but what they were would have be left unsaid, because Thor said something that made the man stop talking immediately.

"Eridu!" Thor snapped, "The key has been completed."

Eridu's eyes widened, and his mouth gaped open for a moment, and then he gasped, "How . . . ?"

Before he could finish, Thor repeated, "The key has been completed . . . and the Sumerians have it."

The silence that followed was long and then the man on the screen blinked. "Please dock. The council will be waiting to speak with you."

The window blinked off, and immediately the humans turned to the Asgard for answers.

"All will be explained," Thor promised. "However, for now, I need you to trust me. Please don't ask me to explain. Simply answer their questions honestly and everything will be all right."


"Look, el torro," Jack said, "I pretty much am sure that I'm going to say no to whatever you're going to say to me, so we might as well cut to the chase and let me go home. What do you say?"

AN shook his large horns and smiled patiently at the Tau'ri in front of him. "Colonel Jack O'Neill of SG-1," he said, ignoring Jack's pleading, "I'm afraid that you are mistaken. We are protecting you, not trying to harm you."

Jack rolled his eyes, "I've heard that one before."

Currently, he was frozen in some kind of containment field. He could move his head and mouth just fine, but his arms and legs were frozen. It wasn't painful or anything, just disconcerting. Actually, to be perfectly honest, ever since Jack had woken up on the granite-like vessel, everyone had been fairly courteous.

His spider-sense, however, was tingling as the saying went. Though he couldn't put his finger on it, AN made his skin crawl. As did the rest of the crew: small, silent, blue creatures with far too many tentacles who just put his nerves on edge.

"Listen, O'Neill," AN said, his voice still gentle, "the only reason we have detained you like this is so that you would listen. Would you honestly have given us a fair chance to explain ourselves otherwise?"

Jack couldn't help but shake his head. No, especially not after the fear he'd seen in Thor's eyes.

"Have we ever done anything that has harmed you or ones you've cared about during our altercations with you?"

"You zatted me," Jack protested.

"You were behaving as a young child," AN replied rolling his eyes, "it was simpler to silence you then. However, besides that, have we done you any harm?"

Strangely, this did make Jack think. The Sumerians really hadn't harmed anyone. Even when they'd had Carter aboard their ship, they had threatened, but they hadn't actually done any damage.

Then Jack snorted, "That's just because the Asgard would have kicked your cow-like backsides if you had tried." Knowing he had nailed their reasoning on the head, he tipped his head up. His head was pounding again, and he couldn't figure out why. It seemed to come and go, especially when AN was in the room.

This time it was AN's turn to snort, though his sounded very bull-like. "Foolish creature," he chided gently, "Do you really think the Asgard could have stopped us they had tried to stop us by themselves? Last time it took all four races of their pathetic union to make us back off. Why could the weakest quarter of it make us stop?"

"The weakest?" Jack echoed.

AN laughed. "Do you know nothing of your saviors, boy?" the creature asked.

"Hey!" Jack interrupted, "Not that I'm complaining at my age of being mistaken for one, but I am definitely not a 'boy.'"

"Let me tell you a story, 'boy,'" AN said, emphasizing the word, "in fact, I'll show it to you, so that you may believe your eyes. Then you will know who the Asgard truly are."

"Sweet," Jack said, as a screen popped up on the side of a wall and images began to play, "I've been missing the latest Simpson's episodes. Do we get cable from here?"

AN ignored him again, and simply began to talk. As he did so, the screen moved until it became an image all around them. Jack couldn't help but jibe, "Nice effects, bull-man."

AN simply began talking, and despite himself, Jack became very interested. "Long ago," AN's deep voice boomed through the chamber as stars swirled around them, "all races lived in harmony, simply struggling to survive on their own spheres. All advanced at different speeds, but four were quicker than any. You may have heard of each of these races.

"The Nox," as AN named them, a planet zoomed close in front of Jack's eyes, and then they were walking on the surface, watching the Nox evolution in fast forward.

"The Ancients, as they like to call themselves now," AN said snidely. The images around them whizzed out from among the Nox and settled on a different planet where very human-like creatures were experimenting and acquiring knowledge at great speeds. "However," AN continued, "at the time they were far from 'ancient.'

"Then there was the Asgard, who were anatomically very similar to the Ancients and the Nox," again, they soared onto a planet where other human-like creatures were playing with tools and making observations. Once again, Jack watched their development in fast forward as they went from building huts to flying spaceships. AN's voice continued, though Jack could no longer see hi m for the images which were playing around him. " Oddly, your specific physiology seems to be one that is at the pinnacle of natural development. Time and time again, species such as yourself have become the rulers of their planet and the top of what you would call 'the food chain.'"

Jack found himself once again flying from the planet's surface, and his mind felt as though it was reeling. The part of it he had blocked off, the part that was filled with Ancient knowledge was leaking, and he could see corresponding information from the many minds that had left their knowledge for him to absorb. Thus far, everything that AN had said was true.

"And finally," AN said, "the Sumerians. We and the 'ancients' reached space travel at about the same time, and set off to explore the universe. Finding space travel cumbersome and slow, the Ancients began to set up the Stargate system to help them travel faster across the galaxy. That's when they met us. For a long time, we were friends. We helped each other and learned from each other. However," AN said, "we had differing philosophies on helping other species to advance as we had."

"The Ancients at first were delighted with sharing their knowledge. They helped the Asgard and Nox to become great races, and soon the four of us were searching the stars and establishing new Stargates everywhere.

"That's when we discovered the Goa'uld."

Up to this point, there had been very fast images that filled Jack with wonder. He was witnessing millions of years of history in mere moments. Now time slowed down and he watched a young man walk toward a lake.

"We quickly discovered their incredible intelligence, and desired to help them somehow," AN said, his tone regretful. We decided to help them evolve a bit, and introduced Naquidah into their blood stream. They and the other creatures on the planet, the Unas, lived in a symbiotic relationship. However, inadvertently, we also introduced them to something that would slowly drive the Goa'uld mad."

"The sarcophagus," Jack murmured as he watched a young Unas with glowing eyes explore a ship which was much like the one he was on.

"Correct, O'Neill," AN agreed, "The Unas stumbled into a room and stole the sarcophagus. They tried to reverse-engineer the original, which created the widespread corrupt version that the Goa'uld use today."

"Yeah," Jack muttered, "been there, jumped on that bandwagon."

AN nodded his shaggy head. "As you know, the side-effects are disastrous. The Goa'uld went mad and power-hungry. At the same time this was occurring, we found another planet."

As the images around Jack disappeared and were replaced with a new planet, Jack couldn't help the exclamation that came to his lips, "Earth!"

"Indeed, O'Neill," AN said, a smile coming to his lips, "obviously the continental drift was much different at this point in history, but you are correct. It was your planet, and on this planet we found a species that was genetically very similar to our own. We settled there, surprised to find that though they were relatively primitive, recently, they had made some huge advancements. A tribe from the north had come down and taught the residents of the area agriculture. No one knows where these strangers came from, but they propelled the advancement of the human species forward, and then settled and began to breed with the natives. We landed and introduced ourselves to the natives. They were very welcoming, and it wasn't long before they began to worship us as Gods. We continued to help their advancement, hoping that among them we would find the key that we were all looking for."

"And what is that?" Jack interrupted, "what are all of you looking for on Earth?"

AN raised a hand to silence Jack. "In a moment," he said, "this is important. I will tell you everything, human."

Jack opened his mouth to object, and then closed it and nodded. Despite himself, he was interested.

"However," AN continued, "their advancement was a farce. The strangers who had settled in their land were none other than the Furlings, who were also looking for the key. At this point, we had not known of the existence of the Furlings, and so we were unaware that they were among the denizens of your world. They were upset with our interference in their 'project,' but unable to drive us off themselves, they contacted the Ancients, telling them that we were corrupting the human race and developing the darkness that exists within the human heart. The Ancients probably wouldn't have believed them, if not for the cataclysm that occurred at that exact moment."

AN paused for a long time. Jack grew impatient. "What happened?" he finally asked.

AN shook his head, as though to erase a bad memory. "The Goa'uld committed global genocide of a planet they didn't like and began to enslave the people on the neighboring worlds. The Ancients, Asgard, Nox, and Furlings were appalled. They blamed us for this misfortune and assumed that we had purposefully nursed the darkness withing the Goa'ulds' hearts."

As he spoke, his hands clenched into fists, and his muscles flexed as fury raced across his features. If Jack could have backed up at that moment, he would have. His headache was back and worse than ever. As a migraine pounded at his skull, AN finally relaxed, and Jack felt relief.

"We tried to fix our mistake, but the other four races wanted to undo what had been done. They wanted to slaughter all of the Goa'uld. We couldn't let them do it. A battle commenced, and we were driven out. The galaxy was split in half, and we have remained on our side ever since."

As AN finished speaking, the lights flashed off, and Jack was left once again staring at granite-like walls. "Well, what happened to the Furlings, then? And why did the alliance fail?" Jack asked.

AN smiled. "Having not been there myself, I will have you direct your next question to this fellow here," AN gestured toward a corner, and a trembling grey creature stepped from the shadows.

"Loki!" Jack yelled. He didn't know why everyone else had a hard time telling the Asgard apart. Usually it was very easy for him.

"O'Neill," the nervous creature greeted. "AN has asked me to finish telling you of the Asgard's great mistake."

"Well?" Jack said, and as the creature began to speak, Jack was stunned to silence.


As Sam, Daniel, General Hammond, Teal'c, and the two witnesses were shoved into a small chamber, none of them really felt very welcome. All of the faces that were lined up in front of them were hard and cold, and the same black eyes glared out at them. The council of Furlings was sitting behind a U-shaped table and SG-1 was in the center of the U.

"All right, Thor," A woman who was sitting in the middle said, "you have a few minutes to convince us to help you. Please be concise and truthful."

Thor gave a bitter laugh. Sam looked at him in surprise. She'd never heard anything like that from the little alien before. "Truthful?" Thor said, "Very well. Your experiment paid off. One of your descendants is almost complete. With a slight genetic alteration, his genes will almost definitely hold the key to solving all of our problems."

At these words, the council began to murmur and talk amongst themselves. They were using a very flutey language that Sam looked to Daniel to translate. He just shrugged. It was the first time he'd heard Furling before. Finally, the council calmed down and the woman spoke again.

"Why do you tell us this? Surely it isn't as a favor. We know of your greed and your interference."

Thor sighed. He obviously was uncomfortable, but calmly he answered, "I tell you because without your help the key will be lost to AN."

At that name, the uproar was even longer this time. It took a full five minutes before the woman was able to regain control again. "Tell us what has transpired Thor," the woman said.

Thor nodded and began. Oddly, he began with the humans discovering the Stargate and the adventures of SG-1. He spent some time on the Ancient device that had downloaded knowledge into Jack's brain, but he moved on quickly. He ended the story by telling how the Sumerians had come and kidnaped Jack.

"This is our situation," Thor said. "Will you help us, or will everything we ever promised each other turn out to be nothing more than pompous posturing?"

All of SG-1 stared in surprise at Thor. They'd never heard him speak so rudely. Todd and Brad were filming silently, waiting for the Furlings' answer.

The Furlings conferred once again. However, it wasn't long before the woman stood up. Facing the team in front of her, she opened her mouth to announce their decision.