Author's note: Sorry about the wait, folks. I really have been distracted here at the convention – and writing is hard when I'm distracted!

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"What kind of problem?" Jack asked. "If he's picking off system lords, then it can only be a good thing, right?"

"Except that when he gets strong enough, Earth is going to come into his sights," McKay said. "And he'll have a very large armada – with lots and lots of Jaffa – with him."

"He's right, Jack," Ian told O'Neill. "We got lucky when we finished him off-"

"It wasn't all luck," McKay interjected. "But we had access to a lot more technology than these guys have – including a Gateship."

Ian looked over at Hammond, a question in his dark eyes that the general couldn't mistake. Obviously, he didn't want to discuss things too intimately until he knew what Hammond wanted – or didn't want, in this case – to know.

"Colonel Brooks…" Hammond said, drawing everyone's attention. "You obviously were a help to your own time and reality when it came to this Anubis. Since we don't have that luxury in this time and place, I'd appreciate any help you'd care to pass on to us."

Sam looked a bit dubious, but the others didn't. They wanted whatever edge they could get – and who cared about what it might do to their own futures? They already knew things were different here than where Ian and McKay were from.

Ian looked over at Chelani.

"What's Anubis doing right now?"

The Ancient didn't hesitate with his answer.

"He'll be consolidating his power. Whether he just figured out the Ancient technology doesn't matter, because he'll use it as he figures each device out. The first of the minor system lords to fall are going to be simply for experimentation to make sure he knows what the technology is capable of doing. After that, once he'd certain he can't be stopped by system lords, he'll start aiming a lot higher."

"How long, do you think?" Ian asked.

Chelani looked over at Jacob.

"Do you know which minor system lord was last to fall?"

"As far as we know it was Shilof. Unless someone else has fallen since our last report."

Chelani nodded.

"Then he has only begun to reverse engineer the Ancient technologies that he's found."

"He's reverse engineering Ancient technology?" Sam asked, amazed. "Why doesn't he just use it the way he's found it?"

"Because in order to use a lot of Ancient tech, you have to have an Ancient gene," Ian answered before Chelani could. "And you can't have a symbiote. Good or bad," he added looking over at Jacob.

Chelani nodded his agreement, looking just a little uncomfortable, Sam noticed. Of course, she didn't know him all that well, so she might be reading him wrong. Jack noticed, too.

"How are you such an authority on this Anubis guy?" he asked.

"We've faced him before, Jack," Ian told him before Chelani could answer. "Chelani was a part of that."

McKay snorted.

"Yeah, you could say that."

Ian scowled and shot Rodney a hard look, but the astrophysicist just gave him a what did I say? look.

"How did you defeat him?" Daniel asked.

"We snuck onto his ship and blew it up," Rodney said, quickly.

"Just like that?" Jack asked, skeptically.

"No. Rodney was right earlier. We had a lot of Ancient technology – including the gateship."

"What's a gateship?" Jack asked. He'd planned on asking earlier when Ian had first mentioned them, but Hammond had spoken up first.

"An Ancient ship," Ian replied. "They're amazing stuff, really. Small enough to go through the Stargate – which is why they're called gateships – and they can cloak."

"Not to mention they carry a full compliment of drones," McKay added. He looked over at Ian. "You know… if they had a gateship they could probably take Anubis out without sneaking on board his ship and sabotaging his engineering section."

Chelani shook his head.

"Anubis has shields derived from Ancient technology. They will protect his ship from drones."

"Not to mention, they'd kill you in this reality," Rodney added.

"That is not a concern," Chelani told him, shrugging.

Ian looked surprised at that.

"You think the you in this reality should die?"

The Ancient shrugged.

"This reality doesn't matter."

"I beg to differ," Jack said, scowling.

The Ancient smiled, realizing what he'd said.

"That didn't come out exactly how I meant it, Jack." He amended. "I meant, whether the me in this reality survives or not is unimportant. Even in my own reality I would have preferred death over being a slave in my own body. It would be a relief. Saving me was a bonus, as you'd say, but an unexpected one."

"What are you talking about?" Daniel asked, frowning.

Ian leaned back in his chair, looking at everyone, but ending with his dark gaze on Chelani.

"It's time we explained a few things," he said. "Most notably, Chelani here."

The Ancient nodded, realizing that if he did it would make things a lot easier for Jack and the others to understand. He knew Jack very well in his own reality, and knew he'd be better off with the complete story. It would also save a lot of arguing and explaining later. He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, but he already had it.

"You all know who the Ancients are?" he asked.

There were assorted nods, as he'd figured there would be. It never hurt to be sure, though.

"Well, a long time ago my people were part of an alliance…"

He went on to tell the entire story of how he'd been captured and possessed by Anubis, how Anubis had almost obtained Ascension through his Ancient host's knowledge, only to be pulled back at the brink by his own ambitions for domination and the very evil in his soul. And how Anubis had then used the knowledge gleaned from his host to find and convert some Ancient technology. He told the story right up until Ian had infiltrated Anubis' ship and sabotaged it, and had then used Chelani's energies to kill the symbiote within him, freeing Chelani to finally finish the Ascension he'd begun.

"But you're here," Daniel pointed out, frowning again. "I thought once you ascended you were in some kind of other existence."

The Ancient nodded.

"I returned to heal the mortal injuries Ian obtained in the crash after destroying Anubis' ship, and then left once more."

"But you're still in corporeal form," Daniel pressed.

"My work was not finished," Chelani said, evasively. "I chose to return."

"You didn't heal Ian well enough?" Sam asked.

Ian smiled, but it was Chelani who answered.

"Ian was fine. There was another duty that was placed on me. One I do not wish to share with your people…"

"That's fair enough," Hammond replied. What he had told them had been an amazing amount of intelligence that gave them a lot to work with. If he had a secret he wanted to keep, then that was his own business. He looked at his team, and Jacob. "So, what options do we have?"

"We need to find one of these gateships," Jack said.

McKay shook his head.

"That's not going to happen."

"Why not?" Daniel asked.

McKay rolled his eyes.

"Because they're not sitting on the shelf at Walmart, Doctor Jackson. The Ancients didn't take the things out of the Pegasus system very often, and as far as I know they didn't leave them sitting around to be found later. The only place that we could find one is probably Atlantis, and that's too far away."

"Why?" Sam asked. "You guys have been there…"

"We have ZPMs," McKay told her. "They're extremely powerful energy sources, capable of-"

"Sam has a ZPM," Ian interrupted.

McKay frowned, stopping in mid-sentence and looking over at him.

"What?"

"It's not exactly a ZPM," Ian amended. "But the device she was testing – the one that brought me here? It's built with the same principle as a ZPM – and probably would do the trick with some modifications."

McKay looked over at Carter, and there was a lot of disbelief and shock in his expression, but none of the usual arrogance.

"Really?"

Since Sam hadn't had a clue what a ZPM was, she looked baffled, but Ian nodded.

"Yes."

"And we could use this ZPM thing to get to Atlantis?" Hammond asked.

Ian nodded again.

"Yes."

"Then I suggest you and Doctor McKay here get with Major Carter and get this ZPM thing working…"