Jack's eyes flew open as a panic not his own pulsed through him. He cast furtive eyes around the darkened room, seeing nothing in the shadows of Gornam's quarters to cause alarm, but still an irrepressible fear was surrounding him, pressing from all sides. His first instinct was to jump from the bed, confront the hidden foe that his sensory danger detectors were convinced was there, but after two weeks with a Tok'ra symbiote he had learned to gauge before action whether stimulus asking him to move and fight came from the environment or within his own mind. Jack tried to calm the fluttering fright crowding against him enough to seek Aetom.

He discovered a whirl of thoughts, disjointed and unclear, as though his only perspective was in a fun house mirror. Like memories of a life he'd never led, images came to him. He was someone else, his face unrecognizable and yet him... he was afraid. A whip cracked against the exposed skin of his back and Jack physically arched on the bed, feeling the welts burn between his shoulders as though the scene was real. Fire and smoke filled his lungs with hot air, choking. He was running... he was captured, the terror cycling again and again.

Jack, pushing half off the bed with arm locked, tried ineffectively to escape the torment, at last thinking beyond the terrifying images to yell, 'AETOM!'

As a twig snaps in two the images stopped, ebbed into nothingness as the Tok'ra's salient presence rose from the void of Jack's unconscious. Jack was shaking, gulping breaths of cool air, shuffling slowly and carefully back on the bed until he was sitting precariously near the edge, poised to jump into action but from what or against what he couldn't say.

–O'Neill?– Aetom ventured cautiously.

Jack swallowed, eyes still flickering restively around the empty room, 'What the HELL was that?!'

Aetom's emotions stained him, touched him with regret and despair, –I am sorry.–

Jack was able to calm his trembling, his breathing no longer rushed and desperate. 'Just... what was that?'

Aetom thought a moment, –I suppose you would call it a nightmare.–

'Tok'ra dream?' Jack was taken off guard by the notion.

–Sometimes... our dreams are not as yours, more accurately we relive things, we remember. I'm sorry I woke you.– Aetom faded, withdrew from Jack, and in doing so left him as alone as any host to a symbiote could ever be.

Jack looked back at the bed and knew sleep was out of the question.

'Aetom?' he called.

Aetom reemerged from the blackness. His presence felt decidedly haggard, –Yes?–

Jack thought back to the images of torture he'd seen, the feeling of leather laying open the skin of his back, and Aetom shied somewhat when he understood Jack was asking about the content of the nightmare.

–Once I had been a captive of Apophis,– Aetom responded and offered nothing more as unease drifted through Jack's mind.

'How long did you have to go through that?'

Aetom didn't answer at first, quiet so long Jack thought the Tok'ra might be refusing to answer, then he heard, –A month. One of our Tok'ra operatives was working within Apophis's ranks when I was a prisoner... she abandoned her mission, freed me, and together we escaped.–

Jack felt Aetom's relief at being released from Apophis's clutches, and before he could stop himself he was empathizing. Understanding rose to accept Aetom's past, the memories, and Aetom startled at Jack's reaction. –How can you..?–

Jack wasn't sure he meant to share the truth, uncertain about opening his past to a snake, but before he could stop his own thoughts he growled 'Iraq,' and there were memories. Four months in a dark cell, beaten, starved, tortured for information that he would sooner die than divulge and then discovering he was too ignorant to spare himself any of the pain, anyway... Jack shared with Aetom the fear he had never confessed to another soul, shared the pain and terror because with a symbiote in the thick of his thoughts he could not stop the exchange of private emotions. The rush of memories ended in a bitter reel, and Jack found himself sitting, mind quiet, troubled by Aetom's utter silence.

Jack felt the memories of Iraq coming forth again, not called into mind by him but pulled from the recesses by Aetom. Aetom had never before actively tried to retrieve any of Jack's personal memories. Jack nearly asked the Tok'ra to stop, unwilling to remember again, but before he could mount a protest a strange sensation overtook him. The Iraqi cell loomed and then was insulated, a sense of protection and strength interposing itself between him and that terrible time in his past, and suddenly he could see it and remember it but it couldn't hurt him.

'Did you do that?' Jack wondered, almost awed to look upon his imprisonment for the first time and not feel stabs of terror, swells of panic and pain.

–Yes.–

Jack blinked, still befuddled, then said honestly, 'Thank you.'

Aetom risked to engulf Jack in his presence, and instead of flying into a panic Jack waited and was surprised to find that it almost felt like a strong embrace enclosing him. It was a strange feeling of safety that he let happen.

As quickly as he had enfolded Colonel O'Neill Aetom backed off again, easing away from Jack's consciousness, and stated merely, –It is one of many things a symbiote and host can provide one another... you gave me that tonight, and I considered it my duty to return the favor.–

'I did that to you?' Jack questioned.

–You did, when you saw my pain and did not turn away. I thank you, Colonel. Sleep now, O'Neill, tomorrow will come soon.–

Jack slowly laid back down on the bed. He made an honest effort to go back to sleep but was still too wired and confused. He stared into the darkened room, distracted by his own mind. 'Aetom?'

–Yes?–

Jack rolled on to his back, uncomfortable with the question nagging at him but consumed to learn the answer, 'If a symbiote and its host can share the bad memories and have them come through so strong... is it the same way with the good ones?'

Aetom smiled gently, for the second time reaching out the barest of touches to comfort Jack, not a full-blown 'hug' as before but the whispered hints of the same effect. –Yes, it is.–

Jack left his query at that and turned back on to his side and closed his eyes, deciding that if he couldn't actually go back to sleep he could at least fake it. Aetom did not entirely pull away from his host; he lingered at the edges of his perception, reminding Jack of being on a mission with SG-1, the familiar sensation of having a pair of eyes at his back as he bedded down the for the night. He was unguarded, exposed to the slightest thoughts from Aetom, letting the raw connection between them remain.

He was attentive, intrigued, when another thought not his own came to the forefront of his mind. It was a child, the daughter of Aetom's former host. The memory was simple, a glimpse of the girl sleeping. The moonlight bathed her serene face in pale light, slivers of dark blue shining in her black hair, the blankets of her bed drawn up around her tiny shoulders. Peace and content were bound to her, tied to the child like a physical tether, and Jack could feel it. As he laid in Gornam's room, feigning sleep, he broke into a faint, easy smile.

Aetom smiled with him, shared love for a girl that had belonged to neither of them, and held her memory vigil in honor of the Tok'ra who had died weeks ago.

As he drifted toward sleep, relaxed again, Jack thought of Charlie. He remembered holding his newborn son, the details of his tiny face captivating as the child's small hand curled around his father's finger. Jack felt the pride and love overwhelm him at the memory of holding Charlie's tiny body in his hands for the first time.

As Jack drifted off to sleep the memory lingered, an evanescent peace from a time so long ago, and slowly he sensed another being with him in the hospital room of his memory, someone familiar. Aetom, as though standing at Jack's shoulder, as if there on the day of Charlie's birth, just as proud of the newborn child as the boy's father.

Jack's mind flared for a moment, stirred to resist and defend that precious memory against the creature in his mind, but at the last instant he let go of the rising anger. Instead, he let Aetom share the joy, experience through him one of the best days of his life, and allowed it to carry him back into sleep.

The Goa'uld Montu was a pompous bastard with a penchant for green. Blame obviously rested on him for Colonel O'Neill looking like he'd rubbed grass stains into the sides of his head. Jack watched, a bystander to the things his own body did as it stood before the Goa'uld, but he could and did keep up a running commentary if for the soul purpose of entertaining himself. In two and a half weeks he'd learned to walk the fine line between keeping himself occupied and being a considerable distraction to Aetom.

"Gornam, you have been a steadfast advisor to me for many, many years," Montu said lowly, the gold tips of the ribbon device that was trapping his left hand made clicking sounds as he fingered the emeralds inlaid in his clothing.

"Yes, my Lord," Aetom bowed his head while at the same time commiserated with Jack as the colonel made an internalized face of repulsion.

"You have fought back from an inferior host cut down in battle to take another and return to me."

Aetom's fury flared for Montu's remark about his former, much-loved host. Jack carefully edged closer to his symbiote's consciousness as he intoned, 'Easy there, fella.' Aetom simmered, but by no means let go the insult to Kurya.

"You are a just and powerful master, my Lord, I am honored to serve you."

Montu turned to look at Aetom, glare critical. Jack felt uneasy at the close scrutiny but Aetom, so much better at meeting Montu's challenges from decades of experience, did not flinch. Montu trailed his eyes once up and down Jack's body, the way one appraised livestock, then his lip curled derisively. Jack ruffled at the Goa'uld's expression which seemed to suggest the replacement host Aetom had found was substandard compared to his last. Jack didn't like to think of himself as vain, but he couldn't be worth all that sneering.

–Easy, fella,– Aetom took a brief instant to return Jack's previous statement, an effort that went a long way to settling Jack's temper.

"You have proven yourself, Gornam, and for this I would have you hear me and speak your mind on a matter of grave importance."

Aetom bowed his head again, "As you wish, I will do all that you ask."

Montu nodded and his eyes moved to consider the entrance to his private room a moment before speaking. "I fear my advisory council has been diseased, blackened and spoiled by the Tok'ra scourge."

Jack quickly sought Aetom's thoughts, trying to read if this was a tactic he'd been expecting, trying to assess how much danger they might be in. Aetom was surprised by the remark as well but he maintained his poise and in doing so betrayed nothing, "Lord Montu, you are a strong ruler but even more dangerous enemy, who among your counselors would dare to work against you?"

Montu watched Aetom a long moment, unblinking, then spoke, "This I do not know, but it is an infestation I cannot permit. The vermin Tok'ra must be driven from my council and destroyed for its insolence. You, Gornam," Montu turned away deliberately, "are of a select few among my advisors I know are loyal to me."

"No one is more loyal than I," Aetom groveled. In regards to his host, he sensed Jack within his thoughts start to stand down from high alert.

Montu turned back to Aetom with a goblet in hand and cut an imperious look at the disguised Tok'ra, "Perhaps this is so. I have summoned you for this very loyalty you purport so strongly. Two days time I will leave this wretched planet to at last enjoy my defeat of Seshat, and at the same moment I will pull from my side the thorn that is this Tok'ra spy."

"Whatever I may do to aide you, my Lord."

Montu lifted one brow at Aetom, calculating. "You will accompany me on the second fleet to leave this planet, a chosen few among my counselors, Gornam."

"I am honored, my Lord."

Montu continued with a sneer, "I will send as the first party each of my advisors for whom I harbor doubt. They will fly to the false safety of my fleet, where they will be destroyed, the Tok'ra rouge along with them. Already my fleet awaits them, prepared to deliver death by my order. You will gain a position of greater power at my service when I have done this, Gornam."

"I understand, my Lord."

"Know this... if you are maddened by the scent of power I will cut you down with a single stroke. The loss of so many advisors will not weaken me, it will make me stronger. I will not be defeated from within my own forces."

"Never, my Lord."

Montu took a drink, idly turned the green and gold cup in his hand, then dismissed Aetom with a flicker of his fingers, "Leave me, Gornam, and think of what I have said. Two days."

"I will, my Lord."

Jack could feel anticipation thrum through his body, spurred to excitement by his Tok'ra symbiote and flowing in his veins like a euphoric adrenaline rush. It infected him, bled into his own emotional state and made him almost giddy to think today would be the day Montu met his death. For the immediate moment, even finding a way back to Earth became secondary to the long-awaited satisfaction of seeing Montu broken and bleeding at his feet. The night before he had dreamed of the Goa'uld begging for mercy, and in his dreams Aetom was there, beside him, like a twin with green sideburns, united with Jack as he watched the life ooze from the Goa'uld tyrant. Jack awoke on a battle-high, ready for the final confrontation, figuratively frothing at the mouth.

Jack had picked up Aetom's hatred for Montu as one might a cold, and after a time the feelings were as though his own. In the last three days, because it was easy to slip and forget to protect against things spawned in his own head and because he demanded to know everything the Tok'ra did, any tactical detail that might give them an advantage against the Goa'uld they would be facing, Jack had let Aetom's mind bleed into his, thoughts twining like vines until some aspects were no longer solely the property of one individual or the other.. including Aetom's loathing for Montu. It became theirs. Jack hated Montu, adopted the feeling with relish because it was no task for him to detest a snake, and today would be a very gratifying day for both. All the Tok'ra and people from the SGC that had died because of this snake would at last rest easy, their murders avenged.

Aetom and Jack were outside the underground complex, watching the first fleet of ships carrying doomed advisors to Montu arch into the sky and away from the planet. It was a lovely day, which struck a chord of morbid amusement in Aetom that Jack at once picked up on.

'Something funny? Care to share?'

Aetom blinked into the sky, –Colonel O'Neill... this will either be a good day to live or to die, and we may do either.–

Jack had to wonder a moment that the Tok'ra would find that at all amusing. He would never understand the Tok'ra sense of humor, and in fact was mildly incensed that they had the nerve to say HIS sense of humor was off-center.

–Being blended with you... there are a few worse things I have endured,– to which a fleeting image of being tortured by Apophis flitted through their collective brain.

At that Jack did smirk and deftly returned, 'Yeah, well, never what I had in mind either, if you'll pardon the pun, but as far as Tok'ra go...'

–I will take that in the spirit in which it was intended.–

'Look, this is getting too cliche, last-speechy for me... you think we could just get this show on the road?'

Aetom turned from the retreating ships and made his way back toward the door to the underground compound, respecting his host's wishes and offering nothing more of concrete thoughts or words.