Author's note: Thanks to all of you who have sent in reviews and feedback. I really appreciate it. Special thanks go to Turtle D for correcting all my mistakes.
The Tok'ra became quiet when SG-1 and O'Neill came back into the briefing room. O'Neill supposed it was no accident that Carter, Teal'c and Daniel chose to walk in front of him, almost as if they were guarding him. He went over to the table to sit down and gave Gallagher a reassuring smile before starting in on his spiel. "I want to apologize for my behavior," he began, "it's just that it's not something I want to remember and I reacted badly. I'm sorry." That ought to appease them somewhat, he thought.
"You wanna tell us what that was all about?" Jacob asked, looking intently at O'Neill.
"No," O'Neill said. "As for my accompanying you, I will have to clear this with my superiors. This may take some time… a day or two at the most." That's it O'Neill, stall for time here, he thought bemusedly.
"We may not have the luxury to wait for that," Janun said.
"Well, then you kids go right on ahead and have fun. Don't forget to drop me a postcard," O'Neill told him.
"O'Neill," Avard spoke up for the first time. "There is more to this than your unwillingness to help us, isn't there?"
O'Neill couldn't answer him, the rage rising in him was too intense and he didn't trust himself to speak. 'Is it you?' the memory called out as O'Neill stared at the Tok'ra bastard who used him as a weapon only to trash him when he was broken.
"You know who I am," Avard said. It wasn't a question; just a statement and O'Neill could see that Avard was resigned to having to deal with a very angry General.
"Yes." Don't strangle him O'Neill. He was having a hard time restraining himself. He looked over at Gallagher and saw that the young man was sitting tensely with balled fists. O'Neill vaguely wondered if he would even try to stop Gallagher from killing the snaky bastard should the situation arise, which by the looks of things was going to happen real soon.
"This is fascinating," Jacob cut in excitedly. "How is it you were able to tell? Did you sense him? I would think that since he didn't blend with you, there wouldn't be any way to tell…."
"The Goa'ould are quite capable of taking control and leaving a host if they so choose," Teal'c said. "Because of the length of time O'Neill was his host, and with the control of his actions, it would seem that there was a slight blending involved."
"I am not a Goa'ould, I am Tok'ra," Avard said angrily, his eyes flashing. "And I did not take over; I merely took advantage of the situation and had O'Neill help me rescue Shallin."
"Help you?" O'Neill snarled. "Forced me to, is more like it." Oh that jerk was so close to facing annihilation, O'Neill thought. "Did I have a choice? Did you even ask me? You used me and then abandoned me because of the coward you are." O'Neill closed his eyes against the anger, pain and humiliation the memories were bringing to him.
"I am not a coward!" Avard/Kanan said in a voice that was deadly calm for all the anger showing in his face, his eyes glowing. "I did what I had to do to preserve my people. I was, I am, needed to help destroy the Goa'ould and I will do anything to further that cause."
"Enough!" Gallagher shouted, jumping up from his seat and reminding O'Neill once again, that Gallagher had the same memories and the same fears. "You stupid son of a bitch," he continued pointing at Kanan, "you should be dead. Why aren't you dead? God, what does it take to get rid of your slimy ass?" He was pacing now and O'Neill knew he had to step in, even if he didn't want to.
"Gallagher," O'Neill said quietly causing the kid to stop and stare at him. Help me deal with this, he pleaded silently, wondering if Gallagher would understand.
Gallagher didn't say anything, just sat back down in his seat and went back to staring at the pad of paper in front of him. O'Neill sighed and looked at Kanan. "You are a coward and a sneak," he said with conviction. "Nothing you can say will ever change my mind. I was the one Ba'al tortured, not knowing the answers to the questions he asked, because you conveniently forgot to tell me the answers. I was the one who had to go through that, time after time after time. You didn't help me then, tell me, why I should help you now?"
"Jack," Jacob said quietly, "it's not just Kanan's life at stake here. It's every single Tok'ra living on that planet. The Tok'ra, Jack. You can help us and I am here to beg you to join us in our fight to save ourselves. Please, Jack?"
What to say to this, O'Neill wondered. It had to be serious for Jacob to beg, yet O'Neill just wanted to send them all packing without so much as a by your leave. God, he thought as he ran his fingers through his short hair, this was not getting any better. "Why did you bring these two along with you, Jacob?" he asked resignedly.
"Both Janun and Kanan have been there as operatives and both know the layout of the fortress very well," Jacob said. "We are planning to go to the planet and get to the rings to transport to Nirrti's ship. We would like you to join us as you also know the layout of the fortress and SG-1 has been a formidable foe to the Goa'ould in the past."
"Bringing down Ba'al would be an additional bonus," Daniel interjected.
"I don't remember a whole lot about the fortress," O'Neill said, glaring at Kanan. "I was out of it the whole time I was there. Ba'al's lotar was the one who got me out of there when Yu attacked. She showed me which way to go to get to the Gate."
"If both Janun and Kanan know the layout of the fortress, why do you need O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.
Jacob looked over at Kanan before turning to O'Neill to respond, "Ba'al has a price on O'Neill's head and we want to use him as bait to gain access to the fortress," he said.
"Like hell!" Daniel said, his face turning red. "And I suppose that we are to just let him go and depend on the Tok'ra to get him out of there? I don't think so."
"I agree with Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said eyeing the Tok'ra with disdain. "You have already proven untrustworthy by claiming that you wanted O'Neill to join you due to his knowledge of the fortress interior, only to now state that you were really planning to use him as bait."
"Our plan is to turn him over to Ba'al, then have SG-1 break him out as soon as possible." Jacob said, with a worried look at O'Neill. "He can then lead you all to the gate to return here. Janun and Kanan will ring up to Nirrti's ship to destroy it before she destroys us."
"How do we all gain access to the fortress?" Carter asked. "You have a reason for Janun and Avard to be there, but what about SG-1?"
"You all will be going by ship," Jacob said, "and once Janun and Kanan have gained entrance into the fortress, SG-1 will be able to transport down to the planet. You break O'Neill out and Gate back to Earth and all is well."
"Plain and simple, huh?" Gallagher asked and O'Neill worried that Gallagher was going to blow his cover. "And then we all live happily ever after," Gallagher continued sarcastically. "There are several things that can go wrong with this plan and two of them are sitting here at this table," he said looking pointedly at Janun and Kanan.
"There is a reason that place is called a fortress," O'Neill said, hoping to divert attention away from Gallagher. "Impenetrable comes to mind, as does the word 'crazy'.
Jacob, however, was not listening to O'Neill, he was staring at Gallagher with an indecipherable look on his face. Probably remembering where he knew Gallagher from, O'Neill thought sourly. That kid was going to be the death of him yet.
It was because of the anger, Gallagher rationalized. That was the only reason he spoke up like that and gave Jacob the clue he needed to figure out where he knew Gallagher from. Crap! One of these days, he was going to learn when to keep his mouth shut. It was just so hard to sit there and listen to the Tok'ra talk about how they were going to bring down a System Lord using O'Neill as bait, as if it was an every day occurrence.
And to top it all off, O'Neill is pissed. Gallagher knew he had blown it when the General glared at him as he told Jacob the fortress was impenetrable. Well, that's too damn bad, Gallagher thought menacingly.
"What kind of things could go wrong?" Jacob asked Gallagher, staring at him with a baffled look. "How much experience have you had fighting the Goa'oulds? Aren't you a little too young to be telling me what will or will not work?" Jacob's eyes were boring into his and Gallagher stared back, trying to come up with something plausible.
"I'm sure Gallagher is just worried about the General," Carter said trying to keep the peace. "I, for one, am against this unless there is a 99 chance we get the General out of there in one piece."
"There are never any guarantees when dealing with the Goa'ould," Janun spoke up. "However, SG-1 has a history of coming out of any situation alive and we believe that this will continue."
"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence there, Jan," O'Neill said, "but I just don't like to tempt fate. There is always a first time for everything and I don't plan on losing any of my people to your crazy, whacked up plans to eliminate the galaxy of another System Lord."
"You're the clone, aren't you?" Jacob said to Gallagher, apparently ignoring the others. "That's where I know you from."
Wonderful, Gallagher thought. Now what do I do? He sent a guilty look toward the General and realized he was in big trouble judging by the glare O'Neill had on his face.
"Clone, sir?" Gallagher asked with what he hoped was a very convincing, confused look on his face.
"Uh, Jacob," Daniel cut in, "there has to be another way to get in there without bringing Jack into it. I would think Ba'al would be happy to have anybody from the SGC. Think hostage situation."
"C'mon, Jack, this is me you are trying to fool," Jacob said stubbornly, ignoring Daniel. "You are the clone, aren't you? We could use this; you could lead the others out of there." Jacob's eyes had taken on a glazed look and Gallagher could tell he was working out the details of the altered plan in his head.
"What's he talking about, General, sir?" Gallagher said looking at O'Neill, hoping this would throw Jacob off the trail.
"Jacob, he isn't the clone," O'Neill said wearily, "he is just an idiot who thinks he knows everything there is to know about fighting an enemy. He does have a point, though," he continued. "There are a lot of holes in your plan and they need to be filled in before we go any further. Like I said, I will not willingly put my people in harms way just because you ask me too."
"Not the clone, huh?" Jacob said with an air of being totally unconvinced. Gallagher became a little agitated at the look Jacob was giving him. "You could go in instead…., wait do you still have all of O'Neill's memories? Yes," he continued apparently trying to keep up with his thoughts, "we could tell Ba'al that we have O'Neill's son and that he could be very valuable in getting back at O'Neill."
"Yes, but will Ba'al believe us?" Janun asked doubtfully.
"It would be worth a try," Jacob responded. "He does look like O'Neill, in fact just like the younger version of him. What do you say," Jacob asked Gallagher, "willing to give it a try?"
"Wait a minute," O'Neill jumped in. "Number 1, he is not my clone. Number 2 nobody is going anywhere without my permission, and number 3, this is important Jacob, pay attention here, Gallagher is not my clone. Got that?"
"Did the Asgard clone you, O'Neill? When were you cloned?" Kanan asked. "I would think it was after I healed you, as I never picked up on that piece of information when we were one."
"Fuck off," O'Neill growled.
"Gentleman," Daniel cut in, the negotiator must have decided to make an appearance. "Let's focus on the problems of the Tok'ra, shall we? Now I really don't think the higher ups are going to approve the General's participation for this trip. He does, after all, have a very important job monitoring the goings on in this place. I suggest we talk about Plan B."
"Excellent idea, Daniel," Jacob said smiling. "Plan B, we take Gallagher to Ba'al and tell him that he is O'Neill's son and we would like to talk a trade. Once we are there, SG-1 will blast their way in to get Sonny Boy here and take off while Janun and Kanan go to Nirrti's ship to sabotage it," he said proudly sitting back in his seat.
"What if I say no?" Gallagher asked quietly.
"Disobeying orders is a court martial offense," Jacob replied.
"Only if I recommend the court martial," O'Neill said. "Of course, he won't be disobeying orders if I don't give the order."
Kanan stood up abruptly and Gallagher involuntarily jumped up and backed away from the Tok'ra when he realized that Kanan was heading his way.
"Now just a minute," O'Neill roared jumping up out of his own chair. "What is this?" Gallagher could see that the General was just as worried as he was.
"Are you O'Neill's clone?" Kanan asked, reaching out to touch Gallagher.
Gallagher stood his ground with fists clenched tightly at his side. He knew he was close to doing some major damage to the Tok'ra who had put him through hell and he also knew O'Neill would cheer him on. But deep down, his instincts were telling him he had to hide his real identity as he really didn't trust the Tok'ra.
Gallagher shuddered when Kanan touched his arm and he glared into the eyes of the host that bastard had taken. Kanan stared back at him and Gallagher felt a wave of intense hatred run through him. He swung before he even realized he was doing it. His fist connected with the man's nose and Gallagher heard the satisfying sound of a bone breaking, even as he felt the shock of pain in his hand.
Kanan fell to the floor, but got up to throw a punch right back at his attacker. Gallagher was shocked to see O'Neill standing next to him the next moment, but understood that it was the General's turn. He backed off just as O'Neill threw another punch that caught the Tok'ra on the chin, causing him to fall back into the table, then onto the floor. Kanan got up and stood away from the two men, wiping the blood from his nose. Gallagher was contemplating hitting him again when Kanan spoke up.
"I sense something within you," he said to Gallagher, "something familiar, although not as strong as I do with O'Neill. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you are the clone and O'Neill is the original."
"Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you are crazy," Gallagher growled. He wanted to beat that jerk into a bloody pulp.
"Why the mystery," Jacob asked. "Why try to hide it from us?"
"We don't want the NID to find out, or anyone else for that matter," Carter said, confirming the truth to the Tok'ra.
"He is going to eventually look exactly like O'Neill. How are you going to explain that?" Jacob asked.
"He won't look like me for much longer," O'Neill jumped in. "We are making plans to remedy that problem."
"What plans," Gallagher asked a little testily. This was his life they were messing with.
"We'll talk about it later," O'Neill said warily.
They were doing it again, Gallagher thought angrily, planning his life for him, without even talking to him about it. Just who did they think they were? The military had the irritating habit of thinking they own the people who worked for them and could do whatever they wanted. Back off, Gallagher, he thought for the first time in awhile now.
"Yeah, later," Gallagher snarled.
"What do you remember of Ba'al's fortress," Jacob said apparently tired of the drama unfolding in front of him. "Anything?"
"Nothing," Gallagher said. "Can't remember a thing."