"Well… he certainly doesn't lack in the self confidence department," Daniel noted as they watched Ian square off against Bra'tac, who handed his staff weapon over to one of his students.

"Yeah," Jack said, coming over and standing by Sam, his hand brushing the small of her back for the briefest of moments as Ian went into an offensive stance he recognized as a Tai kwon do position. "He'll learn quick enough, I imagine…"

Quick wasn't even the word for it. Ian didn't recognize the move Bra'tac made and didn't have a counter for it, and was flat on his back in the grass looking up at the warm sun only seconds later, the end of Bra'tac's staff weapon pointed at his throat.

The old Jaffa smiled down at him, amused.

"Do you yield?"

Ian nodded.

"Until you let me up."

Bra'tac snorted, and pulled the young man to his feet.

"Again?"

"Yeah."

They squared off once more, and Bra'tac used the same move on Ian – testing just how quickly he learned. Ian saw it coming, recognizing it for what it was, but he still went down in a heap a moment later, once more with the staff weapon pointed at his throat.

"You saw it that time, didn't you?" Bra'tac asked him.

Ian nodded, not feeling at all foolish about being flattened – although he had to admit he definitely hadn't been expecting the old coot to be so quick. Probably had something to do with him being an alien or something. Maybe he had super speed or something.

"I just didn't know what to do…"

Bra'tac hauled him to his feet once more.

"I will show you."

He gestured to one of the watching Jaffa and squared off against him the moment he had nodded to show he was ready. Then attacked him using the same move he'd used on Ian twice. The younger warrior twisted his body out of the way of the staff weapon and Bra'tac's body, then turned and twisted his right arm, tangling it in Bra'tac's left arm for an instant, while at the same time snatching the staff weapon from the Master, and tossing him over his shoulder to land with a soft thud in the grass. The younger Jaffa pointed the staff weapon at his master with a nod, and Bra'tac grinned, then rolled to his feet and looked at Ian.

"See? It is possible to defend. I will show you."

"I saw it," Ian said, stepping up and taking the younger Jaffa's spot. He took the staff weapon from the man and handed it to Bra'tac.

"He's going to get flattened," Jack said, grinning at the cadet's impudence.

Bra'tac obviously thought so as well, to judge from the grin on his face and the challenging gleam in his dark eyes. The Jaffa master waited until Ian was ready, then attacked once more, and promptly found himself in the grass on his back with his own staff weapon torn from his fingers and now pointing it at his throat.

"Yield?" Ian asked, smiling despite the fact that he'd probably pulled a muscle tossing the old man over his shoulder. He wasn't really warmed up or anything, after all, and he should have known better than trying something so complicated.

"Until you let me up," Bra'tac told him, grinning. The Jaffa had allowed him to perform the move on him – that was how you taught someone, after all – but even though he'd allowed it, he was still impressed by the fact that the boy had managed to do it so perfectly his first try. It was a complicated move, after all, and one that took more than just one glance to learn. Usually, anyways.

Ian reached his hand down to help Bra'tac up – using the arm that wasn't throbbing painfully – and handed him back his staff weapon. Bra'tac's smile only grew.

"Well done."

Ian's smile wasn't smug; it was enthusiastic. He'd learned something new.

"Thank you, Sir."

"You've seen it before?" Bra'tac asked, looking at Teal'c as if to ask if it were some kind of trick played on the master. Teal'c shook his head, as did Ian.

"Nope. Not until he did it to you just now."

"Then how did you learn it so quickly?"

Ian shrugged.

"I saw it. That was all it takes."

"You learn so quickly?"

Ian shook his head.

"I just don't forget."

Bra'tac looked at him for a long moment, and finally decided he was telling him the truth completely. The Jaffa looked at O'Neill, who was smiling proudly, and then back at Ian.

"Come. We will test this."

He led the cadet over to a group of Jaffa who were sparring – with SG-1 trailing closely behind to keep an eye on things – and showed Ian another complicated move, this one involving moves that were almost a dance instead of a fighting style. Of course, most fighting styles were part dance anyways, and Ian had been immersed in dancing and fighting since he'd been old enough to walk – courtesy of his parents. His mother being the professional dancer she was and his father bound and determined that his son was going to follow in his footsteps and in order to do that had enrolled him in every martial arts class he could find for him. A soldier needs to be able to defend himself, after all.

With that as a background, and added into the factor the fact that Ian never forgot something he saw, the cadet didn't have any trouble with the move Bra'tac showed him, and repeated it almost perfectly – with just a few stumbles when it came to stretching muscles that weren't warmed up, and a leap that he just wasn't capable of making – even though he duplicated it fairly well without the altitude.

Bra'tac called a stop sooner than Ian would have liked – he was learning new things, after all, and nothing was better than a challenge as far as he was concerned.

"Enough." Bra'tac said after only about an hour of instruction. "You do well."

Ian stopped, rubbing his shoulder lightly and smiling slightly. Coming from the old man, it was a real compliment, he decided, and he couldn't help but preen – just a little.

"This one could be dangerous some day, O'Neill," Bra'tac told Jack, approvingly.

"Yeah," Jack said, shrugging. "He's just got to work on those people skills a bit…"

"People skills?"

"How he interacts with others," Daniel clarified. "Making people like him… so they will listen to him…"

Bra'tac shrugged.

"If he can defeat them, it does not matter if they like him or not. And if he is pointing a weapon at them, they will listen."

"I like this guy, Jack," Ian said, grinning. A man after his own heart! "Can I keep him?"