The Ancient stared at Ian, who still had his arms across his chest.

"We'd really like for you to come with-"

"I don't care."

"Ian…"

The Gateship landed on the ground with a gentle thud, and Dotty disappeared from the front window, only to reemerge from somewhere in the back. Alexander looked at her, lifting his hands, palms up.

"What's wrong, father?"

"Father?"

Alexander ignored the cadet.

"He won't come."

"Ian. We need to-"

"I'm not going."

Neither of them knew him all that well, but if they had, they'd have known he was at his worst when he was placed in a situation like this. He hated cloak and dagger mystery shit, and he certainly wasn't going to let two aliens take him someplace without even telling him where they were going. Especially in some kind of whacked out space ship that didn't even look like a space ship – more like a coffee can with a hole punched in the front to look out.

"Why not?" Dotty asked, curiously.

"He's afraid."

"I'm not afraid. I'm just not going."

"Ian…"

"Look, who are you?"

"Dotty-"

"No. Dotty Adams doesn't fly around in spaceships on other planets abducting people. She-"

"The Dotty Adams you know doesn't," she corrected, cutting him off.

"Yeah, well, since Shawn never mentioned his mother having an evil twin, I'm just going to assume there's only one of-"

"There's one in every reality," Alexander interrupted. "Most realities, anyways."

There was that word again. Reality. It was the second time he'd used it, and neither time made sense.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't have time to explain, Ian. We're cutting things fairly short as it-"

"I'm not going with you."

Alexander scowled – and it didn't bother Ian a bit. He wasn't trying to make friends, after all.

"Look, we don't ha-"

"Just explain it, Father," Dotty said. "We can make the time."

He turned his scowl on her, but it didn't have any more affect on her than it did Ian. Finally he sighed.

"Fine. What do you know about alternate realities?"

Ian shrugged.

"Nothing."

"Great…"

The cadet didn't like the way he said that.

"Explain it to me," he suggested, using a tone that was deliberately goading. "Use little words."

"There are countless different realities out there," Alexander said, ignoring the drawling insolence. He didn't have time to argue. "Some are very similar to the one you live in and some are a lot different. We're from one that's similar."

"You're from a different reality?" Ian asked, unsure if he was trying to deliberately confuse him with an outlandish lie, or if he was just retarded.

"Actually, we're from this reality – you're the one that doesn't belong here."

Ian reached out and poked Alexander.

"You feel pretty real to me."

"My reality is just a real as the one you're from." Alexander told him, rubbing his arm where the cadet had poked him.

"Yeah? In my reality, you're a voice in my head. Can you do that trick here?"

"I could. Except you don't exist in this reality. Which is why you can be here comfortably."

"What?"

"A person can't exist for very long simultaneously in one reality," Dotty explained. "We had to find one where we existed, but which you didn't."

"So where am I in this reality?"

"You're dead. You crashed your uncle's car and killed yourself a few years ago."

"I didn't die when I wrecked it. I just knocked myself out for a few-"

"In your reality, you lived," Alexander told him. "In this one, you died. Which is why you can visit here."

"How do you know that?" Ian asked, more confused than when he'd started. "If I'm dead here, how do you know about me?"

"Because the same way you're visiting here, our alternatives selves have visited us – for short periods of time – to compare notes, so to speak."

"You can just jump realities so easily?"

"If you know how to do it, you can."

Ian scowled.

"So you brought me to a different reality…"

"Yes."

"To talk to me face to face."

"Yes."

"Where's Jack?"

"Which one?"

Ian scowled, fairly certain they were trying to confuse him, now.

"My Jack."

"He's back on Earth."

"How-"

"Ian, we really don't have a lot of time," Dotty said. "I know it's confusing, but you need to believe us that what we're doing is important, and that as soon as we're done, we'll bring you back home, and no one will be the wiser that you were gone."

"I'll know. I won't forg-"

"Forget, yes, we know."

Alexander sighed.

"Sam's not going to be worried?"

"No. She won't even know anything's out of the ordinary."

Well, things were certainly out of the fucking ordinary, weren't they? Still… Ian owed Dotty – she'd saved his life, after all. And he owed Alexander, as well, since he'd been the one to pull him through the injuries until Dotty had made it to his side. If they wanted him dead, they could have let him die.

"Fine. I'll go with you."

They both relaxed a little, and Ian hadn't even realized they were so tense.

"Good. Let's go."

"But I'm leaving when I want to..."

"Fine."

"I mean it."

"I know."

The Ancients led him off the Stargate platform and to the back end of the ship, which was opened, and up a ramp. The hatch closed almost immediately, and all the systems started coming online before Dotty or Alexander either one had a chance to touch anything. Must be automated.

They went to the front of the craft, and Ian followed, even though there wasn't another place to sit once Dotty took the pilot's seat and Alexander took the copilot seat. The console between the two of them glowed, and Ian decided that the symbols on it were the same type of symbols as those on the Dial Home Device.

As the ship started lifting, Alexander started touching the symbols, and then as he touched the last one, the stargate in front of them flared.

"I thought there were only seven symbols in a Stargate address."

Alexander looked over at Dotty, chagrined, and Dotty shook her head. Neither of them looked happy about something, but Ian didn't know what it was.

"We're going a long ways, Ian," Alexander told him. "When you're going that distance, you need another symbol."

"Because it's a longer jump, so you'd need to be even more precise on the connection?" He asked.

"Something like that."

"Wouldn't you need more power, then?"

"Yes, but the Gateship produces the power – if you know how to activate it. It's not that much further. Now be quiet for a minute, okay?"

He scowled, but he did as he was told, figuring it was better to be quiet than distract them and crash and burn. Not that he was afraid to fly… he just… didn't like to fly. There was a difference.

The ship lifted even further, and then started forward, and Ian wondered if it would even fit in the Stargate – it didn't seem like it would. He was tempted to ask, but they were both looking forward and concentrating, so once more his self-survival gene took over, and he stayed quiet, hoping they wouldn't whack the wall or something. He wondered if they'd rather just walk, but knew it was too late to ask them.

They were already almost to the event horizon. Ian held his breath. He'd already died in this reality once, after all. He didn't want to do it again.