A/N: When I first started writing this fic, I had something totally different in mind, but after a long look through I found that it needed to be tweaked, and this is what I have resolved on.

And once again, thank you to everyone who reviewed, you don't know how much it means to me.

"What have we here?"

Jack heard the words, they drifted across his mind, nearly drowned out by the pounding in his temples. Yet, they held no meaning. He wasn't able to focus any longer.

"I really wish you would eat, it is much easier to speak with someone when they can form coherent thoughts." Swush was standing over him, again offering the bowl of fruit.

Jack shook his head, and ran his hands through already grimy hair.

"I see, you wish to have an explanation before you can trust me. Well, where should I start? I would imagine you are wondering where you are and why you are here. As you have undoubtedly guessed you have never been here before, I had Swish feed you that lie in hopes you would be more manageable. Unfortunately, I seem to have been mistaken. You are in fact, many light years from your home world, on a planet known as Trelang. Not that you have heard of it of course." Swush grabbed a fruit from the bowl and took an enormous bite. The purple juice ran down his chin, "Sure you don't want any? The rantigas happen to be my favorite you know. No, well then, where was I? Ah, yes, why you are here. For your full understanding of the situation I think it prudent you know some background information on my people..."

And Swush droned on from there, his harsh voice cut through the stale air at a regular pace, making Jack even more lethargic. Occasionally, the voice would rise to a wrenching crescendo, as if he were relaying a battle scene, only for it to fall back again to the billowing beat.

"That is why we are forced to live underground now, the radiation had spiked our body temperatures so high, that we had to find alternate means of survival. And as for the other after effects of the accident, we have no more connection between our people, no way to become one and work together, my world is ripped apart by war and devastation, and I... need.... help."

Jack remained motionless, not knowing what to think, not thinking much at all. His head hurt, his throat screamed, his eyes drooped, and his heart full of lead, was threatening to drop to the depths of his stomach if the weight were not relieved soon.

Swush waited for Jack to speak, finally Jack managed to rasp out, "What do you want from us? And what does Charlie have to do with it?"

"I have been studying your unit, SG-1 you call yourselves, for quite some time, and I have seen the bond of friendship you share. I wish for you to give me your bond so I can use it to unite my people. As for your son, his death seems to be the one thing that has landed you here, it was why you became involved with the Stargate project, and so I found you, and how I knew you were the person who could give me what I need."

"Oh fer cryin' out loud, what can I give you?"

"You have already lost one bond, between you and your son, I ask you to lose another, the one between you and your comrades."

"You just can't ask for friendship and trust, they can't be taken." Jack knocked his head back against the wall, where was Daniel when you needed him. No wonder these people couldn't get along, they didn't get it. "You have to earn them from one another, they are, and can only be, freely given to you."

"Freely given?" Swush seemed baffled by such a concept. "No, that is not possible."

Jack stared at him, enraged by his ignorance and exhausted by the effort at the same time.

"I will just have to try another way to take it."

"Another?" Jack didn't understand what he meant.

Swush started pacing around the room, seemingly as annoyed with Jack, as Jack was with him. He started talking, but he seemed to be talking to himself more than to Jack. "First I try to study you closer by bringing you into a situation where you can only count on each other, I still did not see. Second, I try to turn your friends against you so that you may sever the bond and I may take it, yet you still hold the bond strong, believing sabotage in their minds rather than betrayal to a friend. I see that I am still not understanding what it is to be like you, human. And so I study your emotions, hatred towards Maybourne, love for your son, guilt at losing him. I understand I need emotions to have the bonds, but I can not see these emotions so how could I take them?"

Jack was dumbfounded, Swush was trying to literally take the bond he had between his friends and between his son. And to do this he was trying to understand emotions and take them as well. Swush thought that things like, love, loyalty and trust were materials to be handed over at a simple request, what kind of backassward world did this alien live on anyway?

"Your son, Charlie, was and still is a big part of your life, you humans have the strongest bonds in families, and on my world it should be the same, I know this. Now, as a last resort, I ask you to give the bond up, and you lie to keep it, saying they can only be given freely when I know this cannot be the case. I must find another way... if only it were broken by another means...."

Swush looked up surprised, an idea had come into his literal mind. He spoke again, this time directly to Jack. "You will eat and rest, restore your strength and tomorrow I shall have what I want." with that Swush walked out of the room.