"What?" Sam asked, frowning.

"Who are you?" Jack asked at the same time.

"This is Loki," Thor said, looking over at them from the chair he was still sitting in. On the view screen ahead of him were two other Asgard, obviously the pilots or commanders of the other two ships that had come in answer to the distress call from Loki's ship. "What have you done, Loki?"

"What was necessary," the bloody Asgard said, defensively. "I did not mean for-"

"You could have gotten him killed!" Jack snapped.

"He was doing a fine job on his own," Loki said. "I did not need to help him. Untie me."

"Colonel," Janet said, "hand me your jacket. He's freezing."

Jack stripped out of his jacket and handed it to her, and Janet slipped it around Ian's bare shoulders.

"How is he?" Sam asked, noticing that Ian was trembling despite the jacket.

"I'm fine," Ian said, but his voice sounded odd, even to him.

"He's in shock." She turned to Loki, furious. "What did you use to wake him?"

"My hand. It took a long time."

"You hit him?" Jack asked, scowling.

"He hit me," Loki said. "I only nudged him to wake him. Untie me."

Jack ignored the order – he wasn't really in the habit of doing what Asgard told him to anyways – and looked at Fraiser, who was busy running her hands along Ian's sides and checking the cut on his forehead.

"How is he?"

"I'm not sure. It looks like just bruises and shock – and he reopened that cut, which is where all the blood is coming from – but there could be internal injuries. I need to get him back to the SGC."

Jack looked at Thor.

"You hear that?"

The Asgard nodded.

"We will leave momentarily, O'Neill."

Jack turned back to Ian.

"What were you thinking, pissing that Goa'uld off like that?"

Ian shook his head, but it was Loki who spoke.

"He said he could not risk being captured by the Goa'uld," the little Asgard said, and they could all hear the annoyance in his voice. "Because he could not risk them making a host of him and gaining access to the knowledge of the Ancients that he carries in his mind. So instead, he was trying to make Sobeck angry enough to destroy us rather than capture-"

"What knowledge of the Ancients?" Thor asked, interrupting.

"You were going to…" Jack trailed off, his brown eyes locked on Ian's much darker ones. The young man was clearly in shock, but lingering in his expressive eyes was also the affirmation of what Loki was telling them. There hadn't been any hope of rescue, and Ian refused to allow the Goa'uld to use him.

"I didn't even think you knew I was gone…" Ian said, shakily.

Sam sat down beside him, wrapping her arms around him – presumably for warmth, but it was also because she could tell better than any of them just how close he was to breaking down. He rested his head on her shoulder, closing his eyes tiredly.

Jack looked over at Loki, furious at the Asgard for putting Ian in such a circumstance that he'd be forced to make that kind of decision. A decision no one should ever have to make.

"Are you out of your mind?"

Loki flinched back from O'Neill's fury. It didn't help that Jaffer was once more reacting to Jack's anger and had his hackles up, showing bared fangs at the Asgard while a deep growl started rumbling in his chest.

"I was doing what I thought was best for my-"

"It never occurred to you to ask?"

"What are you talking about, Loki?" Thor asked. "What knowledge of the Ancients?"

"Ian Brooks carries the knowledge of the Ancients," Loki answered. "Much as Jack O'Neill did."

"Which doesn't make it okay for you to just come down and kidnap him," Jack snapped.

"Is this true?" Thor asked Jack. "Does he truly have the Ancients' wisdom in his mind?"

"Yeah."

"Which doesn't make it okay for this guy to kidnap Ian," Janet said, sharply, echoing Jack. She was furious at how pale Ian was, and angry at having had him snatched out of her infirmary when he was her responsibility.

"No," Thor said. "It does not." He looked at Loki. "Loki will be punished for his transgressions, and-"

"Punished how?"

"I was doing what I thought best-"

"You risked his life!" Jack snarled.

"He would not have been in danger if he had done what I told him to, instead of taking me prisoner and taken over my ship," Loki said, petulantly. "Because of him, my ship is destroyed and with it all my research."

"Not because of him," Thor corrected. "It was your own actions that caused this, and you are lucky to have escaped with only the loss of your ship."

"Why did you kidnap Ian Brooks?" Teal'c asked.

"Because I needed his knowledge."

Jack frowned.

"You knew about the Ancients' knowledge before you took him?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I will not say," Loki stated. "Untie me."

"He got it from another one of him," Ian said, raising his head off Sam's shoulder, as Teal'c walked over, pulled a wicked looking knife from his belt and cut Loki free of his bonds.

"Another…?"

"From an alternate reality," Ian clarified, his head dropping once more as if he was simply too tired to lift it any longer. "That's what he told me, anyways."

Jack nodded, looking at Thor.

"We need to get him back to the SGC."

"And then we need to talk," Thor said. It was quite clear that he was surprised about the Ancients' knowledge thing, and wanted to discuss it further, but it was also clear that Ian Brooks needed to get home.

"Fine."