It was with a much lighter heart that the group headed back towards the briefing room – this time with Jacob accompanying them. Jack gestured for Ian to pace him, and then allowed Hammond and Jacob to get well ahead of them in the corridor. The rest of SG-1 slowed as well, and Jack finally spoke up.

"You okay?" he asked Ian.

Ian nodded, surprised by the question.

"I'm fine."

"You're sure?"

Now he frowned.

"Why do you ask, Jack?"

"Just making sure. You know… after the last time – with Steroids – and all…"

Ah. Now Ian understood what Jack was asking – and why.

"You mean because I killed the symbiote?"

"Yeah."

He shook his head.

"I'm okay, Jack. This was different."

"How?"

"It just was."

"How did you kill it?" Daniel asked, curiously.

"I pulled it apart at a cellular level."

"Ick."

Teal'c, however, nodded approvingly.

"It is a fitting end for a symbiote."

Jack couldn't help but agree.

"You're not tired?"

"Nah. Like I said, I used Ben's energy to do it – and it's almost scary that it's a lot easier to kill than it is to heal."

"Just don't develop a taste for it, okay?" Jack said. "I don't think your mother would approve."

"It was the right thing to do, Jack."

"I know. I'm just saying…"

"I know. I won't."

"Good."

It never hurt to make sure, after all.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"All right, Lieutenant," Hammond said as they all sat down in the briefing room ten minutes later, joined by Rodney McKay, who arrived breathless. "Tell us what you found out."

If Ian was intimidated by the presence of the President he didn't show it. Which meant he wasn't, of course, Jack knew. Instead he nodded.

"Ralna was Seterios' mate."

"Who's Ralna?" Jack asked.

"That's the symbiote that killed Pia – and took over Ben."

"What do they have to do with Anubis?" Daniel asked, confused.

"Nothing – and everything."

"That's not very enlightening," Sam chided.

"I know." He reached for a glass and filled it with water, taking a long drink. "Let's start with Anubis – or what Ralna knew of him, anyways."

Now he definitely had everyone's attention – including the president, who really had very little idea what was going on, but knew he needed to know everything as completely as possible before the other dignitaries arrived.

"Anubis has access to some Ancient technology."

"Which is how he was able to rise so quickly into power among the system lords," Jacob guessed.

Ian nodded.

"Which is also where Seterios and Ralna come into play, because Seterios knew he was going to need his own Ancient technology in order to keep his interests safe from Anubis."

"So he found the Ancient ships…" Daniel said.

"Yeah. And then found he couldn't use them – which was probably frustrating as hell when he already had Anubis nipping at his heels," Ian told them.

"What ships?" McKay asked, curiously.

"We'll tell you about them later," Sam said, unwilling to change the subject.

"So Pia and Cato – Seterios – were both already with the Tok'ra…" Jacob asked.

"Yeah. And then Sam and I had the poor taste to get away and take the ship with us – not to mention killing Seterios – which totally fucked up any chance Ralna had of saving her own ass when it came to Anubis."

Hammond winced at the phrasing, but no one else even seemed to notice – especially Ian, who had completely forgotten that he was supposed to be watching his mouth. Which happened when he was distracted like he was.

"So she decided to get even?" Jack asked.

Ian nodded.

"She'd already infiltrated the Tok'ra – and with Jacob she knew she wouldn't have any trouble getting into the SGC."

"You were her target?" Jack asked.

"I was one of them. Sam was another – and Jake, simply because she knew how badly that'd tear the rest of you guys up."

Sam blanched at that, but Jack's eyes narrowed in hatred at the thought of any Goa'uld going after his son. His weren't the only ones, either, because Teal'c looked just as angry – which was saying something when it came to the normally stoic Jaffa.

"You have to admit, it was good plan," Daniel said.

Ian nodded.

"We just got lucky."

"And it helped that you held your own against Ralna until help arrived," Jack added.

Ian shrugged.

"So we still don't know anything about Anubis…" Jacob said. "Only that he's using Ancient technology."

"There's more to it than that, Jacob," Ian said. "You can actually figure out a lot from that."

"Like what?" Jack asked.

"For one thing, I can tell you what technology he can't use – simply because a lot of the Ancient technology won't work for anyone with a symbiote."

"How do you know that?" McKay asked.

"The Ancients were an old race by the time the Goa'uld started coming out of the swamps," Ian said. "But they recognized the dangers they represented as soon as they started seeing them stealing technology from other races that were more advanced. In order to keep their own stuff out of snake hands, they reengineered a lot of it to not work for people carrying symbiotes. Other stuff was already protected, because it wouldn't work for anyone who didn't have the right gene in the first place."

"So Teal'c couldn't use any of it – even though he's Jaffa and not a system lord?" Jack asked.

"Right. It doesn't differentiate between good and bad – it just doesn't work. Period."

"So an Asgard could use it?" Sam asked.

Ian shook his head.

"Only if he was one of those descended from the Ancient/Asgard hybrids."

"But Anubis is using Ancient technology," Daniel said. "How is he doing it if the Ancients had so many safeguards in place against just this sort of thing happening?"

Ian shrugged.

"I haven't been in his mind, Daniel, so I don't know. My guess would be he's not using Ancient technology itself – just something he engineered from Ancient designs or schematics. The fact that he's ascended – or partially ascended, anyways – means that he has access to some kind of Ancient database somewhere."

"What do you mean by ascended?" Jacob asked.

"It's what the-"

There was a commotion at the door of the briefing room just then, interrupting, and Thor walked in with Shawn and Andrew trailing behind him. The little Asgard was holding a gizmo in his hands about the size of a breadbox.

"Pardon my interruption," he said, giving Hammond a slight nod of a bow. "But I have finished my signaling device and am ready to call for assistance."

Hammond started to speak, looking relieved, but Ian spoke first.

"That's a bad idea."