Thank you for the kind reviews, guys; much appreciated.

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Aboard the Asgard ship, Danny stood at a console, having recalled the sequence of controls which Sam had drilled into him. He glanced at the unconscious Asgard form in the open examination pod which was on the other side of the room from him, hoping that he hadn't hurt whoever it was much. A small sort of relief fell over him though when he turned the dial to the correct position and his friends materialised in front of him. Relief soon gave way to melancholy on seeing who was with them. It was him; the other him.

Danny approached the team, the other him staring at him just as much as he imagined he was probably staring at him. He was dimly aware that they were dressed in the same pale tank top and pyjama trousers, although this guy had been working out a lot more than he appeared to have. Fifteen was not a great age for him. They stood face to face, the others loitering a little awkwardly around him, Sam looking towards the unconscious Asgard.

Danny said, awkward himself, "So… uh, yeah, you're me."

Daniel looked round at Sam, continuing to look confused, and if he was honest, quite spooked. "Sam?"

Jack and Teal'c didn't help matters by both looking at her expectantly, as she, awkwardly, said, "Daniel Jackson, meet… Daniel Jackson."

Jack added, "The intergalactic Xerox broke."

Teal'c glanced at his team-mates, and said, "We believe that this Asgard took you against your will and created a clone in order to replace you."

As Daniel and Danny continued to look at one another, Jack walked around the pod in which the Asgard lay. He glanced at Carter, and asked, "Is this thing… alive?"

She looked at a nearby control panel and was about to reply when the Asgard began to stir, groaning piteously as it roused from its unconscious state. The Asgard looked around at them as the team gathered around the pod, and it said, confused,

"What is happening?"

Jack remarked sarcastically as he punched the air, "Dammit, I was just going to ask the same thing."

The Asgard looked around at them and focussed on Danny. It said, panicked, or as panicked as it could manage considering it wasn't human, "No… no, no, this is all wrong."

Daniel inclined his head a little as he regarded the Asgard. It wasn't one they had encountered previously. He said, curious, "Why don't you start by telling us who you are?"

The Asgard sombrely regarded him, and replied, "I am Loki."

Daniel and Danny found themselves exchanging a knowing look. They then looked embarrassed as Jack stared at them. The Colonel muttered, "Low-key, huh?"

The Daniels started off in unison, before Danny gestured towards Daniel and said wearily, "You might as well do the honours; they've heard enough from me."

Daniel looked at him a little confused, before saying, "In Norse mythology, Loki is the god of mischief."

Teal'c asked, confused too but not showing it as much, "What mischief can be attained through a poor clone?"

Danny glared at the Jaffa, their attention drawn back to Loki as the Asgard said defiantly, "I have nothing more to say to any of you."

Jack opened his mouth to say something when Daniel said, "But I have a right to know why you made a clone of me." He glanced at Danny, and was about to continue when Jack interrupted him, angrily rounding on the Asgard.

"Hey! We just saved your flat little white asses from the Replicators, and this is the thanks we get?!"

The rest of the team exchanged awkward glances, unsure, given the circumstances, whether they could extract humour from the Colonel's infamous short fuse and penchant for getting to the point. Danny piped up, drawing everyone's attention back to him,

"Well, at least you're not an unstable copy of yourself."

Daniel looked at him in concern, about to speak when Loki said, "All the clones suffer the same fate."

Daniel said, frowning, "But you've created life; you have a responsibility. This…" He gestured towards Danny. "… person has the right to life, liberty, and security of person, by virtue of his humanity."

Loki replied calmly as though explaining basic arithmetic to someone who should know better, "Humanity is only superior in one respect; your bodies may one day hold the key to saving us from the duplication process. You are a very young race still. Without appropriated technology, you would not have ventured outside of your solar system."

Danny perched on an item of furniture as he felt a little woozy but didn't want to make a fuss. Unfortunately he caught Jack's gaze who then once more rounded on the Asgard. "Enough chat; can you fix him?"

"I cannot." Loki paused, trying to buy himself some time. "I am a former geneticist with the Asgard Ruling Council."

Sam said, her concern and wariness growing by the minute, "Former."

Loki continued, "I was stripped of my stature after I was caught performing unsanctioned experiments on humans."

Daniel opened his mouth to speak but then closed it, unsure of what to say. He looked towards Sam and Teal'c. Jack, however, remarked, "You have sanctioned ones!?"

Loki retorted arrogantly, "I merely had the courage to do what was necessary to advance our cloning technology."

Jack sarcastically quipped, "See, I'm not seeing the courage here." He looked to Sam. "Carter?"

Sam replied, a tight expression repressing her growing rage, "No Sir. More a lack of morality."

Loki continued, in a more pleading voice, "Our population cannot withstand the duplication process for much longer."

Sam moved around the pod to face the Asgard. She said seriously, "How can experimenting on humans change that?"

Loki looked up at the Major, and said, "Your bodies are similar to our original form thousands of years ago. Using your physical makeup as a template, I had hoped to find a way to construct a clone that could contain our massively superior intellect." Loki paused, almost dramatically. "My research was unsuccessful."

Jack looked towards Daniel; the archaeologist, though still not being in full possession of all of his memories, shot him a glare, knowing somehow what Jack would imply. Danny looked between the two men and then looked down at his hands, somehow feeling excluded, left out of this moment. He would never have this with Jack again; he never knew he would miss it as much a pain in the ass as Jack was. Teal'c regarded him sombrely, as though sensing the turn his thoughts had taken.

Loki inclined his head so he could look towards Jack. He remarked, an arrogant sneer evident in his tone, "I was going to say that it was unsuccessful prior to my being caught and banished." Loki stared at Danny and then at Daniel, the two staring at one another awkwardly. "I would have found what I needed eventually."

Daniel looked perturbed at this, while Jack, for once speechless, could not think of an appropriate or even an inappropriate comment. This was more Carter's territory. He looked towards the Major as she looked between the Asgard and the Daniels. Damn, this was above her head too. He looked towards Teal'c who regarded Loki coldly.

"DanielJackson was of the Ascended; you thought his mind would contain the information you are seeking."

Loki looked towards the Jaffa as impressed as an Asgard physically could, which admittedly wasn't a huge lot. He said, "I underestimated you, Teal'c." He looked towards the Daniels again. "Yes, inside his mind he holds the knowledge of the Ancients. I was hoping to access this to solve our problems."

The Daniels began to speak in unison again until Danny wearily snapped, "You could have asked!"

Loki replied, "You cannot willingly give it to me – it is concealed within your subconsciousness." He looked towards Jack. "Even Colonel O'Neill struggled to hold of all information from the Ancient repository while conscious."

Sam smirked a little as Daniel and Teal'c both appeared speculative. Jack remarked at their expressions, "Jealousy isn't becoming." He tugged at his combat vest and muttered proudly, "Even me."

Jack suddenly glared at Loki and said, "So… who else is in on it? Does Thor know?"

"The Asgard fleet has been distracted by the war with the Replicators, and the subsequent relocation of our people."

"You know… 'no' is shorter."

"I do not regret my actions; I am trying to save my people." He looked straight at Jack. "You would have done the same thing given the opportunity." He looked towards Danny. "I cannot reverse your fate, nor can I explain why you did not mature to the proper age as you should have."

Danny looked down at his hands once again. Jack, seeing this, stormed over to the console where Danny had beamed them up from. He called to Sam. "Carter!" The Major duly joined him, and he said, gesturing to the buttons that made as much sense as Daniel's ramblings half the time, "Can you call Thor on this thing?"

As Loki pleaded with them not to summon the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, Sam replied, scrutinising the controls, "We tried contacting the Asgard several times."

As Sam pressed a number of buttons and turned some dials, Daniel and Teal'c managed to catch a woozy Danny on his descent to the floor. Daniel asked, worried, "Are you ok?"

Teal'c controlled Danny's descent, gradually sitting him on the floor as Daniel sat with him. Danny reluctantly albeit through necessity rested his head against Daniel's shoulder as his breathing became more laboured. Daniel looked up at Jack and said, concerned, "Jack, we need Janet up here."

Loki's assertions to the contrary of any fix were ignored by the team. Danny said weakly, "I'm dying Daniel. Janet can't do anything… she did all she could to get me this far. If the Asgard can't do anything then I'm done for." He smiled weakly at Daniel's concern. "Hey, at least I'm not real…" His smile faded. "But you and I both know you won't let it go." Danny closed his eyes and said softly, "I didn't come back just to die as someone else."

Daniel had barely got a handle on the situation, but he generally had a sense of what was right and what was wrong, and he knew that this fell into the latter category. While right and wrong were relative, surely saving the life of a child, however he was created, was the right thing to do. And Danny was right; he – they – hadn't come back to die like this; but it was more of the universe's twisted sense of whatever it was that had seemed to plague him throughout his life.

He shouted to Jack, desperation evident in his tone, "Jaaack!"

Any bantering was interrupted by the sound of Asgard beam technology. The team, and Loki, looked up to see Thor. Teal'c allowed himself the smallest of smirks on recognising fear upon Loki's countenance. The smirk quickly gave way to grave concern. Though DanielJackson had been retrieved, the clone of DanielJackson was in mortal peril. It stirred something deep within to see the life of a child – however created – so callously disregarded by an advanced race. An impatient exclamation from O'Neill brought his attention back to the latest arrival.

Thor regarded the room silently before approaching Loki's pod as the latter attempted to sit up. Thor glanced at SG-1 and said, "I apologise for not coming sooner." He looked back at Loki and said, concerned, "Loki, what have you done?" He looked towards Danny. "You should have known that Daniel Jackson's brain and genetic code were safeguarded for his own protection." Daniel looked up at the Asgard in confusion as Danny lost consciousness again, and Thor continued, "A marker was placed in your DNA to prevent any attempts at genetic manipulation."

Danny murmured, "The abnormality."

Sam looked towards the Daniels, not for the first time feeling helpless. She said, an idea dawning in her mind, "That's why Danny didn't mature."

Daniel, his voice tinged with emotion, said, "Can you not do anything for him?"

Thor approached the two of them, and replied, "Loki will be punished for his actions."

Jack ripped his baseball cap off and scratched his head. He remarked, annoyed, "Loki being banged up doesn't solve this problem."

Thor would have sighed had he had the physiology for it. Humans weren't just content with justice being dealt; they had to have everything. Thor said, "The eventual genetic breakdown of the clone is not my doing; it is as a result of Loki's inept methods."

Loki piped up, earning a glare from Jack, "There was no need for the clones to survive."

Just as Jack considered shaking some sense into their allies, or at least unleash further raging sarcasm, Daniel spoke. The archaeologist looked down at his clone and said determinedly, "You can't let him die. It's not his fault." He looked up at Thor. "He's just a child."

Thor this time lamented the absence of eyebrows in the Asgard physiology; he could have used them to further express his surprise at this curious notion. Asgard clones weren't considered separate beings until consciousnesses were uploaded into them. Despite observing humans for so long, they still had a habit of surprising him with their humanity. Occasionally, during respites from battling Replicators, he wondered if the Asgard were really as advanced as they must seem to the rest of this galaxy.

"You wish your clone to live?"

SG-1 stared at the Asgard, each willing the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet to show mercy. The answer to them, by virtue of their respective humanity or warrior codes, seemed simple. Why a race as advanced as the Asgard – with cloning problems – couldn't understand this, they didn't know. Danny stirred from his slumber and looked up at Daniel. He said weakly, his skin appearing wet, "I don't have a lot of time, Daniel."

Daniel looked up at Thor and said in a pleading tone, "You have to do something."

Thor replied with a small nod, "Very well. I will attempt to repair his DNA. If successful, he should continue to mature at a normal human rate."

The relief in the room was almost palpable. Jack punched the console in front of him, earning a look from second in command. Sam then smiled a little, allowing herself to show some emotion after what had been a most trying week to say the least. She caught Daniel's gaze, still feeling awkward to approach them; unsure of her place now. Teal'c regarded his comrades with a slight smile. Once again, they had prevailed. His smile faded as he looked towards the clone of DanielJackson. What would become of him should he survive the process of repair?