AN: Aww no reviews. A little disheartening, but I really love this episode...and this story. So please everyone, show me some love, it would make me very happy. Look I even posted the chapter when promised!! -grins-

I just thought Jack could use a chance to explain himself.

Jack's Side

Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice. –Woodrow T. Wilson

Jack loosened his laces, letting his shoes drop with a satisfying thud. He'd meant every word he said. Reese was a volatile machine with way to much power. The Colonel would do it again in a heart beat. He would do anything to protect the world, but more than that he would do anything to protect Daniel.

The idiot genius had a way of befriending some of the most questionable characters, but Jack drew the line at psychotic android.

Killing Reese was as easy for him as killing the replicators. They weren't human and he wouldn't…couldn't see them that way. The hard part came in looking into Daniel's eyes as the tears welled up in them.

Daniel had a way of seeing the invisible good inside these things. Each time the archeologist trusted blindly he set himself up to get hurt, and more often than not he did. But Jackson still continued to trust, and place faith into people—things—that could never live up to it. Jack refused to look for the good in Reese if it meant endangering his world…and endangering Daniel.

If he had it to do over again, the Colonel couldn't see anything he would have done different…except maybe not letting Carter wake the thing up in the first place, or not letting Daniel get so close to it. Who was he kidding? Daniel would have got close to it no matter what he said. That was Daniel, and it was that quality that made him invaluable to SG1. But it was Jack's job to make sure the ones with hearts not as pure as the archeologist—or the ones without hearts at all—didn't betray that trust. It was a job O'Neill never consciously admitted to having, but took seriously none the less.

If Daniel wanted to piss about it, then fine.

Unless you can find some sort of loyalty, you cannot find unity and peace in your active living. –Josiah Royce