Xander made his way back to the base and approached Colonel O'Neill. He had to report it, but he was still working out exactly what he was going to say.
"Colonel, I need to speak to you. Privately." Xander decided he was going to have to lie and he hated it, but there wasn't alot he could tell the Colonel.
"Something on your mind, Sargeant? I've noticed you seem to be paying attention to quite abit around here." Damn, Colonel O'Neill didn't earn his rank by sitting behind a desk. He was smart and observant.
"I've been noticing a few things sir and maybe we can talk about that later. Because I noticed something else. I thought I saw someone in black walking into the woods. I wasn't sure exactly what I saw, it could have been an animal. I went to check and saw something flicker and then there was a guy in some kind of armor. He was holding a knife, I shoved him hard into a tree and he just stopped. He doesn't have a pulse. I'm guessing a Gou'ald and maybe the reason the Tok'ra base was attacked."
"Show me." The Colonel said grimly. The kid looked freaked, probably an adrenaline burst. "Carter, with me!" He ordered as they passed her. She fell in beside them and Xander led them to the Ashrak. Carter immediately began a visual exam as Xander repeated what he'd told the Colonel.
"This is a personal cloaking device." Carter said, pointing at it. "I'll need to exam it. It may have been malfunctioning and that allowed you to see him. He must have realized you saw him when you followed him. As for why he died from being shoved into the tree, Janet will have to determine that. The malfunctioning device may actually have had something to do with it. A surge maybe or the Gou'ald was already weak from some other cause. Janet will figure it out."
"Carter, have Frazer check it and then see to it the body's moved to the SGC. I'll let Malek and Bra'tec know. Sargeant, you and I need to talk."
"Yes, sir." Xander followed Colonel O'Neill and stayed silent while the Colonel informed the leaders of the Jaffa and Tok'ra about the find. Both insisted on seeing the body.
"An Ashrak." Malak confirmed at least that much when he saw the body. "A hunter or assassin. Single minded in their pursuit of their orders. Bred for the specific purpose of being assassins. How ever did you over come him?"
"I'm guessing adrenaline." O'Neill said. "It can temporarily make a human very strong."
"True." Malak agreed.
"We're taking the body back to Earth for examination." O'Neill told them.
"You should leave the technology in our care, Colonel." Malak told him.
"No, this happened at our base. It stays with us."
"Very well." Malak said disapprovingly and returned to camp.
"How are you doing, young one?" Bra'tec asked the young Tau'ri warrior. The boy's hands were shaking slightly, he thought perhaps O'Neill's belief in adrenaline was accurate and the young man was coming down from it.
"I'll deal, sir. I did what I needed to. I understand that, it's just what else could I have done?"
"Very little, I imagine." Bra'tec assured him. "The Ashrak would have killed you and not cared. It is what they are bred for. Rest easy, knowing others will live because of your actions."
"Thank you, sir." Xander said politely. He felt sick to his stomach. He wasn't as convinced this was the right way to handle this. He remembered an episode of Deep Space Nine where Sisko had lied and manipulated several people in an effort to bring the Romulans into the war with the Founders, the shape shifters from the Gamma Quadrant who wanted to control the Alpha Quadrant. After working through his thoughts and feelings on his actions, he decided he could live with them because in the long run, it saved lives. Xander tried to assure himself of the same thing. Killing the Wesen wanting to kill Monroe had saved lives. The Ashrak would have kept on killing, that was clear. 'Yeah.' Xander thought. 'But you were also protecting yourself and your mission. Motives are a little murky here.'
Xander followed O'Neill to one of the buildings and Xander saw it was set up as a cafeteria. O'Neill poured two cups of coffee and handed one to Xander. "Tell me what's on your mind, Sargeant."
Deciding this was a good time to further his mission Xander began to talk.
"The Tok'ra are arrogant, narrow-minded and very unwilling to change. They have one purpose and one purpose only. Keep the System Lords fighting. It allows them to continue existing as well. They've never considered an end to the war, which is why it's gone on for 2000 years. And they think their way is the best and only way. The success of the Jaffa and the Humans of Earth is undermining their beliefs and they don't like it. They have problems with both us and the Jaffa. They don't like the fact that we're doing exactly what they and the Gou'ald do, salvaging advanced technology and learning from it. It's okay for them, it's not okay for us. They think we should listen to them. They're the biggest obstacle to the alliance. They need fresh ideas, ways of thinking and to understand, they're not better then humans. They claim a symbiotic relationship with the host, but aside from General Carter, we never hear a host speak. And they disapprove of the fact that Selmak 'lets' him talk so much. We need to present them with a new purpose for after the war. It's one of the ways we could prove ourselves worthy of at least some respect from them. Their withholding of valuable intell endangers lives. They withhold it simply because they're not used to sharing it, but also because they don't think we can be trusted with it. We need to prove we can be trusted with it. Only problem is, I'm not sure we can prove it to their satisfaction. Together, the three groups could accomplish extraordinary things. Tok'ra intelligence network, Jaffa strength and willingness to fight. Human resources and ideas. The war could be ended within a few years at most. But telling them, they're the biggest obstacle to the war ending wouldn't go over well at all."
"No, it wouldn't." O'Neill agreed. The kid's analysis agreed with his own. Time to brainstorm ideas. So what wasn't the kid telling him? Because O'Neill was sure the kid was hiding something.