Hi! Wow it's been a while! I actually didn't realise I hadn't posted the second part of this particular adventure even though It's been written as long as the last one. Sorry. Anyway here it is, I hope you like it. Sorry for any mistakes, I'm pretty sure I proofread this when I finished the first part, if you do come across anything I've missed please let me know.

Agamemnon

Pain was the first thing Daniel registered as consciousness returned to him; the sort of pain he imagined one felt when they'd been struck by lightning. He groaned in discomfort as he tried to roll over and get a bit more comfortable, only to discover rather quickly that he couldn't move. Wondering what had happened and where he was, a very loaded question considering what he did for a living, he cracked an eye open, and after adjusting to the brightness currently filling the room, he was surprised to find himself lying on the floor of one of the science labs.

For a moment he was confused about what he was doing there, but then the memories returned, and he was shocked that he was even alive. After what the entity had done to the scientist who'd let him out, Daniel had been sure he and Ianto were goners.

Ianto! Ianto had been with him when it all happened. Where was he? Was he okay?

He glanced around the room as much as he could without moving his head since it didn't want to cooperate and eventually spotted his love standing in front of the device, his back currently to Daniel. He was overjoyed to see his beloved alive, but at the same time his normally very quick brain had him questioning why Ianto was already up and about while Daniel felt like he'd been hit by a bus. It also had him wondering why his lover, who was always so concerned with making sure everyone was as comfortable and well cared for as possible, would have left him on the floor without trying to make him even a little more comfortable.

Something was wrong.

"Good evening, Dr Jackson," a voice that sounded like Ianto's, only a lot deeper and gravelly, addressed him. "Don't bother trying to get up. You won't be doing that for a while. Don't panic though. So far your boss has done exactly as I've asked, and as long as he keeps up his good behaviour, you will be free to leave as soon as I'm done here."

Daniel wanted to ask, "Done doing what?" but he couldn't get his voice to work. More than anything he wanted to ask about Ianto, and it was frustrating him beyond belief that he couldn't. Was his love all right? He felt sick with worry.

"You should consider yourself fortunate, Dr Jackson. You're human at the moment so I have no qualms with you and no real reason to wish you harm. You have cavorted with the Lantians though, and that made you more able to resist me and less appealing to inhabit, so you were less likely to be my host. Of course, in this case, none of that really mattered because this body gave itself willingly."

Ianto gave his body willingly? Why would he do that?

"I imagine he knew, just like the rest of the people on the base, that you're of greater value and therefore more worthy of being spared."

That made Daniel angry. How dare anyone decide who was more or less valuable than anyone else? Ianto was an amazing person, and his value was no less than anyone else's.

"So you were the one spared. I'm sure that's a relief to know." The entity did something Daniel couldn't see because Ianto's back was to him then turned around to look in Daniel's direction. He looked like Ianto. There was almost nothing to let anyone know something was amiss.

Almost nothing.

A person just glancing at Ianto would swear he was perfectly normal. But Daniel wasn't just anyone; he was Ianto's partner, and he'd committed every feature of the man to memory.

On a normal day, Ianto had vibrant blue eyes. Right now, they were black with occasional flashes of orange. This was definitely not the man Daniel loved, and he knew it. It was weird but having that glaringly obvious difference made everything just that bit easier. There was no way he would confuse the two of them or get mixed up in his head about who was doing what.

"You're going to pass out again very soon, everyone does the first time they wake up from my particular brand of attack. When you wake up, you're going to have your motor skills back, so I'll warn you now, don't get any funny ideas about trying to escape or interfere with my work. Be a good boy, stay in your corner and be quiet and very soon this will all be nothing more than a memory," the entity said sternly.

Be good? Not try to interfere? Like hell! Daniel was going to do his darnedest to make the entity's job harder. There was no way he would allow that creature to just walk out with Ianto's body.

Just like the entity had predicted, Daniel felt himself starting to fade, but he needed to ask at least one question before he did. His voice might not work, but he managed to clumsily mouth the question. "Who are you?"

The entity looked thoughtful. "Well I normally wouldn't bother telling anyone because it would be of no consequence anyway, but since you're slightly less apish then the rest of the inhabitants of this planet, I guess I will answer your question. It would be interesting to see if your time with the Lantians taught you anything about me."

Daniel was fading fast, but he fought back the darkness of unconsciousness as long as he could to hear the answer. Maybe if he found out the entity's name it would trigger a memory from his time ascended and help him find a way to beat the creature and save Ianto. He had to find out now though because most of the flashes of memory he got came when he was asleep.

"My name is Agamemnon."

Daniel didn't recognise the name, but something about it triggered fear inside of him, and he could only assume it was from his time spent ascended. He held the name and the feelings that came with it in the front of his mind as consciousness left him, hoping like hell it would help bring a memory to the surface.

XX

When at last she had herself together enough, Tosh called Sam and asked her to have the Promethius ready to beam her up in a minute's time. After she'd explained that something was wrong with Ianto and what it was Jack hadn't asked any more questions. He'd had her brief Mickey on anything at the Hub that needed attention, went through the archives and found the files they had from their previous encounter with the device for her to take with her, then driven her straight to her house to pack a bag.

She hung up the phone then turned to face her boss. "Thank you for helping me, Jack," she said sincerely.

"You don't have to thank me for that, Tosh," Jack replied, reaching forward to pull her into a tight hug. "Good luck," he whispered into her hair, and Tosh could hear the worry and fear in his voice even though he was trying to hide his feelings from her.

She thanked him and before he could pull away said, "I'll find a way to save him, Jack. I won't let things go like they did last time…not to him."

"Thank you, Tosh," Jack replied, pulling back and giving her a soft kiss on the forehead. "You call me immediately if you need anything and … keep me updated, okay."

It wasn't often Jack let any of them see his emotions so plainly. Right then though his bright, blue eyes were all but screaming his concern at her. She knew there wasn't any chance that he'd be sleeping until she sent word that Ianto was okay, so she had no qualms about agreeing to call, whatever time of day, with news. "I will," she agreed readily. She knew what had gone down between Jack and Ianto from Ianto's point of view, but none of them had really heard the full story from Jack's and she doubted they ever would. Still, she wished she had some idea why Jack had done what he had. He clearly loved Ianto, so why push the other man away?

Her phone buzzed twice to let her know the Promethius was ready to beam her up, and she pulled back from Jack so he didn't accidentally get taken up with her. "I'll see you soon," she said moments before the Asgard beam took her up to the ship. She had only a moment to wave to the engineers on the Promethius before she was beamed down into the SGC, right into Jack's office.

The man was leaning in the doorway waiting for her, and he greeted her with a friendly but concerned smile. "It's nice to see you again, Tosh."

"You too, Jack, although I'm sure we'd all prefer it were under better circumstances," she replied.

He nodded in agreement and asked her to follow him to the briefing room where the meeting was about to take place. He took her bag as they walked through the corridor and handed it off to one of the maintenance staff, ordering him to take it to Teal'c's room. They arrived in the meeting room moments later, and seeing their arrival, everyone took seats around the table. One of the male scientists offered Tosh the seat he'd been previously occupying but she politely declined, knowing that if she sat down she might very well drift off.

Jack gave everyone a brief description about what was going on before asking Sam to play the surveillance video. One look at the device and Tosh knew it was exactly what she'd feared. It was so hard to keep her emotions in check being as tired as she was, and she had to cover her mouth to stifle a sob. She was about to leave the room to try to compose herself when a large, warm hand touched her shoulder, and she looked round to see Teal'c standing behind her. She turned around and cuddled into his chest, breathing in the scent of him that always calmed her down and using the aura of strength that surrounded him to bolster her for what was to come. She loved that man so much.

They played the clip twice before switching it off and turning the lights back on in the briefing room. Tosh took a deep, steadying breath and pulled out of Teal'c arms, but stayed close enough to him that she could feel the heat of his body on her back.

"Right, now that we've all had a chance to witness the horror, let's get on with rescuing our people," Jack announced, letting everyone present know that he was not giving up on either man and that they'd better not assume Ianto was already lost to them.

"If I may, General," Tosh called out. Jack motioned for her to go ahead and she placed the Torchwood File down on the table in front of her. "A few years ago, Torchwood encountered one of these devices. We never knew the proper name for it, but we nicknamed it the 'little box of horrors'," she began, feeling the energy in the room change immediately as they absorbed her words.

"It fell through the rift one afternoon. We never found out exactly where it came from, but of course we picked up the rift spike and went and collected it. It was Owen and I who were sent out to get it, and we were initially relieved that it was just a box rather than a weevil. Once we got it back and began to study it however, that quickly changed." She took a breath.

"The box seemed innocuous enough until one of our former team members, Suzie, came down to the lab to see what we'd found. As soon as she was within reaching distance of the thing a button just randomly showed up where none had been before." She saw Sam and Jack exchange a look across the table and assumed the same thing had happened here.

"She reached for it immediately but Captain Harkness, who had followed her down to the lab, caught her hand and pulled her away. She fought him for a moment, then it was almost as if she'd awoken from a dream. She stopped resisting and asked why he was holding on to her. Owen, our medic, checked her over and found nothing to explain her odd behaviour. The Captain had Ianto take the box away and hide it somewhere down in the archives where Suzie wouldn't be able to find it and instructed him only to tell Owen and I where it was so we could continue our analysis."

"Owen and I finished our analysis as well as we could, but without Suzie there nothing else happened with the box. Eventually, we filed our report and left it down in the archives where Ianto had hidden it, putting it down to one of those things we would never really understand. A few weeks passed without incident and Suzie was acting perfectly normally so after a last thorough check up by Owen, Suzie was once more cleared to be in the hub on her own." Here Tosh had to stop and get her bearings before she could continue, and she reached back for Teal'c's hand, drawing strength from her Jaffa lover.

"Then, one day, Suzie and Ianto were alone in the hub with two other relatively new staff members while the rest of us were out checking on another rift spike. Ianto was down in the archives showing the two new staff members around when they heard someone else down there. They went to investigate and found Suzie in the room where the box was hidden. Before they could stop her, she pressed the button and the thing began to glow. They saw the entity emerge from inside, and it immediately leapt into Suzie, taking control of her body." Again she paused, mentally noting the intent looks on the faces of her listeners.

"Ianto and the others shut the door and locked it, hoping to somehow contain the creature, at least for a short time. Ianto called the rest of us to come back and explained what had happened before he and the others decided to split up and head to different sections of the archives where we have different weapons stored in the hopes that they might find something to kill the creature and save Suzie."

Tosh stopped again and squeezed Teal'c's hand tighter, fighting back tears. "It took us just over half an hour to get back to the hub. In that time, using Susie's body, the creature had escaped, and one by one it had hunted everyone down and slaughtered them, and not in the clean sort of way your guest in there just did to that scientist." She stopped again and forced her mind away from the memory of the bodies so she could continue.

"Ianto knew the archives the best so he'd gone looking for the weapon that was the farthest in, knowing the others would probably get lost on their way back out. Because of that, it had found him last, and we managed to get to him in time to save him, although it took him months to recover properly. The Captain managed to get the creature into a room where we had a stasis field generator set up, and we trapped it in there while we worked on a weapon to kill it without killing Suzie. We eventually managed to alter something we had in the archives and were able to destroy the creature, but Suzie … she was never the same. She'd seen everything that had happened to her team mates, done by her own hands while she'd been powerless to stop it. We did everything we could to help her, and for a while it seemed like she was getting better … but she never did. She ended up killing herself a few months later."

Tosh felt the mood of the room darken further and she took a deep breath before continuing. "We originally thought it was the memories that had caused her to end it all, but a while later she came back, through a horrifying use of technology and had become homicidal and insane. Captain Harkness ended up having to kill her again before she hurt anyone else. When Owen did the autopsy on her, for the second time, he went more in-depth than he had the first time and he found that her body had changed. Her genetic structure was different, and it had affected everything about her body and mind. We never found out for sure why it had happened, but we surmised that the weapon we'd used to kill the entity had somehow done it to her, although there was no way to be certain."

"So that means you have a weapon capable of destroying this entity back at Torchwood?" one of the scientists asked.

Tosh shook her head with regret. "Not any more. The power required to use it burnt the weapon out after one shot," Tosh answered. "I have the plans we used to make the weapon, but I won't be using them unless it's absolutely necessary," she said sternly. She wouldn't sentence her best friend to death unless the world was at stake and there was absolutely no other option.

"And we wouldn't expect you to," Sam replied. "None of us want to see Ianto hurt. But I'm wondering if perhaps we might try reconstructing the weapon and doing some more in-depth testing to see what went wrong. Perhaps we could find a way to perfect it so it wouldn't damage Ianto. Some of the other technology we have available to us might help. And it would be a good idea to have the weapon around in case … in case it's needed," she added quietly.

Tosh turned tearful eyes on her blonde friend, "Sam, this is Ianto we're talking about."

"We know it is, Tosh," Jack said, drawing her attention to him. "And we will do everything we can to get him back. But that thing has Daniel trapped in there with him. He could do anything to him, and right now we are completely powerless to stop him. I don't want to have to sacrifice Ianto to save Daniel, but you know as well as I do that if that thing were to hurt or kill Daniel in Ianto's body with him watching the entire thing and unable to do anything to stop it, it would destroy him, far worse than how Suzie was affected. If it came down to it, and I was in Ianto's place, I'd rather someone kill me than allow me to hurt someone I care about, and I know he'd feel the same."

Tosh knew he was right, it didn't make it any easier to accept.

"We won't use it unless it's absolutely necessary," Jack promised, and though it hurt her to do it, Tosh nodded in agreement.

"All right, people, from Torchwood's experience we now know that we're potentially dealing with a homicidal killer, and we know what happened to the last person who was infested by one of these things. I think it goes without saying that we don't want that outcome for Ianto, and we need to find a way to get Daniel out of there before whatever that is decides to show his less charming side again."

Jack turned to look at Sam, "Carter, you and Tosh will start working on recreating the weapon and see what you can do to reduce it's less desirable side effects. The rest of you, I want you working on finding a way into that room and getting us a visual on what's happening in there. We're flying blind here, and I don't like it. Let's see what we can do about that. Dismissed."

He rose from his chair and headed out of the room with Sam, Teal'c and Tosh on his heels.

XX

It was the weirdest sensation; feeling your limbs move and not having any control over them. Ianto was pretty sure he'd never experienced anything weirder and more disconcerting in his life. The oddest part was not knowing when his body was going to be moved. Even something as simple as when his eyes were going to blink. For a normal person this would have been hard to handle, but for a control freak like Ianto it was torture.

When the entity had come at them it had hurt just like he'd expected it to. When he had felt the push against his mind he had immediately known what it had wanted, and remembering what had happened to Suzie, and not wanting Daniel to go through something so horrible, he'd opened himself to the invasion, offering his body as a vessel in the hope that Daniel might be spared. He'd seen the way the creature had killed the scientist. Compared to what the entity had done to the people back at Torchwood it had been a kind death and far preferable to what Ianto was most likely going to have to endure as its vessel. He figured there would be no way to save Daniel completely, so he opted for hopefully giving his love the less traumatic option.

After the entity had invaded his mind, the pain had been so intense that he had blacked out for a while. When he came to, it was to fully opened eyes in a very well-lit room with his limbs moving themselves around. It was very disconcerting. He'd been getting his bearings when he realised the entity was talking to someone with his mouth, and when his body turned around a moment later and his gaze fell on Daniel, alive, the relief and joy would have made him feel sick if his body had been reacting to his emotions at all.

Bolstered by the power of his love for the archaeologist, Ianto got to work on figuring a way to fight back against the entity. It was hard when you were a disembodied consciousness, but there had to be a way. He seemed to be floating around in empty space. All around him was nothing but darkness. He knew he was probably somewhere in his subconscious, but he couldn't figure out how to move from there to the conscious part of his mind.

When the creature finished talking to Daniel, who then lost consciousness, he felt an overwhelming urge to reach out and touch the man to ensure himself that Daniel was okay. When his hand responded slightly to his desire, he was more than a little surprised. Even more surprising was that the entity snatched his hand back and went about his business, but seemed to have no idea how the limb had moved. Did it think there was nothing of Ianto left to fight back?

For the next little while Ianto tried to do other things with his limbs; reaching out to knock over something the entity was reaching for or making him trip as he walked somewhere. The results weren't as good as the first time. Ianto could only surmise it was because he'd been desperate to touch Daniel, and that urge had given him more strength to overpower the entity than he had when he was trying to do other things. The more he tried though, the better the results, and it seemed that the entity was just putting it down to the human body being disobedient.

Ianto only had so much energy though. He wasn't sure how he knew that but he did, so after a little while he stopped interfering with the entity too much and worked on building up his strength in case he needed to do something big later on. If the entity attempted to hurt Daniel, Ianto would be ready to stop it.

XX

Jack was pleased to hear that the team of scientists had managed to get the security cameras working in the lab only a short time later. They'd hooked up a feed from the cameras to a group of screens in the briefing room so they could monitor the situation while they worked. Jack was pleased to note that while Daniel was lying on the floor not moving, he didn't appear physically injured. As for the entity, it was fiddling with the device it had been imprisoned in, but nobody could tell what it was doing to it.

Sam and Tosh were making good headway on recreating the weapon, analysing the data from the last time it was used as they went.

The engineers were no closer to getting the door open and for once Jack wished the base hadn't been so well constructed. He felt useless just sitting around, unable to help, so he did all he could to support the teams as they worked; organising coffee, food and all the sweets he could find to be brought to them as often as they might need. He also kept up a stoic front while the teams frantically worked, being the calm in the middle of the storm to help centre them when they needed it, which wasn't an easy task when inside all he felt was terror.

XX

Daniel wasn't sure how much later it was when he finally woke up, but in his dream he'd seen memories of his time as an ancient where people were talking about Agamemnon. He was an Ancient; not a good one though, a rogue like Anubis had been and just as dangerous. He'd ascended with one of the first batches of Ancients to go through the process, but while the others had used their newfound knowledge and enlightenment to better themselves mentally, Agamemnon had used it to conduct experiments on members of other races.

The already ascended Ancients refused to interfere, just like they had with Anubis. Those who hadn't ascended yet however, had constructed the prison and found a way to lure and trap him inside it. His ascended body had died during the process which was why he needed Ianto's body, while a normal ancient would just reform their own. It really annoyed Daniel how apathetic the Ancients had become. How much damage had Agamemnon done to other races before he'd been stopped? Anubis had certainly done a great deal, and still they refused to step in and stop him.

Daniel looked round when he heard Agamemnon muttering angrily to himself and leaned in closer to see if he could hear what the creature was saying. He couldn't make out much, but it seemed that whatever he was trying to achieve wasn't working out for him. Daniel knew how dangerous the entity could be when he was angry, and for his own safety he knew he shouldn't provoke him. At the same time though, provoking Agamemnon could delay whatever he was doing and hopefully buy Sam and the others time to find a way to save Ianto. Daniel knew they would be working on a way to beat the evil being, and he needed to help any way he could. Plus, if they were watching and listening to what was happening in the room, which they likely were, any information he could get out of Agamemnon could help them.

He winced as he pushed himself into a sitting position, glad that his limbs seemed to be working now as Agamemnon had told him they would. He was still terribly stiff and sore though, and he had to bite back a groan as he got himself settled against the wall. "Having trouble?"

Agamemnon growled, "This … thing, will not do as I tell it to."

"Sounds, frustrating," Daniel replied.

"It is indeed." Agamemnon turned around to face him. "So, former Lantian, do you know who I am?"

"Yes, I do, Agamemnon," Daniel replied. "You're a criminal."

"You say criminal, I say scientist," Agamemnon replied with a superior smirk. "After all, that's how science evolves. You can't get decent results without a few casualties."

"From what I hear you had more than a few casualties. You killed and maimed a very large number of people before the un-ascended Ancients caught you in that machine. How did they manage that by the way? I would have thought being an ascended being would have given you an edge over the un-ascended ones," Daniel asked, slipping just enough insolence into his voice to annoy the other being.

Agamemnon glared at him. "If you want to keep on living, Dr Jackson, I suggest you behave a little better," he warned. "I may have spared your life before, but nothing is stopping me from changing my mind and killing you. As for the casualties; they were stupid, un-evolved peons who lived a meaningless life on a rock of dirt and did absolutely nothing to further the universe. Being part of my experiments gave their miserable excuse for an existence meaning. And don't even bother judging me, you apes are no better."

"The last time I checked we stopped using people in experiments a very long time ago, and from what I can tell, we were far less evolved than you were when we did," Daniel countered.

"You stopped experimenting on each other, but what about the other creatures you experiment on to this day? You do that because you see them as less than you and that makes it okay for you. Well to me, you and your lot are well beneath me so why shouldn't I use you as subjects for my experiments? And don't bother replying because I don't care what you have to say." He turned back to the work station. "You're not going to distract me from my work, Dr Jackson, so why don't you just sit there and be quiet, like a good little ape, until I'm done."

Daniel leant back against the wall behind him and sighed in frustration. It seemed Agamemnon was going to be harder to antagonise than he had thought.

XX

"So where are we up to?" Jack asked as he entered the room where Sam and Tosh were working on the weapon. Tosh was currently sitting at the table with the largest cup of coffee he'd ever seen in her hand, with Teal'c sitting beside her, gently rubbing her back. She looked completely wiped out, and he felt really sorry for her. From what Teal'c had told him earlier, she had already had two very exhausting days and was operating on far less sleep than the rest of them. Sam was studying the device with an equally large cup of coffee in her hands and looked up as he entered the room

"We're almost finished, Sir," she replied, moving aside so he could see what looked like a large, black ball, covered in wires. She opened her mouth and took a deep breath the way he knew she always did when she was about to launch into a long-winded explanation he'd never understand anyway, and he held his hand up to her mouth to stop her.

"Carter, you know there's no point saying what you're about to say, so just tell me whether it'll work or not."

"It'll work, Sir, but we're still trying to determine whether it was the weapon that caused the genetic alterations to Suzie's body," Sam replied.

"Any progress?" he asked.

"Honesty, Sir, I can't see how it could cause genetic alterations, but we still have more tests to run," she explained. "And if it wasn't the weapon that caused them, what was it?"

Jack nodded. "Well, at least in the mean time we have a usable weapon. Now we just have to figure out a way to get it in there if we have to."

"Actually, Sir, I had an idea about that too."

XX

As the day wore on Daniel did his best to antagonise Agamemnon and distract him from his work as much as possible. The fact that the work didn't seem to be progressing at all helped the cause greatly because the more failures Agamemnon experienced the more frustrated he got and the easier it was to distract him.

The one thing Daniel hadn't brought up was Ianto. He'd been intending to work a question about Ianto into the conversation, which might have given Daniel some indication about whether or not his love's consciousness was still in there somewhere or if Agamemnon had wiped it out. He'd been trying to think of how to ask without it being too obvious when he noticed Agamemnon's hand do something he clearly hadn't meant for it to do. The Ancient grumbled about human bodies being disobedient and went back to his work, but Daniel had kept watching and then, out of nowhere, he saw Agamemnon's hand make a gesture behind the creature's back that was clearly meant for only Daniel to see. It wasn't something many people would understand, but Daniel did, and he knew that meant Ianto was still in there.

Words couldn't describe the relief he felt at that moment. It was so overwhelming that he had to sit back and take a minute to compose himself so Agamemnon wouldn't realise that something had changed. He sat in silence for several minutes getting his emotions under control before he started badgering Agamemnon again. Now that he knew Ianto was alive, Daniel was more intent than ever on keeping Agamemnon as distracted as he could so the Ancient being wouldn't finish his task and leave, taking Ianto with him.

It was a fine line he had to walk to keep Agamemnon distracted but not get him angry enough to actually attack him. Now that he knew for sure Ianto was in there, he didn't want his love to have to watch as the entity attacked and killed him. He knew what seeing that would do to Ianto, and he didn't want to put Ianto through something that traumatising. He walked the fine line as long as he could; he was nothing if not good at talking to people, even when they had no interest in what he was saying.

Unfortunately, he could see that Agamemnon's failures were starting to really wear on the Ancient, and Daniel didn't think it would be long before the entity snapped. He just hoped the others would find a way to help them before then.

XX

Of all the races they'd met on their travels through the gate, very few annoyed Jack as much as the Tolan. They were arrogant, selfish and condescending, and he knew that Narim was sweet on Sam. Sam, of course, couldn't tell anyone she was taken, and because she had no reason to be unkind to Narim, she continued to be nice to him. Jack knew Sam had made it clear that she was only interested in his friendship, but Narim continued to act all doe eyed whenever she was around which irked Jack immensely.

Right now however, they needed Narim's help and his interest in Sam would hopefully help their cause. They'd explained what the issue was and assured him that they didn't want to take or copy his technology, merely borrow it. They promised him that he could set up and operate the device and be there to oversee everything they did with it. Jack also went to great pains to remind Narim that they had saved the Tolan, at least three times now, and that without them the Tolan would have all been wiped out.

Still, Narim, the paranoid bugger, was sitting there like the queen making them stew while he 'thought' about it, and it was only because Jack had no other way of getting in to save Daniel and Ianto that he hadn't lost his mind and kicked the smug bastard straight back through the Stargate.

"Narim, please," Sam urged. "We don't want your technology, we just want to save our people." She turned the imploring eyes thing she did so well on him and for a moment, Jack almost felt sorry for Narim … almost.

"All right," he agreed. "As long as I control the device while it's here and it doesn't leave my possession, I will allow the use of our technology."

"Thank you, Narim," Sam said gratefully, and Jack would have liked to be able to muster some of that gratitude for the other man too, but he just couldn't after the way Narim had made them squirm over something that shouldn't have been an issue to start with.

"Right, so we have our weapon and a way to get it into the room," Jack stated. "Carter, Tosh, how are you doing with your study of the weapon?" he asked, and Sam looked at him with exasperation before replying.

"Honestly, Sir, we still can't find anything in the make-up of the weapon that would cause the genetic changes found in the previous victim."

"Which then begs the question of what caused them."

"Yes, Sir," Sam replied.

Jack nodded. "Any sign that what's his name is any closer to finishing … whatever he's doing?" he asked the other scientists that had been watching the footage but had been called in for the meeting.

"No, Sir. He doesn't seem to be making any progress," one of the scientists, Jack was pretty sure was called Jane, replied.

"That's good," he replied, glad that something seemed to be going their way.

"Actually, Sir, I'm not so sure it is," she disagreed. "The more failures Agamemnon seems to experience the angrier he gets. We're concerned that he may soon need an outlet for that anger," she explained.

"And the only outlet available to him is Daniel," Jack continued for her, showing he understood her concern and shared it. Jane nodded, and Jack sighed. He didn't want to give the order to use the device, but he needed to have it ready in case Daniel's life was threatened. He cared a great deal for Ianto, but he couldn't allow the entity to harm Daniel. "Carter, take Narim and the device down to the science lab and get everything ready in case we need to get in there quickly. We won't take that route unless we have to," he added at the horrified look on Tosh's face. "But we need to be ready in case we do. The rest of you keep at it, report any changes to me immediately. Dismissed."

They all filed from the room looking worried and dejected, except for Tosh who hadn't left her seat. He moved over to sit beside her and reached up to grip her shoulder gently. "I know what Ianto means to you, Tosh. We all care a great deal for him and you know that. If there is any other way we will take it, but if that entity tries to hurt Daniel we have to be ready. You know as well as I do that if Ianto has to watch that thing hurt Daniel it will destroy him."

Tosh nodded, not looking at him. "I know," she replied tearfully. "I usually deal with this sort of thing better; it's a part of my job just like it's a part of yours. But I'm tired and … and it's Ianto," she finished, finally turning her tear-filled gaze to Jack. "I know Ianto would never recover if his body was used to attack Daniel. I know he would rather die, and it would be the kindest thing to do for him. I just have to remind myself that my feelings don't matter right now." She wiped her eyes and stood up from the table. "I'll go and help Sam set up."

"You don't have to do that," Jack said quietly. "You're exhausted, Tosh, you need some rest."

"I know I don't, but I will, for Ianto's sake. Besides, I don't think any of us are going to be sleeping until this is over." She gave him a grateful smile and left the room.

Jack sighed. Sometimes it really sucked to be the boss.

XX

Daniel scanned the room for anywhere he might be able to hide. Agamemnon was getting angrier with every passing moment, and Daniel was pretty sure that any second now that anger was going to be turned on him. After a few moments of looking around he gave up that idea and started looking around for something he could use to defend himself with. The idea of hurting Ianto was physically painful to him, but he had to remind himself that it wasn't Ianto he'd be facing right now.

Then a thought occurred to him. If Agamemnon was inside someone's body then perhaps he was bound by the same rules as a flesh and blood person, and maybe, if he was quiet enough, Daniel could sneak up behind the entity while he was occupied and give him a good whack across the head. An unconscious Agamemnon was better than a ranting one. Of course, the being could just jump out of Ianto's body into Daniel's, but at least then he'd be out of Ianto's body.

Glancing around, Daniel spotted a heavy looking lamp on one of the other desks. If he could get that perhaps it would be good enough. Doing his best not to make any noise that would be heard over Agamemnon's angry muttering, Daniel slowly slipped over to the desk and grabbed the lamp, testing the weight of it and then looking to see where it was plugged in. He found the outlet under the desk and pulled it out as quietly as he could, watching Agamemnon the entire time. When at last it was free, he wrapped the cord up so it wouldn't knock against anything and give him away. Holding it in one of his hands he picked up the lamp, careful not to make any noise, and began to inch closer to Agamemnon.

He had to applaud himself for how quiet he managed to be, although with Agamemnon muttering angrily the whole time he did have an advantage. As he was nearly close enough to strike, he raised the lamp ready and was just about to bring it down when Agamemnon swung around and grabbed the lamp in one hand and Daniel's throat in the other.

"Oh, Doctor, doctor, doctor, and to think I was going to spare your life." he snarled, yanking the lamp out of Daniel's grip and tossing it away. "It was silly of me to be kind, after all you've been one of those Lantians, and they've always been a thorn in my side." Daniel struggled to get free as Agamemnon pushed him back against a wall and lifted his other hand, a ball of orange energy sizzling to life in his palm. "This may look like a quick death, but I guarantee you, every moment of it will be excruciating. You should have just sat there and behaved yourself."

For a moment the hand on his throat tightened and Daniel felt himself getting faint. He clawed at Agamemnon's hand ineffectually, mentally chastising himself for forgetting how strong a human could become when possessed by an Ancient. He closed his eyes not wanting to see Ianto's beautiful eyes filled with that horrid orange glow as he was dying.

Then, out of nowhere, the hand that had been holding him let go and Daniel heard Agamemnon's enraged scream. He opened his eyes to see the hand that had been about to strike him with that orange energy now turned back toward Agamemnon and the energy going into him instead. The energy cut off abruptly and Agamemnon looked momentarily confused before trying to lunge at Daniel again, only for one of his hands to reach out and grab the other, keeping him from using his energy on anyone but himself.

"What is happening?" Agamemnon screeched. "Why is this body fighting me?"

Daniel was still gasping and coughing, his throat feeling like it had been in a vice. He didn't know what to do. Was there something on the device that could suck Agamemnon back inside of it? He crawled toward it while Ianto kept Agamemnon busy, aware that it might not last long. He was almost to the device when he heard a strange noise behind him. Turning back to see what it was he was shocked to see the door of the science lab rippling. Moments later a trolley rolled through the door with what looked like a globe covered in wires sitting on it. Daniel only had a moment to wonder what it was before a bright, white light filled his vision.

He shut his eyes against the assault and covered them with his hands when that still didn't seem to help him. Before he had time to process anything else, he felt hands grabbing him and afraid that it was Agamemnon he struck out trying to get free. The arm he used was held too tightly to move at all though, and he was starting to panic when he heard, "Be still, Daniel Jackson, I am taking you to safety," in Teal'c's deep, soothing voice. Daniel still couldn't see so he allowed Teal'c to all but carry him from the room and throw him on what felt like a stretcher.

"Ianto?" he asked anxiously, not sure who was around to hear him.

"We are retrieving, Ianto Jones now," Teal'c replied and before Daniel could ask anything else, he felt a sharp sting in his hand and he was slipping into unconsciousness.

XX

Ooh! What's going to happen to Ianto now? Only time will tell. Please review, I'd love to know what you thought and if you're still following after all of this time. I hope you're staying safe in the current crisis. I'm fortunate to live in Queensland Australia and we're kicking Corona's ass here. Of course we're coming into flu season now and the powers that be think it's a good idea to send the youngest kids back to school. I personally don't agree, I'm keeping my boy home for a while longer, but I know most of them have gone back. Anyway, fingers crossed we're not setting ourselves up for catastrophic problems further down the track!

Take care everyone.

Kayla