Nesert

3.16

It turned out the clones had killed six people at the SGC and she could feel the desperate desire for revenge from everyone. Agent Barrett recovered fairly quickly from the brainwashing. Nes suspected the clones didn't do a particularly thorough job, just planting the instructions for their plan, not making him a willing participant loyal to Ba'al.

Once Barrett was back to work, Nes knew he would go after Ba'al, the clones, and The Trust with a vengeance and she began to fear for Adaar. She finally admitted to herself that she needed to speak with Adaar and possibly convince him to reveal his true nature to the NID, or at least just Agent Barrett.

Nes dug out the phone to text Adaar and that evening she got a reply. He agreed to meet her at the same cafe they'd met at before, but not until that weekend when it would be easier for him to sneak away.

This time, she arrived first and Adaar found her.

"How long have you been back?" he asked as he sat down across from her.

Nes looked up from the menu, her body immediately tensing with Adaar's voice. "Just a few days."

"Let me guess. You noticed all of them coming back to Earth."

She turned her voice to ice. "Why didn't you deal with Kappa and Theta, Adaar?"

His face went hard and his eyes narrowed at her. "There's been no opportunity. The two of them have been mostly offworld."

Nes breathed out slowly and glanced up at the sky for a few moments. "Was this Ba'al's plan or Kappa's?"

"Both. Ba'al came across references to Merlin's weapon in some of Anubis' research, but tasked Kappa with figuring out how to get the list of gate addresses from Stargate Command."

"He did an excellent job, unfortunately."

"Yes, I heard." His voice was an odd mix of pride and despair, the personalities warring even as he spoke.

"They know I'm alive now."

Adaar snapped his head up. "What? How? They didn't say anything about you."

"I was trying to figure out their plan. It was stupid."

"Yes, it was."

"Kappa mentioned maybe not telling Ba'al about me being alive just yet. Said Theta deserved some...time with me first. Revenge and such."

Adaar took a deep breath. "You cannot let them find you, Nes. Theta...Ba'al tortured him to death over and over." He brought a hand to his face and then looked back up. "You're going to have to go back to Ba'al. Explain about Kappa, Theta, and Iota trying to kill you. He'll take you back. He'll protect you."

"Adaar, you know what that would mean for me. Ba'al would own me from that point on. He'd never let me out of his sight again. I can't."

"And Theta getting his hands on you is better? Nes..."

"I'm not going back to Ba'al. I won't, Adaar."

He clenched his jaw. "Fine."

"Now, the reason I asked to meet you is because the NID and Agent Barrett are likely to go after The Trust harder now. They'll kill you, Adaar."

"So...what? You want me to hide?"

"No...I think we should tell them what we are."

He slapped his menu down. "They'll lock us up. Me especially."

"No. We'll just tell Agent Barrett...and Colonel Carter. She trusts me. And then you can feed information to the NID when you can."

"Spy."