Nesert

3.30

"I am very pleased to see both of you doing so well," Lantash said as they came through the gate on the new Tok'ra homeworld and began to make their way to the city in a small transport vehicle. "But by your faces, I'm guessing this visit isn't simply to catch up."

"No, but perhaps there's somewhere more private where we can talk."

"Of course. My personal quarters are in the next building."

They followed him to his rooms and all sat together to talk. Nes was still hesitant, but Kevin encouraged her to be honest with the Tok'ra and she finally dove right in. Nes reminded him of how things had been with Sekhmet, the things she had shared with him when Kevin had been his host. She went further then and explained her suspicions and how Alpha's same attempt confirmed to her what she really was.

"So this Adaar, this former host of Ba'al, he is still on Earth in hiding?"

"Yes. He's like how I was at the beginning, though, struggling to fight everything left by Alpha." She looked down at the ground. "Not that I do a particularly excellent job of fighting Sekhmet now."

"Nes, you've come a long way." Kevin put his arm around her.

Lantash leaned back in his chair. "It really is fascinating, though. Had we known...we may have even encouraged the creation of She'kets. You had done such an excellent job of impersonating Sekhmet."

"I also killed a lot of people and nearly lost myself in the process."

"Of course." Lantash dipped his head in an apology. "And Ba'al knows now that you are not Sekhmet."

"Yes...I was an idiot."

"And he wants revenge..." Lantash looked up at the ceiling as he pondered. "Perhaps we can set a trap for him this time."

"Using Nes as bait...no." Kevin gave Lantash a stern look. "We're not going to risk her getting captured or killed."

"Kevin," Nes put a hand on his leg, "I'm at more risk if we don't catch him."

He held her gaze for several moments. "I don't like this."

"You don't have to. You just have to see that it's our best option."

***

When they left, it was with plans to have Lantash come to the SGC the next week where hopefully they'd be able to have a meeting with all involved parties and figure out the best way to trap Ba'al.

General Landry was open to discussing all options and so the NID was contacted and everything arranged for all to beam up to the orbiting Apollo.

"I still don't like this, Nes," Kevin said as they walked to the conference room aboard the ship. "Ba'al is going to know it's a trap."

"He'll either think it's a trap or think we're being supremely overconfident. Either way, he's not going to pass up a chance like this."

Kevin grabbed her arm and turned her toward him. "Nes...if he gets a hold of you again..."

"But we can't live like this. We need to try."

He nodded sadly. "I know."

The meeting was surprisingly short, everyone in agreement both that something needed to be done and that the rough plan they'd come up with had a good chance of success. It was awkward seeing Adaar, especially with Kevin finding it impossible not to glare, but he looked good. He seemed more relaxed than he had in the past and she hoped he'd had more success lately in finding himself, unburying Adaar from Ba'al and Alpha.

The next week Nes beamed herself down to her old house on the Potomac with Kevin carefully monitoring her from the al'kesh.

It was eerie being in the dimly lit rooms, the memories all flooding back of a time that felt so long ago. She went down to the hidden basement and got everything up and running, avoiding the room where she'd tortured Alpha, not because it was a bad memory, but because it was still such a good one.