There was nothing. The darkness of some form of hell possessed a strangle hold upon the air. The wind was absent, the land barren. Unseen whispers and people moved in and out of the plane, giving the land a forbidden feel. Shadowy movements slithered through the range of vision, making illusions and shadows of shadows. The lack of oxygen gave the land as much life as the vacuum of space. It was enough to drive even the most bold and iron-willed to their knees with madness.

Suddenly, light gave birth to something in the midst of the dark, brooding chaos. A swirling mass of energies and fire erupted to life. The shadows froze, light hitting them for the first time. Millions of faces appeared in half shadow, all eyes watching the intruding forces. A single form rocketed out of the new portal, one side glowing like a dying firework. The hyperspace window hissed and swirled into nothing. The being from the "sky" fell and slammed into the ground. The noise was mysteriously dampened. A torrent of blood arched from the glowing arm, which seemed to be broken in several places. The figure, which proved to be a man, Havoc, screamed in the tantalizing silence. Steam and furious tongues of energy based flame arched from his arm. He looked up with blurry eyes.

The floating forms glided closer and closer to him, like specters on the wind. Faces and unblinking eyes stared down at him, eyeing his face and arm with impassive expressions. Havoc tried to speak. To say anything. If the lack of blood didn't kill him, the hell he had fallen into. The vacuum gripped his lungs and twisted them, making each breath a wave of pain and misery. His glowing arm was horribly warm, the heat enough to melt flesh, but his arm just sat there. A voice above him spoke.

"To even the darkest soul, there can be promise of the light…"

Havoc looked higher. A shadowy robbed man stood tall over him, eyes boring down into his silver ones. He was old, face lined with canyons and waves of wrinkles. His face was worn, but his eyes were light. Havoc tried to speak again, but this time, barbed wire gripped his lungs, keeping each breath in the tolerance of pain. He looked up again.

"To here, one must come for the final test… to be worthy of our greatest might… You have brought yourself to a pass. May you go to the light of ascension…?" The man motioned to the arm, which was now glowing brighter. "Or bring redemption to your friends and be rewarded with death…" Havoc stared into the man's eyes. He may not like the ascended, but to leave his friends hanging… it was unacceptable.

"I… choose… redemption…" Havoc whispered. He slammed his head into the ground, coughing up blood. The shadowy figures dissipated, but the voice remained.

"Here you shall stay for five days… but take heed… for each day in the human plane, you shall suffer 2000 years of pain and misery until… the change has been made…"

And so began his 10,000 years of training in hell…

XXX

Rain splattered on the window, icy waters sloppily exploding on the stained glass. Outside, the world was grey. Weir sat on the sill, staring into the torrent of water. The wind was blowing, giving the rain a cold, frozen sting. She felt the cold creeping in through the edges of the glass, chilling her skin. She shivered and blinked. They had started sending Athosians and scientists through the Gate. In two days, when the Wraith came, they would detonate the city. Fifteen ships wasn't a fight. It was a slaughter. Havoc had been gone for five days and she was beginning to think he was dead. From what Sheppard had told her, at the rate he was falling, hyperspace window or not, he was going to be… she didn't like to think about it.

Havoc's brother knew that the chances of survival were limited. It was only a matter of time before the DNA collapse would kill him anyway. He had comforted Teyla, who seemed to get depressed when Havoc's plight became apparent to her. Rekhyt's eyes held some hope, however, but it wouldn't last. Weir assigned him to guard the escaping humans at the alpha site. He wished to stay and fight to the death for his home, but Weir gave him an order. His suppressed soldier instincts kept him quiet after that. Right now, Rodney and Rekhyt were trying to find some form of Ancient weaponry that Havoc had warned them about. So far, they had nothing.

The silence was broken by Rekhyt walking up behind her, footsteps clanging on the metallic floor. She turned to face him. He had a smile on his face and several books in his hand. He jutted one into Weir's chest. She grabbed it and looked at the blank cover. She looked back up.

"What is this?"

"Myths and Legends…"

"Rodney and I figured that, one of the final weapons…"

"The Alignment Cannon…" Rodney interrupted. Rekhyt continued.

"…matches in excruciating detail with one of the myths of the Ancients. It read: 'From the depths of the highest tower, the son of darkness and light shall reap the universe, using the blade of ascension to align the universal balance…' and so on and so forth… The important thing is that the database didn't have anything, because the weapons were so classified, that the only way to leave a trace of their existence was to hide them in books of myth. And I may have found the next two weapons."

"With my genius help of course…" Rodney said with a smile. Sheppard looked like he was ready to hit him. Teyla was watching the soldier intently, Ronon listening closely. Weir sat in her office chair, staring out the window, absorbing the information.

"Maybe you've heard of the Leviathan…?" Rekhyt asked.

"Yeah… I remember that from Bible classes…" Sheppard said, hand in his hair as he tried to remember the old information. "The Leviathan was a dragon created by God to rule the seas until the Day of Judgment when he would be hacked down by the angels of God… The serpent of redemption…"

"So it's another dragon…" Ronon said, eyes calculating.

"It's got to be a form of ship…" Rodney whispered.

"Glad to see someone knows what I'm talking about…" Rekhyt sighed. Teyla shook her head and looked up at Rekhyt.

"What of the other weapon?" Rekhyt stared down at her.

"I want to warn you now; the other weapon is probably the most dangerous of the bunch. It's labeled, The Final Gate… Supposedly, this Gate has eleven chevrons, each one connecting to a different galaxy. It will open every Gate ever made simultaneously. It's connected to a smaller, but more powerful version of the alignment cannon. Think of it like a universal delete key…"

"Eleven galaxies…?" McKay asked eyes wide. Rekhyt sighed and looked at the floor.

"You humans have gotten yourselves into something so big; it's beyond your feeble comprehension. If I told you all I know, you would live your lives in constant fear. You'd be afraid to breathe because of what I know. Havoc knew that, and he tried to help. Now he's dead. Best deal with this plane of existence before you meddle in the higher powers." Rekhyt growled, eyes growing flinty. He turned to step into the control room and looked back. "The weapons are on this planet, I'm sure, but for now, let me think."

The conversation was cut short by a sharp whistling alarm from a control panel. Rekhyt and the others ran into the room. He leapt over a control console and tapped a crystal. The screen flared red and Rekhyt sighed. Sheppard and McKay looked at him with confused faces.

"What?" They both asked. Rekhyt looked up, obviously annoyed.

"You idiots used the Alignment Cannon at critical condition, didn't you?"

"Uh… yeah…"

"Ego indaeo dormáta…" Rekhyt groaned, running a hand through his hair. The proximity alarm behind him wailed and the radar showed darts, thousands of the little bastards flying right for them.

"Engage shield!" Weir yelled. Rekhyt shook his head and pressed a crystal.

"Duh… Do you think I want to be blown up?" He grumbled, making Weir blush and look away. Something rumbled and everything grew quiet. Weir looked around.

"What happened…?" Rodney checked the shields.

"Shields are up, but nothing's hitting them… Wait! The darts are heading… away? To the… west…" He said confused. Elizabeth, Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, Rekhyt, and Rodney all took a chance and walked single file to the balcony. The rainbow shield flickered overhead, and the dome was holding. But all the darts were circling around a huge glowing spot in the water.

"What the hell is that?" John questioned, squinting at the form under the waves. Rekhyt's eyes grew wide.

"We awoke the Guardian…"

"What…?"

"'And from the depths of the water he shall come with impassive hunger, to devour the shadows and bring the great age. The day of redemption is his bane, the angels of death showing his gate way. All beings are the merest playthings for a god such as him…'" Rekhyt quoted. As he spoke, the water began to swirl and drain into a portal deep in the ocean. Rumbling ascended from the darkness. "'He comes on swift wings, the harbinger of death… Leviathan Omega…'" At that name, a piercing roar unlike anything heard before exploded from the crevice, which had grown over a mile long. Darts flew over, hypnotized. Something emerged. Teyla sucked in a breath.

The computers in the control room and the pad in Rodney's pocket began to squeal. A gigantic dragon head, comprised of beautiful crimson scales of metal began to arch out. Just the head dwarfed the Daedalus. The head of the dragon was crowned with two huge horns, energy jumping from each one. A long neck of crimson metal arched behind it, bottom white. A gigantic body followed through the whole, titanic wings folded over to fit through. Golden claws glittered in the light, making the humans wince. A mile long tail of glowing spikes followed. The hole in the water began to close. The darts began to fire on the Leviathan, not having much of an effect. The eyes of the beast were still closed. Before the opening in the water was gone totally, what looked like a comet or meteor rocketed out and curved towards the balcony. It slipped through the shield with relative ease, heading right for them. Everyone flinched. There was a bright flash of light and hot embers floated past them. They looked up. Havoc stood in front of them, feet gripping the edge of the balcony. He sneered down at them.

"I bring you all greeting from the ascended plane!" He laughed. Teyla felt the pressure in her chest lift at the sight of him. Havoc jumped down off the edge and landed in front of Sheppard. "Look… I know this is slightly unexpected and that I should be dead, but you just can't keep a good man down, eh?" Rekhyt nodded and suddenly rushed forward and slammed a data crystal into Havoc's neck. Havoc screamed as lightning leapt out of his neck and Rekhyt jumped back. A figure materialized next to Havoc. His shadow half, now flesh and bone stood next to him. They looked at each other and scratched their heads. Shadow Havoc looked at his hands and his wings.

"Well this is certainly unexpected. I thought we would merge… Hrm… most perplexing…"

"You're confused!" Havoc yelled, rubbing his sore neck. "What the hell was that for?" Rekhyt looked at Elizabeth sheepishly.

"It was supposed to work…" They were interrupted by a sudden explosion. The ship roared again. Havoc frowned and spun around. The Leviathan had opened its wings, miles of fiber optic pipes and crystals shined instead of scales. A tail of spikes swatted at the darts like flies. The eyes shone gold with dagger pupils staring back. A humongous voice thundered out.

"I NEED TO USE IT!" Havoc sneered again. He yelled back with equal intensity.

"Go ahead, Marty… Fire the cannon!" The humans covered their ears. The dragon ship nodded and leapt into the air. A titan of a shadow covered the city as the dragon landed clumsily on the pier, the shield making a hole large enough to break through. Two rods of metal slammed down into the structure, grinding through the metal. The scales on the neck bristled and expanded. The mouth opened as the eyes went to white out and a barrel jutted out of the maw. Energy collected in the teeth. A swirling ball of darkness split the sky, lightning and thunder striking the shield, making the entire city spark. The doomsday weapon prepared to fire…

The Leviathan exploded; shockwave upon shockwave tore the ship to bits, the entire dragon shattering. The fiery explosion sent a deadly wall of shrapnel into the towers, rebounding off the shield, causing horrid damage. The main tower creaked and shuddered. The pier became an embedded crater. Havoc's eyes became flinty, wide, and feral. His face was impassive as his friend and best hope for salvation became metallic confetti. Rekhyt stood impassive, as did Shadow Havoc. The humans were in shock. Havoc suddenly sank to the ground, his mouth leaking blood. He gasped for air. Rekhyt also looked sick. Havoc wobbled up, with help from Ronon and Teyla. He stared into the sky of darts, his eyes blurred and out of focus.

Rekhyt screamed something and pushed the humans and his bro out of the way as a sphere of light arched down from the sky, slamming him in the chest. Shadow Havoc yelled as something similar hit him. They both began to glow and bleed horribly. Havoc snarled and looked up. A single ascended form floated above them. The impassive pyramid of light spoke.

"Abicierum vivendum…"

Rekhyt and Shadow Havoc exploded in violent light. Havoc understood what the being said…

It had just killed them…

"You are pathetic… just as your dragon brother... as if training in hell for over ten thousand years wasn't enough… You shall not watch the salvation of humankind… We summoned the Wraith here to destroy what is most precious to you, and we will not tolerate and interference..."

A weak and bleeding Havoc started to laugh.

"Heh… Heh… You made one mistake… I learned something from my years in hell, preserving my body and mind for so long…" He said, beginning to glow red. A shockwave issued out at high speed. The form dissolved, screaming. Havoc's voice whispered over the abyss.

"I choose and control my own fate… my fate to die with honor and a smile…"