Disclaimer: 'Stargate' and 'Harry Potter' both belong to their respective creators, so I don't own them; I'm just borrowing them for the immediate moment in time and space

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Truth and Revelations

Some miles away, at approximately the same time as Daniel Jackson's subconscious seemed determined to plague him with images of his past failures to protect those he cared for, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex that housed the headquarters of Stargate Command appeared to be as peaceful as a billion-dollar facility could ever hope to be.

The usual soldiers stood on guard at the entrance, staring around themselves as they held their rifles ready in their hands in the event of an attack on the facility from Earth, while, deep inside the mountain, the normal technicians and scientists stood at their positions, monitoring the Stargate in the event of unauthorised use of the 'gate from offworld, or if one of the several SG teams came back from their current mission of exploration or negotiation on another planet.

However, it was doubtful that either situation would arise at the present; SG-6, SG-13, and SG-21 were currently off-planet, but none of them were due to report back until noon the next day. Apart from that, their missions were simple diplomatic and archaeological missions; the chances of them running into any trouble and needing to come back earlier were so slim as to be impossible.

As for the possibility of alien attack via the Stargate itself, while it was undoubtedly a possible issue, it was nevertheless rather unlikely. Following the recent destruction of the Ori beachhead (The same event that had led to the reformation of SG-1), the current invaders seemed to have retreated for the present, and the few remaining active Goa'uld were unlikely to attempt something as foolish as an attack on the very planet that had ended the lives of so many System Lords.

Unfortunately, as the SGC were soon to learn, there were alternative means of breaching the facility's defences that didn't involve those that they were aware of.

A few hundred metres down the tunnel leading into the base, just out of sight of the nearest guards and security cameras, there was a brief distortion in the air, and suddenly a small group of people, consisting of no more than maybe two dozen men and women were standing in the corridor, dressed in long black robes and wearing a skull-like mask under their hoods, their faces in shadow. A few of them carried variously-sized trunks, some apparently containing clothing and other personal possessions (Judging by the sleeves that almost seemed to be 'spilling' out of the lids), while a couple of the boxes were slightly smaller, and occasionally shook in a manner that had nothing to do with the people carrying them.

One man, already casually taking in his surroundings, stood slightly ahead of the others, and appeared to be the leader of the group; he wore no mask, although his face was still concealed by the robe he wore. The upper part of his face was totally overshadowed by the robe, although a pair of gleaming red eyes, with hints of gold in the irises, were visible underneath the hood of the robe.

The lower part of his face, however, was clearly visible even in the dim light of the tunnel, although what could be seen of it was hardly a normal human face; the lips appeared nonexistent, and his skin was remarkably pale, as though he had never been out in the sunlight. This idea of his lack of sunlight was reinforced by his hands, which had such long, thin fingers that they almost seemed to be the legs of a large spider, and were just as pale as what could be seen of his face. Together, his hands and eyes almost gave the man the appearance of a sun-starved corpse that had been somehow reanimated, although the man himself still appeared to be breathing regardless of how much he looked like a corpse that had decided to take a walk for some reason.

"We are here," he said in a casual tone of voice, as though he had expected nothing less, turning to look back at his followers with a small smile on his face. As he spoke, his voice had an unusual tone about it; it seemed to possess a deep, almost metallic tone to it, and there was an almost echo-like sound to it, as though a second person was talking through the man.

However, none of the other men appeared to be especially concerned by their leader's unusual voice, and simply looked at him as though waiting for him to come to a decision. Only one man was an exception to the general rule of patience, and even he merely sighed slightly as he stared around the tunnel, his body language making it clear that he saw little point in any of them being here.

"My Lord, why did we have to apparate to this point; we have barely gone any distance into the facility," he asked, apparently glaring at his leader, although the mask made it hard to tell. "I believe you said that what we seek is in the lower levels of this construct-"

"And I have little idea as to how it would be affected by such a thing as apparition taking place in close proximity to it, and would prefer not to take the chance when it is not absolutely necessary," the leader said, turning to glare at the man who had spoken. "It is a remarkable piece of technology, but it is technology nevertheless; magic may have a negative impact on it, and I would prefer not to risk damaging the artefact before we have had a chance to implement my plan."

The man simply stared back at him for a moment, and then nodded in an accepting manner.

"Of course, my lord," he said, his tone respectful once more. "I apologise for doubting the wisdom of your plan."

The leader wasn't fooled, of course; he knew very well that the man still wasn't entirely happy about having to follow him once again. After all, the only reason this man was following him was for revenge for what his former student had done to his reputation.

After the final conflict, the man may have been forced to operate in secret, and under an alias, but he'd nevertheless made some kind of a life for himself following the war, and he was doubtless uncertain about giving it up for a mission that the leader had been remarkably unforthcoming about the purpose of.

Still, the leader of the group was hardly concerned about such a trivial matter as the present commitment of his subjects; it hardly mattered to him how many of them followed him all the way or simply part of the way.

Soon, he would have access to resources that none of his old foes and allies could have ever dreamed of…

And from there…

He chuckled.

Even the group that controlled what he had come here for would have trouble trying to stop him after that, assuming they could even find him in the first place after he'd used it…

It had taken him eight years to get this far- hampered by details such as sorting out his new memories and trying to regain what remained of his old army, to say nothing of reacquiring his original abilities and appearance- but, at last, after the information acquired from some of his… ignorant and unsuspecting contacts, as he liked to think of the people who had told him about this project… he was ready to expand his power beyond anything he had possessed in the past.

Of course, it didn't exactly hurt knowing that he was now significantly harder to kill than he had been in the past, even without his original… security measures, for lack of a better term.

As he glanced around the tunnel, he gestured to his followers to be ready to strike, and the majority of them pulled out their weapons- those near the various trunks continued holding on to them instead-, staring around themselves for anything that may need to be shut down if they were going to get to their destination relatively undetected.

"Remember; stay silent, move carefully, and only disrupt the security cameras; don't destroy them," the leader said, glaring back critically at his followers. "If anyone destroys something, these people may work out that someone was in here; simply disrupt the cameras in the manner I have instructed, and it is unlikely anything will be noticed unless we give these people a reason to look closer."

The group nodded briefly in understanding, and the leader grinned as he continued to advance deeper into the facility. He noted a camera up on one wall, but just smiled and launched a brief blast at it; the image the camera received would be stuck on a loop based on the scene a few seconds ago, with no visual record existing of him and his forces as they entered the base.

As he and his men progressed, the leader watched with approval as they calmly neutralised the various cameras as soon as they could be seen, simultaneously remaining as quite as possible while still actually moving towards their destination; evidently their skills had not fallen significantly in the two decades or so since he had last been active.

True, a few of them were slightly older than they had been in the past, but it wasn't to a significant level; besides, with what he'd managed to acquire on Earth, he'd managed to make them a bit more capable than they might have been otherwise…

After reaching the stairs to the lower levels, the group quickly ran down the stairs, one of them remaining at the front to ensure nobody could discover them. He had long had a talent for stealth, although his general cowardliness and ineptitude meant that there was little other reason to keep him around.

If it were not for his own small part in helping his leader obtain revenge on their nemesis, this particular follower would probably have been left to rot in the prison to which he and others had been sent after the last battle. As it was, however, he had proven his loyalty by depriving the leader's foe on what had become the idiot's reason for going on, even if none of them were aware of what had happened to his old adversary after the battle. According to all records the group's leader had been able to find, his foe had simply dropped out of the public eye after (Apparently) defeating him for good, and nothing had been heard of him since that fateful day.

The fool probably just killed himself from grief at her loss, the leader thought scathingly as they continued down towards the lower levels of the SGC. He always was too emotional; how he could have thought that something as pathetic as love was the reason he survived my first attempt to eliminate him is something I shall never understand…

Eventually, after descending through several flights of stairs, hiding on the other side of doors and in nearby rooms when soldiers nearly ran into them, the group had finally reached the level they were aiming for; the twenty-eighth floor.

The floor where Earth's official- and, following its Antarctic counterpart's destruction by the half-Ascended Goa'uld Anubis, only- Stargate was located.

As he stood at the door of the Embarkation Room and peered in via the window in the door, the leader smiled in glee as his eyes fell on the large 'stone' circle that stood in the centre of the room.

A quick glance into the room confirmed what he had gathered about the operation of the Stargate; at this time of night, in the current situation, the gate only had one technician monitoring it, although several soldiers were naturally on standby in nearby rooms in the event of the technician sounding an alarm, or an 'unauthorized offworld activation' taking place.

Glancing over at his followers, he nodded in confirmation, and all but one of the group, the leader included, pulled back from the door. The remaining man slowly crept into a door further down from the door to the Embarkation Room, taking care to close the door behind him as silently as possible, before he went silently up the stairs to the Stargate Control Room, also known as 'the Dialling Room'.

Glancing through the small window in the door once to make sure he knew the target's location, the man quickly yanked the door open and fired a quick 'shot', for lack of a better term, at the technician; the SGC employee instantly slumped back in his chair, unconscious but otherwise unhurt. The man would have preferred to simply kill the target, but his master had specified that, for the moment, there be no bodies; they wanted to give nobody reason to suspect that someone had infiltrated the SGC until it was too late.

Turning to the Dialling Computer before him, the man studied the controls for a few moments, and then nodded to himself; everything they'd been able to learn about this device seemed to have been accurate. Based on the information his master had been able to acquire about the device before them (Mostly from the mind of the occasional off-duty SG team member, he recalled), the operating principles seemed fairly straightforward; all he had to do was enter the address his Lord had given him, and everything should be well.

Pulling out the piece of paper that his Lord had written the address on, the man turned back to the computer and began to dial up the necessary address- or 'encoding the chevrons', as the term seemed to be based on the information they'd gathered from their 'interrogations'. As the first chevron was 'encoded', the door to the Embarkation Room opened and the others entered, many of them looking apprehensively at the Stargate as it began to spin.

All except for their Lord. He just stood in front of the 'gate, at the bottom of the ramp, staring up at the structure before him, with a wide grin on his face, as he witnessed the culmination of nearly eight years' worth of planning and rebuilding come to fruition before him. As the seventh chevron slid into place, the Stargate was briefly filled by what seemed to be a puddle of water before the sudden burst of energy from the centre, stopping just in front of the leader's face before pulling back into the Stargate, creating a similar 'water' effect in the ring before them.

Despite themselves, the men couldn't help but be impressed. They generally considered themselves to be above the use of technology, but what they saw before them would have put much of their own developments to shame simply by what it had already achieved.

"If it is what our information tells us it is…" one of the men said, staring in awe at the Stargate before the leader glared harshly at him.

"It is," he said simply, before turning to look back at the man in the Dialling Room, who was looking inquiringly in the leader's direction as he waited for his next order. "Wait until we have all gone though, then set the Stargate to shut down automatically around a minute after you input the command; that should allow you enough time to reach the Chaapa'ai before it deactivates- and don't forget to replenish their energy supplies; we don't want to leave a noticeable power loss."

"Reach the… the what?" the man said, looking in confusion at the leader; he had no idea what the Chaapa'ai was. The leader paused for a moment, as though processing what he had just said, and then shook his head in apparent frustration at himself before looking back at the man in the Dialling Room.

"I mean the Stargate, fools," he said harshly, before turning back to face the ring in front of him. Before anyone could ask him why he had referred to the Stargate as something else only moments ago, he had walked up the ramp and gone through the Stargate, vanishing through the event horizon of the wormhole. Only the faintest, brief ripple on the Stargate showed any sign that the leader had been there at all in the first place.

The remaining men looked inquiringly at each other, as though trying to come to a decision, and then seemed to come to a decision. Grasping their weapons, as well as the assorted trunks, they walked up to the Stargate and stepped through the event horizon, leaving the man standing in the Dialling Room looking after them. For a moment, he was content to just look at the structure before him, smiling slightly at the thought of what, if the information was correct, awaited him and his fellows on the other side…

Then he shook his head and turned back to the computer. After a moment's pause to go over the details in his head, he tapped in the keys that would trigger a delayed shutdown of the Stargate, positioned the technician back where he had been before he had been knocked out (The man should believe he'd simply closed his eyes for a few brief moments), and headed for the door to the Dialling Room as fast as he could.

He had just left the room and was heading down the corridor towards the door that would lead him into the Embarkation Room, when everything suddenly went wrong.

A voice spoke from behind him.

"Hey!" the person- apparently a male, based on the voice- called to him from further down the corridor. "What are you doing down here?"

The man groaned silently. They must have taken longer than they'd estimated; if everything had gone according to plan, there should have been at least ten minutes between them reaching the Stargate and the next technician showing up to monitor the 'gate.

He didn't have the time to curse this new factor in the plans, however; he only had about thirty seconds to reach the Stargate before it shut down. As the man behind him began to run (Based on the rapid rate of feet hitting the floor), he started to run as well, heading towards the door to the Embarkation Room…

Then, in an accident that was embarrassing as much as it was anything else, the man tripped on his robe and fell to the floor.

Damnit! he thought to himself, cursing the robes that he and his fellows had always worn. He knew they created an intimidating impression in the minds of their adversaries- that was the main reason they even wore the things, the masks in particular were rather warm and sweaty when they were active in the summer months- but they had never been designed to allow for freedom of movement where rapid pace was a requirement. It had always been assumed that the simple presence of their forces, coupled with their weapons, would be enough to deter the average person from attacking them, and the possibility of pursuit hadn't been a factor either; they'd always been able to take their foe down at long range.

Desperately, he scrambled back onto his feet, already running towards the door to the Embarkation Room, but no sooner had he opened the door than the figure behind him struck him in the back, knocking him to the ground and pinning him down as his weapon slid from his hand, landing at least a metre out of reach.

"Now…" the other man (Apparently a technician for the project, based on his clothing) began, as he pinned the man's wrists behind his back, before his voice trailed off. Looking up, the man saw that the technician had seen just what none of his associates had wanted anyone in this base to see; the Stargate, still with a wormhole active and the seven chevrons encoded, making it clear that something had been going on in here…

As the man watched in horror, the 'gate shut down, the program he'd entered having finally kicked in, leaving him stranded in the headquarters of a military-controlled group, none of whom would be happy that he and his associates had broken in to use the most secret piece of technology on the planet…

Shit, he thought to himself, as the technician hauled him roughly to his feet, his hands still forced behind his back as his captor called up to the Dialling Room to contact General Landry about an intruder in the Stargate.

If they didn't work out what had happened from his presence, then it was a miracle that the Stargate actually worked.

He could only hope that his Lord managed to form the alliance he sought before these fools managed to track him down; alone, his associates might have been defeated, but together with the Goa'uld his Lord had mentioned…

The man grinned slightly as the technician forced him to walk towards the door.

That would be a battle they would not survive.