As Max stirred from his sleep, the sound of his screaming could be heard all the way outside the Condor. Everyone on board leapt out of their beds, trying desperately to find the source of the noise. Starling fell onto the floor as Max kicked furiously, leaping to his feet and nearly running into her when he started pacing to calm himself.

"Max, Max! What's wrong?" The sheer terror in his eyes was unexplainable; he wasn't someone who scared easily.

"I... I-I don't know... I was asleep, and then..."

"Max, it's alright... come here..." She embraced the hysterical Onyxian, and held him as he ranted about whatever it was that woke him so suddenly.

"Starling, I... I saw him..." The veteran Sky Knight stared lovingly into Max's fear-riddled eyes.

...

"I saw... Talgroth... just before I woke up... he said... I had to make a choice; join him, or lose everything I cherish..." Max remained inconsolable for several hours after the initial incident. Unlike a normal nightmare, which Max could handle, this dream had terrified him to no end. Whatever it was that happened in it, it was something Max wanted to avoid.

"Max... describe him for me... Talgroth, I mean..." Starling tried to keep him thinking rationally. He simply shook his head.

"I didn't... see his face..."

"Then how do you know it was him, Max?" Piper queried.

"I... don't know... that's what scares me... I'm afraid I'm losing my mind!!" He ripped himself free of Starling's loving embrace, and began to pace around the room in a disorganized fashion, never stepping on a tile more than once, before finally settling back down on the bed.

"Max, listen to me... you're not crazy, alright? I believe you really saw him..." Starling knew there was nothing from Talgroth's time that included a picture or painting of the man himself. There was no way to verify what he looked like, even if Max had seen his face.

"I still... feel him... here, with us right now..." Max looked around, frantically searching the dimly lit room for whoever he saw in his dream. Stork began to join him, his own paranoid kicking in.

"I'll get to work scanning the ship. We may... have an uninvited guest on board..." He departed the room, but just as he left, a scream could be heard outside, followed by a dull thud and another scream. Everyone except Max ran out into the hallway, to find Stork cowering in the corner, pointing frantically at a severed arm. Appalled by the grisly sight, Aerrow took it upon himself to try to remove the arm, but he was stopped by a strange voice; one that sounded familiar, but carried a mysterious undertone.

"Don't... my victim will want his peace..." They all turned around to see where the voice was coming from; with a manic look in his eyes, Max began to walk out into the hallway, eyebrows furled in anger.

"Max, what're you talking about-?"

"Max is out of his mind right now... leave a message..." The sadistic grin on his face said it all; this wasn't Max. The figure, now clad in Max's full uniform, began making his way to the hangar bay, a trickle of red blood following his bloody footprints. No one had noticed the blood before, not even Max. They all charged after him, to see what he planned to do. When he reached the bay, he quickly mounted Max's Skimmer, and with his sadistic grin widened impossibly, the figure laughed menacingly as he finally spoke again;

"Sorry, kids... Talgroth has an terra to reconquer..." As his Skimmer crashed through the hangar bay door, speeding off into the morning sky, the Storm Hawks' world came to a grinding halt...