Sidious appeared to Darth Chaos, and he was not pleased. "LORD CHAOS. I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH YOU. YOU HAVE REVEALED YOURSELF FAR TOO SOON."

Sonal sat in solitude in his quarters. "Forgive me, Master. I will find a way to get out of this predicament." He sensed an object within the pyramid. "If there were only a way to open it," he thought to himself. He lifted his hand to the pyramid, and it began to open. He gazed down and was shocked at what he saw. "What is it?"

"IT IS THE LIGHTSABER WHICH I USED TO DESTROY THE JEDI ORDER," Sidious said. " IT IS NOW...YOURS. YOU WILL USE THAT WEAPON TO OVERTHROW THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS AND GIVE A NEW RISE TO THE GALACTIC EMPIRE."

Sonal took the ancient weapon in his hand, and he felt himself slowly but surely forever fall into the clutches of Darth Chaos. "So this is the power that Vulcan said was forbidden." He felt hatred towards all Vulcans. He felt hatred towards T'Pan. He felt hatred towards Surak. And he felt hatred for his own parents. "Damn them all," he said with a dark sinister voice."

"SO YOU WOULD KILL YOIR OWN PARENTS IF I COMMANDED YOU…"

"I would kill them all," Chaos said. He heard the door chime. Now would be the perfect opportunity for his escape. "Enter."

A lone security officer entered. "What is that in your hand," asked the officer. Chaos walked to the officer and suddenly ignited the lightsaber, the glowing red blade immediately piercing the young officer through his heart.

"My escape," Chaos said while standing over the corpse. He grabbed his black hooded robe and walked down the hallway while using the Force to mask his visage on the security cameras. He entered the turbolift. "Shuttle bay."

The ship's computer voice suddenly spoke. "Access to shuttle bay restric-" Chaos rose his hand and used his dark powers to turn the voice to static. Chaos waved his hand, and the turbolift descended to the shuttle bay area. Upon exiting the door, he stepped onto the shuttle bay and was met by security. "Commander Sonal, you do not have per-" the security guard's voice was suddenly replaced by a choking sound. Chaos lifted his hand and drew his fingers together. The closer his finger drew together, the more the guard struggled for breath.

"Commqnder Sonal is no more," said the Sith lord. "Only Darth Chaos remains." He suddenly clenched his hand into a fist, and the sickening sound of the guard's vertebrae and windpipe crunching echoed in the large room, and the guard's lifeless body collapsed into a heap. Chaos used the Force to manipulate the computer and video surveillance system into hiding the fact that Chaos was stealing a shuttlecraft.

Once inside the small ship, Chaos activated the controls and deactivated the Force field and piloted the craft away from the Enterprise and headed out into interstellar space.

Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Enterprise, Worf got an alert on his terminal. "Captain Riker, a shuttlecraft has just departed. Authorization - none given."

Riker stood up in attention. "Security and Captain Picard to Commander Sonal's quarters on the double." Riker, Picard, Dr. Crusher, and security made their way to Sonal's quarters and came across the dead guard's corpse.

"Beverly…" Picard said. Crusher scanned the gaping hole with her tricorder.

"Jean-Luc," said Crusher, "this was not from a phaser. All the cauterization of his blood vessels indicate phaser fire, but this wound is too large for a phaser." Picard and Riker entered the quarters. They noticed that the pyramid was open.

"Captain," Riker said, "it's clear that what was in this pyramid was used to kill him." Their eyes glanced over to the bunk and noticed a lump underneath a sheet. Picard heard a voice in his head.

"Jean-Luc…"

Picard walked to the lump and removed the sheet. He was surprised at what he saw: it was a humanoid figure. It had black hair, grey skin, and most surprising, yellow eyes. He could not believe his eyes. Could it be? "Data?" He knelt down and pulled the access panel from the androids head and pressed a button. He was surprised to see lights flickering on the panel. He placed the access panel door back on the androids head, and the android slowly awoke. "Data?!" Picard's voice was breaking with utter happiness. "Is it actually you?"

The android looked at Picard, and his emotion chip kicked into gear, and he smiled at the Captain. "Captain. I'm...alive."

"Data, will you come to sick bay with me, please," Picard asked. "We...have a major problem."

"Is it Sonal," asked Data.

Riker interjected. "It is. What do you know about Sonal?"

Data began to access his memory banks. "It seems that Sonal discovered my - shall we say - corpse while traveling from Romulus. He had just left the planet after a meeting with Ambassador Spock, and his craft found myself orbiting the planet. He took me to Vulcan and repaired me."

"I'm afraid, Data, "Picard said, "that Sonal's unstable physiology has caused a mental breakdown. Could it be an extreme case of ponn farr?"

"The Vulcan mating ritual," asked Data. "No sir. It is not that. I observed the Commander in his living quarters on Vulcan communing with a being of which I find hard to describe.

"Perhaps," Riker said, "we can take you to sick bay and pull up any suppressed memories. We must link you into the ship's computer. Do we have your permission to do so?

"Of course, sir," said the android.

Picard activated his communicator badge. "Commander LaForge, report to sick bay immediately." After deactivating his com-badge, the three walked down a long hallway. Once they reached the end of the hallway, they entered the sick bay and were greeted by LaForge. Geordi's eyes focused on a figure he had not expected to see ever again. Were his artificial electronic eyes deceiving him? Could it be?

"Data? Is it actually you," he asked in an uncertain but excited voice.

Data's emotion chip kicked into full gear once again. "GEORDI!" Data ran to Geordi and gave him a hug. "My best friend," the android said softly.

Picard interjected. "Geordi, happy reunions will have to wait. We must connect Data to the ship's computer. Something terrible has happened to Commander Sonal, and we believe that Data may have all the answers."

"Aye, sir," Geordi said. He removed Data's access panel and connected a long fiber optic cable to an input port on Data.

As the connection to Data was secured, Data began to pull up any repressed memories of his time on Vulcan. On the computer screen appeared Sonal in his living quarters on Vulcan, as well as a spirit adorned in a black robe with a sickly wrinkled face and orange eyes. He spoke in a dark sinister voice.

"YOU HID YOURSELF WELL.

IF I COMMANDED YOU TO KILL.

YOUR OWN PARENTS, WOULD YOU?"

As the recording continued to play, they could see the face of Sonal, and he too had those same orange eyes which seemed to flicker like fire. And then they heard his voice.

"Yesss. I would."

"Riker," Picard said, "alert Starfleet Command and the Vulcan High Council. I fear that Commander Sonal may have gone to Vulcan to assassinate Saavik. And alert the Romulan embassy. He may try to assassinate Spock."

Data suddenly interjected. "Captain, there is also a recording made in his quarters on the Enterprise." He accessed his memory banks, and everybody saw and heard as Sonal spoke to the spirit.

"IT IS THE LIGHTSABER WHICH I USED TO DESTROY THE JEDI ORDER. IT IS NOW...YOURS. YOU WILL USE THAT WEAPON TO OVERTHROW THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS AND GIVE A NEW RISE TO THE GALACTIC EMPIRE."

They heard Sonal's voice once again.

"So this is the power that Vulcan said was forbidden."

And then the spirit spoke again.

"SO YOU WOULD KILL YOIR OWN PARENTS IF I COMMANDED YOU…"

And then they saw Sonal open his eyes as his eyes turned a very dark orange.

"I would kill them all. My parents. The elders. The high security. And...High Priestess T'Pan."

Picard froze. What kind of force could cause this to happen? And then one more recording played.

"PICARD'S HATRED OF THE BORG WILL TURN OUT TO BE USEFUL IN OUR PLANS TO BRING BACK THE GALACTIC EMPIRE. I AM SURE YOU CAN USE THE FORCE TO MANIPULATE PICARD TO DO YOUR BIDDING.…"

Picard suddenly understood the voice in his head. He spoke out loud. "Fear...leads to anger. Anger...leads to hate. Hate leads to...suffering." His hatred of the Borg caused this to happen. Before he could allow himself to wallow in self-pity, he took on a newfound sense of urgency. "Commander Riker, Commander Data, we must get to Vulcan immediately."