Odo is stricken with a sickness and the Founders deliver an ultimatum.
Odo begins to lose control of his form and collapses, and only the Founders can help him. Sisko takes him to the Gamma Quadrant with Garak along, and the Founders demand that Odo be judged in the Great Link for killing another Changeling. Garak tries to fire the Defiant's weapons on the Founders' world but is stopped by Worf.
The Founders punish Odo by turning him into a solid. Back on the station, Gowron announces that the Klingon Empire is starting hostilities against the Federation. Odo then realises, from memories of the Great Link, that Gowron himself is a Changeling.