"You OK, Sam?" Tucker asked.

Sam didn't even turn to face her friend as she continued the same back-and-forth pacing she had been doing ever since they had returned to Katou's home. She had let her hair down and had thrown her shoes against the wall.

No, she was not OK, and the look she threw at Tucker made that perfectly clear.

When she and her friends had been told that the truce of the ball had been lifted, she had begun to lose confidence. But Katou had told them that things would be fine, and he seemed fairly sure. And she trusted him, despite the fact that he seemed a bit uncomfortable with training Danny at times. Clockwork himself had chosen the samurai to train Danny, and Sam knew of no way that an insidious plot against Danny could get around the Master of Time.

So, into the ball they had gone. And what happened?

Danny lay unconscious on the floor, a thick blanket under his body and a soft pillow supporting his head. In human form, his shirt had been removed and his sides bandaged, due to the broken rib he had received. His body was littered with bruises. Katou was bent over him, waving a stick with a gourd over the ghost-boy's form. Pariah's sceptre lay propped up against the wall, but Sam found herself hard-pressed to care. Katou was supposed to be watching over Danny, and Danny was the one who was supposed to save the world from Tá eagla orm. Katou should have helped him, not leave Tucker and she on the roof and go off to make sure they got away with the sceptre! Dark Danny was also free, and nothing was done about him.

Katou had taken them to this ball, told them it was safe, and hadn't been able to stop Danny from getting hurt. What kind of samurai was he?

Sam finally stopped pacing and turned to face Katou, glaring at him with such anger that no words could match it.

The samurai lowered his head. "I…made a mistake," he conceded with a sigh. "There was a danger, I let you and Danny stay…I'm sorry."

The concession failed to pierce Sam's anger. "Danny's hurt!" she yelled, pointing at her best friend. "The jerk he used to turn into from the future is back!"

"I know, Sam," Katou said, sounding slightly hurt. "I…I know. And I'm sorry." He sighed yet again. "It's not the first time I've failed an apprentice. But…I think I know where to go from here. Forgive me."

Sam kept glaring at Katou, her hands on her hips. The old man's head remained bowed. He couldn't meet Sam's gaze. His eyes looked more solemn than usual. His shoulders were lowered. He looked utterly defeated.

Sam let her own shoulders slump. Why did every single one of her friends have to be so hard to stay mad at?

"Fine," she sighed. "Is Danny gonna be alright?"

"He'll be fine," Katou said. "I just need to give him a bit of green powder from this gourd." He removed the fruit from the end of his stick and broke it open over his knee. He took the bandages from Danny's side and dashed the powder from the gourd onto the spot where the broken rib rested. The boy came to with a stir.

"Wha…Katou?" he asked weakly.

"It's alright, Danny," Katou said with a soft smile. He helped the ghost-boy to slowly sit up. "You're safe. And we've got the sceptre."

"Great," Danny moaned, placing a hand on his head. "The sceptre…wait…Katou, that ghost! He's me from the future! …And by the way, I can explain –"

"I think I've figured out his story," Katou interrupted. "Think nothing of it. Now, I don't know what he was doing there, but Plasmius and Aragon were also at the ball…"

"What?" Danny yelped, now wide awake.

"You think you could have told us that?" Sam added.

"Yeah!" Tucker piped.

"I had no time!" Katou threw back, clearly upset at the barrage. "I needed to distract them so that we could get away with the sceptre. I know that doesn't excuse bringing you all into danger for the first place, but that's why I wasn't around to help Danny. And I'm sorry, Danny."

"Wait…" Sam said, thinking back. "Vlad and Aragon would have been after one of the relics…but what was Danny's jerky self doing there?"

She considered what had happened at the ball. Besides the opera cloak, there had been something different about the way Phantom looked. She hadn't been able to put her finger on it. Now, as she forced herself to visualise the monster as he duelled Danny, she saw red where Danny's white emblem should have been.

"Katou, didn't Dora and Clockwork say something about 'Pariah's Mark' when they told us about Tá eagla orm?"

The samurai looked as though he had just been slapped in the face. "Of course," he said, slightly dazed. "Yes, yes…he had it on his chest. Somehow, Pariah enslaved your future self."

"And Clockwork warned us about that!" Tucker added. "Remember? He said that the third ghost in Tá eagla orm would show up later!"

"I thought he was looking at me kind of funny," Danny said. "I didn't know he meant that."

"But why would your jerky, pus-packed future self want to work for Pariah?" Tucker mused.

"Beats me," Danny sighed, shuddering slightly. He shook his head, and sat up further. "Wish we had time to figure that out, but we don't. We've got the sceptre. Which relic do we go after now?"

Sam couldn't believe her ears. Danny had just been knocked out by his evil self, spent half a night terrified, and was still unsure about everything that had been placed on him…and now, when he was battered and bruised, he was rising up and prepared to press onward, despite everything else.

Was he insane!?

"Danny, you just got your ribs crushed!" she exclaimed. "You need rest!"

"And I would agree with that," Katou said. "Danny, it's time we divert all our focus to your training. Until significant progress is made there, we will not be going after any more artefacts."

"What?" Tucker piped. "Dude, you can't just train Danny all day! Pariah will get all his stuff back! You said you knew where the balance was, and Plasmius knows where it is too! If we just stay here and practice, then – "

"Then Plasmius and his fellows will capture the rest of the artefacts," Katou finished. "I know. But there are two relics that they will not capture – the sceptre and the pendent."

"But –"

"Tucker, none of Pariah's minions know that I'm with the three of you. None of them saw us together at the ball. As far as they know, I have the sceptre and I'm hiding somewhere in the depths of The Ghost Zone. As to the pendant…any trail they find on that will end with Clockwork, and he can't tell them who he gave it to. Even if he could, he never would. As long as we hold on to those, their quest will be incomplete."

Danny cut in. "But if we wait, then they'll stash all the relics away, and we'll have to fight Plasmius, Aragon, the Fright Knight, and my evil self to get them!"

"But they will be unprepared, and you will be trained." Katou countered.

"Pariah's artefacts call to him!" Tucker countered.

"Only the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage can do that," Katou reminded him.

The samurai let out a long and heavy sigh. "Look…I know I made a mistake this night concerning the ball, and I know it's hard to do nothing when situations like this emerge. But this seems the path to take. And this is something that Danny has to learn – when to attack, and when to pull back and re-group. After tonight, I don't think we should rush out again."

"Great plan," Danny said, his voice filled to the brim with sarcasm. "Except I'm the one who has to do it, and you're all talking like I'm not in the room!"

"Sorry, Danny," Katou said with a bow. "What do you think?"

Danny sighed, slowly falling back onto the blanket. All the while Sam watched his eyes, and let years of friendship interpret.

He was thinking that, on the one hand, they really needed the artefacts…but he was tired, he didn't feel ready, and going after the relics meant facing three of his worst enemies.

"Training sounds pretty good right about now," he breathed out.

Sam concurred. "That's sounds like the better way to go."

"I guess," Tucker shrugged.

Katou gave the trio a soft smile. "Very well. Come by after school tomorrow and we shall begin. Danny, your ribs should be fine. Just get a good night's rest."

The samurai helped Danny to his feet, and Sam and Tucker came to the ghost-boy's side. The three headed up the stairs to depart, tired but reassured. Hard though it was to think of Pariah's forces becoming so far ahead in the race to the relics, it was true that Danny needed training and that their two artefacts were safe.

Sam was the last in line to the stairs, and she was far enough behind to catch Katou moving out of the corner of her eye. She remained behind long enough to watch him cross over to the far side of the room and lean against the wall, his back to her.

"You old fool," he muttered to himself, over and over again.