After scaling a couple of pillars to reach a grassy platform that was higher than the rest of the city, the dragon that had been circling the city came in not to land just to dive low at Tails. The force of the air past him shoved at him hard but he stuck his sword into the earth and held on – Midna had the Iron boots, which he noticed she'd lent to Knuckles.

The dragon was easily massive, covered in blackened armour, screeching more than roaring at him. Tails quickly scanned the area for anything he could use while it was showing off. There were four tall pillars in each corner of the platform, all with metal grating on – almost as if the place had been specifically built to allow him to fight it.

Even if he got to the top of one of them, what good would it do?

The dragon dived again, claws on the joints of the wings only narrowly missing him as he held on again. When the tail dragged past, an idea struck him. He still had the clawshots, quickly aiming one for the tail to grab on even as he sheathed the sword again.

He was dragged off his feet and off the platform, forced to bear biting winds as the dragon caught the air. His weight wasn't enough here, and unless the dragon flew over the platform again it wasn't going to be safe to drop down.

The dragon above appeared to be unaware of its passenger, quickly turning to circle the platform as if to search for him. When it didn't find him it reoriented on Knuckles instead, swooping down for him.

Knuckles got clear easily, Tails letting go of the dragon's tail at the last moment and flying the last distance to the ground.

"Take these," he commanded, handing the clawshots to him. "Just do what I did with them, only use the Iron boots too!"

"What about you?" Knuckles shouted over renewed wind.

"Trust me," Tails grinned back, then quickly headed back to the center of the grass platform. The dragon was back on him now, either it recognised the hero's green or Zant had drilled his appearance into it.

He watched it back, waiting for it to dive down or come close to the platform. When it did so Knuckles did exactly as he had, only with the added weight of the Iron boots the dragon was dragged down with a screech until it crashed down, forcing several chunks of armour to drop off and disappear.

Tails paid the armour no attention, dashing in to the already unprotected head brandishing his sword. The head whipped around to bite at him, but he anticipated that and leapt up over the attack, landing beside the head.

"Remember me?" he asked it viciously, then drove the Master Sword into its eye. It let out another pain-filled screech, flinching violently back from that as it dragged itself back up and seemed to hurl itself ponderously back into the air. If the blinding of that eye had done anything, it wasn't apparent just yet.

"Are you crazy?" Knuckles roared over the wind.

"No, I'm a hero!" Tails yelled back. "Do it again!"

This time when the dragon dived down it came down breathing a cloud of fire before it, tilting its head from side to side, even upward too, to get the widest coverage. It had learned the lesson of not letting him fly over an attack.

There seemed to be no avoiding it at first, forced to turn and run lest he get burnt, but as he approached the edge of the platform he spotted the vines he'd used to climb up in the first place. He jumped off the platform, let himself drop down before he started to fly and caught on to the lowest part of them.

The dragon's fire stopped, the dragon itself not appearing. There was an triumphant screech from above, along with a startled sound from Midna, who'd not seen his subterfuge.

Tails pulled himself back up, grimly hauling himself back into view. Knuckles had looked a stunned as Midna had, but his expression quickly turned sly as he aimed the clawshot on the hovering dragon's tail.

It looked as if the dragon, thinking itself victorious, had decided to turn on Knuckles. When he dragged it back down again though, Tails darted in just as he had before, keeping to the wounded blind side until he was close enough to leap over the head.

"Nice try," he told it, "But you don't get rid of me that easily."

The dragon was wary of him this time though, scrambling up in an attempt to stop him blinding it completely. As it turned to take off again Tails spotted a glowing mark on its back, revealed by the armour that had been broken off this time.

Without stopping to think he launched himself for it, flying after the dragon only just barely keeping up with it. He managed to catch the tail and started to pull himself up it, then up the dragon's back. It was back to circling the platform searching for him, only circling one way now that one eye was useless.

When he reached the mark he found it was not just a mark, but a kind of target – much like the one he'd seen on the boss of the water temple. He took gripped the edge of it, raised the sword and started to stab into it.

The dragon definitely noticed, realising exactly where he was now. It turned its head to look, then instead of trying to get him off it turned and aimed for Knuckles again. The echidna, perhaps on Midna's suggestion, was scrambling rapidly up a pillar, already near the top.

When the dragon underneath Tails got close it took in a deep breath to flame – and stopped. Tails looked up to see the bow in Knuckles hands, Midna nearby with the bomb bag. Then there was a muffled explosion and the dragon fell limp under him.

It didn't stay limp once he resumed his own attack, going back to circling the platform, but now another force entered play as it started to rain heavily – and not just that, the rapidly darkening clouds surrounding them started to rumble too.

He already knew his grip on the mark wouldn't last long in the rain, so he started to stab with new ferocity, driving it deep into the dragon's back. It went for Knuckles a second time, allowing Tails to see the bomb-arrow he fired this time.

This time it didn't stop when it detonated inside, it just raised itself above high above the platform then dived straight down.

Tails had an idea formed from the thunder in the clouds. As they fell, he muttered, "I hope you're willing to cooperate here, Goddesses," then leapt off to fly to the platform before the dragon impacted it hard.

Somehow, it had managed to survive the collision with the platform, weakly pushing itself up to look around, first at its unoccupied back, then up at the pillars, and then finally at the determined fox on the ground.

He held the Master Sword skyward as the booming clouds started to flash with lightning, using it as a lightning rod to draw it to his sword. When he judged it just right, he brought it down in a slash that stopped pointing toward the dragon.

The single triangle of the Triforce in his hand glowed brightly, then a massive jolt of lightning erupted from the blade that arced straight over the dragon's head and into the mark on its back. It screeched again, then finally sank down in defeat. When it exploded into black wisps, the storm seemed to fade away even as the wisps formed into the last shard of the Mirror of Twilight.

Midna retrieved the shard before she jumped back into his shadow to take him to task.

"You stupid, irresponsible boy!" she scolded him. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"Oh, probably," Tails answered with an impudent grin. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"A good- a good idea!" her voice soared. "Don't you ever do anything that stupid again!"

"Only if it's necessary, Midna." Then to Knuckles, "See, what did I tell you? Good thing I did give you the bow and bombs."

"I only helped," Knuckles replied. "You were the real hero there."

"What I'm here for. Care to take us back, Midna?"


Once Tails had taken the time to recount his battle with the dragon for the Oocca, the little creatures had all gathered to see them off – even though few of them spoke his language. Ooccoo, the first he'd met, acted as a translator for much of it.

"We cannot thank you enough, adventurer," she told him. "You and your friend have done us a great service today."

"Ooccoo," he told her gently. "I have a name. Would you use it for a change?"

"Oh, of course, Heroic Tails. I should have remembered it. You feel free to come back and visit us now – oh, and you too of course," she added to Knuckles.

"We could hardly do any less for either of you. Now, time to go – back to the surface for now!"

"Not going to complain about being shot out of the cannon this time?" Midna murmured.

"After fighting that dragon, the cannon is the least of my worries," he answered. "I think you'll have to take it separately though," he said to Knuckles thoughtfully.

"Oh, nonsense," Ooccoo protested. "Our sky cannon here is plenty big enough for the two of you!"

"That's what I was afraid of," Knuckles breathed.

It wasn't quite as big as Ooccoo had insisted, but at least they were underway without any problems. The cannon didn't exactly shoot them downwards, but their flight was much shorter because they hadn't had to gain so much height.

As the clouds cleared below them, Lake Hylia appeared far below but still approaching fast. At least they were above water, and Tails knew enough about high dives to minimise the shock of entry.

"So what next?" Knuckles asked him once they'd swum to shore.

"Back to the Gerudo Desert and the Arbiters Grounds," Tails answered. "That's where the Mirror of Twilight is. Midna and I will go there, repair the mirror and confront Zant."

"Sounds like fun. Do I get to tag along?"

Tails stared at him. "You... want to come along?"

"Sure. Why not? Something wrong with that?"

"No, it's just... Sonic and Jet didn't exactly seem enthusiastic about coming with me. Sonic went through the Arbiters Grounds with me and didn't come with me again after that, and Jet the Temple of Time."

"Can't hurt to ask them, right?" Midna suggested. "If they can help out again, it'll be to our advantage. You, me and all three of your friends..."

"I wonder if I can track down that postman," Tails mused.