The way into Temple of Time led back down more steps, leading to another circular room. Directly ahead was a giant bell underneath a stone archway. Twin staircases flew back on either side to behind them.
A look behind the bell showed an ornate door leading out of the room, with the crest of the Triforce above it. On one side, there was a statue, on the other side of it there was nothing.
"That's odd," Jet remarked. "Everywhere else, they come in pairs, but not here."
Tails scratched at his chin for a moment, thinking.
"Jet," he said. "I'm going to do something that's going to seem really strange. Don't get excited by it or anything."
"What are you going to do?"
"Midna? I'm going to need to change."
"You got it," she replied appearing nearby, much to Jet's surprise. He was even more surprised when Tails turned into a wolf beside him.
Tails tuned in his wolf senses on the empty spot, and saw what could only be described as an echo of a statue. He nodded to Midna to shift him back again.
"Missing," he said. "Find it." He shook his head, then tried again. "There used to be a second one there, but it's missing. We'll probably find it somewhere in the temple, I should imagine."
"Where do we start? And what is that?" he pointed at Midna.
"That's Midna," he told Jet. "She and I are working together. I think we'll try up the stairs first."
Up the stairs, they met Ooccoo again.
"Not so fast, if you please!" she stopped them. "This is where I've been trying to get to! The ancient technology of my people sleeps here in this place... I've been searching all over, and now, I can tell, we're so close I can smell it! Once we find that, we can finally go home! You'll help us, won't you?"
Tails sighed, nodding.
"I might as well just take on everyone else's quests while I'm at it," he muttered.
"Don't you like being a Hero?" Midna teased.
"I like it better when I don't have a crowd following me."
"Poor wolf boy. You can't go this way anyway. It's locked."
Tails glanced up, saw the lock and sighed again.
"Typical. Back downstairs with us then, let's try that northern door."
As they went back down the other stairs, they found two unlit torches. Something didn't seem right to him, so he lit them, causing a chest to appear.
"This place is creepy," Jet remarked, as Tails removed a key from it.
"I did tell you to expect that around me. Back upstairs. I want to check that door now. I've got a feeling it's the right way."
It led them to a room that led in four directions. In the centre, there was a marking on the floor. To the south and west, there were barred gates blocking their progress. To the west, hanging over a larger mark was another bell.
There was a strange spider like creature in the room.
"Now what do we do?" Jet asked him.
He didn't answer, instead drawing the bow and loosing several arrows at it, causing it to vanish into smoke when defeated.
"Unnatural," Jet muttered.
"You're going to be a terrible companion if you're going to keep saying things like that," Midna told him. "Make yourself useful and put one of those pots on that switch in the middle."
He did so, grumbling. The way they had come in was now barred off, but the other gates were now opened, allowing another spider creature to wander around, and showing another chest.
This time, he beat the creature with the sword, and opened the chest to find some more arrows.
When the went up the west passage, up some stairs, they found a new gate barring their way.
Tails lobbed a bomb at the pot Jet had left, deftly landing it inside the pot. It exploded, destroying the pot and resetting the gates, opening the one beside them again.
This let them access a northerly passage. A lizard bearing a sword came charging at them, but didn't last long under a few well placed strikes from Tails.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?"
"Here in Hyrule," he replied absently, continuing up the passage. As he rounded a corner, he spotted two more lizards. "Ever used a sword before?"
"Me? Are you kidding?"
"You're going to have to learn sooner or later if you're going to survive around me," he replied, handing him the Ordon sword. "I've got a shield too if you want to."
"Nah. I'll just fly and figure this out from watching you."
"Be careful then." Jet just snorted.
Tails charged the surprised lizards, drawing the Master sword at the last moment, quickly parrying a blow from each and counter-attacking.
Jet flew over them, striking inexpertly at a third one that had remained unseen before. Though he lacked experience, as Tails himself knew, creatures here didn't seem to expect aerial attacks, leaving them off guard.
Once defeated, they took a cursory look around the room, discovering a strange statue wielding a hammer, another bell on the ground, another gate, an alcove with pots in, and two more switches on the floor.
Jet examined it closely. "It looks... kind of crazy. Wait, let me guess – I have to get used to this around here."
"Ooccoo?" Tails asked.
"Yes?"
"You said your people's technology was here, right?"
"That's right."
"Do you know about this then?"
"No. It looks like their stuff, but it's not."
"We'll ignore it then... pick up a pot Jet, and we'll try those switches."
As they turned away from the statue, Ooccoo called out, "Watch out!"
The statue had apparently come to life, hopping after them and swinging it's hammer at them.
Jet stumbled back away from it, and it homed in on him giving Tails a view of the back of it. It looked vulnerable there, so he hacked at it, making it turn on him.
Now Jet got to his feet, and made his own attack on it's rear. The Ordon sword wasn't as powerful as the Master sword in Tails' hands, leaving him to deal the finishing blows to it.
A chest appeared where it had been stood, containing the map. Midna seized it, floating nearby to examine it, then glanced up. "Well go on then," she told them. "The pots are over there, and the switches there."
The switches opened the gate, of course. They led up a short set of stairs to a corridor leading east and to a door.
It lead to another large circular room. In it's center was a large stone pole supporting a platform. Around it's base was a lowered area with smaller spider creatures, and around that separating them from him was a large metal barrier, the only entrance blocked off by large sparks of lightning.
They were immediately distracted by a pair of lizard creatures. Jet still had trouble fighting off his ones, leaving Tails to come to his aid as soon as he'd finished his.
Tails examined the mechanisms that made the sparks, then pulled out the bow and began picking off the spiders. Once all defeated, the sparks stopped.
"How did you know?"
"I'm an engineer," Tails reminded him. "There isn't anything else down there, so lets look around down here."
"Leave it to me!"
"Jet! Wait!"
"Huh?"
"We don't know what's up there yet. What if something shot at you?"
"I can fly faster."
"Just... stick nearby, in case you get in trouble, alright?"
"Oh, alright then."
Around the outside area there was another bell behind a gate, and a lantern behind another that was unmistakably another Poe. There was also another statue which shot a beam at him, but like the similar ones he'd encountered in the Goron Mines, an arrow in it's eye defeated it.
There were stairs at the back of the room which lead up to another level. At one point, they included a spinner track where the stairs had fallen away.
At the top, there was a locked door, and access to a round area. On tracks in it's floor were two spiked things going in circles. In the
center was the top of the stone pole seen earlier, with a stone sticking out to push on it.
There was a pot to one side, and opposite the locked door was a raised area with two switches.
Jet didn't need prompting to push the stone with him.
As they did so, it lowered down, taking them to where the spiders had been.
"Drag that pot over here, then we'll push it back up again."
"We could have done this by flying, you know," Jet told him reproachfully.
"Have you ever tried flying with chain-mail armour?" Tails asked him, picking at it. "Or half a ton of useful tools? Even with Midna's help, it's still a fair weight."
"Didn't think of that."
"I didn't think you had."
Once the two switches had been activated, a bit of stone raised up, letting them access another door.
It locked behind them.
Ahead, they could see two more of the crazy looking statues. Defeating them revealed a chest with another key.
They backtracked a room, to the lcoked door they'd seen earlier. Instead of unlocking it, Tails tapped the key against his chin, examining the lock. With a few deft movements, he'd unlocked it without needing the key.
The chains keeping the door closed remained in place, however. Frowning, he locked it again, then used the key.
The chains fell off with the lock this time.
"Are you happy now, wolf boy?" Midna asked him.
"I'd like to have a word with whoever built these places. The keys are exactly the same for all of them, but they all disappear after one use, and the locks don't work if you don't use a key. It's annoying."
"So?"
"Never mind. Lets get on with it."
The room on the other side appeared small at first, with a curious green gem on a pedestal to one side, another beam shooting statue ahead, and a large metal circle frame to the other side. Looking through it revealed more to the room than was first apparent.
He shot the statue, deactivating it and glancing around the corner to reveal a wall.
"Midna?"
"The gem," she replied, not looking up from the map.
He struck it, and there was a rocky scraping sound. Through the circle, he could see the walls had moved. Where there had been one before, there wasn't any longer, letting him into the area on the other side. There was another bell on the other side, and another circle, but nowhere else to go. He shot the gem with an arrow, putting the walls back and revealing another path, and another beam statue.
Around the other side was another chest, which had the compass in. It remained in Tails' hand for only a few moments before Midna stole it from him. He closed the chest, sat on it, then started examining the Master sword for any signs it needed maintenance, finding none.
"What're we waiting for?"
"Midna to finish with them. Compass, map and her power usually means she can direct me through the rest of any dungeon. Assuming I need it."
"Shoot the gem again, wolf boy," she told him.
He did so, moving walls one more, and showing stairs upwards.
They met two lizard creatures along the way. The second had apparently begun to learn, as it had some more armour on it than previous ones. Tails didn't care – the Helm splitter skill remove it's helmet easily.
They were lead to another room. At first glance, there was nothing they could do, everything being barred or walled off. Just visible over the top of one wall was a gem.
Tails scratched his chin, then turned to Jet. "Feel like hovering above and giving me an idea of the room?"
"I thought you didn't want me to, because it was risky?"
"I can hear a couple of lizards, but they fight with swords, so no risk there. If something does shoot at you, just drop down behind the wall."
Jet jumped at the chance to take to the air again.
"You were right, two lizards," he reported. "There's some pots under that gem, and another gate made from lightning. There's a bell at the far end of the room too." He flew down a bit further. "There's another lizard hiding around one of the corners. He's really heavily armoured, Tails."
"No problem. Anything else?"
"Looks like all."
"Safe up there?"
"Of course."
Tails nodded, shooting the gem. The wall moved, showing the sparking barrier to the left of it. Two lizards came charging at him, knowing he was there because they'd heard him. He dealt with them easily, then shot the gem again.
The heavily armoured lizard charged him now. He spotted holes in it's defence though – small ones, not ones easy to strike, unless...
"Midna, change me back," he called, blocking the lizards strikes and stepping clear.
Once changed, he circled the surprised lizard, then when it tried to strike, he quickly rolled clear making a leap and snapping at it's unprotected neck. His weight kept it on down, letting him send it's weapon skittering away with the flick of a tail. He blinded it by flicking them both into it's own eyes, still tearing away at it's tough skin. He wasn't achieving much here.
He signaled to Midna to be changed back, then before it could react to the change, he drove the sword straight through the neck. It vanished, defeated.
"Neat tactics," Jet commented.
"I came up with them on the spur of the moment," he replied, shooting the gem one more time. It revealed yet more stairs, leading westward this time.
"I've got a bad feeling about this room, wolf boy," Midna told him. "There's a treasure there, that much I can tell, but there's something else there too."
Tails nodded, opening the door.
There were a lot of spider-like creatures here, and it was a fairly large room too. He and Jet took a side of the room each, having to chase after some of the samller ones.
Once finally defeated, another chest appeared. It had rupees in.
"This is your treasure?" he asked Midna.
"Look, I can't tell everything, alright. Look up though."
He did so. On the back wall were a giant pair of scales, and above the center was yet another bell.
They took the stairs on one side of the room to the scales. Tails examined them for a moment, stepping onto them. They shifted under his weight. When he hovered above them, they returned to normal, balanced.
He landed on the far one, making them shift again. Jet stepped onto the other one, balancing them again and letting Tails step off on the other side, then followed after Tails. It lead to a door.
"There's a door to the west as well, wolfy," Midna told them. "You want that one."
They found their way up to it, having to use the scales again to do so, and went through.
It locked behind them.
There was another crazy statue, and some helmasaurs. Midna taught Jet how to handle them, while he took on the statue. Once all were defeated, the door unlocked. Jet turned to leave, but Tails stopped him.
"There's another area just up there, and there's a chest behind a gate down here."
"Want me to have a look?"
"Nah. My turn."
"I thought you couldn't fly?"
"I can, just not well. Besides," he said, pulling out the clawshot. "I have this."
He used it on a target to get up onto the upper area.
"Throw up those metal helmets the helmasaurs left behind," he called down. "There's four switches, but only two pots."
Jet did so, then headed to the chest, but found he couldn't open it. Tails, on the other hand, opened it easily.
"Guess it must be some kind of hero thing," he murmured, withdrawing the ornate key for dungeon's boss room. "Where to next, Midna?"
"Back a room, then the south door."
Before they'd even started into the room, a beam statue shot at them. It missed though, giving Tails the opportunity he needed to shoot it's eye.
Around it's base were many spiked things following tracks around them.
Opposite where they'd come in was yet another bell, leaving them only a path leading west to go down – or up, as it had stairs leading up to a room of lizard creatures again.
Beyond them appeared to be several traps, including spiked rollers on the floor, and an axe swinging from the ceiling.
Behind the axe, Tails retrieved another key, then joined Jet at the stairs on the north side of the room. At the top was another room with two more crazy statues, and many more spider creatures.
When all were defeated, another chest appeared. Inside was a purple rupee – worth 50.
"Find these often, Tails?" Jet asked him.
"Yeah. I want to know who puts them there. Still, it's a decent way to fill my wallet."
"Sure. They must sell for loads. Rouge would love them."
"Huh? Oh, no. This is the currency here."
"We want to head east, wolfy. All that's here is a bell and the locked door we'll be going through.2
"East it is then."
"Be careful. I've got another bad feeling."
"Thanks," he replied dryly, as the door locked behind him.
The room was massive, a great dome overhead with a small window letting light in. It illuminated a bell hanging above the door, another statue on the far side of the room on a ledge, and the towering figure of what appeared to be an armoured knight.
It turned as they approached, wielding a giant sword and shield.
"Jet! Get clear!" he warned, drawing the Master sword.
The armour of his opponent made it difficult to harm him, but the plate armour slowed him considerably. Tails took advantage of that, using light blows in the right places to pull off the armour, then the helm splitter to remove it's helmet.
It dropped the shield then, throwing the large sword at a wall behind. Whatever it was, it wasn't human.
Now it drew another, lighter sword. Now the advantage was on it's side, as it landed blow after blow, Tails only just managing to block them all in time.
He was driven back slowly, having to give up ground just to keep from being harmed, then the thing stopped. It looked curious, then fell to the ground, revealing Jet hovering behind with the Ordon sword held forward, as if he'd stabbed.
"No one beats up my friends," Jet said. "Are you alright?"
"Hey! I'm meant to be looking out for you?"
"Yes, I appreciate being thanked too," he grumbled.
"Sorry. You caught my by surprise."
They were distracted by a chest appearing nearby.
"After you, wolf boy," Jet told him, gesturing to it.
Inside the chest was a curious rod. At it's top was a ball of light.
"A torch," he said.
"Not so! Ooccoo told him. "That light will animate any statue, like the one above! If it has a small hole in it for the light to occupy, it will animate it, and make it move just as you do! Try moving that one under the bell over there!"
Not entirely convinced, Tails swung the rod at the statue. The ball of light went from it, into the statue, lighting it up. Nothing else happened.
He stepped back away from it, and it stepped toward him.
Tails led it under the bell. The bell lowered with a clang, then raised.
The statue was gone, and the light back on the rod.
"Useful... I think. Midna? Where to next?"
"To your favourite part of these places, of course."
"Oh, joy," he replied sardonically. "The boss."
"Excuse me," Ooccoo interrupted again. "But that statue will be useful in getting there. Those bells move it around the temple."
"That's more useful," he commented. "Lets go put this back into the main room, then go see what's waiting to maul us in the boss room."
The statue they'd returned had opened the path for them to go through a trap-filled and somewhat ruined tunnel, that lead them... here.
The room was dark, with only small patches of light. In each, a statue was visible. As he moved to examine one however, the lgiht was cut off. Tails looked behind, then up to see an immense spider with an armoured body on the roof. It had a huge eye on it's back.
He shot the eye with an arrow, making it lose it's grip on the roof and fall heavily to the floor.
The sword had no effect on the beast. He was about to call Midna to give him the spiked ball, but she pointed to the statues.
He caught the idea, using the newly aquired rod to animate one, then swung it, making the statue swing it's massive fist into the spider.
It righted itself, scrambling over the floor and back up the walls, it's eye closed now. Once on the roof again, it dropped what looked like eggs, each one turning into spiders.
Tails caught Jet's attention. The hawk had been trying to keep as clear as possible, but he caught Tails' meaning when he pointed at the spiders. He swooped down and began clearing them up, leaving Tails to concentrate on the bigger one.
His momentary distraction had given it the opportunity it needed to fire a beam, not unlike that of the statues he'd seen throughout the temple. It had poor aim, but narrowly missed Jet, and came uncomfortably close to Tails before he shot it again.
Once more it fell to the floor. He used another statue to pound it again, then repeated once more.
It exploded into smoke. Tails put his weapons away, then turned back to the smoke. It had cleared to show just the spider's eye, and a lot of eggs.
The eye looked around at the eggs, which hatched into more of the small spiders. Tails shot a bomb-arrow into them, destroying many of the spiders, and hurting the eye. Two more defeated the lot, leaving the third shard of the Mirror of Twilight for Midna to pick up.
"That's the third one," she said, satisfied. "Only one left now. You saw how dangerous that monster was, right?"
"Hardly. It was easy."
"Yes, but... I can't shake the feeling, we could be making something terrible here... something we'll have to destroy later."
"Maybe. We'll see when we come to that though. Why don't we leave though?"
"Oh, alright then wolf boy. You and your friend too."
They re-formed back in the Temple of Time. Link was waiting for them again.
"I assume you were successful?"
"Of course. I'm a Hero of the Goddesses – I can't lose."
"Don't get overconfident."
"I won't. What are you doing here again?"
"I... have to face my destiny," he said reluctantly. "I'm not looking forward to it."
"What do you mean?"
"The reason the gods chose me, and why I'm here, Tails. The final battle I'll do here. I don't know if I'm going to win or not."
"Of course you are. You can't lose either, and you've got another reason."
"And that is?"
"Well, obviously, if you were going to lose, the Hyrule I know would probably be a lot darker, evil and stuff like that. So since Hyrule's Goddesses are still in power in that Hyrule, it stands to reason that you didn't lose. So, you can't lose."
"But that hasn't happened yet for me, Tails."
"Nope, but it will. Go on – go defeat your big evil dude. You'll win, I know it."
Link considered this. A fairy appeared nearby.
"You ought to listen to him, Link," it told him. "He's right."
"I know, Navi. Thank you... both of you. You ought to leave and go back to your own time first though, Tails."
Tails nodded, pausing at the door and turned back. "What is it the light spirits said to me... oh, I remember now. May the way of the Hero lead you to victory," he told Link, then left with Jet.
"Well done, adventurers," Ooccoo told them as the emerged into the ruined Temple of Time. "You found what we were looking for! Goodness, yes, the Domination Rod from the temple. But that has been around for some time... I can see from here, the magic is almost exhausted. What do to..."
"What's up now?"
"Well, I thought I could return to the sky at last... but this is no help in this case... and I have forgotten the spell that would fill it with magic again." Ooccoo shrugged somehow and continued, "It can't be helped... I suppose I'll have to look for the statues that respond to the rod. Well, I'm on my way... see you again!"
Midna looked after Ooccoo as she flew off, then back at the Domination rod in Tails' hands. It looked more rusted over now, and no longer held the ball of light.
"Hey, Wait! What did you do to the rod?" She looked helplessly after them, then turned back. "Well... it seems useless to us now... just excess baggage... but what are you going to do?"
"She said something about returning to the sky, and the spirits at the Arbiters grounds said there was a mirror shard there, didn't they?"
"We should try to restore power to the rod then – maybe it can get us there."
Jet looked left out as Midna dropped out of sight again.
"Sorry," Tails said to him. "It gets a bit like that after these places. What are you going to do?"
"I dunno... I could do with a rest."
"If you don't mind keeping an eye on my workshop, you can stay there. It got dragged with me here. Midna can warp us there, and I'll show you the way."
"Sure thing, I guess... but what about the locals?"
"Oh, I'll let Bo know about you before I leave. He's the Mayor in Ordon village. They'll be fine with you. I think Sonic stopped by at some point as well, so they should be alright. Put some clothes on though – it's kinda the custom here in Hyrule."
"Anything else I don't know?"
"Nope, that's it really. I won't stick around long myself, there's someone I want to see in Kakariko Village."
Midna warped them to Ordona's spring, then transformed him back to his normal self again.
"Heeey!" a voice called.
"Oh, no. Not again."
The postman came into view once more.
"Greetings, Mr. Miles! I have come to deliver a letter." He handed it over, then turned around. "My business is concluded. Onward, to mail!"
Jet stared after the postman as he left.
"Is he..."
"A complete lunatic, probably," Tails answered. The letter was from Renado, asking him to stop by his sanctuary because he had something to tell him about Ilia's memory. "Looks like I've got another reason to stop by Kakariko... I'll show you to my workshop and talk to Bo, then I've really got to be going."
"Must be busy being a hero," Jet commented.
"I haven't stopped since I got dragged into this mess," Tails told him, leading the way.