The room had not been as difficult to navigate as it had first appeared to be. Through careful planning, Midna guided them both around air currents, Kargaroks and Keese, sending Knuckles along the walls and Tails weaving through the air to reach the door at the bottom.
Along the way Tails noticed one difference about Knuckles compared to Sonic and Jet – he made fewer comments about the situation, accepting it and, for the most part, Midna's directions without the sour remarks that he'd endured from the others. Neither of them were used to following instead of leading though.
Beyond that lower door was another tall, round room with a massive fan in the floor blowing straight up to yet another of the massive metal balls. The door locked behind them, but there seemed to be no immediate danger.
Tails fought the air current to land atop the ball, but Despite both him and the Iron boots on the top of it, the force of the wind countered the great weight and it remained immobile. Knuckles, who'd watched from the floor, scaled one wall then leapt out over it and landed hard to force it down, in turn stopping the fan below.
As there was no visible exit in this part of the room, Tails cautiously flew down past the stopped fan into a room below. Nothing happened until he landed – whereupon a yowl like that of a jaguar came from one side, then as he turned to look, the other.
"Tails, behind you!" Knuckles' voice cracked from above. Tails whirled, raising his shield to ward off a strike only just in time, barely seeing his enemy until after it had yowled again in frustration. With its surprise attack thwarted by Knuckles, the shield was put aside so he could see another armed and armoured lizard creature, but with a key difference.
It had wings.
"Oh yeah?" Tails said belligerently. "Well two can play at that game!" and he took off again, drawing out the Master Sword on the way. The creature was startled, but quick to react to this new development, quickly lashing out. Tails flicked his sword into the path of some, the shield into others, watching for an opening as the two circled in the air.
Here the lizard had the advantage; it was used to fighting and flying, Tails wasn't – at least not constantly. He countered that with his wits and the extra dimension of movement, not simply ducking under strikes but dropping down below it or flying high above. He used the Helm Splitter in the air to disorient it, turning quicker than he could on the ground to bash his shield into the back of its head to emphasise the effect, then dropping down beside the stunned lizard to hack away.
When it got up again it made a dash away from him and out one of the gaping holes in the walls that Tails had not seen before in his distraction. He almost followed, but there were strong currents outside that had blown the creature out of sight and into the view of another window.
He avoided several charges it made for him, heading in through one crack and out again through another, Tails having only just enough time to make one, maybe two strikes as it passed before it was gone again.
Knuckles watched from the frame of the fan above, apparently looking for something as he murmured to himself, tracing the path the lizard took as if there were a pattern to it. After several more attacks by the lizard he suddenly dropped down from his perch with a yell, fists heading down before him to strike the lizard at just the right moment, knocking it out of the air and tumbling against one wall. Tails wasted no time in heading after it to finish it off.
"Thanks Knuckles," he said afterwards, breathing hard. "Would have taken me a lot longer if you hadn't done that."
"What're friends for?" Knuckles replied as if brushing it to one side. "Gate opened up there when you finished it off, and I heard a grating sound from above."
"Probably the door opening, and probably something useful behind the gate."
Behind the gate was a chest that contained another clawshot, though this one seemed more suited to the left hand than the right.
"You could use them together," Knuckles suggested after a moment. "Use them to get from target to target without having to drop to the ground."
"Why use them when I can fly?" Tails suggested.
"Because you used a lot of energy flying and fighting, wolf boy," Midna told him. "You can't fly everywhere. Besides, you should be used to it – you didn't really fly all that much in the other dungeons, did you?"
"She's gotta point Tails," Knuckles agreed. "You take 'em both back for now. I'll just go along the walls like I've been doing anyway."
"You'll have to do that anyway in a moment," Midna told him. "There's a door back in that tall room that's behind a gate."
"I remember seeing that," Tails nodded. "There was one of those metal balls there. You told me to leave it alone at the time."
"That was before I figured it out. See, if we had someone around who couldn't fly, those clawshots would be essential. You'd have to use one to pull down the ball, and another on a target to get through the gate – otherwise it would close as soon as you let go of the ball."
"But?" Knuckles prompted her.
"But with you two, I think we can work around it – just a bit. If we get him to open the gate, you should be able to hold it open for him."
"How is that different, Midna?" Tails asked, heading through the door and shooting down a few new Keese that had flown into the room. "I'd still have to get over there somehow, wouldn't I?"
"I know you, wolf boy. You'd try to fly it, and that wouldn't work unless there was something stopping the gates closing."
"Whatever works," he gave up.
Knuckles made things even easier still though by smashing the gates instead. A few pieces remained and tried to close, but they weren't enough to stop them.
The room it led to had almost no floor at all, and several pillars dropping down from the ceiling that had targets on them. Knuckles headed up one wall to examine the pillars, Midna going from Tails' shadow to his to see for herself.
"They're not very stable," he called back. "I'd say they're like those blue floor tiles – they'll probably start to collapse once you put your weight on them. If you've as good an aim with them as you do your sword, you'll have no trouble getting across."
The first pillar shook with his weight on it, letting loose a stony grumble. So did the second as the first one slid down off the thin metal core it had been anchored to. Several pillars later the room was empty except for those metal rods and a chest he hadn't seen before on the far side. Midna snatched the compass off him almost before he picked it out of the chest.
"Something wrong with my shadow?" Tails asked Midna mildly as she lounged on Knuckles' shoulder instead, poring over the map and compass together.
"At least he has the sense not to keep throwing himself in dangerous situations," she replied.
"That's because he's not the Hero in these parts; I am."
"Don't worry, wolf boy. I'm not planning on abandoning you. You and I both need each other too much right now." She looked up at them, then in her usual commanding tone, "Well don't just stand there, there's a door right in front of you! Honestly, do I have to think for the both of you now?"
The door led outside, to the underside of the bridge they had used to get over to this part of the city in the sky. Several Baba Serpents hung upside-down from exposed metal gratings, watching with vegetative hunger as if knowing he was going to approach. Tails gave the beam sword a try, but it seemed where he was still winded from the fight before it wasn't going to work.
"Nice shot," Knuckles remarked after seeing the Baba Serpents fall to a few well-aimed arrows.
"Fair," Tails admitted modestly. "I've had a bit of practise with it. It looks like there's some vines on the far side there. I think we'll have to cross to them."
"I saw them earlier, when we came across the first time. I'll just use the side of the bridge again. You stick to the clawshots."
That advice gave them an impromptu race to the other side, won by Knuckles only because he had only to climb up to win, where Tails had to scale the vines first.
Midna directed them right through the central room to the destroyed bridge on the other side, then guiding them up to the top of the structure. Knuckles of course just used the wall, while she had Tails use the clawshots on strange flying creatures she called Peahats.
After shooting down several Kargaroks and defeating more armoured lizards, Knuckles went around the walls of the area to throw down any chests he found for Tails to open, netting him some more arrows, a few bombs and many more rupees. Midna then guided them up even further to a door that led into the top most chambers of the structure.
That in turn led to a new room with another air current coming out of the floor and two giant Helmasaurs. Knuckles made short work of one, catching it as it charged him, pulling its helmet off it, then bludgeoning it with its own helmet. Tails just lured the other one into running into a wall, then attacked it while it was stunned.
Also in the room was a massive wall that seemed to rotate around a central column. As it turned it revealed another metal ball, dragged down by Knuckles to make the fan below stop blowing. While he did that, Tails opened the ornate chest below, which held the ornate key that would, he knew, inevitably lead them to the boss.
They were further directed through a small hole that led to the fan below, where Midna insisted only Tails could get the next metal ball because it needed someone who could either fly or use the clawshots. The ball was well concealed in the ceiling of the room below, which was the main central room itself.
That ball activated another massive fan in the north wall, sucking air in to blast out a massive current outside, and once they were outside they could see that current was causing gratings in the air to spin around.
"What's on the other side?" Knuckles asked Midna.
"Oh, nothing much," she said with an impish look. "Just a few last rooms before a big dragon. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how to get across."
Tails wordlessly handed the clawshots to Knuckles, taking off again. This time he drew the bow and started shooting down Kargaroks as he flew along, using the strong winds from the fan he'd activated to get across without much effort.
Knuckles had a slower time of it, having to wait for the gratings to face the right way before he could carry on, but he also had a safer trip without having to worry about Kargaroks.
Beyond the far door was another tall room with even more gratings above, and even two more flying lizard creatures. They focused their attention on Tails, while Knuckles scrambled up one wall to repeat his earlier tactic. Since they weren't expecting the red echidna to come dropping out of the sky on them, the fight was much shorter than the original one had been.
With the experience from the previous rooms, they didn't have to ask Midna to guide them in ascending this room. Knuckles went along the walls activating crystal switches as he went, and Tails, having taken the clawshots back to save his strength, shot from grating to grating as they were activated, leaving them before the massive ornate door behind which waited the dragon.
"You don't have to help if you don't want to," Tails told Knuckles as he unlocked the door. "But I'd appreciate it all the same."
"I'm not sure how much use I'd be in a fight against a dragon, Tails," Knuckles laughed ruefully. "I can't fly like you can."
"No, but that doesn't mean you have to. Here," he said, handing over the bag of bombs, quiver and bow. "Arrows might not do much, but bomb-arrows will."
"I've never used a bow before," Knuckles protested.
"At least you'll be able to try. You've seen me use it Midna, since you've taken up residence in his shadow you can give him a hand, can't you?"
"Of course," she answered. "Just... be careful, 'kay Tails?"
"Trust me," he grinned "I'm a Hero."