Just like the east side, the hand holding the Sol woke up after they'd taken it. Jet continued to watch and shoot at it as necessary, while Tails rolled the Sol into the depression on the floor. As it dispelled the fog a small swarm of Shadow Vermin were revealed, closely followed by a Shadow Beast.

Knuckles bounded ahead of them to attack them himself. He wasn't used to his form, but like Tails he had certain wolven instincts that guided his actions. After he chomped on one of the vermin he stuck to swatting them with his paws. Tails recalled he hadn't exactly liked the taste of them either.

The Shadow Beast ran for him when he got close, but Knuckles had apparently been paying attention and swiftly dealt with it. On its own there was no concern for it to revive anything else.

He shoved the Sol into position to make the stairs rise for them, remaining nearby to guard it from anything else that appeared until they had all made their way up, then he turned and loped up them.

"You know, I could get to like this," he told Tails while Sonic retrieved the Sol.

"Certainly not as bad as it looks once you get used to it," Tails agreed.

"What did he say?" Jet asked curiously, loosing another volley at the hand.

"He's starting to like his new form," Tails answered. "He's stopped feeling sorry for himself, at least." Knuckles gave him a guilty look. "Don't look at me like that, I've gone wolf enough times to know that the language relies on body language. You were telling me in loads of different ways without even knowing it just how you felt."

Knuckles looked even more guilty.

Once back in the second room of the wing he leapt down off the platform ahead of them, attracting the attention of the nearby Shadow Keese.

"I'd say he's more than liking it," Sonic chuckled. "It looks almost like he's enjoying himself. I kinda envy him, in a way."

"Now you've had that potion, if you want you can go play in the fog yourself," Tails offered. "Throw the Sol toward them, by the way. Aim for the middle if you can; that's where the hole for it is."

"I think I'll pass, thanks," Sonic replied, sending the Sol flying with a heave. "At least until we know we can get him back."

The Sol rolled neatly into place with a few helpful nudges from Knuckles, causing more stairs to appear. Jet sent the hand to sleep while Sonic used the clawshots to skip most of the stairs. Tails flew over, spotting Knuckles fighting with another Shadow Beast down below.

Once again, Sonic waited until Knuckles had made his way up the stairs to retrieve the Sol before they moved on.

"This could be interesting," Jet remarked in the first room. "If we have to wait on those platforms, I'll have to go through a lot of arrows."

"Go along the floor then?" Sonic suggested.

"I've an idea," Knuckles growled. "You take one of the Clawshots, Tails. Jet stays here with the Sol to take care of the hand. Sonic goes out a couple of platforms with one and drags it to him. You fly to the far end and drag it the rest of the way with the other. Then they just have to get back over there, and that's not hard."

"What did he say?" Jet asked again. Tails quickly relayed Knuckles' idea for them.

"Sounds workable," Midna agreed. "Best get to it – that hand will be here any moment now."

They took up their places as Knuckles had suggested, while Knuckles himself went ahead in the fog to root out any enemies hiding from them. It took only a few moments to get the Sol to the entrance of the room, where it lit up two previously darkened orbs to create one last platform. It allowed them all to get back up to the door to put the second Sol in its place.

"Is it just me, or was getting out much easier?" Sonic asked outside.

"It probably seems that way because we didn't have to worry about Knuckles so much."

"Well excuse me," the wolf whined.

"Stop that," Tails told him. "It makes you sound like some half-grown puppy."

"Now there's an idea," Jet murmured with a sly look to Knuckles.

"Make him stop that, Tails," Knuckles said. "I'm a wolf, not a dog."

Tails smiled, but said nothing.

When the second Sol was put in place a pair of green designs lit up around them, curling around to create a third between the two. Midna took off from his shoulder to stand nearby.

"You'll want to step in, wolf boy," she told him. "I'm not sure what will happen exactly, but it can't be bad."

He didn't question that, so stepped into the central circle. The mark of the Triforce in his hand glowed, causing a pedestal to appear before him – identical to the one he'd seen in the Temple of Time. There was no questioning what it was for, so he drove the Master Sword into it.

The two Sols blazed brightly for a moment then seemed to sink into the ground, causing the green lines to become even brighter still. They started to fade out, making it appear as if the lines were shortening as they drew closer and closer to the central design, then that too started to fade until the last brightly glowing lines were around the pedestal alone.

It too began to glow and fade, the light filling the Master Sword itself now. When the lines and pedestal were no more, the blade glowed with a golden light, feeling even more powerful in his hands.

"Did you know that was going to happen?" Tails asked Midna.

"Of course I did," she said offhandedly. "You don't think I made you do all that for nothing, did you? Why else do you think I told you not to use them up at the fog-fall?"

"You didn't really know, did you?"

"I knew something was going to happen. I just didn't know what." She frowned, looking to Knuckles. "I was hoping it would do something about him too, but I guess it wasn't really made with more than one hero in mind."

Tails looked at the wolf speculatively, then to the glowing Master Sword. Knuckles backed away.

"Oh, stop that," he told him. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to test an idea."

He touched the blade to Knuckles' brow, the same spot where Midna would have used his Shadow Gem. Knuckles' form was restored with a brief explosion of the dark pieces of twilight, but when he removed the sword again he was forced back to being a wolf.

"Oh, now I get it," Midna exclaimed. "You can change at will because Zant cursed you," she explained to Tails. "But his form is changed because he only went into the Twilight, like you first did."

"Wait, doesn't that mean they should be wolves too?"

"I think they're protected somehow because they're with you, just that protection couldn't extend to the fog as well. When you all leave here, he should change back again."

"But not while we're here?" Knuckles asked, and Tails quickly translated for him.

"It doesn't look like it. Guess you gotta stay a wolf. And since that means Tails won't have to change into a wolf so much..." she broke off, then leapt onto Knuckles' back, startling him. "That means you get to be my steed instead."

"I think I'm starting to regret this again," Knuckles muttered.

"Stop squirming, wolf boy," she told him. "We go north. Tails can use his sword to make a gap in the fog for us."

"I think I can do better than that," he replied, taking off to reach the top of the fog-fall. As he expected there was a strange device with red lines over it. He made one slash to cut the fog away to see it better, then stabbed into each of the narrow holes that had been revealed. The red lines died out, and the fog ceased to appear.

Down below, Jet and Sonic fought off a trio of Shadow Kargaroks together. Tails sent a few beams from his sword at them to help out, but it wasn't really necessary. They had it well in hand.

On the other side of the north door was a room that appeared at first glance to have no other exits. There was a pool of fog in the room and two orbs on the far side that were similar to Sols, but did not glow.

Knuckles headed into the fog immediately, where sounds of him fighting whatever was in there emerged. Tails experimented with his newly glowing sword, finding that just like the Sols, it banished the fog nearby. The beam sword proved to be even more useful here, carving routes through the fog easily.

This revealed two depressions in the floor, one for each of the two orbs. Without any enemies around to bother them, Jet and Sonic took care of putting them in their places, which caused stairs to rise out of the floor – and another swarm of Twilight Vermin, swiftly dealt with by Knuckles.

"There's a platform in the floor just there," Midna told them. "Normally it would need a Sol to activate it, but your sword should do the trick."

He waited for the others to step onto the dead platform before he activated it, where the lines lit up to carry them up to the other side of the room.

There were three darkened orbs and several Zant masks here, which fell under attack almost immediately. Tails noticed immediately that the powered up Master Sword cut through them far more easily, defeating them before they had the chance to react.

Then, when the last one was defeated, another chest appeared with a small key inside.

"Where to next, Midna?" Tails asked her.

"What am I, a tour guide?" she grumbled. "You want to use your sword to activate the orbs. It'll give us another platform to get over to a locked door over there." She paused, then said, "I think I'm going to have some serious words with whoever locked these doors. Unless they did it to annoy Zant, I doubt they have an explanation for this."

"I can see Keese up there," Sonic said. "Might want to shoot them down while they're still, Jet."

"What, don't you think I can hit a moving target?" he said indignantly. "Hawk's eyes are more than good enough for that."

"Stop bickering," Tails sighed. "Or I'll take you both outside and put you in the fog."

"And leave you to do so much on your own? Fat chance," Jet snorted.

The locked door led them to a balcony outside, swarming with Kargaroks and Shadow Beasts. Knuckles went for the latter, taking care not to repeat his earlier mistake with them. Midna made it easier for him by holding them down, allowing him to perform the same swift dashing attacks he'd used himself.

Jet shot down the Kargaroks already in the air, leaving Sonic and Tails to go after those that had been roosting around, and once they took off any of them that came too close. They all carefully avoided a fog-fall that created a thick wall, despite Tails' threat if they didn't behave, and ignored the locked door that was just beside it. Another key was needed before they could use that.

Once the swarm of Kargaroks was finally defeated, Midna pointed them toward two more darkened orbs, which once again created another platform. After it had slowly made its way up toward a high ledge, Jet took off and flew ahead, only to have a Zant mask appear. It didn't last too long once they caught up with him.

Tails didn't need prompting to light the two darkened orbs here, the platform it created taking them back toward where they'd started. Three more Zant masks were there now. Jet took off again, this time not to attack them but to distract them so they wouldn't fire on the platform with its limited space.

This time when they caught up three more masks added to the three that were already there. It took them a little longer to defeat them with six to handle, but eventually they all fell, causing another chest to appear, containing the small key they needed.

"Wait, Tails," Midna called as he headed for the locked door. "There's something else in the area – behind that fog. Can you disable it like you did the first one?"

"Can't hurt to look," he shrugged, heading for the top again. Once again, one slash revealed narrow openings, just big enough for him to stab into to disable it.

It revealed a tall opening behind the fog that had been sheltering a mass of roosting Kargaroks. Tails quickly waved off Jet, attacking them himself before they became aware of his presence, pausing only once to open a large, very ornate black chest to retrieve the Big Key.

"We'd have kicked ourselves if we'd had to come all the way back here for this," he laughed, then finished off the last of the Kargaroks.

"Was that really necessary?" Midna asked him.

"What, you don't think getting these monsters out of your palace is a good idea?"

"They weren't harming anyone."

"They could have. Besides, it pays to keep in practise. Are we done here?"

"Give me a moment to look over the map. Not that I'm implying I need it, of course," she added quickly. "It's just to refresh my memory."

"Whatever you say, Midna," he grinned back.