With the Hook Beetle making it possible to drop bombs as necessary, more of the desert opened up. I continued my exploration, not entirely certain what I was looking for besides more Timeshift stones, in the process encountering another Goddess Cube and a Bird statue that marked the edge of a more western part of the desert, just next to a roaring fall not of water, but sand. It kicked up a dusty cloud as it spilled out and instead of simply piling up, the sand shifted outward from it as if it was water.
It slowed progress slightly, since I had to take into account the shifting of the sand. More of the shelled beasts helped there, as they left their shells behind making them useful as platforms. With their help, willing or not, I finally crossed this part of the desert to find a short tunnel that let into yet another part of the desert.
This one was not quite as sandy, however. Here the rocks just fell away, and there were clear signs of the ancient robots the Timeshift stones brought back. Carts and tracks crossed the area, cacti and scrubby desert plants were far more in evidence, and there were tall pillars that could not have been natural. Time may have worn them smooth and rounded, but they couldn't have been natural.
Fi helpfully nudged my sword toward several of them, silently pointing out the Timeshift stones within them. Given that a dead cart and track was right beside the next Bird statue, I wasn't surprised. The track stopped dead at the edge, only to reappear on the top of a stone spire just ahead.
Yes, I could probably have jumped the gap and climbed up. Like I said earlier though, being a Hero is bad for me, making me not think of these things.
Activating the nearest one meant the use of the Beetle, and as before the sand and stone was replaced with earth and grass. Wooden bridges carried the track over the gap ahead, along with another one for a different track not far away. Of course, with all this the carts also activated – guarded by a Technoblin. Which stared at me stupidly as, to it, I appeared out of nowhere. So I shoved it off the edge. I wasn't in any mood to get shocked again.
The cart crossed the bridge, though it stopped short of the end because the blue time line stopped before there. It didn't cover much of this spire, leaving the next cart and track totally dead. Fi tugged my sword toward a huge, dead, white tree.
There wasn't any Timeshift stone immediately visible, but I trusted her and sent out the Beetle, seeing through its eyes instead. As it flew over the top of the hollowed out trunk, I saw the stone, nestled just inside. It was a bit of an odd place to find one.
I had to bring the Beetle back and begin again then, as it ran out of flight time. This time I had it pick up a bomb along the way and drop it into the tree, bringing the area around it back to life – even reviving the great tree. The time lines shifted as one stone stopped projecting the past and the other started, the cart I'd just taken first deactivating and turning old again, then being brought back.
The next track also crossed a gap, heading into a cavern formed by the roots of the tree. I could see from here however that the path was blocked by a metal grate. Once more I sent the Beetle ahead, snapping the stem of a Deku Baba hanging from the ceiling, then also triggering a red crystal switch that opened the way.
After the cart had finally taken me to the other side, a region only slightly affected by the Timeshift stone, I was at last stood before that giant winged Triforce, which in turn stood above the remains of a white wall – perhaps more than a wall, it was hard to tell. And who else should be here, but good old Gorko the Goron.
"Knuckles!" he boomed. "What an astonishing coincidence to see you again, and here of all places!"
Yeah, what a 'coincidence'.
"You sound excited, my friend. Have you made some new discovery?"
"You aren't turning into a mind-reader too, are you? I was just about to tell you – it's the discovery of the century! This place, this entire part of the desert, it's known as the Temple of Time, and what's more, I found an inscription, and art with it too!"
"Did you translate it?" I asked. Gorko's discoveries had been helpful before, after all.
"I'm working on that, but you won't believe the art! I could hardly believe my eyes – not only the Isle of the Goddess, but a monster on there – ah, but no ordinary monster! This one looked just like you bud!"
Great. So at some point in the past, someone was going to paint me. Well, at least I knew I'd have a legend that lasted. It managed to last even before I'd started.
"That's not all," Gorko went on. "There was a human too, wearing clothes like yours, and they went into the Temple of Time. I wanted to follow – what self-respecting Archaeologist wouldn't want a chance to see the Temple of Time, after all? But then there was this massive explosion, and, well..." he looked to the rubble beside him.
"Leave it to me, my friend," I told him. "I'll nose about a bit and see what I can find out. Maybe I'll find another way, and once I'm certain it leads in, I'll make sure you're the first to hear about it."
"Now you're thinking like an Archaeologist, friend Knuckles! The past is just waiting to be uncovered by you!"
Didn't I just know it.
I made some show of examining the walls – marble, so too tough for me to climb, and arranged in such a way that I couldn't even using the surrounding rocks. I suppose I could have shifted some rock to form a way in, but it would have been too much work.
Fi nudged my attention toward another Timeshift stone, uncovered and then triggered by use of the Beetle and a pair of bombs. It's area of effect did not stretch far, just transforming a small circle of the desert. It reactivated a cart and track, blocked by another ancient robot, and also brought back another two Technoblins, which didn't fare well. They may have had advanced weaponry, but they still lacked brains in their sun-baked heads.
Like the last one, the robot was thankful of course. It helpfully told me that within the Temple of Time was a creation of the Goddess, the Gate of Time, and that he was one of the guard robots.
"If you want to go in, just go through the door there," it told me.
"I kinda need another way in," I said. "It's a bit difficult to explain. Is there one?"
"Well, the Lanayru Mining Facility and the Temple of Time are connected underground. If you have a map, I can show you where."
I hesitated – after all, my map was of the present, or to him, the future. What harm could it do though?
"Here," it said, pointing at a place to the east in the main desert. "That's where the facility is. This map is a bit inaccurate though – let me fix that for you." It took the map off me for a moment, and I couldn't see what it did. When it was returned, the entire Lanayru region map showed it's past-state.
"Now, I better get back to my patrol!"
As the robot wandered off again, Fi showed up instead. "A report, Master Knuckles. The map the robot has given you corresponds to the actual terrain of this area with only thirty-five percent accuracy, clearly showing the past-state the robot is in and not the present. I have therefore modified the map so that you may simply switch between the two at will, seeing past and present together."
That was useful. Both what she did and what the robot did.
In order to progress though I had to trigger another Timeshift stone. Going back the way I'd actually come was a possibility of course, but I'd spotted a Goddess Cube this way, and since I was already being delayed with this detour, what was one more?
Triggering the next one, concealed in an overhanging cave, caused robot remains to appear nearby – possibly the remains of the one I'd just seen, which was something disturbing to contemplate – and activate most of the track. Another wood bridge led up above the cave to where the Goddess Cube lay, then back down the other side to the far cliff.
I had to push the dead cart across the time line before it would take me ahead. I struck the Cube as the cart passed it, sending it soaring up even while I was taken on ahead. The cart stopped at the next time line, as it did not cover all the track.
This was simply a long stone ledge that led to another short cavern, this one leading to a more northern part of the same desert. Along the way, I found another Timeshift stone – this one loose. Who wouldn't trigger it in my position.
It didn't extend far. It was only one small crystal, and it had only extended a few meters.
"That robot we met when we triggered the first one of these said they were harmful, didn't he?" I asked Fi even though she wasn't present.
"Indeed Master," she answered, appearing. "I am unable to verify this information however."
"Unable? Why?"
"There are no readings that I am capable of detecting that would be harmful to them, humans or to you, Master Knuckles. However I estimate that there is nevertheless a chance, as I am not capable of detecting all things."
"But one small stone like this... if I carried this with me, it could be useful, right?"
"Master, I do not recommend this. We have no way of telling what the consequences might be."
"Link likes me – I hope. He might have been a bit put out with me after the last place, but I think he'll look out for me," I said. "If you were to keep close watch on me and warn me the moment you think it's doing anything bad to me, or I drop it the moment I think that, would that satisfy your caution?"
Fi appeared slightly troubled, but answered, "I do not believe this is a wise course of action Master Knuckles, but if you choose to do this I will monitor your condition for any signs of harm as you suggest."
"Good enough for me," I decided, and picked up the one lone Timeshift crystal. The blue time line fluctuated as it moved, but always held the same area around. Fi watched, but said nothing and after a time returned to my sword as I progressed onward, carrying a little piece of the past with me.
What a mistake that was.
I didn't realise this however and went ahead anyway, regularly consulting the past and present maps for the area. In this part of the desert there were large birds, identified as Hrok and as a threat – they apparently ate small rocks, and regurgitated entire boulders. I sent the Beetle in search of a bomb to get rid of them.
Thanks to the crystal, the area immediately around me was always in the past. Where there should have been sun-blasted rock there was grass, where there was sand there was instead exposed earth. Consulting the past map also revealed several pathways that radiated out like a spider-web. These paths, coupled with the past area overriding the present and the sand in it, made it very easy to reach the place the robot had helpfully marked on the map.
This place was actually an area raised up, one of the areas I had thought was a wall, but was actually a path raised up in the past. As I passed along it, temporarily revitalising the area, robot remains turned briefly into robots, then back again. I also revealed that where some boulders were in the present there was nothing in the past, and where one of them was, there was a Timeshift stone. Here I found out something useful later.
I put down a bomb, which meant it was in the past area. When I fell back to avoid the blast and the crystal's influence no longer covered it, it vanished. I waited, hoping that time in the past was still moving and so was the bomb, and was rewarded when, although the rocks remained, the crystal in my hand deactivated as a new time line emerged from the concealed Timeshift stone, bringing the area back to the past.
Along with two more Technoblins that caught me unawares. After getting over the shock they'd given me, I quickly dealt with them with more savageness than was probably necessary.
What had before appeared to be just another worn stone carving was now a brightly painted and not worn at all... thing. It looked like it had a face, actually. And there was a robot beside it too.
"You are not in my memory banks," it informed me when I approached.
"That doesn't surprise me. I'm Knuckles, and I'm just passing through, trying to help, and trying to get to the Temple of Time without going through the doors. Don't ask why, please. I don't think I could explain it without going insane. I was told it was connected underground to the Lanayru Mining Facility, and that I needed to come here."
"Here? This is just one of the power generators for the facility, but it does open the entrance. It won't budge until you activate the remote power nodes and set the three dials to access them correctly."
"I'll take your word for it. I don't suppose you'd care to mark them on my map, would you? I'll lend a hand with this."
"That I cannot do. You are not authorised."
It was worth a try. Fi had the answer though.
"Master, I believe I can locate these power nodes. The same materials used in the construction of this generator are likely present in them. I can therefore direct your attention toward them."
"Time for me to get to work helping out then," I said. The robot looked disapproving, but said nothing.
A/N: Yes, I'm aware that the Timeshift crystal Knuckles picked up isn't in the actual game. It has it's own purpose, that will become clear shortly, and finally tie up a loose end that's been hanging around ever since Tails faced off against Dark in Twilight Fox.