Crossing the rest of the room was as easy as moving another platform with the jar, bringing it over to a place we could board, then sending it back again to reach the ladder opposite where the Beamos had been – at the top of which was another Beamos. By sheer luck, it happened to be facing away while we quickly scrambled up, though the sound attracted its attention. It oriented on me just as Dark struck the one pedestal underneath it, and even before that had fallen away I was already stabbing the eye. Dark might not completely like me, but fighting cooperatively was definitely working in our favour.
In order to get through the door it had been guarding I turned the jar on another pin-wheel that removed the grate. Dark opened the door before I'd even finished raising the grate, but stopped when he spotted the blue line marking the Timeshift Stone's reach. He also almost touched his own gem, but thought better of it since that would leave him in the past without the jar to finish with the door. After a moment's apparently agonized thought, he went ahead anyway and vanished into the past.
Regardless of what he might be facing in the past, the door behind me in the present immediately barred as I went through. Two of the strange three-headed creatures I'd encountered before were here, both quickly dealt with now I knew how to handle them.
Dealing with them didn't take long, and left me to look over the room in more detail. A strange, aged statue off to one side blocked my way to the only other door in the room, piles of dust lay everywhere, and there was another metal crate, half buried. Before I did anything with it, Fi's linking of our swords provided an interesting exchange.
"The hell is this thing?!" I heard the echo of Dark's voice from my sword. "My sword is just bouncing off it!"
I saw the hilt of my sword flash as if Fi was about to show up, but nothing happened. Then, similarly echoing, I heard her explain, "This security and defence mechanism is known as an Armos statue, and was developed long ago-"
"Yeah, if you're him it's long ago," Dark interrupted. "Just tell me the details already!"
Unperturbed, Fi continued, "It will attack anything that enters its security perimeter. Records indicate that its weak point are the power crystals in its mouth, but that specific measures are required to make it open its mouth."
There was a silent pause, during which I can only assume Dark attempted to figure out precisely what to do, then his voice said, "Get that jar thing ready, you – I need it, and I'm gonna have to take it off you as soon as I get the chance!"
I didn't bother to respond. I already had it out in order to deal with the dust gathered around, but by the sounds of it he needed it more than I did. Since I already knew I wouldn't be able to see the lines from his crystal, I picked a relatively central place and watched and listened carefully, only to have Fi tug my sword to direct me. As soon as Dark appeared he snatched the jar off me, blasting its gust of air at something that was out of reach of the crystal.
He handed it back – I assume because he'd done what he needed it to – and stabbed, then circled around the Armos in the past and stabbed again.
"Well finally," he muttered irritably after a moment, during which the bars on the doors retracted. "What did they make these things out of anyway? Even my fists didn't even leave a mark!"
"The devices of old were notoriously durable," Fi informed him. "There are however no details of their composition available. I conjecture that such information has likely been lost in time."
"Will be lost," Dark corrected absently. "Now I think I'll look around," he said, his voice echoing as his crystal was turned off again.
Now that diversion was over with, uncovering and moving the crate made it possible to climb up the metal walls to a higher ledge – where a grate blocked access to a chest and another pile of dust.
Clearing the dust through the grate wasn't a problem, but it did present a puzzle – a very clearly shattered Timeshift stone. A few moments more, and the chest changed – it was opened now. It hadn't just opened itself, just one moment it was untouched and closed with a few traces of dust on top, the next it was open and empty, with a bit of dust inside.
"Did you do that?" I asked, hoping Fi was still transmitting our voices.
"Do what?" Dark's voice came back.
"There's a destroyed Timeshift stone behind some bars up here, and an open chest.
There was a guilty silence then, "Yeah, that might have been me. The bars were supposed to move when I destroyed the Armos thing, but they got stuck, so I ripped them out of place. They mighta hit the crystal and broke it. I did try to fix them after I got the map from it, but I ended up only getting the stupid things stuck again. That's probably why they're still there for you. Give me just a moment and I'll hand over the map. Should warn you by the way," he went on, his voice sounding closer, then he reappeared nearby. "This map is for this time – my time. Your past. Whatever, you get the idea. It doesn't show the future. Present."
"I get the idea," I told him, taking it off him. As it passed into my hands though, it flashed slightly – and showed the present instead. Experimentally, I handed it back, and in Dark's hands it showed his time.
Fi helpfully arranged it so that we wouldn't have to keep giving it to each other to see each time, though she couldn't make a copy so we both had one. Between the two maps we realized that, like the previous two dungeons, we'd actually done quite a bit of this one by now. There were two – possibly three, but the map wasn't clear – rooms we had yet to go to, and four chests. Zelda's face marked our final destination in the facility, the north-most part of the room where I'd first seen Dark's directions.
Since the Armos had been defeated by him, the old, dilapidated statue that I assumed was it's present-day self was now also gone. The door it had been blocking however only led back to a room we'd already been to. The remaining rooms and chests were all reached through the same chamber as the boss door.
"Guess we'd better get going then," Dark sighed. "And I honestly hope we find another Armos so you can see what I just had to deal with. Those things are tough!"
"Not now I know how to deal with them. I heard Fi telling you about them."
Dark grunted sourly. "Seems like I'm only here to make your life easier. Honestly, I'm not even convinced you needed me, but since you did..." he trailed off. "Of course, if you try and get rid of me again, I'll just go to a part of the past where none of your Timeshift stones can reach me. Even if you do catch up, I'm not just gonna let you... I dunno, un-create me?"
"Oh stop worrying about that and lets get on with this. We wouldn't want to deprive our 'friend' Ghirahim of another chance to try and kill me now, would we?"
"Gonna love the look on his face when he finds out there's two of us," Dark smirked, his mood brightened immediately. I had a feeling it would.
When we returned to the main room, a helpful, half-buried and quickly uncovered floor switch provided us with another short-cut back to the rest of the room, removing a grate that had otherwise been blocking our way. It might be useful later, but that wasn't the main concern. This room remained entirely in the present, and our immediate next destination was covered in sand.
"There's a route there," Dark said, gesturing to a patch of sand that looked no different to me. "Your time's map says there's sand there if I remember. But you just stick close to me and I'll lead you safely."
Dark safely led the way across the sand, pausing at one heap of sand by a wall where the map had told us there was a route. Blasting the sand away revealed the narrow passage, and Dark waited while I crept in and navigated the small, winding passages beyond to a chest, which contained a blue feather. One of the many little collectable things that, like I've said before, I usually don't bother to tell you about because otherwise this would be ridiculously tedious.
I half expected to see Dark had gone on ahead again, but he hadn't actually gone far. He was looking further up the sand, I presume at what was there in his own time, and he'd walked out into the sand a ways.
"Just walk straight ahead to meet me," he told me absently. "It's safe to here, this is just where it branches."
Further ahead a second pile of sand revealed a second, similar passage, and this one Dark followed me down rather than waiting. The room it led us to was covered in huge drifts of sandy dust, or dusty sand – dust and sand were both mixed together here. Some more of the puffer-fish were floating aimlessly about here too, but Dark didn't appear to notice them. He seemed to be looking at something with a mixture of curiosity and interest, and since I couldn't see the past, I had no idea what it was. After a few moments he muttered something about wanting to get a closer look and turned off the crystal, vanishing from view.
"Charming," I muttered to myself. Hopefully he never heard that.
Just peeking out from the dunes were a line of holes in a strip of metal. Once I got close to them, spikes shot out in lines, even extending into the dunes. As the spikes emerged there was a small cloud of dust in the air, as they retracted the sand hissed back into the vacated space.
Since it was anyone's guess what Dark was up to without pestering him, I used the Gust Jar again to start blowing the sand and dust away, revealing where these spike tracks were, constantly having to re-blow over areas I'd already been as the sandy dust just kept shifting back into place. There was so much of it, all I was really doing was redistributing it.
In the course of moving all that dust around I found an open chest – probably collected by Dark in the past again – and a floor switch, which by the sounds I heard, removed a grating on another door in the room, further up. I had to further pick my way through the sand and spikes to reach the door.
"Not reappearing?" I asked.
"I'm on the other side of the door," Dark's voice came back. "I reckon once you do a few things here you'll understand why I didn't bother to wait for you, or use my crystal."
The other side of the door was back in the main room again, just a different part. A lever on the wall here, but what was more curious was a huge heap of dust, even larger than the ones that concealed Timeshift stones.
Blowing it away revealed an ancient cart and track, and right in the cart, a giant collection of Timeshift stones. Activating them made the cart and track reactivate, though they didn't have the reach to affect the entire room. The large circle of past they brought to me though did include Dark, who seemed to be looking distinctly satisfied with himself about something. I didn't think to ask, and I've often wondered if I should have.