Almost as soon as the cart's load of unrefined Timeshift stones were active, the cart started moving – and with it, platforms appeared on either side of the rail it slowly crept along. They were present in the past, but not in the now, and they were my only way over to the other side.
Dark, in keeping with his own habits so far, went on ahead and vanished at the edge of the slowly moving timelines. For him of course, the platforms were always there except when he came to the present, so he was able to move on ahead.
I caught faint echoed sounds of him fighting something in the past, though whatever it was had been defeated before it came into reach of the stones, leaving him just stood leaning against one pillar nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened. He did however point me toward a nearby bird statue up some steps, and along the way, the boss door.
This was not in the reach of the Timeshift stones. The door was covered in lines of spikes that were held tight, refusing to budge despite my best efforts. They blocked access to the hole in the door that counted as the puzzle-lock. For whatever reason, Link had effectively double-locked this door.
There was nothing else I could do up here. A large blast of wind cut off access to the eastern side of the room, but knowing Link, there'd be a way there – and more than likely some reason to go there too. I've noticed that, he almost never makes dead-ends for the sake of dead-ends.
I wasn't left without options though. Dark had directed me up this way, but now on the way back down I noticed the cart had stopped because of a gate in the way. A gate opened by triggering another pin-wheel mechanism. Dark had since disappeared, knowing him – or rather me and what I could do – he'd found an alternative route. Opening the gate revealed more platforms on the past as the cart continued it's slow journey around the room. Looking at their placement, it looked as if Dark had simply leapt up and glided around the wall with the gate to reach them. He, of course, could do that being in the past – I had to wait for them to appear.
A pedestal of a Beamos appeared, missing the top part – likely he'd shoved that off without bothering with the remains. A little ways past that, scrape marks showed he'd shoved another Beamos out of the way of the cart and then again just left the pedestal behind. Two more truncated pedestals later and I finally made it to the other side.
Dark appeared briefly as the time lines passed him, but he was already heading to the east of the room again. I opened another pin-wheel triggered gate for another shortcut back – there were so many of these left around – then followed.
Once again, another cart full of unrefined Timeshift stones was hidden under yet more dust. And once triggered, more platforms appeared. I wasn't surprised to find Dark wasn't in range of them, more likely he was wandering off ahead. At least he was being helpful with the Beamos and anything else that might get in the way.
"Pin-wheel on the wall to your right, just coming up," his voice echoed from the sword. I'd noticed it already, but it wasn't yet covered by the lines yet, and given their reach, I wouldn't have long to trigger it. So I started early, before the lines caught them, allowing me to start the instant they reactivated.
Triggering it opened a gate we'd already passed, but the lines were already withdrawing away from there. I could probably have made a running jump and a glide to reach them, but then I'd be stuck. It could wait. At the end-point of this cart's rail, Dark reappeared.
"You can't go on from here," he told me. "Already looked, that gate is the way to go. Just wait here a moment and I'll get this thing moving back the other way."
"How are you going to do that?"
"Noticed there's levers at either end of the cart trail? I checked them out a bit already. Yank on the one at the other end and it'll make the cart go that way. Why else d'ya think they got started, huh? Honestly, if you didn't have me around in your past to give them a tug, you'd never have got them going. And then what'd you do, Hero?"
I decided it might not be a good idea to answer that, given his slightly venomous tone. Dark's resentment was blooming nicely at this point, and despite what he'd said, I started to wonder if I hadn't made yet another mistake with him. Surely Link would have left some way to trigger these carts without depending on Dark. After all... Link didn't know about him yet. Right? I was meant to be doing this alone, and Link wasn't meant to interfere once I'd arrived. Unless he'd done something between Dark arriving and my arrival, and just not counted Dark's arrival...
The cart started moving then, and since if I didn't follow I'd be left behind, and no doubt Dark would have something to say about that, I dropped that line of thought and ambled back along the platforms. If only it'd move quicker... even shoving the cart didn't make a difference.
Beyond the gate was a door, and past that another room. A broken ladder and some pipework, and after a few moments, Dark also appeared using the crystal. An inactive conveyor belt, complete with the metal bars that, in the past, would form an electric barrier, provided a way across the room. One of the pipes was damaged, periodically blasting air across the conveyor, but it was a regular thing, and easy to pass.
The far side of the conveyor was overgrown with grey vines. Some of them pulled away even before I started to climb using them, but other managed to hold on just long enough for the two of us to scramble across, then up while avoiding more air blasts. The vines here had been partly torn off by the blasts, but at least it left only the tougher ones that would support us safely.
The conveyors continued at the top, with frames holding more metal spike chains for another inactive electric barrier. With them all old and motionless though, it was easy to pick our way through them.
"Weird to see," Dark remarked to himself, then at my glance he explained, "Well, you can't see it, of course. But these conveyors... I can see them moving in my time, past the lines," he gestured to where they'd be if I could see them. "But on this side, they're old, lifeless and still. Just around this... this dead zone they carry on moving as if it isn't here."
"It's what we get for messing with time," I said. "I'm not sure I want to know how it works. Did you nick my bombs?"
"What? Oh, yeah. I found something I wanted to blow up. You can have them back now. Give me just a sec," he told me, attacking something out of sight, then handing them over.
I didn't ask what he'd bombed, I needed them myself to bring down two more statues in the wall, holding pots that seemed designed for bombs to be lobbed into. Probably they were, of course.
In complete defiance of the laws of physics, the statues fell over and stayed level, even though only a tiny part of them was resting on a ledge. I gave it a distrustful look, and Dark probably wondered what I was looking at since he couldn't see that part of the present, then leapt across and hoped.
It didn't even so much as quiver. Two more were blasted down to complete a path of stepping stones over to the other side, while Dark remained where I'd started. Obviously, to him I'd gone out of reach of his crystal, and he had no idea I'd confirmed it was safe.
"Just trust me and make the jump," I told him, hoping Fi could transmit my voice even with the crystal active. "I'll direct you from here since you can't see."
This did not look as if it inspired confidence in him. With a bit of thinking and planning however, I managed to safely direct him from stone to stone until he also joined me on my side, leaning against one wall looking a little spooked.
"Don't ever make me do that again!" he told me shakily. "You have no idea how terrifying it is to leap out into what my eyes are telling me is nothing but empty air with only your word there's something to land on!"
"Well, turn off your crystal and recover then," I told him. "If I'm right, under this here pile of dust there's another Timeshift stone, and since yours is active..."
He needed no further prompting to disappear back into the past, leaving me to uncover the stone and trigger it.
The room burst into life, of course. Broken pipes became fixed, conveyors moved, the barriers electrified, Dark appeared too of course. There were a few remains of the flying sentry drones that I assumed Dark must have attacked, and a couple of Armos statues by a far door.
I also realized why the crossing had been so bad on Dark. I'd knocked the statues down, but here in the past that hadn't happened yet. More for his peace of mind, I repeated what I'd done for him, allowing us to safely cross back. Parts that looked like they'd come from a Beamos were scattered here.
"Yeah, that's what I beat up before I gave you the bombs back," Dark admitted. "Since I'm still in your past, it could see me, so I kinda had to deal with it."
We crossed the now moving conveyors, dodging parts being taken along them, and hauled on a lever on the other side, which caused a platform to cross over to this side – a platform with the gust bellows mechanism on top.
That took us to the other side, where Dark rather brutally dispatched another flying sentry drone by the simple act of drawing it away from the pit it was hovering over, making it go close to the edge, then quickly closing and ripping off the rotors by hand.
Tails winced visibly. "I know I've said this before, but really, was I the only one who had any respect for the machines?"
"In our defence, they were also enemies Tails," Knuckles told him. "They were attacking us, and you should know that's not exactly something we're just going to take."
"You said Fi called them sentries. They were only protecting the facility, and they probably had a limited reach to them, they'd have ignored you past it," he insisted. "I know there's some you'd have to disable, but really... and you didn't even try disabling instead of destroying."
"Different Heroes do things different ways," Manic said easily. "I mean, I wouldn't expect any of you to get up to the same kinda mischief I did. You just don't got it in you. I'm a thief, you're a mechanic, Silver's mentally special-"
"Thanks," Silver interrupted, rolling his eyes.
"You're welcome," Manic replied impudently. "We all do things our own way. Can't go having a go at us for how we handle things." He paused, then added, "Well, 'less it's Dark of course. But that's different. Like Vaati."
"I know, but..." Tails just trailed off then shrugged. "I guess I just don't like to hear about you destroying them so casually, that's all."
"Blame Link?" Sonic suggested. "I do, after all."
Auru chuckled, "Just because of the Tower of Gods?"
Sonic thought, took a deep breath, then said, "That, and a talking boat, electric ChuChus, another fat egg, Seahats, floating bomb ships, a maelstrom, the Helmaroc King, all those bosses and," he paused and shuddered, "That lunatic Tingle. If anything he was even weirder than the one you met," he told Silver. "I'd say I've got plenty to blame him for, thanks."
"You're welcome," Link's voice came out of the air, sounding every bit as impudent as Manic.