Well would you look at that, there's roughly 2 chapters after this one.

I know I've said this before while I was doing the other DKC novelization, but I didn't really think I'd get this far. But I'll save my words for another time.

K. Rool's Keep was much bigger than Diddy had ever imagined. He walked along the ice-cold stairs with the others following behind him. Obviously, the castle was crawling with Kremlings...and yet, they didn't do anything to stop him. In fact, some of them even gave the Kongs a sympathetic look. It was as if they wanted to warn the Kongs about what would happen if they kept going.

"How much further is it until we reach the top?" Dixie asked Rattly.

"Hopefully not too long," Rattly replied. "There ssshould be an elevator here, sssomewhere."

"Elevator?" Diddy lifted an eyebrow. "Why would a castle need an elevator?"

"Becaussse," Rattly said, "Do you really think K. Rool would WANT to climb the stairsss."

"...Good point." Diddy said, nodding. He wouldn't want to climb a thousand stairs, so of course K. Rool wouldn't want to do this either.

The group explored the castle some more. Most of the rooms were closed off, as it seemed like the Kremlings didn't want them to snoop around. In addition to this, the halls smelled like dead fish. Diddy would've held his hat over his nose if he could, if only he knew where his hat went...

Eventually, the Kongs found the elevator. The size of it looked big enough to hold two large Kremlings, there was also a crank next to it. Squitter held onto the crank while Squawks flew onto the ground.

"I guess this is it," Squawks said, "You're finally going to rescue DK!"

"Y-yeah..." Diddy nodded, though he still had a nervous look on his face. Dixie was worried, she started squeezing his hand. "Are you scared?"

"...Yeah."

Dixie nodded in response. Like Diddy, she knew there was a possibility that they would perish. But at the very least, she wasn't going to let her best friend get killed. They had already gotten this far, and it was too late to turn back now.

"We really appreciate your guys' help," Dixie said as she looked at the rest of the group. "We'll meet you guys back at the beach, OK?"

"You got it," Squawks replied. "Good luck rescuing DK up there!"

Once they had finished saying their good-byes, Squitter began to spin the crank. As the elevator moved upwards, Dixie continued to hold Diddy's hand. Fighting K. Rool and rescuing DK would not be an easy task, but as long as they were together, then everything will turn out all right...Or at least that's what the Kongs wanted to believe.

Once the elevator reached its highest point, Squitter and Rattly began to follow Squawks out of the castle. Once again, the Kongs were on their own.

The first area they stumbled upon was the dungeon. From there, they could see that it was empty. Obviously, DK wasn't around, so they had to keep searching. They came across K. Rool's throne room, yet K. Rool himself wasn't around either. The Kongs kept walking through the castle until they reach the highest room they could find. Off to the side of the room were a couple of rusty cannons, along with some cannonballs to go with them. In the center of the room, however, was DK. He was tied up with a tired expression on his face, But aside from that he appeared to be just fine. Diddy crept towards him, he started to shake. "...DK?"

"Wha-?" DK was startled, he looked at Diddy with a shocked expression. "How...How did you get here?"

"It's a long story," Dixie replied. "BUT we finally made it."

"Uh...L-look, I appreciate your guys' help," DK said in a worried tone, "But neither of you should've come in the first place!"

"...Wh-what are you saying?" Diddy asked in a confused tone, "We came all this way just to save you, and you're just gonna tell us to get lost?"

"You don't understand," DK yelled. "Y'see, K. Rool wants to-"

"Oh, would you look at that...it seems like we're out of time!"

The ceiling above the Kongs had opened up, revealing that DK had been hanging out of an airship. Inside the airship was K. Rool, he was pulling DK upwards while smiling at the duo below. "What? Did you really think it'd be THAT easy?"

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?" Diddy asked, annoyed.

"Because," K. Rool replied, "with you two out of the way, I can finally take over the island...But don't feel bad, pipsqueak. At least you got to see your miserable uncle one last time!"

Once K. Rool pulled DK into the ship, he closed the door below him and started to take off, leaving the Kongs by themselves once again.

"What, now?" Dixie asked in a worried tone. Without warning, the ground began to tremble. Both Kongs were knocked off of their feet, whatever was going on, they knew it couldn't be good.

Crocodile Isle was trembling, most residents of the island were running around like ants trying to avoid getting crushed. However, the area that took the most damage was Crocodile Cauldron. Slowly, a large crocodillian emerged from the volcano, breaking the entrance in the process. He was bigger than the island itself, his scales were as bright as the lava he came out of. He turned towards K. Rool's keep and knocked the top off of it, revealing the primates inside. He began to let out a hoarse cackle.

"I bet ye weren't expectin' t' hear from me again, were ye?" the Kremling's voice boomed. "'tis me, yer ole friend Kerozene!"

"Y-you're the one from the volcano, aren't you?" Diddy asked as he tried to stand. Kerozene let out a booming laugh, causing the Kongs to instinctively cover their ears.

"I guess ye're nah as stupid as I thought ye were," Kerozene said as he pulled a Kleever from out of the ocean. "Unfortunately fer ye, I've come t' claim yer souls again...'n this time, I'm nah lettin' ye two go!"

"SO WHY DID YOU WAIT UNTIL NOW TO COLLECT THEM!?" Dixie yelled angrily.

"Because," Kerozene replied. "I 'ave a...nasty habit when it comes t' playin' wit' me grub. I haven't gotten a sacrifice in a LONG time, so why nah jus' savor th' moment? Besides, one o' ye's jus' goin' t' end up as a livin' battery anyway...So why nah use yer souls t' keep th' island afloat?"

Without a second thought, Kerozene slashed at the Kongs with his Kleever. Diddy managed to jump out of the way, but Dixie was nearly cut in half. Diddy looked at her, as if his life depended on her. "W-what do we do now!?"

"I-I don't know," Dixie replied. "I've never fought something like this before!"

Kerozene started to breathe fire, hoping that it would burn the Kongs alive. The duo ran towards the back of the room, they hid behind the cannons to avoid getting burned. Diddy started to recall when he helped DK fight K. Rool during his first adventure, he remembered having to use a cannon in order to help defeat K. Rool. He wasn't sure if this would have any effect on Kerozene, but it has to work in some degree...right?

"I-I think I have an idea," Diddy told Dixie. "If we use these cannons, we might be able to knock Kerozene into the ocean!"

"Are you sure this will work?" Dixie asked.

"We don't have any other options," Diddy replied. "So it's gotta work!"

When the flames finally died down, Diddy started charging at Kerozene. "I'll keep him distracted, you take care of the cannons!"

Dixie nodded in understanding, she ran towards the cannonballs and lifted one over her head. They were heavy, but she didn't seem to care. She watched carefully as Kerozene continued to swing at Diddy. For someone as scared as he is, he could certainly take care of himself. Dixie placed the cannonball into the cannon, she grabbed the rope sticking out of it and pulled. The cannon barely missed Diddy's head while it dug into Kerozene's chest. This managed to throw off his balance, but he slammed his fists against the castle to keep himself stable. "Did ye really think that would stop ME? Ye two oughtta try harder than that!"

"Keep goin', Dixie!" Diddy yelled as Kerozene started attacking him again. This time, the giant Kremling had him dodge fireballs. Some of them even managed to singe his fur. Dixie made her way over to the cannonballs and grabbed another one. Slowly, she made her way over to the cannon and threw it in there. When she fired it, Kerozene was hit in the snout. This knocked him back more than it did the first time. Diddy looked back at her, this time he looked more hopeful. "I think you might've actually got him that time!"

"Or so ye think!" Kerozene yelled as he swung his fist against Diddy, knocking him into a wall before he dropped to the floor. Diddy tried to sit up, though he was completely stunned from the attack. Kerozene lifted the sword over his head, "King or nah, ye had no business comin' here in th' first place! Now prepare t' meet yer fate!"

Dixie screamed, as she had no time to grab another cannonball. Thinking fast, he held onto the rope while stuffing herself into the cannon. Diddy looked back at her with a terrified expression, he spoke quietly. "Y-You wouldn't..."

Before Kerozene could bring his sword down, Dixie pulled the rope on the cannon and hurled herself towards Kerozene. Time seemingly slowed down for Diddy, he watched helplessly as Dixie managed to hit Kerozene in the chest. The large kremling began to fall backwards, taking Dixie along with him.

With K. Rool gone and Kerozene defeated, Diddy was all alone. He should've been crying...But instead, he couldn't help but let out a small laugh, he couldn't believe how foolish he was. He thought that he would've been the one to save DK, he thought that he would've gone back home as a hero. But not only was DK gone, Dixie was gone as well. How was Diddy supposed to be a king when he couldn't even save the Kongs closest to him? How could he even show his face when nobody saw him as a king to begin with? Without anywhere else to go, he was just stuck. At this point, he wasn't even sure if this adventure was worth it in the end.

Within a moment, Diddy could hear squawking outside. He could see Squawks flying into the castle, he was carrying Dixie along with him. When her feet finally touched the floor, she had the most confused look on her face. She looked as if she had gone through Hell itself, and given what just happened, she probably was for a brief moment.

Immediately, Dixie's first instinct was to check up on Diddy. She grabbed onto his face and started looking for any injuries, "A-are you OK? Can you stand up?"

At this point, Diddy couldn't take it anymore. He held onto Dixie and started crying his eyes out. He no longer cared if he was the hero, nor did he care about how pathetic he looked in front of Dixie. She was alive, and that's all that mattered to him.

The Kongs stayed like this for a while. Diddy's crying had been reduced to sniffling while Dixie continued to hold him. Once he'd finally calmed down, Squawks started to speak.

"You know...I could still take you over to K. Rool's ship if you want, but we'd better do it quick before he gets to Donkey Kong Island!"

"That sounds like a good idea," Dixie said smiling, she looked down at Diddy with a determined look on her face. "What do you say, Diddy? Ready to give it one more shot?"

Another chance at rescuing DK? Given what just happened, Diddy had nothing to lose. He wiped the tears off his face and stood up. He had one more shot at this, and there was no way he'd screw it up again. He was going to save DK, no matter what happens next.

Well...that was a fun chapter.

I should mention that Kerozene shows up in the GBA version, but not the SNES version (even though this story's based primarily on the latter).

The SNES version just has a cutscene where DK gets taken away, so why not combine this and Kerozene's boss fight together?