Rosalina seemed to glide through the hallway with a nimble grace that Ridley had never seen before. He could just barely keep up with her while running along the walls as they made their way to the throne room. They managed to get there just in time to see Bowser's Clown Car fly out through a massive hole that had been blown out of the ceiling. Peach leaned over the edge of the clown-faced vehicle just long enough to let out a scream for help before being pulled back in.

"NO!" Rosalina yelled as she raised her wand to stop the Clown Car before it could get away. Before she could do anything though, the wand was knocked out of her hand by a blast of oddly geometric magic.

"Not so fast!" Shrieked a strange, yellow figure in a blue cloak that was hovering on what appeared to be a broomstick. Its beak-like face was curled up into a smug smile, which immediately turned to fear as it noticed Ridley. "The Princess stays with us this time."

The creature hurled a blast of magic at Ridley before flying away through the hole in the ceiling after its master. Ridley was barely fazed by the attack but it was enough to distract him long enough for the thing to get away.

"Cursed Magikoopa…" Rosalina growled as she picked her wand up off the ground as Luigi and Daisy finally caught up to them.

"What-a happened?" Luigi asked. His mouth dropped open as he saw the gaping hole up above. "Mama Mia! Don't tell me they got the princess again!"

"I'm afraid so." Rosalina sighed. "We tried to stop them but Kamek managed to distract us long enough for them to get away."

"Oh, no." Daisy gasped. "So soon?"

"It-a normally takes-a Bowser at least a week before he-a tries kidnapping the princess again." Luigi shook his head. "You-a think he would-a learn by now that we always manage to get-a her back."

"Speaking of which, Luigi, you and 'Mario' should probably head out now." Rosalina said as she resumed her usual posture. "You wouldn't want to keep Princess Peach waiting long for a rescue, after all."

"You're-a right." Luigi nodded in agreement, not noticing the unusual emphasis that Rosalina had put into Mario's name. "But-a what about you, Rosalina? We-a could sure use-a your help."

"I'm afraid that I must be heading back to the Observatory. I've already been gone a day and the Lumas start to panic when I'm away for very long." Rosalina gave a weak apologetic smile. "But I'm sure that you two will be able to get along without my help."

"I-a suppose that you're right."

"Although, before you go I would like a word with 'Mario' in private." Rosalina said, gesturing towards Ridley.

"Right." Luigi nodded again. "I'll-a meet you outside."

Luigi turned and hurried back to the castle's entrance. Daisy went with him, leaving Ridley and Rosalina alone. Ridley had remained silent during this entire exchange, trying to understand what was going on.

"Wait, how often does this princess get abducted?" Ridley asked Rosalina in dumbfounded shock.

"Far too often." Rosalina sighed.

"What's wrong with these people? If it were me, I would have had this guy killed after the first time he tried taking her!"

"Yes, well, not everyone is a merciless space pirate like you." Rosalina said harshly. "The people of the Mushroom Kingdom are pacifists who actually believe that life holds value, unlike monsters like you."

"I think life has value." Ridley argued. "Otherwise there would be no point to killing people."

Rosalina gave Ridley a cold glare that told him that he had stepped over a proverbial line.

"Uh, I mean… um…" Ridley tried to change the subject. "They should at least put some preventative measures against having their leader abducted like this. It's important no matter how you look at it."

"Yes, I haven't really been able to understand that either." Rosalina relented. "But to be honest I don't think that the Toads are even capable of putting up more of a fight. They have to rely on the Mario Brothers for practically everything that goes wrong. Which is why they can't find out about what you've done."

"What do you mean 'what I've done'?" Ridley asked, then immediately realized what she was talking about. "Oh, right."

"No one can know that Mario is dead, which is why I'm going to make you help Luigi rescue Princess Peach while I return to my observatory to try and find out how to fix the situation and with luck even figure out why everyone else seems to think that you are Mario for some reason."

"Alright, but you do realize that I'll be doing things 'my way', right?"

"You will do no such thing." Rosalina's voice felt like ice running down Ridley's spine as she pointed her wand at him threateningly. "If you so much as think about killing anyone or anything else then I will personally see to it that you will regret ever coming to this planet."

"You say that like I don't already regret it." Ridley said sarcastically, provoking another glare from Rosalina. "Fine, I'll rescue the princess without killing anyone. Shouldn't be too hard, I'll probably be done by nightfall. Though I'm not really sure how long a solar cycle is on this planet."

"I believe that a day here would be considered about twenty-four hours in Federation Standard Time." Rosalina replied.

"You're familiar with the Galactic Federation?" Ridley asked a bit louder than he meant.

"Let's just say that there's a reason they haven't expanded their territory this way." Rosalina answered coyly.

Ridley couldn't stop himself from letting out a small chuckle, or at least a sound that could be approximated as one. "Well, that is interesting to here. I would have thought that a goody-two-shoes like you would be pretty close with a group like the Federation."

"Perhaps I am a 'goody-two-shoes'. Rosalina said. "Which is exactly why I've made sure that the Federation stays out of this area. I'm sure that you know as well as I do that they aren't what they seem."

"I probably know it even better than you do." Ridley grinned. "But I suppose that I should be going now. I have a princess to save, after all, and of course I wouldn't want to keep the green one waiting. I am the Mario now, am I not?"

Ridley turned and ran off, practically galloping down the hallway. Rosalina sighed and slipped her right hand under her bangs, resting it against her obscured eye as she looked down at the floor in exasperation.

"Well, this is certainly an unexpected turn of events." She muttered to herself in a mix of bitter sarcasm and disdain. "I can't believe that I'm actually letting that monster do this but I guess I don't really have a choice. I don't even know how I'm going to fix this mess. I've never tried bringing someone back from the dead before. I doubt it's even possible. And I'm talking to myself again. That's never a good sign."

Rosalina sighed and looked up at the sunlight pouring into the room through the massive hole that had been blown into the ceiling. She pulled out her wand again and gave it a swish, causing pieces of debris rose up from the ground as the castle was magically repaired.

"If only I could fix this as easily as I can fix that."

Rosalina turned and left the throne room, mentally going over the many books she had back in her library in the Comet Observatory. She couldn't recall ever reading anything that would help here bring someone back into this world from the next, though she had never specifically looked for anything like that before either. There had to be something in her vast collection of books that would help. Her library contained all the knowledge of several galaxies, after all. There had to be something. There just had to.

As Rosalina thought about what to do, Ridley reached the castle's front gate where Luigi was waiting for him. The two guards that normally guarded the entrance were nowhere to be seen, apparently scared off by the explosion. Ridley could smell their fear, telling him the exact positions where they were hiding. Normally, he would hunt them down just for the sake of it but that wasn't really an option for him. Rosalina had easily been able to overpower him already and there was no telling what she would be able to do to him if she actually wanted to hurt him. He didn't want to risk her rage, which is why he decided that he was going to go ahead and play along with all of this for now. Or at least, until he found a way to regain his proper size and power. Once he was back to his old self again, he would raze the entire Mushroom Kingdom, or better yet this entire planet, and there would be nothing she could do about it.

"Hey-a Mario, ready to-a go?" Luigi asked him as Ridley approached.

"Sure, why not." Ridley shrugged. "Why don't you lead the way?"

"R-really?" Luigi asked in surprise.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"N-no," Luigi shook his head, "it's just… you never let me lead."

"Well, this time I am." Ridley said, hoping that it wasn't obvious that he was only offering because he had no idea where they were going. Although at this point he was sure that he could probably do or say anything without anyone noticing anything out the ordinary. He was really getting curious about why that was.

"Alright, then." Luigi said cheerfully. "Let's-a go!"