"I suppose I should thank ye fer helping me get this far." Kaptain K. Rool faced away from Ice Ridley, his face turned slightly to the side so that he could look at the space dragon from the corner of his eye over his shoulder, as he held the Crystal Coconut in front of his face with his right claw while his left claw was clasped firmly around his right bicep. "After all, I would not 'ave been able to off the members of me krew before they could 'ave the chance ta beat me to the Crystal Coconut if'n you weren't 'ere ta draw their suspicions away from me."

Ice Ridley rose back to his feet and braced himself for a fight. He realized now that the Kaptain hadn't asked him to help get the Crystal Coconut so that he could lend a helping hand as a fellow pirate. Ice Ridley was just a convenient scapegoat so that K. Rool could pick off his own loyal followers. And for what? From what Ice Ridley had seen, the Kaptain's crew members had been completely loyal to him. It didn't seem like there was any reason for him to turn on them. Then again, if K. Rool had known that a sacrifice would be necessary then it may have been so that they wouldn't turn on him when he tried to sacrifice one of them for this power. Of course, it would have been better for them to have simply ganged up on Ice Ridley and use him as the sacrifice. Ice Ridley felt that he could have easily overpowered them, but they wouldn't have thought that. Of course, there may have been more to this than Ice Ridley knew.

"So what do you intend to do now?" Ice Ridley asked the Kaptain.

"I thought that would be obvious." K. Rool replied. "I be takin' over the world with this power. But first, I be needin' ta eliminate any potential threats ta me reign."

"And by potential threats, you would mean me, right Kaptain?"

"Aye. But I believe it be time ta put me pirating days behind me and return to me old title. You may call me King K. Rool, the Konqueror." K. Rool's black tricorn hat suddenly burned away to nothing in white fire and a golden crown appeared on his head.

"That sounds quite presumptuous." Ice Ridley said sarcastically.

"Be this presumptuous?"

K. Rool snapped his fingers and suddenly appeared directly in front of Ice Ridley, mere inches away from his face. Ice Ridley tried to back away but found himself unable to move before K. Rool backhanded him across the face so hard that he was sent flying into the cavern wall, knocking Mario's cap off his head in the process. Ridley could feel his ice power be knocked out of him with the hit.

Ridley pulled himself out of the rock wall with a grown. He couldn't remember the last time he had taken a hit that strong. He was looking forward to knocking the smug grin off the kremling's face. He kicked off the wall and charged through the air, ready to tackle King K. Rool. However, when he had reached around half way there he suddenly found the obese reptile above him, body slamming Ridley with his enormous golden belly. Ridley was sent tumbling down towards the lava below. That is, until King K. Rool suddenly came up from under him, hitting Ridley in the throat with a strong uppercut, then head-butting him back down. Ridley fell the rest of the way down completely paralyzed before sinking into the lava. The last thing he saw before being completely submerged was K. Rool floating in the air, laughing.

Ridley noted the irony of his current situation. Knocking someone into lava like this is what had gotten him into this situation in the first place. Now it was his turn to be the on the receiving end. Fortunately for Ridley, being submerged in lava had no negative effects on him. If anything he actually kind of enjoyed it. All he had to do now was wait until K. Rool left, thinking that Ridley had perished. Then he could find a way to ambush the Kremling King and take the Crystal Coconut for himself. Or at least, that's what he thought would happen.

King K. Rool used the Crystal Coconut to reverse time, causing Ridley to rise back up out of the lava and into the air in front of him. K. Rool then grabbed Ridley by the neck, slammed him against the wall and scraping him against it before tossing him aside. Ridley could vaguely remember using a similar trick before, minus the time manipulation part.

Ridley found himself lying on the ground next to the pedestal where the Crystal Coconut had been kept. King K. Rool landed on the bridge leading back to the temple and fired a blast of white lightning at Ridley. Ridley did his best to shrug off the attack and stood up straight, rolling his shoulders back before walking towards the Kremling King.

"Ye be approaching me?" King K. Rool was impressed by Ridley's tenacity and audacity.

"Well, I can't beat the life out of you without getting closer." Ridley bluffed, knowing that there was no way he could take on King K. Rool in a straight forward battle, hoping that mind games might tip the scale slightly more in his favor.

Ridley and King K. Rool both strutted towards each other, both trying to intimidate the other with their posturing. But then King K. Rool was suddenly hit in the back with an explosive blast, knocking onto his face and sending the Crystal Coconut flying out of his grasp. The powerful magical artifact landed at the feat of Krusha, who stood at the chamber's entrance holding his still-smoking bazooka. Tears streamed down the Kremlings pained face.

"Krusha?" King K. Rool exclaimed, alarmed by his subordinate's unexpected appearance. "What be ye doing here? How long have ye been here?"

"I was able to knock the yeti out soon after you left, so I hurried to catch up with you." Krusha's voice was strained. "Y-you killed them. Klump and Kersplat. You murdered them and you were going to do the same to me!"

"N-no I didn't." King K. Rool lied as he crawled slowly towards Krusha. "It was him. Now give me the Crystal Coconut so that I can avenge them and we can leave together."

"I heard you!" Krusha yelled. "I heard you say what you did!"

King K. Rool froze. This was not a part of his plan. Neither was Krusha picking up the Crystal Coconut.

"This thing can control time, right?" Krusha asked as electricity crackled around him. "Does that mean I can use it to bring them back?"

"Nooo!" King K. Rool suddenly rushed toward Krusha on all fours and tried to tackle him. He was able to knock the Crystal Coconut from Krusha's hand and seize it for his own, but not before Klump and Kersplat appeared beside Krusha.

"Kaptain?" Klump scratched his head, confused as to what was going on.

"Kersplat?" Kersplat was even more confused.

"Ye insolent fools!" King K. Rool rose from the ground and turned to face his former subordinates. "Prepare to face ye maker!"

King K. Rool prepared to take out all three kremlings in a single blow. Unfortunately for him, he had lost track out Ridley while distracted, who tackled him from the side. King K. Rool and Ridley both slammed into the side of the cave while the blast of chronal energy that was meant to obliterate the three kremlings missed its target, restoring a section of damaged temple wall and bringing a very confused orangutan monk back to life in the process. The orangutan quickly ran off in fright.

King K. Rool tossed Ridley away and regained his composure. They both hovered in the air for a moment, staring each other down until King K. Rool grabbed Ridley by the neck telekinetically. Blinded by rage, he tried to strange Ridley. However, King K. Rool failed to realize that he was still within slashing range of Ridley's tail. The strike to his armored belly was enough to force King K. Rool to release his hold on Ridley, who dove down and flew away from him. Furious, King K. Rool froze time long enough to fly ahead of the space pirate so that when time resumed Ridley flew face first into the king's fist. As Ridley fell away, K. Rool then pulled a blunderbuss seemingly out of nowhere and fired a cannonball at Ridley, causing him to be sent flying into the stone pillar in the center of the room.

With Ridley seemingly incapacitated and falling back into the lava, King K. Rool turned back towards his subordinates. He had been distracted long enough by Ridley for Krusha to have explained the situation to the others by the time that the king flew back up to the bridge to face them. Klump through a green citrus grenade at King K. Rool, who stopped the explosive fruit in midair with a wave of his free hand.

"Did ye really think that would work on me, King K. Rool?" He asked them mockingly as he slowly walked up to them.

Krusha charged at King K. Rool with his arms outstretched but the king merely froze Krusha in time. Kersplat jumped over Krusha to slam into K. Rool with his fist, only to be frozen as well. King K. Rool laughed at their failed attempt at attacking him, causing him to miss the second citrus grenade that rolled past Krusha's feet and went off. King K. Rool was knocked back into the first one right as it was unfrozen due to his concentration being thrown off, the blast sending him headfirst into Krusha and Kersplat's combined attack.

Before King K. Rool even realized what had happened, he found himself hurtling down into the lava below. This wouldn't be an issue for him though, as all he had to do was use the power of the Crystal Coconut and fly back up to show those traitors what they get for trying to defy him. He raised the Crystal Coconut up but before he could activate its power again he found himself unexpectedly roundhouse kicked in the gut by Ridley. The force of the blow knocked the Crystal Coconut out of his hand, causing both it and King K. Rool to fall into the lava. As the Kremling King sank into the lava, his last action was to shake his fist in a futile gesture of rage at his defeat. Then he was gone.

Ridley flew back up beside the altar where the Crystal Coconut had rested. He found Mario's hat lying on the ground as he walked over to where the three Kremlings were waiting on the bridge and picked up the forsaken object to place back on his head. "And I believe that is the end of that. I just hope there aren't any more unexpected surprises."

"Way to go!" Krusha slapped a claw hard against Ridley's back. "We did it!"

"Kersplat!" Kersplat pumped both of his fists into the air.

"It's hard to believe that the Kaptain would have turned on us like that." Klump took off his helmet as he looked down at the lake of lava below them.

Ridley was surprised by this reaction. In his mind, being betrayed by the members of your own crew, especially your higher-ups, was to be expected. He himself had been backstabbed quite a few times, though not nearly as much as he had done the betraying. Yet now that he thought about it, the entire time he had been with them these pirates seemed far closer than he had ever seen in a pirate crew before. If anything they seemed almost like… a family? Ridley could never really grasp the concept of family before, yet somehow he could recognize that that's what these Kremlings were to each other. And they seemed to be able to function much more efficiently together than the Space Pirates ever had. Perhaps he had to rethink his methods of command.

"But now that the Kaptain K. Rool's gone, the Gangplank Galleon will need a new kaptain." Klump said as they all walked back out of the lava-filled cavern. "And I think that will be you, Krusha."

"What?" Krusha was thrown off guard by this. "But you were the first mate, you should be the new Kaptain!"

"No." Klump shook his head. "I let my guard down and was killed for it. You're the one who managed to bring us back and without you, we never could have stopped the Kaptain. The position should go to you."

"Kersplat!"

"You're right." Klump responded to Kersplat's suggestion that they share the position. "Perhaps we could do that."

"The Gangplank Galleon has never had two kaptains before." Krusha noted. "How would that even work?"

"We can make it work." Klump rested his claw on Krusha's shoulder.

Ridley stretched his mouth wide in a loud yawn. The trip back to the ship proved to be fortunately uneventful. When they were finally aboard the Gangplank Galleon once again, they were greeted by a lot of confused Kremlings. It was hard for them to accept what they were told had happened and they all mourned the loss of their kaptain, even despite his betrayal. Ridley wondered if his own crew would have a similar reaction if he never returned to them. No, they would probably celebrate. No one would mourn for Ridley if he were gone for good. No one would miss him. The universe would likely be a far better place without him.

This train of thought filled Ridley with feelings he could not recognize. Regret? Sadness? Depression? Ridley couldn't believe what was happening to him. What was this stupid planet doing to him? Could he be growing soft? Ridley knew that he needed to leave this planet and return to his old life as soon as possible. But he couldn't do so until the space witch found a way to bring Mario back to life or else there was no telling what she would do to him. But if he wasn't careful he could find himself a changed space dragon by the time he was finally able to leave. But what would he have changed into? Ridley was afraid to find out, and there were very few things that Ridley feared.