Luigi was training alone in the courtyard one sunny afternoon. His employer and best friend, Bowser, was on a diplomatic call to Desertia. Apparently, the viceroy, or Koopaling, in the area was having trouble handling a small crime wave and was looking to have the Emperor quell the masses, as it were. He'd taken his son with him, so that just left Luigi alone with the staff and Bowser's advisor, Ray taking over in his absence.

He was learning how to maneuver with his new armor and ramping up his offense when a white envelope gently fell from the sky and magically landed right in front of him.

He knew exactly who it was from and was very tempted to just incinerate it on sight. Then he remembered, the last time he'd spoken to Peach; how there seemed to be something she wanted to tell him. His curiosity piqued, he hesitantly opened the letter.

Luigi,

I hope this finds you well and that you are thriving. I'm afraid that there are matters we must discuss and I hope that you will hear me out. Your brother doesn't know about this, I'd like it to just be us. Please meet me near the border of World 1-1 this afternoon. Please, what I have to tell you won't be easy, but I feel you should know more about Bowser's family and their ways.

-Princess Toadstool

Luigi read and reread the letter and debated going for quite a while. In the end, he decided to go and hear her out. Peach had never been knowingly cruel to him and she seems to want to make something known. With his mind made up, up summoned his uniform and cloak and with it, flew off to his destination.

After about an hour of flying, he finally made it to the Grasslands and realized that as large as this place was, finding Peach may not be all that easy. His problem, however, was solved when a huge gust of wind kicked up just as he landed and when the wind died down, there stood Princess Toadstool herself.

"Luigi, thank you for coming," she said with a sad smile.

"I can't be gone long, so I hope we can make this quick."

"Of course, let's find a place to have a chat, shall we?"

The pair went into a local cafe and were both terrified and honored that the Emperor's highest rannking Knight was in their establishment. Once they sat down, Peach worriedly began brushing imaginary dust from her dress and began straightening it as though she was trying to steady her nerves.

"Peach," Luigi said, slowly losing his patience.

"Yes, of course, I'm sorry. It's just...this isn't easy. I suppose the best way to tell you is to just do it. Please don't interrupt me until I've finished."

Luigi only nodded in response and folded his arms.

"When I was a little girl, Bowser and I were friends. We played together and had marvelous adventures around our respective castles. We were playing a game of hide and seek with his father's friend Musso. Musso and I were hiding from Bowser and we'd hidden in his father's laboratory, knowing it would be the easiest place to find us. He wasn't great at hide and seek and would pout for hours if he lost, you see. Anyway, while we were hiding, Musso and I made a discovery. Bowser's father had been doing experiments on a young infant human."

At this point, Luigi's eyes went as wide as dinner plates, but he forced himself to continue listening.

"Thinking that there must be some misunderstanding, Musso swore me to secrecy and assured me he would talk to the King and get it all straightened out. A few weeks went by and things were getting more and more tense between the two adults. I did my best to smile and pretend like everything was all right, but that was around the time Bowser developed a bit of a crush on me. Trying to maintain our friendship with all of this on my mind wasn't easy. On top of everything, the Toadstools were becoming more and more afraid of me going over there. At this point, I didn't know about what my parents had done so their mistrust was always lost upon me. Every time I saw Musso I would ask about the baby we found, and never got any good news in response. Bowser's father and his top scientists and magicians were experimenting with infusing the baby with Koopa DNA while subjecting it to horrible test and experiments. Having had enough, Musso decided to rescue the child and take him somewhere safe. This caused a falling out between The King and Musso and both the King and Bowser hated and mistrusted humans and Toadstools alike. Musso searched high and low for the baby's family but he only managed to find the child's twin brother who'd been found on the Island of Yoshi and rasied as one of their own."

Finally, Luigi began to put the pieces together.

"Now that the brothers, at that time around the age of 5, were together, they were given the names Mario and Luigi. Luigi, I'm so sorry that we kept this from you, but we thought it for the best if..."

"No, that...that can't be true. You're saying that I was an experiment? You can't be serious."

"Bowser never knew, but it was why Mario and I were hesitant to let you fight him in the first place. You've always needed us to protect you and now is no different. Come home, Luigi. Please."

"Mario KNEW?! All this time, Mario knew and didn't tell me? Didn't tell me that I'm not his..."

"Oh no Luigi, you are Mario's brother! We analyzed your DNA a long time ago. It...just isn't a full match. You're not identical twins anymore, you're fraternal twins."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing! My whole life...is a lie! You and Mario have been hiding so many thing from me and now you just want me to trust you and come back to...you know what? No. I can't deal with this." With that, Luigi darted from the cafe and took off in the direction of Vulcanria.

Bowser, with Bowser Jr. in his arms, tiredly stomped through his front door. Ray, met him at the door and offered to take the sleeping young Prince to his bedroom. Taking his advisor up on the offer, Bowser made his way through the castle looking for his friend. He found said friend furiously assaulting the training equipment and noticed a pile of wreckage that had already met their match.

"Whoa...someone is on a hot streak," he called as he made his way over.

Luigi quickly glanced towards Bowser and Bowser saw a face he'd seen too many times before. Hatred, fury, despair.

"You!" he yelled and pointed a finger at the now confused monarch. "You and your kind did this to me!"

"My kind? What are you talking about?"

"Peach told me about your father and his experiments! Your father kidnapped me and made me a guinea pig for his little experiments when I was just a baby!"

"That's a damned lie! How dare you speak of my father that way?!"

"How dare I?! I'll tell you! I figured out why I have fire powers and Mario doesn't. Why I can jump higher than Mario, why I'm faster and stronger and probably can do a whole lot more stuff that Mario can't! Because your sick and twisted father messed with my DNA!"

"No! That...that's not true!" He tried to deny it, but the more Luigi said, the more sense it made.

"And you're no better! The first thing you want to do after hearing about my powers is try to do your own little experiements! You take Peach's DNA and decide to make a kid! Who knows what would have happened to me if Musso handn't..."

"Wait...Musso? So the experiment he stole...the one that he and my father fought over...was you?!"

"And Mario and Peach BOTH knew! I can't trust them, I can't trust you, I can't trust anybody! All everyone every does is lie to me, ignore me when I'm not important and just...I hate this! All of it! I HATE YOU ALL!" He shouted and ripped the gauntlets from his wrists.

"Wait, you're not being fair! I had nothing to do with...I had no idea. I never thought my father would...would do something like that! Please you have to believe me."

"You say that but you turn around and do the same thing. Made a little hybrid of your own! You were right. You're just like him!"

Bowser just ran his hands through his fingers and began to pace. "This isn't right, none of this is right! He never...I don't...I can't..." then the tears fell. All the pride and emotional barriers he'd cultivated over the years crashed in a matter of seconds and Bowser shouted and sobbed while holding his head in his hands as though he was trying to hold himself together.

Luigi looked at the display before him while his own tears cascaded down his face in rivers. He was too angry to reach out, Too hurt to feel pity. Too numb to care. He silently turned his back to Bowser and began to walk away, ignoring the broken King calling after him.