Hoping no-one would see him, Bowser nudged open the door to the hospital hall and wandered cautiously inside. It was a large, well-lit room, filled with soft clean beds and cabinets filled with a vast array of medical equipment. This was where Bowser's minions were taken if they were injured, which usually happened every time Mario set foot anywhere on the castle grounds.

Currently, the only person visible in the hospital hall was an elderly Koopa with silver eyebrows so thick it was a wonder he could see anything from under them. His name was Kortimer, and he was one of Bowser's most longtime servants, not to mention one of the most loyal. Even Kamek would unhesitatingly argue with the King's decisions when he deemed it necessary, but this old Koopa never argued, never asked questions, and never so much as batted an eyelid at anything Bowser suggested. It made him invaluable.

'One of your prisoners?' he said in a clear, strong voice as Bowser approached him, setting Luigi down on the nearest bed. 'Ah, it's Luigi, isn't it? The other half of the Mario Brothers.'

'Yeah, that's him,' the King replied. He stood beside the bed, looking down at Luigi. The young man had been keeping his eyes tightly shut and not responding to anything anyone said or did, but now – perhaps aware that he was in a hospital – he slowly cracked them open, gazing between Bowser and Kortimer with mistrust.

'Wake up, Green,' Bowser growled.

'I am awake,' he replied at once. His voice was so quiet it could barely be heard, but at least he was talking.

'Well, that's great, 'cuz I wanna introduce you to somebody. An old fre – minion of mine. His name's Kortimer.'

Kortimer merely raised a bushy eyebrow at Bowser's hasty word correction. 'A pleasure to meet you, Luigi.'

'He's a doctor,' Bowser continued, 'err, sort of. I thought you might like to get that leg of yours checked out, since Kamek's refusing to heal it for ya.' He glanced at Kortimer, who met his gaze with a thoughtful expression before turning back to Luigi.

'I can't heal it properly,' he said. 'I don't have magic. I think the best we can do is bandage it up and give you some painkillers. And make sure you keep your weight off it for a while.'

Luigi was only looking at Bowser. Once Kortimer had ambled away to get the needed supplies out of a cabinet, he whispered, 'Wh-why are you doing this?'

Bowser scowled, folding his arms. 'I told you. I need you alive.' He was fully aware that this explanation was losing credibility every time he used it, but he couldn't think of a better reason. He didn't even understand it himself. He's a weakling, he thought. He's so stupid and pathetic that even I feel sorry for him. There, that was the best he could come up with.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence in which neither of them could quite look at each other, Kortimer returned with a roll of bandages and a bottle of what looked like painkilling pills (Bowser was no expert on medicine, so he made a guess). The old Koopa then set to work tightly binding Luigi's injured leg while instructing him to take one of the pills every six hours. Luigi, for his part, sat quietly and didn't protest, nodding when spoken to but otherwise doing nothing.

'Wanna hear the news, pipsqueak?' Bowser asked, keeping his voice casual.

Luigi lifted his head, warily meeting the King's eyes. 'The news?'

Bowser smirked. 'I sent a message to Princess Peach earlier, telling her to give up half her lands to me if she ever wanted to see you again.'

The young man just stared at him. The expression on his face was hard to discern, but there was definitely fear there, and a hint of hopefulness. The idea of shattering that hope made an unpleasant sensation twist in Bowser's gut. He wanted to be able to enjoy it – he'd hurt plenty of people before and had never felt any guilt about that – but he didn't think he was going to.

'Long story short, she refused,' he growled. 'She values her kingdom over your life, which isn't really surprising... but she's also willing to let Daisy die, apparently. That's pretty weird; I thought they were best friends...'

Luigi, who had sucked in a quick breath when Bowser started talking, slowly reached up and tugged the brim of his cap down to shadow his eyes. 'What's... what's going to happen now?' he said with a bit of a tremble in his voice. 'Actually, nevermind, I already know. You're going to kill us both, aren't you.'

Bowser bared his teeth. 'No. Not yet, at least. Use your head, Green – why would I have taken you up here to see the doctor if I wanted you dead? If I was planning to kill you then a broken leg would be the least of your worries.'

Luigi swallowed nervously, running an eye over the King's seven-foot-tall frame, thick limbs and short, sharp claws. Whether he was injured or healthy, he wouldn't stand much of a chance against that. 'No, I guess not. So then-?'

'I'll be keeping you around for a bit longer. Not sure what I'm gonna do with you yet... but I'm sure I'll find a use for you. And your moronic girlfriend.'

'Don't talk about her like that.' Luigi pushed his cap back and fixed Bowser with the same biting glare that he'd only witnessed on one other occasion, when he had taken Luigi out of his cell earlier that day. Pretending that it didn't bother him, Bowser rolled his massive shoulders in something akin to a shrug.

'I'll talk about her however I like, so shut your mouth, unless you do want me to kill you now. Kortimer?' he added, directing a sharp look at the elderly Koopa, who had just finished bandaging Luigi's leg and was now leaning back to inspect his handiwork.

'All done, sir,' he said, standing up with a groan as his knees protested.

'Great. Thanks. Now c'mon, Green.' Without another word, Bowser slid an arm underneath Luigi and hauled him to his feet. Then he drew back, letting Luigi support himself with one hand against the edge of the bed and his bandaged leg held off the ground.

'You still haven't explained what you're going to do next,' he said, turning to look up at Bowser once he had ascertained that he could stand on his own.

Bowser put on a scowl, though deep down he was a little impressed to see the changes in Luigi; he looked like he'd grown some backbone since being attacked by Kamek in the garden. He no longer stammered on every word or hesitated to meet anyone's eyes. He still looked nervous – that was understandable given his situation – but his true personality was beginning to come forth, maybe because he just didn't see any point in cowering anymore. Bowser was impressed.

Impressed and a little annoyed.

'I told you, I don't know yet,' he growled. 'But don't worry, I'll think of something awesomely evil soon enough.' He took a step towards the door and beckoned impatiently, making it clear that he expected Luigi to follow him without any support. Before he could do so, Kortimer hurried forwards and pressed what seemed to be a plain wooden cane into Luigi's gloved hand.

'Take this,' he said quietly. 'You need to keep your weight off that leg, otherwise it might fail to heal properly – and without magical aid, you could have trouble walking for the rest of your life.'

His expression showed that he wasn't joking around. Luigi bit his lip, nodded quickly, and then limped over to Bowser's side with the help of the cane.

Together and without saying a word, they left the hospital hall.

'Hurry up, pipsqueak,' Bowser grumbled as he began to make his way through the maze of candlelit corridors leading back to the dungeon. The castle's layout was complicated, and many new minions got lost in these corridors, but Bowser had lived here long enough to have memorised the routes – and that was saying something, considering he usually wasn't very good at remembering anything.

'I'm walking as fast as I can,' Luigi protested. 'And you're the one who just had to snap my leg in half.'

'You were asking for it. Next time, try actually fighting back instead of running away like a little wimp. Maybe you won't get kicked down so easily then.'

He loitered in the corridor, waiting for Luigi to catch up, a condescending grin on his face.

'To be honest, I'm kinda surprised,' he added. 'I thought you'd be way more concerned that Peach isn't trying to save you.'

'I already told you, I knew she wouldn't,' said Luigi shortly. He came to a stumbling halt just shy of Bowser's shadow.

'But you probably expected her to save Daisy, right?'

'No... well, maybe I did. But I know Peach; she wouldn't endanger her people unless – unless she really had to.'

'Huh.' Bowser scratched the ruffled red mane that grew down the back of his skull in a thoughtful gesture. 'Guess saving the lives of her two best friends doesn't count, then.' He shook his head and continued walking, careful to keep his pace slower than usual so Luigi wouldn't get left behind again. 'I'm still gonna give her a chance, though. I've told her that she's got three days to change her mind. If she doesn't...'

He trailed off as he tried to think of a suitable way to end this sentence, and to his complete shock, Luigi smirked at him.

'You don't have a clue, do you?' he said. 'I guess your so-called 'big plan' isn't really going to plan.'

'Shut up!' Bowser snarled, thrusting his face close to Luigi's. The young man flinched back, but his eyes didn't show the same consuming, mindless fear that they would have done just a day ago. He just leaned away and gripped the handle of his cane harder, as if using it to anchor himself in more ways than one. 'If this plan of mine doesn't work out, then you and Daisy are going to be useless to me, so you'd better hope that it does work out! You don't wanna die, do you?'

A bit of the old fear came creeping back. 'N-no.'

'Then shut it. Come on.' Bowser started walking again, trying to shake off his anger with the simple repetitive action of putting one foot in front of the other. The sound of smaller footsteps – accompanied by the soft tapping of wood against stone – told him that Luigi was limping along behind him.

They reached the door to the dungeon without incident, but before Bowser could open it, a shout echoed from some distance away that sounded very much like Kamek. And it was.

'Stars help me,' Bowser muttered, turning to glare at the old magikoopa who was standing at the top of the stone steps. 'What do you want, Kamek?' he said, trying to inject a semblance of calm into his tone.

'M-my lord.' Only then did he realise that Kamek looked extremely out of breath and was doubled over, one hand on his knee and the other clutching a stitch in his side. 'M-Mario... Mario is here.'

Bowser blinked. 'Mario? Are you sure?'

'Positive, sir. In fact, he's going to be up here at any moment. I just received reports that he's broken into the castle grounds and is currently fighting his way past the lower-ranked minions. You need to prepare for his arrival, sire.'

Bowser was sure he must look like a complete idiot, staring at Kamek with his jaws slightly parted, but he was too shocked to even care. Mario! When the fat plumber hadn't shown up yesterday to rescue Luigi, he'd kind of assumed it was never going to happen. But now he was here. And by the sounds of it, he was spoiling for a fight. Bowser's stunned expression gradually shifted into a grin of anticipation. Well, that didn't matter. So was he.

'Get all the koopatrols into the throne room,' he barked, and Kamek scrambled to obey despite still being in obvious pain. 'Every single one who's not injured from last time! We're gonna throw everything we have at Mario and obliterate him!'

Roaring with laughter, he practically jumped up the steps to follow Kamek to the throne room. Such was his excitement at getting the chance to fight his arch-rival again, and such was his belief that he was going to win, he didn't even realise that he'd left Luigi standing outside the door to the dungeon and not locked in his cell.