A slightly longer chapter for you :)

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Mario or its franchise; it belongs to

Nintendo and their affiliates. I just am really grateful to its creators for giving

me such a wonderful game and media series to write about!

I also don't own anything related to Harry Potter, all that belongs to J.K. Rowling,

but thanks go to her as well because, using her wonderful work, I can expand this

story to make it more interesting.

I also don't own anything related to Naruto.

Chapter Ten

Not for the first time, I was faced with a choice, and based on how I ended up, I think it was safe to say I made the wrong one. See, I was walking in the opposite direction than that homicidal-yet-hospitable woman, looking out for traps and the like, when I'd noticed a fork in the woods. On the left, there was a clearing, similar to the one I'd been in with the girl who'd fed me...and then tried to kill me. On the right, there was a dense wooded area. I had to make a choice, and this time there wasn't a little white note to help me. So first I'd weighed my options.

If I chose the clearing, I might run into another unpleasant obstacle like the girl or the traps. It was like a trap in and of itself because it looked a whole lot safer than the dense wooded area.

But on the other hand, the General must know that he's always making easy things look hard and vice versa, and maybe he knew that I'd caught on to that and maybe this time the easy-looking thing really was easy. Or maybe, the General was just set in his ways, and the hard-looking thing was the easiest way out. I couldn't be sure, and it was getting dark, so in the end, I'd chosen the clearing.

Long story short, I ended up in a hole.

No really, as soon as I got past the trees that led to the clearing, I side-stepped this suspicious pile of leaves, thinking it was another trap, when in actuality, the real trap lay slightly to the left; in other words, right under my feet. I'd fallen right into a pit that had to be at least nine feet deep or more and that was where I remained until now.

Now it was getting dark and I was starting to panic again. The pit was too wide for me to try and climb by using my arms and legs to hold onto each side, and though my jumping skills were somewhat extraordinary, I couldn't even get my head up high enough to see the grassy ground-level. To make matters worse, I'd found a note shoved into the dirt wall, but it was absolutely useless.

Sitting with my back to one of the walls, I sighed through my nose and gazed ahead of me. I didn't know what to do. What could I do? I was in a hole, literally in a hole with no way out. I'd tried everything I could think of, even tried climbing straight up but the dirt was too packed for my barely-there nails to break through to get any kind of a hold.

I ran my dirty fingers through my hair and was sure I left behind bits of earth and flecks of the dried blood that still remained caked on my palms. With the darkness came cooler temperatures, and I shivered in my torn and soiled t-shirt and sweats. I rubbed my arms, but winced because I still had open cuts there. The ones on my face didn't hurt anymore, but if I touched them, even gingerly, it was a different story.

Maybe I misjudged General Zair, I thought tiredly. I kinda' thought he didn't like me, then I thought he was just...crazy. I know he and Daisy are close, and sometimes when people feel like the person they care about is in trouble or if another person is coming between their relationship with them, they do unsavory things. Like with Danny and how he was always giving me the evil eye, only Zair's out to make my life hell and probably kill me while he's at it...why else would he be doing this?

And once again, that whispering voice reminded me that I wasn't a hapless child or mindless drone; I had a choice whether or not to participate in his insane training. But it wasn't like I could back down; that would've meant me sitting around the palace doing nothing but taking up space and counting the hours until Daisy blessed me with her presence...speaking of her...

I hate to say it, but things were better in Brooklyn. Yeah, my apartment was shitty and so was my job and my car and that whole part of town, but she was there. Daisy made it a whole lot better by just being there with me. I could count on seeing her every single day, and not just at night before we went to sleep. We woke up together, ate out together, watched stupid stuff on tv together; it was great.

I remembered all these random things all of a sudden. Brushing our teeth, trying to use the same little mirror. Walking around the mall. Riding in the car talking about milkshakes and why they weren't free because couldn't I understand how much better the world would be if everyone had at least one. A million seemingly insignificant memories flitted behind my eyes: when had I closed them?

When I opened them, they stung, and it wasn't because of the wind or the pungent smell of earth all around me. I couldn't live without this girl. Part of the reason why I loved her was that, in times like this when I was content to just sit here until Zair came back for me or not or whatever, she gave me the strength to get up, clap the dirt off my hands, and try just a little bit harder. I would have to, if I wanted to see her again.

I'm doing this for Daisy, I clarified within myself, knowing she'd want me to go on, to fight until the last ounce of energy was expended from me. I stepped forward and reached for the crumpled white paper I'd tossed away in frustration and disgust. With no great haste I unfolded it and read through it again.

Knowledge and Experience are the tools of life and can be called upon when encountering pitfalls

Knowledge and experience got me here in the first place; if I would have just handled the situation without basing it off of previous experiences with the traps and the girl, I would have known to choose the wooded area first. But no, I thought this would be better because I was counting on the General to know I'd be mistrustful of clearings after nearly being killed in one. But then something occurred to me.

This is a big forest and the notes keep popping up, so either Zair somehow knew the exact path I would take and left them for me to find, or he left notes all over the forest.

Or he was following me around.

No, I would've heard him, I figured. Besides, it was much more likely that he may have accounted for every possible path I would have taken and left notes in different places. There was no way he knew exactly where I would go. Some of the notes did seem a bit related or tied in to one another, but that had to be because of their proximity within each other. I guess.

It was late, and I was tired and still hungry and cold. My mind wasn't totally up to par when it came to deductive reasoning and problem solving. I was just ready to get the hell out of these woods and if I never saw another tree, it'd be too soon and too good.

I read over the note again and wracked my brain for some inkling of information that would fit the clue and help me in this situation. I thought back beyond the clearing with the traps and the one with the girl and recalled every single note I'd read. Sometimes, the clue was obvious, like when I was walking in circles and literally had to form a new path. Other times, it was harder to pick out the meaning in the notes; blind luck was the only way I'd gotten down from that tree. But this time, I think it was a combination of both those things. Knowledge and Experience, they had to stand for something else, but what? Something that would get me out of this pit.

I could have kicked myself.

I reached into my pockets and pulled out the two blades, the ones I'd confiscated from the homicidal chick a while back. With one in each hand, I made the correlation.

Knowledge, I said, glancing at the one in my left hand, then at the one in my right; Experience.

I bet old Zair thought he was clever with this one. Whatever. I was feeling better now that I'd deciphered the clue, and stood near the dirt wall wondering what to do now. I thought back to earlier, rolling the blades through my palms. It didn't hurt, in fact the cool handles felt kind of nice against my warm, abused flesh.

I tried climbing with my bare hands and that didn't work, I noted, but maybe these blades are sharp enough to break through the wall.

Taking a breath and bracing myself for possible failure so as not to get my hopes up too high, I jammed the blade in my right hand as far as I could into the dirt wall. It not only broke through the surface, but cleaved smoothly up to the hilt. My grin was brief. I yanked the blade back out with minimal effort and knew what I had to do.

Stabbing the wall high over my head, I planted one foot on the wall and leaned my weight on the knife. I didn't know if I thought it would snap or come out of the wall but nothing happened, save for a light sprinkling of dirt showering over my head. I shook it and blinked the specks of dust out of my eyes, then started to climb. Working up a steady pace, I got faster the higher I went, using the two blades as leverage. In no time I was hoisting myself over the edge of the pit and rolled onto my back on the damp grass. I had the bright white moon staring back at me along with a whole slew of little twinkling stars; I was in that pit for longer than I'd realized.

All the more reason I'm glad to be out, I thought, releasing a breathy sort of laugh of relief. I was so glad to be out, but now I had another choice to make.

Standing, I dusted off my clothes but what for? They were still stained, sticky, and ruined. I scratched my head and glanced around the ground floor. It was hard to tell at night if there were more pits, but I was willing to bet my left hand there had to be more. So I wouldn't be sticking around this area, but at the same time, who's to say if I go back to the wooded area that some other, greater obstacle wouldn't be waiting for me?

I'll have to take that chance, I thought with the growing darkness in mind.

Creatures come out at night and I definitely did not want to be around for that sort of horror.

So, putting one foot in front of the other, I headed towards the fork in the woods where I'd made my awful decision, hoping I wasn't on the way to making another. I gulped a tiny bit, apprehensive but more exasperated than anything, and forced my way through the dense, wooded area. It was no surprise when the errant branches and bushes once again snagged on my clothes and re-opened cuts on my face and arms. But what was surprising was what lay on the other side of those woods.

You've gotta' be kidding me

I rubbed at my eyes to be sure I wasn't still sleep in that pit, having some kind of fever dream. Never mind the fact that the theory didn't make sense, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Grass.

Open air.

Freedom.

"Congratulations."

The softly-spoken word held no sort of emotion or tone, it was empty and just barely-audible. I had to glance to the right to be sure I'd heard the General's voice and not the wind or a hallucination. It was him. He was there. Standing there, black eyes contemplative, back straight and hands clasped behind him.

"Did you find my notes helpful?" He asked, slightly inquisitive but mostly still somber.

I snorted very softly, my body was tired, and said, "You could say that."

"I should expect you'd like to get back to the palace now." He surmised.

"Yeah."

"...Would you still like the position?" Zair asked me, seriously and quietly.

And I couldn't help but ask, "What do you think?"

I'd nearly died for that damn position ten times over, I risked losing limbs and fell in pits and bled and sweated and contemplated my sanity for that damn position. I may as well get it now lest it all have been in vain. I'd long since reached the point of turning back.

Zair was still silent. To my mild shock, he didn't grin or even crack a smile. He was just looking at me intensely, but not to the point to where I wanted to squirm. He just stared for the longest time before he spoke again.

"Luigi," He started in that same soft voice, "I think you've done remarkably well with your training and, should you still want the position, it is yours. You're cunning and you're resourceful and you're more than qualified to lead nothing less than the finest troops this country has to offer."

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't taken aback. My look must've been plain to see because only now did the General's blank features melt into a faint grin.

"Oh come now," He spoke lightly, "What did you think these tests were for?"

"...Your amusement..."

General Zair grinned fully now and said, "Not completely, they weren't. That was just a happy coincidence."

I knew it!

"Get some rest, Luigi." The General advised. "You'll be able to meet your troops in two days."

Iggy was a curious child. There was always a question on the tip of his tongue, but unlike his brother Larry who voiced every thought that passed through his blue-haired head, Iggy knew how to hold in his inquiries and act on them investigatively rather than probe and pester others around him for answers. He didn't much trust others, anyway, and opted to find out things for himself. And there was so much he wanted to find out about himself and the world around him. One thing he wanted to know right now was what could've possible possessed someone to bring into existence the unholy creation that was pickle and sardine cookies.

Oh, that's right.

The scientist did it. Moxin Sanus.

I'm starting to think he's a self-proclaimed doctor, Iggy thought, staring at the mottled cookies and trying not to grimace. He still didn't want to offend his host.

Dr. Sanus had showed Iggy and Lemmy to a seat in his 'kitchen', which looked more like a lab than anything with all the knobs and gears and metal and glass tubes and containers. In fact, the entire 'house' just looked like a lab that extended from one room to the next. He and his brother sat atop two barstools that were, although metal, hardly identical. It looked like everything from the barstools to the countertop to the flooring to the fans on the ceiling was homemade. That wasn't a comforting thought, especially not when the fans over the boys' heads was swinging so hard it sounded like it was about to come crashing down on them.

Instinctively, Iggy wrapped an arm around his younger brother.

Lemmy looked up from his plate of cookies to his brother and swung his legs. He didn't seem any more enthused about the doctor/scientist's proffered snack than Iggy did.

Pushing his plate to the side, Iggy watched Dr. Sanus move from the front door back to the kitchen. He moved in the same way a nervous geriatric patient would; slow, but with great determination to get where he was going. In this case, it was a spot behind the counter and, once there, Dr. Sanus sat upon an unseen stool and rested his arms on the top of the surface.

"So." Dr. Sanus spoke, "Where would you like to start?"

Iggy eyed the fans above because he could barely hear the doctor and said man was right across from him. Dr. Sanus noticed where the boy's lime eyes went and said 'Oh!' before mashing a button under the counter, making the fan come to a jarring halt. Iggy relaxed a bit, knowing the odds of leaving this place alive and in one piece had just been greatly increased.

He clasped his hands in his lap and stated politely, "I would like to know what the Great War is."

"Was," Dr. Sanus immediately corrected, his unibrow furrowing. "It was a nasty, bloody war. Just awful. Killed a lot of people, most of 'em weren't even fighting, had nothing to do with either side."

"What sides were fighting?" Iggy then asked.

He didn't need to know why they were fighting; why did anyone ever fight? A differing of interests or opinions on some matter, either trivial or severe, with everyone thinking they were right and no one willing to back down. War.

Dr. Sanus blew out a sigh and his mismatched eyes rolled up to the ceiling, "Oh, you know. Same old, same old. Mario and the goodies, and old Bowser and the baddies."

Goodies and baddies? That doesn't tell me anything, Iggy frowned. He was around the age where he knew there was no such thing as permanent alignment; it was all a matter of perception since everyone seemed to have their own set of morals and could hardly be subjective when guaging another's.

"Who sided with Mario?" Iggy asked, "And who sided with Bowser?"

"Mario had his brother, naturally," Dr. Sanus recalled, "plus a bunch of others, like those Bean folk, and the space lady, and the little toad people, and some other friendlies. And Bowser, well, he had just about everyone else, either 'cause they were a baddie or 'cause he forced them to fight for him."

I'm not sure that's any better, Iggy frowned at the liberal use of nicknames and monikers. He did know Mario's brother Luigi quite intimately, so he figured he'd get more information from him. But then that made him think; if Luigi fought in the Great War, how come Iggy didn't remember him? Or remember the Great War, period?

"When was the Great War?" Iggy asked.

"Not too long ago," Dr. Sanus answered vaguely. "It went on for forever but it ended about two years ago, I believe."

Two years ago I was at the bunker with my brothers and sister, Iggy knew, but that was fuzzy for him. He would like to say that's where he was, but he had no real idea how much time he'd spent there. It was like being in purgatory for him, or like being in a dream or a combination of both in that he couldn't trace it back to the beginning and the days seemed to just go on and on, bleeding into one another. The only thing that stood out were Ludwig's sporadic visits.

"Was Ludwig in the war?" Iggy then asked.

Dr. Sanus' eyebrow twitched in a way the boy would probably recount in future nightmares as the doctor rubbed his chin. He tilted his head and something even more disturbing happened; the white, tangled mass of his hair lurched to the left and fell right off his head. A wig.

"Oops!" Dr. Sanus chuckled, then righted the hairpiece.

Iggy nearly forgot what he asked and beside him, Lemmy flinched and closed his eyes tightly, as if to shut out the image of the the cracked and scaly bald head underneath that austere white wig. Iggy reached over and rubbed his little brother's back soothingly before turning back to the doctor. Yes, he was unnerved, too, but he wanted answers.

Dr. Sanus told him, "I believe your brother did fight, but it wasn't for nobody; he wasn't on neither side, that is, or couldn't anybody tell what side he was for if he was."

Iggy wasn't sure what to make of that garbled sentence.

"That war there tore up the Mushroom World real bad," Dr. Sanus spoke gravely, "it messed up a lot of people and creatures, too, mostly 'cause of the magic being thrown back and forth."

"Magic?" Iggy spoke, interested. "Who used magic?"

"Both sides," Dr. Sanus emphasized with a quirk of his black brow. "Bowser, he had scores of magicians working for him, and Mario, he had a few magic buddies too, but not as many as the old Dark King. They both used dark magic, and so much so that nobody knows who sent that last curse out."

"What last curse?"

"The Composition Curse." Dr. Sanus spoke in low voice. "That curse is legend, it did in hundreds and altered thousands more."

"How?" Iggy wanted to know, ignoring the chill that went up his spine at the frequent mention of death and murder.

He'd long sense grown accustomed to hearing about such things, though he did glance at Lemmy to see if it bothered the child.

Lemmy was still swinging his feet and trying hard to keep up with the conversation. Intelligent as he was, he was still only seven and couldn't pronounce, let alone comprehend, a lot of what was being discussed.

"There's no one way the Composition Curse affects you," Dr. Sanus said slowly, tilting his head and making his wig slide dangerously towards the floor. "But I guess the pattern would be if it didn't kill you, it changed your...body, your...form."

Iggy blinked, having been distracted by the wig, and wondered why Ludwig never mentioned the Great War.

Yeah, I suppose I don't need to ask that, Iggy thought bitterly. Ludwig kept a lot of secrets.

As if reading Ig's mind, Dr. Sanus said, "Nobody knew where you lot were at. You disappeared near the time of the war, and stayed gone long after. In fact, I myself never saw you again 'til now."

Again, Iggy thought, that means he knew us before, or at least saw us. How does he know Ludwig? Or how does Ludwig know him? And why did Ludwig want me to come here?

"What do you know about my siblings and me?" Iggy summarized his internal inquiries with that one question, then added, "I mean before the war."

"You used to serve the Dark King." Dr. Sanus stated plainly.

That's what King Boo told me, Iggy thought with a faint frown. He wasn't getting as much information as he would have liked.

Iggy tried to be more specific in hopes of a similar reply by asking, "What did we do?"

"Whatever he asked." came Dr. Sanus' 'detailed' response. Thankfully, he added, "Mostly he had you fighting the Mario Brothers."

Iggy blinked, wondering why he would fight the brothers who'd been nothing but kind to him and his siblings. Well, with Ludwig there was a bit of a strain, from what he could see with Luigi, but mostly Mario and Luigi were good people. It didn't make sense to fight them.

Unless they did something in the past, or hated us in the past, Iggy frowned. But why would they be nice now, all of a sudden? And Luigi never mentioned the fact that he used to fight us. What's that about? I don't remember fighting him or working for Bowser either, but that's probably thanks to Ludwig.

"Why were we fighting the Mario Brothers?" Iggy asked. "What did they do?"

"They rubbed the Dark King the wrong way," Dr. Sanus replied. "Kept mucking up his plans for world domination and such. Every bad and nasty thing he did, they undid it. Course, they weren't without fault, but for the most part, they were goodies and Bowser was the baddest baddie of them all."

"But why were we the ones fighting them if they were Bowser's enemies?" Iggy asked.

He blinked because the name 'Bowser' felt strange and foreign on his tongue, yet he couldn't shake the sense that he'd said it at least a thousand times before.

"You fought them because the Dark King told you to," Dr. Sanus responded with a shrug that his eyebrow seemed to mimic.

"But what about our parents, our mother and father?" Iggy questioned. "Didn't they have a say in all this? Didn't they care that we were working for the Dark King?"

The adolescent didn't understand why Dr. Sanus gave a wry little chuckle when he said, "Well there's that, for you. Your parent was right there with you: You all have different mothers, but your father was the same."

"...You don't mean," Iggy trailed as it occurred to him.

"That's right." Dr. Sanus nodded, "Your father, and your brothers' father, and the father of your sister, is-"

"-The Dark King." Iggy finished softly.

He took a moment to let that sink in, gazing down at his pale hands in his lap. Beside him, Lemmy's eyes widened, then narrowed in confusion. He understood that last sentence and was confused by it.

I thought the Dark King was B-Jun's daddy, he frowned. So if he's my daddy, too, then that must mean...B-Jun is my brother!

And his childish mind could hardly see a problem with finding out his best friend was actually his brother. In fact, this seemed like good news, were it not for the fact that Lemmy also knew the Dark King was decidedly very 'bad'. Iggy knew this as well, but to a greater degree. He'd heard different things about Bowser throughout his quest for knowledge and none of them made the revelation of his true parentage go down easily. Mass murderer, tyrant, great hulking beast if the illustrations of him around his castle were accurate. Iggy had been in the late king's palace for some time and had rummaged around for information several times. Apparently Bowser loved himself and had portraits commissioned in his image. That only made Iggy think of more questions.

How could an animalistic beast like that be my father? I'm not human, I really don't know what I am, but I'm not that, Iggy ascertained.

"If Bowser is my...our father, then how come none of us look like him?" Iggy asked quietly.

None of them had the fearsome visage of the scaly, fire-breathing dragon-turtle hybrid, not even Junior and he was for sure the Dark King's son. So Iggy couldn't help but be skeptical of this news.

Dr. Sanus chuckled a bit more and said, "Well thanks to the Curse, you'll find that now old Bowser looks more like you, or at least he did before he got offed by your brother."

Iggy frowned at that news. He didn't know the details, but that was the story that was circulating; Ludwig had moved them into the palace mainly because he'd killed Bowser first. Sure, he knew that Ludwig was fighting the Dark King alongside Luigi and the others, but he didn't know his eldest sibling was the one to deal the final blow. It was truly something to find out, and had a hand in shaping Iggy's perception of his brother.

Iggy gazed at the doctor and pointed out, "You didn't explain how my siblings and I don't look like how Bowser used to look. If he is, was, our father, that is."

"You did used to look like him," Dr. Sanus replied, puffing out a breath. "And frankly, I don't know why your appearance changed. Maybe due to your human heritage, the magic started wearing off, or who knows."

"What?" Iggy frowned, "What human heritage?"

Dr. Sanus sighed again, longer this time, and said, "Let me break it down for you, sonny. I was drafted by the late Dark King, rest his soul, to be a part of a special project. This was years and years ago, mind you."

Iggy sat at the edge of his barstool and listened alertly. His pale, slim fingers tightened around one another as he grew anxious with the telling of this latest tale.

"You see, Bowser kept getting thwarted by the Mario Brothers, and his minions were no help, either. The Goobers, or Goombas were the worst." Dr. Sanus shook his head, making his wig tremble threateningly. "So Bowser decided he would make a new set of minions, one that would be made from a combination of his own power and the...human element."

Iggy shifted in his seat uncomfortably. He didn't like hearing those words; 'make', 'made'. It sounded so cold, clinical, like terms attributed to inanimate objects. A table is made, a child should be born.

Was I not born? Iggy listened closely to find out.

"Here's where I come in," Dr. Sanus stated. He scratched his wig for some odd reason and said, "I was charged with taking the, ah, the human female's dna and joining it with, erm, the Dark King's 'essence'."

Iggy found his intelligence to be a hindrance, for in that moment he clearly put two and two together and knew what the doctor was refusing to say. He knew the dynamics of copulation and conception and reproduction, he knew what exact 'thing' was collected from the female and what 'substance' was collected from Bowser. It made him cringe, and feel that much more disconcerted about his origins. Still he listened, because he just had to know.

"Well, after the...samples were joined," Dr. Sanus spoke difficultly, "Some magicians were brought in to infuse the two with magic so that the resulting offspring would be a magical creature."

That's what I am...a creature, Iggy thought detachedly.

"And just a few months later, with careful monitering and the right sort of nurturing, your brother Ludwig was born!" Dr. Sanus announced, his voice loud after the awkward silence.

Born, Iggy repeated in his head. But he wasn't too enthused to hear that word now, not with all the scientific facts of the event having been laid out. Ludwig wasn't born, he was created. Probably in a lab.

Not that it would be any better if it was a nursery, Iggy thought sardonically.

Created in a lab like some kind of science project; the doctor had called it a project. No, Ludwig was not born, he was formed. Brought into existence because of someone else's impatience to kill someone else. Ludwig wasn't born, he was put together like a recipe from a psychopath's cookbook, designed to destroy someone he didn't even know.

No wonder he is the way he is, Iggy mused. He then realized that, being who he was, Ludwig must have hunted for these same answers. In fact, Iggy knew he did; their last encounter at King Boo's was telling: Ludwig had admitted he'd been down the same road. So, knowing where he came from and why he came to be, Ludwig must have felt...Iggy couldn't imagine what his brother felt, but knew it lent itself to how jaded the navy-haired sorcerer was.

No wonder he told me not to push the issue, Iggy frowned.

He didn't care, though. True, this information was disconcerting, but he wasn't sorry for receiving it. He would rather know than live in ignorance.

Dr. Sanus was talking again, saying, "Ludwig served the king so well that the Dark King signed off for more like him to be made. And that's when the rest of you lot came along."

"So none of us were born, then." Iggy spoke thickly, his voice sounding strange with some unnamed emotion. "We were just...slapped together in a lab."

"Technically you were hatched." Dr. Sanus interjected. "In an incubator."

"Like that helps." Iggy remarked with a scowl.

Dr. Sanus just shrugged, and it was then that Iggy wished he'd had someone with a bit more tact and sensitivity to break the news to him. As it was, the doctor's callous, offhand style wasn't doing a thing for his bruised psyche. It was bad enough to know that he and his siblings were created and not conceived like normal people, but to find out they'd essentially been created to destroy was just...

"...Sad." Iggy murmured numbly, then borrowed from Roy and added, "Fucking tragic."

He then wondered how his pink-haired older brother would take this news and decided then that he wouldn't be the one to tell him. Not yet, not while it was still so fresh in his own mind, not when he didn't even know how to process this knowledge himself. He didn't even bother looking down to see how Lemmy was taking it. If he had, he would have seen the uncertain waver in the little boy's eyes, not at the news but at hearing Iggy curse.

In a small voice he asked, "What of my mother?"

"What was that, sonny?" Dr. Sanus frowned, "Speak up, these ears ain't what they used to be."

"Do you know anything about my mother?" Iggy asked in a clearer voice.

Dr. Sanus shook his head and Iggy felt his stomach drop and a weight settle on his shoulders. Inside him, something heavy and angry started to take form.

He barely heard the doctor say, "I only recieved the samples from the human females. Only the Dark King could tell you who those women were, and, well. He's gone and croaked, so."

Hope alighted in Iggy.

He considered telling the doctor that he was wrong, that Bowser was still alive according to his little brother, but Iggy knew he had no more information to gain from Dr. Sanus. So he stood from his barstool and thanked the doctor for his time and took his brother's hand and teleported back to the small inn they'd gotten to. It was in town, about a thousand miles from the middle-of-nowhere-ville that the doctor's 'house' was in. Once alone again in their borrowed room, Iggy sat at the edge of the bed and recounted the day.

His father had turned out to be a greedy bastard. He, himself, wasn't even remotely human, was more of a lowly animal than anything. He was only put on this planet to kill someone else. And even if he wanted to talk to someone about it, the doctor was too insensitive, Lemmy was too little, and the rest of his siblings were several countries away.

I could go to King Boo, he thought, but then shook his head. King Boo wouldn't understand. But then again, Ludwig is there, maybe he would-

And Iggy nipped that thought before it even could finish forming. He didn't want to talk to Ludwig. Didn't want to hear his over-inflated-ego-self tell him 'I told you so' or something infuriatingly close to that. He wanted to talk to someone who would help him understand his feelings, not condemn him for them, or throw scorn or, at the very best for Ludwig, pity. He knew there was too much bad blood between them anyway.

We didn't exactly part on good terms, Iggy frowned. Even if he did help me out, who's to say he didn't do it so that I'd turn out to be just as jaded and cynical as he was once I found out? After all, he did know what I would find and didn't even try to warn me.

But something told him he was being unfair and that his eldest brother had tried several times, in his own controlling way, to leave the subject unbroached. Ludwig had tried to deter him but Iggy just figured it was because Ludwig had an agenda and that wasn't part of it.

I still don't want to talk to him, Iggy thought bitterly. He did see how Ludwig could be the way he was, though. He did gain that bit of insight. This wasn't easy to swallow. Only now did he look at Lemmy. Sitting on the bed beside him, Lemmy met his eyes with an unsure expression, and Iggy only absently reached down to rub his back gently.

But then, seeing Lemmy, Iggy remembered that spark of hope. He glanced back at Lemmy, his lime eyes growing alert by the second as that wistful emotion built inside him.

"Lemmy," He spoke softly, "Did you say that Junior's father was alive?"

That 'our' father is alive, his mind corrected.

Lemmy nodded and said, "B-jun left with his daddy a while ago."

"Are you sure, Lemmy?" Iggy pressed. "You're sure it was his father and not someone else?"

"He was with his daddy," Lemmy insisted. "I seen his daddy lots of times. He looks like B-Jun, only bigger and stronger and taller. And he said he remembered me. Is that 'cause he's our daddy, too?"

Iggy cringed at that and said, "I don't know."

But that had him thinking. Only seven but honest Lemmy was, so Iggy knew to trust his brother. Either the Dark King lived or an imposter had him and Junior fooled. And if the Dark King lived, Iggy could track him down and get answers about who his mother was and where she may be. There was still hope.

But now there were more questions.

If Ludwig knew this information, why did he kill the Dark King? Our father, Iggy corrected again hesitantly. But wait, if Lemmy says he saw him and Junior left with him, then he's still alive. So what did Ludwig do to Bowser? And was he at the palace the whole time we were there? Where was he? What was he doing? Hiding? Why would he be hiding? Ludwig had his power, and he was out of the picture, so could that mean...Ludwig did something to...incapacitate the Dark King?

Iggy's mind was sharp as a whip as he contemplated these things. He'd come upon the information of Ludwig taking the Dark King's power through King Boo and, based on his knowledge of the Dark King, he couldn't say he was the type to just hand over his powers to just anyone; if at all.

So that would mean Ludwig took the powers by force; but why? If Ludwig knew Bowser was our father and Ludwig was working for him, why would he take his powers? Unless he wasn't working for him anymore...

Another thing King Boo had intimated in so few words was that Bowser and Ludwig never had the best relationship. Knowing what he did now, Iggy could understand why that would be. However, he still wondered why Ludwig kept the king around after taking his powers.

And why didn't he bring Junior around us at the bunker, Iggy now pondered. If he's Bowser's son as well and Ludwig kept us at the bunker, why didn't he get his brother Junior? Why did he keep us at the bunker in the first place?

Asking why Ludwig did any of the things he did was like asking why water was wet. Iggy knew that even if he did corner his brother in his unfamiliar, child-like state, there was no guarantee that Ludwig would even humor him with answers to these questions. He just had to get to the source, get answers straight from the beast's mouth:

"I have to pay my father a visit."

A/N: here's another chapter for you all. Hope you had fun reading because it was hard to get this out. I have less and less time now as I'm working more and it's harder for me to update. I have money issues, meaning money is due and I have none so I have no choice but to keep working. Sorry that my updates are suffering because of that but it can't be helped.

Anyway.

If it wasn't clear, I'll break it down: bowser had his 'little swimmers' joined with the 'scrambled eggs' of a human woman and had his magicians splash some magic over that and, after putting it through a science-y microwave (incubator) for some months, little Ludwig was here. He hatched, because magic, and his development was sped up, again magic, and he served bowser so well that the rest of the koopalings came along in the subsequent years: that's how their ages line up the way they do.

I hope that clears it up.

Next chapter, we'll see how Daisy is doing on her kingdom tour and we'll see how Luigi adjusts to being a leader. And we'll also check in with the Dark King and his little son (who, if you can remember, bowser claims to have come about by...the old fashioned method)

I really hope you guys are still enjoying this story because reading your reviews are the best part of my days, usually I have a baby and a cat to cheer me up but I don't always get to see them. So don't be stingy with the feedback, people! Tell me what you think/liked/hated/want to see in the stories!

Until next time!

~DymondGold~