Chapter 8:

Bowser's Inside Story

So far, Mario was enjoying his day off. Which meant that it wouldn't last, as far as his old friends were concerned.

He heard a pounding on his door, as if the guest was trying to break in himself. He stood up from his seat at his table and placed a bookmark in his newest book.

The pounding started again, until he heard a snap, a creak, and a thump. "Oops," a gruff voice whispered.

Mario turned the corner to see the Koopa King himself, looking down at the fallen door, which had broken and landed hard enough to crack the wooden floor too. "I hope you know you're going to pay for that damage," Mario told his guest.

"Maybe," Bowser shrugged. "It depends on how I feel after our little chat."

Mario sighed. "Please, be my guest. You've already knocked down my door."

Bowser rumbled and sat down in a sturdy wooden chair while Mario took a seat at the far edge of his couch. "What can I do for you?"

"Just where do you get off talking to Mario's family that way, anyway?"

"And what way would that be?"

"Telling them terrible things. Making them feel worse than they already do." He seemed to have to hold back his fire between his teeth. "I have a mind to roast you on the spot."

"Brave words."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're not exactly a fear-inducing villain anymore, King Koopa."

"Maybe not," Bowser growled. "But I can still roast you." He paused. "…If you weren't doing such good as a doctor."

"It's a wonder Mario ever put up with you," the doctor said quite honestly.

"Leave the hero out of this!" Bowser snapped, much to Mario's surprise. "You may talk like you knew how he felt, but you wouldn't know a thing!"

Mario took in the irony of that statement.

Bowser continued, "You know it was Mario that was the first and for awhile the only one who trusted me when I switched sides?"

"Yeah, that much is in his story… or should I say history."

"Mario was all that his family says he was. Good, kind, generous. He could've torn me apart when I came, offering a truce, but he saw beyond our tiresome past and let me in his little gang of heroes. I may hate him for doing it so easily, thinking I'd so easily soften for his sake. But here's something I've never told anyone, and I'll roast you for sure if you repeat it… I was glad he did. Because I was sincere. I hated losing. I was sick of being beaten up by that high-and-mighty plumber!"

"So you hated losing… and switched sides because of that."

"That and I realized I didn't agree with everything my father taught me. But you know what made me actually help them?"

"What?"

"Seeing how they were together."

Mario raised an eyebrow.

"It was at the party, held in my honor for the holidays, that I really saw it. Here I thought they were just some butt-kicking team. Or a damsel in distress waiting for her hero. But no, I had been wrong. That's why I was never successful. I underestimated who Mario really was. What everyone really meant to him."

"And what about what he meant to them?"

"Yes, he was a hero. And he was my rival for years. But doesn't my final decision show that he was more than that hero? He was able to change my mind."

Mario thought about that. Bowser was always a variant villain to him. Some days, it was just kidnapping Peach. Other times, he was taking over galaxies or trying to gain ultimate power. Only after Bowser admitted his more peaceful side did Mario realize a lot of those plans came first from Kammy Koopa, his assistant and his father's right hand woman. She had wanted the greatest power for Powser's son, even from the moment he was a baby being nannied by her right-hand Kamek. But Bowser, no one ever asked what he wanted.

Mario started to see the koopa in another light. He couldn't help but realize his likeness to Mario himself. "Kammy expected you to be the ultimate villain… just like the people of the Mushroom Kingdom expected Mario to be the ultimate hero… No one cared about his own feelings… as no one cared about yours."

Bowser was taken aback. "You think Mario disliked it as much as I did in the end?"

"I think it's possible."

Bowser scratched at the base of his left horn. "Hm…" He shook his head. "That's one thing. But it's no excuse to set Greenie off like that. You call yourself a doctor, and you may have made his condition worse!"

"What's it to you?"

Bowser peered at him carefully. "I guess you're right. I shouldn't care. It's just odd to see such a happy-go-lucky bunch turned absolutely miserable."

"Because of Mario's fall?"

"No… because of your words."

"Maybe they know they're true. Maybe they feel guilty about it."

"That's one possibility, sure. But I'd like to think not." He stood and went to leave.

"Is that all?"

"Yes," he said simply. "I guess it is." He looked down at the door he had to step on to get outside. "You're a doctor. You can pay for that door yourself." And with that, he left.

"I guess he didn't feel good about our chat," Mario mused, kneeling down to try to figure out the door. He thought about Bowser's relationship with him and the others. Though always full of turmoil, more recently, they've helped each other more often than not. Since Smithy, Bowser had been joining Mario's party often, until he actually decided to switch sides, more or less. What actually happened is he stopped kidnapping the princess. That's when Mario welcomed him as a friend:

"Watch it, stache man! I am no friend of yours!" Bowser snarled.

"Funny. You've sure been acting like a friend," Mario replied with humor.

"Just because helping you happened to help me, that does not make us friends!"

"You've stopped kidnapping Peach."

"I've gotten over her," he replied innocently.

"Mm-hm… And no more kidnapping star spirits and other such things?"

"Not worth the trouble."

"Mm-hm…"

"Stop looking at me like that!"

"Give it up, Bowser. Come and join us for a kart race sometime, okay?"

Bowser blinked at him.

"And bring that kid of yours too. I'm sure he'd enjoy it."

Bowser continued to stare as he left his castle.

The next day, Bowser came for a friendly race. Within the week, he was being welcomed into Peach's castle without extra guards around him, after Mario had convinced her and Toadsworth that he would come in peace. Luigi took awhile to warm up to him, but they'd been through a lot of painful issues.

Mario froze in thought and action. His heart felt like it was being squeezed by a trembling hand. Why hadn't he noticed it before? Luigi's left arm. Bowser would never have come if it wasn't Luigi's left arm. Mario stood and ran out the door, quicker than if he had eaten a mushroom first.

He scolded himself on the way to his old home. Luigi was left-handed… it made his left arm the strongest, but it was also the weakest. His left arm was the one that Bowser had scratched and scarred years ago. His left arm was the one that had been injured similarly in battles a couple times since. It was his weak point, if such a thing existed. And Mario hadn't even thought of it, not even before his new life, when he saw Luigi clutching that bleeding arm.

He quickened his pace. Say what he will about Luigi's neediness, Luigi was weak enough to deserve to be needy. But at the same time, he was strong enough to ignore his own problems for the sake of others.

But Bowser knew. He was the only one besides Mario that knew that was an awful injury he had given him. He was the only one besides Mario who recognized it as a weak spot because of it. That's why Bowser had taken such an interest in what was going on with Luigi. He must have been blaming himself for the part he played in the man's latest injury, even though he hadn't been the cause of such injury for years. At the moment, it seemed like Bowser cared more about Luigi than his own brother.