Ludwig's wish had been enough. Bowser was still significantly sore in his shell and it hurt to move, but he would live. When the Star Spirits had seen that Scales was defeated they had released the other Koopalings back to Darklands, and given word to the Hand Bros. that it was now safe to return Mario, Luigi, and Peach to the Mushroom Kingdom. With the Triforce back in Hyrule and no Ganondorf in the current timeline, things should be peaceful there as well.

Once everything had calmed down enough in the Mushroom Kingdom and Darklands, and Bowser was well enough to travel, a diplomatic visit with the purpose of détente had been arranged.

The Koopa King calmly sipped his tea as he sat across from the Mushroom Princess in the gardens behind her palace. When Peach had unequivocally dismissed his romantic affections for Bowser, he knew to let that particular issue lie. Still, she held answers to questions Ludwig needed answered, and Bowser was ready to end the almost constant state of war that had existed between their two kingdoms since he first tried to kidnap her, something that would probably take many visits, and debates within and between both governments. He decided to begin by asking Peach about the welfare of her kingdom.

"Toad Town is slowly being rebuilt; though all those lives we lost are irreplaceable. Thank you very much for asking."

Bowser felt a stab of some negative emotion he couldn't identify. "Well, this is a huge understatement, but it's horrible that that happened."

"Yes," Peach nodded. "You always kidnapped me but generally left the people alone. This is the first time the Mushroom Kingdom has ever faced something like this. The Toads are justifiably angry."

"Is there anything Darklands can do to aid you?"

"That would be greatly appreciated, but wasn't Darklands attacked too?"

"Yeah, but we didn't get such a concentrated hit in one area."

"And that's why some Toads don't want any aid from Darklands. They see you as being on Scales's side."

Bowser dropped his teacup. Pointing to himself and standing, he shouted, "I'm the guy who kicked alien-dino butt. Not Mario, not Donkey Kong, not Link, not Star Fox, ME!"

"But you did kidnap me the day before the attack, remember?" Peach reminded her Darklands counterpart.

Bowser blushed. He had quite forgotten that particular detail. The more he thought on it the more somber his face grew. He brought a hand to his mouth, coughed and sat back down.

"When Lemmy's old enough, I'm abdicating. Maybe the Mushroom Kingdom and Darklands can start fresh then."

Peach gasped upon hearing that. "But I thought Ludwig—

"Disinherited by the Council. Too many ties to Scales," Bowser said looking down. He turned his head up and smiled at Peach. "He's still my boy, and I still love him, but I don't think either of us are king material. Besides, we've had four Mortons, three Ludwigs, two Wendys, two Roys, six Ignatiuses, and three Bowsers before. We've never had a King Lemuel before."

"And it seems that the Kremlings have never had a republic before," Peach sipped her tea.

"It's the only way K. Rool's surviving children could stave off civil war. They'll be a monarchy again when one wins the general election, trust me."

Peach looked saddened at Bowser's words.

"The Kremlings have only had absolute monarchs, and a popular revolution that a junior royal hijacked. The good thing," Bowser slowed his speech, for this was what Ludwig wanted to know, "is that they don't control the Lylat System anymore."

"Yes, our friends on Corneria are safe again."

Peach had more favor with the Star Spirits, and they could easily contact Master Hand. If anyone in Mushroom World had a clue as to what befell Ludwig's acquaintances, it was her. He'd ask about the heroes first.

"You wouldn't happen to know what's become of Star Fox, would you?"

Peach smiled.

"Fox was freed from the crystal thing he was trapped in when you defeated Scales. He and Krystal are back together. Slippy's out of the Venomian prison. Falco was rescued from Leon's 'lab' or whatever you want to call his torture shop."

Bowser did want to hear all of the gory details, but Ludwig told him that Leon had some sort of blood vendetta against Falco, and having him as a hostage for all that time…

"How is Falco?"

"He's in therapy."

"Did they say how badly he's been hurt?"

Peach frowned as she saw that Bowser had misunderstood.

"Bowser, Falco is in psychiatric therapy."

The Koopa King let out a sigh of relief, followed by a frown of confusion.

"I thought Leon was a torturer, a sadist…"

"He's a sadist, all right," Peach said adamantly, "but he thought he had all the time in the galaxy and he wanted to break Falco mentally before he broke him physically. He didn't even have a surgical knife in hand until…"

Bowser felt nauseous. Holding his mouth closed until the feeling passed, he gasped, "So everyone in Star Fox is okay?" before Peach could add any more info about Leon.

Peach nodded.

Bowser still felt that he should ask, "Did Leon do anything with the knife?"

"He stabbed a Cornerian police officer who broke into his 'office,' before anything happened to Falco. The guard survived and has made a full recovery."

That's good, Bowser thought, feeling genuine relief, Now I can ask about the ones Ludwig kinda saw as friends.

"And Star Wolf?"

"Wolf and Panther are in a high security Cornerian prison. Leon vanished after the stabbing incident."

Then they're alive. Ludwig doesn't need to worry about them. Lylat however, should worry about Leon.

"Any leads on Powalski?"

"Nothing solid."

The only ending that Bowser could deem a good one would be where Powalski was captured alive. He tried to turn the discussion to politics.

"I'm glad our distant neighbors have recovered some semblance of political stability. Pretty sure Venom's in chaos."

"I didn't think to ask about Venom," Peach admitted.

Bowser nodded. He understood that both he and she, like Ludwig, were more interested in the people than the politics of another solar system. But then Peach stood and surprised him.

"The Sharpclaw must be going through a difficult time on Sauria. I know how many Toads in Toad Town used to hate all Koopas because of you. It must be the same with the other tribes and on Sauria because of Scales."

Bowser knitted his eyebrows. That was probably going on to some extent on Sauria, but if what Ludwig had told him was true than the SharpClaw themselves were probably glad Scales was gone. He was extremely cruel to his own people, Kremling and Sharpclaw alike. What Peach said about Toads and Koopas was much closer to home.

"You do know that Mario fought me twice with some Koopas in his party."

"You must mean Koops, Kooper, and Parakarry. They had a big impact on the way Toads view Koopas."

"Mushroom Kingdom citizens, aren't they?"

Peach nodded.

"From the Pleasant River region?"

"Kooper's from there. Koops is the mayor of Petalburg; Toads, Koopas, and Bub-ulbs have all lived there in harmony for years. Parakarry is a postman. I'm not sure where he's from originally but he works out of Toad Town."

Bowser smiled when she mentioned Petalburg. It had happened somewhere after all, and that gave Bowser hope for the future.

Peach noticed Bowser's smile. It wasn't hard to tell what he was thinking.

"Bowser, you don't need to wait to abdicate for Lemmy to sign a peace treaty. It may take our peoples time to get to like one another, but our countries could cease hostilities right away."

Bowser snorted enthusiastically.

"With all the havoc that Scales did to Darklands, the Council is for decreasing the military budget and increasing infrastructure. There have only been a few times the Council has voted on something this big without something you can spin as a victory, but the state of affairs back home will make peace an attractive option."

Peach smiled. "You can spin K. Rool as your victory."

That suggestion led back to Bowser's last reason for being here. He'd come here to discuss Ludwig's friends and peace with the Mushroom Kingdom. Those things were done. Only one item was left, an item Bowser was pretty sure was completely was alright, but he had to know.

"What did Master Hand have to say about me not defeating Ludwig? I still don't get how we beat Scales and K. Rool."

Peach's answer surprised Bowser.

"You're not the only one confused. All the Star Spirits, Mario, Luigi, and I were confused as well. Master Hand said it had something to do with the Triforce."

Bowser became motionless, his eyes fixed on Peach. He waited intently for her to say what came next.

"You know that the Triforce has three parts: Courage, Knowledge, and Power?"

Yes, Peach, everyone knows that, Bowser rolled his eyes.

"Pay attention!" Peach huffed noticing Bowser's impatience.

"Fine," Bowser said as though he were a school boy getting yelled at by the teacher.

"When all three parts of the Triforce are combined it can magnify a hidden power, the Triforce of Love—

"Triforce of Love!?" Bowser had never heard of that before.

"It's not widely known, even in Hyrule." Peach sipped her tea. "I only know because Master Hand told me."

"Why didn't Scales use it!? Or Ganondorf for that matter? Ganondorf had the complete Triforce before, and Scales must have known about it since he had merged with the complete Triforce!" Bowser said in disbelief. "And what does this have to do with me not defeating Ludwig?"

"K. Rool, Ganondorf, and Scales simply couldn't have known because they didn't understand love, and Ludwig didn't really understand love either. None of them truly understood what it was like to love their parents or to be loved by them. You had to break Ludwig out of that mindset before either of you could use the Triforce of Love against Scales."

Bowser realized his own bad parenting was to blame here and looked away in shame. A question formed in his head though.

"We never had the Triforce, so how did we, uh…" Bowser gestured with his hand.

"Scales couldn't use it, but it responded to the love between you and Ludwig."

"But I went in their thinking I might have to kill Ludwig…" Bowser said trying to make the dots connect.

"But that was only your last option, right, I mean if there was no other way. And you were most certainly not looking forward to it?"

"Absolutely not," Bowser folded his arms and huffed.

"Then you might understand love more than you think you do. And you did get Ludwig to respond, didn't you?"

Bowser nodded.

Ludwig had defended Bowser—true he wanted to conquer the multiverse, but Bowser had seen that look in Ludwig's eyes when Bowser forgave him for getting Kamek and Kammy killed: on some level all he wanted was parental love. What's more he fought to protect his parent. And at the same time Bowser almost died protecting Ludwig from K. Rool, motivated mainly not by saving the multiverse but by saving his child. Apparently, whatever had happened had worked. Maybe Bowser did understand more about love than he gave himself credit for. It was time to change subject.

"So Peach, now that you're safe from me, do you intend to settle down with Mario?"

Peach stared sideways as if through the walls around her garden.

"I don't know. I'm not sure if I love him or the one he reminds me of…" She was silent for a minute. When she finally answered, she was unsure if it really was romantic love or something else. "He's been in his brother's shadow for so long, but he's really proven himself to be as much of a hero when he has to…but doesn't Luigi already like Daisy?"

The End