We've Never Been Apart This Long

Oh, Boys. Whyyyyyyyy?

"Peach." Mario bursts into the throne room. "We need to talk."

The princess can see he's serious, so she nods at the Toads, and they leave.

"Did you know Nastasia was behind the embezzlement?"

"What? How could you say that?"

"How can I not? You said you paid her off. Was that a lie?"

"You can drop the act. I know everything." Luigi seethes. "You're the reason my brother almost went to jail."

He steps closer, "You promised you only wanted to make up for what you did to me, and you lied right to my face. How dare you hurt my brother like that?

"Why would I not tell you something like that?" Peach argues.

"Because Nastasia did something to you." Mario says logically. "She used hypnotism so you wouldn't get in the way of her plan. You were just another puppet to her."

"I was not !" Peach admonishes. "For once, Nastasia didn't need to do anything for me to go along with her plan. She told me the truth. Her plan goes off without a hitch, and you get your brother back. You should be sending her a fruit basket every day for the rest of your life!"

"I never would've lost my brother if it wasn't for her!" Mario reminds her. "And we never would've had to fight him fused with the Chaos Heart and Dimentio, either!"

"So you're blaming me for not paying her off?"

"No. I'm blaming you for knowing what Nastasia was behind all this and said nothing. So I need to know, did you know what she was doing? "

"No." Luigi stops her right as she tries to defend herself. "You don't get to deny it. Wario told us everything. The plan was just to steal the money, and your takeover turned it into the embezzlement charges."

"You're willing to take the word of a known con artist?" Nastasia finally says, still as stoic as ever.

"In this particular instance, yes." Luigi nods. "It all checks out. Whatever confusion we've had over these past few months, long gone."

"Like?"

"Like you blackmailing us."

Nastasia scoffs, "That was nothing, and only happened after I tracked you to the hospital."

"Then why were you so adamant on making Wario go away?"

"He was hurting you, and threatening to turn you both in. Why wouldn't I want the man responsible to go away?"

"Sure about that?" Luigi crosses his arms. "Or was his part in the plan done, and you didn't like how he flipped the script on you?"

"Peach, please." Mario begs. "If you knew something, anything , I need to know. How long have we known each other? Don't throw it all away on this ."

"I knew." Peach says with a sigh. "I knew what she was doing and said nothing."

"Why? "

"Please don't look at me like that."

"Like what?" Mario snaps. "Like one of my best friends was conspiring with the woman that took my brother away from me to send me to jail?"

"I didn't know anything about Nastasia's involvement until recently."