Choosing Family

Chapter Two

Hades was on edge. It had been about a week since he had taken Mal and walked out of Maleficent's life. There had been no sign, no whisper, that Maleficent was planning revenge though Hades knew it was coming.

His ex-wife—oh Gods how he hated referring to her by that title even in his head, no one had known they were married or even together—was not one who was known for acting rashly. After all, it took her sixteen years to enact her curse on Aurora. Hades, on the other hand, was the guy who kidnapped a baby because the little sunspot might have interfered with his plans.

"Mal, I hope you inherit your mother's patience," Hades muttered while holding his daughter. "That being said, your mother never did have much in the way of patience, at least when it came to suffering fools. Just slightly more than I do."

Mal remained silent and Hades sighed. That was another thing keeping him on edge—Mal rarely cried. She'd coo, she'd glare, she'd try and grab his finger if she was particularly annoyed. Almost anything except cry.

"Uh, H-Hades?"

"What?" Hades barked, turning toward his cowering minion with a glare.

"A c-call for you," Panic said, his knees knocking together out of either fear or habit, considering it was hard to be intimidating with a baby in one's arms, and the likelihood of getting hit with anything within arms' reach was low. "From L-Lady P-Persephone."

Hades sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Watch Mal. If she cries, do what you need to so that she stops crying. I want no interruptions."

Panic nodded frantically, taking Mal from Hades, and Hades made his way to another room before shutting the door. This room was completely empty but housed the most important thing to Hades. Well third most important. It housed the portal Persephone used to traverse between Auradon and the Isle.

The only good thing Zeus ever did, Hades thought as he smiled upon seeing his wife. Though the portal could be used to go back and forth, it was only ever fully open every six months. Outside of those months, it could only be used to open a looking glass; allowing them to see and hear each other but not fully embrace the other.

Persephone, though, was the only one who could initiate a call as her powers were not forced into dormancy in Auradon nor were they forced into dormancy when she arrived on the Isle. It was lucky that the barrier was only designed to keep 'evil' magic from working.

"Hades," Persephone smiled upon seeing her husband. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything but I wanted to see you. It's been so long since our last conversation."

"You are never an interruption," Hades told her. "How is life over in Bore-adon? Still perfectly peaceful?"

Persephone shook her head in exasperated amusement at the nickname most of the Isle dwellers had given Auradon. "Queen Belle has given birth to a healthy baby boy, as did Queen Ella, while Princess Aurora gave birth to a healthy baby girl and Queen Rapunzel has given birth to her fifth healthy baby girl. The royal announcements will be going out next week."

"If they're healthy, then why are they waiting to make the announcement?" Hades asked, not really caring about the royal gossip. With all the villains on the Isle, it would make sense that the birth rate in Auradon would spike. Not much else for the heroes to do. "Anyone who would be interested in stealing them is on the Isle after all."

"Probably just a precaution," Persephone said. "After all, babies are quite susceptible to diseases; having no immune system of their own yet. Either that, or they just want a moment of peace with their children before getting hounded by the press for pictures."