Here is the final epilogue, which means the end of this story!
Thank you to everyone who has viewed, favorited, followed, and reviewed the story. I NEVER expected this story to be so popular. Thanks to all of you, this story is the reason that I hit my 1-million views goal!
Now for the winners of the poll.
Obviously, the story involving Mal being pregnant with Harry's baby got first place. There is something inconspicuous in this epilogue that will reference it.
With so many requests and votes, I will also be working on 'Kore'! HOWEVER: The updates will not be consistent since it won second place. I will try to update it once a week, maybe even twice if I get ahead on the first place winner.
Thank you once again for reading this story.
I hope you have enjoyed 'Hades's Weakness'.
Time passed by quicker than either couple realized, though it had been months since either announced their pregnancies.
In late August, as predicted, Maleficent gave birth to a healthy boy nearly identical to his father. Seriously, the boy had the same pale skin tone and bright blue eyes as his father. In fact, the boy also inherited the same blue hair, which had turned to flames when the infant sneezed. Maleficent found it somewhat amusing while Hades was unsure what to think.
Since her husband name their daughter and their son was so much like his father, Maleficent decided to name her son 'Hadie', much to the disdain of Hades. As stated previously, Hades had feared that his son would turn out exactly like him, so being given his name made the god's fear slightly worse.
In early October, Mal gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, who looked exactly like her. The little girl had beautiful green eyes and the same pale skin tone. The only difference was the infant's hair, which was brown like her father's on top and a mixture of purple and blue at the tips. 'Mallory' was the child's name and would be known throughout the entire kingdom when she becomes the 'Queen of Auradon', but we'll get back to that momentarily.
As wished upon by my Bertha, her daughter befriended her brother quicker than expected. They would have play dates all the time, have sleepovers whenever they had the chance, and never fought with one another. They instantly became best friends, though it was a little bit unusual since they were uncle and niece.
Though they were best friends, they attended separate schools during their elementary and middle school years. Hadie attended an elementary school on the Isle of the Lost before transferring to Dragon Hall for his seventh and eighth grade year. Mallory attended an elementary school in Auradon before transferring to Auradon Prep for her junior high and high school years—she had even been given her dad's private dorm room to stay in.
You see, the only reason Hadie didn't attend any schools in Auradon was because he wanted to spend more time with his parents. Admittedly, Hadie has grown into quite a 'Momma's Boy' and would do anything and everything for his mother. Hadie did have a good relationship with his father, but it was slightly strained since Hades was so worried about him turning out like him.
On the bright side, there were a couple occasions where Auradon Prep students visited Dragon Hall, but that was mainly for Doom Ball—the Isle's version of basketball, which was only available to junior high students. Hadie was the best player on Dragon Hall's team because he had the strength and endurance of a god that he somewhat used while in the game. While warming up for a game against Auradon Prep's junior high team during eighth grade year, someone had managed to steal the ball away from Hadie while they were behind him. When he turned around, his annoyance turned into happiness when Mallory was grinning at him from ear to ear with his ball in her hands. Turns out, Mallory had joined the Auradon Prep team so she could play against her uncle, since both schools had co-ed teams.
For nearly the entire game, the uncle-niece duo played defense on one another. During the fourth quarter, Dragon Hall was winning by nearly forty points, so Hadie was pulled out so a less experienced player could have the opportunity to participate. Against the judgment of his teammates, Hadie cheered for Mallory, who was completely exhausted from playing in the entire game.
The atmosphere in the gym turned tense due to a player's stupidity. Mallory was going for an easy lay-up when a boy twice her size—in both height and weight—came up behind her and slammed the ball out of her hands. He didn't make full contact with the ball and ended up hitting Mallory's hand with an unnecessarily powerful force. The game was momentarily paused so the coach could check on the princess, who was cradling her most-likely sprained wrist in pain. Seeing Mallory injured for no good reason made Hadie so mad that his eyes turned red while his hair burst into flames in the same color.
"A wrist for a wrist," Hadie had said when he broke the perpetrator's wrist in two separate places for revenge.
On that day, everyone learned to not do anything to Mallory for fear of what her uncle would do to them. And although what he did was wrong, his parents didn't punish him for he stood up for someone he loved, which is exactly what a prince was supposed to do.
Starting his freshman year, Hadie finally transferred to Auradon Prep, much to the pleasure of Mallory. Instead of sharing a room with a complete stranger, his parents managed to convince the headmistress, Jane de Vil—the wife of my dearest Carlos, mother of my one-year-old grandson Cameron, and the headmistress of Auradon Prep for five years—to allow Hadie to share Mallory's dorm room. The arrangement wasn't unusual since Hadie and Mallory would share a room whenever they stayed at one another's houses. The only condition was they would have to stay off-campus on the weekends, meaning Mallory would have to stay at her castle while Hadie would have to stay with his parents—not that either one minded.
Of course, Mallory set some ground rules with her uncles when it came to sharing the room. First, they would only change in the private bathroom. Second, they would lock the bathroom door whenever they were in there so they wouldn't walk in on one another. Thirdly, they are not allowed to bring their significant others to their room without warning their roommate. Hadie found that last condition quite peculiar—
Until he caught his niece in a peculiar position at her locker within the first week of school.
Hadie had turned down the hall toward the row of lockers when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. His jaw dropped at the scene before him, which was taking place on his locker!
His best friend—his beautiful, innocent niece—had her legs wrapped around some guy's waist and her hands tangled in the guy's hair. The guy had Mallory pushed against the lockers in an intense make-out session. After nearly five minutes of tongue wrestling with one another, Mallory tugged at the guy's hair to make him pull away. Due to that action, Hadie could see that the guy had a little Chinese influence in him, an even tan, and was quite muscular.
"Sorry," Mallory panted. "I needed a break."
The stranger guy chuckled as he rested his forehead against hers. "So did I," he admitted before kissing her nose adorably. "How did your parents take the news of you wanting to wait until you're twenty-one to become queen?"
"Luckily, they understood," Mallory answered while running her fingers through the unnamed teenager's short brown hair. "Dad said he had wished that he could have waited to become king like I want to wait to be queen. They are both totally supportive of me and understand that I want to be a kid for a little while longer."
"You know what that means?" The mysterious guy questioned with an energetic smile. "More time for us to plan our wedding!"
If possible, Hadie's jaw dropped even more at the proclamation. Mallory, however, rolled her eyes at the announcement. "I haven't given you an answer yet," she retorted. "We are too young to get married and have been dating for only a year."
"My folks married after dating for three months, which was two more than when my grandparents married," Mallory's 'boyfriend' informed.
"Your parents married because they were friends with benefits and your mother ended up pregnant with you," Mallory reminded with a small smirk. "I was nearly a year old before your mother had you."
The still unnamed boyfriend huffed in annoyance. "Why do you always have to bring up the fact that I'm younger than you?"
"Because you were the one that skipped a grade just to be with me," Mallory teased as her smirk grew ever so slightly. "Besides, you haven't asked me today."
Chuckling softly, the boyfriend requested, "Mallory, princess of both Auradon and the Isle of the Lost, will you marry me? Will you be my queen?"
"Yes, I will marry you." she answered without a second thought, "after I become Queen of Auradon and the Isle."
That weekend, Hadie's sister—Queen Mal—invited him and their parents to dinner so she could hear about his first week at Auradon Prep. The beginning of the meal was fairly quiet since Hadie was keeping to himself, though he would peak a glance at Mallory, who appeared like nothing happened to her a couple days prior.
King Ben cleared his throat to clear the somewhat awkward tension in the air. "So, Mallory, Hadie," he began in an attempt to start the conversation. "How was your first week of school? Did you make any new friends?"
Mallory shrugged nonchalantly as she picked at her food. "No, not really. Just the same classmates I've known for the past couple years—"
"Lory has a boyfriend."
As if it was on cue, the two sets of parents dropped their silverware onto their plates in shock while Mallory's jaw dropped at the announcement. "I don't—" she started to deny.
"He's a year younger than Lory, but skipped a grade so they could be together. They've been together for nearly a year," Hadie informed, which scared his niece by how much he knew. "I saw them kissing at her locker a couple days ago. Her boyfriend can't wait for her to be queen for some strange reason. The only thing I didn't get was his name."
Blushing deeper than a rose, Mallory turned to her grandparents accusingly. "Grandpa, Grandma, why did you raise your son to be a snitch?"
"Lory," Queen Mal chided with a stern scowl. "Don't be rude. He is my brother and still your uncle. Now that we finally know about him, why don't you tell us about this boyfriend of yours that you've kept secret from us?"
Somehow blushing even more at being caught in her secret relationship, Mallory reluctantly complied, "Well, his mother is in the Chinese army and his father is a famous R.O.A.R. player, which means he doesn't get to see them much, only on special holidays. He was named after his father, so he doesn't like to be called by any kind of nicknames."
Mallory's family waited patiently for her to say his name. After a moment, she mumbled, "Jayden…"
Queen Mal gasped dramatically while King Ben's eyes widened in surprise, but for a different reason. "His father is Jay?" Queen Mal questioned with a certain urgency in her tone. "As in 'son of Jafar'?"
"And is his mother Lonnie, 'daughter of Mulan'?" King Ben interrogated after his wife.
Mallory's face paled an unnatural shade of color, almost like she would be sick at any moment. "How do you know that?"
"Lonnie was practically my sister when I was growing up," King Ben informed, though it was causing his daughter to grow even paler by the circumstances. "Her parents were always gone so she stayed months at a time at my castle until we started Auradon Prep in seventh grade."
"And Jay was my best friend growing up on the island," Queen Mal added, before shaking her head in disbelief. "We haven't talked to them in months since they are always so busy. They told us their kid was attending Auradon Prep, but I never thought you would date him, Lory!"
"Think of it this way . . ." Hadie trailed off a moment to take a sip of his drink. "When Lory marries Jayden, you'll be able to see your friends more."
The family snickered at how embarrassed Mallory got at the idea, but she was more embarrassed at now knowing her uncle had heard truly everything.
We don't have much time left, so this story will be move forward about one year forward, during the uncle and niece's sophomore year at Auradon Prep. Yes, I know you were probably wanting to hear how Mallory's boyfriend's parents reacted to him dating their friend's daughter.
Trust me, this next part I'm about to tell you is far more interesting since—
Wait! I don't want to spoil the story!
Like I said before, it was the second day of sophomore year when Hadie had an undeniable feeling that something was going to happen on that day. It didn't help that it was raining at Auradon Prep while it was storming severely on the Isle of the Lost. Between every hour of class, Hadie—being the good son that he was—would call his mother to make sure she was alright, since he knew of her fear of thunderstorms. Each time, Maleficent would chuckle and say that his sister had called her a few minutes before to check on her as well.
Though he knew that his mother was safe, Hadie couldn't shake the feeling that one of the women in his family was going to be in some sort of danger. After one of the calls with his mother, Hadie called his sister just to eliminate the chance that it was her. Queen Mal reassured that she's been at her castle the entire day with her husband and was planning Family Day for Headmistress Jane de Vil, since she was busy with the new school year and currently three months pregnant with my second grandchild.
Queen Mal wondered if the woman could be Mallory, but Hadie stubbornly denied it being his niece. They share nearly every class together and nothing has happened to her yet.
But then passing hour came after the class that they didn't share.
Hadie practically ran full force to his niece's locker, as the disastrous feeling grew worse with every passing second. Once he rounded the corner, he took a moment to observe the scene, his blood boiling with every passing second.
Mallory was indeed at her locker with her boyfriend Jayden, but there was some guy on the other side of her that they were trying to ignore. Hadie was almost certain that he's never seen him before, so he must have just started school at Auradon Prep. The student had short, blonde curly hair and a skin tone that was slightly darker than the average person. He wore a greedy smirk on his lips, like he always gets what he wants—
Except for that very moment.
"Come on!" The newbie begged with a sugar sweet smile. "I can give you the ride of your life."
"She told you no," Jayden barked with a slight snarl on his lips, which surprised Hadie since he's never seen him that way before. "Now leave us alone."
The new student scrunched up his nose at Jayden, like it was the first time he seen him. "And you are?"
"Her fiancé," Jayden retorted through gritted teeth to prevent himself from lashing out.
"Well, you can watch!" The unnamed guy insisted with his smirk back in place. "You can even join in if you'd like."
"I. Said. NO!" Mallory screamed, catching the attention of everyone around them. "Leave before I call my guards to arrest you for sexual harassment."
"Come on, baby! Don't be such a prude."
"You heard her," Hadie insisted as he walked menacingly toward the trio. "Go about your day before I make you wish you never approached her."
While Mallory looked relieved to see her family member, the harasser narrowed his eyes at the 'savior'. "Who do you think you are?" he interrogated bitterly, showing off his true personality. "This has nothing to do with you! I am Prince Stefan, named after the greatest king to have ever existed! I demand respect!"
Hadie raised a curious eyebrow at the prince's behavior. "How do you expect to receive respect when you don't give any in return?" he questioned to prove a point. "Unlike you, I really am a prince, named after a Greek God that showed that peasant you spoke about mercy for killing his predecessor, for disrespecting the god's wife and daughter, for holding the god's wife's friend hostage for twenty-odd years, and for using the god's wife's one weakness to viciously rip her wings off her body."
"How dare you accuse the king of such horrible things!" Stefan 'Jr.' exclaimed. "He is my great-grandfather—!"
"And the god is my father," Hadie retorted, his eyes turning red with anger as his blue hair slowly followed suit. "His wife is my beautiful mother. The princess you were harassing a few moments ago? She is their grand-daughter. Her mother—the Queen of the Isle of the Lost and of Auradon—is my big sister, which means I am the princess's uncle, so you harassing her has everything to do with me. Above all else, I am a demigod. Show some respect to me, human peasant."
Fuming at the insult, Stefan made a sloppy swing at Hadie, who easily side-stepped out of the way. When the 'peasant' fell to the ground, the demigod sought it as the perfect opportunity to teach him a lesson.
Stepping slightly on his back, Hadie pulled back Stefan's arm and with his godly strength cracked the bone like it was a toothpick. The peasant screamed out in pain while the audience gasped at the demigod's ruthless action, but he wasn't finished just yet. Raising his hold up, Hadie easily snapped the harasser's wrist in three separate places, just like he did to the last jerk that hurt his innocent niece. Once he believed that the peasant understood the warning, Hadie stepped back to observe the given punishment—
Only then did the demigod realized how cold-blooded his actions truly were.
Upon seeing the horrified expressions on the crowd's faces and on his niece, Hadie bolted down the hallway to escape the scene. When he was a sufficient distance away, Hadie leaned his back against the hallway wall and dialed a certain someone. Hadie raised the phone to his ear as he waited for the person to answer.
"Hey, Sis?" Hadie greeted before sighing softly. "I messed up. . ."
After a somewhat lengthy conversation with his sister—which entailed Mal reassuring her brother that he somewhat did the right thing and Hadie making her swear that she wouldn't tell their mother before he did—Hadie reluctantly traveled to the headmistress's office to confess what he did. Of course, Jane already knew since a handful of students ran to her aid a few moments prior. Although she scolded the demigod for what he did, pretty pregnant Jane reassured Hadie that Stefan Jr. will be expelled for sexual harassment once he is released from the hospital. Jane also informed him that they would discuss his punishment once a guardian arrived, whether it be his parents or his big sister.
Half an hour later, after listening to Jane tell the story of his sister Mal, her husband Carlos, and their friends pulling off the ultimate Senior Prank, Hadie finally found himself no longer tense about the circumstances before—
Until his father unexpectedly entered the headmistress's office.
"My apologizes for not being here sooner," Hades commented as he carefully removed the hood of his jacket from his head so he didn't get any excess water on the carpet. "I had to ask your mother-in-law to stay with my wife while I was gone and then borrowed her car, which was a pain to learn how to drive since the lightest press of the gas makes you feel as though you're going sixty. She sends her love to you and Brenna."
Jane giggled softly as she shook her head in amusement. "We told Cruella that we didn't know our new baby's gender yet. If our baby does turn out to be a girl, my husband and I will probably name her 'Brenna' since it is a pretty name. That would be Cruella's third time naming her grandchild. I don't get how she comes up with such fitting names."
"She's has practice with her god-daughters, son, and daughter," Hades joked half seriously.
A moment later, Hades glanced at his son, who was gazing at his feet to avoid looking at him. Hadie had a feeling that his father would scold him for doing something so careless. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised when his father ruffled his blue hair affectionately.
"Nice job," Hades complimented with a small smile. "Mali told me what happened with Lory. I would have done the same thing if I was in your position, maybe even more."
Hadie's spirits lifted at the little announcement. "Does that mean you're not mad?"
"Yes," Hades agreed before quickly adding, "but you are still in trouble. I told your mother and she believes you need to be punished. If it were up to me, we would celebrate, but don't tell her I said that. I'll come up with something somewhat easy that she'll approve."
Hadie grinned from ear to ear as his father sat in the chair next to him. "Now," Hades began once he was settled in his seat, "please make this quick, Jan—I mean, Mrs. De Vil. I don't like being away from my angel when it's storming."
"It won't take long," Jane reassured as she started rubbing circles on her slowly growing belly. "To put it simply, Hadie is not in much trouble and I would have dismissed it, but the parents of the other child will insist that I'm being prejudice since Hadie is my friend's brother. I say . . . suspended for the rest of the week? Hadie won't be able to stay in his dorm room, so he'll have to stay at your home on the Isle. I'll gather any assignments he'll miss and have Mallory bring it to him, so he doesn't fall behind. And might I make a suggestion for his punishment from you, so your wife doesn't think you're going too soft on him?"
Hades raised an intrigued eyebrow. "I'm listening."
"Well Mal and Ben's joint birthday party is this Friday," Jane reminded, though the god already knew that since it was the same day as his anniversary. "First part of the party will be toward Mal while the second part will be toward Ben. My mother-in-law plans on staying for the first half and then leave for her mansion to watch Cameron and Evangeline so Carlos and Evie has a chance to enjoy the party without tending to them. Why not have Hadie help Cruella care for the children? With her husband gone on a scouting mission for the Queen of Auroria, Cruella will need an extra set of hands, especially since they've both learned to walk. I think she's going to be watching them until Saturday afternoon, since I have a doctor's appointment to find the baby's gender."
"I'll pitch it to my wife," Hades promised before standing from his chair. "Now we better leave so you can have some peace and quiet before your second baby arrives. Besides, I want to return that hunk of junk your mother-in-law calls a car as soon as possible."
The car ride to the Isle of the Lost was a quiet one, which made riding in the shuddering death trap more scary than it already was. Now, the blue-haired men weren't being dramatic. Carlos had banned his mother from driving his son and niece in the car until she got it fixed since he feared it would fall apart at any moment. The car was over forty years old and has had nothing fixed or replaced on it! Some were unsure if the brakes even work anymore!
"You know I love you, right?" Hades interrogated his son to break the tense silence. "I just have a bad way of showing it because of horrible experiences on my side of the family. It seemed like every male relative was out to get one another. My brothers and I fight with each other all the time, but are over it within a day. My nephew lost his immortality, so I helped him regain it, but when he did, he told everyone that I was the one that took it from him. I volunteered to go to the Isle of the Lost so there wouldn't be a war among the gods; my brothers and sisters on one side and the rest of our family on the other."
"I know," Hadie insisted as he slumped in the passenger seat as he watched the rain grow heavier the closer they got to the island. "Sis told me. She said you were eventually grateful that it happened because you never would have met our mom."
"I bet Mali didn't tell you that my own father swallowed me whole as a child."
Hadie whipped his head toward his father, straightening in his seat to full attention. "No! I had no idea!"
"Neither does she," Hades commented, surprising his son a little more. "My father, the King of the Titans, was told that a child of his would one day overrule him, just like he did with his father. Every time my mother had a child, my father allowed her to spend time with her or him for five years before he got rid of them. My three sisters were first, then I was next. I had no idea what was going to happen to me, but I enjoyed the time with my mother. In that time, I learned my gift to summon precious metals, though I didn't know what to call them at the time. The final time I showed my mother was mere minutes before my father found me and swallowed me whole. Obviously, I didn't die, but my siblings and I continued to grow in his stomach, until our youngest brother managed to free us, and we sent our father to Tartarus."
Hadie's jaw dropped at the story. "And no one else knows this?"
"Your mother does," Hades corrected with a tiny smile. "It was the night I learned of her fear of storms and the first we slept in the same bed. I was dreaming of that event, which had become a reoccurring nightmare, when I woke her and myself up from screaming so loud. Even after we married and had your sister, I still had the same nightmare and the same PTSD. Do you know when the nightmare finally stopped?"
"No?" Hadie answered curiously. "When did it stop?"
"Sixteen years ago," Hades recalled with a certain glint in his eyes. "A little boy with the same fire blue hair as me came into the world and made me grateful to be a father again, though it had only been the first minute of the boy being alive."
Hades spared a glance at his son to give him a smile. "That boy was you. You were the one that made the nightmares go away." He adverted his attention to the road, but not before questioning, "Do you know that everyone has a weakness?"
"Of course," Hadie insisted with a nod. "Mom's and Sis's is iron. That's one of the reasons why I stayed so close with Lory, so I can prevent her from ever coming near it just in case it burns her."
"What about mine?" Hades interrogated with a curious raise of an eyebrow. "Do you know my weakness?"
"Mom?" Hadie assumed. "And Sis?"
"And you," Hades added before his son could think otherwise. "You are my weakness, too. I love you, Hadie, and I am proud of you. I don't want you to ever doubt it again, alright?"
The son nodded his head slowly as he turned his head to face the passenger window—
So his father couldn't see the tear of happiness that formed from hearing such wonderful words.
Luckily, Maleficent approved of the suggested punishment, though she also insisted that Hadie needed to help out around the house as well. All that ended up being was carrying his mother's groceries when they head to the marketplace and helping his father occasionally cook supper. Hadie managed to finish all of his schoolwork on the first day which gave him more time to spend with his mother.
Whenever he was bored, or knew his niece had a few free minutes, Hadie would video call Mallory just to make sure that she was alright. A time or two their conversation involved Hadie helping her on a couple assignments she didn't understand. There was one time that Mallory wouldn't answer her phone, so Hadie managed to hack her phone wirelessly to see what she was doing. Hadie ended up catching his niece in a very . . . intimate position with her boyfriend. Needless to say, Hadie didn't call his niece again until she did.
Friday came which meant a couple parties were about to take place. After taking a couple pictures with his sister Mal and with his niece Mallory, Hadie found himself with baby Evangeline—the one-year daughter of Evie and Doug—in his arms because she was so excited him. From day one, the raven-haired girl has had a soft spot for the demigod. It was quite adorable to see the child so attached to him.
Eventually, Hadie had to leave the party to fulfill the last part of his punishment. To make things slightly better, Mallory decided to join him so her boyfriend could spend a little more time with his parents. Once the five arrived at the mansion, the teenagers dressed for the night while Cruella tended to her grandchildren. A few minutes later, the congregated in the living room with Cruella rocking Cameron to sleep while Hadie did the same with Evangeline.
"Hey, Aunt Cruella?" Hadie acknowledged curiously. "You were around when my dad met my mom, right? And Mom told you everything that you didn't see?"
"Even Hades's Weakness," Cruella confirmed with a small smile. "Do you want me to tell you their story?"
When the teenagers nodded energetically, Cruella pretended to ponder on how exactly to start.
"Beautiful," Cruella recalled with a knowing smile. "The first word Hades, the infamous god of the Underworld, thought of to describe the injured wom—fairy, who laid on her stomach in the comforts of her new spacious home . . ."