Welcome, welcome!
Yes, I've spoken with Ginnyrules27. I've got the permission, and I'm so thankful.
This will pretty much follow the Choosing series, but with a Hadie-centric POV. Yes, I've become obsessed. I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Any pieces taken directly from Ginny's stories will be Underlined.
Welp. Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to Descendants, or Ginny's AU. I'm just playing in it.
There will be a good amount of original content, before and between slotting in things from the original series.
The first several chapters will also be short at first. Slowly winding up before we get to the meat of things.
I hope you have tissues ready.
So my friends, buckle up! And enjoy the ride…
Chapter One
The average human being has their first memory at about three years of age. Hadie, the sole Prince of the Underworld was no exception. He only wished it was a happier memory.
The pain in his heart would lessen as he grew older. As he understood more. But sadness slowly fell away for anger. The absolute unfairness forced upon his family. The Isle, he understood in part. Where villains were sent. And his father had admittedly done evil things. He and his sister however, did nothing but be born. And his mother…. Had only fallen in love.
His first memory had been her tears. Not understanding why, why his mama was leaving. He couldn't understand. She had had it hard leaving Dad. Leaving him and his sister seemed to break her. According to his sister, since Hadie had been too young the first couple times of his life, he only cried a bit more, but otherwise could be distracted. But it wasn't even the memory of her leaving that he first could recall. It was the memory of seeing her. Seeing her and asking why he couldn't hug her. Why she wasn't home and couldn't sing him to sleep. Why did she leave? Why couldn't she come home.
His dad held him tight. Lifted in his dad's arms, Hadie leaned as far as he could, trying his hardest to press his hands through the magic mirror, begging for Mama. He could only cry, as both his parents repeated it wasn't forever.
'Your birthday, my love. I will always return on your birthday,' Mama said, her own hands pressed against the glass as if to touch his.
That night, he cried as his dad rocked him to sleep, the god's voice a gentle baritone.
Another faded memory was one of his sister's best friends. Harry refused to call Hadie anything else than 'Little Lord'. It was silly, but no protests ever stopped the young pirate.
'Unlike Anthony, you deserve your title, Little Lord,' cackled the 9-year-old. And with a shallow bow, he ran off with the rest of the Rotten Four.
But it wasn't exactly Harry at first that he recalled. He was just the subject of conversation.
His memory was likely hazy as he remembered being held in Mama's arms, slowly being lulled to sleep. Mama's head tilted to the side as they heard voices down the hall. Mali was home! His sister had taken her pet Cerberus, Estelle, for his morning walk. Likely having stayed with her friends at their secret clubhouse until her return.
"Dad, it's going to take a battle to get Harry to take these," Mal's voice drifted down the hall.
Mama placed a kiss upon his blue hair and tucked him in. He lost the fight to keep his eyes open. Yet he could still hear snippets before he finally was taken by Hypnos.
"Everything okay?" Hadie smiled sleepily at the sound of his Mama's voice.
"Harry needed another does of pain medicine." Something in Dad's voice sounded grumpy. What was medicine? Was Harry okay?
"– his legs still –?"
" – potentially broken his ribs."
"He what?!" Mama's rage jolted Hadie slightly from his slumber. He could hear her voice rising more and more heatedly.
"– should be in a bed, staying still, not in the clubhouse – "
" – get Jay to carry him if necessary –!"
Finally dozing off, it was only shortly after Mama's rant that Harry himself would interrupt. It would be a restless nap it seemed.
"Jay! Put me down – hook you for this!"
Luckily for Persephone, Hadie couldn't quite understand any of the curse words Harry spouted that day.
When Hadie was four, he found himself in the family Den with his Dad. His Mama was once again gone for a few months. In the meantime, odd pieces of brightly colored stones were littered about. A bowl, some loose papers and books were on one side table. The other side table however…
"Dad, what's that?"
The God of the Dead looked up from his work. All Hadie could recognize in the notepad was numbers and some symbols reminiscent of the alphabet his sister had been showing on picture cards.
Hades smiled down at his son. Reaching across the godling, he snatched up the bright blue stone. Tossing his notepad on the stack of books next to him, the God pulled his son onto his lap. Pale light wavered within the stone in his Dad's hand. It was similar to the occasional fire he sometimes glimpsed when his Dad was angry. Usually at the imps, Pain and Panic. Or ranting about Zeus or the vile woman on the other side of the Isle. Maleficent.
He'd heard plenty about her. Apparently, she was Mal's birth mother. But it didn't matter now. He'd been right here, in the Den, playing as Mal went from calling his Mama, Steph, to calling her Mom. The evil loon, as his sister called Maleficent, was not deserving of the title anyways.
Carefully adjusting his son so he wasn't too close for what he was about to do, Hades closed his hand tight around the Ember and took a deep breath. Flickering blue flames raced up his neck and ignited his hair. Hadie looked at the fire with wide eyes.
"This is the Ember, son," Hades began, a proud look in his eyes. "I managed to create this before I was placed behind this accursed barrier. It's a channel and booster for the little magic I'm able to access. Which even without it, I have a lot more magic at hand than anyone else on this Isle."
Opening his palm towards Hadie, the God offered his son the stone. Staring at first, Hadie slowly reached out and carefully clasped the stone. A rush of something could be felt, racing up his arm directly from the stone. With a gasp, he dropped it back in his Dad's still open hand. His Dad just chuckled; his hair returned to normal.
"It's alright, kiddo," Hades took his son's hand, holding the Ember between their hands. "Just close your eyes, breath slowly, and focus on that feeling."
Tentatively, Hadie did as he'd been told. As he steadily breathed in, he felt the power of the stone creep back up his arm.
"This is your magic?" Hadie whispered, his eyes still closed.
"No Hadie, this is your magic," Hades smiled and closed his son's hand around the Ember, so that now only Hadie clasped onto it.
"While the Ember will only ever work completely for me, you have part of my magic. Same as your sister. You both will be able to use it to some degree," the God of the Dead explained. "With my blood running through you kids, I can find you if you're lost. It can boost your powers, particularly where fire is concerned."
He hugged Hadie close to him. Sighing, he coaxed the stone from the godling's hand. Hadie looked up at his Dad's worried face.
"Unfortunately, since you were born behind the barrier, I don't know how well you'll be able to utilize your magic," the God placed a kiss on the top of Hadie's hair. "You're sister has made some progress, so we can at least get you working on the barebones."
"Really?!" Hadie smiled excitedly. "You'll teach me magic? To make fireballs like you and Mali?"
Hades laughed and ruffled his son's hair. He stood up and gently placing his son on his own feet. The King of the Underworld cast his gaze around the Den. He gathered up some of the loose papers that had the odd symbols Hadie couldn't understand. Turning back to Hadie, Hades smiled at his little Prince.
"We can certainly try, son."
By the time Mama had finally come home, Hadie had turned out to be quite the study bug. Since he was about the age to start school, his parents decided to start his education. From home though, as neither of the Gods wanted to risk their youngest with the villains of the Isle.
In addition to birthday gifts for both Hadie and Mal, Persephone brought several books for Hadie's to start learning from. Some basic maths, writing, general reading, stories with moral lessons. And some odd books and scrolls at his Dad's request.
Ruffling through the extra bag Mama had brought, Hadie looked on confused. They looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he had seen them.
"Mama, what are these funny squiggles?" He picked up one of the scrolls, which slowly unraveled as he held it for his mom to see.
Persephone knelt in front of her son, taking the scroll and turning it so he could see it with her.
"This is the Greek alphabet, honey," she pointed at the start of the odd letters. "It's where our modern English alphabet comes from. You can see a, and b, right?"
Hadie nodded along as he peered closer.
"Well, these were originally called 'alpha' and 'beta', hence the name alphabet." Persephone smiled down at Hadie. "Your Dad and I decided you should learn more about your heritage. It'll also help you understand various types of magic when you're older. So, while you don't have to learn the language yet, this will help cover some bases."
"What are these ones?" Mal pointed towards a cluster at the end.
"Ah, those ones aren't used as much, though you'll find some words use them still in a sense." Persephone stood and took one of the pencils from Mal's new art set. Setting the scroll on the kitchen table, she began to write. Hades stood behind them, listening with one ear as he prepared lunch.
"Phi, φ, is the origination of f. Though in Attic, it was more of an aspirated p, with the h voiced after. P-hee. Words such as phone, and philosophy are rooted from it." She slowly wrote each letter of the last grouping so they could see the general movement.
"Psi, ψ, kind of like the beginning of psssst, when you try to get someone's attention. Though now it's silent, like in psychology," the goddess then wrote a full word, Ψυχή. "Psu-kay, is married to one of your cousins. It also may mean soul in rituals."
She then wrote two more words. Μαλ and 'Αδη.
"Our names?" Mal asked.
Persephone smiled at her daughter, "You'd be correct."
Hadie stared at his name with confusion.
"But there's no H!"
Hades laughed behind them, arms ladened with plates. The smell of garlic and chicken had filled the kitchen, causing the kids stomachs to growl in anticipation. Setting the plates in front of each of them, Persephone went to move the presents and scroll to the side.
As the kids waited to dig in, mouths watering, Hades took the scroll and pencil from his wife.
"First of all, there's no H in Ancient Greek. Though you'll see a letter that looks like it," he wrote the η from before, and H next to it. "There's capital and lowercase variations. This is actually a version of e, but it's pronounced ay, instead of eh."
"My name, is like so," 'Αδης was written down. "This little (') marker before my name makes the 'huh' sound, whereas, anything that starts with a vowel has that or a backwards version that signifies if it has an huh sound in front of it, or you say it with just that first letter."
"So, my name is just a shortened version of yours, without the s?" Hadie asked.
Hades turned the paper sideways and wrote a new name. ἈιδωνεύςΠλουτων.
"Your name is derived from mine, but Hades is really an abbreviated version." Hades ruffled his son's hair and motioned for them all to start eating. Placing the scroll with the gifts, he joined his family to eat.
"Aidoneus is hard to wrap your mouth around, so everyone just called me Hades."
Hadie beamed at his dad. That his name was actually his own in an odd way was comforting. Rather than having to be a mini version of the elder God, he could shape his own path. Though being like his Dad was hardly a bad thing. If he ignored the evil of Hades' past, his Dad was easily the coolest guy on the Isle.
Hadie was never more excited to learn more from his family.
And maybe when he was old enough, his Dad would teach him how to make his delicious crispy garlic chicken!