Weeks had passed and the Mistress of Evil's pregnancy gradually progressed. As Maleficent's stomach grew, so did her appetite. She would be hungry almost all the time and her cravings would vary from simple and plentiful to unusual and hard to find. Even though it was hard, Hades did his best to get his wife happy and healthy while their child grew within her.

One evening while she was reading in the library again, Hades approached Maleficent and asked her, "What'll it be for dinner tonight, babe? Anything special?"

"Not certain yet. What do I want? Hmm…" She stopped to think for a few moments before a thought came to her. "Ah. How about something simple tonight? A salad, perhaps. But not just any salad. I want a salad… of rampion."

Hades raised an eyebrow. "Rampion?"

"Yes." She showed him the book she was reading; there was an illustration of a plant with thin oval leaves and a few little purple flowers scattered across it. "I've read about rampion recently. It's a breed of bellflower and it's said to be quite irresistible. And I'm rather curious to know what it tastes like." She playfully batted her eyes at her husband.

"Say no more, babe." He said with a confident smirk. "If it's rampion you want, rampion you shall have. I'll get you all the rampion you could ever eat. One question, though… how am I supposed to find any rampion?"

"Now that could be an issue. The book says it grows in the Mediterranean region as well as parts of Northern Africa, but it appears to be too long a journey just for a simple plant. I don't want you to—"

Hades stopped her by putting a finger to her lips. "Not another word, Malef. I meant what I said. If you really want it, I'll get you that rampion. I promise. And if that means I have to go to another part of the world to get it, so be it."

Maleficent wanted to argue, but a low, hungry growl from her stomach quickly stopped her. Even though she was very hesitant about letting her husband go on such a trip just to get her something to eat, she remembered how stubborn he could be and relented. "Very well. But promise me you'll be careful."

"Absolutely." He kissed her forehead and gave her belly a pat. "And don't worry. I won't take too long." He winked and held his Ember of Blue between his thumb and index finger.

0-0-0-0-0-0

Hades was right; it didn't take long to find rampion at all. In another part of the forest a few miles beyond the Forbidden Mountain, there was a plot of land that was surrounded by a thick stone wall that was too high to simply jump over, but someone would certainly climb it. There was an iron gate at the entrance; it was locked tight and there were two large dogs standing guard. Behind the gate and within the wall were a simple wood cabin near the back of the wall and an enormous garden filled with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, including rampion. Hades had used a spell to track down any traces of rampion in the world and to his luck, he found an entire stash of it that was much closer to home than he thought. This garden was practically brimming with the stuff.

Pain and Panic, who insisted on going with him, were outside the gate and hid in the bushes so the guard dogs wouldn't see them.

Pain took out a communication crystal and said into it, "Dog Bait to Retriever. Dog Bait to Retriever. We're in. Out."

Hades, who was at the other side of the wall behind the house with Dementia, took out his crystal and said, "Retriever to Dog Bait, stay in. Don't go out."

"Understood. Out." Pain said.

"No! In! Out." Hades groaned.

"Understood. Out."

"Look, you're at the gate entrance, right?"

"Affirmative."

"Good. Then make lots of noise to draw the guard dogs away from the garden so I can retrieve what I need."

"Affirmative. Out." Pain put the crystal to the side.

"Oh, so that's why the boss calls himself 'The Retriever'." Panic commented.

"Yeah. But why are we called 'Dog Bait'?" Pain asked.

"I dunno." Panic replied before he and Pain started making various loud noises to draw the dogs away from their post, but it didn't work. After a moment, Pain noticed something shiny hiding in the brush. He picked it up and saw that it was two halves of an abandoned shield. Panic glanced at his friend and smiled, realizing what his friend had in mind. "Oooh! Great idea, Pain!"

He then took one half of the shield and while screaming and shouting like a couple of maniacs, they both started banging on their shields with sticks, making even more loud noise than before… and that was enough to draw the guard dogs to them. At the sight of the fierce canines coming towards them, the two imps dropped everything and ran off into the woods with the dogs chasing after them… and that gave Hades the opportunity to execute the next phase of his plan.

"I'm going in." He said; Dementia gave a salute.

With his Helm of Darkness on his head and a large basket over his arm, the Lord of the Dead scaled the bricks of the wall, jumped down to the ground on the other side, and snuck his way through the garden until he finally spotted the rampion. He knelt down and started ripping handful after handful of rampion out of the ground by the roots, but as he did so, he caught sight of the exotic vegetables and rare fruits all around.

'Wow, whoever owns this place must be loaded.' He thought. But when he felt he had enough rampion, he stopped and had an idea. He smiled a mischievous smile. 'I bet Malef would love to have a taste of some of this other stuff. Nothing wrong with a little variety, now is there?'

As Hades started to steal various fruits, vegetables, and herbs left and right and stuffing them into his basket, he failed to notice Dementia flying over the wall and looking around the garden. Even though she was much smarter than Pain and Panic combined, she was also prone to get easily distracted and she quickly found something that caught her eye; it was a huge circular blade on a stick. To her, this device looked like a giant pizza cutter. She picked it up out of curiosity, wondering what it could possibly be used for. But then Hades finally noticed her and his eyes popped.

"Dementia? What are you—? Wait, Dementia no! No, no, no, no! Don't touch that thing!" He quietly screamed at her, but it was already too late.

Back in the forest, Pain and Panic were trying their hardest not to let the guard dogs catch them. They were sitting on the branch of a tree and the dogs were jumping up and down and snapping at the imps.

"Uh, Pain? I think I now know why our codename is 'Dog Bait'." Panic said nervously.

"You think?!" Pain hissed, sounding annoyed.

"Whatever. It's been nice knowing you, buddy." Panic whimpered.

But as the two imps squeezed their eyes shut and waited for the worst, there was a sudden loud noise coming from the direction of the garden; it sounded like a scream followed by a crash. The dogs' ears perked up and they turned their heads around before they started running back towards the garden while barking like mad. Pain and Panic slowly opened their eyes and stared at each other in confusion.

"What was that?" Pain asked.

"No clue." Panic replied.

In the garden, the massive saw Dementia had found had started moving on its own and she was starting to lose control of it while Hades kept himself hidden with his basket filled to the brim with newly procured produce. The saw then began rolling and cutting on the ground with Dementia still holding onto the handle and screaming. And while he was entertained by his minion's silly hijinks, Hades knew he couldn't stay there all night. Maleficent was waiting for him and the last thing Hades wanted was to get caught by the garden's owner and the barking of the guard dogs growing closer solidified his decision. But just as he was about to make his next move, a few lights in the cottage flickered on and a middle-aged woman came out of the house to hear her dogs barking and to see the chaos of her garden.

"What in the world?!" She exclaimed she picked up a rake.

While sticking to the shadows, Hades reached out his free hand and snatched Dementia off of the saw as fast as he possibly could while the saw continued to cut. The woman quickly noticed.

"Hello, who's out there?! Who's in my garden?!" She called out, readying her weapon.

Not wanting to stick around any longer, Hades flung Dementia over his shoulder, climbed back up the stone wall, jumped to the other side, and ran off with his minion and his stolen goods in tow. After a few minutes of running, he finally stopped, took off his helmet, and sat down on the ground under a tree. Breathing heavily, he held Dementia upside down by her legs and glared at her; she gave him a shrug and a nervous smile.

"Dementia… ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" He screamed.

"…Is that a rhetorical question?" She asked.

He facepalmed.

0-0-0-0-0-0

Back on the Forbidden Mountain, Maleficent sat in her kitchen and patiently waited for her husband to return safely. She hoped nothing had happened to him, but then her fears washed away as Hades, Pain, Panic, and Dementia appeared before her in a plume of blue fire. She smiled at the sight of her husband and stood to greet him.

"You've returned." She said before she spotted the full basket.

"I told you I could handle it." He said as he set his basket down on the countertop and showed his wife what he had collected. "I got the rampion you wanted, but I also got you a bunch of other stuff."

Maleficent was astonished; she had never expected to see so much food. She turned back to face Hades and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. The trio of imps felt like their work was done for now and they quickly made their leave to give the couple a bit of alone time. Hades and Maleficent didn't even notice.

"This is incredible. Where did you find all of this?" She asked.

"Oh, I may or may not have stolen it from someone's fenced-in garden a few miles away from the mountain. And trust me, I went through a lot to get that." Hades frankly replied.

"You stole it?" She paused, then smirked before kissing him again. "Very well played, I didn't know you had it in you. And I'm glad you've done it just this once. You've made me a very happy woman, love."

He held her close and kissed the side of her head. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Let's eat already." He rummaged through the basket, eager to start making dinner.

"Agreed. I love you." Maleficent smiled, lucky to have such a wonderful husband like Hades.

"Love you, too." He smiled back.