Another short chapter this time. One of my longtime readers of The Xehanort War, sonofthetrigod, guessed this all the way back when i was writing Maleficent and Hades' scenes in TXW.

Episode 13: A Dragon's Nest:

Interstellar Prison – Control Room:

August 13, 2015

The Hellfire Club had taken control of the abandoned prison facility known to the galactic government as The Kiln a few days ago, quickly converting the decommissioned penitentiary into a base of operations. While lacking sufficient lab space for Yzma and Hamsterviel to develop new weapons and technology, it was a suitable starting point until they could acquire more territory. From there, they would spread out and conquer the rest of the galaxy. Diablo and Nebula were currently leading a stealth incursion into the ruins of the World That Never Was to retrieve one of Xehanort's prisoners, and wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

Right now, Maleficent was standing in the control room of her new base. Under any other circumstances she would be looking down at the central area that once housed the galaxy's worst criminals. Instead, she was gripping the wall like her life depended on it, struggling to prevent herself from fainting out of shock. I can't believe it, she thought to herself as she fought to regain consciousness. In all her years of preparing for the worst, this was the most unexpected thing to have happened to her in the last several decades, even more than Riku's betrayal or her imprisonment in the Realm of Darkness.

She was pregnant. She and Hades had been engaged for two weeks now, but the prospect of having children again filled her with equal parts joy and unease. Not that she didn't want to have children with her future husband, but after what happened to her son from her previous marriage, she was a little hesitant to dive into motherhood so quickly. A cushioned puffing sound alerted her to the arrival of her fiancé.

"What's going on?" Hades asked, putting a concerned hand on his future wife's shoulder. "You're never this exhausted unless you've been in a fight. Babe, what happened?" Maleficent took a deep breath to steady herself before answering.

"I'm going to be a mother again," she replied. Almost immediately, Hades rushed to her side. As Maleficent's fiancé the only being in her inner circle to know the full details of her past, he knew exactly why she was shocked. He knew how nervous she really was about having another child. After her first husband left her after the death of their son, she was understandably anxious about how things would go the second time around.

"Maleficent, babe, I'm not going anywhere," he said reassuringly. "We'll figure things out together. I know you're scared after what happened to your first kid but this time it's different. Our enemies think you're dead. We've set up shop somewhere we won't be discovered. And we have enough allies and underlings willing to lay down their lives to protect us. Anyone who attempts to harm our child will suffer in such a way that they will beg us to let them die."

Maleficent smiled at that declaration as Hades took her hand. Beneath the calm veneer she projected to the rest of her allies, she was still nervous about the safety of her new child, but her fiancé was right. Worrying about what ifs would ultimately accomplish nothing. Without another word, she pulled Hades over and kissed him before they walked back to their quarters to resume making plans for their upcoming wedding. They didn't know what the future held for them, but they would protect their child by any means necessary.

For those who didn't read The Xehanort War yet, Hades and Maleficent got engaged at the end. Thanks to the old Disney show House of Mouse (in which Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofie, etc. run a restaurant for other Disney Characters), I ship those two, so of course I included it in TXW and its sequels. And in TXW I did a lot of scenes showing Maleficent's backstory, how she came to be the self-proclaimed "Mistress of All Evil," and giving readers a look inside her head. Maleficent and Hades' kid won't play a significant part in the story of the Acolytes of Chaos saga, but they will in the Invaders from Beyond Saga afterwards.

Up next: Maleficent's inner circle inducts a new, familiar member, and the Chekhov's Gun set up all the way back in The Xehanort War finally goes off.