"So how do I find her?" Sharky asked quietly.
Hera inhaled sharply. Then she finally said, "If you want to find the real Echidna... her true location... you must go to the first place she was ever imprisoned."
Sharky frowned. "According to Olympian history, Zeus defeated Typhon and sealed him beneath Mount Etna. Echidna was spared."
Hera shook her head slowly. "That story... Is a lie."
Everyone went silent. Artemis froze. Persephone’s breath caught. Keres trembled behind Sharky.
Only Deter looked unsurprised, her eyes dark with old knowledge.
Hera t Sharky’s gaze, and started telling him, "When Typhon attacked Olympus, Echidna fought beside him. Zeus defeated Typhon, yes... but he captured Echidna as well."
"Then why does Olympus claim she was spared?" he asked.
Hera’s expression hardened, disgust flickering across her face. "Because Zeus did not imprison her for justice, he imprisoned her for pleasure."
Zeus closed his eyes. He did not deny it.
Hera continued, her voice trembling with fury.
"Zeus took Echidna to a hidden prison, the Vault of Chains, buried beneath the Old Underworld. He intended to keep her there as his concubine."
"When I learned the truth," Hera went on, her voice sharp with rage, "I used my own agents. I sabotaged the prison wards. I made the guards fall asleep. I shattered the seals."
Her eyes burned. "And Echidna escaped."
Sharky asked her, "So Zeus told Olympus a heroic lie."
Hera nodded once, bitter and tired. "He said he ’spared’ her for a future trial. But the truth is, I freed her."
Artemis whispered, shaken, "This is why Echidna hates Olympus."
Deter nodded grimly. "And that’s why she wants chaos."
Keres murmured, voice barely audible, "And that’s why she aided Phobos."
Persephone added softly, eyes filled with sorrow, "She has every reason... to destroy us."
Hera turned back to Sharky.
"Echidna no longer exists in one place," she said gravely. "She moves across ti, across realms, across hidden pockets of existence. You cannot track her directly, not with divine sight, not with cosmic power."
Sharky understands and nodded, "So the only way to find her is to return to the mont Zeus imprisoned her in the Vault of Chains."
Hera nodded.
"That mont is the key. Only there can you observe the pattern of her escape, the formula of her movent. Only then can you determine where she eventually took Astrid."
"So I have to stop you," he asked.
Hera did not deny it, and replied quietly, "Yes, because the exact second I opened the prison locks, Echidna vanished into the tistream."
Her expression darkened, and her voice grew sharp with warning. "But rember this, the Hera of that ti was not the Hera standing before you now."
She took a slow breath.
"I was furious. Betrayed. Blinded by rage. I was not thinking like a queen... I was thinking like a wounded wife seeking revenge."
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"Be careful. The Hera you will et may try to kill you."
Sharky nodded once. There was no hesitation in his eyes. Nothing, no god, no tiline, no version of Hera herself, would stop him if it ant finding Astrid.
---
After everything was revealed, after the truth of Echidna, the past, and the path forward, Sharky said his goodbyes.
He nodded once to Zeus, gave a final look to Hera, Deter, Persephone, Artemis, Enyo and Keres and without another word, activated the Space Clock.
And together with Hela and Sigurd, Sharky returned to Asgard with a ti and space portal.
The mont his feet touched the golden halls of the realm, a familiar presence rushed toward him.
"S—Sharky!"
Sif ran to him, her silver hair loose, her eyes shining with a fragile mix of hope and fear she could no longer hide.
"Did you find anything...?" she asked, her voice barely steady.
Sharky took her hands gently, grounding her trembling fingers in his own.
"I found a thread," he said softly, eting her eyes. "A small one, but strong enough."
Her breath caught.
"And through it, I will find Astrid. I won’t leave even the smallest chance unused. I swear it."
Tears welled in Sif’s eyes, Hela stepped forward, Sigurd resting calmly in her arms, and wrapped Sif in an embrace.
"Don’t worry," Hela said quietly. "He will bring her back. No matter the cost."
Sharky reached out and gently touched Sigurd’s head, his expression softening.
"For Astrid, for all of us. I won’t fail."
---
The days that followed were quiet and aningful.
Sharky spent long hours holding Sigurd, letting the child grip his fingers, laughing softly as he rocked him to sleep beneath the warm glow of Asgard’s sun.
He trained with Sif in the courtyard, blades clashing, laughter occasionally breaking through the tension as they moved together like they always had, warriors, partners and parents.
At night, he shared silence with Hela beneath the stars, speaking little, but understanding everything.
Again and again, he reassured them both. Astrid would co ho. And then, the day ca.
---
Odin stood at the edge of the hall as Sharky prepared to leave, watching with the quiet gravity of a king who had seen too many wars and too many losses.
He placed a heavy hand on Sharky’s shoulder.
"Bring her back, son-in-law," Odin said simply, Frigga from beside him also nodded.
Sif stepped forward and kissed Sharky’s cheek, her voice breaking just slightly. "Do anything... anything... to bring back my daughter."
Hela leaned in and pressed a kiss to his forehead, her eyes fierce and unyielding.
"Even if it ans you must destroy Olympus," Sigurd giggled in her arms and reached out toward Sharky with both hands.
Sharky bent down, kissed his son’s forehead gently, and smiled.
"Your dad is going to bring back your sister," he said softly. "Until then... don’t trouble your mother."
Sigurd squeaked happily, as if he understood.
Sharky straightened. His expression hardened.
"WATCHHARD."
The words echoed like a command. His eyes transford, becoming spinning rings of temporal light.
Ti bent around him, and Space recoiled.
A golden-blue vortex spiraled open before him, layers of past and future folding inward.
This ti, there would be no escape. Sharky stepped forward.
He was going to the mont Hera unlocked Echidna’s chains, she had already given all details to where to go at the exact mont.
So this ti... Echidna would not flee. The vortex swallowed him whole. And ti shattered around him.
---
Hera stord through the ancient stone corridors of Zeus’s secret prison, fury radiating from her like molten fire.
"That bastard Zeus..." she muttered through clenched teeth, her voice trembling with rage. "He wants to do infidelity again? And this ti with Echidna? I will not let him succeed."
Her footsteps echoed sharply, each step heavy with the wrath of a goddess pushed beyond her limit.
She reached the massive sealed door, covered in divine chains and enchantnts, but right before she touched it...
She reached the massive sealed door, an enormous slab of stone wrapped in divine chains and layered enchantnts. But just as she raised her hand to touch the seals.
A presence appeared. A tall man stepped out of thin air.
Hera froze, and her eyes widened.
For a brief mont, her rage vanished, replaced by shock.
She was shocked by this handso man, his handsoness and his presence...
No Olympian she had ever known looked like this.
His presence was overwhelming yet calm, powerful yet warm. His features were impossibly refined, his aura unlike that of any god or mortal she had encountered.
"Who are you?!" she demanded sharply. "What are you doing here?!"
Her voice was stern, commanding, but beneath it flickered confusion... and sothing dangerously close to awe.
Sharky knew he had only one chance. He had to stop her from releasing Echidna. And he had to do it without force.
So he did what he knew would work best, and started trapping Hera in his charm.
He gives a soft smile, which makes Hera’s heart beat increase, "I’m just a traveler. I heard that... in this place... a very beautiful, very cute villainess was chained."
He took a step closer, his eyes beca more warr.
"But now that I see you... I think no villainess could compare against you in terms of beauty."
Hera’s heart skipped.
No one, no one, had ever spoken to her like that in thousands of years. Not Zeus, and the other gods.
Her cheeks flushed pink, "W-What...?" she stamred. "Beautiful...? ?"
Sharky nodded gently. "I thought I ca here to see a legendary beauty... But instead... I t the most beautiful woman in the entire universe."
Hera turned her face away, flustered and shy, her anger dissolving as if it had never existed. Her grip on the divine chains loosened. Her breathing softened.
For the first ti in millennia... her heart betrayed her. It started liking soone.
Trying to regain control, she asked quietly, "But why would a mortal like you co to such a dangerous place? Echidna is no ordinary creature."
Sharky t her gaze.
"It was my dream to et the most enchanting villainess in existence..."
Then he leaned closer and whispered near her ear, "...but now that I’ve t you, I realize villainesses are boring. The most interesting person is standing right in front of ."
Hera’s lips parted. Her pulse raced. The Queen of Olympus, blushing like a maiden.
Hera paused. For the first ti since entering the corridor, her fury hesitated.
If she brought this man with her and showed him Echidna. While he continued to speak to her this way.
Then perhaps, even if only for a mont... She could forget Zeus.
"I..." she said softly, then steadied herself. "I was already heading to that prison."
She turned toward him, eting his eyes, "Why don’t you co with ?"
Sharky inclined his head slightly, a gesture of pure respect, "I would be honored to walk beside the most divine queen in existence."
Hera smiled. A genuine smile, that she had not known when the last ti she had smiled.
They walked side by side through the shadowed corridors, the ancient prison lights flickering softly along the stone walls.
Together, they began walking side by side through the dark halls of the ancient prison, their footsteps echoing softly.
As they walked, Sharky spoke with a calm smile, and with each word, he gently soothed the fractures in her heart, cracks left behind by centuries of neglect and betrayal
He praised the way Hera carried herself, the effortless grace in her stride, the quiet authority in every movent.
He spoke of her beauty not as sothing ornantal, but as sothing regal, earned through centuries of endurance and strength.
"You don’t command respect by force," he said at one point. "You are respected by heart."
Hera felt those words settle deep in her chest.
When she spoke of Olympus, of Zeus, of betrayal and loneliness buried beneath layers of duty, Sharky listened, and acknowledged her pain.
"That weight you carry," he told her softly, "would have broken anyone else long ago."
Each quiet sentence soothed another fracture in her heart. Each step beside him made the corridors feel less cold, less suffocating.
For the first ti in ages, Hera felt seen as a woman. Her anger toward Zeus faded into the background, dull and distant. Her thoughts no longer circled around vengeance.
They circled around the man walking beside her.
By the ti they neared the prison’s inner chambers, Hera had completely forgotten why she had co here in the first place.
She did not think again about releasing Echidna. And that was exactly what Sharky needed.
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