The Serpent's Shadow

Athena Vale never asked to be a hero. She spent years as a ghost - trained by HYDRA, used as a weapon, then left to pick up the pieces of a life she barely remembers. When Natasha Romanoff found her, she gave her something she hadn't had in a long time - choice. Now, after Natasha's gone, Athena's just... drifting. She fights because that's all she knows, but she's tired of bleeding for the world and never really belonging to it.

Then Thor shows up - larger than life, all lightning and laughter, like someone dropped a god right into her storm. He's grieving too, but somehow he still believes there's good left in the universe... and maybe in her. When a new branch of HYDRA surfaces - one that knows her name and everything she's tried to bury - Athena's forced to face the past she's been running from.

She's not the same broken girl they made her. She's sharper now, stronger. But the thing about shadows is they never die easily - and when HYDRA sets its sights on New Asgard, Athena finds herself caught between the world of gods and the ghosts of her old life.

And maybe she'll finally realize she doesn't have to be a weapon to be powerful.