Chapter 35

Bucky didn't jerk awake, eyes wide with terror and confusion. He didn't jump up and attack, go for the throat of the woman standing over him, or even suffer from the usual confusion when he realized he wasn't in a field anymore. He simply opened his eyes, blinked slowly, and sat up. A thought tickled his mind, becoming more concrete the more he tried to disprove it. An idea- a concept- that might not be as crazy as it sounds at first light.

"Bucky? Bucky- are you alright?" Natasha had a hand on his shoulder, even as another hand held an ice pack against her head, "Take it slowly, you look like shit."

He looked around the white room and recognized it immediately- the recovery room of Avenger's Tower. Steve was helping Thor up from the bed as Sam and Kristen also stirred.

Kristen.

"Bucky!" Steve caught sight of him out of the corner of his eye and left Thor to Tony's care, "What the hell happened?!"

"How did we get back here?"

"We don't know," Clint called as he entered and rushed to change the gauze on Sam's head wound before the man sat up. "The jet came in about ten minutes ago on autopilot. You were all out when we got the doors open. What happened out there?!"

"Loki," Thor sighed and held his head in his hands. The strangled tone of his voice wasn't from any injury, "We met with Odin, used Mjolnir to-" he snapped to attention and held out his hand, his face white. The hammer slammed into it within seconds and Thor let out his breath, relaxing, "-we used Mjolnir to find the Swords. I don't know if it worked. I summoned the lightning and it forked- just as we hoped… But it split into two new branches. One went out over the town, the other hit my father- hit Odin in the chest. He was thrown back, the light faded, and when he stood-" his voice trailed off.

"When he stood it wasn't Odin." Natasha finished, "That's about as far as we got before we were flying through the air and everything went red."

"That's how he knew Samantha found the Swords," Thor looked to Steve, "and why my father did not want her to leave Asgard. I am sorry, Steven. I should have been more careful, I should have noticed that my father was not right…"

"You did," Kristen sighed, "you kept saying it wasn't like him."

"Well I shouldn't have trusted him," Thor spat. "I brought this down on us."

Steve shook his head, too tired for surprise, "No, you didn't Thor. I don't blame you."

"Did you figure out the maps?" Kristen turned her attention to Steve. For someone who just woke up among the battered and bloody, she was in the best shape of the lot- already clearly focused on their mission, "Loki has the Swords. We need to find Samantha NOW."

Steve looked to Tony and Clint, "We've matched three of them so far- and that was in the last six hours. It's… We won't give up, but we aren't going to figure it out like this. Verdandi drew the scenery from her perspective- any monuments she used to map the locations aren't there anymore, and where she mapped the stars- well, that helps narrow things down to the general time she was drawing, but not the locations." He looked like he wanted to punch someone. He was lost, frustrated, and at the end of his rope.

Kristen thought for a moment as Sam sat up. Bucky watched her more closely than ever before- noted the careful calculation in her eyes, "Okay, can I offer a 'Plan B'?"

"We'll take anything."

Natasha noticed Bucky's intense stare and followed his line of sight to the girl. She put a hand on his shoulder to steady him- and to warn him. He spared her a glance and knew with certainty that she'd long suspected what he now did- and just knowing that was confirmation enough.

"Cohasset was miserable- cloudy sky, and even though we were there in a brief break through the drizzle, you could tell it had been raining for a while. When Thor uses Laevateinn, there are storms. What if the Swords of Skuld were behind the weather in Cohasset?"

"JARVIS- check the weather reports for Cohasset starting the day Samantha found the Swords through now."

There was a pause before the computer answered, "The weather system did begin shortly after Miss Cidero reported finding the Swords, and it is clearing up as we speak."

"Scan the world- look for a similar system appearing exactly in time with this one vanishing. That's where Loki will be, and where Samantha will be." Kristen had the same look at Steve- that of someone who is ready to fight and just needs to be pointed in the right direction.

"If she isn't dead already." The thought made Bucky's stomach churn and his heart drop, and he hated the look it earned him from Steve, but he did it more to judge Kristen's reaction than anything as he slid off the bed and stood.

"She's alive."

"How do you know that?"

"BECAUSE SHE HAS TO BE!" Kristen's composition broke and she rounded on Bucky, "BECAUSE EVERYTHING WE'VE DONE, EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN THROUGH CANNOT END WITH HER DYING BY LOKI'S HAND!"

Bucky sighed softly, "What is your idea of a happy ending to all of this- realistically?"

"Realistically?" Kristen shakes her head, "Realistically we find Loki's base and get Samantha out, and whatever he did to her is something I can treat. We get the Swords back or we don't- it doesn't matter anymore. I'll take Samantha into hiding, I'll protect her. Kill Loki and we'll come back." Her expression alone told everyone she'd rather be dragged across broken glass and then dumped in salt water, but she was resigned. She'd never looked more tired.

Steve nodded as she spoke, "I second that plan."

"Even the 'we' part?" Kristen shot him a look, "I'm not letting you go without me."

"Even the 'we' part," Steve promised. "Banner is in his lab working on some protection for you- a personal shield unit. It should be ready in an hour or so."

"Pardon me, but I have found six matches for unusual weather phenomenon." JARVIS chimed in.

Tony nodded appreciatively to Kristen, "Alright JARVIS, compare those locations with known Hydra facilities. Also compare them to the maps we've got from Verdandi. See if there's a way to cross some of those places off that list." He smiled to the doctor, "Good call."

"Just earning my seat on the jet."

"Match found," JARVIS sounded happy, "Hellnar, Iceland."

Bucky actually looked hopeful, "Hydra Facility Hellnar was built into smuggling tunnels. It's a labyrinth, that's for sure, but it's more of a layover stop than a real base. With the current facilities Loki could at most have fifty men. Nat could handle them with a blindfold on." She gave him a wicked smile.

"Anyone not coming?" Steve looked around the room and naturally saw no raised hands, "Alright." He tapped his comm to get Banner's attention, "Doctor Banner, wheels up in an hour. We have a location." He fought down a smile and struggled to keep the emotion from his voice. "It's time to bring Sammy home."

Steve strode from the room, and the other Avengers began pulling themselves towards the door as well. An hour seemed like a long time to pull their armories together, but they also had to fit as many medical supplies on the Quin-Jet as possible for Samantha's sake- and that meant cleaning out the cache of books stolen from the Great Library.

"Can we talk?" Kristen looked to Bucky, who hadn't made a move as the others were spurred into action. He nodded, and Natasha cast him a quick glance before walking out behind Clint and Sam. Almost as if she knew what was coming, Natasha closed the doors to the recovery room behind them, giving Kristen and Bucky their privacy.

He didn't say anything, only waited, watching, calculating every blink, every breath, and every glance as she looked around- a nervous tick, or casing the room for cameras? As if in answer, she lightly adjusted her position, turning ever so slightly so that her hair slid forward and hid her mouth from a small security camera in the smoke detector, "Do you want to know the first thing you lose as the years roll by?"

"Remorse?" He cocked an eyebrow.

"Patience. Patience for the stupid little dances people do around one another. I've done some pretty incredible things just because someone was straight with me- and some terrible things when they aren't."

Bucky scoffed, "And yet you still know how to tango like a pro."

"That's how I survive."

"What do you want?"

"To save Samantha for you all."

"Why?"

Kristen shrugged and leaned back, "Because Skuld wants to destroy her."

"And the Swords?"

"If you'll remember, Bucky, I advocated for them to remain buried. Samantha is more important to me than a couple of old hunks of metal."

Bucky cocked his head to the side, "I don't think Thor- or anyone he's faced- would call Mjolnir 'an old hunk of metal'."

"Mjolnir is formidable," Kristen nodded, "but it couldn't hold a candle to Laevateinn." She stood to leave the room, "I'm going to help save Samantha, just like I promised… Are you going to get in my way?"

He considered it almost too long. An enemy or a friend- that was all they'd ever needed to know… "Her prophecy said you'd die."

"I'm aware."

"How do I know you don't want this to all just end?"

Kristen actually laughed at that, "Even nihilism fades eventually."

"You're a shitty liar- there's something you're not telling me."

"A more accurate sentiment would be that there is everything I'm not telling you. I don't need to be a good liar, not at the moment, so why put forth the effort?'

Bucky swallowed hard, "Save Samantha?"

"Save Samantha."

"Not by locking her up or killing her or-"

"-Bucky, if I have to lock her up, she's already dead." There was pure honesty in her eyes- that or she'd decided to put the effort into lying.

He just nodded for the doctor to leave, and she took that as his acceptance. It had all become too overwhelming, too much for one person to deal with. Either he'd look back at this as the moment he damned them all or saved the world by keeping his trap shut.

Doctor Kristen Gunvald. A woman who specialized in debilitating trauma- something she'd spent her entire life trying to save those she loved from. The woman who'd held her head in her hands as Thor read the Norn shutdown code, and passed it off as exasperated outrage at what the Valkyrie had done to keep them obedient. Kristen, who started closing down her practice before even Samantha knew what she'd taken from the dig site…

With his blessing- either to help the Avengers or damn the universe- Verdandi, General of the Valkyrie, Queen of Asgard, and the Second Sister of Nornheim opened the door to the recovery room and stepped out to prepare for battle.

Author's Note:

Fun fact, the name "Gunvald" literally means "The Mighty/Powerful Valkyrie"

:)