The ship was buzzing with activity when Bucky burst onto the deck, filled with a cacophony of voices and bodies running to and fro. Bucky picked out both Thor and Heimdall's voices shouting orders, but spotted Sif and Loki first, and immediately made a beeline for them.
"What happened?" he panted when he got to them, grabbing onto the railing when a high wave tossed the ship.
"Didn't anyone tell you?" Loki replied waspishly, and lifted his arms. "We're under attack."
"It's the same beast from before," Sif added, ignoring Loki's rudeness. "The one we've been hunting. It showed up out of nowhere - Loki's wards didn't even pick it up. We don't know why, it's never attacked the ship unless we've engaged it first." She sounded truly bewildered, which struck Bucky as odd, considering they'd been hunting the thing.
"Is it possible it, I don't know, picked up on your scent or something?" Bucky asked.
Loki shook his head in agitation. "No. Something is different this time. The creature shouldn't even be able to detect the ship with the cloaking spell I enchanted it with."
"Uh," Bucky said, sure he'd misheard. "I'm sorry, did you say cloaking… spell ?"
Loki stared at him as though he were a particularly stupid kind of idiot. "Yes, spell - what did you think my purpose was on this hunting party?" he asked bitingly.
"Your charming personality?" Bucky suggested, trying not to scowl. "Look -"
"Knock it off, both of you!" Tony's voice snapped, surprising Bucky. He'd hadn't noticed Tony following him, but in retrospect, he should have known better.
Tony scowled, and pushed his way past Bucky to stand between him and Loki. "We're being attacked by a sea monsters, remember? You can argue later!"
"Thank you, Anthony, you took the words out of my mouth," Sif sniffed irritably, giving Loki and Bucky a look of annoyance. "We don't have time for childish squabbling. If you aren't going to be useful, then you need to get out of the way."
Bucky and Loki glared at each other, but kept their mouths shut.
"So, what's the plan?" Bucky asked, turning back to Sif.
"We kill it," Sif replied bluntly. "And preferably soon, before -"
The ship gave another precarious lurch, sending Tony head-first into Sif and knocking Bucky and Loki into each other.
"That," Loki finished, as he and Bucky helped steady each other. "Blast it, where's Thor? And why is it -"
The ship pitched again, hard enough that Tony and Sif both slipped and nearly fell overboard.
Bucky swore and lurched for Tony at the same time Loki did, but Sif managed to catch him around the waist and haul them back over the railing.
"You need to get below deck, now," Loki snapped, grabbing the back of Tony's shirt and hoisting him to a standing position.
Tony's face twisted angrily, but Bucky cut him off before he could protest. "Tony, he's right. You need to go back down, where it's -"
"I swear to God, Bucky, if you say 'safe' -"
"This isn't the time for games," Sif said sharply. "If you stay here, you're going to be in everyone else's way."
Tony shot her a look of betrayal, then rounded on Bucky. "I'm not running away and hiding, where I can't even tell what's going on," he snapped, chin raised. "Besides, how is below deck any better than up here if the ship ends up sinking?"
"Off the top of my head? There aren't any acid-spitting sea monsters down there," Loki snorted, one hand on his hip.
Bucky noticed there was suddenly a long staff in his other hand, despite the fact the he hadn't seen one anywhere on his person just a second ago. Then he registered what Loki had said.
"It spits acid?" he hissed at the same time Tony did.
Loki chose to answer Tony. "Yes, and it has melted off faces just as pretty as yours," he snapped. "So if you don't mind -"
"QUIET!" Heimdall's voice bellowed.
Immediately, everyone on deck went silent and still, even Thor, who'd been shouting from the ship's stern.
"Listen," Heimdall shouted, staring out into the inky darkness from his place by the ship's wheel.
Everyone obeyed, straining ears and eyes for any signs of displaced water or movement. Then, very slowly, Heimdall turned to the ship's starboard side - the side Bucky, Tony, Loki, and Sif were standing on - and calmly drew his sword.
Beside him, Bucky heard Sif follow suit, and reached for the hilt of his sword as well, relieved he'd had the presence of mind to grab it when he'd gone after Fandral.
"If you must cut it, have a care not to chop off any of its heads," Sif breathed, eyes never leaving the water.
Bucky stiffened. "What?"
"Don't chop off any of its heads," Sif repeated lowly, grip tightening on the hilt of her sword. "If you do it grows more, twice as many and twice as fast as before."
Bucky felt the air freeze in his lungs. Unbidden, the memory of Zola standing over him while he tended to Bucky's stump of an arm came to mind, and in the back of his head, he thought he could hear screaming.
"If you cut off one head, two more take its place," Bucky recited hoarsely, repeating the words Zola had told him, and tasting bile in the back of his throat.
Behind him, Bucky heard Tony suck in a sharp breath.
Loki tilted his head at them. "Yes, how did you -"
He was cut off as the ship pitched beneath them, the wood vibrating under their feet.
Tony hissed something - a warning, a curse, perhaps even Bucky's name - but Bucky paid him no mind, too busy staring at the glowing red eyes he could see in the water.
Then the ship tilted roughly, bouncing on the waves as the monster - the hydra - rose above the water and screamed in challenge.
A fierce cry went up from the Asgardians in answer, but Bucky felt paralyzed, staring up into the eyes of his worst nightmare come to life.
Welcome back, my child.
When Bucky came back to himself, he was on his knees, both hands clutching his head, and Tony's voice shouting his name into his ears. Bucky looked up groggily, staring at Tony - who was still yelling at him in a panic - and then looking around the ship.
All around them, the hydra's many heads were screaming and thrashing, whipping out and attacking the ship and its occupants in a violent whirlwind of teeth and claws and venom. The Asgardians were fighting back, some swinging swords and maces and all other manner of weapons, while others fired arrows or threw spears. There was a deep boom from somewhere below them, which Bucky's muddled brain thought might be a cannon, but he knew it would do no good against the hydra, no more than the Asgardians' other weapons would.
Bucky looked back up at Tony, trying to discern what he was saying over the roaring in his ears, and realized Loki was standing over him and speaking as well.
"-is wrong with him?" Loki was shouting at Tony, swinging his strange staff - or was it a sceptre? - around to fend off the hydra's attacks.
"The hydra, it's doing something to him," Tony fretted, fingers digging into Bucky shoulders. But that wasn't right, the hydra wasn't doing anything, Bucky just couldn't, he couldn't -
"Can't," Bucky choked, swaying and clutching his head again. "I can't -"
"Bucky? Bucky, we need to move, we can't stay here, we're sitting ducks -"
"Look out!"
Wood splintered as the hydra slammed one of its heads down against the railing to Bucky's left. Tony cried out and shoved him, hard, in the opposite direction, wrapping his arms around Bucky's head so it wouldn't bounce off the deck when they hit it.
Distantly, Bucky registered pain as his skin scraped against the wooden deck, but it didn't seem important, not with the memory of the hydra's voice echoing in his ears….
"Bucky, look at me!" Tony cried, yanking Bucky's head up until Bucky's face was just inches from his. "It can't take you, I promise, you're not back at that lake. But it can kill you - kill all of us - if you don't snap out of it!"
Bucky blinked sluggishly. Hurt, the hydra could hurt them, hurt them all, hurt Tony - could make Bucky hurt Tony, and Bucky couldn't, wouldn't -
He shoved Tony away from him, scrabbling back and away as fast as he could. Tony yelped and then lurched to his feet to follow him, mouth opened on a cry of Bucky's name -
A chunk of railing from the upper deck fell down between them, halting Tony's efforts. Bucky jerked his head up to see another chunk following it, but Tony's eyes were still on Bucky, so he didn't see it, didn't see that he was directly in its path -
"Tony!" Bucky screamed as Tony was buried under the wood, Tony's cry of pain cutting through the fog of his mind. He lurched to his feet and bolted to him, leaping over the other debri and around two Asgardians wielding bows, but Loki got there first.
Tony was lying with a chunk of railing over his stomach, which Loki moved with a flick of his sceptre. Bucky fell to his knees beside him, eyes locked on Tony's still face, which was smeared with blood from a cut on his head. Someone else dashed up beside them, and when Bucky looked up he saw Hogun, whose gaze flicked between Tony and the battle around them. "Is he…?"
"He's alive, but unconscious," Loki said, before glaring up at Bucky. "You've fought this beast before," he accused, fingers tightening around his sceptre.
"Only every time I close my eyes," Bucky replied through gritted his teeth. A furious, unholy rage burned through his system as he looked down at Tony's prone form, and then around at the damage to the ship. The hydra had come here, for him - he could feel it in his blood, just like the dragon - and put everyone in danger. It had attacked his new friends and dared to hurt Tony, his Tony, when all he'd been trying to do was help Bucky...
"It's coming after me."
Hogun and Loki both startled. "What?"
"It's coming after me," Bucky growled, pushing himself to his feet. "It knows I'm here - it can sense me, that's why it attacked the ship, despite your… wards, or whatever you called them." Bucky clenched his jaw, watching as one of the hydra's heads spit and snarled at Thor, who beat it back with his mighty hammer.
Loki and Hogun exchanged glances.
"Alright, then. If you have such a connection to the beast: how do we kill it?" Loki demanded, standing up as well.
A hydra head screamed and swung towards them, only to howl and change course when Sif leapt at it and took out its eye with her sword.
"Any injury we do it isn't going to kill it," Bucky said harshly. "It heals too fast to do any real damage." He reached for his sword when another head set its sights on them, only to remember that he had dropped it sometime during his panic attack.
Loki stepped in front of him and swung his sceptre at it instead, which turned out to be unnecessary when a volley of arrows buried themselves into its snout.
"We know," Loki snarled, twisting his sceptre. "Why do you think it isn't dead yet?"
Bucky gritted his teeth, mind whirring. "You're the ones who've been hunting it - how were you planning on killing it?"
"Chop off all of its heads one by one, and cauterize them with fire so they couldn't grow back," Hogun replied immediately. He'd lifted Tony up while Bucky's attention was elsewhere, one arm wrapped securely around Tony's waist while holding Tony's arm over his shoulders with the other.
Bucky twitched in surprise. "That… could actually work."
"Yes, in theory," panted Sif, whose battle had brought her within earshot. "But getting the damn things burned before they grow back has been nigh impossible!"
"And we're running out of time," Loki added in frustration. "The Bifrost is strong, but it will be in splinters before we can destroy every single one of its heads."
Bucky growled and wracked his brain, trying to think of something, anything, that would work. What was his own hydra blood unable to heal? He'd told Tony he healed from just about anything, but that wasn't entirely true.
There was decapitation, for one thing, but they already knew that wasn't going to work here. Bucky could survive most good beatings and stabbings, unless someone took out...
"It's heart," Bucky said, his own thumping loudly in his ears. "We need to find a way to stop its heart!"
Loki's eyes widened. "That's it!"
Sif slashed her sword viciously, and spun out of the way of a spray of acid. "Tell me where its heart is, and I'll gladly cut it out myself," she snarled, wiping blood from her face.
Loki shook his head. "No, I have a better idea, but I need - Thor!" he yelled, turning to look for his brother.
Thor shouted an acknowledgement from the other side of the ship, where he, Fandral, and Volstagg were fighting four heads at once.
Loki swore. "I need Thor and Mjolnir," he said urgently, glancing back at Bucky, Hogun, and Sif. "There's a spell, carved into Mjolnir, but Father removed it - it's just what we need, and I think I can put it to rights."
"What spell?" Sif demanded at the same time Bucky asked, "What are you going to do?"
But Loki was already running off, towards Thor and the others, shouting a "Keep it distracted!" over his shoulder as he went.
Sif snarled something that didn't sound anatomically possible, then glanced quickly at Bucky.
"Can you fight?" she asked gruffly, raising her sword.
Bucky swallowed, and roughly shook away the soft, melodious voice that whispered in the back of his head.
"Yes," he said, clenching his empty fists. "But I don't have a weapon."
"Then take mine," Hogun urged. He was still holding Tony against his side, and hoisted him up a little higher so he could pull his sword free. "I'll watch over Lord Anthony. You said it can sense you, that it came here because it was coming after you - perhaps you can use that to your advantage."
Bucky accepted the sword when it was offered to him, nodding gratefully, then turned to face the hydra.
Sif grinned at him ferally. "Shall we?"
Bucky adjusted his grip and nodded. "Ladies first."
Physically fighting a hydra, Bucky discovered, wasn't actually all that different from mentally fighting one.
For starters, both endeavors seemed like obstacles nigh impossible to defeat. Every time you thought you had one part of the problem beaten down, and gained something important back - be it a memory, or part of a ship - another part reared its ugly head, and attacked twice as viciously as before, leaving you a sweating ball of confusion and pain.
Both took all of your mental faculties. A second's distraction or weakness was all it took for the hydra to gain a foothold, and once it did, it was easy for it to take another, until there was nothing left but to fight tooth and nail.
And, lastly, in both cases, it was always easier to do with a friend.
"Duck!" Sif cried, slashing her sword over Bucky's head almost before he had complied.
The hydra snout that had been inches from taking off Bucky's head fell to the ground with a thunk, the venom dripping from its teeth burning a hole into the deck.
"Thanks," Bucky panted, straightening and moving so he and Sif were standing back to back. "I thought we weren't supposed to be cutting their heads off."
"I didn't cut off its head, I cut off its mouth," Sif replied, flicking her sword to remove some of the ichor. "Would you rather it have bitten your head off?"
Bucky grunted and hefted his sword when another head came towards them. "Point taken."
Thus far, he and Sif were making a formidable team. Hogun had been right about Bucky using the hydra's draw to him to their advantage - the mere sight of Bucky made the hydra go berserk, no matter what it was doing or whom it was fighting before, enough so that he and Sif had worked out a battle plan around it. Bucky would catch its attention - either by jumping into another's fray, attacking it himself, or simply shouting to make his presence known - and then Sif would slash, blind, or attack it while it was distracted.
Still -
"We can't keep this up forever!" Bucky cried in frustration, slashing at the nearest head and dancing out of the way of a spray of venom. "Whatever Loki is going to do, he needs to do it soon!"
Sif let out a vicious cry and kicked a barrel at a head that had Fandral and another warrior pinned down. "If you have time to talk, you have time to fight," she snapped, glaring upwards at a head that was roaring in the sky, then doing a double-take and gaping at the crow's nest instead. "What in heavens?!"
Bucky spun and followed her gaze, blinking in shock and then swearing to himself when he spotted the same thing she had.
Thor was standing in the crow's nest, staring heavenwards and holding Mjolnir up with one arm.
"Is he out of his mind?!" Bucky shouted. "What the hell does he think he's doing?"
"He's summoning a storm."
Bucky whirled and found Loki standing beside them, face smug as he, too, stared up at his brother.
"He's what?"
Loki twirled his sceptre, and gave him a shark-like smile. "Have you ever been struck by lightning, Sir Barnes?"
Then, in the distance, Bucky heard it: a rumble of thunder.
Bucky grunted in confusion, but before he could ask for clarification, one of the hydra's heads spotted Thor as well, and snarled.
Loki cursed and lifted his sceptre. "We need to keep it away from Thor until he's finished!"
Both Sif and Bucky lept into action, but Bucky knew they were already too late - the thing was too high and too far away to attack, and even Bucky couldn't jump that far.
He needn't have worried.
Heimdall leapt from the mast with a snarl, flying straight towards the monster's jaws, and brought his sword down right between its eyes, chopping the head clean in half as he fell. The wood of the deck vibrated as he landed on his feet with nary a wobble, swinging his sword to clean it of the hydra's blood.
The first great drops of rain started falling as he raised his sword, shouting, "Protect Prince Thor!"
A cry went up in answer as the battle resumed, and Bucky leapt over one half of the hydra's head to help Fandral, who'd slipped and fallen next to it.
"That was very glorious and frightening and all, but I've lost count - is that two more heads, or four?" Fandral asked after Bucky gave him a hand up.
"Too many," Bucky grunted, and glanced back up at Thor. Lighting flashed in the sky, temporary lighting up Thor and making him look almost god-like.
A deep, low moan vibrated through the ship.
"What was that?" Fandral yelped.
It happened again - this time even louder than before - and then the ship tilted sideways. People and equipment starting falling, tilting with the ship towards the port side. Bucky and Fandral both seized hold of the foremast to keep from joining them, feet slipping as they tried to stand at the impossible angle.
"It's the beast!" Volstagg howled, clutching a section of the starboard deck railing. "It's trying to capsize the the ship!"
"Hogun!" Fandral suddenly cried.
Bucky followed his gaze, heart leaping into his throat when he spotted Hogun further up, clinging to one of the open hatches with one hand and holding onto Tony with his other.
Horrified, Bucky watched as Hogun's tentative grip started to slip - and then the ship vibrated again, and tilted even further.
Bucky let go of the foremast the exact second Hogun's grip failed, and threw himself in Hogun's path as he slid. Someone - probably Fandral - shouted after him, but Bucky ignored him, digging his metal hand into the deck to slow his descent, and reaching out for Hogun with his right. Hogun spotted him, eyes wide, and threw out his own arm as well, and the second his palm slapped against Bucky's Bucky tightened his grip, and slammed his metal arm right through the Bifrost's deck.
"Thank you!" Hogan panted, hand shaking where it clung to Bucky's.
"Hold on!" Bucky shouted back, and tried to heft him up higher.
A glob of venom splatted down on the deck beside them, tiny drops splashing up to sear at Bucky's skin. The deck sizzled, and then the wood under Bucky's hand started creaking ominously.
"Lord Anthony is slipping!" Hogan cried, while Bucky wiggled and tried to shift their weight.
Bucky swore and tried to wrap his legs around him, the rain and Tony's wet clothes making it even harder, but then his grip on Hogan's hand loosened.
Another set of hands grabbed Hogan's arm before he slipped entirely, hefting him up and past Bucky, and allowing Bucky to seize Tony out of Hogun's tired grasp.
"Dammit, Hogun, have you been eating Volstagg's dinner portions as well?" Loki hissed as he pulled. He was actually standing on the deck, feet stuck to it as if glued, and when Bucky glanced up at them he noticed that they were glowing blue.
Loki helped Hogun tie a rope around himself, then let go of him and turned his attention to Bucky. "Now, quickly, Tony next."
Bucky grunted and started lifting him, adjusting his grip so he wouldn't slip from his arm -
And felt warm, hot breath ghost over the back of his neck.
Bucky slowly turned his head, and was not at all surprised to see the hydra's glowing red eyes mere inches from his.
Bucky yanked his arm out of the deck and dropped just seconds before the hydra spewed a great splatter of venom in the place he'd been hanging. He dug his arm into the deck again, desperate to find purchase, and heard Loki screaming from up above.
"Thor! Now! DO IT NOW!"
A bright flash of lightning exploded from somewhere up above, charging the air and searing Bucky's eyes behind their lids.
There was a great, screaming howl that vibrated deep inside Bucky's skull, a howl of absolute agony, and then a deafening boom.
Dazed and confused, Bucky felt his grip on Tony loosen as they were tossed into the open air, chunks of wood and something else hitting him, hitting them both -
Bucky gasped when he hit the cold water, inadvertently inhaling a mouthful. He choked and spit it out, then kicked to the surface, dragging Tony along with him. Coughing, he pulled both their heads above the water and gulped in great lungfuls of air, nearly choking again when a wave splashed over their heads.
"Hey!" he screamed once he finally had the breath. "Help! Man overboard!"
He looked around frantically, trying to find the Bifrost, the hydra, help, anything. He thought he could hear people shouting his name, but it was impossible to tell over the roar of the storm and the crashing of the waves.
Lighting flashed nearby, letting Bucky briefly see an outline of the ship. It was much further away than Bucky would have expected, too far away to hear his cries and much to far away to see him, but he tried anyway, screaming until his voice was hoarse with it.
A piece of debris floated by, and Bucky hefted Tony and then himself onto it, already exhausted from fighting the waves and trying to keep them both afloat. It started to rain harder, and when another flash of lightning lit the sky, Bucky could no longer see the ship.
"No, come on," Bucky cried, just as another wave splashed over them, nearly knocking them both off the debris.
"Damn it," Bucky hissed, wrapping an arm around Tony and pulling him back up. "Damn it!"
As if to mock him, more thunder rumbled overhead, and the wind started blowing even harder.
"Damn it," Bucky whispered. Then he clung harder to Tony, dug his fingers into their makeshift raft - and held on.
