“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Lithium muttered, looking down at the floor uncomfortably. “But Hydra taught me that I couldn’t trust anyone else. And I believed them. I was scared. They said you’d call me a freak and leave me by myself again. I don’t want that. I want to be safe.”

“What changed your perception of us, Celeste?” Steve asked gently, his arm around her shoulder to keep her close, to keep her secure against them.

For a moment, she paused to look at Steve, then Sam, her mind flashing back to Bucky and how he’d been here during the nights. “Because you came for me when I gave you no reason to. And that meant so much to me and I couldn’t . . . I couldn’t just keep it a secret anymore. You mean so much to me.” Silently, Lithium added how she would have to expose herself to Bucky as well. He’d been there for her, too, and he understood the inner workings of Hydra as much as she did.

“Just take it slow, Lith,” Sam assured her, nodding. “No pressure.”

“You’re safe with us,” Steve agreed. “You’re safe and it’s going to stay that way. I cannot guarantee that we won’t have battles, but we’ll be fighting with you. Tell us when you’re ready. It’ll be okay. And we’re not going to leave.”

“I . . .” She paused to take a deep breath, steadying herself for a moment. “Captain, I broke the bench press bar. I didn’t mean to, but it was going to crush Falcon and I had to do something. I know it was expensive and I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t let anything happen to him. I’m sorry I broke it.”

A moment of silence followed as Lithium dropped her gaze in shame and Steve contemplated what she’d said. “What do you mean you broke it?”

“She split the thing in half. With her bare hands,” Sam offered, shrugging, like it were somehow a normal thing.

“How is that even possible?” Steve questioned, looking between the two, hoping for an answer to jump out at him.

“Don’t look at me,” Sam conceded, throwing his hands up. “She didn’t tell me how that one works. All I know is it’s pretty cool to see.” Two sets of eyes fell upon her again, watching her for the explanation she’d been biting down for so long.

“I . . . When I arrived at Hydra, when they started the initial process and altered me . . . That was one of the things they did to Iris and me . . . I can still feel the needles . . . But they . . . essentially injected metal into our skin. Such small particles at a time that the skin grows around them, and so that they’re completely flexible, but they’re dense enough, drawn to the natural metals in our blood, that they stay embedded inside. It’s why I . . . Kind of, glow I guess . . . My skin has that luminescence because of what they did, and it’s supposed to make me more beautiful.

“The thing is, when I get tense, ready to deliver a blow, I have to think about it, at least if I want the metal to play a role. Because if I don’t, then it’s fine, and . . . Think about looking at a pane of glass. If you look at it sideways, that’s what the metal is in a resting state. It’s there, and it’s noticeable, but not very much so to the point of you’re going to look twice or think too intently about it. The scientists did something groundbreaking with Iris and me. Something they’ve failed to duplicate since. But the metal they’ve infused into my skin is an extension of my nervous system. Even in it’s resting state it helps to protect me from harm, but when I consciously shift the way it’s facing . . .”

Lithium paused, holding out her left arm straight so they could see it clearly. Taking a deep breath, she shifted the metal from her elbow down, the subtle glow of her skin morphing into a silver shade that still carried the hues and pigments of her skin. Her body’s natural skin cells being pressed and pushed between the tiny bits of metal that formed a sort of flexible armor. The top couple layers of skin covered it, as well. The layers of naturally dead skin that only worked to protect fresh skin as it was.

“Nothing I know of, or the Hydra commanders know of can pierce that. Except maybe a silver bullet, but Pierce may have been bluffing . . . I don’t think Iris had her defenses up when they fired.”

“Does it hurt?” Sam asked, watching in wonder as the metal shifted back to being nearly invisible underneath and in between her skin, her body’s natural cells working to close the gaps the metal had pressed open.

“Every time,” she admitted, the small, familiar ache visiting her often enough that she’d learned to ignore it. “I’m just so used to it that it doesn’t bother me anymore.”

“When you say it’s an extension of your nervous system,” Sam began, his voice trailing off, the question clear to Lithium. It was something she’d been anticipating.

“The brain sends and receives electrical impulses throughout the body. Metal is particularly sensitive to all sorts of these tiny electrical currents. It carries them well. When I think intently about something in a certain part of my body, say my arm, the impulses become clearer, and then the metal shifts. It usually takes a fair amount of tension to get it to shift, too,” Lithium explained, giving the same reasons Hydra had told her.

“Why do you believe that silver bullets were used to kill Iris, Celeste?” Steve asked gently, mulling over the information in his mind.

“Because Pierce practically told me he was going to kill her the day before,” Lithium admitted with a frown, looking down at the floor again, the day flashing by in her mind.

~~~

Pierce walked back and forth across the length of Lithium’s quarters, his steps slow and calm, calculated, a finger on his chin as Lithium looked up at him from where she sat on the edge of her bed, waiting for him to speak, or at least give her permission to speak. The last thing she wanted to do was incur his wrath so soon after the spectacle she had caused Copper to put on in a popular, higher-end hotel. Her nerves weren’t running away from her, but she wasn’t exactly comfortable with him in her room when he’d been so displeased the last time she’d seen him.

“You see, Lithium,” he began. “Many mythical beings have existed in folklore. And people always have something to combat them with. With zombies, decapitation. With vampires, a wooden stake. And with werewolves, an amazing human hybrid of unbelievable strength and ability, the silver bullet. But you, you and Copper are something entirely new. And you are something entirely real. People will develop something to fight you once they realize who and what you are. They will develop some weapon or tactic. They will develop a silver bullet for the two of you. Do not become as easily taken down as the werewolf. You see, we are protecting you. But we cannot do so if you’re drawing attention to yourselves.

“But is the plight of the werewolf not amazing? It takes not an ordinary bullet to take one of them down, but a silver bullet. For all that they are, it takes a difference in metal to destroy them. No more, no less. They are magnificent creatures. Their creator ought to be proud. Perhaps he even caused their weakness so that if they ever got out of control, he would know how to rein them back in. Don’t you think it’s a beautiful way of thinking, Lithium?”

“Yes, Sir.”

~~~

“He couldn’t just take her from me. He had to taunt me with the information first. I watched her bleed out, crying for her, but she never answered me again. She was my best friend, and they took her away like she was nothing more than a toy and I were a spoiled child. She was the first teammate I ever had. The metal is why they gave us these names, too. They wanted to make sure we had names that fit us. Copper and Lithium. Both metals. A trace amount of each in the metal mixture they put in us, along with and iron and some others I can’t remember.

“I . . . After I lost Iris, I suffered my first, and previously only, overdose. The doctors tried very hard to make it better, tried to fix me, but it was no use. So they allowed it to run it’s course and left me to suffer for days upon weeks until I could finally pull myself out of that rut. They didn’t care what happened to me so long as I didn’t get myself killed.”

“What are you talking about with ‘overdose’, Celeste?” Steve asked carefully, watching her for signs of distress or panic. Lithium showed signs of neither. All he could read on her face was a bit of sadness. Lithium took a deep breath to steel herself again, baring her secrets to these people was already taking plenty of her faith in humanity.

“That’s the other cause of my name. Of the one they gave me. Pierce found my natural personality somewhat abrasive. He didn’t like that I was overly happy on a consistent basis. So he talked to the scientists. And they developed a new . . . medication, if you will. And I was injected with it. With a very long needle. The goal was to empty the contents of the syringe deep enough into my brain  that it would work properly. The thing is . . . It worked too well.

“Hydra’s scientists had developed a chemical that acted as a natural pill. It imitates the effects of lithium when used as a medication for people with bipolar disorder. That’s exactly what they wanted. It altered my mind to the point that when I get too excited, nervous or panicked, it works alongside the trace amounts of lithium in my skin and starts producing chemicals inside my brain that are carried through my bloodstream to calm me down and keep my mood balanced. But they didn’t refine the chemical enough. And it usually overreacts if it doesn’t kick in immediately. To the point that something simple and normal can trigger it.

“When it gets to be too bad, I end up like this. Because the chemicals overdosed.”

~~~

“Now, Lithium, we need you to lie still for the procedure, all right? We can’t make any mistakes or this could turn out very unwell for you and your health.”

“Can’t you just knock me out with gas or something? Or give me a painkiller?” She protested, part of her worrying what exactly they were doing that she was being forced to lie still, face-down, her ankles and wrists bound, straps across her back and over her neck.

“It’s far too dangerous to mix chemicals like that. It’ll be over soon. I apologize in advance for your discomfort.”

“Pierce, please-!” Sharply, Lithium took in a breath, the pain cutting through her skin, narrowly missing the discs of her spine as the needle slid up into her skull, grazing against the sensitive, delicate tissue within. Lithium wanted to scream in her pain and discomfort, but the pain was so encompassing that while her mouth opened, no sound came out. Slowly, she began to pass out as the sting began to hit her brain tissue.

“That’s it, keep the metal passive. We don’t want a needle getting wedged in there permanently. Keep it still,” he coaxed, watching the procedure with an infuriating sort of calm.

Lithium’s eyes rolled into the back of her skull as her body shuddered. She was fairly certain she was going to be sick. She wasn’t conscious enough to find out.

~~~

“I’m sorry they did that to you,” Steve told her, taking her hand in his own and squeezing it in his attempt to comfort her. “I’m sorry that Pierce couldn’t see what a beautiful person you are, inside and out. He’s a fool to want to change your personality. You didn’t belong with them. I wish they never would have done those things to you. You didn’t deserve that.”

“Man, I don’t think anybody deserves that. That is some grade A fucked up shit. I don’t think prisoners of war even get that bad of treatment. I hope that Hydra gets what’s coming to them. And you’re going to get to kick some serious ass, Lith. We’ll take them down some day, and you can choose whoever you want to punish. If I could, I’d hunt down Pierce for you and let you kick his ass right now, but that fool’s already dead,” Sam ranted, realizing how much pain his new teammate had gone through and wanting to help her seek revenge.

“I was, actually kind of sad when I heard that Pierce had died,” Lithium admitted shamefully. “He was our leader, and at the time, I was just a loyal follower. It was weird to think of it without him, but we moved on.” For a moment, her mind flashed back to the other creations they had locked up in the lab, far less stable living experiments whose madness only solidified Lithium’s place of value. Now that she was gone, it was debatable if they’d become desperate enough to use the others. Lithium desperately hoped not, but kept her thoughts to herself.

“But I’d destroy him in a heartbeat if I had the chance now,” she continued, a bit of fire burning inside her. Pierce had destroyed so much of her and taken so much she cared about. She wished she could’ve been the one to pull the trigger on him. The existence of their silver bullets taunted her in the back of her mind.

“That’s my girl!” Sam exclaimed, slapping a hand over her back. “I knew you’d become one of us in heart and soul. You’re a soldier at your core. Now let’s get back to training. We’re burning daylight!”

Lithium paused a moment, frowning as she looked up at him. “If you knew I was going to be one of you then why did you give me so much hell for so long?”

“Hey, hardships breed loyalty or something like that,” Sam told her with a shrug, like that was a perfectly logical explanation and nothing else was needed. “Now come on, if I get myself almost crushed again, you’ll come in handy.” Saying nothing else, he strode from the room, going back to the weight room down the hall a few steps, immediately setting back to work and shifting weights around.

She sighed, shaking her head at Sam. He was a wonderful friend, but sometimes she wondered about his sanity, almost as much as she worried about her own. Hydra had done so much to her, how did she know they hadn’t altered her mind to the point of being insane? How did she know they hadn’t turned her into a puppet or planted a tracking device in her.

“Will you be okay, Lithium?” Steve asked, watching her, still holding her hand in his. “I know it must’ve taken a lot out of you to admit all that. But we’re still here, despite what Hydra told you would happen. We’re still a team. We always will be. We’re here for you. All right? No exceptions.”

Lithium pressed her lips together for a moment before smiling weakly. “I know . . . Thank you for coming for me. Thank you for showing me the truth beyond their lies. You don’t know how much that means to me. Thank you for helping me get past an overdose.” Leaning closer to him on the bed, Lithium wrapped her arms around his chest and took comfort in the fact that she had someone who cared enough about her to come for her when she was on that unreachable, isolated island. “Thank you for picking up their mess.”

“You’re not a mess,” Steve replied, his arms wrapping around her as well. “They’re the mess. And I’m not going to help them like I’ll help you. It’ll be okay.”

Still outside the window, Bucky peered in to see the pair in an embrace, Lithium desperate for the contact, Steve obliging her needs. While a part of him took comfort in the fact that she was being cared for, and being cared for well, another part of him despised the fact that he should’ve been in the room as well. He understood Hydra. Understood the scars it could make. He understood the pain Lithium had withstood. He was jealous that Steve was sharing this moment with her, comforting her when it would be better, more sincere coming from him when he was the one that she’d told her past to first. Parts of it, anyway.

A part of him couldn’t face Steve. And he was jealous that Lithium could, without the same kind of guilt Hydra had given him whenever he saw Steve’s face. He was jealous that the two could take comfort in each other’s presence, leaving him with no one to turn to in his darker hours.

Carefully, stealthily, Bucky left the building, edging over to the fire escape and making his way down from there. Celeste. Her name had been Celeste. Neither Lithium nor Celeste had decided to tell him about the terrible chemicals Hydra had put into her brain.

Neither Lithium nor Celeste had told the Winter Soldier that she’d befriended Captain America.