“Sam! Please! You can’t tell! You promised you wouldn’t tell!” Lithium was pleading with him, and while Sam had given his word, he looked rather conflicted about keeping this highly unusual . . . occurrance from the captain. “Please, Sam . . . He can’t know . . .”

Falcon sighed, the sound morphing into a groan as he rubbed his eyes. “Well how do you plan on hiding this mess of metal that you somehow managed to split into two with nothing but your hands? That’s not normal, ‘Lithium’, and I’m guessing you know as much. If you can find a way to hide it before he comes up, then I’ll go along with your little charade, but only for now. You have to come clean eventually.”

“I can!” She exclaimed, a bit of relief leaping into her chest. “I can do that, Sam. I’ll do it in the future, just not today, I mean . . . I’m just . . . I’m not . . .” Her voice trailed off. Lithium didn’t have the strength to say the words that were running rampant in her mind. ‘I’m not ready to lose the both of you.’ That was the only outcome in her mind. That was the only end to the patriotic pair finding out what she really was. What she’d gone through and suffered through for so many days and nights. She wasn’t ready for them to know the fact that she hadn’t always been alone in what she was now, and the path that had led her to what she was becoming.

“Help me haul these into my room,” she told him, completely derailing from what she’d been on the verge of admitting. Immediately, she set to grabbing one of the halves of the split bar, dragging it out of the lifting room and into her living space across the hall. Though he rolled his eyes, Falcon took the other part in his hands, following her and placing it behind her couch, out of view unless you were looking for something there.

“That better, Miss Avoidance?” He teased, his mind constantly running around the impossible feat this seemingly innocent girl had achieved: splitting a metal bar like it was melting plastic. That wasn’t a physically possible feat, and yet, she’d done it. Of all the people in the world, she had done it. It struck him now that perhaps Hydra had done more than perfect her physical appearance. Apparently there was more to it -- and Lithium was adamant about keeping it quiet.

“Please,” Lithium insisted. “Just give me time . . . I can come clean, just not right now.”

“What’s so bad about right now? I’d personally love to hear the story about the girl who takes a beating in sparring practice and only benches seventy-five pounds but can split the bar in half! Why don’t you trust us with this, Lithium?” Sam crossed his arms, raising a brow, watching her expectantly.

After a short, breathless pause, Lithium took a breath again and summoned the courage to ask the question that had immediately leapt into her mind. It had been a subtle change in his facial expressions and not much more, but thanks to Hydra’s conditioning, she knew and identified the differences that were present now.

“Why didn’t you trust me before I saved your life?”

~~~

“Where’s the other bench press bar?” Steve questioned as he walked into the weight room, Lithium still attempting to get some semblance of stretching in, even though she was very much so behind at this point. It had been a matter of seconds that they’d managed to get back into the weight room before Steve had joined them. Lithium could already feel her heart jump into her throat as he noticed the all-too-obvious.

“We think somebody stole it,” she quickly lied. “Weird, right? I mean, who breaks into a weight room and takes a bench press bar and some weights? Talk about idiocy at it’s finest. Pfft. Criminals these days.”

Steve mulled it over a moment, then looked over at the door. “No signs of a break in. The lock is fine.”

“The window was left open,” Lithium offered again, barely catching a rueful shake of Sam’s head from the corner of her eye. “I opened it last night to let some air in because, well, it’s a weight room. In the middle of summer. It stinks like a skunk that ate some bad eggs. I’ll claim my fair contribution to that, but that doesn’t help the smell, am I right?” After a small pause, she winced. “Ah! I’m babbling again! Sorry! I just . . .” She groaned, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry. And that’s that. I’ll shut up now.”

A small, sober smile crept along Steve’s face. “You’re okay, Lithium. You made a mistake and you’ll learn from it. Though I can’t imagine who would go through the trouble of climbing to the third floor from the outside just to steal a weight bar and some weights. Must be some odd people around here . . . Regardless, from now on, the window is to be locked at night. We can open it during the day if it bothers you that much.”

Lithium gave a small nod, her heart pounding so hard inside her chest that it felt like her chest would break. That sensation carried a bit of it’s own danger, but considering her positive hormones weren’t running any higher than normal, she assumed she should be okay. At least, she hoped she would. The last time she’d suffered an overdose . . . Had been the first time . . .

~~~

After the morning’s beating had come to a close, Lithium had made her way to the beach, sitting in the golden sand. The texture was a bit rough to her skin, but it was better than the rocky earth that covered plenty of the land here. Thankfully, the sand was of a finer consistency, even though the pebbles scraped against her skin. Plenty of the soil was a nice, soft thing, but Lithium had walked through most of town by now, and had found the spots where the dirt was much less so.

Most of those spots were future sites of where buildings would be constructed, and several layers of earth had been disrupted. Lithium liked the beach quite a bit better. It was serene, peaceful, and it didn’t maker her recall the vast amounts of industrialization that were killing the charm of this nowhere town. A small breeze swept off the lake as Lithium slid her feet across the top of the sun-kissed sand that was aglow with warmth, a few waves from a motorboat lapping at the sand around her toes. This was peaceful, quiet, even better considering that it was currently dinnertime and everyone had left for the moment, and most likely wouldn’t be returning. Lithium had this place to herself.

Well, almost. She heard his approach, even though he was a deadly sort of silent, especially in the sand, but she didn’t turn to look at him. The too slight sifting of the sand beneath his feet was all the indication she needed of who was here.

“Have you followed me, James . . . ?” Not a single shred of an accusatory tone left her mouth. Honestly, Lithium was sort of hoping he would show up. Of everyone who would understand what she was feeling, of what she’d endured with Hydra, it would be him. And she couldn’t put a price on that ability right now.

“I was going to ask if you’d figured out I came here, Lithium . . .” He paused, gazing out at the quiet waters that quietly slapped against the shoreline. “Is that truly your name?” He asked, not looking directly at her, just the water, as she did. “I’m not fond of it. I call you that because it is all I know to call you, but if I had an alternative, I would likely call you that instead. Unless it were some unfathomably ridiculous name such as Diamond Dust or Golden Eagle. In that case I would stick to Lithium.”

A gentle smile took over her lips. “Did you just make a joke?”

He shrugged his shoulders -- on metal, one skin. “Did it make you laugh?”

A small laugh escaped Lithium as she turned to look at him. “Thank you.”

Bucky thought it over for a moment, pausing. “For what?” He asked, looking down at her smaller stature to meet her gaze.

Lithium smiled a little more. “For making me a little bit happier when I’ve been a bit of a nervous wreck all day. And for talking more than I’ve heard you talk at once. Just . . . thank you. For . . . being you, I guess.” She shrugged, not sure what else to say about it. “I know how hard it is to be something other than what they programmed you to be.” Taking a deep breath, Lithium closed her eyes, turned away, and sat down in the sand, digging her toes into the grains, resting her chin on her knees.

Wordlessly, Bucky sat next to her, dressed in a plain black t-shirt, dark jeans and black shoes. Today, Lithium had ditched her usual attire and was dressed in loose shorts, as well as an oversized t-shirt. She’d purchased the attire with the funds Hydra had provided for her. For a while, the pair sat in silence, watching the light blue waters dip and peak.

After a good fifteen minutes, Lithium decided to break the silence. Her curiosity, her own nagging emotions, were eating at her. “Do you remember the sorts of things they did sometimes? Do you remember the things they made you do? . . . Does it scare you to uncover all the scars they made . . . ?”

For a few seconds, all she could hear was the sound of Bucky breathing, his strained inhales and exhales. “I remember all the time . . . I remember how when they told me to do something, I didn’t fight it. I didn’t think. All that happened was this mindless sort of thing, and I carried out my missions. It’s foggy. Vague. It’s frightening sometimes, because I’m not actually sure how many people I killed. But sometimes, I can still see their faces at night. Most of them were utterly clueless. Some of them had people find them in a matter of instants . . . I can hear the screams of wives and children . . . And it’s all because of Hydra . . . What do you remember, Lithium? What horrors did they expose you to for the sake of their supposed ‘goodwill missions? What terrible lies did they force down your throat for the sake of their own twisted agenda? Or would you rather keep it locked up?”

It was Lithium’s turn to take a pained breath, the slow but sharp inhale and exhale. The images flashed across her mind again. The blood on the floor, the tears that blurred her own vision and that of the victim crawling towards her. Lithium hadn’t realized how deep down she’d suppressed the memory until it had started creeping out earlier this afternoon.

“Show anyone what you really are, and that departure will feel easy compared to when they call you a freak and walk away.”

“But . . . But I’m like him! It’s for the good of humanity! I gave up my everything to be this-!”

“Try making them understand that when they notice how you different you are. When they notice what strange abilities you have. That’s why we’re all you have. We understand you. Understood?”

“B-but she . . . She’s . . .”

“Dead. Get over it.”

“They . . . made me endure her death . . . Her murder . . .” Lithium admitted quietly, the pain coming back to ram her in the heart full force.