Elemental {Avengers}

42. Strikhedonia

" Look, I don't know what you're saying, lady. I didn't do it. I'm just a soldier."

The word 'lady'. A disconnection from the problem. From being associated with me. A sure sign of lying, a disassociation from the event that happened. As if they had nothing to do with it. 

" I'm not questioning your loyalty to the military, no" I sidled up to him, towering over him like death incarnate. " I'm questioning your loyalty to us"

" Loyalty? You're questioning my loyalty? I-"

Repeating my phrases with questions. Also a sign of lying. How shallow-minded was he to think that I hadn't been trained in espionage, in the science of liars.

" How easy would it have been" I butted in, taking control of the conversation. " For you to run off after I attacked you, and find Tony to control him. We thought you were gone to wet yourself in fear. We thought you were the victim. No," I laughed, taking his chin in my hand, forcing him to look at me. " No, you are just as worse as Andrei"

Something flashed in his eyes, not fear, something else. And then his demeanour was back again, those wide scared eyes, the clenched jaw.

Loki, in the shadows, laughed. " I wouldn't say worse." he drawled. I looked at him, snapped my head in his direction, my eyes narrowing. " You must have been a good spy to get passed us for that long. Even I was convinced."

" So you're taking his side?" I snarled at him. " Of course you would"

" He stayed with us for weeks, raised no suspicion. If that's not a true spy, I don't know what is" he snickered. " I like your style. Posing as someone who knows nothing, when in reality, you know more than any of us. I like it"

I walked over to the middle of the room, distancing myself from Finn, massaging the bridge of my nose with my finger and thumb. Loki was good at this good cop thing. And I could tell he was quite enjoying it.

Finn stood up, walking towards us, hands up, palms out, as if in surrender, his eyes glancing around at us almost as if in panic. " Look, I know you guys are under a lot of stress at the moment, but I swear to god I didn't do it. Whatever you're accusing me of. I just want to see Andrei pay for what he did to me, to my friends."

Finn was running out of options. He had pulled out the "victim" card, and I doubted he had any more in his hand. I wondered what he would come up with next to convince us of his innocence. And his eyes as well, darting around, constructing his next biggest lie. 

I had known that it was him the moment we walked through the door. The hidden anger and frustration, not easy to hide. Only some knew how to pick those people out, the people who had to stay silent, but would rather shout their obscenities from the rooftops. I knew it was him. It was just a matter of him fessing up.

It's like he didn't even know how to lie, like he wasn't even trying to cover up. 

" Yeah, yeah." Loki said. " We get it that you don't want to be caught. Stop pretending. But how did you get the Sceptre? And how did you make sure Tony didn't know about you controlling him? I need to adopt some of your techniques, as the God if Mischief myself, I'm quite impressed."

" Really, Loki?" I asked, " Really? He's the mole. He's the one who's behind all of this"

Finn took a step back. " Behind all of this? I didn't do anything"

I turned around, eyes ablaze. I whipped out a knife, the same one I held against his neck, in fact. He took another step back " Get her away from me" he almost whimpered, giving a pleading look to Tony and I chuckled.