𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 | 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒍

quaestionis

The sudden voice startles me but I keep my mouth shut, not wanting to give the woman anything to use against me. With the cold getting harsher by the second, I decide to lean back onto the wall. When I do, I find that the binds have loosened some compared to when I woke up. We both stay silent for a moment before she speaks up.

"I'm going to ask a few simple questions. Every time you answer incorrectly, attempt to avoid the question, or simply refuse to answer at all, the temperature around you will drop five degrees. Due to your uncooperative actions earlier, the temperature currently rests at about 48 degrees." She pauses and I pick up on her shuffling, moving from my left side to my right. I close my eyes, opening them again when she asks her first question.

"What is your name?" Her tone almost makes the question feel like a statement. When I don't answer, she speaks up again. "You have five seconds until the temperature decreases."

I stay quiet again, and I hear her make a sound of dissatisfaction. "Fine," she says, "have it your way."

I feel the air around me cool, and once it does, she speaks up again.

"What is your name." This time there is no question in her tone.

I debate whether or not I should continue to resist answering her question, knowing that I can truly only keep this up for a small amount of time, especially if she was telling the truth about the temperature decreasing that much.

"Three seconds," she informs me, and I hear a small, mechanical shifting noise above my head. It must be the cooler for my cylinder. After taking a small breath, I give in.

"Aveline."

I can hear the smile creep onto my interrogator's face as she speaks. "See, that wasn't too hard, now was it Aveline? Now, what's your last name?"

Though her voice comes out gentle, as if it's my choice whether or not I want to answer her questions, I know better than to defy her. My arms shiver at the cold surrounding me, and when I look down, I vaguely expect to see the light blue pajamas I was wearing before this entire incident, but find a short blue and black t-shirt and sturdy, black pants covering me instead. When did I change into this? I want to ponder the thought and attempt to find a time to pinpoint my change, but quickly realize I don't have the time to think of trivial things. I close my eyes and purse my lips before answering, my gut clenching at the idea of me simply giving away answers to my interrogator.

"Ridley. Aveline Ridley." I keep my answer short, not wanting to accidentally give away useful information.

I hear her make a small sound of satisfaction before an undeniable sound of a chair pulling up to the cylinder. I guess she thinks we're going to be here for a while. After the muffled sounds stop she doesn't waste any time, instead continuing on to the next question immediately. "How long have you been an associate to Anthony Stark?"

My mind instantly flashes to the training I had a few weeks after I joined the Avengers. Steve and Tony sat me down in a locked room and taught me how to handle an interrogation, guiding me to every answer I should give in the event that I was captured. My physical training has been one of the hardest experiences of my life, but interrogation was worse. The two heroes helped me on the first day, giving me pointers and telling me what the most important things to avoid saying– that being who I know, where any of the Avengers facilities are, and what I can do. The days after, however, they taught me what could happen in interrogation: the torturing, the mental games, the insanity of staying in one place for hours with no one but enemies trying to pry at what's in your mind. Even the slight thought of the week-long training sends shivers down my spine, but my voice finds it way back and immediately answers the way I was instructed to.