Verus: Latin, "I am truthful"
This is the hardest interrogation she's ever done. She's done a lot of them, of course; some were easy, some a little tougher, and a few, a very few, where she had collected information only instinctually, unsure if she'd actually make it out to use it. But this was the worst one of all.
On one hand, he's exactly like every other bad guy she's interrogated. He thinks himself powerful, and wants other people to recognize and fear him for it; if he thinks she fears him, he'll grow sloppy and let something important slip, the truth. It's a familiar routine to her, but this is different too, for he actually is what he thinks he is: very, very powerful and very, very dangerous.
With every other interrogation, you just give the subject what he wants. You let him think you're scared as easily as he thinks you will be, act like you're his inferior, give him wide-eyed looks of terror and maybe even beg a little. It works like a charm.
But it's different this time. Because he wants the truth, he wants real fear. And he is a very, very good liar. He knows, just like she does, that the best way to lie is to give the lie just enough truth to make it believable. Like hiding a pill in a spoonful of jelly, you don't know there's something hard in the appetizing soft sweetness until it's slipped down your throat and you've swallowed. He'll be looking for the bitter center, and he'll know if she's lying.
So, this time, it isn't about hiding what you're really thinking. It isn't about faking a look of terror when you really want to roll your eyes at the stupidity of it all. It isn't about acting like he's superior to you when you know you could easily take out him and all the men surrounding him.
This time it's about the truth. So, this time, she shows him the truth. She shows him that she knows how powerful he really is, this so-called god, and that he could really take away everything she cares about. She shows him that she cares very much about the agent he's compromised, and that she is terrified of the damage and what will happen to him. She shows him all her guilt and her attempts to somehow atone for her sins. She shows him that she knows his threats are really promises, because even in a cage he is so much more powerful than she is. She shows him that he knows her worst fears and that he could easily destroy her in the worst way possible, and then break and destroy the one she cares about the most in the cruelest way.
And then when he slips, like he must, she closes herself back up again. She tells him thank you for cooperating, for messing up and giving her his plan, for showing himself as being only just as clever as every human slimeball she has ever run across.
And every word she has spoken, every emotion she has shown has been the truth.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it but regardless, comments would be greatly appreciated. I apologise if my Latin translation is incorrect; my skills are very rusty, but this is what they and my Latin-English dictionary seem to indicate. Flames will be sent to Iron Man to aid him in restarting the SHIELD ship engines.