Chapter 21—

Nick stormed into the meeting room full of wondering heroes. His face was full of anger. His demeanor suggested something had got terribly wrong. Upon approaching one of the sleek, silver tables, he slammed his fists onto it and let out several deep breaths.

Steve stood up at the sound. No one had ever seen Nick that angry before. It was a shock, even to people like Natasha and Clint who were always at the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. There was a chilling silence that followed.

Maura began to tremble. She knew what was going to come out of Nick's mouth.

She felt Loki pull her towards him in comfort. He thought she was trembling because she was surprised by the noise and Nick's sudden change in attitude.

Zila looked around the room at everyone's surprised expressions. Since no one else was going to ask, she began to inquire, "What's happened sir?"

Nick's eyes immediately shot to Zila. After a few more deep breaths, he said, "It's begun."

"What's begun?" Tony asked, leaning against the wall to the left of Nick.

Nick stood up straight, collecting his thoughts and picking his words carefully. "The first demon has started to attack."

Zila wasn't surprised, but her comrades definitely were. Scanning their faces again, she noticed that Lina's face had remained unchanged. Why didn't she show any concern? Why not even a little hint of shock?

Nick opened up a file that was handed to him by Natasha. He thumbed through the various pages. "Amber Whitaker," he began. "26 years old, wife to Thomas Whitaker…at least she was before she decided to rip his face off."

He tossed the photos from the scene onto the table for everyone to see. It was gruesome. Blood was spattered all over their small bedroom, red staining the clean sheets.

"He was found last night. She was in the room when police arrived but they said she was 'out of sorts'. Bolted from the room before they could even say a word to her. Miss Sparrow, I assume you're familiar with this couple?"

Maura looked around the room in a panic. All eyes were on her. She nodded quickly, going along with the information being given to her. Lina must have researched this couple while she was working for S.H.I.E.L.D.

Zila didn't like the look of things. She looked at Steve with concern. He nodded, returning his attention to Lina. He could sense that there was something off with the princess as well. She was usually calm and collected, no matter what the situation. Suddenly, she was nervous, couldn't come up with answers without thinking about the repercussions of her words. This wasn't Lina.

"I'd appreciate if you'd stop staring at what's not yours, Captain," Loki growled, Steve's name coming out through gritted teeth. He hadn't noticed that he was being watched.

"My apologies," he stammered out, "but are you sure that this person is actually yours?"

It had come out wrong. The message he sent out wasn't the one he wanted to convey, but regardless, Loki jumped on the opportunity to cause mayhem.

Before Steve or Zila had a chance to fix what had been said, Loki had pinned Steve to the wall behind him and had a dagger to this throat.

"Loki!" Thor called out, racing towards his brother. He pulled him off before Loki could do any real damage, some blood dribbling down Steve's neck.

Zila rushed towards him, ensuring that he was okay. She was surprised at her reaction. The amount of fear that had bubbled up inside her when she saw Steve getting hurt combined with the anger she felt towards this imposter was more emotion than she had ever felt in her time in this human form.

She turned to face Lina. She could tell by the look on Lina's face that the charade was over.

Maura had been found out.

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She stood next to Fayne in the throne room. "His pet" he called her. She would listen to every command he had for her. It was belittling most of the time, Fayne asking her to feed him fruit or to fetch him something to keep himself entertained. Lina feared he would ask worse of her as time passed.

In her mind, she had given up. The attacks had started, and no one had come looking for her. How not one person at S.H.I.E.L.D. noticed that she wasn't there had bothered her since she came into Fayne's possession. Maura had to be doing a pretty good job if no one had figured it out by now.

Regardless, Lina had other things bothering her. Amber was someone that, even though they had never met, Lina had grown very attached to. Their lives were almost parallel with each other. They were both part of a young couple (as young as Lina could define herself and Loki at least) and they were both very much in love with their partner. They had both gone missing for the same reason and had been reunited with their lover with plans of starting a family. Amber was two steps ahead of Lina, and it broke Lina's heart to see all of that progress and happiness go up in smoke before her own eyes.

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"Zila?" Thor called out. There was something different about Zila's eyes as she stared at Lina. They were growing darker and darker. You could still see the brown hue, but they were definitely different than they were before.

Loki noticed the change and followed Zila's gaze. "Whatever you plan on doing had better not involve Lina."

Zila's face twisted into a dark smile. "Ahh, but lo and behold…"

It was the darkest that anyone had ever seen Zila. Her true nature was peeking out.

"Zi…" Steve said, touching his hand to her shoulder.

"You thought you could get away with it, didn't you?" Zila shrugged Steve's hand away and walked over to Maura.

For some reason, Maura couldn't find the strength to move a muscle. She was petrified like never before. She knew, now, just how much her time here had changed her.

"What in the hell is going on?" Nick asked in disbelief, his frustration oozing out.

Everyone in the room was on edge, weapons at the ready and Bruce trying to keep his temper under control.

"How did you do it?" Zila questioned again. A dark glow began to radiate from her hands.

"How did I do what?" Maura stammered out. Her hands were sweaty, her breaths were uneven. She had no idea what this demon was capable of, especially since it was feeding off of power given to her by Lina and Loki.

Zila stopped in her tracks, thinking for a moment. Then it suddenly hit her. "Oh yes! That night."

"What night?" Loki demanded, trying to still push his brother away.

"You were right, Loki," Maura said, turning to face him. "Something was wrong with Lina the night you saw her outside of the facility." She returned her gaze to Maura. "But Lina isn't your real name, is it?"

Loki's heart sank. Lina was missing again? And he hadn't noticed?

Maura collected her mind and tried to say as cooly as possible, "You're not half bad for a demon."

"And you're not half bad for a dead woman."

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With love,
sparrowlina