Leon realized Natasha was not joking and put away his smile.
"...All right, no need to be so serious. I was just joking, and I take back that disrespectful remark."
He waved at U again. "U, come refill this lady's coffee."
Now it was Natasha's turn to be surprised.
"You're apologizing to me? This... honestly, you're nothing like I imagined."
"Apologizing? No, what gave you that idea? I'm not apologizing. I'm merely maintaining my manners. At the very least, I wouldn't openly joke about something like that," Leon argued.
Confusion filled Natasha's eyes. "You'd actually say something like that... I mean, you're very different. You hardly seem like a Stark at all!"
"Perhaps because I received an education beyond Stark's influence?"
Leon clinked his cup against Natasha's. "But no matter how much you praise me, it won't do you any good."
"You broke in here and attacked me. I saved you despite it all, yet you still had ulterior motives. A verbal apology alone isn't enough."
"...You're right." Natasha smiled and took a sip of the hot coffee. "But I truly meant the compliment. That was the first time I'd heard something like that. It really does sound very refined."
"Thanks for the compliment. It's part of my personal image branding." Leon shrugged.
"That sort of branding must be very appealing to young girls." Natasha's eyes curved into a smile.
"Perhaps... So, should we talk about you and the Red Room now?" Leon set down his coffee cup.
"What do you want to know?" Natasha no longer leaned against the workbench. "If this is the compensation you want, I'll tell you everything I know."
"I only have one question. How were you controlled by the Red Room a year and a half ago?"
Leon asked the question that had troubled him for a long time.
He still couldn't let it go.
After all, it concerned his judgment of the universe he was in.
And that had been his purpose in treating Natasha as well.
"How was I controlled..." Natasha held her coffee cup, her expression somewhat dazed and conflicted.
To her, it felt like something from the distant past.
During the time she had been controlled, she had committed far too many bloody sins.
Compared to that, even those days when she could barely act on her own will seemed much better.
Forcing herself to recount what she had experienced then was no different from tearing open her scars from the inside out. She would rather charge through a hail of bullets.
But after struggling for a moment, she slowly began to speak.
"I was trained and modified in the Red Room from childhood. They brainwashed every girl."
"But I held on through the brainwashing and retained my own will."
"So when I found an opportunity, I tried to rebel. Then... I failed."
Natasha's eyes were hollow. She looked at the coffee swaying in her cup, yet her gaze seemed to have traveled back into the past.
"To make sure nothing like that happened again, they stopped merely brainwashing the girls and began using chemicals to control us."
"...That's how it happened." Natasha kept it brief, as if she were saying that putting an elephant into a refrigerator only required opening the refrigerator and placing the elephant inside.
Leon caught the important point. "You're so capable. Why did your rebellion fail?"
In the original Worldline, Natasha should have met Hawkeye around 2006, then launched an attack on the Red Room's leader in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and ultimately defected successfully to join S.H.I.E.L.D.
But the current situation was the complete opposite.
"You can't imagine the Red Room's influence. Widows are spread across the entire world. Individual strength cannot fight against it."
Natasha's shoulders slumped as though they had lost all support. "About two years ago, I was attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Hawkeye. It was a good opportunity, and I tried to use him to get in touch with S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Except..." She suddenly raised her head and glanced at Leon.
"It actually has something to do with you."
"Me?"
"In 2006, your Stark Industries released groundbreaking electronic products. The Red Room reverse-engineered the technology and used technological complementarities to upgrade its internal smart devices."
Natasha turned her head. "So when Hawkeye and I communicated, we were monitored the entire time, though I knew nothing about it."
"At the time, my communication devices only had ordinary anti-eavesdropping functions."
"How could I have expected the Red Room's communications technology to leap forward explosively in just a few months?"
The corner of Leon's mouth twitched. So Black Widow had been caught because her equipment was outdated.
Civilian technology in the Marvel world lagged far behind military technology.
In 2006, inspired by Leon, Tony began using many technologies that had previously been limited to military industry to create digital devices.
During that period, Stark Industries seemed to hold a new product launch every day.
In a single month, Tony pushed the world's inexplicably lagging civilian digital technology forward by at least a decade.
It was as though the entire world had gone from flip phones to smartphones overnight.
Even holographic projections had begun appearing on the market.
Leon still remembered Obadiah complaining at the time that Tony was draining the pond to catch fish. Good technology should be released bit by bit to squeeze more money from people.
"Uh, modern technology is like that... It suddenly explodes out of nowhere. Weird, isn't it?" He took a sip of coffee to hide his embarrassment.
Natasha gave him a resentful look. "If Stark Electronics Technology had been founded six months later, I might have successfully escaped the Red Room—or even destroyed it."
"...You're right." Leon continued drinking his coffee. "It doesn't make much sense, but it's all Tony's fault. Why did he have to start a subsidiary for no reason?"
So there was nothing wrong with the world.
It was just that the wings he had fluttered as a butterfly had caused a tornado in Hungary.
The butterfly effect could really affect the timeline...
Leon was rather speechless. He had no idea why no one had come looking for him even though the timeline had changed so much.
It was one thing for the Time Variance Authority not to come, but The Ancient One had not come either.
That left him utterly puzzled.
Still, for now, this world appeared to be the familiar Cinematic Universe.
All he could say was that as long as it wasn't the Comic Universe, everything was fine.
"What happened after that?" he continued asking.
"After my defection plan was exposed, I was quickly besieged by other Widows and taken back to the Red Room."
"After being imprisoned for half a year, the Red Room used chemicals to control me."
"I had no choice. For more than a year now, I've retained my own thoughts, but there are many consciousnesses inside me. I don't know which part is truly me."
As Natasha spoke, she quietly turned her face away and wiped at it with her back to Leon.
"In those ten-plus months, more people died by my hand than in the previous ten-plus years."
She continued, "There were little boys who couldn't even walk, pregnant mothers, and powerful, influential figures."
"By now, my hands are covered in blood." Natasha lowered her head, making her expression impossible to see.
Leon instinctively wanted to offer some comforting words.
But clearly, comfort was not what Natasha needed.
Her heart was stronger than most people's.
Yet precisely because of that, the more her conscience condemned her, the more pain she suffered.
In truth, if Leon had not demanded this information as Natasha's compensation,
there was no way Natasha would have spoken of her past.
Even in the movies, she had never mentioned her experiences in the Red Room to her Avengers companions, whom she regarded as family.
It was a wound buried deeply in her heart.
Compared with tearing open those long-sealed wounds,
she would rather Leon's requested compensation be an eye for an eye, even if he broke her arms and legs.
"So what do you plan to do next?" Leon waved for U to refill Natasha's coffee.
"Thank you." Natasha thanked U, then looked toward Leon.
"If possible, I hope to receive your help."
"I'm not trying to drag you into this war with no end in sight, but could I trouble you to make some inhibitors for me?"
Natasha looked anxious. "Or give me the formula, so I can save the others. I'll definitely find a way to compensate you for your efforts."
Leon rubbed his chin. "The inhibitors are simple enough, but..."
"It seems you plan to rescue a group of Widows first, gather enough people, and then declare war on the Red Room?"
Honestly, he could not have been happier to see someone cause trouble for the Red Room.
After all, Tony had only just revealed the Iron Man armor, and they had already dared to send Black Widow into his home to kidnap him.
If Tony held a press conference tomorrow and announced to the entire world that he was Iron Man,
who knew what else the Red Room would do.
When it came to an organization so eager to court death, Leon's choice was to make sure it never saw tomorrow's sun.
Still, Natasha happened to want to destroy the Red Room too. Their goals aligned perfectly, and Leon did not mind giving her a push.
Natasha straightened up. "That's right, that's my plan. Le... Mr. Stark, please believe me, I definitely will..."
"Just call me Leon. You've told me so much from your heart. We should count as friends now." Leon cut her off.
Natasha paused, then nodded. "Leon..."
"All right, listen to me first." Leon tapped the tabletop with a finger.
"Your idea is good, but it won't be easy to carry out."
He said, "First you disappear, then once you begin acting, other Widows will start disappearing one after another. The Red Room will quickly catch on, and then you'll end up in a very bad situation."
Natasha slowly shook her head. "I know, but I have to do it. It's my... responsibility!"
"Responsibility..." Leon thought for a moment. "Now that you put it that way, I have an idea. A win-win—no, a win-win-win idea!"
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