Why the Timeline Changed

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 what I said earlier. It was disrespectful."

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, you misunderstood something. I'm not apologizing. I'm simply maintaining my manners. At the very least, I wouldn't joke about that sort of thing so openly," 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!"

"Perhaps because I was influenced by an education other than Stark's?"

Leon clinked his cup against Natasha's. "But no matter how much you praise me, it won't help."

"You broke in here and attacked me. I saved you despite everything, yet you had ulterior motives. A verbal apology alone isn't enough."

"...You're right." Natasha smiled and drank her hot coffee. "But I truly meant the compliment. It's the first time I've heard something like that. It does sound very well-mannered."

"Thanks for the compliment. It's part of maintaining my image." Leon shrugged.

"That kind of image must be very popular with young girls." Natasha's eyes curved into a smile.

"Perhaps... So, shouldn't we talk about you and the Red Room now?" Leon set down his coffee cup.

"What do you want to discuss?" Natasha stopped leaning against the workbench as well. "If this is the compensation you want, I'll tell you everything I know."

"I only have one question. How did the Red Room control you a year and a half ago?"

Leon finally asked the question that had been troubling him for a long time.

He still couldn't let it go.

After all, it concerned his judgment of the Zhou he was in.

And this had also been his purpose in treating Natasha.

"How was I controlled..." Natasha held her coffee cup, looking somewhat dazed and conflicted.

To her, it felt like something from a very distant past.

During the time she was controlled, she had committed far too many bloody sins.

Compared to that, even the days when she could barely act according to her own will seemed much better.

Making her recount those experiences was like tearing open her scars from the inside out. She would rather charge through a hail of bullets.

Yet after the struggle passed over her face, she slowly began to speak.

"I was trained and modified in the Red Room from childhood. They brainwashed every girl."

"Only, 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 empty. She looked at the coffee swaying in her cup, but her gaze seemed to have crossed into the past.

"To prevent anything like that from happening again, they stopped merely brainwashing the girls and began using chemicals to control us."

"...That was the process." Natasha kept it brief, as though she were saying that putting an elephant into a refrigerator only required opening the refrigerator and putting the elephant inside.

Leon caught the key point. "You're so capable. Why did your rebellion fail?"

In the original timeline, Natasha should have met Hawkeye around 2006. Then, in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, she would have launched an attack against the Red Room's leader, ultimately defecting successfully and joining 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 stand against it."

Natasha's shoulders slumped as though they had lost all support. "About two years ago, I was attacked by Hawkeye of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was a good opportunity, and I tried to use him to establish contact with S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Only..." She suddenly looked up at Leon.

"Come to think of it, it has something to do with you too."

"Me?"

"In 2006, your Stark Industries released an era-defining electronic product. The Red Room reverse-engineered its technology, used technological complementarity, and upgraded its internal smart equipment."

Natasha turned her head slightly. "Because of that, when Hawkeye and I contacted each other, we were monitored the entire time, yet I had no idea."

"At the time, my communication devices only had ordinary anti-eavesdropping functions."

"How could I have expected the Red Room's communications technology to advance explosively in only a few months?"

Leon's mouth twitched. So Black Widow had been caught because she had fallen behind the times.

Civilian technology in the Marvel world lagged far behind military technology.

In 2006, inspired by him, Tony began using many technologies that had previously only been used in military industry to create digital devices.

During that period, Stark Industries practically held a new product launch every day.

For an entire month, Tony pushed the world's inexplicably outdated civilian digital technology forward by at least ten years.

It was as if the whole world had upgraded from flip phones to smartphones overnight.

Even holographic projections had begun appearing on the market.

Leon still remembered Obadiah complaining at the time, saying Tony was exhausting the pond to catch fish. Good technology should be released bit by bit to harvest more fools.

"Uh, modern technology is like that... It suddenly explodes in development. Strange, isn't it?" He took a sip of coffee to hide his embarrassment.

Natasha shot him a resentful look. "If Stark Electronics Technology had been founded half a year later, I might have successfully escaped the Red Room or even destroyed it."

"...You're right." Leon kept drinking coffee. "It may not make much sense, but it's all Tony's fault. Why did he have to start a subsidiary?"

So the world was not the problem.

It was the wings he had fluttered as a butterfly, creating a tornado in Hungary.

The butterfly effect really could affect the timeline...

Leon was somewhat speechless. He also had no idea why no one had come looking for him even after the timeline had changed so much.

It was one thing for the Time Variance Authority not to come, but even The Ancient One had not shown up.

That left him thoroughly confused.

Still, for now, this world seemed to be the movie Zhou he knew.

As long as it was not the comic Zhou, everything was fine.

"What happened afterward?" he continued asking.

"After my defection plan was exposed, I was quickly besieged by other widows and captured, then brought 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 still retained my own thoughts, but there were many consciousnesses inside me. I didn't know which part was truly me."

As Natasha spoke, she quietly turned her face away and wiped her cheek with her back to Leon.

"In just over ten months, more people died by my hand than in the previous decade or more."

She continued, "There were little boys who could not yet walk, pregnant mothers, and powerful figures of high status."

"By today, my hands are already stained with blood." Natasha lowered her head, making her expression impossible to see.

Leon instinctively wanted to offer some comfort.

But clearly, comfort was not what Natasha needed.

Her heart was stronger than that of most people.

Yet the stronger she was, the more painful it became when her conscience condemned her.

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 to her fellow Avengers, whom she regarded as family in the movies.

She had never mentioned her experiences in the Red Room.

It was a wound she kept deeply buried in her heart.

Compared to tearing open those sealed scars.

She would rather Leon's compensation had been an eye for an eye, even if it meant having her arms and legs broken.

"What do you plan to do next?" Leon waved for U to refill Natasha's coffee again.

"Thank you." Natasha thanked U, then looked toward Leon.

"If possible, I hope to receive your help."

"I'm not asking to drag you into this war with no end in sight. I only want to ask whether you could help me make some inhibitors."

Natasha looked uneasy. "Or give me the formula, so I can save others. I will definitely find a way to compensate you for what you give."

Leon stroked 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 would love nothing more than for someone to make trouble for the Red Room.

Tony had only just exposed the Iron Man armor, and they had already dared to send Black Widow into his home to kidnap him.

If they waited until tomorrow, when Tony held a press conference and announced to the world that he was Iron Man.

Who knew what else the Red Room would do.

When it came to forces that were practically begging to die, Leon's choice was to make sure they did not see tomorrow's sun.

But Natasha happened to want to destroy the Red Room as well. Their goals aligned, so 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, so we should count as friends now." Leon interrupted her.

Natasha paused, then nodded. "Leon..."

"Here, listen to me first." Leon tapped the tabletop with his finger.

"Your idea is good, but carrying it out won't be easy."

He said, "First you disappear, then once you begin acting, other widows will also start disappearing one after another. The Red Room will quickly catch on, and you'll be 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. "Since you put it that way, I have an idea. A win-win—no, a win-win-win idea!"