Chapter 40 Reasons for the Timeline Change

Leon realized that Natasha was not joking and stopped smiling.

"...Okay, no need to be so serious, I was just joking, and I take back my disrespectful words just now."

He waved to Benben again: "Xiaoben, come and give this lady some more coffee."

Now it was Natasha's turn to be surprised.

"You're apologizing to me? This... Honestly, this is nothing like what I thought."

"Apologize? No, did you misunderstand something? I'm not apologizing, I'm just maintaining my manners and at least not joking about that kind of thing in public." Leon defended.

Natasha's eyes were filled with confusion: "You actually said that... I mean, you are very different, you don't look like a Stark at all!"

"Maybe it's because I've received another education besides Stark's?"

Leon raised his glass and clinked it with Natasha, "But it's useless no matter how much you praise me."

"You invaded here and attacked me, and I saved you despite our past grudges. But you ended up plotting something bad. A verbal apology alone is not enough."

"...You're right." Natasha smiled and drank the hot coffee. "But I'm really praising you. This is the first time I've heard such words. It sounds really cultured."

"Thank you for the compliment. This is part of how I package my own image." Leon shrugged.

"This kind of packaging must be very attractive to little girls." Natasha's eyebrows gradually curved.

"Maybe... Then, should we talk about you and the problem of the Red House?" Leon put down his coffee cup.

"What do you want to talk about?" Natasha stopped leaning on the workbench. "If this is the compensation you want, I will tell you everything I know."

"I just have one question, how did you come under the control of the Red Room a year and a half ago?"

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

He still couldn't forget it.

After all, this is related to his judgment of the universe he lives in.

And this was also the purpose of his treatment of Natasha.

"How was I controlled..." Natasha held the coffee cup, looking a little dazed and struggling.

To her, it seemed like a long time ago.

During the time she was controlled, she committed too many bloody crimes.

Even those days when she could only move with her own will seemed much better by comparison.

Asking her to recount her experience at that time would be like tearing open the scars from the inside out. It would be better for her to charge into the battle line directly under the hail of bullets.

But after struggling for a while, she slowly began to narrate.

"I was trained and reformed in the Red House when I was young. They brainwashed all the girls."

"It's just that I persisted in the brainwashing and retained my own will."

"So when I found the opportunity, I tried to rebel, and then I failed."

Natasha's eyes were so empty. She looked at the coffee shaking in the cup, but her vision seemed to travel back to the past.

"In order to prevent similar incidents from happening again, they stopped brainwashing the girls and started using chemicals to control us."

"...This is how it happens." Natasha said it briefly, as if she were saying that putting an elephant into a refrigerator only requires opening the refrigerator and putting the elephant in.

Leon got to the point: "You are so capable, why did your rebellion fail?"

In the original world line, Natasha should have met Hawkeye around 2006, and then launched an attack on the leader of the Red House in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and finally successfully defected to join S.H.I.E.L.D.

The situation now is completely the opposite.

"You can't imagine the power of the Red House. The widows are all over the world, and no one can resist them."

Natasha's shoulders drooped as if they had lost support. "Almost two years ago, I was attacked by Hawkeye from S.H.I.E.L.D. That was a good opportunity. I tried to get in touch with S.H.I.E.L.D. through him."

“It’s just…” She suddenly looked up at Leon.

"It has something to do with you, too."

"I?"

"In 2006, your Stark Company released a revolutionary electronic product. The Red House derived the technology from it and used the complementary technologies to update the smart devices inside."

Natasha tilted her head. "So when I was in contact with Hawkeye, I was being monitored the entire time, but I was completely unaware of it."

"At that time, my communication equipment only had ordinary anti-eavesdropping functions."

"How could anyone have expected that the Red House's communication technology would make such an explosive leap in just a few months?"

The corner of Leon's mouth twitched. It turned out that Black Widow was caught because she was out of date.

The civilian technology in the Marvel world lags far behind the military technology.

In 2006, Tony was inspired by him and used many technologies that were previously only used in the military industry to create digital equipment.

During that period, Stark Group held new product launches every day.

For one month in a row, Tony advanced the progress of civilian digital equipment technology, which for some reason lagged far behind the rest of the world, by at least ten years.

It seemed as if the whole world switched from flip phones to smartphones overnight.

Even holographic projections are beginning to appear on the market.

Lyon still remembered that Obadiah had complained at that time, saying that Tony was exhausting the resources and that good techniques should be released bit by bit so that more benefits could be harvested.

"Well, modern technology is like this... It explodes all of a sudden, it's weird." He took a sip of coffee to hide his embarrassment.

Natasha gave him a resentful look and said, "If Stark Electronics Technology Company could have been established half a year later, I might have been able to successfully break away from or even destroy the Red House."

“…You’re right.” Leon continued to drink his coffee. “Although it doesn’t make sense, it’s all Tony’s fault. Why would he build a subsidiary company for no reason?”

It turns out that it’s not the world that’s wrong.

It was the flapping of his butterfly wings that created a tornado in Hungary.

The butterfly effect can actually affect the timeline...

Leon was speechless, and he didn't know why no one had come to him even though the timeline had changed so much.

Not only will the Time Management Bureau not come, but Ancient One won’t come either.

This left him very confused.

However, at present, this world should still be the movie universe he is familiar with.

All I can say is that everything will be fine as long as it’s not a comic book universe.

"What happened next?" he continued to ask.

"After my plan to defect was exposed, I was soon besieged by other widows and taken back to the Red House."

"After being imprisoned for six months, the Red House used chemicals to control me."

"I have absolutely no choice. Over the past year or so, although I still retain my own thoughts, I have multiple consciousnesses and I don't know which part is really me."

Natasha said this, quietly turned her cheek away, and wiped her face with her back to Leon.

"In the past ten months, more people have died at my hands than in the past ten years."

She continued, "There are little boys who can't walk yet, there are pregnant mothers, and there are powerful people."

"To this day, my hands are covered in blood." Natasha lowered her head, making it impossible to see her expression.

Leon subconsciously wanted to say something comforting.

But it was clear that comfort was not what Natasha needed.

She has a stronger heart than most people.

But the more this happened, the more painful it became when her conscience condemned her.

In fact, if Leon hadn't asked for this information as compensation to Natasha.

There was no way Natasha would reveal her past.

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

She also never mentioned her experience in the Red House.

That was the deepest wound in her heart.

Compared to tearing open these dusty wounds.

In fact, she would rather Leon's compensation was tit-for-tat, even if it meant breaking her limbs.

"So what are you going to do next?" Leon waved his hand and asked Benben to refill Natasha's coffee.

"Thank you." Natasha thanked Benben and then looked at Leon.

"I would like your help if I can."

"I don't mean to drag you into this endless war, but could you please help me make some inhibitors?"

Natasha said apprehensively: "Or maybe it's the formula that will allow me to save other people. I will definitely find a way to compensate you for your efforts."

Leon stroked his chin and said, “The matter of the inhibitor is simple, but…”

"You seem to be planning to rescue a group of widows first, gather enough manpower, and then declare war on the Red House?"

To be honest, he hoped that someone would cause trouble for the Red House.

After all, Tony had just exposed his Iron Man armor, and the other party dared to send Black Widow to sneak into his house and kidnap him.

If he waited until tomorrow, Tony would hold a press conference and announce to the world that he is Iron Man.

I don’t know what the red house will do next.

For this force that is seeking death, Lyon's choice is to prevent it from seeing tomorrow's sunrise.

However, it just so happened that Natasha also wanted to destroy the red house, which was a coincidence, and Leon didn't mind going with the flow.

Natasha stood up straight. "Yes, that's my plan, Mr.... Mr. Stark, please believe me, I will..."

"Just call me Leon. You've said so much from your heart. We should be considered friends." Leon interrupted.

Natasha paused and nodded: "Leon..."

“Well, listen to me first.” Leon tapped the table with his fingers.

"Your idea is good, but it's not easy to implement."

He said, "First you lose contact, then once you start to act, other widows will also lose contact, and the Red House will react very quickly, and then you will be in a very bad situation."

Natasha shook her head slowly: "I know, but I have to do it. This is my...responsibility!"

“Responsibility…” Leon thought for a moment, “Now that you mention it, I have an idea, a win-win, no, a win-win-win idea!”