"Natasha, I see this as a good thing." Hawkeye Barton and Black Widow had an unusual relationship, and he immediately tried to comfort her.
"Now that you know how you'll die, it means you can start preparing now to avoid it all."
"Not everyone gets this kind of opportunity."
"Barton, I'm not a child anymore." Black Widow smiled at Hawkeye Barton. "It's fine, you don't need to comfort me. Let's just answer the questions."
Hawkeye Barton didn't say much else. As an experienced and battle-hardened agent, Black Widow naturally had strong psychological fortitude.
She could face her own death.
Hawkeye Barton refocused his attention on the big screen, and along with everyone else, began to pay attention to the questions.
"The Red Room, what kind of organization is that?" Tony Stark couldn't help but ask first, and then added, "That's a really strange name."
"Natasha, if you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to," Hawkeye Barton immediately said to Black Widow.
Barton knew that the Red Room was a shadow in Black Widow's heart that she didn't want to bring up.
"It's alright, Barton!" Black Widow pondered for a moment, then decided to reveal her unknown and not-so-glorious past.
Since joining S.H.I.E.L.D., with Black Widow's qualifications, rank, and merits, she could have been promoted to commander long ago instead of always being on the front lines.
But Black Widow still chose this life of teetering on the edge of life and death, all to atone for her past self.
Now, she could face her past with equanimity.
"The Red Room was a secret organization affiliated with the former Soviet Union. They collected many war orphans and trained them to be the most professional assassins!"
"I was one of the assassins trained by the Red Room."
"Because my blood-stained hands attracted the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D., they sent Barton to eliminate me, but Barton changed his mind."
"He convinced Nick Fury to let me join S.H.I.E.L.D., and that's how I was able to start a whole new life."
Black Widow briefly introduced the Red Room organization to everyone,
and also mentioned her own past, which, it must be said, still surprised everyone.
No one had expected Black Widow to have such an unknown past, and such a special bond with Barton.
Then the special relationship between Black Widow and Barton was not difficult to understand.
"So, this is a secret assassin organization that existed since the former Soviet Union?" Dr. Banner was slightly taken aback.
If that were the case, this Red Room would be a bit too dangerous.
"The Red Room organization has already been destroyed," Hawkeye Barton said seriously to Dr. Banner and everyone else at this point.
"Natasha's initiation into S.H.I.E.L.D. was to destroy the Red Room. We blew up the Red Room's base and killed their leader, Dreykov!"
"I personally killed Dreykov," Black Widow added at this point.
"So, their base was blown up, and their leader died, and therefore the Red Room was destroyed?" Tony Stark shrugged, expressing his skepticism. "Am I the only one who thought of Hydra?"
Hydra was a living "negative example."
S.H.I.E.L.D. had vowed that Hydra had been destroyed, but what was the result?
Not only was Hydra not destroyed, but it had also corrupted and infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. to the point of being unrecognizable.
With such an example before him, Tony Stark dared not believe that the Red Room had also perished in that way.
"Stark, this is different."
After some thought, Black Widow shook her head. "The reason Hydra left no traces was because they had cover within S.H.I.E.L.D.! It was because they infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.!"
"And the reason they infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. was because S.H.I.E.L.D. implemented a foolish 'Project Paperclip'!"
"So, Hydra's situation is an isolated case and won't happen a second time."
"After the Red Room was destroyed, S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't found any traces for so many years. They have been destroyed! There's no mistake."
"That's right, Stark, you're too sensitive," Hawkeye Barton also said to Tony Stark.
Unfortunately, Black Widow and Hawkeye Barton's thinking was still too limited. They could never have imagined that the Red Room's new base, after its destruction, had always been hidden in the clouds.
In the sky!
No matter how powerful S.H.I.E.L.D. was, it would be impossible for them to discover it.
"I'm just raising reasonable doubts, that's all. Whether you adopt them or not is your business." Tony Stark shrugged and didn't say much more.
"Let's temporarily rule out A, and look at the other options," Captain America said from the side.
He also felt that one instance of Hydra's example was already a miracle, and it wouldn't have happened without Project Paperclip.
The possibility of the Red Room being able to perfectly hide under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s nose again, like Hydra, was simply too low.
Otherwise, S.H.I.E.L.D. would be too useless.
"Self-sacrifice to obtain the Mind Stone?" Captain America looked at this option and thought of something.
"Thor, the Mind Stone, is that one of the six Infinity Stones?" Captain America glanced at Thor and asked.
"That's right, it's one of the six Infinity Stones, possessing powers related to the mind," Thor nodded.
"Option B describes an operation to acquire the Mind Stone, and I decided to sacrifice myself in that operation… We know nothing about any clues or details of this operation."
Black Widow shrugged, "So this option cannot be analyzed for now."
Everyone agreed with this point, and they once again focused their attention on option C.
"Age of Ultron? This should be the war that took place in Sokovia, where the Avengers and Vision fought against Ultron."
Captain America immediately made that judgment.
"Since it's an 'Age,' it must have been a large-scale battle, so I also believe it was that battle," Tony Stark nodded in agreement.
"Whether Ultron is the robot we suspect or not, this was a cruel and difficult war, and in such a war, anyone could have sacrificed themselves," Hawkeye Barton said from the side.
"So option C is possible?" Thor glanced at everyone and asked.
"That's right, I could have died in any operation, including the 'Project Insight' operation in option D," Black Widow nodded and said.
"Without knowing any details of these operations, we cannot make any judgments."
What Black Widow said was very reasonable. Whether it was a major battle or a minor operation, there were countless possibilities.
In the dark, no one could make any judgment.
"No, I think we can rule out Age of Ultron!" After some thought, Captain America remembered something.
"The Sokovia Accords!" Captain America then heavily uttered these words.
Many people present had their eyes light up. No one was foolish, and with Captain America's hint, they all reacted.
"We previously speculated that the Sokovia Accords occurred after the Avengers' battle with Ultron, and that battle was very likely the Age of Ultron."
Captain America continued to explain to everyone.
"Not only that, we also previously speculated that the fundamental cause of the Civil War was because the Captain signed the Sokovia Accords!"
"In that battle, Romanoff was present!"
Tony Stark added.
"In other words, Romanoff didn't die in the Battle of Ultron!" Thor summarized everyone's words.
Everyone was slightly excited. If that was the case, then the Age of Ultron could indeed be ruled out.
Of course, this deduction was not rigorous. No one could be sure whether the "Accords" mentioned in the Civil War were indeed the Sokovia Accords.
The only conclusion everyone could reach at the moment was that it was highly likely, and nothing more.
But even so, for answering the question, often having a possibility was enough.
"Guys, step it up, there's only one option left. As long as we can choose between D and B, we'll be fine."
"We are just one step away from solving this problem!"
Tony Stark clapped his hands at this point and said to everyone present.
In fact, there was no need for Tony Stark to say more; everyone's eyes were already fixed on option D, trying to analyze something.
"'Project Insight,' what is that?" Dr. Banner couldn't help but ask curiously from the side.
"That's a Hydra plan."
Captain America seriously introduced it to Dr. Banner, "Romanoff, another guy, and I will stop this plan sometime in the future."
Then he briefly introduced the relevant video information to everyone.
"Besides that, Captain, can you provide anything else? Aside from knowing 'we need to get into the Helicarrier,' we know nothing about this plan!"
Dr. Banner asked, staring at Captain America.
"That's all we know. The question system hasn't revealed any other clues about this plan."
Captain America shook his head.
The scene fell silent for a moment. As of now, everyone only knew that this plan might be related to the Helicarrier; everything else was unknown.
There was no way to start, no way to conduct any analysis.
"Captain, is it just you, Romanoff, and 'the other guy,' those three people?" Hawkeye Barton pondered for a moment, his expression subtly changing as if he had caught something.
"That's right, it's just the three of us," Black Widow nodded seriously. "From when we caught Sitwell to when the Winter Soldier tried to assassinate us, it was just the three of us throughout the entire process."
"This isn't right, no, or rather, this is right," Hawkeye Barton said, his eyes gleaming.
"What's both 'not right' and 'right,' Barton? Can you please explain it more clearly?" Thor asked, looking at Barton seriously.
"Although we're not quite sure what Project Insight is yet, Captain, you mentioned using Sitwell to infiltrate the Helicarrier!"
Hawkeye Barton said incisively, "This is about entering a Helicarrier! Your actions at the time simply didn't follow S.H.I.E.L.D.'s procedures."
"For an operation to infiltrate a Helicarrier, S.H.I.E.L.D. would make meticulous arrangements beforehand, with corresponding rapid response teams, logistical support, and even potentially direct command from Director Fury."
"But you guys? You seemed to have nothing."
"Otherwise, Captain, you wouldn't have made the decision to use Sitwell to infiltrate the Helicarrier. That decision was absolutely terrible, like child's play."
"Barton, you're right." With Barton's reminder, Black Widow also nodded. "At the time, we did seem to be acting alone, without any S.H.I.E.L.D. support."
This was still obvious.
The childish method of entering the Helicarrier, taking a very important Hydra mole out without any protection, and not contacting command for backup when attacked by the Winter Soldier on the way... Captain America and Black Widow were indeed operating outside the S.H.I.E.L.D. system.
"In other words, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't participate in the operation to disrupt Project Insight at all, and it was just Captain America, Romanoff, and the other two?"
Tony Stark keenly grasped the meaning of everyone's words. "So the description of option D itself is wrong; it's not 'S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operation to disrupt Project Insight.' This operation wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D.'s at all!"
"That's right, that's exactly what I meant when I said this operation wasn't right," Hawkeye Barton nodded.
But he wasn't finished; he continued to speak eloquently.
"Remember the 'Hail Hydra' footage? Sitwell died on the way to disrupt Project Insight, so 'Hail Hydra' happened before this event."
"And at that time, Captain pretended to be Hydra to trick them out of the scepter."
"But this kind of thing is easily exposed. As soon as Sitwell confirms with his superiors, they'll immediately know they were tricked by the Captain!"
"So what kind of situation would the Captain face next?"
"The Captain would be purged by Hydra's high-ranking infiltrators within S.H.I.E.L.D.! And their first step would be to use some excuse to drive the Captain out of S.H.I.E.L.D.! To frame the Captain as a criminal, and then use S.H.I.E.L.D. to legitimately deal with him!" Black Widow immediately interjected.
As a seasoned agent, she was very knowledgeable about these tactics, knew how they worked, and could instantly grasp the key points.
"So I think that's why you were acting alone, because at that time, you were very likely S.H.I.E.L.D. criminals!"