Hearing this, everyone turned to look at Black Widow Natasha. After all, aside from Nick Fury and Hawkeye Barton, this was the first time they had ever heard her speak of such matters.
Just as she had said herself, she was already the infamous Black Widow by the time they met her. No one knew anything about her life before she became the Black Widow.
Clearly, this memory was a painful one.
"Agent Barton was sent to kill me! But he didn't do it!" Natasha declared, as if she had finally made a firm resolution.
Loki merely waved a hand in dismissal, showing no interest in continuing the story. "Enough. If I agree to let him go, what can you do for me?"
"I won't let you go!" Natasha replied, her words catching him off guard.
This, however, piqued Loki's interest. A smug smile spread across his face as he remarked, "How intriguing. Bargaining with me? You're a drowning rat yourself, yet you're worried about someone else?"
Natasha replied, "Politics have nothing to do with me. I've never cared for them. I am... I was once a Russian!"
Loki paused, then asked, "And what are you now?"
Black Widow Natasha stood up. "It's not as complicated as you think."
"I just have a debt," she said, crossing her arms again, "a debt that must be paid."
Loki sneered. "Oh, really? Can you ever truly pay back all the blood you've spilled?"
"Redkov's daughter... the hospital fire in São Paulo!" Loki's words struck a nerve, and Natasha's face contorted in the projection. "Barton told me everything!"
Loki sprang to his feet and strode toward her, his expression menacing. "Your ledger is dripping with blood," he snarled. "You've killed too many. Do you really think saving someone no more noble than yourself will change anything? This is the most primitive form of compassion!"
Natasha's face paled as if she had just recalled something utterly terrifying.
"How utterly naive. Pathetic. Laughable!" Loki continued to press her. "You're a liar, a killer, working for a con artist and a murderer!"
Loki felt certain of his victory. He had uncovered all of Black Widow Natasha's secrets and could now utterly crush the woman before him.
"You act so self-righteous, pretending you have your own code, thinking it can somehow offset your sins. But that's just your nature!" Loki's low, menacing voice droned on as images flashed across the screen: the superheroes busily preparing on the Helicarrier. "But they will *never*, *ever* disappear..."
The audience felt a flicker of curiosity. What was this "great fire"? What was the "blood that could never be washed away"? Yet, clearly, these were not questions anyone wanted to answer—they were wounds too raw to reopen.
Suddenly, Loki slammed his fist against the transparent glass wall, his voice a low threat. "I won't hurt Barton—at least not before he finishes you off! Slowly, gently... he knows all your fears. I'll give him plenty of time to realize exactly what he's done!"
Loki's low voice was that of a snarling beast, his face twisted with a triumphant smirk. He saw the flicker of terror on Black Widow Natasha's face through the glass. This was his favorite part: playing with their emotions.
"I'll wait until he howls at the sky, and then I'll smash his head in!" Loki's voice rose with growing excitement, his words turning into a roar. "This is my price, you little bitch!"
Loki hadn't managed to provoke Black Widow's true nature; instead, she had baited him into revealing his own. His earlier elegance had been a mere facade. Now, his true self was on display—furious that this filthy mortal dared not submit immediately and even tried to bargain with him. What right did she have?
Black Widow turned away, her shoulders shaking as if she were sobbing. "You're a monster!" she cried out.
Loki grinned triumphantly. He had finally shattered her psychological defenses. This was exhilarating.
"Oh, the monster hasn't even come out yet!" he sneered.
"So, it's Banner. That's your goal!"
At that moment, Black Widow spun around. There was no trace of tears on her face—not a single drop.
She had been playing him from the start. His words, which he'd assumed would devastate her, had barely registered. After countless battles and unimaginable horrors, what did a few cruel words matter?
So what if he was the God of Mischief? He'd still have to drink my bathwater.
"What?" Loki froze. He never expected Black Widow Natasha to deduce his target from a single sentence.
There was no doubt—it had to be Banner!
Among all the Avengers, the Hulk was the most likely to lose control. That's why Loki had feigned capture: to trigger the Hulk's rage. He never imagined someone would see right through him.
His overconfidence had blinded him to the capabilities of humans, and now he'd been outplayed.
"Loki's planning to use Banner!" Natasha immediately turned and informed Nick Fury via her earpiece. "If he's in the lab, don't let him leave. Send Thor in!"
She didn't even spare a glance for Loki as she walked away, leaving him standing there, utterly bewildered.
Only then did she stop, turn back to him, and say, "Thanks for your cooperation!"
A satisfied smile finally touched her lips. It had been worth using her own heartache as bait.
Although she could now face her past with composure, having it exposed by others was still an unpleasant experience.
The screen faded to black, and the video finally ended.
Everyone turned to Black Widow Natasha, looking at her as if seeing her in a new light. While they knew she was a cold and ruthless agent, they never expected her to so casually use her own trauma as bait to lure Loki into a trap.
The way she had played the God of Mischief for a fool left them deeply impressed by her cunning.
No wonder Lin Feng spoke so highly of her.
After a moment, the screen lit up again—the video wasn't over yet.
Back at the Avengers base, Black Widow Natasha was the only one on duty. She was preparing sandwiches while listening to reports from other Avengers on the projection.
She looked noticeably older than in the previous clip, as if she had been through countless hardships.
The figures appearing before the audience were Rocket Raccoon, the general from Wakanda, Captain Marvel Carol, and War Machine Rhodes.
"What's the deal with those tremors?" Natasha asked.
The female general from Wakanda replied, "It's just crustal movement in the African plate."
"Do we have footage? How are you handling it?" Black Widow Natasha asked.
"Natasha, it's just an underwater earthquake. We don't even need to worry about it," the Wakandan general said.
Seeing this, everyone probably understood that the core of the Avengers was gradually shifting to Black Widow, while the other three giants were gone.
They vaguely guessed that this was perhaps after The Blip.
After all, these were the people who survived Thanos's snap.
[This is no ordinary earthquake; it's the prelude to Atlantis causing trouble. But it's also pretty ridiculous. White people covet the underwater Vibranium resources, yet these Atlanteans don't go after the white people. Instead, they demand an explanation from the black kingdom of Wakanda. In the end, black and yellow people fight because of the white people's greed? What kind of brain-dead logic is that!]
Though it was just a fleeting glimpse, the information revealed in Lin Feng's bullet comment left everyone stunned. Lin Feng had criticized this before, but never in such detail as he did today.
It didn't just reveal the existence of Atlantis; it also disclosed that the ocean depths held vast reserves of Vibranium, which had even drawn the attention of white superpowers.
"Atlantis..." Tony Stark silently noted this. He remembered Lin Feng mentioning it before, and now, the successor to Iron Man, Ironheart, had also appeared in the footage.
He was already considering whether he needed to build a suit capable of deep-sea combat, just in case he was caught off guard by the Atlanteans in the future.
The others also realized that Atlantis might emerge into the world's view, much like Thor's Asgard. They had always thought it was just a myth, never expecting it to appear so abruptly.
"Carol, will you still be around next month?" Black Widow asked, her eyes weary as she looked at Captain Marvel's projection.
"Not necessarily," Captain Marvel replied, her hair now short.
Beside her, Rocket Raccoon couldn't resist another jab. "What? Going for another haircut?"
"Listen, fuzz-face," Captain Marvel said, exasperated. "My jurisdiction is huge. There are at least a few thousand planets facing the same threats as Earth. So, I might be away for a while."
The audience outside the screen was stunned. *So, there are at least a few thousand inhabited planets in this universe?*
And not just primitive life. Since Carol had said it, they must have civilizations comparable to Earth's.
*So this is the true nature of the universe?*
The crowd finally understood what Captain Marvel had been doing in deep space all those years. She certainly wasn't just loitering around.
-----------------------
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(End of Chapter)