And if that was the case, that meant her initial assumption was right. "You risked everything you've been building right under SHIELD's nose to save my life. Why?"
Smiling, Tony does something that irritates Natasha like nothing else. He answers her question with another question. To be fair, it's a tactic she employs all the time so it's rather hypocritical for her to be upset when it's used against her. Call her a hypocrite then, because she's still annoyed.
"Why didn't you tell Fury that you thought the robot was me? Why come back here to have this conversation with me when neither Fury nor Coulson are properly informed enough to be able to back you up?"
Unfortunately, Stark has all the power in this situation. And besides, he's been giving her plenty of answers already. Natasha knows how the game is played and she knows better than to get tight lipped now. Doesn't mean she's going to be completely honest with him though. "… Would it have mattered? I still told Fury about the robot and the Winter Soldier. He didn't believe me. Thought it was my concussion talking."
Suddenly, Tony looks beyond pleased with himself. And perhaps just a little apologetic.
"No you didn't. And no, he didn't."
Wait, what? Natasha can't help but be confused, her brow furrowing as Tony suddenly taps his desk and the seemingly wooden surface splits open to reveal a projection device. A holographic interface pops up and Tony does something that makes it swivel around to face her. Then, all of the sudden, Natasha is watching both sides of her and Fury debriefing after the mission in Odessa.
Except… except it's not her and Fury. Oh sure, it certainly looks like her. Talks like her. Acts like her. But the words out of her lips are not the words Natasha spoke, not the words she remembers.
In the video call, the fake Natasha outlines how the mission went to Fury, and everything is as it should be right up until her tires got shot out and they were sent over the cliff. Here, the fake Natasha doesn't say a word about the matte black robot or the Winter Soldier.
Instead, she tells Fury a tale of how some opportunistic modern day highwaymen who'd clocked her and her mark in Odessa had followed them and set up an ambush, shooting out her wheels. The fake Natasha then goes on to explain how after the crash she'd returned fire and that had sent them running off allowing her and the scientist to make it to the extraction point.
Fury seems to believe it, hook, line and sinker. Even thanks her for her hard work. As the video call ends, Tony peers at her through the holographic display. "That's what Fury experienced on his end. And of course, here's what you experienced on your end."
The debriefing that Natasha actually remembers plays next. With Natasha telling Fury about the matte black robot and the Winter Soldier but not her suspicions about Stark, and Fury promising to look into it but also none-too-subtly making it clear she thought she'd just been hallucinating things.
Now that she's seen both sides, Natasha feels like an idiot. Nicholas J. Fury had to be one of the most paranoid men she knew. And he was never close-minded. The idea that he would listen to one of his best operatives tell a story about a metal robot disabling and capturing the Winter Soldier right in front of her eyes and then decide she was talking nonsense was… well, it was ridiculous. She'd been an idiot for believing it for even a second.
And yet… and yet… "Good, huh? JARVIS does excellent work. All in real time as well. You two thought you were talking to each other while in reality, you were talking to facsimiles of one another while JARVIS played intermediary. And no one was any the wiser."
Tony swipes away the holographic monitor and smiles at Natasha from across the desk.
"So you see, you didn't tell Fury about my 'robot', nor did you tell him about the Winter Soldier. At least, as far as he's concerned. My secrets remain safe, Natasha Romanoff."
Natasha tenses at that and prepares to spring into action.
"So long as you silence me, you mean."
But far from attacking her or having someone else attack her, Tony just rolls his eyes at her. "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead Natasha. If I wanted you silenced, you'd already be silenced. I saved your life, didn't I? That has to count for something."
Natasha remains tense, her lips pressed tightly together as awkward silence reigns between them. Finally, Tony huffs.
"At least answer the question. Why didn't you try to tell SHIELD about your suspicions? Sentiment, perhaps?"
At having her own word thrown back in her face, Natasha's eyes narrow. In the end, she decides she might as well tell some semblance of the truth. After all, he already knew everything there was to know about her, apparently. But Stark clearly wasn't going to stop until he heard it right from her lips.
"SHIELD recruited me with a smile and a gun, as you almost certainly already know from their file on me. They offered me a job with lots of strings attached, and I'll be honest… I'm glad I took it. But they also didn't really give me much of a choice. If I had declined, I would be dead right now."
Tony bobs his head in easy agreement before gesturing silently for her to go on.
"… I've done things I'm not particularly proud of. Have a lot of red in my ledger. I imagine you know something about that, don't you Stark?"
The Merchant of Death smiles at her. It's not a nice smile.
"Perhaps."
Mm, pissing him off is probably not a good idea right now, Natasha decides.
"… Well, I want to try and get some of it out. SHIELD seemed like the best option for me to do that. But… now I owe you one. I owe you my life. So I figured I owed you at least the chance to explain before I did anything I couldn't take back."
Of course, now that she knew what he was truly capable of, Natasha realized there wasn't much she could have done. Honestly, she's left wondering just how this conversation would have gone if she HAD tried to tell the fake Fury of her suspicions regarding Stark, instead of just telling him about the Winter Soldier and the robot.
"Explain, huh? Sure, I've got an explanation for you, Natasha. Do you want to know how I got into HYDRA's servers? Do you want to know how I found out they were still alive after all this time?"
Natasha can't help but perk up a little at that. It sounds like Tony is going to tell her either way, but that doesn't change the fact that she does indeed want to know very much. Of course, she never could have expected Stark's punchline. Not in a million years.
" Simple, really. Because when JARVIS and I hacked into SHIELD's systems, we found HYDRA already there. Nestled in deep. Here's the truth, Agent Romanoff. HYDRA isn't just still around. HYDRA is SHIELD."
What? No. That wasn't possible.
"They've hollowed out the organization my father and aunt Peggy built. The organization you've entrusted to get the red out of your ledger. They've made their home in its rotting guts. And nobody has a single clue.
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