"For the past five years, I've been working towards one thing, and that is this very moment!"
On the screen.
Black Widow, under the watchful gaze of Hawkeye Barton, spoke to him in a low voice, "Everything has been for this moment, for everyone to be resurrected!"
"No, don't try to be a hero now!" Hawkeye Barton said, looking into Black Widow's eyes.
"What, do you think I want to do this? I'm trying to save your life, you fool!"
"But I don't want you to save me, so what? Natasha, you know what I've done, you know what kind of person I've become!"
"I don't judge a person by their worst mistakes."
"Maybe you should!"
"But you didn't back then!"
...Hawkeye Barton and Black Widow engaged in a 'verbal battle,' and eventually, Hawkeye chose to 'give in.'
"You are so annoying, you know that?" Hawkeye's eyes welled up with tears. "You win!"
But no sooner had he finished speaking than Hawkeye suddenly moved, knocking Black Widow to the ground: "Tell my family I love them!"
Clearly, Hawkeye had decided to sacrifice himself!
"Tell them yourself!" Black Widow was no pushover; she quickly countered, knocking Hawkeye to the ground.
She also shot a 'small ring' at Hawkeye, which immediately sparked with electric arcs, zapping him.
Black Widow seized the opportunity and quickly ran towards the cliff.
It looked like she intended to jump off the cliff and sacrifice herself.
At that critical moment, Hawkeye once again got up from the ground and shot an arrow into the ground next to Black Widow.
Boom!
The arrowhead exploded directly, and the violent blast knocked Black Widow to the ground.
Hawkeye threw his bow to the ground.
He charged forward without hesitation, instantly leaping off the cliff!
Just as Hawkeye was about to fall, a figure suddenly darted out and grabbed him.
It was Black Widow.
Black Widow swiftly shot out a grappling hook, which embedded itself in the cliff, and then secured one end of the grappling hook to Hawkeye Barton's body.
Hawkeye was left dangling on the cliff face.
But he was quick-witted and grabbed one of Black Widow's arms.
The two of them were thus 'strung together' by a single grappling hook, suspended in the air.
"Wait, no, Natasha!" Hawkeye Barton shouted at Black Widow.
"Let go!" Black Widow said to Barton, ready to face death.
"No, please, Natasha."
"It's okay!"
After bidding farewell to Hawkeye Barton, Black Widow fiercely pushed off the rock face with both feet, breaking free from Hawkeye Barton's grasp.
She plunged down into the abyss below!
Everyone present was moved; they couldn't help but look at Black Widow and Hawkeye Barton with immense admiration.
They admired the genuine affection between the two, an affection so sincere that both had "exhausted every means" to sacrifice themselves for the other's sake.
This was not something just anyone could do.
Earlier, Tony Stark had said that none of them could prove they weren't Hydra, but at this moment, Tony Stark felt certain that Black Widow and Hawkeye Barton were definitely not Hydra.
How could there be such sincere people within Hydra?
Buzz!
After Black Widow fell from the cliff to her death, layers of blue energy began to ripple in the air above the cliff.
It seemed as if the Soul Stone had responded, receiving Black Widow's soul.
As if agreeing to the exchange.
The next moment.
The camera cut, but for some reason, Hawkeye Barton was suddenly lying in the water.
However, it was likely a change caused by Black Widow's sacrifice.
Immediately after, Hawkeye Barton regained consciousness; he first looked around his surroundings in a daze, but quickly realized something.
He suddenly opened his hand and, sure enough, found a yellow glowing gem in it.
That was the gem Black Widow had obtained by sacrificing her life!
Hawkeye Barton knelt in the water and cried bitterly.
The scene froze on Hawkeye Barton's despairing expression.
"Barton, Romanoff, you both did well, you are both respectable warriors!" Thor immediately praised Barton and Black Widow with a look of approval.
Captain America also had a look of appreciation on his face.
As an old soldier with somewhat "old-fashioned" ideas, he most admired soldiers who were worthy of entrusting one's life to.
Black Widow and Hawkeye Barton could be said to perfectly suit Captain America's taste.
"Natasha, promise me that if something similar ever really happens again, you absolutely, absolutely must not do something so foolish again, okay?" Hawkeye Barton said to Black Widow with a serious expression.
"And can you?" Black Widow glanced at Hawkeye Barton, asking back leisurely.
Hawkeye Barton just smiled; of course he wouldn't agree, so he also knew Black Widow couldn't possibly agree.
"Like I said, you're annoying, you know that?" Hawkeye Barton chuckled.
"If you two are done with your 'family declarations,' can we summarize the footage we just saw?"
Tony Stark rather spoilsportingly interrupted the two.
At this point, the atmosphere in the room became slightly somber, because through the previous footage, everyone had learned a very terrifying and painful reality:
In the future, billions of people will die!
No one knew the specific reason, but this extremely exaggerated number still deeply shocked everyone's hearts.
The Earth only has seven billion people in total!
In other words, the total population of Earth is only "several billion," and in the future, several billion will die all at once!
This was simply tragic beyond compare.
How could anyone remain calm?
"First, billions of people on Earth will die in the future. Who killed them, and how were they killed?"
Captain America said to everyone with a serious expression.
This question was spot on; it wasn't a few million or tens of millions, but billions of people. No war could possibly kill that many!
Unless the Earth launched nuclear bombs on a large scale, that would be closer.
Other than that, no one could really think of how so many people could die all at once.
"Everyone, do you remember the question about Director Fury?" Black Widow suddenly remembered something; she glanced at everyone and reminded them.
"Those billions of people might have turned to dust, just like Nick Fury and the others!" Thor immediately recalled, his eyes shining.
Even Thor remembered, let alone Captain America and Tony Stark, who also reacted.
And they all agreed deeply.
Everyone had seen it clearly at the time: many people on the streets inexplicably turned to dust, and even the pilots of airplanes in the sky suffered the same fate.
But the footage never explained that this only happened on one street!
What if it happened in an entire city?
What if it happened across the entire Earth?
In that case, it would be possible for billions of people on Earth to die!
Based on all the information they currently possessed and their usual understanding, aside from the situation where people turned to dust, they couldn't think of any other more reasonable or convincing explanation.
"What are you talking about? What turned to dust?" Dr. Banner, who was unaware of the situation, asked from the side.
Captain America then recounted the previous footage to Dr. Banner and Hawkeye, leaving both of them stunned.
They were quite shaken.
"So, Thanos did this again?" Black Widow couldn't help but guess from the side.
That "dusting event" happened during the "Battle of Wakanda," and everyone at the time had sufficient reason to speculate that the mastermind behind this event was Thanos.
After all, in Endgame, after Iron Man snapped his fingers, Thanos's army turned to dust in exactly the same way as Nick Fury and the others.
And after his gauntlet was taken away, Thanos tried to snap his fingers multiple times.
Although Thanos was stopped in that battle, who knew if he had ever snapped before?
And frankly, when it comes to killing billions of people, aside from the Infinity Stones, no one really believed any other power could achieve it.
"Thanos! It's this Thanos again!" Tony Stark said somewhat indignantly.
How many incidents so far have had this Thanos as the suspected mastermind?
This guy truly was a lingering nightmare in everyone's minds, impossible to shake off.
"Romanoff said that getting the Soul Stone could save those billions of people. We don't know how exactly they'll be saved, but the importance of the Soul Stone is self-evident."
Captain America said to everyone with a serious expression, "Stark, can you use Jarvis to search globally for the place shown in the footage?"
"That's certainly no problem." Tony Stark shrugged. "But that place might not be on Earth, and this task is more suitable for Nick Fury; doesn't he have clairvoyance?"
Tony Stark's suggestion was indeed quite reasonable, and Captain America didn't say much more, nodding his head.
If Nick Fury could find Red Skull using his clairvoyance, then everything would be fine, no need to say more.
But if Nick Fury couldn't find Red Skull, it would mean Red Skull wasn't on Earth.
Then, naturally, the place shown in the footage would also not be on Earth.
"There's also something very strange that I'm sure you've noticed," Dr. Banner interjected with another point of confusion. "How many Soul Stones are there in this world?"
"Agent Romanoff said Thanos had already taken the Soul Stone, so logically, the Soul Stone shouldn't be there anymore."
"Yet Agent Barton still obtained the Soul Stone from there!"
Regarding this question, everyone looked at each other, unable to deduce anything, as the relevant clues were simply too few.
"Maybe, after Thanos got the Soul Stone, he put it back for some reason?"
Tony Stark shrugged, "Maybe the Soul Stone flew back itself! Who knows?"
Everyone gathered again and chatted for a while.
Although this question revealed some very important information to them, unfortunately, they couldn't make any preparations.
Or rather, the only preparation they could make was to try and see if they could find the location of that mysterious cliff.
[Please answer the question: On the night Nick Fury was killed, he gave Captain America a USB drive. Who did Captain America seek help from to ultimately force the secret within the USB drive out of a Hydra mole?]
[A. Iron Man Tony Stark]
[B. Falcon Sam Wilson]
[C. Hawkeye Barton Clint]
[D. Bucky Barnes]
[Friendly reminder: Correct answer will receive a reward of any version of the Batmobile; incorrect answer will result in a random deduction of one personal attribute, including but not limited to knowledge, experience, skills, possessions, etc...]
Soon, a new question appeared, temporarily interrupting their discussion.
Everyone temporarily shifted their attention to the latest question.
This question was about Captain America.
"The night Nick Fury was killed."
Black Widow immediately recognized the specific event in the question. "Captain, this is what you mentioned last time, when you were wanted by Secretary Pierce and escaped from S.H.I.E.L.D."
"That's right!" Captain America nodded.
He then briefly explained the event to Dr. Banner and Hawkeye Barton, who were unaware of it.
The two then understood.
"The S.H.I.E.L.D. director was killed, and before he died, he told the Captain not to trust anyone. The Captain was then immediately ordered to be hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D."
Hawkeye Barton shrugged, "But in this situation, the Captain still chose to ask someone for help. Whoever that person is, they must be someone the Captain trusts very much."
"Stark and the Captain are both Avengers in the future. Although a Civil War of Heroes broke out, we can see that Stark sincerely cared for the Captain during the Civil War."
"Before the Civil War, they should have been quite close comrades... Moreover, we don't know when the Civil War broke out."
"Sam Wilson? He chose to help the Captain during the Civil War and also participated in the operation to sabotage Project Insight."
"Hawkeye Barton Clint, like Sam Wilson, helped the Captain during the Civil War. He's not only a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent but also an Avenger."
"If we're talking about someone the Captain trusts very much, these three are all very likely candidates." Black Widow glanced at the "candidates" in the options and began to elaborate to everyone.
"What about Bucky Barnes?" Hawkeye Barton asked from the side, "You said before that he was a killer controlled by Hydra?"
....