Marvel With Zanpakutou

Ten hours after Fury went missing.

Far away in Vienna, Captain America Steve Rogers and Agent Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, had been temporarily detained in a secret alloy cell.

Right now, the two of them were like prisoners, wearing high-voltage restraint devices. If they made the slightest suspicious move, the device would unleash thousands of volts of electricity, enough to subdue them instantly.

Inside a brightly lit interrogation room,

Grant Ward, dressed to the nines like a young aristocrat on his way to a banquet, sat in the interrogator’s seat with that familiar fake smile on his face.

And in the chair opposite him, the interrogation subject, sat none other than one of former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury’s most trusted agents, the world-famous Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff.

In past missions, Natasha had often played the role of the "interrogated," using it to extract more information from her targets. But sitting in an interrogation room within her own organization was a first for her.

"An honor, really, to be sitting here."

After sitting down, Grant didn’t rush into questioning. Instead, he casually flipped through his notes.

"You should know this is a formal interrogation according to procedure, so I hope Miss Black Widow will cooperate with our work."

"What do you want to know?"

Natasha showed neither anger nor resentment, only an expression of cooperation.

"I understand the rules well enough. Ask whatever you want, I can tell you."

It wasn’t because she lacked loyalty or didn’t care about Fury, she simply understood one thing very clearly, stubborn silence was useless.

No matter how iron-willed you were, S.H.I.E.L.D. had plenty of ways to pry open your mouth and get the intel they wanted.

Take truth serums, for example, S.H.I.E.L.D. had hundreds of different formulas. One injection and you could clearly recount even the bad things you did as a child.

Especially when the man in front of her...

Natasha knew his methods well, he excelled at playing with people’s minds and had absolutely no moral bottom line. Spies who fell into his hands, regardless of nationality, rarely came out alive.

Even if they did survive, they’d end up mentally broken and sent to Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital for "recovery."

"Good, it seems Miss Romanoff isn’t as tight-lipped as the rumors say."

Grant smiled in satisfaction.

"Since you’re willing to cooperate, I’ll be direct, Nick Fury must have given you another mission, right?"

"...Yes."

Natasha hesitated for a moment but ultimately admitted it.

"I was tasked with monitoring Steve Rogers and, if necessary, reclaiming the Obelisk at any cost."

"No, no, no..."

Grant raised a finger and wagged it in front of her, grinning.

"Miss Romanoff, you know perfectly well I’m not talking about the Obelisk. I mean another, far more important plan."

"...I don’t know what you’re talking about."

Natasha’s face showed a trace of confusion.

"The only task Fury gave me was to reclaim the Obelisk, nothing else."

"I’m very disappointed, Miss Romanoff."

Grant’s eyes darkened, his handsome features twisting slightly, his voice dropping several degrees.

"Shall I remind you? Before Level 8 Agent Phil Coulson died, Nick Fury gave him a secret mission, one concerning the Reishi Project."

Natasha’s expression finally changed, shock flashing in her eyes. Grant caught every bit of it, which only confirmed the intel he had already suspected, Nick Fury had entrusted the Reishi Project to Natasha Romanoff.

"Afterwards, Agent Coulson died."

Now certain of his theory, Grant leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, speaking with confidence,

"Fury then made you the person in charge. I want to know the details of this project, and the location of the secret research facility."

"Who... exactly are you?"

Natasha looked at him deeply, but inside, waves of shock were already crashing.

The Reishi Project was a Level 10 top-secret file in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s database, only a handful of people in the entire organization even knew it existed, and they knew only the name.

And yet Grant Ward, merely a Level 8 agent, somehow knew about a Level 10 classified project?

Seeing the world-famous Black Widow wearing a look of stunned disbelief filled Grant with satisfaction. He gave a mysterious smile and silently mouthed a phrase.

Natasha, an expert in lip-reading, recognized it instantly,

Cut off one head, and two more shall take its place!

"No... that’s impossible!"

Natasha’s pupils shrank slightly, her expression shifting rapidly in a short span, as she said in shock, "Back in World War II, seventy years ago, S.H.I.E.L.D. already wiped you out completely!"

"Hahahaha..."

Grant’s wild laughter carried a trace of mockery and ridicule. "Everyone thought we were destroyed, but in reality, we never disappeared. We merely changed form and stayed right under your noses."

"Fury... was it you who did it?"

Natasha’s face changed drastically. Only at this moment did she finally understand, it was all Hydra’s conspiracy, and without even realizing it, they had already been completely infiltrated!

No wonder...

With Grant’s level of clearance, he could actually know about the Spirit Particle Project.

Moreover, within S.H.I.E.L.D.’s upper ranks, and even the World Security Council, there were likely Hydra members hidden away. Otherwise, Nick Fury would never have gotten into trouble.

"I’ll give you one last chance."

Grant tapped a finger on the tabletop, smiling with the confidence of someone holding all the cards. "Tell us the details of the Spirit Particle Project and the location of that secret research base, and I can put in a request to let you join us."

"Sounds... not bad."

Natasha was silent for a few seconds, then calmed down. "I could keep my life, maybe even get promoted and rich. Besides, I’ve betrayed my country before. Betraying again wouldn’t be too hard to understand, right?"

"That’s right. Now that’s the correct choice."

Grant’s smile slowly spread.

"But... I refuse!"

Natasha’s eyes glimmered with mockery as she said coldly, "It’s true I’ve betrayed my country, done many ugly, evil things, killed many innocent people, and even smothered my own conscience, but I, Natasha Romanoff, have never betrayed humanity!"

"You... know the consequences?"

Grant’s smile froze in place, then slowly turned cold. Visible flames of fury erupted in his eyes, as if they would burn her to ashes.

"Don’t bother trying to use truth serum."

Natasha sneered. "A ’Sparrow’ who came out of the Red Room is already immune to that stuff. Now, let me see if Hydra has any other tricks left."

...

...

...

In the underground sewer.

"Let me formally introduce myself."

The handsome blond-haired man crossed his arms over his chest and said indifferently, "You can call me Ikaris. Our kind has been quietly protecting humanity for hundreds of years, guiding their development in secret."

"And you... who are you people?"

Fury squinted instinctively, showing no surprise. He had experienced this sort of thing many times before, so he asked back in a calm tone.

"We are... the Eternals."

Ikaris spoke in a deep voice.

"Eternals... just you alone?" Fury glanced at him with some surprise.

"No... there used to be many of us."

A hint of sorrow appeared in Ikaris’s eyes, as though touching on a painful memory. "But now... only three remain."

"Killed by the Deviants?"

Fury raised an eyebrow, mentally bumping up the threat level of the Deviants.

"Not the Deviants..."

Ikaris gnashed his teeth, anger surging in his eyes as he said coldly, "The one who killed them, you should be quite familiar with him."

"Oh?"

Fury looked intrigued.

"He is..."

Ikaris took a deep breath, then exhaled heavily and said in a solemn voice, "The ruler of the Wandenreich, leader of the Sternritter, Yhwach’s right hand, Jugram Haschwalth!"

"..."

Fury’s expression turned a little strange.