Learn about Au Revoir's role in the murders (Time -1)

The mission you'd been given early on had seemed nearly impossible: investigate the Goodbye Girls and piece together their roles in the murders of your predecessor, those who'd been named Ciao before you. Each of those had died under mysterious circumstances and, due to their involvement with the Goodbye Girls, the suspicion had naturally fallen upon the mysterious team. You, by some miracle, had stayed alive all this time, using a mix of wit, charm, and boldness; carefulness only came into it now and again, which could be what separated you from the previous handlers, for all you knew.

If, early on, you'd asked the girls directly about their knowledge of those dead handlers, you would have earned, at best, more of their deception or derisive behavior, and, at worst, an early admission into that same file of the deceased. By this point, you'd gotten close to the Girls... not only that, you'd certainly tipped your hand, to some extent, to the fact that you were investigating them. None of them were so stupid that they could have failed to realize that. As such, you felt that the time had come: you'd learn directly what they knew about the handlers that had died and what motivations they might have had for killing them. Even if your search with one of the Girls turned up fruitless, they were certain to know something that would point the finger at one of their comrades.

Approaching Au Revoir to learn more about the previous handlers or to even indirectly accuse her of those murders was an intimidating prospect. After all, what did all of those dead men have in common? That each was her handler when they died. For all you knew, each had died questioning the deaths of the last...

... Or perhaps they hadn't questioned hard enough? Either way, you were damned if you did, damned if you didn't. Might as well try to make sense of it.

You found Au Revoir hitting her well-worn punching bag when you entered; in spite of all of the turmoil in your mind, she greeted you with a sunny smile and paused to hold back the bag from swaying. "Little Ciao! You are here to train with Au Revoir!" the Frenchwoman laughed, as if her observation was a demand that altered the course of whatever you'd come here planning to do. Ordinarily, you'd object to her intense workout routine-- it always proved to be more than ordinary humans could hope to keep up with-- but in this case, it looked like she was just punching the bag. It would also help you to loosen up and relax any tension in the room before you broached that difficult topic.

You'd never actually tried it before this point, but you realized when your fist connected with the leather: this was no ordinary punching bag that Au Revoir trained with. The thing barely budged under the force of your fists. You tried really putting your weight into it, but that only made it hurt more. The difficulty of getting any kind of motion out of the bag, combined with your training partner's insensitive laughter, quickly brought your frustration to the boiling point. As if to get back at her, you suddenly asked Au Revoir a difficult question: what could she tell you of the Ciaos that came before you?

"The other Ciaos? Hm... None of them made much of an impression on me," Au Revoir admitted with a shrug. "None of them trained with me either! Perhaps that is why they are dead and you are still alive, no? Have you ever considered that?" The woman was chuckling and talking herself up, as though her training was what had allowed you to survive this long.

Based on the timeline you'd been given, Au Revoir ought to know every one of the Goodbye Girls handlers from the past. It didn't seem to check out that she'd have no particular memories of any of them. With a sigh, you made a token effort to hit that huge bag some more, before dropping your arms again. You stayed silent, intending to give her more time to form a concrete answer.

"Eh, the first Ciao, he was Vaarvel's friend. I thought he was a bit cute, but eh, he was all Vaarvel's. No room for Au Revoir. To be honest, he was also probably a bit unseasoned for this type of work... The kind that could have used a bit more time on a regular job. He had one of those young faces though... kind of a familiar face! I cannot say where from. Aaah... I doubt much of this is useful to you."

The desperate part of your mind wondered if perhaps the fact that this first Ciao only had eyes for the Goodbye Girls' senior agent could have been the reason he died, but that seemed unlikely... For now, you were just reaching. You let her continue talking.

"Second Ciao was a bit of a creepy man-- an older man. He did not seem suited to the assignment, more of the science type, so I never hit it off with him. He was dead so quickly that there was nothing to learn about him. I cannot tell you more, though maybe Tschau could. It seemed she was always watching him... maybe she just has a thing for older men? He he he..." {if Tschau's Role > 999}It was, frankly, startling how wrong she had called Tschau's intentions in this case.{endif}

What about the third?

"The third? Ha ha, he was probably the ugliest of the three! It seemed like they got uglier and uglier until you came around. This one was, at the very least, someone with field experience and handling experience, but he also had kind of a fixation... a paranoia. Oui, he was least social of them all. This one would avoid Au Revoir at all times, ha ha ha... Kind of a shame when you think about it. Whoever got to him, I could have taken care of them if I'd been around. All the more reason for you to spend all your time around Au Revoir!"

You couldn't see Au Revoir's face; she'd moved around to the other side of the bag and was holding the thing steady with two hands now, as if there was any danger at all that you were going to cause it to swing. You'd gained a lot of interesting info, but nothing that seemed useful in terms of divining who the murderer of any or all of the Ciaos was. You asked her, as a combat specialist, what she thought about the manners of their deaths. If she'd been around, was it possible she could have helped? Or was it something like poison that did them in?

"No, no poison, however, all of them were killed quite brutally. The first two were seemingly unaware when it happened-- no signs of resistance. The third, however, was in quite a state... so many broken bones! Whoever killed him was trying to send a message... given the guy's attitude, I'd have to say that message was 'don't stick your nose where it does not belong.'"

You asked her to elaborate on that point.

"Mm, well, he was a strange one. He was convinced he knew the secret behind the other deaths and he was determined to put it on one of us. It soon became clear that this was his own decision, with no support from top brass, because he had no confidence, only desperation. What motivated him to dig that much? Hard to say... I didn't ask him! And no one ever got the chance, because he was brutalized. He died in terrible agony and we must consider it is because of his motivations."

You questioned her further: was his digging around reason enough to kill him, especially considering he had no support from CEDIT?

"Hm, well, no support... But he was good enough to become a handler, no? He could have gotten there. In fact, I suspect that he got close to something. That's why he was killed. Ciao, do you suppose you're close to something too?"

The tone of those words was more than a bit ominous; you kept punching, trying to imagine what kind of face she was making on the other side of the bag. As you opened your mouth to answer, a shadow suddenly fell upon you. The woman had left the bag and then, with swiftness not matching her size, had come to one side of you, resting her hand upon your shoulder. You answered slowly: you did think you were onto something. You thought you were pretty close to figuring out who the killer was.

The woman's eyes were sad as she clenched her hand harder upon your shoulder; you could feel her effortlessly straining the bone there with just her grip. It felt more like you'd suddenly got your arm locked in some piece of machinery. "There's only one person who could have beaten him so badly Ciao, and killed him in the way he was killed. It was me, Ciao. I tell you: I'm the one that murdered that man."

Your eyes darted rapidly between her hand and her face as you tried to decide which to watch. You asked her why she'd tell you.

"Because I was ordered to kill him in my dreams. It was not my decision; I received an order from someone who I cannot name to kill this man. And I tell you this: if you continue to dig any deeper, I will receive an order to kill you. That is all there is to it."

An order... Goodbye? Or one of the other Goodbye Girls?

"Ha ha... I tell you I cannot name them and you ask me to name them. Your survival skills need some work, my friend," she scoffed, while still smiling. You felt her tweak the arm for just a moment longer, before releasing it. "It is not that I will not name them, it is that I cannot; I heard the voice tell me to kill Ugly Ciao, and I killed him. That's all there is to it. However, this is not my cross alone... it's a curse all of us Goodbye Girls bear. The mannerisms of the other deaths suggest Vaarvel and Tschau were also made killers... I was controlled to kill and I believe they were as well. Do you think it could be Goodbye giving the instructions? I do not... But someone is using all four of us girls as puppets to kill. The easiest way to avoid being killed is to avoid looking into it. I may have doomed you by having this conversation."

You asked her why she had even come out with it, then...

"Because I am a bad liar, Ciao. You are smart, maybe smarter than me. You would have figured all of this out eventually. You are, eh, perhaps smarter than previous Ciao, though much better looking," she sighed. "I do not want to talk about it any more, Ciao. However, I urge you: do not report this to Goodbye just yet. If you do, someone will make a move and you will die... I urge you to keep this to yourself. Have faith in Au Revoir. I know the time will come when the mastermind reveals himself, and when he does, I will snap his neck with my own hands for daring to cross me. Be it Adder, be it CEDIT!" Her eyebrows arched with anger while her smile widened with grim determination.

On one hand, it sounded like she wanted to be your savior and not to doubt any of her allies. These were admirable goals, but a bit ill-conceived... If anything, her words had only confirmed to you that one or more of her allies was probably behind all of this. Not only that, but also, she'd just admitted to killing a man. That alone, regardless of whether she was truly controlled to do it or not, ought to qualify her to be taken off duty and locked up in high security.

You wanted to have faith in her, just like she wanted to have faith in everyone... but how could you trust someone who could be controlled to kill others?

You told her that you needed to think about it. With that, you turned your back and left, feeling conflicted.

"Remember what I told you! Trust in Au Revoir! Leave it all to me and I'll solve all of this!" she called after you, sounding hopelessly optimistic in her own abilities. You were sorry to say it, but there was no way you could leave it to her; you'd just gained more reason than ever to bring this to an end yourself.