Use the EMP upon her brain implants (Ending #8: Ciao, Tschau)

Hearing her beg for you to put an end to it, a thought did occur to you. You doubted a bullet could stop her and you didn't see any proper scanner to use your CEDIT hack-gun on, but there was one tool in your arsenal that was guaranteed to work on 99% of machines. You doubted that even sophisticated technology like hers could handle a direct shock from the discrete EMP. If it was just her legs or her fingers, you'd take the option in a heart-beat, but...

"Don't hesitate, Ciao. Please... do it now!" Tschau begged you; her body had ceased resistance underneath you. "If you don't, I'll do it myself-!"

You grit your teeth, increasing the strength of your press against the wrist of the arm wielding her dangerously sharpened blade. You knew she wasn't kidding; her code of justice was strong enough to end herself if she thought that she was a threat towards innocent lives. That said, would the mastermind even let her? The moment that arm got free, the one behind of all of this could take control again.

Even if they didn't, you couldn't allow her to kill herself!

"... You can't go through with it, can you? You always were pretty soft for this job," Tschau murmured, closing her eyes with a saddened expression. "My body is full of weaponry, Ciao; you could say my body is a weapon. I'm too dangerous to let live. I'm also too dangerous for you to possibly stop me. You're only delaying the inevitable, stupid..."

If just you knew who Namaste was! If just you could understand how they were doing all of this, you could stall Tschau's attack and the two of you could go after them together. You wouldn't be forced into a corner the way you were now.

Tschau's eyes briefly lit orange again and her exposed mouth broke into a grin, without moving to the words that issued out from inside some speaker in the robotic part of her brain. "Hey, Ciao. Is it easier if it's like this? If you can't kill her, you can kill me, right? Of course, I'll still come say 'hi' later!" the mastermind cackled.

The sad part? That really did make it easier to accept what you had to do. You couldn't bear to see what Tschau's face would look like when her senses came back. You could imagine her, wild-eyed and furious, throwing you off and using that time to plunge a sword into her own body. You didn't know if you could stand to watch that.

It was better to let her embrace sleep peacefully. That's what you told yourself, as, with quivering hands, you grabbed the discrete EMP out of your pocket and held it uneasily in one whole fist, using the hand that wasn't occupied keeping her from her sword. The one in control made no move to stop you as you slowly removed the hood from the ninja's head using the same fingers, exposing her bushy white head and the feminine curve of her jaw and cheeks. Those eyes, which at times looked like a moody young woman's and at times like a cold-blooded killer's, now looked like neither; instead, they were as round as saucers, glowing an eerie orange as her mouth held its unfitting grin. Unable to bear looking at it, you clenched your eyes shut and slapped your palm down upon the side of her skull. The metallic chip that you'd been cradling inside your fist ended up stuck to the side of her flesh, drawn there by a magnetic force.

"A man of duty to the end, huh? G-G-Gooo-Goooooood work-" the unidentifiable voice of the mastermind guffawed one more time at your expense, before the orange overlay flickered and faded from Tschau's pink eyes.

Slowly, the ninja's eyes half-lidded, returning an expression almost as though the woman was under anesthesia or nearly asleep. Momentarily hopeful, you released her arms and cradled her head with your hands, while begging for her to hang on. There was no telling what having her implants fried was doing to her. If it was just some chip implanted, she might be fine, but a significant percentage of her brain had been replaced with machinery. There was no way she could maintain cerebral function with those parts inactive.

"Ciao..." she muttered sleepily, smiling peacefully into your face. "This is another way to protect people. Taking this tool from the mastermind is the right move. I'm not being cocky but... I was a good tool for them. They won't replace me easily. You and I... did the right thing."

You couldn't answer her as your voice caught in your throat and became a frustrated growl. The expression she wore was one you couldn't return, as you frowned bitterly at your own powerlessness.

"... I wish... we... could have found them and killed them together," Tschau murmured, closing her eyes slowly as tears began to fall from her eyes. "But this is good. Actually, I'm... sick of killing people. Maybe you are too. Sorry... Ciao..." The woman's metal fingers were already limp and her legs unmoving as her face fell further into slumber. "Thanks... for..."

That was as far as she got. Whatever machinery implanted that had been keeping the 50% of Tschau's remaining human body alive seemed to have finally failed. Maybe it had some sort of EMP protection-- it had to, right? But a direct hit at such close range was too much for her to withstand. The EMP had done the job well and fully. You remembered back to what Namaste had said... that they were responsible even for giving you the tools that you used in your missions. They may have even foreseen that you'd use the EMP to end it all like this.

That thought led to another and a swirling desire for vengeance rose like bile in your throat. As scientists began to descend curiously from the uncut staircase on the right side, you grabbed up Tschau's sword, then fished what you knew to be an intensely effective sleeping powder from one of her belt pouches, intending to report back to Goodbye and complete one last mission.

You never did encounter Promethia, but you pushed that from your mind as you made your way through the empty tech sector halls, past dead security cameras, past the confused group of CEDIT agents who'd been assigned to assist you, then back towards the room where you'd been granted your mission. In one hand, you carried the ninja sword that Tschau had used in the service of justice. In the other, you carried the sleeping powder bomb. Your face was wrapped over with Tschau's own face mask, to prevent you from inhaling any of the powder.

When you slowly pushed open the door, you saw your boss at her desk, wearing her usual look of panic. When she spotted you, her eyes lit up with recognition and her hands clasped together excitedly. "Oh, Ciao! Thank God!" she greeted you, leaning her heavy bosom partway across her desk.

As the door opened further, you saw Despedida standing there with her, leaning one hand upon the desk and the other on her hip. "Damn, homeboy! You look like you just ran through three guys with a Mozambique, that kinda level of haggard and holding in a shit. What's got you-?" she questioned briefly, before pressing herself back against the wall, watching as you hoisted your bomb through the air in a pitcher's stance. "Hold up!"

You didn't hold up. Instead, you threw the bomb straight onto Goodbye's desk, where it exploded upon the wailing Goodbye and the alarmed Despedida in a huge, white cloud. As the dust slowly settled on that side of the room, Goodbye's face fell glasses first down upon the cushion of her own hands, while the Latina agent slowly slid down the wall, clutching her mouth with both hands and trembling eyebrows. Neither one of them would be fatally affected by this...

... But your interrogation would decide who would survive going forward. With bloodshot eyes, you regarded the katana in your hand, flipping it so that your vengeful expression reflected in its surface.

Goodbye had access to all of CEDIT's tools and resources. She was the one guiding you this whole time and, really, was the one who'd directly deployed you against the innocent Tschau. All along, she'd had the whole lay of the situation. She'd been there from the very beginning of the Goodbye Girls, too, holding on for some unknown reason. You had every reason to be suspicious of her.

Despedida was no better. Namaste had treated all of this as a game and wielded superior technology at every turn to put one over on you and the others. If anyone was likely to be Namaste in the flesh, it was her. You could just picture her smiling over an orange-lit computer screen, gleefully controlling Tschau against you.

When the two woke up, bound and in your custody, you'd question them personally. If their answers satisfied you, you'd cut them free. They wouldn't run from your questioning again, that was for sure. If you found them to be the responsible party, you'd execute one or both, whoever necessary. Only then would you obtain justice for the life you'd been forced to end earlier today. Tschau may not have wanted this for you, but you were powerless to fight it off now.

Either you were playing right into her hands or, more likely, you'd just incapacitated her here in this very room, ending her ability to control you remotely. One way or another, Namaste would die before the end of the day.