Use your voice modulator to end it (Ending #2: Ciao, Vaarvel)

You told Vaarvel that it wasn't too late to go back to the way things were and to "serve humanity" the right way. The Goodbye Girls, with you as handler, could do good around the world, stamping out terrorism. Already, Adder, the Deliverers, and Bortnik had been stomped into the ashes, operating at near 0% effectiveness. With her help-- now knowing all that you did-- you'd be perfectly equipped to issue the death blows. Working together, the Goodbye Girls could keep the peace, even against those forces within CEDIT she'd alluded to.

"Ha ha ha... That is an appealing option! You've always had a way with words, Ciao." Laughing, Vaarvel placed her hand upon the gun on the table. "But I already told you: I rejected that option. Even my fellow agents within the Goodbye Girls are just means to an end, to me. The last time I placed my faith fully in a person and saw them betray me... I guess you could call that the day I traded in my own humanity. I became what I had to be in order to protect mankind." The woman crossed her arms and sat up in her chair, smiling sadly. "You don't have that sort of resolve, Nathaniel. No one does. It's a miracle that even I managed to accept that sort of path for myself."

Grimacing, you told Vaarvel that this was her last chance. You didn't want to turn your back on her. She might be surprised to see the kind of resolve you could muster.

"Don't try to bluff against me. It will never work," Vaarvel sighed smugly. "Petty concepts like 'heart' or 'guts' aren't enough to break free from the genetic control that you've been subjected to. No matter what you try, you will respond to my voice. It isn't a matter of will, desire, resolve, or anything else... You will do what you are ordered to. Accept your fate. Grab the gun."

She slid the weapon across the table; it spun dangerously, then stopped its path of motion directly in front of you with the grip helpfully facing towards you. Your hand reached out and landed atop it.

"Wield it. Finger on the trigger."

You felt your fingers wrap it. One last time, you begged her to reconsider her actions. You understood what she meant-- what she'd tried to fight against. After seeing the effects of technology's advancements across the world, in the hands of true evil, how could you deny the importance of her mission? Still, the fight had corrupted her; the old 'gaze into the abyss' adage. You told her she needed help. If a society of a few people with absolute power was bad, how much worse was one person trying to carry the fate of the world on their shoulders?

"You talk like you understand it all; don't insult me. Put the gun to your temple."

With your hand trembling, you complied, sticking the gun's barrel against the side of your head. The time for hesitation was up. Using your free hand, you reached into your pocket and retrieved the remote voice modulator, onto which you'd been recording Vaarvel's voice. It was automated to reconstruct certain useful messages, following its application during Operation First Plague. You selected the appropriate option, feeling your eyes locked onto Vaarvel's with a sense of what... Determination to resolve your mission? Fear at what your actions might mean towards the future of humanity? Remorse at the loss of a teammate? You probably felt all of the above as you pushed the button with your thumb.

Vaarvel's voice came from your pocket. "... Shoot me."

You transferred your aim from your own head to Vaarvel's chest, still clad in that powder blue suit of Madison's. Like Vaarvel, you'd effectively brainwashed yourself to accomplish a mission you saw necessary to save the world. As such, there was none of your good-hearted hesitation: you fired. The bullet left your weapon and pierced straight through your fellow agent's chest at short range, spattering blood across the surface of the desk and leaving a lethal hole in the center of her chest. You heard the leather of the chair behind her pop and saw blood quickly begin to trickle from the corners of her grin; those white teeth began to stain with red around the edges.

"Full of surprises... Nathaniel... To think you would deceive me..." The woman coughed one more time, her hands shaking as she clutched the wound. Her eyes widened momentarily; the new sensation of death-- real death-- was finally hitting her. "I know it's selfish... I said I wouldn't rely on anyone... But I'm relying on you. Please... if you will... inherit my mission."

You weren't thinking about that; you jumped from your seat and ran to her, trying to apply pressure to the wound. It was too past too late; she was practically dead where she sat. Only later did it occur to you that she'd given you the free choice to accept or decline that mission, instead of exerting her influence over you.

The woman coughed blood onto the desk, then her head collapsed with her chin down against her chest. "Oh... It's going to be wonderful... to finally...rest..." Her amber eyes lowered to a half shade, but the smile didn't leave her face. For a desperate moment, you shook her, trying to make her jump back to life and admit it was just another of her tricks. Vaarvel could be playing dead; it wouldn't be beyond her. How many times had she tricked opponents with this same ruse?

The face she wore as she passed was nearly the same expression she'd always worn, full of mischief, deception, secrecy, and hiding a profound sense of duty.

That duty, to fight against a force defying public knowledge or even comprehension had driven her mad in the end.

Vaarvel{if CEDIT Agents Killed Adder Adjutant = 1}-- or Vanessa Pillay, as she'd been long before you'd known her--{endif} had to become a monster to accomplish her mission. In judging her for that, you'd bloodied your hands and taken on the full weight of that mission yourself. Would you be up to the task? Would it drive you to the same extremes she'd reached to, in the end? How you'd accomplish that going forward would be your own decision, but one thing was clear: the fallen agent's was a mission you couldn't ignore.