Echocalypse: Scarlet Covenant story · Main story, Act 6: Back to Battle
29. Sweet Slumber
Eriri said that it was impossible for her to inject the anesthetic into Snezhana with Snezhana's usual reaction speed. She could only try to make Snezhana give up through a consciousness attack.
4 scenes, 87 lines
1. Sweet Slumber
21 lines5 years earlier, on the Bifrost-Eastrise border
You can leave me here, Snezhana. My injury is much better now.
The cease-fire has only just been signed. If you go any further, the border guards might have something to say about it.
Why you want to head back while things are still so fragile, I'll never know...
What do you expect? There's no place like home for an Eastriser. I have been stuck here for too long.
But...
Besides, we're the heroes who saved Niz!
Thanks to us Yulia's assassins were stopped, and Niz was delivered back to Stoker safe and sound...
Who knows how long this war will last and how many more people will have to die?
Exactly! Any way you look at it, we're heroes! Those border guards are going to welcome me with open arms!
Hmm, bit of a double standard you've got there...
Hahaha. Snezhana, give me your hand.
Yes?
The past six months have been the most memorable time of my life. I'll never forget them...
I know... I feel the same...
I'm so happy I met you, Snezhana.
Sunflower let go of her hand.
Okay. I should get going.
When things calm down, come visit me in Eastrise.
Of course I will! I promise.
Sunflower waved at Snezhana and walked away into the distance.
2. Stage 29-1, before the battle
15 linesReluctantly, Snezhana turned to leave.
I'll come back when things have calmed down.
But feeling uneasy, she turned to look back at the border crossing-point, far away in the distance.
Sunflower appeared as a dark shadow in the late afternoon light.
Snezhana saw Sunflower had passed through the crossing and was now inside Eastrise territory.
Suddenly the Eastrise troopers stepped in front of Sunflower, as if to question her.
What's going on? What's going on?
Snezhana sprinted towards the border. She could see the troopers trying to restrain Sunflower, but Sunflower was refusing to go quietly.
She's a war hero! Take your hands off her!
Snezhana watched as the Eastrise troops pointed their guns at Sunflower.
No! NOOOOOO!!!!!!
The guns fired, and Sunflower toppled backwards like a young tree, felled too soon.
SUNFLOWER!
Eastrise troops surrounded her body. Snezhana started towards the border but was held back by Bifrost Industries forces.
In the end the Bifrost troops had no choice but to hit Snezhana on the back of the head, knocking her out.
3. Stage 29-3, after the battle
14 lines
Next to the Cooling Tower, 3:10pm
Actually, you told us about Sunflower a long time ago.
But five years have passed. I'm surprised you're still so torn up about it.
I will always remember those six months... and I will spend the rest of my life avenging her.
Well said, but I need to explain something to you, based on my extensive experience of brain function.
Your memory isn't an accurate reflection of reality. Your quest for vengeance is misguided.
Ha... HAHA... HAHAHAHAHA... This is what you made a fool of yourself to tell me?
Ah... whatever... We've got some time to kill before Yulia gives the order...
Sunflower was an Eastrise agent.
...
Did you hear what I said? That's my logical deduction. My glass slipper.
DO. NOT. DEFILE. HER. NAME!!!
What? Can't face facts?
SHUT!!! UP!!!
4. Stage 29-10, after the battle
37 linesImpulsiveness has made you clumsy, Snezhana.
Though in terms of strength, I am no match for you.
Do you know... why I always wanted to avenge Sunflower?
Six months after she died, Bifrost and Eastrise withdrew their troops from the border.
One year after she died, Bifrost and Eastrise officially resumed trade.
Peace came so quickly, but she wasn't there to enjoy it!
The peace she had forged with her own hands!
But she was killed by those she swore to defend; buried on the land she yearned to return to!
That's when I realized, people don't deserve to have peace.
Then let me ask you this; how was it you and Sunflower happened to come across the wounded Niz?
How did the two of you defeat the assassins that Niz herself could not defeat?
You talk like you know everything!
Perhaps. I just try to look at everything calmly and objectively.
Why did she want to die? Maybe Sunflower was an alias. As a spy, she may have had many identities.
Enough...
Once her mission was over, there was no need for that identity, much less the friendship she had developed with you.
Perhaps she and her backers feared you really would go to Eastrise one day to look for her, only to discover that no such person existed.
The point is, Sunflower did not die in front of you. What you saw was a shadowplay of her death, from a great distance.
Sunflower, whoever she was, shed that identity and went back to her hometown long ago.
She... went back... to her hometown?
Eriri starts to inch closer to Snezhana.
I expect she returned to her hometown, although I doubt you will ever get the chance to meet her again.
And there's no need to avenge her?
You've been brainwashed by Yulia, that's all. You never thought about getting revenge before. You'd already put all of that behind you.
Eriri moves behind Snezhana.
Actually, I don't believe it either.
Huh?
Eriri quickly stuck the tranquilizer into Snezhana's neck, and she passed out.
(Thud)
Eriri... You...
She laid down next to Snezhana, a feeling of relief sweeping over her.
But something didn't feel quite right. She sat bolt-upright, alert, her mind racing.
Why did they leave Snezhana here all on her own? Maybe she had been set up?