S4E12: Final Encounter

'''The Hellgates and their twisted Hell Factory have been erased, and Equestria is finally free from their evil grasp. But, one mystery still yet remains unsolved: the identity of the Sayan. Jack has spent the past several weeks trying to find the answer and thinks he now has it. Is the monster Saiyo as they've suspected all along? Or has someone other than Hellgate been playing them all for fools?'''

Plot Summary
Picking up right where the previous episode left off, Jack had arrived to attempt to prove his sister's innocence. The sober members of G Squadron and the Special A Unit stepped up to the challenge, and Jack began with a recap of everything that had happened in regards to the Sayan investigation so far. When he was called out for saying that they found James' body so certainly, Jack replied that he had finished his search for his brother. He could not find any trace of James, alive or dead. No remains could be found, and none of the neighboring towns had seen another humanoid. Oneiros countered that the Sayan could have eaten the bones, but Jack said were that true, they wouldn't have a body at all. Furthermore, several small villages near the forest's border had been devoured quite clearly by the Sayan, and it always left a perfectly clean skeleton.

Onerios conceded the point, and Jack continued. Now that he had proven they didn't find Saiyo's body, he went on to prove that she was alive even still. Since the possibility that that was Saiyo's skeleton was raised in objection to Jack's theory about the pod displays, Jack returned to his theory. The pod displayed "Unknown" and "Lost," and then both read "Lost" after Jack began his solo investigation. This, combined with the reasonably high possibility that James was the corpse they found, virtually proved Jack's argument.

After establishing that Saiyo survived her crash, Jack then offered an explanation as to how she wound up on ERAC's roof. He returned to the seemingly disproven theory about her being carried up, saying that the tracks they saw were for the most part planted. After all, it had already been established that Sayans were not physical shapeshifters, so the tracks changing could only have been deliberate. When he was questioned about the lack of a second trail leading down the mountain, Jack replied with a question. He asked the group to humor him and assume a hypothetical scenario in which he was correct, and then asked where else could the Sayan go if not down? The answer was into ERAC HQ itself. From within ERAC's headquarters, the Sayan could then learn all it needed to about the world it had come to, including a recent "opening" in the military it could fill.

The implications obvious, suspicion immediately turned against Aurion once more. Yeshaida contacted the Rebel carrier, and received confirmation that the crew had captured Aurion. Everyone immeidately went up to the ship to confront their supposed friend. On board, they found Aurion cuffed and held in the ship's detention cell. The interrogation began immediately, and Aurion continually tried to pin the suspicion back onto Saiyo, using arguments Jack recently disproved. Over the course of the interrogation, a few more answers were cleared up: that the Sayan picked Aurion over any other dead agent due to Aurion's influence and immortality. It made Aurion the ideal person to replace; his immortality would explain his return from death, and his placement directly beneath Wolfgang would allow him to manipulate any investigation into the Sayan's existence. The possibiility that another creature vaporized the bones was also debunked, as no such creature was known to exist in Equestria.

Aurion, getting slightly frantic, then turned to the incident at Sugar Basin as solid proof that Saiyo was the Sayan. Jack was not present for that battle, and had nothing to counter with. Terminos, on the other hand, pointed out that it was odd for a mental shape shifter to display open wounds; that it was too obvious and seemed like a plant. Jack picked up on this, saying that not only is it more suspicious that Saiyo came out with wounds, but that the one person who had no wounds at all would be the most suspect. In other words, Aurion himself. Plus, he was alone when Saiyo was said to have transformed, so there was no conrete proof of such. Aurion easily could have inflicted the wounds onto Saiyo during that time in order to make her out to be the Sayan.

Now fully desperate, Aurion turned to the encounter with Hellgate's army and the white pony, claiming that they had already killed the Sayan. Jack stopped the group from pointing out the obvious right away, and instead they debunked the claim itself. The white pony they saw in his army was not the Sayan, but probably a zombie pony that the Sayan made them percieve as itself. The Sayan was the one who stole the rifle and the goggles, and after giving the goggles to Hellgate's army began to snipe at the A Unit. Hellgate's own surprise at seeing them also hinted towards the entire encounter being a set-up, an attempt by the Sayan to eliminate its biggest threats. On top of that, the fact that Aurion knew any of this despite not being present was nothing short of solid proof that he was the Sayan. But the true clincher was when he claimed that they'd be executing an innocent man based on circumstancial evidence; the real Aurion would have known he wouldn't actually die.

Now exposed, Aurion finally showed his true colors, and admitted he was the Sayan. He revealed the cuffs he bore were illusionary, and then vanished. Seconds later, the A Unit members got an urgent message from Wolfgang, saying that the Sayan was rampaging throughout the base and making its way to his office. The transmission was then cut off, forcing the teams to act fast.

When they arrived at Wolfgang's office, they found only the Sayan. The Sayan had lured them with Wolfgang's voice into a small confined space; namely, Wolfgang's office. Despite their size, Sayans excel at fighting in claustrophobic spaces. This is because they can use their many tentacles to fling themselves around effortlessly, turning them into a nimble force while their targets are left on the ground.

Its trap a success, the Sayan then engaged the A Unit and a handful of G Squadron pilots. Because of the narrow space, the Sayan was able to maintain superiority in the combat zone. It also mocked and taunted them relentlessly, taking on the forms of people they knew, including Executor, Jack's father, and Princess Celestia. As the Sayan prepared the step up its game, Saiyo broke in through the window. Her own augmentations had flared up, and now she was in her alternate personality. She and Jack teamed up, but instead of targeting the Sayan, they target ERAC HQ itself.

The siblings effectively levelled the top half of ERAC HQ, leaving the Sayan exposed and unable to grappile itself around so easily. Open to the air, Yeshaida summoned all remaining (sober) members of G Squadron and their Mimics, and joined the A Unit and the Greenspan siblings in utterly destroying the Sayan. Saiyo laid the final blow, shooting a laser through its eye before collapsing.

Saiyo started powering down, and she and Jack shared a welcome embrace. Terminos and Kanako attempted to apologize for everything she had been through, and while she accepted it, Jack was quite angry, and not as willing to forgive. Saiyo did say that she would appreciate proper medical attention "if [they] wanted to make it up to [her]."

Meanwhile, Wolfgang was breifed on the situation (never actually having left the party or was ever in danger in any way), and then told A Unit and G Squadron to report to Engineering Sub-Level 22. After they found the pods initially, Wolfgang requested that the Sayan pod's source be traced. Deep within Sub-Level 22, using a backup generator amidst the broken headquarters, two technicians revealed that the pod belonged to none other than The General. Most likely the pod was dropped during the Head's attack several months prior.

The implications of The General utilizing such terrible creatures as bioweapons was a sobering experience. Wolfgang told G Squadron to notify their captain right away, ending on a note saying that a much greater threat loomed above them all...

Soundtrack

 * 1) Opening Theme - Whirlwind (Shinobi 3)
 * 2) Jack Greenspan - Strange People (Gyakuten Kenji 2 / Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations: Prosecutor's Path)
 * 3) Testimony ~ Warming Up - Cross-Examination Moderato 2013 (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies)
 * 4) Objection! - lastendconductor (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni)
 * 5) Testimony ~ Jack's Last Stand - Cross-Examination Allegro 2013 (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies)
 * 6) Tracking the Sayan - Logic and Tricks (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney)
 * 7) Whatever Remains - Phantom ~ UNKNOWN (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies)
 * 8) History Repeats - terminal_entrance (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni)
 * 9) Final Testimony ~ Moderate - deadangle (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni)
 * 10) Objection ~ Final Testimony - Worldend Dominator (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni)
 * 11) Suspense Theme - Suspense 2013 (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies)
 * 12) Final Testimony ~ Allegro - Dead Angle / Discolor Mashup (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)
 * 13) Pursuit ~ In Search of Answers - Dread of the Grave (Umineko no Naku no Koro ni)
 * 14) Presto ~ Final Testimony - Confrontation ~ Presto! 2009 (Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations)
 * 15) Pursuit ~ Out In The Open - Dread of the Grave - More Fear - (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni)
 * 16) Unmasked - Phantom ~ UNKNOWN (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies)
 * 17) Sayan Showdown - Miragecoordinator (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni)
 * 18) Red & Blue - Title Theme (Night Storm)
 * 19) And Fall Sayan - Blue Skies (Infinity Remix) (Ace Combat Infinity)
 * 20) Saiyo Greenspan - The Puppet Without Strings
 * 21) Evil's Origin - Babel Tower (Rockman ZX Tunes)
 * 22) Ending Theme - One Final Blast (Final Fortress Remix) (Faseeh Deen)

Trivia

 * This episode was also a climactic one, being the end of the Sayan investigation arc that ran alongside the Hellgate arc, which concluded in the previous episode. In short, this was the second climactic episode in a row.
 * Like "Come Hell or High Water," this episode was recorded as well. It is available here.
 * The Sayan's last words were a reference to "She Who Walks Among You", a parody of Injustrial's song "The Faceless Scourge" which Arachnos wrote about Sayans. The relevant lyrics in the parody are "I'll take your seed while I'm wearing her face" as well as "And soon enough you'll be wearing my face".