S4E35: Confrontation

'''Earth-M1012: Long-reclaimed capital of the Red Empire. At its head is the elusive Emperor Red-Eye, the only being in Universe 12 that can answer the Sayan Squad's questions. But a great demon of the past awaits them at the Emperor's palace, the one final thing blocking them from the truth...'''

...but no matter how fast one may travel, one's journey always stops at the end of the line.

Plot Summary
Within the shadow of Earth-M1012's moon, Amadeus summoned the Sayan Squad to the bridge of their hijacked Blue Blood carrier. However, Ketsueki was a no-show. Jack went off to fetch him, but Kanako offered to follow to prevent things from getting heated between them. A valid point made, Amadeus also had Paladin and Termnos follow to aid the still-injured soldier.

Ketsueki was found outside Saiyo's cell, quietly saying "it's not fair" to himself. Saiyo had apparently regressed, and was found absentmindedly playing with her loose tooth, seemingly unaware of anyone else, even Ketsueki. Terminos tried to reassure Ketsueki that once they got back to EAO17 they'd fix her, but this was met with hostility form Ketsueki, who claimed they would put a bomb in her if they had the chance. Jack told Ketsueki to stop behaving like a child, and though it seemed for a moment he would physically engage Jack, he eventually gave up.

Returning to the bridge, Amadeus began the mission briefing. With information gained from Wicker, Amadeus knew where Emperor Red-Eye's Citadel was located, along with what to expect from Imperial defensive protocols. He was also reasonably confident their ship could handle anything the Red Empire threw at them. Amadeus also revealed that two stolen Mimics were onboard the carrier. They were pre-registered to other pilots, but were hacked to allow anyone's usage. Wicker was to use the one that formerly belonged to an alien member of Blue Blood due to his lack of powers, and Qiang was selected to pilot the human one in order to reduce the risk of causing a fatal error via incorrect powersets. However, he made it clear to everyone that their job was to keep the Emperor alive at all costs, otherwise they would not get their answers.

The ship then entered the atmosphere and began to rush for the Citadel. Amadeus ordered their hails be ignored, prompting the Red Empire into action. Several large battleships, patrol craft and robot attack drones were dispatched to repel them, only to be met by the two Mimics and the Anathemites. Naturally, even their battleships stood little chance against them. They retreated to be near the Citadel itself while a defensive shield was erected. Amadeus ordered everyone attack the shield, and their ship ram it. His gambit a success, the shield shattered and the Sayan Squad was dispatched inside, the remaining able-bodied members of the Sayan Squad dropping out of the ship to join them.

Within, the Squad fought through a few waves of soldiers and palace guards. The Anathemites, however, in particularly Olyn, seemed to enjoy their power a little too much, with the latter going so far as to brutally execute fleeing enemies after terrifying them, and melting one's face off. This was met with controversy.

Meanwhile, Violetta reported to Amadeus about a sudden power surge coming form within their ship. Not long after, something burst out of it, and Amadeus was forced to order a temporary retreat, leaving the Squad cut off.

Wicker led the group up a large stairwell, where they briefly caught a glimpse of the Emperor himself retreating back into his throne room. Beside them was an emergency escape hangar he was heading too. Eyeing it, Owl suddenly announced that this would be his last mission with them, saying his job was done. However, he still said he would help them finish their current. Olyn destroyed the doors, and the Squad breached the throne room to confront Emperor Red Eye.

The Emperor was revealed to be a black mechanical cylinder with a single red eye atop a body described as semi-gaseous. He claimed to be a demon born on the Earth several millennia ago, but was defeated in his bid of conquest. However, as an immortal, he was reborn on another world, one he succeeded in taking over. He then set about conquering the galaxy, converting it all into his domain until he could reclaim Earth.

The Emperor was not forthcoming with answers, denying any knowledge of Sayans. Moreover, he wasn't willing to answer questions asked by invaders. Summoning blades out of his amorphous body, he engaged the Sayan Squad. However, their battle was cut short as Saiyo dropped in from the roof, and blasted the Emperor to the other side of the room. She prepared to kill him, but was retrained by Olyn. This revealed that Saiyo's tooth was completely missing, horrifying Jack as realization set in. He tried to calmly talk to Saiyo, however she, with great speed, reached into his chest and tore out his main power supply. Jack fell to the ground and Arachnos immediately began work on trying to repair him. The Anathemites and most of G Squadron tried to take on Saiyo herself, meanwhile, aiming to terminate her. A handful of others tried to protect the Emperor, while Ketsueki collapse in tears and disbelief.

During the battle, Saiyo's mood rapidly changed as before. However, her mood affected the power of her weapons. Wrath resulted in extremely damaging explosive shots that shook the entire Citadel, playfulness resulted in blasts that weren't as powerful, but were certainly more powerful than her normal Red Mode attacks, and sadness had her in retreat. When Arachnos managed to briefly resuscitate Jack, he explained that Saiyo was like this right after she was activated for the first time. Dr. Greenspan was forced to invent and install a restraining chip to stop the augments from controlling her so much. It cut off some of the power but it stopped her from going mad. This got Ketsueki's attention, and without a word he bolted off out of the room, taking one of the Mimics back to the ship.

The battle continued while he was away, with the Anathemites expressing virtual relief at finally being able to kill Saiyo. Oneiros in particular had begun deluding himself by saying that this was the "true Saiyo" and that that justified her death all the more, which Olyn and Terminos began to pick up on themselves.

Ketsueki returned by crashing his stolen Mimic through the roof, and standing before Saiyo. Saiyo then expressed an emotion unseen before in her agitated state, and she began to approach Ketsueki. Ketsueki forced himself to remain calm and his mouth shut, opening his arms to allow Saiyo to come to him. The two embraced, and Ketsueki grabbed her head as if about to plant a kiss. Saiyo reciprocated the action...but in doing so, allowed herself an opening for Ketsueki to shove what he had been holding in his mouth into hers: her missing tooth. Her restraining chip.

Saiyo's body went briefly berserk before collapsing onto the ground, with Ketsueki catching her. The Anathemites approached Ketsueki, Olyn binding Saiyo as well as Ketsueki. Ketsueki told them to back off, echoing his earlier sentiments. He called them heartless monsters for not even trying to consider methods that didn't result in bloodshed. He brought up Olyn's brutal execution of fleeing enemies that posed no more threat to them, the overall carelessness of Anathemites towards their enemies. The Anathemites tried to defend themselves, but even G Squadron found it hard to believe their words. Oneiros, meanwhile, appeared to flat-out embrace his heartlessness, claiming that his history (the loss of his homeland to Hellgate and Executor's death) left him with no choice but to embrace brutality, however, shortly thereafter he appeared to become horrified of his own words, contemplated that he had become no better than his enemies and shut down completely.

Ketsueki left the room, Saiyo still in his arms. Amadeus, trying to ignore what had just happened, ordered the Anathemites open a portal to the throne room so that they may interrogate the Emperor. After their display, they found Red-Eye much more willing to cooperate if it meant they would leave his world faster. He reiterated that he did not know anything about Sayans. He did, however, state that several months prior he received an "offer." The mysterious contractor paid a large upfront fee in order to lease out several empty out-of-the-way planets to build their own facilities on. The Emperor agreed to this deal, on the condition that he periodically send ships to verify that the facilities were not designing anti-Imperial weapons. the ships reported only finding an unknown species being grown within them, which the Emperor took as incubators to repopulate, and deemed them harmless. He then revealed that the person he spoke to claimed to be a representative of The General, thus confirming what the Rebellion initially believed.

Amadeus said they would spare the Emperor, but he had to first give them the coordinates of every planet he leased out, and secondly send his own forces to destroy those facilities. The Emperor obliged, and Amadeus ordered everyone return to the ship. Owl, however, remained behind. He re-explained that, since they would now be going back to their base in their dimension, Owl had no reason to stick around. He was needed to get them off of Paa and to safety, which he did. They also brought him to safety. Owl still had hope that his friend Storm was alive, and naturally wouldn't have left this universe. He vowed to return to Paa to find her. The Squad said their farewells, with Amadeus saying that once he found Storm, both of them would be welcome within RAG. With that, Owl left Earth in the Emperor's personal escape ship.

Back on board their carrier, Amadeus officially signed Wicker into G Squadron, granting him the new callsign of G6. He then ordered everyone to get some heavy rest. Though it was in a roundabout way, they managed to complete their original mission objective: confirm the Head's involvement in the project and find the origin of their Sayan army. However, with both those things confirmed, it left the Rebellion only one real course of action. They could certainly try and hunt down every Sayan incubation facility and destroy it, but they only have the coordinates of the planets in Universe-12, which would serve as a guideline at best to the other universes, and it wasn't even known how many other universes contained these installations. There was also the distinct possibility that the planets would be different in the other universes, with some omitted. And while the Rebellion could certainly try to destroy them all, they could never be certain. Instead, something more desperate would have to be done. The only way to truly contain the threat of the Sayan project....was to destroy its delivery system.

The General's Head.

Soundtrack

 * 1) Opening Theme - Main Theme (Sonic: Time Attacked)
 * 2) Briefing - Rogue Theme ~ Reprise (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron)
 * 3) Welcome to Earth-M1012 - Gravity (Remastered Tracks Rockman Zero Idea)
 * 4) Imperial Defense - United Forces (Rockman ZX Advent Tunes)
 * 5) Final Line - Abandoned Castle ~ Curse of Darkness (Castlevania: Curse of Darkness)
 * 6) Confrontation - Main Theme (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader)
 * 7) Emperor Red-Eye - Gravity (Darker Remix)
 * 8) Vs. Emperor Red-Eye - Power of NEO (Undertale)
 * 9) Going Wrong - Title Theme (F-117: Night Storm)
 * 10) Going Worse - You Idiot (Undertale)
 * 11) ~Vs. Saiyo Greenspan - Battle Against a True Hero (Undertale)
 * 12) The Puppet Without Strings
 * 13) Saved - She's Playing Piano (Undertale (in-game version))
 * 14) He's Still There - Gravity (Darker Remix)
 * 15) All Paths Converge On One Road - Nightmare (Nox Arcana)
 * 16) The Linking Thread - Pinwheel (Dark Souls)
 * 17) Hopeful Farewell - Anything But Tangerines (Earthworm Jim 2)
 * 18) End of the Line - Main Theme (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron)
 * 19) Destructive Plans - Evil Incarnate (Spear of Destiny/DOOM II)
 * 20) Ending Theme - Dream a Dream (Pop It Don't Drop It edit)

Trivia

 * This episode marks the end of the revisits to SDM's old stories. Earth-M1012 in particular was based on a story concept known as the "Sword of Memories" involving a never ending battle between the same hero and the same villain across thousands of years.
 * Of all the revisits of this arc, this is the most recent concept, and wound up being the one the others were tied to for the sake of this arc.
 * Owl's departure was something thrown in during the final stages of planning as SDM had nearly forgotten that he intended to do that.
 * The brutality of the player characters, most notably the Anathemites, came to a head in this episode. In fact, it was so much so that SDM now feels the need to act, as he believes their bloodlust now poses a threat to the main story. As such, he has enacted a mysterious "plan" that he says will try to put their behavior back in line.
 * As an additional effect, SDM claims their brutality has altered Jack's character arc. Originally this episode was supposed to be the point in which he begins learning to trust his teammates. However, their near-psychotic desire to kill Saiyo has completely rendered that impossible at this time.