Cross Ange Episode 20

When we begin Episode 20, we are on the Aurora, and Jill is pissed at Tusk for fucking up Libertus (we also see Vivian is behind bars as well), and as Jill giving him the third degree, Hilda tells Jill if they get Ange back, they can still go forward, but Jill is like "screw that, Ange won't obey orders anyway, and as Jill walks off pissed and smoking (metaphorically and literally), Hilda flashes back to Jill's sleeptalk as the intro begins.

Once the intro is over, we DO get proof Salia is sleeping with Embryo (<sarcasm> what a shock</sarcasm>), and she's all "that's insane" when Embryo wants to induct Ange into his Amazon Brigade, and Embryo reveals he's basically figured out how to keep Salia in line by saying "don't worry, Ange is just a tool, but you're the most vital one to me".

Later, as Salia is guarding the hallway, Ange walks by and wants to pass, holding up an invitation from Embryo. Salia is like "fuck off bitch", and Ange ignores the combat knife waved in her face by trolling Salia with the fact she'll piss off her boss, then basically realizes why Salia is posturing and tells her "don't want to join your Daikon Radish Knighthood anyway"and walks on.

We cut to Embryo trying to be a good host by pouring Ange tea, and she decides to be as snide and hateful as humanly possible about it, and Salia is secretly spying on things from outside because of her insecurity complex.Embryo obliges Ange but cutting the bullshit and flat out tells "Marry Me", citing the standard villain lines about why she's such a prize he's just couldn't do what he needs without her, unaware he's pissing off Salia. As he goes on, he promises to destroy the world for Ange in exchange, citing the first Earth had a bunch of trigger happy assholes that he destroyed and made Earth 2.0 in an alternate universe to do things over, and citing he felt he had improved things with Humanity 2.0 (i'e. - the Mana use he added to Humanity 2.0's stock skill set). However, he concedes it was a mistake in hindsight because he made humanity utterly dependent on Mana and willing to believe any BS (like the Norma prejudice) due to being unwilling to think for themselves, essentially admitted making Aldous Huxley's Brave New World a reality was a crappy idea in practice, and even admitting he wasn't entirely doing stuff like killing Julio and reviving children just to manipulate people, it's because he truly feels humanity because just as shitty as they were the first time round, and then tells Ange he wants to try again, but this time with Ange at his side, and when Ange is like "And how?", he sings the first few bars of the Endless Song in response.

He also reveals his full plan in toto. Basically, back when he caused that dimensional rift on the DRAGON Earth, he was doing a test of attempt to merge the first Earth back into the AU version Earth, essentially creating a new world (which would wipe out the inhabitants of the first two so the slate could start anew again), calling this "Unification Theory".

He then asks her to accept.

She responds by shanking his hand with a knife and pinning it to the table.

In fact, she's basically figured out Embryo is not immune to his own Mana based rules and as she jumps on the table uses her foot to totally pin his now uber bloody hand to the table, she hoists another knife to shank his face as she tells him she figured out how to cut off his Tuner bullshit and that she'd rather die than be caught dead as his wife, and as he tries to plead for her to stop, the other knife gets buried in his neck.

Of course, Embryo isn't dead, as another appears behind her (while his current corpse is still slumped against the table), then she turns as the knife hits the ground, no blood on the table.

As she tries again, Embryo finally drops the nice guy mask, restrains her arm behind her back police style, then uses his magic hax on his right temple, amplifying her pain response times fifty, and as she falls to the ground, clutching her arm in agony, he further reveals his true nature by applying more hax to her temple, and as Momoka runs over to help her, Ange forces her off, and we see what he did next.

Basically, he amplified her pleasure centers times fifty as well, at the same time her pain receptors were going off.

Note: IRL, that much nervous response could easily kill you from shock.

Momoka is a little slow to catch on, and as she tries to stabilize Ange, it only turns Ange on, and Embryo tells Momoka he immediately flipped all that massive pain into massive pleasure, and Momoka gets his smug "fuck yourself" grin in response to her begging he stop, and as he vanishes with Ange, Salia has seen and heard enough from outside.

Back on the Aurora, Rosalie seems to have forgiven Hilda from awhile back and wants to cuddle for a little bit, but Hilda is understandably not in the mood. Hilda then reveals how she promised to help Ange fuck up the current world and wants to honor it, and that's when Rosalie reveals what has been so obvious it's like a glowing neon billboard.

Hilda has it bad for Ange and Rosalie admits she has it bad for Chris, and in a scene that actually adds a little gravitas to what had been lame lesbian cheesecake fanservice bullshit, Rosalie admits she always was the one to keep Chris from being so timid, and that it turned into genuine love, dammit.

And Hilda basically negates any of her former asshole points by tell Rosalie they need to join forces to get Ange and Chris back.

We cut to the bridge, where one of the bridge bunnies is like "all normal here", then turns around to see Jill with a big haunted expression.

Cue intermission.

When we get back, Tusk wakes up in his cell to Hilda straddling him in her underwear, and promising to let him have his way with her if he helps get Ange back since he obviously hasn't had his way with Ange yet (and we see Rosalie letting Vivian out).

Tusk puts his foot in his mouth to the waist as he blurts out his first will be with Ange only (nice job admitting your virgin status Tusk), and as Tusk hastily tries to BS his way out of that admission, the crotch in face gag is brought up, Tusk stupidly blurts out how those were accidents, and Hilda concludes he's a virgin loser.

........as a guy, all I have to say concerning Tusk is "OUCH."

ANYWAY, after Hilda gets a little bit of laughter out of her system, Hilda tells him she wants to help Ange because Jill is hiding something, and a quick scene cut later, we find all the bulkheads have been sealed, and Jill in pilot gear is heading for the Paramails.

Until Hilda appears, asking "Going out?"

Jill metaphorically shits herself when Hilda mentions her sleep talk, tries to shoot Hilda for it, and as Jill tries to start up a Paramail, Vivian  tackles her out of the seat as Tusk fires a grappling hook to restrain her. Jill catches it with her cyber arm, but Rosalie and Hilda were prepared and they dive at Jill's legs. As everyone else like Mei and Jasmine finally get into the Paramail bay, they find Jill on the ground, with Hilda and Rosalie holding her at gunpoint.

We cut back to Momoka looking for Ange, and she winds up seeing Lizardia getting beaten and whipped some more by Sylvia, then as Sylvia leaves, Riza passes out for the torture. She wakes up to Momoka attending to her, and when she wonder why the hell Momoka would help her, Momoka's heart of gold couldn't be more obvious when she acknowledges what Riza did with Julio, but merely asks she apologize to Ange for it, and Riza repays Momoka's act of mercy by spilling where Ange's is likely located.

When we get back to the Aurora, Jill is handcuffed to an infirmary bed, admitting to Jasmine and the other she used to be Embryo's puppet, and yeah, he did do the Paptimus Scirroco tactic of seduction and control power reassurance rape to her to, and yeah, the reason Libertus crashed and burned the last time was because she almost sold everyone out, grew a conscience at the last minute, and he decided to make her pay for it. When asked why she didn't come clean, she's like "what, and admit I nearly became the reason Libertus never happened because I was seduced and raped by a smooth talking bastard?"

In short, Jill comes clean with the fact she has a ton of self loathing and her Captain Ahab tendencies are because she wants to watch the bastard who raped and used her die.

Everyone else is stunned, and Jill bitterly notes Embryo must be using the girls under his current command as his playthings (cut to Embryo calmly sipping tea as he uses his power to torture Ange by forcing her to pleasure herself for his amusement and Salia realizing just how much she was duped as well). This earns her a bitch slap from Maggy, who is rather pissed at this info, but Jasmine tells her to cool off, then relieves Jill of command for obvious reasons, and Jill accepts this, then tells Hilda to take charge since she won't make her mistakes (congrats Jill, you've matured), and Hilda salutes in response.

We cut back to Salia deciding she's had enough being strung along, then back to Embryo gloating over Ange's body, whom he's really pouring the mindrape on to break her will (but it's not sticking, and it obviously makes Embryo mad as hell to hear her muttering Tusk's name)

Later, Salia pops in, tells Ange "look, I don't like you, but I don't have much left if I leave here, so I'll look the other way if you haul ass, but don't think it's because I like you, it's because I'm too weak to run, but you're not." We cut Embryo at the Dawn Pillar about to resume his plan to merge the two world into one, and as he starts sings, the Ragnamail start powering up around Aura's prone form.

We cut back to Ange putting Salia in a sleeper hold as insurance (Salia is surprisingly cool with this) for her escape, and as she snags the Dracunium ring Salia left her and makes it out of there with Momoka, Embryo realizes something is wrong when he pages Salia during his world merge ritual, find her unconscious, and even though he has the other girls doing security, he shits himself when he realizes Ange is AWOL.

Ersha is the first to find Ange, who hauls ass (wearing most of Salia's uniform in lieu of her own), and Ange summons the Vilkiss to her, which causes the Embryo Corps to shit themselves.As Ange and Momoka dodge Chris and Ersha's shots, that when the sky opens above the Dawn Pillar, and it seems DRAGON reinforcements are incoming.

Namely, Sala and her groupies, and the ending credits begin, we find out Riza is earning redemption points big time as it's obvious she tipped off Sala where to show up.

Next episode preview shows more asskicking, Embryo holding a gun on Tusk, and some hilarious banter about how Tusk's luck sucks and worries the previews will be accurate and one of them will die.

P.S. - A little Fridge Brilliance hit me after I watched this. Salia allowed Ange to knock her out so not only did it make Ange's escape look more "real", but it was Ange's way of repaying the favor by making sure she didn't get tortured by Embryo in turn if he found out later. Also, Embryo really didn't NEED Ange for his plans at all, he just wanted to do to her what he did to Jill, but Ange wouldn't play along.