Cross Ange Episode 23

As we begin Episode 23, Embryo is playing armchair general with a strategy map while his amazon brigade watch on, and outside we can see his world merging scheme is still in progress, on both sides, and the DRAGON side is understandably pissing blood as they look at what appears to be impending doom. The now depowered Humanity 2.0 is also at the brink of full blown panic mode, and hell, who can blame them?

We also get confirmation the Dawn Pillar will be ground zero of the world merge.

On the Aurora, as Sala confirms the bade news for everyone, Rosalie asks if Hilda is still waiting for Ange, to which Hilda is like "what's the point if were screwed before she gets here", and just as they are about to depart, they get a call from an incoming Ange.

Cue opening credits.

We resume with Ange and the Aurora crew saying hi again, and Maggy recognizes the machine piloted by the late Vanessa (Tusk's mom, called the Arquebus), and we also find out Emma has finally chosen to side with the Libertus side since it's obvious they have the only chance in hell to prevent two worlds from going tits up. We also get confirmation Ersha's surrender was completely voluntary and peaceful and Sala confirms to Ange their official alliance. We also get a nice scene where Ange officially lets Riza know "we're cool now, all that past stuff is water under the bridge, k?"

Ange gets the surprise Hilda is the boss now, and after a cut to Jill, where Ange is like "I know, Embryo raped you, he's an asshole that deserves to be killed dead, and I figured out his regeneration trick, now I need to know how to kill his ass for good", and we basically find out Embryo has pulled cute trick of sci-fi BS I'm going to pause to explain.

Basically, his physical form is real, but it's merely a projection of his "real" body, which is deliberately tuned to be a little out of sync with the corporeal universe, existing in a twilight state between dimensions, which is why when ever he regenerates, he's basically replacing his dead projection with a living one from his "real" location, and since the Vilkiss can dimension jump, Ange is the only one with a chance to find his real form and ice his ass, especially since she's the only one who has mastered using the Vilkiss to it's fullest potential, which only explains why Embryo is so desperate to control Ange, because she controls the one Ragna-Mail he created that has the greatest chance of permanently killing him.

After learning this, Jill basically says "I'm out of this since I handed over command to Hilda", and to this Ange gets in her face, calls her out on how she fucked over people with her Captain Ahab bullshit, and when Jill is like 'whatever", Ange bitch slaps her, tells her it was SALIA who let her go, Salia fucking miserable under Embryo, and if Jill has the slightest shred of conscience, she will give a flying fuck about someone who used to idolize everything she (Jill) stood for, if only to spare Salia the pain Embryo caused her.

As they leave an extremely butthurt Alektra Maria von Lowenhertz, Hilda remarks on how scary Ange can be, and Ange ironically mentions she was just making Jill realize her responsibility (how ironic, Jill did this a dozen or so episodes back to Ange), and Hilda comment Ange is a born leader and tries to pass off the reins to Ange.

Ange realizes this is just a cover for someone thing else, and when Ange gets in her personal space and demands Hilda just spit it out, it's obvious what Hilda really wants to say are a certain three little words, which she finally manages to spit out in a roundabout way.

AND THAT'S WHEN ANGE WILLINGLY SUCKS FACE WITH HER!

(Yeah, I bolded that, because holy shit, they finally inserted a lesbian moment with some major plot relevance and meaning without turning it into lame cheesecake)

And, as the scene ends, it becomes obvious while Ange might be all hearts with Tusk, doesn't mean she's opposed to an OT3.

We then cut back to a serious where the DRAGON world is seriously shitting itself as the dimension merge is sucking in DRAGONs left and right, and the High Priestess is ordering everyone to haul ass away from the merge as far as possible. Meanwhile, the now Normafied Humanity 2.0 is pissed the nobility are saving themselves (we get confirmation Misty is still around) as Embryo is all smug about how things are going according to plan , and he tells his groupies to protect Aura until it's done.

We cut back to the Aurora, where Tusk is remarking in the old language (technically incorrectly, more like the languages of the pre-apocalypse DRAGON Earth, plural) Aura and Aurora both mean "light", according to Sala, and after a some sweet nothings, Ange is a little tired of Tusk being so damn selfless and wants to return the devotion somehow. He's like "okay, mind giving me a good luck charm", which results in a hilarious bit of him looking away, her doing some fancy contortions, and him getting his "good luck charm".

Basically, she handed him her panties, which she demands he not lose, look at, or pull out of his pants, and as she runs off embarrassed, it finally dawns on him what's in his pocket and he decides to be a gentleman and honor her wishes as the intermission starts.

After the intermission, we cut back to Aurora going into battle mode upon sight of Embryo's forces, and Ange [after a brief scene where Ersha becomes a bridge bunny on Jasmine's insistence] (as the Grand Marshal of the Libertus Alliance) tells everyone they are going to the Dawn Pillar to kick ass and take names, and this is OPERATION: LAST LIBERTUS!

(We also see Jill deciding maybe she should attempt to regrow her metaphorical balls)

Embryo has his naval forces launch a torpedo barrage, but Jasmine heads it off with a counterattack to null this. As the Aurora blows ballast and surfaces, Jasmine decides to return the favor and Embryo is mildly impressed as his flotilla of ships turn into fireballs. The Aurora then switches from submarines to airship mode, deploying a force field as they prepare to charge the Dawn Pillar, a fact Embryo notes with amusement, deploying his next trick (the exploding grappling bombs used in Episode 14). The Libertus alliance takes off with a "bitch please" and lays waste to the opposition, with Ange leading the charge, which Embryo reacts to with a 0_0, but quickly recovers his composure, turns to Salia and Chris and says it's time they sortied too.

As the Aurora is about to fire it's cryo cannon  at the Dawn Pillar, Embryo shows up with his dark purple Ragna-Mail with his goon squad in a defensive ring around the pillar, and he starts humming a few ivories as a "oh hell no" to the Libertus forces. Ange figures this out pretty damn quick and Jasmine adjusts to deal with the assault, and Ange tanks the blast with a counterblast as Embryo cooks off his opening salvo.

This clears the way for Jasmine to fire the cryo cannon and Ersha to aim, and they score a direct hit, causing the Dawn Pillar to start crumbling down. Everyone at ground zero gets hosed like the population at the base of the Solar Elevator would have been in Gundam 00 S2, but the attack exposes the main entryway to Aura. The Libertus forces (led by Ange) waste no time closing in.

Embryo is finally a little worried, and calls out his trump cards. Sala's aide de camps tell her to go on ahead, and as Hilda and Rosalie attempt to do likewise, they run into Chris. Meanwhile, Embryo runs into Ange and Tusk, and as Embryo drops creepy pick up lines, Tusk decides to keep him busy as Ange hauls ass for Aura with Sala, to which Embryo is a little butthurt his rival isn't dead as Tusk is channeling so much Mu La Flaga it a little ridiculous. Ange is of course waylaid by Salia, and as the Aurora defense team is starting to get worn down by the relentless assault, Mei almost dies Char's Counterattack Astonaige Mendoza style.

That is, until Jill in piloting suit knocks her away from the blast, then tells Maggy and Mei she finally decided to quit being a pussy and do her part, and as she tells Jasmine to open the hatch to let her sortie (using Ersha's repatriated Ragna Mail and ring), Maggy tells her she hasn't forgiven her but that if she gets back she'll consider it, and finally using her birth name, Alektra decides to kick ass, makes the flying grapple bombs her bitch and flies off to fuck up Embryo, to which Vivian is all 0_0 in awe over.

Meanwhile, as Salia is keeping Ange busy to the latter's annoyance, we cut back to palace where Sylvia is finally realizing the point of being important is that people expect you to do shit, and as Ange gets plowed into the nearby wall by Salia, she is, hilariously enough, asked for help by the very common people who once spit on her for being Norma. Her response is to shoot the first faggot she says no too (who tries to shoot her) in the head, and as Sylvia pisses herself (literally) and tries the blame game, she gets a warning shot from Ange who reveals she knows Sylvia was fully healed the whole time, she was just too fucking lazy to try, and when Sylvia does more whining, she gets another warning shot as Ange seriously wants to ice her ass for being such a spoiled, useless sack of shit, and when Sylvia finally gets a clue Ange really would shoot her, she decides to *gasp* haul ass with her feet, to which Ange is like "good, you grew up a little". Sylvia pauses after a few steps, realizing what she just did then turns back to the leaving Ange who tells her this will be their last meeting, and this finally makes Sylvia realize just how much of a titanic bitch she's been.

Meanwhile, as Salia is like "Good, you're finally back", and tries to resume putting a blade through Ange, that when Alektra cuts in, and as the ending credits start, Jill regains a lot of her likeability as she disses the fuck out of Salia and ready to school the hell out of her.

Next episode preview has more Rosalie and Hilda versus Chris and Jill versus Salia, interspersed with hilarious banter by Vivian being all spastic over Ersha's return, Ersha trying to read out the preview, and her doing more wrestling stuff out of frustration and immediately apologizing to Vivian for it.