Realizing the Imperium are using a piece of technology she once devised leads Sora to decide to return to her former home, as she remembers the circumstances that made her leave in the first place.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Sora's parents sucked. Up until she caught the science division's attention, they never praised her for anything. Once she went against the Imperium, they stepped up to active emotional abuse, and taking her stuff away from her.
- Aerith and Bob: Turned around, where it's Sora's name that the Imperium guard thinks is weird and unusual, as opposed to Arin and Lloyd's, even though Sora is also a name in the Imperium.
- All of the Other Reindeer: When Sora rejected the Imperium's activities, she was instantly shunned by everyone.
- Assimilation Academy: School in the imperium frowns highly on students going off curriculum, and even playtime is rigorously segmented; one hour of recreation time a day.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: A young Sora wanted nothing more than to make tech, impress the Imperium and meet Dr. LaRow. About five minutes after she does, she learns the doctor is a monster.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Kai does a pretty passable Master Wu.Kai: "Kai, stop playing those video games and clean your room!"
- Continuity Nod: Arin manages to persuade Lloyd to go along with the plan on the grounds "ninja sharpens ninja".
- Cassandra Truth: After Sora tells her parents what actually happens inside Dr. La Row's lab, they dismiss her words.
- Cult: The entire Imperium is one for Empress Beatrix, with her painting hanging on every wall, and her subjects mindlessly devoted to her every whim, no matter how insane.
- False Reassurance: Dragon energy is perfectly safe! ... for humans. Obviously, for dragons, it is exactly the opposite.
- Flashback B-Plot: The series of flashbacks in the episode reveal Sora's Backstory.
- From Bad to Worse: Sora realized her hero, Dr. LaRow, was Evil All Along. So she goes to her parents for help. But not only did Dr. LaRow contact them first, but also, they straight up disown Sora. It doesn't help that when word got out about Sora rebelling, everyone at school isolated themselves from her. When the Merge occurred, it gave Sora a chance to escape but it also meant that before meeting Arin, she had to fend for herself.
- I Have No Daughter!: When Sora goes to her parents for help, what do they do? Tell her that they're disappointed in her and follow that with disowning her.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Arin tries to say he knows what he's doing, but Lloyd points out he managed to punch himself in the face just that morning... and he does it again a moment later.
- Ironic Echo Cut: Sora assures Lloyd and Arin it'll be easy getting into the Imperium via the sewers. Cut to them running from security drones.Sora: I was wrong!
- Lack of Empathy: It takes a special kind of messed up culture to see nothing wrong with torturing a dragon in front of a small child and then not getting why she might be horrified by this.
- Lazy Alias: Arin's choice of alias? "Dr. Lampshade Floortile", while Lloyd goes with "Doyll Donmagar". Amazingly, these names actually work, and they're busted for completely different reasons.
- Loony Laws: Back when Sora lived in the Imperium, singing off-key was an arrestable offense. The gang are busted because they violated nation-wide dress code; shoulderpads are mandatory on weekdays.
- The Caligula: Turns out Empress Beatrix is a nutcase who passes insane laws.
- The Not-So-Harmless Punishment: Breaking the Imperium laws results in the violators being publicly humiliated via live-streaming to the entire Imperium. Lloyd isn't terribly impressed thanks to years of Kai taunts, but Sora points out the fact it'll make sneaking around impossible, especially when the Claws notice them.
- Person as Verb: When Arin manages to successfully counter-argue Lloyd, Kai tells him he's been "Master Wu'd".
- Tempting Fate: On seeing the Photac, Kai assumes it's just a solid light projection and can't harm them. It then sends him flying.
- We Need a Distraction: Sora figures they could escape humiliation-via-livestream if something distracts the guards, at which point Riyu escapes from Arin's bag and jumps the guard. That does the trick.
- Wham Line: Having been split up from Arin and Sora, Lloyd sees some fireballs shooting out of a container and figures, not unreasonably, that Kai ignored him, came to the Imperium and got captured, but when he busts the container open he has just enough time to say "you're not Kai!" before he gets a fireball to the face.
