Well, that was some ending, kind of bittersweet in a way in that although humanity's been saved, Taylor & Amelia, depending on how one looks at it, only sort of survived in the form of Avalon, becoming something that's not quite human (in the form of the Taylia gestalt) and not quite space whale, while retaining the memories of both elements, but those two individuals whom that we've come to know & love over the last 412 chapters are gone.
And interesting that a lot of what Taylor & Amelia did in life played a role in what Avalon did, the planning, preparation, and focus on power interactions in how Avalon prepared herself by calling in the unused shards, taking the powers of the Cauldron capes, as well as those of capes whose actions made themselves unworthy of having powers or otherwise had powers Avalon needed, and taking time to recharge rather than going after Scion right away, and the betrayals that they experienced that gave them the ability to turn on Scion despite all the memories & bonds from the space whale half.
Despite being something ailen the human side Avalon gained from Taylia showed in her desire to become a new kind of entity, as well as her parting gifts, such as healing all the mutations caused by Cauldron vials, giving some of the people Taylor & Amelia had been close to new powers to replace those lost (Lily, Missy, Emma [who gets to be the one to develop a space program], Becky) and allowing others who might be happier as normal people that chance, as well as tweaking Lisa's power so she can turn it off at will (suppose that'd be handy for her TMI overload issues), and going to the trouble to find Eve & salvage what could be saved from the backup cloning data to restore some of those who fell fighting against Scion.
However, it was really poignant when Avalon found that although Taylor & Amelia's bodies could be restored, it would just be creating a shell of them, as their very personhood had become so wrapped up & intertwined with their shards that it'd be impossible to resurrect them (guess that popping out a couple copies of their shards wasn't practical for one reason or another), and decided that the best course of action would be to delete her mothers but at the same time give Taylor & Amelia the daughter they never got the chance to have.
And little Taylia going to have quite the interesting life, with the communication shard given a new purpose to help people, and then there's whatever Avalon & Eve have planned for her & that second spacewhale that got shanked. (Though just what knowledge of her mothers & her space shark 'big sister' she ends up with could make things complicated.) Plus, until then, she's going to have quite the interesting extended family to help raise her.
Guess Vicky will get an answer of sorts to her question of whether her sister & sister-in-law are still around when whatever's left of Pantheon starts figuring out what happened. (Also wonder if the Taylia part of Avalon hid any sort of good-bye message in Eve's databanks or the memories their daughter will inherit, or if they've become too alien to do that.)
Then there's the new kind of entity Avalon wants to become, focused on conservation instead of consuming everything in a quest for knowledge, the importance of individuals as well as the group, and a new sort of cycle that tries to tone down the conflict drive, has nicer trigger events, and focuses on power bonds like Taylor & Amelia had & relationships like those that the people who were close to them have. And then she goes hunting the old-style space whales down to protect what she sees as important to the rest of the universe, even it causes 'big picture' problems- guess there's a bit of the 'Taylor' aspect pushing through. Of course, its not all good, as there's still an Entity messing around with humanity's destiny, and one might wonder just how many of their friends & family members, as well as anyone else who gets a power bond, might end up being offered the chance to become
Mk. 2 space whales space sharks.
Well, here's to the memory of Their Imperial Majesties, Empresses Taylor Anne Hebert and Amelia Claire Lavere Hebert, two of the greatest capes Earth Bet produced, who had a great and deep love for one another, who dedicated themselves to preparing humanity to fight off the apocalypse, and in the end, sacrificed their humanity in order to become something that could save the rest of it, leaving a chance for a 'brighter' future. They will be missed.
As a species, I would be unable to breed in the traditional sense of my kind. Amelia Lavere and Taylor Hebert died in joining with me, leaving only the Administrator and Homeostasis shards, heavily imprinted with their personalities.
Heavily imprinted shards were nothing new. Entities fully expected the more successful hosts to leave at least some sign of their influence on the shards. Rare in that only one in ten thousand hosts would ever be successful enough to accomplish it.
I found Taylor and Amelia amongst the clones. In a way, they were me. In a way, they were my mothers. They were too close to their powers, too much a part of their Shards that what came out of the cloning pods would not be them anymore. I erased their codes.
If we do our jobs right, they won't survive long enough to know that was a flaw. We are apex predators evolved to hunt apex predators. If they are whales, then we will be the sharks. Sophia would be proud.
Who's Sophia? I... can't remember. Must not be important.
LMAO at that one final burn & dismissal. Although if Sophia were still around & had some way of knowing how she was being blown off as irrelevant & who said that, the look on her face would truly be something to behold.