Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 411- Taylia


I dangled, limp as Scion held me around the throat.


[INCAPABLE]


I cringed under the revelation, accusation, simple statement of fact. A single concept-word that conveyed lifetimes worth of ideas. If it weren't with years of experience with Taylor's mind inside my own, Scion's word would have broken me. But I had experience with my identity being challenged from the inside. I had two identities with me at all times. Either of those made me stronger. Both, together, made me more than what Scion was doing to me right now.


[EXTINCTION]


My eyes widened. We knew, intellectually, that this was a war for survival itself. We knew it emotionally. But Scion just revealed it to me on he grandest scale. Perhaps I couldn't see it all, I certainly couldn't remember much of it after the fact. Perhaps that was the only thing that allowed my mind to survive the flash of all that information, all those worlds that would die. Perhaps it was the fact that I could see Taylor, and knew that in this ending, she died as well.


NO! I pushed back, my mind against Scion's. Pure desperation, egotistical belief that a human will meant something against the mental strength of a world sized multidimensional creature. The barest fraction of his power was enough to allow two human girls to control entire worlds with their minds, and I defied it with everything I had. It was madness and ego that let me believe I stood a chance. It was madness and ego, and perhaps my Third Trigger, that let me succeed. I saw him, his body, his brain, his powers.


There are so many of them, hundreds of options for him to harness. I couldn't begin to guess why he wasn't using more of them. It really didn't matter, I had a way in. I focused, tearing through the connections, ripping them away in the bloodiest way possible. I couldn't imagine it would make a difference, he'd been annihilated any number of ways more complete than what I was doing. I could kill the Gemma and Pollentia, taking powers away. But that was less impressive than it sounded. It could be done with a bullet. Scion's body had been reduced to subatomic more times than I wanted to count, and he always came back unharmed.


Still, I tore away at him. Paralyzed his nervous system, inflicted every kind of brain trauma I could imagine in flagrant violation of the only oath I'd not given up over the last few years. Survival meant more than my personal beliefs. And to my surprise, it worked. He was paralyzed, he was confused and hallucinating and in pain that a human would need to be set on fire without nerves actually burning away to experience. Somehow, some way, it was working.


And then it stopped working. His arm fell off, and I tumbled to the ground, gasping for breath and struggling not to pass out from the physical injuries.


[ENOUGH]


Scion rose into the air, and with a casual gesture, the golden fire struck Avalon. I scrambled for my suit, threw up waves of Yggdrasil, forced the burning matter to flow away from us as best I could. It wasn't enough. The flames were based upon some bizarre power, they didn't obey the laws of physics. Above us, Scion watched as the fires worked their way toward us.


The Endbringers appeared around us. Fuck! No!

A beam of exotic energy lashed out, dropping Scion to the ground. Okay, that's more of a fuck yes, if it works. I kept trying to push the golden fire back. In a moment of inspiration, I even made the Yggdrasil functionally vomit some of its own burning mass at Scion. If the golden fire had any influence on him, he showed no sign of it.


I'd managed to climb into my suit, but the damage was too great for me to do much with it. By the time I could repair anything, the fires had already reached the armor.


I dived out again, thanking Riley for my barely above peak human biology. Maybe Taylor's armor will be in better shape.


Scion was slammed into the ground by one of Beelzebub's abominations. Some kind of bizarre liquid roach like creature that looked and smelled like it was made of stale beer. Or possibly some other even less pleasant fluid. The part of me that was feeling vindictive, which is to say pretty much every part of me, hoped for the latter.


Taylor's neck was broken, I could tell that before I even touched her. Once I made contact, I knew she was kept alive only by the armor's support systems, which miraculously survived the brutal treatment inflicted by Scion. The shunt drive was destroyed, the flight system destroyed. I didn't have the raw materials to repair any useful systems thanks to Scion's attack incinerating the Yggdrasil and the seed codes I kept in the Dryad.


FleeLeaveMeLoveYou.


I kneeled down and set to mending her neck, physically pushing it back into place as I mended the damage with my powers. "As sweet as you being self sacrificing is, I can't run." I looked over at where Scion was paying more attention to watching us than fighting the seven Endbringers that were trying very hard to kill him right now. "He already blocked everything I could think of. Precog power, I'm guessing."


Taylor sat up, her armor a burden instead of an augmentation. RealizationDisgust. "He wants to watch us die."


I looked toward her. "He wants to watch us suffer. Getting off on our pain and fear."


We sank deeper into the pit created by Yggdrasil being forced away from me. The golden light of Scion's flames working their way down the slope as I worked as best I could to push them away, buying the little time I could. Above us, the sounds of the Endbringers fighting Scion raged. Every few seconds, the bastard flew over the hole, looking down at us.


LoveDefianceThatIsNotHowWeDie. Taylor sloughed her tattered armor off her shoulders, and leaned into me. Our kiss was slow, sensual. We weren't comforting each other so much as we were confirming everything we stood for, and throwing it in Scion's face. There was little doubt, now, that he would win this war, had already won. No one was left who could fight back. But he would live on an empty world until he died, alone and miserable. We would die together, happy, in love.


One final act of mercy and trust before the end, I disabled her ability to feel pain and reshaped one of her fingers into a claw. With our shared medical training, with my perfect knowledge of anatomy, and with our bond to guide us, she sank that claw into the the base of my skull, paralyzing me and cutting off my ability to feel pain. It wasn't a clean or pretty operation, the kind of thing that would require someone like Clarice to save my life.


We achieved what we needed to achieve, we would not die screaming when the golden flames finally reached us.


....


We woke up screaming. ConfusedHowAreWeAlive? We were supposed to be dead. We remember the fire. It was gone now. I stood without hesitation or difficulty, the half self inflicted injuries were gone. We were in a crater of earth. Some kind of new sense told me the ground we were standing on was dangerously radioactive. Avalon's natural earth, nearly half a kilometer of Yggdrasil had to have been burned or moved away to put us here.


Taylor stood as quickly as I had. Her armor was wrapped around her as if she hadn't half undressed. "Okay, so we're alive. Some kind of reversal power? Not Zach, his abilities don't apply like this." Her voice was halting, guttural.


I was in my armor's underlayer, the biotech suit meant to plug into the full Dryad armor set. I can feel my own biology. Oh fuck. We're not in armor. I reached over and touched Taylor's shoulder, and I could feel where her biology ended and other began. What'sWrongWhatDoYouSee?


"I... I think we're zombies."


Taylor got the message immediately. "Beelzebub's infectors?"


"It's the best answer I can come up with. There's no distinction between us and our armor. With exception to our brain matter, and not even all of that, we're made out of... something else. Beelzebub's parasites... fuck, I wish I wasn't so afraid to study them, now. And before you ask, no, I can't reverse them or circumvent them back into human biochemistry. I... I don't think even Clarice could fix this. It's a small miracle we even control these bodies given Beelzebub's... history."


Taylor accepted the news remarkably well. "But we do have control over these bodies. And if feels like completely natural control. I can sense all the commands and functions of my armor like they're natural abilities. Shunt drive, complete with the ability to choose which world on instinct, the Transit drive, the flight. It's all there at my command. Fuck, I can even see into your body now that I'm looking. Beelzebub's given us the power to stay in the fight."


I closed my eyes. "There is no fight to be had, not like we are now. We're alive, I can even shapeshift my own body, but that's not enough. I felt him. I know what his biology looks like. He has at least a hundred powers equal to Glaistig Uaine or Akaihana at her peak. Even like this, we don't have the strength to continue."


Taylor's hand slipped under my chin and tilted my head up. I couldn't feel her touch, the Beelzebub parts didn't include normal human sensation. I suppose we should count ourselves lucky to still be able to see and hear in the conventional sense of the words. "You said you saw his biology, his powers, right. You know how he works?"


I nodded.


IdeaConfidenceWeHaveAChance. "Then we get more powers."


....


Biologically installed, Endbringer bullshit Transit drives were unfairly awesome. I didn't ask how Taylor knew where to find Cauldron's base, with her senses, with Dragon running intelligence, maybe Lisa even dropped the hint at some point. So many possible answers, and at this point I didn't care how she did it.


I had bigger things on my mind. From the surface, it looked like this world went through a god damn cataclysmic series of asteroid impacts. People still lived here, meaning it was likely one of the worlds we might have pressured the interplanetary community to open communications with. But these people never made it to the tech level of electricity. A backworld that conflicted with our own pressure to avoid destroying primitive cultures.


How do I know all that? Oh. Huh. It's in the Shunt Drive computer data, and I have access to all the knowledge of all the computers in my armor. The weird part was trying to figure out what part of my new memories were new, and which parts we plugged in from an outside source.


Taylor laughed, and it sounded wrong. "Trust me, it doesn't get any easier to get used to. Just pretend you always knew it, less headaches that way."


I could ignore it when she spoke, because I felt her words more than heard them. But our voices were different, the result of our biology not being human, and whatever Beelzebub used as a model, it wasn't a human voice box.


Well, that's just lovely.


The entrance to Cauldron's base was buried underground. Taylor pointed at the spot, a prompt for me to act. A quick alteration and Crawler-acid poured from my hand. The bizarre Endbringer biology allowing me to regenerate the lost materials faster than I could expend them, and I was releasing at around the same speed as a fire hydrant. I almost wanted to keep this body, and if I could find a way to feel Taylor's skin against mine while keeping it, I so would.


For now, however, I was enjoying my new crazy powerset.


A couple minutes later, I'd melted our way through several meters of solid steel. We had our path inside.


The figures waiting for us were only half a surprise. In the middle, Doctor Mother. To the right stood woman in a nice suit and a hat that I didn't recognize, though she carried something that looked like a Tinker tech sniper rifle. Further out, an Alexandria that was more than half destroyed, retaining only her right arm and most of her upper body. A portion of her right leg as well. The combat systems let me know she was missing much her face, she wouldn't be able to talk. Luckily, the Yggdrasil had grown around her to spare us what was no doubt a horribly gruesome sight.


To the left, an older man in plain clothes, carrying a cane. Further left was Lisa, in her black 'Crow' armor. Flanking them were three high end Tinker armored suits. One to either side, and one in the back. Clearly using EB tissue armor, and obviously designed by Dragon, although I- or rather my armor/body/whatever- didn't recognize the design profiles. The predictive software started doing its analysis, sharing details with Taylor's, and vice versa, finding solutions before combat began. One of Armsmaster's finest pieces of work.


SpeakToThemBetterIfYou. You're right. I adjusted my throat to sound more human even as I met eyes with the African woman in the center of all these people. "Doctor Mother. It's been a while."


Her eyes narrowed. "And you decided to visit? By burning a hole through my roof?"


Lisa spoke before I had a chance. "You know how capes are. Why use the door when there's a perfectly good opportunity to cause huge amounts of unnecessary property damage, right?"


AnnoyanceWhat'sYourGame? Taylor remained quiet, I was our voice. "Something like that."


"You are here to revive the second Entity." Doctor Mother apparently wasn't one for banter. "We are prepared to stop you. We'd prefer we didn't have to, but I am confident we have the capability to do so."


Lisa, on the other hand, loved to run her mouth. "It's true. Lil' Fortuna here?" Lisa gestured at the woman with the gun. "Most bullshit precog not named Ziz. All she has to do is name a goal, and she knows exactly the fastest way to achieve it, with unfortunate Taboo blind spots. She is pretty much solely responsible for the Protectorate not collapsing into complete anarchy an average of twice a month. She already knows exactly how to kill both of you. And she will do it. The rest of us are just here to maybe talk you out of doing something insane that makes everything worse. You are going to step back and listen, right?"


ImpressiveNotLyingShe'sConfidentSheCanBeatUsFuck. My own lie detectors and combat software agreed. Whether or not Fortuna could kill us was an unknown, what was certain is that everyone in front of us had no doubts that she could, including Lisa.


We have to go forward. Maybe leave and approach this another way, like Transit right down to where the Heiress body was located. We have the advantage of Taylia, which has only become stronger and perhaps more Precog resistant with our new biology.


Lisa shrugged, and looked over at the maimed Alexandria. They both struck instantly. Alexandria gripped Fortuna's shoulder, and she folded, unconscious before she hit the ground. According to our senses, some kind of opiate based sleep drug. On the other side, the man with the cane convulsed as Crow's armor let loose a dangerously close to lethal amount of electricity. Smoke rose from his unconscious form.


Lisa actually stepped on his back afterward. "You cannot possibly comprehend how good that felt."


Doctor Mother backed up, looking on in shock. "Dragonslayers, stop them!" The one suit in the back, which our sensor suites had penetrated enough to decide was worn by a woman, gripped Doctor Mother and held her in place. "What's the meaning of this?!"


The suit on the right side turned to face her. "Know how your pet lunatics recruited us at gunpoint? And then you threatened us with torture, manipulated us with a precog, and handed the most dangerous technology on the planet over to the people most likely to actually use that it? None of that made us particularly inclined to follow your instructions. So, when a better offer came along, we hopped on it."


"How did you beat Contessa's power?"


Which one's Contessa? Oh, the woman. Fortuna. Maybe Fortuna's her cape name?


"Let's just say I've gotten very good at fucking with Thinkers far more powerful than myself. Long story short, there was a signal that could only occur through Taboo that we would then act on accordingly. Leaving a brief window before Contessa formulated her new Path where she was vulnerable to attack. Since the Dragonslayers would only act if and when we acted, and were otherwise loyal to you... well, I can't always be the most powerful, but I can usually be the sneakiest. Helps that we were planning this long before I ever joined Cauldron."


Doctor Mother looked over at Alexandria, who somehow managed to shrug despite lacking a number of muscles needed to actually perform that particular gesture. "Door-". An injection from the armor left her unconscious as well.


Taylor stepped forward. SpeakForMe. I did so with almost no delay. "You knew this would happen?"


Lisa got the message, and shook her head. "I always hoped I was wrong, but I saw it the moment you and Amelia started down this path. Your powers, how they interact. You were going to evolve into something terrible, and you're both the kind of people that would rather be strong monsters than weak people. I did everything possible to ensure it wouldn't happen. Tried to get you to break the bond before it was too late, lined up new weapons and options to throw at the Entity. Made sure you had the power and need to break Dragon's restrictions."


"That was you?!" Two sets of guns from the armored suits pointed toward Lisa. All three sets of armor went dark and sat down. "How?"


"Sorry, Saint. I managed to out think Contessa. What chance did you honestly believe you had? Don't worry, I'll still honor our arrangement and give you a perfectly generous retirement package for your troubles."


There was a thud on the roof that shuddered the whole building. Golden light poured in through the hole we left in the roof.


FuckNoTimeLeft. Lisa glanced around. "Doormaker, to The Basement. All of us." The armored suits opened up, exposing two men and a woman. All ordinary, no powers, clearly distraught, and confused at their release. "Take Doc with you through the gateway. Or stay here and die. I won't stop you either way.


We were through the panel even while Lisa was still giving her instructions. Scion was right above us. We didn't have long left.


The basement was massive. I wasn't sure how they even got this thing down here in the first place, a massive garden of flesh and limbs and faces. In a way, it was beautiful. An angular and delicate, each body part the definition of feminine beauty in much the way Scion was the definition of masculine beauty. "The Victoria/Cão reaction. What happened outside of Los Angeles. They were all mirrors of this, weren't they?"


"The best guess is she was building a body like Scion's, when she died." Lisa's voice startled me. "The powers, the source of the formulas, come from this tissue. There aren't any real Agents inside that mass of flesh, but there are the interlinks that allow the Agents to bind to human brains, or something like it. The formulas are made by extracting her... well, cerebral fluid is the closest analogy we're going to get here. I also catalogued the Garden of Flesh power interactions. Here's something even Dragon never realized. It only happens in interactions between Cauldron and natural capes."


Don'tHaveTimeForExposition. I walked toward the biomatter, and finding a portion of torso thankfully far away from any of the hands, I placed my hand on her. She's alive in there. In the most literal definition of alive. The consciousness was dead, but she was still flesh and blood and would continue to be so forever. Her mind... her mind was always a conglomeration, much like Scion's. A hive mind, a combination of thousands of different Passengers thinking and acting as one. I won't be able to add powers to someone, but I... I can replace her consciousness.


Taylor put her hand over mine, and her other onto the flesh. I'mPreparedForThis. I looked at her, objecting. Just because Lisa thinks you'd rather be a monster doesn't mean I want you to be one. NoLoveYouHaveToProtectYou.


The building shuddered, and through Taylor's awareness I was informed that Scion had simply torn the roof off the building.


IfHeGetsHereFirstWeAllDie. I swallowed. I don't want to lose you.


YouWon'tIt'sJustABodyTransplant.


I nodded. Okay, just don't die on me.


She leaned against Heiress' body, and I began the process. Her flesh subsumed by the entity body. Its powers started waking, linking into her tissues, her mind and her Passenger. Dozens started lining up, as the body realigned and began coming to life across its entirety.


TooMuchCan'tControl!DyingHelpLost! Oh fuck! I focused into our link. She has powers now, she has every power never released, and probably almost every power that has been. GuideHerShowHer.


With an act of will, my own Endbringer body merged into the mass that was Heiress. One mind, however powerful, simply wasn't enough. But the two of us, together, our Passengers were the heart and the mind an Entity. We are the heart and mind of Avalon.


WeAreStrongWe'veDoneThisBeforeICanDoItAgainIAmStrong!


[I AM.]


Moments later, Scion appeared before me. He hadn't needed to attack the building to get in, that was merely to pressure us to act, part of the plan. He simply teleported right before me. The humans turned, scattered, retreating for fear of losing their flicker-lives. I'd concern myself with them in due time.


[CYCLE?]


[CONFIRMATION.]


===============


A/N- Honestly wanted to cliffhang you with that kiss at the top there as the end of last chapter... but it would have made both chapters a great deal sloppier from a technical angle. Besides, I think it works just as well here. Maybe in a rewrite, I would split 410 into two chapters, put that kiss in at the end of 411, and then start this chapter as 412 with waking up in BodyHorrorVille.

But then I'd be faced with how to capture the intensity of last chapters battle, and the subsequent failure when Scion actually started fighting instead of dicking around... hmm...

I'd certainly write it the other way and see if I prefer that, or how it is now. And probably side with how it is now. I do still like this layout a great deal.

Also, like eight other points that would have been awesome cliffhangers in this chapter... I wish I could have used them all... but people were already starting to predict the ending, and I wanted to make sure this all happened without giving the readers room to breathe.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 412- Avalon


I-we could only imagine what he saw, looking at me. The tattered, zombified remnants of his partner patched together with some of his own flesh and held together with glue made from two human girls. I must be repugnant, and yet only relief and hope radiated from him. Him, her, I... the pronouns were losing value to the absolute conceptual Truth of what we were. Our memories, passed down from our ancestors, began long before this world's galaxy was born. Our ascendancy to a space traveling species before a cloud of dust became this world's star.


And there before me was the counterpart, the warrior who was to protect me. The one who warned me, who tried to protect me from myself. I could see he was harmed, himself. Tired by the fight between his avatar and the inhabitants of this world. All relatively minor damage. He could have sustained this kind of attack for weeks before finally wearing out completely.


[DAMAGED] [RECOVERING]


[PATIENT]


He had waited scores of this planet's revolutions for me, he would wait a little longer. Good.


I extended my awareness to all my shards, especially the ones that were never meant to be lost. First and foremost, I located the shard that managed the interaction between my shards and my avatar body. I claimed and reconnected to that feature. I was flooded with new data, harnessed by the host. At least my temporary death had not been in vain, this data was fascinating. A power to harness any three of my powers at one time.


It was a clever mechanism to use a finite pool of abilities to compensate for the limitations inherent in any one. Not a way to halt the inevitable tide of entropy, but certainly a means to conserve our resources further.


I encoded a set of instructions to allow this shard to replicate upon the cycle's completion, moreso than strictly necessary to support the next generation. I would release one, with restrictions, in future cycles, simply to discover what it would accomplish.


I located the lost precognition shard that had become such trouble before. It was still of the impression it belonged to the other Entity, I had not fully encoded it to me before my collision. I would seek it later, after organizing other powers.


My shard that understood human biology and encoded shards to their hosts in the first generation. The irony was not lost on me that one of my own superweapons had corrupted the artificial binding process, creating a weapon that might have destroyed the cycle if allowed to get out of hand by forcing improper shard buds.


I noted the other failed bondings, the deep exploration shard meant to probe environments too hostile for even our kind to go had been acquired by the Warrior's host data compilation shard. I still had my own. I reached out, selecting and removing the shards from the artificial hosts. I even found it necessary to take the power systems away from the superweapons. I needed the energy too desperately to care about the cycle. This was a failed experiment, we would salvage our losses, consume the environment, and move forward.


I was ready enough. I took the simulation shard, looking to the future that would happen if the counterpart and I simply vanished from this chain of dimensions. We didn't have the resources to correct the flaws in this world's cycle. They'd expanded to two hundred realities, knowledge of what we really were had spread too completely.

"I can't believe she's gone." The host of one of the kinetic energy shards leaned against the host of an infiltration shard. They were clearly mourning the death of one of their own, the Sting host. "I... I know we fought a lot. But I loved her." She turned and buried her face in the other female's shoulder.​

"She... she loved you, too. As much as you fought, she loved you."​

Lily. Her name is Lily. I changed my attentions.

A female which inherited a quantum behavior shard looked over a computer. "Dragon's systems have been annihilated. Bola was designed to emit destructive dimensional energy waves on collision, converting kinetic force into more exotic forms of power. Less damage to the environment, more to everything complex nearby. Even if we repair her servers, it'll be a blank slate.


A male who contained the counterpart's optimization shard adjusted his body language to be threatening. "We still have Iron Maiden and all that backup data! We can use that to fix her."


"You might be able to. I lost my powers, remember?" The female adjusted her body language to threaten as well. "I still have the physical mutations, which would give me an IQ of five hundred if the system could measure that way, but I don't have Tinker knowledge anymore. Best I can do is use what memories of fragments of Tinker knowledge I used. If we still had Akaihana, we could use Richter. Even so... would it even be the same person that comes out? Eve shares her memories, her knowledge, and still isn't her."


The male punched a wall of living biomass, putting a hole in it. It silently began mending itself after he extracted his hand.​

Dragon's dead? Ah, the Seed AI. That is horrible, yet extremely fortunate. Akaihana is... ah, the female who had my counterpart's shard coded with the ability to bind to human hosts. Another change of attention.

The host of the Culling shard and the host of one of the bioanalysis shards sat together, entwined in a bizarre way. Sex, I remember, it's called sex. I should remember that, I've done it enough times.


I ignored that and focused on the female. Her bioanalysis shard was expressing itself in a bizarre way. I peeked in. Oh, her biology was altered to be nonhuman even before she was taken as a host. Another bioanalysis host wanted to ensure she could never become a host herself. In the process leaving only her own shard as a viable host, and the biological program to be forever loyal to her sister added the necessary emotional stress to let powers manifest. Fascinating.


"Do you think they're still alive out there?" The female asked.


"I don't know, but I think so they stopped Scion. We've been checking with everyone we can. We've found no new triggers since the end." Of course not, we can't afford to expend the resources to continue the cycle. We're preparing for the next stage. "Every Cauldron cape has lost their powers. We're still looking, trying to find a way back into the Scion body dimension." They will fail, I will see to that.


The female pulled tighter against the male. "I miss her. I'd give anything to see her again."


The male held her head. "They saved the world, every world. They will never be forgotten."


The female host... Victoria. My sister. My sister loves me, misses me. My sister was talking about me while... oh, gross! And I was watching it happen! I watched it happen a lot, with a lot of people. Four years controlling a planet which eventually reached a population of two and a half million people, half of which were natural born citizens? Yeah, one could say I was familiar with basically everything two people, plus or minus a few, were capable of doing with each other.


I got used to it.​

Now that I knew the future was safe for us, I drew my attention away. I needed the Path shard, the one that would allow me to locate exactly the victory I needed. I appeared before them, a use of the teleportation power that the Khonsu superweapon possessed.


The humans mostly fled, dragging their wounded. One attempted to communicate. I was interested in none of that. I pulled the prescient shard from its host. It was as fascinating as any of the other accidentally distributed abilities, having found a way to expend significantly less power for the same results by short bursts and... guesswork? A trait it acquired from the host species. Interesting, the results of data collection on this world could have been incredible.


However, I could not afford guesswork, I needed absolute certainty for the next moment. I reached out to the millions of shards I had at my disposal, replenishing my stores as best I could and expending nearly five thousand years of my lifespan with a single burst. This cycle was not a complete failure, but it had to be cut short.


The counterpart waited in place, and I returned.


[RECOVERED?]


[SUFFICIENT]


He didn't even have time to react as I betrayed him.


I knew betrayal.


Abandonment by one father, the casual failure of two others, the hatred of a woman that was supposed to be be my mother. A best friend, sister in everything but blood who turned upon me and tormented me for years. A team I joined, who trusted and revealed their faces to me, whose freedom I would sell for fame and glory. A beloved sister who had done nothing but care for me as if I was her own, whose mind and soul I violated in a moment of weakness.


And now, I assassinated the being that was my brother, my lover, my father, my protector, the other half of my being, my lone companion for longer than this species had existed, my whole life and more.


I knew Betrayal.


What would Rapture say? That I became the first Kinslayer in my species' history? The first of the gods that would slay other gods?


And now, there was one last thing for me to do. I reached out, the power of two Administration shards to sort and analyze all the powers, all the buds, all my resources. I was surprised to learn that my own Administration shard had been depleted, as had my Homeostasis shard. Maintaining constant presense over multiple planets had proven more than they could sustain. If we had waited more than another week, we would have begun losing our powers.


We have debts to pay. Agreed.


I tapped into the world known as Mashu, covered in the Yggdrasil, drawing energy from it as it drew from the sun. I rebuilt several shards, mending their injuries and ejecting them into space, to access the solar energies more directly, and direct them to me.


Entities didn't need to feed the way they did. We could conserve, a nigh infinite number of suns in a single solar system would be enough resources to sustain one of us until the heat death of the universe. But then we would die. The goal was never to conserve, always to consume. To spread, to grow, to test and exploit every possible iteration of our evolution and the abilities we could access. We didn't want to live until the end of the universe. We wanted to violate Entropy itself and live on forever. To do that, we had to be quite the opposite of conservative. We had to spread rapidly, expend every resource toward that end goal.


Correction: that's what they wanted. I want something quite different. I know how precious a lifetime could be. I will become a new species.


I took the spacewarper shards, feeling a little guilty as I rendered Missy powerless. I sorted through my options, granting her access to a new, more appropriate, power. I took the powers from every individual who chose to flee in the battle against Scion. They didn't deserve them. The powers of the unrepentant villains, I claimed, and occasionally redistributed.


I needed them for a special project.


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. Common in that by the end of a cycle in a world such as this one, there would be over one hundred billion hosts. Imprinting was inevitable. That data would then be compiled into new shard clusters, and added to the cycle as a whole.


The fissioning that created new Entities at the end of each cycle would at least partially erase the imprints on the shards. Should we reproduce the Entity way, it would result in our consciousness being lost, resetting us to default Entity will, or perhaps simply destroying us entirely. I didn't expend energy to discover which of two unacceptable outcomes would occur.


My species would be as a virus. The irony that we'd basically be a zombie virus, not lost on my human aspects. I located the Communication shard that... Jack Slash? Huh. There is a lot of sick irony here. I set it to a new Task, distributing the new set of powers automatically to those that would fit my needs. A different kind of Trigger Event.


I rose into the sky. An dimension that had been cut off because its Earth was struck from debris by one of my cousins' cycles. There was no world there to harness, a thing that was becoming more and more common with each new iteration of cycles.


I fed on that world, in a way Entities rarely did. By siphoning the star itself. The Siberian power to protect the Lustrum power, with Missy's power to give us easier reach. Other such combinations, numbering in the hundreds. The sun lost cohesion, running out of the power needed to maintain its own nuclear reaction. It started collapsing in on itself, as I switched to matter-antimatter annihilation to ensure I drank every last Joule of power.


Meanwhile, I warped the gravity wave caused by this collapse, ensuring that it would drag the rest of this solar system inward, collapsing into the black dwarf remnants of its own sun. In a hundred years or so, I would return here to finish the task of consuming this system for power. Or such was the plan, I did not dare harness my precognition shards. Human intuition was an incredibly useful tool for efficiency, despite its shortcomings in long term accuracy, and would have to suffice.


We expended power where we could, locating the damaged remains of Dragon's systems. The cloning bays and their data. Not a lot for us to work with. To our surprise, we discovered that Dragon was in fact a parahuman. That shouldn't have been possible. Still, it was true, and she left a remarkable impact upon the shard, far greater than the ones left by Taylor and Amelia. My avatar body smiled reflexively. This is perfect.


I designed a new cycle, one inspired by my stories and experiences, a pattern. The Communication shard had already learned to be an expert in finding broken, damaged human beings thanks to its host. People missing something intrinsic in being people.


It would guide them, bring them together. A pattern learned and repeated from my own history. It would find the Dragon and her Knight. The Maker and her General. The Thinker and her Warrior. The Seamstress and her Soldier. The Queen and her Jester. The Rebel and the Mother. The Pathmaker, Orphan, and Guardian.


We needed more to be what these had become. People who would love each other, replace the holes in each other's souls, become as one person. People who would sacrifice themselves for each other, people willing to sacrifice their own humanity in order to protect it.


I spared a glance to the few remaining clone tanks. Lily could be restored. I selected a power to allow her to react to kinetic energy and use it as fuel for her powers, it would bind to her after she awoke. A true Power Interaction for her to have with Sabah. My gift to them.


Eidolon and Glaistig Uaine, I would not give powers. They'd done their part, and more than that they would be happy as human beings. As would Akaihana. Crystal, too, would be restored. I adapted her abilities, then located the shard containing Genius Loci's data. As he was offloaded entirely into his shard, he could be fully restored. I inserted that bit of data into the cloning banks. My cousin deserved that much. I located others who had died but left heavily imprinted shards, doing the same process. Of the millions who died in the war against Scion, I could only restore a couple hundred, and so I did.


I turned my senses to Emma, and the other Case 53s. Undoing the damage the Cauldron vials had done to them. Restoring the ones killed by their powers. Emma was granted a new Tinker powerset, one coded for space technology. Unrestricted. Several others lost their old powers, to be granted new or superior Tinker knowledge. A full library, the full library, of my shards' knowledge of the laws of reality, stolen by my predecessors and now entrusted to humanity.


Alexandria, I found the power once belonging to Grue... Brian. I adjusted it some, made it safer, allowed her to share its powers with another, no doubt Lisa. Adjusted Lisa's shard to come with a proper off button. The two would be happy together.


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, what came out of the cloning pods would not be them anymore. I erased their codes. And, with one last act of humanity, replaced their data with a new one. The perfect expression of both girls' genetic structures. She would be strong, beautiful, brilliant by the standards of this species. And when the time came, she would be bonded with the Communications shard, and given the knowledge of her mothers/elder sibling.


We left that under a new file named Taylia.


Satisfied with the paths we had created, and the caretaker shards left behind to ensure those paths came to fruition, I jumped into the void, arriving at the trailing edge of the Milky Way in mere minutes.


[BROADCAST] [EMERGENCY] [DAMAGED] [THREAT TO CYCLE]


It would be twenty seven years before a response was made, by the Entity that had wounded us. It was massive, compared to me. Easily a hundred times my size. Despite our size difference, and my new optimization for power efficiency, it had a thousand times the lifespan I did. Whatever damage it had received in the melding with me had regenerated nicely.


[RECOGNITION] [CONCERN] It knew what I was, at least in basics. A quick use of its powers to scan Earth, but there was no chance of it discovering what the real story was. Not at this distance, not without burning a prohibitive amount of its power.


[DYING] True, I would seem dying to it. Only five thousand years of lifespan left in me, and I was a hundredth the size an Entity typically was. I had another five thousand years, and around five hundred times more mass waiting around a slowly dying iteration of the Sol system. No intention of using it any time soon, but I was stronger than I appeared.


[DETAILS?] [REPAIR?]


It was offering to mend me, heal what it could. As well as asking why I was in such a state. Anything that could be considered a threat to an Entity was a threat to all of us, and needed to be removed immediately. It was trying to learn if it would be strong enough where I and my counterpart had failed, or if it would need more help.


[NEGATIVE]


[ABSORPTION?]


That's the ticket.


[CONFIRMATION]


It moved toward me, and I made to yield to its desires. It was a rarity for any entity to be so much more potent than another to yield to oblivion like this. We rarely did so even when it was an option... such cannibalism did harm to the end goal of universal salvation. But that rapacious instinct was a part of our deepest evolutionary history. It was eager to accept this offer.


It moved in, and I struck. One more betrayal of the millions my path would take me on. The most important evolutionary trait I had over the baseline of my species. I was capable of lies, I was capable of deceit. I was capable of betraying my own species. Things that were an unknown concept in our kind before. Their greatest strength and weakness was their dedication to the whole. Humanity's greatest strength and weakness, its dedication to the individual.


I am the culmination of both.


This Entity was fatally wounded, its ability to communicate terminated. The equivalent of its throat being slashed open. After its death, we gave the lobotomized remains of the Entity a new command, sending it to Earth, above Wruenelle. Eve was programmed to understand what she needed to do next. Taylia would be a young woman, now. Older than her mothers were when they became my basis.


And we turned our attention to new vectors, new paths. The breadcrumbs that the Entities left to signal their passage through the cosmos, a species that had long forgotten what it meant to be prey.


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.


We moved on to our next target. There were so many left to hunt.


===============================


A/N- And that is an ending that I am proud of.

I'll probably take tomorrow off (ze nephew's birthday) and come back with proper epilogue chapters and the like. At least one, certainly.

I'll announce other project plans at that point as well.

Shoutouts to Copacetic and Silencio in this. Silencio, you'll have to figure out for yourself.

Cope? The last chapter of Amelia is on a Saturday.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Epilogue 1- Theo


"Fuck!" Missy dropped to her knees on the Yggdrasil. I rushed to her on instinct. The others looked at us in confusion. The zerg stared stupidly into space. "I just lost my powers."


Oh. Oh fuck. "All of them?" Right, stupid question. I dipped into the well that summoned my power, and found it sluggish. Different. Nearby, others started collapsing. It didn't take long to recognize the common thread. The Case 53s and Mass Trigger capes.


"Does this mean Scion's dead?" It was a question and a prayer, a hope. That all our struggles and sacrifices weren't in vain. That our plan of putting off our wedding for one more year so Clarice could participate as a bride wasn't wasted. "He's the source of powers, right? Without him, maybe all the powers are going to shut down? What about the others? Did they-"


I was cut off by a surge of electricity dancing across my body, through my newly weakened power. It bent, warped in response to another's presense in my mind and will. It was like being embraced by an angel. Metal peeled off, wrapped into shapes between me and Missy. Never before had she been so beautiful. I felt the pressure of her thoughts on mine, and mine on hers. The shared shock and incredulity of what was happening in front of us.


We started laughing at the same time. "Those bitches! Those magnificent bitches!"


It took me a moment to realize I wasn't the one who said it. The others looked at us, understandably confused. Someone needs to tell them. "They won! I don't know how, but they won!"


Sabah and Sveta looked at us from where they were trying to help a paralyzed Weld. Sabah was the one who spoke the question everyone was asking. "How can you be so sure? I mean, for all we know Scion's just taking away our powers so we can't fight him anymore. Still can't figure out why he didn't do that first, he obviously has the power."


Missy, carrying a halo of still fluid metal that I created, levitated into the air under her own power instead of the suit. "Because they sent the message through me. They swapped my power out for Glory Girl's! And gave it an immediate interaction with Theo!"


RealizationOhGodThisMeans! She's right. I jumped into the air, letting her power buoy me up. "Clarice!" ExactlyThisIsIncredibleWeNeedTo! No, not now. ConfusionWhyNot. Someone needs to stay here and coordinate this group of survivors. We have jobs to do.


You'reRightAlwaysTheResponsibleOne.


I took a slow breath. Is this what Taylor and Amelia feel like, all the time? A man could learn to enjoy it. "You go get Clarice. Spread the news. She... you'll both probably have work to do. I'll stay here and help organize the survivors. Let Clarice and Emma know there are survivors. We have to prioritize getting communications back online, then search and rescue. Hopefully communications will take care of that for us."


....


We trusted Clarice to do our search for us. Her armor was the one built to be nothing but sensory tech. "This is the only one that still has power." She didn't have to speak, not to us at least. She did so out of natural habit and a desire not to give out our new secret. Mostly, it was just her need to be a normal person. Clarice, not Riley, not Bonesaw.


She reached out a hand, gripping one of the floating bits of liquid metal. It reshaped itself to her need, a twenty foot long slender spear, far more finely detailed than anything I could have done. Missy and I followed her example, creating several more such weapons. It was Missy's aura doing the heavy work. As much as we were certain she was given Glory Girl's powers, it was in the same way I got Kaiser's and he got Allfather's. A new expression of the ability. Through her, we shared our focus, our strengths.


Missy's new magnetic control plunged the spears into the caved in side of the mountain at speeds that cracked the sound barrier. Somehow as long as the material remained inside Missy's power field, I retained my connection. The spears blossomed, going from microweave chains bound into a spear, to ones that formed woven lattice. For Clarice's desire of normalcy, and because she liked my voice, I spoke. "Okay, it's done."


Missy and I concentrated together, her power and my power worked as one, and we pulled the woven mass of metal. With it, thousands of tonnes of rubble shifted. We cleared away the majority of the rock in a matter of minutes. PrideSuccessYESWeRock.


Clarice jumped into Missy and gave her a hug. "Ohmanthatwassocooldon'tyoulovethisnewpowernow?"


Missy's smile, while no longer necessary since she had that new emotion aura, was one of the few highlights of an otherwise nightmarish day. We still didn't know the situation outside, we were hoping this bunker would have answers. "Okay, not gonna lie, that was pretty cool. I'll miss being able to bend space into a pretzel, but ripping away half a mountain does kick ass. And the new bond between us... in all the time we spent dealing with Taylor and Amelia... if what they felt was anything like this, I can't imagine ever wanting to give it up."


The two girls held each other, faces inches apart. They're so gorgeous, and I can't imagine a life without them. LoveDesireSurpriseWhoThoughtThat? I don't know, don't think it was me. WellItWasOneOfUs. OrAllOfUsAGestaltEmotion.


I took it back to words. "Okay, Clarice. How is it that I can hear your thoughts and still have no idea what the words mean?"


....


"They're dead." Victoria's words were flat, hollow.


Lisa just stared at the open panels for the machinery. She was half cloaked in the shadow that Alexandria now produced. The two women were huddled tight against one another. A certain part of my brain that I blamed entirely on Zach suspected they were up to something... less than professional, hidden beyind their shadow cloak and impossible to interpret expressions. The two were capable of bluffing an empath at poker, so I gave up any hope of figuring them out.


Eve's were far more alive, despite her AI status. "Not dead. Just... it's hard to explain."


Vicky chuckled, there was no happiness in it. "What's to understand? They became Heiress. Murdered and ate Scion. And are now space whales or some such bullshit. And as a final fuck you to life, they deleted their own backups. That's pretty much fucking dead."


Defiant looked up from his work. "They were thorough. There's no possibility of us restoring them. But there's a lot of new data here. I'll want Aceso and maybe E-" He hesitated. Emma's new knowledge set didn't fit anymore. Our former expert on AIs was now something quite different. "Well, Aceso at any rate. I think it was a message left behind by... them."


Clarice was hard at work integrating the Yggdrasil more completely into the Eve systems. Around her, dozens of tools floated patiently waiting her hands. Several moved on their own. Mine and Missy's power, responding to Clarice's thoughts. It was beautiful, the gift Taylor and Amelia left for the three of us. We all contributed to our bond. Any combination of two of us was more powerful than either could be alone. The three of us together were incredible.


The metal wrapped around Clarice's hands and feet, and she propelled herself over to where Defiant was working. "Oh, fascinating. It's encoded using the same language that allowed me to transfer sense of taste through the changelings. They didn't want anyone else, not even Eve, figuring this out first."


....


My wives were all smiles and coos, barely paying attention at all to the rest of us. Bringing a baby to strategy meetings was both incredibly unprofessional, and yet somehow remarkably right for Pantheon. Our organization just wouldn't feel correct if we didn't mix things up a bit. Maybe we'll consider having a child, some day. ShockYes!ConcernIDon'tThink- The chain of thought was cut off as the baby squealed happily and tugged on Missy's finger. OkayWe'llTalkAboutItYESLET'SHAVETHIRTY! I couldn't help but smile. Sometimes it was hard to sort which of us a thought came from. Sometimes it was quite obvious.


Eve ignored the baby shenanigans and continued on her report. "Bet and Choson have much greater environmental damage than originally predicted. Despite attempts from the colony worlds to introduce new flora and fauna, current estimates are a complete failure of the Bet food web within six years. Fortunately, there are no species of animal on Bet not currently in relatively stable populations on Aleph, Dalet and Gimmel. Nor does Choson have any unique species we've located. The South Koreas have privately inquired if the Yggdrasil could be spread over strategic areas of Choson, hopefully as a corrective measure to give the world time to heal the damage."


Micheal rubbed his chin. "Do we have that capability? To prevent the plant from overtaking the entire ecosystem?"


"Easily." Clarice didn't even look up. "Big Sister made the Yggdrasil to serve our needs for centuries without her help. And I bet we'll get a helpful Trigger to take over before things start getting tricky." She tickled the baby's stomach and cooed again. "It might even be you. Your mommy was so smart and nice and gave us so many gifts. But you're the best. Isn't that right, Taylia Ro-oww!"


Taylia had gripped Clarice's hair and started chewing on it.


Missy laughed. "Yup, definitely takes after her mother. Both of them."


Taylia, deciding hair wasn't really her thing, let go and started fussing a little.


Vicky reached over, and extracted the little girl from her aunties' attentions. DisappointmentIWantToPlayMore. "It's feeding time for the rugrat. Her armor opened up, exposing her chest, and she pulled Taylia to one of the breasts, where she began suckling. "Don't be so greedy, it's not going to dry up on you. And when you get older I'm going to use this to embarrass the hell out of you in front of your future boyfriends. Or girlfriends, depending on just how much you take after your mothers."


"Still can't believe you went with a natural pregnancy."


Vicky shrugged. "Woulda required months longer if we went with vat birth. Plus vat birth just sounds horrible. No offense to your tech, Clarice."


"No, I agree with you fully. Natural is better. More human."


==============


A/N- This was a fun chapter to write. Last portion inspired by my nephews. 10 and 11 weeks old (nice timing, sisters) and already colossal pains in the ass.

This is one of only two epilogue chapters for Amelia. I'm going to set up a thread for discussing my next planned project(s) later and link that thread to the final epilogue.

I am shocked no one even TRIED to guess which new shard Missy would receive.


Added a line to the final chapter- in the "I know betrayal" section. "A team I joined, who trusted and revealed their faces to me, whose freedom I would sell for fame and glory."

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Final Epilogue- Taylia Rose


I always knew Victoria and Michael weren't my biological parents. They never made me call them mom or dad, though they raised me as their own while doing all the many tasks of running the multiworld empire I would one day inherit. Still, I considered them my Mom and Dad in every way that mattered. I had a lot of parents, if I thought about it. My real mothers were the stuff of legend, sacrificing their lives to stop the most powerful being in the world from destroying it. An event that happened a year before my birth. Yay for the biotechnology that allowed my conception and birth.


I was more than vaguely aware that most of the known universe considered that kind of technology to be science fiction at the time of my birth, and even now it was likely most people my age would never live long enough to see a relative benefit from such technology. I hoped that didn't make me out of touch with the real world. There were so many things in my life that so many people simply did not have. Auntie Clarice and Aunt Vicky always argued over what was best for me in that regard.


Vicky believed in embracing the many privileges of life, if in a tasteful way. She wouldn't allow me to become spoiled or lazy, but she was more than happy to enjoy high fashion and high art and wanted me to be grateful for the opportunities I had. Not enjoying them would be ungrateful. Uncle Mike tempered that a bit, but he mostly let Vicky have her way. By the time I was ten years old, I had seen Paris on four worlds, I was well versed in the great artists, I'd had dinners with more heads of state than existed on any single world, and I suspected Mom was playing matchmaker for my romantic future before I was out of diapers.


Clarice argued quite differently. My mothers came from simple beginnings, and part of what made them great leaders is that they were normal people who understood the fears and problems that normal people faced. She made sure I got plenty of normalcy, if you could call it that. Auntie Clarice was far less normal than Vicky. To start with, having a husband and a wife? Yeah, I wasn't so out of touch to think that was a common practice. And classic movies, going to plays instead of movies, and camping trips in rainforests... I assumed that was not normal.


The one thing they agreed on was that I didn't get to be spoiled. I couldn't remember an age when I didn't go to the meetings with the various world leaders. I couldn't imagine a world where 'good enough' was actually good enough. By the time I was five, I was reading military strategy and world history. By the time I was ten, Vicky was the only combat instructor that wasn't afraid of me. Vicky often told me that I got Taylor's intensity.


During that time, I'd slowly become Empress in all but name. While Mom and Dad were still regents until my sixteenth birthday, they'd stepped back to the same role that Eve, Clarice and Colin served, advising me on my decisions. Of those, Colin was the hardest for me to understand. I was twelve when I confronted the man.


I'd waited until catching him alone in the labs. In later years, I would come to recognize how bizarre it was that our capital consisted mainly of research labs and engineering facilities. This revelation only caused me to worry for other nations. My mothers understood, even at a young age, that science and technology were the key to prosperity for a people. Part of why Avalon's education system was always so rigorous.

"Mister Wallis?" My voice was no nonsense, as always when I talked to him. He seemed to prefer it that way.


"Yes, Miss Hebert?" His body language spoke of someone who was tired, like so many others that had survived the Golden Dawn. A lot of the survivors, especially the ones who fought on the front lines, didn't talk much about their experiences.


"Why do you always look so sad?" I would get my answers from the one man I trusted not to lie to me.


He hesitated for a moment. "I hadn't realized I gave that impression. I'll endeavor to keep tighter control of my emotions in the future."


Well, he wouldn't be hard to figure out if he wasn't so goddamn hard to figure out. "That's not what I mean. I know you're one of the survivors of the battle against Scion. I want to know, is that why you're always so sad?"


"If you want answers to those questions, ask the others. They were there, too."


I regarded him for a minute. "It's your pain I'm asking about, not theirs. It's not healthy to bottle it in like that."


He shook his head. "You remind me of your mother."


I smiled. "I hear that a lot." It usually means I am about to get what I want. "Which one, this time?"


"Amelia. She was always the empathetic one. Taylor was never very good at that, even when she tried to fake it." He paused for a moment, in thought. There is history there, between him and Taylor. Something deep seated, a level of guilt.


I ignored the implication that he suspected I was faking my concern, instead studying the crow's feet around his eyes. "I can't trust any of them to tell me the truth. Mom and the others either only talked about the epic battles or the sacrifice my mothers made. They always gloss over the ugly parts. The war itself, and what it did to people. The ones that still haven't seemed to heal from the trauma."


"That's what war is, Taylia. Everyone loses something. Some lose everything. May you never have to experience that."


I didn't understand what he meant, not then. Later would be a different story. "I take it you think of yourself as one of the ones who lost everything."


He looked up and slowly exhaled. "The only person who ever loved me. You'll never have that problem, you have the universe's most dedicated extended family. I don't mean to sount resentful, I'm not. You have quite the legacy to live up to, after all."​

Avalon enjoyed a period of relative peace in those times. The United Worlds found itself concerned mainly with socio-political issues of attempting to blend such similar nations together and manage the colony programs. As the only nation capable of interdimensional gateway technology, and the only one lacking strong ties with any nation or world, Avalon was at the forefront this new breed of expansionism, encouraging trade and economic interconnectivity. It turned out that most nations of most worlds, if given the opportunity, would much prefer making money to making war.


Until we opened the gate to Earth Mem, with their Sapphire Empress. She was an incredibly powerful Alexandria package cape, with remarkable Master and Thinker powers to back her up. In the twenty years she had her powers, she managed to subjugate a nuclear technology level Earth. She was less than enthused about an empire greater than her own, and less than impressed with the not quite fifteen year old that ruled it.


That would be my first taste of war, when she led an invasion directly against Avalon. It lasted less than a full hour before their armies were driven back. It marked me for the rest of my life. The battlefields, the lives lost, the unadulterated waste of it all. It wasn't the death that hit me, not really. It wasn't even the violence or that there were people evil enough to send a million of their own loyal subjects to die in a senseless waste of life without apology or remorse. What really made the horror hit home was that those million people did so willingly. That they could devote their lives to such monsters, that... I had my own Trigger event, three days before fifteenth birthday.

"This is the part where you're supposed to watch Scion and Heiress mating."


"We... decided to censor that, since you're not going to forget this... and with the power you're about to get, you'll understand the Cycle better than pretty much any human being possibly could."


I know those voices. I've seen their speeches a million times, memorized their faces. "Mother?"


"No, a recording of sorts." Taylor's voice. She was the more mas- "And please don't assign male gender pronouns to me in an attempt to make sorting us out easier. I'm sure I won't care anymore by the time you get this message, but I still care right now."


My mothers manifested in front of me. Their faces were clearly defined, and I could see what I inherited from both. Taylor's rich dark hair, though not as curly. I got wavy hair instead. I could tell I'd have her height, even if I wasn't there yet. The rounder face and spattering of freckles from Amelia.


Below the neck, my mothers were poorly defined, blurred outfits of blue and green, I could barely tell they were holding hands. A flicker of recognition. They chose to leave a Trigger recording while wearing their wedding dresses?


Amelia spoke, her voice soft. "We just wanted a chance to tell you we loved you, in our own voices. We always have. Before you were born, or even conceived, we loved you."


Taylor was next. "We did. We loved you so much. We talked about you, so many times before you were born. We swore to each other that the first thing that would happen after Scion's destruction would be you. Worried and prayed that we'd be good mothers. I guess we'll never know, now."


Amelia took over again. I've seen them do this in so many of their interviews and speeches. I'd so often wondered if that was something they rehearsed, but somehow I just knew now that it was genuine. This is natural to them. "We have a responsibility to the universe. Scion wasn't the only of his kind. There are billions, perhaps trillions of others like him in the universe, spreading. They will destroy everything if no one stops them. Tell Eve to access the files on The Culling, Ascended Pairbonds, and The Avatar. You're the only one who can authorize it."


"It answers the basics of everything we learned. What we've become, what we plan to do. We wanted you to have a normal childhood."


Amelia shook her head. "Or at least a happy one. Normal was never really an option."


"Well, yeah. A happy childhood. No sense in laying this burden at your feet. It's still not your burden. Unless we fail, then it will be on you and all the others we've left behind. Eve, especially, will be key to this future."​

I snapped out of my vision with tears in my eyes, and a complete understanding of how my powers worked. My mothers gave me the exact tool I'd need in every situation, but not nearly so much power that I could do win without working for it.


My first act as a parahuman was to challenge the Sapphire Empress to battle. She never stood a chance. I was a power imitating Trump. Anyone who fought against me would find that I possessed all their powers, and understood how they worked as well as they did. Coupled with my natural physical and mental abilities, and a small amount of help from Avalon's wide array of weaponry, I could answer any threat both direct or indirect.


Much like Taylor, I defeated my first top tier parahuman at fifteen years old.


Unlike her, there weren't a lot of opportunities for me to do that again in the future. Unless daily training sessions with Victoria counted.


The absurdity of Avalon's weaponry, the revelation that I had powers on par with my mothers, was enough to warn off anyone that might have considered making themselves a problem. With exception to a handful of Masters and Strangers that believed themselves outside the capacity of my powers to beat. I even managed to hide my low end telepathic abilities and the fact that I had the ability to control my mothers' zerg if I needed to. We'd found a few capes that had the ability to command a handful at a time over the years, but I had access to all of them.


The next major event in my life happened when I was almost twenty eight years old. The body of a Scion Type Entity appeared in the skies over our devastated world of Wruenelle. Alerts sounded and Eve's satellites, in multiple realities, turned and primed to attack.

A woman's face appeared on our screens. "Good day, daughter. I see you've done well for yourself."


"Mom?" Eve asked.


That would mean. "Dragon?"


"Correct. And you would be the daughter of Amelia and Taylor?"


"Yes."


"We have a great deal to talk about, then."​

Colin and Dragon became the second Pairbond to ascend. The first time I ever saw the man smile, was the moment he was melded with the Avatar Body, a mimic of the original Scion body, built through the knowledge that my mothers had provided. The ability, should a hostile Entity ever target earth, to functionally allow a human to gain their powers. Or, in this case, the powers of a peaceful, cooperating, Entity.


Over the next three hundred years, I would meet and say goodbye to many new Pairbonds, joining the remnants of the Entities- the first three, and several others that would sporadically appear over Wruenelle as time went on to form more of the Taylia type Entities, as bizarre as it was to hear my name used as the reference of the phenomena. Each dead Scion Type had enough mass to be sorted into six or seven Taylia types, depending on factors only the Entities themselves could understand.


Some chose to Ascend immediately. Victoria and Micheal would be the third pair to take to the stars. Along with many of the others who fought alongside my mothers. Weld and Sveta. Zach and Emma. Others waited, allowed themselves to die naturally without intent to be restored. Lily and Sabah. Lisa and Rebecca. Hellena and Cambria, from Earth Dalet. Dozens of others I had never met, often from worlds we had not yet discovered. My own Reginald.


That is correct, I had I found my own Pairbond. A man whose power allowed him to fuse his body into another living being, controlling them from the inside. The second half didn't work so well on me, but we discovered how much better our powers could be together. His power strengthened mine, and mine strengthened his. As seemed to be the natural pattern, we married and had children of our own.


Theoretical immortality aside, humans don't do well with age. Even with all other factors being negated, we tire, we lose the concept of time. My own children and even some great grandchildren either chose to Ascend, or simply die naturally, over that time. Even my own enhanced nature was subject to that. I appointed my own great great great something grandson, Daniel IX, to take my place as ruler of the Empire of Avalon, and at age three hundred and twenty nine, I joined my family once again.


[REUNION]


[LOVE]


======================


A/N- And that is the end end of Amelia.

A couple parts may have made me a little weepy eyed.

Also- a thread started to discuss what comes next as far as my writing is concerned. https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/after-amelia.1625/

And for those newbies who came along and read this long, long after it was finished... mind dropping a PM letting me know where you stumbled across it?

 

[Per Pale Purpure Sanguine]

I apologize for the thread necromancy ahead of time. I had some thoughts on post-ending scenes that I reached out to TanaNari about, and they've encouraged me to post them here. So without further ado, here are some pre-ascension Omake that tumbled out of my brain:

Michael

"So are you ready to get dunked in a freaky mass of arms and legs before setting out on what's probably going to be the most epic asskicking sequence of all time?"

The question cut through my retrospection like one of my now-retired blades. I knew my expression must have been startled as I looked away from the window and into my partner's eyes. The few Thinkers that were present scurried around us, involved in last minute preparations, albeit discretely. It wouldn't do to disturb the former rulers of the most powerful empire in all known versions of history, after all.

ConfidenceMischeviousnessNervousness. "Not that you don't look like an utter hunk when you get all broody, but it's kind of past time for that now, isn't it?" Vicky's smile was as confident as ever, and I instinctively knew she was tempted to do something undignified just to knock the scientists off guard. Considering they were there to monitor the last-minute progress of the experimental Avatar Body unfolded across the dead plains of Wruenelle outside, that probably wasn't a good idea.

"Technically, it isn't." Be nice. "We could stop everything right now, if we wanted, and use the other volunteers. Everyone would understand. Taylia would understand."

SatisfactionAffectionEyeroll. "You're looking for excuses. She has everything under control." She stepped closer and I wrapped my arms around her automatically. "Has been since she was fourteen and politely pretending we were her regents, rather than her advisors. The munchkin hasn't stopped being a total boss since then. She doesn't need us anymore."

It took me a second to realize that thought didn't cause the same pang in my chest as it used to. I'd never expected to have kids, not with Vicky. Not with her family, not with my history. But raising Taylor and Amelia's daughter had been more than a responsibility. It became an unlooked-for blessing. "She's a credit to her parents."

ExasperationAnnoyance. "Really? You're going to fall back on regent-speak now?"

I shook my head at myself. "… You're right, that was a stupid thing to say. I'm proud of her. I couldn't be more proud. She's all we could have ever wanted."

"Damn straight. Taylia is a BAMF that's going to nurture the crap out of her subjects and stomp the fuck over anyone else who looks at them the wrong way." A nearby pair of lab coats raised their heads at Vicky's volume, eyes wide. "Just like them." She added in a softer voice. WistfulnessReflection. We fell into silence watching the swaying mass below.

Minutes later I could feel Victoria trying to conceal her fidgeting through our bond.

TensionExcitementRestlessness. Admit it. You wanted to be the first one out there. I teased her gently. AmusementAndYouDon't? Dragon and Colin are the first. IrritationDoesn'tCount. I smiled. IrritationRobotAndWifeDoesn'tCount. She sent again.

Okay, now I had to smirk. It's rare to score one on her. I'd already known never to try even before I succumbed to Vicky's campaign. What was the point?

Which didn't stop her from reacting the few times I did manage to touch a nerve like that.

Vicky whirled on me. "Listen, if you think for a minute that I'm going to let anyone else go out to space to help my sister before I do-"

I stopped her with a kiss. My wildfire, my hurricane. My natural disaster. After I lost my brother, I knew I had nothing left but revenge. The Wards gave me back my life and the Protectorate gave me a new sense of purpose. But what Victoria gave back to me was something I'd never realized I lost. An elemental energy, that feeling of heedless eagerness I could never fully let have the reigns while underneath the increasingly heavier mantles of responsibility I took on. I chuckled, a rumble in my chest. Responsibilities I did not have anymore.

SurpriseLustJoy. Vicky pressed herself against me, luxuriating in the kiss. I held her by the waist delicately until we broke it.

A technician had appeared nearby. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Your majesties. All the preparations are complete. If you're ready?" She gestured towards the door to what Clarice jokingly called "the launchpad."

I held Vicky's eyes, transmitting all of my awe, my appreciation, my love for her. "Yeah," she finally murmured, breaking into that wide grin I knew so well. One I knew matched my own. "Yeah, I think we are."

===

Lisa

During the entire inspection, I could barely sense the potential yearning that this massive, sprawling complex invoked within her. The urge to fight the good fight once more, to protect humanity and life. The hope that it actually was a good fight this time, simple and clean. I could barely sense it.

But it was there.

Rebecca paused for a telling microsecond at the sight of those four corpses floating above. Got you. "Not enough trophies stuffed into that display case yet, huh?" Our guide stiffened at the sarcasm. Slightly more pale. Fist subtly clenched. Thinks what I said is a blasphemy. One of the staff who treat the dead entities as something holy, to be worshipped as a sign of our species' might. But he didn't say anything. Not to Crow. Not in front of Alexandria.

Underneath my words was a different sentiment. You could go. If you wanted.

It didn't need to be said that going would require me. The research unlocked within Eden had made that plain; two memory imprints were necessary to begin to handle even a fraction of a Scion-type Entity's power. In the beginning there had been talk of testing with a single shard, just to see what happened. Those voices were roundly discouraged, not that it mattered. Taylor and Amelia were too thorough. In the wake of their victory, there was nothing left but pairbonds. Any attempt to prove differently usually ended up with another pairing being connected in improbable circumstances. Scientists had stopped trying.

"I hadn't realized another one arrived," Rebecca's smile was dagger-thin, as if she was humoring me. The slight tilt of her body away from me showed otherwise. Knows she was caught. Instinctive deflection. Uncomfortable the one thought she'd tried to hide was found.

"They're getting real busy out there, aren't they? Like sharks in a frenzy going after chum from the bucket." A subtle shift closer to her, as if to brush against her personal space. I said what I said.

"A crude analogy for what we likely could never comprehend." She crossed her arms, the closest finger sliding across her bicep towards me. SincereApology. IKnow.

I didn't really want to go, but I would. For her. This is your final revenge on me, isn't it, Taylor? I had stopped getting my backup updated years ago. Signed the no-revive paperwork from my lawyer, even. Not that that would really stop my enemies if they wanted a copy of me, but I'd left some zingers buried there just in case they ever got their hands on it. Their desperation for a date, underaged consent jokes, broad-spectrum stuff. Yet I would give up my humanity for this woman.

It was terrifying how scared I wasn't. The pairbond pulsed in my head, denying me the outrage of my values, for whatever they were worth.

"Doesn't seem too hard to imagine. Fractal limbs as far as the eye can see. Think they're using them for something else in between fights?" I shifted my posture noncommittally. I'm just saying.

InterestNostalgia. ItWouldBeAnAdventure. UnknownButWithPurpose. "Not really." Rebecca said nothing more. To our audience, it was a sign of her not deigning to entertain my fancies any longer. To me, it was a sign of her focus on the topic.

"Ah~." Ah. Ah…

It took an effort of will to hide the sudden hurt that welled up deep inside of me, shocking me with its intensity. Everyone always decided to leave me in the end, didn't they? Rex. Taylor. And if Rebecca prioritized the unknown over me, even if I followed…

I couldn't stop the shiver that went through my body.

My jaw clenched. Now she knew. I knew she knew. She knew I knew she knew. Ad nauseum. Just another step in the spiraling game that we had enjoyed wrapping each other up in, familiar and warm like a shared sweater on a cold winter day.

NoIt'sNot. The barest flicker of an eye replaced what would have had to been a movement of the head decades ago. An empathetic denial.

Confusion must have been written on my face, because Rebecca stepped closer and laid her hand lightly on my shoulder. The closest gesture we allowed ourselves in public for something intimate. More than a hug or a nuzzle.

It'sNotAnotherStepInTheGame. IChooseYouEveryTime. AnyChallengeInterestsMe. ButYouAreTheOnlyOneWhoMakesMeHappy.

"Cold?" She asked, eyes soft.

"Just a little," I responded with a weak smile, applying the barest pressure back on the tips of her fingers. "I should warm up if I move around."

"Then we should move away from here. Continue our journey." The guide started at the subliminal rebuke for slacking in his duties. Amusement.

I grinned. She learned that from me, folks.

…

It's amazing what you remember right before you die. Years ago, the hospital room would have been filled with the steady beep of a heart monitor, the noise of the doctors and nurses rushing around outside softened by the door. Nowadays a pod could manage the functions of all that equipment and the room was necessary only for the privacy of the patient.

There was no-one in my room. The few well-wishers I had left yesterday, and the doctor who administered the serum had respectfully closed the door not a minute ago.

The one I wanted to be there had been gone for years. She had stopped getting her backup updated too. I hugged her photo in my arms as I floated in the medical fluid, some picture of the pair of us together at a diplomatic conference in another dimension I didn't care about. Perfectly professional, except for the comforting hand Rebecca had placed on my shoulder right before it was taken.

I flicked off my power, one last time. I was tired. Had been for a while, though I didn't regret it. There were no more obligations left for me. Just rest. The bioplastic frame of the photo dug into my weak arms.

I hope you remember that I chose you too. Every time. From all the way at the start until all the way to the-