Something something, the first time Carolina and Tex encounter the Meta, he jumps one of them while they're both nearly dead on their feet, drained from fighting each other.
Tex has fought through the whole ship and endured the crash only to find that her objective was lost before she ever started, and Carolina just fought/broke up with York and lost the fight with Tex, being hurled from the Mother of Invention's bridge in the impact. Then the Meta attacks, and throws Carolina to her apparent death, forces Tex to flee, and spend the rest of her life knowing that the Meta is hunting her and Alpha, until she's assimilated and destroyed.
The last time Carolina and Tex encounter the Meta, they kick its ass together. Carolina has found her absolution, redemption, and justice for everything she did and everything she was put through during the Project. Tex is stronger than she's ever been, reborn from the memories of the only group of people she was ever able to act like a human being around, no longer defined by a broken man who was haunted by the death of her original self, but by her own actions, remembered by those who saw her as a nigh-unstoppable but still human juggernaut.









