[ he watches her from the sparse distance between them, but finally comes close enough to hunker down beside her when the flowers bloom up like they are reaching out to her.

he sees the tears and he still doesn't understand why she's so upset until she speaks. it dawns on him then, and he remembers the story koz told him so many months ago when he'd found him on the enterprise. ]

You're his---[ daughter. the one he'd thought had been caught up in that prison with the fearlings. they'd tricked him. to live all this time knowing what her father had become---he reaches out to gently touch her shoulder. ] I'm sorry.

I didn't---[ how could he have, though. ] But---the man up there now, that's not Pitch Black. It hasn't been for a long time now. Just---now the Fearlings are gone for good.

He's free.