Rick could see the tears running down Nerissa's face, but she didn't turn to look at him. And those tears are not tears of sadness or pain. These were tears of relief, finally letting go of a heavy load.
"I... did it," Nerissa said in a voice full of awe. "For fifty years... I felt guilty about genocide..."
"I punished myself by becoming an emotionless shell for fifty years... I thought I didn't deserve to be saved for fifty years..."
She finally turned to Rick, and her eyes were full of life in a way he had never seen before. "But today I chose to protect instead of destroy..."
"I chose to save instead of kill... I chose to give everything for others instead of taking everything in my pain..."
Rick took her hand and said, "And because of that choice of redemption... we won."
"You helped us save the world, Nerissa... That's the proof that you can be better than your worst mistakes..."
