No Regrets

By Claire Boston

Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Rating: PG-13 Death scene.

Summary: Renee and Sandoval, AU scene for S5 ending episode, "The Final Conflict".

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"I have no regrets."

Sandoval lay impaled, bleeding, painfully holding his head up with the last of his strength, to stare defiantly into Palmer's eyes. He gave a painful gasp, knowing that he had only moments left. He was determined to be defiant to the end, denying her any sense of victory over him, even in death.

"None, Sandoval? Not even about…your son?" Renee's words came softly, steel wrapped in velvet. She stood motionless, staring at him. In the darkness of the shattered Lair, her eyes had a strange intensity that locked onto his.

"Wha…. How do … you kn—know …. ?" It was getting hard to breathe, he felt the darkness gathering, but Sandoval felt a tremor vibrate through him at her words. His son! He had searched, so carefully, knowing always that his enemies would be overjoyed to find the boy, to use him against Sandoval. He couldn't allow that.

But in all his searching, he had never found any trace of the child. And in the end, he had decided that it was safer that way. Safer for the boy, and safer for himself. He would give no hostages to his enemies – not to the Taelons whom he loathed with every fiber of his being, not to the Jaridians whom he distrusted and despised, not to the humans who hated him and who worked against him at every turn. And now, to find out that Palmer knew about the boy, knew about his – son…..

"I know about the blood he gave that saved your life. I was there." Sandoval couldn't reply, so great was his surprise. But her words kept coming.

"But that wasn't the first time he saved your life. Or the last." His eyes widened further at her words, his lips moving as they tried to shape words. "He risked his life, over and over, to keep you safe." The only sound was the wet noise of his labored breathing. "And in return, you tried to kill him. To kill your own son."

"No." The word was a barely heard gasp. Weakly, Sandoval shook his head, moving it from side to side in denial. He could never hurt his own son!

"Yes. You betrayed him. You destroyed the people he loved, the people who trusted him, cared about him." Her words pounded into him, even as he continued to shake his head in denial. The pain in his chest was growing with every heartbeat, and he knew the end was near. The initial numbness of his injuries was fading, as shattered bones and tortured flesh began to send their CVI-enhanced messages of pain through his nerves. Each word pounded into him, through the growing agony in his body. "You hurt him and you tortured him, and you enjoyed it. You hated your own son and wanted to see him dead."

"No - stop…" He closed his eyes, not wanting to hear any more. But he couldn't close his ears as her words continued.

"And he did die. Because of you, and because of what you did, to him and to humanity."

At that, he moaned, the sound an agony of pain and denial.

"Does it hurt, Sandoval? Does it matter to you that the son who loved you knew only hate from you in return? That he cried himself to sleep every time you murdered one of the people he cared about? That he died believing you hated him?" Renee's eyes were hard and unflinching.

"Do you truly have no regrets?"

As the final darkness began to close over him, Sandoval could only stare into Palmer's eyes wordlessly, his face a twisted mask of pain.

And as his labored breathing finally stilled, and his head slowly sagged to lie unmoving, Renee Palmer continued staring at the face of the man, silently noting the tracks of the tears down his cheeks…

FINIS