That's a lie!

[It comes out shrill and frantic, because if what he says is true - if he'd wanted her to be safe all along - then she's really screwed up by doing this. It can't be true. He has to have hated her - he has to have harbored that resentment for her all along, has to have been in pain, because she had chosen to put her fate in the Producers' hands and chosen to steal those three lives and chosen to cast aside her father, the man she loved, and her precious friends for the sake of unburdening him.

If he hadn't needed her to do any of that— If he hadn't wanted her to do any of that—

Her hold on him loosens entirely and she brings both hands up to her head, threading her fingers into her hair and tugging hard to try and help herself focus. The disorientation of his reactions is overwhelming; pain helps to ground her. It always has in this life.]

You can't— If you didn't need me to protect you after all, then what I do it for..?

[To ease her own conscience? To win back affections she'd had all along?]

I wanted to save you! I wanted to make you happy again!