[He flinches back immediately at her words--you're wrong, he hates those words, hates them with all of his being, hated it when the tutors said it, when Hugo had said it mockingly, when Marian had said it gently, when Stahn had said it tearfully. He hates those words, because usually, they're true, and he hates being wrong.

He hates the thought.

And he hates that she's trying to tell him now something that he's always known. Mistakes are a part of living--for other people. For him? It was a fatal mistake, and he knows it. For him, the mistakes he made were not mistakes you return from.

For him, his mistakes are going to follow him to the grave, and beyond. Leon Magnus, betrayer. Leon Magnus, villain. Leon Magnus, he who betrayed the heroes who were to save the world--

He snaps back, like a cornered animal.]

You still do not understand. [Their lives were similar in a lot of ways--but in this, Leon knows they differ.] This was the only possible outcome for me. This was my purpose, from the moment I was born. This was all my fa-- what Hugo ever intended for me. To pretend otherwise would be to ignore the truth of the matter.

I was only ever intended to die when my use ran out.

[That just...happened to be the end of the line.]

That is the difference!