They were...just words. Maybe there was some weight to them once upon a time. When times were different and he was different all the same. But those times had long since passed. Lucas wouldn't have been the person he was today if he didn't go through that stage of his life but at the same time, he was more than aware of the lives he had ruined in the process of becoming someone who could've been viewed as someone who cared about the people in his charge. He knew the other handlers didn't really give their agents pointers on how to get out of going into the field.
It was all...bullshit. But he would stand beside it until someone called him out on it and even then it was going to be denied until he was blue in the face. The person that he needed to believe in him wouldn't have believed that he'd changed. Probably couldn't believe that he had changed because he had taken what she had in life and tore it away from her. "I mean...isn't that what all the handlers are here for? You can't claim we're sensitive for this work. Most of everyone who is here have been kidnapped from their homes and lives. Sure, there's criminals but that makes up for a small population of people who are agents."
The others were normal. Social activists who wanted to be the change. People who were just minding their own business. Children plucked from their homes and brought to a youth facility. "I don't know, the guy got a pretty killer robot hand. Might help with the badass aesthetic if you get a hook." His tell was apparent to anyone who knew him. It was the soften expression he would get when he was around his agents, around any of the agents while trying to seem "harder" than he actually was.
"Handlers don't imprison. We're just the jailers." Lucas wouldn't argue with her. They deserved it. Some more than others but it didn't automatically mean their freedom in everything. They were still aware and still could've done something, anything to help the people that were locked in there with the implants that more or less grounded them from doing anything if they stepped out of line.