"No, you wouldn't have." They wouldn't have allowed her to - nor would they have allowed them to not stay long term with someone not John. That had been their plan. It's not argumentative, though it is a bit smug, but plain, as if stating water was wet or fire hot.

"They were never really John's, much less anyone else's. We caused them to be born, designed it, set it up. I'm not doubting your love for them, or challenging it, but they were always meant to be tools for us." It's cold, perhaps, but from Raphael's point of view no different than humans breeding cattle or anything else.