[Maybe Salieri doesn't deserve sympathy, but...Varian went through his trial completely accepting the idea he was an irredeemable monster. Yet...each and every person there championed for him to be saved. Several of them were willing to put him out of his misery themselves to save him the cruelty of an execution...Salieri tried to go after the Wizard.

How can he not show the same compassion when he'd been afforded it when it wasn't truly earned, much less deserved?

He's tired. He's tired of the pain, and the suffering. He's so, so tired of being miserable. He doesn't take any joy in seeing Salieri, the one person among them he thought would never break...like this.

Salieri was maybe a bit too good at keeping his issues under wraps, in the end.]

...I love you, okay? No matter what happens, even if...even if we end up stuck in this place forever. I know you were trying to do what you felt was right.

[...]

But...if any of the others find themselves here too, I won't be able to defend you.

[He doesn't have that right.]