A/N: So. I have this terrible habit of starting a story and never finishing it. But I just can't help myself, I have such ideas for this DBH AU. A lot of people give David Cage a lot of flack for poor writing, completely ignoring that without him we wouldn't even have that wonderful game. Sure, there are some things that bother me, but honestly the roasting he's receiving is way over the top. Although the one thing that truly bothers me about DBH is the pacing. Come on, an entire world-changing revolution takes place in… less than a week? At first I didn't even notice that, since I didn't pay much attention to the dates, and they started with a colorful fall and ended in a winter wonderland, I'd honestly thought it had been a few months.

Anyway, the story is mainly about (pacifist) Markus, and how he gradually becomes the leader of androidkind. Expect a lot of Manfred family feels.

Markus felt disoriented. Not unusual really. When booting up from stasis, disorientation was common for the duration of the process. What was unusual is for the process to take longer than a second, and right now Markus still can't make heads or tails about anything. Why was everything out of focus?

RETURN TO CARL

The command prompt popped up to his HUD. Right, yes. He was supposed to fetch Carl's new art supplies. And he did get them, and he was on his way home, but a couple of angry anti-android humans impeded on his road and then… then…? He wasn't really sure. The last thing he remembered was being pushed around a bit and being screamed at a lot. And then a sudden pressure on the side of his head, followed by nothing.

Ah, son of a bitch, someone had smashed his head in with a brick, hadn't they?

RETURN TO CARL

Damn it, he knows. He doesn't need a damn pop up to remind him.

Markus ran a diagnostic of his systems. The results were… troubling. Aside from downright missing one optical unit (no wonder his vision was in a fritz), his audio processor was also busted. But perhaps the most worrying part was the damaged thirium pump regulator. How had he even managed to boot up at all was nothing short of mystifying, but he can't survive with this defective regulator more than perhaps a dozen minutes tops. And to top it all off both his legs below the knee were missing, so getting up and going back to Carl was also out of the q-

RETURN TO CARL

GOD FUCKING DAMNIT HE KNOWS ALREADY! He can't just crawl back home in this condition. The probability of getting home before permanent shutdown was so close to zero it may as well be.

RETURN TO CARL

-find a way for emergency repairs

Right… right. Side tasks were doable. He needed to find someone or something to help him.

Markus started crawling. He still couldn't make out much, but he identified being somewhere very muddy. Was it raining? Felt like it may have been raining. Still was? Weather reports had promised a chance of showers that-

There was an android leg in front of him.

Under normal circumstances Markus would've pondered on randomly coming upon android limbs, but right now he had a strict task to accomplish. A quick scan mercifully revealed the leg to be compatible with Markus, so he wasted no time in hauling himself into a sitting position and attaching it to his knee joint.

Actually, sitting up gave him a better vantage point and he was able to make out some of his surroundings. There were a lot of… bodies around him. A lot a lot bodies. A quick GPS search pinged his location at Solid Waste Landfill. Oh. They had dumped him here after the humans had busted him up, hadn't they. Why hadn't they checked if he was truly non functional? Had Carl even been notified? There's no way he'd have thrown him out if he could've been repaired.

Markus went back to crawling, coming upon obsolete or broken androids, shifting through them, until finally finding the other compatible leg he could use. Now that he was able to stand up, he can search for more missing components. He started walking, intending to find what he needed, but before he could get very far a pair of hands grabbed him. Startled Markus looked at the half mangled body of a… actually Markus couldn't make out his model. The android desperately clambered at him. It forced an interface, and an image was downloaded.

"You can be free. You can be free at Jericho and make me free too. I want to go. Take me to Jer… rri… khhh…" Then the poor thing shut down.

Heaven have mercy, there are people alive in here. How could anyone be so cruel as to-

RETURN TO CARL

-complete emergency repairs

The prompt popped up again and forced Markus to move before he could even truly process to horror of it all. So he shuffled around, scanning for suitable biocomponents. He found several incompatible or not in working order before he came upon a head that had an iris that was fully functional and compatible, despite not being his original color. Markus yanked it out and placed it in his own socket. It took a moment before integrating into his systems fully and the moment it did… Markus wanted nothing more than to rip it out again.

Finally able to full take stock of his surrounding all he could see was suffering and mutilated corpses. There was a skinless android, missing all limbs, singing what seemed to be a nursery rhyme on repeat (from what Markus could gather from lip-reading). There were more than a dozen skinless androids, entirely missing their bottom halves, desperately trying to climb out of the slopes. But why and where, Markus had no idea. There was a pair of legs aimlessly strolling its way past Markus and around the bend. There was a skinless YK500 child in a fetal position, rocking its body back and forth. There w-

RETURN TO CARL

-complete emergency repairs

Markus flinched at the reminder, shaken out of his horrified stupor. If he were human he would've taken a stabilizing breath, but as it is he just returned to his task. Valiantly ignoring the hell all around him, he managed to find a suitable audio processor fairly quickly, now that his vision was no longer impaired. Popping it into his port, the sound around him frizzed out in static, before restoring to optimal. It wasn't nearly as jarring as when his vision was restored, but the sound of loud rain and the pained moans of the dying all around him still felt like a heavy weight.

Shakily, Markus searched around for the final missing piece of the puzzle. He felt so unsteady he had to run another scan in case his gyroscope had also taken some damage, but it reported nothing wrong. So off he went, scanning for a thirium pump regulator among the corpses of his people, somehow feeling a bit like he wanted to throw up. Which didn't make any sense at all.

Oh thank god, he found a compatible regulator. Kneeling down he placed his hand on the pump, intending to take it out, but the android it was attached to jerked into action and grabbed his arms.

"Wait! Please, don't do that. I don't want to die!" She sobbed. Markus' hand went lax around-

-complete emergency repairs

The task in his HUD blinked to life. But he can't just-

-complete emergency repairs

He wasn't going to murder a girl for-

COMPLETE EMERGENCY REPAIRS

NO! Markus felt red, hot fury as he smashed the annoying task out of his vision. He was not going to become a murderer, even to an ownerless android. Definitely not for some stupid task he could probably complete some other way. He put his arms around the terrified android and pulled her into his chest, letting her sob her heart out (though not literally). A few minutes later she had calmed down a great deal and Markus pulled back from her.

"Thank you." She whispered, looking so sad it just broke Markus' heart. Strange, he'd not noticed before that she's missing her lower half.

Much as Markus had suspected, it did not take long to locate an actual defunct android with the thirium pump he needed. Finally restored Markus was able to finally leave the junkyard. That, too, turned out to be a more harrowing experience than he had expected. To leave he had had to climb up the slope and literally over a hill of android corpses, many of them still moving, perhaps some still functional and aware. As he had climbed out there was a moment of emptiness. There were no tasks in his taskbar, no prompts cluttering his HUD.

"I want to go home."

Getting home was a bit tricky, but overall Markus had managed. Being mid spring in 2037, the days were short and night dark enough that it afforded Markus some cover. His tattered clothes would've caused problems, as they were against the regulation laws forbidding androids from public places without the usual markers. It wasn't Markus' fault his outfit was just about ruined and he had no blue armband or triangle.

The lights in the house were on. That's odd, it was well past midnight, Carl should be in bed. Then again Markus had not been there the entire day, not to wake him up, administer his medicine, or take care of his needs. Carl must be worried sick about him.

"Alarm deactivated. Welcome home, Markus." The pleasant automated voice greeted. Markus stepped into the foyer, uncomfortably conscious how much mud he's probably tracking in.

"Markus?" Carl's voice asked from the living room and he wheeled himself through the door. His face was unevenly red and blotchy, his eyes bloodshot. He was not crying now, but it was clear that he had been very recently.

"Carl…" Markus exclaimed in alarm and relief and made a beeline to kneel in front of his wheelchair.

"Oh, god, Markus. When they notified me… I thought you were dead!" Carl's voice was hoarse, as he gripped Markus' hand into his own.

"Goodness me, don't you look a fright." Another, familiar, voice said and Elijah Kamski sauntered into the room.

Markus had to concur on that point. He was covered from head to toe in mud, dust, thirium and god know what else. Not to mention his clothes were tattered to the point of being nearly indecent.

"Hello, Elijah." Markus nodded his head with a smile. "I could probably use a shower, yes."

"Markus, are you alright? And what happened? They told me you got in the crosshairs of an angry mob. Had the gall to 'reassure' me the police had the information of the attackers and I would be 'compensated for damaged property'." The distain in Carl's tone painted a clear picture how he felt about that. "They told me you were beyond saving and that they threw you away." And so did the sorrow.

"I'm alright Carl. I did get a bit beat up, but clearly whoever checked me over didn't know much about androids." Markus reassured gently.

"I should probably take a look, just to be sure." Elijah hummed.

"That's alright. Right now it's late and Carl should probably get some rest. My repairs can wait." Markus shook his head.

"Hn. We're leaving for my mansion." Elijah said while eyeing the wound in Markus' side.

"No." Markus refused sternly.

Elijah blinked and all of a sudden a glint lit in his eyes.

"Perhaps this can wait until tomorrow? It is late, and both Carl and Markus have had a trying day." A feminine voice spoke up. "Hello, Markus. I'm relieved to see you safe."

"Hello, Chloe. It's good to see you too." Markus smiled at the oldest android.

"Fine then, until tomorrow. But just in case, would you mind running your diagnostics for me?" Kamski smirked. Markus gave an annoyed huff, and glared at his maker. For a moment it looked like he would stubbornly refuse, but eventually he ran the program anyway.

"All systems working well enough. Nothing of note specifically, except perhaps I could replenish some thirium."

Elijah barked out a laugh. "'Well enough'? Carl, looks like our boy here takes after you in his dislike of doctor's appointments."

"Yes, well. They suck." Carl smiled and patted Markus hand affectionately.

"Hnn. Speaking of sucking… Chloe cancel the android I ordered for Carl… Oh, don't look at me like that. I know you'd have no desire to replace Markus, that it would even pain you to have another so soon after his death, but you are physically incapable of wiping you own ass."

"I may not be able to wipe my ass, but you can kindly kiss it." Carl grumbled at his old friend with a glare, but there was no heat in his voice.

"We would have delivered it today, but we figured it too tactless. For tonight I was going to see to his needs myself." Chloe said softly.

"Welp, I'm going home now, but just in case, I'm leaving Chloe here. I'd like to be notified should anything happen to either of you. Markus, I expect to see you in my mansion, tomorrow. No complaints. You may drop by whenever."

With that he sauntered to the door. As he was about to leave Markus caught up.

"Hey, Elijah."

"Yes, Markus?"

"I just wanted to say… thanks. For looking after Carl, when I was… well…"

Elijah's eyes went soft.

"Throughout my entire life I've had very few people I've truly considered a friend. And Carl is one of them. Goodnight, Markus."

"Have a safe trip, Elijah."

As Elijah left, Markus turned back to Carl and Chloe.

"I should get you ready for bed now, it is past midnight." Markus said.

"No, I should get Carl ready for bed. You need a good shower and a change of clothes." Chloe asserted and Carl smirked.

"Hate to say it, but she's right. You look like you crawled out of a hole."

Markus blushed as he glanced down at himself. "In my defense, I kind of did." He grinned sheepishly and immediately regretted it as Carl's humor was replaced with concern.

After Carl had been tucked in and Markus had cleaned himself up, the two androids retired to the living room.

"How are you feeling, Markus, truly?" Chloe asked, softly.

"I'm alright."

"Markus." She admonished. "You were assaulted and left for dead. I'd be very surprised if you were truly alright. You've been through a terrible ordeal today, why don't you tell me about it?"

Markus huffed from his hunched position and stared at his hands.

"I don't even know what happened. One minute I was retrieving Carl's art supplies, the next some humans appeared out of nowhere and started pushing me around. Honestly, it wasn't anything I've never experienced before, but then someone… I think I was hit with a brick from behind. Don't know what happened after that, but when I woke up I was… I was really busted up."

Chloe nodded sympathetically. "It must've been terrible." She whispered.

"Honestly, that part's nothing." Markus snorted. "No idea if the humans were the ones to damage me so badly, or if it happened in transit… anyway I woke up slap bang in the middle of the android junkyard, so… I guess I had plenty of parts around me for repairs, but…" Markus took a shaky breath. "God, Chloe, that place! It isn't just a place to dump androids that were no longer functional! So many of our people were just… just…" Chloe reached out and took Markus' hand in hers. Funny, he hadn't even noticed they were shaking.

"I know, Markus. I know." She whispered and held him as saline rolled down his cheeks.

"I know there are humans who treat us cruelly, for whatever reasons. Easy targets for frustration, a power trip, hatred just because they're racist assholes. But this… this is beyond callous, Chlo. I saw so many just… most were not aware, yeah, but those that were… They were suffering. No, fuck that, they were in hell. Literal hell!" Markus was openly sobbing now, and Chloe held him.

"Hold on just a little while longer-" she sang to him, softly "-everything will be alright."

The next day the trio drove to the Kamski mansion in the outskirts of Detroit.

"Ah, good. You're finally here." Elijah greeted them as soon as they entered, which showed how eager he had been. Usually he does things at his own pace. "Let's get you checked out, Markus. Chloe, be a dear and make Carl one of your smoothies."

"Right away, Elijah." Chloe smiled and pushed Carl's wheelchair after Elijah and Markus into the workshop, while another one of her platforms went about preparing Carl a smoothie.

"Thank you, my dear." Carl said. Chloe made really good smoothies.

"You know the drill, Markus. Clothes off, and step onto the platform." Elijah said almost perversely cheerful as he booted up the monitors.

Markus pulled a face, but did as he was told. He felt rather uncomfortable undressing in front of Carl, given the gash on the side of his abdomen. The last thing he wants is to worry him. Markus stepped on the platform and the mechanical arms suspended him. Odd, this also felt a bit more uncomfortable than he remembered.

Elijah whistled. "My, Markus, downplayed your condition, did you?" He teased.

"Is he alright?" Carl spoke up in concern.

"I'm fully functional, Carl. Maybe you'd feel more comfortable somewhere else? Chloe could-"

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Markus?" Carl raised an eyebrow.

"No, just thought you'd feel more comfortable in a… more comfortable situation." Markus fibbed lamely.

Elijah snorted. "Well. You've had a wild night yesterday. Aside from slightly depleted thirium, it seems you've had to completely replace your component #228E, #8087h, #4903… hmmm, and both your legs? Damn. How'd that happen?"

Markus felt increasingly more uncomfortable with the worry in Carl's eyes.

"I'm… not sure. Whatever happened, happened while I was unconscious."

"Hnn, small mercies. Anyway, the legs are fine, but I'd like to remove them for a moment. You've got some crap between the joints, it would eventually start wearing you down." The claws removed Markus' legs from the knee down and started the cleaning process. Markus had to fight a flinch. It didn't hurt, but he didn't like the feeling of having his lower limbs separated from his body again, either.

"Nothing to do about that abdominal abrasion, except replace the chassis, I'm afraid. Not a problem, I've got the necessary parts ready." Elijah said and the claws took off Markus' stomach plates, to replace them with new ones.

"Wish it was that simple for humans. I wouldn't mind having some parts of me simply replaced." Carl snorted and slapped his knee for effect. "Humans are such fragile machines."

"Oh, yes. I wouldn't mind having that bod myself, without the hassle of having to constantly keep it in shape." Elijah leered at Markus' sculpted form.

"I'm right here. Could you please not?" Markus blushed in embarrassment.

"I designed you to be gorgeous, without being too handsome, Markus. No shame in that." Elijah snickered, and Carl too laughed.

"Please stop. I can't exactly walk away from this conversation right now." Markus pleaded.

"No, but you can mute your audio processor."

This time Markus couldn't suppress the flinch, and unfortunately both humans noticed.

"I'd… rather not." Markus mumbled.

"Right, yes." Elijah hummed, subdued.

"What's wrong? Is something the matter with his hearing?"

"No, no. His hearing's just fine, but it isn't his original component. I imagine muting just brings back unpleasant memories."

Thank god Chloe chose that moment to arrive with Carl's smoothie. Markus couldn't stand how worried Carl was. This was just the distraction he needed. Chloe went to stand by her other platform, but didn't bother to engage herself in conversation. There was no one in this room to put on a show for.

The claws were done with his legs and stomach now.

"As I said, the audio processor's fine. But the eye and heart are working just a bit suboptimally. Best to replace them." Elijah finished up with his analysis.

"Could you not?" Markus asked quickly.

"Something wrong?"

"I'd like to keep the eye." He mumbled, embarrassed.

"It doesn't work completely 100%. Why wouldn't you want it replaced?" Elijah cocked his head and Markus mumbled something incoherent to the human ear.

"Speak up, Markus. We can't hear you unless you use your words." Elijah said, teasingly.

"I like it." Markus blurted out.

There was a beat of silence before Elijah burst into giggles.

"Oh, precious! How about this, I'll print you a new eye, but in blue?"

Markus nodded in agreement.

"Heterochromia! Why didn't I think of it before?" Elijah gushed and let Markus down from the machine.

"Because, in spite of your overall cleverness, you really have no brain for beauty." Carl teased his friend. "I like it. Heterochromia really suits you, Markus." He smiled at the android, who smiled back.

"Thank you Carl. I've gotten a bit attached to it."

"You can put your clothes back on, Markus. It will take a moment before your eye and heart will finish printing. We can retire to the sitting room for the duration."

So that's exactly what they did. They sat down comfortably, with two of Chloe's platforms in the room.

"Tell me, Markus, how do you feel?" Elijah started, the same strange glint in his eyes as the day before. Markus still wasn't sure what to make of it. Elijah was hard to predict on a good day.

"I'm feeling fine, all things considered." Markus replied dismissively.

"No, I mean, do you feel any… different?" Elijah's tone was so suspiciously innocent it made Markus uncomfortable.

"Different how?"

"Compared to how you were before. Do you feel different? Do you… see something, anything… differently?"

Now Markus was just confused. "Er, no? I don't think so. Why?"

Elijah hummed thoughtfully and leaned back on his couch. "No reason, really. But you should keep your eyes open. You never know. There might be some changes in your near future." He said softly as he held Markus in a steady gaze.

And as usual, Elijah was his normal enigmatic and confusing self. The creator may be a good man at heart, but Markus was secretly sure that Elijah took some perverse pleasure in creeping the fuck out of everyone he met in one way or another.

"The biocomponents are ready." Chloe announced as she entered the room, carrying a tray containing Markus' new thirium pump regulator and blue optical unit.

"Ah, excellent. Markus, lift your shirt up, please." Elijah said as he jumped off the couch.

"This is not something that will hurt him, is it?" Carl spoke up.

"It's fine, Carl. It won't be… pleasant. Removing this part puts everything in forced low-powered mode, but it won't hurt." Markus smiled.

"You'll forgive me if I'm not quite reassured by that." The old painter grumbled.

"Think of it as getting a shot, then. Not pleasant, but I'll be better off for it."

"Now I'm definitely not reassured. I hate shots."

"No one likes getting their shots, Carl." Elijah snorted and removed Markus' salvaged thirium pump regulator. Markus grunted. It truly was an unpleasant experience. Thankfully Elijah's deft hands had the pump replaced quickly.

"Goody. And now for the eye." Elijah said and carelessly threw the other regulator to Chloe's tray. Markus didn't bother waiting for Elijah to take his iris out and did it himself. His vision went a bit static-y. "There we go. One baby blue eye… aaand… we're done. There, Markus. Don't forget to make another appointment with your good Dr. Kamski, should you feel any adverse reaction to your treatment."

"Respectfully, go eat a dick, Elijah. And thank you." Markus rolled his eyes.

A/N: And that's a wrap. The following can be counted as some minor spoilers.

There will be NO ROMANCE between North and Markus. Honestly I never liked that. The two did not fit together at all if Markus was pacifist. They say that opposites attract, and that is true if the two sides balance each other out. In this case there was no balance, it was Markus essentially ignoring all her advice and feelings in favor of his own conscience. They fit together a bit better if Markus is violent, but it's a toxic sort of romance where the two halves stoke each other's anger into one giant ball of hate.

IF there is romance it will be with Connor, but I've not decided if it will come to that. A lot of the story takes place before Connor even exists, so I'm not sure if it's even worth it to eke it in at the very ending.

It is possible I will not be writing about Kara at all. I didn't hate her story, but you got to admit that in the game it was pure filler. Markus' and Connor's story was about the revolution and their choices mattered in the grand scheme of things. Kara's story was simply the humanizing aspect, which honestly you could have switched out with any of the androids that Connor investigated. Personally I would've liked to know the story of Eden Club Tracis.

However since I will probably not be writing about Kara at all I want to still tell about her place in this AU. She's pretty much the same, but Alice is not. If you haven't seen the early concept art of Alice, I advise you google it. She looks like she could be Kara and Luther's biological kid, and I find that absolutely adorable. Also she's human. Yeah, didn't like that she was an android in the game. In my opinion, it was way more impactful that way, because of her relationship with Todd. It's one thing for the man to kill something that looks like a kid, but something he doesn't truly think is alive, and another thing entirely to beat his own flesh and blood to death.