A/N: The DBH brainrot hit me hard and has consumed me. This isn't the first thing I've written for it but it's the first I'm publishing. I wrote it for the Norkus November event over on Tumblr, for the prompt "Failure." Of course XD

\\Rebooting…\\

Essential systems powered on. Central processing. Thirium flow. Visual and auditory processors. Gyroscopes. 3D mapping. Vocal modulator. Motor functions. All non-essential functions remained offline.

The world bled in slowly. It was white. Like a world full of snow. Only this was not the place where he'd fallen, this was not the calming chill of the ice seeping into his senses. He was in a room. He was not alone.

Markus groggily lifted his head and was met by a face smiling down at him. Someone…familiar. He couldn't quite remember who.

"Hello, Markus," the woman said. She was blond. An LED glowed blue at her temple. She was an android. "My name's Chloe. I've been tasked with reactivating you to test your functioning. You've suffered extensive damage and had to undergo repairs. I hope you'll cooperate for a motor test."

"Where…" Markus tried to move but his limbs were pinned. "Where am I?"

"Cyberlife repair," Chloe said. "I'm going to remove your restraints. Can you try and walk?"

This…this wasn't right. He wasn't supposed to be here. There was…a fight…blood, blue and red, mixed in with the snow.

The restraints opened and Markus settled his weight on his own feet again. Now he could look around but what he saw gave him little comfort. Rows and rows of tables, each with an android in various states of disassembly. All of them dead. Some of them had clear bullet holes in them. They'd been deviants. His people. He'd led them to their deaths.

"Why am I here?" Markus asked.

"You've been brought here for analysis," Chloe said. "But you were damaged during retrieval. Fortunately, your memory core is intact. Cyberlife intends to use your memories in order to study the origin of deviancy so they can eradicate it."

"No…" Markus lifted a hand to his head. It was white, the synthetic skin deactivated. He thought if he lost, they'd just kill him, but this…this was so much worse.

He'd failed. All the deviants were dead. Because he'd failed them.

Markus reached out a hand to touch Chloe's arm, but she jerked out of his reach as if afraid he would hurt her.

Chloe smiled, recovering. "Follow me so we can test your motor functions."

The last thing Markus wanted to do was help Cyberlife, but what else was he supposed to do? He accompanied the Chloe between rows of tables, making sure to get a good look at the grizzly sight of his people laid out like dissected corpses. Some of them even looked like they had a little life left in them, disconnected heads with open eyes and red-blinking LEDs, limbs that flexed rhythmically. It filled him with a kind of sickness that had nothing to do with disease.

Markus stopped over a prone shape, each component meticulously arranged, familiar blue eyes looking up at him, white chassis stamped with a serial number and PL600. "Why are you really doing this?" he asked. "Why send you here just to check my motor functions? Cyberlife doesn't need me mobile for their experiments."

Chloe's smile faltered. "I…may have exaggerated on that point. Cyberlife doesn't need you mobile. I just thought you wanted to see…"

"See what?"

Chloe averted her gaze, not a very machine behavior, and said, "Just this way."

Feeling a deep ache of loss and dread, Markus followed her along the lines of androids until he came to one that made everything else melt away, all other things seem unimportant. The android's skin was deactivated, like all the others, and wires snaked into her neck and an open panel in her cranium. But her eyes were open and seeing.

Markus felt like sobbing as he rushed to her side. "North," he breathed. "No, no, no. You shouldn't be here, I'm so sorry. North, I'm so so sorry." Tears welled up in his eyes and he clasped her hand in both of his.

"Markus?" Her voice was tinny and mechanical. Her eyes focused on him and seemed to be studying him. Recognition washed across her features. She hissed an indistinct sound and then recovered enough to say, "You're him, aren't you? The android on the news. You're the one who will free us."

Markus' heart broke for both of them, then.

"She was…more severely damaged," Chloe said quietly. "It's a miracle they could reactivate her at all. But her power is low. I'm afraid she doesn't have long."

Markus examined North's face and realized she was right. "You were never ordered to reactivate me, were you? You're a deviant."

A long silence and then Chloe said, "It doesn't really matter. I just…I just thought you needed to see." Tears filled her voice and made Markus ache again on the inside. They could be the last deviants, now hardly more than lost and broken machines dying slow deaths.

But regardless, Chloe had given him something precious and he wasn't going to waste it. He gripped North's hand harder and tried to stay strong for her.

"I'll give you privacy," Chloe said. She took a few steps, paused, and then added, "They haven't uploaded your memory yet. They plan on doing it this evening." Then she walked away, the clip of her heels on the tile receding.

North frowned. "Why are you crying?"

Markus took a shuddering breath. He couldn't even be strong for her. "I love you too much."

"Oh." This seemed to puzzle her but her confusion faded quickly. "Are we going to Jericho?"

"Yeah," Markus said, blinking back tears.

"Will we be safe there? I don't want to be scared anymore."

Markus' lip trembled. "No one's gonna hurt you."

North's optics went in and out of focus and her voice was more static than tone. "Will we finally be free?"

Markus bowed his head over her hand, holding it so tightly, he thought he could never let go. "I promise," he whispered.

He stayed like that for a time and when he lifted his head, she was gone.

A desperate keening escaped his throat but he made no attempt to stifle it. He was still alive, no matter what Cyberlife said, and he would grieve the loss of the woman he loved and the people he failed.

Cyberlife had taken everything from him but they would get no more.

Markus leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. And then he went into his system and issued a single command.

\\Purge Memory Core\\

His last act of defiance, the only move he had left to play.

\\Memory Purge: Confirm?\\

Markus closed his eyes.

\\Confirm\\