"He is gone then? Delta. I'm- sorry." The word feels strange to say. It's been a long time since he let himself apologise for anything and mean even a fraction of it. But this? He knows how close York and Delta had been. As close to healthy as any relationship like that could ever be.

"He- it- nearly killed itself more like. In my head. It was memory. It realised what the DIrector had done when they put it in the head of someone they'd told the Alpha was dead." He tries to keep his voice calm, but it's hard when it brings up that flood of images and searing raw pain that he can't forget, no matter what he does, and humans were never meant to have perfect recall. The bad things are supposed to become blunted by time.

"The Director didn't have much left by then but- he was too stubborn and insane to give up. And it was too dangerous to stop when they realised I knew... everything. Every dirty little secret the Alpha had ever seen."

And they'd left him there, left him to that. Been told over and over again that is was because he hadn't been good enough.