The Midnighter sat on the roof top over looking Opal City. There was a time when he thought that his days of running and hiding were over. He thought that Apollo understood him better than anyone. After everything that they'd been through together, he had foolishly thought that nothing could come between them. He now understood how wrong he'd been. Apollo didn't understand him. He knew that this particular argument was a long time coming, but that didn't mean that he'd been prepared for it.
He had just ripped out the throat from a child rapist that Apollo and him had been tracking for awhile. Apollo tried to stop him, tried telling him that they should just let the police handle it. M had given him his usual glare, grabbed the man by the throat, squeezed as tightly as he could and pulled. There was only a gurgling choked off sound, then he threw the body in a nearby dumpster. He looked right at the man that as of that morning he was going to propose to, not that he thought that was going to happen now. "That's where garbage belongs. Door."
Once back at their apartment, Apollo sat on the couch with his head in his hands. M knew this was going to be unpleasant and ugly only because Apollo hadn't spoken at all. M was standing near the window waiting for Apollo to finally speak. When there was still nothing but silence, M turned to face his boyfriend. "Just spit it out Andrew. You know that I already know how this fight ends."
Andrew looked up, everything about his posture said that he was angry but the sadness in his eyes was all too clear. "You may know how this fight will end but you have no idea what I am going to say."
M folded his arms over his chest. "Okay, let's get this over with."
Andrew closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm going to start by saying how much I love you. But lately the violence that you've been displaying is awful. You're getting worse." M opened his mouth to speak, but Andrew stops him by putting his hand up. "Please allow me to finish. I'm tired of you coming home soaked in someone else's blood. I know that you were angry at what that guy did to those kids, I am angry too. But what you did in retaliation just proved what Bendix had said about you; that you are just a mindless fighting machine. By killing whoever you deem 'needs to die'" he had put that in air quotes, " you are proving that you are just as violent, if not worse than the people that we swore to rid the planet of." He crossed the room and cupped his boyfriends face. "I know you can be better than this. It's not just the programming. I think that a part of you enjoys it. You need to get your head together. Until you do that, until you can be more then fight scenarios and be the man I fell in love with I don't think that we can be together."
M kissed Andrew's hand for what he knew would be the last time in a long time. "If you think that I'm fucked up, maybe you should blame the one responsible." He tapped the side of his head. Andrew sighed but remained silent.
M nodded, as if reaching a final conclusion. He went to their bedroom (no, not theirs, Andrew's) and grabbed the duffel bag that contained some clothes, guns, ammunition and a fake ID, and walked back into the living room. He pulled his mask back over his face, and looked at Apollo, being sure to burn every detail into his mind. He knew there would be some lonely nights ahead. "I told you that I knew how this would end. Door."
With a single burst of light that faded as quickly as it had appeared Apollo was alone in the apartment. He didn't even bother changing out of his uniform. He just laid on the couch with his knees up to his chest and cried. M was the love of his life, but if all he was going to do was kill then Andrew wanted no part of it.