Author: Matt.

Fandom: The Authority.

Pairings: Canon slash! In comics! At last!

Rating: Mild R for violence, death and a swearword. Some sexual references to a homosexual relationship as well. Oohs aren’t I naughty?

Disclaimer: DC and Wildstorm own The Authority (and Stormwatch which spawned it). I’m just borrowing Apollo and The Midnighter for a tale.

Feedback: Is always welcome! Send it to . If I get even one positive piece requesting a sequel, you’re on.

Notes: The whole thing is from The Midnighter’s point of view. The Authority has been cancelled. Midnighter and Apollo never even kissed either! Grumble, if there’s a sequel, expect making out.

I’m not a bad man.

My maker’s voice laughs from the grave at me.

That’s what I tell myself at least. Usually when I’m breaking someone’s arm and removing five teeth at the same time with my gloved hands.

It’s in those instants that I find it hard to believe.

But at that same moment I don’t usually care. When I know that there is a 10.373275578125% chance that the downed person will pull a projectile weapon and try and shoot me with it, it’s hard to think of much else.

It’s those numbers that make me capable of breaking his hand and not caring when, out 3,424 possible manoeuvres from his position, he pulls his weapon anyway.

Those are the only moments, and they are just that, only moments, when I do not feel that what I can do, Bendix’s voice whispers in my head ”Behold, the most lethal hand to hand combat expert ever built”, is wrong. They are the only moments when I do not feel guilt for what I can do because I know that if I hadn’t cared so much about hurting people, my first team might still be alive.

Still I feel guilt for every life I’ve taken.

I saw a billboard advertisement saying share your talents.

I share death. It is my talent.

Bendix wished it my raison d’etre.

At least I can laugh at the bastard there. The hollow laugh of a man denied his revenge but able to rise above it none the less.

I found a better reason for living, two in fact.

There has to be a better world. There have to be people willing to fight for this better world and others who, when the people are weak willed make them fight for it, make them understand why we need the changes. I need a world where I never get a reading from people of above 00.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 1%

The second reason is both the easier and the harder to understand. Love. I’m not the soppy romantic, heart on my sleeve kind of guy but when the chips are down or no one cares, I will admit it. I love Apollo. He is the Ying to my Yang. He is the other half of my soul. Just seeing me in my leather makes him hard, and I adore the way his costume gets so ripped up every mission.

What? I told you, I’m not the romantic guy!

Anyway, back to the situation at hand.

It’s night, were up against two-dozen unknown meta-humans in the jungle of the Amazon.

I’ve incapacitated 3 and killed two. No more are in my immediate vicinity.

I pause and look around. I see some kind of ripple in the trees and if I focus harder I can make out a reptilian bipedal shape beginning to aim a large weapon at something airborne. I pan upwards along it’s line of sight and I see ……

Apollo.

I look at the shimmer again, this time closer at the weapon. Always keeping Apollo in my thoughts.

0.001-seconds to calculate the probability of the weapon being fatal to me based upon it’s size, weight and energy emissions. 93.747666%.

0.003-seconds to calculate the probability of the weapon being fatal to Apollo based upon it’s size, weight and energy emissions. 99.6444612478587%.

0.005-seconds.“Fuck.” I swear under my breath. Not good odds.

0.006-seconds and the weapon is charged.

1.34-seconds and a throwing knife lands in the heart of the shimmer.

1.56-seconds and the weapon fires, missing Apollo.

2.45-seconds and the body falls from the trees.

It is in the instants when I save my lover’s life that I truly believe, I am not a bad man, I am the baddest bastard alive.

I just fight for the angels and dream of a finer world.