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Dick looked up from the book he was reading when a man sat down opposite him in the booth of the diner, he was occupying. He gritted he teeth when he saw who it was but didn’t say anything in greeting. Instead he looked back down at his book where it rested on top of his knee, where he had one foot up on the bench seat, to anybody watching he looked completely relaxed. His free hand though moved to his jeans pocket where a small flip blade was sitting. He would be ready for any move that Slade made.
“Hi, I’m Mandy, would you like some coffee?” said a cheery voice from the young waitress that approached the booth, hot the heels of Slade.
“No. He’s not staying,” answered Dick without looking up.
“Nonsense, we have much to discuss. Coffee would be lovely,” said Slade as he pushed the empty mug closer to the girl so she could fill it. “Why don’t you bring us two of your grilled cheese sandwiches with fries, then Richard here could do with another ice tea.”
“Sure thing,” grinned the girl before she bounced off.
Dick watched Slade for a moment as the older man sipped his coffee. He was wearing a black shirt and dark jeans. Other than the eyepatch he looked like every other patron in the diner. Normal.
Dick tilted his head slightly to assess the older man more closely, he couldn’t see any weapons on the man, but he knew Slade never went unarmed. The question was why was Slade here, now?
“What do you want?” growled Dick when it became clear that Slade wasn’t going to start this conversation.
“Like I said, we have much to discuss. The first being the fact that you’ve lost weight.”
“What?”
“I said-“
“I know what you said!” snapped Dick as he put the book down on the table and turned to face Slade properly. “Why the fuck are you stalking me? Again!”
“First, I’m not stalking you. I have never stalked you.”
“I beg to differ,” huffed Dick.
“I was in the neighborhood, saw you sitting here and thought that was unusual. You, on this side of town, my curiosity got the better of me. Especially when your alter ego hasn’t been seen in nearly three weeks now. So answer my questions and I’ll leave.”
Dick stared at Slade, waiting to see if any more conditions would come. He’d played this game with the mercenary before. “And if you don’t like the answers?”
“The rules are the same as always, you don’t lie to me and I don’t lie to you,” answered Slade. “Now, why are you on this side of Gotham?”
Dick sighed, sometimes it was just easier to do what Slade wanted, answer the questions and Slade would leave the diner, and him alone. What Slade would do after leaving wasn’t clear at this point, but that was a problem for another time.
“Nobody would recognize Richard Grayson here. I’m just another teenager. Anonymous,” shrugged Dick.
Slade nodded, Dick was wearing dark jeans, a grey t-shirt and a black zip-up hoodie. His hair wasn’t styled today, instead falling around his eyes and Slade had spotted the baseball cap on the bench when he had approached the booth.
There was no obvious labels on the clothes, the teenager had achieved exactly what he had set out to do. Be invisible. Or as invisible as a good-looking teenager could be when there were young women serving him.
“So why do you want to be invisible?” asked Slade.
“Really? You follow my life with an obsession and you can’t think of any reason why I would want to disappear right now?” growled Dick.
“I heard about your brother-“
“Here you go,” said Mandy interrupting them as she put their food order down on the table between them. “Was there anything else you’d like?”
“No thank you,” smiled Slade. The girl smiled in return before bouncing back to the main counter. “Eat your food, I know you haven’t eaten all day.”
“I-“
Slade raised an eyebrow at Dick which stopped him from saying what he was about to before he sighed and reached for the ketchup.
Neither of them spoke for a moment while they ate, until Slade noticed that Dick still wasn’t eating much, rather just moving food around the plate.
“This lack of appetite can’t be just about Jason,” said Slade. “What else has happened?”
Dick glared at the older man, “Jason is dead!”
“And I’m sorry about that, he seemed like a good kid, probably would have achieved a lot. But you’ve lost people before, family and friends. What made Jason’s death different?”
Dick pushed his plate away as he leant back in the booth while he stared out the window. Slade let him be for a moment while he continued to eat his own food.
“I’m going to assume this has something to do with why Nightwing hasn’t been seen in three weeks.” Slade didn’t miss the slight flinch from the teenager. “What happened?”
Dick still remained silent, refusing to look at Slade.
“Richard, whatever happened it’s clearly bothering you. So I would make the assumption that whatever it is you can’t talk to B-“
“I killed the Joker,” whispered Dick as he looked at Slade.
Slade frowned at the teenager. He had excellent sources and he knew he would have heard if the Joker of all people had died, especially if it was a hero like Nightwing who had done the deed.
“Hate to break it to you kid, but the Joker is back in Arkham. Very much alive.”
Dick chuckled slightly as he brushed a hand through his hair. “He is now.”
Slade frowned as he tried to work out what the teenager was really saying. He didn’t have to wait long before Richard started talking again.
“Three weeks ago I finally found the bastard,” explained Dick. “I’d been looking for weeks, so had B.
“B told me to wait for him, but I didn’t,” shrugged Dick.
“So you found him,” prompted Slade.
“Yeah, chased him across Gotham. Caught up to him down at the docks. I really wanted to make him hurt. He killed my brother.”
“What happened next?”
Dick laughed, “We beat the crap out of each other. I got the upper hand and he just… he just kept laughing.” Dick shrugged, “I stopped hearing what he was saying after a while, I just kept hitting him. Over, and over again.
“Next thing I knew, something hit me hard enough in my side to toss me off him and far enough that I crashed into a metal haulage container. Knocked me out.
“I came too, to see Batman giving CPR to the bastard and flashing lights of police and first responders arriving. No one paid me any attention until Batman pulled me to my feet. Joker though is on a gurney and EMT’s are shouting out vitals. Batman saved the Joker. The Joker killed Jason and yet he still saved him,” shrugged Dick. “Guess you were right all along, about Batman’s mission.”
Slade sighed, sometimes it amazed him how the teenager in front of him could be so smart and yet so blind to the truth all at the same time. “I don’t think Batman saved the Joker that night, I think he saved you.”
Dick frowned, “Did you not hear anything I just said? The bastard was dead. He couldn’t harm anyone else and yet B broke my ribs and gave me a concussion all to bring him back!”
“That why Nightwing hasn’t been seen since then?” asked Slade, changing tactic. It took a moment for Richard to answer.
“I was injured.”
“That’s never stopped you before,” shrugged Slade as he sipped his cooling coffee.
“Well maybe I’m just growing up,” glared Dick.
“Did Batman bench you again?”
“B would have to be talking to me for him to bench me,” muttered Dick.
“So you’re not benched and yet you’re hanging around in Gotham instead of returning to Bludhaven, or Happy Harbor or even following Roy down to Star City. Why is that?”
Dick looked up at Slade, it always shocked him to be reminded how much of the hero world Slade actually knew. Sometimes Dick wondered if he knew more civilian identities than even Ra’s al Ghul. Yet Slade never seemed interested in selling the information or taking out the heroes.
“Why are you still in Gotham, still being Grayson?” repeated Slade, his tone becoming much softer.
“I’m seventeen,” shrugged Dick.
“Seventeen and graduated high school a year early. You have no reason to stay here, but you are. Why are you punishing yourself?”
“Who said anything about punishing myself?”
“You’ve spent nearly every day this week, in this diner and the coffee is terrible,” pointed out Slade even though he took another mouthful of the drink.
“And you said you weren’t stalking me,” smirked Dick.
“I don’t call checking in on a potential asset, stalking.”
Dick sighed, “We’ve been over this, I’m not being your apprentice.”
“Who said anything about an apprentice,” smiled Slade. “I think you’ve surpassed that role now. Partner would be the offer today and from this point.”
“Why? ‘cause I killed someone? You think that suddenly makes me like you!” snarled Dick, his anger from before coming back full force.
“Are you upset about the killing?” asked Slade not put off by the teenager’s temper.
“It’s wrong,” answered Dick quickly.
“The Joker is far from an innocent person, think how many people it would have saved in the long run if the Joker had stayed dead.”
“Its…”
Slade waited to see if Richard would finish his statement. When it was clear he wouldn’t he asked another question. “Are you more upset about the actual killing or upset that it goes against your guardian’s rules and he’s now not talking to you?”
“I failed as a hero,” whispered Dick as he looked out the window again. “We don’t kill.”
“Oliver has,” shrugged Slade. “No one thinks any less of him. Wonder Woman was raised a warrior, pretty sure she’s killed before. The Flash to defeat metas has used their power against them which means some of them have ended up dying as a consequence. I know that Aquaman killed Black Manta’s father. Even Superman has killed other Kryptonians.
“Nobody looks down on them, so why would they look differently at Nightwing?”
Dick remained silent, not looking at Slade, so the mercenary pushed further. “When you realized that the Joker was dead, did you hope for Batman to succeed in saving him or did you wish that he would fail?”
“Of course I wanted him to succeed,” snapped Dick looking back at Slade.
Slade smirked, “Now I know you are lying.”
“I’m not lying!” spat Dick.
“No, right now you are happy that Batman succeeded. However, the guilt about what you almost did seems to be consuming you.
“But back then, in that very moment, what were you thinking?”
Dick shrugged, “I don’t know. I just remember being in pain.”
“You do know,” prodded Slade.
Dick glared at Slade, “Fine, I was angry. Angry that I’d been kicked so hard I was knocked out. Angry that B was spending his time on him and not with me. Angry that Jason was still dead! I was just angry.”
“I-“
“Hi, are you both finished? Would you like a refill on the coffee? Or dessert? We have a great pump-“
“We’re fine, thank you,” interrupted Slade as he smiled up at Mandy the waitress, who was holding a coffee pot out to them and smiling at them both.
“Shall I take your plates?”
“That won’t be necessary. We’ll call you if we require any assistance from you,” instructed Slade. The girl’s smile dropped as she nodded quickly and hurried away.
“You didn’t need to scare her,” chuckled Dick.
“I smiled at her, how did I scare her?”
Dick laughed further, as he finally reached for the ice tea that had been sitting ignored throughout their entire conversation. “You’re a scary guy,” he shrugged. “To most people.”
“But not you?” asked Slade, intrigued where this conversation was now going.
“It’s hard to be scared of the guy who taught me how to cook and cleared up my vomit,” shrugged Dick. “At least when he’s not pointing a gun at me.”
“I should have made you clear up after yourself,” huffed Slade as he remembered the event Richard was talking about. He watched the teenager as his whole demeaner changed, his body appeared relaxed for the first time since Slade had walked into the diner. It could be an act, Richard was very good at fooling people into thinking he was okay.
“You are at a crossroads Richard and you need to make a decision,” said Slade after a while. Richard looked up at him in curiosity. “Either way you need to come to terms with what has happened and start owning the decision you made.”
“It wasn’t a decision, it was…”
“It was what?” prodded Slade.
“Instinct. I acted on instinct, like you taught me.” The last part of Richard’s sentence tailed off into silence so Slade barely heard it, even with his enhanced senses. He couldn’t help the slight smile at the corner of his own mouth at that revelation.
Even when Richard tried to ignore his time as Slade’s apprentice, the skills would always be there. It’s what made him one of the most formidable heroes, even at such a young age. As much as the teenager tried to suppress what he had been taught, when he needed it most, he returned to the skills that would get the job done. Take the path of least resistance, no matter where those skills had come from. Muscle memory kicking in to make sure that his own survival was achieved.
“But it did happen. So own it!” ordered Slade. “You have a choice to make, you can carry on being a hero. Learn from this experience, all of it. What lead up to that moment and what came after and be better for it.
“Or you come with me. Put those talents to a better use. I won’t force you into killing. I won’t force you into taking any jobs that you don’t want to and I will give you full disclosure on what the jobs are.
“There is far more to my world than just killing, but you already know that.”
Slade stood up from the booth and looked down at Richard. “Or you can carry on moping here and not helping anybody, including yourself.” He dropped the required amount of bills on to the table to cover the meal, and turned to leave. “I’ll be leaving Gotham in two days, if you decide to come with me, be outside this diner at noon.”
Then he left, leaving Dick just watching after the man, with lots to think about.
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