I entered with hardly a sound, I had of course, been trained in the skill of stealth. Ironic, I was going to visit my, how do you put it? Old friend on his deathbed. Grayson being much younger than I.
"Be afraid but do not fear, be surprised by nothing, be amazed by everything." He, calling out turned to look in my direction.
I walked over to him, "Dear child, still observant, I expected nothing less of you."
"Child? Old habits die hard yes?" He said wryly.
But with it, the defiance I knew only so well.
"I trust nobody will interrupt?" He knew me well.
"You of all should know me well enough." I walked over to the side of his bed.
"I trust you did not come for pleasantries" he said knowingly.
"Just to say farewell to my ex-apprentice and most formidable opponent." I said in all sincerity.
He snorted "I defeat all but death and you."
"True, true. Remember the Titans?" I thought back of my days as Slade.
"As it were yesterday" he too, remembered.
"Raven, Cyborg, Beast-Boy, Starfire," He said sadly "and I, the only left of the original five."
"Yes, I always knew you were the stronger of them." My tone acknowledged it.
"But yet, I am mortal." Those three words were so powerful it made me stop for a second to think about it.
"Mortal" I repeated at last, stoic, resigned to the fact that there would never be another person such like him.
"Nightwing"
"Deathstroke"
"Robin"
"Slade"
"Grayson"
"Wilson"
I smirked,
"There is another" I stated purposefully.
"Yes, mine and Raven's daughter, Takara, free and spirited like her name, the wind, I've taught her everything I know, almost." He answered regretfully.
"Continue my legacy, teach her." He asked of me,
He knew I could not resist a challenge.
"And what of her, you would leave her in my influence?" I inquired.
"I have told her of this preparation, I can presume she determined not to be mislead, you will have an adversary and I will leave in peace."
"Dawn is coming; I will go at first light." He whispered.
"Then farewell, my greatest enemy I grudgingly respect." I laid a hand on his arm.
"Farewell to the master who taught me well whom I too respect." He answered unflinchingly.
And then, Richard John Grayson was no more.