I am going to start reworking the beginning chapters soon, which is why there's an 'under construction' label on the summary. This won't affect the updates, I'm just touching up the chapters, combining some of them, that sort of thing. If it goes well, I will start to add things, but if I do I'll give y'all a heads up. Anyway, this chapter is the events of the episode Triptych, but the name doesn't really fit, so I renamed it. Anyway, hope you like it, please review!

A few days later, Mallory and Artemis were working with Brion and V'lana when Dick came out of the shed, and Conner met the former boy wonder at their makeshift training space.

"Hey, stranger," Artemis said, flipping away from V'lana's water sword and safely out of the circle. The girl powered down, and Mallory did the same, though she did not leave the circle. Brion's fist connected with her cheek , catching her off guard, and she stumbled back a step to catch herself. When she looked at the teen, he was smiling, his eyes narrowed pointedly.

"I have been working on your notes," he said.

She chuckled, irritating the forming bruise, and nodded, "So I feel. Good for you, but you know that was a lucky shot."

He shrugged, still smiling. "Whatever you say."

She stepped out of the ring, but one look at her friend and she knew that he wasn't ready to tell the teens what he knew just yet. She and Artemis looked at their charges. "Why don't you two spar? We'll be right back."

"Yeah," Mallory agreed. She smiled and touched her bruised cheek. "You can work on my notes with V'lana, since she doesn't have a job to go to in the morning."

They nodded and moved into one of the circles, and the girls met the boys several feet away. "What?" Artemis asked.

He glanced behind them to make sure the younger metas weren't trying to eavesdrop, then started, "I might have a tip on the Shadows."

"Oh, that was fast," Mallory mentioned. "So, what is it?"

"It's not really a what, more like a who," he said. He looked at Artemis, and she groaned before he finished, "I have a tip on where Cheshire's going to be."

"No," Artemis said firmly.

"Look, I know you don't want to do this again, but it's the best and only lead I have on Terra right now. She led a squad made up of Shade, Spider, and a new meta named Mist to steal a top secret project at STAR Labs Detroit. She was shot before they escaped and she's going to need medical attention, which is why they had Dr. Moon meet them at a private airfield, where an unlicensed aircraft was seen earlier today."

"And none of that seems too easy to you?" Conner asked.

Artemis shook her head. "Jade's wounded, and if she even thinks we're going to be on her trail, she's going to be pushing to disappear again. Nothing about this is going to be easy."

"So…what? You want us to go with you tonight?"

"Yeah," Dick said. He looked at Brion and V'lana and added, "and…I thought this would be a good mission to let them get some field experience."

Mallory and Conner glanced at each other. "You think a Shadows mission is a good first for Brion, who has never been in a real fight and who only decided he wanted to do this three days ago?"

Dick shrugged. "Please, there is no ideal first mission, and this one's good because we'll have more than we're used to, and Mist and Shade aren't experienced." He looked at Mallory. "You've been training with him every day, what do you think? Is he ready for a field test?"

The pyrokinetic twisted her lips, studying her pupil as he sparred with the Atlantean across the yard. "Yeah," she decided, looking at her friends with confidence, "I think he is."

"Ok, then. I guess he'll need a suit to go out in. Fireproof, bullet proof, all that," Dick said, already planning out what needed to get done in preparation for that night.

Mallory nodded. "V'lana too," she pointed out.

"They'll need to pick names, too, I guess," Conner said. "Cheshire will ask who they are, and they both have significant public identities."

Artemis sighed, still not thrilled to be going after her sister, but she nodded. "All right, let's fill them in, I guess."

They walked back over to the teens and Dick called off the session, telling them to come over to them. When they were in front of them, Dick looked around to see if anyone else would start the ball rolling. When they didn't, he started, "ok, so I have an update on our Shadows investigation."

Brion immediately turned to business, narrowing his eyes. "And?" he demanded.

"And, we know where a known operative will be tonight," he finished, subtly studying the prince to make sure he wouldn't explode with impatience or anything.

"That is great," V'lana said, smiling slightly at Brion. "This will bring us one step closer to finding your sister."

"Yeah, it's not so great," Artemis corrected. She sighed and grabbed Dick's wrist, pulling up his holographic screen without his consent to project a picture of Cheshire. "The operative is Cheshire, she's one of the best trained assassins in the League, has strong ties to the leaders and the long-time operatives, and…she's my sister."

"And that is not a good thing?" V'lana asked.

Artemis pinched the bridge of her nose, and Malllory rushed to move the topic along. "It's complicated, but the point is if we can get her alone, we have a good chance of getting some information from her."

"Right," Conner picked up. "But, she's not going to be alone, Black Spider, Mist, and Shade will also be traveling with her, so we thought that this would be a good mission to let you get your feet wet."

The teens exchanged a look. "Are you saying that we will be fighting League of Shadow assassins?" Brion asked.

The OGs exchanged a look, already regretting the decision. "Under heavy supervision, and with the understanding that you follow any orders we give immediately and without question, but, yeah, I guess that is what we're saying," Mallory said.

They broke into grins, but Dick didn't let the moment go on for long. "Which means that there's a lot of preparation before tonight. The first thing you'll need to do is come up with names to use out in the field."

V'lana smiled. "I have been waiting for this for some time," she said. "Kaldur'ahm and Garth offered me to use the mantle of Aquagirl, but it does not feel right. I did not know her. Instead, I believe that I will go by the name Nautica."

"I like it. What about you, Brion?" Artemis asked.

The prince grinned. "I, too, have given this some thought," he said, his accent getting thicker in his excitement. "I wish to be a beacon in the night, for my country and for the people I will be saving. For this reason, I will be called the Human Torch."

Conner sucked air in through his teeth, casting an amused glance at Mallory. "Oh, sorry, but that one's taken," he said.

Brion looked at her in confusion and she chuckled. "I mean, not the human part, but…yeah, no. Sorry, Prince, try again."

He tilted his head, a little disappointed. "Perhaps…Hot Lava?"

Dick and Artemis snorted, and Mallory shot them a glare, biting back her own laughter at the ridiculous name. "Umm, maybe something a little less…" she paused, looking for the word she wanted to use, and Artemis filled in for her, "strippery?"

Dick chuckled. "Says the girl named Tigress," he muttered, earning an elbow to the side from the archer.

Mallory rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that."

Brion scrunched his eyebrows together in concentration. "This is not as easy as I thought it would be," he mentioned.

"Tell me about it," Artemis said.

"I was thinking about the label that Dr. Jace gave my powers. She called them geoforce. I suppose I could use that."

"Geoforce," Mallory repeated. She shrugged. "That works."

Dick checked the time. "All right, you both need costumes, so if you want to come with me, I'll bring you to the fabricator and let you design them yourselves."

"We get to make our own costumes?" V'lana asked, looking more excited than Mallory had seen her before.

Dick chuckled. "Well, sure. You're the ones who have to be seen in them."

"Oh, yeah, but nothing too wild, ok?" Mallory requested. "You may be the ones who have to be seen in them, but we're the ones who have to be seen with you."

The others laughed, and the teens nodded, assuring her that they would keep it practical. "All right," Dick said, ushering the new heroes towards the zeta tube. He looked over his shoulder at the OGs. "I'll be back later. You know what to do."

They nodded and as soon as the zeta tube took the small group away, and Conner looked at the girls. "Maybe I should have mentioned this sooner, but I'm not going to come."

"Why?" Mallory asked.

He shrugged. "I'm going to the farm tonight to give Pa a hand with the barn repairs."

"Oh. Well, tell them I said hi," she said.

"Yeah, same to Cheshire," Conner said, looking at Artemis.

The archer rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure that'll come up while we're talking about where she's reporting for her assassin job."

They cut the conversation off abruptly, splitting up to begin their preparations, both anticipating and dreading the night ahead of them.


The airport was empty when the outside team arrived in the Supercycle. There was only one plane in sight, parked in a massive garage with the wall-sized door standing open, waiting for the plane to take off. A shadow quivered under the plane, moving into the garage, and the seasoned fighters glanced at each other, already having taken in their surroundings and not needing the link to understand the unspoken plan, or their individual parts in it. Dick nodded, their signal to begin, and lowered Sphere.

Mallory leaned closer to Brion. "Time to go," she told him, and they jumped over the side. Mallory rolled once to absorb the shock of the fall, but her pupil landed hard, his legs wobbled, then he fell to the ground, wincing. She winced, realizing that she would need to find a way to communicate with the boy better, but for the moment she just helped him to his feet and led the way to the hangar. They were halfway there when the engines started up and Mallory stopped and looked at Brion.

"You're up," she told him. "Aim for the tires."

He nodded, covered his arms in lava, and slammed his palms down to the ground. Lines of lava raced down the tarmac, reaching the planes tires in seconds. Geoforce then cooled the hot liquid, fusing the plane to the ground with the melted rubber. Sphere caught up to them, and Nautica and Nightwing jumped out and ran alongside them. Mallory caught Dick's eye and he tilted his head slightly and nodded, confirming that Artemis was already inside. All they needed to do was keep the others busy to give the sisters time to talk. Mallory flamed up and flew the rest of the way into the hangar, beating the others by a few strides. She hadn't made it two feet into the building when she felt a pressure on her back and was suddenly yanked upward. Black Spider wrapped her in his webbing and hung in front of her.

"Well, well, well, Fire Girl, right? Or, no, Flaming Moron? Burning Bruiser? Ah, well, it doesn't matter. You're going to be Cold Corpse before long."

"Sure, keep telling yourself that," she said, and she blew flames out of her mouth, singing the forehead of his mask before he managed to flip away.

"Hey! Do you have any idea what repairs on this thing cost?" he complained.

She heated her body, melting through the sticky restraints, and threw a fireball that he dodged. "Well, that's a shame. Maybe it would be cheaper to just replace it. Maybe with an orange jumpsuit, they're all the rage right now."

"What are you doing?" Brion called. "Just take him out."

She chuckled when she realized what she was doing. "Right, sorry, he just pulls you into the banter, sometimes I forget we're not just sparring." She doubled the flames surrounding her body and shot two streams, trapping the spider in one lane. V'lana let out a grunt and Mallory glanced down to see that she was fighting Shade by herself, and losing. "Go help Nautica, I've got this," she told the prince.

He nodded once, and she turned back to her fight. Spider had taken her distraction as an opportunity to escape the fire and was pelting her with web pellets. She put up her shield, the pellets melting on contact, and shot fire back at the web-slinging assassins. He had to retreat, and she followed him down to the ground, where he threw a crate at her, forcing her to dodge for cover behind a stack of boxes. The move cost her ground, and her opponent was on top of her in a second. She scrambled to her feet and dove into a maze of crates, bobbing and weaving to avoid the barrage of web pellets and debris being thrown at her. She slid around a corner and nearly tripped over Dick, who was lying on the ground with an arm slung over his eyes, Mist frozen next to him. He halfheartedly tried to jump to attention when he heard her, but when he saw it was just her, he let out a breath and layed back down.

"What are you doing, taking a nap over here?" she asked, kneeling down next to him.

He glared at her, rubbing his throat. "Yeah, that's all I'm doing," he muttered.

She looked between her friend and the frozen girl and choked back a laugh. "Oh, come on, really? You almost got taken out by Mist? The one you kept emphasizing how inexperienced she is?"

He pushed himself to his feet, rolling his eyes. "Ok, that's enough. Come on, we should go check on the others."

"Yeah, I mean, if the leader almost died that easily, surely they'll be torn to shreds by now."

"Ok, whatever, what are you doing hiding over here?" he asked.

She shrugged, pulling a bit of webbing off her jacket and sticking it to the crate beside her. "Just needed a break from the webhead. He's so aggravating."

"That I can work with," he said, pulling out a device from his belt. "Come on."

They jumped over the wall of crates and clocked Spider in a second. Dick handed her the device and shot a line out, and she shot a trail of fire to make the assassin hesitate just long enough for Dick's line to wrap around him. Mallory threw the device at their opponent and ducked, not knowing what it would do, and it went off, covering the villain in foam.

Dick arched an eyebrow at her. "Did you really think I handed you a grenade to throw at him?" he asked, laughing a little.

She shrugged, rolling her eyes a little. "Shut up, you almost died by Mist. That's by far the most embarrassing thing that's happened tonight."

They kept running down to the plane where Mallory had last seen Nautica and Geoforce fighting Shade, but when they got there V'lana was on the ground, staring at Shade with wide eyes. Mallory looked between them. "He took Geoforce!" she told them.

Mallory and Dick faced the last remaining opponent. "Give him back," Dick demanded.

"Come and get him," Shade challenged, a shadow moving at his feet.

V'lana charged the man, calling water to flood the area. It helped to limit the shadows that were available and she lit into him, all of her training at the conservatory coming out. Mallory had never seen her fight to her full abilities, and she and Dick just sat back, impressed. When the punching was all blocked with a shadow, she collected water in a circle between her hands and muttered something, and suddenly the circle of water lit up, like thousands of tiny reflections on the surface of a lake. It was so bright that Dick had to look away, but Mallory saw what she was doing and flamed up, walking beside her and burning as bright as she could. With the combined lights, Shade couldn't sustain his shadow, and it cracked and shattered, and he disappeared in a shadow underneath him, spitting Brion out after he was gone.

"Geoforce!" Nautica exclaimed, cutting the light.

He looked around, blinking hard. "That was very uncomfortable," he said.

Mallory chuckled, letting herself relax now that they had gotten the prince back. "Are you all right?" she asked. The question was directed to both of the teens, but they all looked at Brion for an answer since he was the least experienced. He noticed the attention and glared at them.

"I am fine," he insisted, rolling his eyes. V'lana offered him a hand up, but he batted it away, getting to his feet without the help. They had just turned to the plane when the door opened and Artemis walked out.

"So?" Dick asked.

The archer nodded. "I talked to her. She didn't want to give me anything, at first, but right before she left with Shade, she told me to check Santa Prisca."

"Wait, Shade went to get her?!" Dick asked, already turning around.

"Ugh," Mallory groaned, smacking her forehead. "Hello, Megan! We shouldn't have left them alone!" She shot towards where they'd left Spider, but he was gone, foam and all. She didn't even stop, just kept flying to where Mist was. A shadow was just opening up under the girl, and Mallory sped up and grabbed the frozen arm, careful not to burn her, and lifted her too high for the shadow to grab. Shade poked his head out and glared at her, but he disappeared before she could throw a fireball at him. The others caught up to her and she set their prisoner down gently, frustrated with herself that she had just left the prisoners spread out when she knew that Shade was capable of coming back for them. "We lost them," she said.

Dick shook his head. "No, not all of them. You got Mist, and they left Dr. Moon on the plane. That's better than nothing."

"Yeah, and we got a fresh lead," Artemis pointed out.

"This was a good night, right?" V'lana asked, looking at the older heroes.

Dick smiled a little. "Yeah, it was. Come on, let's go. I already called the authorities to clean this up."

On their way back to Sphere, Mallory hung back with Artemis, wanting to hear about what had happened with Jade. "So, what did she say?" she asked quietly. It didn't really matter if the teens heard, but this still felt like a private matter.

"She didn't really say anything. She seemed…tired. I don't think she wants to do this anymore."

"Then she can go home!" Mallory muttered angrily.

"I said that, too," Artemis assured her. "She won't though. She doesn't want Lian to turn out like her, and she's convinced herself that the only way to make sure of that is to stay away from her."

Mallory shook her head. "That's ridiculous," she said.

The archer nodded. "Yeah, but there's no talking to her. I just hope she's not as far gone as I think. Right now, I'm worried she's going to do something stupid."

Mallory winced, shocked to hear that the girl that she'd fought for so long, that she knew for being smooth and playful even while she was being deadly, was that far gone. She thought about Roy and Lian, and her heart tugged in her chest. How could she not see that they needed her?

They got to the Supercycle and Mallory took the controls, flying her to the closest zeta tube to bring them back to their respective cities.


Dick slipped into the Batcave from the stairs to the manor, hoping he wouldn't be noticed, but as soon as he hit the bottom step, Bruce turned to him, making everyone else in the room turn, too. "You're late," he said flatly.

The former boy wonder nodded, crossing the room to stand by the computer with Barbara and Jess, nodding a greeting to Tim, Kaldur, Megan and Diana's hologram. "I know, I know, the mission ran a little long, and the others wanted a rundown of what we're doing next."

"You should have gotten away," his former mentor said.

Dick snorted. "Yeah, sure. How many people do you know who have gotten away from Inferno and Tigress when they combine forces?" Megan and Kaldur looked at him, holding eye contact as they silently reconfirmed their agreement that they would be the only ones to know about this.

Diana cleared her throat. "Well, now that everyone is here, break it down for me."

This would be the first time that Wonder Woman would hear about their plan, the first person outside of their select group to get the full explanation. It was a little nerve wracking. She would either be on board with their long term goal, or she would blow the whistle on the whole operation. It was a big risk to take with the Leaguer who carried around a Lasso of Truth.

"It started over a year ago," Kaldur began, "when Inferno discovered the connection between the missing meta kids and the boom tube signatures. We knew that this connection would lead us to the Light's partner, their true partner, and so we began to dig."

"We backtracked the disappearances until we came up with central locations, and eventually with several suspects. Most of them were unknowns, but we rounded them up to interrogate them," Jett explained. "They were tough, though, they knew better than to go against the people who hired them, so we had to enlist Miss M to give us a hand."

Megan nodded. "From those initial interrogations, we were able to trace the kidnappings all the way up to the Bedlam trafficking ring, which we had strong suspicions worked for the Light."

"That's when I put my team together, to go to Markovia and investigate the Bedlam activity for myself," Dick put in. "Inferno, Tigress, and Superboy thought we were following up on a tip from Donna, but in reality I was just making an excuse to build them up to Bedlam without having to reveal where I got my information. We picked up an…unforeseen complication in Markovia, but we did confirm that Bedlam was shipping their newly made meta kids to the Light's new partner, and we managed to cripple the leader, along with preventing the corrupt Barron DeLamb from taking control of the Markovian throne. After that, I shut down a few straggler operations here in the states."

"While he was busy with all that, I was busy making all the pieces fit together," Barbara took over. "I found out that human trafficking is involved in nearly every government on the planet, and nearly all of it reports back to the Light in one way or another. We decided that if we are going to finally end this once and for all, we were going to need more than Nightwing's group to fight outside of the law."

"So I recruited a few like-minded Leaguers and we walked off the Justice League in order to focus our attentions on the trafficking and building on our plan to finally take down the Light," Batman continued.

"More recently, there has been a shift from recruiting children who have no experience to recruiting seasoned villains, with the pattern being that they are abducted en route to another holding facility. Two weeks ago, a prison transporter truck bringing Brick and Shade to Belle Rev was ambushed by Abra Cadabra and Sportsmaster. We managed to hold on to Brick and capture Abra Cadabra, but Sportsmaster got away with Shade," Kaldur said. "Still, in the last several weeks, we have managed to cripple the Branchwater chain of metahuman traffickers."

"Branchwater?" Diana asked, her face unreadable thus far.

"A so-called security company, owned by a series of shell companies, all tracing back to Stagg Industries and its majority share holder, Simon Stagg," Bruce explained, pulling up a holographic screen to display each of the companies and how they connected to each other and to Stagg.

"There are three levels to this trafficking ring," Barbara continued. "Acquisition, coercion, and utilization. Acquisition has been easy for them, just taking prisoners when they are in trucks and they are not under as much protection. Coercion was the problem, though. The control chips Bedlam is using work fine, as long as no one removes them, or puts out an EMP, or their circuits don't malfunction for whatever reason, or they get a meta like Clayface that can shapeshift out of the device. They knew they needed a more efficient, long-term method of control to top the competition, so they enlisted the help of Jervis Tech, the Mad Hatter."

She looked at Tim, and he picked up with his part of the tale. "I brought my squad to locate Tech, and we found out that he has developed a liquid control device that infuses the body with nanotech, forcing the victim to obey any command that the user demands with a voice-activated device. I managed to free Clayface from all external commands, and we ruined Hatter's lab, but he got away with Shade and the device that controls him."

"Which brings me to tonight, and the third level," Dick said. "Utilization. Cheshire was leading a small squad with both Shade and Mist under her control, with Black Spider along as her right hand in case things went sideways. They were running missions for Branchwater, which means whatever Stagg wants or needs."

"So where do the Shadows fall?" Diana asked. "If Bedlam is connected to the Light and the Shadows are working for Branchwater?"

"Right now, the two chains are competing for the top spot, and the honor to supply metas to the Light and their partner," Batman explained. "And the Shadows are just going to the highest bidder."

"So what happened when you caught up to the Shadows tonight?" Diana asked, looking at Dick.

"Spider, Shade, and Cheshire got away, but we managed to catch Mist and Dr. Moon, the latter is currently on his way back to his cell at Belle Rev."

"And Mist?" Wonder Woman asked.

"Mist is a minor, not a hardened criminal. She will be sent to Taos with the hope that she will be rehabilitated and this will not affect her moving forward," Kaldur said.

"Right now, I'm more concerned about Branchwater's newest acquisition, Shade," Dick admitted. "He's still subject to Cheshire's manipulations, and she's not about to free him, not without significant incentive."

No one said anything else, and Diana looked around the room, her face still unreadable. "So, you left the Justice League, but Kaldur is still in it, which means it is still involved, without the other members' knowledge. Half of the team followed you in your walkout, but the leader of the team is involved, so the team is still working into your plans without their knowledge. Robin is leading the team's walkouts on your missions, the Leaguers who walked out with you are following your orders, and Nightwing is leading his own outside team composed of members of the team." She turned her eyes to the former Boy Wonder. "And what about Conner, Artemis, and Mallory. What do they know of all of this?" she asked.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, not liking where this was going, but he answered, "nothing. As far as they're concerned, every mission I've asked them to help with has been independent of each other, up until now. Now, they just think that we're looking for the princess."

The woman put her hands on her hips. "And this was a win?" she asked.

"Largely," Bruce replied, not seeming to pick up on the anger starting to show in her tone. "What troubles you?"

"This!" she replied, spreading her arms to include everyone in the room. "All of this. Between the seven of you, you are coordinating five teams, none of whom know you're working together."

"It's necessary, Diana. We're taking a page from the Light's own playbook. Fighting fire with fire."

"And where do I fit into all of this?" she asked.

"You are out in space with the others. We need someone out there following up on leads that we cannot follow from Earth," Barbara explained. "We're close, Diana, closer than we ever have been. We just need a little more time."

Diana finally started to let her expression show her thoughts, pacing around to look at each person in the room, a disappointed look on her face. "I don't like keeping the other members of the League in the dark," she said firmly, crossing her arms and coming to a stop in the center of the room.

Dick glanced at the others, his heart pounding in his chest. If this didn't work, if she gave away their plan, then all the planning, all the lying over the past year and a half would be for nothing.

"Worst case scenario, they need real deniability," Bruce said, crossing his own arms. "Do you expect Superman to lie under oath?"

"Do you expect me to?" she asked.

"If it comes to that, as a princess of Themyscira I expect you to use your diplomatic status to avoid taking the stand at all."

She narrowed her eyes, understanding the extent to which Bruce had planned out every detail, down to who to involve and who to leave in the dark. She looked around at the others. "And the rest of you?" she asked. "Are you all prepared to lie?"

Dick, Jess, Tim, Barbara, Kaldur, and Megan exchanged looks, raising their eyebrows slightly and not saying anything. After a moment of dead silence, Jess shrugged and said, "I mean, look who you're talking to." Diana glared at her, but she held her ground, completely calm.

Finally, Wonder Woman sighed, shaking her head slightly. "I do not like your methods, but I want to end this trafficking just as much as you do, with as little collateral damage as possible. I will work with you. Just tell me what you need me to do."

The team filled the Leaguer in on her part of the plan, to slowly move her team around to the places they needed to investigate and send any information she gathered back to the Bats. As soon as she was given the first location, she gave them all one last disapproving glare and her hologram disappeared, leaving the room in silence. Bruce turned on his heel as soon as she left, marching to the Batmobile and driving out to patrol Gotham, and the remaining people, all team members at one point or another, gathered closer together, Diana's words hanging over them.

"Maybe we should have told the others," Megan said quietly, looking around the circle uncertainly.

Dick shook his head, reminding himself why they decided against it in the first place. "We agreed, if this goes wrong, we shouldn't drag everyone down with us. They'll be safe this way. And if this works, we'll end the Light for good. That's worth any sacrifice, isn't it?" Jess didn't say anything, but one look at her and Dick knew she wasn't happy with his answer.

Megan and Kaldur looked at him. "They won't be happy when they find out about this," Megan said.

Dick nodded slowly, thinking about the backlash after the others found out about Kaldur and Artemis going undercover. "I know," he said quietly, "but we can't worry about that now."

"I fear they will not forgive us a second time," Kaldur pointed out dejectedly.

"I know!" Dick snapped, making Megan and Tim jump. Nightwing took a breath and let it out slowly, forcing himself to calm down. "Let's just focus on the goal," he said quietly, trying to ignore the guilt sitting squarely on his chest.

Megan and Kaldur nodded, understanding that he did not want to think about what would happen when the rest of the OG team found out how much they had been keeping from them. They turned and went to the zeta tube without another word, and Tim went upstairs after a moment of silence. Barbara put a hand on her boyfriend's arm. She didn't tell him that it would work out, or that they were doing what they had to and the others would understand. She just offered him the contact and the company, then wheeled to the zeta tube to go home to finish adding the night's pieces to the puzzle she'd been working on for the past year.

When it was just Dick and Jess in the room, he sighed and hung his head, his hair hanging loosely in the air for a moment. "You might as well get it out," he said after a moment. "I know you have something to say."

She crossed her arms, not needing any time to develop the words that were in her head. "You should have told them," she said.

"Jess…" he started, intending to tell her that he wasn't in the mood, but she didn't let him get there.

"What are you doing, Dick? What do you really think you're protecting them from?"

"I can't let them throw their lives away because of a decision that I made," he said firmly.

She tilted her head. "Oh, so it's fine for us to make up our own minds about how involved we want to be, but not your team?"

"They're not my team," he said.

"Ok, whatever you want to call them, I've seen what it does to you when they're mad at you. They can take care of themselves, taking the decision out of their hands just puts them in a bad spot. You've already been through this before, when you didn't tell them that Kaldur wasn't really going to kill Artemis. Why would you do it again?"

"Jessica, just stop!" Dick snapped.

She narrowed her eyes, holding her ground. "No, Richard. Not until you really take a look at what you're doing. You've already betrayed them once, how many times do you think you can do it without feeling the consequences?"

The silence that followed the statement felt like a clap of thunder in the tense room, and Dick just stared at his sister, knowing that she was right, but also knowing that he was too far into the lies to go back now.