A/N so this is heavily, heavily, inspired by @lunar_panda 's fic known as 'The Circuit', in which Dick is kidnapped by the light to become their perfect weapon against the league, but he breaks out and creates an organisation of people to fight the light and their associates. It is an awesome idea that I love so much and it's been giving me inspiration ever since I read the chapters that are currently out. however, I'm in the middle of two long chaptered fics, so I can't write my ideas right now. this is a bit of a one shot with some of my ideas, so I don't forget them because I really like some of them. 

anyway, enjoy, if you like it do tell. maybe when I'm finished my current yj long fic I'll write something like this, provided the author is okay with me borrowing their idea.

I did not see that coming

blackmail, dirty secret, wrongfully accused

They dumped him back in the room, it was just as dark as it usually was, just as cramped. They made sure his restraints were tight and done up correctly so he couldn't escape, and then left.

Dick sighed and leaned his head against the wall behind him.

"you okay?" asked the girl sitting across from him, restrained similarly.

"shut it!"

They both winced at the order from the guard. they couldn't see him, the room didn't have bars it was entirely enclosed.

Dick nodded, forcing a small smile that didn't meet his eyes, and gave her a thumbs up.

They wouldn't be able to talk for at least an hour, by then the guard would have fallen asleep. That didn't mean they could put their own guards down, the person was only there as a precaution. They both knew all the necessary restraints were in place, there was no way out of this room unless their captors decided to take them out.

They waited.

The girl held up five fingers, their little code was only new, they were still figuring it out. Five was the most used one 'is it safe to talk?'.

Dick listened, hearing just faintly the sound of snores. He nodded and held up one finger 'yes'.

The girl sighed, relieved, muscles relaxing in her restraints.

"what was it today?" she asked.

Dick made a face, all his injuries beginning to feel worse as soon as he remembered them, "training with Deathstroke, then Sportsmaster. Finished it up learning about poisons with Ivy."

The girl nodded.

"more magic practice for you?"

"with Klarion, yeah," she shivered, "I don't like him."

"I don't think anyone does."

She gave him a sad look, "I've been counting days, I've been here for 365. A whole year."

Dick pursed his lips, heart aching, "I'm sorry."

She shook her head, "you've been here longer."

"only by a month or so, I haven't been counting."

She curled in on herself as best she could when her hands were restrained to the wall above her head. at least they were able to sit down, they weren't hanging from the ceiling.

"have you figured out who the Light's new ally is yet?" she asked him.

He frowned, "not sure, all I know is I don't like them."

Originally he'd been revived by the Lazarus pits and any time he got too injured training they shoved him in there again. It helped their cause, the Lazarus pits tended to play with memories and sanity, the more times he was thrown in the harder it got for him to control his anger. Every day it got harder to remember that he was Robin, not the Light's weapon.

He still remembered the first day he was here, when they'd restrained him, kicking and screaming, and he'd finally got them to answer his biggest question.

'what do you want with me?'

Deathstroke had grabbed him by the chin and looked him in the eyes, 'you will be the Justice League's Achilles heel.'

Dick refused to let that happen. He wouldn't turn against his friends, his family. the light didn't care, they were training him with every person they had, forcing him to learn and study and become a perfectly tailored weapon that they could point at the heroes with plenty of confidence that he'd come back bathed in their blood.

But recently the light had found a new ally. On that, according to what he'd managed to get out of Deathstroke, had plenty of interest in Dick, and all the resources to make sure his attempts at remaining the stoic hero of integrity would fail spectacularly. Dick hadn't seen them around the base yet, but he'd caught them talking to people in rooms that he'd passed, their faces up on holograms. They were strange white masks with gaping black eyes.

"do you think they can do it?" she asked.

Dick blinked as he came out of his thoughts, "do what?"

"turn you against the heroes?"

Dick swallowed down the spike of fear. There was an answer to that question that he'd thought over plenty.

"I don't think so," he lied.

The girl made a face that suggested she could hear the falsehood in his voice, but she didn't push.

That was their deal. They didn't push. They didn't even know each other's names yet, although she had found out that he was once Robin, thanks to the way the light spoke to him. but he had no idea who she was, only that she was good with magic and the light was trying to use her to get to her father. Whether that was in a blackmailing sense or a mere talking sense Dick didn't know, but the way she spoke of her father suggested that he was the kind of person the light would want to befriend, not alienate.

Dick heard footsteps. He gave her a look that he hoped communicated the meaning of 'shut up, quick'.

The door creaked and thunked with he sound of the many locks coming undone, culminating to the heavy dull shriek of it opening. Dick glared at Deathstroke, standing in the doorway. Behind him was one of the strange people with the white masks.

They unclicked all of his restraints, forced him to his feet. This was strange, he'd done his training for the days and he was only sporting aches and bruises and scrapes. What were they doing?

The girl gave him a worried look, he managed to catch her eye as he left. She seemed to be trying to send him strength in her expression, he was grateful but it didn't do much.

They dragged him through the halls. The masked person didn't speak and Dick wasn't able to get a good look at them.

Eventually they came to a room he hadn't been in before. It seemed to be a lab, with a hospital bed in the middle. Wires and tubes surrounded it, an IV pole nearby, but inside the bag was a strange liquid, not blood.

Dick tried swallowing down the fear, it wasn't working.

"and you're sure," it was Savage's voice, Dick would recognise it anywhere. The fear became a coil in his gut, slowly growing, icy cold. He couldn't look toward where the voice came from, but it continued talking anyway, "that this process will succeed?"

"we are entirely sure."

"It seems the opposite of what we want," Ra's Al Ghul said, and Dick could at least look at him, standing in the corner and watching on, "we want someone who can think for themselves, who can blend in when necessary, a spy and a killer. Decidedly not a Talon."

At that word Dick turned colder than before. A Talon. Like the old Gotham myths?

"that is why this is a modified process," one of the masked people said. They were a woman, blond, wearing a white dress, "he will be able to activate the electrum when necessary, otherwise he will appear entirely human. He will be able to think whilst it is activated, instead of becoming one of our perfect soldiers."

Dick glanced at the person she had gestured to. They were standing in perfect military parade rest near one of the doors in a dark uniform, bristling with weapons.

No. no, no, no, no, no. what were they going to do to him?

"I think it will only be beneficial," Deathstroke drawled, "I can train him for years, but if he remains this unresponsive and unwilling he will never reach his best ability."

Savage nodded, "then do it."

Dick was dragged to the hospital bed. He pulled against the person who was doing so, trying to dig his heels into the ground. Deathstroke levelled a pistol on his head.

"we've brought you back from the dead once, kid, we can do it again."

Dick levelled the worst glare he possibly could on the man. Wishing, for once, that he had Superman's heat vision.

But they got him to the bed, they tied him down to it and they hooked him up to the machines.

That was the night that Robin died.

"and you're sure about this?" Raven asked, the same worried expression on her face that she'd sported for the past hour.

"as sure as I have been since I suggested it."

Raven nodded.

"you don't have to do it, too," Dick frowned, staring at where she'd linked their hands with magic.

"I do," she said, "you're doing this because you need someone to keep you in check. So am I."

"you can control your magic better than I can control the electrum."

"I'm not taking the risk."

Dick nodded, "okay."

She finished the spell, eyes glowing purple. The ties between their hands seemed to tingle. When she was done they left behind a coiling chain of runes around their wrist and forearms. Dick smiled, it reminded him of that one scene in a Harry Potter movie.

Oh my god, he thought to himself, I haven't seen a Harry Potter movie in four years.

Well that would need rectifying.

"so it's official now," Raven said, eying the runes around her arms, "you go crazy talon mode and I knock you out with a word. I go crazy gate-way to literal Satan mode, you knock me out with a word."

"which is only a perfect failsafe if we're always together," Dick sighed and made a face.

"hey, I'm good to stick with you, bird-boy," Raven said, and Dick thought for a moment that he caught the hint of a smile on her face, "I've got nothing better to do."

Dick gave her a sad look, "Rae, I'm gonna be on the run from the Light for the rest of my life."

"so am I," she said.

"you can make a portal to a different dimension and go live your life there, you don't have to stay here."

"but I like this dimension," she said, "there's this one really cool guy here, he's a bit of a dork but he's nice, and if I don't stick around him he'll probably get himself killed cause he's a self-sacrificing idiot."

Dick sighed, "I don't actually intend on running around the world for the rest of my life, Rae."

He wasn't the type, to be honest. Maybe some people could keep low and go to ground and live like that. But Dick had to do something. It wasn't just his life that the light was ruining. They'd picked other people up and tried to use them, too. There were kids they were experimenting on, people whose lives were being torn apart by the light and their allies. Dick wouldn't stand for it.

But he couldn't go to the justice league and help them. Anyone who was around him was at risk of getting a huge red X painted on them in neon, a bright marker for the light that said, 'here I am, kill me!' he wouldn't do that t his old friends and family, they deserved a chance at a normal life when they weren't in uniform.

Which meant he'd have to be his own Justice League.

"what are you going to do?" Raven asked.

Dick pursed his lips, thinking.

"I'm going to find every person the Light has wronged and offer them help. And for those who want to, I'm going to give them a chance to save people like them, to stop the light from doing to others what they've already gone through."

"that's a lot of work for one guy." Raven frowned, "you'll need a base of operations, you'll need contacts, you'll need weapons, tech, all kinds of tools, informants, it's not something you can start up overnight."

"then it's a good thing I have more than one night," Dick said, then fished out a USB drive from his pocket, "and this."

Raven's eyes went wide as they landed on the drive, "what is that?"

"I fished around the light's systems as we were escaping," Dick said, "this drive has almost every project the light has ever so much as thought of on it, names, numbers, plans, schematics."

"which includes almost every person who would have a burning grudge against the light," Raven said, realisation setting in.

"oh yeah," Dick said, "and you better believe I'm already thinking of what our head quarters is gonna be like."

"this," Batman said, standing in front of a collage of holograms, "is everything we have on the organisation known as 'the Achos Nation'."

"great name," Wally muttered to Artemis, who was standing next to him.

"Wonder Woman believes it to be derived from Greek," Batman said, having heard Wally's comment, "from áchos, for pain or sorrow, and laós for people or nation."

"isn't that a reference to Achilles?" Artemis asked. All heads turned to her. She blanched, "it's... uh," she cleared her throat, "the etymology of his name, right? It creates a proto-form, 'he whose people have distress' or 'he whose gives people distress'. It's what the Iliad is about, his soldiers, when doing right, create distress for their enemies, when doing wrong, experience grief from the war against the Trojans."

Batman stared, Artemis felt very embarrassed.

"how... do you know that?" Wally asked.

"Freshman Atlantean in high school, plus we're studying it at the moment in class." Why she had taken that specific class in College still alluded her, but she was enjoying it so far. It felt right that someone who's namesake was a Greek goddess would know a thing or two about the mythology.

Batman crossed his arms, "it matches up with what little we know," he turned to the screens, "according to our intel they have some close ties to the Light, however we're not sure what the nature of those ties are. They have been swooping in and saving people from situations we didn't know about till it was too late, but we have evidence of them working with known Light allies such as Cheshire, Thalia Al Ghul and Catwoman."

"you want us to investigate them?" Kaldur asked.

"I want you to run recon on an area we believe could have been a past base of operations of the light. We have seen a few known members in the area," he said, he brought up several screens, "an unknown extra-terrestrial we merely know as 'Starfire', a past Light experiment we have discovered via stolen Light intel who operates under the alias 'Terra' and the two people we have identified to likely be the leaders of the whole organisation."

There was only one photo of them, it was blurry, taken from a distance, and depicted a man and woman standing next to each other outside what looked like a coffee shop. Neither of their features were visible, but the camera caught a small red dot or stone sitting on the woman's forehead and a flash of light reflecting off what was probably a weapon, hidden in the man's coat which was blown open by the wind.

"Nightwing and Raven." Batman stood among the holograms, they all got the feeling he was mad about the small amount of information they had, "they are considered extremely dangerous. If you come in contact with them retreat immediately."

"and the other members? are they under immediate retreat orders if we see them?" Wally asked.

"no," Batman said, "remain out of sight, see what information you can find and report back. no unnecessary risks. We don't want these people to know we're after them. We don't want them to know we're even aware of their existence."

Dick would ask himself how it went so wrong do fast, but it did take a few years.

He glanced at the corner of the interrogation room. Raven was standing there, camouflaged with some form of glamour magic. She held up four fingers.

'you okay?'

He held up one.

'yes.'

He could only see her because she let him, the leaguers wouldn't. even still, he felt worry spike when Canary walked in the door. He leant back in the chair, pulling on all his training to keep the façade up.

She sat in the chair across from him.

"you know, I gotta admit," she said, "good job, the league's never been stumped like this before."

"you're gonna have to specify, I've done a lot of things that have stumped the league."

In the corner Raven rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, clearly wanting to tell him to stop showing off.

Canary levelled a dry look on him and crossed her arms, Dick almost smiled at the mirroring of Canary and Raven- they were very similar to a degree, "who are you?"

"Nightwing."

"how did you discover Batman's identity?"

"long story."

"where is your secret base?"

"in a place."

Canary groaned, glaring, "who are you?!"

Dick shrugged. This was the third person who'd tried interrogating him, he could tell he was starting to get on their nerves.

The door opened and Batman was standing there.

"Canary, head out, I'll take this."

Ah shit. Raven gave him a look, help up four fingers. Dick discreetly held up one while the two heroes were distracted. He could handle this. Surely. Hopefully.

He'd been running a secret organisation for years now, he could handle his old mentor/adoptive father.

Batman sat down in front of him, glare strong enough to boil water.

"you know who I am," he said.

"yes." Dick relaxed his muscles.

"which makes you a liability," Batman said, "if you know my identity you likely know others, and many more things on top of that."

"look," Dick sighed, "this is a long story and I can't tell you most of it-"

"why not?"

Dick made the face and hand gesture of someone who really wanted to strangle the person in front of them. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"it's a long story."

"you've got a lot of those, don't you?"

"you have no idea," Dick smirked.

The glare directed at him didn't let up, "let me try and guess one. You used to work for Deathstroke as his apprentice and thus worked with The Light-"

"no, look-"

"and as a part of that alliance you have created an agency of meta-humans and trained individuals, all as part of a plot to eventually take down the Justice League."

"that's not-"

"and you've tried to keep suspicion off you and your group by publicly fighting the Light on multiple occasions, however, they all end with the Light getting away and completing the mission to some degree." Batman crossed his arms.

Dick mimicked the glare, fighting back a sigh of annoyance, "I don't work for the Light."

"then who do you work for?"

"myself."

"who trained you?"

Dick went silent. He opened his mouth to answer but couldn't.

"cat got your tongue?"

Dick stared at Batman.

"do you want to know how I know who you are? How I know who everyone on the league is?"

Batman didn't say anything but rose an eyebrow.

Dick took a deep breath, "you told me. They told me."

Batman very clearly didn't believe him.

Dick clenched his jaw. in the corner Raven was wide-eyed, staring.

"and why would I or the league do that, and then coincidentally forget?"

Dick sighed.

"is anyone listening in?"

"why?"

"because what I'm going to tell you will put you in danger from a lot of different people, and I can trust that you can look after yourself, but there are other people I don't want to risk." He looked at the mirror, wishing he could see through it as well as he could see Raven.

"there's no one there, they're busy."

Dick could tell he was telling the truth. He looked down at his handcuffs, clicking them off with a few short twists. Batman stared, hand reaching for his utility belt.

Dick brought his hand up to his mask, peeling it off. He'd changed so much over the years it probably wouldn't matter if Bruce could see his eyes, but he wanted to take it off.

"you told me when I was nine, Bruce," he said.

Batman stared, confused, shocked.

"Dick?" he blinked, "that's not possible, you're-"

"dead?" he smirked, "like I said, long story."

"you..." Dick could see Bruce fighting with being Batman or being him. inside he wanted to be hugging Dick and asking what happened and etcetera, etcetera, all those emotions. But he had to be Batman.

"look, I can catch you up... on most of it," Dick said, "some would take too long and is unnecessary, but-"

He was cut off by a beeping, Dick looked over at Raven in the corner.

Raven removed the glamour so she was visible, she held up a communicator, "it's Jade."

"oh no, what did she do this time?"

"no, it's Jade calling."

"how did you-" Bruce looked between the two as Raven handed him the communicator.

Dick picked up the call and clicked accept, "what did you do this time?"

"excuse me?" Jade hissed, "you're the one who got yourself captured."

"look, it was gonna happen eventually," Dick said, "let's just be glad I didn't get stuck in Arkham or something."

"wait, how did you get in here?" Batman glared at Raven. Dick was beginning to get really tired of looking at Batman's glare. It was his default expression at this point.

"where I go she goes," Dick said as if it explained everything.

"it's a pact we have," Raven said, hands on her hips, "since we were captured together."

"captured?"

"right yeah," Dick stood, "after the whole, Deathstroke killing me on a mission with the team thing I got revived and stuck with the Light for a bit, catch you up later," he said, turning back to the communicator, "what's up Jade?"

"who are you talking to?"

"Batman. my turn for a question, what happened?"

"uh, we retreated, got back to the island, no troubles, except, you know," she took a breath, "our leader is stuck with the league and we need someone to come call the shots."

"aww, can't cope without me?"

"no, you idiot, everyone around here except for me and maybe Arsenal are dependant on you, they're hopeless." She sighed, "you've made an international organisation of superpowered children."

"okay, well," Dick smiled, "we might be a while before we get to the island. Just have squadrons Gamma and Delta run recon on the location of the mission, in case there's anything that can tell us how that went so wrong. Epsilon to Sigma can check off the roll, find anyone who's missing. Bring security to level six, also, call Thalia, check in."

"you know I don't trust her."

"and I know that I don't care."

"now hang on a minute," Batman began.

Dick held up a hand, "one moment, talking." Raven snorted, he turned back to his communicator, "there's something else?"

"yeah," Jade said, "as we were retreating we found someone along the way, injured so we took them to the island to help them."

Dick had a bad feeling, "who?"

"uh... The Flash?"

Dick once again found himself doing the hand movements of someone who really wanted to strangle a person, "you've got to be shitting me." The Flash. Wally West. Dick could only ask one question and that was 'why'.

"hey, you're the one who decided this whole organisation's thing would be offering help where it's needed, okay, Starfire was all 'Dick would be disappointed if we don't help him, blah, blah, blah,' and Beast boy was practically carrying the guy to the ship I didn't get a chance to say no."

Dick sighed, "okay..." he ran a hand through his hair, "okay, we'll deal with this, we'll get there as soon as we can."

"you better, bird boy, Lian wants to know where her favourite person is."

Dick snickered and ended the call. He turned to Batman.

"you have a lot of explaining to do," Bruce said, crossing his arms, "and you are not leaving this room till it's finished."