So I've never written anything rated 'M' before, so please, if you're here for something more like my other stories, please don't flame. :) This story just wouldn't leave me alone so I had to get it out somehow. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy! I also apologize for an uncharacteristic tense anomalies or slight grammatical errors as I am pretty sick and I really can't bring myself to reread this for the fourth time trying to fix stupid errors. :P Leave comments!

The Justice League; that is the few members of said organization who were able to respond to the distress call, were surrounded. Wonder Woman, Superman, The Flash and in Batman's stead, Nightwing, really had no idea what they had just tripped themselves over but now they were in an under-earth cavern surrounded by what appeared to be miniature Solomon Grundies. It would have been cute; if they weren't trying to eat them alive, that is.

"This so isn't what I had in mind when you asked me to rejoin the League," Nightwing quipped as he batted away a zombie and Superman sprayed several more with his heat vision.

"Is it really that different from when you were Batman?" The Flash asked, trying to suck the air out or their assailant's lungs only to then remember that the undead don't breathe. He went back to his barrage of punches.

Wonder Woman seemed to have finally have had enough as she cried out a warrior's call and rammed seven into the cave wall. "By Hera, where are they all coming from?"

Nightwing had been pondering the same question when suddenly, and embarrassingly, he noticed a flashing light just down through the cavern. It was embarrassing as if Batman had a recording of this and had seen how long it had taken his former ward to spot the obvious thing that didn't belong, he would have his head on a silver platter.

"Down here!" He waved, throwing a smoke bomb to cover their escape. The JL members scurried down through the dark, dank, earthen passage carefully and as quietly as possible as the smoke surely must have cleared by now. But 'Grundy not too bright' so Nightwing figured baby Grundies weren't either.

As they came closer to the light, Superman held out an arm. "Stop," he whispered and a look of extreme concentration crossed his face. Nightwing fidgeted.

"What is it?" The Flash asked, having less patience than the former Boy Wonder.

"An incantation?" Superman frowned.

"Then we have found her," Wonder Woman concluded, triumphantly. She pulled out her sword in place of her lasso, obviously deciding that Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft and the night, was unworthy of such mercy. "We move with caution." The males allowed her to take point, deferring to her greater experience with the inhuman gods.

When they turned the corner into the stone room the light had led them to, Nightwing felt his stomach knot. An extreme and wholly unwanted wave of déjà vu swept over him. Hecate, as beautiful and terrifying as ever, shot her ghostly gaze towards the heroes, but did not cease in her spell-weaving. Instead, she waved her arms and began to rise in the air, a strange glittering portal opening behind her.

"Retrieve the amulet!" Wonder Woman commanded as more ghouls and undead began to crawl out of the walls of the room in such a way that Nightwing knew for a fact he would be having nightmares the next time he slept.

The amulet Wonder Woman had referred to was, of course, the source of the necromancy, so fighting the unholy creatures would have been fruitless if someone did not move quickly to retrieve it from Hecate's neck. As Hecate formed dark tendrils around The Flash's legs, Nightwing decided that someone would have to be him. Wonder Woman and Superman held their own against the new wave of enemies and tried to keep the strays off of Nightwing as he tried to dodge Hecate's mystic gaze shooting fire at him; all the while her chanting never missing a beat.

What could only be described as purple lightning began to spark from the portal behind the goddess, whose face was now contorting with rage and utter annoyance as her efforts to keep Nightwing at bay fell flat. The masked hero sprang forward, summersaulting in the air to avoid a particularly well aimed fire bolt, and landed close enough to the enchantress that he could reach out and grab the amulet. Hecate's arms were apparently not under her own control as they shuddered with the portal's growth and she made no move to hit him away. He shot his arm out to grab the magical pendant before she could shoot at him again, which, at this distance, would have surely killed him. Suddenly, the cavern fell silent and the utter change from the cacophony before was deafening. That was when Nightwing realized with dread what he had done.

He had wrapped his hand around the charm in the exact instant that Hecate had finished her unknown spell. He glanced up at her, knowing that the other heroes were starring too, the undead having fallen to the earthen floor. Hecate glared daggers at him and she shrieked.

"YOU FOOL!" But before she could unleash her full fury, the portal behind her began to surge and convulse and Hecate seemed to lose any semblance of control as all five of them were flung from the cave by a great force. Nightwing rubbed the back of his head and blinked away his dizziness. He just barely caught sight of a livid Hecate before she snatched the amulet from the floor and vanished in the blink of an eye, realizing she had been beaten. Coward, Nightwing coughed absently before a sinking feeling in his gut told him otherwise.

She hadn't left because she was afraid of them, she left because of whatever had just come through the portal. Which meant it hadn't been what she had intended and she obviously didn't want to stick around to find out what had taken her desire's place.

It was a moment before Nightwing had realized that both Superman and Wonder Woman had gone to inspect the cave where the portal had been already which was a stupid thing to have to realize as, compared to him, they were practically unbreakable.

"By Hera," he heard Wonder Woman gasp as he stepped into the cave, still a little lightheaded from his collision with the stone wall.

"Uh, Dick…" he heard Flash say and the use of his civilian name sent chills down his spine. Nightwing followed their stares and finally found the source of their discomfort.

On the floor was an unconscious boy, somewhere in his mid-teens, dressed in an all too familiar arrangement of red, green and yellow. Though he lay on his stomach, Nightwing didn't have to flip him over to know that there was a giant red 'R' on his chest as well.

"What the Hell?" Nightwing asked, slack jawed.