The League was too preoccupied with their proteges than the man who just left. Robin was staring at the window where Cobb disappeared. While everyone else was being looked at, Batman walked over to Robin and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay, Robin?" The Dark Knight asked his ward.

"Yeah." Robin didn't say anymore as Bruce took it that he did not want to talk about it.

Looking over at his team members to check on them he checked their welfare with a glance.

Superboy was being helped by Black Canary and surprisingly Superman as he gave glances and mutters to the boy. Artemis looked like her arm was injured but what Sportsmaster targeted was her emotions. She looked as if she was about to break down and Ollie kneeled in front of her saying reassuring things and wrapping her arm with what he had brought. M'gann looked completely distraught and was currently trying to be helped by J'onn who was failing. Robin could tell Wally was having conflicting thoughts no doubt about Flashpoint. Barry was trying to ask him questions, but Kid just answered in short responses. Kaldur'ahm and Orin were having a discussion about what happened which soon turned to a minor conflict about Black Manta. Still staring at the team he never noticed Batman's hand still on his shoulder and Wonder Woman walking to him kneeling, like Ollie with Artemis.

"Are you alright, Little one?" She asked with sincerity. She knew that Batman was not the best with compassion while he was Batman, and she hated to see the little bird so lost looking.

"Huh, oh yeah I am feeling the aster." Robin gave a small smile and he knew that it wasn't fooling anyone.

"Robin, who was that?" Came Batman's gruff voice and Diana glared at the Gothamite for the question.

"Do we need to know now?" She asked emphasizing now and shifted her eyes back to the boy.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"The sooner I know the faster I can figure this out." He stated with the always impassive look.

"How about Robin's wellbeing?" She grounded not backing down from his behavior.

"Robin is fine." He said looking at his protege.

"He may look fine, but what about his emotions?" She held a glare that could rival his.

"Robin and I will talk later." His teeth clenched in anger at her saying he doesn't care about his son.

"I am okay, Aunt Diana." Robin said and her face softened at the term Aunt.

"You haven't called me that since you were nine."

Robin gave her a genuine smile and told both of them thanks for checking on him. He first ran to M'gann who was having a mental break down. J'onn was trying to calm her with no avail as her mind was everywhere.

"Miss M, it is okay." Robin grabbed her hands to push them away from her face. She looked frazzled and the most upset Robin has ever seen her. She was always upbeat and peppy, so it made his heartache at the Martian's sadness.

"Come on, we will figure all this out and everything will be asterous!" He gave the brightest smile he could. M'gann's mouth turned up a little at his word usage and smile. Not long after, her small smile faded and she started to cry again.

"He despised me, Robin. My little brother I swore to protect wanted to harm me, and it is my fault."

"M'gann trust me when I say he is just misguided." He lowered his voice to a bit louder than a whisper.

"His mind was so angry and he looked at me in such an awful way." Tears streamed down her face.

"M'gann everything will turn out," Robin said. In his mind, he thought about how he hated to give unsure reassurances to her, but he hated her like this.

"You promise?" She wiped her tears with her hand. Robin's mind rushed at the thought of saying no, but he just couldn't.

"Yes." For some reason, that small word crushed his heart more than he thought it would.

J'onn standing to the side looked relieved that she was okay and gave Robin a smile, who nodded back. J'onn hugged her and he looked at the other members.

Supey was still unconscious, Kaldur looked peeved, Artemis calmed down, and Wally was still acting odd.

Superman is the only one able to lift Conner, so he picked him up and was beamed up by Green Lantern. Satisfied that the young justice member looked as well as they could be, for now, so Wonder Woman took Artemis, M'gann, and Kaldur on her jet to go back to the mountain. Wally and Flash ran back, leaving Robin with his mentor to go on the bat-jet. The remaining Leaguers beamed back up to the watchtower for another discussion.

With the League

Flash was in a panic over what had just transpired. He just could not stop pacing, well more of running. It was starting to get on Green Arrow's nerves.

"Barry, we need to figure this out, so can you please think rationally." Black Canary asked in a polite manner knowing Ollie was about to snap at the Speedster.

"Think rationally! Dinah, that was Reverse Flash! Wally was never even supposed to know about him, I thought he disappeared way before Wally became Kid Flash." He was in a panic thinking about his last encounter with the man. He definitely did not even want Wally even a country away from him... Hawkgirl slammed the end of her mace on the table to get their attention.

"We need to come up with a plan. We already know most of them, so the ones who know about them can catch the rest of us up." She said.

"Recognized Superman 01, Green Lantern 14." The Zeta beam echoed.

"We already know about Lex and Sportsmaster." Flash snapped.

"Yeah well, you don't know everything about Sportsmaster." Green Arrow glared.

"Calm down, everyone. Fighting and getting annoyed is not going to help any sooner." Clark said taking his seat at the end of the table.

"Oh, so what don't we know." Flash rolled his eyes.

"Flash!" Superman scolded him like a parent would a child.

"That he is-" Green Arrow was cut off.

"Artemis's father," Batman said appearing out of nowhere making some of them jump.

"What the hell, Batman!" Ollie yelled glaring at the man.

"Where did you even come from? I did not hear the Zeta." Flash asked but was ignored or blocked out by the rest.

"She is his daughter! How could you keep this from us" Hawkgirl glared at the archer.

"Relations doesn't matter to the actions of the person." Batman told her.

"Oh! Don't think I forgot about you and holding this information and probably much more!" She yelled.

"Hawkgirl." Green Arrow said and she sat back down.

"Let's talk about the relationships first with all of them." Superman said.

"We know Artemis's, Kid's, and Superboy's already." Flash reminded them glancing at Batman, J'onn, and Aquaman.

"Kaldur's father is Black Manta. I never wanted to tell him that information, as he is the enemy." Orin said his voice booming with an echo.

"Recognized Wonder Woman 03."

"What did I miss?" She asked taking her seat next to Superman and across from Batman.

"Apparently, Artemis's father is Sportsmaster and we just learned Aqualad's is Black Manta." Hawkgirl told her glaring at the two mentors.

"Aqualad is one of the best I have ever met, and I did not want his bloodlines to cause him trouble." He explained.

"It's not Aqualad. We are worried Manta will come after him and what if he did and we never even knew because we did not know this information." Green Lantern piped in.

"I was protecting him." He persisted.

"Keeping secrets is going to be our downfall." Diana said.

"She is right, now what about the others?" Clark asked.

"M'gann is originally a white martian. White Martians are considered inferior on Mars. M'gann had a brother that I was not aware of and she explained to me what had happened between her and her younger brother. She protected him from the other Martians, but one day he was taken by one of the green Martians. They convinced her he was killed, so she came with me later on and held regret regarding him. He came back full of hatred at her betrayal of her leaving him there alone." J'onn explained in his normal calm voice.

"That's-" Flash began.

"Sad." Green Arrow finished.

"He is full of anger that I am afraid can not be reversed, his anger is embedded deep in his mind." J'onn told them.

"Okay, what about Robin?" Flash questioned and the rest of the League was shocked at the fact that Robin had an evil relative they never heard of. They all knew Robin was adopted by Batman, but the only thought they could have is if Batman himself had a relative after Robin.

"I don't know a lot about him-" Batman started but was cut off by Flash groaning.

Batman gave him a glare for the interruption and for him to explain the outburst.

"I said you know everything and Arrow and I bet on it, I lost." He said and the rest of the League glared.

"As I was saying, I don't know a lot, but I do know he is the leader of an assassin organization called the Court of Owls. The court of owls are discrete and they kill who knows about them." The Dark Knight explained.

"So, what does he have to do with Robin?" Dinah asked.

"I think Cobb has something to do with his family and the circus." He said with his always impassive face.

"How? His family died when he was eight. The only one left is Haly." Diana looked confused.

"I don't know, but I think I am going to have a talk with Haly." Bruce said.

"As Batman or Bruce?" Superman questioned wanting to know how he will get the information. If he is Batman, Haly will be interrogated with fierceness, but if he was Bruce he would be the father pleading for the information.

"Bruce." He told the Kryptonian.

"When? Because what are we going to do to protect the kids?" Arrow's voice grew loud, almost shouting.

"Now. I recommend you all to talk to them more and try to find as much information as you can." He growled standing up fast and his cape swished as he turned to the Zeta.

"Batman 02."

"Seriously, I never heard that. Did you guys when he came in?" Flash asked and was met with groans.

"Shut up, Bartholomew." Ollie said and Flash looked annoyed.

0o0o0o0o

Reaching Haly's did not take long for him. Yes, he was a lot slower as Bruce, but this was worth the time. Rushing in and demanding answers would never get Haly to reveal anything about the boy he sees as a grandson. Knowing Robin was at the Mountain with his friends put his mind at ease. Red Tornado was watching them and some members of the League went there after the meeting. Adjusting his tie; he stepped out of the car. Looking at the circus brought him back to that awful night where Dick lost his family. The tent was still the same, striped red and white with bright flashing lights around the top's rim. The air was brisk and the night sky of Bludhaven penetrated. The stars did not shine as the pollution from this toxic town made the night darker. Walking the path to the bright tent kept reminded him of the once eight year old boy happy as could be. He felt guilty not telling Dick about the circus being in Bludhaven, or coming here without the boy knowing.

Entering was a whole different story. The smell was the same and the decoration was the same. The only difference was that the trapeze now contained a net underneath. The acts were practicing their tricks from the lion tamer to the knife thrower. The place was hectic and loud full of animals roars and the horn of an elephant. Looking to the side he could see Haly in his pinstriped suit holding a cane. The man noticed Bruce right away and waved at him with a smile. The smile turned to a frown as he could see the serious expression on the younger gentlemen's face.

"Is everything alright? Is Dick okay?" The man's eyes pleaded to tell him everything was fine, but it wasn't.

"Yes, Mr. Haly Dick is alright, but I am afraid it may not be for long." Bruce cut to the chase not wanting to delay the questioned.

"Why, what's wrong." His voice shook a bit and his eyes were frantic.

"Do you know about the Court of Owls?" Bruce asked and Haly's eyes grew wide with terror.

"No, who are they?" The man tried to play it off but Bruce knew better.

"Please Haly, I think they are after Dick." Bruce told the man knowing he will come to his senses.

"Not here." The man's eyes darted and motioned for the younger man to follow him. They ended up passing the workers and despite the noise, it seemed they all stared at the men with a look of brief unease.

They ended up going to the back of the tent in the extra room reserved for Haly himself. He still had the photo of Dick and his family all smiling in the photo. Dick was on top of his dad's shoulders smiling wider than he remembered. Haly gave a long sigh and turned back to Bruce.

"The Court of Owls recruits new members from the circus and Dick was supposed to be the next recruit." Haly was showing regret.

"You were just going to give him to them!" Bruce was seething.

"No! God, no! Dick is like a grandson to me I was going to figure something out." Haly looked peeved.

"What do you have to hold against them?" Bruce asked wondering how the hell this man was going to prevent Dick from being taken by a group of highly trained assassins.

"I don't know. Before I planned it perfectly his family… well, you know." The man looked to the ground and put his face in his hands.

"I need to protect him and in order to do that I need to know what I am going against." Bruce told the man.

"All I know is that they reside in Gotham and they are basically shadows."

"Anything else?"

"Well, I have heard rumors of them being the living dead." Bruce's eyebrows went up at that. The living dead was definitely something he did not expect.

"Dead?"

"Yeah, they are pretty much impossible to kill because they are already dead." Haly looked anxious like he was being watched.

"Pretty much? So is there a way to stop them?"

"Nobody likes the cold, Mr. Wayne." Was his response.

"Cold." Bruce pondered knowing exactly what to use. He kept a collection of the Gotham villains weapons, and just his luck he happened to have Mr. Freeze's freeze gun.

"Thank you, Mr. Haly, for your help. You have saved Dick's life." Bruce said and shook the man's hand.

"Tell Dick that I am sorry." Haly did not look pleased, but remorseful.

"Why don't you tell him?"

"I am afraid my time is up, Mr. Wayne." Haly's eyes were glazed with all the negative emotions running rampant in his mind. Bruce knew this was not retirement or even a new start, but a foreshadow of death and he was going to try and stop it.