Off the Deep End

The Six Year Benchmark

Thalia looked at him, incredulous, "why were we not told this?"

"it is strictly classified information."

"we were going to find out anyway."

"exactly."

Dick and Alex shared a look, they and Slade seemed to unanimously decide to stick closer to Ra's and Thalia.

As they walked, going through rooms and halls, the craft shuddered and rocked. The glass wall revealed the movement as the ship slowly sank lower into the water. Soon the waterline rose up, and Dick watched as the lights brightened to acclimatize with the darkness that edged in, crystalline water surrounding from all sides.

Dick took a deep breath, steadied himself. He was more of a flying person, not much of a deep-water type. But he could deal.

They finally found themselves in a dining hall, members of The Light sitting ready to speak.

No milling about, mingling, no snacks, just business. Dick could get behind that.

They sat, Dick on Thalia's left, Slade on Ra's right and Alex in the middle. Manta sat at one head, elaborate and beautiful masks hung on the wall behind him, wooden spears crossed underneath. Savage sat at the other end, the door behind him.

On Manta's right was an empty chair; vacant of his number 2. Dick eyed the crowd, trying to get a grasp of the overall consensus to the room. If everyone was already on edge he'd want to know.

"who are we waiting on?" Luthor drawled.

"My son," Manta said, without skipping a beat. Dick's stomach dropped.

Manta had a son? How did he not know this.

As evident by the expressions of everyone else in the room, they didn't either.

"excuse me?" Bee asked, voice sharp.

Dick's hand rested on the dagger sheathed at his side. The animosity in the room was growing stifling. Everyone was already running on frayed nerves due to the league being on their tail and the Reach being their usual arrogant selves.

The Reach- as soon as Dick remembered them he had to fight a scowl. He didn't know what Savage was thinking, bringing them in. Ra's would be cutting ties soon, he cared too much about his people to risk them on The Light's fool's errand with the Reach. But the longer this dragged out the closer they got to leaving in contempt- something they did not want.

"Manta," Savage said, cutting through Dick's rushing thoughts, "we were under the impression you had a new Admiral."

"yes, I do," Manta said, hands clasped on the table, "and that admiral happens to be my son. Any complaints?"

Dick rose an eyebrow, sharing a look with Thalia.

"it would have been appreciated if we had known," Ra's said.

"you were capable of working well enough before without knowing, and now you do because it is of importance." Manta stayed stony, voice not wavering and eyes boring into Savage from the end of the table; a challenge.

"your secret keeping calls into question your integrity," Bee said, lips about a millimetre from becoming a scowl.

"I wasn't aware my integrity relied on telling you all everything."

The problem wasn't that he kept secrets. Dick knew that much- the problem was it had been easy for him to be caught. It was not a lie he cared about. Luthor could lie, Bee could lie, Ra's could lie. But they'd keep it up, they wouldn't decide to show their hand at the drop of a hat. Because what they lied about was of importance.