"Salt," Dick growled, recognizing the man who he'd fought as a teen.

The man had the nerve to take a bow. "So you've heard of me," he said. "Good. That saves me the trouble of trying to introduce myself."

Clark and Bruce stood, followed shortly by the other present leaguers. Everyone besides Dick who was simply squeezing his eyes shut to try and block out some of the stimuli that was making his head feel like it was going to split open.

"Surrender," Bruce said loudly. "You're outnumbered and outclassed."

"Ah, one would thing that, but one thing you didn't account for was my ability to... what would you say? Level the playing field," Salt said with a psychotic smile. He raised his arms in the air and began a strange sort of chant. A giant golden orb immediately started forming between his hands and began to expand, filling the entire room.

The leaguers began to panic as they felt Salt's magic wash over them, but it was already too late for them to do anything to stop it.

When the blinding golden light disappeared Dick looked around. He was surrounded by babies... Salt had turned the JLA into babies.

Salt looked over at Dick, a mixture of surprise and curiosity on his face. "My magic has touched you before," he said, absentmindedly removing his top hat and running his fingers through his hair.

Dick rose to his feet slowly, leaning heavily against the table. "Turn them back," he demanded in a hushed voice.

Salt simply continued as if he hadn't heard what Dick had said. "You must be that little boy I changed a few years ago..." Salt mused. "Yes... that spell won't work on you anymore... good thing I have so many more to try out."

A blue light shot from Salt's fingers and struck Dick in the chest, almost seeming to be absorbed into his skin.

Dick stared at the magic connecting him and salt, but he couldn't bring himself to move away. He watched as the last bits of blue disappeared before immediately noticing how much the room seemed to be swirling around him.

—

Dick woke up to a voice calling his name. His brow furrowed as he took in his surroundings. Why was he on the floor?

"Nightwing," the voice said again, sounding like the strangest combination of a deep manly voice and a baby's gurgle.

Dick slowly sat up, confused at first by his surroundings, and the throbbing of his head. That was when he noticed a baby in a bright golden helmet... Dr. Fate...

"Nightwing, you must take the helmet. Together we can find a way to reverse this spell," Fate said, crawling closer.

Dick stood and looked down at the baby. "The last time Salt did something like this you could never figure out how to fix it," he said, trying not to give away anything that would tip Fate off as to his actual identity. "Besides," he continued. "I know how you work. You possess the person wearing the helmet and never let them free. I don't want to be your little puppet for the rest of my life."

Fate sighed. "I give you my word... you won't be trapped," he said.

"You still have control over... that baby... why do you even need me?" Dick asked.

"This body is not strong enough for the magic required... I can sense that there was something else done to you by that wizard. He gave you the key to changing all these heroes back to their normal selves."

Dick looked around at the room full of babies, his eyes stopping on a baby Bruce who was gurgling and laughing as he watched a baby Superman float through the air with his suit dragging behind him. "Fine," he said with a sigh. "I'll do it."

Fate nodded and reached up with his grubby toddler hands to pull off the helmet.

Dick gently pulled the helmet from the baby's grasp, knowing fate would be angry if he let a baby use it as a chew toy.

He bit his lip and took a deep breath before sliding the helmet on over his head.

There was a single flash of light and then Dick found that he was no longer the one in control of his body...

It was an interesting thing, watching someone else control your body, and Dick found that he didn't like it very much. Seeing yourself move, but not knowing what you were going to do. Being at the total mercy of the will of another... not pleasant...

Dick watched as he floated into the air, stopping to hover a few feet off of the ground. He felt a strange tugging sensation, as if there was a rope connected to the center of his chest and someone was pulling on it.

Smoke began to flow from Dick's hands, and when his mouth opened for a moment he could feel it billowing out to fill the room.

The tugging feeling intensified and Dick felt his mouth open again, the strange combination of his and fate's voice pouring out along with another thick cloud of smoke. He had a strong urge to shudder, but his body simply refused to comply.

His body floated there for what seemed like ages as seemingly meaningless words continued to echo in the large room.

Dick tried to listen to the words he was saying and comprehend their meaning, but they slurred together in his ears and he found the corners of his vision darkening.

The tugging suddenly turned to a stabbing feeling and a small gasp escaped Dick's mouth alongside the words.

The blackness slowly overtook Dick's vision, and he found his eyes closing.

—

When Dick opened his eyes he was on the ground. His head throbbed intensely and every fiber in his being told him to simply close his eyes again and fall into a deep slumber.

Dick's eyelids fluttered for a moment, but he forced them open and looked around the room.

Bruce was kneeling over Dick, two fingers on his wrist to take his pulse.

"Wha?" Dick mumbled, trying to sit up.

Bruce carefully helped Dick into a sitting position before asking, "Do you remember what happened?"

"I... I remember Salt came... and... and cast a spell or something," Dick replied while holding his head. He was sure there were things he'd left out, but he just didn't have the energy to think about them at the moment.

Bruce nodded. "Fate said he used you as a vessel and was able to reverse the spell with some key you apparently have or had," he said, helping Dick to his feet.

Dick hummed in response, his head pounding. "Well, I really ought to get going," he said after a moment.

Bruce nodded, and watched as Dick made his way to the door.

Dick felt like he could go for a good nap. In fact, a nap sounded like just the thing. After all, he had just saved the league all after having his head cracked open and nearly bleeding to death... if anyone deserved a nap it was him.

A blessed silence filled the halls of the watchtower as Dick made his way towards the zeta tubes. His head was still throbbing, and he felt as if he was a walking corpse.

A sudden stab of pain brought Dick to his knees, causing him to cry out. Sweat beaded his forehead and his breath came in shuddering gasps. He brought up an arm to wipe his forehead and nearly fell to the side.

"C-crap," he muttered as he sat down, pulling his knees to his chest and resting his head on them.

He sat that way for quite a while, hoping desperately that Bruce or any of the other leaguers wouldn't come walking down the hall and see him.

When he finally felt like he could stand without puking up his guts, Dick started on his way to the zeta tubes.

With lots of help from the wall, Dick eventually made it to the zeta tubes where he typed in the coordinates to his house and walked through.

—

When he got home, Dick quickly changed into more comfortable clothing and took a quick shower.

After about 30 minutes of trying to relax and figure out what could've caused his sickness at the watchtower, Dick stepped out into his living room to see none other than Red Hood lounging on his couch.

"Window was unlocked," Jason explained, guzzling a water bottle he'd taken from the fridge.

"Oh? I didn't know that was the equivalent of an open invitation," Dick said, his head throbbing slightly.

Jason huffed. "Look. You can probably guess why I'm here..." he said.

Dick looked at him with a raised eyebrow and gestured for him to continue.

"You know my identity... I know yours," Jason stated, folding his arms. "So," he said after a pause. "Let's make a deal. I know that for some reason you don't want good ol Batsy to know about your identity, and neither do I. So you keep quiet and I'll keep quiet," he said.

This was why Jason was here? Dick let out a laugh, but immediately regretted it when his headache spiked.

Jason winced when he saw Dick grit his teeth and bring one hand up to press against his wound. "I'm... I'm sorry about that," he said after a few moments.

Dick's brow furrowed, and he suddenly felt the same tugging sensation as he had earlier, followed by the pain in his head slowly fading away. "I-it's fine," he muttered.

Jason stood and started towards the window.

Dick turned and stumbled, suddenly feeling as if the world was spinning. He fell heavily against the wall with a thud that caught Jason's attention.

"Are you alright?" Jason asked, turning back around.

"I'm fine," Dick said as firmly as he could. "Just go... I need to rest."

Jason hurried out the way he'd came with only a glance over his shoulder at his brother.

Dick stumbled towards his bedroom, feeling as if his limbs weighed hundreds of pounds. He felt the pain in the center of his chest again, and he weakly tugged off his shirt, only to notice a glowing blue spot, pulsing along to the beat of his heart.