Thank you so much to everyone for reading, following, and reviewing my story! It is truly what keeps this story going. For the first few chapters, it will be at different stages of Dick's life. (This chapter will be him at nine when his parents died.) Please review!

Flashback: Nine Years Old

"Richard, honey? It's time to go, the show's about to start!" Called a woman with sparkling eyes and a bright red trapeze uniform, her voice ringing like a thousand beautiful bells.

"Okay, Mom!" A boy replied with a roll of his baby blue eyes. He raced towards a striped circus tent, doing somersalts and cartwheels all the way there.

"Hold on, kiddo, we'll have plenty of time for that in the show." Chuckled a friendly man, placing his hand on Dick's shoulder. He obviously looked annoyed.

"Fine, lets just go." He replied, opening the flaps to the tent and instantly being filled with the familiar scent of peanuts, and the sound of the circus music and crowd. He began climbing the ladder to the top of the trapeze tower, his parents in tow.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, I present to you, the Flying Graysons!" The crowd cheered as harsh lights were turned towards the family standing at the trapeze. His father grasped the trapeze bar first, jumping off the platform and swinging to the other side.

"You will never see another trapeze act like this! And it's all performed without the safety of nets!" His mother then grasped the trapeze bar, and began swinging towards her husband's arms. His turn next. Dick gulped and got ready. Suddenly he heard the sound of groaning metal. He took a sharp intake of breath and looked around, his eyes searching the structure of the trapeze. Wait ... that didn't look right! The cable was too thin, it looked like it was about to -

SNAP.

The piercing sound filled Dick's ears, and the world stood still. No, this.. This wasn't supposed to happen. The cable had snapped, his parents were falling. Both of then looked him right in the eyes. So much was filled in them. Fear, sorrow, regret...Their bodies fell and fell, down and down. How could this happen? His parents!

"No!" He screamed, kneeling on the platform and hopelessly reaching for them. His parents screamed, the audiance panicked, the eerie circus music continued on, everything as if it were in slow motion.

CRACK

Everything grew silent. Dick stared emptily down the deathly drop, down at his parent's dead, broken bodies. It all happened so fast... No, this was a dream, this couldn't be real! One moment his parents were there, and now... He collpsed to his knees, tears streaming down his face. The audiance stood and gasped with disbelief.

3 Weeks Later

Rain pounded down, the sky looking fittingly dreary. A group of people gathered around two caskets. He still couldn't believe it. His parents, the ones who had raised him, laughed with him, did somersalts with him were gone. Never again would he get back from practice to see his mother smiling at him over the stove with a pot of her special soup. Never again would he hear a joke from his dad and pretend to laugh at it. Never again would he get tucked in at night. Never again would he have parents. No living relatives. He was an orphan. First he was going to be sent to the orphanage, but for some reason, the richest man in Gotham decided to adopt him. Probably for the recognition and publicity. He sighed and let the rain pound down on him, kneeling next to the caskets and feeling his heart sink. Nothing could ever make this pain go away. Nothing can make him unsee his parents' murder. Nothing would ever get better. Nothing.

*Please review! You guys are awesome! Look forwards to the next chapter! :) *