I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters. The "dog" is a miniature Wolf. AU. Got the idea from Nagato's story of his early life in Naruto.

Just a Mistake

Richard Greyson woke up when something smashed downstairs. He got out of bed and silently crept through the house to the stairs. He had always prided himself at his ability to be silent and his gymnastics abilities, not that anyone would ever learn about those. He got picked on enough at school.

When he reached the stairs, he saw that the door was open and a window in it had been smashed in. His parents came out of their rooms and they all quietly descended the stairs. They crept to the door to the kitchen and saw that there was a soldier pigging out at their table. The family silently crept past the door and were almost to the front door when Richard accidentally bumped into an end table and a lamp smashed to the floor.

The soldier sprinted out of the kitchen thinking the family was his enemy. He threw a bowie knife into Richard's father's chest then shot his mother in the head. Richard fell backward against the wall shaking in fear and curled into the fetal position. Lightning flashed suddenly and the soldier dropped his gun. He flicked on the light and sank to his knees.

"Dear God," the soldier said. "Civies. Listen Kid...I didn't know who you were...I'm so sorry. It was just a mistake."

Richard stood and started to run for the door.

"Kid wait!" the soldier said running after him.

He grabbed Richard's arm and Richard did the only thing that a scared ten year old who had just experienced the murder of his family would do, he grabbed the knife from his father's chest and drove it into the soldier's heart. The soldier stumbled back staring at the knife then collapsed. Richard began sobbing and after about three hours, he went to his room and got dressed then got his rain coat and went to the kitchen. He knew he couldn't stay in his house and he had no family. Plus he was scared of other soldiers arresting him for killing that one.

The soldier had cleaned the kitchen out completely. Richard left with nothing but the clothes on his back and headed for the city. He lived just outside of a huge village that was actually closer to a city called Gotham. Gotham was at war with another village called Star City. Richard had no idea why it was called that but chalked it up to people being full of themselves. Soldiers on both sides of the war often ransacked any and every house near themselves so that they could eat but Gotham soldiers only ransacked the houses that were deserted.

Richard walked along at a fairly steady pace but the trip was three days long to get there and he hadn't eaten in hours already. He stumbled but kept going. After another day, he barely had the strength to continue and was beginning to get a cold since it hadn't stopped raining in weeks.

Richard collapsed in a puddle and coughed but when he tried to push himself up, he slipped and splashed back down.

"So tired," Richard said. "Can't get up."

Richard's vision faded and he fell into blackness. A moment later something rough but slimy touched his face and he shot up. He wiped wet hair out of his face and saw a young husky sitting beside the puddle. It was so thin that he could see its bones but when he looked at it, it wagged its tail and barked happily.

"Hey boy," Richard said. "Thanks for waking me up, but I have nothing for you. I can't even feed myself because there's nothing to eat."

The dog cocked its head at him and barked again then walked over and at next to him.

"Okay," Richard said smiling. "You can tag along."

Richard stood and he and his new pet began to walk toward Gotham. When Richard finally reached the city, he was starving and looked a bit like his dog as far as size.

Richard knocked on the first door of a good size house that he came too. The door opened, but as soon as the one eye that peeked out through the crack saw Richard, it slammed shut again. This process was repeated at every house Richard came to until the last house.

"Hello?" Richard called weakly from starvation. "Please, is there anything you can spare me? It's been days since I last ate. Please, I'm starving."

The door opened a crack and a man looked out. This time Richard could see that the man was muscular and looked sympathetic at the same time as looking disgusted.

"There's nothing here for you!" the man said harshly. "Now get away from my door! Try someplace else!"

With that, he slammed the door so hard that the windows rattled.

"But, this is the last building in the city," Richard said.

THE END

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