A/N: Thank you for all who reviewed and read my story. Now for the usual disclaimer, I don't own anyone in this story now but I might add some OC's latter.

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Chapter 3: Intervention

As Jack walked on the bus and as he walked over to where Rich was sitting. When he sat down Rich pulled out a knife and slammed it down in between Jack's legs very close to something important.

" Hey man what the hell is with you today." Jack yelled taking the knife away from his privets.

" You told her to follow me didn't you? You're the only one who would tell her something like that. So I ask why did you tell her that!" Rich yelled at him for the first time in a year Rich lost his temper in front of Jack and he was scared.

Jack knew that if Rich lost his temper there was a good chance that someone was either going to end up dead or loose the ability to eat solid food for at least a year. Taking this into account and decided to move on with his fail proof plan for calming him down.

" Look Robin I know you're mad but I think that having a chat with her would do you some good," he paused and let him calm down a bit, " I know that you know that she likes you so cut the shit and answer me one question?"

" What?" he said annoyed.

" What is keeping you from pursuing a relationship with her? I mean it's not like she's going to dig up your past or anything." Jack said.

" No but she's asking about it." Rich said.

" What! Damn I didn't think she would move that fast, but hay it's not like you'd tell her right."

" You know X there are some days where I think you are the dumbest person on the face of the planet. You know I would never tell anyone about us. Still don't think that you're off the hook for telling her to follow me." Rich glared at him and shut up when the others got on the bus.

As Raven and the others got on the bus they took up their usual seats when Raven asked Jack to move so she could sit next to Rich. Jack obliged and went to sit next to Kori.

" So Rich how are you doing?" she asked sweetly.

" Fine" was his only response and pulled out his book.

The silence was getting to Raven and she had to break it, " Look Rich I'm sorry for following you home yesterday but I would really like for us to be friends. Do you think we could do that?"

As usual Rich didn't give an answer right away but he looked up from his book over at the purple-haired Goth next to him, " I think I can do that. Just don't pry into my business ok." He warned and she nodded enthusiastically.

At school they went through their classes like it was going to be all year. Their respective teachers would give lectures or experiments and they would do their homework, talk and such before going home.

After a couple of weeks everyone was getting close, especially Jack and Kori. The couple seemed to be inseparable at school and they had it on good authority that they spent a lot of time together out of school as well. Meanwhile the relationship between Raven and Rich was going nowhere, and Raven wasn't too happy about it. She was getting frustrated with her love interests antisocialism. After all this time the only one he ever seemed to open up to is Jack so Raven thought it was time that her and Jack had another talk.

" Jack. Why won't Rich talk to me?" she asked.

" I really don't know Raven but if you just keep hanging around him I'm sure he'll warm up to you" he smiled.

" It's been like three weeks and I still can't figure him out. He's like a mystery to everyone but you, now tell me before I have to remove the information by force." She glared at the young solider.

" That won't work on me Raven, besides I already told you that if you want to get Rich to talk directly with you, you need to get him alone."

" But last time he told me to leave and never come back and if I did he would remove me by force if necessary." She shuddered at the memory of his words to her.

' Damn Rich why do you have to be such a stubborn bastard,' Jack thought, " Well I guess I could walk you over there and make sure he doesn't hurt you," he said when a thought popped into his head, " Say how would you mind some other company when you have your little chat with him?"

" Well I was hoping to talk to him alone but if you thing that he'll talk more in front of a group I'll go with that" she answered wondering what he had in mind.

" Good so tell me when do you plan on talking with him?"

" I was hoping for tonight."

" Ok I'll ask the others and we'll see you over at his place tonight ok?"

" Ok" and the two parted ways for there separate classes.

With Rich things weren't going well, it seemed that in every class there was someone trying to get him to join one type of club or team sport and with every time they seemed to be more persistent about him joining.

' Well aren't I the popular one today. The last thing I need is to be surrounded by a group of people trying to figure me out.' Rich thought not knowing what was coming later tonight.

As he walked down the halls to the cafeteria for lunch with the rest of the students and sat down next to Jack at 'their' table, the reason it was their table is because everyone else was scared of them with the exception of Raven, Kori, Victor, Gar, Terra and Jinx. And when the other six joined them each one of them nodded at Jack having received his request for meeting together and talking to Rich after school. As lunch went on everyone was conversing with the exception of Rich who was again reading while eating. Not looking up from his book he noticed that he was being watched.

" What can I do for you Raven?" he asked breaking the young empathic girl out of her daydream about him.

" What? Oh nothing I was just zoning out for a second." She said quickly rejoining the conversation that the others were in.

" Ok so when should we go over to his place?" Gar asked. Everyone was talking in hushed voices so Rich couldn't over hear them.

" I want everyone to meet at Raven's and she can get you to Rich's place. I'll wait for you guys there. I'll go in first so Rich doesn't suspect anything alright?"

Everyone agreed and the started to talk about what they were going to ask Rich tonight.

As they were let out of school and went to the bus Rich noticed that Jack was hanging back with Kori and the others still talking about something or another. Rich really didn't mind, as he preferred to walk alone and in silence. On the bus thing were the same with Raven trying to get him to open up without having much success. Raven was getting a little desperate at the fact that he kept avoiding her questions so she tried to grab his hand and pull the book away so he would have no choice but to talk to her but this ended up as one of those mistakes that you never repeat. As she went for the book Rich's hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed her wrist and twisted it slightly causing her to wince in pain. When he let go she took her wrist and placed her other hand over it and a blue light appeared from is, this intrigued Rich and he finally spoke, " I didn't know you had any healing abilities."

" Yeah well you would know if you would just talk with me!" she shot back at him trying to get a response out of him but it never came. Apparently Rich's interest in her powers was as deep as his interest in everything else, not a whole lot. Raven was about to say something else when Jack tapped her on the shoulder.

" Don't blow it for tonight Raven. If you put him in a bad mood now you and the others will never get the answers you want from him. So just drop it for once ok?" he pleaded for her sake.

" Fine but he better give me some answers other wise I'm going to probe his mind by force to get it." She stated coldly.

Jack just chuckled to himself knowing that she would never get within a mile mentally speaking of Rich's mind but he didn't say that. " Well I'll take that into account Raven. So tell the others to meet at your house and I'll call you from Rich's when you guys can come over." Jack said as he got off the bus. As he did that Jack pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number on speed dial.

" Hello" was heard on the other line.

" Yes General, this is privet Jack Masters I was wondering about some details of Richard's and mine current assignment?" Jack said in a serious tone.

" Yes Jack what is your question?"

" Well I was wondering if I would have authority in giving Rich a little intervention. It seems that he is not trying to fit in at the school and I believe that he may need some outside help."

" Ok I am giving you permission to do what you think needs to be done."

" Thank you sir."

" Just take care of him privet Masters. I'm counting on you."

" Thank you sir" and he hung up. " Well Rich you don't have a way out now" he said and dropped of his school stuff, changed and headed over to Rich's apartment.

At Rich's apartment Rich was going over his assignments when his speaker buzzed telling him someone was at the door for him. He walked over an clicked the intercom and said, " Yes."

" It's me." He heard Jack say.

" It's open" was his response and he let Jack in. After opening the door to his apartment and let Jack in the two sat down at his kitchen table and Rich got each of them a mug of coffee and they began to talk.

" You know Rich I think you need to open up a little bit more around the others. It could do you some good." Jack said as he sipped his coffee.

" I don't see why I should when anything they ask will eventually lead to questions about our past and we are under orders not to reveal anything about 'Atlas' or anything that happened to us so what's the point." He said coldly.

" The point is to gain social skills, geezz I've told you this a hundred times Rich and yet you don't get it." He said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

" Why have you really come over here Jack?"

" I'll answer that in a minute first I have to make a call," and Jack pulled out his cell and dialed Raven's number letting them know that it was time to get this started. Seconds later Raven and the others teleported straight into Rich's apartment, Rich was not happy about this.

" WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he yelled and looked at Jack, " You called them here didn't you?"

Jack didn't need to respond he just waved the others into the kitchen and let them explain what was going on.

" Rich we just want to talk man." Victor said trying to calm the young military man down.

" Yeah, all we want to do is have a little talk that's all." Jinx said sounding defensive and slightly hiding behind Victor.

Rich didn't really pay attention to the others he just glared at Jack, " Why? You don't have the right to make a move like this." Now Jack was going to talk.

" I got permission from him. "

Rich was dumbstruck, " Why would he do something like this?"

" Because he cares about you and…" But Rich interrupted him

" Bull shit he does, look at what he put me through Jack you know they don't give a damn about us, they just want to make sure the tax payers money isn't wasted like it was with that others." Rich said with an eerie tone. Rich's little speech had left the others confused, ' What the hell are they talking about?' they all thought when Rich moved to the living room.

" So are you all here to poke into my life?" he asked from his couch.

The other got the idea and moved to the living room and started to talk. " No we just want to know about you that's all." Raven said sitting next to him on the couch.

" Yes friend we are most curious about yourself and wish to be your friend." Kori said as she took one of the chairs from the kitchen table and sat it down next to Jack. The others just nodded in agreement with what Kori and Raven had said.

Rich looked to Jack and said, " Well how far can we talk?"

" He said I was allowed to do what ever was necessary so we better tell them everything or this will be for nothing." He responded.

" Fine but you can tell them since I don't have permission." Rich said and looked at the floor.

" Ok lets see where to start," Jack said and everyone turned to him giving him their complete attention, " Well I guess I'll have to start at the beginning. I can't say for Rich here but my life before all this happened was normal. Just a kid with his parents, even a little brother on the way when they were murdered. After that I was adopted by a high-ranking military man and my life was reborn in a sense. The simple enough, do what you are told and you don't get punished. At first we were tested on physical ability and mental acuity and if you got high enough scores you were drafted." He said but Terra interrupted him.

" Drafted? What do you mean by that?"

" Well if you let me continue you would know by now," Jack said almost angrily, after taking a deep breath he continued, " Rich and I are the last two left from a group called 'Atlas' and what it is, is kid trained since a very young age to do cretin jobs for the military I'm not going to say what kind of jobs but lets just say what you saw us do for placement and in gym was nothing.

Our life was simple, wake up, train, study, eat and sleep. Everyday until we were 10 that is all we did. But what we did in those days was hardly what anyone would call easy, training was brutal three mile warm up runs, obstacle courses with people shooting at you, At first it was only rubber bullets but after a while they would use live rounds, after the courses it was combat and weapons training and then some more running.

Our studies were just as hard; we studied biology, chemistry, psychology, and a wide range of other areas that would be helpful to us. Then after we got use to that they did what I still think of as inexcusable, they but us through our final test." Jack said and then paused looking over at Rich who was now looking at him.

The tension and silence was nerve racking to ever one but the two solders when it was broken by Gar, " What test?" he said quietly.

Rich was the one to answer, " They experimented on us." Was all he said and the look of shock spread over their faces. " They enhanced us physically and mental beyond what we were capable of before, all our senses are heightened and our mental capacity is almost at a maximum of human capability." Everyone looked at each other not knowing how to take this new information.

Raven looked over at Rich as he hung his head her empathic abilities couldn't sense anything coming from him as usual but she could see something in his eyes, there was a soft sadness to them that she had never seen before. In her heart the sadness that she saw in his eyes was magnified by a hundred and she started to cry and as a tear flowed down her face Rich's hand stopped it at her cheek and she looked at him, his gaze never left the floor but he stopped her tear from falling.

" You don't need to cry for me Raven, I knew what they were going to do to me and I almost wanted it to happen, " he said chuckling softly to himself, " but even that didn't save us."

" Wha…what do you mean Rich?' Raven asked not knowing what he was talking about. Rich looked up at Jack and nodded. Jack nodded back and removed his shirt as Rich did the same.

On Jacks back was a large X mark that starched all over his back and the scar tissue was red. On Rich's chest starching from the top of his chest to his belly button was a large scar also red. The others looked scared as if they had be told that these two guys were walking spirits. Putting their shirts back on they asked the other what was on their mind.

" Well I think I understand why you were so distant Rich but couldn't have tried to be friends with us?" Jinx asked.

" No, the way I acted was to protect all of you from myself, you all act as if nothing matters in your lives now. All of you act like you have a lifetime ahead of you and you do, but I don't. My life has come and gone now only my orders give me purpose."

" Shut up Rich," Jack said, " We still have a life ahead of us why else would we be going to school now after all that has happened to us?" Jack questioned but Rich never answered.

The others looked over at Rich; he's eyes were glued to the floor. Raven was reaching over to put her hand on his shoulder but before she touched him he whispered, " Get out."

" What?" Gar said.

" I said get out!" and he pulled a gun out from under the arm of the couch and pointed it at he group. Everyone almost fell out of their chairs to leave the apartment except Raven and Jack. Rich turned to Raven, " I said get out Raven that includes you" and he pointed the gun at her head. Fear covered her face but she never moved.

" Why do you want me to leave?" she asked, her voice trembled.

" Because I want to be alone. From now on stay away from me at school and never come back her again." His cold gray eyes drilling into her amethysts ones.

" No"

" You don't have a choice here Raven I want you gone. Gone from my apartment. Gone from my life. Now get the fuck out!" Rich said.

Raven let a tear she was holding fall from her eye and teleported out of the apartment. She arrived in her room at home and fell to her bed crying herself to sleep. Her mom cracked opens her door and wore a sad expression. As she watched her daughter cry she felt how her daughter felt about this boy she liked and how the way he just reacted to her made her feel so bad that she wanted to have a talk with the boy.

Back at Rich's apartment Jack was still there, Rich put his gun away and looked at Jack, " Why did you do this?"

" Because you needed it. But instead of letting them help you, you acted like an idiot and turned down their help when you need it more than you know."

" All I need are my orders. That's all that matters to me now." He said coldly.

" Cut the shit Rich, you know as well as I do that there is more to life than taking orders. What happens when the day they let us go? What will you do then?"

" You know as well as I do that, that day will never come because of what they did to us. Our purpose in life is secured."

" Fuck you Rich. The whole reason you're here is so that you have something to do later in life."

" Get out. I'll see you tomorrow." Rich said walking away from him and went into the kitchen. Jack left his apartment and Rich went back to the living room and turned on the T.V. After about 2 hours of watching some program, he wasn't really paying attention to the T.V. His mind was on the conversation he had with his 'friends'. He chuckled to himself. Rich never really had friends before other than the others in his squad.

Rich was starting to feel bad about the way he treated them, but he pushed that thought out of his head, ' No I can't start thinking like that. I don't need anyone's help. I only need to follow orders' and he went out for a run. As he left one of the other tenants, a girl that lived down the hall from him looked out her doorway to see that Rich was heading out.

" Hey Rich were you going?" she asked in a slightly annoying voice.

" Out. Why? Is there something you want Kitten?"

The girl jumped out thought her door and latched herself onto Rich's arm, " Can I come with you sweetie?" she looked up at him.

" No. Now go back inside." He almost growled at her and she skipped back into her apartment.

" Just remember Rich I'm watching you." She said and closed her door.

' Damn why does that annoying little bitch do that?' Rich asked himself as he jogged down the stairs and out the door for his run.

After his run Rich did some pushups and sit-ups before he picked up the phone. He didn't want to do it, but he knew that this was the only way to get this resolved.

Rich dialed the phone and the person on the other end answered. " Hello?"

" Hello is the General there?"

" This is."

" Dad I think we need to talk."

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A/N: Ha a cliffy well don't be mad with me I had to do it. Anyway I hope you like this new chapter, you know the drill and I'll wait for your reviews.