Unsuspected Heroes

An alternate look at the Prophecies Universe

The once-again disguised Raven meditated in her room as she waited for Cyborg to knock on the door as her 'father'. Okay…to review. Her homework was done, and the day was planned, especially her surveillance of her suspect. 'Rachel's' fake crush was going to be actually quite useful, though she thought it best to gauge Ker's emotions regarding her persona. Chem she would shoot him a few looks, as would she in her Japanese class that he was a teacher's aid in. Lunch would provide a good opportunity to get insight from Sarah, and band would let her gather all the information she would need on his martial skill by observing his movements. Robin would also be helping out with that, he assured her, a good thing considering the somewhat short boy's expertise in the matter.

Letting herself drift to the ground and stand up, she checked the patch of fake skin covering her chakra stone and gathered her things. Just another day at school, right?

Beast Boy whistled jokingly as 'Rachel' walked into the common room. "Well hey babe, I haven't seen you around here before! Did you come here just to see little old me?"

Her chakra stone being hidden did nothing to dampen her powers, discovered Beast Boy, as she hit him directly in the face with a large block of uncooked tofu. "Oh shut up. Where's Cyborg?" Moving to the cabinet, she pulled out a mug and a teabag, then proceeded to the stove, where she put some water on to boil.

"Waste of good soy," grumbled BB as he wiped the semi-gelatinous remains of the tofu block off of his face. Raven's TK had confined the splatter pattern to his face alone, so there was a lot of it. "I don't know where Cy is, actually. Said he had a glitch with the holoring he was trying to bang out and that it wouldn't take to long. But the big lug likes his sleep, you know that."

Raven gave an absent-minded nod. The green shape-shifter went back to his meat and animal byproduct-less meal, of which she had precisely no desire to identify any portion of. Looking at the back of her teammate's head, she decided to get a little practice with her empathic powers, which she had been suppressing recently. Reaching out with them, she tried to sample BB's emotions.

She got two surprises. First, her powers had only grown stronger, not atrophied, and her effort to skim BB had yielded his entire emotional state. Second, emotionally speaking, her emerald comrade was alphabet soup…boiling alphabet soup. It was amazing that he was able to keep his joking personality in place even to the extent he had. What with his pranks often souring his teammates' opinions of him, instances that he truly regretted, his naïve exuberance creating crises, large points of shame, and his complicated feelings towards the still-crystallized Terra, and even more complexly, she realized guiltily, her, it seemed as if he carried an emotional burden second only to perhaps hers.

Maybe it was the one overarching feeling that permeated Garfield Logan's existence that held him together, though it was hardly a positive one. His overwhelming sense of inferiority to his friends dominated him even more completely than his affection…no, love…for Terra ever had. In fact, she realized, it was partially the fact that the gaiakineticist had treated him on such an equal level that had drawn his romantic attentions so completely to the blonde. Looking now, in shock that would not permit her to stop, she saw that of the girls that the changeling had lived with, she was the focus of the most of his lust. Amplified by her 'unattainability', yes, but Beast Boy often dreamt of her at night, of that she could be sure.

She gave a mental shudder and finally shook herself from her stunned inability to look away. As soon as she did, a tsunami of guilt washed over her for violating her good friend's most intimate privacy, and for the knowledge that she simply could not return his passions for her. Even beyond the problem of Trigon, she saw him as a little brother. Cherished and cared about yes, loved in a way, but never in the way that he would want if he came to terms with Terra and left her in the past.

Beast Boy turned in confusion to see the last evidence of a shadow-warp disappear behind him. "What'd you say?" asked Cyborg as he walked into the room.

"I don't really know," replied BB in bewilderment.

Behind them, the kettle started whistling.

Faris's eyes widened in more than a bit of surprise as the new flute walked out of an alleyway near the school. He was just about to pass it off as nothing when he remembered that the alley was a dead-end alley. How on earth had she gotten there at this time? He had been sitting out here for some time and he hadn't seen her, let alone anyone enter that little wasted strip of pavement placed there by poor urban planning. His eyes narrowed. This bore investigating. Perhaps a bit paranoid of him, but paranoia kept secrets. And he and his friends had secrets.

Raven gave a mental sigh as she cataloged the information she had come into through her furtive looks and listening to Ker during the first half of chem class. He was tanned, good-looking and she had confirmed her earlier impression of storm-blue eyes. His hair was brown, relatively straight, and seemed to be possessed of a soft quality. His musculature and general build was that of a dancer or a martial artist who used speed and agility. What she thought were calluses on his hands lent credence to her theory that he was indeed a practicing swordsman. But all this was not much more than review.

What was more interesting was what she thought she had discovered of his personality. Despite the strange sense of humor and ways of acting that he seemed to have adopted, he seemed a very different person underneath, a determined achiever and a patient teacher. He also seemed to be, though Raven suspected it was her mind slipping a bit too far into her role and engaging in wishful thinking, rather sensitive.

The last element of her surveillance plan, an emotional sampling, Raven did not want to fool around with, especially after what had happened with Beast Boy. She felt guilty enough delving into her friend's privacy like that…could she really justify doing to the same to a boy that she would be faking affection for? Besides, she would want to be relatively alone with him before she tried it, even if she did go through with it. There were simply far too many people around for her to feel comfortable even in the slightest using her empathy.

'Rachel's' lavender eyes followed Ker's form as it slipped into the tumult of the halls, but soon landed upon Sarah, who had one eyebrow raised. "Rachel, girl, you've got it bad."

Raven blushed, still uncomfortable with the idea of even faking romantic feelings towards someone. "I…I know," said 'Rachel' quietly, with an almost inaudible tone and sigh. As uncomfortable as she was with the idea of acting out another life, she was rather good at it.

"Well," said Sarah as they started walking towards their lockers, "I don't think I'll ask you why you haven't already asked him out…you seem to be a little more cautious than that, but I don't think it's as great of a risk as you might think."

"So…" asked Raven tentatively, fishing for information that her alter ego would consider vital, "He doesn't have a girlfriend?"

Sarah shook her head. "Nope, not that I know of." She looked over at her new friend. "And before you ask, I don't think anyone has designs on him. His oddities kinda put most people off."

They reached 'Rachel's' locker, and Raven put in her combo as she swapped out books for the next class. "What do you think he thinks of me?"

Sarah rocked her head back and forth, considering. "Well, Ker can be pretty difficult to read at times, but I'd say that he thinks that you're cute. He also seems to be friendly enough towards you when you consider that he's known you for a grand total of what? Maybe twenty-four hours? I'd say you've got a chance, though approach for him is going to be more than a little different than with most guys at this school."

"He's different from most guys at this school," replied 'Rachel'.

"You're right about that."

Ker pinched the bridge of his nose as he marked the assignments given to him to grade by the Japanese teacher. Seeing as Nihongou was actually Ker's first language, it had made sense for him to aide the Japanese class, getting a little extra credit, instead of taking a study hall.

That being said, there were some times when he wished that he had taken the study hall. Aiding could be hit or miss when it came to time allotted for the aide to do their own work in class, and the truly abysmal Japanese that he heard out of too many mouths grated on his nerves. Bad enough that, but the class was also 'required' to speak in Japanese. It didn't help all that much, in his estimation.

And he would admit that kanji could be very hard to pick up, but some of these assignments…it didn't bear going into.

Putting down the grading pen for a minute, he leaned back in his chair and rolled his head around on his shoulders, eliciting a number of popping noises from his neck. As he did so, he felt the feather-light sensation of someone's gaze upon him slide away and disappear. Someone was watching him, he knew that much, and they had been on and off in chemistry class as well. Running down the roster of kids from the classes, he found himself with only a few people who it could be. A few he rejected out of hand, considering his past relations with them. The feel of the look hadn't been intense or hateful…it had seemed more shy and wondering. Only one candidate was left, assuming he hadn't seriously misjudged someone…Rachel Roth.

Shock registering on his face for a second or two, he turned back to the papers, picking up the pen and starting to grade yet again. Again, he felt the almost-caress of someone's gaze. Rachel's? He couldn't say…yet, anyway. Sooth hadn't flat-out denied Rachel having interest in him…her answer left some leeway on that point, whatever she might have thought. As she knew him, he knew her.

Letting his peripheral vision drift into soft focus, he ran his hands through his hair…and caught a glimpse of a pair of lavender eyes looking at him.

She couldn't…could she?

Faris caught a very distracted-looking Ker as he walked out the door to the Japanese classroom, and hustled him on their way towards lunch. Glancing back to make sure that there were no lavender eyes or black hair within earshot, he turned back to Ker and spoke in a low tone. "The new girl might be a meta."

That focused Ker. "Are you sure?" He silently cursed, as he always did, that Faris was not fluent in Japanese, which was useful for screening a conversation's content from most of the school, but he didn't really have a leg to stand on. After all, he wasn't fluent in Arabic, which the school didn't even have a class for.

"No…but I caught her appearing out of a dead-end alley that I had been near pretty early today. Either she's got a love for the space in between buildings and is an awfully early riser or…"

Ker nodded. "I see where you're going with this. Teleportation, right?" He got a quick nod from his friend. "You might be right, but I think in this case that it's just you being paranoid."

"Ker…we've got to be careful. A meta who's a gossip could expose quite a bit. Remember the exchange student?" He shuddered. It really had been creepy, with the ditz popping in on a number of private conversations. Her antics had resulted in quite a few break-ups, unfortunately, including ones that involved Ker, Sarah, and him. Most people thought it was just incredible timing and bad luck, but they knew better.

Ker nodded. "She doesn't quite strike me as the gossipy type," he remarked dryly. "Faris, we'll keep an eye out, okay? But I don't think it's anything this time. You've always been a bit wary of another exchange student debacle."

"Ker…be careful," said Faris, almost in a pleading tone.

"I gave my word, same as you, same as Sarah. We're all in this together…don't worry."

A/N: Well, that should do for now. School will continue in the next chapter as our players continue to dance about one another and their secrets. Please do review…I enjoy knowing what you think of my work.