The key to the future lies in the past Chapter 6: Hunting the Truth, a teen titans fanfic

Hi again. After dealing with that Writer's Block that slowed up my last chapter so much I've got a new one for you that I think you'll like.

You'll have noticed that the early parts of the fic focused far more on the original characters and barely mentioned the Titans. I did this to set things up correctly. From now on you can expect to see (well read) a lot more of the Titans

Devout A Team followers will have noticed I borrowed a line from the show in the last chapter.

One more thing, if anyone's getting a little concerned about the detail with the guns, don't worry about it I'm not a psychopath I just do my research before writing a chapter to ensure it's authentic. You can find out just about anything using Google, it's great.

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Glossary:

'took a round': Got shot

Tali: Slang for Taliban soldier.

US Army Rangers: Entry to mid level US Special Forces. Though within the US army they are held in very high regard, the international Special Forces community in general regards them as a bunch of un-professional trigger happy cowboys.

Information is like a gun. A good gun is a useful tool and a powerful weapon that can save your life. A bad gun is a liability. It may be too inaccurate to be of any use or it can fail on you either directly killing you by blowing up on your face or jamming in the middle of a firefight and reducing your ability to fight back. If miss handled, even a good gun will maim or kill the wrong person and quite possibly destroy something valuable. The trick is not only to ensure that you're wielding the good gun but also to arrange that your enemies have got the bad ones. These are the truths that Jonathan Web embraced which had saved his life on many occasions. This was also the reason he was standing in a back ally in Langley, Virginia with his hair dyed blond and slicked back, a set of contact lenses to give him green eyes and, most importantly, holding a gun to the back of a senior CIA intelligence analyst's head.

To be more precise, the reason he was holding a gun to the back of a senior CIA intelligence analyst's head. The same gun he'd just acquired from the shoulder holster of said senior CIA intelligence analyst after pulling him down the ally.

The analyst wasn't particularly worried. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to him. Over many years as an under cover operative prior to taking a desk job he'd learnt a few tricks for such situations. He deduced that the man holding the gun to his head wasn't planning to kill him, at least not yet, otherwise the attacker would have done so already. The attacker clearly had a purpose and had been careful not to show their face when they took him down. This was a promising sign as there would be no reason to do so had the attacker intended to kill him anyway.

"You know who I am?" the analyst managed

"Stupid question Mr Williams, I knew outside which coffee shop to grab you and I also knew that you've been left handed and consequently worn a left handed shoulder holster since you took a round from an AK 47 in Afghanistan. You slipped up, you stubbed your toe and swore in English which blew your cover."

Now the analyst was shaking with fear. It took a pro to gain such knowledge.

"How do you know all that?"

Web grinned

"The tali who shot you was bragging about it. Right up until I blew his foot off. It made him only too happy to tell me where they were keeping you. Then those trigger happy cowboys that are the US Army Rangers were meant to just sneak us both out but one of them got jumpy and started shooting early landing them in a heavy firefight when they were supposed to be extracting us. So I had to charge in, shoot the guards and hold the building till the Rangers just about leveled the town around us."

Williams thought back to those traumatic memories. He remembered hearing gunfire start up outside and seeing the two guards freaking out, trying to work out whether to shoot their prisoner so the Americans wouldn't get him back. Then this scrawny kid that looked about sixteen with an AK 47, which was not an uncommon sight in Afghanistan, charged in and killed both guards with a single shot to the head. Williams could have sworn the kid was an Arab until he shouted in fluent English with a clear American accent 'what the hell do those trigger happy morons think they're doing?' The voice of those memories was a mildly higher pitched version of the one now speaking to him.

"What do you want?"

"I need a favor and I figured you owe me one. I just need the file on a terrorist, a hard copy that can't be traced back to you or the CIA. Once I'm done with this guy he won't be anyone's problem."

Williams breathed a sigh of relief.

"You know you didn't need the gun. You could've just asked."

Web suppressed a laugh.

"Appearances are everything. You of all people should know that having found out the hard way. You don't know my real name and you've only seen my old face but I'm not in a position to use official channels to get the information. You're an ex field agent, you know how it works."

No need to tell him why I'm not in a position to use official channels Thought Web Him knowing I'm wanted would make him less likely to help. Besides even if I made something up it'd only make him suspicious

"Who's the un-lucky guy?"

"Slade."

Back in Jump City, Beast Boy felt terrible. Angela adored her older sister and Beast Boy knew the story of Terra's betrayal would be hard on her. He also knew that the rest of the team would not take it so well. Trust aside, for them it meant opening old wounds. In Beast Boy's case the wound was still open so it wasn't that much of a stretch. Angela reminded him so much of Terra, were she a little older they could pass for identical twins. It wasn't just the looks but also her mannerisms and habits. Even her voice was quite similar. Consequently Beast Boy had taken a shine to her. He also learnt that Angela, like her sister, idolized the Titans. All this made him feel so cruel. Not only would she learn the awful truth but she'd learn it from her idols, who just happened to be the one that messed things up very badly. At the same time he'd be bringing back painful memories for the rest of his friends.

During Terra's time with the Titans, Robin had prevented the media from getting any details of her so the attention wouldn't go to her head. When she betrayed them, none of the titans could bring themselves to give any statements to the media. They didn't give the police any details as they wanted to handle it personally, all still silently hoping that she wasn't beyond being helped. Upon learning of Angela's existence, Beast Boy was more grateful for this than ever. The news paper was no way for Angela to find out. At least she'd be learning the truth from first hand witnesses.

In an attempt to put off the inevitable, Beast Boy bought Angela lunch along with the cold drink she needed. This proved to be quite an expensive exercise as Angela shared Terra's monumental appetite. Beast Boy didn't care about the money, he even refused Angela's offer to pay for her share, though he was still baffled as to how such a small girl could eat so much. Angela was busy devouring the mountains of food and Beast Boy was busy being shocked about how she could possibly eat so much, so there was minimal conversation.

It took all of Robin's self control to stop him punching the computer screen. The Boy Wonder had just received the most frustrating email of his life. He hated asking anyone for help, particularly Batman. He left Gotham to escape from the shadow of his teacher and become independent. Terra's situation and its crushing effect on Beast Boy was one of the very few cases where Robin was prepared to swallow his pride. On all previous occasions, Batman and Alfred had found some seemingly irrelevant detail which was exactly what Robin needed to crack the case. This was the first time they'd failed to find anything at all. They agreed with all of Robin's theories but that was it.

There's got to be something I've missed, some key that'll unlock the door this mystery and produce some answers.

Beast Boy strode in the door of the team room with Angela close behind. The astonished girl was still taking in the tower's extraordinary architecture. Angela caught Robin's curiosity, she struck Robin as early familiar though he couldn't quite place it. Finally she spoke.

"Wow, Terra actually lived here with you guys?"

"Her room is down the hall and to the left" replied Beast Boy "We've left it un-touched"

That'll do nicely