The key to the future lies in the past Chapter 9: Scars of the Past, a teen titans fanfic

Hi guys. This chapter was inspired by the fic Dream Hopping, written by Randomgirl14. Though it is not necessary to have read this fic to understand or enjoy this chapter, I would strongly advise you do so along with the rest of her fics, they are some of the better ones out there.

I'm sorry about the delay getting this chapter up. I had some trouble with a Virus. It was just quicker and easier to re-format the computer and re-install everything.

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Glossary

Tactical Flashlight: A particularly bright torch that's attached to the barrel of the gun which is used both for illumination and to dazzle the people you're aiming at, reducing their ability to accurately shoot back at you.

Colt M16A3: The third revision of the M16 assault rifle.. US army versions feature a three round burst setting instead of full auto fire to conserve ammo. The A3 was the first M16 variant to replace the fixed carry handle sight with a removable one mounted on a Picatinny accessory rail, allowing the carry handle sight to be replaced with a wide variety of scopes, reflexive 'red dot' sights and other accessories. Though no longer in production (replaced by the M16A4) still a fine weapon with many still in service with US and numerous other armed forces. Unfortunately the M16A3 is still burdened with the bad reputation earned by the original problematic M16s in the Vietnam War. Several improvements have been made since well before the A3's introduction so with proper cleaning and maintenance it's quite a reliable weapon.

Raven watched the rain drops role down her bedroom window. Having Angela around felt like having Terra's ghost around. Raven knew she'd been harsh on Angela and all of the other Titans had told her to back off in one way or another.

For the Angela and rest of the Titans, dinner had been pleasant. Raven on the other hand had been concentrating on getting answers from Angela. Robin did the same thing, but to a far lesser extent, merely casually probing as his nature caused him to do with all people. What puzzled Raven was that Angela telepathically radiated fear and paranoia. At various times during the conversations, when a question about her past was asked, Raven felt the fear and anxiety flare up in Angela. Angela did an amicable job masking it and Raven wouldn't have been surprised if her comrades didn't notice it at all. It felt like Angela was hiding something with every fiber of her being, maybe even trying to hide it from herself. This bothered Raven. She could be attempting to infiltrate the Titans or maybe she was just trying to burry some traumatic memories. In some of the brief flashes of Angela's memories that Raven could read she saw Terra at various different ages so at least part of her story was true. Raven had shared her concerns with Robin who promised he'd be on his guard. That did little to comfort Raven as there was a potential saboteur with the power of invisibility sleeping in Terra's old room.

Despite being uneasy about the situation, Raven knew she had to get some sleep. She threw her cloak over her dressing table, climbed into bed and forced herself to sleep.

After what felt like a few minutes, Raven was woken by four soft thuds. She reached threw the pitch black darkness and felt around her bed side table for the switch to her lamp. As her eyes adjusted to the light, it became apparent to Raven that this wasn't even her room. The arm that she'd reached out to turn on the lamp wasn't even her arm. Raven would NEVER wear pink pajamas. Raven tried to look down at the rest of 'herself' but had no control what so ever, as the head turned to the right to examine an empty bed about six feet (around 2 meters) away. Raven noticed the wall behind the empty second bed was covered in posters of superheroes, a lot were early posters of the Teen Titans and quite a few were of Beast Boy before he joined the Titans, in fact most of the posters had Beast Boy in them. It was rapidly becoming apparent that this was the same room Angela had described as the one she shared with Terra

I must be dream hopping again thought Raven. This wasn't the first time Raven's powers had done weird things when she was asleep. Dream hopping was one of the relatively more common things that happened though she had once blown out all the windows in the tower when she had a nightmare. There had been times when Raven was actively involved in another Titan's dream but on other occasions, such as this one, Raven found herself seeing the dream or nightmare as its owner saw it. After learning some of the more intricate details of Robin's dreams about Starfire, and that Starfire's dreams about Robin were uncannily similar, Raven learnt the hard way that there were things about her team mates which she DID NOT want to know, consequently she taught herself to wake up at will. However this time curiosity got the better of Raven as she hoped to gain an insight into their visitor's mind.

Another four soft thuds, this time distinctly louder, were enough to prompt Angela to get out of bed and pull on a dressing gown. Her reflection was visible in a mirror for a split second revealing a much younger version of the girl Raven met earlier that day.

She must've been about eleven which means this memory's from around two years ago, thought Raven.

Angela walked towards the door when it opened, revealing two gunmen, she couldn't make out their features or weapons because she was dazzled by the tactical flashlights attached beneath the barrels of their rifles. Raven felt Angela's inability to move due to sheer fear as the two gunmen raised their rifles to shot her.

"Contact front!"

The two riflemen were cut down by multiple three round bursts. Angela was so scared she couldn't scream, she couldn't run she couldn't even shield her eyes from the gruesome sight before her.

Four soldiers in US Army uniforms entered each wielded a Colt M16A3. One of them approached Angela and placed his right hand on Angela's left shoulder.

"Angie, you ok?. It's alright, we're going to get threw this now you just stick close to us and we…"

"GRENADE!"

The soldier dived forward, knocking Angela to the ground and shielding her with his own body. A moment later the room was rocked by the grenade's explosion. It took Angela a few seconds to get her bearings and realize that the soldier on top of her wasn't moving.

Raven didn't wand to see any more and knew that Angela didn't either. She forced herself to wake up. After taking a moment to get her head together, Raven climbed out of bead and walked to the door, calling he cloak to her with her powers. It didn't take Raven long to reach Terra's old room. A wave of her hand as she approached was all it took for the door to be surrounded by black energy and slide open.

Angela's moans of terror could be clearly herd bout Raven couldn't see her or the bed. She closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, searching for Angela's presence. Raven approached the spot where the bed should be, extended her arm and opened her hand.

"Azerath Metrion Zinthos!"

Angela gasped as she suddenly regained consciousness. The blond girl and part of the bed were now visible though Angela was hyperventilating, still in shock until she realized where she was.