I know it's a little early, but the sooner the better, right? Besides, this is the first of a 3-parter story! And it'll explain my delayed absence in submissions, and I hope it's worth the effort. I'll be lucky to have part 2 up by Thanksgiving, so you can tell I've been a busy bee! Anyway, please enjoy, early as it is, and PLEASE REVIEW! (References will be listed at end of chapter)

Part 1: A Series of Strange Dreams

Summary: It's 5 days till Christmas. Lina's been having strange dreams about a blonde girl who comes to see her in her sleep. Meanwhile, the flowers from her prized garden are disappearing, and Beast Boy's been sneaking out of the house at night. Where's he going? What's happening to Merlina's garden? What's the blonde in her dreams trying to tell her?

Chapter 1: Roses (the First night)
At dawn, Merlina Rose got up and went outside. On the island, she smelled the ocean combined with the sweet smell of her flower garden and shivered with the cold. The spirit of the oncoming Christmas festivities filled her with excitement, and she knew just what to give each of her friends. She turned to her garden. Her garden consisted of many bushes of her favorite flower, which was also her name flower: Roses. Each bush had a color: Red, Pink, White, and Yellow. All were her precious babies, including the special Angela Lansbury bush. The magic of this garden was that no harsh cold would affect it, so they were safe in the December air. It was Merlina's enchanted garden.

Merlina watered her rose babies. Red, Pink, White, Yellow, Angela Lansbury...Hold it. Something was wrong. Looking more closely at the bush, Merlina discovered...

Inside the house, the others had just sat down to breakfast, also excited at Christmas. Everyone knew what they were getting for each other. Everyone was excited except Raven, who denounced Christmas as an excuse to emphasize catering to the materialism of the world. ("The averase never ends," she said.) Daniel, therefore, was determined to help her see the light.

Putting those two aside, Robin was really looking forward to the best holiday ever, and enjoyed filling Starfire in on the excitement and joy Christmas can bring; plus, he'd gotten her something special.

Beast Boy and Cyborg were buggin' each other of what they were getting. BB was as excited as a little kid. Anyway, their thoughts were all interrupted when they heard a banshee-like cry to wake the dead.

Everyone jumped a mile high except Beast Boy, who turned into a chimp and vice-gripped Daniel's arms. Before Robin had a chance to take charge, Lina magically appeared in the room, screaming,

"HALF OF MY PRIZED ANGELA LANSBURY ROSEBUSH HAS BEEN BEHEADED! MURDER SHE WROTE(1), AND MURDER SHE CRIED!" Throwing her fists to the heavens, she then yelled, "PORQUOI?!(2)" and cried the squiggly anime effect tears with a spotlight on her. click! Starfire stepped over and lifted her friend up, cheerfully saying,

"Do not despair, Merlina! Your flowers shall soon regain their colorful foliage!"

"They're flowers, Lina," said Raven, "get over it." Daniel touched Raven's shoulder and said,

"Come on, Rae. They're important to her. Our family goes way back with those flowers; they're our name." Raven half-smiled for a split second and said, "Sorry."

That night, after a hard day's crime fighting, Merlina got into bed and immediately fell asleep with Umbra curling up on her stomach. As she slipped into the imaginary realm(3) of her subconscious, she found herself standing in the beginning of a gigantic rose garden maze, trellises, fountains, and all. It was lightly snowing, but she felt no cold. The maze (in case you need an imagination hint) had high shrub walls, like in royal garden mazes (and Alice in Wonderland. Moving on!)

She found she was barefoot, wearing a flowing, flimsy white gown. All around her were roses of every color, separated by different sections as the maze continued. She started in the Angela Lansbury section, and continued down the maze in a joyful run, passing roses of pink, then blue, then they were green! Then she found purple, went on to black, and when she came to the end of the maze, she was in the very heart of the garden, which branched off into more mazes.

The bushes were now arrayed in yellow roses. In the middle of the neatly silver brick-lain in a circular formation floor was a rock platform with nothing on it. On a white wicket bench to the side sat a girl with sunshine blonde hair and cornflower blue eyes. She was holding a bouquet with one rose from each of the color bushes. In the center was an Angela Lansbury. She too was wearing a flowing white gown.

The girl looked up at Lina, who stepped towards her. The girl stood up, handed Lina the Angela Lansbury rose and said,

"Thanks."

"For what?" Lina asked, confused. But then a light flashed from the roses, and Lina was suddenly downtown. It was all dark; all she could see was a silhouette against the moon of something with its head turned up, and its arms out. It had something flying out behind it, frozen in place. Lina looked down and saw the same stone platform from the garden. On it she saw (you guessed it!) a pair of feet strewn with Angela Lansbury (let's say A. L.) roses.

Lina reached out to the thing and felt something in the middle of it. Then another light flashed, this time from the thing. Lina gasped, shut her eyes, and felt a hand grab hers. She squeezed her eyes open and saw, through the blinding light and her own hair being blown in her face, the blonde from the garden. A huge wind was blowing, so Merlina had to shout,

"WHAT DID YOU THANK ME FOR?"

"THE FLOWERS!" the girl answered her.

"I NEVER GAVE YOU ANY FLOWERS!" Now Lina was really confused.

"I HAVE TO GO!" said the girl, "I PROMISE MY NEXT VISIT WILL BE LONGER! THANKS AGAIN!"

Then she let go of Lina's hand and started to run off.

"WAIT!" Merlina yelled, "WHO ARE YOU?" The girl turned her head, then disappeared with another flash of light. The ground began to shake and convulse under Merlina's feet, making her sway back and forth for a minute. Getting really scared, Lina shut her eyes again and shouted,
"I AM THE MASTER OF MY SLEEPING REFUGE!(4) TAKE ME TO MY PURPLE SKY!(5)", after which the scene was immediately transformed into a rolling green valley with a willow tree, a deep yet calm swimming stream, complete with a waterfall, a full bright-beyond-belief moon, stars, and her purple sky with pink and blue and light purple candy clouds(6). She was now in her Meditative Realm.

After she sat on a hill and calmed down, she picked a red daisy from the grass, tied a hair from her head around it (7), and dipped the flower head into the stream.

"Okay," she said before she touched the flower to her forehead, "It's time to wake up."

I hope y'all liked that! Now it's Reference time!
1. Angela Lansbury starred in the old show "Murder, She Wrote."
2. Merlina's French exclamation "PORQUOI?!" is a reference to Spongebob, the episode "Missing Identity," when Spongebob discovers his nametag is missing, and he freaks out and yells "porquoi?!"
3, 4, 5, & 6. All these are references to "Imaginary" by Evanescence.
7. The flower thing is a reference to "Jackie Chan Adventures" with the sheep talisman, when Jade picks a flower and wraps one of her own hairs around it to vanquish some villain, according to Uncle's directions.

Aren't references fun? Do I keep you in suspense?