Edited w/ XXXXXXXXXX

Wow I'm updating again! It must be that Christmas break thing, I have a ton of time on my hands.. well w/e here you go! Just to let you know, Halmark DOES work! It always has something or another that I buy for my family, when I have absolutely no ideas. I'm not getting paid to say this either!

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. I own: Poacher, Elken, their mysterious master in heaven, Foxfire, and Silver. I don't own Halmark either.

Chapter Thirteen: Twelve Days Until Christmas

Almost two weeks had gone by since Poacher had delivered his message. The Titans were trying to play it cool, and with the coming Christmas, in twelve days, there wasn't much time to think about anything else. It was noon, on December 13. After today and eleven more, it would be Christmas Eve night. And Robin was out shopping.

"What should I get Starfire?" He asked himself again. It had to be something expensive, but heartfelt. Hard to do these days. When asked what she wanted, she just replied, "Whatever you may think is the best gift for me for this coming birthday of Jesus the Christ." Not much to go on.

Silver wasn't any help either. "So... What are you gonna get Starfire?" he asked Robin. Trust me, theese two teenage boys shopping together.... not good.

"I dunno what are you going to get her?" Robin asked.

"I don't know I was asking you lover boy, I thought you'd know."

"Well I obviously don't know, hold on a sec I'm trying to figure it out..." And he went back to looking at cooking supplies.

"Riiiight..." Silver said, taking a step back. "I'm just gonna go find Raven something, in Halmark."

"That's it!" Robin cried.

"That's what?" Silver asked.

"Halmark!" Robin cried, "You can always find stuff there!"

"Yeah... that's kinda why I go there all the time." He sighed. "Let's go.." They left the cooking supplies store and headed across the packed hallways of the mall to Halmark. Then they split up and started looking. Robin continued looking for the perfect thing for Starfire. At this rate, no one else would get any presents.

"Hey Robin," Silver said, about fifteen minutes after they had entered the store.

"Find something?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, for Raven."

"What'd you get for Fox?"

"Good question. Ok so anyway.." Silver continued, "I got Raven this nifty reindeer shaped box of chocolates and this card. And this gift certificate to a book store."

"Do they sell those in Halmark?" Robin asked confused.

"No." Robin waited for an explanation. "I am very fast. ANYWAY, I also got her this scented candle. I'm not sure what it is, but it smells good."

"That's it!" Robin cried.

"That's what?" Silver said, sighing again.

"Scented candles!" Robin said as if it was the greatest thing in the world.

"As opposed to.... unscented candles?" Silver asked.

"No! Don't you see?" Silver raised an eyebrow. "I'll buy her candles!" Silver almost fell over.

"Ok so," Silver began, "You spend about an hour looking for this really perfect gift for Starfire and then you come up with a whole bunch of candles?" Robin gave Silver a look that said 'What's wrong with candles?'. Silver was about to say something else, to try to explain it to him, but he held it in and just said, "Whatever..."

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Three hours later, the two boys had bought everything they needed. Except Silver still didn't have anything for Foxfire. "How about scented candles?" Robin suggested.

"Robin."

"Yeah?"

"Get off the candles." Robin just shook his head. Silver entered a store selling stuffed animals, and there it was. A giant stuffed red fox. It was at least three feet long. "That's it!" Silver cried.

"Oh yeah, the fox," Robin agreed. "Oh no!"

"What is it?" Silver asked.

"I should have bought Starfire a stuffed animal!" Robin cried.

"Oh my god..." Silver muttered under his breath. "We're in a store full of 'em. Pick one." Silver went to pay for the fox, which was about 25 dollars, and Robin picked out a soft teddy bear. And so finally, after about four and a half hours of shopping, the boys were done.

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One would think that Beast Boy would be the kind of person that wouldn't get presents for you until, oh I dunno, Christmas, maybe a day or so later. But no. Beast Boy was a Christmas fanatic. He had long ago purchased his gifts, and he just finished putting the finishing touches on wrapping Cyborg's gift, a video game that wasn't out yet that Beast Boy had pre-ordered. Terra sat on his messy bed, in between wrapping paper and tape. Finally Beast Boy was done, and he set the final present in with all the others.

"What do you think?" He asked Terra, extending his arm towards his presents.

"They're great," the girl said, hopping off the bed. "But.. I still want to know what this is.." she said frowning, picking up the small box that was for her.

"Oh that... heh.." Beast Boy quickly snatched the small box away, recovering his cool. "It's a surprise!" He said smiling brightly. Terra shook her head, smiling.

"Whatever you say."

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"AHHHH!" With a cry Starfire let loose a charged starbolt at Foxfire. Fox held out a hand, saying softly, "Firon, Zeerra, Klarran!" From her hand, held out like a stop sign, came a bright fireball. The energies met, and negated each other in a flash. "Good Starfire," Foxfire said, her eyes glowing orange. "But.. not as good as me!" she cried, and in a flash of light, she was in her demon form again, fox ears, tail, paws, nose and all. Starfire couldn't help but giggle. Fox's demon form wasn't all that scary looking. It was actually kinda cute.

Fox just groaned, used to this reaction. But her demon form did pack a powerful punch. "Hey Star," she said.

"Yes?" the alien girl asked, eager to resume their scrimage.

"You know Silver's been teaching me some techniques."

"Really?" Starfire asked, preparing another powerful blast.

"Yeah... mind if I try out Shiroken? Not that it'll acutally work...."

Starfire nodded, and landed back on the tower's roof. "I am ready," she said, creating a shield of energy, for Foxfire to break. Fox focused like Silver had taught her. But the chilling December wind was even getting to her. She was actually wearing jeans, and a t-shirt. She looked inside of her for pure energy. She caught a glimpse of it and reached to it, holding on. And ever so slowly, electric blue energy began prickling around her right hand. Then she tried to intensify it. When the girl could hold no more energy, she lunged forward, crying, "Shiroken!" Her fist met Star's weak shield, and made a small crack, but nothing more. Then Fox collapsed, completely exhausted from her attempt at the legendary attack.

"I can't do it Star..." Fox said through gasps for air.

"I applaud you for trying," Starfire said sincerely, clapping softly.

"Thanks.." Fox got to her feet and went back into the tower.

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"You can't beat me!" Cyborg cried triumphantly, after defeating Terra in a fighting video game.

"I want a rematch!" She cried.

"I'll take you any time, anywhere!" Cyborg said, enunciating when he said the words 'any time' and 'anywhere'.

"Yeah but it's my turn Terra," Beast Boy said, reaching for the controller. Terra snatched it back, giving Beast Boy a sad face. "But.. but..."

"No... don't do the look... fine you can play..." Beast Boy said. The look got him every time.

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Silver walked up to his room through the halls of Titan's Tower. Suddenly he heard a voice hiss, "Silver...." Suddenly he was completely alert. He dropped his shopping bags, and gathered energy to his hands. He knew that voice. "Where are you, Poacher?" He called out.

"Silver..." Poacher hissed again. Silver used his wolf hearing to follow the sound, and it led him to the roof. A fun fighting spot.. Silver thought, jumping through the door in the ceiling. But Poacher was nowhere to be found. All Silver could see was twelve three foot high black cloaks. They appeared to be empty, but they hovered about the ground. Then Silver saw their eyes. Twelve pairs of black eyes, glowing under their hoods. And around each one, for about a three foot radius, eveything was black, and dead. The concrete of the tower already had twelve cracking spots on it, and about three dead birds lay in between the twelve monsters.

"Who are you?" Silver asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

"We are the twelve wraiths of heaven. We serve our master in heaven, and he is dying. We are here for his revenge!" Suddenly the pattern possibility hit him. Christmas, day the savior was born. The master must die on Christmas. He has twelve warrior groups, and he can only send them out before Christmas. There were twelve days left. That meant today Silver got to face these twelve wraiths. Oh joy.

"Wraiths of heaven?" Silver asked, "Doesn't sound too intimidating to me."

All twelve wraiths chuckled softly. "Oh, you'll find we can be very intimidating," and all twelve sprang into action at once, surrounding Silver, flying in a circle faster and faster, each second drawing closer to the boy. Silver had no idea how to fight these things. He would have to be creative. He jumped out of the circle at the last second, when all the wraiths suddenly drew short daggers, and they were all thrust into the spot that he was standing just a second ago.

Silver landed, and quickly turned around, throwing a test blast of magic. He had a feeling he shouldn't touch the ghosts, judging by the death that surrounded each one. In fact, when they got within each other's range of death, they each seemed to be a bit deader.

The energy hit the nearest wraith, then seemed to evaporate. "What?" it asked, "Did I just get hit by some mortal magic?" The rest laughed. Silver was not so amused.

"Think mortals are weak, huh?" he asked. "WHAT ABOUT DEMONS?!?" Once again Silver was in full demon form. The wraiths didn't say anything, they only held their daggers out defensively. A good sign, Silver hoped. Then Silver reached out, as if he was grabbing something from thin air. And he was. In his hand there was suddenly his sword. He raised it, then brought it down in defense position, silver fire surrounding it. It looked like a sword of pure energy.

All of the wraiths daggers turned out to be the same. In an instant, they were twelve daggers glowing with bright violet fire. So it would be swordplay. Perfect... Silver acted as if he was leaping forward, and as he had counted on, the wraiths reacted immediately. He used their movement and surprise to his advantage, and instead of lunging to the right as it had looked like he would, he practically teleported, he went so fast, to behind the wraiths, and then lunged forward, slicing at one of the beasts. It spun around just in time, and blocked the blow, but its dagger was smashed into pieces in the process. Without waisting a second, Silver used the momentum from his last stroke to swing into another, driving the sword into the wraith. It screamed, and it was all Silver could do not to cover his ears. Then it melted into a black pile of deadly blood.

The wraiths were completely shocked that one of them had fallen. They were also enraged. Silver quickly jumped back as one lunged forward, missing him by inches. Silver normally would have taken that as a chance to slice forward, seeing as how the wraith just completed a powerful vertical stroke, and its back was facing Silver, but..... there were ten more leaping at him.

Soon it was just, slice slice, parry, slice slice, parry. The eleven little beasts had Silver surrounded, and were closing in on him. Silver was trying to continue blocking their hits, and not get hurt by their strange auras. He had to find a weak point in their team attacks.. Those five lunge, the star points of the circle, leaving a six pointed star, as soon as I block those hits, the six lunge in... if I try to roll under thier attacks, then the four the two on the outer circle that I'm closest to attack me... If I jump then the outside wraiths jump as well, stabbing at me all at once, and the ones that just attacked underneath quickly go outside to form the circle again... Silver was trying to find a weakness. Then he got an idea.

He waited until the never tiring outside six attacked him. He jumped straight up, and the six attacks missed. Then, as before, the outside five lunged up, and the six below re-formed the circle. Just as Silver hoped. He spun around in midair, knocking one of the five away. Then he threw himself through the gap, and for wraiths his each other in midair. He landed outside the circle of six, and quickly made two swift vertical strokes, destroying two more wraiths. That, the one killed before, and the one knocked out of midair made a total of eight wraiths left. But the beasts never tired, and Silver did, even in his demon form. His muscles ached from all the blocking, but he couldn't let his guard down.

He continud his assault before the eight could regroup. The four left of the circle that hand't stunned themselves by running into each other in midair lunged forward. Silver used the momentum from his last upward stroke to spin himself around, shattering the four wraith's weapons. They didn't seem to mind. The four that had hurt themselves landed, and unexpectedly threw their daggers. The daggers flew straight at the demon. Silver had no time to react, they would hit him at any second...

Suddenly four electric discs flew through the air, intercepting the daggers with small explosions. "Need a little help?" Robin asked. Silver couldn't be happier to see him. Although the demon was extremely powerful, pure energy didn't seem to work on these creatures. Now the eight wraiths had two fighters to deal with.

They resumed their attack pattern, four surrounding robin and four surrounding Silver. The four without weapons were around Robin, and prepared to throw small black energy balls. But Robin threw four boomerangs before his wraiths even attacked. It didn't have much of an effect, but Silver saw his chance, and quickly cut through the four, destroying them. Then the two titans quickly finished up the rest, but were completely exhausted when they were done.

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The titans sat in the main room. Robin and Silver had just finished telling what had happened. "If they're gonna send that kind of thing after you till Chirstmas, it's gonna be a long twelve days." Cyborg said.

"Yes," Silver agreed, "Yes it is."

RAVEN'S WOLF

There you go! I hope everybody liked it! Thanks so much for all of your reviews.