The observatory was a huge building of gun-metal grey which sat on a hill overlooking Jump City. Below, the flitting lights of cars and the twinkling of fairy lights outside people's houses looked calm, peaceful; a town sleeping and waiting for Christmas to come.

Like the electronics shop, there were no signs of a break in at the observatory. Nonetheless, the Titans sneaked inside, peering into every room, eyes peeled for anything suspicious or out of place. Eventually, they made their way to the top room; a large dome with a slot in the ceiling which could open up and allow the huge telescope in the centre access to the stars above.

Finally, they found something. A white canvas screen dangled from the ceiling opposite a portable projector. There was a remote on the ground in front of it with only one button.

Raven used her magic to lift it up. When nothing happened, she brought it to the group and let it drop into her hand.

"So, any takers to press the suspicious red button?" she drawled, holding it out.

Beast Boy practically leapt at the opportunity and snatched the remote from her hand. "I'll do it, I'll do it!"

"Your funeral," she muttered, stepping back as Beast Boy jabbed the button.

At first nothing happened. Then the projector whirred, blinking red and green. A dot appeared on the white canvas, which grew until the entire screen was covered.

Dr. Light appeared on the screen, twiddling his moustache and smirking. "If it isn't the Teen Titans! Meddling where they're not wanted!"

"If he didn't want us to meddle then why'd he leave this for us?" Cyborg asked, but was shushed by Robin.

Dr. Light continued. "As you're here, and therefore can't spoil my Christmas plans this evening, I'll tell you all the fun you're missing out on! But first, take a look outside…"

The observatory ceiling slid open, throwing a wintry breeze into the room. Led by Robin, the Titans strode to the edge and peered down at the city below. Behind them, the recording of Dr. Light carried on.

"Jump City. Beautiful, no? Lit by all those lovely golden lights. Look closer. At the eastern side…"

Narrowing his eyes, Robin adjusted his gaze to the right-hand side of the city, where he knew the hospital was located. Suddenly, a few lights flickered and dimmed.

"Keep watching," said Dr. Light. "It gets better!"

More lights flickered off. Then, in the centre of the dark patch, a ring of gold appeared. Faint at first, but growing brighter with every second.

"Some festive lights for the city!" Dr. Light laughed. "My Christmas gift to the Jump residents. Do you like them?"

Starfire pursed her lips. "It is… quite pretty."

"What's his plan?" Robin muttered, eyebrows drawing together beneath his mask.

"What's my plan, I hear you ask?" said Dr. Light. "Nothing devious, my dear Titans! Only, there was one small issue with my present. You see, in order to power such a glorious ring of light, I need to draw electricity from the city itself."

"Robin," said Raven in a low, warning tone. "The hospital."

Robin grit his teeth. "Titans, we have to go turn off that ring before it sucks the power from the entire east side!"

"Ah ah ah…" They could practically hear the smirk in Dr. Light's voice. "That's not the best bit… Look again!"

The Titans looked again. Now the entire city was flickering, dimming. And out of the new darkness, four more rings appeared.

Beast Boy blanched. "Dude!"

"We need to split up." Robin looked at each Titan in turn. "Cyborg, take the east side. I get the feeling he's draining the emergency power at the hospital too. Star, go to the north. That's where the police station is – the last thing we need is those other crooks escaping again. Raven, the west. Beast Boy, the south. I'll take the middle. Call in when you've finished. Hospital is first priority, then the station. Titans, GO!"

The five leapt out through the slot in the ceiling. Starfire – holding Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy – in falcon-form – took to the skies whilst Robin sprinted to the car.

The drive was quick and dangerous as the roads gradually became icy under the cold night. Robin barely looked at the road signs as he went, instead heading towards where the streets were darkest. After a few over-shot corners, he stopped next a row of street lamps which expelling a large amount of yellow light into the air. Surely this was part of the ring? But how to stop it?

The first thing Cyborg did when Starfire dropped him outside the hospital was head to cellar to find the emergency generator. A group of technicians were already down there, scratching their heads with panicked whispers.

One of them spotted Cyborg and perked up slightly. "Have you come to help?"

"Yeah. Is the generator working?"

"It is," said another technician, inviting him to take a look. "But the power isn't going to the hospital. Someone's draining it."

"I was afraid of that," Cyborg muttered, inspecting the machinery for signs of tampering. "Have you found the leak?"

"Not yet."

It took a lot of prodding and poking to find the leak. Eventually, Cyborg spotted a wire that didn't belong next to the wall which snaked away under the floor and presumably to the ring of light.

Already, the ceiling light was dimming as the hospital power usage put too much strain on the generator. Praying this wouldn't backfire, Cyborg took the wire and yanked it out of the machine. For a second, the room went black. Then the lights flickered back on.

"Thank you, Cyborg," said one of the technicians. "Will you be able to get the main power back on?"

Cyborg pressed his lips into a grim line. "I'll try."

The police office was in turmoil when Starfire touched down. It was dark inside, and officers were running around with their phone torches on, despairing over their dead computers. Sgt. Miller was there, tinkering with a fuse box in the office.

"What's happening now?" he asked upon spotting the superhero. "The power's gone."

"Dr. Light," she replied solemnly. "He is draining the city of electricity. Are the cells still secure?"

"The cells?"

"Yes." Starfire glanced around the office, but the commotion seemed mostly caused by the fact the computers had shut down without saving their work. "We do not wish for Billy Numerous and the other criminals to escape."

Miller laughed and shook his head. "No, don't worry about that. The cells aren't locked with electricity. Go help the city. We'll hold the fort down here."

Starfire nodded and climbed back out the window she had entered through then leapt into the night. A golden ring blazed before her, growing brighter and brighter. Up close she could see that the lights were made up of street lamps and buildings, illuminating the flakes of snow lazily floating down.

Starfire came to a stop above the ring and frowned, eyes moving from bulb to bulb, trying to see how to go about stopping it. As she hovered, her communicator beeped – a message from one of her teammates.

You guys worked out how to switch it off?

Beast Boy fired off the text message to the rest of his team then went back to staring, forlorn, at the ring of street lamps before him.

"Ugh, why'd he have to make five?" he complained, prodding one of the street lamps. "Cy would know what to do…" Beast Boy glanced at his communicator; no new messages. He groaned melodramatically and resisted the urge to slam his head against the pole.

After a quick circuit of the light-ring, Raven landed on the roof of one of the lit buildings and read the message Beast Boy had sent them all. It seemed it wasn't just her who was having issues working out how to fix the problem.

There had to be a contraption of some sort that was redirecting energy from the city and into those specific rings. And they had to be independent of each other as Dr. Light had managed to switch the eastern one on before the others. Raven glanced around the circle before her eyes settled in the centre. A normal enough road ran through the middle, but, upon closer inspection, a sewer drain was slightly askew.

It was the closest thing she had to a lead. So, holding her breath, Raven pushed aside the metal cover and peered into the tunnel below. Fortunately the ring of light was bright enough to illuminate some of the sewer, and it didn't take long for Raven to spot something that didn't belong.

A small, black box with blinking red lights attached to the sewer wall. Several thick wires appeared to be growing out of the box like octopus tentacles.

"Bingo," she muttered, carefully climbing into the hole. Perching on the ladder built into one wall, Raven stared at the box as she deliberated how best to turn it off. Should she carefully dismantle each wire one by one? Pry off one of the sides and fiddle with the mechanics inside?

Raven opted for choice c. She braced herself against the ladder and smashed her foot into the centre of the box. It crumpled under her heel then fell away from the wall and into the sewage below with a plop.

Immediately, the lights above went out.

Raven clambered back out of the sewer and replaced the cover just as the street lamps flickered on again, softer this time. Smirking, she pulled out her communicator.

Beast Boy picked up straight away, shortly followed by Robin, Starfire and Cyborg.

"There's a black box in the centre," she said bluntly. "Mine was in a sewer. You need to destroy it."

"Thanks, Rae!" Beast Boy cheered. "Smashing things is what I'm best at!" He was replaced with a green gorilla, hammering its chest with one fist.

"Well, you're certainly better at that than at baking gingerbread," Cyborg said. The gorilla glared.

"Let's not lose focus," said Robin who, judging by the movement of his screen, was running. "The sooner we finish the job, the sooner we can wrap this up and go home. We'll meet by the T-Car, by the pizza parlour. How did you destroy the box? Did you disconnect the wires?" He turned his communicator around to show another black box also under a sewer cover.

"There'll be a fuse inside you need to carefully-" Cyborg began but Raven cut him off.

"I just kicked it," she said and hung up.

It was a quick job after that. After delivering a short, sharp jab with his staff, Robin tore the box off the sewer wall and jogged back to the T-car. Raven was already there, arms folded. The moment Robin unlocked the car she slid inside and slammed the door behind her. Robin paid her no heed and set about phoning the police and filling them in on the situation.

Starfire was next to return, smiling brightly. "Thank you for your assistance, Raven," she said as she also climbed into the car. "I was having the troubles."

Raven managed the tiniest of smiles then went back to staring blankly out the window.

Beast Boy rolled in next, clambering awkwardly over Raven to get to his seat in the middle. "Dudes, I am spent. Please tell me we can go home now..."

"Not likely," Raven replied, glaring at the side of his face.

Beast Boy deflated. "Aw…"

Cyborg arrived a short while later.

"What took you so long?" Robin asked his teammate as he lumbered over. "Didn't you get Raven's message?"

"Oh, I got it," Cyborg replied sourly. "She kicked it. Kicked it! Do you know what could have happened?"

"It worked, didn't it!" Beast Boy yelled from the car. He was ignored.

"I decided to do it properly," Cyborg continued. "I dismantled it by hand." He held up the black box, still in perfect condition. "Sometimes that takes time."

Robin took the box and stacked it on top of his battered one. "Good work. We'll hand these to the police so they can get some electricians out to sort out the rest of the wiring. Speaking of…"

Flashing blue lights bouncing off the corner of the pizza place alerted them to the arrival of the police. Only one car this time.

An older officer with a thick, grey moustache and wispy hair emerged, rubbing his eyes. "Evening, Titans," he grunted. "Did you catch Dr. Light?"

Robin scowled and shook his head. "No. We don't know where he is. We could do a patrol to look for him-" Cyborg's face fell in horror- "but we don't have any evidence that he's anywhere nearby."

The officer nodded, glancing at his watch. "Ouch. It's getting late. I was meant to go off an hour ago but with all this sudden paperwork…" He shook his head and sighed. "I wouldn't mind so much if it was any other day. I think Miller's just about ready to throw himself out the window."

"If only there was a window to jump out of," Cyborg muttered.

Robin held up the two boxes. "These boxes were draining the city's power. There are still three more out there, in the centre of where the rings were. I've already sent the co-ordinates to Sgt. Miller."

"Yeah, he mentioned that before I left," said the officer. "I'll take those then."

"Thank you. And the electricians?"

"We'll get that taken care of, don't you kids worry."

With a kind, but tired, smile, the officer tucked the boxes under his arm and returned to his car. Robin and Cyborg slid into the front of the T-car and let out simultaneous sighs.

"Let's get back to the tower before another alarm goes off," Cyborg mumbled as he started up the ignition. The car revved beneath them and vibrated gently. They eased off the curb and onto the road.

For a while they drove in silence, watching the dark city slide past them, muscles tense as they waited for the crime alert to scream at them again. However, as the minutes ticked by and nothing happened, they gradually began to relax.

Titans Tower was in sight when Beast Boy dared to speak up. "That was a pretty weird plan Dr. Light came up with today."

"Most of hi s plans are weird," Raven pointed out. "They all revolve around light bulbs."

Beast Boy sat up a little straighter and yawned. "Yeah, but this was was especially weird. What were those light circles even for?"

"I hate to say it, but BB has a point," Cyborg said. "Usually he at least has some end goal. But this? It was like he just wanted to… distract us or something."

Robin turned slowly away from the window. "You think it was a distraction?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Maybe."

"Perhaps there is something larger at job here?" Starfire asked, looking between her teammates. "Were Billy Numerous and Gizmo and Fang distractions as well?"

Beast Boy gasped and lurched forward, his seat belt tugging painfully against his chest. "Dude! Then while we were kicking butt, someone else was probably robbing the bank, or-"

"We would have heard if someone robbed the bank, BB," Cyborg said with an eye-roll. "If someone was planning something bigger they would have done it by now, but according to the computer, nothing's happened."

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

"Nothing yet," Beast Boy said, not even trying to hide his smirk. "Maybe they need more time?"

Cyborg punched a few buttons. "The butcher's on fifth."

Beast Boy moaned from the back seat. "Aww, man!"

Robin narrowed his eyes as the car made an impromptu u-turn and sped back towards the city. "There's definitely something else going on here."

But what? D:

Chapter title is from the Christmas carol 'Oh Little Town of Bethlehem' (1865, lyrics by Phillips Brooks)