Teen Titans – Side Stories and After – Snippets; Foxes Upon Foxes and Magical Girls Galore

/

A First Snow – Sealed With a Kiss – Part Four: Battle of the Snowflakes – Candy Cane Kisses are Forever, Right?

/

(Puppies are forever as in Sia's title. Had to make it thematically correct!)

Awakening to dust that dazzled her eyelids to slumber on, our Dear Jacklyn Stone had up and –

"Who!" Jax stood up and panted. A voice? Where was she?? Why was –

She looked out in front of her and squinted through the foggy…

Jacklyn gawked. No. Nonononon!!

She banged on the Glass, seeing that she was up on a shelf within it; a glass orb of….snowy proportions. She shivered and saw her breath, only in her sweater and leggings from….

"Shooot!!! Ami!! Ami- where the heck are you!!??" She paced round the world and not a soul answered her back. She was trapped. Trapped in a fish bowl with no way out! "That stupid owner of the shop was a dang witch!" She grumbled and pulled her sweater collar up by her ears to keep from freezing.

She walked over and across heavy snowdrifts, her feet made of ice and stone as Jacklyn –

"Hey!" Jackie turned to look above her. As it would have been odd to see a squirrel in a tree, she saw instead a red one bobbing about in confusion with a monocle and a dark brown bowler hat on.

"Are you a flying squirrel or something?" She cocked her head at the critter as it came to meet her from its ledge on a snow capped tree branch. ~ The world started to form around her as Jacklyn was to discover that this place had a role of its own to play on her quest… ~

"What are you sayin?" Jackie snorted at the squirrel with her hands to her hips. "What quest? I'm trapped in a dang winter wonderland! You don't get it?? How –

~ I speak to help you, oh questing girl and her heart madly willing to burst from this frost. Come on this trip; for your wish is to reclaim the heart of another, is it not?? ~ He asked in turn. Nearly rhyming her to death.

"I…wanna take my friend back home. We don't belong here…" Jackie rubbed her arms, chilled to the bone without someone to share in her discontentment.

~ Then I shall be the guide you need to find the Nutcracker Prince and to free the Snowflake maiden from the clutches of the Rat king! ~ The talking, narrating squirrel seemed to take those words as a go ahead as branches of strong pine and rocks tumbled into view – almost as instantaneously as a pop – up children's story book. No, Jax had to follow, no matter how cracked up this dream was. She'd get her money back later. The witch…. was she more like a fairy to do all of that??

/

They'd found the pieces and Raven with Malchior had come in time to keep the globe whole. Ami and Jackie were inside, so it would take a spell to pull them out that Raven wasn't willing to risk all on her own.

"Your child had acquired a magical snow globe." Mal rubbed his chin as Raven finished with their interrogation. Cy was gulping in Raven's presence. She was not happy.

"Where did she get it? Was it broken by –

"I…did that. She left it around and I got curious…" Julian raised a hand voluntarily. "Sorry, Aunt Rachel."

"It doesn't matter." Raven shook her head. Mal took over in her place a moment. "What matters now is how we all undo the curse that's spirited the children inside of that trinket. There has to be a way to trace its origin."

"That will take too long, Malchior." Dick shook his head in disagreement with the idea. "Ami is a sun child for life. If she's not able to understand what's going on…will Jackie be there to help out? I mean, they were always there for each other…"

"Then things got awkward…" Julian ducked his head from his mama's stare. "She's growing up, she got a girlfriend cause those two were always thick as thieves. Kor? I even said Jackie and I are comin' by for Blorthog in January. We still on for that?"

Starfire blinked and nodded with a smile. "I would not miss this jubilation for much of the world!"

/

~ Yet Jacklyn Stone puzzled and puzzled she did; thinking "what can I do? I'm only a –

"A kid with a way to my life!" Snapped the annoyed fifteen-year-old. "Where are we going anyway? You said I'd find Ami and the road is…"

~ She took another peek over the hills and far, far away –

"Do you have an off switch?"

~ Sighed Jacklyn, getting lax as the beast of burden pushed all of her buttons at once. ~

Jackie kept walking. "Whatever. So, where is the Nutcracker prince or…"

~ Across that valley of treachery and woe, piled high to the sky was mounds of… ~ The squirrel gulped as

Jackie yelled loudly enough to trigger an avalanche.

" Holy Deathstroke on a scouting expedition on Mount Everest, Batman!"

/

That had done it.

~ Back in the house of one mercenary on retreat, he was in for quite a wake up call, indeed. ~

"Will, my temperature is fine."

"Could be the new virus making its mark." Shrugged Wintergreen as he rolled his eyes upon leaving the room, again. Slade was still convinced that some ugly hag had gotten wise to throw a "magical" curse in his face right before the holidays. "I told Joe and Rose I'd be mobile by this week." Slade grunted and checked over his other more accurate thermometers. "All nothing. And the test for the new virus would have come up on this one –

"Slade." William dragged his hand into this and swiped up his friend's tools as if he were being punished by the nursemaid.

"You'll rest, recuperate in time to see your children for the holidays AND I will personally kill the one if they are real myself, who "gave you a cursed cold." He huffed and dropped another box of tissues into the merc's hands. "A meta like yourself should just be glad that he isn't…well…. elsewhere." Will cleared the subject and left to check on their supper. "I'll be nearby but don't call on me unless you are gushing blood everywhere – that is easy to remedy for me. Viruses, however, need to only run their course."

Slade leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms over his chest, muttering something he'd regret later under his breath. "I know a witch did this…the queen of fables, maybe?"

~ And to this he believed his words to be truly just, except…. what is to become of the rest of us? Do read on to find out! ~

/

Jackie looked up. A drawbridge in the middle of this. Great. She called to her companion who dashed on over in a jiff. ~ We must scale to the top, even at such a steep drop –

"Got it. And how do we get across it?" She assumed he'd know, but the squirrel remained deaf to her commands.

"Fine….For Ami." ~ Jacklyn waved away her troubles and scaled the outer edge. Finding that this sort of requirement was –

"Bound to go not so well?"

~ To fail, yet you had me at –f

"WAA!!" Jackie grabbed the squirrel's tail and tugged the beast to her chest as they fell into the water of a moat. A moat! ~ A cave! We must quickly then, hurry. ~

"My god you're dang, furry!"

Jackie gasped. "Stop rubbin' off on me!"

~ Jacklyn scanned the horizon above their snow drifted heads. ~

"Is that even a word?"

~ She turned as she said, "Are you listening flying squirrel, because I can't do this thing right now. I'll send you over that moat and I'll find Ami…somehow..."

/

Raven took to her potions and quickly made a decision.

"We have to try anything we can, or there won't be time to make a difference at all." She said to her comrades, both tall and both small. Aiden dragged along with their plans and did nothing to shout. "Mom? Can I try something first…" This, they'd soon figure out might be the answer to all of their troubles.

/

(So, this is to cut off a second, right after Ami and Jackie make it as an awkward power couple and when Raku ends up going to the good guys' side after Mir is defeated. Hope it all blends together just fine.)

/

~ Miss Ami's location was not far from our own. If they could beat the clock before sunset –

"I just wanna go home!!"

/

The mountain that came into view left the squirrel startled long eonugh to give Jackie some time to think. "Ok. We made it over the moat and got through the drawbridge…A tree fell. That is so anticlimactic!" She groaned and rubbed her arms to stay warm. "What's next on the map?"

The squirrel looked up at Jax curiously and paused before replying, ~ There is no such thing. A string of fate binds us to the ones we seek. For that, I made you peek over –

~ Hey! Unhand me at once! The story is not through! ~

"But you'll be if somebody doesn't get their due. You gotta be joking!"

The squirrel kicked its hind legs for Jackie to let go. His tail was next as she snatched it between longer fingers than his own. "I won't go on a quest and not have a road map to where I gotta go to save my girl –

She blushed and curled into the sweater as a shy tortoise. The squirrel downed its fur and shook its head, fixing its hat with a pat down. ~ You have a long way to go, and the journey's only just begun. ~

"Too bad for you I'm not gonna BE the one who laughs last, little guy."

/

Without a rhyme, we revert to chatter that could melt fjords twice as quickly and could splinter an ice giant's second sight.

Well, if they could see straight.

Inside of the wintery void of another, one Raven Winged Princess, Anya or Ava Marie Wolfsmund; child to Reia Wolfsmund of the last to their clan, she had heard the sound of clattering hooved feet from the great halls of her frozen keep.

She dashed at a warrior's pace to see what it was, only to have her ally May – Bell of the fae folk point into a portal. Tellervo of the bear clan spoke right beside the blue fairy.

/

~ There has been a disturbance. A magical presence has made waves and the folk are worried for their safety. The hills shudder at such a sight. ~ Tellervo bundled into her furs and tried not to look away. ~ Princess Ava, have you sought the great council of –

~I have not. ~ Ava shook her short-bobbed head of hair as she was too mesmerized by the presence; family that she could not reveal to the council so willingly. They'd been too harsh before to her world, to its people. Reia would have done otherwise, she imagined. Yet Ava was a new sort of princess that didn't run, she made sure as many lives as possible survived. No surrender, just as she'd been taught by her late teacher.

~ You cannot allow this to pass. ~ Tellervo reprimanded the princess. ~ As goddess to the later Swedish north, I do not allow these trespassers such a sentence. We do what can be done, whenever possible to make clear our position. ~ She stamped her staff to the ground, expecting Ava to pick up the message just as clear as mud.

~ I intend to see if these characters need our assistance. ~ Ava clarified for the goddess and fae to speak amongst themselves. She took to her broadest sword and left the room, heels clacking restlessly against the frozen stonework.

~ Stay here and manage the guard to the first gate. I shall lead my expedition. I know what must be done. ~

Her words left both fae and relic scattered about all over the throne room's floor. She had a plan, but what of the kingdom??

/

The icy path to the snow giants' land was no way to heaven and back; Ava knew, yet she trekked upon the mountain with her feet unfazed by the climate. This was her home. The winter world preserved her youth and vitality. She was an immortal, so this was just to the princess as two of her royal aides, Clyde and Ruben walked towards the top and covered their faces from one storm, fast approaching.

~ We can't go up to high, your highness! ~ Clyde tried to exclaim to his fellow ally.

~ We can't turn back, now! ~ Rebuked Ruben. Ava nodded and continued to climb.

/

Not going to rush this, hands up if you want to go into an omake here intermission - read on for the thrilling conclusion!

/