Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot and my OC.

Author's Note: This is not THE plot twist, but it is a plot twist. So pay attention! ENJOY!

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Oriole

Chapter 42: Enough is Enough

Robin

3:30 pm

Titans Tower

Interrogation Room

"Batman can't be trusted." Sara growled, her eyes showing that inner flame that Robin hadn't seen in her eyes in ages.

So, instead of argue with her, he replied, "I'm sorry you think that." Then he walked slowly to the door, waiting patiently for the-

"Wait!"

Robin hid a small grin and turned back to her, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

Sara gnawed on her bottom lip. Her hand started unconsciously rubbing her arm. "Could you…uh…" then she scoffed and said half to herself, "Can't believe I'm saying this. Could you ask Raven if she would come in here? …Please?"

Okay, first: wow! She's asking nicely! And second: why Raven? She's been insisting that Raven leave her alone. Intrigued, Robin commented, "Well I could. But Raven wouldn't want to talk to you in here if you weren't cuffed. She doesn't exactly agree with me letting you roam free in here." He was pushing it, he knew that, but something about the way she asked for Raven made her seem more…well, more her. Less…hostile.

Sara nodded and bit her lip again. Calmly, she sat back down into her chair and hesitantly placed her wrists into the manacles.

Robin opened his mouth to ask why she wanted to talk to Raven, then thought better of it and excused himself. When he closed the door behind him, the entire team was staring at Raven. Raven, however, was studying Sara, her usual mask of indifference placed carefully on her face.

Robin clicked the manacle button on the console, watching Sara jump as the metal cuffs clamped shut over her wrists. He turned to Raven. "I assume you all heard what she said?"

Everyone but Raven nodded, dumbfounded. Raven merely shrugged.

"And? Any idea why she wants to talk to you?"

"I know as much as you do, Robin." Raven replied tiredly. She stood up calmly and brushed past Robin on her way to the door.

"You sure you want to do this, Rae? I mean, she burned Robin's forehead." Cyborg pointed out.

"Yes, perhaps Oriole needs some time before she is ready to face you." Starfire agreed.

"Yeah, and she kinda hates you." Beast Boy added.

"I don't even know what "this" is yet. Maybe she just wanted to ask me something." Raven said. She turned her back on them and opened the door, whispering to Robin on her way out, "Just wait in here. If I need you, I'll say so." Before Robin could object, she shut the door in his face.

"You think this is a good idea, man?" Cyborg asked.

"If it were up to me, Sara wouldn't be cuffed. She's cool. Just…a little confused."

Beast Boy snorted and said under his breath, "A little?"

"Robin, Oriole will be okay again soon, yes?" Starfire asked.

"I don't know." Robin replied.

Meanwhile, Raven sat down in the chair opposite Sara. "You wanted to see me?"

Sara bit her lip. "Yeah…I, uh…I'm sorry if I scared you or anything like that. I just…well, I really don't have an excuse but-"

"Why did you want to see me? I thought you hated me."

"I don't. Actually, I…I need your help."

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"I know it sounds suspicious in spite of everything that's happened, but I need you to help me. I want to remember something…anything. Something that'll prove…nevermind."

"That'll prove I wasn't making up memories?"

Sara chewed on her lip again. "Well..."

"What do you want, Sara?"

"The only thing blocking me from my memories is this…cloud in my head. It's making everything I do remember distorted and only shows me half the truth."

"So what do you want me to do about it?"

"Well, I can't break through it. I'm not strong enough, not alone. I was thinking that…maybe together...?"

"You know I would see everything right?"

Sara nodded.

"But you don't trust me. Why ask me to do something that clearly requires trust?"

"Let's just say I'm desperate and leave it at that, okay?" Sara's voice suddenly hardened.

Raven didn't miss it either. "You're afraid. You're afraid of what might happen to you if you can't remember."

"How many amnesia movies have you seen that end happily? There's a reason for that. 'Cause sometimes memory is the only thing that makes you valuable to someone else. Me to you Titans, for example. You wanted information. That's why you took me."

Raven shook her head. "If you think that, you haven't been listening to Robin at all."

She just shrugged. "As of late, he hasn't seemed to be in the helping mood. In any case, memories aren't just information and faces that you've seen, people you've met. It's also personality. Someone without memory, without any prejudices, is easily manipulated. Look what happened to me. Listened to the man that took my parents from me. And experiences mold personality. Sad but true. And besides, you know how much it sucks having to ask other people who you're supposed to be. If you try acting like the person that one guy says you were, then you're screwed. So yeah, I'm scared. If you lost everything, so would you." The last bit of her speech turned her voice stony and hostile. While it was kind of harsh, it made Robin feel empathetic for her.

Raven was silent for a while. Until finally, "Then what are we waiting for? Robin, open Sara's cuffs for me please."

"What?" Sara asked, startled.

"If we're gonna do this, we need to trust each other. So I'm extending an olive branch. Robin, any time today."

Robin went over to it, but Cyborg caught his arm. "Man, this is a bad idea. She's not herself. Star's right, we gotta give Oriole some time. She's just too dangerous."

"You don't trust Raven?" Robin challenged.

"It is not Raven we do not trust. It is Oriole. And you cannot deny that we have no reason to trust her. Recently, she has become very…violent."

Robin wrenched his arm free of Cyborg's grip and punched the button. Cyborg scowled at him, but said nothing and sat back down in his chair. "Look, I get that it's hard to trust her. But she's still Oriole. She's still our friend. If it were any of you, I'd be doing the same thing."

No one said anything; though it was clear they weren't convinced. Back in the interrogation room, Raven took Sara's hands and said, "Now try to relax. It might help."

Sara laughed. "You sound like a voodoo witch doctor or something."

Raven closed her eyes, Sara following suit, and both girls concentrated. For a while, it seemed to be working: Sara's muscles relaxing, and she seemed to be at peace. But then, Raven snapped out of it, scowling, "I said relax!"

"It wasn't me! It was that thing, whatever it is."

"Not a thing. A person. Slade's still in your head. I'll help, but you have to let me in completely or this isn't going to work."

Robin hit the comm button and said, " What's going on?"

"Her memories are being blocked by Slade still. We're gonna have to fight him off. Don't bother sticking around. This'll take a while."

Sara groaned. "I hope not. Psychic battles give me a headache."

"You remember?" Raven wondered.

Sara shook her head. "Nope. Just know it's a fact. I think my head still remembers the pain."

"You sure you wanna go through with this, guys…uh, girls?"

Sara rolled her eyes at his correction. Raven just ignored it and replied, "I want to help. Sara? You still want to-?"

"I told you already. Enough is enough. I'm tired of this amnesia thing. It's annoying. Let's just get this over with."

Raven nodded. "Alright. If you're sure…"

"I'm sure. Let's do this."

The girls grasped each other's hands, determination lit in their eyes, as they entered the battlefield.

Well Raven was right about one thing: psychic battles take forever. Around 4:45, Robin reentered the interrogation room chambers. Starfire still hadn't left. She flinched every time one of the girls did. Which was often.

"Anything change yet?" Robin asked as he handed Starfire a glass of water.

"No. Nothing has changed." Starfire looked up at him. "Robin…are you sure this was a good idea?"

"No. I didn't like this idea in the first place. But if it means helping Sara-"

"If you did not like it, why did you not stop Raven from proceeding?"

"Stop Raven? You have met Raven right? You honestly think that I could've stopped her, Star? You know how she is, stubborn as a bull. Once she sets her mind to something, you can't shake her. I don't like this any more than you do; I've been in a psychic battle once. Believe me, it's not pretty. But if Raven wanted to help her, I wasn't going to stop her."

"Perhaps because it was the Oriole?"

A little irked, he replied, "No. Because she's a person. Besides, wouldn't you do the same if it meant you could be friends with Blackfire again?" When she flinched, his voice softened. Low blow, he scolded himself. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I just…" With a sigh he buried his head in his hands.

When he found out Sara was with Slade, he thought he could never trust her again. Yet, just a few days later, she proved him wrong. With a slight smile, he pointed out that proving him wrong seemed to be her purpose in life. She'd been protecting him all along. But then his smile disappeared. Because even after they escaped, he couldn't protect her from Slade…Yet again, he couldn't protect the people he cared about from that monster. And then to make matters worse, he took her again. From his team's Tower. Still, she tried to save him. To punish her, Slade erased Sara's memory. And she became the assassin that her nightmares made her out to be. The perfect weapon.

A hand on his shoulder pulled him out of his emotions. "Robin, it is I who am…sorry. If she really means that much to you, then I will try to understand-"

Suddenly Raven gasped for air, eyes snapping wide open. She scrambled out of her chair, knocking it over, tripped over one of the chair legs and fell to the ground. Robin and Starfire rushed inside.

"Raven, are you injured?"

Raven shook her head. She looked up at Sara. "Something happened. It was like her mind was rejecting me or something."

Robin walked over to her, apprehension making his skin crawl. Hesitantly, he reached out a hand to her arm. Nothing. "Sara?" Still nothing. Robin jogged back to the control room and clicked the manacle button, freeing her. He returned to Sara. Still nothing. "Sara? Sair, wake up." Robin shook her, "Sara, come on."

Her eyelids twitched. Then, slowly, her eyes opened. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, then smiled, "Hey."

"Sara…do you...?"

Oriole

7:00 pm

Titans Tower

Gym

Sara ducked a swing of Robin's bo-staff. But she forgot to jump over his leg that was extended to trip her. Ungracefully, she tumbled to the ground on her butt.

"Come on, Sara. You could've jumped over that no problem."

Sara rolled her eyes and got to her feet. Only to be tripped again. This time, however, she fell on her face. Robin pinned her arm to her back and held her against the ground.

"Sara, you're not even trying." Suddenly, Dick's hand burned. With a yelp, he leaped away. Sara giggled and tackled him to the ground. "I said no powers," he snapped.

"No, you said no powers while fighting. Getting my arm free isn't fighting." She stuck her tongue out."

"Lemme up." Dick grumbled.

"First, a question. Have you ever said that to me before?"

"What?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter! I was talking about "Sara, you're not even trying." Have you ever said that to me?"

Robin stared at her. Then finally it dawned on him. "You remember that?"

"Not exactly. But it was in a place like this right?" Sara stood up and wandered the room, her feet pacing the floor like an old friend she was trying not to injure. "And you were even angrier than you are now." She giggled. "I think I burnt you in the a…uh, butt." Another giggle.

Robin's cheeks reddened. "It wasn't funny then and it's still not funny."

She laughed. "I think it is." Sara felt his eyes on her back as she pointed out differences between the gym in Wayne Manor and the Titans' gym. "There should be a ropes course over there. And a whole arsenal of staffs over there." Things that she could almost remember. With a smile, she leaned down and petted a section of the wall near the door. "And a scorch mark from that time I…" Considering it was an awkward memory, she dropped the subject. Clearing her throat she turned to Robin. A slight smile played on his lips and he was staring at her. "What?"

He shrugged. "Nothing."

"Well what were you staring at?"

Another shrug, this time with a smile. "You. Because you finally are you again."

Sara rubbed her arm. Was she? "I don't think so. Not completely at least. I only get…fragments." Lie. Total and complete lie. But Slade was still out there. And she wasn't totally convinced that she was safe in the Tower. Titans Tower wouldn't stop Slade. It hadn't before. It would be easier for everyone if they thought she couldn't remember everything, just in case. After all, it was less progress to lose.

"That's okay, though. It's more than yesterday, right?"

She shrugged. "I suppose." With an impish grin, she spun around and kicked his chest, pinned him to the ground. "Pinned you."

"Sara, that's enough!"

Sara cleared her throat and mimicked his voice, "We're gonna treat this like an actual fight. Pretend I'm Slade if you have to." Returning to her own voice, she teased, "So by now, you'd try to weasel out of it yourse- AH!" As she distracted herself with her short monologue, Robin bucked his hips and rolled so that Sara was pinned beneath him.

"I told you that so you wouldn't talk and distract yourself like you just did. In a real fight, you would've been dead by now." Robin let her up and moved over to the bench. She followed and wiped the back of her neck with a towel.

"But then why can't I use powers? I always have them!" Sara protested.

"Not in the rain." Robin pointed out. Ugh, along with the rest of her memories, she forgot how annoying Ro could be at times. "Against Slade, in the rain, you'd be about as effective as a candle the way you're fighting now. And he stronger than you. And-"

"Okay! Enough, I get it! But how is sparring supposed to help?"

"Slade isn't as used to his powers as you. Usually, that'd be an advantage. But Slade's been trained to take on capes. He knows how to take you down and with powers he's even more dangerous. If you can at least hold him off long enough for help to arrive, you have nothing to worry about."

Sara hugged her waist. "Except mind control." Or memory wiping. Or manipulation.

"Hey," Robin's hand took hers. "It's not gonna happen, okay?" With a smirk, he added, "Leave the worrying to Bruce, he does enough of it already."

"Where is he?" She asked softly.

"Downstairs, I think. He said he'd be coming over early to use to computer. You wanna see him?"

She shook her head without hesitation. "No. Not yet." Sara laughed humorlessly. "I'm out of that room and yet I still feel imprisoned."

"You can leave if you want-"

"That's not what I meant." She sighed, turned and smiled up at Robin. "Forget it. Come on. Let's go back t-" Was that…? No, couldn't be…Could it? Sara froze and strained to hear.

"Sara?"

"Shh!"

Dick looked around with wide eyes. "What's wrong?" He whispered, though he wasn't much quieter.

"Quiet!" Sara snapped. Her pupils dilated in terror. No. No, it couldn't be. Not now. She transformed into a wolf and sniffed the air. Ugh, why did she have to be right?

Suddenly, Robin figured it out. "Slade's here, isn't he?" He flipped open his communicator…but communications were offline. "Damn it! My communicator's not working."

Sara knew what she had to do. But she still didn't like it. And Ro would hate her for it. Sara turned on him and growled.

"What did I do wrong now?" He demanded.

The hackles along her spine rose as she growled again. Dick backed away. "Sara?"

Her eyes flashed green. Dick yelped at pain in his head. "Sara, what're you-?" Another cry of pain cut him off. "What're you doing?"

Sorry, Ro. It has to be done.

Dick's knees buckled. Suddenly he was finding it hard to keep his eyes open. He glared at her. "You remember everything don't you?"

Her ears flicked in response.

"Why didn't you tell me then?"

I was scared.

"What's that supposed to-?" He groaned as she tried to knock him out with her powers. "Sara, knock it off."

Sorry, Ro. I can't let Slade take you again. He's after you this time, not me. He came here to take you and kill me.

Robin's eyes widened. "You can't just-"

I can. And I have to. I've done enough, Ro. Just let me do what I have to.

"But he'll kill you."

She shook her head. Not if he can't find you.

Robin glared at her. "Just promise me you won't kill him, okay?"

She blinked in surprise. He was gonna go along with it? Shaking her head, she replied, The only way this has a happy ending is if he dies.

"You can find another way." He moaned as he tried to resist unconsciousness. By now, darkness would be caressing the edges of his vision. "Sara, please. Promise me."

With a huff, she bowed her head in a nod. Almost immediately, Robin went limp and he was unconscious.

I'm sorry. I had no choice. Don't worry, Ro. I'll get him. And I'll try to do things your way.

Author's Note: Hooray! Oriole's back. But so is Slade, with a vengeance. He's also said Enough is Enough. So, only three – five more chapters! We're almost done!

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