Sara Lance

League of Shadows Training
(Mentor: Nyssa al Ghul)

## Background

### 1987 - 2005: Sara Lance

Sara Lance was born on Christmas morning to Quentin & Laurel Lance in the city of Gotham. During her mother's pregnancy, the doctors discovered that her mother had throat cancer after conducting some tests on her. The cancer had been undetected until then. On top of the hospital bill of Sara's birth, they also had to pay the medical bills for the mother's cancer. Sara was mostly taken care of by her sister Dinah as her mother was in & out of the hospital while her father was doing overtime almost every night.

Sara never really noticed the problems with her family. Her sister kept her distracted a the hospital by playing dolls with her & would do her best to make sure her sister enjoyed every holiday. She was the only one who had gifts under the Christmas tree for a period of time.

At the age of seven, her father abandoned the family, most likely feeling overwhelmed & ill-equipped for taking care of them. Dinah stepped up to the plate, dropping out of school that summer & getting herself a full time job to pay her mother's bill & their rent. With Dinah busy at work, Sara became the subject of bullying. After leaving school with a black eye, she was found by her mother's friend Ted Grant. When he learned of their financial situation, he gave the girls fighting lessons for bullies & money for the bills. The family became set after Dinah got a job at the Iceberg Lounge, becoming much more financially stable.

Without much guidance, Sara became rebellious & a troublemaker. She often got her into tricky situations, subsequently putting her at odds with her sister. Sara began feeling an outsider in her own family due to no one sharing her free-spirited natures. Despite this, she was one of the first people to become aware of her sister's vigilante activities.

After Dinah began her relationship with the Star City billionaire Oliver Queen, Sara started dating many delinquents. Her mother or sister did not approve but Sara said it was beneficial as she learned how to hot-wire a car. To finally get her sister away from her bad habits, Dinah suggested that Sara become a vigilante herself & join the Titans. She refused until Oliver's sister Thea convinced her otherwise. The two became fast friends on the team.

### 2004 - 2006: White Canary

Taking after her sister, Sara chose the codename White Canary. As a freshman member of the Titans, she was not allowed to go on patrol unless accompanied by a League member so she mostly tagged along with her sister & Green Arrow. To put it simple, Sara kicked ass her first year.

Things were going well until her mother's illness worsened, leading to her death. Immediately after, Thea quit the Titans out of nowhere. Sara was left without anyone. At her lowest point, Sara needed her best friend more than ever & went out searching for her. She eventually found her, with none other than Malcolm Merlyn. Thea had discovered he was her biological father & felt disillusioned with the life she had been leaving. She told Sara she was running & that while she couldn't stop her, she could join her. In her misguided ways, Sara went along for the ride.

### 2006 - 2011: Ta-er al-Sahfer

While making the journey, the trio ran into some trouble with some of Merlyn's former associates. They were able to take them but Sara ended up badly injured. He wanted to leave her but Thea refused. Upon reaching Infinity Island, Sara was nursed back to health by none other than Nyssa al Ghul, the Daughter of the Demon. She began training with the League at Nyssa's side & became an assassin herself by swearing her allegiance to them. The two quickly became lovers. Upon completing of her training, she took on the name "Ta-er al-Sahfer," Arabic for "canary."

She remained with the League for five years, doing their bidding until Thea discovered that she had been drugged by her father with Vitura, a drug that made her highly susceptible to suggestion. Realizing the League was not what they thought it was, the two of them ran away & travelled back to the states. While on the run, Sara realized that she wanted to leave her life as an assassin behind so she could consider herself a good person.

### 2011 - Present: White Canary

Though back in the states, Sara was hesitant to return to her former life as she was sure that all her loved ones now hated her for the damage she had caused them. As Thea had gone her own way, Sara felt alone again. She began going across the country, staying where she could & targeting men who attacked women. The loneliness soon got to her & she was close to returning to Nyssa & the Shadows until she was met by Rip Hunter in Metropolis. He claimed to have "come a long way to meet her" & was determined to have her join his team after watching her for the past couple of weeks. Seeking a fresh start & some new allies, Sara agreed & joined the Legends.

In addition to her & Rip, the Legends also consisted of John Constantine, Buckeye & the Atom. Upon introducing herself, the Atom instantly recognized who she was. After confiding in both Oliver & Dinah about Sara's return, she was confronted by both of them. After berating her for all her bad decisions, Dinah ended it with a hug as she was more happy than anything that her sister had returned home. Sara broke the news that she was not returning home & that she was staying with the Legends.

In time, Sara became a crucial member of the Legends & the second in command after Rip. Though she still helped Team Arrow on occasion, she stated that it did not feel as though she was part of the team & that the Legends were her true family. She also found a bit more during this time: a child.

## Romantic Relationships

* Nyssa al Ghul: Lover (2006 - 2011)
* John Constantine: Fling (2012)
* Alex Danvers: One Night Stand (2013)

## Powers & Abilities

* **Above Average Human Condition:** As a former assassin, Sara is in better human condition than an Olympic athlete. Despite her small frame, she is strong enough to easily break someone's neck & lift her own body weight while using the salmon ladder. She has also demonstrated excellent reflexes, being able to catch an arrow from the air on multiple occasions & dodge attacks from several types of weapons such as bullets, lasers & flamethrowers.
	+ ***Acrobatics*:** Sara regularly includes acrobatics in her fighting style. She is capable of scaling buildings, running from rooftop to rooftop with ease & has been known to use a scarf to quickly descend from ceilings.
	+ ***Hand to Hand Combat/Martial Arts*:** Sara is an exceptional combatant due to her experience with the League of Assassins, having gone through all the training that members of the League do. She has demonstrated the ability to defeat multiple enemies both armed and unarmed, take down a Russian mobster twice her size & outclass the highly trained Helena Bertinelli. After being trained by the League, Sara's skills have greatly increased. Her fighting style consists of wing chun, jeet kune do, muay thai, sambo, krav maga, karate, boxing & tae kwon do.
	+ ***Pain Tolerance*:** Like most members of the League, Sara has an incredible tolerance to pain. When Oliver was stitching a wound on her back, she didn't even flinch. Damien even acknowledged that torture (while fun) would prove fruitless on her.
	+ ***Stealth*:** Sara is highly capable of entering and leaving buildings without being seen, regardless of their security. She is also able to conceal her weapons easily on her person, such as knives & batons.
* **Weaponry:** As an experienced ex-League member, Sara is masterful in a variety of weapons. She is also skilled with identifying & using improvised weapons, such as part of a ceiling frame, an incense burner & a flute to name a few.
	+ ***Archery*:** While rarely demonstrated, Sara is a proficient archer, as seen when she used Oliver's compound bow to shoot an arrow into the shoulder of a goon.
	+ ***Marksmanship*:** Sara is accomplished in the use of firearms, ranging from handguns to sniper rifles. Sara has also demonstrated proficient use of a crossbow.
	+ ***Stick Fighting*:** Sara's weapon of choice is a pair of extendable batons that combine to form into a bo-staff. She has demonstrated great skill in both stick-fighting & bo-staff fighting. Using her staff, Sara has defeated multiple armed enemies in quick succession & has competed against other very skilled combatants such as Damien Darhk & her brother in law Oliver.
	+ ***Swordsmanship*:** Sara was trained in the use of swords during her time with the League. Sara is able to wield two swords at once in battle & defeat a squadron of assassin.
	+ ***Knife Throwing*:** Sara is very skilled at using knives in combat, as she used a small knife to disarm & easily defeat a trained swordsman. She is also an excellent knife thrower, as she was able to throw a knife straight into an armed woman's chest from across the room before the latter could fire at her. Sara has also demonstrated the ability to throw several knives in quick succession.
* **High Level Intellect**
	+ ***Driving*:** Sara is highly trained driving multiple vehicles, such as cars and motorcycles.
	+ ***Interrogation/Torture*:** During her time with the League, Sara learned how to extract information out of her targets in many ways, including torture. She was taught how to kill a man slowly over a matter of days.
	+ ***Leadership*:** As a member of the Legends, the team often looked to Sara for guidance when Rip wasn't available. Even Rip himself acknowledged Sara was sometimes the better leader.
	+ ***Medicine*:** Sara is trained in first aid & is capable of treating injuries.
	+ ***Multilingualism*:** Sara is fluent in English, Mandarin, Arabic & Tibetan.
	+ ***Pilot*:** During her time with the Legends, she became capable of navigating & piloting the Waverider.
	+ ***Science*:** Sara is trained in forensics & chemistry.
	+ ***Tactical Analysis*:** She is a highly trained tactician.
	+ ***Thievery*:**Due to her dating experiences with juvenile delinquents, Sara knows how to hot-wire a car.
	+ ***Toxicology*:** Due to Sara's time in the League, she is familiar with various poisons, specifically Tibetan pit viper venom.

### Ratings

* **Intelligence:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Strength:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Speed:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Occult:** 2 - Impaired / Below Average
* **Weapons:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **Range:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strategy:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Combat:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **TOTAL:** 141 - Threat Level 3 / General Threat

## Trivia

* Sara was very quiet & reserved until she was old enough to understand her family's situation at hand.
* She doesn't remember much about her dad.
* Mick Rory has given her the nicknames Blondie & Boss.
* By her own admission, she prefers women over men.
* Growing up, Dinah would call her "Sar-Bear."
* Sara wanted to be a doctor growing up.
* Though they don't always get along & regularly go through times of not talking, Sara always wears a necklace her sister gifted to her.
* She loves horror movies.
* She had a one night stand with Alex Danvers.
* Her maternal grandfather Charles Drake was quite the man. He has a notorious history of metting a young lady, quickly marrying her, having a kid (maybe two), getting divorced then dropping off the radar to do it all over again. One of his other children is Jackson Drake, Tim Drake's father. Charles is also the brother of Rachel Drake, Rita Farr's mother.
* She is close friends with Thea Queen, Zari Tomaz & Nate Heywood.
* After particularly stressful missions, she smokes weed with Amon.

## Notes

* Sara Lance is an original character of the *Arrowverse.*
* Her job as a bartender at Verdant is a nod to the *Arrowverse*.