Sara Lance

> *“I’ll take nightmare that's real over a dream that's a lie"* - **Sara Lance**
>
>

## Sara Lance

### Aliases

Black Canary
 White Canary
 Ta-er al-Sahfer

## People

### Relatives

Laurel Lance (sister)
 Quentin Lance (father)
 Dinah Greene (mother)

## Work

### Affiliation

League of Assassins
Team Arrow

## General Info

### Origin

Arrowverse (Franchise)
 Arrow (TV Series)

# Early Life

Sara Leslie Lance was born on December 25, 1375 to Dinah Greene and Quentin Lance in Washington, DC. She is the younger sister of Laurel Lance.

## Childhood

When she was little, Sara would play dress up with her sister. One time, she and Laurel pretended to be all grown up as a doctor and police officer, respectively. As a child, Sara had aspirations of being a doctor. The two would also race to see who could climb to the top of a tree first and Sara won every time. Years later however, she suspected that Laurel deliberately lost their races, knowing Sara was a sore loser. Laurel would call Sara "Sar-Bear" when they were young.

When Sara was 10 years old, her father bought her a pet canary which she loved, but it drove everyone else crazy. At one point, Sara visited Starling City Aquarium and got a stuffed shark, which was her favorite childhood toy. She would hold the shark close to her chest anytime something bad happened to her. Sara attended Starling City Elementary, where she once starred as Peter Pan in the school play. When it was time for her to come onstage, Sara suddenly blanked and forgot her lines so she spontaneously did a tap dance before running off in embarrassment, crying. Like her father, Sara was a fan of the Starling City Rockets growing up.
Sara has always preferred dogs over cats, since she "likes 'em dumb and loyal." She loves horror movies, having watched them a lot as a kid.

## High School

During her high school years, Sara faced bullying from a classmate, Gwen, and her posse because she was making a move on Gwen's boyfriend, who was her lab partner. The frequent occurrences of harassment created behavioral issues in Sara and caused her grades to drop, worrying her parents. When Quentin tried confronting her, Sara refused to tell him, and later Laurel, anything, determined to deal with the problem herself. However, when she returned home with a black eye, Quentin decided to teach Sara and Laurel how to defend themselves. Afterwards, the sisters worked together to fight off Gwen and her friends.

### The Trouble-Maker

As a teenager, Sara was rebellious and a troublemaker, which often got her into tricky situations, subsequently putting her at odds with her father. One such incident had Sara being arrested for shoplifting but Quentin made the charges go away. Thus, she was closer to her mother growing up due to her and Dinah's shared free-spirited natures. In her teens, Sara dated many delinquents, much to her father's chagrin, from whom she learned skills such as hot-wiring a car. Sara's dates also tried getting her drunk in hopes of coercing her into having sex. However, she proved to have an abnormally strong tolerance for alcohol and always drank the guys under the table

Sara soon developed a crush on Oliver and in 1393, she snuck out of the house to go to a party held at Tomlain's home to see him. However, Oliver was too drunk to acknowledge her and ended up spilling his beer on Sara, much to her embarrassment. She was then pulled in by the cops and grounded by her father for a month. Sara later believed that Laurel had called the cops to ruin her chances with Oliver, since he and her sister got together not long after.

## University

### The Sinking of the Queen's Gambit

In late 1395, Oliver started pursuing Sara after having second thoughts about moving in with Laurel. Excited that her teenhood crush was paying attention to her and wanting to get back at Laurel for what happened at Tomlain's party, Sara quickly began sleeping with him. Later, she returned home from college to spend time with her family during a three-day weekend but was secretly texting Oliver; he had invited Sara to come with him on the Queen's Gambit voyage, though she was initially hesitant. That night, Sara attempted to caution Laurel against her expectations of getting engaged to Oliver, a known playboy, since he wasn't the type to take such a big step yet. However, an outraged Laurel perceived this as her sister being a "bitch", upsetting Sara and spurring her into accepting Oliver's offer.

On the day of the Queen's Gambit trip as Sara was preparing to leave, her mother unexpectedly arrived home early and caught the former in the process of packing her clothes, including her Starling Rockets baseball cap. Dinah initially objected to Sara going, but Sara managed to convince her mother otherwise by claiming that she was in love with Oliver, needing to follow her heart and do what she felt was right. Dinah then let her go and kept this encounter a secret.

During their sail at sea, Sara and Oliver were in bed together in his cabin. While Sara was somewhat nervous about the storm and Laurel finding out of their affair, Oliver assured her they would be fine. Suddenly, the yacht (which had been sabotaged on the orders of Malcolm Merlyn) sank and Sara was pulled underwater, causing Oliver to believe that she had drowned. However, Sara managed to swim to the surface on the other side of the wreck and was marooned on a piece of the ship for days.

### Presumed Death

Sara's apparent death had multiple effects on the Lance family. For Laurel, she couldn't properly grieve her sister after Sara betrayed her by sleeping with Oliver, but couldn't be angry either because she had died, and thus struggled to come to terms with her death. Quentin fell into a deep state of depression, becoming an alcoholic, and buried himself in his work in an attempt to ignore his pain, taking every case that passed his desk without pause. Sara was also the first and last thought of Quentin's mind every day and it took him years to get past that point. His drinking and work obsession eventually lead to Dinah divorcing him. Dinah harbored great guilt and remorse for not stopping Sara from going on the Gambit. Unable to face her family with this, she left for Central City after divorcing Quentin. However, Dinah (correctly) believed that Sara was still alive and spent years searching for her daughter. It wasn't until over five years later that she was able to begin making amends with Quentin and Laurel after admitting the truth.

### Stranded at Sea

A few days after the Gambit sank, Sara was found by a ship called the Amazo, who took her on board but they imprisoned her in a cell. Later, the crew dragged Sara out of her cell and were going to take her away, but were stopped by a grey-haired man, who brought Sara to his quarters. This man introduced himself as Dr. Anthony Ivo. He claimed that he was going to save the human race, and asked if Sara would join him. Ivo explained that he was looking for a serum created by the Japanese in World War II called Mirakuru (Japanese for Miracle), which could increase muscle strength, enhanced senses, and regenerate cells, but the submarine sank somewhere in the chain of islands nearby.
For the next year, Ivo protected Sara from the cruelty of his men and taught her many skills in the fields of biology, chemistry, and technology. Sara assisted Ivo in his work and participated in torturing his prisoners through his experiments, though only because she was secretly terrified she would be the next test subject. Sara still felt a sense of loyalty towards Ivo for saving her life, no matter how cruel he became.

A year later, Sara reunited with Oliver when he was brought aboard the Amazo. Confused, Oliver tried to talk to her but Sara, who was scared of Ivo and his men, wanted to protect Oliver by not disclosing their friendship, warning him against telling Ivo his real name. She kicked Oliver in the stomach, knocking him down, and acted cold when she saw Ivo approaching. Later, Sara let Oliver out of his cell and took him to a radio to contact his friends, Slade Wilson and Shado who were still on Lian Yu. However, just when they made contact, Ivo and his men appeared, revealing it was a set-up to figure out if his friends were still alive. When the captain tried to kill Oliver, Sara instead suggested keeping him alive to find the gravesite, which Ivo agreed to.

### Time on Lian Yu

Sara went with Oliver, Ivo, and the crew of the Amazo onto the island and towards the crashed plane where Oliver and his friends had resided. She watched as Ivo ordered his men to shoot the place up after Oliver screamed for Slade and Shado to run. When they found the place empty, Ivo left a bomb in the plane and had Oliver lead them to the gravesite. When they arrived at the cave, the guards started questioning Oliver for the hōzen, an arrowhead which should have been buried with the bodies. Soon, Shado and Slade ambushed the crew at arrow and gun point and demanded Oliver back. When Ivo released him, Oliver punched the captain in the face, grabbed Sara, and escaped.
After they got away Shado revealed she had the hōzen which they discovered had coordinates on it, leading to the location of the submarine which housed the Mirakuru which Ivo believed to be the cure to save all of mankind. After Sara revealed this to them, Oliver asked if it could cure Slade. They used the hōzen to locate the submarine, in which they quickly found the Mirakuru. Oliver injected Slade, even after Sara told him that Slade would likely not survive it without a sedative. Slade began to react badly, with eradic screaming and blood pouring from his eyes. Eventually, he turned quiet and Sara confirmed he had no heartbeat. Before they could begin to mourn, Ivo and his men barged in, taking the three of them captive.
Anthony took Sara and Shado hostage and held them in front of Oliver, telling him to pick who would die between Shado and Sara, threatening to kill them both if Oliver didn't decide within 30 seconds. After the time had passed, Ivo aimed his gun at Sara, only for Oliver to run in front of her in a desperate attempt to stop him from killing her. Taking that as his choice, Ivo quickly turned his gun over to Shado and shot her in the head. Just then, the newly Mirakuru-empowered Slade appeared and saw Shado dead. In his rage, he killed Ivo's men and stole the rest of the Mirakuru, but Ivo managed to escape. When Slade asked who killed Shado, Sara quickly answered that Ivo just shot Shado for no apparent reason.

They buried Shado next to her father's grave and Sara warned Oliver not to tell Slade why Shado died, because now that he had the Mirakuru inside of him he could be unpredictable and dangerous. As they were walking, Sara and Oliver asked Slade where they were going and he responded that they were heading back to the plane in order to get geared up to kill Ivo and his men. Sara told him he couldn't as Ivo had too many dangerous people working for him. This angered Slade who accused Sara of still working for Ivo but Oliver stepped between them. Slade lifted Oliver a foot off the ground, choking him. Sara promptly hit Slade with a branch, making him let go of Oliver and causing him to realize what he'd done.
Later that night, Ivo contacted them through Sara's radio, telling them they had ten days to deliver the Mirakuru to him and in turn he would give them safe passage off of the island. And if they didn't comply, he would send his men in to take it by force and take them in to be experimented on. They turned to consult with Slade, only to realize that he had disappeared and taken the Mirakuru with him. Sara suggested they should consider Ivo's offer which angered Oliver. At night they had a heart-to-heart but after Oliver fell asleep, she took the radio and contacted Ivo. He asked if she was okay but she questioned if he even cared as not long ago he was close to shooting her. He claimed he would never have done that but she was upset that he killed Shado. He tried to win her sympathy, saying the darkness had taken over and that he needed her but Sara told him she would rather die than help him again.
Oliver and Sara tracked Slade down to the cave with the gravesite but when they got there he was nowhere to be found. Oliver spotted some calculations on a wall which he recognized as identical to the ones on Edward Fyers' missile launcher, and therefore deduced that Slade was going to destroy the Amazo with the missiles. They rushed to the missile launchers as quick as they could and found Slade inputting the calculations. Oliver managed to talk him down and they decided to take the Amazo for themselves.

The three of them surveyed the freighter and brainstormed ideas on how to board it when they heard a plane. They tried to signal it, though it was quickly shot down with a missile. They ran to find it and discovered its dying pilot. Sara attempted to save him, but he was fatally injured. As he lay dying, the man asked Sara to find his daughter, Cindy, and take care of her. Sara promised to do so. The man gave Sara a picture of Cindy before succumbing to his wounds. In the midst of this, however, Oliver noticed a bagged parachute, remarking how it could get them on to the freighter.
Preparing for battle, Sara concocted some cocculus indicus to counteract sodium pentathol, which Sara with all her knowledge of Ivo's tactics assumed he would use on Oliver. They agreed to destroy the Mirakuru to make sure that even if their plan went south, Ivo would never get his hands on it. Later that night, Slade produced a bottle of Australian rum, one of the few things that survived the plane's crash, for them all to drink to commemorate their last night on the island. Sara later asked Oliver that if she would not make it, he'd tell her family that she died on the Queen's Gambit so they could remember her as she was then.

The next day, they prepared for battle. Oliver purposefully got himself captured while Sara and Slade kept watch from a highpoint on the island. As Sara had predicted, Ivo had Oliver injected with sodium pentothal or truth serum. Per Sara's instructions, Oliver acted dazed and began answering Ivo's questions, claiming Sara and Slade had built a raft and were in the engine room of the ship. Ivo sent all his men there to find them and Oliver was taken back to his cell, but along the way he knocked the guards out and took their keys.
Sara and Slade watched from the island and after seeing them clearing the deck they jumped off the cliff with the parachute, landing on the top deck. They split up and Sara went to free the other prisoners. However, one of the prisoners, Hendrick Von Arnim, who despised her for working with Ivo, jumped on her and started choking her. She was saved by another prisoner, Thomas Flynn, who knocked him out and followed Sara to the top deck. As gunfire broke out between the crew and the prisoners, Sara took cover and was soon joined by Oliver who informed her that Ivo had told Slade the truth about Shado's death and he had now turned on them. Realizing the battle was lost, Sara told Oliver they had to retreat, so they along with some of the prisoners, one of whom was Anatoly Knyazev, jumped the ship and swam to the shore although Oliver was caught by Slade at the last minute and taken captive.
Sara took the prisoners with her to their old base where she was contacted by Slade on the radio. He told her that the engine had broken and he was willing to free Oliver if she gave him Hendrick, who was an engineer. Sara lied that Hendrick hadn't made it to the island but Slade called her bluff and gave her one hour to deliver Hendrick to him or he would kill Oliver. Hendrick started pointing his gun at Anatoly, but Sara knocked him out from behind and then agreed to Slade's terms. Knowing handing him over would be a death sentence regardless, Sara got the idea to use Hendrick as a way to kill Slade. She had Anatoly extract the explosives out of a landmine and planted them on Hendrick before handing him over. However, once they made the trade, Slade found the explosives and pulled his gun on Sara but he soon concluded that dying would be too good for them and they deserved to suffer on the island until their deaths.
Anatoly attempted to torture Ivo, only to be stopped before he could when Ivo told them there was, in fact, a cure to the Mirakuru and a possible way to stop Slade. Ivo offered to help them find it if they could provide him with a quick death due to the gangrene traveling in his system due to his arm stump. They agreed to the deal and after being told where the cure was, Sara prepared to shoot him but Oliver stopped her, shooting him himself as to spare Sara of the heaviness of having to take a life.

They went back to the Japanese submarine where Oliver convinced Anatoly to pilot it, having been in the Russian Navy. However, after realizing it was stuck, they concocted a use the ships torpedoes to blast themselves out. Oliver asked Sara to wait outside for safety but she was found by Slade who took her captive at the Amazo. Oliver came after her and freed her from her cell. He told her leave while he would try to cure Slade of the Mirakuru, though she refused to leave without him and they both made their way to Ivo's quarters. However, there they were ambushed by Slade who revealed that he had the cure.
Slade took Sara and Oliver to watch him inject numerous prisoners with Mirakuru and see it fail as the prisoners died. Anatoly then fired another torpedo at the Amazo and the ship began to flood. Oliver grabbed an arrow, killing Slade's men where he could. Before Slade could grab the Mirakuru, Oliver was able to, however, he was able to grab Sara. Slade threw Sara down the hole in the ship, leaving Oliver to again believe that Sara had drowned. However, Sara survived the sinking of the Amazo and managed to make it back to shore on the island. Unable to find any trace of Oliver or Slade, Sara believed them to be dead.
League of Assassins

### Nyssa al Ghul

Soon thereafter, Sara was discovered by Nyssa al Ghul on Lian Yu, nearly starved to death and having lost the will to live. Nyssa nursed her back to health and took her in. Nyssa was part of the League of Assassins and took Sara to Nanda Parbat where she was brought before Ra's al Ghul to determine her fate. As he demonstrated his power, which had made all before her fear him, Sara had simply laughed. Sara trained with  the League and became an assassin herself by swearing her allegiance to them. She was also acquainted with Maseo Yamashiro, who joined  the League the same time as Sara and admired her as a warrior.
At some point during her time with  the League, Sara and Nyssa fell in love and began a relationship. As part of her induction, Sara was told to "choose a new name" and picked "Ta-er al-Sahfer" (in Arabic: الطائر الأصفر), Arabic for Canary ("yellow bird"), reminiscent of the canary she had as a child. Sara was also trained by Ra's al Ghul as part of  her League training.
On one mission, Sara was sent to Guyana to kill local diplomat Suarez. She slit his throat in his bed and left his body to be found by his children the next morning.
Rise of the Canary

# Mid Life

## Career

### Canary of DC

In late 1400, Sara began to hear stories of the  DC vigilante, codenamed the Hood/Arrow, wearing a green hood and immediately realized that it was Oliver wearing Shado's hood. After the Undertaking, Sara left Nanda Parbat to check on her family. However, she ended up staying in  DC (in the Shadows), unwilling to return to  the League. Sara became a vigilante, mainly targeting men who attacked women.
One night in The Glades, The Canary saved Cindy Simone, also known as "Sin", from a gang of would-be rapists. Honoring the promise she made to the girl's father five years prior, Sara took Sin under her wing (but kept her meeting with Sin's father secret). Shortly after while Roy Harper was fighting a gang harassing a woman outside Big Belly Burger, the Canary swooped in and fought off the attackers before they could hurt Roy. She then swiftly vanished.

When  the Arrow was cornered by a DCPD S.W.A.T. team led by Laurel at the D.A.'s office, the Canary swooped in and used a sonic device to disorient the policemen and shatter the windows. The two vigilantes used the chaos to quickly escape the scene. Sometime later when Roy was lured into her hideout by Sin, The Canary knocked him out with her staff. She asked why he was looking for her, but was interrupted by a message on Roy's phone from Thea Queen, telling him that Laurel and Quentin had been kidnapped. The Canary immediately took off to save her family, letting Roy go.

The Canary arrived at the abandoned Metamorpho Chemical, where she fought the kidnapper, Barton Mathis/The Dollmaker. The Canary easily subdued him but Mathis managed to drop a load of pipes on her, pinning her to the ground. Before he could harm her,  the Arrowcame in and shot Mathis with two arrows. Despite the Arrow's intentions to take the serial killer back to prison, The Canary killed him by hurling her baton through his chest before vanishing. Upon returning to her hideout, The Canary was confronted by a member of  the League, who informed her that Ra's al Ghul wanted her to return. The Canary tried to persuade the assassin to lie to Ra's al Ghul that he couldn't find her, but he refused. She then killed the man to protect her whereabouts.

### The Canary caught by  the Arrow

After realizing that The Canary was following Laurel, Oliver tracked her down near Laurel's apartment building and unmasked her. Upon seeing her face, Oliver was shocked that Sara was still alive. Although she soon made her escape. The next day, Sara had breakfast with Sin, during which she revealed her run-in with the Arrow. The two discussed their families, with Sara talking about Quentin and Laurel. That night, Sara followed Oliver to Verdant, where he confirmed that he kept her existence a secret from her family. Quentin then arrived to talk to Oliver. Sara listened as Quentin revealed Laurel's depression and alcoholism in the wake of Tomlain Merlyn's death and was saddened as her father recounted how much Sara's death affected them.

After Sin was injured by the gang-lord calling himself The Mayor and taken to hospital, Sara and Oliver teamed up to take him down. Working together hand-in-hand, they defeated The Mayor with Sara showing off her fighting skills. Sara tried to kill him but Oliver convinced her to spare him to be arrested. Later, Sara secretly watched over Sin at the hospital, where she ran into Oliver. Oliver tried to persuade Sara to tell her family the truth and return home permanently.

Sara began staying with Oliver at the Queen Mansion, though she struggled with nightmares of the Queen's Gambit sinking. Oliver again tried to convince her to tell her family but she dismissed it, not sure they would be so happy to see her as he thought. One day, they were attacked by Al-Owal, a member of the League of Assassins. Sara tried to fight back, but was overpowered. However, Oliver managed to fend Al-Owal off. Afterwards, they went to the Arrowcave, where Sara formally met Oliver's teammates, Jon Diggle and Felicity Smoak. Sara revealed to the team that she was once part of the League of Assassins and now, they are on the hunt to bring her back to their leader, Ra's al Ghul.

Oliver and Sara then tracked down Al-Owal, only to learn he had reinforcements. After a heated battle, the two narrowly escaped with their lives. Fearing retaliation against Sara, Oliver decided to protect the whole Lance family, but when Quentin refused to listen to Felicity's warnings of danger, Sara decided that it was time to reveal herself to her father. He was rejoiced upon realizing Sara was alive. He soon realized she was the new vigilante and had been back in town for weeks and was hurt when she admitted she wouldn't have let them know of her return if it wasn't for the assassins.

Sara brings Quentin to her hideout where they are attacked by Al-Owal and his two companions. They start fighting them off and are joined by Oliver who helps them defeat the assassins. Sara kills Al-Owal and leaves one alive to run to Ra's al Ghul to tell him that her family is off limits. She was afraid of what her father would think of her after seeing that but he assured her that she was a his daughter and this wouldn't change that. Sara then left  DC to draw  the League away from her family. She bid goodbye to her father and made him promise not to tell Laurel and Dinah that she was alive.

A couple months later, after Laurel's unraveling lead to her facing disbarment and she started drinking too much and pushing the people around her away, Oliver contacted Sara, explaining that her sister needed her. Later that night, Sara paid a visit to Laurel at her apartment, but Laurel suddenly passed out. Concerned, Sara immediately called for help. While Laurel recovered at the hospital, Sara dealt with her frustrations by working out in the Arrowcave. She considered leaving again despite Oliver's protests. Then,  the Arrowgot a call from Quentin asking for Sara, who he knew was back.

Sara later met up with her father who pleaded with her to stay but she insisted that as long as  the League was still after her, they were all in danger. When Sara walked down a street, Nyssa al Ghul arrived, holding a knife. She approaches Sara and the two kiss. Sara and Nyssa went for a walk, and Nyssa begged Sara to come back but Sara told her she couldn't go back to killing and asked Nyssa to release her. After sharing another close moment, Sara told Nyssa she wouldn't go back, and to do what she had to. Sara stood waiting as Nyssa drew her dagger from her thigh but then pulled away, not being able to go through with it.
Sara returns to the Arrowcave where she discovers that Laurel didn't have an overdose but was poisoned by Nyssa as a way to draw her back to the city. Sara and Oliver goes after her, but Sara is horrified to discover Nyssa has taken her, mom Dinah Lance, giving Sara only 24 hours to rejoin  the League or her mother dies. They get away and Sara returns to tell Quentin what has happened, also filling him in on her and Nyssa's past relationship, giving him a slight shock. She asks him if this upsets him but he tells her he's just glad she had someone to care for her during all those hard years she spent away. Oliver, Sara, and Quentin track down an assassin for information, but he kills himself before he can tell them anything.

Sara then decides to give herself over, but poisons herself with Tibetan pit viper venom as Nyssa returns Dinah to Quentin. The venom begins to take effect, weakening Sara and causing her to collapse. Nyssa holds Sara in her arms and cries upon realizing what she did. Once Oliver arrives he and Nyssa began to fight. Sara pulls herself up from the floor just as Oliver gets the upper hand and begs him not to kill Nyssa. She weakly walks over to them before collapsing and passing out. Oliver runs over to her and manages to counter the poison causing her to wake up and gasp for air. Sara turns to Nyssa and begs her - no more killing, then Nyssa tearfully releases her from  the League. Soon after, Quentin and Dinah arrive with Laurel who is shocked.

At Laurel's apartment, Sara shared a happy reunion with her parents. However, Laurel rejected Sara's attempts to reconnect, bitter with her sister over the past, blaming her for everything going wrong in their lives and hurt that she had not told them she was still alive. A guilt-ridden Sara tried to apologize, only for Laurel to throw her out. Heartbroken, Sara later returned to the Arrowcave and encountered Oliver, both of them feeling betrayed by their families. Sara expressed that at least she is home now. The two of them began kissing passionately and slept together.

### Homecoming

Sara officially joins Team Arrow and quickly bonds with Diggle over battle scars. She is reluctant to go to her homecoming party and tells Oliver their relationship a secret for Laurel's sake. She attends the party is disappointed that Laurel didn't come. At the party, she is greeted by Sin who runs to hug her, raising suspicion in Oliver's sister Thea so she lies that they don't know each other with Sin saying she just loves when people came back from the dead. When one of William Tockman's victims are found, Sara and Oliver leave the party early to investigate.

Felicity tells Sara that she shouldn't miss her family dinner for the sake of the mission. Nervous about seeing Laurel again, Sara asks Oliver to come with her. At the dinner, Laurel realizes that Sara and Oliver are in a relationship and get extremely angry, berating everyone at the table before storming off.
When Oliver and Sara return to the Arrowcave, they learned that Felicity has broken into Starling National Bank, hoping to use their computer system to track William. The Arrow, Canary, and Diggle meet Felicity there to help her. In the final showdown, Felicity saves the Canary's life, takes a bullet for her and manages to take William down by blowing up his cell phone. In the Arrowcave, Sara patches Felicity up while thanking her for saving her life.

After getting a job as a bartender at Verdant, Laurel showed up to make amends. She told her how she had been drowning ever since Sara disappeared on that boat. Laurel tearfully begged Sara not to hate her. Sara simply embraced her and the sisters reconciled.

While in the Arrowcave with the rest of Team Arrow, Sara recognized Slade Wilson's voice from the phone call from Oliver to Felicity. She is shocked and tells the rest of the team who he is. She brings Roy Harper and Diggle to the Queen mansion, believing Oliver and his family to be in danger. Sara climbed the house and went in through a window on the second floor while Diggle was positioned outside with a gun. She descended the stairs as if she had been there all along, confronting Slade, who was pretending to be a normal houseguest to Oliver's mom and sister, while he shook hands with Roy. Faced with all these people, Slade made his excuses and left, with the promise to return.

After this incident, Oliver started having nightmares and Sara tried to get Oliver to talk about his problems, commenting on his lack of sleep, but she had no success. Later while bartending, Sara confided in Laurel while helping her sister fill a job application form at Verdant. After Oliver collected information on Slade from the Bratva, Sara confronted him again, telling him he needed help and that Shado's death was not his fault. Oliver instead told Sara to stay away from him, not wanting her to be a target of Slade's vendetta. Eventually, though, Oliver came back to Sara, confessing that he could not get Slade on his own, and the two promised each other to do so together.

The Canary and Arrow watched over Quentin and his men as they were trying to detain some criminals, including Frank Bertinelli and quickly intervened. Quentin was injured during the fight, enraging Sara and causing her to force a criminal off the rooftop. Alarmed, Quentin told Sara to show restraint next time. The team realized Frank's daughter, Helena Bertinelli aka the Huntress, was back in town and would be trying to kill her father. Sara was slightly amused when Felicity and Diggle revealed Helena was Oliver's "psycho ex-girlfriend". The Arrow, Canary, and Roy intercepted Helena's car but found it to be a decoy. When Adam Donner rehired Laurel and assigned her to prosecute Frank, Sara tried to convince her sister to drop the case, knowing that it would make her a target of the Huntress. When Laurel remained on the case, Sara was scared for her sister's safety and upset when Oliver planned a non-lethal way to take Helena down.

When Helena took hostages at the Courthouse, Laurel got into a fight with one of her henchmen, forcing Sara, as the Canary, to intervene and take him down. She led Laurel through the building and they hid from Helena's men in and empty office. When Laurel reaches for a bottle, the Canary reminds her of her sobriety. Laurel questions how she knew about that, after which she points out the 30 days chip on her key chains. Laurel opens up about not feeling she is strong enough for Sara, unaware Sara is the one she's talking to. The Canary encourages her to show her she's strong now and so Laurel puts down the bottle.

As they made their way towards the exit, Laurel refused to leave without helping to rescue the hostages first. Just as Helena was about to kill the first hostage, Sara intervened, throwing in her sonic device which shattered all the windows. Laurel started helping all the hostages flee while Sara battled the Huntress. She tried to non-lethally incapacitate Helena, but the latter eventually disarmed Sara of her bo-staff, using it to beat Sara up and throw her out a window. Sara managed to avoid falling to death and Oliver saved her when Helena tried to shoot her. Although Sara was horrified as Laurel was still inside.

Later, Helena offered to release Laurel in exchange for her father. Oliver and Sara managed to kidnap Frank from police custody with Quentin's help and arrived at a meeting place with Helena and Laurel. However, Police Captain Stein opened fire on them, killing Frank and separating Oliver from Sara. The Canary then faced the Huntress again and this time vowed to not hold back. She managed to overpower her. A furious Sara almost choked Helena to death for harming her sister. However, Laurel begged her not to so Sara agreed to spare her.

After Slade kidnapped Thea, Sara provided Tibetan pit viper venom for Team Arrow to use when against him. She was present at the confrontation with Wilson, donning her Canary suit, where Oliver decided to call the police on him and have him arrested. After Slade's release by the police due to lack of evidence, Sara partook in the attempt to follow him, driving a motorcycle and following Felicity's directions. However, Slade managed to escape. When Roy, who blamed Oliver for Thea's capture, started lashing out and attacked Diggle, Sara aimed her bow at him, threatening to kill him unless he let Dig go. Oliver interrupted them and the still furious Roy left the team. She was also present at the police station when Thea was released, and watched as her father was arrested for working with the vigilante.

Sara joined Team Arrow in breaking into Queen Consolidated's applied sciences division and blowing it up after Isabel Rochev took control of the company and used its resources to aide Slade in mass-producing Mirakuru to build an army. She also visited her father in prison while Laurel was trying to get him to give up the Arrow's identity. When Slade infiltrated the Arrowcave, Sara, Oliver, and Diggle attempted to fight him, but they were all easily taken out. During the subsequent visit to the hospital, Laurel saw Sara's scars, leading her to figure out that Sara was the Canary.

Later,  the Arrow and Canary tried to stop Deathstroke from breaking into STAR Labs, but arrived too late. They returned to their base where they found out he had stolen an invention which he could use to deliver blood from one person into multiple others at ones, thus delivering his blood to multiple people and creating his Mirakuru-induced army. Sara and Laurel both visited their father after he was attacked in prison, and Laurel managed to bail him out after he convinced her not to pursue the vigilantes anymore. Meanwhile, Oliver had attempted to stop Slade from using his blood on a group of prisoners only to find he had kidnapped Roy and used his blood instead. Back at the Arrowcave, Sara took care of Roy who had fallen unconscious.

Sara and Oliver are informed by Felicity that Roy has woken up and has become unrecognizable and filled with violent rage. Team Arrow patrol the city, trying to track him down. Sara is worried when Sin appears, telling her she was attacked by Roy but Sin insists that Roy's her friend and needs help as opposed to getting beat up. Later,  the Arrowand Canary confronts Roy at Sara's hideout but he beats them up, leaving Oliver with a broken knee before fleeing and killing a police officer in the process. Sara was convinced that Roy was too far gone and they had no other option than killing him so she armed up to do so, against Oliver's wishes.

When Roy comes to Verdant and starts strangling Thea, Sara almost shoots him, but is prevented from doing so by Sin, who stands between them until Oliver showed up and put Roy down with poisoned arrows. Later, Sara confesses that she had wanted to kill Roy and would have so him if Oliver didn't intervene. Sara stated that because of all those years spent in the darkness as an assassin that was the person she had turned into. She breaks up with Oliver, stating that he deserves someone better and she cares too much for him to be with him. As Sara gets on her motorcycle, Sin arrives to ask how she is doing. Sara replies that she has had a rough day and hugs Sin goodbye. She drove away from  DC, telling Sin that she was going to see "an old friend".

Sara arrived back in  DC just in time to save Laurel from one of Slade Wilson's masked soldiers, after which Laurel revealed she knew about her secret identity. Afterwards Sara fell apart, telling Laurel she was not the hero she believed her to be and that she was irredeemable. Laurel managed to get Sara out of her identity-crisis, by commenting on the fact that the innocence and beauty in her were not all gone yet. As the Canary, she saved a little girl from a burning building, causing citizens to comment on her as a hero which she overheard.

Willing to do whatever it took to defeat Slade and protect her family, Sara had gotten back in contact with Nyssa who agreed to help fight Slade and his army after Sara promised to go back to Nanda Parbat with her. At the police station, Sara watched as the League of Assassins sedated Laurel. Afterwards, Sara brought Nyssa and six other assassins to the Arrowcave. Oliver was reluctant to accept  the League's help, insisting they did not need to resort to killing to win this fight. Together, they assaulted the Queen Consolidated building and took down Slade's bodyguards while Slade managed to escape out of a window. Quentin Lance joined them after one of Wilson's men managed to abduct Laurel.

Sara, Oliver, Roy, and the assassins made their way to the Giordano Tunnel, via where Slade's army was trying to escape the city. After they neutralized the army using the Mirakuru cure, Sara and Oliver made their way to Wilson's hideout, where Felicity injected Wilson with the cure. Sara took Laurel and Felicity to safety while Oliver battled Wilson. Once the city was safe, Sara said her goodbyes to Laurel and Quentin, giving her sister her jacket as a parting gift and assuring them she was leaving out of her own volition. She then boarded a ship with Nyssa and  the League.

On the way to her next job, Sara stopped off in  DC to pay a visit to her friends. Outside of Verdant, Sara came across Diggle, who'd been beaten by an intoxicated Oliver. She brought Diggle to the Arrowcave and shared a hug with Felicity, who was happy to see her again. Felicity attempted to find out about Sara's next job, though she was unable to reveal. Sara offered to bring Oliver in and found him on a rooftop. They fought for a bit, until Sara knocked him out and took him back to the Arrowcave.

Believing him to be dosed with something, Felicity took a blood sample, finding traces of mushrooms. As Oliver woke up, he wished to go back to find Brother Blood, though Sara would only allow Oliver to go once he'd had some rest, promising to accompany him if he did so. Meanwhile, Sara headed to the hospital to see her father, where she was greeted by Laurel. Just then, after weeks in a coma, Quentin then woke up to see both of his daughters, much to their joy.

## Friends

#### Oliver Queen

From teenage crush, to sleeping together, to surviving a shipwreck and the League of Assassins, to colleagues

#### Felicity Smoak

Sara finds Felicity, feeling left out in the Arrowcave, and punching a sparring dummy so she helps her with her stance. She tries to to ask her if she was okay but was interrupted by Diggle and Oliver arriving.

## Death

After five months away, on October 8, 1402, Sara finally returned to  DC to confirm the rumors of Malcolm Merlyn's presence there. While searching for Malcolm, Sara paid her father a visit and asked about a monk named Ken Zhi Jansen, who was connected to Malcolm. Before leaving, she planned to visit Laurel but overheard Felicity's communications and helped Oliver take down Werner Zytle's thugs, as well as Zytle himself. As she and Oliver caught up, Sara advised him to keep his family and friends close.

Sara later met up with Laurel, asking that she not tell Quentin that she was back home. After Laurel left, Sara was confronted by a hooded Thea, much to her confusion. Before she could react, Thea suddenly shot three arrows into Sara's chest, causing the latter to fall off the building and collapse into the alley, dying instantly from the impact. Laurel immediately found Sara's body and broke down in grief.
Laurel took Sara's body to the Arrowcave and Team Arrow vowed to use all their resources to track down Sara's killer. Sara's body was kept in a freezer in the Arrowcave before being buried in her previously empty grave from 1395 in a mini-funeral at DC Cemetery, attended by Laurel, Oliver, Felicity, Jon, and Roy. Jon and Lyla decided to name their daughter after Sara in honor of her.
In the wake of Sara's death, Laurel went mad with grief, wanting to find her sister's killer and bring them to justice no matter what. She also refrained from telling Quentin, not wanting to hurt him before they knew who had done it. Laurel was filled with rage which she struggled to channel and started acting reckless as she wanted to follow in her sister's footsteps. After getting herself beat up, she asked Oliver to train her so she could get justice outside of a courtroom but Oliver flatly refused, saying Sara would never forgive him for it. She instead started training with Ted Grant and asked him to teach her the tools to avenge Sara's death.
After her death, Roy began having nightmares about him killing Sara and believed to have done so under a Mirakuru-induced rage. Oliver used a meditation technique to help Roy confront the issue. Roy discovered that he had actually killed a police officer under the Mirakuru but believed it to be Sara, as he saw her at the time. A few months after her death, Thea was eventually revealed to have killed Sara due to being drugged by Malcolm with Vitura. Rather than have his sister hunted by the League of Assassins, Oliver took the fall for Sara's murder as part of Malcolm's manipulations.
After Oliver was believed dead, Laurel took Sara's old Canary gear from the Arrowcave and took up Sara's mantle. Dressing up in Sara's old wig and mask, she started fighting crime in her honor as the Black Canary. After being injected with Vertigo, which makes its users hallucinate their worst fears, Laurel hallucinated fighting Sara who denounced Laurel as a fraud, addict, and unworthy of "replacing" her. In another fight, Laurel hallucinated Sara again and overcame her issues with running from Sara's death. She then saw a vision of Sara smiling proudly at her and afterwards she finally revealed the truth to Quentin who was devastated to have lost his daughter once more.