My name is Sara Lance. Five years ago, I went on a boat with my sister's boyfriend and his father. Everything was different then. I was just a spoiled girl. The boat crashed and I made it to an island called Lian Yu, which the Chinese also called Purgatory. I saw a boat coming and I knew it was time to leave. It was my chance to finally get off the island. I created a fire, hoping that it would get noticed before I ran to the shore. I had dreamt of my rescue for every night since I had been lost. For those five years, I had only one thought: survive. The men who found me were Chinese, but they seemed to be noblemen. I would have been able to fight if I needed to. I had forged myself into a weapon. I'm returning not as the girl who was shipwrecked, but as the woman who will bring justice to those who have poisoned my city.
I was first taken to a Chinese hospital before I was to be returned home. I then returned home. Needless to say, my rescue was big news. I could have been bigger considering that I wasn't the most important person on the ship. I was taken to another hospital once I got home. I wasn't sure if it was because they didn't trust the Chinese. Actually, that was probably it.
"20 percent of her body is covered in scar tissue and 2nd degree burns." The doctor told my father. "The X-rays show at least 12 fractures that never properly healed.
"Did she say anything about what happened?" He asked.
"No. She's barely said anything at all." The doctor replied. "Detective, you need to prepare yourself. The Sara you lost might not be the one they found."
At that point, he walked into the room.
"Sara?" He asked. I turned to face him.
"Hi Daddy." I remarked before he walked over and hugged me.
"Oh, my baby girl." He cried. I cried a little as well. I had stronger control of my emotions, but I couldn't help it. "Let's go home."
It didn't take me long to figure out that my family had fallen apart. We used to be happy: my father, mother, and sister. We had a big house. Now all that was my father's one-bedroom apartment. My parents had divorced and I doubted that my sister even wanted to see me because of what I did to her. It wasn't my fault that Oliver got killed, but I assumed that she would blame me.
"So, I uh don't really have much room here." He admitted. "I can sleep on the couch if you want."
"You don't have to do that, Dad." I replied. He started to clean up a little. There were beer bottles all over the floor along other trash.
"What do you want to do for dinner? I can get us some Big Belly Burger. It's probably been forever since you had a decent meal." He stated.
"Can we see the Queens?" I asked. He looked at me in surprise. "Can we possibly have dinner with them? I really want to talk to them about what happened."
"Normally, I wouldn't want to be involved with that family, but I suppose that since your back, maybe we can repair some bridges." He stated.
From there, he took me to the Queen Mansion, which honestly looked kind of like a castle. I was nervous about talking to them. I was surprised that the first thing that happened when I walked in the door was Mrs. Queen wrapping her arms around me.
"It's good to see you, Sara." She remarked.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Queen." I stated.
"Oh, Dear, it's not your fault." She told me. I then noticed a black man standing beside her. "This is Walter Steele. He was an associate of Robert and my new husband."
I then heard some footsteps.
"Mom, is someone here?" A voice asked. I looked to the top of the stairs and I saw Thea Queen. She was Oliver's little sister. She had been a kid when I left, but now she was a beautiful young woman. I could tell that she was surprised to me. "Sara."
"It's good to see you, Thea." I told her as I gave her a bit of an awkward hug. I wasn't sure if it was ironic that I was seeing Oliver's sister before my own, but I was never good at English. "Do you mind if I go wash up?"
"Not at all." Mrs. Queen declared.
I washed my face and looked in the mirror. I hardly even recognized myself despite the fact that I pretty much looked the same. I did have a lot more scars on my body.
I thought back to the night that everything changed.
It was raining hard. I was in my robe and underwear. I walked out into the hall or whatever it was called to find him.
"Ollie?" I asked as I noticed that we were not alone. I blushed and closed my robe. "Where do you keep the bottle opener on this thing?"
"I'll be there in a minute, Sara." He said before I retreated to the room.
I then went back downstairs and found that I wasn't the only guest in the house. He was Tommy Merlyn, Oliver's best friend.
"I told Ollie boats suck, but no one listens." He commented. He was apparently trying to compensate with humor. He then gave me a hug. I probably shouldn't have been surprised by all of the hugs that I was getting. These were people that I hadn't seen in five years.
"I missed you, Tommy." I told him. From there we went to dinner.
"Let's see what did you miss?" Tommy replied. "World Series winners: Red Sox, Phillies, Yankees, Giants, Cardinals. Five straight guys won American Idol and there's some new Pokémon games. Ninetales has Drought now."
I did want to check that out. I missed Pokémon. My dad never understood why I liked it but I thought that they were cute and cool. My favorite was Weavile which both cute and cool.
"What was it like on that island?" Thea asked. I could see everyone was looking at me at that point.
"Cold…and lonely." I explained.
"Tomorrow I'm taking you into the city." Tommy declared.
"Maybe I could check out the precinct." I suggested. Being a cop could be a good cover, and there was a time when I did want to be a cop like my dad. I hadn't since I was 12, but that wasn't the point.
"You know tomorrow might not be the best time." Dad declared. At that time, the maid tripped. I managed to catch her.
"I am so sorry, Miss Sara." She apologized. She was Russian. I then spoke her in Russian myself.
"You speak Russian?" Tommy asked.
"You didn't tell me that." Dad added. "Did you learn it in school?'
"I learned it from Russian porn." I joked. I then realized no one was laughing. "I'm kidding. You know I am feeling full. Do you think that we can go home now, Daddy?"
That night, I slept on the floor while I dreamed about what happened.
"One, two, three. It's getting closer." I said as I heard a thunderclap. We both had wine in our hands.
"That's not very scientific." Ollie pointed out as he took a seat next to me.
"Since when does Mr. Ivy League Dropout know anything about science?" I quipped.
"I know a lot about science. I'm great at Biology and Anatomy." He declared before he kissed me.
"Laurel is so going to kill me." I stated as I put my glass down and got on my back. I was ready to be taken.
"Your sister will never know." He promised. I would imagine that she found out pretty fast. At that point, there was more thunder.
"Now that one was really close." I remarked after jumping a little.
"Sara, we'll be fine." He remarked before he kissed me again. At that point, the boat tipped over and we both fell out into the water.
"Ollie! Ollie!" I yelled. We must have been separated.
"Sara." Mr. Queen replied as he helped me onto a raft. He was with the first mate. I probably wasn't who he wanted to find.
"We have to go back. He's your son!" I shouted.
"I know but we have no idea where he is. We have to get to safety." He stated. "I can't save him."
"Sara! Sara!" Dad replied before I felt a shake. Instinct took over and I pinned him to the ground. I then noticed what I had done and got off of him. I couldn't believe that I had attacked him.
"I'm sorry, Daddy." I cried. "I'm sorry."
"No, it's okay, Baby." He replied. "I don't know what you were dreaming about but you're home now. I'm here with you."
The following day while he was at work, I decided to open my trunk. Inside was a book and an arrowhead. I knew that I needed to give it to one person.
I went to the door and opened it to go meet Tommy.
"So, have you noticed how hot Oliver's sister is?" He asked. I glared at him. "Not that I'm into underage girls or anything."
As I rode in his sports car, I couldn't help but notice him talking about my funeral and Oliver's funeral…mostly Oliver's funeral. I personally thought he would be sadder about his best friend dying.
"Did you have sex at Oliver's funeral?" I questioned.
"I couldn't help it. Everyone was so sad and vulnerable." He declared. "I'm also counting on a target rich environment for your welcome home party."
"My what now?" I asked in surprised.
"Sara, you came back from the dead. If anything is worth celebrating, it's this." He challenged. "Just give me a time and place and I will make it happen."
We then stopped at a stop sign. It was at that time that I noticed that we were in the Glades, the poor part of town.
"This city has gone to crap. Why did you want to drive through here anyway?" He asked.
"No reason." I answered as I looked at the old Queen steel factory.
"So, what should we see first?" He questioned.
"Laurel." I replied.
"Everyone in town is glad you're alive." He commented. "Why do you want to see the one person who isn't?"
"Because she's my sister." I pointed out.
I went to my sister's office. I began to read her board. I decided to wait for her instead of asking someone to get her. I didn't know how our first meeting would go. I wasn't sure what to say to her. She looked at me and it was like my mind went blank.
"Hi, Sis." I greeted her. I almost expected her to slap me in the middle of the office.
Instead, we went to get hot dogs. At least she accepted my offer to talk.
"So, you finally went to law school." I commented.
"Yeah, Mom and Dad are proud." She replied.
"So, I saw you were suing Adam Hunt. Are you sure you should do that?" I questioned.
"You've been gone five years and you want to talk about Adam Hunt?" She asked.
"No. I just don't know what to talk about," I admitted. "Okay, I do have something."
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the hosen.
"This is a hosen. In Buddhism, it symbolizes reconnecting. I thought it would help me reconnect with you." I explained.
"You want to reconnect? Well how about we talk about how you slept with my boyfriend who knows how many times and even got on a boat with him without telling me and almost got yourself killed. We buried an empty coffin, Sara. I couldn't be angry because you were dead, but I can be angry now. Maybe you should be in that coffin."
"I'm really sorry." I apologized. I couldn't help but feel hurt. I wished that she had slapped me because it would hurt less.
I then met up with Tommy.
"So, now you've seen Laurel. You can cross that off your list." He commented as we started to walk through an alley.
Suddenly, some men in masks appeared and tranquilized us. I managed to stay conscious long enough to see them kill a store owner.
I was on the raft. It was very cold. Mr. Queen had wrapped his coat around me. In retrospect, trying to have sex on a boat wasn't the best idea. He gave me the water.
"What are you doing?" The first mate asked. "That's all we got."
"If anyone's getting out of here, it's going to be her." Mr. Queen said. "I'm sorry this happened to you. I thought I'd be able to tell Oliver, but I'm not a good man. I didn't build our city. I failed it and I wasn't the only one."
"Miss Lance? Miss Lance?" One of the thugs asked. He was holding a taser. My hands were tied to a chair and Tommy was still unconscious. "Did Mr. Queen survive that accident? I ask the questions. You give me the answers."
I said nothing and as of a result, I got a shock to the chest.
"Did he make it to the island? Did he tell you anything?" He continued. I still said nothing and got shocked again.
"He did tell me something." I declared.
"What did he tell you, Miss Lance?" The creep inquired.
"He told me to kill you." I replied. They started to chuckle before I showed my freed hands.
They took out their guns and a fight broke out. I used the chair and the taser as weapons and also used one of the guns as a shield. I first checked to make sure Tommy was still breathing. After finding out that he was, I chased after the man. I followed him onto the roof as he missed several shots. I finally made my way over to him and grabbed him by the neck.
"You killed that store owner." I declared.
"You don't have to do this." He choked.
"Yes, I do. Nobody can know my secret." I argued before I broke his neck and left him there.
From there, Tommy and I went to the precinct to talk to my dad and his partner Lucas Hilton.
"So, that's your story? A girl in a green hood flew in killed your kidnappers?" Hilton asked. "Who was she and why would she do that?"
"I don't know. She was probably just a Good Samaritan." I replied. "If I see her again, I'll let you know."
"What about you?" Hilton responded, looking at Tommy. "Did you see the hood girl?"
"I was barely conscious. I barely saw anything." Tommy explained. I was glad that I didn't have to talk to him about it.
"You know it's interesting that you've been back one day and you're already causing trouble again." Hilton remarked. I had been arrested a few times when I was younger, but never charged for obvious reasons.
"Luke, how about you just let me handle this." Dad declared. "It looks like these guys were professionals, but everyone is safe at least for now. You're free to go, Mr. Merlyn."
Hilton and Tommy left and he gave me a hug.
"You know I usually don't like it when people do my job for me, but I might want to thank this girl." He told me. "What were you even doing out there?"
"I was visiting Laurel." I explained. "I'm pretty sure that she hates me."
"Your sister doesn't hate you." He argued.
"She told me that she wished that I was dead." I pointed out.
"Well give her some time. You know she didn't mean that." He stated. I hoped that he was right. "We will need to do something."
At that point, I had Tommy take me home. I got on the computer and began to do the research on Adam Hunt. I saw his name was on Mr. Queen's list. It was kind of lonely eating alone, but I didn't mind it because I had gotten used to it.
The following morning, my dad told me that he had a surprise for me. The surprise apparently involved going back to the Queen house.
"What are we doing here, Daddy?" I asked.
"I think that with what happened yesterday, it would be nice for you to stay in a place that is more security and it has a lot more space. The Queens have graciously agreed to take you in." He stated. "At least we can do it for now."
We walked inside of the house and I found Mrs. Queen, Mr. Steele, and another man.
"Sara, we'll do whatever we can to make you feel at home." Mr. Steele said. I hoped that they didn't want me to stay in Oliver's old room.
"Well I would love to get acquainted, but I actually wanted to go out today." I explained.
"That's why he's here." Mrs. Queen declared. "This is John Diggle. Your father and I thought it would be a good idea to have someone accompany you whenever you went out at least until we know that no one is coming after you."
I sighed. There was no way out of it, especially since I couldn't get a driver's license while I was legally dead.
"I don't need a babysitter." I told her.
"Darling, Detective, Sara is a grown woman and if she feels doesn't need accompaniment, she shouldn't have to." Mr. Steele interjected.
"Mr. Steele, with all due respect, I didn't ask your opinion." Dad pointed out. "Now, this is non-negotiable. You're either going to have Mr. Diggle or a police escort."
I got in the back of his car. It felt weird. We were well off when my mom was around, but we never had as much money as the Queens.
"So, what should I call you?" I asked once we were on the road.
"Diggle will work or possibly Dig." He answered.
"Were you in the military?" I questioned.
"Yes Ma'am." He replied before he explained about his division or whatever it was called. "I don't want there to be in any confusion, Miss Lance…"
At that point, I opened the door and jumped out of the car. I had somewhere I needed to be and I wasn't going to let anyone stop me.
I headed down to the old factory. I scaled the fence and went inside. It was a mess. Getting kidnapped was unexpected. It forced me to move ahead with my plan sooner than I wanted. I was telling the truth about the girl in the hood. I just was not wearing the hood at the time. I got to work on setting everything up. Within an hour, I had power and computers set up. I started to sharpen my arrows. I also started to work out on the salmon ladder. It had been a few days since I had gotten a good workout in. Once I was done with that, I took out my bow and started to shoot. I killed a lot of good tennis balls.
I then began to do more research on Adam Hunt. He was one of Starling City's worst. He was notorious for bullying, bribing, or killing people who tried to bring him to justice. Fortunately, he hadn't met me yet.
I put on my costume: a green dress with a green hood with black tights and with green gloves and boots with green face paint around my eyes. I headed down to one of his buildings. My target was him and I wanted to be alone with him. I grabbed him out of his car and aimed at his face.
"Hey! Just tell me what you want." He replied. I grabbed him and held him up.
"You're going to transfer 40 million into this bank account by 10:00 pm tomorrow or I'm going to take it and you won't like how I do that." I explained.
"If I see you again, you're dead!" He threatened. I responded by shooting an arrow through his windshield and running away. People may wonder why I didn't just kill him. I wanted to give him a chance to do what was right first. I had a feeling he wouldn't.
The following night, I was preparing to go to my party. I was in a black dress and heels. I opened the car door to see Diggle seated in the backseat.
"Put on your seatbelt, Ma'am." He instructed. I actually had planned on going to the party. "You wouldn't want to miss your own party."
As I prepared to make my entrance, I checked the time on my phone. It was 9:07 and nothing had been done yet. I made my way down the stairs and the music stopped and Tommy appeared.
"Everyone, this woman of the hour has arrived." He remarked. "Now everyone give this woman a proper homecoming."
I was immediately treated to some shots.
"I missed tequila!" I shouted.
I then went away with Tommy.
"So, if my calculations are correct, you haven't had sex in a long time." He said. "Now I don't know if your tastes are the same, so there are both guys and girls here. Now I would personally recommend Carmen Golden. She's the one that looks like the chick from Twilight."
"They made a movie of Twilight?" I asked.
"Yes, and don't ever see it." He responded. At that moment, I caught something that shouldn't be happening. I walked over.
"Hey, Thea." I greeted her.
"Sara, it's great to see you." She responded as she wrapped her arm around me.
"How did you get in here?" I asked.
"I believe someone said right this way, Miss Queen." She quipped.
"You know you shouldn't be here." I explained. "You're underage and this is not the place for you."
"Sara, you don't have a right to judge me. You were just like me when you were my age." She pointed out. I wished that wasn't true. "Plus, I got the final confirmation that my brother is dead. My father is dead. You are not my sister, so leave me alone."
She walked away but I had already taken the substance and threw it in the trash. I noticed Diggle was still watching me. I started to walk away before I ran into someone and to my surprise, it was Laurel.
"You're here." I noted.
"Dad said he didn't like how I handled our talk which I guess you told him about." She explained. "Can we possibly talk somewhere quiet?"
I took her out into the hallway.
"I'm sorry for saying that I wished you were dead." She declared. "That was wrong with me."
"Well I'm sorry for going on the trip and having sex with your boyfriend many, many times." I countered.
"About Oliver? There's something that I've been afraid to ask." She remarked. "Did he suffer?"
Well considering that he probably drowned, I would say that he suffered a lot.
"No." I lied.
"I think about him every day." She admitted. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate for me to say I did too. "You know I never thought I'd say this, but if you ever want to talk, I'm available."
At that point, I noticed my phone ring was ringing inside of my bra. It was 10:00 and Hunt hadn't deposited the money.
"Is something wrong?" She inquired.
"I asked someone to do something and they didn't do it." I answered. "Laurel, maybe we should keep our distance for a little longer. Let yourself be mad at me. I would be if you did the same thing to me. We can talk about reconciling later. Now I need to go."
I decided to try to go out through the kitchen. Unfortunately, Diggle followed me.
"Is there something I can help with, Ma'am?" He asked.
"I just needed some air." I remarked. "I'm still not used to crowded spaces."
"I'd believe you if you weren't so anxious to get away." He replied. "Party is this way."
It looked like I would have to escape the hard way. I made my way into the building and another fight broke out with more people shooting at me. It was like they didn't know how to shoot at all. It was too easy. After a few minutes, I made my escape. I headed out the window and down the zipline I had set up.
I got changed in a hurry to get back to the party. I wasn't surprised that the cops showed up.
"Starling City Police. The party is over." Hilton declared.
"What's going on, Daddy?" I asked my father.
"There was an incident at Adam Hunt's building just now." He explained.
"Who's Adam Hunt?" I questioned.
"It doesn't matter. What matters is your hood girl was there." Hilton declared.
"The girl in the hood? You wanna find her? I'll offer a reward." I replied. "Hey Everyone! The police are looking for a girl in a hood. Anyone who finds her gets to make out with me!"
"Let's go, Luke. It doesn't look like she's here." Dad said before they made their exit.
"Okay, let's get this party started back up." I shouted.
The following morning, I went and got to work on the transferring. I used a special arrow that could hack into his bank account and was using it to pay off his victims. I then crossed his name off the list. There were many more, but at least I had won for now.
It was morning when we made it somewhere. Mr. Queen was huddled close to me for warmth.
"There's not enough for all of us." He declared.
"You can survive, this, Sara. You can fix things." He replied. "But you have to live through this. He then did something unexpected. He took a gun and shot the first mate into the water and then he shot himself in the head.
I had changed and everyone on the list would wish that I had died on the island or never even made it to begin with. I was coming for them.
So I have written something again. I wanted to explore Thea and Sara again. Rather than rewrite Red, I decided to do a Sara as Arrow story. Also in this story Lucas is played by Terry Crews. Please don't forget to review