Not three days after posting the last chapter of Plain Jane, I happily pass this on to thee! It's sort of a headcanon in Arrow with what I hope they do with Terra (because that show doesn't need anymore badass females... who am I kidding with badass females it's the more the merrier.), because she doesn't really get enough love. Enjoy! :)
Taryn Allie Markov (Terra to her friends) was mostly known because of her brother Brion, the genius seismologist behind approximately a billion (and a half) new earthquake detection technologies. She really didn't mind, it meant when he was invited to Southern Japan for some study or other one summer, she got to tag along just before she started getting her bachelor's of mechanics at Starling Uni. The fact that she gave birth at the end of her freshman year of college was, in her mind, determinedly unrelated. Despite Brion's insistence that she rest and recover and acclimate to her little girl for more than a few months, she returned that fall to continue pursuing her degree. At one point, she wasn't sure she would be able to keep her scholarship (Brion had offered to take care of her schooling as his new job at Unidac Ind. was paying through the nose for his expertise, but she insisted it would be a good experience for her… even if he was her safety net and occasional babysitter) but she managed to pull through.
It was in winter of that year she decided to change to business major. Rose turned one at the end of the semester. Taryn finally lost the rest of the pregnancy fat and started working to build some muscle. She never thought it might have something to do with the man she had met in Japan, and his impressive physique. She felt more comfortable in business classes, even if her mechanics books were more interesting. It was a matter of sustainability, really. Brion's job at Unidac Ind. kept him busier than ever. Taryn snuck looks at blueprints she found scattered around the house, and she wasn't entirely sure what she was seeing. …But if Brion found them again, neatly spread out on the dinner table with notes on how to improve the design and energy output, it certainly wasn't Rose, who was just barely learning to toddle up and down stairs.
When Rose turned three, the vigilante made his first appearance in Starling and the Markov device started being built. The first prototypes were things of beauty, fearsome weapons of terror… so long as the target was less than two inches square. Rose used them to joyfully terrorize ants when Taryn took her to the playground. Other mothers and nannies whispered about the Hood, romanticizing the modern-day Robin of Locksley. Taryn would have found it all silly, except she could see the appeal of a bowman in tight pants (maybe she was a little influenced by Firefly). When Rose was almost four, the fantasies were replaced by hatred and fear when Taryn had to identify her brother on-site of his murder with a black arrow sticking out of his chest. She sat outside Rose's door for months with a loaded 12-gauge and schematics, making the Markov device lighter, smaller, and more user-friendly. The end result wouldn't level the Glades, like it's predecessor did just weeks before, it's radius was limited to a paltry ten feet, but she was driven enough to rig together two working devices she could strap to her wrists. Her sole problem was the glare from the energy tubes, but thick goggles soon fixed that problem.
The following year was her senior year in college, with a thesis, no babysitter, and the debut of a one-eyed business miracle in Starling. She knew, logically, that he had no reason to have any clue of her existence, but late some nights, when she was putting Rose to sleep and then staying up until two a.m. studying, she could swear she felt someone watching.
She stopped taking Rose to the park. She stopped going out with her friends. She almost pulled Rose out of school, but her little girl's pleading changed her mind. When the city was attacked by the miraculously strong soldiers, she locked the doors and windows and barricaded Rose and herself in the only room in the apartment without windows, her gauntlets strapped to her wrists and her shotgun on her lap. The next morning, when she eked open the door and looked through the apartment, nothing had been touched, save for the neighbor's cat eating their dinner.
When Slade Wilson was sent off to… wherever, she suddenly found willed to her from one Isobel Rochev (who was something of a role model) multiple shares of Queen Cons. and a promise of a position on the board. What Isobel Rochev would ever want with her was beyond her, but she didn't look the gift horse in the mouth. The board was reluctant because Isobel was no longer there to browbeat them into submission, and for a while Taryn wasn't sure she would get in, but apparently the woman had had enough clout that they were still a bit scared of her. Taryn got the seat. Rose was babysat a lot of the time, and she was sometimes a terror without "Uncle Bion," but Taryn knew she would grow to like her new babysitter.
When night fell, Taryn went out to the Glades, practicing and building up a reputation as a bloody vigilante with a preference for long-range fighters, so much so that the papers kept saying she was dropping almost as many bodies as the Hood in his first year.
Queen Cons. was in tatters, but Taryn had some ideas. And on the streets, Terra was working her way up to her brother's killer.
So, to cover something before someone brings it up: the black hood was never released to the press. It was deliberately suppressed at first, then they never really mentioned it again in either season. When Brion Markov was killed, the only ones who knew that there were two hooded homicidal bowmen in Starling were the police. Taryn thought there was just one, and that was the green one. Ergo ipso facto, the green one gets to feel her wrath. The reason Slade ensured she was left alone was because (as we see as he grows to not hate Oliver and care for Shado) Slade does have his soft spots. With a woman who gave birth to his child, he probably feels a giant sense of obligation, especially because they probably parted on less-than stellar terms (hope I made that clear.) I see something like: Taryn is in Japan while Brion is studying earthquakes, sees a half-dead guy on the beach, and does what any decent human being would do, tries to help him. Except when she leaves him in the care of the hospital, her 18-19 year old brain does what I know my 18-19 year old brain did best: it romanticizes. And Slade, he wants to forget what happened on the island and with Shado. End result, sexual encounter (to those who will quibble with the May-December thing, be grateful, because in the comics she's 16) and when Slade wakes up after, he sees one of his hallucinations about Shado and it's basically a "why did you betray me?" thing, and goes all mirakuru rage monster, scaring Taryn off and injuring her a bit. Slade feels guilty after he's had time to think about what he's done, and when he finds out about Rose that makes everything ten times worse, and Taryn feels bitter against him. Wow this author's note is getting long. So I'll just leave you to it, my lovelies! Have an enjoyable school year and review and tell me what you think of me forcing my brain on to you all!