sara was born to jim and diane hopper, and from a young age had a habit of panic attacks that would form seemingly out of nowhere. her mother had taken part in some mk ultra tests before sar was born, causing sara to display some abnormalities that appeared as she was growing up. at the age of six, sara was torn away from her mother and father by a man named dr brenner. he forced her into a van with the help of a team of scientists, and had a mysterious young girl named three alter the memories of the town to convince each person that sara hopper had died from a fatal form of cancer. three erased sara's memories too, until the only thing she was left with was the nickname "sar", and the understanding that she didn't belong in there. she was placed in a lab with a growing amount of other children, and was left to grow up there without ever knowing if she had a family that loved her.
sar's days were spent as a lab rat, sitting still as scientists stuck needles into her skin and placed receptors on her head, watching the lines brain monitors spike and fall when they put her under various scenarios. at first, when she'd arrived with no memories of who she was—only what 003 had left her with—it was hard. the tests they gave her at first were frustratingly simple: "tell us what he's thinking"; "make him stand"; "speak to the nice man in your mind". but over the years, as her mind opened and her powers stretched, they grew more difficult: "the man in this photo, he's in russia, what is he thinking, six?"; "tell him to pull the trigger, six, on all of them"; "enter the rat's mind, control it, become it". the tests pulled her around, jumbled her up, dragged her mind too far out of its skull over and over, and it hurt every time.
the experiments would have driven her insane if it wasn't for the other children. there were twelve of them, in the end, though some of them never even had the chance to meet each other (they did not live for very long). they were: one, with the kind smile and masked eyes, whose glance could kill any living thing; two, emma, who had eyes brighter than morning dew and a laugh which could cure any ailment; three, a sullen girl who took memories and worked alongside the lab for special treatment, none of them got along with her; four, a boy older than sar named james, with the nearly-useless ability to feel one's emotions; five, gentle lune who taught sar everything she knew; seven, the fiery girl who knew only courage; eight, a timid girl who hardly spoke, yet sar who had a soft spot for; nine, a young, sweet boy who stuttered when he talked; ten, a lithe girl who was the smartest person sar had ever met; eleven, a soft little girl with gentle eyes; and twelve, katie, who was the kindest girl sar had ever known.
she spent a large amount of her childhood there, or at least what she remembered. those children, at the time, were the only family she'd ever known. no wonder it had broken her when each of them had been killed so terribly. seven first, then three, one, two, five, until there were only a handful of them left, still so young and fragile, knowing so much of the horrors of the world.
