King: Chapter One (1/?)
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Summary: After Oliver comes out of his downward spiral, he has one objective: to save Chloe Sullivan. "Although the objective of chess is to place the king in a compromising position, every player wants to capture the other’s queen." Sequel to Queen
Warning: Rated NC-17, for smut in future chapters.
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to slytherinpunk ! Happy Birthday!!
Chapter One
Although the objective of chess is to place the king in a compromising position, every player wants to capture the other’s queen.
For Oliver, things seemed to have gone back to normal, and that worried him. After months of being in a drunken stupor, he was determined to keep himself from falling down again. He promised the hallucination that he wasn’t going to forget, and that he would be good to the real Chloe Sullivan.
He had broken the promise he had made to the League years ago to never let anything happen to them and when he originally gave up on his company and his role as the Green Arrow, he silently broke every promise that he made to his parents to make a difference in the world. But this? This was a promise that he was determined to keep.
The hallucination was an image of his memories, and of Chloe’s- making a promise to that sparkling vision in gold meant making a promise not only to her, but to himself as well.
He burned every bottle that he had purchased. He also locked up the family liquor collection, and gave her the key. If there was one person alive who could guard it, who could prevent him from slipping again, it was the woman who had saved him. And now, it was his turn to save her.
When she called him, saying that Lois was in the hospital due to post-traumatic stress disorder over the future that she had visited, Oliver called the best neurologists in the world to find out what was going on. Clark took Lois to Met Gen, and Chloe stayed behind. She had Emil request a copy of her medical records so that she could sift through them at the Watchtower instead of going to the hospital.
Oliver was sitting around at his desk now, waiting to hear back from Clark or Chloe. The last thing he heard, Lois had gone missing. He didn’t think that Chloe kidnapped her, but he did think that she knew more of what was going on than she let on. He kept himself busy by filling out some paperwork until his phone rang. But it wasn’t Chloe who was calling him.
“Emil, what’s going on?” he asked
“What do you know?” the doctor asked cautiously
“Lois went missing from the hospital, and Clark was trying to track her down.” He answered
“Long story short? Tess kidnapped Lois and took her to a facility. Chloe and Clark tracked her down, and he unintentionally used the machine Lois was hooked up to. He was able to see everything that she did.”
“And?”
“I don’t know what Clark saw, but I do know that it’s bad. But to be honest, I’m more worried about Chloe.”
His grip on the cell phone tightened. “What happened?”
“Clark was literally trapped within Lois’ brainwaves, and I wanted to pull him out right away, but she wouldn’t let me. The human brain is a very complicated and unique system, but Lois’ body wouldn’t have been able to withstand the memories for very long. Chloe knew how physically damaging they were, but she was still willing to risk her cousin’s life in order to find out what happens in the future.”
Oliver closed his eyes for a moment and pinched the bridge of his nose before answering. “Didn’t you say that the future Clark saw was bad? So, isn’t it a good thing that Chloe was willing to take the risk?”
“She’s becoming morally gray at best, and you know it.”
He let out a breath. “Yeah, I know. I’m working on fixing that part”, he told Emil. “Right up there with becoming less transparent”, he added. “Where are they now? Is everyone safe?”
“Everyone’s fine. Ms. Mercer and Mr. Campbell are both in the hospital, but they will both live. Clark and Lois are okay. They’re at the Planet as we speak.”
“And Chloe?” Oliver prompted
“She’s probably at the Watchtower.”
“Of course.” She was always there. “Thanks for filling me in.” He hung up the phone and pulled on his jacket. Time for a little drive.
He made it to the Watchtower in record time, and pushed the double doors open. Chloe was typing at her desk, her eyes fixated on the screen in front of her. “One second”, she said as she continued to type.
“Sorry to just barge in here without calling. Emil filled me in on mostly everything.”
She nodded, and continued to type for a couple of seconds before letting out a breath. “Done.”
“What did you do? What did Clark see?” he asked
“I just wanted to make sure that Emil doesn’t get into trouble for helping us. I hacked into the hospital’s database, made it look like Lois never left, and that he just diagnosed her with hypoglycemia. That’s the back-story.”
Chloe reached into a drawer, and pulled out a couple of files. “Here”
He flipped through absentmindedly. “Medical files?” He sorted through them. “Stuart, Lois, and Tess?”
“They’re all fine. Completely healthy.”
He held them out to her. “I trust you.”
But she didn’t accept them. “Read them. I want to make sure I didn’t miss anything.”
She walked over to a nearby monitor, and started typing. “Sit”, she said over her shoulder.
She was avoiding the question. Oliver set the files on the desk before following her. “Chloe.” He said gently “What did Clark see?”
She turned around. “We all die less than a year from now”, she said bluntly. “Zod and the Kandorians develop a solar tower that turns the sun red, giving them powers and stripping Clark of his. You, me, Clark, we’re all going to die.”
Oliver knew that she didn’t want to talk about it for longer than she had to. “I’m going to go read the files. You’re right, we better make sure everything’s in order.”
She nodded. “Clark should be here any minute. Apparently, he has some sort of plan.”
Oliver sat down at the desk, and flipped through the files as Chloe turned her back on him and resumed her typing. He watched as she moved from computer to computer. He stared at the screens as she left them- she was trying to find more satellite images with Kryptonian symbols.
She was busying herself, trying not to think about the future. In the same way that he distracted himself by drinking. The hallucination was right- he shouldn’t have been surprised.
The only question was how he was going to make Chloe see what she was doing to herself. It didn’t even register to her that she should have gone to the hospital to check on her cousin. Chloe wasn’t even telling him the specifics of what Clark saw.
Oliver remembered her words, weeks ago. I trust you Oliver, just…not that much. He hated that he still wasn’t at that point yet. He went to work every day and patrolled every night, but it still wasn’t good enough.
Clark walked through the door, and Oliver tried to look absorbed in the files once more, but the smile on Clark’s face had him curious. “You know, for a guy who just got a mondo dose of kryptonite, you sure seem happy.”
Clark stared out the window. “Well, the sun is shining; Lois is going to be alright.”
“She should be fine”, Oliver glanced at Chloe, who was walking over. “Dr. Emil ran every possible test on her, and she’s healthy and doesn’t remember a thing.” She said, as she made her way over to the desk, flipping over a nearby laptop. Oliver did a double take. He didn’t realize until that moment that she was wearing a green leather jacket.
She looked more beautiful in green leather than the hallucination did in that golden dress. The real thing was better after all.
“Except for the flowers that Clark sent to her hospital room”, Chloe added. “But who could forget 5 dozen roses?”
Seriously? “Five dozen roses. Well, that’s subtle”, Oliver remarked.
Chloe glanced at both of them. “You know, I don’t get why the two of you are grinning, considering the fact that we’re all about to die terribly tragic deaths in the not so distant future.”
Terribly tragic deaths? She didn’t say that before. How did she die?
“That’s because if we do something in the present, we can change all that”, Clark told them.
If they all died terribly tragic deaths, then Chloe going through all that trouble to bring him back would have been a waste. And Oliver wasn’t about to accept that. He stood up from the chair. “Well, I vote we take Zod out right now. That way, he doesn’t get the chance to take the sunshine off our shoulders.”
“No. In the future that I saw, I tried to fight Zod. All I did was turn him into a more powerful enemy.”
“Clark, just because you learned a lesson on team work doesn’t mean that we have to stop fighting Zod”, Chloe told him.
“Going up against Zod will only force him to come back with everything that he has.”
Oliver sensed the tension between her and Clark. Most of all, he felt Chloe’s usual fighting spirit beginning to wane. It was time for him to step in, even if he had just gotten on good terms with Clark.
“So what, you think you two can just hug it out?” He asked
“When my father said save Zod, what I think he meant was save Zod from himself. Now, if I can befriend him, show him how good life can be here”, Clark started.
“-That would be a mistake”, Chloe said. Good, she was willing to fight again. She walked around the desk. “Clark, if Zod gets his solar tower online, that gives him all the power in the world and us none. Including you. Zod will fly psychopathic circles around you.”
“Chloe, I’ve seen what happens when I treat Zod like the enemy. This time I’m going to do things the right way.”
Clark sped off before either of them could get in another word. Chloe just walked back over to a monitor, and continued typing.
For her, it was time to get back to work, but he didn’t want her to get lost in it again.
He remembered the hallucination’s words: I couldn’t hate you even if I tried.
A part of her said those words, and that meant that she wouldn’t push him away. He walked up to her. “Terribly tragic deaths, huh? I feel like I’m missing some important details.”
“I wasn’t given all of the details”, she said as she typed.
“But you know how we die. Those are pretty important details. I mean, if I get into a car accident or something, let me know now so I can just go the rooftop route into work”, he joked.
“Don’t worry, the traffic route is still solid. I’m pretty sure I can hack into traffic control and give you all greens. You know, for a faster journey”, she smiled.
A smile is a good sign. “Well, how do I die?”
If he could just get her to turn around and unglue her hands from that keyboard…
“Steer clear of a swarm of flying Kandorians”, she answered.
“Well, what do you have to avoid?”
She stopped typing for a second, and looked down. What was she looking at?
“Chloe?”
“A sword”, she answered softly.
“That’s not going to happen”, he said automatically. “None of it will.”
“We can’t be sure. Not unless we prevent the solar towers from being built.”
“Then we’ll make sure that those aren’t built.”
She turned around. Good. “How are you going to do that?”
“Zod’s been working with Tess. If he tries to build the solar towers, he’s going to need approval from the board. I won’t let that happen.”
“Go.”
She turned her back on him, and continued to work. But Oliver saw the small smile on her lips, and he didn’t feel insulted. If this was the only way to build her trust in him, then he was going to do it.
For her, he would battle a thousand Kandorians.