A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville, it's characters, or the main plot.

"In Chess, the Queen is the King's most powerful ally."

Chapter One

Oliver Queen was getting ready to fight. He tried to travel in order to escape the guilt, never staying in two places at once. It was how he ran his life after his parents died. But this, this was different and he found himself coming back to Metropolis. He was surprised to see that nobody had come to find him. Yet.

Maybe that was the reason for his return all along- he wanted his punishment. The punishment for leaving in the first place, for not facing his problems. His punishment for being responsible for the death of an innocent man.

He knew that everyone was blaming themselves right now- Clark would say that his belief in the good nature of humanity had finally bitten him in the ass, and Chloe would say that it was because she used the black kryptonite and split Doomsday in the first place, but he knew the truth.

This entire thing happened because Jimmy was involved to begin with. Jimmy had no powers, no experience in this sort of stuff. And Oliver had recruited him nonetheless so that he could stay away from drugs and get his life back together.

And now that Jimmy was dead and gone, nobody was there to lecture or punish him. The one time that Oliver wanted consequences, they were nowhere to be found.

The door to the cage opened, and he stepped inside. He didn't bother sizing up his opponent. This wasn't about survival or victory; it was about taking a beating. His pride was the only thing that made him fight back.

Eventually, he found himself thrown against the gate, grabbing it for support. He threw himself back at his opponent, and got a couple of good punches in before he was on the floor.

"Okay, just…give me a second. I'll be back up", he sputtered.

Suddenly, the guys watching the match were wolf-whistling, and calling out to someone. What was a girl doing here? He looked up to see Lois Lane. She was holding up a sign.

"Hello, legs", he said in confusion.

He let out a groan.

"Legs. Really? Is that a good idea?" she asked him "You're drunk."

"What are you doing here? Where have you been?" he asked

"Didn't you get my messages?" she asked, putting down the sign

The truth was he had no idea where his phone was. And he didn't feel like looking for it, or buying a new one.

"Yeah, my phone's been MIA for a while now." He let out a painful moan. "How'd you find me?"

"It wasn't that difficult to track down the Tabloid Prince of Metropolis. I just had to follow the paparazzi", she explained as she lifted her sign up again. "But your little, uh, boy club wouldn't let me in, so I had to improvise."

"I should warn you, Lois. I'm not having my best round, here."

"Yeah, I noticed. Look, you may be on some death-wish fast-track, but I could really use a dose of hero about now." She waved away some random guy. "Listen to me, I blacked out three weeks ago and woke up in a monorail car that jumped off the tracks, and now some assassin woman is after me."

"Could you repeat that?" he asked, trying to ignore the stinging pain on his eye.

Suddenly, he heard glass breaking. He ducked down, and brought Lois with him. A woman walked forward, and her eyes started to glow. He had seen that look before in Clark, right before he incinerated something.

"Everybody, down!" Oliver shouted.

Her eyes returned to normal, and the woman spoke. "I knew you'd be watching me", she said. "I was never after Lois. I want you."

Oliver saw Clark behind her. There was a whoosh, and both of them sped away. He saw the Kryptonian symbol on the gates.

Everyone in the room ducked out the moment that it was safe. Everyone except for Lois, who found a nearby medical kit and sat him down after dipping a cloth in some rubbing alcohol.

"You're a mess", she said bluntly.

"Yeah, why don't you just come out with it, Lois?"

"I'm disappointed."

"There you go, see, you sound like every other ex-girlfriend I've ever had."

She put the cloth to his forehead. "Yeah, but I'm not like every other ex you've had."

"You're not. I seem to get you back in my bed." He took a swig from a bottle that was lying around.

Lois chuckled. "You know what? You can't fool me. You risk your life to help strangers. So you can plaster that frat boy grin across your face, but I know that you're a real hero underneath."

It was bullshit. If Lois knew that, then she would still be with him. She wouldn't have run off when she found out what he truly was.

"Look Lois, when are you going to learn, okay? I'm nothing more than a shallow playboy. I've got the tabloid covers to prove it."

"Then how do you explain the whole Green Arrow thing?"

He took another swig. "You know, the whole hero thing distracted me for a little while. So did you."

She pressed the cloth to his eye harder. "Ow, ow ow ow"

"You're an obnoxious jackass."

"There you go, see? Now you've finally started to catch on. Look, I'm sorry if you thought that I was anything more than that, Lois, but it's not my fault."

"You know what? That's okay." She got up, and started walking backwards.

"Really?" he asked

"I guess you know yourself better than anyone." She walked away.

She turned around for a moment. "You know what? Maybe I don't really need you, Ollie. I've already found my real hero." She turned her back on him and walked out of the fight club.

He looked at the symbol that was still branded on the gate. Clark. Clark replaced him as a hero in her eyes. Lois had no idea why he was like this, didn't even bother to ask. She turned her back on him, and that was fine.

Oliver did know one thing for sure, he couldn't fight anymore. He didn't want another intervention with Lois, or trouble from Kryptonians for that matter.

His first instinct was to find Chloe or Clark in order to find out why there was a Kryptonian running around, but he didn't. He made his way back to the Clock Tower, because he was tired. He was tired of involving himself in Clark's alien problems.

He expected to wake up in the morning with an intense hangover, but it never came. And he wasn't thankful. He punched through his glass table in frustration, and didn't even attempt to clean up the mess or his bleeding knuckles.

He opened the liquor cabinet, and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a glass, and sat down at his couch. He stared at the pile of fragments on his floor, and refreshed his drink again and again.

After his seventh drink, he saw a shimmer of gold reflect in the pile of glass. He turned around- Chloe Sullivan was in front of him, wearing a long gold dress. He had seen her in that dress before, briefly before passing out at a fundraiser. That was the night that he had been poisoned.

"What's the occasion?" he asked her

She walked silently over to a closet, and pulled out a broom. She swept the glass in a neat pile, and threw it in the garbage can.

"That's very nice of you, Chloe, but why are you here?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she opened pressed the button to his elevator.

"What, so you clean up my mess and leave without a word? I know you're mad at me. You can yell at me if you want. Let's have it out." He called out

The doors opened, and she stepped inside. He sprang up to his feet. "Chloe, wait!"

She just stared at him as the doors closed. Oliver pressed the down button repeatedly in order for the doors to open again, but it was too late. He walked back to the couch, and stopped abruptly.

The pile of glass was still on the floor.