Disclaimer: Smallville: Superman the Early Years, and Superman, the comic and all their relevant characters, places and items, are the direct property of Warner Brothers Inc, The CW and DC comics.

A/N: As a Chlollie virgin, I wondered if I should have gone with such a dark, and deep storyline… I hope it turns out well. Please enjoy. I would really appreciate and take on board any comments or reviews that you would like to leave.

Hope you love it!

Much Love

Darkeyes x

Nostrum Terra

Chapter One

Absence - that common cure of love.-Lord Byron

Chloe could remember a different life. It seemed so long ago though, that she woke up to the smells of fresh coffee drifting upstairs from the Talon, or when she would argue with Lois over whether or not Cap'n Crunch was more creepy than the Lucky Charms guy. She remembered being happy, working with meteor infected people, working with the JL. She remembered coming home to a fiancé who loved her.

There was a life outside of these walls… Chloe could remember it.

But it all seemed so scripted now; as though she were looking at her life on the silver screen, images flashed by so fast, she could hardly register them before they were gone.

Chloe smiled as she thought back to her friends, who she'd forgotten. It was easier to pretend she'd forgotten them, and not the other way round. She remembered a sweet farm boy with a billion dollar smile, a sparkling black boy, with eyes that were full of life, a girl who was so beautiful, that men literally tripped over their feet to look at her, and yet so oblivious.

She sighed and returned from her reverie. Was there really any use in dwelling on the past? That past was now so far gone, Chloe wasn't even sure she was a part of it anymore. Though if she was brutally honest with herself, Chloe didn't feel like a part of anything anymore.

They say that friends come and go, but family is forever. But the last person Chloe met who'd sprung from her gene pool had vanished without a trace. But Chloe had pressed on, searching in every dark corner of cyberspace for Lois. After three months of searching, it dawned on Chloe that she hadn't slept at the Talon for days… that it wasn't home anymore. It was working off of this momentum that she managed to sell the place. She didn't take much from it, not wanting to disturb Lois' things. But she knew that the very act was a manifestation of her solitude.

In fact, living at Watchtower, and not being around, Lois' three year old pop tarts, that she'd refused to throw away, or her Die Hard collection, had actually made it easier to cope without Lois. The truth was that the Talon was the biggest part of their relationship. Living with Lois, had made her love her in more ways than she'd ever thought possible. And now being away from that, the constant reminders made it easier.

Lois Lane is a Soldier. She thought smiling to herself. If Lois was out there, she'd find her way home eventually. They always do.

She turned back to her screens and watched. Several weeks ago, Emil Hamilton, Oliver's doctor on payroll and experts on all things weird and wonderful, had dipped into his boss' pocket and forked out a hefty sum for state of the art equipment for Watchtower. It may not have been the healthiest thing for Chloe. In many ways it was like sticking a three year old in a candy store, and telling them to knock themselves out. Thankfully she hadn't managed that quite yet.

What she had managed was to keep an eye on her favourite fivesome. Fivesome be they or not. When she and Oliver set up this group, they were all given communicators, to be in touch wherever. What Chloe didn't tell them, was that they all had tracking chips in them. That was what Chloe was watching. From what she could tell Dinah and AC were in Venice, Bart was a floater, he'd been in Johannesburg thirty seconds ago, and he was now in Bangkok, Victor was Stateside, in Seattle. Why, she didn't know. And Oliver…

Chloe let out a frustrated sigh.

According to his tracker, Oliver was in Metropolis, in Luthorcorp plaza in his office, probably sipping tea with the Queen of England.

The truth was that he was no where near Metropolis; probably no where near Kansas. Chloe had no idea where he was. She couldn't track his cell phone, because he'd… well she didn't know what he'd done with it. For all she knew it could be at the bottom of the lake in Smallville. For all she knew, Oliver could be at the bottom of the lake in Smallville…

Chloe shuddered, and banished the thought. She'd made a deal with herself, that she would never think that one of her own were dead… not until she saw their bodies. She wouldn't be able to take it otherwise. She chose not to let herself worry, and so not let worrying consume her.

The truth was that she did worry. That was why she had the trackers planted, and why she put cameras in Oliver's belts, and Dinah's buttons, etc. They were all gone, scattered like lost sheep. But they wouldn't let her bring them back. She'd tried with AC and Dinah, and with Vic… even Bart wouldn't come back.

She knew what the problem was; it was Oliver.

All of them had taken the past few months hard, but Oliver… it was like he was a whole other person. And yet he still found it just as easy to disappear. She had tracked him down once; following his credit history to Los Angeles.

When she'd found him, he was drunk off his face, and a hairs breadth from a serious bar fight. He looked a mess. His face was unshaven; his skin blotched with dirt, and blood. There were bruises on his knuckles, and I'm sure there were more lurking under his shirt. Despite how much he'd drunk though, he was still adamant.

"Go home, Chloe." He'd said. "I don't need you to come and babysit me."

"It's my job" she'd replied light heartedly.

"Then you're fired!" he'd yelled "Goddammit, just leave me alone!"

The look on his face will always haunt her. That kind of pure dejection, and self-loathing, and pain… so much pain. Chloe's heart ached to get rid of that pain… to turn him back into the light-hearted, easygoing hero he once was.

But for now all she could do was watch… watch and wait, and pray with all her heart that they would come back. Chloe could feel that the world needed heroes like them, and it needed them soon.

Sadly, it wasn't just a gut feeling. Having never been a fan of the Luthorcorp dynasty in general, Chloe may have been a little biased. But that didn't change the fact that Tess Mercer was pouring millions and millions into a small environmental and energy research company called REO incorporated; the same company that had taken it on as their personal mission to provide clean energy for the entirety of Metropolis. Chloe sighed as her eyes glanced at the newspaper from the previous day. A picture was on the front of the solar towers, that were near completion. Chloe couldn't help the sense of foreboding.

She stood up and headed over to the kitchenette. Coffee was on her brain. She'd decided the reason that she was over-thinking was because she hadn't had enough coffee, not that she hadn't slept properly in days. The truth was that she didn't want to sleep.

"Rather stay up with me bright eyes?"

A shadow of a smile ghosted across Chloe's face… Jimmy…

Chloe wasn't a psychologist, but she knew exactly what one would say. That she was hallucinating, hearing voices, either as a first sign of psychopathy, or schizophrenia (which would mean a long stint in a place that she definitely never wanted to see again), or she was clinging to the memory of her dead husband so much that she actually believed he was still there.

Rational and logical Chloe had decided that it was really a manifestation of her guilt; it was only in their very last moments together that she had been honest with him. Lying was a big part of their relationship. Perhaps she thought that she was protecting him at the time, or that he wouldn't understand or accept her. But… He did understand, and he did accept her. Chloe had honestly allowed herself to believe that she was going to be happy, with Jimmy…

Chloe shut her eyes and swallowed back a lump of tears as she topped up her mug with fresh coffee, as though on auto-pilot, her eyes stared past the monitors to the floor of watchtower, where under laminate flooring, her husband's blood still stained the concrete.

"I love you…"

She shut her eyes, to keep the tears back, but one still traced a warm path down her cheek. She could still see that fading smile on his face, that breathless laugh, his eyes looking up at her as the spark, and the laughter left them.

She let out a shaky sigh of frustration. "It shouldn't still hurt like this Jimmy…" she whispered. "Why does it still hurt…?"

I don't want it to…

It had been five months since she'd put his body in the ground. She knew what it took to move on, to get over someone, but for some unknown reason, Chloe couldn't seem to do it.

Emil was worried about her. He thought she spent too much time inside Watchtower. But the truth was what else was she going to do? Her cousin was missing, probably dead, her boss and co-workers were scattered, and her best friend was gone.

The image of Clark turning his back on her instantly flashed across her mind, but Chloe put it away. No matter how much she felt hurt or betrayed by Clark. There was no use in trying for a lost cause. Clark was often the most stubborn person she'd ever known. And she knew that if he said he wasn't coming back… he wouldn't come bac-

CRASH!

Chloe's mug fell to the floor, and her jaw dropped.

"Impossible…" she breathed.

There in her monitor, standing in the middle of the Kent Barn, was Clark Kent.

She moved closer to the screen. There he was, looking around the room, looking for something.

"Oh my God…" Chloe whispered, before grabbing her keys and running out of the door. If she knew Clark and his X-ray vision, she had no time to lose.

The cold water hit Oliver's face, and immediately he felt awake. Using his hands he rubbed at his eyes, before finally, bringing his hands to rest on the sink. His head was spinning. He couldn't seem to focus on anything. He didn't know what hotel he was in, what country he was in. He couldn't remember her name for the life of him; her being the woman whose condo (or hotel room, he couldn't remember) he was in. This woman happened to be the same one who he'd just had sex with moments earlier.

"Oliver!" she called out from the bedroom. "What are you doing?"

He groaned, and lifted his head to look in the mirror. His reflection was foreign to him nowadays. Like a mask… He had told Chloe that the life he led now was no act. This is Oliver Queen now; the playboy billionaire, who knows how to really have fun. This is the person who was really under the hood.

He needed this. He needed to be this person. He couldn't be the responsible businessman, or the CEO. He couldn't be the person Lois deserved, or the person that Chloe relied on, or the person Clark confided in. He wasn't good for people. If people get to close to him, they got hurt.

Just like Jimmy.

And Chloe.

And Lois.

What was the point in being the hero, when the people you care about most, always got hurt? From time to time, Oliver saw Clark running around Metropolis, saving lives, burning S'es into buildings, and being the hero. But he was a shell. Talking to him was like talking to a corpse. He used to be so much more alive, like he was always on an adrenaline boost. But lately… since Lois went. Something in him went with her.

He didn't want to be that guy. He didn't want to be dead inside. So he delved deeper into the vortex, and let the world spin around him.

He stepped out of the bathroom, and smiled at the naked woman in the sheets… what was her name.

Brandy?

Bella?

Blake?

He stopped wondering, and poured himself out a glass of bourbon.

"How are you not drunk yet?" the woman asked. "I saw how much you drank at the bar."

Oliver scoffed. "Well I guess I should just keep going then."

The woman looked him over once, before sitting up in the bed, and drawing herself onto her knees. The sheet feel, and Oliver looked down over her.

"Or… you could put the drink down." She said seductively, "And let me show you a really good time."

Oliver glanced at her, and obliged, fitting his mouth over hers, and his hands immediately crawling over her skin. Sometimes, a good hard fuck would do what alcohol couldn't.

There was a tower in the centre of Metropolis. It was designed to be covered entirely with solar panels, allowing it to provide renewable energy to the entirety of Metropolis indefinitely. Tess Mercer had organised its construction for the furthering of the environmental work done by the research and energy company; REO incorporated. It was called by experts

"the greatest innovative technology to come out of Luthercorp, since the Luthors passed."

"A milestone for Energy Resources, and Architecture."

"A true stroke of genius for the amazing Mercer, and REO."

Zod stood in the courtyard of the towers. His towers. To the earthlings, this tower was a symbol of hope, hope for a future for their planet. It was the same for Zod's people. He looked up at their stagerring structures, and smiled.

"Major Zod."

He turned slightly, a private stood behind him, and saluted. "What is it."

"We have brought Jor-El, as you have requested."

Zod turned, with a smile. "Good." He said. "Bring him here."

The private disappeared through an archway, and reappeared with a man in chains in tow.

Jor-El. His once ally. His ever friend. His almost brother. Zod approached the man slowly appraising him, as the man was forced to his knees. He was bloodied, and bruised, his breath was laboured and he swayed in weakness. But still he turned his head to look at the Major.

Zod swallowed and looked away. "Leave us."

The private scampered away, and the men were alone.

"I wondered, when I heard about your excursion in Smallville," Zod said "If you had purposed us to come to this planet, where you yourself spent your adolescence."

Jor-El said nothing, but continued to sway.

"The house you went to means much to you. I could not tell why… until I saw for myself."

Zod dropped a piece of paper in front of the man. He glanced at it, and frowned.

The Major crouched down to look Jor-El in his eyes. "someone's been advertising on your behalf."

Jor-El shook his head, "I know nothing of these Zod."

Zod nodded "I'm sure," he said. "But how am I to trust you?"

Jor-El raised his eyes to look into the major's, his face void of emotion.

"After you abandon your people," Zod stood and began to pace the floor of the courtyard. "Deceive me, and hide from me the one object that you know has the power to supply us with our powers."

"If you have your powers, this planet will fall."

Suddenly Zod's hand was at Jor-El's throat. Jor-El choked on a cry, and his face began to twist, and redden in pain. Zod whispered in Jor-El's ear. "If you are withholding my powers from me," he said, "Then I'll be sure that you fall."

"Then kill me Zod" Jor-El hissed as his face contorted further.

Zod's jaw clentched unstinctively. "You are confident that I shan't?"

"Whether or not I die is immaterial." Jor-El's voice became strained and choked as he tried to get the words out. "You will never find the book of Rau."

Filled with rage, and vehement anger, Zod shoved Jor-El away releasing his neck, and watching as he writhed and coughed and choked for air.

He let out a sigh. "Jor-El, my friend." He said. "you fail to realise that this is not an attempt to find where you hid the book of Rau. You see-"

Zod's hand slipped into his pocket and to Jor-El's horror, pulled out the disk, that he had worked so hard to protect.

A smirk teased Zod's lips. "- I already have it."

Jor-El's shouders fell with his resolve. "don't do this, Zod." He pleaded. "I know the people on this planet. They don't deserve this-"

Zod slapped him and cut him off. "Traitors do not give counsel." He said.

Jor-El leaned to one side, and spat out blood, before turning back to Zod, his mouth red.

Once again, Zod crouched down in front of Jor-El. "Do you remember my little boy, Jor-El."

Jor-El nodded. "Fair haired…" he said. "tall for his age…"

"He was six years…" Zod began, looking down at the disk he twirled in his fingers. "He didn't want to be a soldier when he grew up. He wanted to work with science… just, like, you," Zod punctuated each of those three words, with a prod to Jor-El's chest.

He hand then reached out and twisted into his hair, pulling so hard that Jor-El let out a loud cry. "You had no child!" Zod practically yelled. "And yet you in your arrogance played God, dictating who deserves a second chance!"

Jor-El cried out as Zod smashed his head into the stone floor. "Did my son deserve to die?" Zod screamed. "Did he?"

"I didn't kill your son, Zod!"

"But you didn't save him!" Zod threw him down, he splayed on the ground, groaning as he searched for the strength to push himself upright.

"And now," Zod said with a cool calmness that unsettled Jor-El's stomach. "The greater powers have offered me a true blessing from the heavens."

Jor-El frowned. What was he talking about? And why did his words leave Jor-El so… fearful.

"Feyora solved the mystery of your shield." Zod said. He pushed Jor-El upright, and looked into his eyes. "Look at me." He said. "I want to see your eyes when I tell you this."

Jor-El turned his eyes on the major, and saw an unreal amount of malice there. He shuddered under the look, confused and a little scared.

"You have a son Jor-El." Zod said. "and I will make certain nothing saves him from my retribution."

A/N: Hey look at that! you read it! Huzzah! Huzzah! etc!

Please review, I want to know if I should continue with this or let it die.

Much Love!

Darkeyes x