Black-suited men were already stationed outside the airport long before the private jet touched down.
They stood in disciplined rows beside a convoy of luxury vehicles, their presence sharp and silent, like shadows waiting for orders.
To anyone watching from a distance, it looked like a government arrival.
But this was not government.
This was something far more dangerous.
The convoy had once accompanied him out of the country—and now, they had simply returned ahead of him, splitting routes to ensure absolute control of the territory before his arrival.
The doors of the private terminal finally opened.
A shift moved through the air.
And then he stepped out.
Oliver Queen
Dressed in a dark tailored coat, his presence alone made the space feel heavier. Behind him walked two men in suits, matching his pace without daring to overtake him.
The world around him adjusted itself without permission.
Waiting near the convoy was one familiar figure.
Kelvin Smith
He adjusted his glasses as he approached, already holding a tablet filled with schedules and reports.
"Everything is in order," Kelvin said respectfully. "But there are three urgent diplomatic calls pending. The presidents of two countries have been waiting for your response."
Oliver didn't answer immediately.
His eyes were already distant.
Because none of that mattered first.
Not the presidents.
Not the politics.
Not even the demons he had just sealed away in Australia.
Kelvin noticed the silence and added carefully, "They've been postponed long enough. The situation is escalating."
Still no response.
Oliver stepped into the car.
Only then did he speak.
"Delay them again."
Kelvin paused. "Sir?"
Oliver's voice was calm but absolute.
"I need to see Dinah first."
That name alone changed the atmosphere inside the vehicle.
Even Kelvin went quiet.
It had been less than two weeks since Oliver last saw her, but for him, it felt longer—distorted by time that never seemed to move the same when she wasn't near.
His fingers tightened slightly.
Australia had been a necessary war.
A containment mission.
A cleanup of something that should never have existed.
Australia Two Weeks Earlier
The land had burned quietly under a corrupted presence.
Something ancient.
Something wrong.
The creature had not been fully human anymore.
It fed only on gold.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
Gold ore, coins, jewelry anything containing purity in mineral form.
It consumed wealth the way starving beasts consumed flesh.
The locals called it madness.
Oliver called it what it truly was:
A fragment of a collapsed entity.
A broken demon class.
Mammon
The creature had been locked inside the body of a man the son of Australia's president.
Xavier
Once, Xavier had been human.
Now, he barely qualified as alive.
He had been found on a remote mountain road after an ambush seven men dead, and only him surviving, barely breathing, his body half consumed by something unnatural.
The President had hidden the truth.
Protected his son.
Denied the corruption growing inside him.
Because grief and guilt made men blind.
His wife had died of cancer years earlier, and he had never forgiven himself for abandoning her during her illness. That guilt had turned into indulgence toward his only child—allowing him anything, excusing everything.
Even monstrosity.
And now, that indulgence had consequences.
The Ambush Site Earlier
The air smelled like burnt metal and dry earth.
A shattered convoy lay scattered across the road.
And from the wreckage
A crawling sound.
Xavier lay broken against the ground, his breath uneven, eyes unfocused.
"Save me…" he whispered.
Something laughed nearby.
A low, distorted sound.
"Kikikikik…"
A shadow shifted through the dust.
"Save me…" Xavier repeated, weaker now. "My father… will reward you…"
The thing paused.
Then leaned closer.
Not human.
Not fully formed.
A mouth twisted where there should not have been one.
"Reward?" it echoed.
Gold-colored veins pulsed under its skin like molten metal.
"FOOD," it hissed.
And the world around it trembled.
Present – Inside the Car
Oliver closed his eyes briefly.
The memory was already sealed away in the past.
Kelvin spoke again cautiously. "The situation in Australia is contained now. But the political fallout"
"I handled it," Oliver interrupted.
His tone left no room for argument.
Kelvin nodded.
Silence returned.
But Oliver's thoughts were no longer in the car.
They were elsewhere.
With her.
Dinah Wellington
Her presence was the only disruption in his otherwise controlled existence.
A war could erupt across nations.
Demons could rise from forgotten realms.
Kings could challenge him.
But none of it compared to the emptiness he felt when she was not near.
Kelvin finally spoke again, softer this time.
"She's at News Day Publishing Company."
That was all Oliver needed.
His eyes opened.
A faint shift in his expression.
"Then change the route."
The driver hesitated.
Kelvin didn't.
He simply nodded.
And the convoy turned.
Not toward the Queen Consolidate headquarters.
But towards Dinah .