The Family Returns!

It was a fairly large room, set apart from the rest of the strange creatures in the base.
Seemed like one of the special rooms, reserved just for Elara.

A big, cozy bed.
A full-length mirror.
And a window facing outside the base—offering a pretty decent view of the world beyond.

Ben walked in ahead of her, turned back, and with a confident grin said,
“So? What do you think, little lady? Like this big fancy room I got you?”

Elara looked around, unimpressed.
“It’s not bad. Not like my old room, but... close enough.”
Then she glared at him. “And I told you a hundred times—call me by my name! 'kiddo' 'Little girl' ‘Little lady’ sounds weird!”

Ben burst out laughing.
“I’ll try, I swear—but you just look more like a little lady than an Elar—”

Before he could finish, she shoved him out of the room.
“Well, you’ve shown me the room, thanks, goodbye.”
And she slammed the door.

Ben chuckled to himself and called out from behind the door,
“Enjoy it! If you need anything, let me know!”

Then walked away, still laughing.

Elara flopped down on the bed to get some rest—but then suddenly, a strange headache hit her.
It wasn’t strong at first, but it kept growing...
And then those muffled voices returned to her mind again.

“Elara? Where are you?! This can’t be happening!”

The voices slowly became clearer, until one of them turned into Dorian’s panicked shout:
“Elaraaaa!! Where did you go?! What happened to her?!”

The headache faded, and Elara slowly sat up on the bed.
She could also hear Raze’s voice:

“There’s no way she was kidnapped. The mates say she disappeared in a flash of light!”

Confused, Elara focused and tried to connect with her brothers the way she always did.

“What do you mean ‘I’m dead’?! What are you two talking about?!”

There was a brief pause, and then both Raze and Dorian responded at the same time:

“Elara?! Is that really you?!”

“Of course it’s me. Who else can speak to you like this?”

Dorian immediately started crying and answered in a shaky voice:
“Elara!! Where did you go?! What happened?! You have no idea how worried we were! Me and Raze were losing our minds!”

“Dorian.”

“Yeah?”

“This is the first time I’ve ever been happy to hear your annoying voice.”

“Wow! That’s rude! I’m out here freaking out from joy and you hit me with that?”

“Oh come on, I know you’re just upset that now I won’t be doing your homework anymore. Guess what? From now on, it’s all on you!”
She laughed out loud.

Raze cut in, clearly trying to stay calm.
“Alright, you two. Enough. Elara, what happened? Where are you right now?”

“Well... it’s kinda hard to explain exactly where.”

“What do you mean ‘hard to explain’? Just send us your signal  like you always do!”

“Yeah, about that, I don’t think it works here. Ever since I arrived, a lot has changed.”

“What kind of changes? Where are you exactly?”

“Well… my normal eye turned blue. And my powers… they’ve grown a lot.”

“That’s great, but how are we supposed to come get you?”

Before she could answer, a loud explosion shook her room.

She replied quickly,
“Sorry, Raze—I’ve gotta go. Looks like we’ve got trouble.”

Elara dashed out of the room and followed the trail of smoke from the blast.
She reached the entrance, where Ben and Talon were already standing, alert.

As she moved toward them, she suddenly sensed something—
Raze had granted her full access to his power.
Which meant… she could now use both of her brothers’ powers again, though still in a limited way.

When she got close, she saw what had caused the explosion—
A giant robot standing at the entrance, nearly as tall as Talon but bulkier and heavier.

Its right arm was a loaded grenade launcher.
Its left arm?
A massive steel fist, already punching its way into the base.