Brand New Wings

"What is it, sis?"

Laya stepped out into the front yard, meeting her sister outside, as per her request. It was weird of her to call her out here of all places, since she was always in the lab when she needed something from her. However, a quick text shot to her phone told her that Leia wanted her to try out an experiment, though she didn't know why she would. Her sister never wanted her to help with anything alchemy-related, so this was a first.

When she finally got up to Leia, she noticed something was different about her. She looked a bit more tired than usual, but the thing that attracted her attention was Nidhogg, who was floating right beside her. When Laya left her room, she saw Nidhogg snuggled under a pile of dirty clothes, completely asleep as she caused a ruckus about the latest mecha show that she had latched onto. She didn't bother bringing the dragon down, just in case it was going to be a distraction, so how did it get over here without her knowing? Before she could ask that question, her sister tossed something to her, her tone no different from when she was completely rested.

"Here."

Laya put her hands out, catching the object as it began its downward descent from the arc of its release. When she opened her hand, what laid in her palm was a red pendant, her curiosity now peaking with what was seemingly a new piece of jewelry for her. "Well, red isn't really my color," Laya joked, giving her sister a soft chuckle. She would always take a chance to joke like this, especially when Leia was including her in something like this.

However, her sister's face was unamused, her expression remaining flat as she barked, "I don't think I asked what your color was." As always, she was no fun. Laya rolled her eyes, shrugging her shoulders now that she got the joke out of the way. She was going to ask what the pendant was for, but before she could ask, Leia made sure her sister knew what her intentions were.

"Sing."

Laya huffed, noting that Leia was clearly not in the mood for her nonsense. Despite this, the command she uttered was out of the ordinary. She tried to do that as little as possible, since she didn't want to remind her of what she couldn't do. The last time that happened, she was stressed out beyond belief, nearly obsessing over why she couldn't "sing" the way the older sibling could. Because of that, Laya made sure that she never sang around her, going so far as to not even let out a hum, no matter how happy she was. She scratched the back of her head, trying to think of an excuse to not sing.

She hated seeing Leia like that, so...

"Well, my throat's a bit sore-"

"Do it. Now."

Welp, there was no weaseling her way out of this one. Though... why exactly did she want her to sing? Assuming she did, neither of them had either of the fangs on them currently, which was the only reason she would think Leia would want her to sing. Nidhogg did float silently beside Leia, but if it was already out, then singing wasn't going to bring a result that had already been achieved. She was about to open her mouth for another sentence, but before she could, Leia cut her off.

"If you don't sing the holy chant, Laya, I swear to God-"

Laya put her hands up in defense, now seeing how adamant her sister was about her singing. If she was this insistent on her singing, then she'd give it to her. After a couple of deep breaths to slow down her heart rate, the words came to her mind, as if they were the only words she knew.

"Keios franzell Nidhogg tron..."

After the holy chant left her lips, she could feel something happening. In an instant, a bright light enveloped her, the red pendant in her hand now releasing a torrent of energy that clung to her body. In the midst of this flash of light, she brought one of her arms up to shield her eyes, with Leia doing the same. It felt like eternity, but in reality, it was less than half a second. When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Laya opened her eyes, but the air around her felt... different.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of the arm she was blocking the light with, now fitted in white gloves with black fingertips, the red pendant she was holding no longer in sight. She thought that she might have dropped it in the commotion, but something told her that it was in a safe place. Her gaze traveled from her arm to her shoulder, then to the rest of her figure as she realized that her attire had completely changed. No longer did she sport the hoodie and leggings she defaulted to every day, but instead, they were replaced with a suit that could only be thought of to come from some cosplayer's wardrobe. The only difference, however, were the accessories that she adorned, though she couldn't turn around to see them immediately.

While Laya was in utter shock with her transformation, Leia's expression lit up slightly. It seemed that even the stoic alchemist couldn't hide her excitement for too long after her experiment turned out to be a success, though her sister wouldn't realize it at first. Not just a success, but a success on the very first try. Perhaps that dragon was correct...

"W-W-W-W-W-WHAT IS THIS!?"

Laya's voice was raised, her high pitch now threatening to blow the eardrums off anyone in the general vicinity. While anyone else would be clutching their head, Leia was completely used to it. In truth, she did find it annoying, but it was fair for her sister to react this way. She didn't know what was going to happen, so it was completely justified.

"Didn't think it'd actually work," Leia scoffed, circling her sister as she took in all the aspects in her new design. From what she understood, the Relic would change form based on who was wearing it, assuming they were even able to get it to activate it in the first place. That would make sense based on the transformation she was witnessing now, seeing two key aspects that she could tell were heavily influenced by Laya's subconscious. The first was the set of wings that levitated behind and beside her, four massive sheets of metal that were completely disconnected from each other and the main suit with a large red center plate.

The other part that stood out was the long metal tail that hung from the small of her back. Rather... "hung" wasn't the right word here. It seemed connected, but just like the wings that were "connected" to her back and hips, the tail was just floating, connected to an invisible source. It was fascinating, to say the least. Perhaps it was all the different shows she watched about fighting robots that may have influenced this design, but that hypothesis was for another day.

"LEIA!"

The older twin's screech alerted the animals around them, causing the birds in the trees to fly off in various directions. Her distress was understandable, so her sister didn't waste too much time explaining it to her. The entire outfit changed out of thin air with no explanation, so it was justifiable to want a response.

"A Symphogear."

Laya's brow furrowed, the answer she was given not being enough to suffice her question. "In a language I can understand, please," she exclaimed, spinning around to face the alchemist. Her attitude didn't shift upon the very brief explanation she got, but to be fair, the alchemical terms Leia used around her always went over her head, so hearing the word "Symphogear" meant as much to her as money to a random animal in the woods. However, as she swiveled, the metal tail followed the same movement, dragging a line across the ground as she faced her sister.

The two noticed the ground being brought up by this action and while Leia's stone-faced expression remained after the glimmer of excitement faded, the Candidate, on the other hand, was completely unaware. She followed the trail that finally gave her a glimpse of her tail.

She was about to yell again, but she noticed another gleam of light in her peripheral. Turning her head a bit more and tilting it upwards, she would see the diamonds of black metal that floated behind her. She didn't feel these things before, but that was impossible. If these were here and a part of... whatever she was wearing, shouldn't she have noticed that these massive armaments were attached to her? While she remained in shock trying to wrap her head around these new discoveries, a voice appeared in her head, trying to quell her anxiety.

"Calm down. Panicking doesn't do anything."

She knew that voice anywhere, since it was ingrained into her brain a long time ago.

"N-Nidhogg?"

While she could see the dragon that floated beside her sister, she could tell that it wasn't talking to her. She didn't know how she could tell, but she just knew. As opposed to the stern look that dragon had, this voice was a lot more forgiving in its tone, but the thing that she could tell differentiated the two was the yawn that echoed in her head. This was the Nidhogg that she knew, there was no doubt about it, but it prompted another question. If Nidhogg was in front of her, then how was her Nidhogg now speaking to her?

Leia cleared her throat, thankful that the girl before her finally lowered her tone, albeit due to more confusion than she was already faced with. It was one thing to try and explain something to Laya, but it was another to explain something to a distressed Laya. "Finally, took you long enough to quiet down," Leia remarked, stroking her chin as she continued to look over the Gear that her sister wore.

"Hey!"

While Laya was getting riled up by her sister's comment, Leia was finally able to give her an explanation of what she was referring to.

"What you're wearing now is a manifestation of a Relic's energy, only reconstructed through an Aufwachen waveform."

It was a simple explanation to her, but she could see Laya's face falling more into a state of puzzlement, remaining just as confused as when she said the word "Symphogear". "Trying to use anything more than words that a child could understand would prove fruitless," Leia thought to herself. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she finally got a simplified explanation, one that Laya wouldn't be able to misinterpret.

"You know how Nidhogg's fangs light up whenever you sing?"

Leia crossed her arms over her chest, hoping her twin would understand where she was going with this. Laya could only give the alchemist a silent nod, since she knew that much. After the nod, Leia waved her hand up and down, as if to emphasize what this form was to anyone else around them, though it was more of a gesture to the suit that was being displayed. "That's what this is."

"So, when I sing, Nidhogg turns into... this?"

Leia nodded, thankful that she got this point through to her. Even if she wasn't gifted in alchemy, she should have been able to put two and two together after the events that just transpired. She sang, then she transformed. Simple enough. However, for Laya, this wasn't enough of an answer.

"But how does that make sense!? You mean to tell me that singing magically gives me all of this? How come it didn't do it before?"

A valid question, though it wasn't one that Leia didn't think she'd ask. If the fang did this now, why didn't it do it back on their previous tests when Leia was trying to activate it? Or better yet, why didn't it happen in the Archive? The biggest thing to happen when the fangs were activated was a bright light within the Archive, but nothing more came out of that. This only brought more questions, all questions that Laya wanted to get answered.

The girl in the lab coat could tell that much, if not by her raised tone, then by the mechanical tail behind her that swayed from side to side. Even if she had a serious face that wanted answers, it appeared that she was much more excited about this than she let herself on to be. As such, Leia would give her as many answers as she wanted to satisfy her curiosity, since it wasn't like she had a reason to hide anything from her.

"I was able to put Nidhogg's fang into the converter on your collar."

At the mention of something on her collar, Laya's eyes drifted down, noting what was previously the pendant in her hand, now on her collarbone. She grabbed it, then with a click, it popped off. Her eyes carried a shocked expression with the click, but Leia gave her a look, as if to say, "It's supposed to do that." When she put the Gear converter up into the air, it shimmered a bit in the sunlight. With all the surprises, she could only assume that it was something done by her sister's alchemy. After all, how else could it make sense? "But how did-"

"You wanted to figure out what's in the Yggdrasil System, right?"

Laya's running mind stopped in its tracks, picking up on what Leia was implying and causing Nidhogg's voice to appear again.

"You might as well agree with her. Your mind hasn't left the Archive since that day."

Nidhogg was completely correct, though it wasn't hard to tell that, considering its main form of communication was telepathy. Nidhogg gained a habit of reading the thoughts of the twins, no matter where it was, though it never had any opinions of whatever stray thoughts it read after both twins got to hear its voice. While Leia's thoughts were all primarily based around contingency plans for contingency plans, Laya's mind was very simplistic in what she chose to think about.

However, one thing that came back again and again was the Archive and the events surrounding it. Even though she was told everything about the Archive's purpose and why Nidhogg was locked down there, there was a part of her that was curious about if there was anything else hidden within that existed just like Nidhogg. After all, Nidhogg couldn't be the only sentient Relic, right?

"Wait, so you're letting me go back down there? I thought you didn't want me down there."

Leia's serious glare softened for a moment before speaking. "That was before we had a way of investigating. You're more than capable of doing it now." Laya couldn't help but look confused here, since her sister was the one that was the most adamant about not going down into the Yggdrasil System. Sure, she had a point that they now had a method, but compared to Laya, someone who wanted to go out of curiosity, Leia showed no interest in it, even after the explanation about the Custodians. The only thing she cared about was activating Galatine, so...

"Nidhogg'll be helping you. It knows enough to tell you if you find anything interesting down there."

"What's with the sudden change of heart?"

Laya finally managed to get the question out through an almost closed throat. The two were close, but Leia never pushed her into a situation like this. She didn't care about Laya's actions much, mainly because she was a walking hazard to all alchemists in a ten-mile radius. As long as she didn't interfere with her plans, she was free to do whatever she wanted, not like she needed the permission to do so. It was completely liberating to go completely unmonitored by someone who was always so scrutinous about every little thing, which Laya took full advantage of all the time. When Leia was like this, though...

It was like Laya might as well have not existed to her.

"We found the Archive within Yggdrasil. If something like Nidhogg was down there, then there might be something else..."

That's what it was. Laya was just a vehicle to get a task done, a means to an end. Even though she should have been angry, furious or anything along that nature, Laya knew how her sister was, so she didn't fight it. She became complacent with her sister's demands and brash behaviors, but her mind always had that same piece of dialogue that replayed whenever she doubted herself.

"You only have one sister."

She could try to fight her, but with how much Leia had been working herself, it wasn't a good idea to add more stress onto the pile that had built up over the past few weeks. Instead, she decided to ask for elaboration on her previous statement.

"Something else? Like what?"

Leia's hands moved down to the pockets of her lab coat, her tone unwavering with her response to Laya's question. "Something that activates Galatine," Leia replied, the floating dragon beside her now opting to seat itself onto her shoulder rather than flying. "If we can do that, then-"

"Got it. Leave it to me!"

Leia didn't expect that answer from her, especially after how skeptical she was earlier about everything that was going on. She was so confused about the Symphogear system she was dawning, as well as how anything Leia said made sense, but now, that resolve for her family took over.

It surprised Leia a bit, but as opposed to her getting an influx of information that didn't make sense, Laya chose not to question it too much. She knew why she didn't, but it put a sour taste in her mouth knowing that even though Laya could suspend disbelief, she could not. It started to put her previous interaction when Laya explained everything about Nidhogg to her to the forefront of her mind, as well as how poorly she may have reacted to it.

"That hesitation faded really quick," Leia observed, watching as her sister pumped her fist into the air with excitement and a smile across her lips. Laya's eyes widened, an expression of embarrassment spreading over her face as the tail behind her began to move once again. If Leia was going to give her the chance to do this, she didn't want to waste it and her excitement displayed this on full blast.

"If you're saying that we need to look, I'll be out there with six pairs of binoculars!"

She cupped her hands, mimicking a pair of binoculars that she put up to her eyes as she made an exaggerated motion to look around. With this move, Leia rolled her eyes. "How did I get a dork like you for a sister?" Laya heard this comment, but she always had a response for something like this. "I should be saying that about you, since I was out first."

As she said that, she could have sworn that she saw a sliver of a saddening frown on her sister's face, one completely different from the usual scowl that she displayed.

I'm pushing these out now so that people will ultimately be caught up with the ones who read up elsewhere, but once I get everything caught up, then those who are returning readers to this will have brand new chapters to look into! Also, there were no notes on the last chapter simply because there wasn't much to talk about there, so feel free to discuss things in the comments if you want!