I am alive! barely...because studying is evil.

This is very much an experiment, and my first attempt at writing anything angsty. So if it fails drastically, let me know. Inspired somewhat by my set English texts, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1992 Director's Cut).

(I know I should be updating Adventure in Australia, but I've hit a wall called writers block. I will finish the story, just not right now)

This is part of my attempt to overcome writers block. But I've taken enough of your time already, so yeah...go read.

Disclaimer: If I owned Beyblade, I wouldn't be posting stories on

They told us we were free.

Free of those terrible people and their terrible experiments, they said. Free from oppression and fear, free from starvation and fighting and blood and violence. It sounded far more like they were talking about war survivors than a group of lonely, unfortunate orphans.

What would they know? Contrary to popular belief, Biovolt, Boris and Voltaire didn't treat us that badly. We weren't starved or abused, just trained relentlessly to be the perfect soldiers. After all, what soldier performs to his maximum capability when he's dying of hunger and abuse? No, Biovolt didn't treat us badly, but it wasn't because Boris or Voltaire liked us, only because the fogies needed us.

Undoubtedly, anyone involved in Biovolt was crazy. Who else but a crazy person would think that you could succeed in taking over the world with a bunch of children trained to be the best in a game involving spinning tops and elemental spirits? We didn't complain though; it was better than a life on the streets or in poor, understaffed orphanages. At least we were fed and clothed properly. So we forfeited emotions and everything that went with them, but so what? It wasn't like we needed them; even in the orphanages, they would have been useless. So we gave up our humanity and became mindless soldiers, less than everyone else, but at least we were still alive.

We didn't know what it was to feel. Pain didn't count, because it was a constant, like food, clothing and the need to be better than everyone else. Happiness, sadness, excitement, nervousness; these were all foreign things. The only things they encouraged us to feel were negative like rage, annoyance and jealousy – and really, that's not feeling, is it? That's just existing on a primal level, like some sort of animal. That's not freedom.

We knew we weren't free under Biovolt, but who ever said we wanted to be? If we ever did before, they crushed that impulse out of us, until we were incapable of independent thought. Even our battle strategies were well-rehearsed tactics committed to memory after long training sessions full of trial and error. So when they, the BBA, came to 'set us free' after the World Championships when we lost to the amateur Japanese team, we didn't know what to do. They said we'd be free to do what we want, but we aren't.

We're forced to go to therapy sessions, three times a week. Especially Bryan; none of them will even look at him after what happened to Ray. It's not his fault that's the way they taught him; he was just doing the only thing he'd ever known. They trust Tala to an extent; he always was the most rebellious, so I guess that makes him the least 'brainwashed'. Either way, he's always been the most charismatic; it's why he was captain. And it means of us all, he gets the best treatment from them. Spencer gets treated like he's stupid, and really, he's not – he's probably the smartest of us all, and I'm not just referring to academics.

And me? I get treated like a child, something I haven't been for a long time. And it's still not freedom. I've never been free, but I know what being chained is like, and we're still chained. Their methods might be kinder than Biovolt's, but the BBA still controls us, just as surely as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow.

But it's alright. We don't really want freedom anyway. After all, what would we do with it? We're evidently not fit for normal society, and at least the BBA cares what happens to us, sort of. At least this way we can relearn what it means to be human. Maybe one day they can even release us into society. Maybe one day we can even be human again. I'm sure we were, one time before. One time back when we were free.

Well. Um. Yeah. Tell me what you think. Please leave a review?