People and us used to coexist in harmony, but now we were reduced to nothing more than glorified slaves. They dressed us up to look pretty, pitted us against each other in battles only the brainwashed ones seemed to enjoy, and finally went out and brought the free into our work as slaves. It disgusted me how occasionally one or two of them was captured by someone who managed to convince them that they were friends, that it was because they liked them, that it would be fun. It made me laugh, how innocent they were. Not a single one was worth the effort to put on a smile, though they had ordered me to look happier and wave. If they could understand the threats I was launching their way, I doubt they’d continue my service for long and quickly execute me.

This is something I wanted to discuss, but not any longer for the moment. We came in many shapes and sizes, from bipedal giants to centipedal forms, from flying in the skies to walking the oceans depths, whether predator or prey, we all were free. Then they came, a door opened up in the mountain, and that’s where it started. It was peaceful at first, but to us their greed was clear.

They caught the mountain dwelling creatures and used them to subdue others, implanting each of them with control chips. After the mountain creatures, they moved to the surrounding forest and plains, as well as some of the skies. I knew quickly I would be captured next, but I would stay and defend my people for as long as possible. The first ones came to attack out village, and I had killed them outright. It surprised me that after as many of theirs that I’d killed, they’d let me live at all. After a while of the killing, however, one of my people walked past me to be ensnared. He claimed he’d had enough of the violence and would rather die than anyone else die for him. I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed in my own people. None of us had died and they were the aggressors, I saw no reason to end my resistance.

To my surprise, however, almost every single person I was protecting walked in front of me to be captured. In the moment that mattered, one of the village children, and one of five left to be protected, stepped in front of me. Instead of attempting to catch her, however, they executed the child on the spot. I was shocked, I thought they wanted us as slaves, didn't they? In the moment, I’d faltered. And then it made sense. They were willing to kill one possible slave to gain an immensely powerful slave. And with my guard down for a moment, they caught me and chipped me. My body stopped struggling as it released a drug into my bloodstream, but I fought it mentally as best I could. They pulled the first chip out without warning or any form of numbing. Each wire connected to the chip pulled out slowly, flailing to be returned. They affixed a much more heavy duty chip quickly, and that one wrapped around my entire neck. I screamed with pain this time, as this one had wires that bored into my back mercilessly, overriding any senses I had and replacing them with pain. I clawed at it until my hands were red with my own blood, and then I felt it reach my mind. I fought it the best I could, but eventually I went numb. The days went by in a blur after that.

I felt the mind-numbing pain lessen and I began to be able to think more clearly. My vision grew clearer, sharper. The fuzzy edges began to grow cleaner. Then I saw it, the face of a human man in front of me. I pulled against my restraints, snapping them easily now that I was back in control. I shoved him against the wall, realizing quickly the blades that were usually positioned above our species wrists had been clipped, so to speak. In actuality they had been encased in metal since none of their tools could dull or break the blade. Either way, I could still suffocate him if I wanted to. He didn't panic despite being held up against the wall. Instead, he lifted his hand up slowly and cautiously. He was holding the chip that had been implanted in me. I looked at it cautiously before nodding my head to the side to signal him to toss it away. He did so after realizing what I wanted. I turned back to him, trying to puzzle out why he’d removed it. He spoke after a while.

“I’ll call you Bayonetta,” He decided, leaving me trying to remember in a panic my own name. It was Eira, but I had no way of telling him that since it was in my own language. After a while of me still trying to piece things together and holding him against the wall, he finally spoke again. “It’s after a blade that you attach to the end of a gun, and by your biology I would dare say it’s quite the fitting name.” This time I didn't know the meaning of most the words so I pressed against my arm against his throat a little tighter. He made no effort to escape whatsoever. After a really long time of sitting and doing nothing, I let him go in hopes it would tell me what was going on. He rubbed his throat and looked at his watch. “Talk about mental stamina, it held me here all of four hours!” He said, his stomach growling. He wrote something down in his notebook before his stomach growled again. I backed up at the noise, the kind in this world fed on the energy from springs, so the need to eat confused me. He smiled sheepishly and began to leave the room. I sprinted in front of him, blocking the door. He looked up at me.

“You better tell me what’s going on!” I hissed at him in my own language, tearing off the metal restraints on my blades with ease. He didn't seem the least bit phased.

“You’re quite curious, I wonder if you understand me…” He said, writing some things down in a notebook. I looked at it’s scribbles, and he held the notebook out for me. I looked away for a second before, like he said, curiosity got the better of me. I looked back to it and quickly traced every letter and picture with my finger. The man looked at me, astonished. “My my, that’s certainly interesting. Tap the book if you can understand me,” He said quickly, offering the book up to my height. I tapped it quickly, confused. He didn't seem quite convinced.

“I want to know what’s going on,” I asked again, though at this point I figured he was researching the beings of this world. He looked up at me as I spoke, probably wondering what in the world I was saying. Eventually he looked down at his notebook and scribbled down some things. He held up two words, one of them ‘yes,’ the other ‘no,’ though I had no idea what either meant.

“This one means you can do what I asked, and this one means you can’t.” He said, tapping the yes and no respectively. “Can you understand me?” He asked again. I tapped yes. He seemed a little bit skeptical even still. “Can you read these words?” He asked, pointing to the words on the notebook. I tapped no. “Can you speak my language?” He asked. I hesitated on this one. I knew I could, but secretly I’d always been a little self conscious about my voice. I tapped both yes and no, a little worried about his response. “Will you try to tell me something in my language?” He asked. I hesitated, now worried. “I’ll tell you what’s going on…” He said, letting his offer trail off. Once again my curiosity got the better of me.

“I can, though I prefer not to…” I answered. He looked at me in shock, dropping his notebook to the floor along with his jaw. I backed up a little, confused.

“Follow me, I’ll explain everything.” He said with newfound determination, tossing his notebook into the fireplace. “Everything we thought we knew has just been blown out of the water,” He remarked, speeding past the door. I ducked through it and followed him into a bright, sunlit corridor. The carpet was red, and straight ahead of me was a illustrious garden with one of our springs at the center. Had they really built this place around a spring so quickly? I looked around, finally noticing there were others like me lounging about. They had control chips in, but to me they didn't seem to be the same as the one I’d had. They looked at me in shock, leaving the spring to crowd around my legs. I attempted to step over them, but they redistributed to my other foot the moment it hit the ground. The man stopped, turning back around to face me. “They’re drawn to you, what was your role in the village?” He asked me. I was toppled over by the quickly growing number of creatures from the spring, but managed a response before I was engulfed.

“Guardian,” I managed before I was completely covered. After around ten seconds of being engulfed in creatures, the man brushed them aside and offered a hand. For a second I thought, “What an idiot!” But then I realized this could be my chance for a little, inconspicuous revenge. I took it and pulled myself up, intending to pull him down into the mass with me, but to my surprise I pulled myself up without so much as budging the man. I gawked at him for a second before he showed me something on his wrist. It appeared to be a magnet. He jumped up a bit and hit the button on it, which stopped it, and subsequently, the man, in mid air. It was at this moment I noticed he was a bit round and short for a human. He struggled and flailed for a bit before managing to hit the button again and drop to the ground. He rubbed his wrist, making it obvious it wasn’t very comfortable to use. He continued on, leaving me alone with the horde of young creatures for a second before I ran after him, not wanting to be engulfed again.

They stopped when sight to the spring failed, then returned to their normal everyday lives inside the enclosure. I followed the man, confused by what appeared to be his home, and the eccentricities of it. Rocks with bones in them, strange creatures that appeared otherworldly, and many other odd things lined the wall. I got bored of the walls and continued to follow the man in silence. Eventually he turned into a dining hall.

“Welcome back, I suppose everything went well?” Two human women asked, each of them dressed in frilly black and white outfits. I cocked my head to the side for a second, confused. Eventually they felt that they were being watched and looked up. One of them screamed and fainted, and the other cowered behind one of roughly forty chairs at a long table. I wasn’t bothered for a second by what they thought of me.

“This is Bayonetta, likely the most intelligent creature indigenous to this planet!” He said, gesturing to me. I didn't want to admit it, but the name had grown on me a fair bit.

“Y-you removed it’s restraints?!” One of them whimpered. He nodded, then reconsidered.

“Well, I unchipped it, and then it removed the restraints on it’s own.” He admitted. It was at this point I got the feeling chips weren’t supposed to be removed without some greater consensus.

“YOU WHAT?!?” The only maid still conscious screeched before fainting. I smiled, happy at the destruction my mere presence caused for them. The man could tell I was pleased but said nothing.

“Would you like a meal? I have yet to observe one of you creatures eat and I have no idea how you do so.” He said, clapping his hands. Two humans came through the door at the back, one carrying food. The other took one look at me and walked calmly back through the door. Pandemonium broke loose on the other side, but it was muffled. The woman carrying the food could not see, and didn't know of the presence that had scared the others silly.

“Jonathan?” She asked, having gotten a little lost. The man guided her to the table, where she set down the food.

“Why don’t you sit with us, Ms. Yearsley?” Jonathan, the round chubby man with the wrist device said.

“Oh I could never,” She said, waving him off politely.

“Ms Yearsley, today is a special day. I wish for you to be the one who dines with us, it would make our guest quite more comfortable.” He said. Ms. Yearsley obliged him, sitting down cautiously and simultaneously wondering just who their guest was. Jonathan put a dish of soup in front of her and guided her hand to it so she knew it was there. She began to feel around for the spoon.

“Bayonetta, for your first lesson, could you give Ms. Yearsley a spoon?” Jonathan asked, pointing at three different things on the table. I looked at each of the silver devices, each one far too small for me to use. “Which one would be best for picking up liquids?” He asked. I picked up the spoon.

“Is this it?” I asked, holding the round silver one. Ms. Yearsley perked up after hearing my voice, probably wondering who the ‘special guest’ was.

“Yes it is, now could you hand it to her?” He asked. I did my best, fumbling with the tiny piece of metal and eventually dropping it into her grasp. She turned the spoon around and set it in her bowl, but didn't eat any of it. She was still thinking about Bayonetta, and wondering what made the guest so important.

“Are you getting married, Jonathan?” She asked, thinking that my voice would be the voice of his wife’s. Jonathan flushed for a second.

“No no no, nothing of the sort, though today deserves just as much celebration as a wedding.” Jonathan said mysteriously. He looked back to me. “Bayonetta, if you would like to, could you offer your hand to let Ms Yearsley feel you? She likes to recognize people cognitively.” Jonathan explained. I retracted my blades as far as they would go and cautiously offered my hand, curious to see her reaction. She felt it gently, realizing very quickly that it was not the hand of a human. Instead of fainting, or, screaming, like the others had done, she tugged on my arm and felt up it gently, eventually finding one of the organic ribbons I tended to wrap around my arm. I withdrew my arm quickly, but she’d unwrapped one of them and had a firm hold on it. It felt really, uncomfortable on the verge of painful, so I spoke gently trying to get her to let go.

“Please…stop…” I said quickly but as politely as possible, my voice reverting to my natural language for a few seconds. She perked up again and let the ribbon go, which I quickly wrapped around my arm and shivered to get the sensation to go away. Eventually it faded on its own.

“Ms. Yearsley, can you guess who our guest is?” Jonathan asked excitedly. Ms Yearsley sat quietly for a second before coming to a conclusion.

“They’re not human, as far as I can tell. They have a difficult time speaking english, and they haven’t encountered many humans. If I were to add anything else, it sounds like a girl.” She finally decided, reaching out towards Jonathan’s voice. He helped her up and back into the kitchen, where two drama queens screamed and fainted at the idea that I had been left alone in a room. I sat quietly, waiting for a while before feeling an ethereal presence.