"I'm ready."
Alit looked up at Dumon and jumped off his chair. "Really?! Alright then!" he chirped, holding the doll safely in his arms. Alit walked over to the table and carefully set the doll upon the table. Dumon grabbed him by the arm and teleported with him out of earshot of the doll.
"Alit, listen closely. She has gone through a lot. That man has basically, no, there's no basically about it. That man has abused her and scars like that leave an impression. Even if we do not know all he has done to her, what we do know, which is very little, is enough to know she has been hurt very, very badly. Do not come on too strong or you risk pushing her away from everyone. Let her know about her father and what happened to him. Keep talking to her while I do a brief medical exam on her to test things I could not verify when she was immobile. Understand?"
Alit saluted and nodded gravely. Dumon turned around and led him back to the table. The grey barian looked down at the doll and said in a calm, comforting tone, "Hello, sweetie, can you hear me? I'm going to make you mobile again, but you may feel a tingling sensation, alright? I'll count to three, then do it. One... two... three!" on three, Dumon focused power through the crystals, which as one shot her with beams of light. When the glow faded, the doll was still for a minute, then her arm slowly moved upward in front of her face.
"Hey, kiddo, need me to help you sit up?" Alit asked. She gave the faintest of nods and Alit pushed her slowly into an upright position.
"Alright, I'm going to do a medical exam, just to make sure everything is functioning as normally as it can in these circumstances. First off, can you talk?" Dumon asked.
She nodded slowly, wariness in her eyes. "...yes." Her voice was quiet, yet very mechanical sounding. Alit doubted it was her real voice, the one she had when she was human, more likely it was something that bastard had made for her to better fit his "perfect daughter" fetish. Alit once again felt sick and that murderous rage at Gattas came back.
"Okay then! What's your name?" Alit asked. She shook her head. "No? So your name is No?" Alit asked in a light, teasing voice.
She didn't even crack a smile. "I won't tell you my name. I don't trust you. You'll end up hurting me in the end."
If Alit was in his human form, he would've vomited. A little girl saying something like that as a fact because of what she had gone through was sickening beyond belief. Beside him, Dumon looked shocked as well. Finally, Alit pulled himself together and forced a 'smile' to keep things light and comforting. "Well, I won't tell you mine then, deal?"
"...deal," she said softly as Dumon began to check her reflexes, finally collecting himself.
"But I do need to call you something! Hm... let's see... how about..." Alit snapped his fingers, "I got it! I'll call you Princess!"
"...why?!" she asked.
"Well, because you're a little princess?" Alit attempted to explain, although it came out as a question.
"I'm not royalty," she said.
"You don't have to be- hasn't anyone ever called you a princess before? Ever?" Alit asked.
She hesitated, then slowly nodded. "My older brother and daddy."
"There you go! Perfect reason for me to dub you Princess!" Alit exclaimed, "Oh, and Princess? About your dad, he's a friend of mine. Recent friend, but still a friend."
"..what?" she asked, sounding excited yet worried as opposed to her former emotionless tones, "Where is he?! What did that evil man do to him?!" she demanded harriedly.
Alit looked down, hating to break the news. "He- that sorcerer kidnapped him and I wasn't able to get him out with you because the jerk kept him on his person and I couldn't beat him and his two stupid guards."
She simply nodded, as though she had expected this answer but hoped against it. "He's just too strong. I wouldn't expect you to win against him. And- and what did he do to Daddy?"
Alit visibly winced. "He- he's a book."
"...what?" she asked.
"A book," Alit repeated, "Writing appears on a page when he "talks" and you can write what you want to say on a page as well and he'll see it but he can't move, hear, or see anything except writing."
She sniffled, though no tears leaked from her eyes. Alit guessed she literally couldn't cry, no matter how much she wanted to. He attempted to hug her but stopped when she cringed away from him. He settled with sitting beside her. "Hey, I won't hurt you, kiddo. I know you've been badly hurt by that son of a... dog, and I know I look slightly demonic-"
"More than slightly," she muttered then cringed again as if she expected physical retribution, but Alit simply chuckled, causing her to look slightly surprised yet still wary.
"Yeah, okay, a lot more than slightly," Alit 'grinned', "But I really won't harm you, honest!"
"...what are you?" she asked softly, as if still expected him to attack her.
"Oh, I'm a barian," he explained. Seeing her blank look, he amended, "An alien who doesn't have a mouth, can teleport, and all sorts of other awesome powers!"
She stared at him for a full minute, then nodded to show she understood. "...alright."
"So, Princess, can you answer a few questions for me?" Alit asked.
"...I guess," she shrugged. Alit 'frowned'. Her lack of expression was unsettling to say the least. She only gave the slightest hint of an emotion when he mentioned her dad.
"Okay then. What happened to your brother and mom?"
"My little brother's a doll too and I think my older brother would be dead by now, right?" Alit sadly nodded and she continued, "I don't know what happened to Mommy. He turned us into dolls immediately but kept Mommy normal, but she fought back and hated him. He forced him to he forced her to cook and clean. I saw him force Mommy to kiss him a lot too and he dragged her into his bedroom sometimes-" she stopped suddenly at Alit's growl of rage and frantically scrambled away from him. Alit forced himself to calm down and put his hands up in an appeasing gesture, looking very meek.
"Sorry! Sorry, I'm just hate what he did. I didn't mean to scare you, Princess. Please continue," Alit apologized.
She took a deep breath and, still eyeing Alit with a bit of fear, said, "After a while, Mommy had enough. She grabbed my baby brother and I and tried to run for it. She got caught though and we never saw her again," she sniffled, then sobbed into her dress, though no tears were able to come from her eyes.
Alit reached over and squeezed her hand. "Hey, it'll be okay. You're safe now. He can't hurt you ever again, kiddo. I'll rip his head off if he ever even comes within a mile of you."
She looked down. "...can you really do that?"
"Yeah! Or I'll try at any rate," Alit replied.
She looked up at him, then nodded slightly. "Where is the shelf I'll be sleeping on?"
Alit felt sick again. "Are you kidding, Princess? Dang, that bastard really did a number on you. You'll be sleeping in a bed like you should unless you really want to sleep on a shelf. And you will have to give me a really good reason to let you sleep on a stupid shelf."
She nodded. "...thank you."
Dumon looked pityingly at the doll. "Take her back to your palace," he said to Alit, "She's fairly comfortable with you, or more comfortable with you than anyone else, you know her dad, and you're generally good with children so you will be taking care of her."
"Wouldn't have it any other way! Can you walk, Princess?"
She shrugged. "He never let me walk, so I don't know."
"Well, I'll help you, okay?" Alit said. She nodded and pushed off the table. Almost immediately, she started to flail and would've fallen had Alit not caught her. "Easy, Princess. I got you. Here," he picked her up about an inch off the ground, "Just go through the motions okay?"
She tried to walk on air but her movements were all wrong. Dumon 'frowned', "You might need to do some physical therapy with her. Right now, just carry her back to your palace and set up a room for her."
"Yes, sir! Come on, Princess, let's get you your own room, okay?" Alit heaved the doll up, holding her close to his chest.
She clutched his cloak with her small porcelain hands. "..don't hurt me."
"I already promised I won't," Alit said softly as he opened an overlay network, "Cross my heart and hope to die." He stepped into the portal arrived in one of the guest rooms in his palace. "You okay, Princess?"
She nodded. "...I'm fine."
Alit set her down on the bed and sat next to her. "Anything I can get you?"
She shook her head. "...I'm good."
"You sure? Do you want me to get you a stuffed animal or some new clothes?" Alit offered.
She hesitated for a while, then nodded slowly, eyeing him as if he was going to attack her. "...could you get me a stuffed dolphin? If you can of course! And some simple clothes? Nothing like... this..." she gestured to her elaborate dress.
"Will do, Princess! I'll be right back! Just make yourself comfortable and relax," Alit 'grinned' and opened an overlay network to earth, dissolving into it.
... (^0^) ...
Alit came back with a fairly large wardrobe in shopping bags(Merag had caught him and he ended up explaining about the doll so she had helped him with the clothes), a variety of toys, and a large, plush dolphin. He saw the little girl clinging to a bedpost and using it to support her weight on her shaking legs. Alit walked over and knelt a foot away from her, setting the bags down. "Hey, good job. You want to try to walk over to me?"
She appeared hesitant, then let go of the bedpost and stumbled over to him, falling into his arms. She looked up at him. "...did I do well?"
Alit 'smiled' down at her. "Considering you have not moved for centuries, yep!"
She blinked and nodded, then her eyes focused on the dolphin and fourteen shopping bags. "...are those for me?!"
Alit 'grinned', "Yep! About ten of those bags are full of clothes, the other four are stuff I thought you'd like!" He pulled the bags and dolphin over to her as she sat on his lap. Immediately she squeezed the dolphin, which was almost as big as her, in a hug.
She looked back at Alit. "Thank you... Red?" she seemed hesitant again, as if asking if she could call him that.
Alit beamed at her. "That's actually a good nickname for me, considering. Now look at some of your other stuff!"
She grabbed one of the bags and pulled out about twenty different video games and a hand-held console. She frowned, "What are these?"
"Oh right, I need to explain about electronics," Alit proceeded to explain about how electronic devices worked and showed her how to play a few of them. What concerned him, however, was that while she appeared to be enjoying the video games, occasionally cheering when she beat a boss, she never smiled. At all. Alit was worried about her, children were supposed to smile! Not be terrified that everyone around them would hurt them without the slightest provocation.
Eventually, Alit thought of something. "Hey, Princess, do you need to sleep?"
She shrugged, "Not really. I kinda want to though. I haven't been able to sleep since he decided he wanted to see my eyes all the time, even when he didn't want me to move or talk. I just want to sleep to rest my mind."
"Alright, come on, I'll tuck you in," Alit said softly.
She nodded and went limp in his arms. Alit picked her up and set her on the bed, pulling the pink sheets to her chin. He brushed her hair back and almost 'kissed' her forehead but held back the comforting impulse. "Go to sleep, Princess. You'll be okay."
"...goodnight, Red," she closed her eyes and snuggled under the covers.
Alit 'smiled' and started to hum softly to her. She looked at ease and after Alit was sure she was asleep, he stood up. He turned around and left the room. As he closed the door, the tears that had been welling in his eyes finally broke loose. He sank to the floor and started crying quietly into his arms, so as not to wake the doll.
How... how could that damn bastard have done this?! She- she was innocent! She hadn't ever done anything wrong, she was just a child. A little girl... she looked like she was maybe a couple of years older than his sister. Whoa, where had that thought come from?
Alit cried even harder as he tried to remember more about his little sister. He remembered her bright eyes and sweet little smile and the way she would almost sing "big brother". He could remember her laughter when she was happy.
Alit 'smiled' sadly through his tears, then he thought of all that had happened to that little girl happening to his little sister, Maple. He saw red, and not because that it was the color that his palace and most of Barian World consisted of. If anyone had ever harmed his baby sister, even if he didn't remember her well, he would kill them painfully. If they were already dead, he'd find a way to bring them back just so he could kill them again. And that's what he would do to that Gattas bastard for harming that little girl. She had a big brother too and even though he was dead, Alit knew he would've wanted that bastard's ass kicked and then have his limbs ripped off his body for harming his little sister, brother, and parents.
Alit pulled himself together and stood up, even though he was still crying. He placed his palm on the door and whispered softly, "Sleep well, Princess. Don't worry, I promise I won't let anything happen to you ever again. Your own big brother may not be around to protect you anymore, but I'll do it for him. Just... try to smile again, alright?" He pulled away and walked to his own bedroom slowly, which was down the hall a little ways. He opened and shut the door before getting into his bed. Alit pulled up the covers and shut his eyes, tears still leaking out of them.
"Mom, Dad, Maple, Bryan, if you're up there, then don't let me fail to protect this little girl. Don't let her get hurt anymore, please. And please let me remember you." he prayed softly, crying himself to sleep.