Alit sat on the edge of the doll's bed the next morning. She was still sleeping, even though it was almost noon. Poor kid, she must be so tired. Alit couldn't blame her, especially after the day she had yesterday. Being rescued from her captor for so many years, moving for the first time in years, being around people who cared for her even if she didn't know it yet, and getting lots of new things. Alit doubted she ever got so much stuff at once before. And of course she did have to deal with having to stay with a demon alien aka him. Alit knew to a little girl he must look terrifying.

Alit sat up straight as her eyes flickered open. "Morning, Princess! Sleep well?"

She started then relaxed, "Hello, Red."

"So... do you need to eat? I can get you some breakfast-" Alit started.

She shook her head. "I can't eat. I don't have a throat anymore so I'm literally incapable to even swallowing. He once played tea party with me, in the beginning. When he did that with my little brother and me, I almost thought for a moment he was half-way decent. Then I found out really quickly that neither of us could eat. That was also the time we found out we couldn't cry."

Alit was struck dumb. She looked away from him and focused on a corner of the wall. "He had made us able to move and sat us at a small round table. He threatened to make us immobile again if we tried to run for it. He the placed out some dishes with little cakes on them and sweet tea in little tea cups. My little brother was so excited and dug right in. I took a bite and tried to swallow, but I couldn't. Beside me, my little brother, who had taken a bigger bite than I had, was trying to swallow too but just couldn't. I tried to spit out my wad of chewed cake but he put his hand over my mouth and told me no daughter of his would have such bad table manners as to spit out already chewed food. I wanted to scream at him that I was not his daughter but his hand was still over my mouth.

"My little brother was still struggling with the wad of food in his mouth. I could see he wanted to spit it out but he was too afraid of that man to do so. But that bastard," Alit was worried that she actually knew that word since the only person she would've learned it from was Gattas, "just wagged his finger at him and told him to swallow his food. My baby brother tried to, even though he couldn't, he really tried but..." she sniffled, "He couldn't. Then that man just frowned at him and said that he had better swallow or else. My baby brother was trying to cry but no tears fell from his eyes as he tried to swallow. After a minute of this, I snapped. I was the oldest sibling now that my older brother was gone and I had to take care of my little brother, like I promised my big brother before he left. I grabbed my fork and hurled it at that bastard. It stuck into his shoulder and he looked pissed off. He immediately immobilized me but I could still talk. I found out why a second later.

"He stormed over to me and summoned a walking stick with an ornamental metal horse head on the top. He started to beat me with it vigorously. I screamed as loud as I could. Eventually, Mommy came running. She tried to make him stop, but he blasted her against the wall. She had to peal herself off the wall then begged him to leave me alone. He refused at first, then she said that her body was his for the night willingly if he would leave us alone. He paused, then completely immobilized me and my brother and threw us on a shelf. Then he grabbed Mommy's wrist and asked "why wait for the night?". He dragged her off to his bedroom and she was crying. I heard a lot of noises for the rest of the day and the next day, her eyes were red and she was limping. I wanted to run to her and hug her, but I couldn't move."

Alit felt tears spring into his eyes. "I really shouldn't swear in front of you, but I have to say it. That damn bastard!"

She nodded and looked up at him with sad eyes. "I don't want to go back to him, ever."

Alit carefully put his arm around her and hugged her when she didn't pull away, "You won't, you won't," he whispered, "I promise, Princess. I'll protect you."

"Really?" she asked, "Really?! You think you could stand up to him if he came through that door right now?!"

"Princess, I would try to. And given how pissed off I am at the moment, I'd probably win given that I would not be pulling any punches. Also, I have over a hundred guards and servants combined throughout this palace. That would not end well for him if he came here," Alit assured her.

She looked slightly more at ease. "...where can I go?"

"Pardon?"

"Where can I go?" she repeated, "As in, where am I allowed to go?"

Alit paused and thought about this. "Well, I'd like to say anywhere you want, but that's obviously not completely true. Let's see... you can go anywhere in the palace you want and play in the courtyard, but I don't want you going outside the palace walls without me, considering your current form. I mean, all the servants and guards know about you but outside of the palace and the emperors, no one else knows about you and the little doll thing. Earth is a complete no go except for our house on earth where there really aren't many visitors. Other than that... I think that's it."

She blinked. "That's a lot of freedom," she sounded slightly in awe and Alit felt another twinge of pain in his heart. That was just the normal amount of liberties a child the age she appeared should have. Probably less. The fact that she was astounded by how much freedom he was giving her... it made him nauseous again.

"And when you're back to normal, if we haven't turned your dad back or found and fixed your mom yet, I'd still like you to to stay in the palace or more likely in our house on earth. If you want to go out on your own, you can, just let me know via cellphone, okay? I got you one yesterday, remember?" Alit asked.

She nodded, "The device that I can use to communicate with you, right?"

"Bingo!" Alit 'grinned', "Also once you're back to normal, if we haven't caught or killed that jerk yet, I want you to carry around a can of mace. That's a spray that hurts like hell if you spray it in your eyes. Actually, it would probably be a good idea for you to carry around a can now, just for safety reasons."

"So you want me to spray him with it if I ever see him again?" she asked.

"Yep! Aim for the eyes," Alit suggested.

"Will it hurt him a lot?" she asked.

"Princess, it will hurt like hell. Also while he's screaming with his hands over his eyes, you can either run and get a guard or bash him over the head with the nearest blunt object, although I kinda want you to run for help," Alit said.

She nodded again. "...alright."

"So, what do you want to do? Play some more video games? Karaoke? Watch TV? Meet some of the other emperors? Play table football? Draw? Play air hockey?"

"...how much stuff did you buy for me anyway? We've only gone through one bag so far and I already know I have three different consoles, a cellphone, and seventeen different games for each console!" she asked.

"A lot," Alit answered, "So what do you want to do?"

She appeared at a loss for the longest time. Finally, she whispered, "I- I don't know. I haven't been able to do what I wanted in so long... I don't know what I want to do anymore."

"C'mon, Princess. Pick something, because you deserve to pick what you think you should do, even if you don't want to do," Alit pleaded.

She was silent for a while then finally, "I want to learn how to walk again. Then I want to play some video games and have you help me learn to read from the dialogue in them, if that's okay with you of course! Y- you don't need to actually. I- I can try to-"

"Hold it, Princess," Alit put his hand up, cutting her off and causing her to cringe, "Sorry, not going to hit you. But you don't need to constantly downplay your requests. I promised to take care of you and what kind of caretaker would I be if I didn't play with you and help you out?"

She looked at him warily. "Red, will you answer any question I ask honestly?"

"'Course I will, Princess!"

"With no retribution?" From her tone, it seemed she thought the second part of her request was way over the line and that she was being stupid asking it.

Alit almost wanted to go to earth just so he could throw up. "No! You can ask any question you want and I will never punish you for it! Princess, that jerk was sick if he hurt you for asking a question, even if it was even incredibly insulting! No one should harm a child for asking a question!"

"...will you eat me?" she asked, then cringed.

"Wait, what?" Alit asked, dumbfounded.

"...in stories, monsters always eat little children and girls. Are you planning to eat me?"

Alit was silent for a while as he processed what she had just said, then fell over laughing. "R- really? That's your question?"

She leaned away from him but seemed to be slightly more at ease once she realized that he wasn't going to hit her while he was laughing. "...one of them, yes."

Alit, with difficulty, stopped laughing. He sat back up and 'smiled' at the doll. "No, I don't eat humans, or really anything that was ever living at all except on earth and then just chicken, pork, beef, fish, and all those things. No barian eats humans."

"...how do I know you're telling the truth? Give me another reason why you won't eat me, and it can't be "it's against my beliefs" or something like that!" she demanded.

Alit shrugged, "Okay, I can give you a few. One, I take human form on earth and I actually used to be human before I died and was reincarnated as a barian. So it'd be basically cannibalism if I ate you. Also, you're a doll and I don't have a mouth. Why and how would I eat you?"

She paused as she considered this. "I guess you wouldn't," she admitted, "And you used to be human?"

"Yep!" Alit 'grinned', "A long, long time ago."

"Really? How'd you die?" she asked and cringed again, "I- I'm sorry! T- that was over the line-"

"Nah, it's fine," Alit waved his hand, "I was framed for murder and the only reason I was convicted was because a certain crazy satanic jerk brainwashed the guy who was deciding whether or not I was innocent or not. So I got my head cut off. Hurt like hell."

Her eyes went wide. "...did you have a family?"

Alit felt like a knife had pierced his heart. "H- huh?"

"Did you have a family you left behind on earth when you died?" she asked.

Alit felt tears come to his eyes and overflow. He slowly nodded, "Yeah, I did. And when I was reincarnated I lost my memories so I didn't know I was ever human. I actually never went to earth until I was about seventy, and that's young considering I'm seven hundred now. And I only remembered parts of my past life recently. I'm just now remembering bits and pieces of my family."

She looked shocked and Alit doubted it had to do with the fact that he just admitted he was seven hundred. "...so, it's like what happened with my older brother. They died of old age."

Alit nodded and sighed, "Yeah, and I never got to say goodbye. Hell, I don't know if or where they were buried, so I have no closure and never will."

"...what were they like?"

Alit shrugged, "I couldn't actually tell you much. Again, my memories are still fuzzy at best. I think we lived on a farm near a seaside village. I had a little sister and brother. My parents were often busy with work and when I wasn't helping, I was playing with my siblings, watching over them."

"...it sounds like you really loved them," she noticed.

Alit nodded and sighed, "I hope they lived good lives. I hope my little sister grew up and got married to a good guy who took care of her and treated her well and she never had to work hard a day in her life. I hope my little brother found some nice girl and they married and had a few kids and lived the best life anyone ever could. I hope my parents grew old together and died at a ripe old age of natural causes peacefully in their sleep. I just... hope they were all happy."

She nodded and slowly and hesitantly put her hand into his. "So do I. I hope your family and my brother were happy for all their lives until they died. I hope my big brother married someone he loved and had lots of kids and wasn't too sad about the rest of us being kidnapped."

Alit 'smiled' at her. "So do I, so do I. Hey, maybe once this is all over and you and your family is back to normal, we go to earth and do some research to find out what happened to my family and your brother, deal?"

"Deal!" she chirped, sounding excited but still not smiling, and shook on it with him.

Alit 'grinned' at her, "So, do you have any more questions for me?"

"...why do you want to help me?" she asked.

"Because I hate it when children are harmed in any way and I became friends with your dad. Besides, I've grown really fond of you," Alit replied.

"You've known me for less than a day," she said.

"I can get attached easily," Alit shrugged.

She stared at him for a while. "...alright."

Alit ruffled her hair, "Wanna learn how to walk again?"

"Yes!" she bounced excitedly before suddenly stopping.

"What's wrong?" Alit asked.

"I- he said-"

"Oh boy," Alit sighed, "Princess, for future reference, when you say "he said" and "he" is that jerk, then it's probably something completely sick or wrong."

"Well, he said that no daughter of his should jump and if I did he would..." she let it hang at that.

"You're not his daughter, you're his victim. He makes Vector look sane. Don't believe anything he's ever told you," Alit said sternly.

"...who's Vector?" she asked.

"Another emperor. I... don't get along well with him. He's kinda completely insane. He's better than Gattas though. Actually I kinda want to lock them in the same room together. Vector will probably come out drenched in that jerk's blood and he won't be our problem anymore."

She nodded, "I'd like that too. But can you keep me away from him?"

"I will. I usually keep away from him too," Alit admitted.

"...I can see why," she said.

Alit laughed again. She was so cute! So hurt, but so cute! He really was a sucker for little kids, wasn't he?

Yet... there was something else about her. Something that he couldn't quite put his finger on but made him want to hug her tight and never let go.