The lady, who I assumed had to be Syl, smiled up at me. "And, how did you come to meet Zack?" she asked friendly.

"I'm his daughter," I replied. Well, she wasn't expecting that answer. Her face fell slightly, but she was able to regain her composure quickly enough. She then turned to Zack and rested her chin on her hands as I pulled up a chair as well.

"I didn't know you had a child," Syl said.

"Well, I haven't seen either of you guys since before the fire-"

"And even that was long enough ago," Krit finished for Dad.

Krit, with his cinnamon skin, had dark black hair that was glossy in the artificial lighting. A neatly trimmed goatee grew on his skin as if separating his face into different section. The black sweater he wore had a high neck, covering up his barcode, while his neat khakis were stretched out just enough to be comfortable and not sloppy. He was almost picture perfect, except for the blackened nail on his right thumb. Darker than the shade of his sweater, he kept it tucked out of sight, but with my vision, I could see it immediately.

Syl, on the other hand, was strikingly beautiful. Her long blond hair cascaded down around her shoulders in curly corkscrews, with part of it clipped back into a silver barrette. She wore a baby blue shirt with flowing long sleeves and a pair of silky black pants. Wearing a floppy felt hat, she had it tilted sideways on her head to cover half of her face. The half of her face that was covered was badly scarred, from the flames eighteen years ago, most likely.

"Well," Syl began, "who's your wife?"

"I don't have one," Dad replied.

"Alanza must have a mom-doesn't she?"

"Alanza's mom would be Max," I said, finally speaking for myself. They all looked at me, amazed. Even Dad was slightly shocked that I would say such a thing. But, I was ready to defend myself-as I had been doing all my life when it came to my parents and how they hooked up. "No, it's not like that," I explained. "Before the fire back at the Seattle base, Lydecker had already combined the reproductive cells to form me. So, no, it wasn't exactly by 'natural process'," I told them.

"How's Maxie?" Krit asked, having heard Mom's name.

"She's good," Dad replied.

The conversation paused as Troy came and dropped off the food for Krit and Syl. He stared at Dad and I, confused as to why we would be sitting with somebody else, but said nothing. Besides, it wasn't his business anyhow.

Once he had walked away, Krit and Syl, ignoring their food, continued to talk, along with Dad and I. I was so glad that Mom had told me everything about the past and the other X-5s. Otherwise, I surely would've been lost.

"So, you guys look like you're doin' pretty good," Dad stated. "How'd that happen?…And are you married?"

"No, we're not married," Krit told him. "We…well…I guess I'll start from after the fire and go from there."

"Might as well," Syl spoke up, sipping at her drink-orange juice. Smart lady.

"Well, when the fire hit, I got blown out of the containment area, I guess that's what you could call it. We all did. The fire hit the gasoline and ripped the place to shreds. Most of us got thrown out, farther away and managed to get out, but some of us weren't so lucky…I'll get to that later, no reason to make this back into such a somber occasion," Krit explained.