I usually have a policy of one review per chapter, but i'm not too concerned about it right now. I've been dying to get back to the writing over the past month or two. So here is another chapter, it's short, and I apologize for that, but I'm actually not too dissapointed in this one.

Disclaimer : The cute lil halfling character and his flame belong to me, nobody else does though. Outlaw State copyright Funimation Ent.

The next few minutes were imposingly strange. Melfina had been brought in and she happily chatted with Jim and Fred. They exchanged hugs and Mel couldn't help but be shocked by how she had to look up at Jim now. They laughed and smiled, and had an entirely pleasant visit without ever bringing up Gene.

This lasted for all of ten minutes, until Cade who had stepped out of the room momentarily, came back in and found himself face to face with his dad's old android flame.

"G..Gene? GENE?" The unusually composed woman's eyes widened and teared up almost immediately. She looked distraught suddenly, and broke away from Jim to latch onto Cade's shirt. Rona had been standing behind him, and pushed through the door to grab the other woman and pull her off of him.

"Get off of him you psycho! I SAID GET OFF!" With a fluid motion, she had thrown Melfina nearly to the otherside of the room. Now the other ebony haired woman was screaming. Jim, Fred, and Cade were caught between two screaming females with no idea of how to handle it.

Melfina screamed at Rona for a minute before collapsing onto the floor with tears.

"What are you? You're not Gene. You're not even human. You can't be him! Why do you have his face? Oh why..."

He tried approaching her, kneeling down to her level and making eye contact with her.

"Where is Gene?! Why are you here?!"

"Miss Melfina, please...don't cry on account of me. I'm sorry if I upset you. My name is Cade Starwind. If I can correct you without being rude....I'm half human at least. I'm half human and half Ctarl-Ctarl."

She wiped her eyes and stared up at the near twin of her beloved Gene. She stared at him for what seemed like forever, trying to figure out who he could have been.

"So you...you're just a half-human version of Gene? I don't..understand."

Rona tried interjecting, but Cade held up a hand to quiet her.

"It's okay. I've had to explain to everyone who I am. I can handle one more. Miss Melfina?"

He looked towards the floor, finding it strange to 'admit' to everyone who he was. This woman really couldn't figure it out? She definately couldn't be human then.

"Cade, she's a biodroid. She can't have children, and doesn't naturally associate it to people. You can explain that to her."

"I understand. Miss, I know you knew Gene Starwind a long time ago. When you two lost touch...he moved to Earth. He married a Ctarl-Ctarl woman and...they had a son. I'm their son. Gene is my father, that's why I resemble him so much."

She had no words for him when he told her the truth. She continued to wipe away tears, almost as though she hadn't heard him at all.

" I guess I never imagined Gene having any children. I didn't think....A.. A Ctarl-Ctarl? So you have a mother...she's a Ctarl-Ctarl?" He nodded and looked back at Jim, who was shrugging his shoulders.

"Mel, You remember Aisha, don't you? Aisha is Cade's mother." Melfina helped herself back to her feet and brushed herself off, she was still half crying, sniffling and a mess...but she was discernable now.

"You need my help then, is that why you're here? Gene and Aisha would have never needed help. They aren't here. You need to help them?"

"Right, you got it Mel. We need you to come back to the Outlaw Star with us, is that okay?"

The stange android girl smiled to herself and nodded as she walked past Jim to leave the room. A security guard moved behind her and pressed his thumb into a pressure point on her neck, causing a basic reset and putting her to sleep.

"Right right...sorry for her dramatic outburst. She honestly hasn't had a lot of human contact in a while and I guess today was a bit overwhelming, but you got what you wanted, didn't you?" Fred was still smiling happily as though he had another trick up his sleeve.

"I am getting tired of this game. Hiding my identity from one person but having to introduce myself like a celebrity to someone else, it's annoying." Rona popped up from around his shoulder and smiled.

"You're famous, you know? Doesn't that excite you?"

Cade shook his head and rocked back and forth on his heels.

"Famous? I wish my dad hadn't been so famous. I just want to be normal, and yet I'm already so far from normal that being famous just makes it worse. I'm just glad the general population doesn't know I exist, and hopefully they never will."

With that, Cade turned on his heel and began to walk out of the room. Rona's face fell a little, and she was tempted to go after him, but Jim stopped her.

"Let him go for now girly. I can't imagine what he's been through to get here, and it's probably starting to get to him. Just wait for him, he'll come back."

"I wish he would just...let someone in. He's so introverted most of the time; I can't even begin to understand him."

Fred and Jim smiled in unison.

"He's a man, you see. A young one, but he's going to go through some emotional problems at this stage in his life anyway. Just be there for him, and be sure - absolutely sure of something for me." He let the smile dissapear for a moment and ran his finger down her nose.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" She was sure that Jim was going to tell her to leave him alone or to make sure she could be relied on. She hadn't been of much use on this trip so far, even if it was just beginning.

"Don't lead him on. If you don't mean it, don't give him the wrong impression. He doesn't need that, and I'll be supremely upset if you break his heart while he's going through this ordeal with his family."