Since spending a night together, Reese and Zander were almost inseparable and once they were separated, they couldn't think about anything else but each other. Reese was less expressive about their relationship, but she showed her attraction nonetheless. A smile was painted on her face much more often. She knew such a lovey-dovey behavior from her parents, mostly during Valentine's day.

She sighed as if she was dreaming when she sat down in the Black Pearl's lab with a sweet smile on her face, humming Zander's song.

"You seem to be in a good mood," Cretacia noticed.

Reese blushed. "Yes, I suppose..."

Trias smiled. "It is great to see you two happy after everything you had to go through."

"It's so rewarding to spend time together after all that; it feels deserved." She turned to the couple. "Have you had to go through such trouble? I know that my parents have never mentioned if their relationship had any major flaws before I was born."

"All relationships have bumps along the way," Cretacia told her, leaning on Reese's shoulder, "our was mostly Trias' awkwardness."

"And a lot of misunderstandings caused by Cretacia's awkwardness as well," Trias added.

"And that Trias was pretty popular with girls at school."

"And that Cretacia was jealous of that."

The couple smiled at each other.

"You two sure are Rex's parents," Reese commented.

"Are you saying that our boy's the same with love?" Cretacia asked her excitedly.

Reese nodded. "Yes. At least from what I've seen. Since he was 10 he had a crush on Zoe, which she probably noticed, but never explored, same with Max. From some rumors I've heard from Zoe, I can claim that Rex unintentionally charmed a lot of girls in their class as well."

"You know him better than we do," Trias murmured sadly. Reese smiled grimly. "That doesn't mean anything. He still cares about you as much as he would if he spend all his life with you; he wouldn't do all that if he didn't." She traced her eyes away from him. "What matters to him is that he knows both of you and that he knows you didn't leave him. He's going to be happy to see you again once we fix the time machine, I'm sure of it."

"And I'm going to make him as many cookies as he can eat!" Cretacia chuckled happily.

Reese closed her eyes and smiled. "You don't have to worry about being bad parents just because you weren't given a proper chance to prove that isn't true. In my humble opinion, you are great and I'm glad to have you around in times of need." An arm wrapped around her neck and pulled her to the chair.

"You're like a daughter we've never had!"

"T-that's...n...nice, Cretacia...but...I can't...breathe..." Reese groaned and got herself free.

"Sorry."

Trias smiled at Reese. "Did we just adopt you?" he joked.

"Looks like it." She was about to smile back, but her face suddenly turned pale and she covered her mouth. "E-excuse me..." She got up and rushed away.

—

Walking through the downtown by his brother's side, Zander was humming his song happily, thinking about his one and only angel.

"You seem really happy lately," Ed said.

"Of course I am!" Zander exclaimed, spreading his arms, looking up into the heavens, "I get to see and spend most of my time with the most beautiful woman in the world every single day. She's the reason why I wake up in the morning, she puts a smile on my face, she's the melody to my music!"

"She's what you see in all your dreams and her voice is all you hear," Ed interrupted him, "I know how it feels. I wish I had what you two just found."

The tall man grinned. "You're so over Ellie, aren't you? How long has it been going?"

A blush surrounded Ed's freckles as he glanced away, rubbing his head. "I don't know... She's always been so amazing; good-hearted, caring, clumsy just like me. Maybe I was just ignorant of that for so long because of you. She did choose you over me after all."

"Yeah, and ended dumping me because we just weren't meant to be," Zander reminded him, "I can't think of anyone better for her than you."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better."

"Is it working?"

"A little."

Before their conversation could continue, Zander's Alpha Scanner rang. He chuckled when he saw who's calling him. "Speaking of the devil." He waved the Scanner right in Ed's face who jumped back as he spotted the freckled blonde's picture on the display.

Zander answered the call. "Hey, Ellie..."

"Hi!" Ellie smiled at him widely. "I was thinking if you're near the hospital."

"We're not that far away," he told her, "why?"

"I'm about to have an appointment for an ultrasound. A-and since you're its father, I thought you'd like to be there with me and see."

"Are you kidding? Of course!" Zander gasped, "I'd love to see them; you don't even have to ask. We'll be right there."

"Okay, bye." Ellie hung up.

Ed glanced at his brother. "Wait, we?" he wondered.

"Don't you wanna see your niece or nephew?" Zander patted his back.

"Okay..."

They were close to the hospital, so it didn't take them long to meet Ellie in the corridor.

Ellie's usual smile widened. "Ed, you're here too! That's amazing!" she exclaimed, taking his hands.

"You think?" Ed traced his eyes away shyly.

She nodded rapidly.

"Ed was with me when you called, so I thought he could come too if you don't mind," Zander told.

"How could I mind? By the way, Zander, have you decided if you wanna the gender?" Ellie asked her ex.

"I told you I don't care. If you want to know, we'll find out together now."

She nodded. "And what about you and Reese?" She smirked. "Any plans for a family?"

"WHAT?!" Zander's face turned red and he rubbed the back of his head. "Everything's going fine with us, but we haven't planned anything like that yet... We've been dating only for two months, so we don't have these plans yet. On the other hand, you and I didn't plan this either and ended like this so..."

"You don't regret this, do you?" she worried.

"No! No, I don't. People may view our situation as weird—you know, ex-partners expecting a child together and still stay friends while they find new parents."

"I know... some ex-couples can't stand each other after breaking up..." Ellie frowned.

"Because those couples didn't start as such good friends." Zander smiled at her.

She smiled quietly back.

After a moment of silence between them, Ed decided to speak up, "I should leave you two alone," and turned around, heading away.

Zander reached his hand to him, grabbed his brother by the shirt, and pulled him back. Since he feels such happiness recently, he really did want the two of them to experience that as well and what better way to do it than having them make each other happy; especially when Ed's crushing on Ellie so much.

Soon the doctor came to them. "Miss Komatsu, you can come inside with your..." She paused as she looked at the Alpha Gang brothers.

Ellie's reaction was very quick. "This is Zander, the father of the child, and-" The blonde reached for Ed's hand, holding it tightly. "-this is my...boyfriend Ed."

The lavender-haired turned red, not sure what to say.

"Is it okay if both of them go?" she asked.

"Of course, come in." The doctor led them inside and got everything ready for the ultrasound. Ellie laid down, still holding Ed's hand; his face was still red and flushed even more as their glances met. Ed bashfully pulled his hand away and Ellie reluctantly let go of him; they didn't look away and were snapped out by Zander shaking Ellie's shoulder with a huge smile on his face as his eyes were locked on the ultrasound screen.

Ellie looked up and her expression lit up.

Ed smiled softly.

"It is a healthy boy," the doctor said.

"A boy...?" Ellie breathed, "he's really okay?"

"It seems like that. I'll have to examine a little more."

She looked from one to the other with a huge smile as tears streamed down her cheeks. "He's okay..."

Zander nodded as tears filled his eyes. "I still can't believe this is real. We're going to have a son."

"I can't believe this either..." Ed sobbed, covering his tear-soaked face with his arm, "I'm going to be an uncle again!"

The soon-to-be-parents smiled at each other.

—

Reese soon came back to the Black Pearl's lab, looking much better than when she left.

"Do you feel any better?" Trias worried.

"A little," Reese replied with a slight smile, "I assume it must have been some of Helga's cooking; I am still not used to it."

"That's possible," Cretacia agreed, "Rod and Laura said that she even put a rock in a soup once."

Reese jaw dropped at that. "No...way." She swallowed hard at the thought. "That's...um... Wow..."

Her bracelet suddenly rang and she answered the call when she read it is her boyfriend.

"Hi, love."

"Hey, my angel! Guess what! Ellie and I are expecting a healthy boy!"

"A boy?" Reese smiled. "That's wonderful, mainly if everything's okay."

"Yeah! Ed and I were near when Ellie asked us to tag along," he told her, making sure to mention both Ed and Ellie being with him, "Hey, you wanna see a photo of him and there's a lot I wanna tell you!"

Reese took a hint; Zander's been talking about getting those two together for a while—if she agreed and suggested some lone time, which she would definitely accept without a question, he'd have to leave the two alone together.

"Of course, I'd love that." She looked at the Ancients. "If that's okay."

They nodded approvingly.

"We'll meet at the HQ in fifteen minutes?" she suggested.

"Yeah, sure. Love you, angel."

"Love you too, Zan."

Reese sighed happily when they ended the call.

"You are gonna be a stepmom soon," Cretacia reminded her with a teasing grin.

The purple-eyed blonde frowned at her as a blush crossed her face. "Zan and I would have to be married for that to be official and...I think it's too soon..." She stood up. "I'm glad that he's happy." She sighed sweetly. "You just gotta love a dork like that," Reese chuckled softly.

"I know exactly what you mean," Trias told her and shot an adoring smile at his wife.

"I'll be on the phone if you need me," Reese said before leaving.

—

"Alright then, I gotta go to the HQ to my angel," Zander told Ed and Ellie, waving at them as he made his way away.

"Wait, you can't leave us here alone," Ed yelled at him, receiving only an encouraging grin from his brother.

Ellie sighed, crossing her arms. "Leave him be."

The lavender-haired looked up at her confusedly.

"He's so over her in a way he's never been with me. If he wants to spend time with his girlfriend rather than with us then let him." Ellie smiled at him. "Unless you're scared of me that is," she joked.

Ed blushed. "What? No... Um..." He trailed his eyes away until he gathered some courage. "Hey, what about we just stroll around?"

"I'm okay with that." The blonde nodded.

They got to moving forward, unknown where.

"Thanks for coming with me to the reunion," Ed thanked.

"No problem; I really enjoyed it with you and you looked pretty good."

"Really? I've always felt stupid whenever I thought of someone seeing me in that costume before."

"And what changed that?" Ellie wondered.

"I somehow couldn't hold back my passion for pirates once we ended in the Caribbean sea, I guess. It wasn't easy there, but we got ourselves a whole ship and everyone listened to me. They finally didn't ignore me..." Ed's voice slowly faded away as he imagined how his siblings overlooked him.

"Hey." The blonde placed her hand on his shoulder. "You know I'd never ignore you, right?"

"Right..." He smiled up at her and then felt a drop of water on his head.

"You just need to enforce yourself; you're amazing at many things, you're just afraid to show that," Ellie tried her best to encourage him when a drop of water fell on her cheek.

They both looked up—the sky was dark as before, but now it started raining, slightly at first. They were walking faster as the rain got stronger and stronger; they were practically running towards the HQ at the end.

They panted heavily and glanced at one another.

"Unfair... Athletics...aren't...our strong...suits..." Ellie murmured, wringing her blonde hair.

"At least...we're...relatively...dry... It could have been...worse..." Ed told her between breaths, "what do we...do now...?"

She frowned thoughtfully and smiled brightly. "Do you still have the movies we loved as teens...?"

He blinked at her unsurely. "I... I think so..."

"Then I know! Get everything ready in your room and I'll go make some popcorn and grab some salted chips," Ellie said in delight.

—

The Ancients were invested in their search for any new time anomalies. If they locate their source, they could find it and use it. There was a strong one just last night.

Jonathan walked in with a tray with a plate of cookies and two cups of tea on it. "Still no results?" he asked them.

"Nothing..." Trias replied with a sigh.

The android set the tray down and Cretacia snuck some cookies to herself before Trias noticed. "I recommend taking a break from your work and coming back to it later. You might get a better idea with a clear mind."

"I suppose you're right; thank you." Trias got up, taking one cookie after another. Cretacia chuckled at that.

"How do you manage to eat so many of them?"

Her husband only shrugged.

She put her hand on her hip. "Rex's definitely got that from you."

Hearing her words, Trias paused with a cookie near his mouth. His eyes traced away.

She knew what was going on. "He's happy in the past; we've made the right decision," she reassured him.

"You say that every time and it still feels the same. If I just went to the past without you, he wouldn't have to go through so much; he wouldn't hate it here."

"No, no, no." Cretacia jumped around him. "If you went without me, the whole universe would be doomed; don't forget about that. The present needs Rex, even if we have a hard time accepting it. Also, what would you do without me?"

"Right..." he agreed forcedly, not trusting his own words.

"Hey, and Reese even admitted that we're great parents, so put on that smile, and let's focus on getting to see our boy again!"

As soon as she said it, they got an alert about another anomaly.

"Cretacia, try to locate the source; I'll contact Reese," Trias said and phoned Reese.

—

"Want another kiss?" Reese asked her boyfriend teasingly in her bed.

"I'd love all of them," Zander chuckled as pulled her closer, kissing her cheeks several times.

Suddenly, Reese's bracelet received a call.

"Hold it," she stopped him, sitting up quickly. She reached for the bracelet, answering the call. "Hello? Trias?"

"Hello, Reese. Do you have a while?" Trias' voice asked her from the other side.

The blonde frowned and glanced at her boyfriend who was looking at her sadly. "That depends on how long your while is." She reached her hand to his head, stroking his cheek.

"We've got another anomaly signal; I thought you'd like to hear it. Could you stay in touch in case we need your help?"

"Of course," she replied as Zander kissed her hand, "I'll be on the line. Bye for now." She laid the bracelet back on the nightstand once the call was over.

"Maybe I should go and see for myself..." She was about to stand up when she felt arms wrap around her torso and keep her sitting. "Zan..."

"You don't have to go."

"Yes, but it'd be better-"

"No." Zander kissed her shoulder.

"You can't be without me, can you?"

"Not now..." He shook his head and pulled her back down on the bed, peppering her with kisses.

"Z-Zan...! That tickles!" she laughed.

"Why else do you think I'm doing this? I wanna hear your laugh."

—

Once the call ended, the anomaly signal was gone.

"Still unable to locate the source..." Cretacia sighed. "They disappear faster than we can react."

"That's alright; we'll get it next time," Trias reassured her, "we might even figure out a different way."

She nodded and then her cyan eyes widened. "And what if we've already created something that can locate this amount of power?" She clapped her hands in delight.

"What?"

"The cosmos stone detector! Theoretically speaking, it can work on the anomalies as well."

Trias stared at her for a while and then simply said, "you're a genius, dear."

"I know!"

He stood up. "We should look for the blue-"

He was interrupted by another signal, this time it was a dinosaur signal, however, in the next moment, the screen with the dino's location turned static.

A loud thunder suggested lost connection's cause.

—

Sitting on the bed together ready to watch a movie in his room, Ed and Ellie jumped in surprise as the lights and the TV suddenly turned off and even more when they heard the loud thunder. Ellie as a reflex dropped the bowl of popcorn and wrapped her arms around Ed's neck who wrapped himself in a blanket.

He reached for his Scanner and lit the display up. When the light illuminated them they realized how close their faces were. They flushed and pulled away.

"Sorry... You know I'm a coward," Ellie apologized.

"We both are..." Ed murmured, "the storm must have caused a blackout."

"So, what do we do now?" she wondered, picked up the bowl that still had some popcorn in it, and ate it in handfuls.

"Don't know..." He sighed and looked at her, seeing her stuff her mouth full in the dim light. "Guess you don't need a movie to watch for this."

"Mmh...mm..." she tried to say with her full mouth, then she swallowed, "I like to say that the little one loves salty stuff, but then again... I've always eaten too much of unhealthy snacks; that's why I'm so chubby now." She poked her cheek as she chuckled.

"You might not have the body of other women, but you're much more lovely than any of them," Ed told her with a loving smile.

Ellie's surprise and bright blush were easily spotted even in the weak light.

"What...?" she whispered.

"What?!" he gasped, turning red.

She leaned over to him. "Do you think so?"

He nodded a few times carefully.

"Ed..." She was gazing into his eyes. He felt his heart picking up speed as his sapphire orbs didn't leave her dark chocolate. He felt his stomach being tightly pressed.

Suddenly, he jumped off the bed with another sound out thunder which's noise was comparable to his heartbeat. He glanced away from her, rubbing the back of his head.

"I can say all that...but that doesn't change anything..."

"What? What should it change?" Ellie walked over to him cautiously.

"...um... you and me... I mean, there won't be any you and me no matter what I do."

"Why do you think that?"

Ed turned his back to her completely. "Because why would someone so adorable and pretty, open, and passionate as you be with someone dumb and fat like me?"

Her heart leaped at first, but then fell to the floor when he ended. It hurt her hearing him put himself down like that.

She wrapped her arms around him from behind, trying to entwine her fingers over his stomach but just couldn't do it; she only let her fingers touch one another.

"So, first of all, as long as I can hug you like this and somewhat connect my hands, you aren't fat. Second of all, you're smarter than others think. You've made many great things including a realistic simulation. You're kind, funny, and goofy and that's why I...why I..."

"Ellie..." He pulled away and looked at her to see her in tears with a huge smile across her face.

"I love you the way you are."

"You l-love...me...?"

"Did I say that out loud?!" she squeaked, "I...I wouldn't call it... love just yet! W-we've known each other for a long time... It just feels a little different than with Zander; it feels better. It feels right..." She rubbed her arm. "Maybe because he's always had someone else on his mind and so have I." She pecked his cheek, making him blushed even more if it was possible.

"And who is it?" Ed asked her.

Ellie chuckled softly. "I might sound cliche, but... it's you, Ed."

His jaw dropped immediately.

—

"A blackout over the whole city; any wireless connection is impossible," Cretacia said as she turned on the projection of the outside on the walls; the Black Pearl had its own power source. Sanjo was covered in darkness.

"The dinosaur can't be located and we can't contact anyone to tell the Alpha Gang about it," Trias recapitulated to himself. He stood up. "Then it's up to us."

Jonathan was carefully watching the outside when he finally spotted something in the reflected light from the moon. "It's in the downtown."

"Alright then." Trias headed to the room with the dinosaurs and unscrewed the metal plate next to the door. "Cretacia, stay here and contact others once the power goes back on," he told his wife who followed him. Her eyes clearly said that she's unhappy with such terms.

She is aware of his hatred towards using dinosaurs against one another and yet he's about to go against his own conviction.

Trias turned to the dinosaurs and Ace stepped forward.

"Would you like to come with me?"

The Carnotaurus nodded. Trias touched the metal plate, changing Ace into a card and walking away.

Cretacia frowned as she watched him. The only sound in the quiet corridor were raindrops from outside. Being this the one thing she could hear, it made her think. Then it hit her; the rain!

There is no way the two of them can battle with these conditions.

She rushed after Trias.

—

Walking in the rain, Trias was heading towards the place where the dinosaur was last seen. He followed the roar and stopped when he saw a Styracosaurus.

The dinosaur seemed confused at first.

"I don't want to fight you," those words didn't calm the Styracosaurus down. As another lightning struck just beside the dino, it started to freak out and charged at Trias.

He didn't hesitate and summoned Ace in the battle, however, the moment the Carnotaurus felt the rain on his skin he tossed his head from side to side rapidly, blindly attacking the Styracosaurus, although, he wasn't capable of a real fight.

"What is going on?" Trias whispered.

"Trias, wait!" he heard a familiar female voice calling him. When he turned around he saw Cretacia nearly slipping on the wet sidewalk as she rushed to him.

"Cretacia? What are you doing here?"

"...Ace...can't...battle...in...rain..." she panted. She took a deep breath and jumped up. "He's afraid of water, remember?"

"...of course..." he murmured as the realization hit him, "I forgot... I hope you have another card to use then."

"Um...no...?"

"We are doomed."

Trias called Ace to his card, leaving the Styracosaurus even more confused. He was so disturbed by the afraid Carnotaurus and the storm that he ran towards the Ancients.

The dino was getting closer and closer. Before they could react, it got dangerously close, but it suddenly stopped as it was pulled back by its tail, lifted and slammed against the ground by nonother than Jonathan.

The Ancients only watched as they were saved by their android.

"I always forget that he can do that, not gonna lie," Cretacia exclaimed in a ready to fight pose.

"So do I," Trias admitted as he stood in front of her protectively, "and I'm the one who built him."

"Are you unharmed?" the android asked them.

"Only thanks to you," Trias replied, "you wouldn't have to save us if we just thought this through. Shows that even the most brilliant minds can make mistakes..."

The Styracosaurus started to get up.

"We must get that Styracosaurus to the Black Pearl," Jonathan said, "go ahead and find a way to calm it down; I'll lead it to you."

"Right." The Ancients quickly headed back to the ship.

"What are we going to do?" Cretacia asked.

"There must be a way to put that Styracosaurus to sleep. He's enraged by the storm," Trias answered; unlike before, he tried his best to avoid any battles.

A way to put it to sleep...?

"Anesthetics!" Cretacia realized, "the needle! We still have Dr. Drake's needle!"

"Of course."

They got on board and got everything ready. All they had to do was to wait for Jonathan to lead the Styracosaurus to them and then struck, injecting the dinosaur with anesthetics as soon as it got on board.

The Styracosaurus fell to the floor totally asleep.

"What would you do without me?" Cretacia asked her husband.

Trias looked at her with a smile on his face. "Right," he agreed; this time, he trusted in his words—with her by his side, he knew that everything's going to be okay.

He wrapped his arms around her, which he rarely does because he dislikes his personal space being interrupted, and he kissed her head.

—

This took me so long to write! Mostly because of me working on other projects. The chapter is named after Whitesnake's song, which is a nod to how long it took me to finish this and to how Trias tries doing things by himself ('Here I go again on my own').

Anyways, I hope the wait was worth it, you got to know the baby's gender, you got a bunch of Freckleshipping and Periodshipping and a little bit of Angelshipping/ReeZan fluff and also Trias finally realized that it doesn't matter how smart one is everyone can be mistaken, which perfectly represents R!OoTaS' story.

I hope you enjoyed it and stay safe, please.