Scott and Stiles found Justin at the facility they'd raided, in the medical building. The older werewolf was wearing a bright blue tracksuit and his hair was a rumpled mess, it was very different from his usual wardrobe of blue jeans and a button down shirt, tie optional. He was hovering over a bank of high tech machines, occasionally pushing buttons and staring at screens, humming what Scott recognized belatedly as Brittney Spears's "Oops I Did it Again."
"Okay," Stiles said slowly as they edged into the room.
"Clearly, you've never seen Justin in the pursuit of knowledge."
"Derek!" Stiles yelped.
Scott glanced over to find Derek leaning against a wall by a folding table upon which set a meal that was steaming slightly.
"What?" Scott said.
Derek shook his head, "Justin, you did understand the part where he's a genius right? He likes learning things." He straightened up, "All right, egghead, the food's going to get cold and you've got company."
"Just a minute, Fido," Justin said, "I just need…" he tapped a few buttons and stared at another screen.
"Usually, Laura Alpha-growled him out of these phases," Derek said, he gestured, "you want to give it a try?"
"Uh," Scott hesitated; he'd never really tried to deliberately 'Alpha growl' any of the others.
"He hasn't eaten in twelve hours," Derek said, "and even then it was just a bagel."
Scott nodded and turned to look at Justin. The world took on the disjointed, red tinged auras that signified his eyes had changed even as that part of him that he thought of as 'the wolf' roused slowly. "Justin, come eat," he said firmly.
"Just," Justin began.
"Now," Scott barked, trying to channel his mom's best 'mom voice'.
Justin jerked up and stared at him, "Yes, Cap." He walked over, "Sorry, it's just, it's fascinating."
"Is that a Faraday Cage?" Stiles asked suddenly.
Derek shoved a plate of food in Justin's hands and growled at Stiles, who held up his hands, looking innocent.
Justin took a bit, glanced down at his plate and smiled, "I thought Petra was here earlier."
"She's a bit upset," Derek said. "You're going to have to calm her down."
Justin shrugged, "I'll handle it." He took another bite. "That's more than a Faraday Cage, Stiles. If my translations are correct, it's a time machine."
"Why?" Scott asked.
Justin grinned at him around a mouth of lasagna. "They're monitoring the time stream, trying to make it turn out their way. It's all experimental of course, and completely impractical."
"How do you figure?" Derek asked.
"We can't change timelines that way," Justin said, "not without massive amounts of energy on the level of a demigod, or a magic object that has centuries to build up energy and is fucking useless once it's been activated. Best they'd get is an alternate timeline where things went better for them. The only other time I've seen a timeline change be enacted was when a group went to the future, learned the bad things, and came back to fix it. Even then, the future they visited is still in existence."
"How do you know that?" Scott asked.
"We found Emma because a group of Rangers got sent to the future on accident and they learned who she could become." Justin said. "That is, an isolated, insecure child who was kidnapped, tormented, and forced into a position where the only way she could free herself was to start the apocalypse. That world, currently post-apocalyptic, is still in existence. Last year, their Red ended up in the past chasing one of their villains, and most of the Samurai team ended up in the Red's present day, our possible future." He tapped the plate with his fork, "Apparently, I'm in the city the Rangers work out of, alone, and I'm pissy as hell."
"So, the, uh, demigod level energy?" Stiles asked.
"There are two or three of those, mostly undirected portals," Justin said. "The fucking Orb, though. That piece of shit needs to die in a fire." He put the now empty plate down. "Thing about this thing here though, according to their records, they'd been checking the timeline for key moments to make changes to some quote unquote 'persons of interest'. And that is the weirdest list I've ever seen."
Scott glanced at Stiles, who shrugged before asking, "Who's on the list?"
"Well, the first one, I kind of expected. It's Justin Stewart," Justin said, "but the rest of these people, they're… they're pretty much nobodies in terms of Rangers. Derek Hale, Scott McCall, Prez-"
"You mean the Pack," Stiles said quickly.
Justin glanced at Stiles, "I mean the Pack."
"Why us?" Scott asked.
"I'm still translating the 'objectives' part of their assignment, but apparently we're too badass in the future for them to handle and they want to figure out why," Justin said.
"I thought you could read all those alien languages," Scott said, "you were reading whatever it was pretty quickly last time."
"Last time, the equipment was designed to be universal, and Eltarean is the universal standard. This is written in Kerevite, which is a completely different base. It's like trying to learn Japanese when all you've really known is English. It's worse than reading Aquitian, and their written language was designed to be read underwater and hasn't changed in a couple of centuries." Justin sighed, "I may need to get someone to recheck my translations."
"Do you know someone who can?" Scott asked.
"Well sure," Justin said, "Conner McKnight."
"The dino guy?" Stiles said.
Justin laughed, "Yeah, the dino guy. He has a pair of adopted kids from AdonKrev and he and his wife wanted them to keep in touch with their roots, so they learned stuff about the system. Food didn't go over well, but the language stuff seems to be working." He frowned at the machine, "I'm not asking him though. I caused enough trouble between him and Tommy already. Besides, there are other people who know more…"
Three streams of light descended from the ceiling, one was blue, one was a silvery-grey, and the last was green. They solidified and then vanished, leaving three people standing in their place. The first was a tall man with dark hair and a confident smile. He was wearing a blue shirt, black pants, and black boots. Beside him was a silvery-blond wearing a black uniform with a silver shirt that Scott recognized after a moment as Zhane, the Silver Astro Ranger. The third person was shorter than the other two, was dressed in a green version of the first guy's clothes, and had vibrant green hair and a green gem on his forehead.
"Zhane!" Justin yelped and tackle hugged the Silver Ranger.
Zhane laughed and hugged him back just as eagerly, "Did you think I wasn't going to come? We have more brothers."
"I know," Justin said, stepping back, "it's insane. You'll love them. We'll have to introduce you later, how long are you staying? Will you be here for Christmas or can you come back? I'm taking everyone to meet Dad on Boxing Day."
"Hey," Zhane said, "we can catch up, we've got time. Karone's not back from her trip yet, so I was thinking that when we brought these two back, I'd get the kids from Ashley and come back for Christmas. But, we can discuss that later. You said you needed these two."
"Yeah," Justin said.
"Justin?" Scott said.
Justin glanced at him, "Oh, right, sorry. Um first, this is Zhane, my brother. You remember Derek, Zhane."
"Of course," Zhane said and took three swift strides and hugged Derek tightly. Derek hugged him back, looking resigned. Then Zhane stepped back, gripping Derek's biceps, "I sorrow for your sorrows, Derek Hale. May the path of shadows be short and the light swift in its coming."
"Thank you," Derek said quietly.
"She was a wonderful woman," Zhane said, "if you ever, ever need anything Derek, you let me know. The debt didn't end with her death."
Derek nodded and stepped back. Zhane let him go and turned, looking at Justin expectantly.
"So," Justin said, "this is Scott McCall, our Alpha."
Zhane nodded and Scott found himself frozen as Zhane pinned him with a long stare. His silver eyes looked not just at him, but also into him. When Zhane blinked and smiled, Scott knew he'd seen more than just the obvious.
"So you're the kid Justin's been complaining about," Zhane said, grinning at Justin. "Not bad things, really; Justin just hates to be reminded that he's not thirty yet."
"False!" Justin yelped, pointing at Zhane, "Curse you for your inevitable betrayal."
"I'm your big brother, it's in the job description," Zhane said. Then he looked at Scott again, "You're sixteen, right?"
"Yes sir," Scott managed after a moment, "In November."
"Lucky," Zhane said, then looked at Stiles. "You would be Stiles then."
"Yeah," Stiles said.
"It took me three months to figure out that you weren't another 'wolf," Zhane said. "I think you disappointed Justin when you didn't ask for the Bite."
"I'm not disappointed," Justin said quickly, "I just thought it was a shame that your experience was with Peter and not a decent and sane Alpha." He clapped his hands together, "To continue the introductions," he paused and looked at the other two, who seemed amused but confused. "Are you two…"
"I'm Lucas," blue shirt said, "Lucas Kendall, my teammate is Trip Regis of Xybria. We were the Time Force Blue and Green Rangers."
"You're an alien?" Stiles said, pointing at Trip. "An actual alien."
"Technically, so is Zhane," Justin said with a shrug. "Lucas, Trip, this is Derek Hale, Scott McCall, and Prez-"
"Stiles!" Stiles yelped, "I'm Stiles Stilinski."
"It's a shame Jen couldn't be here," Lucas said, "I mean, she's not a Lycan, but she's Pack born. You guys figure pretty big in Pack History."
"We do?" Scott asked, frowning at him.
"Well, you're a True Alpha, that would warrant mention even if all you ever did afterwards was be a good Alpha," Lucas said. "I don't know too much else personally, I'm not Pack born."
"Besides," Justin said, "I did want Trip to look at the tech. It sounds like what Time Force used, except, well, prehistoric."
He gestured to the computers and Trip nodded, following him over.