It was quiet as the clock passed one a.m., a relief from the day's mutter of voices, footsteps, and heartbeats as the pack explored the facility. Justin had heard Scott, Derek, and Petra discussing what they would do with the place, but he'd put the conversation aside for his work. There was so much to translate, each of the time travel reports he'd uncovered consisted of pages of minutiae over what had been done by SPD in their quest to disrupt what their paperwork called 'The McHale Pack'. Justin thought the name had a certain ring to it and Trip and Lucas both had mentioned that Jen would be interested.

"That's the last of it," Lucas said quietly.

"Are you sure?" Justin asked, putting down his reader and looking at the other blue ranger.

"Five trips," Lucas said. His eyes were blood shot and he was pale under his dusky skin tone.

"I'm not putting the Pack through the fifth," Justin said shortly.

"Justin," Lucas said.

"Ten years ago," Justin said, he hesitated, "ten years ago, I had a visit from myself. I was twenty-four and, I thought at the time, amazing. He told me that he'd come back to warn me that my life was about to become horrible, but that I needed to hang on. If I made it past my seventeenth birthday party, my suffering would be worth it. Said a few other things too, about why my life would be bad, things that helped me hang on. I knew someone thought the Pack and I were too awesome to exist and wanted to break us up, but I didn't know… I didn't know we were Pack, he used a different word. I didn't know what we'd become." He touched the reader, "I didn't know people had come from the future specifically to stop my Pack."

"Justin," Lucas said.

Justin banged his fist on the console, "Dammit, Lucas, this is my Pack. They targeted us, and I don't really care why. Look at what they did! They stopped things and started things, I lost Dad because of them. Derek lost everything. And they're going to get away with it!"

"What's going on?" Trip slurred from behind Justin, and he flinched slightly. The green ranger had dozed off after finally calibrating the machine for him. Justin had been louder than he'd intended if he'd woken his friend.

"Sorry Trip," Justin said, "I didn't mean to be so loud."

"What are you going to do?" Lucas asked.

Justin ran a hand through his hair and grimaced at the feel of it. "I'm going to take a shower and sleep, see my son off to school, and then we're going to test the machine."

"And by test, you're using it," Lucas said.

"I'm going to have a chat with myself at fourteen," Justin said with a grim smile. "You'll help won't you?"

"Of course," Lucas and Trip said in unison.

"We'll meet back here at nine," Justin said and stepped away.

/././.\.\.\

Isaac had been Justin's for less than a year, and every time Isaac looked at him with that wounded look, Justin wanted to swallow wolf's bane. "You've been busy," Isaac said as he toyed with his eggs.

"It's not an excuse," Justin replied. "I forgot, I've got family to be with now." He reached over and rested his hand beside Isaac's arm, "You have to remind me more that you're around. I know better than to get this wrapped up in something."

"But it was worth it, right?" Isaac said.

"I don't know," Justin said carefully, cautiously. "I have to explain it all to Scott, but… it's not good. It's… it's a bit horrifying." He paused and reached for the salt, "Maybe that's a bit hypocritical of me, but, what they've done."

"We're going to do something about it, aren't we?" Isaac asked.

"That's as much up to Scott as anything," Justin said as he carefully salted his eggs. "We're not done testing everything just yet. Whatever we do, if we're going to do anything, we need a working time machine."

"Best phrase ever," Isaac said. Justin glanced at him. "Working time machine. Can we go back and retake our finals? I feel like I'm going to bomb chemistry."

"Do your best," Justin said, "and if you do fail, I'll round you up a tutor and we'll retake it as a home school option, like Malia and the twins are doing. I was thinking, I'd talk to the other parents about everyone doing their science classes with personal instructors. Seriously, Harris was a crap teacher and that bitch darach did us all a favor. I actually checked with the high school when you came to stay with me, and it's an option."

"Really?" Isaac said, "Can you get me out of Algebra?"

Justin chuckled, "What are you having trouble with? Aren't you not taking a math class this semester?"

"I'm not," Isaac said, "but I have to take either Algebra II or Geometry next semester, and I'm almost as bad as math as I am science."

"Well," Justin said, "You might want to talk to Derek about Geometry, he's the best of us there, and I'm handy with Algebra. Let's take a look at the school first."

"Okay," Isaac sighed.

"Hey, if you wanted to go full time homeschool, you totally can," Justin said, "Between me and the others, we could make sure you were being properly taught, I just thought you'd want to stick with Scott."

Isaac smiled, "Yeah, thanks for that." He toyed with his bacon for a moment, "So what are you doing today?"

Justin grinned, "I'm testing a time machine. Want me to bring you back a velociraptor?"

"Really?" Isaac asked.

"I'll see," Justin chuckled.

"I guess I should go then," Isaac said with a sigh. "Chemistry waits for no man."

"Science final?" Derek asked as he walked in from the balcony.

"No science!" Justin said sternly, pointing his fork at Derek.

"Jeez, a guy blows up his kitchen," Derek muttered.

"We remodeled three times Derek, three times just because of you and Wren," Justin said.

"Really?" Isaac asked.

"Their high school chemistry teacher was big on take home projects," Justin said. "Baking projects mostly, mixing things like baking soda and vinegar together. Everyone regretted making Wren and Derek science partners that year."

Isaac snickered, "That's awesome."

"We weren't that bad," Derek said.

"Of course not," Justin said, "Laura just felt like celebrating your graduation with the Hale Memorial Chemistry Lab for the hell of it."

"Did he blow that up to?" Isaac asked.

"There was a full school evacuation three times," Justin said.

"Hey that reminds me," Isaac said, "Justin says you're good at geometry, Derek?"

"I might be," Derek said carefully.

"I'm taking Geometry next semester, possibly, would you mind helping me if I need it?" Isaac asked.

Derek eyed him for a moment, and Justin wondered what his friend was thinking. "I don't mind," Derek said finally.

"I'll get you the good coffee for Christmas," Justin said.

"Buy me a ton," Derek said, "somehow, I think I'm going to need it."

Justin thought of what he'd found buried in the alien archives, "Do you still have Anya's email address?"

"I thought we weren't ever contacting her again," Derek said, surprised.

"Let's just say I think next year is going to be a bad year to be sober," Justin said and stood up. "Isaac, do you want a ride to school?"

"No," Isaac said, "Stiles is picking me up."

"I might be out of touch today," Justin said, "but will you ask Scott to come by the facility this afternoon, there's something he needs to know."

"Sure, no problem," Isaac said.

"You can come too," Justin said, "but Scott needs to be there."

Isaac smiled at him just as his phone began to blare "Ride of the Valkyries." Isaac scrambled to get it out of his pocket, "Have you been changing my ringtones again?" He asked in place of a hello. "Because last time, you made Justin's theme that Care Bears song and I couldn't look him in the eye for a week."

Justin could hear Stiles easily, "No, I haven't. Why?"

"Because I liked your ring tone, and now it's Ride of the Valkyries."

"That wasn't me," Stiles said.

"What was his ring tone?" Derek muttered, catching Justin's attention.

"Macho Man," Justin said as he drained his coffee. "You can come by the facility if you want, Derek, but it's going to be boring today."

"I'm going to Briarwood today," Derek said, "finish up transferring my work over to UCB."

"Right," Justin said, "good luck with that. I'll see you later."

"See you later," Derek said.

Justin paused, "Did you need anything, or were you just meditating on my balcony because reasons?"

"Mik and Dietrich are still at the loft," Derek said, "Dietrich can't sleep through the night. It's peaceful up here."

"I see," Justin said, "in that case, don't forget that there are camping supplies in storage if you need them."

"I won't," Derek said. "Thanks Justin."

"Not a problem," Justin said. "The guest bedroom is also open to you if you need it."

"I'll remember that," Derek said.

Justin dealt with his dirty dishes and headed back out to the facility. He probably should have tracked down the twins, but Justin wasn't sure he could actually look them in the eye and play down what he was doing today. Not with what Justin had found in the records of the facilities' time travel division.

Lucas and Trip were waiting for him in the room, both of them looking rested and refreshed.

"Are you ready?" Trip asked.

"Yes," Justin said, "I'm definitely ready."

"Let's get you suited up then," Lucas said, reaching for the tracking/return device Justin would need to make his trip.

"You'll arrive in Seattle," Trip said, "We've set the coordinates for Lake Sammamish State Park, so you should arrive unnoticed."

"I'll go morphed," Justin said, "it'll cut down a bit on things if people see a Ranger, not a civilian."

"Are you sure?" Trip asked.

"I'll be fine," Justin said.

"Then let's do this," Lucas said as he fit the device to Justin's wrist.

Justin took a few steps back and pulled out his key, "Shift into Turbo!"

He always forgot what it was like to view the world from a HUD and not his own eyes. That and how echoingly empty his mind was.

"Are you ready?" Trip asked.

"Definitely," Justin said as he stepped onto the floor of the time machine. He turned to look at his friends and nod, "Let's do this."

He closed his eyes as a low grade humming filled his ears. After a moment he opened his eyes, and found himself standing in the middle of a forest. After a moment, his helmet's heads-up display flashed the information that the area was deserted. "

Power down," Justin said.

He pulled his phone out and checked that it was connected to the local cell tower. Then he pulled up the number for Light Speed's emergency Ranger line.

"This is the Rainbow Foundation, my name is Carrie," a cheerful woman.

"Carrie, this is Blue Turbo," Justin said. "About two minutes ago, your sensors may have detected a temporal anomaly in Lake Sammamish State Park. It was I, we're doing an experiment in 2012 with time travel. Figured I should give you a heads up before we make the six o'clock news."

"Time travel?" Carrie said, startled.

"Yes," Justin said. "I'm not planning to be here more than three hours. Got to write dirty limericks in the Seattle City Hall men's room to prove I did it." He hung up and headed for the lake.

Unlike Angel Grove Park, the Lake Sammamish State Park was overgrown and mostly wild, but Justin remembered the park. He'd been out here camping when the weather warmed up, before they'd moved. He found his way to a ranger station easily enough and stepped inside with a nervous and sheepish mask.

"Can I help you?" The park ranger on duty asked.

"I'm afraid I've gotten turned around," Justin said. "I was hiking and got a bit lost."

"Are you injured?" The ranger asked.

"No," Justin said, "I was hoping I could call for a ride, actually. I don't remember where I left my car and I thought I'd get a friend to come out and help me look."

"Sure," the ranger said, "phone's over there."

Justin glanced at the man's badge, "Thank you, Mister… Hale."

The ranger looked at him sharply. "Something wrong?"

"Well," Justin hedged, "I know of a family named Hale, but they're in California."

"My cousins," the man said. "May I assume you share their lunar connection?"

"I do," Justin said, "and you do not."

"No," Hale shook his head. "I'm Jethro Hale. Talia, Peter, and that lot are my cousins. How do you know them?"

"More by rumor and reputation," Justin said, "I'm usually on the East Coast, just came out for business. About the phone."

"Sure, sure, go ahead," Hale gestured.

Justin picked up the phone and dialed a carefully memorized number.

"Nick O'Time Odd Jobs," a rather familiar voice said cheerfully.

"Trip Regis?" Justin said, "I need to speak to Jen Scotts. My name is Justin Stewart, I'm Warden of the McHale Pack."

"Hold on," Trip said. There was rustling and voices, then a woman picked up.

"This is Jennifer Scotts."

"I know I'm a couple of years out of time," Justin said quietly and quickly. "It was mostly deliberately. We ran into a temporal issue in my time and I had to come back to take steps."

"All right," Jenn said.

"I need help arranging transport, my financials are out of date. I was hoping you'd vouch for me to Wes." Justin said.

"Sure," Jen said easily, "what do you need, exactly?"

"A car," Justin said, "and a driver. I'm at Lake Sammamish State Park in Washington. I need to go into the city to take care of things."

"Hold please," Jen said.

Justin leaned against the wall and let his head fall back for a moment, then he looked at Hale. The man had stepped outside for some reason and Justin relished his privacy.

"Justin Stewart? Wes Collins."

"Hi Wes," Justin said. "Did Jen explain things?"

"She did," Wes said carefully. "I'm willing to help you out. I have a friend in Seattle who might be willing to come get you, let me call him."

"Sure," Justin said. He glanced around the small room and spotted a business card with the ranger station number on it, "Here's my current number, it's a ranger station in the park. Let me know what's up."

"Sure, no problem," Wes said. "At some point, I'd like to meet you."

"We do," Justin said. "In about a year and a half, you talk Eric into giving my programs a shot, incidentally giving me one of my first private sector contracts, which helped me build a multimillion dollar security firm." He laughed, "You said you heard about me from Jen, actually. Suddenly it all makes sense."

"Security firm?" Wes said, "I'll remember that."

"Computers and tech mostly," Justin said, "it's a mutually beneficial arrangement. But I'll let you call your friend, I'm kind of on a time constraint."

"All right," Wes said, "I'll call you soon."

/././.\.\.\

The park was just as Justin remembered it, right down to the secluded beach with the perfect throwing stones, and a younger Justin Stewart defying the cold weather to skip stones. Justin leaned against one of the trees screening the beach from casual view and watched as his younger self sent a stone skipping across the water and softly counting the impacts.

"One, two, three, four…"

"Five," Justin cut in as he stepped out of the tree line. "You're getting better. Suppose that's to be expected though." He bent to pick up a flat stone and glanced over at the teenager.

"You, you're," the teen stammered, eyes wide.

"You," Justin agreed and sent his rock skimming across the lake. "You know, I was hoping we'd managed to target San Mateo in October, not Seattle in December."

"We can't always get what we want," the teen said looking down and away.

"We get what we work for," Justin said. "If you want it, you have to get it yourself."

"Did you travel back fifteen years to skip stones and give me homilies on hard work?" Teen Justin demanded.

"Nah, that's the bonus," Justin said, giving him a sly grin. He looked around and picked up another skipping rock, "Also, to tell you how awesome you are."

"Me?" The teen scoffed.

"Oh yeah," Justin said. "Look at where you are, how much you've survived. Did you know that the average life expectancy of the halidenari is six months to a year? Not to mention all the stuff you went through as a Ranger. A lot of Rangers die in the uniform."

The teen shrugged, staring at the ground.

"Hey," Justin said, "Pay attention. You are awesome. You are worthy of respect. You're smart, charming, and kind where it matters most. And you're going to become exceptionally kickass over the next ten years. I'm twenty-four, okay? On the public side of things, I'm a somewhat reclusive but wealthy businessman who had to start building his own technology to handle his innovations. Kind of like a sober Tony Stark, I'm told. On the private side, Dad and I finally found a balance in our relationship although it takes a few years. I've got a wonderful ohana and my brothers are unique and almost as kickass as I am. In the next few years, the ohana's going to become this BAMF group that scares the pants off our greatest enemy so badly, he's going to use a time machine prototype to try to prevent it from happening. That's why I'm here."

"I'm never getting out of the Ranger stuff, am I?" The teen said.

"Only one member of the ohana is actually a Ranger besides you," Justin said, "the rest, well, it's nice to have a few surprises in life and that's a good one. As for the Rangers, well, you need to establish boundaries. Decide what you're willing to accept from them. Also, ask them for help, even sometimes when you think you don't need it. Showing Tommy and the others that you're going to ask for help means that they'll trust you to ask when you need it. Besides, do you want to give up Zhane?"

"No!"

"Exactly." Justin kept his tone firm. "You have to set down your boundaries and make them respect them. Also, know when to be flexible, because having someone call you up about Ranger tech by calling Adam to call you is a little ridiculous after the first time."

"That happens?"

"Oh yeah," Justin chuckled, then fell silent. "The bad guys, they're Ranger related. Except they messed with the ohana. We won't let them get away with that, so we're going to go after them. That's what scared them, I think, and since they're clearly lacking two brain cells to rub together, they've done the exact things that put us on them in the first place."

"What will they do?"

Justin sighed, "Try to keep us apart mostly. There are some people who need help we can't provide with time travel, so I've sent a letter to people who can and will help. Some of it, Zordon forgive me, some of it, we have to let happen, because what they thought they were changing only made us who we are today." He thought of Laura and Derek, and how the fire and changed them. "You're different. Because it hasn't started yet, what they're planning to do. I could stop it, I could tell you to run, to hide, and to get out. I could."

"I wouldn't let you."

"No, we don't run. Ever. That's why I'm here." Justin pulled his sleeve back and stared at his wrist, remembering the cut. "I tried to kill myself once, because of it all. I knew, I knew why this happened, what they were trying to do." He glanced at his younger self, "I have a therapist now, he keeps all of my secrets and he's not related to the Rangers except through me. When I finally told him all of it, he called it systematic psychological torture."

"Whoa."

"Thing is, up until that moment, I had hope. I just… got a little lost. See, it's only going to last three years, the torture. After that, you'll have the ohana. At least, you'll have most of it. They'll keep you safe just by existing. The bad guys won't be able to get past them to act, and she was too damn stubborn to let them make her doubt me."

"Your wife?"

"No," Justin shook his head. He smiled sadly, "I told Zhane once that she was our queen."

He fiddled with his phone for a minute, then let the teen see the screen. "That's Isaac, I adopted him. His father was a complete asshole."

"Cool."

"He's a good kid, lots of defensive walls, but worth it." Justin flipped the screen again, paused, then flipped on, "And this is Sour Wolf." He showed the picture, "Good fighter, bad at common sense and science."

The teen chuckled.

The last photo he showed the teen was his favorite. "That's your little sister, Kimmie. Dad will get remarried again, to a very nice woman. She doesn't try to be Mom, but if you let her, she can be a friend."

"A little sister?"

"Yeah. Too young to see how awesome she's going to be, but everyone agrees she's got the Stewart smile." Justin smiled at the picture.

"I need to go," the teen said suddenly, "Dad will worry if I'm late."

"I should go to," Justin said. "Justin, there is one thing you have to remember though. There will come a point you're going to have to decide between the expectations of others and what's right for you. You have to, have to, have to, pick what's right for you. It's so incredibly important. Can you remember that?"

"Sure," the teen lifted his chin, "I'll remember that, and what's more, when the time comes, I'll do it."

"Great," Justin said as he pulled up the app that would allow him to create a time portal home. "Crap, one more thing. Don't worry when you trip at graduation. In ten years, they'll all be more eager to remember how fucking rich you are as opposed to how stupid you looked once."

"What?"

Justin smirked as he stepped through the portal, wondering how long it would take the teen to realize that Justin never went to high school reunions, because they weren't worth going to.

/././.\.\.\

Justin stumbled as he left the portal, not expecting the drop. Looking up, he noted that Scott, Isaac, and Derek were waiting with Lucas and Trip.

"How was school?" Justin asked, trying to act casual, "The final go okay?"

"Don't know yet," Isaac said uncomfortably, "Where did you go?"

"Seattle," Justin said, "had to skip some rocks, ruin any desire for Apple products, and made sure I survived to meet Laura."

"Explain," Scott said shortly.

Justin sighed, "SPD targeted me specifically. I think they found my medical records. They were trying to drive me to kill myself, but they didn't succeed entirely. I held up a lot longer than they expected because I knew I'd meet the pack one day. When I was fourteen, a sad, intense, and interesting older self showed up one day and spent time telling me how awesome I was, and how much better I'd become. I had hope for the future because I knew it would be great. I spent three years being psychologically tortured, and I didn't break, not the way they wanted me to, because I went today."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Scott asked.

"Because I didn't want you to know," Justin said gently. "I didn't really want anyone to know except Lucas and Trip. What I went through, what they did, it was fucked up and wrong on so many levels, but I survived, and I'm better. I've had seven years to get better. Between the three of you Alphas, they haven't gotten close enough to try anything, so I've been able to heal and get better."

He glanced at Derek for a moment, "Besides, there are four other incidents that we can change, that we practically have to change. And there's one that I'd like to fuck with just because I can."

"Tell me about them," Scott said, "let's see what's going on."