After Justin chased Derek out of the loft, there was a long moment of awkward silence. Stiles noted that Scott, Isaac, and Malia were exchanging nervous glances and wondered what they were hearing in the hallway.

Deciding that he didn't like awkward silences, Stiles cleared his throat, "So," he said when everyone looked at him, "I guess the question here is, are you a good witch or a bad witch?"

Maya laughed, "A good witch. I swear that by the Goddess. I don't know what I can actually do to help, you've got an Emissary already, but I'll help as much as I can."

"She likes being useful," Gia said casually. "And she's really good with patterns and puzzles."

"Which can be useful," Scott cut in. Stiles thought he looked annoyed more than anything. "Maya, I'm Scott McCall, the local Alpha. That was Justin who went after Derek and who owns the condos. Over at the bar is my best friend Stiles."

Stiles waved, and pretended Maya wasn't looking at him oddly.

"Our Emissary is Deaton," Scott continued, "This is Isaac, one of my Betas." Stiles tried not to snort when Isaac puffed up a bit at being Scott's Beta. After the Scott-and-Allison show, Isaac's puppy love for both Scott and Allison had been the most saccharine thing to happen to Beacon Hills. "Last, but most definitely not least, this is Malia and Kira. Malia is a werecoyote and Kira is a Kitsune. There are two other betas and a banshee who are technically in the pack, but they're not here."

"I'm not going to stay much longer," Deaton said, "I mostly came to convey my condolences. I know I've given you the day off Scott, Isaac, but that doesn't mean the animals don't need to be fed." He nodded to the room as a whole, "I will see you at work. Ms. Maya, Ms. Gia, if you need any assistance in your workings, I will be happy to provide all the help that I can."

Stiles blinked as both girls bowed to Deaton. "Thank you," Maya murmured, looking pleased and happy as they all watched the vet leave the room.

"You talk to him," Gia told her sister, shoving her shoulder. "You like formalities." She trotted over to sit by Emma, who kissed her cheek.

Stiles's phone rang, making him jerk and then grab the counter to keep from falling. "Hi?" He said after a moment.

"Stiles."

"Dad, whatever it is, I didn't do it! I haven't left Justin's yet!" Stiles said, then grabbed the counter as he almost fell off his barstool again. He'd been told he'd grow into himself some day, but clearly, that day was not coming about after being possessed by an evil fox spirit.

"That's good, because someone just called saying they saw you and some ninjas down in the warehouse district." Sheriff Stilinski replied, sounding tired. "We had to send a deputy out to see what was going on, so stay at Justin's. You and I both know the kind of security he keeps on that building."

"I'll stay," Stiles said, he glanced up as Justin came in. "But you said that someone saw me with ninjas down at the warehouse district?" It was the best way he knew to catch Justin's attention, and the man had been complaining about them not seeing the Nogitsune at all lately.

"Yes," Sheriff Stilinski replied.

Justin strode over, "May I speak with your dad, Stiles?" He asked.

"Uh, okay. Dad, Justin wants to talk to you." Stiles said and handed over the phone. It was usually easier to just hand over the phone and let someone else explain or he'd spend ten minutes explain thing.

"Sheriff," Justin said, "are you at your computer? Good. I need you to look something up on the Lightspeed site. The verification code is Alpha Delta Beta Bravo Omega Stewart dash 2 mountain blaster. Yes sir. Yes sir. There is a link for the 'Victims of Villainous Mind Control' section. Yes sir. Two weeks ago. You know my opinion of Agent fucking McCall, I'd love to see him get around this one. Also, I need to invoke Protocol Fall Down. It should be there on the screen. I'll be happy to provide as complete a report as possible later, I just want to make sure that nobody's accused of something they shouldn't be. I'll hand you back to Stiles now."

Stiles took the phone back, "Hey Dad."

"Stiles," the sheriff said, still tired but not as worn down as he had sounded. "I just wanted to warn you that the Nogitsune's out and about. I'll be working late today."

"I know," Stiles said, "if I don't stay here, I'll probably crash with Scott. I think Justin's angling for a group sleep over though."

"Just let me know," the sheriff said.

"I'll text you," Stiles promised. "Love you dad."

"Love you too."

Stiles hung up and looked at Justin, "What did you do?"

Justin smirked, "I took advantage of some connections and got you protection under the Green Ranger Laws."

"How? We don't have a ranger team," Stiles replied. When Justin raised his eyebrows, Stiles waved his hand and shrugged, "I looked into it because I wanted to see if Kate and Gerard could be counted as villains."

"Unfortunately, they can't," Justin said. "And that's a misleading word, team. A Ranger team is defined by existing active morphers. Usually that means three or more morphers working in consort. Note that I said usually. After all, Andros of KO-35 spent two years on his own before he met the Turbo Rangers. Zhane was in cryo, two of his teammates were dead and the other two gave up their powers rather than be captured with them. Analyn can't take the morpher back either way, her arm had to be amputated because it was too badly damaged and Jos wouldn't take up the morpher again without her. To get you protected by the laws, all we needed was a Ranger with an active morpher to have a run in with the Nogitsune."

Stiles wanted to ask about the Astro Rangers, because he thought he'd heard some of that about Andros and Zhane, but the other two, Analyn and Jos. He'd never heard those names before.

"Hey Justin," Isaac said, "Uncle Z's on the phone for you."

"Coming," Justin said.

Stiles watched Justin walk away, then watched as Troy sidled up to him. "What?" Stiles asked.

"Are you okay?" Troy asked.

Stiles shrugged, "I'm fine, Troy."

Troy raised his eyebrows, "If you say so. I'm sorry I haven't been here."

"Hey, no offense, but your parents are, and have always been, off. I'm not surprised they whisked you off after they got you back," Stiles said, he tried smiling at the other teen. "You're their little miracle baby after all."

"Not anymore," Troy said with a snort. "Not since Dad realized we weren't genetically related."

"He didn't know?" Stiles asked, "It's always been obvious to me."

"You and everyone but my dad," Troy said. "Dad can't have kids, and they were desperate, so Mom secretly went to a fertility clinic. Then my cousin got sick and they tested me for a bone marrow transplant and the cat was out of the bag."

"Wow," Stiles said, "that's just, wow."

"It's not on par with being possessed by a fox spirit," Troy said, "but it was pretty exciting for a while."

Stiles glanced over Tory's shoulder for a moment, "I think they're discussing sleeping plans. If you don't mind, I need to see if I'm staying with Scott or not."

"Sure," Troy said, "go ahead."

Stiles slid off the bench and hurried over to where Scott and Justin were talking quietly. They had the intense sort of look that promised something bad or interesting was going down. Stiles hoped for interesting, but he knew their luck meant it would probably be something bad.