Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.

Hey all! Long time no see. Just wanted to let all of you know that this is posted under my newer AO3 account and that I will be cross posting almost everything new on here and there! Thanks!

Chapter 1

Cassie was not surprised at the turn of events. They all should have expected that Justin's life was not going to be all sunshine and rainbows when they left him on earth. Justin did not want to go back to his father's house. It seemed like he was practically living on his own again. Mr. Stewart was not a good father. He was ever more absent than before, and Justin was paying for it. He'd been calmly pleading with TJ and Ashley for an hour. Things started to escalate when Ashley tried to push him into Storm Blaster to go home.

"I can't go back there!" Justin yelled at Ashley, her reasoning were lost on the thirteen year old.

"What are we supposed to do, Justin? You can't stay, you have a broken morpher. The last of its power was drained in our last battle," she said. Cassie rolled her eyes at the yellow rangers reasoning. She could see a hundred things that Ashley couldn't. Justin had more brain power than all of them combined.

"Really, Justin. We can't do anything," TJ said firmly. He may be the Astro's blue, but he was still Justin's red.

"I don't know? Listen to me? Try and help me instead of sending me back there? Let me go back to the group home and help me get there? I could stay here with you. You clearly need a tech other than Alpha. I could be your Billy!" Justin yelled.

"You have your whole life ahead of you still. Don't throw it away because of rangering," Carlos said. "Cassie, back us up here, please."

She held her hands up. "I'm not saying anything because I agree with Justin. He's right."

"He's thirteen, he can't come live with us in space," TJ stated.

"On KO-35 he'd be considered an adult in a few months, and would be allowed to make his own decisions now anyways," Andros said.

"This isn't a game, Andros," TJ replied.

"Or I could pull rank on you, and you wouldn't be able to leave me behind," Justin glared coldly. "If anything, I belong on this search for Zordon more than any of you. I am the last of Zordon's chosen."

Andros had been mostly observing the interaction, had blinked at that admittance. He wasn't really sure what age was considered an adult on Earth, but he didn't think any his teammates were adults on earth. He could understand why they were protecting him, but couldn't understand why they wouldn't just let Justin stay.

"Rank?" Andros double-blinked. He didn't know that the earth rangers used rank. "I didn't know you used rank on earth. You have been a ranger longer than them?"

"Yes," Justin spat out. "Zordon found me worthy and sent me into battle when my predecessor was injured. Rocky passed the torch onto me. If I wasn't capable, I wouldn't have been given the morpher. My first team held more respect for me than this team. Probably because they were only two or three years older than me when I first got my powers when they all received theirs."

Andros was finding he really didn't know how the passing of powers on earth worked, or how rangering was done there compared to on other planets.

"How long were you a ranger before the rest of your team left?" Andros asked. He suddenly had a lot more respect for the young boy than he had before. Cassie as well. She was the only one on Justin's side in this matter.

"Six months. The rest of the rangers were leaving for college or just burnt out all together," Justin said. "Tommy was on his fifth set of powers and third color, and Adam was on his fourth set of powers. They were over it and needed a break."

Andros turned to his team. "You weren't the first Turbo Rangers?"

"I never claimed that we were," Cassie said. "I think I remember telling you about our predecessors at some point in time, Andros. Personally, I think we should let Justin stay. If anything, he would be a brilliant tech."

Justin was getting extremely pissed off. "If you won't let me stay, do you think you could drop me off with Billy on Aquitar. He said that I was welcome to join him if I ever needed to get off planet. He said that the science on Aquitar far more advanced and my speed than Earth's. I told you that I am not going back. Billy would take me in in a heartbeat."

"Justin, you are barely a sophomore," Ashley pointed out.

The younger boy scoffed. "Senior. I took summer school and took pre-calculus and English. Then I passed out of physics and history. I'm taking AP calculus, AP chemistry, AP physics, and my required english and history classes. After transferring schools, again, they made me take placement tests. The administration could not fathom a thirteen year old being at a sophomore level. I took the tests and retook the final exams from my summer school classes. They talked to my summer school teachers. Once they bought my story, and saw my astronomical scores, they moved me up to senior the senior class. The school would have run out of classes for me to take."

The space rangers were all shocked at that admission. They were only juniors, seeing as the former rangers had chosen them as sophomores at sixteen. They were on the older side. It seemed as that their predecessors. Justin would be graduating from high school a whole year before the rest of them.

Cassie felt extremely guilty. She had no idea that he had been in such a bad situation with his dad, or anything about his current school life. She hugged the boy tightly.

"I'm so sorry I forgot about you, Justin. I am really proud of you, if that makes any difference at all," she said to him. The boy accepted her hug, and whispered a thank you in her ear.

"Do you want to stay because you want to be here and apart of the team, or is just because you don't want to go back to your father's house?" Carlos asked. He was genuinely curious, and still felt bad that he was partially responsible for leaving Justin in a home that he knew better than to leave him in.

Justin took a very deep breathe. This was a question he had been dreading, and didn't feel entirely inclined to be answering it. "I really don't know. It's both. My father is awful, but I do miss my team, as awful as you are at times. I truly regret not leaving with you all those months ago. I shouldn't've stayed behind."

"We shouldn't have let you," Cassie said, glaring at the rest of the team, "And that was our fault. Not yours."

"I know that. I've been working in the power chamber since you've been gone. I got the controls back up and working, the computers are operating, slowly, but operating, and I got the teleportation system back up and running again a few weeks ago. I can get to school, my house and here at any time. If you don't leave me behind again, I'll be your new tech."

The three rangers who'd been against this began protesting again.

"Stop it!" Andros said, speaking louder than he would normally dare to do. They all froze and turned to him. "I agree with Cassie and Justin. We should not leave him behind again. Once a ranger-"

"-always a ranger," they all echoed, even if it hurt to day.

"Justin is a ranger, whether you like it or not. He is. So he is going to be a part of this team," Andros said. He walked over to a locker in the rec area, and opened it. He pulled out a uniform and a rectangular device. "Zordon let me know that the day might one day come where we would need this. I wasn't sure what he meant at the time, but I think I understand it now."

TJ and Ashley glanced from Andros to Justin in major confusion. Cassie smiled as widely as she possibly could.

"Are you serious?" TJ asked.

Andros nodded. "If I could get Justin ranger powers, would you let him stay?"

"Of course we would," Cassie said, before the rest could answer. "Justin is a part of our team no matter what we may have thought in the last few months.

"Good," Andros said, tossing a handheld morpher through the air. Justin caught it with ease.

"Is this for real?" he asked.

"Only if you want it. The gold auxiliary morpher is yours," Andros said. He'd just seen Justin in battle, and save all of their lives single handedly. The kid could probably beat any of them in a fight in an instant. Andros would never not take him seriously. If the kid was telling the truth, and it seemed like he was, he'd been trained by rangers that had been rangering for as long as he had, but with even more experience. "You already have my respect, and that makes you worthy in my book."

Tentatively, Justin took the morpher, and flipped it open. The coolest things about morpher's was you knew in an instant how you were supposed to operate them. Perks of the being connected to the morphing grid, instant knowledge of how all weapons worked. There was no studying or manual, you just knew. It was nice.

"Let's rocket!" he called, typing in the code. A flash of light, and the gold ranger was standing in front of the rest of the team. Justin was the same height as he was when he was the turbo ranger. He assumed that it was how tall he would get to be in the next three years. He'd already grown about a six inches or so since he'd left the turbo rangers. "Nice!" he said examining himself. "Power down!"

"You look good, Justin," Cassie noted. "Gold works for you."

"I suppose. I guess I'll need to get some more yellow and gold into my wardrobe," he smiled.

Cassie smiled. "Don't worry, I'm sure we can find you something."

"I guess I'm staying," he smiled.

"I believe you are, Justin."