A/N: Just a quicky, an upcoming character and situation is being used in this story with permission from the writer wwheeljack on AO3. Please check out the story "Unshaken" by wwheeljack!

Chapter 2: A Little Conversation

"Tech?"

"Hm?"

"Hunter thinks it was brave of me to go get our part back for the ship, but he also said it was foolish. Was I doing the right thing AND the wrong thing all at once?"

"...What...?"

Omega huffed through her nose and slid off the copilot's seat to the floor in order to peek under the control panel. Tech was flat on his back, tinkering with the wires inside the hyperdrive controls.

"I said," Omega tried again. "Is being foolish and brave doing the right thing and the wrong thing at the same time?"

"Who said you were foolish and brave?"

"Hunterrr!"

"Oh."

Tech skootched out from under the panel and sat up, sliding his index finger beneath the frame of his goggles to wipe away some of the collected grime and grease.

"Well," he went on, pulling the goggles off completely and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I would say that intentionally putting yourself in harm's way for no reason other than to prove your capability to take on fear is definitely foolish."

Omega frowned. "But I didn't do it for no reason!" she exclaimed, unable to conceal the indignation in her voice.

"Hm?" Tech glanced at her, eyebrows twitching minutely in momentary confusion.

Omega plopped herself down on the floor and sat cross-legged, waiting until she saw Tech's eyes revert from their glassy, preoccupied state.

"I saaid," she almost whined, tired of having to clarify the details that surrounded this very important question, "Hunter said my going after the moon dragon to get our part back was both brave and foolish."

"I believe it was," said Tech, rubbing his goggles against an exposed portion of his blacks. He frowned down at the goggles when the non-abrasive quality of his blacks served only to smear the greasy grit more smoothly over their polished lenses.

Omega frowned. "I thought I did the right thing, but how could I have when being brave is good and being foolish is bad?"

"Why should either one be good or bad?" said Tech, cocking his head.

Omega twisted her mouth up, now thoroughly confused.

"Isn't being brave a good thing? You said last night that being brave was doing the right thing even if you're scared."

"Did I? Oh." Tech glanced up at the ceiling in thought. "I must have been rather fatigued as that is not technically correct."

"Well, what is? Technically?"

Tech hummed low in his throat and checked the chronometer. "There are definite subcategories that come under the action of bravery, mostly being termed as qualities one may posses and develop over time and through experience. Bravery wouldn't exist without fear being present to overcome, courage to carry through on an act requiring bravery, compassion to drive one to attempt a brave act for the sake of another, confidence to enable one to maintain a steady position when bravery is required, and also a healthy level of common sense."

"Huh?" Omega mirrored Tech's cocked head position.

Tech blinked. His eyes finally focused on her face and visibly registered her confusion.

"Think of it this way. If a nexu jumped in front of me, and I were injured and unable to fight," said Tech, "It would be brave of me to attack it. But that would be foolish if I could just as easily escape."

"I think I understand a bit..." Omega said quietly. She flipped that example over and about in her head until she felt she had a solid enough grasp of what Tech had been trying to say.

"It is a learning process," said Tech, sliding his back towards the edge of the control panel and lowering himself to the ground with no support. His hands were digging about in the exposed wiring before his back had even made contact with the floor.

Omega watched him work for a while and then started doing stomach crunches. She thought she would like to be able to move in as controlled a manner as Tech.

After number five her stomach muscles were shaking so badly that she was panting for breath. Tech continued on in his work, seemingly oblivious to Omega's current occupation.

Coming up from stomach crunch number seven, Omega paused and swayed a bit as she sat on the floor trying to control her panting breath.

Mumble-mutter-whisper-huff-murmur...

"What?" Omega sucked in another gulp of air and looked towards the pile of Tech wedged underneath the Havoc's piloting control section - even for a man of his reduced size, the spacing looked a little cramped for the technician.

"I said," Tech wormed his way out from the constricted space and unbuckled his chestplate, slipping off his shoulder guards as well. "Experience outranks everything."

"Who told you that?" It didn't seem a particularly Tech-like statement to make, Omega observed unconsciously. It seemed a bit more similar to something Hunter would come up with.

"It was Captain Rex of the 501st," said Tech, his movements freer now that his armor wasn't obstructing his flow of motion. "CT-7567. He is the main reason Echo is here with us now."

Omega's eyes widened. "Really? He rescued him?"

"Multiple authorities disagreed with the Captain's idea that Echo was alive."

"And he still went after him? That sounds brave."

"Hm, yes," Tech hummed. "Even I didn't fully accept, after Echo had been freed from the Techno Union, the Echo himself wasn't simply a puppet for..."

His voice trailed off. There was nothing but the sound of clicking metal and bending wire for several moments.

"...But Rex knew Echo was still...Echo?" Omega finally ventured.

"He did," said Tech. "More proof to support the truth of his statement. Experience gives you more things to work with when you are confronted with situations that may catch you off guard."

"Rex sounds nice," said Omega.

"He is quite capable," Tech replied.

"Where is he now?"

"Considering the fact that Captain Rex is a reg," said Tech, groping about on the floor for a moment before waving his fingers in the general direction of a probe, "He is most likely on assignment under the Empire."

Omega passed the probe to Tech, and his hand disappeared once more under the paneling.

"So he's like Crosshair now..."

A pause.

"Most likely," said Tech. "However, I have been wrong before, and - "

"There you are!" boomed Wrecker. "Hunter's got a bit of a treat for lunch today. Ya hungry, kid?"

"Mmm!" Omega squeaked and hopped to her feet, ready to follow Wrecker. "Are you coming, Tech?"

"Momentarily." Tech's voice sounded a mite strained and his arms shook a little as he pulled against a wire coupling.

Wrecker bent down, pulled the wires from Tech's hands, and jerked them apart sending a spray of blue sparks over Tech's face. Tech flinched.

"Wrecker, do you mind!" he snapped.

"Not really," said Wrecker. "You're coming NOW. You can finish this later, come on!"

And with that, Wrecker shuffled back and stood, bending down again just long enough to grasp one of the technician's boots before dragging him out from underneath the control panel and out into the main area of the Marauder.

Omega giggled and scooped the pieces of Tech's upper armor into her arms before hurriedly trudging after Wrecker.

"Here is an excellent example," Tech said when she had caught up, his eyes focused on his datapad as he was dragged across the ship's floor. "It would be brave of me to continue disagreeing with Wrecker, but foolish to resist."

Tech's head bumped against one of the passenger's chairs and he humphed a bit when Wrecker finally brought him to an unceremonious halt after dragging him over the toes of Hunter's boots.

"It was also foolish to discard my armor," Tech observed, not even bothering to right himself.

Hunter smirked down at him and tossed a ration bar onto his chest. "Eat that, THEN you can have desert," the sergeant intoned.

"Copy that, Sarge," said Tech. Omega turned to follow Hunter back into the cockpit, excitement about the promised treat evident in her large eyes.

"Omega...?"

Omega turned at Tech's surreptitiously whispered call and hissed back,

"What?"

Tech waved his datapad at her. "If perchance my meal is...delayed..."

Omega eyed the screen of his tablet and the complex pile of information running over it -

"...would you tell me what is for desert? It will be easier to ascertain its location if I am able to input some information on it's physical make-up into my scanner."

Omega giggled. "Is that brave or foolish, Tech?

He tossed her a rare smile. "I believe it is a little of both."