The steering yoke was warm and hard. Omega loosened her grip somewhat - her palms were sweating, making her hold less than secure.

"That's it, you're doing fine."

Omega leaned slightly to the side in order to reach the stabilizer controls, but tugged on the yoke, pulling the ship off course. She snapped back into her seat, overcorrecting so that Echo had to grab his own steering yoke and steady her wild maneuver.

Omega slumped back in her seat.

Echo seemed not to notice. He just flipped the landing gear switch after adjusting the stabilizers for landing and pulled the ship into a level position.

"Take it down the rest of the way, Omega," he said.

Omega grabbed her controls - but only because he let go. He had noticed. Drat.

The Marauder settled in the field Echo had directed her to. A solid creak signified the ship's contacting on solid turf.

At last, they were on Verdacca. Omega was surprised at how wryly she thought those words. The prospect of exploring a new planet and seeing new things was usually something to make her so excited she'd drop from exhaustion well before bedtime. Not this time, she thought.

The ship's thrusters quieted down, signaling the beginning of 'power off', as Hunter would say. So even Echo was satisfied with the landing...

"Good job," said Echo.

"Not great, though," Omega sighed.

Echo leaned over the keypad and locked the landing gear, then hit the hatch control. "Does it have to be?" he asked.

Omega puffed out her cheeks. "Let's just say I'm glad Tech wasn't here to see that," she replied. She didn't feel much like talking about it anymore. But at the same time...

"Well, that's what practice is for," said Echo. "And physical growth. You're arms are too short. That's really all it is."

"I guess..." Omega pulled at her sleeve, then started to unravel a string which dangled from her left cuff.

Echo knocked on the dashboard, snagging her attention. "Omega," he said firmly. "You know very well there is nothing you can do to get beyond where you are until you grow some more. What's the problem?"

Omega kicked her feet up on either side of the steering yoke, sighing loudly as what was really bothering her formulated into words in her brain.

"There's just...so many things I want to fix that I can't do anything about," she huffed. She didn't care that she was fussing. She was tired. Everyone else always seemed to know what to do, and she only floundered without any way to remedy the issues. Issues that kept coming up. She had to wait to see how Crosshair was and had already realized it wasn't up to her to fix him, she had to wait for her own body to give her longer arms, she had to wait on more questions because everyone had so much to do they probably wouldn't want to talk about certain things, and she had nothing she could do.

"Let's go outside," said Echo.

"Please, Echo, I want to see how Crosshair is doing," said Omega.

Echo stood and gestured, and she had to follow. "I know, Omega, he said. "But the only reason I was up here overseeing your landing is because Tech is still monitoring Crosshair's condition, and he had promised to let you land on Verdacca."

"I know..." Omega mumbled. "But don't tell me worrying is pointless because it's going to happen, and I can't stop myself from doing it!"

"Which is why," said Echo, "we are going outside. If you can't not worry, put your attention somewhere else."

"So you're not going to tell me worrying is pointless...?"

Echo laughed. "And what would that accomplish? More stress for you to meet that 'fix' with very little actively helpful results."

"Well, that's what Tech would say," Omega pouted.

"That's Tech," said Echo. "He has his own methods for working through things - hard logic helps him whereas other people can't actually come up with the thing to do after they've arrived at that answer. Because it's not so much an answer as a guideline."

"I can't be all logical like that, though," said Omega. "I've tried with so many things, and none of them go away no matter how hard I do that..."

Echo lowered himself onto the grass with grunt. "I'm gathering you don't actually know what's bothering you?"

Omega scratched the back of her head like Hunter sometimes did. She almost smiled when she realized that, then lowered herself beside Echo. "Sort of...? I just don't want to bring things up that might...be hard for people. Besides which, they happened. So how can anything be done to fix them?"

"Depends," said Echo slowly. "Sometimes it's just a matter of putting them in the right place. As opposed to denying they happened or ignoring that they happened."

"But everyone else seems to ignore that things happened!" Omega cried.

Echo turned to look at her. "So what are you going to do about it? If you need help, don't pretend there is no problem, hoping it will go away. It won't. But that's your choice."

Omega pulled her knees up to her chin, wrapped her arms around them, and buried her face in her elbows. "Maybe going for help means I'm not really grown up, though," she said. "Hunter and Tech and Wrecker, and especially Crosshair don't want a little girl. They want a grown up. A soldier. I know they don't always know what to do with me. Neither do you!"

"But you forget," said Echo, poking her on the arm, "that Commander Tano was under fourteen when I met her. She came to Fives and me plenty of times to just chat and learn and all. No one minded that she didn't know things we did - because she was willing to learn. If she forgot something, it was okay. She just got reminded. Why is it a problem to admit that things are what they are? You don't need to pretend yourself to be something you're not."

"But I don't want to be this way," Omega pouted. "I don't want anyone to be this way..."

"Yeah," said Echo. "But you can only really take responsibility for your own actions. And if you can see yourself...as better than you are now...well, that's the goal. No one expects you to be there right off. But if you want, we'll help you get there."

Omega turned her face on her knees to look at him and tried to feel comforted.

"I guess it's because I know what you're saying is true," said Omega. "But what you're saying I am doing...I'm seeing the others doing it, too. And because they're basically doing the same thing I know isn't the answer, I don't know that I should bring anything up. Because if they don't know how to fix their own problems, how can they help me with mine?"

Echo huffed and stuffed his hand against the ground, worming his fingers through the soft grass. "How do I explain this..." he muttered.

Omega watched him twist and bend the blades. They broke, and a little shower of dirt sprouted up and sprinkled over Echo's wrists.

"No one looks through the same scope," said Echo. "It's really about widening that scope to encompass more things. That way you can have a bigger picture with more information so you can make better decisions. Those decisions will last longer and have ultimately good effects because they will be based on what is true, not what you think is true. Everyone goes through that - all their lives, I think."

He cast her a glance and gave her a distant smile. "I learned some things recently. Things I needed to know that I wasn't seeing in myself because I didn't know how to think differently. But I got help. Granted, I didn't ask for it, but I did need it."

"Who helped you?" Omega asked.

Echo smiled and turned to look at her. "Crosshair," he said.

"Crosshair?"