All Types of Courage

Prompt: Courage & Respect

Rating: T (though not for Shinpachi's lack of trying)
Ships: SaiChi, HaraSen, & kinda Brotp Amagiri/Saito
Length: ~2800 words
Setting: Star Wars AU

Sorry, I'm sort of, kind of, maybe hijacking this SaiChi&Friends day to indulge my love of Star Wars. (Not sorry. May 4th only comes once a year after all) This focuses more on Saito and Amagiri than it does SaiChi specifically. Of course, it also turned out way longer than I intended and somehow HaraSen ended up in there… *Ahem* Anyway, hope you all enjoy.

"Sen, maybe…"

"Don't even think about it, Chizuru." Sen said as she began buckling herself into one of the two passenger seats in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. "He's nothing but a big bully."

"Yeah, a big bully with a lot of big guns…" Heisuke muttered under his breath as he stood in the cockpit doorway and eyed the sleek, heavily armored private yacht, flanked by a pair of TIE Interceptors positioned in front of them.

Sen shot a glare at him before pointing Chizuru to the other passenger seat.

Harada's grin was confident as he glanced back at her from the pilot's seat. "Don't worry. Just sit back and relax. We got this cover-"

"Are you rebel dogs listening to me? You have five minutes to surrender and give me the girl or-"

Nagakura rolled his eyes as he reached forward to press the comm button.

"Not really, but go ahead and keep talking. Oh, and the answer is no, and you can stick it right up your-"

Harada cleared his throat, cutting Nagakura off.

Releasing the button, Nagakura turned and winked at Chizuru with a mischievous gleam in his eye as he flipped to the encrypted channel they had set up for the group.

"Like Sano was saying, we got this. Besides, there aren't many people better than your boyfriend when it comes to handling that little toy fighter of his. Right, Saito?"

Chizuru felt her cheeks flush at the mention of the man she had quite unintentionally fallen in love with and who was currently sitting in one of the three x-wings arrayed behind them.

"Ah," Saito affirmed, his tone carrying neither pride, nor embarrassment at the praise. Though after a brief pause he added, "An x-wing is not a toy."

Okita's laughter crackled over the comm, "Oh, you're in for it now. Be careful what you say about Hajime's ship."

"Can we focus?" Hijikata interjected. "The blonde bastard has stopped talking and he isn't going to just sit there forever."

As if on cue, the pair of Interceptors peeled away from the yacht, speeding into a wide pincer formation. Despite everyone's reassurances, Chizuru felt her nerves return and she bit her lip anxiously. As much as she was grateful for everyone's support, she also feared for their safety.

"Saito, stay with the Falcon in case Kazama brings his ship in, Souji and I will handle the Interceptors."

Chizuru let out a soft breath at Hijikata's order. She couldn't help but feel safer knowing it was Saito watching over her. She knew without a doubt that she could trust in his skill and his promises. He had said he would protect her, and he would.

Saito's and Okita's acknowledgments were cut off as Harada said, "Leave the Interceptors to us and Saito. I hate to admit it, but our shields won't last long against that yacht if it does engage. Those Interceptors aren't making it home without him, so if you can get him to run, they aren't gonna want to be left behind."

"Right. You catch that Souji?"

"I never did like wasting time on small fry."

Hijikata's and Okita's x-wings shot over the Falcon's canopy, their afterburners fully lit as their s-foils opened into attack position.

"Oi, is that you in that hunk of junk, Harada?"

Harada frowned as he eyed the two incoming Interceptors. "Damn it, Shiranui? How'd you get this channel?"

"He just insulted our ship, and you're worried about the encryption?" Nagakura grumbled, clearly incensed by the jibe.

"Magician's don't tell their secrets, now do they. How about a challenge? You and me, one on one. Or three on one, I don't really care. Oh, and don't worry, I haven't passed this on to Tall-blonde-and-High-'n-Mighty."

Harada hesitated a moment before he said, "Saito, you good with handling the other guy?"

"Affirmative."

As soon as Saito's acknowledgement came through, Harada was already beginning to stand.

"Alright Shiranui, you got yourself a deal," clapping Shinpachi on the shoulder, he began to maneuver his large frame out of the crowded cockpit. "Heisuke, you're with me. Take the belly gun."

Sen's mouth gaped open as she stared at Harada.

"Wait, he's flying?"

"You bet sweetheart. Shinpachi's the best flier I know. He can do things with this ship others can only dream of."

Shinpachi grinned as he hopped into the pilot's seat. "Aw, Sano. You're making me blush."

Behind her, Chizuru heard Heisuke mutter, "Yeah, if by 'things', you mean almost getting us killed."

"Oi! That was only once! …Well okay, twice, but the second one wasn't on purpose!"

The fact that only the second near death experience had been an accident, left Chizuru with more questions and concerns, than actual reassurance. None of the banter seemed to reassure Sen either, who looked like she was warring between wanting to smack someone, and taking the controls herself.

Harada paused to rest a hand on Sen's shoulder. "Come on, trust me."

Sen took a deep breath and after a moment, a small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as she said, "Okay, but you'll be hearing from me if this goes sideways."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, sweetheart."

With that, Harada and Heisuke left the cockpit, leaving just her, Sen and Nagakura.

"All right ladies and gents, hold on tight. We're about to do some fancy flying." Nagakura turned to yell over his shoulder, "Oi, Sano, Heisuke! You got less than a minute before I start plastering you to the walls."

Somehow Chizuru didn't think he was kidding.

Still shouting, Nagakura slapped the comm. "Hey, Shiranui, lets see how good a flier you really are! First to three tags is the winner!"

Saito had no doubt that the crew of the Falcon would be able to handle themselves against a single Interceptor, especially with their pride on the line. They were a rowdy and rather disorganized bunch, but even in the short time since circumstances had shoved them together, he had found them to be more honest and trustworthy than most people who didn't break the law on a regular basis.

Rolling his x-wing into a smooth right turn, Saito brought the nose of his ship to face the remaining Interceptor. As he did so, he flipped the switch to lock his s-foils in attack position.

"Shadow, set turbolasers to 500 meters."

He didn't know what kind of fight he was going to be in for, but he preferred to keep his focal point close. Interceptors were faster and more maneuverable. He wasn't about to waste energy on wild shots.

His R2 unit beeped a short affirmative.

Much like him, the black, little R2 unit was short and to the point, rarely engaging in the scolding and bickering Souji usually got into with his own droid, Echo. At first he hadn't intended on naming the droid, but Souji had insisted, under threat that he'd name him himself. It had been one more thing that had set them apart among their former imperial brethren. In the end, he'd simply settled on naming him after his black color, but the droid had seemed to like it and took a certain amount of pride in just how discrete he could be.

To Saito's surprise, the Interceptor wasn't racing toward him. Like himself, it seemed to hang in space, waiting, analyzing. Not something one usually associated with a fighter jock.

A light lit on his console, and over the background thrum of the other's chatter, shadow twittered that he had an incoming message.

Even though he had a strong suspicion of who was trying to contact him, he asked, "Who is it from?"

Shadow burbled the droid equivalent of a shrug as text scrolled across the small monitor in the console.

Sender Unknown. Message carries Imperial markers.

That confirmed for Saito that the message had to be coming from the Interceptor facing him. Based on who the Falcon had been talking to and the unusual actions of his opponent, he thought he knew who he was facing.

He took a careful, calming breath before he flipped the comm switch and said, "Yes?"

"I am glad you agreed take my call."

He had been right. It was Amagiri…

He had fought the man hand to hand to a standstill only a few days previous. In the end Amagiri had let him and Chizuru go, at great risk to himself. It would be a poor way to repay him for his kindness if he killed him here. Saito couldn't help but feel that if he found an opportunity to let Amagiri live, he would take it. Not at the risk of Chizuru or the others, or course.

"What do you wish to discuss?"

"While I do not begrudge you your relationship with Yukimura, Lord Kazama does, and I am afraid this is one more thing which separates us this conflict. Before we begin, I wished to inform you of who your opponent is, and that I am regretful things must end this way."

"As am I."

Silence lingered for a moment and having nothing else to say, Saito closed the channel.

At the same moment he eased his x-wing's throttle forward, Amagiri's interceptor began matching him. The was one of the most dangerous moments for a fighter pilot. A head on pass meant his opponent had just a good a chance of hitting him as he did of hitting them. With easy movements, he jinked his fighter in random directions, always making sure to keep Amagiri within his firing cone. Green shots splashed across his forward shield at a rate far faster than he had ever seen an Interceptor fire. The starbursts blurred his vision and he only managed to get off two relatively sure shots before they rocketed past each other.

He pulled hard on the stick, knowing the Interceptor's superior maneuverability meant he had a good chance of Amagiri ending up on his tail. This time Souji wasn't there to watch his back.

His internal compensator couldn't quite match the forces of his turn and Saito felt himself pressed back into his seat.

He had taken some heavy fire on that first pass, so he risked a quick glance at his shields, but to his surprises, they showed almost no drain. That shouldn't have been possible, unless… Unless Amagiri had lowered the power of his shots to increase his firing rate. Using the fire as a screen to make up for his ship's dangerous lack of shields.

Clever…

It would seem Amagiri was skilled at more than just hand-to-hand fighting.

His turn wasn't sharp enough. Shadow gave a short warning trill and a quick glance at his scanners showed Amagiri closing in on his tail. Green bolts began flying past his canopy. One or two connected with his shields, taking significant chunks out of their meters.

"Shadow, divert power to rear shields."

Having snapped off his order, Saito yanked back on the stick, pulling the nose of his fighter up and over. As he did so, he rolled so that he was now flying in the opposite direction from which he had started.

Green streaks again traced over his canopy. His maneuver hadn't worked. Not that he had really expected it to. A tactic as clever as the one Amagiri had used wouldn't come from a novice pilot.

Saito felt a tremor run through his ship and multiple flashing red lights on his console told him that one or more of Amagiri's shots had pierced his shields. Nothing critical seemed to have failed yet, but enough was enough.

He knew Shadow would be furiously doing what he could to repair the damage and reroute systems. The sooner he ended this the better.

Shoving hard on one of the foot pedals, he dropped his forward thrust to zero, sending his fighter into a flat spin. He braced his arm against the side of the cockpit to help fight the forces overwhelming his inertial compensator.

Hold… Hold…

At just the right moment, he released the pressure on the pedal and threw his thrust back up to full. He found Amagiri right in front of him and snapped off a shot before rolling away. He knew even as his finger had depressed the trigger that the shot would go wide, and it did, skating right past the upper tip of the Interceptor's wing.

Again he killed his thrust and sent his fighter into a flat spin, the fractions of a second it took for the ship to rotate feeling far longer than they actually were.

This time when he re-engaged his thrusters, Amagiri's ion engine was dead ahead of him.

Instead of firing off a turbolaser blast, he flipped over to photon torpedos. The clear tone of a lock sounded in his ears, but an uncharacteristic screech from Shadow made him glance down at the screen.

Recomend proton torpedoes inoperable. Damage to system may result in catastrophic failure if used.

"Acknowledged."

The text cleared from the screen, replaced by notifications as Shadow brought one system after another back to life. Even if the system was registering operable, clearly he droid had noticed something that caused him concern.

Amagiri threw his ship into a sharp dive and Saito followed him, matching every jink, twist, and turn. Amagiri was certainly better than average, but he was no Souji when it came to handling an interceptor.

He had several clear shots, but instead of flipping back over to his turbolasers, he said, "Shadow, reopen communications with Amagiri."

When the droid gave an affirmative beep that the connection had been opened, he said, "Will you yield?"

This was a risk. Amagiri could say one thing and then take the opportunity to turn on him, but everything he had seen of the man thus far had told Saito that Amagiri would keep his word.

There was a long pause as Amagiri threw his interceptor into a series of tight rolls that Saito barely kept up with. He could hear the warning tone from the interceptor continuing to sound over the comm, and eventually…

"I will yield."

With those words, Saito disengaged his torpedoes, probably to both Amagiri's and Shadow's relief, and decreased his thrust, letting the interceptor pull away from him.

Slowly Saito let the chatter over the group's encrypted comm filter back into his consciousness.

There seemed to be an increasing amount of swearing coming from the Falcon, much to his displeasure. He knew how uncomfortable it made Chizuru, even if she never actively voiced her disapproval.

Neither ship seemed damaged at this point, and when a red beam washed over the interceptor, he thought the conflict would be over. to his surprise, instead of being destroyed, the ship seemed perfectly fine as it continued looping, scoring a hit on the Falcon's upper turret.

"Damnit," Shinpachi shouted, "What are you doing up there Sano? Sleeping?!"

"Ha! That's three! Looks like you losers owe me a lift outta here!"

"Fine… but if you touch one wire on this ship, I will personally throw you out of the airlock," Harada said.

With Chizuru seemingly out of immediate danger, Saito turned his attention to the only remaining threat.

The yacht's pristine hull was now scored with turbolaser fire and arcs of electricity danced across its surface where one or two torpedoes had bored their way through the hull's armor plating.

With a flicker, the ship's rear shield collapses and one of the x-wings scored a direct hit on the engine.

That seemed to be more than enough for Kazama, because his ship began an about turn as it tried to escape the conflict.

"All right Souji, that's enough."

One of the x-wings, who he assumed was Okita, fired off one more shot, blowing out one of the large canons that had given them so much trouble in their last encounter with the ship, before he turned and followed Hijikata back toward the Falcon.

A beep from Shadow informed him of an incoming call from Amagiri.

"Saito, your reputation is well earned. It was an honor to fly against you." There was a short pause before Amagiri said, "May the Force be with you."

"And you as well."

With those final words, Amagiri turned his Interceptor in the direction of Kazama's ship. In moments, the fighter had darted into the small hanger and the Yacht leapt to lightspeed.

Saito took a deep breath as he turned his fighter toward where the falcon was trying to dock with Shiranui's Interceptor.

Their fight with the Empire was far from over, and he doubted Kazama was finished with them, but for now, they had won. For now, Chizuru and the people he cared about were safe. For now, they had peace.