A/N: Thanks for reading! Still would like some comments or feedback on this

Warning for a little violence.

LIBERATION FLIGHT

Chapter 6: On Living Legends

Marius had learned a great deal in the four years since he'd left his grandfather's home on Coruscant. There had been a time when he would have run away from the mere sight of First Order troopers, but now his hands knew something of building smugglers' hideaways and holding a blaster steady in the midst of a firefight. 'Seeing actual legends are another story though,' he told himself as he tried to squeeze in some elbow room in that tightly packed room beneath the tapcaf. He figured there had to be at least thirty persons of various races all crammed in this tiny space, and as extraordinary as many of them were, none of them were as mind-boggling as the blonde warrior who'd slipped in beside him.

'I thought you were a legend,' he mused, only to feel heat rush to his face when he realized he's voiced that thought, and thus drawn Cosette's attention. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" he stammered.

"It's fine," Cosette said calmly. She stood on tiptoe and looked around. "It's unusual to have a shelter like this under a spaceport, let alone a tapcaf," she remarked.

"It was meant to be for storage," Marius said, yet even so he could remember what Mabeuf had said on the day they had fitted out this space. 'You never know what other good this may be for.' Yet even so, Marius was pretty sure that this 'good' did not necessarily entail dodging blaster fire. "Anyone who tries to open the trapdoor with the wrong code or by force will only find a ferrocete panel."

"In short, flooring," Cosette said, a hint of mischief creeping over her face. She took a half step to the side in order to give a rather large Rodian some room to move about, but this only pressed her up right against Marius' chest. The contact nearly made Marius' breath catch up until once again he met her eyes. "Till fairly recently I thought that the Jedi were a legend as well," she confided.

Marius' jaw dropped. "But you are-"

"I haven't spent my whole life as a Jedi."

"Aren't they supposed to be old?"

Cosette laughed and shook her head. "Maybe you mean the Jedi Masters-the mentors and teachers. Luke Skywalker in particular. He's definitely not just a legend."

"Of course not. Then that would make General Organa a legend too," Marius blurted out.

A hand suddenly clasped his shoulder. "Who is this I'm missing?" Courfeyrac greeted jovially. "Marius, is this really you, talking to such a lovely lady?"

"I had to help her hide here too," Marius said in an undertone. He took a step back to eye both his friend and the young lady. "Courfeyrac, meet Cosette. She's the one who helped cover the passengers on that crashed transport. Cosette, my friend Courfeyrac."

Courfeyrac grinned at Cosette. "I have not met a more charming face in the galaxy." He thumped Marius' back. "You've been holding out on us!"

"She's Eponine's friend," Marius pointed out, glancing at the redheaded pilot who was talking to her siblings in a corner. He looked to Cosette and felt heartened when she nodded almost imperceptibly as if by way of confirmation. "We only just met," he added, more for Courfeyrac's benefit.

Courfeyrac laughed and thumped Marius' back. "A story to tell your children?"

This was enough to have heat rushing to Marius' face. "Courfeyrac, must you?" he muttered. "We're in hiding and that's all you can talk about?"

"Not like we can do much else till they clear out," Feuilly chimed in. "The question is, what is the First Order here for?"

"To seize the spaceport and maybe the repulsorlift factories, obviously," a scarred Shivastenen growled. "Why else would they be in Bakura?"

"It would be easier for them to force a deal with the government to provide parts, if that is what they want," Combeferre commented. "It is more than that. This is war."

Cosette swallowed hard before looking to where Eponine was talking to Enjolras. "So them-"

"Don't ask. Let's just say they get along," Courfeyrac quipped. "That's what comes from placing bets all the time as to who the fastest flier is."

"Well where Eponine is concerned, some things never change," Cosette quipped.

Enjolras motioned for everyone to remain silent before he nodded to Bahorel. "You're closest to the vent. What do you hear?" he asked.

The Wookie made a grunting sound before standing close to the vent. After a few moments he shook his head and growled disappointedly.

Enjolras gritted his teeth at this. "The strafing run is done, but it would appear they have left sentries above us," he said in an undertone."They shorted out the exit by firing on it."

"How is that possible?" Mabeuf asked, going over to the controls near the trapdoor. He punched at them a few times, to no avail, before stepping aside to let Combeferre attempt to hotwire the panel. "Any luck?"

The medic shook his head. "We can't be found down here. These panels dissipate heat signatures that most life forms give out," he said, pointing to the thick dark walls of this bunker.

"The same material for tombs, which is rather fitting," Grantaire chimed in. The drunkard tottered to his feet and wiped some saliva off his cheeks. "There is no way we can make an escape route for ourselves. We are buried alive."

"Quiet down!" Enjolras snapped. He looked keenly at an old man who was watching the ceiling warily. "Mabeuf, is there a way?"

The tapcaf's proprietor shook his head. "When Marius and I designed this, it was meant for secrecy, so we made it more or less hermetically sealed," he announced. "We can wait for the sentries to leave..."

"There isn't enough air for three dozen people!" Joly hissed. "We need to at least cut another air hole—"

'Not with these walls,' Marius thought. "It would take an extraordinary sort of blade-" he began before he saw Cosette stand on her tiptoes again, as if listening for something. At length she went to a far corner of the cramped room and pressed her hand to a panel. Suddenly a brilliant yellow-white glow filled the air as Cosette quickly cut through a join in the wall panels and then through the ferrocete covering it. "Quiet now," she whispered.

Marius only had a moment to gape at her before he followed the rest of the group out this makeshift exit, only to emerge at the far end of the tapcaf, away from the bar. 'How did she know where to cut our way out?' he wondered only a moment before he heard someone flick off the safety switch of a blaster.

"Blasters down and hands up!" a stormtrooper barked, training a rifle into the doorway. "You are not authorized to carry weapons in this spaceport."

Enjolras' eyes narrowed haughtily at the stormtrooper. "This is a spaceport of the government of Bakura." He took a step forward. "The First Order has no authority here."

The stormtrooper hesitated, but did not lower his weapon. "Surrender your weapons or we will be forced to confiscate them."

Out of the corner of his eye Marius saw Gavroche press a tiny button on his belt, and a moment later a whirring sound came from the far end of the hangar before the entire hangar was filled by a cloud of smoke. The stormtrooper went for his comlink, but that was enough for Enjolras to snatch a blaster and deal the stormtrooper a shot to the chest.

"What's happening?" Azelma shouted.

"I got BD-3 to do something!" Gavroche yelled as he took her hand. "Let's go!"

Marius saw Mabeuf grab a staff, but he immediately seized the old man's hand to pull him along. Through the haze it was difficult to see where anyone was going; all that was necessary was to put as much distance between them and the spaceport as possible. 'Weren't we supposed to be safe, here in Bakura?' he wondered as he and his friend ran further and further into the streets, till at last Marius felt Mabeuf begin to totter. He grabbed the old man and propped him up against a post, even as he looked up and down the street for any sign of their would-be assailants. "Will you be fine?" he asked.

Mabeuf wheezed before managing a nod. "That girl. Where is she?"

The question brought to Marius' mind a vision of golden hair and blue eyes. "I didn't see her?"

Mabeuf winced. "I know what she is. She's tough but she's going to be on the run. She needs more friends than just those Thenardier kids."

The younger man nodded before looking around once more and then pulling out his comlink to key in first Eponine, then Azelma and Gavroche. Unsurprisingly the three of them did not reply. He sighed before keying in Courfeyrac's comlink code. "Courfeyrac? Where are you?" he asked in a whisper.

"Was about to ask the same thing myself!" Courfeyrac hissed. "Where are you and Mabeuf?"

"Someplace safe." It was all that Marius could dare to say sincethere was no telling now if there were spies in the street. "You?"

"The usual place," Courfeyrac said. "Thanks for calling in."

"Wait, Courf, have you seen her? Cosette?" Marius asked.

"I thought she was with you?"

"No, I got Mabeuf out but I didn't see her following."

Courfeyrac hissed audibly. "The Thenardiers are here, of course. She's not with them."

Marius gritted his teeth even as he saw a slender figure sprinting past an alley. He took a step forward and held out a hand. "Are you there?"

This was enough to stop Cosette in her tracks. "Marius!" She ran to him and clasped his arms. "We thought we lost you in the firefight!"

"Who's we?" Marius asked incredulously.

"Your Bothan friend, Musichetta, and that young man and the Sullustan-"

"Musichetta, Joly, and Bossuet?"

Cosette nodded quickly before looking to Mabeuf. "They didn't hurt you?"

"I'm perfectly well, young lady," Mabeuf said, managing a cordial bow. "What is the proper way to address a Jedi Knight?"

"Everyone simply calls me Cosette," she replied with a smile. She took a deep breath, clearly in an effort to collect herself. "Do you have any equipment to send an off-planet transmission? I need to report back to the Resistance," she said.

"The ships," Mabeuf suggested. "But they would be locked down by bow, and we cannot return to the spaceport."

'I know just the place,' Marius tells himself. "Follow me," he instructed Cosette and Mabeuf. As they hurried down the street he suddenly felt the brush of warm fingers against his. When he looked at Cosette he caught the faintest hint of pink darkening her fair cheeks. "What did you see?"

"It's a complicated situation," she said. "This is a peaceful planet. It's about to be drawn into war, in precisely the way I had hoped for otherwise. It's more than the repulsorlift business."

These words sent a chill down Marius' spine, more so when he looked at Cosette. She was even younger than he was, but her very mien spoke of having lived through worse tribulations than this. "What will you do?"

"Something, once we have help," she replied. "A Jedi cannot fight a war for a whole planet."

'Has it gotten to that proportion?' he wondered, but then again he was not about to ask about her judgment, not in such a time. He slowed his pace to fall in step with her. "Are you a pilot too?"

Cosette laughed ruefully and shook her head. "I never had the head for it. In all the old stories, the Jedi can fly anything. I must be among the few-or now the only one-who can't."

"What do you mean?"

"I used to nearly crash everything that Eponine and I would get behind. After a while we figured it was best she'd take the controls and I navigate."

Marius chuckled, imagining both Cosette and Eponine as young girls fighting about a simulation. "You go back a long way?"

"We were children together," Cosette explained. "Even before Gavroche was born."

This mention of long years had Marius whistling, but he fell silent as soon as they came in sight of a winding staircase leading up to an apartment. He noticed someone sitting on a landing. "Courfeyrac!"

"Right on time. Everyone else is here," Courfeyrac greeted, his tone one of relief as he rushed down to them. He shook Mabeuf's hand before making a low bow to Cosette. "We are graced by your presence."

Marius shook his head embarrassedly at this obvious show of gushing. "Who is here?"

"As I said, everyone. You'd better come on up," Courfeyrac said with a wave of his hand. "There's news out that especially she ought to see."