Bella's cheeks slightly expanded as she blew out a stressful breath of air.

"There are some things I must share with you, things you must know before we leave. It's only fair that I share these things with you because they may contradict what you believe in. I am not the same woman that you once knew, it's very important that you realize that. It's also important that you not be frightened of the woman I am today. I am still your friend, regardless if I may be an unfitting master. I have great personal concern over the things I am willingly going to share with you but you need only to recognize that it is my life, and it is the path I have chosen for myself. What I feel is best for me, regardless if it does not suit you or the rest of the order."

Bella spoke while she distracted herself with gathering the proper amount of credits, switching some coins for more "presentable" ones.

"There is no easy way to share with you how I have spent the past few years of my life, but I have lived well. I really have no qualms with sharing my tale with you, my only concern is can you handle what it is I have to tell you?"

He wasn't sure the warning was necessary but it was carefully noted with a nod. She wasn't the person he once knew, he could easily feel that, but regardless of it he still trusted her. She may have been unfitting to be his Master in the Jedi arts but that didn't make her any less of a teacher. Regardless of what he would think of her story, he would still give her the respect befitting of that role in his life.

Besides, he had changed as well. His own wanderings had made him more accepting of adverse tastes and opinions. He may have always exhibited some sort of stubborn streak in the presence of the Jedi, but outside that ivory tower he had a much more adaptable personality. His years away from the Academy had taught him to keep his objections and disagreements within. It had been the difference between life and death more than once.

"I suppose we'll see." He answered with a soft smile. He couldn't prove to her that he was fully prepared to take the brunt of her tale. She would have to trust and believe that he had grown just as much as she did, if not more, over the past few years and that he would be able to take whatever she would dish out. He understood that the path she was on was of her own choice and that he had little control. He had learned that the day she had left.

Whatever she was going to tell him now couldn't be harder than that particular lesson if only simply because she was here now. She wasn't the same person. He wasn't the same person. But he couldn't help feel that it was okay. This new lesson may be a hard one but if it did turn out for the worse, he at least wouldn't be alone. He still had a teacher, if not a teacher a friend, to help him get through it.

"I think it would be best if we took a walk, let our food settle. I'll tell you my story along the way, then you can decide if you still want to take that trip with me or.. not."

Bella felt the urge to rise from her seat, eager to decide for both herself and for Kenshin, but it wasn't fair of her to do this time. She wanted this for her own comfort more than for Kenshin's.

Sight seeing would, she hoped, make it easier for her to tell her story. Calm her, let the words roll out from within her as if she had said them a thousand times.

"Would that be okay? I would.. appreciate it if we could.. just walk for a little while." She commented with a somewhat needful smile, hoping that Kenshin would give her just a little bit of sympathy. It was not an easy story to tell.

The prospect of telling her tale soon made her fidgety and it was beginning to worry him. It was apparently harder to tell than he had first anticipated and he was beginning to wonder if he should be wary. Should he be less confident in the newfound strength of his stomach? He was also beginning to question his ability to support her in this time of emotional distress.

Sensing that granting this particular wish would ease her somewhat, Kenshin nodded and stood. It was her tale to tell and it would be fitting to allow her the setting she wished to impart it upon him. As they set foot outside, he looked both ways to gauge his position. He then pointed to the left. "That way's to ocean." He said before pointing to his right. "And that way's the forests again."

He then motioned for her to pick and lead the way. If she chose, they could stay and wander the streets and alleys of this part of Theed. Whatever suited the job of calming her the best. For him, they all worked. He always somehow managed to find beauty and peace, it was a talent or perhaps curse of his. He knew for a fact that the sight of water was what worked for most though.

The obvious choice for Bella was the ocean. Granted, these waters would not sooth her as much as the waters found on Spira, but it would be enough, for now.

"The ocean then," she said quietly, much too quietly as she lifted the hood of her tunic to shade her face.

"When I left Naboo, I did not leave alone. I had planned to leave alone, but I eneded up taking one of the Jedi students with me. He wasn't even my student. But the idea of spending time with someone I didn't know, someone new, sounded comforting to me. I was having a hard time looking everyone that I did know, in the eye.. and I.. I didn't feel comfort."

A story that started out sad, but would end with peace, at least for Bella.

"I apologize if anything I say hurts you, but it was how I felt at the time. I don't feel such things now. I was going through a difficult time and I was confused," she said, trying to find reasoning in the way that she had felt.

"Anyway, the student I took with me was a student of Master Kahn's. I'm sure you remember him, he was in the forest with you.. when you saw me last. I didn't want him to come with me at first, I didn't think I'd be much company, as well, I didn't think I could keep him safe. I still don't know to this day what made me decide to want him to come along with me."

Bella walked into the ocean floor, the flow of the water across her bare feet seemed to sooth her being. She went no more than one foot in before retracing her gaze back to Kenshin.

"I'm glad he came because I ended up falling in love with him. You could even say that.. being in his presence has helped me to become the carefree woman I am today. He is an extrodinary man who has impacted my life in so many ways. But he isn't what caused me to choose my current path within the force. Yet he is what made me love myself again."

Stepping out of the water, Bella sat with her legs crossed, indian style. She motioned for Kenshin to sit too, if he wanted, it was going to be a long story.

"I was questioning many things during the war, and the environment wasn't doing much for me. In fact, it was making me feel depressed. I had to get away. I had to before I ended up doing something I would regret for the rest of my life. If I had not left Naboo when I did, I know I would have given in to the darkside.."

He remembered the man well, the man he had silently charged to keep his Master safe when he had been inadequate to do so. Jensen had been his name. He hadn't known the other Padawan well at all, but past the feeling of failure on his part that he had associated with the man's presence, he had also sensed the man's capability. It would seem that he had done much good and Kenshin reminded himself to express his gratitude the next time their paths crossed.

He watched quietly, his toes rooted in the sun bleached sand, as she waded through the shallow water of the tide. He listened without a sound as she spoke of the comfort she had found within love and for a moment, he longed for such a sense of near constant liberation. But when his duties forced him to concentrate upon the ground, when would he find time to turn to the skies? And even if he had the time, he didn't know where to begin.

She soon retreated from the water and took up a sitting position upon the sand. Following her motion, he lowered himself to the ground beside her, his eyes turning to gaze at some invisible point on the horizon above the water. She spoke of the war and the depression it brought her. At the memory of all that strife, he recalled the anxiety he himself had felt throughout the entire ordeal. High strung was probably the best way to describe the permeating feeling.

She had to get away, that he understood. In fact, not long after she had departed, he had taken his own leave. After that episode, all the Jedi had needed time to recuperate. It was just that not all of them had to luxury as they did to just drop everything and leave for alone time. Not all of them had been that fortunate and looking back, he could not help but deem it a little selfish.

But he also understood that sometimes, one had to be selfish. Where a Jedi was supposed to give more than the average person, there still was a limit to what one could give. The Jedi, unfortunately for the galaxy, were human after all and had human needs regardless of the fact that they fought to suppress these needs. There was a limit to all of their sanities and he would rather that a Jedi take a break than to have to test the edge of a Jedi's sanity.

She continued on with her story, finding it easier and easier to express herself the more she moved forward with her tale.

"I didn't know where to go after leaving Naboo, but I ended up choosing a place that fit my mood. We went to Jomark, and I can't recall now just how long we stayed there. It was on Jomark that I could begin to sort out my thoughts, that I could reflect on all that had happened to me throughout the years. I had to look deep within myself, travel back in time within my mind to really understand what it was I was feeling. I can't explain it, but the atmosphere on Jomark brought me peace. I started to fall in love on that planet, I just didn't know it."

Bella's mind drifted back to the castle ruins on Jomark. She told Kenshin what happened as she remembered it. When she and her companion found theirselves lost amongst the ruins for a time. Bella could remember the moments fondly because she felt the first flickers of love then. The two had to spend the night on the cold ground because they were not going to be able to make it back to their speeders in time. They'd snuggled close with one another, only out of need, to keep warm. It had been cold, even a little rainy.

"He stayed the perfect gentleman, but I felt a little bit uncomfortable to say the least. I was still a married woman then, though I knew deep in my heart that my husband would not be coming back. He had already been missing for such a long time and I was becoming lonely."

Still, she had chosen to remain faithful and not act on her inner feelings.

"When we got up the next morning, we spent a good long while talking. We spoke about everything."

Bella laughed suddenly, shaking her head in disbelief.

"We even spoke on politics, that's when I knew we were somehow meant to be together. I'm a hard one to discuss politics with. He asked me about my children, an easy way to get to my heart, I suppose."

The former Jedi loved talking about her children, they were her pride and joy. Everything. Yet there seemed to be hints of sadness in Bella's brown eyes as she reflected on her children, though whatever sadness was there, it didn't show in the conversation, not yet anyway, but it would.

"We discussed my feelings. Well.." She smiled bashfully, shrugging.

".. It was more like he discussed them. I didn't want to talk about anything, but he pushed me to do it, gently. I liked that. He made me feel comfotable without even realizing it at first."

It was a way in which Bella wished she could have felt around Leia, her best friend. Through the years Bella had tried to get there with Leia, but it was a long and slow process, still.

"We left Jomark and returned home to look around, see what still remained after the war. Naturally, what I saw upset me, but I did not lose hope. We didn't stay long because I couldn't handle it. So we returned to Jomark. It was on Jomark that I came in contact with a spirit. I didn't know it then, but what the spirit told me would change my life forever."


Afternoon was reaching on Naboo, and as much as Bella would have liked to sit near the ocean and continue on with her story, nightfall would soon reach and she did not wish to be caught in it.

"I think we'd better get going. I have a lot more to tell you and I think it's best we leave before it gets too dark. I think I'm okay to share with you everything while we make our way to our next destination," she said with a reassuring smile.

Besides that, she needed the excuse to move around, her legs were falling asleep.

He listened without a sound, almost entranced, as if her tale was somehow mysterious to him. And in a sense it was. Her story was one heavily drawn from a well of emotion that he had learned to drain and of thoughts he had forced himself to bury. He found that he could only empathize to a certain degree and beyond that degree he had to speculate.

In a sense, it was frustrating for him to listen and it was a bit sad. She was trying to show him the magical power of love but love was apparently a force that was akin to the Force itself by nature. It would seem that it was something one could only understand through experience.

But he said nothing of these thoughts and did not change his expression as her murmured words continued to drift into the afternoon sunset reflected by the lolling tide. His gaze was level with the shimmering surface as his fingers sifted over and over again through the fine grains of white sand. It was an absent-minded habit of his, one he did when lost in thought.

He simply nodded in response when she said it was time to go, offering a grin in return for her reassuring smile. She seemed much more at ease now to speak of her story. That was good. Letting the last fistful of sand fall from his hand, he willed himself to stand and dusted himself off, wiping the last of the grains from his hands on the edge of his of his long earthen colored cloak.

Ready to move again, he turned to her to lead the way.

While the two made their way to the docking bay, Bella continued on with her story, knowing that the current part had taken place at least five years ago. She could not believe that she had managed to stay out of sight for so long.

"I met a spirit by the name of Boshema, a Twi’lek. She had been a friend of my mother's. At first, I did not take too kindly to her. She was both brash and rude, but I knew that she somehow meant well. She granted me future sight, my future. The visions, they were tragic, every one. Yet I believed I had the power to change what I had seen, after all, the visions had yet to come true."

Bella's story was put on hold by the sight of her old ship. She spotted it, docked where she had placed it last.

"Well.. I didn't think that my shuttle would still be here. It's been a few years since I've used it last. I wonder why they just didn't give it away.. hmm.."

Lost in her own little world, Bella didn't wait for Kenshin to follow as she went for her shuttle, the guard seeming quite surprised to see the lady.

"Ma'am?! I thought you'd passed on! My.. it does my heart good to see that you're alive and well.."

She asked if she could see her ship.

"Ye- Yes, of course! By all means! It's still yours, we've been doing our best to look after it for you, in- in case you might return someday."

Bella gave her thanks, but frowned as she stepped inside to walk up the back of the ramp. She wasn't sure if she should feel sad or happy for the man she recognized as one of the docking bay guards. Bella assumed that he would have moved on from such a job, but perhaps it was a job that he loved and cared not to drift away from.

"My things are still here.. good."

Kenshin and Bella had enough food rations to last for at least a year, if need be.

There were three speeders as well. If the two found themselves stranded, they could at least find some help.

"I'm sorry, Kenshin.. I suppose I got a little side tracked with finding my shuttle.. I didn't mean to stop all together. Still.."

She smiled almost wickedly, but in fun.

".. maybe it's best I tell the rest later, keep you in suspense. There is much more to tell and I don't care to make this trip all about me," she said, stepping through the captain's cabin into the main pilot control area.

"I've been to so many places, and I doubt you've been able to do much sight seeing as of late, so why don't you pick our first destination?"

Yes, she had said first, as in perhaps more than one. Bella did not think it would sit well with her to travel to just one planet and then back again.

It had been five years and the two had a lot to catch up on...

Kenshin contemplated where he wanted to go as his Master continued to inspect the condition of her shuttle. He allowed his mind to wander and peruse his memory, sifting through countless sights, sounds, and smells as his gaze absentmindedly scanned the interior of the ship.

The sensation of water lingered upon his mind and he tugged at the hazy image, managing to focus it and recall the moment the memory recorded. He had been traveling with a friend, a bounty hunter turned Jedi by the name of Xian Boche and a former student of his. They were surrounded by Xian's family and friends, it was some sort of gathering at the beach, and food and drink were abundant.

He had been clothed in blue, the comfortable robes a signature of the Boche family. Xian had given him a set as a gift and as a sign of goodwill. He would forever think of them as the blue robes of Roon.

"Roon." He said finally. The chance of finding Xian or his family still residing there would be low, they seemed to him to be sort of a nomadic type, but that didn't phase him. The planet itself had made an impression and he found that he would like to see the mountains, plains, and oceans once again.