Jomark - Five years previous…(from present timeline)

A world consisting of vast amounts of oceanic life, a single continent, surrounded by three moons; Jomark was not destined to be any place that Bella desired to call home and yet it was. Out of six worlds within its system, Jomark was the only one fit for human habitation. Even so, very few graced the natural world. Just the atmosphere of the planet alone left Bella with a sense of idle comfort.

Bella desired a world where she could be one with her thoughts and feelings, her ambitions, a place where she could become lost and consumed within her personal world. Jomark was just such a place.



“What are you thinking about?”


She stood on the edge of Jomark’s single terrain, looking across the ocean’s surface, the female Twi’lek behind her she had never come across until now. Still, Bella took to obliging the woman, with a curious question of her own.

“Why do you ask, Master Jedi?”

The female Twi’lek only offered a quiet laugh in reply.

“Pardon?”

The Twi’lek wandered to stand beside Bella, to her right.

“My name is Boshema and I am no Master Jedi.”

“Really? Then I am thinking of nothing.”

“Just because I am not a master within my art, does not mean that I do not know a seeker when I see one.”

Few words had already been exchanged and already the Twi’lek had managed to seize Bella’s interest. Parting her almond shaped brown eyes off of the ocean’s current, the hooded woman’s gaze sharply narrowed onto Boshema.

“Boshema is it? Curious.. Are you always this nosey?”

“Not so much as you.”

Bella tossed her head back and laughed eagerly, her hood falling back against the shoulders of her light blue tunic in effect.

“That is not your natural hair color.”

Bella drew both of her hands to extend to the back of her head as she tilted her head back up right, intending to draw the light blue hood of her tunic back over her head, but she hesitated.

“Oh?”

“Are you ashamed?”

She lowered her hands back down at her side.

“No. This color suits me better.”

Such words might have been more believable if they had not been said so abruptly.

“Do I make you uncomfortable?”

“Yes, very much so.”

The Twi’lek nodded her head in confirmation, knowing the answer long before she had been seeking it.

“Why? I am only curious to get to know you. Surely that should be nothing of which that would make you uncomfortable?”

“I do not take kindly to personal judgment of my self.”

Boshema sighed with understanding.

“I think you will find that not many of us do, force wielder.”

Bella huffed in protest; she had just been labeled.

“Bella.. My name is Bella Laurent,” she said derisively.

“My apologies, seems I’ve touched a nerve,” the Twi’lek said dryly. “.. However, if you did not wish to be labeled as such, you should have given me a name.”

“I did, just now.”

“… But that is not your real name, is it?”

Bella shook her head, stammering in her words while her voice seethed with protest.

“Look.. Do you have to be so.. So.. What business is it that you have with me?? I simply wish to be left alone, which I was, until you decided to disturb me!”

The Twi’lek, whom was dressed in a robe similar to that of Bella’s, only brown, sighed in disappointment.

“How sad your life must be.. To be so sheltered and lost within yourself. It is no wonder you feel uncomfortable and reclusive. I would feel much obliged to do the same if I were to be so stubborn and so foolish as you.”

“How dare you judge me! You don’t know me!”

Enraged, Bella began to trudge off, as far away from the Twi’lek as she could get, however, it was to little avail; the Twi’lek only matched her stride step for step.

“You don’t strike me as one likely to allow me such an opportunity. It is for that reason that I question why..”

Bella came to a curt halt, the other female doing the same in kind, never removing her gaze from Bella.

“Is it such a bad idea to want to protect myself?”

“From what? From living and growing? Do you even realize how much you‘re hindering yourself, Bella?”

“Here is the better question… why does it matter to you? A simple stranger.”

“Perhaps it is because I do not like to see anyone suffer, stranger or friend...”

Boshema could see the pain in Bella’s eyes, hidden at present, behind angry eyes.

“.. and you, my dear.. Are suffering.”

Boshema was not left to be curious on her own, Bella found much intrigue in the Twi’lek who stood along side her. Simple strangers, having barely had much of an opportunity to become acquainted with one another, and already Boshema read Bella as if she were an open book.

“I.. I did not realize I was that easy to read. Even still, you know not the reasons for my suffering.”

“Oh.. but that is where you are clearly wrong, child. For I know more about you than you think.”

The force wielder returned to her walk, though a much more harmless pace, slow and thoughtful.

“Well, not only are you nosey but conceited as well..”

The comment from the stranger left the Twi’lek faintly cross; although, she was able to swallow the feeling and produce a sense of fortitude in its wake, but not without of course trying to bite back first.

“For someone who doesn’t like being judged by others… well, I suppose the same courtesy doesn’t extent from you..”

Before Bella could retort in protest, the Twi’lek had her left hand raised to shush her, an unexpected gesture of repentance rising to her face.

“Perhaps it would appease you if I were to explain myself. You see; I have watched you for many years now. You do not know me, but I know you. I was a friend of your mother's."

Both of Bella's eyebrows lifted in strong bewilderment and curiousness.

"What do you mean was?"

Boshema smiled, satisfied.

"Very good, you always have been quite the observer. It's the one thing your quite proud of. Still, it disheartens me to see you think so ill of yourself."

The Twi’lek’s ramblings made Bella less curious, shifting into a more perturbed outlook.

“Really! Is all this absolutely necessary!”

“Patience, my child. As I said.. I was a friend of your mother’s... but I died long before my time. I was both a guardian and friend to your mother, but as I said, I’m no Master Jedi. In fact, I’m not even at Jedi at all. I am merely a servant of the force. I hold allegiance to no one but to those of my personal choosing. I walk my own path, even in death.”

The brown eyes that looked on at Boshema were filled with both impatience and confusion.

“Alright, but I do not understand.. why you are here and nor do I know how any of this has to do with me.”

Boshema nodded her head in understanding, knowing full well that Bella’s afterthoughts would come to pass sooner or later, though the Twi’lek had hoped far later.

“It doesn’t,” the Twi’lek said, answering the latter.

“At least, not entirely, it doesn’t. It all will depend on how you will look at it, Bella. However, if you were to ask me, which I know you won’t.. it has every little bit to do with you.”

Bella only offered a gesture of distrust toward the Twi’lek, though the practice was not displayed clearly on her face but more so in her eyes.

“I’m not asking you to trust me, Bella.. I’m just asking you to listen.”

“I guess I’m all ears then..”

Boshema was about to offer the rest of her story when Bella’s eyes softened. The brown eyed woman had moved her mouth as if to speak but hesitated in letting any context of thought escape her lips, something the Twi’lek’s blue eyes had easily observed.

“Something is on your mind..”

“Well, yes.. may I ask how you died?”

The Twi’lek smiled, hoping that the two supposed strangers would eventually get to this part of the story.

“Of course you may, child. I died because your mother killed me..”

If there was ever a time where Bella felt like her heart had been ripped from her chest and tossed aside, it was now. Her mother, a killer. The brown-eyed woman never thought her mother had it in her to take a life, never mind that of a Twi'lek.

"I think you're mistaken.. my mother did not have the strength within her to carry such an act through."

Boshema's face questioned Bella, much doubt creasing across her gaze.

"Oh? How can you be so sure, child? After all, you thought once like your mother, did you not?"

It was a sense of afterthought that made Bella revert her mind back to a place and time that she did not wish to go. The auburn haired woman immediately became lost in her own world again, away from Jomark, and back on the battlefield.

"Stop it! Stop it! No! You won't do this to me!"

"Easy child," Boshema said as she gently rested her right hand on Bella's shoulder, easily bringing the woman back into the present.

“Snap out of it. There will be time to discuss that later, but not now. You must understand why it is I have come to you.”

Though the Twi’lek had effortlessly carried Bella out of her mind, returning her to reality, the force wielder appeared quite shook up.

“I need you to focus, this is important. Listen to me well, child. I have been with you far longer than I can remember, ever since your mother’s passing.”

“.. but my mother died when I was just seventeen.”

Growing impatient with Bella’s incessant interruptions, the Twi’lek berated the woman.

“Enough! Enough! You will listen to me now! Please!”

The unexpected display of shouting caused Bella to slink back a few steps from the Twi’lek.

“Please.. I need you to listen.. you must,” Boshema finished, in a hushed tone.

The Twi’lek continued without any further interruption from Bella.

“You can see me now only because the force has made it so. Though I have been with you for some time, my presence could not be set free for your eyes to see until our beings could connect in someway.”

Boshema could easily sense once more that Bella was itching to speak, but she raised her left hand in protest.

“Later, child. Now you might think your mother is our connection.. but she is not. It is our use of the force that has come to unite us. If you don‘t listen to me carefully child and take caution to all that I am about to say, those you care for will fall to grave danger and by your own hand no less, child..”

Though Bella barely knew Boshema, she trusted in all that the Twi'lek had to say. It felt so odd to her to give in to the sense of trust that she felt but her feelings had never steered her too far astray before and she believed that she had little choice.

".. It would not be the first time, Boshema. I'm used to the lives of those I care for being left to hang in the balance of life or death. You're not telling me anything I don't already know."

The Twi'lek shook her head, letting Bella go by the shoulder finally.

"I see you leave me no choice," Boshema said gravely, her eyes stricken with regret for what she was about to do.

With little effort Boshema connected her mind's eye with Bella's, showing her many minor increments of visions that had yet to come to pass.

The sudden exposure of her future flashing before her very eyes seemed too much to bear for Bella and she staggered backwards, violently clutching onto her head as she screamed out.

"No.. that.. None of that is true! It's not! Leave it alone! Please.. make it stop!"

"So be it.. rest easy, child. I am sorry, but you left me no other choice."

After Boshema released Bella from her clutches of her mind's eye, Bella buckled to her knees, passing out shortly after.

The Twi'lek’s stare shifted from Bella onto a man in a black tunic that was fast approaching.

“Ah, the champion and savior. I knew you would come along shortly. Whenever she falls, you’re always there.”

Boshema subtly gestured to Bella while her gaze continued to bore into the man, whom seemed to only have eyes for Bella.

“You stare onto her as if seeing her like this for the first time and I wonder why, noble hero. This is not the first time you have found her like this.”

There was a twinkle of understanding in the Twi'lek’s eyes as she offered a nod of affirmation.

“Yes,” she said softly, coolly.

“You are thinking back to that very day. That is good, but I am sure you also remember that there were others there willing to save her just as you were.”

Another twinkle submerged in Boshema’s eyes, one of affection and admiration.

“.. but I can truly tell you, it would not have mattered if you stepped up first or last, her brown eyes would have caressed your own in the same way as they did then.. as they still do. She sees so much in you. There is a world she sees that centers on only you and her that you have yet to both unleash. This is a world she waits and yearns for that only the two of you can share together, alone.”

The Twi’lek crouched low to be at Bella’s side, she would awake soon.

“You are among many a hero, brave heart. She needs you most but she needs the others as well. You alone are not enough. You give her love, comfort.. the world. Yet she needs her friends, too. She fears the touch of mankind. She does not trust it and is not willing to surrender to it.”

Scooping the unconscious woman into her arms, Boshema carefully stood back up, only to walk to the man in the black tunic, placing Bella in his waiting arms.

“You must remind her of mankind once more, of the helping hand. Remind her of faith and of hope for we all need this, without it we truly have nothing.”

Boshema stepped back, stretched her arms out slightly as she took a bow and smiled at the man.

“.. get her to speak to you about the visions I granted to her and remember the name of Coris.”

They would all meet again, in time, but for then, Boshema’s visit was through.

Just as Bella started out of slumber, the Twi’lek drifted to evaporate before the two, watching them still, from a plane that they would not come to know until much, much later. However, just as she vanished, Boshema’s voice echoed through the wind to carry through to the ears of both the man and woman, expecting such a simple belief filled with such promise to echo into their hearts as well.

“Remember.. there is always hope. If all else should fail and you have nothing to reach out to hold onto, you will always have hope. Farewell, my loves.. we shall meet again very soon.”

Dannen quickly came upon the scene of Bella, who was lying unconscious upon the ground, much to Dannen's bewilderment.

Looking at the Twi'lek, the young man would be just as ready to cut Boshema down, just as much as listen to her. He bent down to tend to Bella, and had proceeded to tune Boshema out, until she caught his attention.

“You are thinking back to that very day. That is good, but I am sure you also remember that there were others there willing to save her just as you were.”

Dannen then lowered the hood of his cloak, finding himself glaring at the Twi'lek

Who is this person that speaks as if I need their commentary??

Dannen rose, almost with a determined purpose, he leaned toward this person slightly, and put one finger out almost as if to give some words of wisdom of his own, with his teeth clenched.

...but he stopped himself, his outstretched finger curled inwards as if catching himself. Something was not right about this whole situation, nevertheless he didn't like it.

Dannen listened as the Twi'lek picked her up and placed Bella within his arms. It seemed at least to him as if the Twi'lek knew her, almost too well.

As Bella began to stir within his arms Boshema mentioned a name, Coris, which he was sure to remember and then Boshema disappeared, which didn't make sense to Dannen at all, and seemed all to strange.

He stood staring at the very spot she disappeared from.

"I hope you're alright."

He said to Bella as he sighed, his eyes unwavering.

"Lets get out of here."

He said as he turned back to the ship, carrying Bella within his arms.

The atmosphere about Bella and Dannen was heavily set on frustration and confusion, more so from Dannen than from Bella.

"Wait.. now just hold on a minute.."

From what Bella could gather from Dannen's mannerisms, the man appeared to be in a great hurry to get off of Jomark. Bella, on the other hand, wasn't quite ready to leave just yet.

Bella's light brown eyes caught Dannen's just as she opened up her mouth to speak yet again. She was going to protest that she did not need to be carried, that she could manage to walk on her own two feet but something in Dannen's frustrated brown eyes told her that protesting simply wasn't the best of choices, at least, not at the moment.

For some reason, seeing his frustration only made Bella just as frustrated. The woman narrowed her brow at Dannen curtly for a moment, only to have her temple relax seconds later.

A moment later, Bella's brow flexed with provocative wonder as she studied Dannen's face. The man had long since paused in his walk. Bella, long before now, had had her mind to speak to Dannen of whatever was troubling him; however now, her mind was trapped elsewhere.

"Your face.."

With her right arm that had previously been around Dannen's neck, the force wielder lifted gentle fingers to caress Dannen's face as she continued to speak softly.

"... is still as handsome as the first time I saw it."

She smiled genuinely, quite happy with the memory. Nevertheless, there was something more in Bella's soft brown eyes.

Something more in Dannen's too, she saw it, very clearly. The signs, however confident Bella believed in recognizing what she saw, still left her uncertain.

Her eyes squinted at Dannen, filling with question at the simple gesture all at the same time.

"... You're a very stubborn man.. but I've always liked that about you," she said as her fingertips parted from his face to rest onto his right shoulder while still glancing into his brown eyes.

Unexpectedly, in what was supposed to be a private gesture, Bella half sighed, half laughed lightly.

".. and your roguish mannerisms.." She didn't finish the thought, not toward Dannen anyway. Such thoughts she kept to personal thought, though she didn't close her thoughts off to Dannen. He could hear them if he felt so inclined to.

I get all hot and bothered just seeing you act that way sometimes.. other times, it is downright annoying.

Bella narrowed her eyes at the latter thought and then cleared her throat out of sheer nervousness.

".. and sometimes.. you can be so oblivious.. like.. for instance... I bet you don't even know that I'm trying to tell you that I'm in love with you."

Bella's stubbornness was expressed in plain view for Dannen to acknowledge; she still hadn't got her feelings for Dannen outward quite right. She gave it one more shot, but.. Not without a little bit of hesitation of course.

Bella hesitated a moment to bite her lower lip gently while nervously tugging at her left earlobe with her left hand. The hesitation did not last long as she found her confidence once more.

"I love you."

Dannen admittedly was in no hurry to leave, he was however frustrated with the turn of events.

Yes he had stopped for a moment, but he soon continued his walk, and before both knew it they were back at the shuttle and camp.

All he did was listen as she talked, and before long they were back at the camp. He had plenty to think about he was so worried about her, he cared about her very much.

But being so heart struck about her incident and her thoughts, it confused him a bit, although he was less frustrated now, still he didn't know what to say, until.

".. and sometimes.. you can be so oblivious.. like.. for instance... I bet you don't even know that I'm trying to tell you that I'm in love with you."

Dannen's jaw dropped in disbelief, at the same time, his own eyes softened as he searched her eyes; it had touched him so much.

He remained quiet for a little bit more then she had hesitated.

"I love you."

She didn't have to wait long for his response, and he had spoke quietly yet thoughtfully.

"I love you too."

After standing there in deep thought and reflection he then sat her down softly, he was still upset over what happened, although he was less upset, and seemed calmer.

"Seeing you lay there like that unconscious took me back to the time when we first met..do you know how terribly frightening that is to me?"

He then softly wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

"I'm glad you're okay..but that was so dangerous."

He searched her eyes for a moment, trying to figure out who that Twi'lek was.

"Who was that?"

Bella squirmed and fidgeted as she tried to pour out her heart to Dannen. When the two had entered the lounge of the shuttle to speak in confidence, Bella's brave front slipped to brief hesitation due to their secluded environment. Even so, the privacy pushed Bella to open up to Dannen; there was no avoiding her feelings.

Dannen's reaction heated Bella's heart and soul tremendously just by the sheer look of emotion that swept eagerly over his face, bringing a radiant yet timid smile to her lips. The heavy invisible weight that Bella had been feeling dissipated quickly off of her shoulders the moment Dannen repeated those three precious words that she had been longing to hear.

He set Bella down on her own two feet; even so, she reacted as if she had never stood on her own before. Losing her balance temporarily, Bella softly clutched onto both of Dannen's upper arms while he aided her to stand. She was standing close enough in front of him that she could feel his breath lightly brush over her face. She could barely focus in on his words. As ecstatic as Bella was to know that the feelings she had been holding onto for so long were now mutual; her heart knew that Dannen was concerned. She hadn't forgotten about their recent visitor.

"I.. I'm sorry." Bella's face crumpled up sympathetically with sadness and pain for Dannen. She remembered that day quite well. It had been so hard to look at anyone that day. They had all been so relieved to see Bella wake up, and all Bella had wanted to do was go back to.. unconsciousness. How could she have explained then that she had felt peace in the moment? She could not, not even now.

She would hopefully someday be able to tell Dannen that she had asked to lay down and close her eyes, wanting to be within eternal peace. He deserved to know it, and she would tell him so, but not today. Dannen would know everything when the time was right for him to hear it, when he understood that she no longer felt the same as she had on that uneventful day.

That day, though Bella wasn't strong enough to face the truth just yet, was a day that changed her on a completely new level. She'd drowned in her own purity.

She'd never been completely the same after that day and it was too early to tell if Bella would ever go back to being the Jedi that she had been. Try as she might, Bella could not find the truth to why she had changed. In her heart, she knew that no one and nothing had made her this way, more so, that it just happened. Given time, the woman knew she would find the truth about herself; she would find it within herself.

Bella's mind drew forward to the present time by the touch of Dannen as he softly wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Her breath floated just a little as her heart throbbed within her chest. She realized that she could get used to Dannen holding her.

".. accident," she managed to project with difficulty, still on a bit of a personal high with her emotions. Dannen had Bella thinking good thoughts despite his own personally worry for her.

".. Um.. I suppose you're asking about the Twi'lek?" Bella knew that the Twi'lek was exactly whom Dannen was asking about, but she was stalling. Stalling because she didn't want to talk about Boshema nor of the man that they would both someday come to know as Coris Elrad.

"That was.. Boshema. She was a friend of my mother's."

Bella's response, after stating the fact, brought a quizzical look to rush over her face as she locked eyes with her new love.

"I didn't realize that you could see her as well," she said softly, her mind working in full force, dwelling over as to why such a thing was possible.

"She's a spirit, I'm sure you've noticed. That must mean that you are also connected to her. She said that I could see her because of the connection that she and I share, though I'm still not entirely sure just yet on what precisely that connection is. I mean, we're connected by the force and all that but..."

Bella waved her hand submissively as she paused, biting her bottom lip gently in reflection.

".. there is more to it than that though. The connection, its personal, and I can feel it somewhere deep inside of me. Did.. did Boshema say anything to you, anything that I might have missed, I mean?"

Dannen paused in deep thought, he was unsure of why such a connection had existed. He was also sure there was a reason. It was something he also felt was right in front of him.

"You…you are the reason."

It was something he did not think of, but perhaps it was his love and caring for the lady and for each other. That made the connection be. He did not know, but that was his guess.

"No need to be sorry…" He said softly.

"She said, she had granted you visions…and she said something about a name…a Coris..."

Boshema had granted Bella with visions she had not cared to discover nor acknowledge.

"Granted?! She forced the visions on me, that's what she did."

Bella's brow narrowed as her face became cross.

"She had no business doing that to me.. but I trust her.."

The force wielder's face softened as she caught the eyes of her companion.

".. I think she means well. She has good intentions, she's just a bit rude with carrying those intentions out, is all."

Sighing, Bella stood and began to pace in front of Dannen.

"I saw him.. this Coris. He frightens me very much so, even though I've never met him."

Both frightened and confused, Bella now found herself eager to leave Jomark.

"We should leave this place," she said as she stopped in her pacing to face Dannen, wrapping her arms about her as she visibly began to shiver.