Hero Out of Time, Chapter 1: A long time ago…

So! I have been wanting to get back into writing and this story has suddenly exploded, giving me a boost in motivation, however temporary it may be. I'll spruce up and lengthen this chapter, re upload it and start working on a second chapter immediately. I don't know how long it'll last, but just know that every story I have uploaded is one I want to finish, I'm just lazy, unmotivated, and never plan things out… which would explain most every problem I've ever had in my life…

Jedi Knight's POV

I fell to one knee as the Emperor lay dead behind me. 'It's finally over', I thought, glad at having finally defeated the mad Sith leading the tyrannical Empire. I staggered over to the unconscious body of my padawan, Kira, and picked her up bridal style, I knew with how hard she was hit during the battle, she wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. The room we were in shook, as the Imperial Dreadnought we were on was bombarded from outside, the main Republic and Imperial fleets were currently duking it out over Dromund Kaas, the Imperial home world. I stumbled through battered ship as it was rent apart, passing the remains of our previous battles to the observation deck to confront the Emperor.

I made it to the hanger, my red and burnished gold trimmed robes slightly tattered, my bronze and silver trimmed armor only slightly scarred and scored by explosives and plasma, and staggered up the ramp to the Defender, my personal starship, peeling off my red and gold trimmed metal eye mask, which was cracked inwards from a particularly vicious force blast from Emperor Vitiate. As a Miraluka, I could literally see the force ripple violently around him as he manipulated it, but often times it was too quick to dodge so I just had to tank it. Luckily, as a Jedi Guardian, such a thing was my specialty, an unbreakable shield, guarding the innocent from monsters like Vitiate.

"Teeseven! Prep the engines!" I called to my astromech friend as I set Kira down in the Med-Bay. Teeseven was the only other one of my friends on board, the others were elsewhere in the fleet, helping in the battle. I rush to the cockpit, Teeseven giving a series of panicked beeps to me as the engines powered up and explosions were heard throughout the Imperial Dreadnought. "I know, I know." I replied, getting a grin as looked towards my oldest partner. "Out of the frying pan, and into the fire!" I said as we blasted out of the hanger, into the massive space battle still raging around us.

The Emperor may be dead, but the Empire doesn't know that yet, and still has a lot of manpower and dangerous Sith at their disposal. In fact, the battle seems to be going against us I noticed as I evaded blaster fire from a pair of Imperial Interceptors, dodging and weaving between other ships and debris as Teeseven caught one on the wing with the Defender's blaster cannons, causing it to spin out, crashing into its compatriot. "Nice shot, my friend, now all we need is to ruin the Empire's day, and give the rest of our forces a boost in morale, and I know just how to do it." I told him as I turned on my comms to broadcast on all channels. "Attention Republic forces, this is Jedi Knight Noridan Tordana, Emperor Vitiate has been slain, I repeat, the Emperor has fallen!" I repeat into the comms as the damage to Vitiate's flagship becomes too much and the entire thing explodes into nothing but flaming scrap metal.

"Truly? That is excellent work Tordana, victory is assured for the Republic! All forces, press the attack!" General Var Suthra exclaims over the comms.

"You've saved countless lives today, Noridan, the Jedi Order could not be prouder." Came the ever-calm voice of Satele Shan, Grand Master of the Jedi Order.

"Hey, Hey! If you weren't a big-time hero already, you sure as hell are now! Oh boy, I bet you'll be able to get us free drinks anywhere now! Hahahaaa! Promise me you'll be my wingman if we meet any cute girls!" I chuckled as Doc's jokes filtered through the comms, as well as congratulations from all my other companions and allies. However, the Imperials reacted a bit differently than I expected.

"ALL FIGHTERS AND BATTLESHIPS, LAY THAT JEDI TRASH TO WASTE! FOR THE EMPEROR!" Was what I heard from whoever else was in charge, with just about every Imperial agreeing, and as I was right in the middle of the battle, I was now completely surrounded by the Imperial fleet and their number one target.

"Oh… I have a bad feeling about this, Teeseven." Teeseven in response gave some very sarcastic beeps, 'Gee, you think' was essentially what he said, only with a lot of the Astromech equivalent of swearing. "Alright, calm down, we'll be fi-WOAH!" I yelled as rockets, and cannon fire started exploding all around me. The Republic fleet tried to cover me and did pretty well as the Imperials were only firing at me, leaving themselves open, but it was still too much. I may be a Jedi and see entirely through the force with an above average sense sense of precognition, but that doesn't really matter when every space possible is occupied by highly condensed bolts of pure destructive energy trying to turn you to ash. I managed to keep the ship in one piece, but we were crippled and dead in space, another blast hitting just under the cockpit, overloading the consoles, and causing them explode in my face, briefly feeling intense heat and pain, then darkness.

Satele Shan's POV

I understand they lost their leader, but to completely ignore an entire battle fleet to destroy one man is pure foolishness. Noridan is in grave danger, and while that is where he's at his best and I must admit, the Empire has us outgunned, even a few moments of concentrated fire upon their ships with no retaliation is invaluable and has already turned the tide, I just hope it's enough, even he can't avoid such concentrated firepower for long.

I looked up from my thoughts, as the last of the Imperial fleet either surrenders, flees, or is destroyed.

"Well done men, this battle is ours." I announced as cheers erupted through the bridge of my ship and the comms. "Noridan, I believe a more formal congratulations are in order, as well as a good rest. How are you holding up?" I say through the comms to the Defender, though only receive static. "Noridan, can you hear me?" I try the comms again. Still static. "Ensign, where is Knight Noridan's ship?" I ordered the Ensign in charge of the scanners, the urgent tone in my voice cutting through the chatter on the bridge, people quieting as they realized that they also didn't truly know if Noridan survived the combined firepower of the Imperial fleet. The Ensign looked throughout the readings of different ships on her console. What she said made a cold feeling go through everyone on the bridge.

"Umm, I'm not finding the Defender on any of the readings… It's hard to get a physical scan through all the debris, but there aren't any power signatures of their engine type and class, and there are too many small clusters of bio signatures from damaged fighters, gunships and escape pods to locate them that way… comms are silent too… I… I think we may have lost them Master Satele."

"We don't know that for sure Ensign, if they are hurt, we can't afford to leave them behind. Everyone, scramble ships and rescue teams to sweep the area for them and contact the medical frigates, tell them to do the same, now." I ordered, the urgency in my voice snapping everyone out of their shock and into their tasks. I went to the comms again, this time to contact Var Suthra. "General Var Suthra, do you copy?" I asked, feeling the faintest bit impatient.

"Greetings Master Satele, you sound grim. Is there another threat to prepare for?" The Mon Calamaran asked, awaiting orders.

"No, but we lost contact with Jedi Knight Noridan once the Imperial fleet focused fire on him, and we can't locate him on our scanners, have you had any contact with him?" I asked, hoping he had limped the assuredly damaged Defender aboard Var Suthra's battleship.

"What!? No, I can't say I have Master Jedi. You don't think…?" Var Suthra didn't finish that thought as I spoke up.

"It's a possibility, but one I won't accept until the proof is undeniable." I told him, getting my message through.

"Of course, couldn't have said it better myself Master Jedi, I'll scramble some search teams on the double. He's out there, and we'll bring The Hero of the Republic home." He replied as the comms cut out. 'I can only hope that's true' I thought as I went back to observing the crew's progress on the search.

Third Person POV

The Republic fleet recovered their wounded, and began searching through the debris field. The battle was massive so there was already a large amount of debris, but the Imperials locked onto The Defender after it fled the Emperor's warship and fired on it single mindedly, through Republic ships and even through a few Imperial ones. The debris cluttered the area heavily, meaning teams had to dig and maneuver through it from the outside in, there not being enough space to simply navigate straight through to the center.

A Republic rescue team sifted through the wreckage, losing hope at finding anything left alive. The team used Enviro suits to survive in space as they looked, aided by the light of a small transport escorting them.

"Man, I'm telling you, not even a Jedi could survive this, I don't care who he is, nothing but slagged scrap metal." One of the soldiers said as he moved a piece of slagged durasteel plating aside. His compatriot snorted as he turned to reply.

"Are your brains fried from the battle? Haven't you heard even half the stories about this guy? He can survive anything!" The two were silenced by their sergeant.

"Cut the chatter you two! Dead or not, this Jedi is a hero, and we're not leaving without confirmation. So less talking and more searching!" He barked at the two.

"Yes Sir." Came the two replies as they went back to searching. Eventually, the sergeant came across the wreckage of a ship a little way away, but the lighting was too poor to make out what it was.

"Pilot, shine the light over here! I think I got something." He said as the transport turned to shine its light on the sergeant's target, to reveal their objective, The Defender. More than half of the ship destroyed, but the med-bay and cockpit had sealed off and remained intact, at least from the doors side, the sergeant thought as he used the boosters on his suit to sail over the open common room, towards the cockpit. He rounded on to it to find the Jedi they were looking for, floating slightly out of the pilot's chair, appearing dead to the galaxy. He used the wrist mounted bio-scanner to see if the Hero still lived, an affirmative beep brought a relieved sigh from the sergeant's mouth as it indicated that not only was Noridan Tordana alive, but so was the person in the med-bay, his Padawan he assumed. "Pilot, contact Master Satele and General Var Suthra. Tell them we found them, they're alive." This proclamation brought cheers from the rescue teams as they converged on the wreckage and cleared the debris, so they could tow the ship to the medical frigate's hangar bay.

Master Satele Shan's POV

I looked over the wounds Noridan had as he floated in the Kolto tank, recovering from his many injuries. I know he is strong, but seeing the shape he's in after fighting through an entire Imperial Dreadnought, defeating the Emperor himself, and being bombarded by the entire Sith fleet, the only way anyone, even a Jedi, could have survived this, was if the Force itself wanted him alive, but if the Force wanted him to be alive, why wouldn't it let him or his Padawan awake? Three weeks they have been healing in Kolto, and in those three weeks he went from just about every bone in his body being bruised and broken, with dozens of lacerations, burns, minor internal bleeding and traumatized organs to only most of his bones being broken and a few large bruises and cuts. Since he was able to survive, three weeks of Kolto should have fully healed him, but his body wasn't healing normally, and his heart beat only about 10 times per minute His Padawan was in the same boat wouldn't wake up either, and Kira wasn't in nearly as bad a shape as him.

In these three weeks, the new threat. This Infinite Empire has rocked both the Sith Empire and the Republic with its sudden appearance, with not really a cease fire being called, but both factions being too busy with this new threat to get back to their usual fights. The Infinite Empire attacked the Sith on all fronts, forcing them back quite a bit, but the Sith were holding strong, as they were nothing if not stubborn.

However, the Infinite Empire took much different and far more worrying strategy when dealing with the Republic. They sent out plenty of forces to engage us directly sure, but they were attacking from the shadows most dangerously, and not at garrison's or shipyards, no, but at medical facilities, and despite having no evidence to support it, I know they are looking for Noridan, they somehow know how dangerous he is and that he is still vulnerable. Which is why we have been moving him around as much as possible, given his condition, staying just barely a step ahead of the enemy as my fellow Jedi recovers.

We need a way to help him heal, but keep him safe, isolated and hidden in a place the enemy can't find him. The only problem with that, is that setting up even a small, remote medical facility won't escape the notice of the Infinite Empire, it seems that nothing does. I just hope the 'solution' that Var Suthra was talking about is the answer we need.

I was broken from my thoughts as the General in question walked through the door, a Selkath doctor and Ugnaught engineer walking in behind him.

"General," I greeted, as he came to stand beside me. "I trust you have the answer to our friend's well-being?" Var Suthra seemed very pleased with himself, as did his two compatriots, giving me a hopeful feeling.

"Yes ma'am, we do. Tell her Doctor Saerino." Var Suthra gestured to the Selkath, who stepped forward.

"The best solution is a special type of carbon freezing whe-" He began, before I cut him off.

"Carbon freezing? He still is quite wounded; such a procedure could kill him." I spoke, not believing that that was the best that can be done for our friend.

"It's not that kind of carbon freezing, I assure you," The Doctor told me, as I gestured for him to explain. "Yes, well, it's a special procedure that will freeze him in carbonite yes, but before we freeze him, he will be placed in an apparatus where there will be a series of tubes and needles slowly cycling Kolto and other nutrients into his body, facilitating his healing even thought his body will be in suspended animation. The carbon he will be frozen in will be practically blaster proof, keeping him safe during his suspended animation. The process for freezing him along with the apparatus has been tweaked and improved specifically to make the risk of death all but zero."

"So, it will freeze him safely, without completely stunting his recovery?" I asked, intrigued, as this technology's main points seemed to almost contradict themselves with how opposite they were.

"Of course, and as it's still carbon freezing, his vitals will be too low for any scanner to pick up. All we must do, is put his frozen body in a safe place, till the Infinite Empire stops searching for him. By then, he will be ready to wake up and aid us once more." The Selkath said confidently.

"How will we know, when he is ready to wake up? He won't be able unfreeze himself." I asked, pointing out this seemingly obvious flaw.

"The console on the outside of the device monitors his vitals. As of now, our Jedi friend is in a coma and has almost no brain activity. Once he is ready to wake up, his brainwaves will pick up again and the console will alert us. Do not worry." The doctor assured me. I thought over this, the option did seem promising,

"Due to the trauma he received from the battle, the force has put him into a deep meditative trance, as strong in the force as he is, his signature is very subdued right now; I doubt you'd find him unless you knew and had some form of connection to him. So, this special freezing procedure can work? We can do the same for his Padawan Kira, I assume?" I asked, accepting their idea.

"Of course, we can Master Satele, but is that really necessary? Padawan Kira's status isn't nearly as dire as Noridan's" Var Suthra spoke up, confused about my question.

"True, but she still hasn't woken either, has she?" I asked them rhetorically. "She and her master share a powerful bond, and as they both fell into this trance, I doubt either of them will wake up without the other. Speaking of which, if we are to freeze them, I think it best if they have a repaired set of their armor and their lightsabers with them." I proposed.

"Why is that Master Jedi, expecting them to wake up to trouble?" Var Suthra asked curiously. At this I merely smirked.

"I think it's assured that that's what will happen. You know the phrase Noridan is so found of, yes?" I asked.

"Mhm, Indeed, 'Out of the Frying Pan, and into the Fire' which, I must admit, seems to describe him perfectly." He said chuckling slightly.

" I must agree on that my friend, let us begin then." I said as we set to work preparing the two unconscious Jedi for carbon freezing. The procedure went smoothly, the two being frozen, and transported to Coruscant, which, thanks to their efforts, was in much better straights then when they first arrived on the Republic Core world. We had even reclaimed and began rebuilding the Jedi Temple which, as damaged as it was what with being mostly collapsed and rubble blocking off the hallways, one of the lower vaults remained secure, which is where we kept watch over the two Jedi. Few of the people there even knew they were more than statues of the Republic's heroes, which was the point, we had to make sure that both the Infinite and Sith Empire's don't know where Noridan is, he is too important to lose and extremely vulnerable right now. So here he and his Padawan rest, with the select few Jedi who know about him awaiting his reawakening.

Seven Years Later

It's over. The Infinite Empire has been defeated, after 7 long years, and throughout it all, Noridan never once stirred, not even meditating in front of his frozen body gave any insight or hint as to his condition. The battle against the Infinite Empire and Vitiate's other body was long and difficult, even working together, it cost both the Sith and the Republic an arm and a leg. Quite literally in my case, I thought, as I looked down at my cybernetic right arm and leg, a personal lasting reminder of the danger mad tyrants like Vitiate pose to the galaxy. 'Though we did win, it was a near thing, and very touch and go for a while, so why couldn't you wake up? What future threat could be even greater than this to warrant you not waking up yet? If it's truly so dire, I doubt I'll be able to talk to you in my lifetime again my friend, I just hope you'll be able to help the future generation of Jedi you wake up to through their trials, Jedi Master Noridan Tordana. It's a shame really, we couldn't get Doc to be quiet about you missing your own promotion.' I chuckled to myself at his antics as I stood up, and left the lower vaults, and a good friend to his rest.

Ahsoka Tano, Third Person POV, Roughly 3700 Years Later

'Ugh, cleaning the shelves and guarding the vaults is sooo boring!' 15-year-old Padawan Ahsoka Tano groaned inwardly. She'd much rather be out there turning tinnies into scrap metal, but after so many consecutive missions, the council decided she and her Master Anakin Skywalker needed time away from the battlefield. She, foolishly, tried to argue that she needed to do something, so they stuck her with guard and cleaning duty. Which she hated, Jedi weren't supposed to hate, but she hated cleaning and guard duty, and she got both. "I just wish something interesting would happen!" She said, letting out an explosive sigh.

"Why is that Snips, not having fun down there?" Came the voice of her master, startling her, before she realized he wasn't in the room, but she had left her comlink turned on.

"Hey, master. How long was my comlink on?" She said sheepishly, hoping he didn't here too much of her 3 and a half hours' worth of loud complaining.

"All of it." He replied, a smug tone in his voice. Her heart sank as she knew teasing was on the way. "I must admit, it made filling out all these reports far more entertaining than usual!" He said with a chipper tone.

"Well, I'm so glad my boredom and misery brought you joy, Skyguy." Ahsoka replied sarcastically. "So, why are you just now responding?" She asked, why he just now decided to throw in his quips.

"Because, there's something Madame Jocasta wants checked out down there. She was cryptic about it, but said it would be something odd, out of place. I'm on my there now, figured I should tell you so you can help me get a head start on the search, and to relieve some of your boredom." Anakin chuckled at the end of his statement.

"Okay, but why is Madame Jocasta sending you of all people to the vaults on an errand?" Ahsoka asked, confused as to why 'The Hero With No Fear' would be sent on something so simple.

"Honestly, I was just the first person she came across, and you can't really say no to her, can you?" He replied rhetorically, with mirth in his voice.

"No, I guess not." His Padawan agreed, remembering how Jocasta Nu once essentially strong-armed Master Windu, of all people to help her move some Holo disks around, now that was a funny sight. "So, any other hints, besides, odd and out place?" She asking, hoping for something to narrow down the size of their search in the, admittedly quite large, vaults beneath the archives.

"Oh, yeah, she said they would be in the back of the vault, in the Reliquary." He told her. This got Ahsoka's attention.

"The Reliquary? Master the Reliquary is thousands of years old. My studies in the archives said that no one's been inside for centuries. Why would we search there?" The young Togruta asked, as the one place where nothing would be any different than what it was before even Master Yoda was born.

"Madame Jocasta believes a very important relic of the Jedi is in there, one that was forgotten about for a long time. She told me that no one had been inside the reliquary because they were ordered not to unless in the most dire of circumstances. With the clone wars escalating, she might think it's worth a look into." Anakin supplied, his explanation satisfying her curiosity.

"Okay, that does sound pretty interesting then, much better than guard duty, at any rate. Do you want me to wait for you?" She asked.

"Nah go on ahead, I'm only a minute or so away." He responded. She acknowledged his response and started walking towards the Reliquary, wondering what might be inside.

Ahsoka entered the Reliquary, seeing everything covered in a thin layer of dust, as it seemed that a few ancient caretaker droids kept everything in working order. She marveled at all the ancient holodisks and projectors, armor and lightsabers, a few holocrons, even some statues. As she walked up to one, her eyes widened as she read the nameplate.

Jedi Master Noridan Tordana

Hero of the Republic

She had learned about him in her studies as a youngling. He was the Miralukan Jedi that fought and defeated the Sith Emperor almost 4000 years ago, though records hinted that he had been gravely wounded in the confrontation, it never confirmed nor denied his death, and most of the pictures and data truly describing him were lost when the Jedi lost the coordinates of their home world, Tython. All they had of him was the chronicling of the war made after the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was rebuilt, but now here she was seeing a statue of him from that time, with armored Jedi robes, a simple, leather wrapped lightsaber hilt clasped in his hands over his chest, his hood down, revealing hair similar to her master's, albeit slightly shorter, and an ornate mask covering his eyes and eyebrows. Strangely though, only the front half of him was carved, the rest fading into a single, grey slab.

She stared at the statue a bit longer before a strange beeping noise brought her out of her observations. She noticed a panel along the side of the statue, with several buttons, one of them blinking green, but the label was too faded to make out what it said. Just then she heard her master walk in, heaving a sigh as he saw everything in the Reliquary.

"Well Snips, found anything 'Odd or Out of Place' yet?" He asked, not expecting a positive answer.

"Actually, yeah, I think so master." She told him, he looked up at her in surprise, as he walked over to where she was standing.

"Really, what is it" He asked curiously.

"I think it has something to do with this statue." She said. He looked at her with a questioning face.

"How do you figure?"

"Well, I was looking at the statue, when all of a sudden one of the buttons on the side here started blinking green, though I don't know why a statue would need buttons in the first place." She explained to him. The mention of the buttons caused him to glance at where the panel was on the side. Seeing it, his brow furrowed as he took a step back and noticed what Ahsoka did about the statue only having the front carved, his figure melding into the grey slab, which was contained in a steel frame. Anakin's eyes widened to the size of saucers as he made the connection Ahsoka didn't.

"By the Force…" He breathed in disbelief. Ahsoka looked up to him in concern.

"What is it master? Is something wrong?" She asked innocently.

"Snips… This isn't a simple statue. This guy is frozen in carbonite!" He looked closer at the panel on the side. "This vital monitor is old, but I'm positive it's reading that he is alive and this button is to unfreeze him. Though I wonder why it wasn't blinking before… Who is this guy anyway Snips?" Anakin asked as he continued to inspect the panel to see if he could get any more information out of it.

"It says on the plaque that it's Noridan Tordana, an Old Republic Hero." She said, looking at the frozen Jedi with a sense awe that he might still be alive inside. The name gave Anakin pause, as he looked up from the panel with wide eyes.

"The Noridan Tordana, the one who defeated the Sith Emperor almost 4000 years ago?" He asked his Padawan, who nodded in response. "Info about him has always been scarce, even I knew that, but all mention of him disappeared after he beat Emperor Vitiate way back when. But why in the hell would they freeze one of their greatest Jedi and leave him hanging on a wall, especially since the records here describe pretty thoroughly how harrowing the war with the Infinite Empire almost right afterwards was." He asked, intrigued, as to why the greatest Jedi of the time was used as a wall ornament, instead of as a protector.

"Well, why don't you thaw him out and you can ask him." She said cheerfully, excited at what was about to happen.

"I suppose there's no reason not to. You ready to meet a Legend, Snips?" He asked with smirk. She rolled her eyes at him.

"No need to be so dramatic Skyguy, just hit the button, I'm sure Jedi Master Tordana would like to wake up from his 4000-year nap." She said, grinning.

"Okay then, here goes nothing." Anakin said as he pushed the button.

And that is Chapter one prettied up, with some spelling, grammar and word choices changed up to be a bit cleaner. I don't know why I've gotten like 12 follows and favorites in the last two days but hell, it is certainly a nice motivator!