TITLE: Become the Master
AUTHOR: agentj
STATUS: complete
DATE: April 2005
CATEGORY: Challenge (Vader Without the Mask, May 2005), Poetry, POV (Darth Vader)
CHARACTERS: Darth Vader
TIMEFRAME: Saga: Inter-trilogy
CONTENT WARNING: none
SUMMARY: An unmasked Vader sees the truth in his destiny.
DISCLAIMER: I willingly and willfully use characters and situations copyrighted by Twentieth Century Fox and Lucasfilm Ltd. without permission, and without monetary gain. Additional characters and situations are copyright 2005 Lisa D. Jenkins.

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Chosen One.

Chosen for this moment, this knowledge, this power.

Yes, I was chosen.

I was chosen to live a life of suffering, to pass from the shackles and chains of one Master to another.

Down this Dark Path I have chosen lies truth and destiny.

It was my Jedi Master, the one I once thought of as a father, the one who became like a brother, who taught me a version of the Truth in which I now live.

Through the Force, he said, all things are meant to be.

There is no luck, no chance, no accidents.

There is the Force.

Born of the Force, borne out of slavery, lead to follow my fears, I see now how another Master's words were true.

"Your focus defines your reality."

Focused forever on my fear of losing my mother, my self, my wife, I gained my destiny.

Would I have chosen another way were I to know its outcome?

Would I have chosen to destroy the ones I love to possess what I so unwittingly strove to bind?

Would I indeed.

I stare back at my reflection in the cold, dark glass, the images of ships buzzing through the space outside nothing but insects to me now.

Ghastly alien eyes gaze back at me.

I will not hide my face behind a cowl; there will be no mask upon my face.

Valiantly my visage will shine as a reminder to all those who followed my adventures, my heroic deeds.

This is the image of their champion.

This is the presence of their god.

Chosen One.

Yes, I was chosen.

I was chosen to become the Master.