Ghost of Myself

Okay, so the results of my poll were pretty evenly split between The Phantom and Role Reversal, now Ghost of Myself, so I'm going to post the first chapters at the same time and pick which one to write most often based on the reactions. I'm going to write both, but updates will be pretty slow as a result, especially since Comedy of Errors is going to be started soon as well.

Chapter 1: Reflection

The world is dead.

I float over a tangle of glass, concrete, and metal that stretches around me as far as I can see. Small patches of green are beginning to poke through the devastation. Ten years ago, this was New York, one of the world's centers for business and art. It was destroyed in a day, like every other city on the planet. Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Paris, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo. All ruins now.

Almost no one survived the attacks on the cities. Those that did fled to the country and the smaller towns, thinking they would be safe. The people there took them in, harboured them. But they didn't have the weapons they needed, and it took only a month to reduce the rest of the world to smoking ruins. There are still groups of people scattered here and there, living off the land. I stopped hunting them after a year, when I realized they were no longer a threat. All the technology had been destroyed, and I was unstoppable.

The human armies didn't stand a chance. They didn't know how to fight legions of the undead, especially with projectile technology. All my armies had to do was become intangible when the humans were shooting. They were able to fly into any city, any town, any country without resistance. Don't get me wrong, the world did start mass-producing ecto-weapons as soon as the attacks began, but the war was over in two months. They didn't even have a chance to arm their armies with what little they'd been able to produce.

Daniel is dead. He and his friends pushed themselves to their limits to stop me, but there were too many ghosts and they were too few. Even Daniel's Wail was no match for the hordes of ghosts I had released into the world. His friends died first, quickly, and without much pain. After Samantha died, Daniel seemed to find new energy in his attempt to take me down. Unfortunately, he wore himself down too much and made himself weak. I hit his ghost half with a blast during the very last battle of the war, and he fell to the ground in agony. He changed back to human during the fall, and the impact broke his back. He died slowly, in pain. I'd like to say now that I wept over his body, that I apologized to him as I watched him die. Instead, I taunted him. His last memory was of his archenemy laughing at his death throes, telling him how pathetic he was.

Maddie only survived the two months of fighting because I had ordered her life to be spared, but seeing the world in ruins and her son's body hit her hard. When I came for her, she put up the fight of her life, but I eventually subdued her. When I brought her to my castle and revealed myself to her, she screamed. Listening to her grief was agony. I had anticipated this, of course, but I had forgotten how strong human emotions could be. Maddie refused to speak or eat while in my care, and died a month later of grief. I never had the chance to enjoy myself with her. She just folded in upon herself and the rest of the world became a dream.

My plan succeeded, apart from Maddie. I now have complete control over the world and its resources, what little is left of them after three centuries of human exploitation. A ghost empire is in place with myself at the head. I have the fear and respect of every being on the planet, living and dead, and more power than I ever dreamed of. Until two years ago, it was enough to be able to fulfill any wish or desire I had. Then I woke up one day and realized that I had killed all the beauty in the world. There was no longer anything to enjoy, anything to admire, anything to fulfill the needs of my human half. There was no love, only fear and hate and thirst for domination. Ghost feelings, nothing solid, nothing alive. I needed something to attach myself to. I had become drunk with power, consumed with hate, and I no longer wanted it. I wanted my humanity back. I needed my humanity back.

How did I sink to this? I don't know, exactly. I remember Daniel, in my lab, fighting me with every fiber of his being. When he released his Ghostly Wail, I realized that he had become more powerful than me, that he was still learning what he was capable of, that he would never give in to me. I could never have him, I could never defeat him. So I gave up, in a way. If I couldn't have love, I would have hate. If I couldn't enjoy life, I would enjoy death. If I couldn't have a quiet life, then neither would anyone else. I planned for three years, building weapons, gaining the trust of humans, forming alliances I would later turn on. And then I opened the portals at my castle and at FentonWorks, Daniel's home. The hordes of ghosts I had gotten on my side poured out, silently, grouped around the major cities as I had instructed. The rest, as they say, is history.

I've tried for two years to get some form of life and happiness and peace into my existence. It hasn't worked. I am feared by ghost and human alike, and there is no pleasure left that fulfills me. When I formed the plans for this world, I did it too well. I achieved my goals, but cannot reverse the damage I've done. Am I doomed to watch this world sink further and further into death? Must I keep pretending to have my heart in this?

There is only one course of action now, though I am afraid to take it. This future must be prevented, but to do it I must go back and stop myself. I have a plan forming in my mind, but it will be demanding. I need Daniel on my side, but winning his trust will be difficult after all I've done to make him hate me. Finding Clockwork in this mess of a world will be hard as well, since he distances himself from reality. But I must find him. I must stop this.

I must stop me.