Notes: Here is 'Ghost: Redux.' This drabble has nothing to do with the last, except that I could not resist writing it.
We are the dead, except we don't know it. We think we're alive, but we're not.
Waspinator doesn't know it, but he didn't actually survive the war.
At some point, early on, after one too many explosions, or being shot too many times, or too many crashes…He just never recovered.
Only he never realizes it.
His resting place is a grove of trees somewhere not far from Maximal territory. Was he shot down? Or did he crash? No one cares enough to find out. He crashed and burned and picked himself up again, same as always, completely oblivious to the fact that he left his shell behind and a mere phantom trudged back to base to carry on as the universe's whipping boy.
Such things happen, of course. In war, especially, it is all too common to see a comrade or enemy fall. Especially one as unlucky as Waspinator, who is constantly being injured. No one will be surprised to see him die. In fact, they expected it to happen long ago.
Except…No one else notices either.
Because a ghost, after all, is merely a soul who has passed with business left unfinished. Usually, their imprint remains in the world, striving to complete some task, pass on some important message, get information out, to be reunited with a loved one, to avenge a death that came too soon, too violently. Waspinator's existence ended without his proving his worth to any one; he therefore cannot rest in peace.
So he plods on, striving to succeed and trapped in an endless loop of failure and misery. And no one notices, because he may as well have been a ghost before, given the way no one noticed him, no one cared, no one remembered to pick up his pieces. He is just this, a shadow, and he does what is asked of him to the best of his ability, just as he did before. Dead. Alive. It makes no different to every one else. Half the time, they don't even notice him and he feels as if he's faded into obscurity.
There is no recognition. No rest, either. Just this - Everything. It is too much. It is not enough. He has always believed that the end brings peace.
But…
Being a ghost isn't so much different than being himself.
So perhaps he isn't a ghost.
Perhaps -and here is a truly chilling thought!- this endless cycle is just his life.