ToA: Remember Me

There was a break in the battle, which Caétha greatly appreciated. The wounds she had received so far were rather small, considering how many enemies were around. However, they clearly hadn't expected this much resistance caused by new arrivals, or even new sketchists to begin with. They retreated, but Caétha was sure, it was just a temporary retreat. She wasn't sure if there was one mastermind behind the attack of it it was an allegiance of convenience, only stable as long as a common goal and enemy existed. If she kept in mind the sheer amount and clear diversity of enemy types, it was unlikely that a single person could unite them all. Also, the attacks lacked precise coordination, at least in Caétha's opinion. It could have been easy to single out every sketchist and character icon (the more or less humanoid beings fighting alongside them, as she now knew), find their weak spot and defeat them.After all, she herself had not a single power to deal damage and wasn't part of a larger team, where she could support actual fighters from a distance. It was almost insulting on both sides lacked a good strategy. Well, she was not entirely innocent, seeing as she had not yet made a single attempt to get to know anyone. It was not that she had no interest in them, but she had no idea how to approach the others and admittedly dreaded it almost as badly as fighting again. The Caétha Katrin had imagined never had such difficulties, but since she was a fusion of both (her ideal self and her real self), her shyness remained and contradicted her confident appearance and posture. She wasn't keen on letting this contradiction show, so she had only exchanged the bare necessities of words with them.
There was a lagoon at the so called Inner Sanctum, the only place which had not been destroyed yet.  That lagoon, residence of the mermaid, served as hospital or infirmary. Caétha was quickly fully restored and began to feel restless. The idea of idly waiting here for the next attack didn't appeal to her. There had to be something she should do, some preparations she could make. More sketchists arrived at the inner sanctum, who Caétha hadn't seen yet. Two of them were male, one dressed in a black jacket made from leather and scales, a design much to Caétha's liking. The other guy was dressed mostly in green and carried what appeared to be a hybrid of crossbow and camera. The girl looked like a typical gypsy, but had very long, blonde hair. When she was sure nobody noticed her, Caétha left the sanctuary and wandered into the now forsaken city. She knew it was stupid, but the urge to do something than just sitting around was greater.

The ruin were shrouded in silence. Here and there, fires were still burning, but surrounded by debris, they had no possibility to spread much further and in most cases reduced to smouldering embers. Former supporting beams lay broken and burn among the rubble, some still possessing a faint red glow between deep cracks. The overall haze didn't vanish, even though the smoke pillars thinned as the fires below them slowly died away. But there was not enough wind to free the ruins from the cloud of smoke covering them, but even if there would have been a strong gust, it was foolish to think the haze would not return. The next battle was going to come and with it, more destruction, more fires, more ash, more dust, more haze and more of the sharp smell of burnt wood. The only sound Caétha could hear were her own steps. Occasionally, there was a crack or a light chime as a piece of wood or a stone cracked due to the fires. Far more rare was a loud nose when something gave way under the pressure of debris and caused a small slide, though the results remained invisible in the overall chaos everywhere. Caétha stopped in front of a large pile of splintered wood and broken stones. Only the pieces if tiles revealed that this had once been a house and not a pulverized small mountain. It was puzzling that there were no corpses anywhere to be seen. Either someone had cleared them up or they simply vanished, like fallen enemies in computer games did. Caétha was glad they weren't there. Even though she liked death related art, a real slaughtered and most likely disfigured person had the potential to make her vomit. Looking at pictures from war zones and knowing all those corpses had been people, real people, people who had ambitions and dreams, who had laughed and cried, loved and hated, who once had had friends, family,... it was unbearable to look at such pictures for her. But now, she was in a war zone herself. It was a strange place inhabited by creatures she had never seen before. But they were still people, right? She was not too sure about the stick figures who had only let out "Lol", "Rofl", Lmao", and so on, and the blurry horde (No Names) could probably not be counted as living since they never had gotten this far. But the crayon monster or those incredibly annoying Pure Heart Girls? She couldn't be sure they were not real people. Caétha turned even paler than she was. One of those, the blue one, Celeste... she had died. She, Caétha, was responsible for the death of a person. Her insides turned into a knot and a bitter sensation crept up her throat. She had been sure she was doing the right thing, so sure that she was on the good side. But how can she be sure she was? She had received powers and a plea to defend this place, but could she be sure this was justified? Maybe the blue girl had been right and Archeio had been indeed oppressed her and the others, although not in the exact way she had complained about. If only there was a way to be sure about this situation. In the rush of adrenaline during her battles so far, Caétha had not minded being called a villain and decided to take it as a compliment. But know, she wasn't too sure about this attitude anymore. She sighed and looked up. The sky was becoming gradually darker, yet there was something strange about it. Something didn't fit. Even assuming that this place was only remotely like the real word, in terms of gravity and breathable air, the sky should not be darker at the place where the light came from, should it? It couldn't the effect of the haze either, for it was the very sky that darkened right behind her. She spun around. Black mist swayed behind her, contracting until it formed a tall humanoid shape with overly long arms, ending in thin fingers. The figure towered over Caétha.
"Who are you?", she asked, taking a step back. She couldn't see any facial features, but she heard a complacent smile. It sounded like a faint "Hmh!".
"I'm not afraid of you", Caétha informed the figure and it was actually true. Ever since she had arrived, she had been angry and confused and nervous and doubtful - but she had not once feared anything. The smoky figure didn't react.
"Who are you?", the sketchist asked again, adding:
"I know you can speak, I heard you before!"
Again there was this small noise that resembled an audible smirk perfectly.
The figure raised a hand and placed it on its chest, where a normal person's heart would be. Then, Caétha heard a voice, but not with her ears It was a thought not her own that appeared in her mind.
"We know each other."
"No, we don't", Caétha thought back, irritated. Facial features grew out of the blank head before her. She knew this face better than anything. It was the one she had seen in the mirror for her whole life. it took her a while to realise that the rest of the figure's appearance had changed, too. It now looked exactly like Katrin had looked this morning before she had entered the train and ended up in Archeio as Caétha. She stared into her own, tired eyes, the innate slightly frowning expression, the old acne scars puberty had left on her face, the hair struggling to break free from the simple pony-tail, the loose clothes hanging down from her hunched shoulders, even the headphones which she used to exclude the world around her, every tiny detail was there.
"See? I didn't lie. We know each other.", a thought not her own informed her.
"I don't know you", Caétha insisted. She saw herself smile with superior glee. It was an unfitting expression, looking alien and misplaced.
"Did you really forget your best imaginary friend?", another thought sneered.
Caétha narrowed her eyes.
"I never had imaginary friends", she said coolly. She wanted to turn around and simply ignore the figure. Resembling her real word appearance had to be some sort of fancy trick, but she was not going to let that intimidate her.
"You never had any friends", another thought crossed her mind. Caétha glared at the black copy of Katrin before her. When she spoke again, every word was pronounced slowly and with care, to keep her voice from trembling with anger.
"This is none of your business."
There was a triumphant laugh, coming directly from the Katrin composed of pitch-black smoke.
"Oh, but it is", the Katrin in front of her informed Caétha.
"I dare say your loneliness and me are related. Have you forgotten all the times we spent sitting together, trying to work out why you were always alone?"
Caétha crossed her arms before her chest.
"I was the weird kid, that's all", she stated, knowing it was a lie. But she wasn't going to allow someone to walk around inside her mind and exploit all their findings just like that. If that figure really was who they claimed to be, they should know that there had been a happy end to the story they were hinting at. The amused smile curling up Katrin's lips was enough to enrage her, but Caétha forced herself to stay calm.
"That's funny, I remember it quite differently. I think there were a lot more tears involved. Tears and anger and frustrations and... oh yes, so much self loathing, you could forge another person from it. Which, as it appears, you successfully have."
A cold shiver ran down Caétha's spine and spread out over her back. She pressed her lips together tightly to keep her mouth from opening or even gasping.
"What do you want?", she managed to hiss between clenched teeth.
"Oh, nothing serious, no worries. I simply wanted to use the opportunity to say hello from face to face, that's all", the faked Katrin answered sweetly. Caétha forced herself to remain, so that only a low growl escaped her. There was a chuckle.
"Oh, don't be like that. I know you won't attack me. But rest assured, I have no intention to hurt you either. well, at least not now."
"Why are you here then?", Caétha asked sharply.
"Seizing the change to become a being on my own. I have to say, this place is marvellous. Anything is possible if only it can be imagined. So much possibility. But-", the expression on the artificial Katrin vanished and was at once replaced by a serious stare.
"- You have to win that war first. I won't distract you for the duration of this, I promise."
"I don't trust you", Caétha stated icily. The black figure nodded, still looking serious.
"Of course not. But we have the same goal: a restored Archeio."
Caétha said nothing but simply glared.
"Believe it or not, I'm on your side for now."
"I don't need your help", the sketchist snapped. Again the smoke figure nodded.
"That's what I try to suggest. Of course, I will still visit after you won, but for now, it's better if we part ways."
"Gladly", Caétha answered. As if the word was a strong gust of wind, the black smoke dissolved completely.
"Who was that?", the sketchist wondered and mentally corrected herself: "What was that?"
She looked around. The sky was as normal as he could be in a place like this. Caétha took several deep breaths. An unexpected calm rose within her. She knew she had no other choice than to trust that infuriating being, but at least that meant she would not have to fight it right away and when they finally faced each other, she was hopefully stronger than she was now. She looked at a small, still smouldering fire. It didn't matter if her cause was just. The creatures she had fought had attacked without asking for her opinion or explaining anything. Not even that blue soldier girl had a better reason than an undefined "they" being unjust towards her. Everything was vague, almost as blurry as the No Names she had encountered. But discovering the story behind that war she had been thrown into had to wait until the danger of death was not going to be present every day she left the sanctuary. She also still needed to find out how y´she could get home.