There was a tense stare down taking place in the cobblestone street, which was now a battleground, where many soldiers had been slain and left to rot. A heavy rain was pelting down on the two warriors who were staring at each others faces, trying to intimidate each other, trying to encourage the first attack. Frato eyes were filled with a bloodthirsty rage; he wanted to disembowel his opponent for murdering his people, innocent lives and families who had done nothing to deserve this war. Beatrix stared back with her single eye, glinting with a threat but her face showed no trace of anger or emotion as she was concealing them from her opponent. She would not show him any weakness; she would not show him any mercy. He had slain her soldiers for doing their duty. He was a threat to Alexandria, a threat to her people, her Queen. She would serve them well by eliminating this deadly threat.

Frato could not contain his anger any longer; he tore towards Beatrix with his lance prepared to slash. He swung his all his might only to be blocked with ease. Beatrix parried the blow to the side and countered by elbowing Frato in the chest. Frato gasped and was knocked back slightly, but he was unfazed. Beatrix then swung her sword in a vertical slash but Frato just managed to block the strike in time. Beatrix kept her sword pressed against Frato's spear and put more pressure into the deadlock, hoping to get Frato down to his knees or disarm him. Frato saw this coming and he knew he could not overpower her like this so he gave Beatrix a hard kick to the ribs. Beatrix doubled up slightly and lifted her sword off Frato and drew it down over her ribs protectively for a brief second. Frato took a few steps back and the two stared at each other once again, calculating their next move.

"She's much stronger than I thought..." Frato realised.

Beatrix didn't give Frato any time to follow up on his lucky blow; she charged towards him again and tried slashing him in a diagonal swipe. Frato tried to move backwards to evade the strike, but he was too slow, the slash connected as he moved back and cut through his mythril shirt, leaving a small, thin red line down his chest. Frato yelped in pain but was thankful that the blade had caught him thin. That could have easily been his demise had Beatrix managed to cut him any deeper. Beatrix to slash him again from the other side but Frato blocked the strike early with his spear instinctively. Beatrix pressed him further, not giving him any time to do anything about his small wound. Frato was being pressed back and there wasn't much he could do in response other than block her strikes.

After forcing Frato back a considerable distance, Beatrix decided to relent on her parry of blows, finding that she would need a different method of attack to break through Frato's defence. Frato leapt back as soon as Beatrix stopped her brutal assault and gave a quick glance at his wound. Frato wasn't too concerned about it; he could still fight at his best, although he figured he would likely take a couple of cuts and slashes like that in his battle. He then started to charge a green and white energy into his lance. Frato looked up quickly at Beatrix, checking to see if had decided to try and attack him again. He was rather unsettled to see her charging up an inky black type of magic in her hands, he knew it would be aimed at him.

Suddenly, Beatrix discharged the black energy and it shot straight at Frato's head. Frato didn't have time to react and the magic hit him dead on. Oddly, Frato could feel no pain from the spell, but he was shocked to see the blackness of the magic swirling in front of him, completely obscuring his view of the battle. The white magic of Blind had taken full effect. Frato hastily finished his dragon magic and chanted "Rei's Wind!" before a comforting green and white stream of light filled every inch of his body. He could feel the magic slowly closing the cut on his chest and relieving the pain of his injury.

However, Frato still had a lot to worry about. He knew that dodging his opponent's strikes would be close to impossible to avoid with his lack of vision. He had to try and detect her and stay away from her long enough to prepare a second Dragon Knight ability. He tried to calculate Beatrix's position by using his ears, but the sound of the rain hitting the cobblestone made this difficult. His ears weren't as sensitive as a normal Burmecian's.

Thankfully, Frato could hear the sound of Beatrix's boots clunking off the cobblestone as she tore towards him to try and finish off this battle. She was attacking him head on, Frato wasted no time in sidestepping away to dodge Beatrix's attack. Frato had to jump back again to avoid another strike.

"Ugh! I can't win like this!" Frato thought to himself. "I've got to get a good distance between us or stall her so I can build another Dragon magic spell! But how can I get away from her?"

Beatrix tried once again to try and slash Frato, but he leapt backwards to put some distance between them. It was as he did this that an idea formed in his mind.

"Of course!" Frato thought. "She can't jump as well as a Burmecian can! She probably won't be able to attack me if I'm on a rooftop!" Now Frato thought really hard to try and work out roughly where he was in the street and where the nearest rooftop would be.

Beatrix charged once again, she knew Frato couldn't dodge her blows forever, he would fall victim to her attacks eventually. Before she got in striking range Frato leapt as high as he could towards the buildings to their left. Frato prayed he would land on the rooftop of the building as he flew blindly through the air. He felt the slated rooftop on the fronts of his feet and felt relieved, before he tops of his feet slipped off and scraped against the side of the building as he fell. Frato managed to grab the ledge of the rooftop and began trying to haul himself onto the rooftop, panicking about how fatal that slight error could have been. Beatrix was closing in on him and he knew she would try and stop him from clambering onto the rooftop to escape her.

Just as Frato was pulling himself along the roof, he felt a gloved hand grab his right leg. A jolt of fear rushed through Frato as he felt himself being dragged away from the rooftop. He tried to pull away from Beatrix but she kept pulling back, Frato edging slowly along the ledge. Frato then tried swinging his lance wildly behind him around his leg. He managed to smack his lance into Beatrix's arm but she held on, determined not to let him go. His lance smashed into her arm a second time and she lost her grip.

Frato scrambled onto the rooftops and breathed a short sigh of relief. He had managed to buy himself sometime and a little safe haven. Although Frato had become aware that Beatrix could cast magic, so he was not completely safe. He was reminded of this fact by the darkness that was still floating around his eyes, blocking his vision.

Getting up onto his feet, Frato decided to dig deep and try another attack; if this failed he would run. He was clearly outmatched and he still had to go back and help his father. White energy started to gather at the tip of Frato's spear as he built up his desperado move, a powerful technique known by Dragon Knights. He could hear Beatrix building up a magical attack of her own from down below.

Hastily, Frato managed to finish charging up his attack. He pointed his lance at the street in front of him and chanted "Dragon's Breath!" The hot white energy at the tip of Frato's spear formed a Dragon's head, which opened its jaws wide and fired blue energy blasts at the street randomly. Frato hoped that Beatrix would be hit by the attack, and that it wound her enough so he could finish her off easily. The energy blasts caused several small explosions on the street, but Frato could not hear Beatrix shrieking in pain.

Beatrix was leaping away from the paths of the energy blasts whilst she continued to charge up her magic spell. She somehow managed to dodge all of the blasts, but this made easier by Frato's ailment as he had pointed to the area of street on her left rather than directly at her. When the attack subsided, her attack was ready.

The next thing Frato could hear was the discharge of a vast amount of energy, he moved to dodge but his entire left side was hit by a tremendous wave of light energy. The magic of Holy knocked Frato flying, Frato fell blindly through several feet of air before landing with a painful thud onto the cobblestone street face first.

It was then when the effect another one of Frato's attacks started to take place. A green wind rushed over Frato as the magic of Rei's Wind began to ease the pain of Beatrix's attack and the impact of the cold, wet stone. Frato then found the energy to rise slowly to his feet. He pointed his lance out and took a defensive stance.

Frato was surprised that Beatrix didn't attack him immediately, there was a distinct pause. Frato pondered about trying another Dragon Knight attack, but he thought it would be a waste of energy as Beatrix would probably dodge it again. That, plus he'd be open to attack.

The sound of Beatrix's footsteps hitting the stone in a charge reached Frato's ears and he tensed up, hoping to block whatever attack she would unleash. Frato listened for her blade and thrust his lance towards it to parry it. His lance smashed into Beatrix's blade, and as he did this Frato screamed as a surge of thunder tore through his body in a bright flash.

Beatrix brought her blade back and Frato toppled to the floor. She turned to leave him; clearly Frato was in no state to continue fighting. She would leave him to die on the street. As she walked on, a voice called into her ear.

"Wait...we're not through yet..." Frato called weakly. Beatrix turned around, astonished to see he was still conscious. Frato somehow managed to get back onto his feet; it was almost as if he was possessed. "I can't let you get away with this..." Frato seethed. "You and your mages have slaughtered hundreds of innocent people! I will kill you and put an end to this mad destruction!"

"Enough with this ludicrous fantasy!" Beatrix shouted back and took her battle stance, glaring at him again.

"I will deliver justice... I will stop you..." Frato growled, as thunder rumbled in the clouds above. "I will protect Burmecia!" Frato screamed the last sentence, and as he did his body erupted in a mysterious white light.

Beatrix had to put her hand over her eye to prevent being fazed by the bright light. The light subsided after a few seconds, and Beatrix was stunned at what she saw. She could scarcely believe it.

Frato had changed. His fur had grown longer, as had his tail. His ears were ever so slightly larger and his blue eyes glinted with anger. He was engulfed in a blue and white aura which filled him with a strange power.

Frato had found the power of the legendary trance.

Disclaimer: If I owned Final Fantasy 9 and its respective characters and locations, I wouldn't be writing this right now. I'd be making Final Fantasy IX-2, and make it really good. All I own in this story is Frato.

Author's Rants: Just why is no-one reviewing this story? All constructive comments are welcome. Please drop a review if you are reading this.

Dazz Combo: I hope you enjoyed the Frato-Beatrix battle. That was a pretty interesting chapter to write. I'm glad you liked the previous chapter.