Ashes to Ashes by K.S. (from Freya's pov)    The irony of the events in Clerya was too much to bear, hearing  again his voice, seeing his face, feeling his prescence.  All of these things were a blessing, except only that he wasn't the Fratley I had known.  He had forgotten me, forgot how important he was to me, to my life.  Years ago he had said that  he would return to me, and he kept this promise, just not the way I had wanted, the way I had planned it.  Fratley had returned to me during the fall of Cleyra, the time which I had sworn that I wouldn't fail them as I had Burmecia ...  The surrender of my Kingdom to the hands of the corrupted Brahne were too much to take that day, and I had fallen myself ...    I was and still am eternally grateful for the friends I had with me that fateful day, when Cleyra had fallen, as Burmecia had days before.  Two great  nations, both shattered as panes of glass do when a stone is thrown savagely in anger.  Zidane had been there to pull me back when I had thought of giving up after Fratley had returned ... He had refused to hear such a thing from me; and he also had refused to let me give up on myself.  He had pushed me on with encouragment, as he did Vivi.  The mage had also given me consolation, though quietly and the opposite of Zidane's way.    After the general of Alexandria's army had realized the truth of what her actions were doing, she joined me in the fight against Brahne... Beatrix risked her own life to save Garnet, and for this, I'll always admire her bravery.  I do remember her words to me in the rainy relam of Burmecia, the way her tone had given the impression that her heart was cold; that it showed no mercy for her victims.  Beatrix had told us that she had slain a hundred knights single-handedly ... I believe those words because when she challenged us, Zidane and I, Vivi and Quina ... when we lost ... she also crushed my spirit.  My will to save Burmecia had been strong; stronger than the spirits of the hundred knights that Beatrix had done away with.  She had said we were weak ...And it may have been true, but not in spirit.  Our spirit and will were stronger and surpassed any thought that Beatrix might align=left>    At first I had thought it was a dream when I saw him again in Cleyra at the time that I had needed him; his prescence soft and innocent with the lost memories of the past, as soft as fallen angel's wings.  At first his standing in the room seemed to be laced with a forgotten love that had once blossomed like a rose in the spring; the love which I had remembered every night before I prayed to the heavens above to return him safely to me ...  I suppose they answer all prayers, we just don't like some of the answers that return to us.  Fratley had been brought to Cleyra by an unknown force of a forgotten past ...     The phoenix, rising anew, had raised its beautiful head in Fratley's life ...    For he had forgotten me ...    And I had returned to the ashes to search for some memory, a trace of comfort ...    Ashes to ashes ... <<