A/N: Well! I told you I'd start working on my other projects again, and here's another Chapter to Cycles' End! This Chapter has been nearly finished for months... but I just lost track of time, and then didn't want to finish it, because it comes to under 3 pages in Word, and that kind of length didn't seem suitable for a Chapter... but I finished it anyway, because there's no real point in dwelling on little things like that! Chapters don't have to be insanely long anyway, and I didn't want to fill it out with fluff, and make it deviate from the original concept of the Chapter.

Err... anyway, I hope you enjoy the continuation of Clara's 'journey'!

Chapter 4: The Fallen

Things were not looking good. Sure, she had pulled him out of a pretty sticky situation, but he was far from safe. 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire,' was the saying that came into mind, which was ironic, considering Gardinea was the Eterna City Gym Leader. He shook his wit aside once Gardenia had started speaking again, however; she still seemed far from happy and he knew exactly why...

"So... you've finally returned to Eterna, huh?" her voice came with a sharp tone, but Ralph remained silent as she continued; "With the Gym, you knew I couldn't get away around this time of the year... so why didn't you come and visit?" Her tone had almost shifted from the obvious anger to a hint of sadness, which made him feel even more nervous; he truly did care greatly for her, but that extremely cheery disposition she had was truly a mixed bag, of sorts. Her angry side was something no one would want to cross, though.

"Well... you see... I thought you might have wanted a bit of time to yourself, so that you could concentrate on the Gym for a bit," he nervously replied, hoping his extremely flimsy excuse would cut it for her. She tilted her head at him, seemingly a little confused as to why he would think such a thing, making him mentally slap himself in the face.

"But anyway, I'm here now! Besides, if I hadn't have gone back to my place, I wouldn't have found that woman!" he said, desperately trying to change the tide of the conversation into a favourable topic, but her gaze narrowed at him, making him feel like he had just been thrown in front of the firing squad.
"You do know she's a felon, don't you?" she questioned, reminding him of the incident with the middle-aged man about an hour ago. He rubbed his forehead a little and continued his plea of innocence; "Well I didn't know that when I found her... but even if I did know, I would have still helped her. I can't leave anyone to suffer; even if they are criminals."

Gardenia stood there for a moment, admiring what Ralph had just said to her; he was a very selfless person at times, even if it was a danger to his own life. She closed her eyes and smiled slightly, as if understanding exactly where he was coming from on the matter. "As selfless as when we first met," she said aloud, "But that didn't stop you from going all-out with that Flareon of yours."

"Heheh... still got that fresh on your mind, huh?" said Ralph; it had been over a year ago that he had arrived in Eterna City to take on the Eterna Gym. Though he lived nearby, he had rarely travelled to Eterna City after leaving his parents and their disappointment in him behind. After battling Gardenia, he remained there for some time, and the pair started to gradually become closer to the point where he ended up not continuing his Gym Challenge.

"But don't think I'll let you off so easily, Ralph! I'm still not happy with you for just vanishing on me like that," said Gardenia; it was obvious she meant what she said, and Ralph would have his hands full trying to make it up to her. But still, he was glad to have gotten another chance to redeem himself; he was pretty good at ruining chances he had when things were starting to go his way, and this was one chance he was not planning on squandering so foolishly.

The streets of Eterna City were pretty quiet tonight, though there was obviously a greater police presence that Clara definitely did not appreciate, given the circumstances. She remained hidden outside the hospital for a while, until she saw a smartly dressed gentleman enter the building, and a minute or two later, a woman she recognised as the Eterna Gym Leader, Gardenia—though something was a little different about her from what she had heard...

'Is this really the time to be thinking about that? You do have more important matters to take care of, you know,' she mentally lectured herself, pulling her thoughts from the weird stint they seemed to follow, and onto the more important matter of finding a way out of the city without being seen by the authorities. Just looking around made the city look like it was under curfew, though admittedly she had no idea what time it was; the streets were bare of life either way, with the exception of the police officers littering the streets in pairs.

"Well, sitting in the bushes isn't going to get me anywhere," she silently mumbled to herself before taking a quick peek out of her natural hiding place to make sure that the coast was clear. The advantage would essentially be hers, were it not for the fact she was wearing a white top, requiring her to be that much more cautious as she progressed to the south exit of Eterna City. Regardless, she waited for her best chance and bolted for the next piece of cover she could see.

The trip to the southern exit had felt like one extremely long marathon, however; there were several instances where she ended up having to skip around alternate routes to avoid some of the police officers that blocked her from her destination, and even ended up having to flee after almost getting caught scurrying around the back doors of the local bike shop while trying to find alternate routes passed the patrols. Her heart raced the whole time, while she cursed her stupidity for not picking appropriate clothing for the task at hand.

Though it took longer than she would have liked, she eventually managed to reach the small path that lead down the side of the building at the top of the Cycling Road; it was pretty strange to find such a convenient path that allowed her to avoid the guards inside the building. She figured it to be some sort of maintenance route that probably contained hatches along the route so that any maintenance personnel could perform the regular checks that the road underwent to maintain its condition without having to shut down the road during the day; since the road had been slightly expanded and was now used by vehicles, concerns over its condition had been risen. Concerns that currently remain unfounded, as the road had obviously kept up well under the additional weight, though it was usually only commercial vehicles that used the route, anyway.

She shrugged off her train of thought and just carefully progressed along the small path, trying to remain out of sight by crawling as she searched for the maintenance hatches; there was no way she would be able to get by the officers that were patrolling the road, considering the fact that the narrow walkway had at least three blocking her ability to slip by unnoticed. The danger was, it seemed the maintenance hatches were very close to where the officers were standing, forcing her to get dangerously close to them. She mentally cursed the bad luck she seemed to be having, until she just barely caught glimpse of a hatch that seemed to have been left unsecured.

'Okay... carefully does it,' she mentally warned herself as she tried to quietly lift the hatch to reveal an opening, which she could just barely see had a ladder that led down the pillar supporting the road. Clara was usually fine with heights, but these kinds of heights...
'This doesn't sit well with me, at all...' She sat there for a moment, trying to reassure herself that she'd be fine—it wasn't that far down, after all!

Having steeled herself as much as she could, Clara reluctantly began to climb through the opening and down the ladder, making sure to lower the hatch before proceeding to the bottom. As the climbed down, she constantly reminded herself not to look down; despite the fact it was dark, just looking into darkness would probably make her feel even worse. But soon after, a tree that was close to the pillar began to lightly rustle. In the eerie silence that surrounded the Route below, it played with her mind as she looked closer, to try and see if she could see what was there.
'Was that... just my imagination...?'

She peered closer again and waited a moment... and then a flock of Murkrow burst out of the tree, cawing as they flapped their wings and fled into the sky. The huge shock of the 'attack' startled Clara, and soon, her grip on the ladder had been lost. Her heart began to race wildly as she tried to grab for the bars, but it came too late. As the cold night air rushed by her as she fell, she almost screamed out, until she clamped her mouth shut—'What good will that do me? Scream and have them find me, or stay quiet and die alone in some bushes!'

Her brain was in immense panic, as she plummeted towards the ground...

A/N: ...what? Oh, you knew it would come to something like this, anyway! You'll just have to wait for the next Chapter... hehehe...

Anyway, hope you enjoy the new Chapter. I'll try to make it a little more regular in getting these things updated...

Until next time!
YukitheRedFox, headin' out!