A/N: Well finally, huh! About 4 months since I updated this... apologies to those who have been reading it, but University started to take its toll on me... again... I guess the point is, its finally here though, right? After all, there are some stories that take even longer to update, heh...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the next Chapter of "Cycles' End". The ending was something I was really trying to get right, but in the end, I kind of think it turned out to look a little rushed...

Chapter 3: The Wish

She walked back into the bedroom she had awoken in, straightening the shirt that Ralph had put on her while she was unconscious; she had taken note that there was still blood on her that she assumed he had felt uncomfortable clearing off, so she had used the bathroom before changing into more comfortable clothes. It was a struggle, but she had managed to fit herself into the clothes that Ralph had stored in the wardrobe; only being able to effectively used one arm was a huge disadvantage for her, but at least she was right-handed. The bigger question for Clara was what this guy was doing with a stack of women's clothing when he clearly lived with just the Pokémon he owned. It was a strange instance of convenience that she didn't like, but at least she didn't have blood-stained clothing any more.

She had picked out a pair of blue jeans from the wardrobe—probably the most trouble she had ever had getting them on, and a white blouse; the only top she could find inside the wardrobe. It seemed like it was haphazardly emptied at some point; a few summer dresses and such were all that were in there and in her current condition, she didn't feel like frolicking in the forest in a dress.

Another challenge awaited; shoes and socks. Never in her life had she found it so difficult to do the simplest of tasks, but after a few minutes fumbling with one hand to get them on, she was ready; at least as ready as she would ever be, given the situation. Her thoughts were more on the safety of her friends than her own health, which strangely seemed better than it had been when she was dressing.

She shrugged off the thought on her health, concentrating on getting this little hospital visit over and done with so she could make her way to the Oreburgh HQ; she hoped that Arc, Ryan and Tori had managed to get there more or less safely, but knew they would probably be in a similar situation to her. She was lucky enough to be found, but would the others have been so lucky? She shook her head, trying to get rid of that train of thought; for all she knew, they could have gotten away without injury and on that thought, she moved on.

She stroked the Flareon that sat on the bed before leaving the room to find Ralph; it was about time they got themselves leaving were she to reach Oreburgh City as soon as possible. Maybe she could get Ralph to take her there straight after the hospital. It didn't take her long to find him, as he was preparing the stuff he needed in the small living room of his house, a Fearow perched on the back of the sofa as he did so.

"So this would be the Pokémon I have to thank for finding me, huh?" she said as she walked further into the small room.

Though a little startled at the voice suddenly coming from behind him, he kept his composure; "Ahh... yeah, this is my Fearow," he said, turning around and scratching the side of the Pokémon's head. "He was my first Pokémon. I rescued him when he was a Spearow, after he'd been separated from the rest of his flock and ended up near a very agitated Tyranitar's nest." He trailed off and remained silent for a moment, before looking over to Clara, moving his hand from his Pokémon's head and to the Poké ball she just then noticed resting on the arm of the sofa, returning the Fearow to the Poké ball with a familiar red light.

"Well then, if you're good to go, we can hit the road and go to Eterna. We should be there just before dusk," said Ralph as he pulled the backpack up and threw the strap over his shoulder. She hesitated for a moment, but nodded nonetheless; she just wanted to get this out of the way as soon as possible and be on her way to Oreburgh. After Ralph did a quick check of the house and returned his Flareon to its Poké ball, the two were on their way to Eterna City in the midnight blue pick-up truck

The journey to Eterna City progressed quietly; the two stayed mostly silent as the vehicle bounced along the bumpy dirt road that led through Eterna Forest; Ralph had occasionally broken the silence by making mention of some places, such as the strange rock and the abandoned mansion, but he seemed to make sure he didn't touch on the subject that plagued her the most—for which she was grateful for.

After an hour or so, they left the forest behind, arriving at a bridge over a large lake, with a big city on the other side—Eterna City.
"Well, there it is," said Ralph with a bit of a smile on his face; "The hospital isn't far from the western entrance to the city, so we should be there pretty soon." She looked at the clock on the dashboard of the vehicle; it read 6:30pm. Her expression fell from a gentle smile to a slight frown; the unfortunate thing would be she would have to travel to Oreburgh on foot in the dead of night at this rate, seeing as Ralph would probably want to spend the night in Eterna City.

She looked up to see the city gradually getting closer as they crossed the bridge; on the walkways of the bridge were a few fishermen packing up to call it a day. The road was rather quiet despite the incident that happened in the forest, but the reason soon became apparent when they reached the entrance of the city.

"Looks like they've been there for a while," stated Ralph as he began to show the vehicle down; Clara's gaze almost looked horrified when she saw a barricade of two patrol bikes and a police car blocking the road, but somehow managed to compose herself as they got closer having noticed the few officers that were stationed at the blockade notice their approach.

It didn't take Ralph long to pull up to the officers, immediately stopping about twenty feet from where they had once stood. Two of the officers were holding flashlights and flicked them on as they approached the doors of the vehicle. "Evening officers," said Ralph with a calm tone as one of the officers approached the drivers' door; it was a tone that only Ralph could hold, having no idea he was travelling with one of the people they were likely looking for...

"Just monitoring those who enter the city; you probably know that an attack was made on a Cyclone Inc. facility near Eterna Forest and we've been put on alert to keep an eye out for any suspicious characters," replied the officer as he looked into the car.
"Well, I'm just travelling to the hospital; my friend here has a few injuries we'd like the doctors to take a look at." Ralph retained his innocent expression; Clara just sat there, trying not to look at all suspicious to the officers. One of them had come to the side of the car she was sat in, looked at her for a while and then shook his head to the other officer next to Ralph.

"Well then, carry on sir; hope your friend isn't too seriously injured," said the officer as he pulled back from the pick-up truck and waved over to the other officers to move the vehicles blocking the way. Ralph nodded as he carried on driving toward the hospital, while Clara remained a little nervous from the encounter; she was very surprised the officers hadn't done anything. 'This is starting to feel a little uncomfortable,' she thought, as they went around a corner and onto the street the hospital was situated on.

"Well?" questioned the officer that had approached the blue vehicle on the drivers' side to the other. They both stood there as the vehicle disappeared into the city and after the moments' silence, the other officer spoke up; "She's the one. She was extremely nervous when I approached the vehicle, though trying to hide it." His comrade nodded, pondering for a moment before responding.
"We'll contact HQ and see what they want us to do. You contact the hospital and have the doctors discreetly keep her there. The man doesn't seem to know who he's travelling with..."

It didn't take them long from the Eterna City entrance to reach the hospital; the tall white stone building sat about half way down the street and as they got closer, its size started to show, the building must have had at least twenty or more floors to it.
"Well, here we are," said Ralph as he pulled up on the handbrake after slowing the vehicle to a stop in the small car park; it looked far smaller than would be expected of such a big building, but Clara didn't care about such trivial thinking. She shook herself mentally and opened the door of the car, climbing out into the cool evening air.
"So it seems," she finally responded, looking up at the tall white structure before her; soon she would be able to head back to Oreburgh... and hopefully meet up with Arc, Ryan and Tori. The sooner she got back on the road, the better.

Ralph took the lead and led Clara towards the main entrance of the building, passing a small Milotic-shaped fountain that rested several feet from the hospital doors, splitting the path to either side. But it was strange... over the time she had been travelling, though she hadn't thought about it on the way, it seemed she felt a lot stronger than before. If she hadn't witnessed the events that had led her to where she was now herself, she'd think nothing had ever happened.

She snapped herself back to reality, noticing that Ralph had gone into the building without her and seemed to have immediately started a conversation with a blonde, middle-aged female doctor inside. She quickly moved to enter the building, the electronic doors sliding open as she approached the two.
"Good day to you, ma'am; I am Doctor Iraya," began the doctor, who bowed before her as to be courteous. "Your friend here tells me you were involved in some form of misunderstanding that wound up getting you pretty gravely injured." She paused for a moment, looking at Clara in a way that made her feel rather uncomfortable and then continued; "Would you mind if I examined your injuries to make sure all is well with your friends' medical attention?"

Though against her judgement, Clara nodded; if things turned out horribly, she could always slip out of the city somehow. After all, her ultimate destination was only a few miles from the south end of Cycling Road.
"Well then, if you'll please follow me," said the doctor, who directed Clara's attention toward the elevator doors just a few meters from where they stood. Hesitantly, Clara moved towards them as the nurse turned toward Ralph; "This way, please; there is a cafeteria on the floor we will be going to that you can wait at during the examination."

"Right. Thank you, doctor," he replied as he followed the two women into the elevator. The doctor pressed the button for the twentieth floor, which made Clara inwardly gulp; any plan for an easy escape had been demolished by the white light coming from the button, as if a beacon to her doom. She inwardly shook the over-exaggeration out of her mind, instead focusing on getting this examination over with. The uneasiness had followed from their arrival and had not lifted with the lack of police presence within the city; it seemed to just make the feeling worse.

Suddenly, the lift began to slow and a gentle sound indicated their arrival at their destination; floor twenty. The doctor walked out, Clara and Ralph close behind her; she turned to Ralph and indicated to him that there was a cafeteria just down the hall. With a nod, he turned to her and said, "I'll see you soon. I have a feeling they won't be holding you for long."
'That's what I'm hoping for,' she thought to herself, as she gave him a half smile before he disappeared around the corner, leaving her with Doctor Iraya.

The doctor had taken her to a dressing room on the other side of the twentieth floor, where she had been told to take her top off and put on the gown that she would find folded up on the table. As she did so, Clara soon found something rather odd; the pain she had felt before when dressing herself in Ralph's home was gone. Quickly whipping the top over her head and proceeding to take away the bandages wrapped over the wounds, she looked on her body at where the pain had been before... and saw nothing but a scar; the only evidence that anything had actually happened to her.

She slumped in the chair that was sat next to the table, unable to register the miraculous recovery her body had seemed to perform; it was something she would have only expected to occur in the science-fiction films she used to watch as a child. Her astonishment was soon broken by a knock at the door, the doctor's voice soon following; "Are you ready, Clara? We're ready to start the examination."
The voice startled her a little, but she silently composed herself and reached for the hospital gown, putting it over her in the same movement. "I'm ready," she said simply, before the door to the room opened and Doctor Iraya entered, gently smiling at her as she remained seated in the chair by the table.

"Well then, let's have a quick look at your injuries, shall we?" said Doctor Iraya. Clara complied and pulled down the left sleeve of the gown she had been told to put on, revealing the scar of where she had been shot; she felt a little uneasy as the 'recent' wound came into the gaze of the doctor, who immediately widened her gaze in both shock and an odd hint of glee, as if she had been shown a miracle-cure for some kind of terminal disease. The doctor edged toward Clara.
"This scar... couldn't possibly be the wound, could it...?" Clara simply turned her head to the back wall and gave a gentle nod as if to indicate to her that it was the recent wound inflicted by a bullet.

"That's impossible... and yet I'm seeing it with my own eyes," said the doctor; it was obvious she was thinking the situation over, and after a few minutes of rather awkward silence, she piped up again, almost startling Clara.
"If you don't mind, I would like to give your body a scan; maybe to give us answers on what could have caused this... rapid healing." Clara felt like she had no choice in the matter, as the doctor jumped up, uttered that she would be back in a moment and vanished out of the door almost faster than Clara had chance to react. Things were getting far more complicated than she had ever wished them to be...

Though discomforting, the scan itself was fairly straight forward and lasted just a few minutes. After showing her to a room that she could rest in for the night, Doctor Iraya told her that the results would be ready in roughly half an hour; she had been sat there on the bed for at least half that time now, waiting to hopefully find out what was happening for her to recover from the kinds of wounds she had in less than twenty-four hours.

"Mind if I come in?" said a familiar voice from behind her; she turned to see Ralph stood in the doorway holding two cups and after a second of thought, nodded. He was as friendly a face she had at the moment and she welcomed the company from the dreary silence that enveloped the room. He passed her one of the cups of coffee he had brought and sat down in the chair that was set next to the bed.
"So... how was the examination?" It was a hesitant question; one he was not truly expecting an answer for. Clara just looked into the cup he had given her for a moment and as she lifted her head to face him, Doctor Iraya entered with a strangely chipper expression on her face.

"Here are the results!" She teasingly waved a few pieces of paper in her hand before continuing on; "It looks like there was some abnormal elements in your body. Not DNA as such, but more like a 'Spiritual presence' of sorts." Clara and Ralph looked at each other with equally confused expressions on their faces, as the doctor continued.
"What I'm basically saying is that the scans show the Spiritual presence of a Pokémon acting to save your life with some sort of move! No one ever thought that a Pokémon's moves would be able to perform such acts as accelerated healing on humans. This is a phenomenal finding!" Doctor Iraya had gotten herself worked into a frenzy of glee, almost missing Clara and Ralph asking her what else the tests had shown.

She quickly composed herself and looked at the paper once again, and then turned it towards the pair, showing them the details of what they had found. "It looks like an extremely powerful Pokémon came to your aid while you were injured, and that Pokémon used some sort of progressive recovery move on you." She paused for a moment, to let what she had told them sink in a little, before moving on to her request; "I'd also like to investigate this further, if you'd permit staying a few more days, so that we can determine what kind of Pokémon it was."

Another below-the-waist blow to Clara's plans... a few hours was one thing, but a few days would no doubt wind her up in some serious trouble. She slightly hesitated, but did not want to start commotion; particularly on such a high floor. "Very well, I'll remain here a little longer," she said, guising her true intentions with false curiosity; she was not really too interested in finding out what kind of Pokémon it was that had helped her. She was grateful to be sure, but at that moment, she just wanted to leave.

"Wonderful! We'll let you rest tonight and if you're comfortable with it, we'll start the tests and examinations tomorrow," said Doctor Iraya, before she turned to leave; "Oh, and Mr. Ralph; we have guest quarters down the hall. Please use one of those rooms, if you wish to stay." With that, she said goodnight and left the two in the quiet room.

"I think I'll take up that offer; it's starting to get pretty late," said Ralph as he pointed out of the window. The sun had been gone for a while now and the stars were beginning to sparkle in the night sky over the city; only the vague light of the moon shone dimly through the window. "So it is," said Clara rather quietly.
"Well then... goodnight, Clara," said Ralph rather quickly, after a brief moment looking out over the quiet city.

She turned to him as he left, managing to utter a few words, before he left the room. "Ah... goodnight, Ralph," was all she managed, before he stopped at the door, gave her a light smile and nodded; "See you in the morning," he said, before leaving for his own quarters. She remained stood there for a short moment, looking at the empty doorway of the room; all was silent beyond its opening after a while and the only sound she could hear was the sound of her breathing.
"Sorry, but I won't be here," she quietly muttered to herself, before turning back to the window...

It had been a while now, but Ralph just could not get himself to sleep; he kept tossing and turning in the bed, his mind thinking about the events that led him back to Eterna City. Though he lived nearby, he had not been to Eterna for a long time after what happened the last time...

He shook his head, not wanting to think about it and soon found himself getting up out of bed and leaving the room; when he couldn't sleep, he knew just what to do. Thankfully, the coffee machine was just around the corner and at the far end of the hall was a nice balcony area where he could sit out in the moonlight. He loved the great outdoors; it was part of the reason he left his hometown to live in Eterna.

His coffee in hand, he turned towards the balcony, but paused when he heard a slight noise behind him. He took a quick look over his shoulder, but could see nothing; the hallway was completely empty. Shrugging the noise off, he pressed onward, pushing open the doors that led to the balcony. He took in a deep breath of the night air and sighed; picking up the Poké balls for his Pokémon and releasing Flareon and Fearow, so they could enjoy it, too.
"I think you two could do with this, huh?" He muttered; his Pokémon stretching before repeating what Ralph had done just a moment ago. "Once we hit Oreburgh with Clara, we can head back home," he said mostly to himself, but not ignoring his Pokémon, who seemed pretty eager about the idea.

He leaned over the balcony to look at the ground below, looking at the streetlights that acted more like spotlights in the darkness. It was then he noticed a figure running along the path occasionally. It was pretty surprising to see someone out at this time in Eterna City; with no major attractions other than the Gym— which he knew was closed at night, there was no real reason for anyone to be out. He tried to focus on the person, but he was far too far away to be able to see anything; being twenty floors up made people almost look like ants.

"There he is!" he heard a voice shout from behind him; footsteps gradually came closer to where he stood and as he turned around, his gaze was met by a strong glare from a man who seemed to be dressed rather smartly; he wore a full suit tailored in white fabric, with a black pinstriped tie and shoes. He seemed to be middle-aged; around his late forties to Ralph's reckoning, with short, flat brown hair that seemed to be slightly going near the roots. He had a small, thin moustache that seemed to be going the same and it seemed to twitch as he stopped and began to talk to Ralph; "So then, where have you hid her, boy?" questioned the man in a rather regal tone; as though he held himself above what Ralph assumed he would call 'commoners'.

"Who are you talking about?" questioned Ralph, genuinely unable to register who this man could be looking for, before it clicked; 'Hold up... maybe he's looking for Clara,' he thought, looking at the man soon after.
"Don't play dumb, boy! That woman the doctors said you brought in! Where is she?" His phrase was more a demand than a question and Ralph could feel it; "You mean Clara? She should be in her room, and if it has anything to do with that incident in the forest, she isn't one of the PSA. That was all a misunderstanding."

"What are you blundering on about, fool?" said the man in a snobbish manner, indicating unjust frustration towards him; "She's one of the main members of the whole PSA movement and even a close friend to the organisation's founder!"
"She's gone?" questioned Ralph, as the neatly dressed man stepped a few paces closer to him and pointed toward him with a rather threatening tone to his voice as he said, "Now tell me where you whisked her away to, or—"

"Check the security feeds if you're so sure it was him," declared a female voice that Ralph was all too familiar with; "Leave him be until you can wave prove in his face." He shuffled to the side to look past the man who had turned to do much the same to see the one person Ralph was inwardly hoping to avoid for the time being.

"Heh... hi there, Gardenia," said Ralph with a rather nervous tone.

A/N: Ooooooh, what's this now! Well... you'll have to wait for the next Chapter to find out~! Hehe!

But really, the last... 10 or so paragraphs were kind of hard for me to finish off, but hopefully I've done them to at least an enjoyable standard. I've no idea when the next Chapter will be up, but I'll try to work on it some this weekend.

Until next time!
YukitheRedFox, headin' out!