Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

Chapter 19: The Mirage Garden.

After the shenanigans at Dark City and the problems that ensued, Brock and I were back on the road once again. We had planned on covering most of the Route today but I suppose nature had other plans.

We were walking through the sparse forests of Route 17 when the weather took a turn for the worst. The clear blue sky turned black in just 5 minutes and soon the grumbling sound of thunder emerged from the clouds.

We were caught up in this predicament where there was no sign of civilization anywhere near us and there was no time to set up camp to take shelter from the rain. It didn't take much time for the rain to start as what started out as a small drizzle soon turned into an all out downpour unlike anything I've ever been caught in before.

Rain is a phenomenon that has taken up a positive image in the human mind throughout the ages in poems and stories and is something that people enjoy to watch. Anyone who has ever taken time to settle themselves down and just watch as the water droplets fall to the ground in a pitter patter can attest to the fact that rain has a natural power to give comfort to the mind. However, to those who were unlucky enough to be caught in a rainstorm without preparation, peaceful and magical is probably the last term they would use to describe ran with which was the situation that Brock and I managed to find ourselves in.

"I don't think this is going to stop anytime soon." Brock yelled so that his voice was not drowned out by the rain.

"Yeah me too. We need to find a shelter soon." I yelled back just as loudly.

The temperature was dropping quickly and the atmosphere was getting increasingly foggy and there was no shelter available for us which made things truly unbearable. We made a beeline for the wood hoping to find at least a large enough tree to give us some semblance of a shelter but salvation soon came to us in the form of a small light in the fog.

"Look there Brock." I yelled out while pointing towards the small light.

We ran with all our might while making sure not to lose each other in the fog and soon came across what we recognized as a big cottage. We took shelter in the sit-out before ringing the bell near the front door.

"Hello. Is anyone there? Can you please let us in?" Brock yelled.

It took a few minutes but soon the door opened and a young woman who was probably in her twenties came out. She was around 170cm tall and was wearing a dark brown sweater on top of a white long skirt.

"Yes how can I help?" She had a pretty sweet voice and was the type of woman that Brock would usually go after but the situation called him to handle this maturely.

"You see, we are stuck in this rain and have nowhere to go so we were hoping that you would be kind enough to provide us shelter until the rain passes." Brock said courteously.

"Sure. Let me ask my dad first." She said before going back in. She returned after a while and said. "You can come in now. Please make yourself comfortable." She said and let us in.

We removed our raincoats and entered the cottage which was much larger than we expected. There were two more people who we thought was the lady's parents. The only man of the three was a tall bulky fellow but was not built too strongly like you would expect someone living in the woods to be. He looked more like a shopkeeper.

The older looking lady who was probably the mother was in her fifties. She was also around the same height as the other lady and looked quite happy and fresh.

"Hello My name is Lostelle. This here is my papa Lawrence and my mama Elle." The lady introduced herself.

"Hello. I'm Ash." I introduced myself and was soon followed up by Brock who said. "I'm Brock."

"We are currently travelling through Kanto in order to collect eight gym badges for the Pokémon League." I said.

"We are extremely grateful for allowing us to stay here." Brock added.

"Pay it no mind young man. Feel free to stay until you are comfortable." Miss Elle said.

"Yeah The fog around these parts can be quite thick on most days so it would be best you stay until it clears up." Mr Lawrence added.

"Thank you." Both of us replied in unison.

It rained all afternoon and late into the evening which effectively ended our hopes of leaving today. The rain subsided by six in the evening but the fog around the cottage was too thick for us to leave. We ended up having lunch with the family and made friends with her after a short chat.

"You guys are Pokémon trainers right? Do you have any grass type Pokémon with you?" It was night when Lostele asked us this question.

"I don't have any but Ash here has a Venusaur." Brock replied.

"That's great!" She exclaimed. "I'll take you guys to the garden tomorrow." She said excitedly.

"What Garden?" Brock asked as both of us were unsure of what she was saying.

"You see, there is a garden near here where they say that Grass type Pokémon can become even stronger than they are if they have a good bond with their trainer. Since you have a Venusaur, you should definitely go there." She said, growing more excited as she spoke.

"Sure." I replied as Brock nodded along in agreement. The garden which she spoke of was something that I had never heard of before and the prospect of unknown things excited me more than I was happy to admit.

The next day we were out in the woods following Lostelle who took the lead as our guide. The fog while not as thick as yesterday's, was still quite heavy so we decided to hold hands in order to not get lost. By the way, as the youngest of the bunch, I was the one in the middle.

After a ten minutes walk, we reached what I presumed was the garden that she mentioned. It was huge, much bigger than what I had anticipated from something that was built in this remote place. The outer wall of the garden, which was the only thing we could see due to it being taller than our eye level, was surrounded with flowers of various kinds and colours. We entered through the front gates and what we saw inside was quite frankly, magnificent. There were large statues of all the grass type Pokémon from Kanto arranged in a uniform distance and a wall of bush between the statues. The arrangement was of a concentric square with each square having multiple openings but only one true route.

"Venusaur, Let's go my friend." I released my sole grass type from his confines.

"Saur?" Venusaur, who came out ready to battle was evidently confused at the lack of opposition. I explained what was happening to him and we were soon raring to go.

"You two should go to the centre alone." Lostelle said. "The garden is a test to see how strong the bond between a trainer and his Pokémon is. You need to clear it without help." She said.

"Sure." I replied. The garden didn't seem that puzzling to me so I was sure we could clear it in a short time. In hindsight, I should not have been that cocky. As we entered the garden, we failed to notice the fog that swallowed the figures of Brock and Lostelle.

The puzzle was complicated, far more than I thought before. We were running around in circles and more often than not, ran into a dead end. The right opening was impossible to recognize and something was tampering with my ability to recognize places that we had already been to. This, coupled with the fact that Venusaur was not renowned for its speed, made the labyrinth a hellish torture. In the end, Venusaur was the one who pulled through and we managed to reach the centre safely.

The Centre of the garden was nothing special. There was a large mirror placed on a pedestal which looked like it had seen better days and had been through a lot in the past. It was covered by moss and a few vines but there were no signs of breaking. In the foot of the pedestal, there was a small altar on which a stone tablet was placed. There was a human handprint on it along with a Pokémon's paw and since there was nothing else, we decided to put our hands there to see if anything would happen. I remember putting my hand alongside Venusaur's before the whole world went dark.

Darkness was the first thing I was aware of once I regained consciousness. I was an ethereal figure floating in the darkness with nothing around me except for Venusaur who was just waking up as well. Before we had a chance to figure out what was happening, the whole void shook with the sound of an egg cracking. The world was soon filled with light as we came face to face with a giant woman.

"Oh would you look at that. It's a healthy little Bulbasaur." Her voice echoed through the void.

"Is this?"

"Saur." Apparently, what we were seeing was Venusaur's memories.

The next scene skipped to when Bulbasaur was six months old, Tackling anything that moved and constantly getting into fights with the other members of his family.

"You sure are a rowdy guy aren't you Bulbasaur?" The lady who we had seen previously said. "I sure hope you can find a good trainer." She said before the world went black once again.

"Hello there Bulbasaur, are you ready to meet your new trainer?" We were in Pallet Town with Professor Oak speaking to us, wearing his trademark lab coat. From what I guessed, this was from an year before I started my journey. We could feel a wave of scepticism from Bulbasaur himself.

"Nice to meet you Bulbasaur. My name is Chris. We are going to be partners from now on." A kid, who looked ten introduced himself.

"Saur." Bulbasaur was still sceptical.

Soon , the scepticism was proven right as both of them failed to get on the same page. Bulbsaur's haughty nature was too much for a new trainer like Chris who repeatedly tried and failed to gain the respect of Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur just like Pikachu did in his previous life, went and did whatever he liked which caused Chris some unwanted humiliation which eventually led to the scene we were witnessing now.

"I hate you Bulbasaur! I never want to see you again." yelled Chris before running away. Bulbasaur didn't even bother to chase him before walking away to the woods alone.

The next few scenes showed Bulbasaur who was fighting his way through the woods. He won a lot and lost a few but never stopped. His feelings of needing no one else in his life were only growing larger until one day, he injured himself badly with no help in sight. He had all but given up on living when Melanie appeared who helped him to recover. He decided to protect her small village as a repayment which ended up saving him from a life full of loneliness. She helped him to learn how to care about someone other than himself. Soon came our meeting during which Bubasaur decided to give me a chance.

The memories started to speed up as all the memories that we made together appeared and disappeared in a flash. The feeling of pride he had when he save the Gang of Ivysaurs without evolving, the disappointment of losing to the Butterfree at the Pokémon league, the honest effort he put into taking care of the peace at Professor Oak's ranch and the hollow feeling he had when every one of his friends evolved and grew stronger than him. Even after he evolved, all that was left for us was a feeling of emptiness about a fate that we could have had but didn't get because of our overconfidence.

All the flashing screens soon faded out into the darkness with the exception of one which was playing a scene.

"So, do you accept my offer?" A voice which I would recognize anywhere asked the Venusaur in the screen.

"Saur." With that agreement, the screen went blank and the world was once again dark.

"So I guess that explains everything huh." I said.

"Saur."

"So that means you had some regrets too huh." I said again.

"Saur." The reply came as an agreement.

"This time, let's leave no regrets behind and live our life to the fullest." I said as I put a fist out towards him. Sure, our previous life was quite a big mess but it didn't mean that we couldn't enjoy this one.

"Saur!" He said as he bumped his gigantic fist with mine and as soon as our fists met, the world went white and I lost consciousness once more.

"Wake up Ash! Wake up." There was a small sound in my head that was steadily growing stronger until I realised that it was Brock who was calling me.

"Mhmm. What is it Brock?" I asked groggily, slowly regaining consciousness. As soon as I remembered where I was, I sat myself up and asked. "Where are we?"

"I have no idea. The last thing I remembered was seeing you enter the garden before I lost consciousness. When I came to, I saw you passed out alongside Venusaur." Brock said.

Now that he mentioned it, Venusaur was a few feet away from me, sleeping soundly. There was a glowing green stone near him which I identified as a Venusaurite which meant that the garden did indeed ended up making Venusaur stronger.

"What about Lostelle?" I asked.

"No idea. She was nowhere to be found when I came to." As Brock said this, I noticed something unusual. Despite having rained cats and dogs yesterday, our surroundings were dry, in fact too dry for it to have been dried due to the sun. We could not make heads or tails of the situation so we tried to backtrack to the cottage where we found Lostelle. It ended up being a bust as the place we found it previously was completely covered with trees. We exited the forest and soon came across a small village. After having a quick discussion, we decided to ask in the village about Lostelle.

"Excuse me sir. Can we ask you a question?" Brock asked a friendly looking old man.

"Sure." Despite being a little surprised at the sudden question, the old man agreed with a smile.

"Do you know about a girl named Lostelle?" Brock asked.

"Hmmm Lostelle huh. I have never heard of a person with that name in these parts" he replied.

"I see. Thank you anyways, kind sir." Brock said.

"No problem." He replied before walking off.

We asked around a few more persons but none of them had a clue about a girl named Lostelle. We were on the verge of giving up and moving on when an old woman well into her 80's called us.

"Hello there, young ones. I heard that you were looking for a girl named Lostelle. Is that true?"

"Yes ma'am." Brock said.

"I see. Then let's talk in my house shall we? I can help you." She said.

"Sure." We replied.

The granny's house was not that far and we reached there in five minutes time. She let us in and gave two chairs to sit before going towards a bookshelf. After searching for a bit, she took out a small diary before coming towards us.

"You know, the first time I ever heard that name was over 60 years ago." She started. "I was a young lass spending my time battling random trainers for fun until one day I came across a dishevelled young man. He was pretty bewildered and was mumbling something about a garden and a Lostelle. In the end, I was able to get him to calm down and speak coherently. Apparently, he ran into a girl named Lostelle in the forest who had vanished somehow. From his look, I could see that he had gained a crush on her. Now that I think about it, it's funny how the first time I met my husband, he was crushing on another girl." She said before handing us the diary. "This should clear all your doubts."

We opened the aged book and started to read.

27 March xxx4

From the first moment that I laid my eyes upon her, something in me drew me towards her. I wanted to know more about her. Who was she? Why was she there? Something inside me kept telling me that if I could find out the truth, that would be an accomplishment of a lifetime.

So let me tell you this Lostelle, I don't know how much time it will take me, but I will find you.

4 June xxx4

Nothing, absolutely nothing, I have investigated all the places with human inhabitation near the forest I found her in but no one knows her. It's time that I widened my search.

7 August xxx6

Two years, hundreds of places and yet no one has ever heard of a girl named Lostelle in the entire region. I think that's some sort of a record with how unusual her name is turning up to be. I suppose I need to check the Orange islands next.

25 January xxx8

Over an year on the Orange islands yet there is still no signs of her existence. But at least I came to know about the existence of Dragonite. If I was a serious trainer, I would love to have one of them in the team. But anyways, I need to go to Sevii Islands next. That place is my last hope. If I can't find her there, I might have to wind up this wild goose chase. I am not getting any younger.

27 March xxx9

5 Years.

It took me 5 years to reach here but I did it. I finally found her. Lostelle the lost child, It was hard to find out someone who knew her due to her being missing for over two decades now but someone did remember her.

Lostelle, the only daughter of Lawrence and Elle Smith. Apparently, her dad used to own a game house on the third Island where they used to live. Lostelle who was eight at the time used to bring lunches to her dad after collecting berries from the Berry forest nearby until one day, she didn't. She left home but never reached her father. The parents, worried about her went to search for her but they too never returned. The islanders conducted a massive search for the missing family but nothing was ever found. After a few years, everyone started to forget about them.

...

Do I feel stupid for wasting 5 years for this? Yes I do but do I regret what I did? No I do only thing I can say is that I will always be proud of myself for seeing this through. But I suppose, like everything else in life, this too must come to an end and I feel that this is a perfect place to end this chapter of my life.

So Lostelle,

Thank you. Even now, I do not know what happened to you or why you appeared before me but through you, I had a lot of fun experiences. I have met a lot of wonderful people and everything I felt will be with me till I die.

Thank you..

"You know, ever since he left here he used to write letters to me every now and then. Somewhere along the line, I ended up falling for that dumbass. He only left last year and I am sure that he would have loved to tell you about his adventures in that loud and boisterous voice of his." Her voice was starting to crack and her eyes were starting to become moist.

"Thank you." There was nothing else we could say at the moment.

Now that I look back, this was perhaps one of the most important experiences in my second life. It taught me that even if I had lived for many years, there was a lot left for me to see. In many ways, this ended up saving me.

And that's a wrap.

Before we get to the good parts, I wanted to say one thing. As of the publishing date of this chapter, I have yet to be cleared by my psychologist. But I am on the road to recovery and is now starting to enjoy life once more. Since writing is one of my favourite pastimes, I decided to slowly but steadily update my stories. I want to take this time to say to everyone reading this that Depression is not a joke. It could have taken my life had I not gotten help at the correct time so if you ever feel that you might have this problem, please contact a good psychologist as soon as possible.

No about the chapter. This chapter is completely made up by yours truly so I need some input from anyone who is reading this. The previous few chapters are what i consider unimportant so I don't care much about the lack of reviews there but i need reviews here cause I would be stumped otherwise.

Was it good? Please feel free to say that. Did it suck? Please feel free to say that also. All i need is inputs so that I can better plan the next chapters. So until then, this is goodbye.