Disclaimer: I do not own 'Pokemon' or any other franchise.

The previous chapter has been edited a bit.

New Resolve

"How did you even get you up there?"

Ash broke away from his thoughts and looked down to see his mother standing below. He was sitting on the roof of his new house with Pikachu, admiring the night sky. It had become a habit of his, looking at the stars.

"I'm a trainer mom," he told her, as if that explained how he got on top of the house without a ladder.

Delia merely shook her head, "Come down. Dinner will be ready soon. Pikachu! Get him down here!"

Pikachu peeked over the edge of the roof and waved, "Pika!"

Delia smiled at the mouse and went inside the house. Pikachu went back near Ash and laid down beside him.

"Look, those stars look like a Starly." Ash said, pointing at a group of stars. Pikachu smiled. This had become a habit of his trainer, finding patterns in the stars. He had picked it up from his friend, Ritchie.

Pikachu knew that Ash did it often, finding it enjoyable. The little mouse wasn't dumb though. He also knew that Ash did it to kept his mind off things. Smaller the patterns he found, greater his worries. Pikachu had learned to figure out that much long ago. Without being able to talk with his trainer, he couldn't get Ash to speak his mind, not like Brock been able to.

"Hey Ashy-boy!" Ash grinned at the familiar voice. Even after all these years, Gary still called him that. He looked over the edge of the roof at Gary standing below with his hands in his pockets. "Come down!"

Ash smirked, "You come up! You can, right? Or have you become a lazy ass?"

Gary grumbled under his breath and began scaling the side of the house, much like Ash had done to come up. Reaching the top, he gently petted Pikachu and sat down near his once- rival.

"Heard you were back. You did awesome at the Sinnoh league. Congratulations." Awesome was putting it lightly. Not many could boast that they went up against legendary Pokemon and defeated two of them.

Gary saw Ash grin weakly and frowned.

"Thanks," Ash replied. "You're doing good too I see. I read your recent research papers. They were great."

Gary raised an eyebrow, "You understood those? All of them were a lot technical," he replied. His research papers were not usually understood by common trainers. He had to tone down on the technical bits and release an edited version to make them understand. His recent papers hadn't been edited yet and the unedited version had been published so that the Pokemon professors and scientists could know the technical bits.

Hearing Ash say that he understood them was... surprising. He never figured his once rival to be book smart.

Ash smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head, "I understood most of it. I'm not stupid you know."

Gary shrugged, "Could have fooled me," he said, trying to rile up his friend a bit.

Gary frowned as Ash didn't respond. Ash always responded to his jabs. Thad had lead to many shouting contests in the past. The lack of a snarky rebuke made him suspect that Ash had his mind elsewhere. When he didn't speak for a while, Gary knew that something was on his mind.

"How are things with your dad?"

Ash snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Gary, "What? Oh. Okay I guess... It feels different with him around the house. I'm getting used to his presence. I know that he's trying to make me comfortable around him. It'll take a while, but I'm sure it'll be okay, just like I was a kid... It's just that it's difficult to act so familiar with him."

"Is that why you look like a brooding Slakoth. Seriously, it's weird to see you so quiet." Gary remarked.

Ash laughed weakly. "Nah. I'm thinking."

Gary bit back a witty remark, "About what?" he asked.

Ash sighed and looked up, "About a conversation I had with Brock before I came here."

Ash dully stirred the contents of the bowl in his hands as he stared at the campfire. Him and Brock had just parted ways from Dawn and were on their way home. They had set up camp for the night and were having dinner. The camp was obviously used by trainers frequently, evident by the logs placed near the camp fire to sit and the signs of battle that scorched land around them. Rocks had even been conveniently placed in a circle to start a fire.

Infernape had been happy to start a fire for them. Why use conventional methods when you have a fire monkey with you?

Thinking of Infernape took his thoughts back to the conference, thoughts he had been trying to avoid for some time.

"Damn it, stop," he scolded himself. Those thoughts only depressed him more.

"What's on your mind?"

Ash looked up to see Brock sitting on the opposite log, wiping his hands clean. Only then Ash realized how long he had been sitting idly. Brock had started eating after him. Now, a clean bowl was near him while Ash's own dinner was yet to be touched.

Ash tilted his head,"What makes you think that something's on my mind?"

Brock raised an eyebrow, pointing at Ash's bowl. "You haven't touched your food," he remarked.

Ash gave him a small grin, "Nothing get pasts you, huh?", he asked, setting his bowl aside to talk. He wasn't hungry now anyway, which surprised even him. He was always hungry.

"I'm thinking about the conference," he informed Brock, who sighed and folded his hands.

"Ash, you did great against Tobias. You-"

"I know." Ash's interruption made Brock stop, surprise clearly evident on his face.

"You know? Then what are you thinking about," he asked. Trainers usually brooded over their loss. It seemed that Ash wasn't doing that right now, which was surprising as Ash almost always brooded over his losses.

"It's about Paul," he informed, looking into the came fire, "All of his Pokemon are powerful, Brock, some of them more powerful than mine"

Brock leaned forward. It wasn't often that Ash compared his Pokemon with others'. When he did, he usually did it with good reason. He was never one to discriminate based on comparison.

"All of the Pokemon he used, Drapion, Ursaring, all of them are powerful. I know that I am a good trainer and I'm not saying that my Pokemon are weak. But compared to some of his Pokemon, some of mine are weak. The very few that I can name to be better than his off the top of my head are Charizard, Sceptile, Snorlax, Heracross and Pikachu," he said, patting the little rodent who sat beside him, listening quietly.

Brock nodded. He had a pretty good idea where Ash was going with this.

"In our last battle, I mostly improvised and outsmarted him rather than going head to head. That won't always work for me. If I want to become the best, I am bound to end up in situations like that. I've tried my best, and I barely beat him. I don't know what to do now," he finished and looked up at Brock, hoping the elder teen would have some advice for him. Brock did not disappoint.

"Ash," Brock started slowly, choosing his words carefully, "you haven't been trying your best."

Ash stared dumbfounded. Of all the things that Ash expected, this wasn't it.

"Don't get me wrong, but that's the truth. You're trying, yes, but not to your best. You have wonderful Pokemon with you, but most of them haven't reached their true potential. Pikachu is one of your strongest, right?"

Ash nodded, trying to figure out where Brock was going with this.

"He's one of your strongest because you constantly train him," Brock informed.

Then it hit him. Ash knew exactly what Brock was talking about, and it felt like a slap to the face.

"You said that Heracross is strong, and yet you have trained him only a handful of times. Just think how strong he could be if you train him like you train Pikachu. You don't train your other Pokemon that much either, but all of them are pretty strong," He said, leaning forward and letting Ash take in his words.

"They could be stronger, it you just start rotating your team. It's good to concentrate on your current team, but your other Pokemon's skills won't stay sharp without training," Brock continued.

Each word Brock spoke gave Ash more to think about.

"You're talking about power? Ash, Pikachu took down a freaking Latias!"

With that, Brock fell silent, only the sound of cracking fire between them. Ash silently reflected on Brock's words, wondering what other mistakes he had made that held him back.

"Thanks."

Brock gave him a smile, "Any time."

"I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm not making the same mistake again. From now on, each member of my team is gonna be strong, and I'm gonna make sure of it," Ash said firmly, his fists clenched.

Gary looked at Ash, whose eyes burned with determination, and smiled.

"Brock didn't tell you everything."

Ash turned his gaze to Gary, now confused, "What do you mean?"

"Other that your plan to use Heracross, did you have a strategy in place while facing Tobias? Even Paul?"

Ash slowly shook his head, prompting his friend to continue.

"You've won most of your battles with out of the box thinking, Ash, but most of those you came up with on the spot. You're a great strategist, I'll give you that, but you always charge blindly and then plan," Gary told him, "Think ahead, plan your battles, use your head even before battles!"

Gary leaned back and looked up, folding his hands behind his head.

"You are the only one who is holding yourself back, Ash. You have great potential, to become the best, don't let it go to waste." With that, Gary laid down and gazed at the stars, smiling as Ash whispered with a passion.

"No more mistakes."

Ash laid beside Gary, a new fire, burning in his eyes.

A/N: And done!

After nearly a year's gap, I'm back. Sorry about that! One word- Life!

I promise that I'll update at least once a month from now on!

Next chapter will contain a bit of action and hopefully, you'll like it.

Many thanks to those who offered to be my beta but I realize that with my irregular updates, I'll only annoy my beta. Thank you to those who made that generous offer to be my beta!

And thanks to those who reviewed, especially those who gave constructive criticism.

Read and Review!