I know, I'm terrible. I started a new story while I still have many I'm working on. This idea did not leave my head and I thought I would take a crack at it and see where it goes. Depending on the feedback it may stay or get the chop. Either way I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Summary: Ash, Pikachu and Alexa are on their way to Kalos where Ash plans to redeem himself after his loss at the Vertress Conference. On the way there, Alexa asks Ash a question to which he gives her a revelation he had before deciding to go to the Kalos region.

Key:

Bold- PA system/Message Bulletins

Bold Italic- Radio/TV/Pokedex descriptions

Italics-Thoughts/Letters/Flashbacks

The plane was flying through the night sky as it continued for its destination. The passengers were either silently reading whatever book or magazine they had or sleeping. In the middle of the plane was a sixteen year old boy. He gazed out the window into the endless night as he thought about his next goal. While he thought about his goal, his mind drifted back to his past performances in the Pokémon Leagues. His first visit to the Indigo Conference ended with him placing in the top sixteen. Then he reached the top eight in Silver and Ever Grande Conferences. He reached a new milestone by placing in the top four in the Lily of the Valley Conference. Then he dropped back to the top eight in the Vertress Conference. Although those were not terrible finishes, he knew that he had the potential to win but he was never able to reach the level of skill required to do so.

As he continued replaying the memories in his head, a small, yellow rodent jumped from its perch on his shoulder and landed on his lap giving a stretch. The sudden action broke the boy from his thoughts as he looked down at his small companion. He smiled and gently rubbed his partner's head.

"Getting sleepy there buddy?" Ash asked as he rubbed Pikachu's head.

"Pika," Pikachu mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.

"Get some sleep. We need to be ready to start our journey tomorrow."

Pikachu merely nodded as he closed his eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep. Ash yawned and stretched in his seat, although carefully to not wake Pikachu. He took his hat off and rested it on top of his bag that sat at his feet. He leaned back in his chair and turned off the light above him just as his temporary companion returned to her seat.

"You're still awake?" Alexa asked a little surprised.

"Yeah, I was just getting ready to hit the sack," Ash replied as he rubbed his eyes.

"That's a good idea. I'd imagine you would want to be wide awake when you start tomorrow."

"Definitely."

Ash yawned again and shifted in his seat once again to get comfortable before closing his eyes and letting sleep claim him.

For Ash, it only seemed as though he closed his eyes for a minute when he woke up the next morning. He turned his head from the window as the sunlight landed on his eyes. He stretched and looked around the cabin to see passengers starting to wake up from their night's sleep. As he was about to wake up Pikachu he felt some weight on his shoulder and turned to see Alexa's head resting on it. He moved his shoulder a bit and managed to wake her up from the movement.

"Morning," Ash said with a smirk on his face.

"What's with that look?" Alexa asked as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"You got a little something right there."

Ash pointed to the corner of her mouth and Alexa reached up to find what he was pointing at. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment as she rubbed the drool away and apologized as she noticed the drying stain on his shoulder. Ash waved the apology aside as he put his hat on and lightly poked Pikachu with his finger. Pikachu sat up and yawned as he looked out the window.

"We're almost there buddy," Ash said as he and Pikachu looked out the window. "This time it will be different. This time we will win."

As Ash told Pikachu this, Alexa had eavesdropped on the conversation between the two partners. She knew that Ash thrived for adventure and was not able to sit still in one place long and he wanted to be the best Pokémon Master in the world. She also knew that he was participating in the Kalos League in order to reach that goal, but Ash never delved into detail as to why he wanted to do another league, especially after he received impressive accolades including being offered to be a Frontier Brain for the Kanto Battle Frontier. Alexa asked Ash why he never took up Scott's offer to become a Frontier Brain but she soon found out that Ash still wanted to be a Pokémon Master more than anything and that if he had taken the offer, he would not be able to pursue his dream.

"Hey, Ash, can I ask you something?" Alexa asked.

"Sure," Ash replied as he turned to look at her.

"I know you want to become the world's best Pokémon Master, but is there any reason as to why you want to go through the Kalos League to do it?"

"In order to be a Pokémon Master, you need to test your abilities and the only way to do that is to battle trainers to build the strength of your Pokémon. The Pokémon Leagues for each region have trainers that are all out for one goal to be the best and they will all vary in strength, both veteran and novice."

"I see. Now, I don't want to discourage you at all, but after you told me about your past performances in other conferences, what's to say it won't happen again?"

Ash looked at Alexa for a minute before looking down at Pikachu. He did not say anything as his free hand reached out and made a fist.

"I don't know," Ash admitted. "What I do know though is that the reason I struggled a lot back then was because I kept making stupid and easy mistakes that would come back to haunt me. I don't know how to describe it, but I feel that when I was in Sinnoh I was at the top of my game and then when I went to Unova, things changed for the worse. I was back to square one and just messing everything up."

"Messed everything up how?" Alexa asked.

"Training for sure, but just basic domain knowledge as well. In Sinnoh I used unique strategies to beat all the opponents I came across but when I was in Unova, none of those strategies and techniques stuck with me and I was back to where I was when I started as a trainer, blindly charging into battles with no strategy and using whatever combination of unorthodox attacks and luck I could pull out of my ass."

"I see. I guess I can see what you are saying."

"This time though, I won't make those mistakes and I've already started to get back on track where I was when I left Sinnoh."

Alexa gave Ash a quizzical look as he said that and he started rummaging around in his bag for something. After shifting through the various items inside, a grin spread across Ash's face as he pulled out a notebook and set it on the foldable tray in front of him. Alexa looked at the notebook and tilted her head in curiosity.

"So what's inside that notebook?" Alexa asked.

"This notebook is filled with every strategy and technique that I came up with when I was in Sinnoh," Ash replied as he opened to a random page.

Alexa looked down at the page Ash opened up to and did a quick look through it. As she observed the page, she was impressed with the amount of detail Ash put into it. The pages she saw had rosters of team possibilities that Ash could have and beside each of his Pokémon was a word to show what their job was for the team setup, including their moves and possible combinations to setup another Pokémon in the team or to use as an unorthodox attack and defense. Although the writing looked faded from age, it was still legible and that was all that mattered.

"You put a lot of work into this," Alexa said with a smile.

"I had to. It was the only way I could better myself and actually succeed more," Ash answered as he turned another page. "I found this just before we left and I completely forgot about it. I was kicking myself that I did not take it to Unova, but I can't dwell on that. All that matters is what happens from here on in."

"Well said. Make sure you don't lose that."

"What I am holding now is pretty much a Pokémon trainer's equivalent to the Holy Bible. I'm not letting this thing out of my sight. It is my playbook and it is my baby."

Alexa laughed at Ash's response and unbuckled her seatbelt to use the restroom to clean herself up. She picked up a small kit and made her way to the back of the plane leaving Ash and Pikachu to their thoughts. Ash closed his notebook shut and tucked it back in his pack and folded the tray up. A small ding echoed around the cabin as the intercom came on.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the seatbelt sign. Please return to your seats as we will be landing shortly," a flight attendant said.

"We're almost there buddy," Ash said to Pikachu as he scratched his head.

"Pika!" Pikachu nodded.

Alexa returned to her seat and placed her kit in her bag and buckled herself back in. Ash's adrenaline was starting to build as the excitement of starting a new adventure filled his being. Deep down, he not only knew it would be different but he could feel it as well. The intercom kicked on again as the captains voice came through.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain. We have just entered Kalos airspace at this time and we will be landing in about five minutes. At this time, the flight attendants will be going through the cabin to collect any remaining trash. Please fasten your seatbelts, fold up your trays and turn off all electronic devices at this time."

A smile formed on Ash's face. In ten minutes his road to redemption would start and he was more than eager to get off on a good slate. His fingers found the lone Poké Ball he had on his belt. Before he left Kanto, he decided to take one other Pokémon with him instead of just Pikachu like he had countless times before. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Pikachu look at the ball and then back up at him with a smirk.

"It will be different this time," Ash thought as he looked out the side of the window to see the landmass coming into view. "No doubt about it."

Well, that's the introduction chapter. Ash is a little OOC, I know, but he is also smart here as well. I hope you enjoyed it. Like I said we'll see where this goes. Feel free to check out my other Pokémon stories if you enjoyed this excerpt of my work. See you next time.