---
Sapphire Plains, Sinnoh
In the middle of the day, Sophie secretly took Oliver to the small library room within Mark's base. She managed to get the Oshawott away from the rest of their friends to talk to him privately. Oliver was a bit confused, as the Snivy only gave him a single statement; she needed to speak with him.
Walking into the book room, Oliver was only left with questions bouncing around in his head as she closed the door behind them. Sophie looked at him with her normal unchanging expression.
"I need your help..." Sophie spoke quietly.
The Oshawott was even more confused, "What? What's going on?"
The Snivy walked over to a pile of books, and pulled out a familiar notebook. The same notebook that she had been studying prior to her outing with Jacob and Akari. Oliver noticed the date on the cover.
"A book from thirteen years ago?" Oliver grabbed the book, studying its cover.
Oliver's right paw scanned the rough, obsidian colored cover of the notebook. His eyes looked at the damaged rings running down its spine, barely holding the notebook together. He could see a few pages had already been ripped out, and others were hanging onto the rest of the notebook for dear life.
"There's this strange message on the page. It looks a bit like a cipher... But there wasn't any key anywhere..."
He handed her the notebook, "Let me see."
She opened the notebook before showing Oliver the page that she had found the previous day. The Oshawott looked at the words above the cipher.
"Right below the top floor, lies the second. Over your head lies the top. Think about the future that was stolen from you between those floors. Floors one through three."
"Vg nccrnef gung gur zbfg cebzvfvat yvxrf gb pnyy vgfrys–."
Oliver began to think, "A key is always required to be in the same general area of the cipher given... But between the actual cipher and the sentence before it, that's all this page has... Which means..."
The Oshawott's ears perked, "The key is in the text above it."
"What?" Sophie, who couldn't read Oliver's mind, was intrigued by his thinking.
She had always known that Oliver had a strong head on his shoulders when it came to logical thinking and strategy. While he was the weakest battler between her, Logan, Jacob, and Oliver, she was always amazed with how his mind worked.
Oliver looked at the Snivy, "A key always has to be around the same area the cipher is. When a notebook is filled with information similar to this, you have to have the key on the same page so that other people don't get confused when information is shared between the writer and the others around the writer."
"So it's in the writing..." Sophie put a hand on her chin, "Maybe the first letter in the sentences? It's the most common..."
Oliver sat down, "Let's try it."
Sophie sat next to him as Oliver ripped out a blank sheet of paper from the notebook. He looked around for a moment before seeing a small can with a few pencils in it. He grabbed the blue pencil and began writing things down.
"First sentence starts with R..." Sophie told him as he scribbled down the letter, "The second with O, and the third with T."
"R...O...T..." Oliver's eyes widened, "An ROT cipher!"
"What is an ROT cipher?" Sophie asked as she looked at her intelligent companion.
The Oshawott thought for a moment, "Here's an example... Let's start with the word... Sophie."
He wrote down her name below where "ROT" had been written. He then wrote "Tpqijf" beneath where he had written her name.
"And how exactly do you go from my name, to a bunch of letters using this cipher?"
"This right here, is an ROT-1 cipher."
"Mhm?"
"I take the letters from your name, and shift them a single letter down the alphabet. That changes 'Sophie', to the amalgamation of letters that you see here. What do you think?" After he finished explaining, he looked up at her with a faint smile.
"So we need to find the right ROT in order to get the right message, right?" Sophie raised an eyebrow.
The Oshawott nodded, "Exactly."
"Then what about over here?" Sophie pointed at the page within the notebook, "Floors one through three. Could this stand for thirteen?"
Oliver looked at her with amazement before putting the encrypted message on the separate piece of paper. He then shifted each letter thirteen letters down the alphabet. Whenever it would reach Z, he would continue from A.
After a few minutes of Oliver decrypting the message, he managed to find something, "I think we got it!"
Sophie, who had been laying her head on the desk to get a bit more sleep, suddenly shot up, "What'd you find?"
"Listen here..." Oliver cleared his throat, "It appears that the most promising likes to call itself– And it cuts off there."
"What could that mean...?" The Snivy's eyes narrowed.
The Oshawott thought for a moment, "It's almost as if someone was documenting..."
"...A Pokémon..." Sophie finished for him.
"Could this somehow connect to me?"
"That'd be impossible, you've been living in Casteel for your whole life with that gang, right?" Oliver closed the notebook before looking at her.
"Ninety percent of it, yes."
Before they could question any further, the two were alerted by somebody entering the room, "What are you two looking at?"
Both Sophie and Oliver froze as they slowly turned their heads to look behind them. It was a familiar Vespiquen, who only looked between them with an inquisitive gaze. Sophie had no way to hide the notebook, which was already within her sight. The Snivy let out a mental sigh before holding up the notebook.
"Where'd this come from?"
Princess gently grabbed the notebook from Sophie, who nearly jumped at her to get it back. Oliver quickly put a paw in front of her, signaling her to stop before she did something she'd regret.
The Oshawott knew that Princess had no reason to confiscate the book from them, be it out of malice or curiosity. And even if she did, Oliver already confirmed in his mind that he wouldn't stand for anything to be taken away from them, from Sophie.
"Why would we even have something like this?" Princess asked herself, "I do not remember bringing this to the base when we first came here..."
"Even Princess doesn't know?" Oliver looked at the Vespiquen.
"Perhaps Chili could have the answers to this..."
Sophie nearly jumped at the chance to obtain some more information, "Is there any way we could contact him?"
Princess nodded, "We could use the video-messaging screen in the commons. They can access Pokémon Centers around Sinnoh, and considering that Chili's staying in the Snowpoint Pokémon Center, they will page him once they find out we are looking for him."
She handed the notebook back to Sophie before ushering them to follow her.
———
Oliver and Sophie sat at one of the tables within the commons as they watched Princess tussle with a small box. The box seemed to be built with tons of technology, a few wires sticking out of it as well.
Upon finally getting the box to work, it displayed an icon of a phone, something that both Oliver and Sophie didn't recognize.
Soon, an Audino appeared on the screen, a kind smile on her face, "Good afternoon! This is the Snowpoint Capital Pokémon Center, how may I help you?"
Princess looked around, "Yes, may I speak with an Abomasnow named Chili?"
"Alright ma'am, let me just page him really quick for you."
The screen went back to the phone icon, and remained like that for a while. Princess went to sit down next to Oliver, waiting patiently. Oliver was a bit impressed by the technology that such a small box could possess within itself.
Sophie wasn't paying attention to the screen, as her eyes drifted down to the notebook in her hands. She had been wondering about herself for the longest time, and in meeting with that Greninja, she discovered that there were more Pokémon similar to her. Whatever she finds in that notebook could possibly have a connection to a Pokémon like her, and possibly Sophie herself in tandem.
Princess looked at the Snivy. She could tell that she had a lot on her mind. Perhaps she had misjudged her. She had become so on edge after the Greninja and Conkeldurr first appeared in Sapphire Town, she didn't see what was wrong with suspecting a child of mal intent.
A few minutes later, the screen changed once again, showing an Abomasnow. He had a resting face that Oliver could only describe as being bitter. It seemed as though he had a brighter resting face when he was younger, but the bright eyes he once had seemed to grow dull and listless with the long fatigue of a life lived constantly in battle.
"What is it, Princess? And what's with the children sitting next to you?"
"Captain..." Princess got up from her seat, saluting him, "...It is a really long story, there is no time to explain right now."
"Alright, what's the situation?"
"I uncovered this strange notebook in the small library, could you give me any information as to what this is?"
"I don't even know what that is..." Chili replied, "But I did discover something with the numbers. Use the numbers if you want to uncover–"
"Chili! You have been summoned to the Snowpoint council for some urgent business!" The Audino suddenly ran up to him, frantic in her speech.
"Really?" Chili looked at her, earning a nod, "Ugh, this is the third time today. Let's get this over with..."
"Wait!" Princess shouted, trying to stop him. The feed suddenly cut out as she let out a sigh, "I guess we have to figure the rest out by ourselves."
Walking back into the room, Oliver was busy reading the notebook in his paws. He was looking at the numbers with great interest, "82, 45, 6, and 23... Is it some kind of code?"
Sophie looked around the room, "You might be right, look at this."
The Snivy pointed at the beginning of the bookshelf at the furthest place to the left. Below the first book was a small number written in a faded black marker. It was the number one.
"Good eye, Sophie!" Oliver smiled, looking at the number, "Now, if we count every space in the bookshelf from this, and go to the space that is 82, maybe we can start something."
Tracing his paw below every section of the bookshelf, Oliver counted each and every one of the spaces in the bookshelf. He soon stopped at the 82nd place.
Oliver pulled the book out, but nothing happened. The Oshawott confusedly took a second look at the bookshelf, "I could've sworn..."
The Oshawott put it back in before starting to slowly pull it out. Once the book was halfway out of the bookshelf, a quiet shifting noise could be heard in the corner furthest frim the door. Oliver stopped for a moment, wondering if either Sophie or Princess heard the same thing.
Judging by the looks on their faces, Oliver was able to infer that they had.
Oliver then traced his finger to the 45th place on the bookshelf, pulling the book that sat in that place halfway as well. A shifting noise, louder than the previous one, could be heard. The Oshawott then went to the book in the 6th place, and did the same he had done for the other two books, and the shifting noises got even louder.
As Oliver approached the 23rd place in the bookshelf, he realized that the place in the bookshelf was empty. The Oshawott let out a defeated sigh as he looked back at Sophie and Princess. Before he could say anything, Sophie cleared her throat faintly.
"I think I might know where that book is..." Sophie looked down, a bit ashamed.
"Really? How?" Princess asked.
"I think I might have grabbed that book while I was taking a break from research..." She answered, "I needed something to get my mind off of things for a short while."
"And where is the last place you left it?"
"The commons..."
Both Oliver and Princess looked at the Snivy, tired expressions on their faces. Sophie tried her best to avoid their gazes, only walking forward towards the exit, "I'll be right back."
The Oshawott and Vespiquen were left in the room, completely silent. They turned around to sit down somewhere in the room. Before they could get comfy, however, Sophie returned to the room.
"There's a problem."
———
Oliver, Sophie, and Princess all looked at a sleeping Staraptor on a couch, holding onto a book as she slept. The Snivy pointed to the green book in Star's clutches, confirming that the book was what she was looking for.
"How are we supposed to get the book away from her?" Princess asks quietly, "She is possessive of whatever she gets her claws on..."
Oliver thought for a moment before letting out a sigh, "Give me a different book, I'm going in."
Armed with a book, roughly the same size as the one held by Star, Oliver quietly crawled on the floor as slow as he could. Carrying the book close to his chest with one paw, and using the other to support his weight while he crawled on the floor, he gulped faintly.
Approaching the couch Star was sleeping on, Oliver got up and peeked at her. With a firm determination, The Oshawott positioned the placeholder book next to the book she was holding. He then pushed the decoy book against the book he needed, slowly sliding it out of her grasp.
What Oliver didn't plan for, however, was that he wasn't on the other side of Star to grab the book he needed before it would fall onto the floor. Shuffling to the other side of the couch, Oliver grabbed the book from Star and rolled away.
Standing up in front of Sophie and Princess, Oliver held the book up triumphantly, "Back to the mini library we go."
Walking back to the book room, Oliver looked at the back of the book, intrigued as to what Sophie had been reading whenever she wasn't trying to look into clues relating to her personal history.
"With no home, and no family, a lone Snivy sets out to find someplace to call home..." Oliver read, his gaze soon switching to Sophie.
Once the three had returned to the small library, Oliver stood in front of the space in the bookshelf for the twenty-third book. Before he inserted the book into the bookcase, he turned to look at Sophie, "You want to take this one?"
Sophie nodded, and Oliver handed the book to her. Staring at the book in her hands, Sophie wore a gentle gaze as she studied the cover. Her eyes drifted to the title.
"The Wandering Snivy"
The book, as the title suggests, was about a lone Snivy, looking all over the world to find a place she called home. She related to the character. Lost in the world with nowhere to go, and no leads to guide you there.
Oliver noticed her looking at the book before he put a paw on her shoulder, "Whatever we find... You'll always have a home with us."
Sophie gave him a faint smile before hugging the Oshawott tightly. While surprised at first, Oliver snapped out of it and hugged back just as tightly. Losing themselves within their thoughts, the two remained like that for a bit of time.
Princess, who was getting a bit antsy about getting to the point, coughed softly to grab their attention.
The two slowly broke the hug, Oliver seeing a renewed sense of confidence in her eyes. Sophie looked at the bookshelf before slowly sliding the book in. She then pulled the book out halfway, completing the puzzle they had set out to finish.
Suddenly, the corner furthest from the door opened up, revealing a small staircase leading down. The trio, completely intrigued, walked down the stairs, Sophie going first.
The Snivy hurried down the stairs, anticipating what was awaiting her.
As Oliver was walking downstairs, he heard a gasp from Sophie, followed by a faint thud. The Oshawott walked down the last few steps before looking at Sophie, who was faced away from him. She was on her knees, looking down at the floor.
"Sophie, what's..." Oliver looked around the room, "...Wrong..."
Awaiting them in the room was nothing. The room had been completely cleaned out. It was clear that other Pokémon used this room, judging by how there were square-shaped places on the floors and walls that were slightly off-color from what he assumed to be desks and posters on the walls.
The Oshawott turned his attention to Sophie once again, and took a step back when he could see a familiar red glow being faintly reflected off the floor.
Sophie let out a soft growl before using a Dragon Claw to slam into the wall.
"Soph–"
The Snivy turned around before pushing past Oliver and Princess, grabbing "The Wandering Snivy", and leaving the small library.
———
Sophie silently flipped the page to her book, finishing another chapter of her favorite book. The moonlight from outside of the window she had been sitting in front of. She had been reading her book in the attic of the cabin above Mark's base.
"There you are..." Oliver softly spoke as he pushed open the attic entrance, "Are you okay?"
Sophie didn't reply, only flipping through another page of the book.
The Oshawott climbed into the attic, shutting the entrance behind him, "Sophie..."
"Today was a waste, wasn't it?" The Snivy asked, facing away from him as she stared at her book, "I completely went out of my way and led us on a wild goose chase the whole day. You could've spent it getting ready for Mark's plan in a few days..."
Oliver wasn't sure of what to say, "We may not have found anything in the notebook today, but there's still a lot of other pages to explore and look into."
He walked a bit closer to her.
"And what if that leads to a dead end as well?"
"We'll keep searching. I might not know where to look as of now, but we will find it. We will find who you are."
"You don't have to do this for me, you know?" Sophie turned her head to the left to look at him over her shoulder.
"It's a bit cheesy to say, but I don't do it because I have to, I do it because I want to."
Oliver sat next to her on her right as Sophie suddenly covered her right eye. The Oshawott smiled faintly before grabbing her hand and removing it from her eye.
"It's okay to be frustrated, we were pretty close, weren't we?" He laughed softly, "But there's so many other places to go we'll find it. We will find your history."
Sophie sighed, nodding softly.
The two sat in silence for a minute, only looking out at the night sky of Sapphire.
"...Oliver?"
"Hm?"
The Snivy looked away, "This sounds a bit dumb, but can you read the next chapter to me?"
Oliver gave her a kind smile, "Sure."
Handing the book to Oliver and directing him to the next chapter, Sophie let herself relax as she looked at the Oshawott. Oliver cleared his throat and began reading.
"The young Snivy tried her best to cover her wounds from the mysterious Eevee in front of her. The Eevee tried to ask her if she was alright, but the Snivy was hesitant to accept help. The Eevee wanted to thank her for her brave actions by at least patching her wounds, yet the Snivy was a stubborn girl, and wouldn't let the Eevee help..."
As Oliver read the chapter, Sophie looked up at the sky beyond the attic window. Her red eye's glow began to lessen a bit as her nerves relaxed. She felt safe, hearing her friend's voice fill the otherwise empty attic.
The attic's environment would otherwise be decently creepy in other circumstances, considering the many cobwebs and dust in the corners, yet the words emanating from the page through Oliver's voice soothed her nerves.
The faint creaking below them that was caused every time either of them moved ever so slightly, the sound of the bug Pokémon outside, and the feeling of the moon watching over them. Things seemed to be almost perfect.
Blinking slowly, the red hue in Sophie's right eye faded away.
"...When the Snivy tried to get up, the Eevee stopped her, saying that her injuries needed time to heal. The Eevee told her that he would help her with whatever she needed while she was bedridden, and asked if there was anything he could do at that moment. The Snivy tried to make a snide remark about him leaving her alone, but the Eevee wasn't having it, and only said that that wasn't a way he could help...."
Sophie struggled to stay awake as her body leaned to the right a bit. She leaned against Oliver as she listened to him read, yawning faintly. Oliver didn't mind her leaning on him, however, and only smiled as he kept reading the chapter.
"...The Eevee tried everything he could over the course of weeks to lighten her spirits, but the Snivy was unbudging in her resolve. The Eevee then tried to balance three Oran Berries on his nose like a Seel. When he fell, the Snivy seemed to notice this, and laughed..."
The Snivy fell asleep on his shoulder.
"...The Snivy hated to admit it, but she had found a friend."