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Part 1: Poisonous Lullaby

It was another day in Rebirth's Cave. Liu, Aeon, and Echo were helping Team Rebirth sort through several item piles in the cave, organizing them as best they could. It had also been almost a year since Liu's unfortunate incident with Team Double T. In the first weeks after, she had been incredibly suspicious of anyone and everyone who approached her. She seemed to be watching other pokemon, as if trying to see something that no one else could see. Often times, the pokemon in the cave could almost feel her staring at them, and many made an effort to simply avoid Liu altogether.

After several months, Liu had settled down a bit, but when confronted, she refused to speak about what had happened at all, and often got angry and distrusting of those who asked, including Aeon and Echo, much to their dismay. It became clear that, whatever had happened, it had left a deep mental scar, and Liu wasn't going to discuss it any time soon. And so, life went on, many of the pokemon in the cave forgetting about it, save Aeon and Echo. But they never brought it up when Liu was around.

In the present, fall, then winter, had come and gone, leading to Team Oddity doing spring cleaning along with everyone else. "Berries... potions... evolution stones..." Aeon muttered to himself, making a mental catalogue. "Hey, how did you guys end up with these, anyway? Potions are human-made, aren't they?" He called out loud.

Absol's voice responded from somewhere in the back of the cave. "We don't know, really! A lot of this stuff just... washes up here, or new pokemon who arrive at the cave drop it off. The trash we throw out, but if there's anything useful, we keep it. Just keep the human stuff separate — that'll be its own task for another day."

Aeon grunted and tossed a potion into a different pile. "It'd be nice to find some poké in here, but I doubt it has much use these days... relics of the past, I guess." His gaze shifted to another pile, this one piled high with berries of varying kinds. "Hey, Liu?"

Liu poked her head out from behind a pile to the left. "Yeah? What?" She responded.

"Where did Ninetales want the berries again?" Aeon scratched his head.

Liu rolled her eyes. "Back of the cave, second from the right. And you're supposed to sort them by color, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah." Aeon waved her off. She muttered something under her breath and disappeared again. As he looked around at the rest of the cave, and the work that was yet to come, he grumbled in frustration. "Jeez. I know they're letting us live here, so we should help out, but all this mess? Really?"

"Come on, Aeon! It's not that bad!" Echo called from a few feet away, engrossed in sorting a pile of other healing items, like revives and burn cures. "I mean, it's kind of satisfying to see everything having its own place, don't you think?"

"Not really." Aeon mumbled. "As long as you can get to the stuff, it doesn't matter to me."

"What?" Echo responded. "I couldn't hear you."

Louder, Aeon yelled "Nothing! Just agreeing with you!" He shook his head in annoyance, and picked up another potion. "The sooner we're done with this, the better."

---

As night began to fall, Ninetales called out to the cave "Alright, everyone! I think we've done the best we can do for today! Let's take a break and get ready for bed." Sighs of relief and cheers sounded through the cave. Everyone dispersed from their piles and was left to their own devices. 

Aeon went to his bed in Team Oddity's area, and laid out on his back, stretching out. "Ahhh, man. Glad that's over."

"It's not OVER, Aeon. It's just on hold." Liu's voice sounded from above him. As Aeon opened his eyes, he saw her standing above him, her paws on her hips and a look of exasperation on her face. "We're going to have to do it again tomorrow."