Disclaimer: I don't own A.T.O.M. and never will. Unfortunately. But I do own the idea of this fic and the new characters I introduced.

A/N: Hi everyone! Well, just as I promised: this is Arc 3 of my SophieXLee thing. The second arc is the story by Dragon-Ninjagirl, "A second chance". Dragon-Ninjagirl is a good friend of mine, and she agreed to write that story when I asked her, because I was depressed at how season 2 ended. Then I got an idea of making that story a second arc. I highly recommend you to read it.

Basically, it is set after season 2, and tells how Axel, his team and Dragon defeated The Serpent's Tale and found Axel's father. Five years after that Axel and Lioness were engaged and Mr.Lee, thanks to Garrett, was brought back to normal.

Now, this is arc three, where Sophie reappears again. It is set somewhere a month after the last chapter of "A second chance". Enjoy, and HUGE thanks to Dragon-Ninjagirl once again!

Remedy.

Chapter One.

A middle sized office with panoramic windows, from which a beautiful view of Landmark City opened, designed and equipped with cutting-edge technologies, a table, leather armchair and even a mini-bar. Small accurate stocks of papers on the table. Orderly sorted files.

Perfect.

That was the thought that had been occurring to one of Lee Industries' most promising economists every morning for seven months now.

Sophie Olin. Age: 23. Specialization: business and economics, long term planning. Relatively tall, slim, with dark short curly hair, dark eyes, bronze-tanned skin. Social status: single.

Mrs.Olin now laughed a lot at the "portrait" she had mentally created for herself. Ironically, however, every word was true.

Sophie Olin was indeed an attractive young woman with a perfect figure, smart and very successful. She had graduated as a top student from Landmark City University two years before and, having been part of Lee Industries' Special Student Training Programm, had immediately been taken in as a subordinate of one of the company's economic managers.

In just two years this talented young woman rose from a subordinate to a well-paid and highly-respected specialist. And, yes, seven months ago she had been given a separate office, located closely to the offices of the company's leading figures. And for the past seven months Sophie had been quite successfully ignoring the idea of whose office was right above her own.

Despite all her successes, there was one matter at which she constantly failed.

Private life.

Or rather its absence.

As her old University friend, Krista, had once noticed, she had a whole waiting list of men of different statuses and ages dreaming to date or even marry her. However, each relationship Sophie had entered so far ended up in complicated explanations of why "they are not a couple". It had been so in the University and was just as the same at her current job.

Surprisingly enough, however, Sophie's father had never touched that subject when talking with his daughter. It was as if he knew that no relationship would turn out right for Sophie. Actually, Sophie knew this herself, but preferred to keep that idea as far away from her mind as possible, along with some other ideas and long forgotten memories.

And so, Sophie Olin lived a peaceful life in Landmark City, had a decent well-paid job and was respected by her colleagues. Everything was simply perfect.

But life can't be perfect.

And Sophie Olin was reminded of that in a very painful and sadistic way when a month ago a newspaper landed violently on her table accompanied by a loud "Can you believe it?!" coming from one of her co-workers and new friends.

Lazily, Sophie rose her eyes from the paper she had been working on and looked at her friend, as if saying: "Why would I care? I'm busy." With a sigh Sophie put down her pen and took the newspaper, expecting nothing else but another scandal involving some of Landmark officials.

At that moment, Sophie Olin's private Pandora Box was opened.

All of the newspapers, TV-chanels, radio stations and websites were practically exploding with the big news: a famous scientist and industrialist, the founder of LI, Janus Lee himself was back.

It had been reported that he'd been hardlight for five years, and now, thanks to the invention of Mr.Lee's subordinate Garrett, the process had been reversed, returning Mr.Janus Lee back to his normal self.

And a month turned out to be enough for Mr.Lee to go through all possible trials and be cleared, with only several fines to be paid.

For the time of Mr.Lee's absence from the company, Lee Industries turned from a prospering monopoly to a debt owing disaster. How that happened, Sophie knew perfectly well. After all, she WAS a great economist.

The board of directors underestimated the duties of the chairman, or more precisely, the duties Mr.Lee had been successfully performing for such a long time. The lack of control had disastrous consequences for the firm: the mechanism started falling apart, its pieces working without any coordination between each other.

And right in the middle of this mess Sophie took on her new responsibilities of the company's analyst and economist. Strangly enough, watching the downfall of the great empire inspired Sophie to work even harder. Deep down her soul, she cherished the hope that if she managed to make her way closer to the "top", she might have a chance of influencing the situation and saving the company.

Mr.Lee's return changed a lot of things, however. By the time he had been cleared of all crimes, the company was in such a state that the board of directors slowly began to realize the disastrous situation.

And one sunny July morning, one that Sophie thought nothing special of, a miracle happened.

The young lady entered Lee Industries building, only to find it completely different: people were busy running around and... Actually working.

Unable to understand what was going on and if she was still in the same universe, Sophie finally stopped some random clerk and asked him what was going on.

"Oh, Mrs.Olin! Haven't you heard that Mr.Lee has been restored as the company's chairman?" the man said it as if Mr.Lee having been "restored as the company's chairman" meant that the clerk won a million bucks.

While the clerk was already hurrying away, Sophie felt as if she WAS in another universe. She stood there for several moments, processing the news.

She remembered how she had felt when she read the newspaper her friend Alice dropped on her table, from which she had found out about Janus Lee's return.

At first, there was nothing. She felt nothing. As if she had just read the article about a person she had never met before and had nothing to do with. She laid the newspaper aside and continued to work. But somehow, everything she was doing after she had read the news paper, seemed to be done automatically, out of habit and according a certain scheme.

What's more, the rest of the day was also like that: everything Sophie did… Well, she just did it, because she knew she had to. Even driving back home was somehow vague in her memory.

Sophie entered her apartment and just out of habit proceeded to her room. Just because she had done it every single day before. She took a shower, had a small snack, changed and then lay in her bed. Not because she felt sleepy, but because it was a habit of hers to go to sleep at that time.

And, so Sophie lay still, without moving. Her mind was far away, and her hand toyed with the hem of her shirt absent mindedly.

She wasn't moving, wasn't thinking, wasn't dreaming. She just sat there, staring in the space.

And then her mind slowly began to register something: her hand wasn't toying with the hem of her shirt anymore. Now it was holding a jewelry on the young woman's neck: a pendent. An emerald pendent.

And then it hit Sophie.

And then she realized what was going on.

He was back.

Alive.

For real.

Sophie hugged her knees, and tears started running down her face. She suddenly understood, why no relationship had worked during the past five years. It was because of that pendent. HIS pendent, the one HE gave her, promising to always be with her…

And every time she wore it, she subconsciously felt his presence. She hadn't realized this before, but she had broken up all of those relationships because of that. Because she felt she was betraying him.

Because she loved him.

She still loved him.

And now he was back. Back into this world, into her life…

'Will he even remember me?.. He'll be different now…'

That didn't matter, another part of her thought. Because they would not see each other again. Not that there were so many places where they would be likely to meet…

'After all… I doubt he'll come back to Lee Industries… Although that would have been the company's salvation…'

Oh, how ironic that exactly in three days, the board of directors admitted this simple truth: Lee Industries needed its founder back in the chairman's position.

"That must've been very amusing," Sophie commented when someone told her that the directors almost literally BEGGED Lee to come back.

Beside that comment, Sophie was absolutely, totally and completely shocked. She was at a loss of everything – words, thoughts and feelings. The idea that she would be working, living and breathing in the same building as him… Right under his office! The idea made Sophie's legs shaky.

'Well… At least maybe we won't see much of each other,' she thought.

And it was true. Well, to some extent, of course. She occasionally caught glimpses of him in the corridors, but, thankfully, he never noticed her. She had almost fainted from the emotions washing over her when she had seen him for the first time. He was different from what she remembered him to be: he was now exactly as he was when they had first met each other on the "excursion" for LC University's top students. Tidy hair, green glasses, accurate business suit. Nothing gave out that he had once been "an evil super genius".

Sophie knew that something was bound to happen one day. It was just so unnatural for them to work in the same building, being separated only by a layer of steel and concrete that made the floor of his office, and the ceiling of hers. They were supposed to meet one day. It just HAD to happen.

But Sophie preferred not to think about it. She just lived and thanked god they had not yet met so far.

Well, fate would never have played such a game for too long, would it?

And one day, it happened after all…

One day she had to face him.

A/N: