"We did it!"

Isaac startled his floral-coated partner as he wrapped his arms around her. While rather uncharacteristic of him, his unusually excited behavior was more than justified. "Oh, Lillian, the demonstration went without a hitch, by the end they were practically clawing for complaints!" he exclaimed and let her go, looking over at Cain. "And you," he sighed, full of content, and rested his hands on the android's shoulder, not sure how he'd respond to a similar gesture to the way he approached Lillian. "You were amazing, exceeding all expectations," he praised, even when knowing these words might not have much of a meaning to Cain at that moment.

Cain watched him silently for a moment before nodding. "I'm glad that I was able to answer your expectations," he answered, his voice fluctuating just a little bit, almost as if trying to mimic the sheer joy in Isaac's voice. "I'm looking forward to the next successful treatment."

Isaac smiled brightly, letting go of his arms. "And may that be every single treatment during your future service," he wished before Lillian walked up to Cain, taking him to her workshop to review the treatment's progress. He let out another content sigh before turning to his office at the other side of the complex, walking by the various departments acting as the building blocks of this company.

It was odd for him to see Neosansus' humble beginning, with him and a small unnamed crew making bionic limbs for medical uses. He never imagined this personal endeavor would grow to what this company has become in just a few years.

Simple limbs turned into complete, autonomous prototypes.

Autonomous prototypes gained a level of independence with the addition of the A.I department.

Aided by neurology and psychology experts, these robots grew to resemble their human creators. Some found it creepy and even ominous, but for Isaac it was nothing short of endearing.

Soon these prototypes will be made for other purposes, far beyond groundbreaking therapy for mental ailments; made for the greater good of humanity, in hopes that humanity is ready for this.

In hopes that humanity will go in another direction than its apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic literature.

Isaac mused over the idea of changing people's minds regarding the future of the world they lived in.

He knew that Neosansus could make this world better.

"Bra-vo!" his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice as he walked past the I.T department, turning around to see a chipper chief programmer hopping over.

Stanley donned a wide, proud grin as he stopped right next to Isaac. "That was the best first trial of anything I've seen in the past years!" he announced, clapping.

"Seen?" Isaac repeated, confused. "How did you-?"

"Oh puh-lease, you can't expect to keep us hard working programmers in the dark during the first trial, right?" he laughed, as always, adding a dramatic flair to his tone. "We will settle for nothing short of a live feed, since we respect the fact that we can't witness it firsthand due to the patient's privacy," by the end he sounded more like he was reading off of legal document, "but since Lucky Lillian is so kind, she agreed to have the footage streamed to our department."

Realizing there was no possible way to keep this eccentric programmer at bay, Isaac let out a low sigh, looking amused. "Well, as long as it's streamed and not recorded. I'm sure you're aware of the trial's confidentiality status." Seeing Stanley nodding repeatedly, he dismissed the issue with a deep breath, smiling and straightening his back as the two walked towards his office, past the I.T department. "He's really something, isn't he?" a gentle hum was added to his voice

Stanley couldn't help but smile along, the excitement evident in his voice as well. "He really is," he agreed, looking up at the founder. "It's incredible, to be honest, how so many intricate parts of this project came together almost without a hitch along the way," he paused, letting out a chuckle, "not to jinx it, of course. But considering the amount of doubt everyone had- Well, everyone but Sheppard, I think."

"Sheppard was the driving force behind this project. It was his idea in the first place, after all," Isaac reminded him. "You can say we owe him this opportunity we've been given, to make this one-of-a-kind creation."

"Yeah, truly a one-off," Stanley grinned and crossed his hands behind his head. "Hey, we're having a small party at the department to celebrate the successful trial, wanna join? I promise it won't be too wild."

Isaac laughed at the comment, patting Stanley's shoulder. "You kids have fun. I need to let another person know about our breakthrough," he winked, leaving the programmer behind as he approached his office door.

Stanley didn't follow, stuffing his hands in his white coat's pockets. "Going to call the missus?"

"You know it."

Old-fashioned was a suitable description to Isaac's office. Even in the midst of a company based around advanced, breakthrough technology, Isaac chose to limit the mechanical presence in his workspace to the bare essentials, instead of turning it into a workshop. With wood-like plating covering the floor and the bottom half of the walls, it gave the room a warm and cozy feeling, enhanced by the fact that it was one of the few office spaces to have a window, letting in natural light that during some magical time of the day that turned the brown shades into gold.

Enjoying the innate warmth that the non-metallic interior and the sunlight from outside provided, Isaac closed the door behind him and walked to his desk at the other side of the room, hand hovering over a printed sheet of the newly tested C.A.I.N prototype. He lowered his hand until his fingers traced along the printed lines, feeling the bumpy texture they create over the paper; a soft smile graced his time-learned complexion as his fingers moved away from the paper to stroke and old metallic frame housing an aged photo of a couple. Anyone giving it a quick glance would recognize the man as Isaac by the glasses and the slicked back hair alone, with a couple of decades taken off; next to him, hugging his waist, was a young woman with a chipper smile, her short dark hair curling slightly at the ends giving her a bouncy look. A bright ribbon to match her eyes was tied through her hair, framing her soft features.

Isaac's hand moved to the phone resting next to the picture frame, dialing a number even though it was already on speed-dial, putting it on speaker and listening to the dial tone as his eyes rested on a small writing on the corner of the photo -

"Happy Anniversary - Isaac & Meredith Durante"

A small click popped on the other side a few seconds later. "How did it go?" a woman's voice chimed through the speaker, sharing a hint of Isaac's poorly contained excitement.

"It was flawless, my dear Merry-lady," the old man's hum was full of content and pride.

So much that it made Meredith chuckle. "Didn't I tell you that you had nothing to worry about? After all, it was almost solely under your supervision," she reminded him, even sharing some of his rightful pride.

"I should've never doubted you."

"Or yourself."

"Right, or myself," he laughed, leaning against his table and looking over the blueprints again. "How's your leg?"

Meredith laughed again at the change of subject, even if this was a question her partner has brought up on every conversation for years now. "As durable as ever," she assured him as he could hear her tapping her bionic leg over the phone - the same model he based Cain's legs on. "Here I was certain there'd be more to this celebratory call."

Isaac huffed a chuckle, always delighted at the fact that his beloved had always showed a genuine interest in his work, even when it was in a field she knew little about. "To put it simply, we've cured a patient of their fear of dogs within minutes, something that would normally take at least a few weeks of therapy, partially just for getting to the source of the trauma," he carefully put it in terms as simple as possible. He wouldn't like her to lose her interest just because he couldn't help but going on a technical ramble.

"Oh, that sounds fantastic, honey!" Isaac could practically feel how her eyes were beaming just by the sound of her voice. "Does this treatment work with more than just fear of things?"

"In theory, yes," Isaac nodded, almost out of habit. "But we'll need to conduct more trials to see if the treatment really is just as effective in other areas." He paused for a short moment. "I'll tell you all about it when I'll be home. I need to compile the trial's report."

"I'll be looking forward to it," she hummed, and soon after the two said their goodbye and hung up.

"Sent my report, Kingston. There really isn't much to it until I see the patient again to make sure there are no lasting side-effects," Lucy notified Gabriel as she walked past him later on the trial's day, waving off the Chairman's right-hand man before he had a chance to say anything back.

She didn't have much of a patience for that after the trial, and she had much more questions than observations- personal questions, things she couldn't put in her report; things she couldn't just rationalize herself out of. But who could she-?

Lucy paused upon hearing some humming from a workshop she just passed, in between what sounded like a one-sided conversation. Peering over the open door, she saw Cain laid down on what resembled an operating table, deactivated and hooked up to some I.V-like cables. Curious, she sauntered towards the door, now seeing Lillian seated next to the android, tapping away at her tablet and occasionally making some small talk addressing Cain.

Should've asked to win the lottery or something, she mused to herself and approached closer, knocking on the entrance's frame.

Lillian immediately looked up from her tablet. "Oh, hello. Lucy, was it?" her excitement from the day hasn't wavered one bit. "Come in, I don't bite," she chuckled as the therapist was stalling at the door.

"Big day, huh?" she smiled and accepted the invitation, walking to stand next to Lillian, looking at Cain for a moment and wondering whether he's really deactivated or simply in sleep mode.

"It sure was!" Lillian exclaimed in response, bouncing in her place a little. "What did you think? You've helped us a lot with your expertise, but it's the first time you really got to see it in action, isn't it?"

Lucy nodded, taking a seat next to the programmer. "It was...impressive," she found herself struggling to find the right words, without understating this achievement. "More than that, in fact. Almost scary."

Lillian tilted her head, curiosity and concern mixing in her eyes. "How so?"

"Cain condensed what could have been up to months of treatment that might not even end in successful results into a session that was shorter than the common session length among therapists," she stared at the immobile android with a bitter smile. "I'm sure people will flock over to schedule an appointment with such a miracle worker."

Sensing the repressed resentment in Lucy's voice, Lillian allowed herself a chuckle, getting a dismayed side-glance in response. "We don't want to overload the poor thing," she gestured to Cain, putting her tablet aside, "he can't fix the world, and we don't intend him too. We started with a simple case for the first trial because it was more like..." she gestured vaguely with her hands, trying to find the right words, "a proof of concept, in a way, since I've heard the stationary prototype was working, just not as appealing to people already 'on edge'."

Her expression softening as Lillian explained things further, Lucy flashed a quick smile, although still laced with some doubt. "Yes, well, Cain is light-years ahead of that contraption, probably in effectiveness, too."

"Do you really think so?" even though that claim clearly retained Lucy's concern, Lillian couldn't help but feeling her excitement rising again.

Lucy shrugged in return, adjusting sleeves and pulling them over her wrists. "Gonna take a few more tests to get a solid database to compare performance, but I think Cain has the advantage of being able to talk the patients through their initial stress, while the stationary model's operators didn't do much beyond chanting 'this wouldn't hurt a bit'," her expression morphed into a grimace, "so you got that goal cleared, for sure."

Lillian kept smiling as she got up, standing closer to the immobilized body and resting her hand in his palm. "That's good," she hummed, her cheerfulness mellowed down into something else...gratitude? "I'm glad he can still help without using this special mechanism," she traced a finger along the inactive circuit lining the palm before looking back at Lucy, "that he can understand them, and what's troubling them."

"Yeah, I... I guess that's true," Lucy let out a quiet sigh, sounding ever-so-slightly defeated.

The programmer then left the android side to sit back next to her. "I promise that he won't make therapists obsolete. He'd be here to deal with the harsher cases, eventually. He'd be referred to when needed, like with every other doctor," she gave Lucy a reassuring pat on her shoulder, "not to mention we could always use your advice, or help with follow-up evaluations on patients."

Being reminded of what she felt she should've already known, Lucy almost felt embarrassed that she had let herself become a paranoid technophobe, even if just for a few hours. "You're right," she relaxed a bit, straightening her posture and looking over to Lillian, donning a much more genuine smile, "after all, what matters is that people are effectively treated, right?"

"One way or another," Lillian agreed, "and we couldn't have done this without your help."

"It's an honor to be a part of this, really," Lucy confessed, brushing some loose bangs from her face, "and to be honest, I didn't do him justice," she gestured to Cain, "because 'impressive' doesn't even begin to describe it. He was nothing short of amazing. Is this really a permanent solution?"

Lillian chuckled at the change of heart. "It should be, yes. But that's also what you're here for, to confirm that."

Lucy nodded, looking back at Cain again. "It's pretty much like he's rewriting the memories, right?" she heard Lillian humming to confirm that. "What if something was to conflict or contradict this new memory?"

"Cain has more than just that to work with," she explained, grabbing her tablet, "for example, in the trial case, he reintroduced the patient to the event, letting them see from an adult perspective that it wasn't scary, rather than erase it completely."

"And that was...his own call?"

Lillian smiled softly and nodded, looking through her own report detailing all of the android's actions; every decision he made on his own, from addressing the patient to treating them.

It really was...amazing.