We Miss the Obvious

The answer really was simple.  So simple that it had eluded Leela for weeks as she found herself pushed closer and closer to the ragged edge at the precipice of self-induced madness.  Gazing into the abyss, she had almost succumbed to it, the allure of the black.  Then Ryven became Shalee's prisoner and the immediacy of that emergency had broken her out of her seclusion and forced her to re-evaluate her plan.  The idea had finally hit her as she flew Ryven's shuttle back to her little hideout in the fringes of known space.  The simplicity of it had escaped her because, for so long, she had only thought of the Ryven problem, never the Ryven solution.

She couldn't cause a schism in Ryven's mind with the Dark Ryven in control.  His psyche was too sociopathic, too disconnected from empathy.  No, the answer was to attack from the side of the good Ryven.  The Ryven who still has empathy, who still has the capacity for pscyho-emotional trauma.  The answer was really that simple.  To cause the split, Leela needed to convince the Dark Ryven to relinquish control to the good Ryven.  Then, all that would be needed would be to cause some extreme psychological trauma.  Leela thought she knew exactly how to go about it. 

She had spent the day following his capture running simulations to determine the feasibility of her plan.  As far as she could tell, the chance of success was about 65%.  There were a lot of unknown variables, most notably the entire absence of any sort of knowledge on what effect the sequestration of the good Ryven persona has had.  Without that particular set of quanta, a proper estimate was impossible.  She made the best guesses she could, but, she had to agree with the 65% estimation.  Which was better than nothing.

Now, she just needed to discuss it with Shalee since she had custody of Ryven.  She suspected that Shalee would be willing to cooperate, though, since Shalee had seemed quite ready to be rid of the scourge of Ryven and his psychosis.