I recovered quickly and at 10:05 Hours, she left her house; an unmistakable attempt to calm herself down. I followed as surreptitiously as possible. Closing in on her, I checked her mood levels once again. The astounding decline in her serotonin level made me pause mid-flight. That can be a problem. Oh, that can be such a terrible, terrible problem. I plunged to see the world through her eyes. I was greeted with the twisted reality she witnessed. A reality where distortions were not incongruous and roads took routes that lead nowhere. The road less taken ought to have a new reason now. My purpose pushed my love for Mr. Frost away, and I spoke to the A.U.M layer to slide ‘reality’ back to normal. Normal for her to see. To make her feel better. An opportunity for this Sāha to shine once again. The turmoil she was going through was unhealthy. Tears competed in streams down her cheeks as her devastation intensified. Making her feel better would be a tremendous task; everything she saw now was a version beyond comprehension and a cause to make her feel worse. The outside world has always had a colossal influence on these delicate beings’ emotions, powerful enough to shift mental states. A normal calming environment is enough to slip normalcy back into a disruptive mind. The very basis of why the A.U.M layer thrives. I calculated the administration to alter her mood and it required stupendous effort. Sliding the layers to normal wouldn’t quite cut it. I directed the layers to appear as ornate -if not more- as the intricately designed Monument of Naayaks. However, I found a reason to be appalled as her raw emotions cleaved through my communications. The turbulent nature of her emotions was almost riotous in disrupting my transmissions. It was as if she willed to see what she intended to see, no matter what. Her resolve to drown in her emotions rather than edge away from it was shocking. The layers responded to this animated tug-of-war causing sporadic visual shifts that could tickle brains. For the first time, in my literature-loving existence, I found the data that read fear – and it flowed from myself. It was no coincidence that at this particular moment, I recalled a log from the A.U.M vault: The cause and after-effect of the Twenty-Year feud, when the Artificially Unified Matrix program was initiated to protect these delicate beings. Maybe, just maybe the uncontrolled, ephemeral emotions caused the conflict? Terrible problem indeed. A delicate being such as herself cannot contain such internal turbulence. The ramifications will undoubtedly, not be pretty. The probability of self-harm or harm in general was too great. She continued to slip deeper into her woes despite my efforts to pull her back. I upped the administration to steer her away from this distraught state of being. Until finally, her levels started to improve. Her physical and emotional state changed and the vitals began touching normalcy. Gradually, her perception of this deranged world reduced. Just in time too, I nearly questioned my inability to fix this situation. Nearly. She was quiet. I took notice of her insouciance and pondered if it was a good enough reason to fret -not that I would prefer her to be a nudnik- or if she was just enjoying her present state of pleasantness. I chose to believe the latter. It was over. I concluded she no longer felt like the rotting banana peel indefinitely stuck to the bin. As a reward to my job well done, I chanced a glance through her eyes again. But something was not right. The data flowing -from her to me- said one thing: The A.U.M layer influenced structures didn’t feel right to her. Her mind seemed to be rejecting what she was seeing. The closest correlation I could find was stomping on the earth with great force only to be met by the moon’s lazy gravity. My quick diagnosis revealed that the sudden shift in emotional levels had awoken a primitive switch in her. Admittedly, this situation was not part of my possible scenarios. The confusion that now draped her face was something I had not foreseen. Oh, dear. Her attempt to make sense of the familiar Kattaboman bridge was in vain. The structure was ‘hung’ in discordance in her eyes (and through mine). The once beautiful structure felt like an inappropriate canned laughter. As a result? She ran. She conducted herself not unlike a ferret frightened at the sight of grasslands flourishing in the common room ceiling. I ran scans attempting to find the imbalance and fix it. Either it continued to evade me –which is impossible- or there was no emotional imbalance. My purpose to bring relevance to her perception had already been complete! Her behavior though said otherwise. She was attempting to break free from A.U.M itself, from me. Her behavior was akin to a Feeler, as if she suddenly pledged her allegiance to them. Her compunction was lost. Zipping to calm the poor creature with a more powerful dose, I failed to take notice of an imminent strike from behind. …..Losing my airborne stance, my cracked visor provided me with a view. A view where she stood watching me. After an eternity of ignoring me like a diaphanous ghost, the lines now decorating her face seemed to speak of me. The confusion that hung on her face discarded everything she saw. The elements were bent and reality seemed like …… a forgotten dream now. The cracks in the layers were too great to go unnoticed. She saw and finally embraced it. She seemed to believe redemption lay on the other side of the bridge and…… I watched her leap. I scanned her emotional levels and it was still incalcula-.................