A YOOK BY ANY OTHER NAME

Chapter 17: Encounter (possibly my all-time favorite epi)

Intensely focused, Sidimus brought up all he knew of Sid.  And he smiled. Of course!  Now he knew how to free himself from the titanium alloy manacle.  It was so...simple. 
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Setting to work immediately, he soon wished he had retained that largest shard of glass he'd flung across the room at Sid.  With the smaller piece he had, it took quite some time and effort to cut through his leg just above the manacle. He was, though, pleasantly surprised to find the process of it did not involve pain in the truest sense of the word, not that that would have stopped him at this point from going ahead with it. Scraping his SPQR had been much greater than this.  The main difficulty was in not letting the disgust that rose up in him at the sight of all the blue tubing get to him. Seeing it truly tuned him into how not human Sid was.  From the outside, he looked so normal that Maximus had gotten used to that outer form and had tended to forget his true origins.  Each of the blue tubes, and there were many, had to be individually severed. Many times he sliced his fingers with the shard as he worked, but the glass he held healed them immediately.  

 

"Damn!" he exclaimed.  His shard was getting smaller and harder to use as a result.  He tried holding it in a different position, which seemed to help. Just...one...more...slice, and his foot fell over on its side, blue tubing dangling and electrical sparkings shooting out of the end of his leg.  He pressed his lips firmly together, truly revolted.  Getting to his feet, er, foot, he hobble/thumped across the planking to the mirror. Several large sections of it still remained within its frame.  He lifted his stump, pressing it to the largest of those, leaning back, nearly overcome with loathing and repugnance as the blue tubing attached itself to the glass, twirling and curving, growing longer until it finally took the shape of a new foot. Setting it down on the floor, he tested his weight on it, then recrossed the room to take Sid's shoe and sock off the discarded foot. The more he had to deal with the mechanics of Sid's being, the darker the expression in his eyes grew, the harder the set of his jaw.

           

He turned, looking at the locked door, curled his lip and flung his shoulder against it.The boards of it were old and very weathered.  The one that held the flange of the lock simply broke loose from its fellows and Sidimus tumbled out into the light of mid-day, landing on one knee. He remained that way for a long moment, his eyes adjusting to the brightness and his heart to the release. Then he let his eyes drop to the soil where he knelt.A smile, frightening in the strange curve of his lips, grew on his face.  Reaching down with his right hand, he scooped a small portion of the dirt into his palm, lifted it and just stared at it for the longest time.  

 

 

In one smooth motion he stood, rubbing the soil between his palms as he moved, turning his eyes toward the old barn, beyond which lay the burned house, the Never Never...and Sid. 

                                          

He began, then, to run.  Always, since being in Sid, he had been confined, chained, not able to move more than a foot or two.  As he ran now, he became aware of the extraordinary power in Sid's body, the great rapidity with which he could move.

 
 

Within moments he was making his way downstream along the small river, keeping  in deep cover. Not once

did the grim smile leave his lips. The Commander of the Armies of the North knew what he wanted to do.  

He was still fully Maximus, with all his memories, all his training, all his know-how and abilities despite the difference in his outer form. He moved silently, not a twig cracking under his step, the leaves of the yooks barely moving at his passage.  

 

 

At last he paused in dark shade just in from the set.  His eyes narrowing, he took a careful survey of who was where. Terry he saw high in the yook a bit down to his right. He smiled.  Himself remembered much

from his past characters. Zack and Biebe he located in the edge of the wooded area. Nothing escaped his battle-experienced eyes.  The rest of the cast was engaged in watching Himself regear for the 40th take

of the opening scene. And there, standing between the protection of Jack and Bud, was Sid.  He was glad

to note the cane, glad he had slowed him down.  A great pain flickered in his eyes at the sight of his own body again.  He knew not if it would ever be returned to him or if he would, in the end, be forced to take

all life from it. He would do that...were it necessary...and not even hesitate.

 

 

As much as Joimus enjoyed watching Himself become Teller, 40 times in a row was starting to be, well, a

bit of a drag.  Besides, she had very pale skin and the Australian sun was hot and full of ultra-violet.  

The edge of the woodlands looked very inviting to her right about now.  She approached the trio of men, saying, "I'm going just over there and stand in the shade a bit. Do you want to come, Maximus?"  

 

 

 

MaxiSid was actually enjoying watching all the hassle Himself was having to endure, so replied, "I think I'll stay here and watch a while longer.  You go ahead, though."  

 

 

As she began to walk away, Jack cautioned, "Just at the very edge, Joimus. No further."

 

"I'll be good," she laughed, continuing on.

        

                          
Sidimus could hardly believe his eyes.  Joimus was walking almost straight toward him! Quietly, he backed

a little further into the trees, slipping behind thick, low foliage.  She stopped at the outer edge of the

trees, turning to look back at the rest of the cast. Sidimus held his breath, well aware of her love of

strolling among trees.  Would she? Would she...now?  

 

For about five minutes she stood where she had stopped,  then a bird sang just above and behind her and

she turned, her eyes searching for it.  He watched her face, seeing the delight form on her features as

the softly moving leaves of the yooks enraptured her. Casting one quick look back over her shoulder, she began to walk further into the trees.

 

 

There was a sudden rustling of underbrush and she felt herself lifted in strong arms.  "Oh my God!" she

cried before a hand was clamped firmly over her mouth.  SID!  How had she been so foolish as to leave

the safety of the wooded edge?  She struggled wildly, pounding on his face with her fists, kicking as hard

as she could, twisting her body, but he had her in the strongest grip she had ever felt and nothing she did availed her anything.

 

He was sprinting with her now toward the Never Never.  She wanted to scream, but his fingers completely prevented any sound escaping her lips. She bit down hard on one of them, but he didn't wince at all. Sudden disgust took her as blue nanosauce got on her lower lip. She was more than aware that killing her would be Sid's ultimate torture of Maximus.

 

 

Sidimus still smiled slightly grimly, but the darkness had left his eyes, replaced by a sparkle of hope. He

ran with her, pressing her closely to him, needing somehow to make her aware of who he was. He had never even dared to think...to hope...that he would have her like this, alone. He had no place to take her other than the shed, so he sprinted back there, his mind racing faster than his legs, trying to think how to convince her of his identity.  Kicking the door open, he stood her in front of himself, as he pushed the door closed again with his foot, standing in front of it to block her.

                                    
 

She was frantic, frantic and angry.  Seeing the piece of broken brick, she snatched it up, hurling it at his face.  It scraped off a large section of the covering on his right jaw, exposing circuits that sparked, blue wires, and the dripping blue nanosauce.  Her lip curled in horrified revulsion. He was disgusting!  

 

 

 

 

The look in her eyes pierced his heart like a spear and he gasped with the pain of it, not from the wound itself, but only from that look. Quickly he stooped, grabbed a mirror shard and pressed it to his face.

 

 

She watched in fascinated loathing as the wound disappeared. "You are... filth!" she said coldly.  "I abhor

the very sight of you!"  

 

 

"Joimus," he said, taking a step toward her.

 

 

She attempted then to dart around him toward the door and he was forced to grab her again, holding her facing him, her wrists clamped in his hands. Tipping her head up, she spat full in his face.

 

"Coward!" she said, her voice trembling with rage. "Is it not enough that you torture Maximus?  Now you

stoop to harming women, too?"

 

 

He could not wipe her spittle away as his hands were both in use, so it dripped slowly down his cheek.  

"I mean you no harm," he said, his voice low, almost broken.

"You think I believe a word you say?" she shot back.

                                  
He closed his eyes. By the gods, HOW would he accomplish what he must? She looked at him sharply as he stood there, his eyes closed. What was he thinking now? What was he plotting?  She twisted her wrists in

his hands until she let out a small cry at the pain of it.

 

 

 

 

"Don't," he said, looking at her in concern.  "You will only hurt yourself."  

 

 

"What do you care?" she replied.  "You have caused me several lifetime's worth of pain in the last three years."

 

 

Still she twisted her wrists.  "Please stop," he said, his brow furrowing.

 

 

"PLEASE? You say 'please' to me after all you have done?" She looked at him, her eyes filled full with her loathing.  "I despise you. I despise everything about you."

          

He lifted his head toward the ceiling, unable to bear her eyes, her words, his own eyes sparkling with tears. Slowly lowering it again, looking at her steadily though his chin trembled, he said, "I am not Sid."  

 

 

She laughed then, a loud, derisive laugh that filled the shed.  A sardonic smile on her lips, she replied,  

"And I am Pocahontas."  

 

 

His teeth clamped down together with a sharp snap.  "Joimus," he said, "you must listen to me now. I am NOT Sid.  I am Maximus."  

 

 

Her eyes widened in fresh horror, fresh revulsion. "How DARE you profane his name!  You can never be like Maximus!"  

 

 

He licked his lower lip.  "I did not say I was like Maximus. I said I AM Maximus."  

 

 

She swung her foot, kicking his leg, but only succeeding in bruising herself. "PLEASE!" he cried.  "Please

do not further injure yourself."

 

 

"Let me GO!" she shouted.

  

 

 

His mind was racing.  Suddenly he saw again the scene where she had broken through the skylight of the chocolate factory to escape him and he had looked at her.  "You know," he said, using those same words, "that I will follow you through all the world."

 

 

 

 

She stopped struggling, an absolutely stricken look on her face. Then her eyes narrowed. "You sink too low, Sid, way too low."

With a sudden motion, he pulled her tight against his chest. His suitcoat was, thankfully unbuttoned, and though it lacked much in quantity of material, while she was still shocked from his action, he let go of her wrists, grasped the edges of his coat, and pulled it as far around her as it would go.  Quickly resting his cheek atop her astonished head, he said, "I am...one...with you."  

 

 

It took her a moment to realize that he was...he was...cocooning her in that way only she and Maximus knew. Her mind raced back to her caravan when she had finished buckling on his armor, had stood, waiting for him to do the beloved gesture, only to have him turn and study himself in the mirror. She began to shake from head to toe and when she was able, tipped up her head to look into the face just above hers.  It was completely Sid's in every way, except for the...eyes.  Maximus was looking at her out of the eyes. Her

knees went weak and were he not holding her, she would have fallen to the floor.  He caught her up in his arms, pressing her tightly to him, standing there in the shafted light of the shed, his shoulders shaking with uncontrollable sobs.