Chapter 28: Fate's End

"You did what?" Helper T cell asked her with a face that conveyed the same expression if she suddenly grew two heads.

Regulatory cell stared at her partner with an equally perplexed look. "It's only logical if you think about it. I am confused with your confusion, my love."

Both were sitting inside Regulatory's apartment, eating dinner, after a day's work at the Thymus HQ. Helper T cell's apartment building was under repair, and so he was temporarily staying at Regulatory's abode.

Helper T cell rolled his eyes with disbelief. "You know, for someone as smart and sophisticated as you, Regulatory, you sometimes act like an idiot."

"Idiot?" She tilted her head slightly to the side, visibly not expecting the Thymus commander's reaction. "But, I provided a sound contingency plan in the event of my demise."

"Yes, I can definitely see you doing that," Helper T cell let out a sigh as he placed his hands on top of hers. He looked straight into her chestnut-brown eyes. "Look, I understand this is your way of expressing your love for me, and I deeply appreciate it."

He gently began squeezing her hands. "But the only one I love is you… the current you and no one else."

For a moment, Regulatory cell did not respond. She lowered her head, contemplating what her partner just said.

"But my love," Regulatory snapped back her attention. Her expression still looked perplexed as she attempted again to reason out her position. "Have you considered the situation in which I might-"

"If I die, would you look at my cell clone the same as me?" Helper T cell interrupted.

Regulatory blinked then blinked a couple times more. She opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it back. Then her eyes widened as the logical gears inside her nucleus finally understood her partner's position.

"Exactly," Helper T responded to her unspoken question. "You realize that a replacement of myself will never be the same as the 'me' that confessed to you."

Regulatory cell shifted her gaze away from Helper T cell as she made a glancing look towards her room.

"But I already ordered the equip-"

Helper T cell shook his head.

"It's fine, really," he once again answered her unspoken question. "If you wish to undergo mitosis, I have no problem with that."

Helper T cell then leaned closer towards Regulatory cell and gave her a peck of his lips on her cheek.

"But please, Regulatory, please understand no one can ever replace you… I don't want to replace you… you're the only ditzy cell I fell in love with."

-0-0-0-

With her right hand, Regulatory cell tightened the straps on her left power glove and vice versa.

In front of her, Dendritic cell began a monologue about Cytokine Storm and how he was the only one who had the cytokine codes to activate it. She didn't pay any mind to his ramblings. She already knows all about the immune system's final gambit against this world-ending infection.

What concerns her the most was how to eliminate the traitor in front of her. She could sense an aura of dread emanating from the antigen-presenting cell. His face appeared paler than before. He still sported a mischievous smile, but clearly, there was no humor behind it.

"You will never get away with this, you bastard!" She heard her partner shout out from behind her.

She tilted her head slightly to her side to get a glimpse of Helper T cell sitting behind her. The Thymus Commander sat on the floor while leaning on the wall. Crimson cytoplasm stained the chest part of his uniform, which he got from his fight with an infected macrophage.

"You will be hunted down, you will not-" Helper T cell coughed out a mouthful of cellular fluid, and his expression contorted with agony.

The sight of her partner in pain made her mitochondrion ache. She knew she was terrible at expressing her feelings in the open, but that didn't mean she didn't feel a mix of sadness and anger, looking at a wounded Helper T cell.

"Hah! You may try, Helper-kun," Dendritic cell sneered. He shook the cytokine code hanging from his neck. "But without my activation code for a Cytokine Storm, your endeavors will be fruitless."

Regulatory cell narrowed her eyes. The traitorous antigen-presenting cell was right. Once the Cytokine Storm was activated, a cytokine signal would be broadcast all throughout the world, activating all forces of the immune system. Neutrophils, Lymphocytes, Macrophages, and all other supporting protectors of the world would be boosted to fight harder and faster until all of the Archtraitor's forces were annihilated. Lady Em's rebellion would be wiped out from this world along with Dendritic cell.

A sound plan if one does not consider the after-effects of a raging Cytokine Storm. True, activated immune cells would be able to fight on an entirely different level, but at the cost of losing their inhibitors for an intense craving for carnage. Such a storm could well likely end up destroying more of the world than saving it.

Still, with most of the major organs starting to get infected, a Cytokine Storm was now their only option to take.

That was, of course, if they could defeat Dendritic cell first and take away his cytokine codes.

Regulatory cell flexed her glove, covered fingers, opening and closing her hands into tight fists. She took a quick glance at her wounded partner before shifting her attention fully at the traitorous antigen-presenting cell, standing some ten micrometers away from her.

"You know, it's not yet too late to switch sides, Helper-kun," snickered Dendritic cell, his usual friendly smile now replaced with a maniacal grin. "If you could only experience the liberation I'm feeling right now, no longer bound in submission to a tyrant, to an entity that does no-"

"Dendritic-sama," Regulatory cell interrupted the ranting antigen-presenting cell.

Dendritic cell turned his attention to her. "Yes, Regulatory-san?"

"Your shoes are untied."

The antigen-presenting cell's grin turned into a frown. He tilted his head to his side in confusion. "Beg your par-"

Regulatory cell was suddenly upon him with her hand closed into a tight fist, coming straight towards his face.

The power of her punch was enough to render her opponent incapacitated, but the antigen-presenting cell looked directly into her eye before blocking her attack with a swift crossing of his arm.

The clanging sound of fist hitting armored gauntlets echoed all across the empty halls of the Command Center.

Dendritic cell's grin widened from ear to ear. "Shall we dance?"

Regulatory cell answered with a flurry of punches and jabs that Dendritic cell quickly blocked and parried. Each of her attacks was aimed at his vitals, and her opponent diverted each one of them with sharp fluid motions of his hands.

Each strike and counterstrike boomed like thunder that echoed all throughout the walls of the Command Center. With everyone inside dead and lying down on the floor, only Helper T cell was left to witness the epic clash of two masters performing their craft of martial murder without the use of weapons.

Regulatory cell excelled in unarmed combat even during her academy days, but Dendritic cell was already a well-known brawler despite his eccentricities.

Dendritic cell grinned and chuckled as he thwarted each of her attempts. He taunted her, goaded her to land a hit, but Regulatory cell fought him with cold and methodical professionalism. Attempting to provoke an emotional response from her was an exercise in futility.

She punched, jabbed, kicked, stepped back, and punched again while Dendritic cell deflected, blocked, evaded, advanced, and deflected again. If she was a Neutrophil, she would have already been screaming with rage. Not even a grunt escaped from her lips as she answered all of her opponent's retorts with her fists.

Dendritic cell, for his part, made sure none of her attacks hit true. He moved, swerved, deflected, and blocked, but never countered a response of his own.

Regulatory cell could see the madness in his eyes, the craving for danger, and the exhilaration of death. He was clearly toying around her. If she was an NK cell, she would have already gone berserk at the mockery of her warrior's honor. But again, she was no huntress cell, and her logical nucleus only took into account her opponent's non-committal stance, searching for an opening.

And an opening she did find.

She threw a series of punches, followed by a backhand uppercut, and a wild haymaker. Dendritic cell countered all her attacks, but the last one was a feint, and before he could react, Regulatory cell spun around and delivered a hook kick to the head.

The antigen-presenting cell couldn't mount a defensive stance on time and so received the full brunt of her kick in the face, which hurled him a couple of micrometers from where they stood.

Regulatory cell didn't relent. She rushed toward Dendritic cell just as he staggered to stand up. She coiled her left arm and then hurled it out as a haymaker with every power she got.

Her fist connected, but it didn't hit Dendritic cell's face. At the last millisecond, the antigen-presenting cell threw his own punch and met her fist head-on.

A massive boom and a blast of air burst out from the impact of their fists.

Regulatory cell narrowed her eyes. A grunt of pain finally slipped out from her lips as searing pain coursed through her nucleus from her hand.

The attack that would have been her coup de grace was stopped, and now Dendritic cell glared back at her with his lips curled into a snarling grin.

"My turn."

The antigen-presenting cell moved like a ghost, delivering lightning-fast assaults which forced Regulatory cell on the defensive.

Their movement increased in tempo, and soon they blurred in an uncoordinated dance of death.

Regulatory cell evaded and deflected, but also threw counterattacks each time she saw an opening. For her, this was not a game for her to play with. This battle could only have one victor and no one else.

Dendritic cell was insanely fast, and soon her defenses got swarmed by multiple attacks. The last one, she mistook a punch as a feint and instead got hit by the full brunt in the gut, which sent her careening back a couple of micrometers.

Fortunately, her legs didn't give way. She shifted her footing and deftly evaded a connecting kick to the face.

Regulatory cell grabbed the antigen-presenting cell by the back of his outstretched leg. She then lurched forward, shifting his center of gravity, and slamming him down to the ground head first.

She then sat on top of him as she smashed his face over and over again until her fists were stained in crimson cytoplasm.

And yet, despite the beating, Dendritic cell forced a defiant laugh even as he coughed out globules of black ichor.

Regulatory cell did not relent. She raised her arm to deliver the final blow when she felt something slid into her side.

She stopped her fists mere microinches from her opponent's face. She could see the cytoplasm-drenched Dendritic cell grinning at her as if to convey to her his victory.

Then, she glanced down and finally saw the handle of a knife lodged into her side, crimson cytoplasm began soaking her office uniform.

Her eyes went wide as a stream of pain seared into her nucleus. For the first time in this battle, her mask of indifference finally broke. She opened her mouth and let out all her suppressed emotions into a primal scream full of rage and hurt.

She could hear Helper T cell shouting her name, but the pain in her side prevented her from forming a coherent thought.

She tried to get up, but Dendritic cell grabbed her by the neck and slammed her to the ground beside him. This time, he was on top of her, pinning her to the ground as she squirmed.

"I admit, Regulatory-san, you out-bested me," the antigen-presenting cell whispered in her ear. "And that's why I had to cheat."

He grabbed the handle of the knife and then pulled it out of her side, which made her scream even more.

"Get away from her!" the distant voice of her partner cried out. "You bastard, get away!"

She turned her head to her side and saw a wounded Helper T cell on his feet, struggling to come towards her.

Her vision suddenly became blurry as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Just kill me," she muttered, her voice weak and crackling with emotions.

"Do not worry, this will all be over," Dendritic cell chuckled. He brandished the knife in front of her, toying it with his fingers. "But I will not be the one to end your life."

Then, the antigen-presenting cell leaned closer to her ear as he whispered a code. "Regulatory cell, kill thyself."

"No." Regulatory cell muttered through gritted teeth, her limbs began to stiffen.

Dendritic cell placed his knife on her hands as he stood up and moved a step back from her.

Regulatory cell staggered to sit up. Her hands trembled as they clutched the cytoplasm drenched knife tightly. She wanted to throw it away, but her hands would not budge.

Then, slowly, her hands positioned the tip of the blade directly at her throat.

"Reg! NO!" Helper T cell screamed.

Regulatory cell watched her partner struggle to run towards her only for his legs to give way, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

"Don't do it, Reg!" Helper T cell begged. With all his willpower, he started to crawl. "Please! Don't do it!"

But her hands were hard as kidney stones. Slowly, the knife came closer to her throat, microinch by microinch.

Tears streamed down Regulatory cell's cheeks as she continued to stare at Helper T cell, her eyes pleading for help. All the suppressed emotions inside burst out from her. There were so many things she wanted to say to her partner, but everything was already too late.

"Reg, please!" Helper T cell cried out. "Don't..."

Regulatory cell's lips arced to form a sad smile.

"My love," she muttered before plunging the knife into her throat.


A/N:

So uh, yeah, that really happened. And just to clarify, what Dendritic cell just did to Regulatory cell is my take on Apoptosis, the same thing he did to his first victim back in Chapter 12. In real life, our dendritic cells can do that for cells that are not doing well like getting infected or are damaged. This is why Ebola is a deadly disease because it infects immune cells like dendritic cells and then they start telling healthy immune cells to kill themselves. This is also the reason why I depicted the Ebola infection as a Civil War because it is a battle between immune cells.

Anyways, I have a very important announcement.

I will be taking a break from this story for a while as I will focus on writing a second Cells at Work fanfic which will be a Novella (promise this time it will only be a novella!).

My initial plan is to write this 2nd CAW in only 2-3 months although the last time I said something similar is when I said I'll write this fanfic in just 6 months (it's now almost 3 years lol). XD In any case, the 1st chapter of my 2nd CAW fanfic will be released probably by the 1st week of May.

I've been thinking about this second CAW fanfic for 3 weeks now and I've finally decided to write it out. It will be a story with a different set of characters and a different kind of virus. ^^

If you wish to get an update for the release of this 2nd CAW fanfic, please follow me as an author so you will be notified of any new stories I'll be writing on. Thanks!

Stay safe everyone!


Revision History:

- Originally published on Apr. 26, 2020