Lady Em felt the warm tip of her teacup touching her lips before sipping down the dark reddish liquid down her throat. The Earl Grey tasted sweeter and more lemony than usual.
"Mmm..." she hummed with pleasure, taking a couple more sips from her teacup before putting it down on the table. "Such, taste... Such, aroma... Nothing beats a warm cup of tea after a battle, won't you agree lieutenant?"
Her tea partner responded with a pained wet groan.
Sitting across her from the round table was a badly beaten Killer T Cell missing an arm and a parasitic virus clinging firmly on his head. The once legendary blade master now looked like a monstrosity of his former self. Milky white fluid fully covered his eyes and crimson cytoplasm drooled down from his unhinged jaw as he kept making low growling noises.
"Exactly," she nodded as if understanding all the incoherent sound the former blade master was making. "Though, regrettably, we fought on the opposite sides instead of fighting a common foe."
She then made a quick glance to her sides to look at a vast swath of corpses strewn all over the devastated plaza she had chosen to enjoy her break. True, the middle of a battlefield was the last place one would even think of sipping tea, but it didn't bother her at all. In fact, the rustic smell of spilled cytosol permeating from the ground only added a macabre ambiance to her recess.
As if angered by her hubris of having a tea break while the world around her burn, multiple explosions boomed at the direction of the liver's entrance where the bulk of her newly risen undead horde battled the remaining loyalist stragglers who were forming a hasty defense inside the main organ. The survivors of the blade master's shattered battalion continue to put up a strong resistance hoping to slow down her advance until reinforcements would arrive.
Unfortunately for them, there would be none.
She'd personally made sure of it.
Her table trembled after each explosion, but she ignored all the danger posed by her near proximity from the battle and instead, continued to drink and enjoy her break.
"I must say, there is just something in tea that I find captivating," she continued, addressing her guest sitting across the table. "It's one of my favorite past times and I most definitely got the fondness for it from my beloved master."
The undead blade master growled as if to concur her musings.
She paused. The thought of her master made her lips arched into an even wider grin.
"Ah yes, speaking of my master..." she quipped while changing the subject. "I wonder... How is she all reacting to the news of my betrayal? Shocked? Flabbergasted? Disgusted?"
A chill ran down her back at the thought of her master expressing all these negative emotions in her immaculate face. Truth be told, she felt no remorse or even a tinge of regret from completely turning her back from the cell she called master.
Her hand then moved to pick up the necklace dangling on her neck, as she lowered her head to look at it.
With a pinch of the locket's lock, it then opened to reveal a picture of her younger self with long flowing brown hair standing beside a taller, older maid who also sported the same long hazel-brown hair.
For a second, she wondered if the sight of her younger self standing beside her master, both smiling as if sharing a private joke, would spark any hint of guilt, but it only made her feel even more amused and determine to meet with her master in battle and beat her.
"My Lady Macrophage..." she whispered with glee. "My perfect master..."
Lady Macrophage, the strong.
Lady Macrophage, the incorruptible.
Lady Macrophage, the most adored.
She was loved by all cells in the world. Erythrocytes sing praises to her name, young myelocytes aspire to be as great as her, and platelets would flock to her to seek her affection and kindness.
But amidst all her master's greatness, she was, like the rest of the unliberated, blind.
In all of her master's perfection, she had been blinded to the truth that each cell in their world was bound to a life of slavery, ultimately barring them to pursue their destiny.
A curious thought floated inside her head, suggesting to her that maybe, just maybe, her complete eagerness to betray her master was due to a sense of jealousy. Perhaps she resented the one cell that raised her up because she knew she would never surpass her greatness even after she was gone.
The thought made her chuckle as she vanished it back to the back of her mind.
Her? Jealous?
Nonsense. She had already entertained such a thought before and felt it did not hold any truth.
True, if there were anyone that had the chance to surpass her master, then it would be her, Lady Macrophage's greatest apprentice and inevitable successor. Amongst the hundreds of students the great phagocyte had taken under her wing, she was the one that excelled above all.
She had fought at her side on brutal campaigns that saw the deaths of millions against abominations that defied the imaginations. On one battle that involved the complete annihilation of a Staphylococcus Aureus invasion, she managed to slither the throat of the Staphylococcus matriarch who had managed to pin down her master with her tentacles. In turn, her master saved her from getting butchered by the swift retaliation of the matriarch's royal guards.
Aside from their shared time in battle, she also had the privileged to be her master's favorite tea partner. In times of peace, they would enjoy lazy afternoons where they discuss philosophy, politics, and the intricacies of cell life, all while enjoying each other's company with a cup of tea. At night, they would both watch the dream-movies being broadcast by the subconscious whenever the world descends into REM sleep.
It was already a given that she would become the greatest successor of the greatest macrophage who had ever lived...
But now? She had suddenly become her master's greatest failure.
"But alas, to my master, I must be a disappointment," she shook her head in mock regret. "Nay, her greatest disappointment. After all, I plunged the world into fire and debauchery. Wouldn't you agree, dearest lieutenant?"
As expected of an undead, the badly beaten Killer T cell only let out a grunt while lolling his head from right to left.
It was obvious for any observer that the blade master was now nothing more than an empty husk, a rather unholy desecration of his former self but it still amused her to keep him around as company.
"Well, you probably might be right," she nodded at the incoherent sound her former foe was making. "Being the greatest disappointment could be an achievement in on itself."
"On that note, I agree," a voice from her side said. "But in my humble opinion, you were already a great disappointment long before your grand rebellion."
She laughed as she turned her head toward the direction of the voice and saw a fellow macrophage wearing glasses and her white maid dress drenched with the stains of her enemies' cytoplasm.
The newcomer gave her a defiant grin, almost goading at her to attack. An unladylike expression, she noted, but then they had already freed themselves from arbitrary rules that shackled them from their destinies.
"Si," she said her name bare of any honorifics.
"Em," the maid with glasses quipped back.
Typically, if it were any of her subordinates that tried to casually call her by her name without any titles, she would have already flogged them for contempt. However, as it turns out, the battle maid at her side was no subordinate of hers, but an equal, though she still kept the title as the first among equals.
Of the hundreds of apprentices under their great master, ten had been chosen to rise above all others to serve as generals of the vast phagocyte army. These ten consisted of only the best and most trusted of Lady Macrophage's students, and they have shed off their serial numbers so as to be given letter-names that would spell out MACROPHAGE when placed in the correct order.
As such, being the first among equals, Lady Em's name denotes the first letter 'M' and Lady Si's name denotes the third letter 'C'. The rest of their general-sisters, who were launching their own assaults on the other parts of the world, also followed the same letter-name schemes.
"Now that I think of it," she continued. "I might have overestimated the degree of disappointment I may have incurred to our former master now that I've considered you in the calculus."
"As usual, big words that don't mean a lot." Lady Si countered, still maintaining her grin. "If we are to be equals, and you are the first among equals, then that would mean you are the first among all our master's disappointments."
Lady Em stood up and then proceeded to embrace her glasses-wearing peer.
"It is good to see you alive sister," she told her, hugging her tightly despite the cytoplasmic stains on her dress. "Tell me, how was the battle? I lost track of you immediately when I fought one on one with our dear lieutenant."
She tilted her head to the side, indicating to the one-armed KT cell sitting across the table.
"Ah, so that explains why you are chatting with the undead." Lady Si smiled. "An odd gesture, but one that I've already expected coming out from you."
"It is the least I could do for a worthy opponent," she answered. "And I'm sure for a fact you've done odder things during the battle, yes?"
Lady Si gave her a sheepish look. "Well, I infected an erythrocyte with the virus, called another dim-witted erythrocyte that she's a sickle cell, threw a little platelet into the abyss, and finally spared a neutrophil from death so he could fulfill his destiny. Does this sound odd to you?"
Lady Em stared at her friend for a couple of seconds before bursting into laughter.
"How do you..." she tried to speak despite uncontrollable giggles. "How do you even infect an erythrocyte? They are enucleated!"
"Well she won't be a carrier, that's for sure," the glasses wearing macrophage stage as a matter of fact. "But I doubt she'd be able to maintain her sanity for long with the virus' DNA floating inside her."
"And you told another red blood cell she's a sickle cell?" Lady Em continued, still unable to control her glee. "That's just impossible! Such a disease is genetic!"
"I can't help it..." Lady Si shrugged. "That idiot red blood cell was practically screaming to be bullied, and I just blurted out whatever nonsense that came up on my mind at that time."
"Utterly diabolical," the archtraitor marveled. "I envy you had the liberty to pursue your own whims while the battle was raging. Consciousness knows how many of our sisters could have perished as a consequence of your absence..."
Lady Si narrowed her eyes as she widened further her grin. "Does that upset you Em? That I followed on my whims instead of your plan?"
For the briefest of seconds, Lady Em felt the urge to rip out the glasses-wearing maid's throat with her bare hands. She knew all too well her friend was goading her to strike, to tempt her to draw first blood. She also knew that if anyone would do the same provocation as she did would already be dead even before they could open their mouths to explain.
An open defiance? A declaration of challenge to her leadership?
Lady Em shook her head nonchalantly, dismissing all such thoughts. "Not at all. The battle was already won even before it started."
Then, before Lady Si could respond, she placed her hand on her shoulder as she leaned in closer to her face. "There was nothing for me to worry for I know you and I have seen the truth, and our destinies point to the same path."
The glasses wearing maid stared back at her before taking a step back to give her a slight bow. "As expected from the first among equals, you know me far too well, Em."
Lady Em nodded in acknowledgment. She extended a hand toward her. "We have fought many battles together, sister. Our bonds had been forged through the cytoplasms of our enemies. There is no secret among us. Your destiny is aligned with mine... Let us then pursue to fulfill what we've embarked on achieving."
"Aye, sister." Lady Si clasped her hand on the wrist, as was the customary handshake of warriors. "We are liberated, we are free. Let's become even bigger disappointments for our dearest master."
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A/N:
Originally Posted on October 31, 2020