The Destineds

The Destineds - Basers

In a rundown house at the base of Snowtop mountains, a boy of around 17 years was looking for something, more like someone. Right then a girl of almost the same age came to him and asked, "Are you Livian Trat?"
"Yes, I am",the boy replied.
"Follow me. Ruexia has been waiting for you.", said the girl.
Livian nodded and followed her. She took him deep into the house which seemed to not end at all.
"Can I know your name please?",asked Livian.
"My name is Zhichi.", replied the girl.
"Zhichi? Doesn't that mean 'support'?", asked Livian.
Zhichi hummed a yes.
"How old are you?", asked Livian.
"You don't need to know", answered Zhichi.
"That was rude."
A few seconds passed by silently.
"Is your real name Zhichi or is it your undercover name? Is Ruexia's real name Ruexia too? Because 'Rexia' means hunger and Ruexia sounds like an altered version of Rexia. And I don't think any parents would name their child Hunger. And-"
Zhichi stopped and turned around to face Livian.
"If you don't stop asking questions, I'll have to MAKE you stop.", said Zhichi.
Livian instantly put his finger on his lips and shut his mouth.
Zhichi took Livian into a room where there was a translucent screen dividing the room into two. He could see that the person on the other side of the screen was a girl, and was clearly wearing a mask.

"Welcome Livian Trat. Welcome to Zhengyi base.", said the girl behind the mesh wall. "I am Ruexia."
"Thank you, Ruexia.", said Livian.
"As you already know the purpose of our base, and the threats you'll take upon, we can't risk revealing your identity. So, choose a name that will be your code name whenever you are with Zhengyi base and on our operations.", said Ruexia.
"I know that this lady over here has the name Zhichi which means support so I would like to take a name similar to that, that is 'Zhizhu' which means pillar."said Livian, now-Zhizhu.
He looked at Zhichi who clearly looked flustered by this behaviour of Zhizhu.
Ruexia chuckled a little when she saw what just happened.
"There are some rules and regulations here, that you must follow. Zhichi here will brief you about those.", said Ruexia. "Zhichi, escort him out and explain him the ways of Zhengyi base"
"Yes, Ruexia", said Zhichi while bowing slightly.

Once they were out of the room, Zhizhu said,"By the way you spoke, I thought your master Ruexia will be more fierce and cold. But see, she is much approachable sounding than you"
Zhichi rolled her eyes and took him to a room where lots of weapons were stored.
"This is the weapons storage room.", said Zhichi. "Only Ruexia and I can open it for now. If you stay loyal and gain Ruexia's trust, even you'll be told the secret of opening this room"

She then took him to another room where lots of maps and notes were stuck on the wall. Zhizhu gave an exclamation of surprise on seeing the room.
"What in the name of True Deitys is this??", he exclaimed.
"This is the planning room. We have maps of Deity and Infirma Societies.", said Zhichi. "We plan our attacks and sabotages here."
"That's so cool!!", exclaimed Zhizhu.
"This room is always open because no one makes out anything by just seeing some maps and notes. The plan will be in the heads of the teammates", said Zhichi.
"That actually makes sense! Wow!!", said Zhizhu, admiringly.
"I know that you are 17 years old, but why do you still behave so childish?", asked Zhichi, tired of his continuous childish remarks.
"You know my age? What else do you know about me!", demanded Zhizhu.
"I know everything about you."
"I don't believe you"
"I don't care"
"It means you don't know about me"
"I do know about you. Just shut up"
"Then tell me what you know about me"
"I don't need to"
"You have to or else I'll conclude that you know nothing about me"
This enraged Zhichi and she told," I know that you are an illegitimate son of the Second Lord of Northern Trat clan. The Second Lord took care of you and your mother secretly for 15 years but his wife, the Second Lady, found out about this. So he asked you to flee the North and come South, towards the border; with your mother. You came here and knew nothing about what to do. So you took up many day-pay jobs to feed yourself and your mother. You spent 2 years like that.
On your Seventeenth birthday three days ago, you got into a fight at a local tavern with the tavern-master, because he refused to give you any drinks as he thought you had no money. He kicked you out of the tavern. When you were walking back home, a person in complete black, a hoodie and a mask came up to you and gave you the card with the address of this place. He said that the job here will pay you well. You agreed. But curiously asked him about the job and he said that a plan for sabotaging some of the Deity society's missions was being brewed and you agreed to join even though you knew the risk. And even though you didn't know if we were the ones sabotaging or preventing the sabotage."

"I knew that you were the ones sabotaging", whined Zhizhu.
"No you did not", said Zhichi. "I can know when people know stuff or are simply pretending to know"
"Is that your power?", asked Zhizhu
"No", said Zhichi. "It's called instincts. And my powers are different which you don't need to know"
"Look. Even I have powers. Not just you. Don't talk to me like that. I tolerated your rudeness but you are just being more rude.", said Zhizhu, annoyed. "I didn't even ask what your powers were. I just asked if knowing what's true and false was your power. And a simple 'no' was sufficient."
"Look who speaks. If you already knew that we are the sabotagers, why did you decide to join?"
"I don't give a nail about these Deitys. They ruined my life. Why did I have to be illegitimate? I couldn't attend good schools and have proper education. But thanks to the books my mom bought me, I was able to learn some stuff. And I despise the entire idea of Deitys looking down upon the Infirmas. They are humans too. I feel like being born in Infirma society would have been better than being an illegitimate in Deity Society. And moreover why didn't my father marry my mother when he got to know she was pregnant? He wasn't even engaged at that time it seems, my mother said. I would have been the Second Young Lord of the Trat clan.
Father only took care of us because he had a lot of money to spare. Though I'm thankful for that, I can't accept the fact that he made us live in secrecy. I was teased and bullied for years for not having a father. I was beaten up so bad that I used to get bed ridden for days. I couldn't even use my surname. I was actually shocked when you called me 'Livian Trat' as I NEVER used that since I was a child.
I don't care who faces loss and who gets gains. All I want is money to feed my mother. I agree, that I didn't know what you people did until I came here. I was determined to do whatever you people did because I owed no one. Except my mother.", said Zhizhu, angrily.
Zhichi was stunned by the way Zhizhu spoke. She felt sad for what he had went through as a child.
There was a long silence in the hall where they were standing.
Zhichi broke the silence and said, "Let me take you to your quarters where you will be staying when you are here." And led him upstairs to a room with four bunk beds making room for 8 people. The room also had a large window and an entire wall covered with cupboards. The room was fairly large to still have a little space left after all that stuff.
"There are four more rooms like this, allowing us to accommodate thirty-two teammates here. We call ourselves Basers as we belong to the Zhengyi Base. Remember that. There is a bathroom and a toilet at the end of the hallway. You can choose if you will stay here or go back to your house and report here whenever necessary.", said Zhichi. "If you want to do the latter, you can take our signal star and leave. If you want the former, then bring your stuff, keep it in the cupboard, claim a bed and rest."
"If we can actually go back, why did you even show the room?", asked Zhizhu.
"There might be some missions where you'll have to stay here for a few days", replied Zhichi. "If you are hundred percent sure that you won't stay here, then you can keep your stuff in the locker room and leave."
There was silence while he looked around the room and checked the cupboards.
"Do men and women be together?", asked Zhizhu.
"No. Women's rooms are downstairs. They too are just like this. 32 women can be accommodated."
"So totally, 64 Basers can be accommodated. This house looks so old and unstable from outside that I was double guessing my choices. The inside is very surprising.", said Zhizhu.
"It's a secret base. How do you expect it to look? Like a palace? We have to mislead the people about the purpose of this house.", replied Zhichi.
"Oh My Deitys! You speak like a puppet doll!", said Zhizhu and started chuckling.
Without Zhichi noticing, a smile had appeared on her lips. As soon as she felt herself smiling, she turned around and started to leave.
He left the room along with her. They went to the locker room which was open. He saw names on some of the lockers. Zhichi showed him a locker and asked him to write his name on it. He took a piece of paper and wrote 'Zhizhu' on it and put it into the name holder of the locker.
"Since, you chose the locker, you won't have a bed assigned for you. You'll have to adjust when you are here on a mission", said Zhichi.
"You didn't tell me about that!", exclaimed Zhizhu.
"Well. I'm telling now and you still have time to change your decision."
"Nah. No thanks. I'm good.", said Zhizhu. "I'll leave now then. My mom will be waiting"
Zhichi nodded and took him back to the front door. Zhizhu walked out to leave.
Zhichi stopped at the doorstep and said,"Seventeen."
Zhizhu turned around and looked at her, puzzled.
"My age... It's seventeen. I'll turn 18 in two months.", she continued and went inside, closing the door behind her.
So she is older than me! thought Zhizhu, smiling a little and left for home.