Jace looked at his phone. Eight missed calls from Rose and numerous messages. He swallowed  hard. The dull ache in his heart he had so carefully buried flared up once more. She had cut him off and let him suffer, now she wanted to get back together? Who was she kidding? Did she seriously think he would give her another chance to hurt him again?

Nope, he answered himself. He was not that stupid.

Then why did just seeing her name hurt so bad?

Don't do something you will regret later. Don't be stupid, his brain warned him.

But ... I miss her, his heart argued.

Tsk, tsk, you fool. She did it once, she could do it again. Do you want to take that chance? You will just be setting yourself up again.

Shut up Brain, you know nothing.

You shut up Heart, you are going to hurt him.

No, I'm not. He has to forgive and forget. Love conquers all.

Love? What love? But yeah, you're partially right. He has forgiven her, now it's time to forget!!

That's not what I meant.

You had your chance, Heart. Now it's time for him to listen to me. Hey! Listen to me. Forgive, forget and move on. There are many other pretty, better, less fickle girls out there. If she didn't trust you in the first place ...

Shut up Brain. You're making him depressed.

I'm right and you know it. She promised to be by his side but words are only words. Her actions were what counted. At the first hint of uncertainty, she turned her back, fled and shut him out.

Shut up, Brain. I mean it.

I'll shut up if you shut up.

Resolutely Jace searched for Rose's number. He stared at it for a while before tapping on the screen. BLOCK NUMBER. No more contact. He should break it off cleanly. It was the right thing to do. He should move on. He was done.

Jace beat his fist against his chest over and over. The physical pain did nothing for the overwhelming internal ache festering inside. Finally, he held his head miserably in his hands. He was getting a headache.

---------------------------------

Aria sat at her lap top. She had logged into the special blog for gatekeepers fanatics. She wanted to check something out. If she wanted to know something about any of the five gatekeepers, she only had to search in here. The crazy fans picked up even the most minuscule detail of their idols, from the clothes they wore to their fighting styles. Some kept tabs on their cities, levels and achievements. Their histories were listed in chronological order. The pages were sectioned off for their Orb trials too. Whole videos related to that particular gatekeeper were posted under his/her name.

New Player members or enthusiasts could learn all about their favourite gatekeeper on this site.

There were hundreds of downloadable stills, GIFs and fan made wall papers. There were also fan art and fan short stories on the Hero.

Aria clicked on 'Lazarus'.

She wanted to know who Althea was. There must be something, a clue. That healer seemed to know Lazarus from 'before'. They had been close once, that she was sure of.

That mage too, Daystar. He talked like he knew Valentine and Lazarus from the reality show that shot the five gatekeepers to stardom. Had he been a contestant too? If so, who?

Aria put on her headphones and started her search.

---------------------------------

Nadine walked into the specially prepared gaming room. Simtrixx personnel sat at the game stations, all already logged into 'Orc Wars'. There were twenty of them.

"Everything is ready as you instructed," the Games Master informed her.

"Good."

They went to the main screen specially set up for the Director.

"Is he online?"

"No, not yet."

Nadine glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 7.35 pm. "He should be home by now and had dinner." She knew he was a student. "I don't want anything interrupting him."

"What exactly are we doing?"

"He has obtained all the Orbs, we have to detain Lazarus."

"How are we going to do that?" Zen asked, then sucked in his breath in revelation. "We are going to kill him and make him level down?"

"Precisely."

"B-but ..."

"We need to stall him, the orc realm is not ready. He can't be allowed to go through yet."

"You are right. It's only 75 per cent complete."

"We didn't expect him to collect all the Orbs so quickly, even at a disadvantage. Lazarus is already stage three with the poison, he will be easy to kill. Kill him as many times as you need to make him level down."

She tapped on the keyboard in front of her and brought Lazarus' statistics up on screen.

"Hmm, he is level 79. Level him down by at least two levels. That should give the design team some time."

"Okay. We will bring him online, then we will kill him," Zen said confidently.

Nadine crossed her arms. "How are you going to do that?"

"We will attack his City. The player will get a notification and hopefully login. The assassin will come online to protect his city. When the city shield falls, he will be in a weakened state. We will attack and kill him then. We have the numbers."

Zen indicated the waiting players. Simtrixx had their own 'orc wars' team; Simtrixx employees who played in the game and help new players. They also reported any glitches or anomalies they came across whilst playing. Simtrixx would fix any problems as soon as possible. The twenty who waited were part of the team. They were all online and playing normally doing their own thing whilst awaiting their orders from their Games Master. Something big was about to happen and they had been chosen to be part of it.

"They all have a good size army. Lazarus will have no chance of resisting."

"Once we have control of his city, we will flood his place with our troops and guard his grave. When he dies, he will re-spawn there. I will station a few Heroes at his grave. We will kill him upon his re-spawning as many times as needed to downgrade him."

"Nice. Very nice." She smiled, satisfied with the plan. "Okay. Bring him online."

Zen turned to the waiting players and addressed them.

"Gather your troops and attack Lazarus's City. These are the coordinates."

"Yes Sir!"

They did not question the Games Master. He was in charge of 'orc wars' and was probably testing out another aspect of the game. Their job was to play.

--------------------------

A double electric guitar cord roused him from his stupor. Jace glanced at his phone but did not move. It was just a notification. He felt terrible. Enough of this, he chided himself. Get a grip. Life goes on. Seriously, he had to snap out of it. He shook himself, moping about it would not change anything, right? Right! He nodded trying to convince himself.

Not all women were like that. There were some who could be trusted like ... like? He stopped to think. Who? There must be some.

Jace sighed. The only woman he could trust right now was his mother. Dr.Anderson was trying so hard to be a good mother and make up for lost time that it was sometimes funny. It was also awkward at times but at least she was trying, he could sense her earnest sincerity. She had made time from her busy surgery schedule to be there and support him in court. They had had several lunches together and were beginning to heal their mother-son relationship.

Gwen (elder sister) had also texted him. Mom had also reached out to her and was mending her relationship with her daughter too. It was weird and awkward hearing from Gwen after so long but it was a start. He supposed she should be on his list.

And the other one, wasn't really a woman but she was female. His mouth turned upwards as he thought of Anya. The familiar had grown on him. She spoke her mind, was a fierce fighter and a loyal to a fault even if she liked to argue with him. She preferred her natural wolf form but would morph into her human form when necessary. He had grown used to her in both forms. Anya had dungeoned and fought bravely alongside him, practicing in both forms. She was getting better and stronger each day. He was so proud of his awesome wolf.

You got it covered, he thought to himself. You got mum in real life and Anya in virtual; plus all the other gatekeepers he could trust and depend on. Who else did he know? What other women? Oh yeah, the girls in real life, he shook his head slightly as he recalled Aria and Chloe. And there was the Keeper, Kit's sister Anna and Allegra, Valentine's Battle Master ... hmm did she qualify as a woman or a fighting machine?

Slowly, he got up and headed to the bath room. A cold shower would be refreshing and would help clear up his jumbled mind.

He was in the shower when a double electric guitar cord sounded. Notification!! Then his phone went crazy. The double cord played again, then repeated. His phone stayed silent for hardly five seconds before the electric guitar cords started stringing together playing a whole repetitive concert by itself.

Jace didn't hear his phone. He had turned the shower on at full blast letting the unrelenting water beat down onto his shoulders massaging them. He stood there letting the cold water clear his head.