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Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail and its characters.

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Chapter 12: Clash

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Sting and Rogue were going along with Minerva's plan, they had followed Erza Scarlet all the way to the small waterfall scene and were now reflecting about their next move, they already planned everything out while the mighty red head was resting, reading a book against a tree… they were obviously carefully placing a fair distance to the red head girl so they wouldn't get caught.

They both knew what Minerva was doing at this moment, putting on the challenge act at the others students from Fairy High.

They glanced over the rock they were hiding to realize the red haired girl was finally getting up from her long rest. Orga, one of their classmates were already at place ready for his task.

Orga was a very massive and heavily muscular man, possessing an extremely well built torso and matching arms, he was perfect for the job Sting had him do.

The two boys weren't stupid enough to go against Erza with bare hands and on their own, but with this plan, they were surely going to get their revenge… and then only Natsu and Gray were left on their list.

Erza was humming happily while she took a sip of water, she glanced over the small lake and waterfall and decided to go in the water and enjoy its coldness, but before she could even do as much as take her clothes off, she heard a noise coming from the small cave near the waterfall.

Erza frowned as she wasn't expecting it but she supposed it could be a small animal wandering around, though she decided it was better to go check it out just to be sure.

She stepped inside the small cave, glad she actually had the light from the entrance to guide her or else she wouldn't see a thing inside. As the girl didn't spot anything out of place even more deep inside, she narrowed her eyes confused, but immediately shrugged at it, not wanting to ruin her peace.

She noticed how there were signs of a small camp fire as she saw a pit dug on the ground and some old wood still laying together, she sighed realizing that probably she wasn't the only one coming to this peaceful place, though she couldn't blame those people, this was a perfect place to rest and even if it rained, there was still this not so big cave to shelter them.

When Erza was about to decide to leave the cave she heard soft steps behind making her to freeze. She slowly turned around to see who it was, her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Sting and Rogue standing right in front of her, the blond one with a smirk on his face.

"Why are you so eager to leave Titania?" The blond haired teased.

Erza's expression hardened, she was kind of surprised to see Sabertooth here out of all places, but she didn't want to show them that. "What are you two doing here?"

"We should be the ones asking you scum of Fairy High that, but…" He laughed so loud like he was the luckiest person in the world at this moment. "What could I ask for more, what an excellent opportunity."

"The humiliation you made us feel the other day… You shall as well feel it for yourself now." It was Rogue who muttered these words before Erza could say anything.

Orga, which was just outside waiting, came into the cave but did not budge further from the entrance.

"I see." Erza simply muttered, now understanding a little more of their plan.

Her first question as why they were here didn't actually matter right now, she knew they were going to attack her on three on one, no… two on one… she realized. The man guarding the entrance had two goals, one was obviously for her to not try to escape. The second was, as he stand at the only narrow entrance of that cave, it made all the light almost vanish from inside, limiting her vision.

Erza was no foul, she knew perfectly well this strategy of them was the perfect way they had to actually have a chance to beat her. And although she knew this handicap was for both of them, she also was aware that Rogue was pretty good fighting in the dark which made her having a huge disadvantage.

The girl frowned, biting her bottom lip, she was angry. How could they do such thing as coming all this way out only to put such a cowardly act to beat her up? But Erza was more angry at herself, she didn't even had a clue she was being followed, not that it was really her fault, how could she know this problematic school was also going to come here of all places?

That's when something clicked in her head, as if she just realized something else.

"Where is Minerva?" She glowered. As a matter of fact, she knew Minerva would be the one seeking out to pick a fight with her personally, it was suspicious she sent her two companions to do the job.

"I don't think she need to come just for you." Sting snarled, an evil stare disappearing with a smirk forming on his lips, after that, he was gone.

Erza changed her stance to a defensive one, even though she couldn't see much, she still could make out their dark silhouettes at least. She rolled out of the way just in time to dodge Sting's punch to her guts, if she knew he would try to punch her she could easily just block his attack, but in the almost dark they were in, she couldn't make out every part of their body in time to perceive their attacks.

Erza tried to take the opportunity and used her left leg to reap Sting's right one, making him stumble.

Like I thought, the darkness is also a handicap to him… the problem is…

And she didn't have the time to process Rogue's next move as he swung his leg, his knee making contact with Erza's stomach, making her gasp with the contact. But Erza didn't let her opponent to attack again as she jumped back beside the fire hole she saw earlier, even though she couldn't see it now she knew perfectly where it was as some twigs were touching her right foot.

Sting who was now angrier than before muttered some words she couldn't hear, but it was Rogue who made a move first. He charged forward perfectly avoiding the hole on the ground, the only thing Erza had the time to do in such a small dark space was to defend the next attack aimed at her head, throwing her arms up in defense she successfully blocked Rogue's right foot and just as she heard his growl and Sting moving towards them she moved slightly to her right, making her positioned behind the fire hole. As she expected, Sting which came to attack her again blindly, tripped over some of the twigs and fell on the ground just beside where Erza was, his face smashing right on the ground. If the student council president of Fairy High wasn't in a difficult situation she probably would have laugh at that.

"This witch!" The blond teenager spat angrily, trying to get up, taking off all the earth he got on his face.

"Sting, stick with the plan!" Ordered the Black haired one. "Just let me handle it, you know what to do."

Erza had a bad feeling about all this, not that she could do something about the situation, other than defending herself. She greeted her teeth, trying to think of a strategy but she couldn't focus as the Black haired boy lunged at her for another attempt at knocking her out. This time he didn't intend to stop even for a second, he threw her one punch after another and Erza was doing her best to dodge or blocking all of them. The only reason she had such a hard situation was only because Rogue was able to see all her movements, while she wasn't good at fighting in the dark and trying not to lose focus of the other two while at it. Though, she was failing hard… she could only focus on the black haired guy in front of her, if not, she wouldn't be able to block his attacks.

Rogue was smirking while testing the girl's patient in front of him, he didn't want to get an actual hit, he was just distracting her. Fortunately for Erza she knew this all along so she was trying to think of a way to throw her opponent off his feet first. Just right after dodging another of Rogue's punch, she quickly threw some of the twigs with her left feet at his face. Rogue cursed as some of them scratched his cheeks and nose but instead of backing down he angrily grabbed Erza's left wrist with the intention of getting hold of the smart girl.

Erza smirked at his desperate action, her Jujutsu defense techniques running through her mind. She grabbed his right arm that was still holding her in place and was thinking about throwing him on the ground but Sting appeared at Rogue's right side. Even though Erza wasn't able to focus on all three of them, she knew the blond boy was waiting for a chance to get her, so she thought she was prepared for when the time arrived, she thought she would be able to feel his movements and counter attack them… but the next thing Erza felt was pain through her left upper arm, red liquid slowly making its way out. The black haired boy unleashed her at this and stepped back to rub his face, still cursing at Erza's early attack. She greeted her teeth swallowing the pain, she realized now that Sting had a little knife with him, he was laughing at Rogue's scratched face but deep inside he was more like laughing at her, probably.

Cowards… Erza thought to herself.

Erza was expecting Sting to attack her at some point, but she couldn't possibly know he held some kind of weapon, even though she cursed herself for thinking they could actually fight clean, as clean as this could be of course, two on one was already cheap anyway.

The red head tried to calm down and concentrate, she needed a way out of this situation right now. Rogue and Sting were ready to attack any minute now and it would be troublesome if she got any worse than this, for many reasons.

As if on cue, they heard a distant voice. "Oi, Erza do you hear me? Where you at?"

"Tchh" Sting suddenly happy face darkened at the voice.

"It's better if we leave for now." Orga was the one talking, his eyes facing outside. "Whoever is searching for her didn't see us yet, it would be bad to have a witness."

With that, he was the first one to leave, Rogue glared at Erza first and then also left, reluctantly.

"I hope you understand what happens when you all try to act all cool against our school." Sting muttered, walking away. Erza had the feeling the anger on his voice was more related to how his pride actually had to be damaged after all this. They getting humiliated at Fairy High first and then taking an unfair fight on act and still getting somehow hurt on a ridiculous way, had to make any man's pride to shatter. Leaving was the best option for them though, if Erza tries to say anything to the teachers it will be her word against theirs.

After the blond one took also a leave out of the cave, Erza's body relaxed, making her sighing in relief, whoever was that screamed earlier, deserved her most sincere gratitude.

"Erza!" The voice called again.

Erza could recognize it now that it was much clear, it was Riku's voice. She clenched her hand on her upper arm, where her wound was still opened and slowly got outside the cave blinking a few times to the sun's light.

"Erza!" Riku shouted again running to join the red haired wounded girl.

Erza saw him coming near and let a long breath out of her lungs, still, she found it bizarre the boy was here out of all places.

"Erza, are you alright?" Riku asked now that he was just in front of the girl. "What's with the blood?" He added when he noticed the red liquid going down her arm.

"Oh, don't worry this is nothing. What are you doing here Riku?"

"Nothing you say, was that Sabertooth's doing?" Riku watched how Erza was taken back by his conclusion, so he explained. "I followed Sting and Rogue here after what I heard."

He then recalled what happened before.

Riku was happily walking through the woods, this was a shortcut he had taken to go to his girlfriend's class house. He heard voices to his right and wondered if someone was lost, it wasn't quite easy to take this way if you didn't know this place, Riku's family likes to camp on their holidays so it wasn't really weird for Riku to wander around. He paced towards the voices and when he recognized one of them to being Sting's, he hid behind a tree far enough to get to listen to their conversation and not be spotted on.

"Are you sure Fairy High is here?" It was Rogue's cold voice.

"I am, that's what Minerva told me." This time Sting's voice was heard. "She told us to intercept Erza while she was going to take care of the rest, and now that the stupid girl is all alone by herself we can actually do more than that."

Riku frowned not liking where this was going, he was not really good at combat like their president, but he had to do something.

"Where is she then?" Rogue questioned.

"We followed her before to a small lake on the woods, I left Orga there waiting, we just have to join him, do you want to come or not?" Sting was impatient but excited, he was ordered to actually do whatever he wanted to Erza and that's what he planned to.

"I wouldn't lose this opportunity for nothing in the world." Rogue was smirking, not that Riku could see either way.

The two boys walked away, being followed by Riku, taking in a safe distance.

"And that's how I know." Riku finished the explanation, now wrapping some cloth to Erza's wound. "Though, I lost them on the way here and I was desperately searching when I heard noises near the lake. I saw Orga at the cave's entrance and I hid again before he could see me. So I thought of calling your name expecting for them to go away, in fear they got discovered." He laughed, it was just as he planned, somehow.

Erza smiled at the boy, he wasn't really good at fighting but when it came to thinking he could make for the lack of abilities.

"Should we go to the infirmary? There is one near the center. Your wound is a little deeper than I thought, you should…"

"It's ok, I'm worried about the others, and Minerva did say she was going to take care of the rest right?" Erza interrupted. "I want to go check on them first since they went to the center anyway, I will go treat my wound just after I see they are all alright." She assured him, the infirmary was near the center either way.

Riku nodded and walked with her, accompanying her until they got to Class A and B' house again, she paused there to bandage her wound quickly cleaning out the blood and take a thin jacket to cover it so no one could see.

"Ok, I'm ready to go, you should go join your girlfriend now, I'm really sorry you're late because of all this." Erza apologized, bowing slightly.

"A..Ah it's ok, please don't be sorry because of something like that." He pleaded awkwardly. "I couldn't just leave you there now, could I?" The boy laughed to lighten the atmosphere. "Then, I'll go on my way now, be careful ok?"

The red head nodded and saw him leave in a different way herself did.

I hope everyone's alright, why isn't Lucy getting my calls? Erza wondered, she tried to message and call her with Riku's phone but with no luck, she only had her best friend's number in her head since Erza didn't possess a smartphone herself, so it was hard for her to contact anyone else.

I'm really starting to think that buying a phone is really a necessity these past days.

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AN: I just want to say to all Sting and Rogue fans, I do like them on the original series, but I thought here they would make good villains, please don't hate me xD (thus let's don't forget how they were when first introduced.)

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