CHAPTER 34

Okay, I know the story got pretty dark and off-topic, but I'm bringing it back on track now. From here on out, it's going to be back to old-fashioned, good Karate. But just saying, the point of fanfiction is to write extremely out-there, unrealistic stories, so that's what I did. But there will be karate ahead, a couple of things similar to Season 3 and a couple different. Anyways, big things ahead

As Miguel walked into the dojo, he felt every eye on him. The whole group were astonished, and they had to pinch themselves to make sure they weren't imagining him there. Although with all of his scars, burns and bruises on his face he looked like a zombie, he was very much alive, and it left them in a complete sense of shock and astonishment. Hawk was the first to break free from the motionless silence and he ran over to Miguel, embracing his best friend.

"Man, I can't believe you're alive!" Hawk exclaimed. "This is awesome! El Serpiente and the Hawk back at last."

"Reunited and it feels so good." Miguel joked, as he bro-hugged his friend, before turning to the others. They had all finally gotten over their shock of seeing him and they were all over-the-moon. Well, all of them but Robby, who looked less than pleased to see him. Miguel felt exactly the same way though. Robby had been out of State for almost a year now, and before that, he was in juvie, so the only time Miguel had seen him since the school fight was in the park the night the rebels decided to team up. However then, Robby was practically unconscious on the ground, so this was the first time Miguel had seen him in his full glory since the school fight. Needless to say, Miguel was slightly uncomfortable as memories of the school fight came rushing back. Miguel shrugged the flashbacks off though. It had been more than a year. They both had grown.

The last person Miguel approached as he walked through the dojo was Johnny. Miguel walked over to him, grinning faintly, as his sensei stared at him in shock.

"Thought you were dead." Johnny murmured. Miguel smirked and shrugged.

"What can I say? My sensei taught me that the fight ends when I say it ends, and that means y'all are stuck with me for a bit longer. That okay with you?" Miguel remarked.

"Hell, yeah." Johnny grinned, and the two embraced tightly, hugging each other and grinning massive smiles. Robby scowled at them, his hatred for Miguel boiling more and more with every passing second. He side-glanced at Sam and saw her expression as she looked at Miguel. She clearly was done with him romantically, and had all of her focus on Miguel. Robby clenched his jaw as he glared at Miguel. That boy had taken everything from him. Losing the All-Valley, going to juvie, Johnny not being there for him while he was in juvie, losing Sam… it was all Miguel's fault. And he was going to pay…

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"All right, guys, listen up!" Daniel said later that day. The group were in the Miyagi-Do dojo and they were preparing for a tough afternoon of training. Robby, Miguel, Hawk, Sam, Demitri and Aisha all lined up and got ready for training to begin. "So, we have done a lot of drills over the past couple of months, which has helped increase your strength, speed, agility and a lot more. However, all of those drills and no fight training is useless. We need to train you guys to fight, and to do that, you are going to..."

"Kick the crap out of each other." Johnny finished. Daniel shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"No, we're going to be doing some light sparring, not kicking the crap out of each other." Daniel snapped, emphasising the word light. "So, what we're going to do is that we're going to start with one person, and that person can choose anyone in the group to challenge to a fight. It's basically a winner-stays-on sparring drill."

"Can we challenge senseis?" Miguel asked, looking at Johnny, who chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"No, you can't challenge the senseis." Daniel replied.

"How many points are we doing it to?" Demitri asked.

"To the death." Johnny grinned in reply. Daniel glared at his fellow sensei.

"What? No! Johnny, shut up!" Daniel exclaimed. "We'll do it first to 3 points wins. Okay, who wants to start?"

"I will." Robby snapped, walking onto the mat. Daniel nodded.

"Okay, Robby, who do you challenge? Bear in mind that if you win the fight, you can't challenge them again until you have challenged everyone else."

"I challenge Miguel." Robby said, instantly. Everyone looked at each other nervously. They knew that Robby and Miguel were definitely not on the best of terms, and having them fight one another probably wasn't the best option.

"Robby, are you sure…" Daniel started. He didn't want to ruin the team's camaraderie that they so desperately needed by creating a rivalry within the team. However, that match-up did make the most sense. Miguel and Robby were both on another level to any of the other fighters in the Valley and having them on the same team and pushing each other to be better could be their ticket to winning the final fight.

"It's fine. I'm fighting." Miguel said, gritting his teeth determined. He also had a score to settle with Robby. That boy had kicked him over the balcony. Miguel had become paralysed, told that he would never walk again. He had to relearn how to stand. He had to relearn how to walk. He had to relearn how to fight, and it was all because of Robby. Miguel fistbumped Hawk, who knew that Miguel was about to beat Robby, and then walked onto the mat.

"Miguel, are you sure? I mean, you just got back from… you know." Johnny said. Miguel nodded, scowling at Robby.

"I'm sure." Miguel growled in reply.

"Okay, guys, remember. This is for PRACTISE. I don't need either of you winding up with another injury." Johnny stated.

"Okay, remember three points wins. Watch control. Bow to each other. Begin." Daniel instructed. Miguel and Robby did so, the two boys staring daggers at each other, and then began to fight…

Miguel immediately noticed that there was no way Robby was taking it easy. As soon as the bell rang, Robby lunged at him, kneeing him multiple times to the ribs and possibly cracking one or two. Miguel stumbled backwards, coughing and spluttering. Daniel and Johnny's eyes widened at this and they immediately stepped in between the two.

"Guys, stop!" Johnny exclaimed.

"I'm calling it." Daniel stated.

"What's the matter? Couldn't keep up?" Robby sneered at Miguel. Miguel sighed. He really couldn't. He had just come back from the most traumatic experience of his life and every hit that Robby got on him landed on an existing burn, bruise or gash, causing a LOT more pain. Hawk immediately started storming towards Robby, but Miguel held him back.

"I'm fine." Miguel muttered. "Let's keep going."

"Miguel, you're injured! No one's expecting you to fight right now!" Johnny exclaimed. Miguel shook his head.

"No, I'm fighting. The whole point of Karate is to show the world you're not a pansy-ass nerd. To show toughness. To beat the living crap out of people. To not get pushed around. You taught me that, Sensei." Miguel stated.

"Wow, great lessons, Johnny." Daniel muttered under his breath, sarcastically. "Look, Miguel, this is training. You are trying to prove to anyone…"

"But I am. I am trying to prove myself to someone… to myself." Miguel interrupted. "I need to prove to myself that no pasty-ass bitch is going to push me around and get away with it. I'm fighting. Period."

Daniel and Johnny sighed, and Robby's smirk faded a little. The two senseis knew there was no changing Miguel's mind.

"Okay, fine. But Robby, calm the fuck down." Johnny snapped. Robby shrugged.

"What? It's not my fault he can't handle it." Robby remarked. Sam and everyone else glared at him. They knew exactly what Robby was doing: he was trying to goad Miguel into a fight, and it was working. Miguel was in no shape to fight anyone, least of all Robby, but he was too stubborn to back out of the fight.

"Okay, bow to each other." Daniel said, reluctantly. Miguel and Robby did that and as they did, they stared each other down. Neither of them were backing out of the fight, and neither of them were about to go easy.

The second round of the 'light sparring' fight was a lot closer than the fight. Although Miguel was slightly sluggish and was clearly in extreme pain at every blow Robby landed, he forced himself to soldier on, and he did a pretty good job. He managed to block Robby into a position where Miguel just had to deliver one final point, however in that moment, he stared into Robby's cold, unblinking eyes and was suddenly dragged back to the school fight. He paused as he felt himself back on that balcony, being kicked over, and falling for what seemed like an eternity, before crashing down onto the railing and feeling the worst pain he had ever felt in his life. He seemed to be stuck in that nightmare for several seconds and it cost him. Johnny noticed Miguel suddenly get distracted and accidentally lower his guard, and he winced as he anticipated what was about to come. Sure enough, Robby quickly noticed Miguel's hesitancy, and he took advantage of it, throwing Miguel to the ground but not stopping there. From there, Robby stomped on Miguel's face several times before everybody managed to pull Robby off of a now bleeding Miguel. Robby had reopened a gash on his face, and Miguel was bleeding a steady stream of blood.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Johnny shouted at Robby. "You trying to kill him?!"

Daniel and Sam slowly helped Miguel to his feet. He was extremely dazed from being stomped on the head multiple times by Robby, and he could tell he had a couple of loose teeth, as well as a broken nose.

"Miguel, you okay?" Sam asked, extremely concerned.

"Fine." Miguel grumbled as he slowly stood up and started to walk away from the mat. However, Robby wouldn't let him go without one final word.

"Better luck next time, Miguel." Robby called after him. "Better think twice before you challenge the big boys!"

Miguel glared at him and closed his eyes, too weak to fight Robby at this point. Suddenly, as Miguel closed his eyes, he didn't see Robby anymore. The weakness and lack of power he felt towards that boy made Robby suddenly turn into the mystery man who tortured him for a month. Miguel felt like he was back in that windowless, lifeless torture chamber, at the complete mercy of the man. That nightmare had suddenly re-energised Miguel, but in a bad way. Miguel dragged himself to his feet, and stormed towards Robby. Robby had turned his back to Miguel at this point so Miguel easily kicked him to the back of the head and sent him tumbling to the ground. However, Miguel wasn't done there. He stood on top of Robby, pounding every inch of him he could reach. Robby tried to use his hands to shield himself but it was no use - Miguel stood on his arms, pinning them to the ground and giving himself a massive target to hit at. The rest of the group were shell shocked. It took nearly 20 seconds of Miguel beating the absolutely shit out of Robby before the group finally stepped in. Johnny and Daniel pulled a struggling Miguel off of Robby, and Sam stood in front of him, preventing him from getting to Robby, who Johnny and Daniel were now helping. Everyone, even Hawk, was in shock. No one had ever seen Miguel like this before. He seemed unchained, not in control. It was like a hundred times worse than they had ever seen him before, and they were all in shock more than anything else.

Miguel saw Robby on the ground, being helped up by Daniel, and Miguel walked over to him, standing over to him.

"Better luck next time, Robby." Miguel spat, before storming out of the dojo…

Hey, so as you guys have probably guessed given I'm writing about it, I'm a HUGE Cobra Kai fan and I stayed up to watch Season 3 right when it was released. So I was wondering, what parts of season 3 do you think I should incorporate in this story. I have in my mind decided on a few things that I am going to make similar or different to season 3, but I want to hear you guys' opinions.