CHAPTER 99
"What do you want?" Tory snapped. The air in the dojo had immediately run cold, all of them staring at the Cobra with extreme contempt. Sarah herself was nervous to be here, second guessing herself at every moment that this was the right decision, but she forced herself to press on.
"I'm not here to fight." Sarah told them, even raising her hands in a gesture of peace, making her intentions clear. She wasn't here to confront the Miyagi-Dos. If anything, it was the exact opposite. "I just want to talk."
"We have nothing to say to you." Sam snapped, trying to block off any attempt at a conversation that Sarah was trying to start.
"Please. Just hear me out." Sarah begged them. "Look, I know what's going on tonight. I know that one of you is planning with Marcos. I'm warning you… you really don't want to take that fight."
"Is that why you're here? To threaten us?" Hawk grumbled. Sarah shook her head.
"No. I'm here to warn you. I'm sure you've noticed, the past few weeks, something hasn't been right with Marcos. In his head. He's been acting differently. More aggressive. More withdrawn from human emotion."
"And what? After everything he's done to us, you expect us to go easy on him?" Tory snapped. Sarah shook head once more.
"The opposite." Sarah replied, before turning to look at Robby as she continued. "With the state of mind Marcos is in, he's not going to be just looking to win the fight. He's going to be looking to kill you."
"Yeah, we've heard." Robby murmured, not with the same aggressive tone that the rest of Miyagi-Do wore when addressing Sarah. "Well… thank you for the warning. I'm still fighting him."
Sarah nodded.
"I figured you'd say that." Sarah nodded. "Which is why I want to help you."
Everyone's face filled with confusion as they heard these words from the female Cobra Kai champion.
"Help us? How?" Daniel chimed in. Sarah took a deep breath before replying.
"I'm going to teach you how to beat him…"
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"I'm sorry… what?" Sam asked, the first person to respond after a long period of silence, one during which the Miyagi-Dos processed what Sarah had just said.
"You heard me. I've sparred with him more times than I can count. I know how he fights: I know his strengths and I know his weaknesses. I can teach you all of it so you can beat him tonight."
"Why would you do that?" Miguel asked. "Aren't you his girlfriend?"
"Ex-girlfriend." Sarah corrected him. "And I'm doing this for him. For his own good. As things stand, by the end of tonight, Marcos is going to be in a jail cell, accused of murder. For the sake of all parties involved, I can't let that happen. Marcos can't be allowed to win the fight tonight."
"And he won't. But we don't need your help for that." Johnny stated. Sarah sighed.
"With all due respect sir, I think you do." Sarah replied. "I say this in the kindest possible way, but I don't think any of you have what it takes to beat Marcos right now."
"Thanks." Hawk muttered sarcastically. Sarah shook her head.
"I don't mean it like that. It's just… Marcos' mind. I've never seen him like this before. Whatever's going on with him, it's bad enough that he's scared to tell anyone, and it's made him into a different person. It's like he's become completely desensitized to physical pain." Sarah explained. "When you fight him, it's going to be like fighting a robot. You can't win unless you already know the chink in the armor going into the fight."
"I think you're underestimating us." Miguel commented. Sarah raised an eyebrow.
"You know he trains as of late? Punching a foam punching target isn't good enough for him anymore. His newest toy in the dojo is a concrete stone slab, shaped like a human. He beats it until his hands are on the brink of shattering, and yet he doesn't complain about the pain at all." Sarah stated. "Combined with the fact that he's been training 10 years longer than you, knowing what the stakes are if you lose tonight, is this really a fight you want to go into without as much knowledge as possible?"
Another silence. You could hear a pin drop. Nobody dared speak as they all thought deeply about everything Sarah had to say, both about Marcos and about her own offer.
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Tory asked. "How do we know you're not just lying? That you're not just feeding us some bullshit that you and Marcos concocted together to try and ambush Robby?"
"You saw him today. Do you really think Marcos looks like he's in the right headspace to do something that calculated right now?" Sarah remarked. "No. He's reckless. He's emotional. He's not listening to common sense or reason, and he's going to get himself or someone else hurt. I'm just trying to look out for him, and the only way that he makes it through tonight with the least amount of damage done to his life as possible is if he loses this fight to you."
As they listened to Sarah speaking, the Miyagi-Dos were more and more inclined to believe her. These weren't the words of someone trying to make them fall into the trap. These weren't even the words of a spited ex, trying to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend. Sarah still clearly genuinely had love for Marcos, and she was trying to do what was best for Marcos, even if he couldn't see it himself. It was a hail mary on her part, a last resort after every other option had been exhausted.
"Alright. You can teach us." Sam said. Sarah raised an eyebrow.
"Us? Who said anything about us? I agreed to teach him. Not the rest of you." Sarah responded, pointing at Robby.
"Um… why not?" Miguel asked.
"Are all of you fighting Marcos tonight? Because last I checked, it was just Robby." Sarah said. "Let's not get it mistaken… I'm not turning my back on Marcos or Cobra Kai in any way. You're still our opponents for the Taikai. I'm not just going to freely give you all the keys to beat us."
"You realize that even if you just teach Robby, he can always just teach the rest of us, right?" Tory remarked. Sarah nodded, turning towards Robby.
"He always trusted you… Marcos has." Sarah told him. "I can't stop you from teaching the rest of them if that's what you want to do. But if you have as much honor as Marcos thinks you do, I hope you won't."
Robby glanced at her for a moment, his eyes then flickering to the rest of Miyagi-Do, before looking back at her.
"I won't." Robby replied, before turning to the rest of them. "All of you should leave. I'll see you all later tonight. After the fight."
After a bit of protesting from the Miyagi-Dos, they reluctantly relented and obeyed as he instructed. Saying goodbye though was harder than any of them could imagine. Despite the offer Sarah had made, they didn't know for sure that they'd be seeing Robby again after tonight. They knew exactly what Robby was walking into, who he was walking into a fight with, and just how horribly wrong this could go. And the worst part… there was nothing anyone could do to talk him out of it.
There were long goodbyes said, particularly amongst those closest to Robby, those most fearful of what could happen to him tonight. But eventually, they were all forced to leave the dojo, leaving just Sarah and Robby behind. Once they were all gone, it took a few moments for Robby to gather himself and his emotions, but he then turned towards Sarah, who had moved towards the back of the dojo as all of this had unfolded, giving the Miyagi-Dos their space.
"Alright." Robby said. "Teach me how to beat Marcos…"
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Four hours later and it was finally time for the fight. After an hour and a half of working with Sarah to understand Marcos' fighting weaknesses, Robby had gone home, to prepare himself physically and mentally for what was to come. Even the littlest of details, as time drew nearer to the 8 pm fight, Robby found himself stressing over: what to wear that would give him the most flexibility; what to eat and drink before the fight; what techniques to go over in his head. Time dragged by at an interminably slow speed, and yet in the blink of an eye, it was time for Robby to head over to the canyon.
The sun had long set by now, so if not for the many street lights in Los Angeles, Robby wouldn't have been able to see. Even so, as he ventured further and further from the main streets, and closer towards the canyon and the beach, it slowly became pitch-black and much harder to see through.
He arrived at 8:45, 15 minutes earlier than the agreed upon time, but just as he had expected, Marcos was already there. The Cobra was warming up, throwing shadow punches and kicks at the air, readying himself for a bloodbath. He didn't even acknowledge Robby as his opponent arrived, not until an alarm on his watch signaled that it was 9 pm, and therefore time for battle to commence.
The two, standing on opposite sides of the canyon, slowly made their way towards each other, their guards very much up, expecting their opponent to try and strike quickly as soon as they approached one another. Neither did though. In fact, as they got closer, Marcos wasn't even looking at Robby. Instead, his eyes were trained over Robby's shoulder, and he pointed in that direction, gesturing for Robby to look. Slowly, Robby did, only to see all of Miyagi-Do's teenagers proceeding to walk swiftly towards them.
"Way to hold up your end of the deal." Marcos muttered. "I'm not doing this then."
With that, Marcos began to turn away but Robby called him back.
"Not so fast." Robby stated. "Look who else is here."
Robby pointed to the other side of the canyon, where all of Cobra Kai seemingly converged on them. As Marcos spotted them, he let out a loud groan of annoyance.
"What the hell are they doing here?!" He grumbled to himself, furious at the defiance of all of the other students, both the Cobra Kais and the Miyagi-Dos.
As a matter of fact, it hadn't been Robby or Marcos who had called for reinforcements. It had been Sarah and Tory, unable to watch the people they love fight to the death with there being nothing they could do to stop them, so they couldn't help but show up and bring the rest of their respective dojos. It was completely against Marcos and Robby's requests but they couldn't care less. They weren't going to allow anyone to die tonight: not their loved one or their opponent.
"All of you. Go home." Robby told them. Unsurprisingly, neither did. Now that they were here, and they had seen the fact that their counterpart dojo was here, neither were going to leave any time soon.
Thankfully though, the two dojos didn't immediately charge at one another, inciting a brawl. That was the last thing Robby and Marcos wanted. Instead, they began to form the unmistakable shape of a large ring around the two teenagers. Effectively trapping Robby and Marcos inside it, the pair felt like they were now in the middle of a boxing ring, no way out apart from being downed by their opponent.
The Cobra Kais and Miyagi-Dos stared daggers at one another as they formed the large ring, all of them staring at the person directly opposite them, who happened to be a member of the opposing dojo. They were watching with eagle eyes, making sure nobody stepped out of line and approached the two fighters in the middle, as if anyone did, it for sure had the capability to spark an entire brawl.
"All right. You ready?" Robby turned towards Marcos and asked. Hopping from foot to foot, silently psyching himself up for what he knew would be a long night of fighting against a worthy opponent, Marcos nodded.
"Let's do this…"