CHAPTER 35

A/N

Hey, sorry about another AN! This is just a quick one I swear though. This is one more thing I've been getting quite a lot about my story…

"This story is so unrealistic for the show. It's never going to happen in the real show."

Yeah, I realise that. This story is not supposed to have everything potentially happen the real show. And trust me, if you think that first part of the story was unrealistic, the second part becomes even more so. It is not going to be super dark like my first Cobra Kai story. It's not going to be dark, but there are things that will definitely not be appearing in the real show. Top of the list… Miguel getting together with the original character.

Anyways, that's it. Short and sweet. Let's get the chapter started…

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"I am really, really sorry. She didn't make it…"

As soon as Miguel heard those words, his mind completely shut off. His whole body went numb, like he had fallen in a vat of ice water. His limbs refused to move, and his mind slowed to a halt. She didn't make it. She didn't make it. She didn't make it. The words echoed through his brain as his mind refused to absorb them and process them. He couldn't believe it. His yaya was dead. No, she couldn't be. This had to be some nightmare, some sick dream his mind had pulled him into. But it wasn't. The biggest nightmare was the fact that it wasn't a nightmare. It was the cruel hands of God conquering any sense of control he thought he had over his life.

Miguel felt his limbs go limp and he slid to the ground, his back pressed against the wall, his breath beginning to go faster and faster and refusing to catch. He could feel his blood pounding in his ears as it rushed to his head. His legs kept collapsing underneath him as he attempted to make it to his feet, eventually managing to get up. He stumbled towards the hospital room, shoving past the doctor in his haste to get inside. Tears were yet to spill down his cheeks, the shock of everything still numbing his insides. When he charged inside the hospital room, he saw his yaya lying in the center of the room, white sheets covering all but her head, her face pale as the sheet as she stared lifelessly back at him.

At this point, a nurse walked over to him and gave him a hug, but Miguel was barely functioning enough to hear her. His senses had shut off completely and the only thing he could do was look at the corpse of one of the people he loved most in the world. He vaguely recalled the nurse taking his hand and slipping something small in it.

"It was on her when she died." The nurse explained as she handed it to him. Miguel slowly looked down and saw that it was the gold cross that his yaya ALWAYS wore on her. Miguel had never seen in not tucked into her shirt around her neck. 16 Christmases, Thanksgivings, New Years, Easters, all spent with his grandma in blissful happiness; all spent with his yaya wearing that very necklace.

"WAKE UP! PLEASE, YAYA WAKE UP! GOD DAMN IT! PLEASE! PLEASE WAKE UP!" Miguel bellowed, begging his deceased family member to get up, but to no avail. She merely stared lifelessly back at him. That was when the barrier finally broke, and Miguel broke down. Tears streamed relentlessly down his face and he curled into a ball in the corner of the room and sobbed his eyes out. His heart was screaming in pain but his brain was still numb. It was an inexplicable feeling. Miguel didn't even notice Johnny, Carmen and George walking over to him, attempting to comfort him. He stayed in that tight ball, his head in his hands, crying hysterically, for what seemed like hours, before kissing his grandmother on the forehead and leaving the room, the gold cross still grasped tightly in his hands…

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The next 24 hours blended into a heart-wrenching blur. He barely recalled sitting in the back of his mom's car as Johnny drove them home. All he remembered was racing into his room, slamming and locking his bedroom door behind him. He collapsed on his bed, sobbing his heart out as he thought about his yaya, and how many memories they had made together. When she had convinced him to try and teach her karate. When she had found out about the fight Miguel had gotten in in the school cafeteria and when the school forced her to come pick him up and take him home, rather than grounding him she took him out for lunch to celebrate. All of these amazing memories were just that… memories. And the fact that Miguel knew that he would be making no more with her made his soul feel like it was being ripped out of his chest.

After what seemed like an eternity, when his mind was completely exhausted from being dragged back into all of his best memories with his grandmother, Miguel slowly stumbled to his feet and stood before the mirror. He looked at it and absolutely loathed the reflection he was seeing in it. Putting aside the bloodshot eyes, the flaming-red nose and the tear-stained cheeks, Miguel looked down at his torso and couldn't help but scowl at the person staring back at him. For the first time since he had rejoined Cobra Kai, Miguel's eyes had found the ability to break through past his newly-built arms, chest and abs muscles, found a way to break though all of the new-found physical prowess he had achieved. And as he stared deep inside him, he realised something: he was a monster. His core was rotting like a shrivelled apple and from it, black sludge seemed to pump out. As he stared, horrified, at the creature opposite him, he remembered his final row with his yaya. She had been trying to warn him about what he was becoming, but he hadn't believed her. Everyone had been trying to warn him for so long, but he had quickly shut them up without listening to them. And now he was paying the price: his yaya had gone down to the grave thinking he was nothing more than a bully…

Almost 48 hours after he had returned from the hospital, Miguel finally emerged from his room, to an eerily quiet house. His mom's car was not in the driveway so she clearly wasn't home, and his yaya… well, she wasn't home either. Even at the mere quick thought of his grandmother, Miguel felt his heart rate began to rise and he began to struggle for breath again, so he desperately needed some fresh air. He walked outside the house and opened the door, surprised at the sight of the amber setting sun before him. He had no clue what time of day it was because for him, time had seemingly stopped. However, looking up at the sky and out at the city, he realised that despite the past few days being the worst of his life, life went on as normal for everyone else. They weren't feeling the pain he was feeling. They were all living their own lives, celebrating achievements, commiserating failures. The majority weren't mourning the loss of a loved one like he was.

Feeling the pain beginning to stab at his chest again, Miguel stumbled over a bench and sat down, looking up at the sky. He watched as the sun's amber rays hid behind a building, the light completely blocked and conquered by the dark. That had been the story of his life during the past 4 months. Cobra Kai had been the building, creating a wall around him so tough that the kind words and pleas of his loved ones to listen to them couldn't penetrate it. But as the sun set deeper, glimpses of rays managed to seep through the corners of the building and light up the sky in a mixture of amber, crimson and purple.

Miguel was so captivated by the sunset that he hardly noticed the footsteps of someone walking up behind him. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and he leapt into the air in shock. Spinning around rapidly, he immediately saw that it was just Johnny and he relaxed considerably.

"Hey." Johnny grunted. "Can I sit down?"

Miguel didn't respond, and merely nodded at him, not rapidly rejecting his approach like he had every time Johnny had tried to talk to him since the school fight. Johnny sat down next to him and Miguel glanced at him, noticing a 6 pack in Johnny's hands. At that moment, Johnny took a beer out and looked at Miguel.

"You want one?" Johnny asked. Miguel accepted it gratefully and popped it open, before looking at Johnny and realising that weirdly, he didn't have one in his own hands.

"You're not drinking?" Miguel commented. Johnny shrugged and pulled out 1 non-alcoholic beer from his cooler.

"Nah, I… I don't drink anymore." Johnny replied. Miguel couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"This coming from the man who once drank so much alcohol that it would've made a cow drunk." Miguel remarked. Johnny chuckled and shrugged.

"Yeah. Went to rehab for that while you were in physical therapy. Managed to kick the addiction."

"Damn." Miguel remarked shortly in reply, before looking down at the ground and taking a sip of his beer.

"So how are you doing?" Johnny asked him. Miguel sighed.

"Not great. Can't close my eyes, can't even blink without seeing her. Can't think about anything but her. Randomly find myself weeping sometimes so that's not great."

Johnny closed his eyes in sympathetic pain for his former student.

"Miguel, I am so, so sorry for your loss. If there was anything I could do to changed what happened…"

"But you can't do anything." Miguel snapped, interrupting him. "Neither can I. Neither can my mom. Neither can anyone. That's the fucking scary part. God randomly chose that day to kill one of the kindest people I've ever met and there wasn't a damn thing anyone could've done to stop it."

"I know it hurts, Miguel. Trust me, I remember it with my mom." Johnny murmured. "And although the grief feels like it's going to eat you up, you can't let it suck you in and swallow you whole. Your grandmother wouldn't want that."

Miguel sighed and nodded.

"I know. Just fucking hurts so much." He whispered quietly. "How's my mom doing?"

Although he hadn't left his room in 48 hours, Miguel had heard Johnny in his family's living room earlier that day and the day before, so he knew that Johnny was clearly helping his mom out.

"She's okay. Coping just like you are." Johnny replied. "She just went to go sign some papers for… for Rosa's death certificate."

Miguel winced in pain. Hearing things like that just made everything seem so much realer. He had spent every moment of the past 48 hours hoping and praying that this was just a nightmare but as time went on, he knew that that was less and less likely.

"You know what sucks the most though?" Miguel remarked. "My yaya died. She's never coming back. She was a hero to me. My teacher. My best friend. She always came through for me. And now she's gone, thinking that I didn't feel that way about her. Thinking I was nothing more than a brainless, merciless latino thug who was never going to amount to anything in life."

"Miguel, come on. She loved you. You know that. All the way to the end." Johnny murmured. Miguel shook his head vehemently.

"No! You don't know that." Miguel grumbled. "The morning she died… she and I got into a pretty heated argument. She was trying to tell me about how much of a bully I had become but I just ignored her, verbally attacked her, and stormed out."

"Even so, I'm sure your grandmother always had faith that you would come around eventually. I know everyone that cares about you did. Your grandmother loved you till the very end."

"Oh yeah? You know what my last words to her were? Go to hell." Miguel whispered. After saying his harsh last words to his grandmother out loud, tears trickled down his cheeks again. Such strong, hate-fuelled words that he would never be able to take back. Johnny honestly had no clue how to help Miguel at this point, merely putting a supportive hand on Miguel's shoulder and sitting in silence with him for a while. The silence grew longer and longer and longer. The sun had fully set and stars glinted across the sky when Johnny spoke next.

"So, what comes now? You know, after the memorial and everything." Johnny asked. Miguel looked at his old mentor and locked eyes with him when he responded, his next words a lot firmer than the feeble whisper he had uttered his last words in.

"Now… Now I'm going to return to being the person she would've been proud of. I'm done with Cobra Kai…"