CHAPTER 40

While most of Miyagi-Do had split up as individuals, there was one pair that had remained together, the two that were most reluctant to get involved in this fight. Robby and Miguel walked through the forest together, having eliminated only 1 person each who had approached them. It was almost like they were another set of referees, rather than actual fighters. Neither was actively trying to hunt down any opponents, and so the only people they eliminated were two overly aggressive Cobra Kais. Shockingly, it wasn't the people they expected to be looking for them: Kenny hadn't tried to hunt down Robby, and Kyler hadn't tried to do the same to Miguel.

The pair had no idea how many people were left, or how many people had been eliminated so far. All they knew was that after everyone on one side had been eliminated, Johnny and Daniel would blow their whistles. They hadn't done so yet, which meant that there were still members of Cobra Kai left, at least one person left on that side. And they didn't need to be omniscient to know who that person would probably be. That boy was the only near certainty of who was left in the game right now. Miguel and Robby hadn't yet come across Sam, Tory, Hawk, or any of the other Miyagi-Dos, so they didn't know if they had been eliminated yet or not.

It had been an eerily quiet, almost boring experience for both of them so far. The two Cobra Kais they had eliminated really hadn't been much of a fight, so they were still yet to have really done anything other than plod through the woods like sheep. It was only a couple of minutes later when they were finally greeted with some action.

They heard it before they saw it. Voices up ahead. Loud voices. This wasn't the sound of a few people either. It was the unmistakable sound of a large group. And it didn't sound like there was any fighting going on either. It just sounded like some kind of loud conversation going on. With every second, the voices seemed to be getting much closer. Whoever it was, they were surely approaching the pair pretty fast. Robby and Miguel quickly dashed behind a tree to hide from whoever it was, fearing that it wasn't a friend and was instead a foe, and sure enough their fears were right. It was Cobra Kai, three very familiar members of the dojo: Kyler, Mitch and Kenny.

Robby completely ignored the first two people, but it was the third that really caught his eye. The mere 14 year old was leading the group of Cobra Kais, three blue Miyagi-Do headbands tied to his arm to display his three kills. As Robby saw him, another pang of guilt ran through him. This was his fault. Every time Kenny struck a Miyagi-Do, every time Kenny put on the Cobra Kai gi, it was his fault for getting the boy into Cobra Kai in the first place. He himself hadn't been in Cobra Kai for very long, so he wasn't completely familiar with the threat Cobra Kai possessed at the time, and yet he had decided to rope an impressionable, vulnerable teenager into the dojo. He thought he had been doing the right thing at the time, but honestly looking back on it now, he couldn't believe that he had ever thought that.

He believed that he had failed Kenny so many times now. He had failed him the moment he convinced Kenny to set foot in the dojo for the first time. He had failed him when he hadn't noticed the signs of Kenny becoming more aggressive until he was actively beating the shit out of Anthony. He had failed to get him out of Cobra Kai when he left himself, and only spoke to him about it weeks later. And he was continuing to fail him every day since they had made the deal about the Taikai, as Robby had been so preoccupied with training to beat Marcos that he hadn't spoken to Kenny again since, he hadn't tried once more to get him out of the dojo. Well he wasn't going to let another chance go to waste now.

Before he could react, he found himself beginning to step out from behind the tree he was standing behind. Just before he did, he felt Miguel's hand lightly grab his arm, and Robby met Miguel's confused gaze.

"What are you doing?" Miguel whispered to him, confused. Robby shook his head.

"I need to do this." He replied, before stepping out from behind the tree, Miguel following close behind…

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For a second, the Cobras didn't see them. They were so preoccupied in a conversation about something that they didn't notice the sudden movement in front of them. However, it wasn't long before they looked up and saw who were standing in front of them. A flash of fear went through the eyes of both Kyler and Mitch as they saw who it was: the last duo any of them wanted to come up against in Coyote Creek. Kenny, on the other hand, didn't show any fear. Fear did not exist in this dojo, that was the emblem emblazoned on their dojo wall, and unlike many who wore their gi, Kenny actually abided by that motto. He wasn't scared of Robby or Miguel. He had already beaten Hawk in the fight, and had also knocked down Robby when Miguel came in and unexpectedly sucker-kicked him from behind. The big three as they were known - Robby, Hawk and Miguel - weren't all they were cracked up to be. As good fighters as they were, they weren't unbeatable, and Kenny wasn't afraid of pushing them to their limits in whatever upcoming fight was about to occur.

Contrary to these thoughts, however, was Robby's next move. He raised both of his hands up, and even took a step back from the Cobra Kais, a gesture of surrender.

"I don't want to fight. I just want to talk. To you." Robby said, nodding at Kenny, who regarded him with a combination of mistrust and hatred. He would never forget what Robby had done to him. Would never forget the betrayal, when Robby went from fighting alongside them to fighting against them without saying a word to him about it beforehand. He would never forget seeing Robby standing with the Miyagi-Dos in the Cobra Kai dojos, showing techniques to none other than his bully, Anthony Larusso.

"I've got nothing to say to you." Kenny responded hotly. At this moment, Kyler and Mitch were confused. What should they do? Should they interrupt the conversation to attack their opponents? Should they take advantage of the window of opportunity and turn around and run away into the woods, living to fight another day? Their inability to make this decision caused them all to merely stand around, awkwardly listening into the conversation, under the watchful eye of Miguel, who was ready to pounce if either of them tried anything.

Robby sighed. He could practically feel the rage emanating from Kenny. It was shocking to see just how deep Cobra Kai had managed to stab their fangs into the young boy in such a short time.

"Look, I know you hate me right now. You have a right to. But whether you like it or not, Kenny, I have your best interests at heart. Cobra Kai doesn't." Robby told him. Kenny scoffed in disbelief.

"Bullshit." He snapped. Robby raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Because let me guess… Cobra Kai doesn't give a shit about you right now. Not with a new champion to take center stage."

Robby knew that he had struck a nerve, as the rage on Kenny's face increased a hundredfold. He could tell Kenny wasn't far from lunging at him right now, so he continued in a slightly softer tone.

"This is how Cobra Kai works, Kenny. At Cobra Kai, you're not a student, you're a soldier. One of them while they need you, but they cast you aside so quickly as soon as they don't. They don't truly care about you."

Robby paused for a moment as he waited for Kenny's reaction. There was an unreadable expression on his face, so Robby couldn't tell what he was thinking until he finally spoke up.

"That's not true." Kenny replied in a low voice, refusing to meet Robby's gaze. If anything, his eyes seemed to be flickering over Robby's shoulder, like he was looking at something there.

"Are you sure? Can you name me one person in Cobra Kai, student or sensei, that you could call for help right now? Not as backup in a fight. But if you genuinely need help with something big, who do you call? Do you really think Kreese and Kim would be there for you? Do you really think these morons beside you would be there? Because I'm telling you, Kenny. I would be. And if you joined Miyagi-Do, so would every single member of the dojo. If you can genuinely tell me one person in the dojo who actually has your best interests at heart, then go ahead and stay with Cobra Kai. I won't even try to stop you. Because I guarantee you can't."

Kenny went silent once again, before his face broke out into a thin smile.

"Well I guess I'm staying in Cobra Kai then. Because there is someone." Kenny told him. Robby raised an eyebrow, disbelieving.

"Oh yeah? Who?"

All of a sudden, a sickening CRACK filled the air, and both Robby and Miguel hit the ground like a sack of bricks. In the midst of their conversation with Kenny, neither of them had noticed two more Cobras walking up behind them. They should've known. They should've known that the Cobras would have set ambushes, but it was too late to react now. They had both been brutally clobbered to the back of the head, and they saw stars as they fell face-down onto the ground. This was no ordinary punch, they could tell that immediately. This wasn't from Kenny, Kyler or any of the mid-level Cobra Kai students. No… this punch was powerful enough to have almost knocked them both out, and it did indeed daze them for a long time, a ringing in their ears and a blinding white in their eyes overwhelming every other sense. In fact, Miguel hardly noticed as someone took off his headband, and Robby definitely didn't notice that nobody had taken off his.

For a moment, Robby and Miguel thought it was Marcos who had managed to sneak up behind them. From what they had seen of the Cobra Kai champion so far though, that didn't really seem much like his style. They were right. As they slowly managed to roll themselves onto their backs, still in too much pain to full stand, they found themselves staring up at someone completely unfamiliar to Miguel, but all too familiar to Robby. That malicious smile, the lethally powerful punching… he was immediately transported back to his months of incarceration in juvie.

"What's up, Robby?" Shawn grinned at him, almost relishing at the sight of Robby in pain. Robby tried to drag himself to his feet, expecting there to be a fight, but he couldn't. He just couldn't. He felt like a 1000 pound weight had been inserted into the back of his skull, causing it to throb agonizingly and prevent him from getting up.

"Argh…" Robby groaned in pain as he squinted up at the person above him. "S-shawn?"

"That's right. I'm out." He replied. "And imagine my surprise when I come home and I hear all about how you betrayed my brother."

"That's… that's not what happened." Robby murmured through the pain. Shawn chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head.

"You know, I told Kenny to go to you because I thought you could help him while I was in juvie. And you did help him, by getting him into Cobra Kai with you. But now… now you're only thinking about yourself. You're not trying to get him out of Cobra Kai; you're just trying to get him into the same dojo as you."

"That's not true." Robby muttered.

"I think it is, Robby." Shawn replied. "From what I heard, you jumped ship to go be with your dad. And good for you too. Because family… that's all you have. You can get dumped. Friends betray you. But family… that lasts forever. And Kenny's real family is back now, and we're both staying in Cobra Kai."

Shawn then reached down to take off Robby's headband, but before he could, a voice stopped him.

"Hey, stop!" Kenny exclaimed. Shawn looked up at him, confused.

"What?" He asked.

"Remember what Sensei said. We let him go." Kenny replied cryptically. As Robby and Miguel rolled around on the ground in pain, still trying to stumble to their feet, they heard this, confused. Let him go? What did that even mean?

Well, it meant that rather than taking the headband and officially eliminating Robby, Shawn and the other Cobras then turned on their heels and walked away into the forest. Once they were gone, a short while later, Robby and Miguel finally managed to drag themselves to their feet. They stumbled a few times as they could still feel excruciating pain at the back of both of their heads, but they were able to turn to one another.

"Shit. I guess I'm out then." Miguel murmured, defeated. "Why'd they let you go?"

Robby shrugged, clutching the back of his head, trying to rub some of the pain away, but doing so completely unsuccessfully.

"No idea." He replied, genuinely confused as to why when he was completely at their mercy, they didn't choose to finish him.

"They clearly have something planned for you." Miguel remarked. "Be careful."

"I will." Robby nodded. With that, Miguel turned and began the long walk back to base camp, leaving Robby behind him.

Miguel was out. Hawk was out. Sam was out. Tory was out. Things looked extremely bleak for the Miyagi-Dos, but they did have one of their main fighters left. One last hope of beating Cobra Kai…