CHAPTER 41

As Miguel trudged his way back to the rendezvous point, a lot of thoughts ran through his head. He first thought about his past few confrontations with Cobra Kai, and how he had never seemed further from winning the upcoming tournament. The past two years, he had been fighting tooth and nail, and hadn't at all stopped. It started with him training under Johnny in Cobra Kai. Then came the injury, when he instead had to fight to survive, to regain the ability to walk. Then it was a fight to catch up to all of the other students, who had pulled very far ahead of him while he was stuck relearning the very basics. And finally, now that his back was completely healed and he was back up to the same level as the other best fighters in the Valley, it was all about fighting for Miyagi-Do in the Taikai.

He should've been at peak confidence, as after all, he was by far the best version of himself, both as a fighter and as a person. Johnny and Mr. Larusso were finally united, and were a cohesive unit as they trained them in two different styles for the Taikai. And not only were the senseis on the same side, but all of the best students in the Valley who had been battling with one another for years were finally all training under the same roof. Everything was in their favor, he had everything he should need to win, and yet he still felt like he was so far behind in second place to Cobra Kai.

Not only was he painfully aware of the way that Marcos had easily dispatched him in the dojo a month and a half ago, but now on top of that, Miguel had been eliminated in Coyote Creek before the likes of Kyler, Kenny and Mitch. It was an elimination that never should have happened. He should've heard Shawn coming up behind them. After all, it was Robby who had been talking to Kenny, not him. He had just been standing around to keep guard, and he had failed miserably at that. The Taikai's trophy once seemed so close to his grasp. It would've been the perfect ending to a whirlwind of a high school experience: it started by him being relentlessly bullied, reached a climax when he broke his back and became paralysed, and now was reaching its final stages. All that was needed to put the cherry on top was the Taikai trophy, but right now, he felt so far from that.

Another part of his brain was deep in thought about what had just happened. Why had the Cobra Kais spared Robby? What did they have planned? Whatever it was, it surely wasn't anything pleasant, and that thought remained with Miguel all the way until he returned to the base camp. At base camp, there was virtually everyone from the dojo already there. Other than Johnny and Daniel, there was Sam, Tory, Hawk, Demetri, Chris, Bert, Nate and everyone else. It was a foreboding sight, knowing that Robby was literally the only person left on their team. However, Cobra Kai had no shortage of casualties either. In fact, they had a few too many casualties. Wait…

"They got you too, huh? Guess Robby's the only one left." Demetri remarked, as Miguel walked over to the group of Miyagi-Dos at the base camp. Miguel nodded, though he wasn't really listening to a word Demetri had said. His eyes were locked on the Cobra Kai camp of eliminated students, and the sight of four of them threw Miguel into shock.

"What are they doing here?" Miguel immediately asked Demetri, pointing at the group of four Cobra Kais (Kyler, Kenny, Shawn and Mitch) that were standing at the edge of their base, smirking ominously at them.

"Um… I assumed you or Robby eliminated them. They arrived a few minutes before you." Demetri replied, looking at his friend, confused. Miguel's mind was racing. How was this possible? How could these four all have been eliminated, if the only person who could have eliminated them had been with him the whole time? The hair on the back of Miguel's neck stood on end. He could almost sense the danger, sense that they were planning something. He just didn't know what.

That not-knowing drove him crazy within a couple of seconds, and so he walked over to the group of four Cobra Kai students, who were still smirking at him.

"Hey." Miguel snapped at them, drawing their attention.

"How's the head feeling?" Shawn asked, grinning widely at him, clearly very proud of his first outing as a Cobra Kai student, having managed to eliminate one of the best fighters in the Valley.

"Answer me this… how is it possible that all four of you are out, when Robby was the only person left, and I know for a fact he didn't eliminate any of you?"

Shawn shrugged.

"Injuries. We had to concede." He replied, very obviously lying.

"All four of you? Seems unlikely." Miguel remarked. Shawn shrugged.

"Not impossible though." He replied. "Besides, don't you worry about us. You should probably be more worried about Keene. It's just him and our champ left, so if I were you, I'd probably be praying that he's able to make it out of Coyote Creek on his feet and not in a stretcher."

That's when it hit Miguel… Cobra Kai's plan. They had no interest in finishing the game with 5 students left. They always wanted to drag it out to a 1 on 1 final fight, with their student against one of Miyagi-Do's. That's why all of the Cobra Kais had suddenly forfeited. That's why they had taken Miguel's headband but not Robby's. Marcos had already fought Miguel at the dojo, so the fact that he had chosen to fight Robby in their final fight made a lot of sense, another attempt of establishing dominance over Miyagi-Do.

Miguel didn't say another word, but swiftly walked back over to Miyagi-Do's side of the camp, over to Johnny.

"Hey, you did great. Don't sweat it." Johnny told him, noticing the troubled look on his student's face but misinterpreting why it was there. Miguel shook his head.

"Sensei, listen. We need to go and find Robby now. I think Cobra Kai are planning to do something bad to him…"

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As Robby made his way up to the top of the hill where he had spotted Marcos, he could feel his heart already starting to pound. Although he was definitely the best that he had ever been, Robby knew that he was still walking into a fight where he was very much the underdog. While he had been training for 2 years, this boy had been training for 10. While he had only been training in karate, this boy had been training in multiple Martial Arts. In almost every physical and skill based category on paper, Marcos had him beat. But there was one thing that Robby was confident he had the Cobra Kai student beaten on, and that was heart. His determination, his courage, his willingness to push himself to his limits were something that he doubted the Cobra Kai student could replicate. Or at least, he hadn't seen the Cobra Kai student replicate so far.

Finally, Robby made it to the top, and his eyes immediately locked on Marcos. He half-expected the boy to be already standing and getting ready for a fight, but he was greeted with the exact opposite sight. Marcos had still remained seated, staring out over the edge of the hill, not even turning back to look at him yet.

Unsure of really what to do, Robby cleared his throat loudly, in case the Cobra Kai champion simply hadn't heard him arrive yet. He definitely had - in fact, he had walked from his vantage point as Robby had hiked up the whole cliff - but Marcos had remained seated as he wasn't ready to fight. Not yet at least.

"Robby." Marcos murmured, still not looking behind him at the brunette as he continued to gaze out into the horizon, the late afternoon light providing the sky with an orange tint.

"What… what's going on?" Robby asked cautiously, whipping his head around, weary of some kind of ambush in the works. A few more seconds, and that ambush still hadn't come though. "Why aren't you standing up?" Robby decided to ask him.

"Because I'm not ready to fight yet." Marcos replied. "I just want to talk to you first."

"Who says I want to talk to you? What's stopping me from ripping the headband off your head right now?" Robby remarked. Marcos shrugged.

"You can. And I won't stop you. But if you have half the honor I think you do, you won't do that. You'll listen to what I have to say and not just rip my headband off and leave."

Suddenly, realization dawned on Robby.

"Is that why you had your Cobras eliminate Miguel but leave me alone?" He asked. Marcos finally turned around to face him, still remaining seated cross-legged, and he nodded at Robby.

"I needed to find a way to talk to you without any of the others interfering." Marcos admitted. Robby took a deep breath and sighed.

"Alright. Fine. You've got me. What is it that you want to say?" He asked. Marcos gestured opposite him.

"Please, sit down first." Marcos said, and Robby looked at him, distrustingly. "Don't worry. I'm not going to attack you. You have my word."

Robby wasn't sure why he believed him. He wasn't sure why he didn't just lunge at the seated boy right now and take his headband, winning the game once and for all. Truth be told, he was more curious than anything about what the guy had to say to him. And there was something in his tone that told Robby that he was telling the truth about not trying to ambush him while he lowered his guard. So Robby slowly moved closer to him and sat opposite him.

"So… what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"