CHAPTER 44

As Marcos flipped through the pages of the book he was reading, he glanced down at his watch and sighed. 12:15 am. He was sitting in the grubby diner in Panorama City that night, waiting to see whether Robby would show up, hoping that he would show up. He was very much uncertain whether the boy would or wouldn't. Cobra Kai desperately wanted Robby Keene's return. Kreese wanted it for the chaos that it would cause with Miyagi-Do, and how much it would ruin their momentum and distract them from their preparations for the Taikai. Marcos, meanwhile, had enough respect for the boy that he was eager at the prospect of training alongside him. At the dojo, apart from him and Sarah, the students were pretty poor. A lot of the time, Marcos would stay behind after training and spar with Kreese, to get that push that he wasn't getting from the other students. Having a fighter of Robby's skill level would be a massive boost.

However, by the looks of things, the boy wasn't going to show up. It was a quarter past twelve at night and he hadn't showed, so chances were he wasn't going to at all. Marcos was about to put his book down, stand up and walk out, as it was pretty late and he wanted to get home to sleep. But before he could, he saw another figure slip into his booth, sitting opposite him. As Marcos looked up, his jaw couldn't help but drop in shock. He had actually shown up!

"Hey…" Marcos cautiously ventured, still in shock to see the fact that Robby had actually shown up.

"Hey." Robby grunted. As Marcos looked up at the boy opposite him, he noticed that a dark purple bruise was already beginning to form on his face from the kick he had taken earlier at the end of their fight.

"How's your face?" Marcos asked, concerned. Robby shrugged.

"Fine. I've had worse." He replied. "You really didn't have to crane kick me though."

"Sorry about that." Marcos murmured. "There was a point to it though."

"Which was…?"

"To rattle your dojo. Push your students and senseis into showing their true colors. Which by the fact that you're sitting here right now, I'm guessing they did."

Robby's face darkened slightly as he recollected the incident that had occured in the dojo earlier that night. Marcos noticed this, and he nodded.

"Thought so." Marcos said. "So are you agreeing to come back to Cobra Kai?"

Robby took a deep breath and looked Marcos right in the eye as he responded.

"No. I'm not." He firmly replied. Marcos' face did not pose much of a reaction to this, but he raised an eyebrow ever so slightly.

"Is that right?" He asked. "So things between you and the other Miyagi-Dos are good now?"

Robby shook his head.

"Not at all. They're the very opposite of good." Robby told him. "But I'm not in Miyagi-Do for any of them. I'm in Miyagi-Do for me. It's a part of my identity, a part of who I am. So I could hate every single member of that dojo but I would still train with Miyagi-Do."

Marcos slowly nodded, processing what Robby had to say.

"I respect that." Marcos murmured. A long silence overtook the pair as they sat opposite each other in the mostly empty diner. It was a civil moment, a moment of respect between the pair, but neither really knew what to say next. There were so many similarities between the pair: they were two sides of the same coin. Although they didn't know it, both had been forced to practically raise themselves, with their parents not being there for them for a variety of reasons. They had both been loners for most of their lives, having very few true friends and loved ones. Neither one that many prospects for their future, courtesy of the fact that they had both lived pretty shitty lives up to this point, and they used fighting and Martial Arts as ways of distracting themselves from that fact.

"Look, the reason I came to meet you to tell you my decision in person was partly out of respect. But I was also wondering something." Robby said. He was secretly dying to ask Marcos something. Ask him a few things actually. Marcos nodded, gesturing to him to ask the question. "Now that you know my decision, I can't help but be curious… did you really mean what you were saying about Miyagi-Do at Coyote Creek, or were you just trying to get in my head to convince me to join Cobra Kai?"

Marcos shook his head.

"I was being 100% serious." Marcos immediately replied. "Would I have said any of that to you if we weren't trying to recruit you to our dojo? Probably not. But was I lying about anything I said? Definitely not. You don't deserve to be your team's scapegoat, just because you're the only one mature enough to rise above issues. If your team can't see that, well then I maintain the stance that you really should come back to Cobra Kai."

Robby was pulled deep into thought once more. He pondered Marcos' words. Although he was dead-set against going back to Cobra Kai - thinking about Kenny at Coyote Creek, and what it had turned him into had been enough to turn Robby away from that line of that - he couldn't help but still feel resentment for what was going on in Miyagi-Do. He felt like his patience had finally worn out, and he was beginning to see the people around him for who they truly were.

"Also, another question… you knew some pretty deep things about me. Conversations that I had with people in private. How the hell did you hear about those? Did Cobra Kai plant a listening device on us or something?"

Marcos shook his head again.

"Kenny." He replied bluntly. "I don't think you remember just how much you opened up to him about back when he was in Cobra Kai. You told him quite a lot, and right now that boy is angry enough at you to unhesitatingly tell anyone who asks him. I just took advantage of that. Then what I couldn't get from Kenny, I could get from Kreese."

Robby sighed and looked down. That made sense. He really had told Kenny a whole lot. They had mostly been part of lessons that Robby had taught him. But with these lessons, whether they be about fighting, about how to treat Miyagi-Do or about how to live life, had come with personal anecdotes, ones that Kenny had clearly remembered and relayed to his rival.

"Well that was a mistake." Robby murmured. Marcos raised his hands.

"Look, for what it's worth, all of those stories… consider them forgotten. I'm not going to bring them up again. Not to you, not to any of the other Miyagi-Dos, not to the Cobra Kais. You have my word."

You have my word. This wasn't the first time Marcos had said this phrase to Robby. In fact, he had said it to him earlier that afternoon, before they had conversed on top of the hill at Coyote Creek. And once again, Robby could practically sense just how much his word meant to him. How it was a solemn oath, an unbreakable vow. He believed the teenager as he said it, and he nodded in gratitude.

"Thank you." Robby replied. "One more thing though… the fighting today. How the hell did you manage to predict every single move I made during our fight today? And don't tell me it was Cobra Kais remembering the moves that I taught them, because that's what Miyagi-Do were convinced it was, some were convinced I was still with Cobra Kai, so I'm not going to sit here and listen to that as the answer. It wasn't Kenny. It wasn't Kyler. It wasn't any of them. You know it. I know it. So what actually was it?"

Marcos could practically hear the frustration seeping into Robby's tone, and Robby had accidentally revealed what exactly had happened to bring him to the diner that night. So Miyagi-Do thought that it was Robby who had taught Cobra Kai the necessary Miyagi-Do moves to beat him? They thought he was a traitor? That must've been pretty rough, he thought to himself.

He decided to tell Robby the truth. He might as well be honest with the actual reason, so it wouldn't be so much of an excuse if Marcos ended up winning the Taikai. He wanted to win honorably, and that wouldn't be the case if he had this unfair advantage that he had hidden over Robby the whole time.

Marcos pulled out his phone, a dusty old Blackberry, and he opened a video on the phone, before passing it over to Robby. Robby glanced at it for a couple of moments, before his eyes widened as he realized what exactly it was.

"Wait… this is the fight at the dojo!" Robby exclaimed as he recognized it. This had indeed been the fight that all of the teenagers had partaken in at the Cobra Kai dojo at the end of the summer. Robby watched what looked like a compilation of different security cameras, and he saw himself fighting against all of the Cobra Kais.

"Kreese helped make me this. The security camera system was still up and running when he took over the dojo, so he was able to download all of the footage from that night, and make it into an entire film. We have your last All-Valley tournament footage too. From that, Kreese and I… we analyzed you. I watched these clips hundreds and hundreds of times. Saw what you did when faced with any possible situation and with practice, committed that to memory."

Robby was speechless in shock. That was incredible. He was too amazed to be angry right now. It was like a computer code had programmed his style of fighting into Marcos' brain. 'If Robby did this, Marcos should do that.' The fact that Marcos had spent what must've been at least a hundred hours on this was a true testament to how committed he was to this fight, and that definitely wasn't a good thing for Robby.

"Wow. That's dedication." Robby remarked. "How do you find the willpower to do all of this?"

Marcos shrugged.

"I treat it like a trial run. When I become a professional fighter, this is exactly what you have to do to win." Marcos replied. Robby almost choked on the air he had just inhaled.

"I'm sorry… you want to become a professional fighter? That's your dream for the future?" He asked. Marcos nodded.

"The UFC. That's what I've wanted to do my entire life. Fighting… it's all I have in this world. Even when me and my family were at our lowest point, fighting is the only thing that was consistently there for me the whole time. As you can probably tell, I'm not the most sociable person. I've never had many close friends, the only family I have is my mom and dad and I'm not super close with either, so fighting is my one and only true love. And it's my lifeline in making something of my life. If I fail that… well then I'm pretty much screwed."

Robby nodded. With every snippet he heard about Marcos, he became more intrigued about Marcos' backstory. It seemed so unique from anyone else Robby had come across in the Valley, and it actually seemed to have some parallels to his, Robby thought to himself.

"Wow. I just can't believe you actually did all of this to try and win the Taikai." Robby quietly remarked as he still stared at the footage of him fighting, which was being displayed on Marcos' phone. "Kind of puts my chances of winning into perspective."

Marcos shook his head.

"Don't play yourself down. Don't be so negative. I'm sure you have a pretty big chance of winning the Taikai too." Marcos told him. Robby scoffed.

"Is that right? Because last time I checked, I'm not even the best fighter in my dojo. Let alone competing against dojos from all over the world." Robby murmured. He didn't know why he was speaking so vulnerably right now. Maybe it was a combination of the painkillers from just having his ass kicked earlier that day, or the fact that it was very late at night and he was getting tired, but he found himself opening up more than he had in a long time.

"Not the best fighter in your dojo? Weren't you the last to stay alive from Miyagi-Do today?" Marcos remarked.

"Come on. That was only because you wanted me alive, so Shawn took Miguel's headband and not mine. That wasn't on merit." Robby remarked. Marcos shrugged.

"Fine. You don't want to be confident in your own abilities? That's good for me. You won't stand a chance at winning the Taikai like that." He remarked. "But let me just put it this way: all of that research I did on you as a person and as a fighter… I didn't do that about everyone. I only did that about you."

"You did it all about me because you figured you'd be able to rope me into coming back." Robby pointed out. Marcos shrugged.

"We could've done the exact same thing with Miguel Diaz. We could've pointed out how listening to his sensei's teachings got him a broken back, a forfeit in the second tournament, a breakup with his girlfriend and absolutely nothing good to show for it all. We could've pointed out to Eli Moskowitz that when he was in Cobra Kai, he ruled the Valley. When he left, the only thing he got was a scalped head, a half-assed All-Valley trophy that he only won when Miguel left and you got distracted and hesitated to finish the fight, and a crap ton of beatdowns afterwards. Hell, he even lost to one of the physically weakest Cobra Kais in the dojo over the summer."

"All of that is such a biased retelling of what happened." Robby commented. Marcos nodded.

"But it's still all technically true." He replied. "But anyways, that's besides the point. My point is that we chose to try and target you for a reason. We thought you were our ideal choice because you were the perfect middle-point between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do. You didn't get sucked too deep into either side, which means that you have the best balance, the best blend of both styles. You're also the strongest of them physically. And from what Kreese has mentioned, you pick up techniques quicker than any of them. My point being, from what I've heard about you, you have more potential than any of them, which is why we went for you."

Robby couldn't help but feel flattered by the compliments, ones that he oh so rarely received from anyone in his life. However, he also couldn't help but feel slightly confused at who the compliments were coming from.

"You're being very nice to me right now. Too nice. Why?" Robby asked him, curiously. Marcos shrugged.

"Look, I might have high dreams about winning the Taikai and going to the UFC, but I'm not stupid. The chances of me winning the Taikai are slim, and the chances of me getting into the UFC are even slimmer. In all likelihood, at the end of the day, I end up going home with none of that, and I have to accept it. And when that time comes, I still want to be able to look myself in the mirror and have no regrets. And if I've lost all of my respect, all of my humility, all of my values in a fight to not even win the tournament, I don't think I'd be able to look myself in the mirror at all."

The boys sat at that table for a little while longer, just talking. They exchanged stories and got to know each other. It was a beautiful sight. The leader of Cobra Kai and one of the leaders of Miyagi-Do, getting along without the stresses of the upcoming tournament and bet forcing them at odds. It was a miracle what an honest-to-God conversation could do. They spoke for around half an hour longer, before they finally decided to stand up and walk out of the 24 hour diner…