CHAPTER 68

August 15th. That was the date. In exactly 15 days, summer would be over. He'd be back at school and the final year of high school, his final year of his childhood, would begin. And the worst part about it, Miguel was just lost as he had been at the beginning of the summer. He was more unsure than ever about whether or not his future was with Cobra Kai, so he had decided to withdraw himself more and more from the dojo. He still came to training, but he did just the bare minimum now to earn his money. He trained 5 times a week, but he didn't do much more than that. Instead, he watched as the people in the dojo around him became more and more bloodthirsty. He could tell that Shawn was rallying them more and more and was riling them up more and more. What's more… Miguel had been hearing whispers that they were planning something. An attack of some kind. And no matter how hard Miguel tried, he couldn't get any information about it from anyone. He didn't gain the same loyalty from the other Cobras that he used to. And honestly, at this point, he wasn't sure he cared.

That Sunday morning, Miguel walked into the living room and as he did, he got a notification on his phone. He took it out and read it…

Money Transfer From: Silver, Terrence

Amount: 5000 U.S Dollars

Bank Balance: 22,548 U.S Dollars

The bank balance was what really caught Miguel's eye and he sighed. He had earned 20,000 dollars since joining Cobra Kai, more than he would've earned in 5 months working at the restaurant he used to be at. It was an astronomical amount of money that he hadn't even dreamed that he'd be earning at the beginning of the summer. That's why he was so torn. It was hard to turn his back on all that. He needed advice. Needed guidance. But nobody what, everyone he had come across was biased one way or another. Even if they said they weren't, the cynical part of Miguel doubted that they were telling the truth.

At that moment, Miguel's yaya walked into the room, all dressed up, and Miguel nodded at her.

"Hey, where are you going?" Miguel asked her in Spanish. Miguel's yaya raised an eyebrow.

"Miguel… where do I go every Sunday morning for the past 65 years?" She asked. Miguel remembered.

"Oh yeah. Church. Of course." He murmured, and his yaya nodded. Miguel thought for a moment. He wasn't a religious man by any means. He wanted to believe that there was a God, that there was a power above, but he always had trouble believing it. That being said though, Miguel was out of ideas. He needed to set his mind straight, to be shown the pathway he should follow, and who better to help him with that than an omnipotent, all knowing deity? "Hey, yaya. Can I come?"

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So Miguel went to church with his yaya. He sat there beside her in the pews during the service, nodded and smiled politely at his yaya's friends who she lingered around to socialise with after. He waited patiently for all of the events of today's service to end, and everyone begin to file out of the church, but he decided to stay behind. It was almost empty in the vast church - even his yaya had gone home - but not Miguel. He had business to attend to.

He sat on one of the pews and closed his eyes. The hell am I doing, the academic, logical part of himself told him. But he knew that he had tried literally every other option, so he had nothing to lose than to try this too.

"Hey." Miguel murmured internally, addressing none other than the Big Guy upstairs. "I'm sorry I haven't really done this before. Heck, I don't even know if I believe you exist. But on the off-chance you do, I was hoping you could help me with something. After all, you kind of owe me after the whole paralysing me thing, huh?"

Miguel could almost hear God laughing at him at this. But no, this wasn't God laughing. This was just the sane part of him cackling with hysterical laughter at how stupid he looked. However, Miguel forced himself to continue.

"Look, I'm sure you've probably already seen this, but Cobra Kai's getting out of control." Miguel stated. "I don't know what they're planning, or when, but I think they're planning something. They've been too quiet for too long and I know that it wasn't me who's been keeping them at bay so far. It's been for some other reason, and not knowing… that scares me. For all I know, they could wage war tomorrow. And look, I know that you can't tell me what they're planning and why or anything. Which is why I'm only going to ask for one thing…"

Miguel took a deep breath before continuing.

"Please keep everyone safe. You know, I have no clue who their next target is going to be so please protect all of them. Johnny. Sam. Miyagi-Do. Eagle-Fang. Robby… actually, you know what? Robby's probably been training much harder in this time that I've stopped training as much so he's probably gotten as strong as me." Miguel silently remarked.

He was indeed correct. Robby had been training his ass off these past 3 weeks. While Miguel had pulled away from karate, Robby had dived deeper in. Miguel's warning had rung in his ears every day for the past 21. Cobra Kai were a bigger threat than ever and he needed to be prepared.

"Robby doesn't need the extra protection. Give it to… give it to Sam instead please. God, please, God, keep her safe." Miguel audibly whispered, shuddering at the horrifying thought of something happening to her.

All of a sudden, Miguel heard the sound of someone slipping into the pew right beside him. Miguel looked up, slightly annoyed. You have the whole church empty and you choose to sit next to me? That's what he thought anyways, but he forced himself to remain polite.

"Hi. Can I help you?" Miguel asked calmly. The man was bald and was dressed in a suit. Miguel recognised from giving the sermon earlier, and he shrugged.

"I was about to ask you the same thing. You look troubled, young man. Is everything okay?"

Miguel nodded. He really didn't want to get into everything with this stranger.

"Yeah, um… don't worry about it, sir. Everything's fine." He murmured. The man raised an eyebrow, seeing the clearly pained expression on Miguel's face.

"Come on. What's going on? Problems at school? At home?" He asked. Miguel shook his head.

"No, um… nothing like that." He said.

"So what is it? Talk to me. I'm a good listener." The man reassured him kindly. The man did indeed seem genuine, and Miguel figured it couldn't hurt to get another unbiased perspective, so he eventually sighed and began to talk.

"Alright, so I have this new group of friends that I'm a part of." Miguel began. He didn't talk about karate in any way, as he didn't feel like getting in that personal with a guy he'd just met, so he decided to go with the next best thng. "And with them, they make me stronger. You know, push me to work out more. Also, one of them even got me a job working for their dad's company. And earning that money would give me a chance at going to college. You know, having a future. I'm 17 by the way so I go off to college next year."

"That's great. Sounds like you've got a solid group of friends." The man remarked. Miguel shook his head.

"That's just the thing. While they might make me stronger and earn me the nice paycheck, they're also a bunch of assholes. Bullies. Potentially dangerous ones. And I'm scared… I'm just scared that I'm starting to turn into one of them."

The man nodded slowly.

"I understand." He murmured. "Well is there any group of friends you could possibly hang out with?"

"Yeah. There's my old group of friends. The originals, you know. They're not as strong. They're quite a mess, all of them. And if I go back to them, I'm definitely losing my job that I got from the guy in the other friend group. But at the same time… it's got to be said that they were loyal. Truth is, I was never happier than when I was around them. I miss them a lot, but at the same time if I go back to them, I don't stand as good of a chance of having a future, so I don't know what to do."

The man nodded again.

"Right." He slowly acknowledged, taking in everything that Miguel had said. This whole story… it was vaguely familiar to him. He could've sworn he had heard it from somewhere, or someone, but he didn't know why. "Well, is there any way you could hang out with both groups? You know, best of both worlds?"

Miguel chuckled as he shook his head, imagining what everyone would say if he joined both Cobra Kai and Eagle-Fang/Miyagi-Do simultaneously.

"No, unfortunately not. It's one or the other." Miguel replied. The man thought some more, pondering carefully on the best advice to give the young man sitting beside him. It took him a couple of seconds, but he eventually came up with it.

"Well, you know, I'm not exactly the best, most unbiased person in this regard. Even 36 years later, my best friends in the world are my boys from high school."

"Oh yeah? You guys were that tight?" Miguel asked. The man chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah, we all played on the same sports team. Got close through that." He said. Sports team. I guess you could call it that. "And even after 36 years, I know that if I called any of them needing anything, they'd be there for me in a heartbeat."

Miguel nodded.

"So you think I should go back to the original friends?" Miguel asked. The man shrugged.

"I mean I don't know your situation one bit. I'm just saying what I would do if this was happening to me." The man replied. "Look, think about it this way. God forbid something horrible happens to you and you get in a massive car wreck. Upon seeing it, which friends are going to be the ones to try and pull you out of the burning car? Which friends, if God forbid, things go wrong and you pass away, are going to be the ones arranging and attending the funeral? Are you going to be able to rest easy knowing that the last words you said to them were while you were with the asshole group? Equally, if something terrible happens to all of them tomorrow, will you be able to live with yourself knowing that their last memory of you would be as just another member of the asshole friend group?"

Miguel was taken aback by this man's reasoning. Up until now, most of the reasons he had gotten for coming back to Miyagi-Do/Eagle-Fang was 'Cobra Kai are lunatics', or 'Miyagi-Do is the right way' or other reasons that half-sounded like mere recruitment pitches. This one, however, truly hit Miguel hard and stabbed him right in the heart with its directness, honesty and vividness.

"If your professional future means so much to you that you honestly can say that you won't be affected, by all means still with the friends you're currently with." The man said. "And trust me, I'm not judging you no matter which you choose. Do not judge, or you too will be judged after all. I'm just stating what I personally would do. What you decide is up to you."

Miguel nodded as he looked up at the man again.

"Thanks, man." Miguel said.

"Not a problem." The guy smiled as he replied, holding out a hand, which Miguel shook gratefully.

"You know, you're pretty chill for a priest." Miguel remarked. The guy chuckled and shook his head.

"Not a priest!" He replied, laughing, before standing up and walking away, leaving Miguel deep in thought. For the past month, everything had been so murky. He was so unsure about what to do and it had been eating him up inside. Well, he wasn't so unsure now. For the first time in God knows how long, the streetlights on the path had finally been lit up for him. He had deeply reflected on what the man had told him. If he died tomorrow, would he be content with his family and friends thinking that he was nothing more than just another Cobra Kai? And even if they didn't think that, would he be able to rest knowing that their last memory of him was while he was wearing the serpentine gi? The answer to those questions were an unequivocal no. He had been sacrificing everything for the possibility of a good future, but the truth was that he had no clue whether he was going to live that long. If the past year or two had taught him anything, it was that life was fleeting, and he needed to take advantage of the time he had. Seize every moment. And he couldn't do that while he was pushing everything and everyone away for Cobra Kai. He decided… tonight, he was quitting Cobra Kai. And tomorrow, he'd be on Johnny's doorstep, asking to join Eagle-Fang. He just hoped that he'd be able to stop Cobra Kai in time for whatever they were rumoured to be planning. He hoped he wasn't too late…

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That afternoon, Sam was the only person left in the Miyagi-Do dojo after training. Everyone had gone home, so she had all of the peace and quiet to herself, and she took advantage of it, sitting down and meditating on the sparring deck. Nothing to disturb her but the tweeting of birds and the faint breeze of the wind. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, with the skies absolutely clear, but unfortunately Sam's mind wasn't clear. Much like her ex-boyfriend's across town, her mind was a whole mixture of confused emotion, with absolutely no idea how to work it all out. And a lot of that had to do with that aforementioned ex. She wanted to hate him. She really, really did. If it was any other situation, any other person, she definitely would hate them. But with Miguel… it was impossible. There was something inside her, she didn't know what it was, but it fundamentally prevented her from hating him. Well, that was a lie. She did know what it was. It was a simple four letter word beginning with L. She still cared about him deeply, and after hearing why exactly he had joined Cobra Kai, she couldn't get too angry about his decision. Nothing he could do would truly make her turn her back on him. That was the nature of caring about someone as much as she cared about him. But there was a downside though. Seeing Miguel in that Cobra Kai gi… it was killing her. It wasn't in an "I hate you" kind of way. It was more in an "I miss you" kind of way instead. Miguel shouldn't be with Cobra Kai. He should be with them. With her.

After a while longer of mediating, Sam slowly opened her eyes and when she did, her heart stopped. Literally stopped for a moment. Her entire body went dumb, her jaw going slack with shock. She couldn't find the strength, get over her shock enough to put her fists up in a defensive position. Not that it would've helped to be honest. There was no way she'd be able to fight off this particular situation. For she found herself surrounded by no less than 12 ruthless Cobra Kai students, all of them foaming at the mouth in their eagerness to engage in war with her. She couldn't see that though, because every single member of Cobra Kai was wearing a ski mask. A clever move too as it meant that Sam couldn't see their faces, couldn't see who they were.

Her heart began to rattle in her chest, and she felt the beginning of a panic attack starting to come on. She was going to die. This was it. Today was the day she was officially going be killed.

"Guys… please…" Sam stammered, trying to stumble backwards but finding that there was no hole to slip through in the circle of Cobra Kai's around her. One of the Cobras, someone who looked like he was their leader, chuckled at her.

"Sorry about this, princess." He snarled, in a voice nothing like the warm voice of the old Cobra Kai leader. "It's nothing personal…"

With that, almost simultaneously, the 12 Cobra Kais pounced…

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That afternoon, Daniel walked into the house after a great training session at the dojo. Things were great, in all aspects of his life. They had just completed their mission of getting Kreese out of jail and as much as Daniel hated the man, he was satisfied to see him let out from prison. In training, things had never been better, with morale of the team steadily rising higer and higher the more they learned from Chozen. Things at the dealership were going amazing too. He just… he couldn't lose.

At that moment, the doorbell suddenly rang. Daniel smiled, assuming it was his daughter arriving home from Miyagi-Do. He walked over to the door, grinning widely as he opened it.

"Now, what did I tell you about forgetting your keys at…" Daniel's voice trailed as he realised that the person standing on his front porch was not his beloved daughter.

"Hello, Danny boy." Silver grinned, enjoying the look of shock and fear on Daniel's face as he saw him standing opposite him.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Daniel growled, his fists already raised in preparation for a fight, just like the last time Silver had been here. Silver, however, was just as relaxed as last time.

"Just here to chat. Just here to chat. No need to get so angry." Silver remarked.

Daniel's tension did not ease up at all. Instead, it increased. Silver seemed happy about something. Too happy, especially given that Kreese had just been let out of prison. He didn't seem upset at all, and that was worrying. Either he knew something they didn't about Kreese, or he had something so diabolical in store that it wiped away any anger he was feeling. It was indeed the latter, and Daniel was about to find out why.

"Get off. My driveway." Daniel snarled at him. Silver raised an eyebrow.

"Now now, Daniel. I would've thought you'd be more nice to me right now. Especially given that, if I recall correct, about a month ago, we had a certain conversation on this very driveway about you stepping away from the whole Kreese case. And you know, I'm not a betting man, but if I was, I'd hazard a guess that you were a part of him being let out of jail yesterday."

Although Daniel was secretly terrified, being dragged back to the days of being terrorised by the sensei, he forced himself to remain calm and summon any strength he had within him to stand up straighter and look Silver in the eye.

"Yes. I did. I helped get Kreese out of jail." Daniel stated, hints of confidence in his voice. "Is that why you're here? To get vengeance by fighting me? Beating me up? Because I'm not afraid of you."

Silver tutted and shook his head.

"Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, how many times do I have to tell you… I'm not here for a fight." Silver reiterated. "I'm merely here to let you know that you chose to get Kreese out. You chose to strike the first blow in this war. And I guarantee you that soon, you're going to regret it. Because Cobra Kai, when their backs are against the ropes… that is when we come out swinging the hardest. Be careful, Danny Boy."

"Ahhhhh. I get it. So you're here to threaten me. Real mature. Real scary." Daniel snapped sarcastically. Silver chuckled and shrugged.

"Perhaps." He responded. "Or perhaps I'm just a senile old man on a rant."

With that, Silver turned and walked back down the driveway, and into his car. Daniel, who had walked out onto the driveway himself at this point, watched as Silver turned on the engine of the car. However, the Cobra Kai sensei did not drive away. Not just yet anyway. He instead rolled down his window, calling to Daniel one more time.

"Hey, Larusso!" He exclaimed. Daniel's scowl deepened.

"What?" He snapped.

"Your family got health insurance?" Silver suddenly asked. Daniel furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Yeah. What? Why?" He asked, unsure. Silver nodded.

"Good. That's good." He murmured. "You might need it sooner than you think. Because I have a feeling that right now, at the Miyagi-Do dojo, your daughter is doing a rather… shall we say tough workout. She could probably use the free medication. You know, for the aching muscles."

Daniel's heart dropped, and his head shot up to face a widely grinning Silver. WHAT THE HELL?! How in the hell did Silver know where Sam was?! And asking him about whether or not he had health insurance?! That could only mean one thing, and it had been the thing Daniel had been fearing and dreading most to happen since the moment Sam had stepped into the Miyagi-Do dojo for the first time.

"Hey! Silver!"

But Daniel didn't get a chance to finish his sentence, as Silver immediately revved the engine of his car.

"See you soon, Larusso!" He called, before driving off into the distance.

Daniel didn't waste any time, sprinting into the house to grab his wallet and then charging out the house, rocketing towards the Miyagi-Do dojo. He must have broken at least 15 speed and traffic laws on the way over but Daniel didn't give a flying fuck. He had one thing, and one thing only in mind. Get to the dojo before it was too late. However, by the looks of things, it might already be just that. Too late. Hurling himself out of his car, Daniel ran through the dojo, not even stopping to look closely at the absolutely state his precious dojo was in. He didn't care. All he cared about was finding his daughter, a task he completed soon enough. However, as he approached her on the sparring deck, his heart stopped beating for a moment and as he got closer, he sunk to his knees. His daughter was no more than a bloody, motionless lump on the ground.

"Oh my God, Sam…"

A/N

So that's it. Part 1 of the story is over. Hope you all enjoyed it! There will be a part 2 of this story. Kind of like a season 6 so to speak to this one's season 5. A sequel to this one. However, I will probably upload it as a new story called "Season 5 - Part 2." I'm planning on taking a short break from writing but after that, look out for Season 5 - Part 2 being uploaded.

Please feel free to upload comments/feedback with things you enjoyed in this story, things you didn't enjoy. What can be improved on for Part 2. What potential plot ideas you might have for the next part. I'd love to hear anything you all have to say. I personally feel like this was my best work yet. That I've grown a lot as a writer during the time I wrote the story. But please feel free to think otherwise if you do, and I'd be very keen to hear why you don't agree. I'm very eager to continue to grow as a writer, as I'm only 16 so still have a lot to learn, and I can only do that with you guys' help. With your honest feedback.

I'm honestly in shock at how much attention the fic got on both and AO3. In 1 month, I surpassed my previous story record in hits, comments, kudos, beating my Season 4 story which has been out for a whole year now. I'm so honored that so many of you took the time to read the story and supported me the whole way through and I have to thank all of you so much for that!

Thanks again for taking the time to read my story! Stay tuned for part 2!