CHAPTER 178

Cobra Kai had done it. They had done what many people never expected them to be able to and they had tied up the bet at 1-1. Their female champion winning it all meant that now, the stage was set perfectly for the final fight of the night. Marcos and Robby's bout would decide everything, including which dojo survived after this tournament. The pressure had officially passed from being all on Sarah's shoulders, to being shouldered equally by the two male finalists.

As Tory stepped off of the mat after her fight, nothing but her measly 2nd place trophy in hand, she forced herself to fight back all of the impending, overwhelming emotion that was threatening to take over. She was devastated. This was supposed to be her moment. It was supposed to be the moment where, 50 years from now, she could look back, no matter where her life was at that moment, and say that 'this was the moment when I won.' All of the anguish that had set deep within her after the rigged All-Valley tournament was supposed to go away now as she finally managed to claim a legitimate win, but the feelings only increased a hundredfold when she was forced to tap out by her opponent. She felt like an utter fraud, incapable of winning a single fight that wasn't rigged. After this display, she felt almost thankful that she hadn't won, as she didn't deserve to even be able to call herself a champion if this was what she was rendered to - a vanquished opponent - every time she stepped onto the mat.

Tory walked back to the locker room, alone, and she shrugged off all of the comforting words and gestures by her teammates. She couldn't even look them in the eye. She had let them down, plain and simple. They had all been relying on her to get the win, and she had fallen short. She wished internally that she could blame it on some kind of extenuating circumstance, like a bad ref, an injury, or something of the sort. But she couldn't. She hadn't been as good as Sarah during that fight, and that was the sole reason why she came away with a runner up trophy while the Cobra had been carried through the air in triumph by her teammates. But even if there had been another reason why Tory had lost, she knew that she wouldn't have been in the mood to hear it. It didn't change the fact that she had lost with the entire world watching.

Walking into the locker room and slamming her small consolation trophy onto the benches none-too-gently, the girl tried to tell herself that it would be okay. She tried to remind herself of what was important: that back home, she still had a loving family, a stable job, amazing friends. Her life wasn't over because of this loss. But right now, despite everything Tory told herself, it sure felt that way. There was nothing anyone could say or do that would lessen the devastation that was cascading incessantly through her entire body.

The Miyagi-Dos found her in the locker room a few moments later, her head was buried in her hands, trying to hold back tears. She couldn't bring herself to look at any of them, and none of their words of comfort or their hugs meant a thing. This was by far the toughest loss she had ever taken, the hardest pill she had ever had to swallow, in her entire life. She was in the eye of the storm of emotions that were stabbing through her entire body more excruciatingly painful than any physical blow. And the sympathy and pity coming from her teammates and senseis only made it worse.

She wanted nothing more than for them to just leave her alone, but couldn't bring herself to say it to them. Eventually, they got the hint though and decided to give her space. All but one person, who decided to stay. Robby remained in the locker room, sitting a few feet away on a nearby bench. Tory was sitting on the bench opposite in the corner room, still refusing to look Robby in the eye, let alone speak to him.

The boy was patient though, not pushing her to talk if she didn't want to, but instead breaking the silence himself.

"You fought really well." Robby told her, his words hanging in the otherwise silent room.

Tory did not say anything to respond to that, but as she slowly looked up to face him, her eyes screamed at him to shut up. Fair enough. That was probably not what Tory wanted to hear right now. He knew that from experience himself.

"I know how you're feeling." Robby remarked, talking to the silence in the room, that continued as Tory couldn't even bring herself to look at him. "I remember. When you've literally given it everything, but still don't win. When you've done everything you're supposed to do, everything you possibly can, and still find yourself falling short. Does that sound about right?"

Tory once again didn't respond, leaving Robby to continue talking to himself, although she glanced up slightly at him, indicating that he was right on the money with his thoughts and guesses as to how she was feeling right now.

"Yeah. Thought so. I felt the exact same thing both times I made the finals and came 2nd." Robby commented. "I remember how it feels. Sucks, doesn't it?"

Tory scowled slightly at him.

"What's your point?" She snapped. Robby sighed.

"My point is that coming 2nd sucks. And it's going to suck for a while. But eventually, at the end of the day, life goes on." Robby stated honestly.

"I get that. Still… why wasn't it me?" Tory asked, in a quiet voice very unlike her own. "This past year, for the first time ever, I actually did everything right. I finally actually deserved to win. Why wasn't it?"

Tory hated how selfish she sounded. Normally, she wouldn't have been caught dead saying something like that. If she was ever to win, she wanted it to be a win that she truly deserved, not one that was handed to her. But at the same time… she almost felt like she was owed a win. All of the changes she had made in her life were supposed to help her get closer to winning, not put her in exactly the same spot she had been in exactly 1 year ago.

"Because, and I say this with a lot of love, the world doesn't owe you shit." Robby remarked. "I learned that the hard way. I spent almost a year trying to clean up my act, going from a juvenile delinquent to someone I could actually be proud of, only to come 2nd in the tournament for the sole reason of having my arm mangled in the semi final and final. I spent the whole summer after working even harder to become a better person and that time, it ended with me sitting in a jail cell. I felt like the whole world was against me, because every time I turned around, I found myself getting kicked in the face by the next thing. And I hated that for a while. I really, really hated that, and I compromised everything to try and set the score right and win. Joined Cobra Kai. Pushed everyone away. Just to lose yet again. It took losing that third time for me to finally learn my lesson."

"Which was?"

"Which was that the world can be a real pain sometimes. I could go out now, get my ass kicked by Marcos and come home with another silver medal and will the world even bat an eye? No. Because at the end of the day, the universe doesn't care whether you feel like you earned a win or not. If you crumble because of it, it won't even bat an eye."

"Great. You're telling me the world sucks? So what now then?"

"Now… you do what you do best. You fight back. You fight back against the cold, heartless universe and you show that you're stronger than any shit that it can throw at you. You've been doing that your whole life. Now's not the time to stop. It's time to hit harder. Show that losing doesn't affect you; it only makes you stronger. That's the next fight you need to take."

"That's just the thing, Robby. I've been fighting the world like that for so long… I don't know if I can anymore. I don't know if I'm strong enough." Tory whispered, tears threatening to spring to her eyes. Robby decided to move a little bit closer to her so that their hands were intertwined.

"That's where we come in. All of the people who love you… we're right here to fight alongside you" Robby told her. "That's the real win that came from the past year, I guess. Bigger than any trophy. Both of us now have a proper family… a group of 10 people who wouldn't hesitate for even a second to fight for us. People who gave you a job and for the first time in your life, some financial stability. You can't look me in the eye and tell me that that isn't a victory in its own right."

Tory slowly nodded. She knew that Robby was right. She knew that despite this tournament's heartbreak, she would soon be going home and one day, this tournament would be nothing but a memory. Life would undoubtedly march on, and it was now up to her, and only her, to make sure that she didn't let this loss consume her.

"You're right." Tory murmured as she slowly stood up to her feet.

"Are you okay?" Robby asked, still concerned. Tory nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you." She thanked him. "I'm going to go and get some air for a bit. Focus on your fight."

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Tory was right. Although Robby and Miyagi-Do were extremely concerned about the girl, they had something else that they needed to worry about as well now. In a few moments, the final fight of the night - what many people considered to be the 'main event' - would take place. IT would decide once and for all who would stand tall: Cobra Kai or Miyagi-Do.

Both sides were forced to pull themselves away from their thoughts of the previous fight between Sarah and Tory and were forced to begin to think about the task at hand for both of them. After the fight, Tory, Robby and Miyagi-Do had left, near tears, in one locker room, while Sarah, Marcos and Cobra Kai celebrated uproariously about their victory.

However, all of those celebrations and consolations were long over now. Anticipation for the final fight was beginning to build up, a tornado that as every second passed, grew larger and larger until it was a vortex, consuming everything in its path. There was no doubt that this fight was going to be fought right down to the wire. Both boys were tough as nails, neither willing to give even an inch to their opponent, and the audience knew this too. They were all bouncing up and down in their seats in the distance, the fighters not having even reached the mat yet. They weren't idiots. Every single person in the entire arena, as well as the vast majority of the people watching at home, knew the history between Robby and Marcos and knew exactly what was at stake between their dojos. Whatever happened now, it was bound to be top quality entertaining, that was for sure.

A/N

Good evening everyone! Hope you're all having a good day. Just a quick note to clarify something regarding the last fight. I know there were a few people disappointed that Tory didn't win. I am too, to be honest. I wanted to see her win it, and still hope she does win it in the show. I am a big Tory fan; she's one of my favorite characters in the show.

However, the reason she didn't win in the story is because, like one or two people have mentioned, I said a while ago that a dojo would never win all 3 divisions of the Taikai. This was non negotiable for me and the reason was that if one dojo wins 2 divisions in a row, they'd automatically win overall, so the stakes wouldn't be nearly as high for the final fight. Although ideally I wanted Tory to win, this was an obstacle that I couldn't possibly work around.

I later decided that the boys' division fight was going to be the final fight, which meant that Cobra Kai now had to win either the senseis' division or the girls' division beforehand. This meant either Johnny or Tory would have to have their win sacrificed. Their situations were pretty similar in that both of them really desperately wanted the win, but by this point in the story, neither of their lives would be over if they didn't win, so it came down to just making a choice.

Given that the entire premise of the show is around Johnny's redemption, I decided to give him the win in the end. Tory only became officially upgraded to series regular in Season 4, whereas Johnny has been there right from the beginning of the movie franchise, which is why I felt that he should be the one to get the win. Not only that, but Tory already got a win against Sam in December of the story's timeline, whereas Johnny hasn't gotten a win like this at all.

That was my thinking and reasoning. Hope that makes sense. At the end of the day, no matter who won the tournament, there were always going to be people left disappointed with the outcome, and I'm sorry to those who wanted to see Tory win. I wish all 6 of the finalists in this story could somehow win, but unfortunately I could only pick 3 of them. Hope you enjoy the rest of the tournament.

Have a good one!