CHAPTER 185

Thud! THUD!

Two thuds. One quiet. One deafeningly loud. The first of them had occurred when Robby had leapt into the air, taking Marcos completely by shock, and connecting superbly to the Cobra's jaw with a superman punch, harder than he had ever hit before. There was no way Marcos was blocking that, especially given his fatigue level. And the second thud came a second later, where Marcos had gone crashing to the ground in a heap, before laying there unmoving, knocked out cold.

Two seconds, and four one hundredths of a second. 02:04. That was the exact number being displayed on the timer when the referee called for the fight to come to a premature halt, giving Robby the win by knockout. Ironically, the numbers on the clock were the same as Robby's birthday. Not that he cared to notice right now.

As soon as Robby had landed the punch, he had fallen to the ground in exhaustion too, and when he saw the referee waving his arms to bring a stop to the fight, Robby remained on the ground with his head in his hands, overcome with emotion. He had done it! At long last, he had done it! Two failed finals, and against his toughest opponent, on the grandest stage of them all, it was third time lucky.

The bell rang loudly, but not to signify that the time was over in the fight. It was a victory bell. Within mere seconds, Robby found himself being attacked from behind, not by an enemy, but by all of his loved ones. They all raced onto the mat when he was declared winner, diving on top of him and dogpiling him, screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs as they celebrated the boy who had brought them to the top of the mountain, who had won Miyagi-Do the World Championship. He had won it by the skin of his teeth, but that didn't matter. He had won it all the same, and Miyagi-Do officially claimed victory in the bet. They had survived!

As Robby slowly rose to his feet, he was immediately embraced by his friends and family. Tory, Johnny, Daniel, Miguel and the rest of Miyagi-Do all pulled him into crushing hugs, near tears with their pride and relief that Robby had finally achieved the win that he so deserved after everything that had come before. Every tournament and major fight in the past, he had been there up until the final hurdle, but then proceeded to fall short. Every. Single. Time. But now that he had officially managed to win, thinking about all of those losses that he had suffered in the past only made today taste even sweeter.

"You did it! You did it, son!" Johnny exclaimed, ecstatically embracing his son as Robby turned to all of them.

"I'm so proud of you, Robby. You truly deserve this." Daniel added, hugging him too.

"You really did. I love you." Tory murmured, kissing her boyfriend after the fight.

"Love you too." Robby replied, before turning to all of them. "And thank you. All of you. I never could've done this without all of you. I never would've even been near here without all of you. The trophy… it's not just mine, it's all of ours. We won this thing together."

Marcos had been out like a light, and only after nearly 10 seconds unconscious did he show signs of coming to. It took him a while to remember where he was, what had just happened. He was still processing all of it as he slowly rose to his feet and walked to the center of the mat, where him and Robby were being gestured to.

As Robby saw him back on his feet, the boy immediately walked over to meet him. The two of them bowed out of respect, before embracing each other, nothing but high regard for their opponent in both of their eyes. They had pushed each other extremely far past their limits, forced each other to dig deep and go to places they had never gone to. 25 minutes of hell had breeded even more respect between the two competitors.

"Congratulations." Marcos murmured, his voice slightly wavering and hoarse as he held back the emotions that were starting to creep up on him. "You've earned it."

"Thank you. And great fight. It really could've gone either way." Robby replied. That was true. In fact, with the way that the fight had played out, Robby knew that there was a likely chance that if they had a rematch tomorrow, he wouldn't have come out on top again. A perfect combination of skill, willpower and some well-timed luck had guaranteed him the victory this time, and that was what mattered.

Among Robby's friends and family who had rushed onto the mat, the stage had also been taken over by countless announcers, celebrities, photographers and other Taikai personnel, who would be overseeing the prize ceremony where Robby would officially be gifted his World Championship.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN… THE WINNER BY KNOCKOUT… AND YOUR NEW MALE SEKAI TAIKAI CHAMPION… FROM MIYAGI-DO… ROBBYYYYY KEEEEEEEEENE!"

The audience, who were all supporting Marcos, were still in shock to hear these words escape the announcer's mouth and to see the trophy being handed from Sylvester Stallone to Robert Swazye Keene. Now stunned into silence, they had thought, especially as the 5th round winded down, that they were going to get to see their boy raise the trophy aloft. But instead it was his opponent who reigned victorious, celebrating wildly with all of his friends and family around him, the only people who really mattered.

Robby gave his winner's interview, his mind still not fully processing the moment so he wasn't capable of saying more than a stammering thanks to his whole team and a congratulation to Marcos for a great fight. The crowd stayed deathly silent through it all, still coming to terms with what they just witnessed, the last second bombshell that had just been dropped on the arena. It was only when Marcos was told to give his runner up interview that the crowd began to express their feelings...

The booing started, loud and unmistakable. The silence was shattered by hostility, not towards Robby, but towards Marcos instead. The Cobra had let every single one of them down, choking what had looked like almost certain victory going into the final round, and they were making their frustration and anger towards him known. The Oliveira chant that had been so prominent throughout the tournament had completely disappeared now, replaced by a much less cheerful and a much less well-crafted one: 'you suck!' That's what they chanted, mercilessly taunting the loser of the fight.

There were two sides to any victory. There was the side of the winners: Miyagi-Do, who were dancing and jumping around on the mat like it was their last day on earth. They were taking photos of the whole team on the mat together, with the backdrop of the fully-packed arena, and the two trophies they had won resting in front of them. But then there was also the other side: the losing side, Cobra Kai.

They had lost. It was officially over. With Miyagi-Do taking home 2 trophies and Cobra Kai winning only 1, the 4 time All-Valley championship winning dojo would have to close its doors for the last time, and no one was taking that news worse than the teenager who had been responsible for his dojo losing it all in the final seconds.

After Marcos had shaken hands with Robby, the boy walked away, collapsing in the corner of the mat, his head flickering around between the celebrating Miyagi-Do team, the furious, booing fans, and staring at the ground beneath him, wishing more than anything in that moment that it would swallow him whole. Sarah's heart broke as she watched him looking around, looking so lost, as she struggled to reach him through the throngs of people now on the mat.

Her eyes were fixated on the teenager sitting right in the middle of it all. His face was covered so none of the fans or other people on the mat could see what was going through his mind right now, but Sarah didn't need to see his face for that. She knew him so well that she could tell by the slight up and down movement in his shoulders, the defeated posture he was sitting in, and the repeated shaking of his head that he was reaching his emotional breaking point.

Sarah pushed harder through the crowds, desperate to make it over to him, ignoring all of the celebrations and misery going on around her, her mind completely ignoring the bet. It didn't matter right now. Marcos needed help. He needed her. And that was all Sarah needed to know as her walk turned into a full-speed sprint over to Marcos. She knelt down beside him, and Marcos' head slowly looked up. Shock briefly inhibited his face upon seeing her, but Sarah didn't hesitate to reach in and pull him into a tight hug. Sure enough, as soon as he had looked at her, Sarah saw that she had been right. Underneath all of the sweat and blood from the fight, Marcos' face was tracked with tears, his eyes slightly puffy and bloodshot, and his shoulders shuddering in silent sobs. Sarah nearly broke down herself in that moment, seeing such a strong-willed person like Marcos look so… damaged.

Sarah felt absolutely horrible for him. He had been the better fighter during that fight, there was no doubt in her mind about that, and she was sure that the entire arena knew that. Robby had been very lucky to scrape a win in the way that he had, with less than 3 seconds remaining in the fight. It had been an audacious effort and one that this time worked out, but probably wouldn't have 99/100 times. 99/100 times, she felt that it would've been Marcos taking home first place. More than that… Marcos deserved to take home first place, after everything he had been through. Losing his mom in the tragic way he had; growing up in extreme poverty and in a very dangerous area; moving to L.A with almost nothing; his dad's despicable abuse; getting deported back to Brazil despite doing nothing wrong… all of that was supposed to culminate in him winning the tournament. He was supposed to finally get his fairytale ending, for the sake of his future and in lieu of all of the times God had screwed him over in the past. But this wasn't a fairytale and it simply wasn't to be, a heartbreaking fact in Sarah's mind. She forced herself to keep it together. He was the one who needed her right now, not the other way around. Sarah's arms gently stroked Marcos' back, and she whispered quiet assurances into his ear.

"You're going to be okay. It's all going to be okay." Marcos could hear Sarah quietly murmuring to him, his emotions shockingly beginning to calm as soon as he felt her arms around him. He didn't know why she was here. After all, he had let her down. He had let the whole dojo down, with a stupid mistake in the final seconds that had cost him the fight. He didn't deserve her comfort, but right now, he couldn't really think about that. His emotions were in such overdrive that all he could do was cry into Sarah's shoulder for a while. He could tell that a lot of people around the stadium - angry fans, Taikai staff members, Miyagi-Dos, and more - were all watching on at the sight. At the moment though, neither of them cared in the least. As far as they were concerned, they were the only two people in existence.

Sarah continued to gently soothe him, her arms wrapped tightly around him with no signs of letting go anytime soon, his head buried in the crook of her shoulder as the tears rolled down his cheeks. It took him nearly 10 minutes to finally calm down enough to lean back slightly and untangle himself from the hug. For a moment, their faces lingered mere inches apart, Sarah's concerned jade eyes staring deeply into Marcos' watery amber ones.

"Thank you." Marcos whispered to her, so much gratitude being silently communicated to her in that short phrase, and Sarah nodded understandingly, the two standing up together. As Marcos looked around, he noticed that the fans had started to file out of the stadium by now, and the Miyagi-Dos had left the mat too, retreating to their locker room to continue the celebrations there.

Pretty much all of the fans were gone now, so it was dead silent, the only people left in the stadium being Marcos and Sarah, and then the rest of the Cobra Kais watching on, concerned for their friend, behind them. It was time, Marcos told himself. It was time for him to walk into the locker room and face whatever was in store, all thanks to the gorgeous blonde standing beside him. As they were walking off the mat, Sarah briefly slipped her hand into his own and squeezed it gently. After they turned around, they walked in the direction of the locker room, but first walked over to the rest of their teammates.

"Guys, I'm really, really sorry. I tried." That was all Marcos could say, silently begging for his teammates' forgiveness. He had promised all of them that he would win, promised them that he wouldn't let them down, and he had. He had choked the fight, and cost his whole team their survival as a dojo. As soon as they got back to the Valley, they would have to close down, and that was all his fault.

Kreese placed a hand on Marcos' shoulder.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You did gr…" Before Kreese could even finish his sentence though, Marcos shrugged Kreese's hand off of him and he shook his head.

"Not now, sensei. Please. Not today." Marcos murmured, before walking past his teammates and into the locker room alone…