CHAPTER 187

"I'm going to tell him no…"

Marcos' words hung in the air for a while, the Cobra Kais in the room struggling to process them. For as long as they had known Marcos, this was practically all he had talked about: becoming a professional fighter. Now he had a chance, a good chance, and he was going to reject it? There was no way…

"W-w-what?" Sarah stammered.

"You heard me. I'm going to tell him no." Marcos repeated, before saying words that none of them could've ever imagined him uttering. "I'm done with fighting."

The words were a bombshell, exploding on everyone around him, none more so than Sarah, who had seen him more than anyone. For someone normally so quiet, someone normally pretty soft-spoken, fighting was the only thing that Marcos had ever shown true passion towards. It was his first love, the one thing that had stuck with him through all of the trauma, through all of the hardships of his life. He had used it to claw his way to a better life, and was a few seconds away from doing exactly that once more. Well… he wasn't anymore.

During Marcos' exit interview of the tournament, which had occurred directly after the final fight, the interviewer had said some very kind words. He had told Marcos how he had won everyone's hearts during this tournament, and despite the result, this surely wouldn't be the last time they'd seen him fighting on the world stage. Marcos had seemed pretty nonchalant about hearing that, as well as his non-reaction when Anderson Silva had walked in… it was clear that whatever Marcos was thinking, it went deeper than just feeling down after a loss.

About to respond to her boyfriend, Sarah decided to first turn to the rest of the Cobra Kais.

"Could you guys please give Marcos and I a minute?" Sarah asked. The Cobras instantly obliged. Kreese had been slightly reluctant to leave after hearing the news, but a firm nod from Sarah had forced him out the door too, leaving the couple alone in the locker room.

At this point, Sarah turned to Marcos.

"What do you mean you're done fighting?" Sarah slowly asked, wanting to gather as much information as she could before she came to a judgment. Marcos shrugged.

"I'm done fighting. I tried. Didn't work out. Now it's time to move on." Marcos replied. Sarah's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Are you serious?! One loss and you're going to quit? You're going to throw a 18 year dream down the toilet?! Just like that?! You just don't like fighting anymore?!" Sarah exclaimed. Marcos shook his head.

"It's not like that, Sarah. Come on. You know me. I don't quit things because they get hard. And I still love fighting. Been doing it my whole life; it's part of who I am. But to do it professionally… I'm just being realistic." Marcos told her. Sarah looked at him, confused.

"Realistic about?" Sarah questioned.

"Let's be honest, Sarah. The chances of me making it professionally are slim to none. I couldn't even beat a guy tonight who's only been training for less than 3 years, when I've been training for 10. A guy who only ever trained basic Karate beat me in a fight that was basically one step from MMA rules. What chance do I have of ever being successful against the best of the best at MMA? The people who are stronger, faster, have been training longer?"

"You've known how hard it would be to make it as a pro fighter for a long time. That never bothered you before the Taikai. I don't see how tonight has changed anything." Sarah demanded.

"What has tonight changed? Tonight's the night I finally grow up." Marcos stated.

"By shying away? Hiding from a challenge? Not even trying?" Sarah snapped. Marcos sighed.

"It's called growing up, Sarah." Marcos murmured. "Not everyone has the luxury of being able to fall back on a cushion of family money if they fail. For me, I have one chance. That's it. If I do something stupid or unrealistic and waste that chance, I'm done."

"All the more motivation for you to make it then, I guess." Sarah remarked. Marcos shook his head.

"There are other things I want from life aside from fighting." Marcos told her. "I want a family. I don't expect you to understand, but I know what it's like to have your parents not there for you in any way, shape or form. I saw how cruel the world was to them, how badly it kicked them around until they simply broke and couldn't take it anymore. I'm not going to let that happen to me, Sarah. I'm going to be there for my kids, for my family, every damn day."

"I have no doubt about that. But not every family turns out like yours did, Marcos." Sarah said. Marcos' shoulders slumped in defeat as he sighed.

"Maybe in Bel Air. But where I'm from in Brazil… what happened with my family is far from an isolated case. That's just how it goes for everyone. How it's been for generations in my family, and for people in my neighborhood. They're born in the slums, and they die in the slums, without a penny to their name. Begging, stealing, crime… they have to sell their souls to earn enough for a meal. I've been given a lifeline by managing to make it to the States. I have the opportunity to break the pattern of almost everyone else I know, and actually make it out of the slums for good. And I'm not going to risk that chance by chasing a childhood dream that has a close to 0 chance of coming true. I don't mind letting go of it. It's a sacrifice I'm not even going to hesitate to make, if it means providing a life for myself and my family. And mking pennies fighting in some back-alley MMA championship because I wasn't good enough for the UFC is definitely not how I'm going to do that."

As Sarah listened to Marcos talk, she realized the depth of what he was saying. His deep-rooted trauma from his rough childhood was involuntarily rising to the surface. His childhood had been so scarring that he would give anything to not pass that trauma down to another generation, even if that meant sacrificing his dream. It was certainly noble, but Sarah knew that it wasn't truly what he wanted. Marcos wanted to be a UFC fighter, plain and simple, and she knew that he wouldn't be able to truly find happy unless he was actively working towards that goal.

"Well, look, as the person who's going to be raising that family with you, can I say something?" Sarah asked. More likely than not, the two would be together until the end. That was something they both knew and neither doubted at all at this point. After going through so much with the person and still being together stronger than ever, it was clearly a sign that they were meant to be.

"Go ahead." Marcos murmured quietly.

"I know that I can't possibly relate to what you've had to go through as a child. I lived a very comfortable life. My family never had to struggle to make ends meet like yours did." She said. "But at the same time, call me selfish, call me a spoiled princess, but there was a long time that despite everything we had, I still hated my life. Because I wasn't living the life I wanted to life. I was forced to be someone I didn't want to be, and it was only after I met you that you managed to help me away from that life and helped me do and become what I wanted to. It was only after that point that I felt true happiness."

"And I'm happy for you. But this is different, Sarah." Marcos murmured. Sarah shrugged.

"How? Whether you make it to the UFC or not, it hardly even matters. As long as you're following the path that you truly want to, our family will be just fine, because we'll all be happy. That's the important thing. And besides… getting rich was never the reason you even wanted to be a pro fighter in the first place, was it?"

"Becoming a fighter was just a pipe dream." Marcos admitted. "You know, something you dream of as a kid. Some kids dream of being footballers. Some kids dream of being singers. You told me that you wanted to be an actress. For me, it was pro fighting. But at the end of the day, everyone grows out of the dream eventually and realizes that the world isn't some fairytale where you can be whatever and whoever you want to be. Unless you're part of the 0.00001%, which clearly given this tournament's result I'm not, you're not going to make it."

"You're 18, Marcos." Sarah said. "You're 18 and you went to your first ever Karate tournament and came 2nd in the entire world. If you don't think that's an achievement in itself, then I don't know what to tell you. Your dream isn't necessarily a failure if you haven't made the UFC by tomorrow. You have so many years to make it to the UFC. "

"That's what I'm saying, Sarah! I'm not willing to wait around for that long!" Marcos exclaimed. "I've seen the way that in the span of a day, everything can go to shit and you can be left with nothing. I've seen it with my own eyes. I grew up for 17 years in a house smaller than this locker room. Drug dealers selling on my front porch. Hearing shoot outs in the middle of the night. And all of these people who were involved in these things… they probably had their own pipe dreams too. Nobody's born wanting to be a drug dealer. But they realized too late that their dreams just weren't going to happen, and they ended up simply needing a way to earn enough to survive, which is why they were stuck doing what they're doing. I'm not going to be like them! I don't care what it takes! I won't! And that means giving up on my pipe dream before it's too late!"

"Don't you think that doing that though, just giving up, can cause resentment in it's own right?! You've told me yourself about a man who spent decades being kicked around by the world before eventually, that resentment became too much and he snapped!"

"Don't!" Marcos spat, recognizing instantly who Sarah was referring to. "I am nothing like him!"

Sarah nodded.

"You're right! You're not! Because up until now, you've had a purpose, you've had a goal that you've been working towards. But 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 30 years down the line, when you look back on tonight and remember the offer, do you seriously think that you'll look back on it and think it was the right choice?! To call it quits without even trying?!"

Their conversation was emotional. It was getting heated. Both of them were nearing their breaking point, and they realized that nothing they said to each other now would actually change the mind of the other person. They were just arguing for the sake of arguing, with neither of them listening. They needed to have this conversation another time, when the emotions had calmed down a little.

"Look, Marcos, I'm not going to lie… I think turning down this offer is a mistake. I think you're going to seriously regret it, and I think that all it's going to cause in the future is resentment. But if that's what you want, I support your decision." Sarah said. "But could you just do me one favour? Please. For me."

"What is it?" Marcos asked.

"Give it a week before you respond to the offer. Let the dust settle after all of this, and then look at everything through clearer eyes. Okay?"

"Okay."

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Although Marcos was fully certain that he was going to decline the offer, he relented and agreed to wait a week before officially responding to Silva. That was it. Him and Sarah didn't bring up the argument for the entire flight back to L.A that night, and he didn't say anything about it to the other Cobras either. In fact, Marcos hardly said a word for the achingly long flight back to L.A. All he wanted right now, after the hellish 24 hours it had been, was to get home and escape the rest of reality for a while.

The Cobra Kais also ran into Miyagi-Do a few times in the airport and on the plane back to L.A. Once again, not a single word was exchanged between the two sides. Although things weren't nearly as hostile as they had been on the way to Tokyo, largely because Silver was no longer with them, the two sides were still far from friends and had absolutely nothing to say to each other, especially after the results of the nail-biting, incredibly close Sekai Taikai. But it was a real slap in the face as they watched Robby and Johnny walking around, trophies in hand, unable to check them in due to their dimensions so forced to carry them onto the plane.

The flight on the way to Tokyo had flown by. There had been so much hope about the tournament, so much apprehension, that it felt like they had blinked and then arrived. But the flight on the way back… it lasted an eternity for the Cobra Kais. Marcos couldn't sleep a wink, his mind completely occupied by everything that had happened, seeing the punch over and over in his head the entire time.

Needless to say, he was relieved when their plane finally touched down on the runway, and he rushed to collect his bag from check in as soon as he could, desperate to just make it home and leave this entire nightmare of the Taikai behind him. He was the first to find his luggage and begin to head for the exit, but before he could leave, Sarah caught his arm and held him back for a moment.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come home with you?" She asked, not really wanting for him to be alone that night, as she knew that he was still coming to terms with everything that had happened.

Marcos was adamant though. He wanted… he needed to be alone right now. So wishing his friends goodbye and goodnight, he got in a taxi and began to head home, arriving less than 20 minutes later…

Now that he had made it to his apartment, despite being there for the first time in around a fortnight, Marcos did not feel at all like he was home. He didn't feel any kind of relief, any kind of affection that came with being home. All he felt was… cold. This place wasn't his home. This city wasn't his home. He felt more out of place than ever.

Marcos swallowed these feelings as he walked over to the door, but to his shock, as he raised his house key, it was already unlocked. Hair standing up on its end like a cat sensing danger, Marcos was instantly put on edge. He knew for a fact that he had locked the place up before he had left, and yet now, it looked more than anything that the door hadn't just been unlocked, but the lock had been completely broken. Someone had broken into his house while he was away, and for all he knew, they were still here…

Putting down his bag and curling his hands into fists, Marcos slowly swung open the door, the old hinges creaking deafeningly loudly as he did. He gently placed a hand on the lock hinges and as he did, the tension only built. It was definitely broken by force. Someone had broken into his place, but shockingly, when Marcos turned on the lights, he saw that nothing seemed to have been taken. His apartment didn't seem to be ransacked. Everything was there, left exactly how it was before he left.

Then all of a sudden, something changed. Something moved. In the dark corner of the room, a figure rose from the living room chair facing away from him, cloaked by the shadows, unable to be identified by Marcos. Until they stepped out a second later, and Marcos caught a glimpse of their face, terror beginning to appear on his own.

"Hello, son…"

A/N

The last part of the story is about to begin. It's going to be the finale, and it is going to be built up to in the coming chapters, and eventually will unfold in a massive fight. The finale is going to be massive, maybe a bit too much so in some people's eyes. It is going to be deep. It is going to be dark. At least in my eyes it is.

Which is why if you're someone who wants total and utter realism and doesn't want to see an over-the-top finale, I suggest that you turn away now, and I hope you enjoyed the story up until this point. The finale is going to have to top the Season 5 chaos somehow, so there's going to be a lot of massive shit going on. I completely respect if you want to stop reading here, given that the Taikai has just ended and there's somewhat of a natural stopping point.

But if you're going to keep reading, I hope you enjoy it