CHAPTER 200

A/N

200 chapters. Dear lord, it's gone by quick! 4 months since this thing started! It's been so much fun writing this story and once again, I want to thank everyone so, so, so much for the support and feedback I've been given. I've loved discussing the story and the show with you so much - it means a lot to know that there are others out there who care about the show and the story as much as I do. It's been a blast writing this story and although it is reaching its end, there is still plenty more left to come! Hope you've been enjoying it so far, and hopefully the ending is worth you guys sticking around for the past 4 months.

"Hey. Do me a favor, okay? Promise me something." Marcos murmured to Robby as the two of them walked up the paved path in Golf n Stuff together. They were walking in the same general direction, and would have to split up in a few moments to head to their respective sections of the park to look in.

"Yeah, sure. What is it?" Robby asked, continuing to walk beside him, not looking Marcos' way as his head whipped around, still searching for the hostages.

"Leave me to die here." Marcos told him bluntly. Immediately, Robby slowed to a halt and turned to Marcos, his face a mixture of confusion and concern.

"What?" Robby questioned.

"The second you find Sarah and Laura, you get the hell out of here. Whether I'm there with you or not. Don't go looking for me. Don't come back for me. Just get the hell out of here and don't look back." Marcos instructed.

Marcos was under no illusions: he was dying tonight. Him and his father were fighting to the death, there was not a shadow of doubt about that, and Marcos did not fancy his chances against him at all. Bigger, stronger, and having trained for decades longer than him, Marcos' father was a wall that Marcos knew there was no way over or around. The best he could hope for was that he could hold the army back for long enough to allow Sarah and the rest of them to escape unharmed.

"Marcos…" Robby murmured.

"Promise me." Marcos demanded, almost menacingly. His voice was scarily calm. He had made his peace with death. He was ready to embrace it, ready to reunite with his mom in the next life. He just needed to make sure that nobody he cared about followed him close behind.

Robby shook his head. He couldn't. How was he supposed to make a promise like that? How was he supposed to agree to turn his back on someone and leave him to get torn apart by the wolves, even if it was someone he had spent the past year at odds with? Leaving a man behind, disregarding the single person in favor of the collective… it went against everything Robby stood for.

"I… I can't." Robby stammered. Getting more and more frustrated, Marcos grabbed Robby by the scruff of the shirt.

"Please." Marcos practically got on his hands and knees, begging the Miyagi-Do. "No matter what she might say or do, make sure she makes it out of the park."

Robby knew exactly who Marcos was talking about. Sarah was his top priority. His only priority. He didn't care what happened to him tonight, as long as she made it out. Robby felt exactly the same way about Laura. The only difference between him and Marcos was that Robby still had faith that everything would work out okay. He had faith that they'd all be okay. Whereas Marcos… Marcos was certain that this was the end. Unlike Robby, he knew exactly what, or rather who, he was up against. Nevertheless, eventually, Robby found the words to reply. As the two boys stood face to face for quite possibly the last time, a tempestuous year of rivalry and conflict flashing before their eyes, their ever-lasting respect for one another eventually shone through. Robby slowly nodded his head.

"I promise."

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A few minutes later, Robby and Marcos had split up and Robby headed off to the far section of the park that he was charged with searching through. It all started with a vast, unknown room that Robby had never set foot in, despite the number of times he had been to the park. He had no idea what was waiting for him inside, and when he walked in, he was greeted with a sight that he definitely didn't expect to see.

He saw… himself. Well, a hundred or so life-size versions of himself. Because Robby found himself standing right in the middle of Golf n Stuff's infamous mirror maze. Wall to ceiling mirrors covered every inch of the large space, mirrors all of different size and shape. It was an optical illusion and a very mind-bending one at that, as Robby could feel his eyes screaming at him as he tried to search through it all for any sign of Sarah or Laura.

But Robby couldn't see a thing ahead of him. His sense of sight had been completely nullified by the intense illusion, and so despite all of the mirrors in the room, Robby didn't notice as somebody snuck up behind him. He had no time at all to react before a searing pain to the back of the head sent him tumbling to the ground…

Scrambling to his feet, Robby looked up and through all of the mirrors, he saw two faces that he never expected to see again in his life. He had no clue where exactly they were, as the number of reflections in the mirror maze around him perfectly concealed their location. However, he did hear their voices perfectly clearly.

"Robby… Robby… Robby… what's up, man?" Trey remarked, grinning widely at Robby. "Long time, no see."

"Speaking of, it's nice to see that you finally got rid of that Dora the Explorer ass haircut." Crez chimed in. Robby scowled at the air, unable to tell through all the mirrors where exactly they were, trying to pinpoint them from their voices.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Robby snapped.

"We met Silver while we were in prison. He heard that we knew each other, and that you and fucking Larusso are the reason we were even locked up in the first placed, so he approached us with an offer we just couldn't refused."

The pair were definitely not the same people Robby had met before they had been locked up. Even though he could hardly see them, the tone in their voices were enough to send droplets of fear trickling through his system. Whatever traces of mischief and playfulness that had used to inhabit their voices was long gone now. The harsh, brutal nature of imprisonment had hardened them into ruthless, anger-filled adults, hell bent on getting revenge on the person whose fault it was that they were even in prison. It was clear that Silver had managed to get into their heads, dig into the rage that possessed every prisoner, redirecting their anger towards Robby, motivating them to get their vengeance.

Trey and Cruz didn't say another word before lunging at Robby once more. And while normally Robby could've probably beaten them somewhat comfortably, this time it was a whole different fight. He couldn't see. Literally. With all of the mirrors completely frying his brain, he had no idea where exactly Trey and Cruz were. He would take a hit from one of them, then as he turned to respond, he would take another hit from the other from his other side. And by the time he turned around again, the ex-con who hit him was already gone and was firing at him from another angle.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Robby felt like he was fighting against 10 people. After all, he could see at least 10 versions of Trey and Cruz in all of the mirrors, unable to tell which one exactly was the right one. This led to a lot of swinging at air, and taking a hell of a lot more hits than his normally impenetrable defense would have allowed.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Another three hits, both punches and kicks, landed upon Robby's face and stomach, nearly dropping the teenager to his knees. It was pretty clear what Trey and Cruz were trying to do. They were going with a lightning-fast assault, trying to catch Robby out before he had a chance to adjust to the unique conditions of the fight. They wanted to end the fight before he was able to fight back, and it very nearly worked.

However, just as Robby was at the brink of defeat, the tide began to finally turn. His immense durability had kept him alive up until this point, and now that he was adjusting to the fight's setting, Robby's quality finally began to shine through. He found himself able to track where Trey and Cruz were based on their movement, able to catch them with strikes of his own, forcing them onto the back foot.

The Miyagi-Do kept steadily calm throughout, squinting to see through all of the illusions before him. His eyesight truly was being tested at this moment, but it wasn't perfect. It couldn't last forever. Just as Robby finally felt some semblance of control over the fight, a clobbering blow to the back of the head sent him crashing to the ground.

Groaning and rolling around on the ground, Robby felt his brain rattling through his body in agony. What the hell?! Who had just hit him?! Robby was sure that both Trey and Cruz were in front of him a moment ago, so how had they managed to get behind him without him noticing? The answer was that they hadn't. As Robby rolled onto his back so he was looking up, he found a third, unfamiliar figure standing over him, flanked by both Trey and Cruz, who were chuckling mirthlessly.

"Oh Robby… why do you always forget that there's a third man to our business?" Cruz remarked.

How had he missed it? Robby had been so disoriented by all of the mirrors that he hadn't even noticed the third person come in. Someone who was normally so alert when fighting more than 1 opponent had been caught in a completely amateur mistake.

And the three ex-convicts were sure as hell going to make him pay for it. With Robby still on the ground, they began to kick and stomp at every inch of Robby's body that they could get their hands on. It was all Robby could do to curl up into a fetal ball and try and make himself as small as possible as they unleashed brutal shots in his direction. This was the very last place he needed to be right now. He was almost completely at their mercy, with there being absolutely nothing he could do about it. He had no plan, no way out of this, as he couldn't even see his opponents to be able to strike them.

At that moment though, words of wisdom from Sensei Barnes of all people had come rushing back to him. Robby thought back to the infamous obstacle race and the camping trip that the Miyagi-Dos had taken part in over the Christmas holiday, and he remembered one of the obstacles that Barnes had personally invented. He could almost feel the blindfolds that Barnes had pressed into their hands and instructed them to wear for the fight against him…

"Put these on." He instructed. "For this fight, to beat me, you're going to rely only on instinct. Sense where I am. Have eyes at the back of your heads.

Robby recalled that lesson, and he thought about how he had had his sense of sight ripped away from him for the fight, and yet he had still managed to persevere, still manage to keep going. That's what he needed to do right now! Completely block out his sense of sight, and not allow all of the distractions to confuse him, instead relying on his other senses to pull their weight.

But the large difference was that back then in the forest, Robby had been fighting at full fitness. Right now, he had already been beaten to a pulp and was barely on the brink of consciousness. How was he supposed to be able to get up and fight back now? Just then, a different sensei's voice echoed through his head…

"It's not about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

Johnny's words - or rather, Sylvester Stallone's words that Johnny had stolen - came rushing back to Robby. He remembered the talk that the father and son had had, just as Robby was about to give up and quit. Johnny had encouraged him to keep going, pushed him to make it to the other side, and sure enough, Johnny had been absolutely right. Forcing himself to keep going, even when it was more tempting to quit, had earned both Johnny and Robby a World Championship.

Channeling his father's words, and thinking about the first-hand example that Johnny had set in that regard, Robby slowly pulled himself to his feet. He bit down and forced himself to take every single hit that the three enemies were sending his way, but to not crumble like he had, and instead rise to his feet. But what now? Now that he was up, how was he supposed to beat them? Another sensei had the answer to him there…

"Remember your fundamentals. Deep breaths. Focus on your defense. The points will come."

Daniel was the one who had given Robby a plan at that moment. Robby thought back to all of the fights that he had competed in with Daniel in his corner, the few losses he had taken, as well as the many wins, the most recent being his Taikai Final victory. Every single time, Daniel had told him the exact same thing. The man had reminded him not to let the occasion affect him in any way. To fight as if he were simply sparring in training. It was the same techniques, and the most important part was that he remained calm throughout.

As if Robby needed any more motivation, the words of his final sensei rang through his ears…

"You against them, that's all that matters. Let go of your fear. Remember your loved ones. Remember who you're fighting for, not who you're fighting against. You've also won fights in a lot worse settings than this one. You can win this."

Chozen's words from before the Grand Final of the Sekai Taikai rattled through Robby's head once again. He was fighting for Laura. Fighting for the Miyagi-Dos, who were counting on him. Fighting for Johnny, Carmen and everyone else who had given him the family he had never even dreamed he'd be able to have. Despite none of the senseis being present at that moment, Robby felt like he had just gotten a pep talk from all of them. He had a new plan, new mentality and he was ready to win the fight.

The reason why all of this was even possible was because Robby was a combination of the best of all 4 senseis: Daniel, Johnny, Chozen and Barnes. He had learned from all of them, technique-wise in Karate, but more important about being a good person. Being someone he could look in the mirror and be proud of.

There was no stopping Robby now. With the words of his mentors still echoing through his head, Robby closed his eyes and simply sensed where his opponents were without even seeing them. For a room that was supposed to be a cheap equivalent of magic, it was Robby who ended up producing magic of his own. He didn't have to see any of his 3 opponents to know where and when they were going to strike, blocking their techniques just in time and sending counters of his own.

Sure enough, 2 minutes later, Robby walked out of the mirror maze, his opponents left lying there behind him, ready to keep looking for the hostages…