The Serpent Queen

Mercy | Part Six

When the audience had gotten up from their seats and began to slowly filter out of the arena. They walked by Miguel and either nodded or pressed a light hand on his shoulder or patted his back as congratulations. Even other members of different dojos did the same thing. Phoebe stood a few feet from Miguel, waiting for her parents.

George and Sophie came down and hugged their daughter, "You did great."

"Third place though."

"It's probably a family karate curse, but there's always next year. You coming with us?"

"Yeah. Go start the car."

They left and disappeared into the sea of people leaving. Phoebe turned and noticed Carmen and Rosa hugging and speaking to Miguel. Minutes later, they left as well.

Demetri went down to the floor and approached Miguel and Phoebe. "Hey, man. There he is." He gave Miguel a quick half hug. "I'm reconsidering joining Cobra Kai. I'm still not into the idea of getting hit in the face and all, but I respect the safety-in-numbers aspect of joining a gang."

Phoebe grinned at that idea. She found it quite funny that he thought of Cobra Kai as a gang.

"Uh, have you...have you seen Sam?" Miguel asked, not noticing Sam in the audience leaving or on the floor congratulating any dojos or even Robby. He knew Phoebe didn't know where she was.

"Oh, yeah. Pretty sure she left a while ago." The other Alexopoulos answered.

Miguel sighed, "Okay."

"Well, hey, great job at not sucking."

"Thanks, man." Miguel walked away in the direction of the changing rooms, leaving Phoebe and Demetri alone for a few seconds.

"Congratulations." Demetri motioned to the third place trophy in his cousin's hand.

"Thank you."

Moon came running down and immediately hugged Phoebe, "Well done. You didn't win. But you got third place."

The girl laughed dryly, "Ironic, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Doesn't matter. At least Kayla didn't get a trophy."

Hawk came up to them with a smirk on his face hearing what they said, "I can't believe that bitch got disqualified."

"You got disqualified." Phoebe pointed out with narrowed eyes. She wasn't any less annoyed at him for purposely injuring Robby.

"Yeah...well...." Hawk had calmed down since his last match. "Robby pissed me off. He insulted the mohawk." His girlfriend rolled her eyes and scoffed. "That has to be a family trait."

"What?" Phoebe wondered.

"Eye rolling."

The two cousins glanced to each other and shrugged.

"Well there's always next year for you both." Demetri put his arms around the two's shoulders as they stood on each side of him.

Phoebe glanced to her boyfriend, "You going to celebrate with me?"

"Yeah. I heard some of the other guys mention something about lazer tag tonight and a restaurant tomorrow."

"You promise?"

He smirked, "Of course I do."

Demetri rolled his eyes, "Get a room."

"What? We're being completely innocent." Phoebe said just as innocently as she meant.

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After leaving the tournament, the three LaRusso's did indeed go back to their lovely home in the Encino Hills.

Sam found herself in the pool house that was converted into the home dojo. She had turned the lights on and went over glancing around the room. Her eyes landed on a framed picture on the shelf of her father and an eight year old her dressed in white gi's. Next to it sat a another framed picture of her dad when he was around her age with Mr Miyagi and a bonsai tree.

Picking up the picture, the teenager stared at it reminiscing with a smile on her face. Walking over to a nearby table, she placed the picture down on it.

Samantha took a few steps over to the corner of the beige coloured mat and got down on one knee and pushed up from the hand in the floor and kicked up her right leg to do a kick and she then proceeded to do a large spin kick. She finished the move with a strong right jab, "Hyah!"

Driving down one of the busy streets of the Valley. Car headlights, neon shop sights and streetlight lit up the road and passed by as Daniel drove Robby home.

The teen stared at his second place trophy in the passenger seat. Sighing he said, "Second place. I came so close."

"Yeah, well, you fought with honour, and he didn't, so no matter what that trophy says, you're the real winner. You should be proud of yourself." Daniel replied. "I know I am."

"Thanks. I'm sure my dad's happy too. Now Cobra Kai's gonna take over karate in the Valley."

"Yeah. Right. Over my dead body."

Robby noticed that Daniel had missed the turnoff to head to the apartment building that he shared with his mother, "Where are we going?"

Ending up in another part of the Valley, Daniel and Robby got out of the car and walked up to a wooden gate. As Daniel unlocked it, the hinges creaked, "Come on."

"Whose cars are these?" Robby asked noticing a bunch of parked cars with large plastic sheets over them when they went through the gate. Daniel seemed to have taken him to someone else's property with a house on it.

"Don't worry about it. Just follow me."

As his mentor led him around the side of the house to the back yard, the boy half joked, "This where you bury your bodies or something?"

"I know I said you have to let go of your anger and show forgiveness, but when the fight comes to you, you have to be ready to fight back. And to do that, we'll need more students." Daniel flicked a switch on the wall of the back of the house and a few outside lights dimly lit up parts of the yard.

What Robby saw from front of him was a tranquil looking Japanese garden with a white punching bag hanging off a chain from a wooden stand to his right.

"Welcome to Miyagi-Do Karate." Daniel smiled.

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The successful Sensei sat in his office in the dark dojo. Johnny was nursing a glass of whiskey and staring at Miguel's first place trophy and Phoebe's third place trophy. Strangely, he didn't seem the happiest about the success of his longest trained students. He had driven his son further away and had misled his students. Hearing the door bell jangle, he walked out, "Miguel? Phoebe?"

A black silhouette of a man stood wearing a long coat just close to the door, not making their way over to the mat. Shadows cast over his features, despite the orange glow from the outside lights behind them. But when he spoke, the blond Cobra Kai Sensei knew exactly who it was, "Congratulations. You did what I always thought you could do. You won. Cobra Kai is back where it belongs. Back on top. Everyone closed the book on us. They thought we were done. But now they see, that the real story's only just begun."

The figure stepped away from the door into part of the dojo that wasn't covered by the shadows of darkness, but were lit up by the streetlights from outside. Johnny and George's former Sensei, John Kreese, stood there smoking a fat cigar with a slight smirk on his face.