"Miss Nichols."

Mackenzie froze at the voice behind her.

She had to head back to her team. After talking with Axel, Mackenzie spent the last couple minutes of her break stretching before she left her team to get water. She made sure he wasn't around to see where she went.

Slowly, she turned to face the man. Mackenzie knew she could just ignore him and keep walking away, but that would only make things worse.

Looking up at Silver, Mackenzie forgot how tall he was compared to her. A shiver went down her spine and she straightened her back to hopefully not show it.

"What do you want?" She asked with a harsh tone. Her arms crossed over her chest and her teeth angrily bit on the inside of her cheek when Silver only smiled back at her.

"Just welcoming you to your rightful place at the Sekai Taikai." Silver chuckled out as if Mackenzie's reaction was over-the-top. His arms were out and open, like he was expecting a hug from the girl after their time apart.

But then his hands clasped together and his smile fell. His head turned to look at Mackenzie's team as he sighed, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Although, I'm disappointed to see you not wearing a captains headband." Silver sighed, nodding his head to Sam still stretching with the rest of Miyagi-Do.

Silver turned back to Mackenzie and smiled. It was a smile Mackenzie could see right through. She spent months in Cobra Kai working under Silver's wing as a mole for Miyagi-Do. She knew all of his tricks.

"Maybe they don't see the champion in you that I always have." He hummed, leaning toward Mackenzie as if he expected the girl to agree with him. Silver raised a finger as he stepped closer to her, Mackenzie immediately taking one step back that the man didn't notice.

"You know... with the loopholes int he roster system, I'd make a spot for you on my team in a heartbeat. You've already got a friend on my team by the looks of it." Silver explained and Mackenzie's jaw clenched. So he had seen her talking to Axel...

Mackenzie didn't waste a second shaking her head. "I'm not turning on Miyagi-Do." She said confidently.

She had to hold back laughing watched the smile on Silver's face drop.

He straightened up and cleared his throat. It made Mackenzie lick her teeth to hold back laughing.

"Just... think about it." Silver said, completely ignoring Mackenzie's decline on his offer. He dipped his head to her once just before he turned to walk away and gave her one last smile.

"Good luck out there."

Mackenzie watched the man with a glare so sharp, she was shocked laser didn't shoot out of her eyes and burn him. She didn't move until he was far from her and far from her team.

Mackenzie practically stomped toward her team and Hawk, who noticed the interaction about halfway through, straightened up when he saw Mackenzie finally walking over.

"You okay?" Hawk asked, side stepped so Mackenzie had a comfortable spot in the circle between him and Sam. He watched with concerned and furrowed eyebrows as Mackenzie just mindlessly nodded her head back, not even looking him in the eyes.

"Yeah." Mackenzie breathed out shakily and for a second, Hawk didn't believe her. He knew she wouldn't switch sides, but Silver could defiantly get her shaken up.

It seemed like everyone in Miyagi-Do was on edge after their round against Furia de Pantera. Daniel watched the seven kids with a nervous look. Even Devon on the sidelines looked ten seconds away from puking her nerves out. With them all not trusting each other, everyone yelling at each other, and Silver being here, it was hard to get them all in the right headspace.

"We need to win this one to stay in the tournament. We know it's hard with Silver here, but we are not fighting his team right now." Daniel said softly. He didn't want to pressure them or make them feel worse than they were already feeling. He looked up to the scoreboard to see what team Miyagi-Do was fighting next and Mackenzie's eyes followed his. Next was Miyagi-Do v. Rendentores.

"We've heard this garbage going around about loyalty, but almost all of us have trained somewhere else at some point. What matters is where our asses are now. We're Miyagi-Do. Got it?" Johnny asked and Mackenzie turned back to him, nodding her head.

Mackenzie's eyes scanned the room for the team she'd be fighting as they and the rest of Miyagi-Do circled up. She remembered seeing most of them compete in past fights and she believed her team could take a good handful of them.

When she turned to the center of the circle, Miguel and the opposing team's male captain were in the center and as soon as the fight started, Miguel blocked every hit the other boy tried to throw at him. He tried to get a couple of his own moves in, but they were all blocked.

Miguel's eyes moved to Robby, who stood one boy away from Mackenzie.

As the boy fighting Miguel tried to kick him while he was looking at Robby, Miguel actually saw it coming. Just before the boy could score a point, Miguel caught his leg and pushed it back.

The boy stumbled backwards, giving Miguel time to run toward Robby. He quickly tagged Robby in, nodding his head reassuringly when he saw the nervous look on Robby's face. "It's time! Okay, you've got this." Miguel told him before pushing Robby into the middle.

Mackenzie immediately started to clap to give Robby a boost of confidence. "Come on, Robby!" Mackenzie cheered just as Robby kicked the boy in the side.

He collapsed to the floor, Mackenzie let out a cheer, jumping in excitement as the referee raised his hands.

"Point!"

Robby looked around his team to tag someone in. His eyes locked with Mackenzie's and in a matter of seconds, Robby was running to her.

Quickly, Mackenzie stopped cheering and her guard went up. She gulped as her hand shot out for Robby to tag her in, bouncing on her toes and ready to fight. Mackenzie ran towards the center the second Robby's hand hit hers.

She immediately went to throw a quick jab to the boy's chest, but he sidestepped out of the way with inches to spare. While Mackenzie was close to him, he tried to kick at Mackenzie's side.

Mackenzie let out a quiet yelp, jumping to the side. Her eyes widened at how close the boy's foot got to her and she scanned over his stance. His entire body was open for her to score a point.

Mackenzie bit the inside of her cheek and kicked her leg out, ramming her foot into the boy's gut.

"Point!"

The boy curled into himself and groaned in pain. He was quick to look around his team and run to tag someone in. Mackenzie was just about to jump at him and use this moment as an opportunity to get another point, but just as she was about to pounce, a voice stopped her.

"Kenzie! Behind you!"

Mackenzie turned at the voice calling her name and without a second thought, she ran toward Kenny just a foot behind her. She already scored her team one point, it was only fair to give everyone that chance.

She could hear Demetri yelling at her to not tag Kenny in, but Mackenzie didn't care. She trusted Kenny. Out of everyone in Miyagi-Do, it was the two of them that would be seen as "susceptible" to Silver's way. She had to stick with him.

Mackenzie tagged Kenny in with a big smile. "Go get us some points, Ken." She breathed out, the adrenaline from the fight finally catching up to her.

Kenny gave her a big smirk before he ran into the center. The new Rendentores ran onto the mat as well and as they met in the middle, Mackenzie noticed Kenny's eyes move to someone behind the boy.

Her eyes followed Kenny's and her heart sank when she saw Silver staring right back at Kenny. Mackenzie knew that look on Silver's face. The smirk with his head held high like he knew whoever he would be staring at would follow his command without a second thought.

"Come on, Kenny..." Mackenzie muttered again, this time nervously. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it.

The Rendentores boy jumped, his leg raising to kick Kenny. Just before the move could hit, Kenny pushed the boy's foot away. Hard.

He stumbled trying to land and Kenny used those few seconds to run at him and hit him with an uppercut.

When the boy fell to the floor, Kenny turned to the referee with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Point! Miyagi-Do wins!" The referee yelled. Kenny and Mackenzie immediately let out loud cheers and she ran toward the boy. Kenny turned around to Mackenzie just as her body crashed into his, pulling him into a hug.

"Hell yeah!" Mackenzie laughed out, spinning the two of them around as the rest of the team came running over to celebrate. Miguel and Hawk grabbed onto Kenny, pulling him off of Mackenzie and they lifted him onto their shoulders.

Kenny's locked eyes with Silver from across the arena and the big, happy smile on his face turned into an even bigger cocky smirk. Already knowing where Kenny was looking, Mackenzie's eyes moved to Silver and somehow, the man's jaw clenched even tighter seeing his two––once best––students staring back at him was a team that wasn't his.

At the same time and without even looking at each other, Kenny and Mackenzie raised their hands, flipping the man off.

"With the win, Miyagi-Do moves 1-1. If they win their next match, they advance to the tournament of champions."

...

Miyagi-Do had fifteen minutes before their next and final fight before they would find out if they were making it to the tournament of champions.

The eight students sat in the locker room; Mackenzie, Demetri and Kenny sat on one bench, Mackenzie in the middle of the two, resting her head on the lockers behind her as she stared up at the fluorescent lights above her. She should look away, she was probably staring up at it for too long, but her nerves were getting the better of her and the burning from the bright lights started to dwindle.

On the bench across from them was Eli staring down at his hands while Miguel, Robby, Sam, and Devon sat on the bench in between the two.

No one spoke.

Mackenzie's finger started to drum against the side of her thigh. It was the only sound in the room and surprisingly, it was helping the group calm down. It gave them something to focus on.

The small drumming of Mackenzie's finger was the breakthrough to get some noises in the room flowing. Robby took a deep breath before he looked across his team. "Come on, guys. We've beat Cobra Kai before. We can do it again." He breathlessly and Miguel nodded from beside him.

"One more time. Let's send our captains into the finals." He added. Mackenzie was still staring up, but she wasn't looking at the light anymore, she stared at the tiles on the ceiling so she didn't notice Sam smile at her boyfriend's words, her eyes starting to get a little teary.

"One last time. Win or lose, this is the last time we'll ever fight together as a team." Sam muttered and Mackenzie could hear the wavering in Sam's voice. It was what finally made Mackenzie look to her team.

Mackenzie's heart sank as Sam's words kicked in. This would be her last time doing karate. No more training, no more All Valleys, she wasn't pursuing karate in college. This was it.

Mackenzie didn't want this to end yet. She just joined the good guys and now it's ending.

Miguel took a deep breath and nervously ran his hands up and down his legs to wipe away any sweat. "Damn, I guess. I've never thought about it like that. After everything we've been through this is it..."

Robby forced a smile on his face to hide his sadness. His eyebrows raised as he let out a shaky breath he tried to mask as a laugh.

"So? How do we wanna go out?"

Out of the corner of her eyes, Mackenzie saw Demetri turn away from Robby and move to look at Hawk across him.

"Eli?" He called out quietly.

Mackenzie's eyes moved to Hawk as he lifted his head to look at Demetri. Tears prickled in his eyes, already knowing what Demetri was gonna say. Before he could let the boy get the words out, Hawk shot off the bench at the same time as Demetri and they pulled each other into a hug.

"Dude. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." Eli said into Demetri's shoulder, but his words weren't muffled. Mackenzie shut her eyes and mouthed a quiet thank you up to the ceiling that the two boys were finally done fighting.

When Hawk and Demetri pulled away, Demetri nodded his head reassuringly. "I know you didn't. I'm just scared of losing my best friend. I'm gonna miss you so much, man."

Mackenzie's eyes softened at Demetri's words. She thought about how close to the end of the year it was and her heart tugged a little.

Even though she was new to Miyagi-Do, Mackenzie had spent the past year and a half growing close with Miguel and Eli and spent the last year getting to know Robby. Beside Tory, these were her people. These were the friends from high school she'd still be close with when her kids asked her about when she was young.

But once school was over, they'd all scatter. Mackenzie would stay in LA, Eli would go to whatever school he decides on, Miguel would move to the bay, even Demetri, who Mackenzie's gotten closer with, would move across the country to Boston. All these friends, all of her people would be gone.

Devon, tearing up at Eli and Demetri's interaction, let out a small cry mixed with a laugh. "Okay, that's enough. There's no crying in karate." She giggled out, wiping her eyes.

Demetri and Eli pulled away from their hug at that, looking to see who was crying, but was immediately met with Miguel pushing himself out of his seat and pulling the two of them into another hug.

"My boys." He groaned, hugging the two of them tight and obnoxiously to try and lighten the mood.

Mackenzie giggled, finding herself wiping her own eyes. When did she start to tear up?

Miguel's smile softened as he looked between Demetri and Eli, slowly releasing them from the hug. "You guys are always gonna be my brothers too." He hummed, looking  around to the other five still seated. "We're a family. All of us."

Mackenzie smiled at that, especially when Miguel's eyes landed on her and Kenny and he nodded his head, almost as if to silently say, "you guys too."

Robby stood up from the bench and smiled at his team with his head held high. "Who are we?"

Kenny was the first to stand after Robby, nodding his head in respect to the boy. Mackenzie stood up after him, mostly because Kenny yanked her up with him.

"Miyagi-Do." Everyone answered and Mackenzie had to hold back snickering at the cheesy line.

"Who are we?" Robby asked, his voice a little loud to hype up the team.

With a smile, Mackenzie finally let out her laugh as Devon and Sam stood up after them, everyone starting to get more pumped up.

"Miyagi-Do." As they all responded, Demetri wrapped a heavy and lanky arm around Mackezie's shoulders, pulling her into his side.

"I said, who are we?" Robby yelled and the team cheered around him.

"Miyagi-Do!"

Mackenzie was quickly thrown into a hug by Miguel and Hawk, ultimately getting ripped out of Demetri's arms. She could just barely hear Miguel rambling on about how they were "the OGs" and how much he loved them over her own groaning from their tight hold on her.

"You know, we did have one real doozy of an inspirational speech planned but it looks like you guys beat us to it.." Daniel said from the doorway of the locker room.

Hearing their sensei, the teams celebrating started to die out as they turned to the door and saw both Daniel and Johnny watching them with amused grins.They all smiled back at them and Sam playfully dipping her head to the two of them.

"Our senseis taught us well." She hummed, her eyes mainly on her dad, making him smile. Johnny rolled his eyes, but the kids could see the genuine smile he was trying to hide as he clapped his hands as loud as he could. "Enough of this kumbaya crap. It's time to get out there and kick some Cobra Kai ass!"

emily speaks...
VERY LITTLE MAXEL my apologize💔
BUT WEVE GOT THE REST OF THIS EP LEFT (which is already written i just didn't want to make it all one chapter and have it be 6500 words) AND THEN ONE MORE EPISODE LEFT AND THEN JSUT PART THREEE🥀🥀🥀(im so excited for part three.)