The next morning, Ivy and Miguel went to talk to Johnny before school. He was sitting at his kitchen table on his laptop eating beef jerky. Now that Miguel could walk again, they wanted to open up a new Dojo, and he and Miguel were trying to think up new names.
"Okay, how about Johnny Lawrence Karate?" Miguel suggested from the couch, "Or...Strike Hard Karate?"
Johnny didn't look up, it was like he didn't even hear him. Miguel let out a huff, and he and Ivy moved to the kitchen table to get Johnny's attention.
"Come on, Sensei. I need your help trying to think of names for the new Dojo." Miguel spoke a little louder.
"How long does it take Facebook messages to get delivered?" Johnny asked, ignoring the names, "Ali lives in Colorado, so probably a while, right?"
"It's instantaneous." Miguel narrowed his eyes in annoyance and Johnny slapped his laptop shut with a huff, "Okay, how about All American Karate?"
"It's not good enough." Johnny shook his head, "We need something that tells everyone that we're the most badass Dojo in the Valley."
"Yeah...sucks that Cobra Kai's such a badass name." Miguel sighed.
"What if we just keep that? Except we spell our cobra with a K. They can call us triple K." Johnny snapped his fingers like he had just struck gold.
"Like KKK?" Miguel gave him a look and Ivy shook her head.
"Yeah, that's probably a bad idea." Johnny agreed.
"You wanna sound stronger than a cobra, right? What about a dragon?" Ivy looked between them, "They're powerful creatures, and heavily woven into Japanese culture."
"I like where your mind's going, but we're American, not Japanese." Johnny grumbled, "Alright, whatever, we'll figure it out. First, we need some students."
"It's my first day back at school today." Miguel grinned, "I could do some recruiting. But, where are we going to train?"
"You let me worry about that." Johnny nodded and stood, and the teens stood with him, "Now get out of here before you're late."
"Yes, Sensei." Miguel smiled.
He and Johnny shared some kind of bro handshake and Ivy waved to Johnny before they left his apartment. On the way to her truck, Ivy nudged Miguel.
"You should go for the old cobras." She suggested.
"Old cobras?" he asked.
"I didn't want to say this in front of Johnny, but Kreese kicked out a lot of kids for not being worthy. Most of our original team, actually." Ivy went on, "I'd bet they'd jump at the chance to join us and get back at Kreese."
"Well then I'll go for them first." Miguel nodded, angry at this news.
"You get 'em, champ." Ivy smiled.
Throwing their bags in the back, they hopped up into the truck and headed off to school.
When they arrived, people started to recognize Miguel, and they cheered and clapped for his recovery. He waved back to some of them sheepishly, clearly embarrassed, as Ivy walked by his side. As they walked into the lobby, Hawk approached them and Ivy panicked, quickly turning her back on him.
"We can talk, Ivy." She heard him mumble, "You don't have to do that."
"Honor the agreement, Hawk." She said without looking back, "It's hard enough as it is already."
"Alright...as long as you know I still love you." He said quietly.
"I do." She bit her lip.
There was a pause, and then she heard the boys high-five.
"What's up?" Miguel asked.
"Welcome back, man." She could hear Hawk grin.
"Feels good to be back." Miguel sounded ecstatic.
"Did they give you bionic legs or some shit like that?" Hawk teased him.
"Nope, same old boring human legs." Miguel chuckled.
"Oh yeah? Can you throw down?" Hawk asked and she heard some shuffling, "Gotta defend that title, and you'll have to get through me first! Dude, Cobra Kai is crushing it right now."
"Uh, actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about that." Miguel started, but was cut off by the school bell, "Oh, uh, I'll talk to you about it at lunch."
"Yeah sure. Later, man. See you around, gorgeous." Hawk rushed out as he walked away.
Ivy waited until Miguel grabbed her hand, and she turned with a sigh as they started walking again.
"Agreement?" he asked her.
"Yeah, to a cease fire." Ivy nodded, "The fighting didn't stop when you were gone. Hawk and I got into a pretty violent fight. I drew blood, Miguel. So Hawk and I had a long talk and we agreed to leave each other alone."
"So that's why you've been so sad..." Miguel breathed, "But why the hell did you two get into such a bad fight?"
Just as she was about to answer, they spotted Dimitri by his locker. Miguel looked happy to see him, but his face fell once he saw the cast.
"That's why." Ivy mumbled as they approached him.
"Hey! The comeback kid, welcome back!" Dimitri nearly howled with excitement and Ivy noticed Yasmine behind him, "I hope to make a similar triumphant return to the land of mobile appendages masses."
"What's up with the cast?" Miguel asked with an uncomfortable laugh.
"Proximal radius fracture." Dimitri nodded as Yasmine joined his side.
"It smells." She mocked him with a sassy look.
"I put a lemon rind down there to mitigate that." Dimitri shrugged and pulled out a marker, "And the invitation for you to sign it still stands."
"Hard pass." Yasmine shot him down, "At least when you used to be a thorn in my tits, you were getting me an A in science. Now you can't even do that because you're...defective."
"Okay, bitch." Ivy growled to warn her.
Yasmine gave her a look and then walked away, her heels clacking loudly on the floor.
"So, uh, how'd you break your arm?" Miguel tried again.
"We've got a lot to catch up on." Dimitri answered sadly.
"Class is going to start soon, I'll tell him." Ivy offered, "See you at lunch, Miyagi-Dork."
"Later, Deadpool." Dimitri gave her a small smile and walked away.
They started walking again and Miguel watched her expectantly. She took a deep breath before she jumped into her explanation.
"Long story short, Hawk broke his arm." She huffed, starting to power walk so she wouldn't be late.
"What are you talking about? He would never do that to Dimitri!" Miguel gasped as he moved to keep up with her.
"Uh, yeah he would, and he did." Ivy stopped outside of her classroom and crossed her arms, "Hawk and company were bullying Chris at the arcade, so me, Sam and some Miyagi-Dos went to stop them. When I got there, Hawk had Dimitri on the ground and Tory had shown up to egg him on. Hawk shattered his arm right in front of us, so I beat the shit out of him. That's why I drew blood."
"Ivy, I..." Miguel stammered, unable to believe her story.
"Take some time to process this. It's a lot to wrap your brain around and I know it's going to be hard, but it's only going to get worse from here as far as catching up. But like I said, a lot has changed." She looked away, "See you at lunch."
"Yeah, alright." He sighed, his whole aura dampening, "I'll be looking for you."
"I'll be there." Ivy promised.
Miguel walked off to his own class, his shoulders weighed down with sadness, and Ivy let out a sympathetic sigh. He might have been ready to come back physically, but mentally she wasn't so sure.
At lunch, Ivy walked into the cafeteria only to see that Kyler had a hold of Dimitri's cast, and he was laughing quite loudly with his friends about it.
"Hey, guys!" Kyler shouted and held up Dimitri's cast, "Check this guy out! He's walking around with a dick in his hand!"
The majority of the lunchroom laughed, and Ivy stomped forward to slap his hand away, putting herself between him and Dimitri.
"You wanna end up like Brucks?" she growled, "Cause Hawk and I are one in the same, and I'd be happy to give you the same treatment."
"Sorry, I don't fight girls." Kyler laughed her off.
"Cobras fight everyone, you pussy!" she took a step forward to shove him, "Get with the program or get the fuck outta the Dojo!"
"Man, no wonder Lip likes you so much." Kyler shook his head, "You're one crazy bitch!"
"Call him Lip to his face." Ivy smirked darkly, "I'm sure he'd love that."
Kyler's face instantly paled, and she saw him gulp before he retreated with his friends. Ivy linked her arm gently with Dimitri's and led him to their table. As they sat down, she noticed that Miguel was talking to Hawk, and he looked beyond pissed. Hawk's eyes were soft as Miguel jabbed at him, and it didn't look like he was going to fight back. Soon, Miguel just shook his head and turned his back on him to make his way to Ivy and Dimitri.
"This is a lot worse than you made it sound." He snapped as he sat down.
"Not true." Ivy shook her head, "I've been telling you since you came out of that coma that once you came back, you'd be in for a fight."
"Yeah, well, I didn't expect this." Miguel spat, "Hawk was my friend."
"And his best friend, and my boyfriend." Ivy paused to point to Dimitri and then herself, "How do you think we feel?"
"Sensei needs to know about this. We need to stop this." Miguel said sternly.
"Yeah, good luck." Dimitri shook his head and held up his cast, "We've been trying this whole time, and look where it got us."
"We will, loser." Ivy assured him, "The champ is back, and Johnny is a Sensei again. We can strike now."
Miguel gave her a nod, but his eyes were still dark with anger. She looked back at him to show him she understood, and then her eyes lingered to Hawk. Kyler wasn't with him, but he was still cackling like a maniac with the other cobras, and this made her heart sink. She hated seeing him as Hawk, fearing that she was about to lose Eli again, but she couldn't do anything about it this time. With a sigh, she turned back to her food that she was too sick to eat.
She made a beeline for Miguel's locker when school was done, worried about how he was taking everything that happened. He was putting his books away, his lips pressed into a thin line.
"Hey, Migi." She nudged him gently.
"Hey." He let out a small sigh.
"You good?" she asked.
"I guess. All day I've been trying to think of the best way to fix all of this, and I haven't really come up with anything." He admitted.
"One step at a time. This is a huge task, and right now we gotta focus on building up our Dojo." She tried to encourage him.
Miguel opened his mouth but was interrupted by a slam against one of the lockers behind them. Startled, they both turned to see Johnny, and their mouths hung open.
"Sensei?" Miguel gasped, looking around them, "How did you get through security?"
"I went to school here. You think I don't know all the secret ways in and out?" Johnny explained as he looked around to make sure no one of consequence had spotted him, "Hey, I have some good news. Found us a pretty sweet spot for our new Dojo."
"Yeah?" Miguel perked up.
"How's the recruiting coming?" Johnny asked, and Miguel slammed his locker shut with a disappointed shake of his head, "What? That bad?"
Miguel started to walk away, and Johnny and Ivy followed him.
"Just...everything's changed, Sensei." Miguel tried to explain, "Cobra Kai, they...drank the Kool-aide."
"Kool-aide? What's wrong with Kool-aide?" Johnny asked curiously.
"It's another way of saying brain washed, Sensei." Ivy chimed in, "And Cobra Kai is like cult level brain washed."
"Yeah, and Sensei Kreese is turning them into an army of assholes." Miguel nodded, "There's no convincing them to leave."
Johnny sighed and something caught his eye behind them. Ivy looked to see that Hawk was paling around with a bunch of cobras like her usually was, and Johnny didn't seem to like this.
"Wait here." He mumbled, moving to approach them.
Ivy and Miguel followed anyway but kept a safe distance from them.
"Okay, listen up!" Johnny bellowed at the cobras and they all looked to him suspiciously, "I screwed up and I'm sorry. I made it about me, and that's not what a Sensei does. I took the easy way out, I gave up. What happened here at this school, it rocked me to my core. I couldn't look myself in the eye, let alone face all of you."
"Yeah, I guess it makes it easier telling yourself that." Hawk snapped suddenly, "But the truth is, you bailed on us long before that fight happened. You got soft, and we paid the price."
Ivy watched as Johnny's face went from sympathetic to angry, and she worried for Hawk as Johnny took a few steps forward to get nose to nose with him. She wanted to act, but Miguel put a hand on her shoulder to keep her next to him.
"Alright, you listen up." Johnny growled, jabbing his finger into Hawk's chest, "When you came into my Dojo you were softer than a baby's ass! I made you what you are, not Kreese! He doesn't give a shit about you, about any of you!"
Johnny took a step back to address all of the cobras, and Hawk looked to the floor in shame. Ivy relished in that look, hoping that Johnny was actually getting through to him.
"So if you wanna keep whining about the past like a bunch of pussies, fine, we can play that game!" Johnny went on, "You wanna stick with Kreese? Go ahead! Don't say I didn't warn you when your life ends up in the shitter. Or you can sack up, and join my Dojo. Havenherst and Magnolia, tomorrow at four. If you wanna save yourselves and train the right way, you better be there!"
Johnny turned to walk away, and Miguel followed, but Ivy stayed and locked eyes with Hawk. He looked back sadly, and she could tell that he was doubting all of his previous plans. What Johnny said had gotten to him, and she hoped it was enough to bring him back to their side.
"IVY!" Johnny shouted.
"Yes, Sensei!" she answered and jogged to catch up with him and Miguel.
"Excellent speech, Sensei." Miguel smiled as they walked.
"Yeah well, guess we won't know if it worked until tomorrow." Johnny shrugged.
"I think you got through to them." Ivy nodded, "They looked like they were absorbing it."
"Like I said, we'll see." Johnny grumbled as he pushed through the front doors, "I still have a few things I need to take care of before we can open the Dojo. I'll see you two tomorrow."
With that, Johnny left to his vehicle, leaving the teens behind. Ivy motioned for Miguel to follow her, and they went to her truck to leave. As she drove, she noticed that Miguel kept sneaking glances at her, and it was starting to get on her nerves.
"Got something to say?"
"I just don't...how did you handle all of this by yourself?" he asked.
"Not well, actually." She groaned, "A lot of fighting, a lot of screaming, a lot of threats and blackmail. Not my finest moments."
"Who did you blackmail?" Miguel was curious.
"You mean who am I still blackmailing? Tory." She shrugged like it was nothing.
"Is that why you were chatting at the sushi place?"
"Yep, she's my inside informant for Cobra Kai." Ivy nodded.
"Why would she do that? She hates you." Miguel mumbled.
"Because once my grandma loosened my leash, I spent all of my time making Tory's life a living hell." Ivy chuckled darkly, "She offered to be my informant if I laid off. So, here we are."
"Ivy...what the hell?" Miguel gaped.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." She waved him off, "I'll admit, the hatred and rage took its hold on me for a while too, but I'm past that now...mostly."
She paused to concentrate on a turn as Miguel continued to watch her.
"Then Dimitri took me in, and I became a vigilante of sorts. I fought the cobras to help the Miyagi-Dos because I wasn't afraid to take a punch or do what needed to be done. That's why Dimitri calls me Deadpool." Ivy smiled, "So when I wasn't with you, I was helping them. And that's pretty much where I am now. Miyagi-Do's unofficial bodyguard and strategist."
"Ivy...you're amazing." Miguel let out a breath.
"Oh, come off it." She brushed him off as she turned into the complex, "I just did what I had to do."
"No, you did the right thing no matter what it cost you. You kept Johnny's ideals alive when we couldn't." Miguel smiled at her, "That takes guts as well as strength, and I'm so proud to have you as my best friend."
She looked back at him as she parked and cut the engine, her face flushing red. She didn't feel that way as she went through all those ordeals, she was just following her gut and helping people when they asked her to. But Miguel was seeing it a different way, and although he was admiring her, she didn't exactly know how to handle it.
"I'm happy to have you as my best friend too, but you can cut it out now." She took a deep breath to try and clear her face as Miguel grinned, "I'm no hero, I was just trying to fix as much as I could while you were recovering. But now you're back, so let's just focus on what's ahead of us, okay?"
"Yeah." Miguel nodded, still grinning as he reached over to pat her hand, "See ya tomorrow, loser."
"Later." Ivy mumbled faintly.
She watched as he hopped out of the truck and walked off to his apartment. When he was out of sight, she threw the truck door open, leaned back in her seat and lit up a smoke to ponder her past actions. This whole time she had felt like a failure because she had yet to get Eli back. But Miguel's praise had reminded her of all the little things she had accomplished on her own and with Miyagi-Do up until this point. She may not have gotten her soulmate back yet, but she had helped lay the foundation that would secure their victory over Kreese, and that was no small feat. Miguel's words had rejuvenated her, and with a happy sigh, she chucked her smoke into the lot and went into her apartment, ready for whatever tomorrow would bring.