Sam tried hard to concentrate on her katas. It was difficult when she could hear every childish insult coming from where Nate and Bert were sparring each other in front of the tree in the backyard. She didn't know why she could block out everyone else but them; she'd even managed to selectively mute out Demetri as he bargained with Chris about why the whole dojo should go see the newest Marvel movie. Even closing her eyes and taking deep breaths while she went through the movements didn't help her ignore them any better.

"That's a point for me, dick-wipe," Bert announced after he grabbed and threw Nate on the ground, landing a punch on his gut.

Picking himself off the grass and patting the dust from his shorts, Nate said, "Yeah, but I'm still in the lead by two points, elephant-ears."

"Not for long, fart-breather," Bert taunted back.

Sam huffed, glaring at the duo where they were practicing. She then leveled that stare also on Hawk, who had been watching them and giving his commentary the whole time. Apparently, that commentary didn't include stopping them from calling each other names. And his presence was even more of a distraction to her than the younger boys'.

Unintimidated, Nate spread open his arms at Bert and sneered at him. "I can do this all day, you goon."

Hawk snorted but rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Nate, you can do better than 'goon.'"

Nate flipped him off without missing a beat. "Shut up, you horse's ass."

The grin on Hawk's face widened ear-to-ear. "See, that's more like it!" he praised while Bert and Nate returned to their starting positions for another round.

Meanwhile, Sam came up and stood next to him, hands on her hips. "Do you really think you should be encouraging that kind of bullying?" she interrogated. Her words were harsh but lacked the bite they used to carry whenever she confronted him about something. She sounded more exasperated than critical to her own ears.

Leaning on his crutches, Hawk looked at her only for a quick second before casting his eyes away to the other boys. "It's only bullying if it's one-sided," he explained. "This is just fun trash-talk."

"Doesn't sound very fun to me," said Sam, shaking her head at such a juvenile justification. Her eyes lingered on Hawk's hair. She still wasn't used to the new purple dye job, any more than she had grown accustomed to seeing him without his red mohawk. It was what she'd associated him with for so long, the look of the enemy, sometimes it was hard for her to think of him any other way.

And, if nothing else, purple was a lot less angrier than red.

"No, for real, it's cool, Sam," Nate assured her, rolling his shoulders. He at least looked like he was having fun, judging by his smile. "Besides seeing who's the better fighter, we're trying to figure out who's the best shit-talker, me or this idiot. I'm winning in both categories, by the way."

Hawk raised an eyebrow down at his teammate and said, "Yeah, Bert, you gotta start picking up the slack, dude."

"Don't worry, I got this." Pushing his glasses up his nose, Bert asked, "Wait, I lost track, what letter are we on now?"

"J," answered Hawk.

"Oh, right." Bert whipped back around to face Nate and the two bowed to one another as customary. Then Bert raised his fists and said, "You ready to give me a real fight already, jackass?"

Nate scoffed. "That the best insult you can think of, knuckle-fucker?"

Sam's jaw dropped. "Nate!"

Her teammate grimaced a little at the sound of her disappointment in his choice of words. Beside her, Hawk simply snickered.

The two younger students began the next round. Sam kept her sight on them as their fight commenced. Bert opened with a high kick aimed at his opponent's head, which Nate ducked to avoid. When Bert swung back around to deliver a side kick, Nate pivoted around to dodge that as well, slipping behind Bert to try and deliver a punch to his exposed back.

Bert dropped low to his knees, making sure Nate punched nothing but air. Rotating on his feet, Bert aimed a punch at Nate's face. Nate's arm flew up to block it, and he countered with another flying fist. Bert raised his elbow, but not fast enough to shield himself before Nate's knuckles slammed into his shoulder, scoring the point.

Watching the whole fight go down with critical eyes, Sam was about to call out Bert's mistake but Hawk beat her to it. "Yo, Bert, how many times do I gotta tell you, get your elbow up quicker."

"Yeah, limp-dick, get your elbow up," repeated Nate, giving Bert a shove.

While Bert and Nate continued volleying insults to one another, Sam turned to Hawk and asked, "Hey, can we talk for a minute, you and me?"

Hawk stared at her for a long moment. Maybe he was considering her motivations for making such a request, as she had back when he'd asked to have an opportunity to talk one-on-one with her, too. Maybe he could even deduce she had similar reasons asking for his attention as he had that day at school, since he then jutted his chin out at Bert and Nate and said, "Hey, you two, beat it for a bit. Go take a water break or something."

Like a switch had flipped, the boys dropped their antagonism and stopped shoving each other, and the two walked off towards the water cooler together, laughing with each other instead. So perhaps it really had only been mutual trash-talk. Still juvenile, though, Sam thought while Hawk hobbled to the nearby chair under the tree to sit down.

"I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for breaking the pact," confessed Sam as she joined him under the cool shade of the tree while Hawk leaned his crutches against the armrest of the chair. "Hearing you admit you stole Mr. Miyagi's medal, on top of everything else you did, it really upset me. And to be honest, I'm still pretty upset about it. But I shouldn't have broken the pact because of it."

Hawk's eyes flitted before looking away at where the others were practicing. "I went looking for the fight," he said with a dismissive shrug. "You being there probably wouldn't have made any difference. No offense."

Sam's features pinched at his shade, which felt even cooler than the once provided by the tree. "Hey, I've been practicing karate a lot longer than you have," she pointed out. "If I'd been there to help watch your back, maybe we wouldn't be down a fighter for the All-Valley." As much as it pained her to admit it, Hawk was one of the best fighters in the dojo. They really could have used him against Cobra Kai at the Tournament.

"Maybe," Hawk conceded.

Rubbing her hands up her arms, Sam shook her head. "At least now you saw for yourself what a total psycho Tory can be when you're fighting against her instead of on her side."

Hawk sighed. It sounded irate. "You don't know anything about Tory."

Sam flinched, and her fingers grazed over the scars on her upper arm. Miguel had accused her of the same thing. "I don't want to know her," she argued. "I just want her out of my life, for good."

"Nobody's asking you to be her best friend or hang out with her or whatever," Hawk pointed out, "but what would you do if she ever decided to quit Cobra Kai and join Eagle Fang? Miguel still wants her to, y'know."

"She won't," declared Sam, her eyes widening in disbelief. "Miguel argued about that with me, too. I don't get you guys. After everything she's done, do you actually think she's going to turn a new leaf and all of a sudden become a nice person? People like that don't change."

Hawk stared at her. It was difficult to read the expression on his face, and it didn't help when a cynical chuckle parted his lips and he shook his head. "That's right," he said. "I forgot, you don't think people like us can change. It's so weird. You've always been pretty smug about how Miyagi-Do is supposed to be based on real karate or whatever, but you really don't buy all that forgiveness and compassion stuff your dad teaches, do you?"

His words cut her as Sam recalled what she'd told Hawk before leaving him behind at the Starbucks that day. And any feelings of affirmation towards those things she'd said to him then about being petty and spiteful were caught in her throat now. Could she still believe that? Because why was she over here having this conversation with him if she didn't believe, on some level, that perhaps she'd been unfair and Hawk had changed in the time since he'd quit Cobra Kai and joined the merged dojos?

She tried to think of something to say, but her words remained stuck. All she could think to do was deflect. "I thought you didn't need my forgiveness."

Hawk rubbed the back of his neck, glaring down at his feet. His blue eyes hardened. "Do you remember when you said you wouldn't ever forget how Demetri screamed when I broke his arm?"

Sam nodded. "Yes."

Raising his eyebrows, Hawk glanced up again and gave her a somber look. "I'll never forget, either."

How was she supposed to respond to a confession like that? She wanted to continue being angry on Demetri's behalf, even though Demetri had always handled repairing his friendship with Hawk his own way. Maybe in a way more in line with what her dad had been teaching them at Miyagi-Do….

Sam cupped her elbows in her hands, hearing the old lessons in her head again, the ones both her father and Mr. Miyagi had tried teaching her. Ever since she was a little girl, they'd taught her to keep her heart open to the possibility of accepting someone's repentance. But wasn't she entitled to hold onto her justified anger for as long as she wanted?

But then again, hadn't things started drastically improving once her dad and Sensei Lawrence started making up? Wasn't a big reason why things the way they were now, with so much riding on a karate tournament because of Sensei Lawrence's unwillingness to drop a thirty-year-feud and apologize for bullying her father in high school? And hadn't her father's own bitterness escalated matters much further than they had to be?

Sam pulled her braid over her shoulder and bit her bottom lip as those worries started tugging at her insides. She hated Tory. And she was still upset with Hawk. But did she want to wake up thirty years from now, still holding onto old grudges?

Hawk yanked her from those thoughts when another cynical laugh broke out of him. "Look, about breaking the pact? We're cool," he said, reaching for his crutches where he'd laid them. "Hell, I guess I should probably thank you for coming back for me at all and calling your dad for help. And for not telling the others what you saw…."

"Don't…." Sam shivered, picking at the end of her braid, remembering when Hawk had finally answered her call, alerting her to where he was. But for as troublingly meek as his voice had been on the line, nothing could have prepared her for how she'd found him lying behind the 7-Eleven, curled into himself, clutching his knee with one hand, hiding his face behind his other arm so she wouldn't see him crying. But she'd heard him. And she'd seen the strewn cut hair lying around his head.

It would be a while before she could purge that image from her mind. For the time being it resided alongside the memory of climbing down the school stairs to kneel next to Miguel's broken form while he lied there in a coma, nonrespondent. Along with hiding herself in a laser tag cardboard building, hearing Demetri beg for Hawk to let him go before screaming as his arm was snapped in two.

Miguel, Demetri, Hawk. How many people did she have to see at their absolute lowest before all of this was over?

Hawk stood up beside her. "Well, if we're done, I'm heading over to talk with Demetri. He might need me and Chris both if he wants to convince Mitch to go to see Captain Marvel."

Flipping her braid back over her shoulder, Sam hustled to cut him off before he could hobble more than a few strides. "Listen, Hawk, I don't know if I'm ready to forgive you for everything, yet," she told him honestly. He had apologized, which was a good start. Acknowledging where he had improved didn't invalidate her other feelings towards him. She was prepared to accept that. And, since he had given her that inch, she could now open the door she'd closed in his face from the moment he'd joined Eagle Fang. "But I do think I'm ready to trust you."

"I picked up some extra tips at the restaurant," said Tory, handing her mother an envelope with the cash. "So you can get caught up on some of the back payments with the hospital now."

Her mother had that look in her eyes again as she accepted the envelope. They only saddened more in suspicion when she counted how much money there was in there. Too much to chalk up to tips, even from the most generous of customers at a sushi restaurant. And Tory knew her mother was seeing through her lies.

"Here, save a little for yourself," her mom said, pulling a ten-dollar bill out of the stack and handing it back to her.

Tory knew better than to argue with her about it. "Okay." Pocketing it, she walked out of her mother's bedroom and headed back to the living room to work on her GED assignment. It had become harder and harder to stand seeing that look on her mother's face. She was already so worried about the path her life had taken since last summer, and Tory wondered where her mother thought it would end.

What else could she tell her? That she'd accepted another handout from Mr. Silver, despite her gut feeling gnawing at her insides, telling her something about the whole situation was off? But what other choice did she gave? The hospital bills wouldn't stop coming, and working herself to the bone at two jobs wasn't covering them.

There came a knock at the front door. When she peeked through the eyehole to see who was standing on the other side, Tory's breath caught in her throat. She hesitated for a few seconds and glanced over her shoulder where her phone laid on the living room table. Should she alert the guys at the dojo? She should at least tell Robby, right?

Rather than doing that, however, she hardened her expression and opened the door. "What are you doing here?" she snapped.

Miguel's face looked as guarded as her own as he stood there at the front door. "I want to talk," he stated, as simple as that.

Tory scoffed, peering behind Miguel to see if anyone else had accompanied him there to her apartment complex, to see if this was a trap, the precursor to retribution. But all she saw was the bicycle he'd rode to get there. "Wanna tell your friends to not bother hiding this time?"

"The others aren't here," said Miguel. "It's just me. Alone."

"Coming into enemy territory on your own?" asked Tory, cocking an eyebrow like she was critical of his choice. After all, ever since the fight at the LaRussos, it seemed like the students of Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do were never flying solo. While they were waiting for an opportunity to break the truce so she could avenge their loss, the guys told her even Hawk was always with someone else. So why would Miguel risk coming on his own now, after Cobra Kai had sent its message loud and clear about what happened to traitors?

Miguel shook his head. "This isn't enemy territory, it's your apartment," he argued. "And I'm here alone as a sign of good faith. I'm not here to fight you, if that's what you're worried about." His eyes softened some behind his stoic shield. "How are your ribs feeling?"

Tory's expression tightened more, and the contraction of muscles brought a familiar ache to her sides. They probably would have healed quicker if she'd gotten them professionally checked out at the hospital, but they couldn't afford yet another medical bill at this time. But she'd be ready by the All-Valley Tournament, regardless.

"Spare me your bullshit," she told Miguel, stepping outside and closing the door behind her, so her family didn't have to hear them. Where did Miguel get off with his pity now? Just like when he'd shown up to her job that day, waxing on about how he wanted her to join Eagle Fang. Where was all this concern of his when they'd first talked after he got out of the hospital? "What do you want? Let me guess, you're here about what happened to Hawk?"

Miguel's eyebrows furrowed. The previous softness on his face was now twinged with disappointment and, if Tory had to bet on it, sadness. "I can't believe you'd do that to one of your old teammates," he admitted, his shoulders slumping.

Tory wanted to laugh. So she did. The war would have been finished back in December if Hawk hadn't betrayed his teammates. "It's what traitors deserve," she insisted, crossing her arms defensively, the scowl on her face deepening.

Rolling those slumped shoulders, Miguel sighed. He shook his head, staring at her with resolve. "Are you going to do the same thing to me now?" he asked, sounding almost like he was giving her an invitation. "Since I'm a traitor, too, right?"

Tory shifted on her feet, still wondering if this was some sort of trap. "You'll get what's coming to you at the All-Valley," she said, remembering Sensei Kreese's orders. Miguel was off-limits. No one was supposed to touch him until the Tournament. He was last year's champion, he was the one Kreese wanted to make an example of in front of an audience. She'd have her chance to make him pay later.

"But why wait?" asked Miguel. Tory couldn't shake the feeling that Miguel had figured out the game. "You could've waited to beat Hawk at the All-Valley, too, but Sensei Kreese wanted you to take him out before then, didn't he? This was just as much about removing competition from the Tournament as it was about getting back at Hawk for quitting Cobra Kai, wasn't it? You guys would've jumped at any excuse."

"And you think I should feel bad about it, is that it?" challenged Tory, feeling her muscles tense even more. She needed to get off the defensive and fast.

But Miguel disarmed her with one observation. "I think you do feel bad about it."

Tory let out a noise, somewhere between a huff and a snicker. Shaking her head, she said, "He should count himself lucky he didn't get worse. Traitors get no mercy. Hawk knew that better than anyone. He was as committed to this war as the rest of us, and he got what he deserved for betraying his team to side with the enemy. I don't feel bad for any of it."

"Is that why you couldn't cut his hair?" asked Miguel, standing up straighter. "Is that why you had Robby do it, instead?"

Tory fought to keep her expression neutral, hardening her face in hopes that Miguel wouldn't pick up on her uncertainty any more than he apparently already had. He couldn't know that it had felt different than she imagined it would, seeing Hawk on the ground defenseless like that, waiting for her to deal the real blow. Because it hadn't been the same as dishing it out to Miyagi-Do. Because Hawk had been her teammate, he'd been her friend. And if she had that moment of weakness with Hawk, would she hesitate again when the time came to give Miguel what he deserved?

She ignored his question and changed her strategy. She was tired of Miguel's astuteness and wanted him out of there. So she attacked back with, "The only thing I regret is that the Princess wasn't there, too."

That had an effect on Miguel. He wasn't as good at hiding his hurt as she was. "Tory…."

"Aww, would that have made you upset?" asked Tory, tilting her head in spiteful mockery, hoping the belittlement of his feelings hit as hard as a punch to the gut. "Enemies and traitors, they all get what comes to them eventually, you can rely on that. Maybe a little more time in the hospital would finally teach your girlfriend she's not entitled to everything in this world."

"Sam and I aren't together anymore," said Miguel, his brow deepening, drawing his mouth in a stony line. His fists were clenched by his sides. "We've been broken up for a while."

Tory's eyes widened and her mouth hung slack a bit at hearing that news. But she quickly collected herself, letting a mean smile curl around the corners of her lips while a scoff parted from them. "So you finally got tired of the Princess for real?" she asked, her voice sarcastically sweet. "Or is this just you pretending you're over her while you go off to break someone else's heart before crawling back to LaRusso again?"

"I'm already going out with someone else." Miguel left it at that, even when Tory provided him a moment to elaborate further. And judging from the look on his face, she could tell there was something he wasn't telling her.

But what did it matter?

"That doesn't change anything," insisted Tory, narrowing her eyes. "In three weeks, you, LaRusso, and everyone else in your dojos are going to be destroyed. Once Cobra Kai wins, none of you will matter." Scoping him up and down, she snorted with contempt. "You could have been so much more. Even after what happened at school, you could have still been a champion. But you chose to be weak, instead."

Miguel's features broke again, softening from their stiff countenance to reveal what she would have described as heartache in his brown eyes. And Tory's own heart stung, remembering how she'd fallen for those heartbroken eyes before, that night in the park so long ago.

"I'm sorry that I hurt you, Tory," Miguel confessed, catching Tory off-guard again with how simple and sincere he sounded as he muttered it. "I'm sorry I kissed Sam, I'm sorry that I wasn't honest with you about not being over her during the time we were going out together. I tried telling you after Moon's party, but I couldn't reach you. And I know things haven't been easy for you since the school fight. I'm sorry for not listening to you better when you tried telling me. But please, stop feeling like you have to take it out on Sam or Hawk or anyone else to get back at me."

For a moment, Tory's insides twisted like a pretzel. She was lightheaded. Wasn't that what she'd wanted from Miguel for a long time? An apology? An acknowledgment that he'd hurt her? But what did such an apology mean at this point? It wouldn't stop the war between Cobra Kai and its enemies. It wouldn't get her back in school. It wouldn't fix what her life had become.

So she doubled down, huffing yet again at his attempts towards a reconciliation. "You think this just has to do with you? How self-absorbed can you be? This is bigger than you, Miguel. LaRusso, she had it out for me from the start."

Samantha LaRusso embodied everything she had come to expect from this world made up of winners and losers. People like Sam expected to be the winners by virtue of being born privileged. They expected everything to be handed to them and to be able to reach out and grab those things that weren't. People like Sam looked down on her because they assumed she should be the loser by default. But Tory would show them she wasn't going to lose at what life threw at her anymore.

Miguel shook his head. "Please, you can stop this now," he pleaded. "Can't you see that Kreese was willing to sacrifice you if it meant taking out Hawk, just so he could make sure Robby and I are the only ones to make it to the finals?"

"God, you're so full of yourself!" snapped Tory. "You don't know what you're talking about!" Sensei Kreese had encouraged her from the start to prepare to put Hawk in his place for what he did. It was her privilege. And he was giving her time to recover for the All-Valley, which meant she couldn't do the high-level workouts Sensei Kreese had Robby going through.

"Come join us at Eagle Fang," requested Miguel. "Put all of this behind you and move forward. You always have a choice, Tory."

Choice? What other choice did she have at this point? Sam had ruined her life. She'd taken her boyfriend, her education, and her reputation. What was left for her? Her friends? Aisha was gone. Miguel had hurt her. Hawk had betrayed her. The only person left in the dojo who could even begin to understand what she was going through was Robby.

At least Robby had people who cared. Sensei Lawrence had shown up multiple times to the dojo and tried coming between Robby and Sensei Kreese. Even Mr. LaRusso had spewed some bullshit to try and wring Robby back to Miyagi-Do.

But her? Sensei Kreese had made it clear only he and Mr. Silver cared about her. Nobody else did. So what was she supposed to do? Betray the Sensei she owed what little she had? The Sensei who reminded her what it was like to be a winner? She wouldn't do that. She wasn't Hawk. She knew where her loyalties lied, and it was to the only person who cared about her now.

Tory's conscience suddenly tugged at her, twisting her insides tighter. Miguel had come to the restaurant to try and convince her to join Eagle Fang that first time, and now here he was begging her to again. Didn't that show he cared…? But what of it? She was in way too deep now. She had to see this fight through to the end. Because, in the end, winning was the only thing that would matter.

Besides, even if she did want to switch sides and join Eagle Fang, she'd burned that bridge when she fractured Hawk's kneecap. Was she supposed to believe even the ex-Cobras would welcome her back after that? This was a trap.

No, the only place left for her was Cobra Kai.

Another scowl marred her face as Tory pivoted on her heel and reopened the door to her apartment. Before she went inside and slammed the door in Miguel's face, she warned him, "You better be ready by the Tournament because you'll be getting no mercy from me!"