CHAPTER 1
"Ms. Nichols. I'm glad you decided to finally return."
Tory opened her eyes and her heart almost immediately stopped. All of the blood disappeared from her face, leaving her pale and white as a sheet. She found herself standing in the flagship Cobra Kai dojo, face to face with none other than the woman she hated and feared most in the world.
"W-w-what am I doing here?" Tory stammered, her head whipping around the dojo, her heart pounding like a bass drum. They were all there. All 7 senseis, who had made her life a living hell the past few months, who had beaten her close to the point of no return. 3 of the senseis stood blocking one of the exits of the dojo, 3 of them blocking the other, and then the last one - their leader - standing opposite Tory.
"You're here for your final lesson, of course." Sensei Kim stated, speaking in an eerily calm voice, especially for someone who was about to inflict so much harm on an innocent teenager. "Come on, you really didn't think that you'd be able to just leave Cobra Kai without there being any sort of consequences, did you?"
Kim then gestured the object beside her, something that Tory had somehow completely missed in her panicked state. But when she laid her eyes on it, she could already feel her right hand starting to stab with pain from the last time she had participated in that method of "training." Tory immediately shook her head.
"No… no, no. I'm leaving." Tory said, trying to gather as much confidence as she could into her voice, but the slight quiver giving away her true emotions. Giving away just how petrified she was. Kim chuckled at the teenager.
"Is that so?" She responded, before a curt nod beckoned a few of the senseis to take a few steps towards her, cracking their knuckles menacingly. "I didn't realize you had a choice in the matter. As soon as you complete the lesson, you will be allowed to leave this dojo. But not before then."
Tory's heart rate climbed higher and higher, feeling like an animal trapped in a cage, about to be slaughtered. However, she was forced to resign herself to her fate, and slowly turned to face Sensei Kim again, and the human-sized stone target beside her. Tory's mind was slightly blurred as it whirred and raced at everything that was happening, but Tory could've sworn that these slabs of stone were even thicker than the one she had broken last time. Given that last time had resulted in her almost breaking her hand, Tory was definitely not looking forward to this one.
But as Sensei Kim had pointed out, it wasn't like she had a choice in the matter. So getting into a fighting stance, Tory attempted to channel all of her energy into her right hand. If she broke the stone board on her first try, then it she wouldn't have to hit it again and again and she could leave, right?
No such luck though. As Tory drew back her fist and let fly, a deafening CRACK filled the air. It wasn't from the board though. The board remained perfectly intact. It was Tory's hand that had connected with the board and let out that sickening noise.
Tory gasped in pain, clutching her hand. If it had hurt last time she had done this, it hurt ten times more this time, as the pain from her previous time had still yet to fade. But the pain wasn't done there. Far from it. Sensei Kim forced her to attack the board again and again and again, and after all of it, the stone not showing even the slightest of dents. Tory, however, was in much worse shape. She had dropped to her knees, and could no longer hold back the loose tears that trickled down her face, directly onto her now open wounds on her hands, causing her to wince at the stinging sensation.
"Pathetic." Sensei Kim stood over Tory and sneered. "It's no wonder that Sensei Silver had to pay for you to win the tournament. Get up!"
All of a sudden, Tory felt herself being roughly grabbed by her ponytail and yanked to her feet. She was shoved right back to her spot opposite the target, but as she looked up, she very nearly passed out. Tory was no longer facing a stone target. No… the target, that was supposed to represent a live opponent, was more than life-like now. In fact, it took on the shape and face of the last person Tory wanted to get hurt.
"Tory? What's going on?" Robby asked, nervously, trembling from head to toe as he took in his surroundings. "They came to my house and dragged me out and…
"Quiet!" Sensei Kim barked, raising a hand too to shut him up. "Ms. Nichols, as expected, you have failed to complete the lesson with the stone target. Knowing that this would happen, I thought you could use some extra motivation. This is your new target now! Cobra strike… KYIAH!"
Tory did not move a muscle though. She stared at Sensei Kim in horror.
"You want me to hit him?!" Tory exclaimed, incredulously. "No! I'm not doing that!"
Sensei Kim laughed once more.
"I'm sorry. Let me rephrase this… strike him, or neither of you leave this dojo alive."
Tory slowly turned towards Robby, who was struggling like he had been chained to the spot by some invisible shackles. She closed her eyes. If she was going to do this, she couldn't watch it happening. She tried to tune everything out, ignore who was standing in front of her, and what she was about to do to him. That proved a lot harder than she thought though, as when her hand started to curl into a fist once more, Robby's voice rang through the thick silence that had fallen upon the dojo.
"Tory… Tory… hey, what are you doi…"
THUD!
Robby's cry of pain as her fist connected with his face sliced right through her heart, a few more tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.
"Again!" Kim barked. Robby began to struggle more furiously now, desperately trying to get out of his invisible bonds.
"No, Tory, please! Please! Stop!"
THUD!
"Arghhhh!" This blow landed right on Robby's nose, causing him unspeakable pain as his nose broke on impact. He moaned in pain and continued to beg Tory to stop, the metallic taste of blood entering his mouth as the blood dripped down from his nose.
Seeing the crimson liquid leaking from her boyfriend's face almost caused Tory to break then and there. It was only when she saw Sensei Kim staring at her expectantly, that she forced herself to land another punch.
THUD!
Soon. Soon this would all be over. Soon Kim would call it to be enough, and the two of them could leave. But not yet. In Kim's eyes, Tory hadn't done enough damage yet, hadn't proven herself yet.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The blows began to rain down, as Tory continued to whale down blow after blow after blow. Robby's cries and begs of mercy were punctuated by each strike, and before long, he had fallen to his knees, only barely conscious now. But it wasn't enough yet for Sensei Kim. It still wasn't enough. The sadistic bitch was going to force Tory to keep going. To keep hurting him. Closing her eyes once more, Tory threw a couple more punches and forced herself to ignore his voice.
"Tory! Tory! Tory!"
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Robby lay fast asleep in his girlfriend's bed, having the most amazing dream. He was soaring through the air, piloting a jet, dipping down through the clouds every so often to peer down at the ground beneath him. Being so far up in the air, he felt completely removed from the rest of society, felt completely removed from all of his troubles. It was so peaceful, that he hardly noticed the transition between the dream and waking up. To be fair, it was pretty hard to notice the fact that he had awakened, as even awake, Robby could still feel himself moving. Or rather, the entire bed he was lying on seemed to be moving.
What the hell? He thought to himself, rubbing sleep out of his eyes as he sat up a little. The bed definitely seemed to be moving, and for a moment, Robby had no idea why, as he was clearly in Tory's bedroom. It was only when he glanced sideways at the girl laying beside him that he realized. Tory was causing the entire bed to shake. She was thrashing around ferociously in her sleep, tangled in a web of blankets and comforters.
"Please. Stop." Robby heard Tory murmur in her sleep, her entire body flailing so wildly that she was dangerously close to flying off the bed, or accidentally sending Robby crashing off the bed. He quickly sat up and grabbed her by the shoulders, gently trying to shake her awake.
"Tory. Hey, Tory." Robby murmured gently, wary of the fact that Tory's mom and brother were asleep in the adjacent rooms, and they had no idea that Robby was there. It was no use though, as Tory was so consumed by the nightmare that she didn't even notice him calling her. He was forced to raise his voice a little louder. "Tory! Tory! Tory!"
Eventually, Tory's eyes did snap open, and she immediately shot up to sit up, still completely on guard. It took her a few moments to realize that she was no longer in the Cobra Kai dojo. She was safe. She was at home. She was in bed. With Robby. As the adrenaline rapidly drained from her body, Tory put her head in her hands and lay back. She could tell Robby's jade eyes were still on her, concerned, but she didn't say a word for a long while. She didn't know what to say. She felt embarrassed more than anything else, that Robby had seen her thrashing around in a nightmare like she was an 8 year old kid. As her heart rate continued to decrease as it reached closer and closer to normal, Tory could feel her panting and gasping for breath begin to subside as well, and the lingering effects of the nightmare fade as well.
"Are you okay?" Robby suddenly asked, his voice breaking through the silence, his words filled with worry. Tory slowly nodded.
"Yeah, fine." She grunted, not really able to string a full sentence together right now, as her mind continued to spin.
"Are… are you sure?" Robby questioned further. He knew for a fact that she was not okay at all. He had heard mere snippets from her about the very dark turn Cobra Kai had taken under Silver's leadership, so he knew that there were bound to be some scars that hadn't yet healed. But seeing it all first-hand… it was heartbreaking to watch, and a lot more vivid than he could've imagined.
"Robby, I'm fine." Tory snapped, shrugging off the hand that Robby previously had on her arm from waking her up. She slowly stood up and got out of bed, turning to him. "You need to go. My mom and brother will be up soon."
Robby nodded silently, and quickly put on his discarded clothes from the night before, his eyes not leaving her the entire time. Tory felt like the two orbs were like X-rays, surveying her. No matter how much she wanted to though, she couldn't tell him about what was going on. She had made the decision not to tell any of them about what she had been through in Cobra Kai. On top of everything else they had just been through, Robby didn't need that added worry on his shoulders.
After Robby grabbed his phone and wallet, the couple tiptoed through the quiet living room of the house and over to the door. Thankfully, Tory's nightmare hadn't woken up either her mom and her brother, so they were able to make it out the door without any interruption from either of them. The pair stood outside on the doorway, Robby picking up his discarded skateboard by the door and placing it down on the road, before walking back over to Tory. His facial expression was still clearly very worried about her, and Tory forced a nonchalant look on her own.
"So… last night was fun." Tory remarked, as the couple faced one another. Robby nodded.
"It was." He agreed, and for a second he forgot about everything else as he reminisced about the amazing night they had just spent together the night before. However, his concern rapidly overtook him. "And you're sure you're okay?"
Tory grabbed Robby's hands in her own and forced herself to meet his gaze.
"Robby, I'm fine, okay?" She demanded, firmly. The almost harsh tone might've been enough to fool a stranger, but Robby wasn't an idiot. He knew she was most definitely not fine, but he also knew that questioning further was undoubtedly not going to get him anywhere. "I'll see you this afternoon at training though, right?"
That afternoon, Miyagi-Do had their first training session since the all-out war with Cobra Kai earlier that week. Everyone had taken a couple of days to recover, both physically and mentally, but Daniel and Johnny had called for them to come to the dojo that afternoon to meet and maybe do some light training. It wasn't just going to be the original Miyagi-Do students either. Although most of the former Cobra Kai students had gone radio-silent after the fight, Tory knew that as well as her, Devon would also be officially defecting to Miyagi-Do. Hopefully more people would too in the coming days, after the dust settled and it was official that Cobra Kai was no more.
Robby nodded.
"Yeah, I'll guess I'll see you there then." He said. The couple kissed, before Robby turned around and got on his skateboard, retreating away from her apartment complex. After he was gone, Tory sighed and looked down, shaking her head to herself. She felt really bad about lying to him, especially after she had lied to him about everything else in the past couple of months with Kreese, but she knew that this had to be the way forward. It was the only way…
