CHAPTER 6

Immediately, the vibe of the room changed. An icy chill ran through everyone's hearts, or at least everyone who had heard stories of the town where many more people entered than left.

"Well then Johnny, I'm coming with you to Juarez!" Sam declared. "We'll go find him, bring him back!"

Johnny, Carmen, Amanda and Daniel exchanged alarmed looks at each other, before her parents looked at her and shook their heads.

"Yeah, no, you're not going to Mexico." Daniel said, very matter-of-factly. Sam scowled at him.

"Like hell I'm not! Of course I'm going!" Sam exclaimed, getting to her feet. "I'm going to get ready now. I'll be ready to leave by tonight."

As Sam began to walk away, Amanda caught her arm and pulled her back down.

"Sam, Juarez is really dangerous." Amanda said.

"So is L.A." Sam remarked. Carmen shook her head.

"Sam, honey, Juarez makes L.A seem like some kind of paradise. It's one of the murder capitals of the world and has one of the highest crime rates in the world." Carmen stated. "I've been there twice when I was much younger and both times I had scrapes that I was lucky to escape from unharmed. Taking a white, teenage girl to Juarez is only going to cause more trouble than it's worth."

"So you just want me to sit here and wait and pray while Miguel's in the hands of some psychopath that makes Tory seem like a zen monk?!" Sam exclaimed.

"Hey, watch it!" Tory growled. Sam looked at her, slightly apologetically. She didn't mean to insult Tory. She was just really worked up. She couldn't believe that her parents weren't letting her go!

"Sorry." Sam murmured. "But come on! However dangerous it is for me, it's going to be even more dangerous for Miguel if he's literally spending his time with this gang! He needs me, and I'm not just going to sit on my ass doing nothing about it!"

"Miguel can handle himself. I'm sure of it." Daniel said, reassuringly, but it backfired greatly as Sam scoffed.

"And you're saying I can't?! What? You trust him more than me? He stronger than me?"

"Sam, you know that's not what your father's saying." Amanda responded, getting slightly annoyed with her daughter. She was so wrapped up in her emotions that she couldn't see the bigger picture, couldn't see how truly dangerous it was for her. "If case you haven't looked in the mirror lately, there's a visible difference between you and Miguel. He's a large, Hispanic, guy. You're a white, clearly Western girl. He probably has the protection of his father's gang if he manages to find them. If you were a criminal and you were trying to kidnap one of them for ransom, or rape and kill one of them, which one would it be?! You're not going, Sam, and I'm sorry but that's the end of it!"

At Amanda's outburst, Sam's reply got caught in her throat and her voice trailed off. She sat back down on the sofa and crossed her arms and legs so tightly that it would take her years to unknot them. She wasn't an adult, having a conversation with other adults anymore. She was so enraged that she had been transformed back into a child having a temper tantrum.

"Are you going alone? Is that safe?" Tory turned and asked Johnny. Johnny shrugged.

"Probably not, but you were in Cobra Kai when I was sensei, when do I ever do anything that's safe?"

"Never. Fair point." Tory chuckled in reply.

"You know, I would volunteer to come with you, Johnny." Daniel said. "I swear I would. But I've got…"

"Your gynecologist appointment. Don't worry about it, Lady Larusso. You heard what Carmen said about sending little white girls into Juarez. Maybe it's best if you stay here."

"Johnny, I swear to God…" Daniel growled at him. "I've got to reopen Miyagi-Do with Chozen, and I've got to go confront Silver about him rigging the tournament and telling him that because of that, I'm breaking the deal."

Johnny nodded.

"That's fine. Don't worry about it." Johnny said, almost sincerely, before smirking at Daniel. "Wouldn't want to mess up those pretty nails anyway."

"Are you sure there isn't any way you can go with Johnny, Daniel?" Amanda asked, interjecting before Daniel could fire back an insult or lunge at Johnny.

"It would be a lot safer if there was more than one person." Carmen admitted, looking at Johnny nervously. Daniel sighed and shook his head.

"I'm sorry. I'll do everything I can to help you from here, but I just can't shoot off to Mexico right now." He said. Suddenly, a voice came from the other side of the room, speaking up for the first time in a long while…

"I can come with you…"

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"Are you sure you want to do this?" Tory asked later that night, as she stood in Robby's mom's apartment later that night, helping her boyfriend pack a suitcase. "I mean this is really dangerous."

"I'll be fine." Robby reassured her as he threw some clothes into his bag. "No gangbanger is laying a hand on me."

"I'm not worried about that. I'm more worried about you and Johnny getting into an all-out brawl at the border and both being thrown in Mexican prison."

Robby chuckled.

"You know, and I know this sounds really weird given that in 24 hours, I'll be in one of the drug capitals of the world, I think this trip will be fun."

"You have a weird definition of fun." Tory laughed as she went into his wardrobe and pulled out more clothes. Robby shook his head.

"No, like I think this trip will be good for me and Johnny. We haven't really talked since we switched sides."

"Oh yeah, I forgot how important gossiping is to you ladies." Tory joked.

"Shut up." Robby chuckled.

"Hey, what's this?" Tory suddenly asked, pulling something out of Robby's cupboard. Robby turned to look at her and saw she was holding a sealed envelope with the words 'to dad' at the front. "This looks pretty old. When were you writing to Johnny?"

It took Robby a few minutes to remember what it was as it was half-buried at the back of his closet, but after he looked at it for a few moments, he looked at it and tossed it aside carelessly.

"Oh, yeah, that's nothing. It's from like 2 years ago, around the time my dad first opened Cobra Kai. I heard that he wanted to be a part of my life again and so I decided to write him a letter and drop it at his dojo if he wasn't there. But he was, so was Miguel. They were in the parking lot actually. I watched as my dad gave Miguel his old training gi and treated him like the father he never was for me. I left right after that."

Tory listened silently as Robby finished recounting his story, and as he trailed off into silence, she decided to response.

"Wow, I, um… I'm sorry. That must have been rough. I mean I thought I had it bad never knowing my dad, but knowing who yours is and watching him be happy with someone else… that must have sucked."

"Eh. We still made it to where we are now." Robby replied, starting to zip up the now packed suitcase. "You know, if you had told that Robby that in less than 2 years, he'd be going on the most dangerous trip of his life to help save none other than Miguel, I don't think he'd have believed you."

Tory nodded.

"Yeah, you know I was joking about you and Johnny fighting, but I'm actually being serious when I say please don't start a brawl with Miguel and get yourself arrested."

Robby shrugged.

"I think we'll be alright actually. You know, I used to hate him before but now… I don't think there's been a fight in the past year that the two of us started."

"Well that can't be true!" Tory laughed.

"I'm serious!" Robby exclaimed. "It's always been you and Sam starting brawls and us reluctantly getting involved. Think about it… The All-Valley last year was a tournament so we were going to have to fight anyways. The next time we fought was in the school fight, a fight that you and Sam started. Then I went to juvie so we didn't fight for a while, and I wasn't there when you went to the Larusso house. Then during the prom, you and Sam started that encounter, not us."

Tory nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I really did start a lot of shit. I'm sorry." She mumbled, her face flushing slightly in embarrassment.

"Hey, I'm not blaming you for it." Robby said, taking Tory's hands and squeezing them in his own. "I just honestly think that if Miguel and I could get on the same page, we'd actually be able to work together. At least before his injury, we were so evenly matched that fighting him was such a thrill. I'll be honest, if I had to pick anyone in the Valley to fight alongside me, provided he's back to full fitness, I'd probably pick Miguel."

"Wow, didn't realise you were such a fangirl." Tory laughed. "I should call Sam and tell her she has some competition!"

"Whatever." Robby rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying that it wouldn't be impossible for the two of us to get on the same page, especially if we're going to be training together in Eagle-Fang. Hey, maybe you and Sam should do the same while we're gone."

Tory's face immediately darkened.

"That's not happening." Tory grumbled in reply. Robby laughed.

"Come on. You two actually do have a bit in common." Robby tried to reason, but Tory scoffed.

"Hey! You take that back!" She snapped. Robby raised his hands in surrender.

"Okay, fine, you two have absolutely nothing in common. You're about as similar as apples and… cows."

"No guesses as to which one of us is the cow." Tory remarked under her breath. Robby rolled his eyes and ignored the comment, continuing his sentence.

"But… you know what they say about opposites attracting." Robby stated.

"They don't?" Tory suggested hopefully. Robby sighed, knowing that defeat in this argument was inevitable.

"Fine. We can leave the couples counseling for the two of you when you get back. I'm sure Miguel will be just as entertained as I will be watching it unfold." Robby remarked. As he put his suitcase on the ground, ready to roll it out of the house when Johnny came by and picked him up, Robby and Tory then stood face to face, staring into each other's eyes. Though they had only been dating an incredibly short amount of time, it was like they had been together forever. They could tell what the other was thinking. They weren't afraid to comfort, and they weren't afraid to confront the other. They were both living pretty tough lives even now, and they knew that at the end of the day, they only had each other, so their bond was already extremely strong.

"I'm going to miss you." Tory murmured, leaning in and kissing Robby for a while, before the couple were finally forced to break apart for air. "Stay safe, okay?"

"I will, I promise. Call if you need anything and I'll be back in a heartbeat." Robby replied. Tory nodded. "So… you doing anything fun tomorrow?"

"Oh yeah, I got a whole line of guys lined up on rotation, ready starting 8:01 tomorrow morning." Tory joked. Robby rolled his eyes and Tory laughed. "No, but jokes aside, I actually am going and seeing someone."

"Oh yeah? Who?"

The next day…

BEEP!

The next morning, a man awoke roughly from his slumber at the sound of his jail cell beeping open, and then shortly after, a guard rapping hard on it with his baton.

"WAKE UP, KREESE! YOU HAVE A VISITOR!" The guard bellowed at the top of his lungs. Kreese groaned and slowly stood up. It was 7 in the morning and he was already being woken up. It was Sunday too. Every prisoner's favourite day as today was visiting day. Prisoners were granted a couple of hours to see family, friends, whoever had the courage to see a loved one imprisoned behind bars. Well, every prisoner but Kreese loved that day. Nobody had come to visit him since he had been unrightfully tossed behind bars, and he was starting to expect that no one ever would.

As Kreese shook the sleep out of his eyes and out of his system, he slowly trudged out of the room, putting on his handcuffs and following him into the visitor's centre. The man did a double take when he saw who was sitting on the other side of the plexiglass window…

Sitting down, he smiled at them, picking up the plastic telephone that he was mandated to talk to them through. There was no face to face contact. The closest you could get was through a plexiglass screen. But at that moment, Kreese didn't care. He was over the moon that someone from his life had finally decided to hear him out, and it took everything he had to maintain his stoic expression. Even so, he still slipped into a faint smile as he lifted the phone to his ear, the person opposite him doing the same.

"Hi." They said to him.

"Hello, Nichols…"