A/N: First official chapter ready. This backtracks a bit like I said. But things will meet up soon. I do not own the O.C., belongs to Josh Schwartz, do not own Cobra Kai, belongs to Netflix and respective owners. I only own my original character, Nicole and any other original characters that may appear.

Chapter One: The Boy in the Video

Seth's POV

"Are you sure we need all of this stuff?" I asked Summer as we unloaded the car after pulling up to the house.

"Yes Cohen, Taylor says she wants to do something nice, and I can't say I disagree."

I rolled my eyes slightly. "Yeah, but Dad's got food covered,"

Summer shoved a bag of groceries into my hands. "Yeah, because Thai takeout is just the celebration meal for an engagement and surviving the first week of fifth grade, AKA what our family eats every single week."

"True…" I relented as we walked up to the house. "But, well...if this is a celebration for Ryan and Taylor, why is Taylor helping with the cooking?" I couldn't help but ask. It was true that this had been Taylor's idea, but someone whose honor the celebration was in… well them doing the work seemed strange.

Summer sighed. "Ryan's been working late, Taylor needs something to do." I remembered Ryan mentioning the development taking longer than usual, but even, I, who was used to how Mom's work had gotten sometimes back when she did that stuff, was a little confused.

"Right… that's it…" I said.

Before we could discuss it further or even knock on the door, my phone went off with a text message.

I shifted the bag in my hand and pulled it out to see the siblings' group thread with a new series of links from my little sister Sophie Rose.

"Everything okay?" Summer asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Apparently these videos have been going around school and we have to check it out," I clicked the first link and tilted my phone in Summer's direction. The video showing was called School Brawl Karate Takedown of the All Valley Champ, and it showed a fight, a bad one in a school hallway.

"Oh my god…" Summer gasped.

We kept watching two boys fighting near a staircase, and it almost...almost seemed to be over. Things were still for a long while, until...they weren't. One of the boys kicked, and the other fell over the railing, two floors down, a sickening crack and then after some commotion ...the video cut off.

"Oh god…that's that was the fight on the news..." Summer's voice cracked. " West Valley wasn't it? Kids at Sophie's school were watching this?"

"Not just this one apparently," I clicked the other links, the one with Nicole's cousin written underneath in Sophie's text bubble color. Nicole was Sophie Rose's best friend.

The video showed two kids fighting, not the same two. One of them had a mohawk, bright red, and the other, well he looked a lot like Nicole, her cousin I assumed. They fought for a while, a brawl that ended with mohawk kid getting kicked into a trophy case and glass shattering with a terribly overly loud sound.

Summer's hand covered her mouth.

Holy shit…

I put on the last video and I knew, I had to talk to my little sister.

Ryan's POV

Work was finally finished for the day and I walked out on the phone. "Yeah, everything's all good for next week, we're right on schedule you have a good weekend." I hung up relieved. I loved my job but lately they had been riding me and it got in the way of almost everything else. My phone buzzed several times and I didn't look. I was done. I was meeting Taylor at Sandy and Kirsten's, and I was determined to give this my full attention. We needed this.

I went to go to my car, but then something stopped me, out of the corner of my eye. I looked across the way closer.. and noticed a sight that stopped me in my tracks: a kid with eyes half closed slightly hunched over leaning against the bridge. He looked like he was in some kind of pain, or on the brink of passing out.

"Hey Kid," I called. "Need help?"

A/N: So I did rewatch the ending montage of the O.C. a few times to decide how I wanted to work this and well, I did adapt and assume a few things. I do enjoy the Ryan/Taylor pairing a lot so I did have them get back together as I do in most of my O.C. stories that deal with post series but this is not entirely smooth between them as they are in a transition period. And that will play a role here. And Seth and Summer and Sophie Rose did see the videos of the school fight at West Valley High which Summer and Seth know was reported on the news.