#antis don't interact

Tory’s brow furrows. “I don’t know what he told you, LaRusso, but I didn’t cheat.”

“You didn’t have to. He paid off the refs.”

Sam didn’t know what reaction she was expecting, but Tory’s face falls for a brief second. Just as quickly, her wall goes back up and she licks at her lips. “You’re lying.”

“Don’t try to deny it, Tory. You knew the whole time. You just had to make it look good for everyone else.”

Tory blinks. “I didn’t know. Really.”

She looks so confused that a small part of Sam wants to believe her. But the rest is still raging, burning hot from all their history, from their first meeting to this latest bout, and that’s the part that wins out.

She opens her mouth to unleash a tirade, but Tory beats her to it. “You’re messing with me, right, LaRusso? You didn’t actually see him paying off the refs?”

Her tone was so uncertain, almost breaking, so unlike the Tory Sam had seen in all their previous interactions, that Sam can’t help but relent. Slightly.

“I saw it on the way back to the lockers. They were in the offices. Silver mentioned something about a deal, how the ref played it just right. And then he paid him.”

Tory licks her lips again, and looks dangerously close to crying. “I didn’t know, LaRusso,” she says, almost pleading. “I swear.” She looks over at the trophy where it sits on the bench, and bites down on her lower lip. “He didn’t trust me,” she says, almost to herself.

Sam is suffering through metaphorical whiplash, unable, or unwilling, to process what was happening. She’d come in here wanting a fight, a fair rematch of the final, but instead was watching Tory react what looked genuinely to the news. “You mean you really didn’t know?”

Tory shook her head. “I mean, your mom came up to me before. Wanted me to fight fair.”

“She what?”

Tory apparently misunderstood Sam’s outrage since she barreled forward. “I did, LaRussso, I swear! I didn’t mean to kick you in the eye. I just reacted and your face was right there.”

“Not about that. My mom. She really talked to you before the final?”

Tory nods, then her expression softens even more. “You didn’t know?”

Sam shook her head. “Guess she didn’t believe in me either.”

“She didn’t ask me to throw the fight. Just to fight fair. Which I did.” Tory rolls her shoulders, stretches her neck, looks down at the cement floors. “It was a good match. Could have gone either way.”

“Yeah, but it didn’t. And now my dad’s dojo has to close.”

“What?”

Sam nods. “It was part of the deal. Cobra Kai wins, Eagle Fang and Miyagi-do shut down.”

Tory swallows hard then says, “Sensei Kreese never mentioned anything about that.”

“I don’t see why he would have. With Silver’s money and resources, he thought you had it in the bag. Turns out he was right.”

Tory looks down at her trophy again, this time with sadness. And briefly, Sam feels bad about stealing her joy. She had definitely wanted to, but not like this, not when Tory, for all her faults, seemed to be as much of a pawn in all of this as she was.

“I’m sorry,” she says, before she could change her mind. But only about this. Not about anything else that had happened over the past year.

Tory shrugs, shakes her head. Then her expression hardens into indifference and she turns to face Sam. “Anything other bombs you want to drop on me, LaRusso? Or can I finally go shower?”

“No. That’s it.” Sam takes a breath, then heads for the door, almost but not quite turning her back to Tory as conflicting emotions and thoughts war for her attention.

She wants a rematch. She wants to fight Tory again. Fair this time.

She doesn’t want to fight Tory again. Ever. Not at a tournament, not anywhere else.

She’s exhausted, mentally and physically.

She doesn’t want the pressure, the deal, the consequences. She just wants to do karate. And maybe not even that anymore.

She wants a senior year without a Battle for the Soul of the Valley. She wants to find the bit of herself that was lost over the past eighteen months.