Post S5 - I think Tory's arc may go one of three ways in the beginning of S6. She's going to be traumatised after being tortured by Cobra Kai and there are 3 ways I think she will deal with it.
1. Training excessively mentally scarred/traumatised from what she went through
/ /
Tory had taken a break from karate for the rest of summer to let her hand heal before finally joining Miyagi-Fang. To no-one's surprise, the ex-Queen Cobra preferred the Eagle Fang part of it. Despite her break, it barely looked like Tory had slacked off.
"Miss me?" She questioned with a smirk after throwing Robby down onto the mat like the good ol' days in Cobra Kai.
"You have no idea." He said in amazement.
"Guys! You might want to see this." Hawk ran into the indoor dojo to get them before running back outside. Tory and Robby followed him confused until they saw who had come to visit the dojo. Tory felt her heart lurch into her mouth at the sight of Sensei Kim but tried not to show it on the outside.
As Daniel, Chozen and Johnny dispatched of Cobra Kai's new Sensei and students from South Korea, the kids discussed it amongst themselves. "I don't get it. Cobra Kai's been gone all summer. Why show their faces now." Miguel said.
"Why come back at all? I thought they were done after we released that footage." Anthony added.
"It's like they knew I was coming back." Tory said monotonously kicking a stone on the ground.
The reappearance of Cobra Kai and Kim set Tory on edge and she asked Senseis Lawrence and Toguchi for some extra lessons to catch up on things that she'd missed.
"Yeah, just let us know when you're ready for the hardcore stuff. You might want to ease your hand back into it." Johnny suggested.
"I'm ready. I'll come by the warehouse after school." Tory waved him off.
"Well, I... we understand if you want few days to..."
"I'm ready." Tory cut Chozen off before walking away. The two adults looked at each other thinking about it for a few moments before shrugging the unsure feeling off.
The afternoon, as promised Tory came to the Eagle Fang warehouse to train. Deciding to trust her instincts and that she knew her limitations, Johnny and Chozen put her through a rigorous training program of handstands, flips, cartwheels, kicks, kip ups and bo staffs, before ending with a more traditional method of a piece of apparatus from Cobra Kai - a wing chun wooden punching dummy. Whilst doing the drill, Tory started to get flashbacks of punching the stone dummy and sent jab after jab to the pad in the middle of the dummy. Seeing her get out of control, Chozen called "Tory, that's enough." But she didn't stop. "Tory!" Still nothing. Tory lifted her leg and hit the dummy with a side kick so powerful it snapped the wood in half. Johnny coughed "Well, it's safe to say you've stayed in shape."
"I'm ready. Whatever they got coming next, I'm ready." Was all Tory replied and ran her hands through her hair while she caught her breath. Johnny and Chozen watched her concerned as Tory stared at the broken dummy. "Yeah." She sniffed convincing herself.
/ /
The next day at school, Tory was sitting on one of the couches during the break lost in a world of her own. She didn't hear Miguel and Hawk walk up to her. They had missed being friends with her when they were on opposite sides, and the had promised Robby that they would keep an eye on Tory during school when he couldn't. "Tory?" Hawk called as they walked up the stairs. Miguel sat opposite her while Hawk stood over her calling her name again "Tory?"
"Fine!" She exclaimed snapping her head to look up at him. "I'm fine." She repeated assuming that's what she had been asked. That was all people had asked her for months.
"Good. It's good that you're fine." Hawk said finally taking a seat beside her.
"What were you thinking about?" Miguel asked.
"Nothing."
"Oh, come on. You can tell us." Hawk pressed.
"I wasn't thinking anything, really."
/ /
That night, Tory woke up from a nightmare and found Robby watching her concernedly.
"Tory, are you okay?"
"Peachy." She replied nonchalantly.
"Tory." He said exacerbated. "This has been going on for months. You're not okay."
"Is that it? You know, 'cause you woke up me up from a really good dream." She said sarcastically, pushing him away. Robby looked down and bit his bottom lip, it hurt him that she wouldn't let him in. Tor turned on her side facing away from him. "Sorry." Robby apologised lying back down and facing away from her as well. He knew this was partially his fault for giving Tory the ultimatum and walking away from her but he didn't think he had screwed things up this badly. "I miss you." He said over his shoulder.
"I'm right here." Tory argued.
"No, you're not."
/ /
Amanda came and drove Tory to her weekly therapy appointment and couldn't stand the silence in the car. "How are your new classes?"
"Good." Tory answered softly.
"Good... Is there the slightest chance that if I asked you what was wrong, you would tell me?"
"Isn't that what you're paying somebody for?"
"Do you tell her?" Tory didn't answer. "Of course not, it would take the fun out of guessing."
/ /
Even Sam noticed the change in Tory's demeanour.
"Tory?" She stormed after her one night as the blonde tried to make a quick exit from training. "You're really campaigning for bitch of the year, aren't you?"
Tory turned around "As defending champion, you nervous?"
"I can hold my own. You know, we've never really been close, which is nice, 'cause I don't really like you that much, but you did help us take down Cobra Kai, so I'm gonna do you a favour."
"And this great favour is?"
"I'm gonna give you some advice. Get over it."
"Excuse me?"
"Whatever's causing the Joan Collins 'tude, deal with it. Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever, but get over it. 'Cause pretty soon you're going to end up pushing everyone away, including Robby."
"I think it's about time you start minding your own business." Tory warned lowly.
"It's long past." Sam agreed. Tory just groaned in annoyance and flipped up her hood as she continued walking away. "Nighty-night." Sam called.
On Tory's way home she passed by one of the 'New and improved! Under new management!' Cobra Kai dojos and swore she saw Kim looking at her. Tory began to panic and was panting heavier than she was in training before she willed her body to run away.
/ /
The Miyagi-Fangs told their senseis about their concerns about Tory, leading to Johnny and Chozen revealing about their private training session with Tory and her actions there. "Why didn't you tell me about this?" Robby shouted at his dad.
"'Cause I knew you would freak out. And we thought she'd calmed down."
"Ugh." Robby groaned at his stupidity.
Daniel finally spoke up, having been tortured and traumatised by Silver and his goons in the past "I suggest that, uh, the explanation for her behaviour may be something, well, more mundane. She may simply have what you young people refer to as 'issues'. Her experience with Cobra Kai must have been extremely traumatic. I mean, we still don't really know what happened to her in there. Although, given my past with Silver, I have a pretty good idea."
"What do you mean?" Robby asked.
"Well, I didn't realise it at the time, it took me years, but he tortured me. I don't think Tory has dealt with that on a conscious level. She has convinced herself that she's invulnerable for the very reason that she feels..."
"That's a very interesting point about koi fish you just brought up now." Demetri jumped in seeing Tory arrive behind Daniel.
"What?" He said confused but then saw Tory join them. "Koi fish, yes. It takes a lot to keep that pond maintained. Good morning. Did you sleep well? Daniel greeted the new arrival.
"Like a rock." Tory said laughing on the inside at her joke. "Cobra Kai are training in the middle of the night." She informed them bluntly.
"I'm sorry."
"Cobra Kai. I walked by their new dojo last night, and the midnight oil was burning."
"Good God." Daniel gasped as the dojo descended into chaos.
/ /
And so the cycle of violence and rivalry between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai continued. Kim had told her students that she had brought over from South Korea all about the disappointing American students, specifically Tory. However, compared to their sensei Tory wasn't the least bit threatened by them and the Miyagi-Fangs couldn't understand that, especially Robby.
"I can handle myself." Tory told them.
"Stop saying that!" Robby finally snapped at her. "God, what's wrong with you?" He was the last one to lose his cool. Before Robby could argue his case, Tory had already spun on her heels and walked away.
However, he wasn't about to let her walk away again knowing (or at least having an idea) what happened the last time he left her to deal with Cobra Kai herself.
"You know, being stalked isn't really a big turn-on for girls." Tory sighed when she heard her boyfriend following her.
"You need help. Someone to watch your back."
Tory scoffed "I don't need your protection, Rob."
He walked around to face her "Why you riding me?" He couldn't understand why she wouldn't let him help in any aspect of her life.
"Because I don't trust you."
"You have to trust someone. You can't do this alone."
"I trust me."
"You're not as strong as you think."
"You think you can take me?"
"What?"
"Oh, come on. Big, Robby Keene, been to juvie for attempted murder, you think you're so much tougher than everyone else."
"I'm not gonna fight you." Robby shook his head.
"Come on. Kick my ass." She challenged.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Robby reminded her.
"I do."
"Well, you're wasting time."
"Just stay out of my way."
"Happy to oblige."
/ /
"I still think we should have gone with her. If Cobra Kai does show up and attack her, Tory and Robby can't take them all on, on their own." Miguel argued.
"If Tory's about to lose it, I think we should be trying to reach minimum safe distance. Remember the school fight?" Hawk said.
/ /
Turns out the trap wasn't mean for the former Queen Cobra, at least not directly. Kim wanted to break her mentally by attacking all her friends and then making sure they would blame Tory for it.
Under the guise that Tory and Robby had been jumped and taken to the new Cobra Kai dojo, the Miyagi-Fangs showed up there to break them out but found out that their teammates had never been there.
Thankfully, Miguel had been held up by helping his mom with his new baby sister while everyone else was out of the house. So when he couldn't get a hold of anyone he knew something was up and then Robby came home and it all made sense.
Robby drove them over to Tory's apartment:
"What happened?" She asked.
"Cobra Kai. The ones you could handle yourself."
"Where are the others?"
"I don't know what your problem is, what your issues are, but as of now, I officially don't care. If you'd worked with us for five seconds, you could've stopped this." Miguel said angrily
Tory turns around she's upset but trying not to show it - now isn't about her. "We... We just have to think."
"If they hurt Sam, I'll kill you." Miguel promised.
/ /
"So what's the plan? The three of us are going to take on the best Cobra Kai students in the world and their crazy sensei?" Miguel theorised out loud as Robby parked the car.
"Pretty much." His step-brother agreed.
"No. It's not just us. Our teammates are inside."
"Yeah, but we don't know what kind of shape they're in. They might not be able to help us fight."
"Fine."
"So, what's the plan?" Miguel repeated.
"You two go in the back and find our friends. I'll go in the front and get Cobra Kai's attention."
"Are you sure?" Robby asked her.
"Yeah, I'm the one she's waiting on anyway."
"Okay." He relented despite not liking the plan.
Tory managed to sneak in quietly and punch one of the Cobra Kai students behind their solar plexus making them double over in pain, announcing her presence. it only took seconds for the rest of Cobra Kai to attack her.
Miguel and Robby found the others and freed them. "Where's Tory?" Hawk asked.
"Uh, she's working out her issues." Miguel answered watching the fight through the cameras. Despite how many Cobra Kai's there were the girl was doing well with all that pent up anger. Robby spared one brief glance at the screen before running down the stairs, followed by the rest of the dojo and soon another dojo brawl started.
"Enough!" Kim yelled getting everyone's attention, especially Tory's. "Your day is done, girl. I'll grind you into a sticky paste! And hear you beg before I smash in your face." She threatened holding a sledgehammer.
"So are you gonna kill me, or are we just making small talk?" Tory challenged. Kim charged at Tory so the blonde grabbed the nearest weapon closest to her, a bo staff, and used one of the sequences Chozen had taught her in the private lessons hitting Kim in the elbow making her drop her weapon first, then turning the bo staff vertical to hit her head, then ankles knocking Kim off balance, and finally a jab to her solar plexus a taste of Cobra Kai's own medicine.
Tory dropped the staff looking at what had been placed in the centre of the dojo as its pride and joy.
"It's over." Sam said.
"No, it's not." Miguel told her.
Tory held her breath trying not to cry and bent down to pick up the sledgehammer that Kim had dropped.
Tory slowly walked up to the stone dummy and swung the sledgehammer at every limb on it saving the head for last. Once all of the pieces of stone lay on the floor she swung at them breaking them even more. The Miyagi-Fangs watched on sadly finally understanding what Tory went through. Robby walked up behind her very slowly waiting for Tory to stop on her own; he was not going to take this away from her. Once the entire thing was smashed into smithereens, Tory covered her mouth with her hand unable to hold back her tears anymore. Feeling Robby's hand on her shoulder she dropped the sledgehammer. "It's okay." He whispered. "It's okay." Tory was crying looking at the remains of the torture device. Robby gently turned her around so she wasn't looking and being haunted by it. Tory cried into Robby's chest as he shushed her and kissed her hair. He just held her close until she was all cried out and ready to move. the others couldn't help but watch despite the feeling that they were intruding, it was hard to believe that Cobra Kai had actually broken down Tory Nichols.
/ /
Robby didn't let Tory go for the rest of the night, curled up in bed they were both still apologising to each other:
"I was such a bitch to you. You were just trying to help."
"Hey, if it was me, I wouldn't have wanted to talk about that either. I get it now. Everyone does."
"Oh, please don't remind me of that. I don't think I can face them."
"Of course you can."
"I can't. What am I supposed to say?"
"You can't punish yourself. You've had enough to last you a lifetime."
"I was a moron. I should have just left when you asked me to."
"On that, I won't argue with you." Robby smirked
"Hey!" Tory squealed hitting him.