CHAPTER 24
Silence. Utter and complete silence. As Kreese and Silver sat opposite each other in the prison's visitation room, the buzz of activity all around them descending to nothing, neither said a word for an endlessly long time. Kreese was content with just staring a hole into the man in front of him, trying to gauge whether or not he should believe the words that he had read in the letter. The ponytailed former sensei was a snake. He was a spider. He had the survival instincts of a cockroach, and Kreese was painfully aware that he would do anything necessary to survive, no matter how much lying or backstabbing that might entail. So he regarded the man opposite him with nothing but contempt and skepticism.
"Thank you for agreeing to see me." Silver said. His words hung in the air for a while, Kreese not even acknowledging that he had said them, let alone responding. He pondered the man's words carefully, allowing them to echo through his head. Was he being honest? Were these just more lies? Evidence pointed to the former, although Kreese… from the second he had sat down with his incarcerated nemesis, he had a feeling that this time, the man was actually being honest with him. That the letter wasn't a lie, but was instead dead serious. Because thinking back on it, there were signs. There were definitely signs that had alluded to what was written in the letter that Kreese had not noticed at the time, but now made perfect sense.
"How long have you known?" Kreese asked. Silver sighed.
"9 and a half months. A few weeks before you came by my house." He replied. 9 and a half months. 9 and a half months, Silver had been carrying around this massive secret, this massive weight on his shoulders.
"And it's definitely an…?"
"An aneurysm? Yes. I had doctors from all over the world check me out, and they all came to the same conclusion: aneurysm. Right here." Silver said, pointing momentarily at his head. A brain aneurysm was the last thing Silver had expected to face. He had always felt untouchable. Invincible. But 9 months ago, that belief had been torn to shreds when he had received the crushing news.
"And how long do you have?" Kreese asked. Silver shrugged.
"Doctors have given me meds so I don't feel any kind of pain or anything. But they say it could rupture at any moment. Any breath could be my last. I could die in the next minute. Or… I can get out of here after my 9 months locked up, and then outlive the entire Valley."
Kreese's face darkened considerably at this point.
"9 months. How the hell did you manage to only get locked up for 9 months?" Kreese snapped. Silver chuckled.
"I don't know. Maybe it was just a combination of things. The veteran card, the age card, the… health card. And I'm sure it helped that I cultivated a… personal relationship with the judge."
"Yeah, well, if it was up to me, you'd be rotting in that cell until the day you die, whether that's tomorrow or 10 years from now." Kreese responded. Silver sighed, nodded and looked down.
"You know, when you're a man in my situation, when you know that death is imminent but you don't know when it's to come, you look at life in a whole other way."
"What?" Kreese muttered.
"You start to think about legacy. About the great things you've done. About the mistakes you've made. About how you will be remembered, long after you're gone."
"And let me guess… you found solace in the arms of God." Kreese remarked. Silver chuckled and shook his head.
"No. But I got to thinking about myself. About my legacy. About the mark I've made on this earth. I never had kids, or a family of my own. Sure I conquered the business world and built an empire, but that wasn't it either. My legacy, where I truly left my mark, was Cobra Kai."
"You were a 'sensei' for barely half a year." Kreese snapped. Silver's face became knitted into a scowl.
"I know. And it would've been more, it should've been more. If it wasn't for Danny boy and Johnny Lawrence's meddling." Silver spat in reply. That was one thing the two old men could agree with. Kreese could've been out of jail long earlier if it hadn't been for Johnny and Daniel, and Silver wouldn't be in jail in the first place if it wasn't for them either. "But still. Teaching those kids the Way of the Fist, representing Cobra Kai… that was my legacy."
"Why are you telling me this?" Kreese asked, genuinely puzzled. If he didn't know Silver better, he would've thought that the man was asking to be allowed to rejoin Cobra Kai after his release from jail.
"Because provided I don't pass away before then, in less than 9 months time, I'm going to be out of here and back in the Valley, ready for my final act."
"You cannot possibly be serious!" Kreese remarked, knowing exactly where Silver was going with this. "Not even if hell freezes over will I ever let you back in my dojo or anywhere near my students."
Kreese began to stand up, but he was quickly rooted to the spot when he heard what Silver said.
"I know about your bet with Miyagi-Do." Silver called. Kreese slowly sat back down in his seat, and leaned further forward so him and Silver's faces were less than a foot apart.
"How the hell do you know about that?" Kreese snapped. Silver shrugged.
"Please. I poured my blood, sweat and tears into getting Cobra Kai into the Taikai. You really think I wouldn't be interested in how our preparations for it were going?" Silver commented. "Imagine my surprise when my friend, an attorney, informed me that a fellow lawyer in his firm had been tasked with writing up a contract between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, with the loser having to shut down once and for all. Imagine my shock when I found out that you wagered everything we worked so hard for to settle a feud between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do."
"What Cobra Kai does now and in future, because we will have a future long after the Taikai I can assure you, is none of your business."
"But it is, John, isn't it? We started Cobra Kai together. If there's a chance that Cobra Kai is going to end, then it's only right that it ends with us too."
"What do you want, Terry? You want to become a sensei again? You really think I'd allow you anywhere near my dojo or my students?" Kreese snarled. Silver remained perfectly relaxed as he smirked at Kreese.
"You're forgetting, John, that I know all about your bet. My attorney friend told me all about how it's structured. And please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're in need of a sensei to fight for the dojo in that division."
"No, we don't." Kreese immediately replied. "Sensei Kim and I are more than capable of winning that division."
At that moment, Silver outright laughed in the other man's face.
"You can't possibly believe that, can you?" Silver commented. "You and Kim are barely capable of beating Miyagi-Do, let alone competing against the other dojos in the Taikai."
"That's not true." Kreese shot back. Silver raised an eyebrow.
"It's not? You mean you didn't lose to both Danny boy and Johnny last December? Isn't that why you called for my help in the first place?" Silver remarked. Kreese, if possible, looked even more furious now.
"Let me fight for Cobra Kai, John. I guarantee that I will defeat Toguchi, Lawrence, Larusso, whoever they throw at us. I won't let Cobra Kai lose. I won't let them get away with all of the trouble they and their hippie garden they call a dojo have caused us."
"The answer's still no." Kreese responded quickly, not allowing his brain to even entertain the possibility of Silver rejoining and fighting for Cobra Kai again. Silver sighed.
"Alright. Fine. Have it your way." He conceded. "But before you make a firm decision, I want you to know, John, that I'm still going to continue with my original plan from before I got locked up. I have people working on this as we speak, as I still very much intend to advertise the Taikai worldwide so it becomes amongst spectacles such as the Superbowl, the World Cup final. Millions - no, billions - of people from around the globe will tune in to watch Cobra Kai facing Miyagi-Do. I still care about Cobra Kai very much. I want to provide our students with the platform they deserve to showcase their talents. But… on the other hand, take this as an incentive to allow me to return and fight as one of the Senseis. How embarrassing would it be if Cobra Kai lost the bet in front of the billions watching worldwide? I guarantee that if you let me fight, you won't even have to entertain that thought. I could be an asset to Cobra Kai if you let me. One that Cobra Kai desperately needs."
Kreese listened to Silver as he spoke, waiting patiently for the man to finish speaking before he finally spoke up again.
"You are not Cobra Kai." Kreese stated calmly but menacingly in his former Lieutenant's ear. "You are not worthy of wearing our gi, to teach or to fight. So if you manage to get out of jail before you die, be warned: if you ever come near my dojo or any of my students, I'll kill you…"
With that, Kreese stood up, turned around and walked out of the prison visitation room, still silently simmering in anger. Once he was gone, Silver also slowly rose, grinning faintly as he walked out of the room and into the central cellblock of the prison, where there was a single landline phone. He dialed a number, before standing around for a while as he waited for someone to pick up. He could tell the inmates waiting behind him in line for the phone were getting impatient, but Silver didn't dare hang up. Not until he got ahold of the person he was looking for, and sure enough a while later, a gruff voice spoke to him on the other end of the phone.
"Hello?" They grunted.
"Hello, old friend." Silver murmured.
"Terry! How's it going, man? Did Kreese go for it?" They asked. Silver grinned widely as he replied.
"Not yet. He's still not convinced." Silver replied. "But he will be. I know he will be. And when he does let me back into the dojo, he's going to live to regret it…"