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CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
THE PLAN
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WOKEN UP BY THE NEED TO PROVE HERSELF, MERCY SANTIAGO LEAVES HER BOYFRIEND'S NEW HOME PRETTY EARLY IN THE MORNING.
Of course not without having written him a note that explains everything. She just really wants to get back to the dojo to show everyone how committed she is to their cause.
And after stopping by at her house to take a quick shower and change into her own clothes, she's on the way to the dojo. Tapping on her steering wheel to the sound of her favorite music, Mercy almost allows herself to look forward to a promising summer day.
But then she reaches the dojo and gets a look at Eli, Demetri, Miguel, Sam, and Bert who are having a conversation, probably filling Demetri in on everything that happened the previous night.
Scared of Sam's judgy blue eyes, she walks slowly towards them, not announcing herself. What even is there to announce?
Hey, it's me, you still don't trust me and I probably can't blame you for that, but I'm now Miyagi-Do so get that in your big head and shut the fuck up, Sam.
Or something along those lines.
"We need to tell the senseis," Miguel says right when Mercy is close enough to hear their words.
Demetri's eyes land on the girl and his face immediately lights up.
"There she is! The missing piece to our puzzle! Sam just told me everything, crazy that Kreese didn't do it, right?. And crazy that Silver payed off the ref."
Mercy nods quickly at the boys, a suppressed smile on her face, while totally ignoring Sam.
"I don't think telling the senseis is gonna do anything," she tells them.
"Exactly. What are they gonna do? We all saw what happened to my dad when he confronted Silver," Sam agrees. "I don't want him getting hurt like that again."
Her eyes get this sad shimmer, which reminds Mercy of their childhood and her brain almost gets flooded by all those sweet and innocent memories of better times. Almost.
"Me too, there gotta be a way to expose him without anyone getting hurt again." Mercy nods. It's no problem for her to admit that she also cares about Daniel, she's known him her whole life, he's like an uncle to her after all.
"Maybe. But if this ref and Stingray are on Silver's payroll, they'll never admit anything," Demetri tells them with a sigh, which automatically leads everybody else to sigh too.
"I'm not so sure about that," Bert replies after a minute of silence. "I know he's in Cobra Kai and I'm in Eagle Fang, but Stingray's still my friend. He wouldn't lie to me. At least, I hope he wouldn't."
He looks at Mercy, who shrugs her shoulders in uncertainty. She knows that she wouldn't lie to a friend, even if it's about something like this.
"Think you can get him to talk?" Eli asks.
He nods confidently and that pretty much settles it. After agreeing on the details that they would meet in the evening later, Mercy turns around to leave, but Demetri and Eli quickly catch up to her.
"Loved the picture, by the way. Although your smile wasn't really convincing," Demetri tells her on her way to her car.
"You gonna print it out again? For each of us?" She asks, more or less rhetorically, but he nods eagerly.
"Of course he will, probably has them at home already," Eli replies instead.
For some reason that paints a smile on her face. Maybe she couldn't get her old life back, but it's comforting to know that at least her friendship with the two boys is healing.
"That's beside the point," Demetri remarks and turns his attention back on Mercy.
"Where's Robby? Did you talk to Tory already? It's crazy that she knew all this time." Although he doesn't say it directly, unlike Sam the previous evening, the accusation of her knowing about all of this is in the air.
Mercy sighs loudly.
"Dude, I don't know nothing, I left Cobra Kai after the All Valley, I even told Kreese that I would leave after the tournament a few days before that. Tory didn't tell me anything, probably because I'm not Cobra Kai anymore. And Robby's probably still sleeping or something I don't really know."
Eli and Demetri exchange a glance at her defensiveness.
"Woah, Mercy, I'm not accusing you of anything, I'm just being curious," Demetri tells her with his hands held in front of him.
"Great, I gotta go now, see you later." She opens her car door and doesn't even wait for a response from her friends. As soon as her phone's connected to her car she tries calling Tory, but her best friend doesn't pick up, which agitates her.
"Hello?"
"At least you pick up, thank God. Did I wake you? Wait what time is it?" Mercy replies to her boyfriend's voice on the other end of the line.
"No, you didn't, I've been up for a while. Loved your note, by the way. On a mission to the dojo, talk to you later, xo Mercy. Didn't really explain anything."
"It explained why I left so early. Why are you so grumpy?" Maybe it's just the connection or the quality of the phone call, but for some reason Robby sounds the opposite of happy.
"I went to Cobra Kai to tell everyone to leave and Silver talked shit about you." His voice sounds quieter than before, so Mercy has trouble understanding him over the sound of the usual traffic.
"What? You gotta tell me the whole story, I'll be at your place in five." And then she hangs up.
As a matter of fact, it took her six minutes to arrive at her boyfriend's place and with every second that passed, her nervousness grew. Of course did she expect that Silver would talk some crap now that she turned her back on Cobra Kai, but not knowing what he exactly said makes her feel a bit anxious.
"Hey," Robby greets her with his typical smile to which she of course replies with her own smile.
"Tell me what that ponytailed asshole said." She marches right into Sensei Lawrence's living room and doesn't even bother sitting down. Her arms now crossed in front of her chest, she looks at her boyfriend expectantly.
"So," he starts with a clear of his throat, "I told everyone in that dojo that they make a mistake by trusting Silver and staying there and that they should follow our example."
Mercy doesn't reply, she waits for him to continue.
"Silver started laughing then and told everyone that you were the worst student he ever had with no discipline and that they should call themselves lucky to not have you among them anymore. That made me angry, so I gave him a piece of my mind, but I guess that's what he expected, he just wanted to make me mad."
No discipline. Mercy can't believe it, she's disciplined in everything that she does!
"It's time to finally stop that hijo de la gran puta. And we're gonna get him, I'll tell you all about it later!" Mercy nods a few times, now more ready than ever to bring down Cobra Kai.
"Okay?" Robby asks more or less confused. He also wanted to tell her all the nice things he said about her after Silver's insult, but he guesses that that can wait.
Mercy has a special kind of glimmer in her eyes, the kind that screams of determination, the kind that she has in her eyes when she wants that A+ in school so badly.
It feels like an eternity has passed until it's finally time to meet the others and drive over to Stingray.
"Knock it off. We know Kreese never hurt you," Eli says right after Stingray began talking about the betrayal Bert did to him by bringing them here without a heads up.
Stingray starts stuttering. "According to my testimony in a court of law, he did. So... read the transcript."
He tries to close the door, but Sam and Mercy prevent him from doing that.
"You lied to the court, and you lied to my dad. But you're not going to lie to us," Sam tells him and without another word, she marches right into his apartment with the others following her.
Mercy hates to agree with her, but she's right.
The luxury in this apartment is surprising and if they wouldn't be on a clear mission, Mercy would look around some more. Instead of taking a seat like the others do, she stands behind Eli's chair with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
Stingray is visibly nervous, so it's obvious that he lied about Kreese hurting him. But she would never have guessed that it was Silver himself who put the man in the hospital. That's at least what she concludes after hearing Stingray's Dungeons and Dragons story, a metaphor he created to tell them the truth.
But why is she even surprised? Of course, Silver would do anything to get what he wants. And all he wanted was Cobra Kai to himself.
Sam storms out of the apartment after Stingray told them that he couldn't change his testimony. And Mercy understands. He's afraid that something even worse would happen to him.
"Mercy," Miguel says as she also steps outside the apartment and comes face to face with him and Sam. The brunette girl is visibly annoyed.
"I told her that she can't imagine what it's like to be in Cobra Kai and that it had to be extremely hard for Tory to admit what she knew," he continues, an obvious invite for her to share her experiences.
But Mercy doesn't want to tell Sam how Cobra Kai messes with someone. The look on her face tells her everything she needs to know - that she'll never understand anyway.
A moment passes in which nobody says anything. Mercy waits for Miguel to continue talking, while Miguel and Sam wait for Mercy to finally speak up.
"It's not over," Mercy breaks the silence, now getting a stupid idea.
"We're still gonna bring him down."
Although the two change uncertain glances, Mercy keeps nodding. Maybe the idea is stupid and reeks of betrayal, but everything will be alright once Silver gets thrown behind bars.
"What are you waiting for? Come on, girl." Mercy doesn't wait for Sam's answer, she simply turns around to walk towards her car.
"What's going on?" Sam asks her hesitantly as she sits down on the passenger seat.
"I don't know why it's so hard for you to understand that Cobra Kai is not simply a dojo you can just leave. Ever since Kreese has taken over it's been like a cult and you don't even know how deep you get sucked in until you're on the bottom. Silver's even worse, so don't blame Stingray for not speaking up," Mercy tells her without looking at her.
It's weird. It's the first time since forever that they're sitting in the same car let alone that one of them is driving. Haven't they talked about this when they were younger? How great it would be to be able to drive? The road-trips they would be doing?
Sam swallows hard. Mercy's right, she can't understand.
"Why did you?"
Her brows furrowed, she glances at the brunette out of the corner of her eyes.
"Why did I what? Stay there after everything that happened? Or finally leave?"
"Both," Sam whispered. She doesn't like the bitterness in Mercy's voice, but that's all she's been hearing for the last couple of years whenever Mercy decided to actually speak to her.
"Cobra Kai makes you strong, you believe you can do anything. And Kreese believed in me, he told me I have all the potential in the world to be one of the best. The faith he had in me reminded me of Abuelito, so I felt weird about leaving. But karate's not really what I wanted, I mean, I joined because Miguel wanted me to and then I stuck around for Eli and after he left...," Mercy breathes in deeply.
"I don't know I guess it was just pure hatred and all the things Kreese taught me. And obviously the fact that he reminded me of Abuelito, which is a shame honestly. But I left because I have other dreams and be eighteen soon anyway, so way bother sticking around for another tournament, right? Funny how things go." The chuckle that leaves her feels forced and she can't believe that she shared something personal with Sam.
"You'll be a great astrophysicist, NASA can count themselves lucky." Sam also avoids looking at her former best friend.
Mercy doesn't say anything to that, she keeps staring at the road ahead, hoping that they'll arrive at Tory's soon.
word count: 2154
mickey here
It's been forever and I am so so so so sorry for that, Uni was kicking my ass, I had writer's block, and I'm trying to find a therapist bc my mental health keeps declining, but all of that is no excuse for keeping you waiting that long!! Hopefully I'll get the last chapter of season 5 out soon and I hope that at least some of you are still sticking around for this story!!! Thank you guys have a great day/night <3