40A/N: This is the first chapter of the Snakebitten rewrite. The reason I'm rewriting Snakebitten is that a lot of it just seemed kind of unbelievable/unrealistic. Hopefully the rewrite is going to be more realistic. And, hopefully you'll enjoy reading it.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Karate Kid movies, Cobra Kai or anything else that I might reference.
An Unexpected Visitor
John Kreese was one of the last people Terry Silver expected to see in his house at eleven o clock in the morning on an otherwise unremarkable day in January.
He should have been happy to see his old friend again. It was almost like seeing a ghost.
"Cobra Kai! Come on, say it! Cobra Kai?!" He could hear his own voice from all those years ago.
He could hear Kreese say the other part of the mantra. "Never dies!"
In Silver's mind, they clap hands before John gets out of his car.
"You bet your ass." He could hear his own voice echoing in his head again.
A scowl makes its way across his face. "What do you want?"
"I just wanted to catch up." Kreese, or John, answers.
Silver glares at him. "What. Do. You. Want?"
The other man was taken aback by the hostility in his voice, but he didn't show it. At least not outwardly.
"Do you remember when I tried to get guardianship of my grandson? And I came to you asking if you could vouch for me?" John asks.
Silver nods. "I did vouch for you. But it wasn't enough. And that was the last favour that I did for you. I thought we were going to leave it at that."
"Remember what you told me in Vietnam? That you owed me for saving your life, and saving it many times over?" John asks.
Terry Silver watches as Kreese, or John, walks around the room until he comes to a complete stop.
He frowns. "So, what exactly do you need from me, John?"
"My grandson is going down a path similar to one that his father went down. My son, Martin, was a huge disappointment to me as you know. And, I don't want my grandson to become a disappointment to me. Or to himself." John answers.
Silver frowns. "Why should I help a relative of yours that I haven't met? And, you haven't really known him either by the sound of things."
"I wasn't there for his father. And, I think Jason deserves an opportunity that his father never got because I was too busy mentoring people who turned their backs on me. An opportunity to truly make something of himself by becoming a champion." John says.
Silver has to stop himself from laughing in John's face. "Are you serious? You do realise that the Kreese name is poison after what happened in '85, don't you? And you do realise that Cobra Kai received a lifetime ban as a result of our actions? Even if I was going to help you, it wouldn't make a difference. The damage has already been done."
"Do you not miss it?" John wonders aloud.
Silver looks confused. "Do I not miss what? Sorry. What am I supposed to miss?"
"A sense of purpose. Surely, you're not going to spend the rest of your life surrounding yourself with people who have no idea of what it's like to actually be in the sort of situations that we were in. Both in war and outside of it. You're not like them, Terry. And you never will be." John has a slight smile on his face.
Silver sighs. "So, what if I do miss having a sense of purpose? Do you honestly think that I would trade the life that I have built up for myself in order to find purpose in helping a grandson that you have never met or thought about apart from a handful of occasions?"
"I'm not asking you to give up or trade anything. You can still have all of this and help nudge Jason onto the right path. That's all I'm asking." John answers both of these questions with ease.
Silver raises an eyebrow at this. "And what exactly will you do if I refuse to help?"
"I'll find someone else who can help." John replies.
Silver smiles at the thought. "I don't think that there's anyone else who can help you. Which means that you need my help."
"So, you'll help me?" John asks.
Silver just shrugs. "I don't see why not. But I'm not just going to go in blind."
"I wouldn't expect you to." John says.
Silver nods. "I think that means we have an agreement."
"I suppose it does. Maybe it would be a good idea if we shook hands." John holds out his hand so Silver can shake it.
Silver shakes John's hand. "I just hope that this grandson of yours is worth helping."
"He will be." John retorts.
The handshake had ended about as quickly as it had begun.
Silver's hand returns to his side. "You're welcome to stay for lunch. My chef is excellent."
"I think I will. Will you let me know how your visit with Jason goes?" John asks.
Silver smiles. "Of course."
"Good." John replies.
Silver is about to walk into the wine cellar of the house. "I think a toast is in order. I'm just going to go and get something to toast our agreement."
He sees John nod his head.
Silver walks to the stairs leading to the basement or cellar of his house and walks down them.
His interaction with John was more pleasant than he had expected it to be.
Besides, all he had to do was go to the juvenile detention centre where Jason was being incarcerated in order to see if he was worth helping or not.
It was simple enough, really.
….
It has been roughly six months since Jason Kreese had started his year long stint in juvenile detention. He had missed Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve and would probably miss celebrating his fifteenth birthday in a few months but he was paradoxically far safer in juvenile detention than he had been in the last few months before his incarceration.
Jason had been in multiple fights over the last six months.
And he had won most of, if not all, of them.
Besides, the other inmates were relatively easy to deal with.
The guards were the ones who were really dangerous.
"Kreese, Jason! You have a visitor!" A guard exclaimed.
Jason was brought out of his thoughts. "Really? Is this a trick?"
"Shut up and stop asking questions, Kreese. I said you had a visitor, so you have a visitor. Now get a move on." The guard answered.
Jason leaves the room and walks into the visitor's centre, which is another room. But there are tables and chairs with inmates and the people visiting them sitting at them.
He sees a table with a tall older man with white and grey hair going down to his upper shoulders wearing what could be described as smart casual clothes sitting on a chair across from an empty chair.
Jason sits down. "I'm guessing that you're my mystery visitor."
"I suppose you could say that. I should probably introduce myself…" The man starts.
Jason cuts him off. "So, introduce yourself."
"My name is Terry Silver. You could say that I'm an old family friend." Silver says.
Jason looks nonplussed. "You say you're an old family friend but I don't know you."
"That's because I'm a friend of your grandfather's. We served in Vietnam together. And we both survived the experience." Silver continued.
Jason sits back in his chair. "That still doesn't explain why you're here."
"I'm here because I want to help you." Silver answers.
Jason just shakes his head. "I don't think there's anything you can do to help me. Besides, I've got 6 months of my sentence left and I'd like to think that I've been surviving pretty well so far."
"You might be "surviving," but you're not actually living. I probably should have mentioned it earlier, but your grandfather told me a lot about you. He said something about wanting you to get the opportunities that your father never got. And he did mention that he tried to apply for guardianship of you but that application was rejected." Silver retorts.
Jason's eyes narrow almost imperceptibly. "Right. And how exactly are you going to help me? Because I'm guessing that you didn't come here just to make small talk."
"I didn't come here just to make small talk. I came here to make you an offer." Silver says.
Jason looks a little taken aback. "What kind of an offer?"
"I'll talk to the judge who handed down your sentence and get your sentence reduced from 1 year to 9 months. I will also be providing you with a house and a car upon your release in addition to anything else that you might need. And, I will make sure to smooth things over regarding your hypothetical living situation." Silver is quick to respond.
Jason is sceptical. "And you're doing all of that out of the goodness of your heart, right?"
"Are you asking me if I'm expecting anything from you in return for helping you?" Silver answers the question with another question.
Jason nods. "Yeah. I know that the kind of help you're offering me isn't going to come for free. So, name your price. Or this conversation is over."
"I want you to work for me, in a manner of speaking." Silver smiles.
Jason rolls his eyes. "There it is. You probably want me to do something unethical and possibly even illegal for you. Hell, you probably want me to…"
"No. I think that you misunderstand my intentions. Would that be fair to say?" Silver cuts across him.
Jason scratches his head. "Well, yeah. And, I really don't get why you'd help me."
"It's natural for you to be apprehensive. But I can assure you that my intentions are good." Silver remarks.
Jason crosses his arms. "I might be a lot of things, but I'm not stupid. And I'm not naïve enough to just take peoples' intentions at face value."
"So, does that mean you accept my offer?" Silver asks.
Jason frowns slightly. "I'll have to think about it. Sorry."
"That's perfectly understandable. I think I should give you some time to process my offer. Would you be more likely to come to a decision if I came back in a week or two?" Silver asks.
Jason nods. "Yeah. So, I guess I'll see you in a week or two."
"I think this concludes my visit. I'll give you some time to process my offer and come to a decision." Silver pushes his chair back and stands up.
Jason notices a guard walking over to them. "Great."
He stands up and lets the guard lead him out of the visitation area.
It would be a week or two before Silver would visit him again.
Which gave him plenty of time to think about Silver's offer.
….
Jason was led back to the room he was in earlier. Everything in the juvenile detention facility seemed to blend together, to the point where he thought that every room in it looked the same.
He noticed some other inmates glaring at him, but didn't think anything of it.
At least not until one of them walked over to him.
"Hey! You're Jason Kreese, right?" The inmate asked.
Jason looked at the inmate. "Yeah. What do you want?"
"I heard a rumour that the only reason you got the sentence you did was because you named names. And you know what that makes you, right?" The inmate asked, getting right into Jason's face.
Jason had already heard the rumour and had gotten into fights because of it. "I know exactly what that would make me. And, I might be a lot of things, but I am not a rat. So, you can just turn around and walk back to your buddies."
"So, who was that person who visited you, then? A social worker? Your lawyer?" The inmate was still getting in Jason's face.
Jason's hands slowly started to ball into fists. "He's a family friend who I didn't even know existed until today. And it's really none of your business. So, that leaves you with two options. You can either walk back to your buddies. Or…."
"You can get your rat ass kicked." The inmate took a swing at him.
Jason took a step back and lunged forward before hitting the inmate with a right hook to the mouth, causing the inmate to bite his tongue.
He grinned. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
"Fuck you, rat boy!" The inmate snarls.
He threw a punch at Jason that the latter blocked.
Jason reared back and headbutted the inmate in the nose, sending him staggering back a few steps.
He gets into a loose fighting stance. "Is that all you got?"
"Nope!" The inmate lunges at Jason.
Jason blocks a punch from the inmate and throws a punch back, only for it to be blocked.
The inmate throws a punch that lands on Jason's ear, temporarily unbalancing him.
Jason throws another punch that the inmate blocks.
He notices that a crowd of other inmates in the juvenile detention facility is starting to form.
They want to see how the fight progresses.
Mainly because the guards are uncharacteristically slow to break it up.
The inmate manages to wrestle Jason to the ground and smashed his against the floor before hitting him with punches to the face.
Jason punched the inmate in the side of the head in order to get him to move away.
They both get up at roughly the same time.
The inmate sends Jason into a table and is about to lift him up and throw him onto it before Jason kicks out at the inmate.
Jason notices that he managed to kick the inmate in the stomach.
He's about to launch himself at the inmate when the guards finally intervene.
One guard gets the inmate down on the ground.
Another guard grabs Jason and practically slams him against the table before handcuffing him. "That's enough! Everybody back to your cells!"
"Get off me!" Jason struggles under the guard's grip.
The guard hauls Jason to his feet. "You've been told about keeping your hands to yourself before, inmate. But the lesson obviously hasn't sunken in yet. Maybe this will help."
Jason was being led out of the room.
The guard walked with him until they came to a door.
Jason watched as the guard opened the door of the room.
The room was a windowless room with a concrete slab in it to sleep on and a fluorescent light attached to the ceiling.
He walked into the room and the guard closed the door behind him before locking it.
There was no point in asking the guard if he was going to be spending twenty-four hours in isolation because he already knew the answer to that question.
Silver's offer was starting to look very good from where he was sitting, all things considered.