LXXI. Heartbreak Weather

      Odessa held Eli's hand as the large group of them stood in the hallway, in front of Stingray's door. "So, do we have a plan, or what?" She asked out loud.

They all silently looked at each other. "Uhhh, just try and intimidate him?" Miguel came up with, unsure of himself.

Charlie pointed at him. "Yeah, yeah, I like that idea."

Odessa nodded her head. "Great. This is gonna go well." She muttered sarcastically.

Bert knocked on the door and Stingray opened it with a smile. "Bert! What's up, dude? Wanna play some D&D?" He asked as his friends that he had over left the home.

The combined dojos came into view and his face fell. "Miyagi-Fangs? Ohhh, this is a trap." He looked at Bert. "Oh, you Admiral Ackbar-ed me. Et tu, Bert-ray?"

"I hate all of you for making me do this." Hailey grumbled, his nerd talk practically giving her a rash.

"Okay, knock it off. We know Kreese never hurt you." Eli stated bluntly.

"According to my testimony in court, he did. So, read the transcript."

As he went to shut the door, Oliver blocked it and Stingrsy looked up at him, and then to his very muscular arm in slight fear. "Cut the crap. We know you lied."

"But you're not gonna lie to us." Sam glared and him and walked into the home.

Stingray looked at them in disbelief. "You're just gonna let her—" Odessa and Sam walked in after her. "Okay, hold on—"

All of the guys followed them in.

"Okay. Now you're all walking in."

They sat across from Stingray at his table, nobody making an attempt to speak yet. He was glaring at Bert. Odessa glanced at Hailey, and she looked at the guys, raising her brows at them to say something. "Okay, let's try this again. What happened that night? Who hurt you?" Demetri questioned.

"Hey, Bert, hey does it feel? To stab a grown man in the back between his shoulder blades and stare at the blood as it trickles down his back?"

Odessa scoffed at his dramatics. "Oh, please. He's a kid."

"God, enough!" Eli exclaimed frustratingly and slammed his hands on the table. "No more games."

"Start talking or we'll have to revisit that day at the dojo." Oliver threatened and cracked his knuckles.

"Oliver, stop." Odessa warned him.

Grayson nudged his ribs, and he just rolled his eyes and held his hands up.

"My dad went through a lot of pain because of you and Silver," Sam took a more gentle approach. "And now a lot of people will to if you just sit back and do nothing."

"Yeah, so start talking." Grayson demanded.

"But if I tell you what really happened, you know, h-he'll find out. I can't. It's not that easy, you guys." Stingray spoke, clearly still afraid of Silver, and he looked down at the table.

"It's not easy or you just don't want to?" Hailey said bitterly and crossed her arms.

Odessa slapped her on the arm, her eyes going wide as a warning.

After a few minutes of silence, and their frustration heightening, Stingray looked up again. "Actually, there. . .um, wait. Okay, so I've been working on this new D&D campaign—"

"I don't think we have time for this." Miguel interrupted him.

"Wait, a minute." Said Eli. "What happens in the campaign, Stingray?"

"Really?" Odessa asked him with her eyebrows raised.

He just shook his head and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Okay, so. . ." Stingray grabbed one of the pieces from the board. "Once upon a time, there was a Dwarven monk, and he was a member of the most badass guild in all the land. Uh, he was banished for a time. You know, typical PC crap—"

"Is this really what my life has come down to?" Hailey blurted out in disbelief.

"Get a move on." Grayson rolled his finger.

Stingrsy cleared his throat. "Right. But, um, once he paid his penance, he returned." He put the figure back on the board. "Only by then, the guild was under new leadership and the monk was denied into the guild. Quite unceremoniously, might I add."

Odessa looked down at her lap when she began to understand.

"So, what did the monk do? The monk, he made a pact with the silver haired king who usurped the leader. And it was early one morning, before any of the warriors had arrived, that the king struck the monk down." Stingray knocked the monk down with the figure. "Again, and again, and again. It was then that they framed the leader for the assault and the leader was put in chains, and the silver haired king took over the guild."

There was a small pause. "And you were—" Demetri cut himself off. "The Dwarven monk, was let back into the guild?"

"Yeah. With benefits." Eli said astonishingly and he looked around the home.

Stingray nodded. "With benefits, yeah."

"Okay, so, why can't he just tell everyone what really happened?" Miguel asked him.

Sam stood from her chair. "Because he doesn't want to lose his benefits." She said in anger.

"No, no, no!" Stingray denied. "I would. . .T-The monk would give it all back if he could, but t-the silver haired king, you know, he—he almost killed the monk for power. So yeah, the monk fears what the king would do to keep that power." He stuttered. "The monk just wanted reentry into the guild because he thought that he could be like a. . .like a proud and noble warrior. Just like you, Hawk. All of you."

Odessa frowned. She titled her head back and saw the from on Eli's face as well. He understood that feeling more than any of them.

"But he's neither proud nor noble. Definitely not a warrior. He just sits around playing with them all day. The monk's just scared. I can't. I'm sorry."

"That's great. Thanks for nothing." Sam asserted with anger and she stormed out.

"Yeah, thanks for wasting our time." Hailey fumed as well and swiftly left her seat to follow her out.

Grayson sighed and went after her.

Eli patted Odessa on the shoulders. "C'mon, babe." He muttered and she got out of the chair. He grabbed her hand and the two of them left the home.

But she couldn't help but look over her shoulder and feel bad seeing Raymond looked so upset by their reactions.

When the pair walked outside, Sam was standing there with her hands in her pockets. "Dess." She spoke her name.

By the look on her face, Odessa saw that she needed to talk. "I'll talk to you later, yeah?" She whispered to Eli.

He looked between the two of them and nodded. "Okay." He kissed the side of her head and walked away to go to his car.

Sam came and stood in front of her. "I need your help with something."

"Okay." She responded and put her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "What is it?"

"I want to go talk to Tory."

Odessa's brows went up. "You do?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. I think she can help us. This whole feuding thing has got to stop." She came to a realization.

"Sam, are you sure? She's hurt you a lot. What makes you think she'll even help us?"

"Because of you." Odessa blinked her eyes at the statement. "You're the only person who can actually make her open up. You and her were friends, I know that if you talk to her, then she'll help us."

She thought about. Odessa had tried everything she could say to her Tory to leave Cobra Kai and it always ended the same way, with her getting hurt and Tory sinking deeper into Silver's trap. It was exhausting at this point.

But Sam and her family had been hurt more than her throughout the whole thing, and Sam wanted it to be over. Who better to help her out than Odessa? "Okay. I'll help."

Sam smiled.

They began walking to her car. "You don't think Hailey rolls agree to go with us if we asked?"

Odessa's eyes went wide. "Definitely not. That's not a good idea."

Christian sat at the bar with the men while the ladies went to the dance floor. He drank his glass of water, not paying attention the round of drinks that Daniel ordered. "You sure you're okay here? We can go some place else." Johnny asked him, his voice loud because of the blaring music.

"I'm fine. Johnny." Christian waved his hand. "It's kinda fun. I don't remember the last time I was ever in a club. It's nice to just have some fun, y'know?" He asked and drank his water again.

Thought Johnny still looked concerned, he nodded and smiled tightly. He looked over his shoulder. "I'm glad you guys came together."

Christian followed his eyes and his own landed on Thalia. She twirled Carmen and then Amanda twirled her, all three of them laughing while dancing. He felt a smile creep on his lips.

Johnny looked between them and smiled again. He twirled his glass of liquor in his hand.

There was a pit in Odessa's stomach as she stood at Tory's front door. She kept going back and forth with herself, her mind telling her that it wasn't a good idea while her heart was saying she needed to do it. She'd been through a lot with Tory, so much pain and suffering had happened, and it needed to end. And Sam needed peace. Her family needed peace.

When Tory opened the door, she looked between them in surprise. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Oh my god, Tory. Your hand." Odessa gasped when she saw her red and swollen hand.

"What happened?" Sam asked her.

"Don't pretend like you care." Tory muttered and walked back into her house.

"We do care." Odessa stated and walked inside her home.

She sat on her couch and grabbed a bag of ice that was inside her. Tory pressed it gingerly to her hand and winced.

Sam looked around her apartment, the state of it making her feel incredibly guilty, that all of the things people had tried telling her were true.

Odessa sat beside Tory, keeping distance, and she placed her hands on her lap. "I know you don't want to talk about it, and we can't force you to. But what Silver's done has gone too far. I know that you know that. The only way that we can take down Cobra Kai is if we help each other." She told her and glanced at Sam, who reminded standing.

Tory remained looking at her hand, but she was listening. She visibly sighed. "I wanted to win the All Valley more than anything. After the match when they handed me that trophy. . .it should've been the best moment of my life. But then I saw Silver and that ref, and it just killed me. I felt like a fraud." She looked at Odessa, her mouth downturned. "I took it all away from you. That was supposed to be your moment."

Odessa frowned deeply.

"I wanted to get back at Silver so bad. So that's why I listened to Kreese, but then I got caught up in more lies and now my life is a living hell."

She glanced again at her hand. "Did Silver do that?"

Tory shook her head. "No. It was mostly Kim. She made me punch through solid stone to prove a point."

Odessa sucked in a deep, shaky breath.

"I didn't know what you were going through. But now that I do, maybe we can all help each other. The three of us." Sam tried to convince her.

"We went and talked to Stingray. He admitted that Silver was the one who attacked him but he's scared to get involved."

Tory looked shocked by that. "I knew Silver was involved, but, I had no idea he did it with his own hands."

"The problem is we can't prove it." Sam said with a frustrated sigh.

"Well, if it happened at the old dojo, maybe we can." They both looked at her again. "The security cameras." Tory told them.

"Yes, that's perfect." Odessa nodded quickly and she looked at Sam again.

"I'll call the guys and have them meet us at Miguel's." Sam said and took out her phone.

As she went to stand up, Tory stopped her. "Uh, Dess, can I talk to you really quick?"

Odessa looked down at her. Sam looked between them. "I'll be outside." She informed and left the apartment.

There was silence. She slowly sat back down on the couch and turned her body towards her. Tory did the same, keeping the ice pack pressed to her hand. "I don't really know how to express my feelings, so, bear with me." She said awkwardly, receiving a small nod. "What I said to you the other day, I didn't mean it. And I feel terrible for it. I just got really scared. You're one of the only people who can see through me, and I've never had that before."

Odessa grinned softly. "I just don't want you to get hurt anymore. I never did."

Seeing her be so kind, expressing the goodness in her heart, it made Tory feel more guilty for how she treated her all this time. "Why didn't you give up?" She asked while shaking her head.

"Cause that's not who I am. I don't give up on people." She answered with no hesitation. "It causes me to get hurt a lot, but, everybody deserves a second chance. We all have our flaws. It just takes the right person to help you get through them."

Tory blinked and nodded her head, swallowing a lump in her throat. "Thank you. I was ready to give up before you."

Odessa smiled again. "Don't give up on yourself. You're still Tory Nichols, a complete badass."

They laughed, and Odessa felt so much weight lift off her shoulders. She needed this. They both did.