INU STAHLHUND
The only sound I can hear is the sound of the heart rate monitor connected to Alan. As it beeps steadily, it is all I can focus on. Constantly worried about any small change in the constant rhythm.
When I found him…I don't think I've ever been that scared. He was covered in his own blood and looked like he was barely hanging on. I got him to the hospital as fast as I could, scared to death that if I stopped for even a moment..he'd be gone. I hear the faint sound of a voice but at first it just becomes white noise. It gradually gets louder until it finally snaps me back to reality.
"Miss Stahlhund are you listening." I turn to see the doctor standing there, his face looking both annoyed and concerned.
"Y-Yeah..I'm sorry, what were you saying?"
"Well...the good news is that he is stable, he was in really bad shape when you brought him here, in fact I'd wager you saved this young man's life." I breathe a sigh of relief. "That said it's a little strange the rate at which his body healed itself once we stabilized him, he's still hurt but nowhere near the state he was in when you brought him in."
"You said good news, does that mean there is bad news?" I ask, deciding to ignore that last bit of information for now.
"Well the bad news is that we called his residence, to try and alert this Uncle of his you said he was living with."
"Is he not coming or something?" I ask, quickly getting angry.
"No that's just it, he didn't answer, we sent some people to try and tell him personally but he was nowhere to be found."
"That's weird, Alan always said his Uncle was a recluse, never left home unless he had no other choice."
"Yes well it seems like you and him have quite a lot to talk about when he wakes up." Almost as if on cue Alan starts groaning and his eyes begin to flutter open. "Speak of the devil."
"Alan are you okay?" I lean in, stopping him from trying to sit up.
"Inu…?" He looks at me and then looks around the room. "Where am I? What happened?"
"You owe this young lady your life young man, had she not brought you to us when she did then I seriously doubt we'd be talking right now…that said we aren't out of the woods entirely yet, we still have some tests to run but for now I'll let you two have a moment." The doctor walks out promptly. He could've explained a bit better but I'm sure he is a busy man. Especially right now.
"Inu…I don't know what to say."
"Don't gotta say anything dummy." I grab his hand. I remember a time when he would've probably yanked it away but to my surprise he actually holds my hand back. Whether it's because he's grateful or just has pity for how worried I was..it still makes me happy. "I'm just glad you're okay."
"Yeah…so has anything happened while I've been out?" He sits up slightly, despite my attempts to make him stay lying down.
"We've been dealing with the stragglers from the attack on the fair and trying our best to restore some kind of order." I give an exhausted sigh. "Not to mention trying to find you..and Ruby of course."
"Wait what?" He seems surprised when I mention Ruby. I guess there was always the chance that he didn't know.
"Yeah, Ruby went missing around the same time you did."
"Damn it!" he tries to get up, clenching his side as he does.
"Woah Alan you shouldn't be moving!" I try to get him back onto the bed but he resists, surprisingly well given his condition.
"You don't understand, if Ruby went missing that means that he got her, she could be more than halfway to the mainland by now!"
"Alan slow down, mainland? What do you mean HE got her?" I'm trying to wrap my head around this and trying to hold him back.
"We don't have time, we have to go now!"
"No!" I stop holding him back and force him onto the bed, it takes everything I have but I manage it. "I know listening isn't your strong suit, especially when it comes to me but this time you are going to listen and stay in bed!"
"Inu…" He seems taken aback at first, I guess this is the first time I have ever really been stern with him like that but darn it he can be so stubborn sometimes!
"You are hurt, once you are back in good shape then we can go."
"You don't get it…"
"Then help me get it Alan…no one pays more attention to you than me but I still feel like there is so much I don't know." He lets out a long sigh.
"If you knew more about me..you probably wouldn't look at me the same again."
"Alan…whatever it is, can't be that bad."
"If only you knew…"
"Alan you dummy..I have felt the same way about you since the day you showed up on this island, if anything those feelings have only strengthened since then…so trust me when I tell you that there isn't much you could say to change that." I realize only after saying it how much that sounded like a confession…I guess in a way it sort of was.
"Inu..I-" he just sighs and gets out of bed despite my protests. "We can talk later, for now I need to get dressed, I still have work to do."
He grabs his torn and tattered clothes from the chair and disappears into the restroom. I lean forward in my chair..I don't really know how to take that response. I guess it could've gone much worse but it's not exactly how I imagined it'd go…
My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the room door opening, Yang and Weiss both enter the room looking concerned.
"Inu, where is he?" Weiss asks. "We came as soon as we could."
"Oh he is in the bathroom getting changed." I roll my eyes.
"Based on what you told us he shouldn't even be out of bed." Weiss says.
"So I keep telling him." I say with a sad chuckle. "Anyway you guys didn't have to rush over here, you should be resting yourself Weiss."
"Welllll that kinda isn't the only reason we came here." Yang says.
"Do tell." Alan says, kinda startling all of us by suddenly sliding the bathroom door open. "Whatever it is, I assume it's important."
"Indeed but are you sure you should be moving around yet? Inu made it sound like you were knocking on death's door?" Weiss asks.
"I'm fine..more or less, anyway that doesn't matter right now." He sits on the edge of his hospital bed. "What is it, I assume it's something to do with Ruby?"
"Yeah actually." Yang looks to Weiss who holds up her scroll.
"I got a message from Ruby." she says, which is definitely a huge surprise. At first I'm hopeful that it's just her telling us she's okay and maybe even where to find her.
After Weiss reads us the message though, those hopes are mostly dashed. She did say she is okay but other than the mention of someone called the Doc, we have no idea where she is.
"Have you guys sent that message to Tai and Qrow?" I ask.
"That was actually the first thing I tried but for some reason I can't send ANY messages anymore."
"What?" I pull out my scroll and see that there is a 'No Signal' message at the top. "Is there something wrong with the support tower?"
"No idea…Klein suggested that maybe it was damaged in the attack and just finally gave out but I don't know.."
"It doesn't matter, I'm going after her. As skilled as Tai and Qrow are, I don't trust them to handle it even if we could reach them."
"Woah slow down, how would you even know where to look?" Yang asks. "That didn't really give us a lot to go on."
"I…I recall the guy who attacked me mentioning something about a Doc, he also let something slip about a base on the mainland, near the coast."
"That is certainly a lot of info to just let slip.." Weiss raises an eyebrow.
"I mean what matters is that we have a chance to find her right? We'll go with you Alan." I cheerfully exclaim only to be shot down almost immediately.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"I frankly don't care, she's my little sister, if any of us should be going after her right now it's me!" Yang shouts.
"You don't have any idea what you'd be going up against."
"What is that supposed to mean?" she asks with a suspicious tone.
"I uh…I fought the guy, so of course I would know." It's a logical answer but given in a way that makes even me suspicious. The things he said before they got here don't exactly help.
"Okay for real, what aren't you saying, I've never seen you like this before." She grabs his collar. "If you are hiding something you better tell me right now."
"Yang maybe.." I reach out to her but she swats me away.
"No Inu, right now he is withholding information from us, probably information about who took Ruby and he's gonna tell us."
"There is nothing to tell Yang-."
"I'd seriously suggest you fess up now!"
"Guys.." I don't like where this is going, besides we don't have time for this.
"Yang, I don't want to fight you."
"You aren't gonna have a choice if you don't start talking!"
"Enough!" Weiss puts her foot down. "Yang…I get that you're angry but this isn't helping."
"He knows something about Ruby's kidnappers and he isn't talking, how are you not pissed?!"
"We don't know that for sure and this back and forth is wasting time." she huffs before aggressively letting him go. "As for you Alan."
He lets out an exhausted sigh. "What, you don't trust me either?"
"I never said that…so long as you help us get Ruby back, that's what really matters but we ARE coming with you, that is non-negotiable."
"Fine…" he brushes the hair out of his face.
"How are we even going to get off the island?" I asked. "The only commercial flight is temporarily down after the attack and with the signal tower randomly going down we can't reach Tai and the others, not that they'd pick us up even if we asked."
"I might actually have a solution for that..." Whatever it is Weiss seems hesitant to even suggest it.
"What in the heck could that be?" Yang asks.
"Well..my grandfather keeps a private airship in a warehouse down by the docks. If I could sneak into his room tonight and get the access key, we could fly that to the mainland."
"Why does that not surprise me…regardless even if we made it to the ship, who would pilot it?" Alan asks. "Unfortunately I've never had to fly a ship before so I never learned."
"Inu." Everyone looks at me.
"Me?" I point to myself.
"Yeah, you told me once that your Dad taught you how to fly."
"Well yeah when I was younger, that was a long time ago though."
"You must remember some of it though." Yang says.
"I mean…I guess I do."
"If you aren't comfortable with the idea then you can say no Inu." Alan says.
"Then how would you-?" I start to ask but Weiss cuts me off.
"Alan's right, we'll figure something out but right now you are our best option, think you can do it?" She puts her hand on my shoulder. I'm not entirely sure I can but how could I possibly say no? This is the first time that they've REALLY needed me for anything and it's to save Ruby no less. I take a deep breath.
"Y-Yeah, I'll make it work."
"Alright..so we are agreed then?" Weiss asks, giving everyone a chance to back out or object.
"Yeah yeah, so when are we doing this?" Yang folds her arms. She is still clearly pissed at Alan but at least she is putting it aside for now.
"Tonight, that way I can sneak into my grandfather's room when he is asleep and try to swipe the key. It'll also give everyone time to prepare and do anything else they need to do…after all we may not be back for a while."
"Sounds good to me." I nod.
"I'd rather be leaving sooner but I can work with that." Alan turns to walk off but Yang grabs him by the arm.
"Don't you be trying to sneak off without us, understand?" she says. He rolls his eyes but nods to show he understands. Yang hesitates for a second but lets him go. I don't think I've been this torn ever.
Yang is my best friend and as for Alan…well he is very special to me. It's not easy to have them be so at odds with one another. Not that I blame Yang for being upset, it genuinely feels like Alan is hiding something from us.
I'm not going to lie. I do find it pretty frustrating myself but on the other hand it's not like he's not going to try to get Ruby back so whatever is making him bite his tongue..I don't think it's malous. Maybe he's afraid to tell us or maybe he's ashamed for some reason but I meant what I said. There isn't much he could say to change how I feel about him.
"He'll open up eventually guys."
"You always give him too much credit Inu." Yang rolls her eyes.
"No I mean it…"
"Whatever, I'm gonna go gather some supplies." She hops on Bumblebee. "I'll meet you guys later."
We both watch as she peels off down the road. Weiss turns to me and gently puts her hand on my shoulder.
"She's just upset, don't take it personally."
"I know…it just hurts a little. Anyway I should probably head home too, gotta prepare for tonight."
"Sure thing, you want me to see if Klein can give you a ride?"
"Nah, I think I need time alone to think." I wave goodbye and exit the room. As I exit the hospital I look at the setting sun in the distance and I feel a heavy weight on my shoulders.
Part of me wants to throw up my hands and give up. Just let everyone else handle everything. After all, it's just…way too much. It feels like only yesterday that we were getting ready for another year at Signal while Alan and Ruby got ready for their first. We were spending time together and living happy, relatively peaceful lives.
Then the attack on the fair happened..then Ruby getting kidnapped, then Alan almost dying and now here we are about to rush off to save her. That part of me though, the part that wants to give up…I quickly shove it down when I ask myself 'What would Dad do?'
I know…I know he would do everything he could to save someone in trouble, especially if that someone was his friend so I'm going to do the same! Don't worry Ruby, we are coming!