It turns out that looking for one girl in the midst of a city crowded with refugees isn't that easy. Who would've thought?
"Most people would," Ren had pointed out to her when she'd said it out loud. She'd huffed in response. Rude!
And well, Nora hadn't thought that it would be easy, exactly, trying to track down Ruby—or whoever the silver-eyed girl was—among all the people in Vacuo, but she hadn't expected it to be this hard, either. Or this boring. Their search consists mostly of looking through piles of paperwork about the scattered citizens of Atlas and Mantle, with occasional sweeps of the street to look in person—or see if there'd been any other sightings of her.
But it seems like Ruby—or not-Ruby, whatever, Ren—is keeping a low profile for whatever reason. Nora had managed to track down the woman who had originally mentioned seeing Ruby to her in order to ask her more questions. She'd had to maintain a delicate balance of trying to get more information out of her, without letting on that something might be wrong. Not exactly her forte.
The (presumed) deaths of team RWBY and Jaune weren't information that had been made widely available to the public yet. Nora intends to keep it that way.
In the end, it hadn't mattered anyway, since the woman didn't have any more information than she had the first time. It's disappointing, but Nora refuses to give up the search until they've exhausted every last possible lead. If there's even the smallest chance that Ruby is still out there, that she needs her, then Nora will do whatever it takes to help her.
The search lights a spark in her, ignites a sense of purpose that she hasn't felt in a while. She throws herself wholeheartedly into looking for Ruby, staying up late to dig through countless stacks of files in the hope that the next one she pulls out will hold the answers that she's looking for. Or the next one. She combs through every inch of Vacuo, checking every corner and alleyway for any signs of her missing friend, talks to anyone she sees to see if they know anything.
As much as Nora had hated the ever-present security cameras in Atlas that had watched her every move, she can't help but think that they would come in handy now.
Of course, she's not alone. Ozpin helps, digging through files with her whenever he's not busy with important headmaster business. And Ren never leaves her side. He's there every step of the way when she does another sweep of Vacuo, no matter how far they've already walked that day. He's there reading through files with her late into the night.
Sometimes, he forces her to stop and take breaks when he's decided that she's been working for too long. He'll shove a plate of food into her hands when she forgets to eat, or drag her away to get some sleep when she's been working late into the night. He's a steady presence beside her, radiating silent support even when she gets frustrated or discouraged.
And he never complains, even though she knows he's much less hopeful about this than she is. Their partnership feels stronger than it has in a long time. She doesn't know if she'll ever be able to thank him enough for this.
When she finally does stumble across a clue, she almost doesn't recognize it right away. She's exhausted, telling herself that she'll just look through one more stack of papers before calling it quits and crawling into bed. Her bleary eyes don't quite take in the familiar face in the photo staring back at her at first.
And then it hits her, and she gasps. "Ren!" she says urgently. "It's her! It's Ruby!"