Disclaimer: Of course I don't own RWBY, its characters, or the franchise. That's all Rooster Teeth~
Story: In that forest with Yang, Ruby's silver eyes activated too early and she finds herself traumatized after a long time of captivity. Years later, her precarious mind wonders if she'll ever be okay, all while trying to grow into herself. If only her Soulmates could tape herself back together, though they'd have to figure out that they are in the first place…
Set as a complete AU rewrite of the series, included as a Soulmate!AU.
Spoilers: Definitely, as an AU rewrite.
Warnings: Age disparity, maybe future situations if this is continued. Violence, death, and cursing is a given.
Pairings: (Main) ClockRose (Ozpin/Ruby), IronRose (Ironwood/Ruby), and Qrow/Ruby, with some Ruby/Various. (mostly one-sided), especially WhiteRose. Toss up on RoseBull (Adam/Ruby).

A Thorn Crown For the Rose Queen
Chapter One: Quiet Cries

The day was beautiful —blue skies, sun warming down on them, and the grass soft beneath them. Her mother was lulling her to sleep, hand carding through her hair and whispering words of her favorite fairytale into her ears.

"'I wish I could have been there for her,' he said slowly, 'the way she was there for us.' If she was dead, she had died alone," her mother said of the story, just as it was retold to her again and again.

"'Why did you keep going back there, year after year?' a village woman asked him. 'Because she saved you?'

"'For that reason, and for many more,' he said slowly. 'But I believe she knew the deepest reason of all.' The group waited. He gazed into the fire.

"'I fell in love with her the moment I saw her silver eyes.'"

The little girl sighed —the end of the story always made her happy and sad at the same time.

"I hope she really did know, Mom," she murmured, snuggling up to her mother. "It'd be really sad if she died not knowing that."

"So do I, Ruby, so do I," her mother said fondly. She tenderly squeezed Ruby's small wrist, colorful marking there vibrant and as pretty as the marking on her mother's own wrist. "And one day, someone will find you and see your silver eyes, and tell you they fell in love with you, my little Rue."

So did Ruby —it was one of the reasons why that fairytale was her favorite. She giggled in her mother's arms, wanting to hide her face.

But then the skies turned dark, the wind howled and there was scary growling in the air. Terrified, Ruby looked up into her mother's face, only to see her mother with empty holes for eyes, blood streaming down from them and onto her cheeks like tears, and the saddest smile.

Ruby scrambled away and a woman, tall and sickly white —so colorless but for the black lines tainting her skin and hollowing out her eyes —appeared behind her mother and held her up, holding her gently (like a doll, breakable and soulless). A wicked smile turned to look down at her mother and then to Ruby.

"Your eyes. Give me your eyes."

"NOOOO!" Ruby screamed, covering her eyes and curling into a ball. "No, no, no! You can't have my eyes! You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't!"

Another scream tore through her mouth as she felt cold, spindly fingers reach for her head —

And she screamed aloud as she woke up.

Sobbing, little Ruby curled up into a ball on her bed, echoing her dream, and kept crying to herself as she rocked a little to comfort herself.

Ever since her mother's death, dreams like that always haunted her. Sometimes, they didn't feel like dreams and she was just watching her mother, seeing her run and kill Grimm and always unwillingly crossing paths with that scary white woman, only to have her eyes ripped out and taken from her by that woman.

Ruby thought that maybe she was actually witnessing how her mother died, but never said a thing —her mother's death was too fresh, too painful for everyone and she didn't want to think about it either.

Sniffling, she glanced down at her wrist, rubbing the colorful mark. The birthmark that her father told her all those with Silver Eyes had —unique to them and a sign of her Soulmates. Just like her mother had a 'bracelet-like tattoo of a golden dragon and black feathers', Ruby had an emerald clock face with gears inside of it, floral vines wrapped around the gears and two black wings on either side of the clock.

She was way too young for love, but it'd be nice to have someone to keep the nightmares away.

Wild blonde hair swayed as Yang rushed to her sister's room, seeing Ruby curled up on her bed and crying. She hiked up the full backpack on her back more and then crawled onto Ruby's bed, gently shushing her.

"Come on, Ruby. Don't cry," she rubbed Ruby's short hair softly as she whispered comfortingly. "Follow me, okay? Dad's gone and so's Uncle Qrow. I'm gonna find my momma so she helps out and will be there for us, like Momma Summer, okay? We won't have just Dad and Uncle Qrow anymore."

They needed Yang's mom to come and be their mom since Momma Summer was gone.

Yang was determined to bring her mom back and she'll make things better. They needed someone to be their mom, especially since their dad was always off in his head and Uncle Qrow was always drinking that nasty-smelling drink.

"W-where are we going, Yang?" Ruby sniffled, her tiny hands balling up and rubbing at her wet eyes.

"I found out where Momma Raven is," she told her. 'At least I think so,' Yang thought. She overheard Dad and Uncle Qrow talking, and it was a lead, so… "We're gonna go there and find and talk to her and get her to come back with us," she said determinedly.

Looking at a quiet Ruby, Yang knew they absolutely had to.

Getting out of the house, she found their red wagon and settled Ruby onto it. She made sure Ruby had her cloak snug around her and urged her to sleep. As Ruby slowly fell asleep, Yang had already began to walk towards the forest. She walked and walked and walked until it was so dark and she'd been walking for so long that her feet and legs hurt, and her arm ached from pulling the wagon with Ruby on it. Thankfully, her little sister was long asleep and continuing to peacefully ignore the world inside the small wagon, right up to when Yang found the dark and abandoned house, hesitant on approaching it. Wasn't her mother supposed to be there?

But the wind was howling and it was getting even colder than it already had been, and she knew she didn't recognize anything.

They were lost.

Scared and tired, Yang stopped dead in her tracks and looked around her. Trees, trees and more trees. The fading light until it was dark around them and looking like nighttime had come. The cold chill in the air. Just the two of them, alone in the forest and no one knowing.

"No, no, no, no," she said, feeling tears gathering at her eyes. She glanced worriedly at Ruby, still sleeping peacefully. She'd dragged her baby sister out here and now they were lost and alone and was that growling?

From out of the shadows, Yang saw Grimm —all sorts of them, large, small, too many different types and surrounding them and growing louder and louder as they came close —too close!

Yang screamed, her sister jolting up and awake then.

Ruby had opened her eyes to see her nightmare practically come alive; Grimm snarling and approaching her and her terrified, screaming sister. Yang was frozen still and trembling in her spot, and Ruby started to scream too.

Where were they and why was this happening?!

Yang turned to her, eyes closed, as she grabbed Ruby and clutched onto her, trying to shield her from the Grimm. The Grimm leaped at them and Ruby's eyes burned painfully.

She didn't want to die. She didn't want Yang to die. She wanted to live! She wanted to protect Yang. She wanted, she wanted…

She wanted her mom to come and protect them!

"I'm so sorry, Ruby!" Yang sobbed into her neck and then Ruby's eyes burned so much that she began to see bright light and nothing else.

Everything was bright, bright, bright —and then she saw her mother, a silhouette in the brightness of this searing light, before she knew no more.

Ruby passed out in Yang's arms, who had been blinded by the bright light that emitted from her sister's silver eyes and had stumbled back and fallen, hitting her head and becoming unconscious.

And in the aftermath, two Hunters had stumbled onto the scene and lowered their weapons, looking around at frozen, stone-transformed Grimm all around the area, and then looked at the little girls in the midst of it.

Far away enough to be safe but close enough to see what happened, the twin brothers looked at each other.

"We should —"

"I know."

They quietly stalked forward, carefully untangling the girls from each other. Placing the small blonde into the wagon after checking her head, one brother disappeared with that wagon and the other held the tiny child that had silver eyes and a power over Grimm they both knew couldn't be let be.

Started 1/27/21— Completed 1/31/21

A/n: Hey, guys! So this was the main RWBY I had originally planned to work on and publish first, but Team RAMEN! managed to sway me otherwise XD This will probably be slow going on updates, but I hope everyone enjoyed the short, first chapter of this so far.