Dear team RWBY,

Hello, I'm having Oscar write this for me, so please forgive any spelling or grammar errors you discover within the letter.

He's upset that I had him write that.

But, returning to the point. I have something I must say to all of you.

I was wrong.

I'll admit this much. I lied and kept things from you that would have impacted your lives greatly had you known. I gave you a fake hope, a false light to flush out the darkness. It was a lie, one that has impacted your lives immensely. But, in reflection of these matters, I propose a single question. When considering the forces we are facing, the monsters and enemies ahead of us…

What should I have done?

When presented with an enemy that you cannot defeat, a being who will continue to be regardless of how strong or clever or numerous your forces are, then victory is just a glimmering hope, a fantasy to dream about. I have spent centuries combating this foe through life after life, learning more and more from each experience, surely over all these years of effort, practice, and experience, I would find something, anything to stop Salem?

And yet I have not.

No matter how sharp the sword or how powerful the dust, nothing, can kill Salem. I have tried countless times, cut her down, countless times. And to no avail.

She cannot be stopped. It is a cruel reality, but one that is all too true.

So what do you do when you know that the world is doomed to fall to darkness? When you know that nothing you do can hope to stop it? When your greatest efforts do little more than stall the inevitable?

From my many, many lives I have learned this.

When your days are numbered, you make those days count.

And so I lied, I told Vale, the other nations, the world what they needed to hear to keep going. I told the world what it needed in order to prosper, to flourish in the beautiful burning light destined to be extinguished. I wanted to at the very least see what could have been, rather than prepare for the demise of all of man.

I have seen that world. I have seen what becomes of man when there is nothing they can do to stop their demise. The eminent, looming knowledge of oblivion .

I've prepared for my demise countless times. I have seen people I love prepare for their demise and those faces are ones I will never forget. I saw them die before they were slain. The person they were, the person they were to become, slaughtered before me by the impending doom that is our fate. They lost the will to live knowing they could do nothing to stop their death.

I had wished to spare you all this reality for as long as possible. I had wished to let you all know love, and happiness for as long as you could enjoy.

In the face of this threat, it was the greatest kindness I could give you.

And for that, I do not regret what I did. If I could do it over, the only thing I'd change is to be able to give you just one more day of ignorance, just one more day of hope. I wanted to see who you all could become with hope by your side, fueling your spirits to push yourselves to greater heights.

And I've never been more proud, both as a teacher, and a friend.

So, blame me if you will, hate me if you must, but know that I did not do what I did out of malice, but out of love. I gave you all what I could not give myself. I'm happy that you all got to experience the world before this. I hope that the flames driving each of you continues to push forward against the odds, live until your very last breath! Do not let Salem end you before you are ready to be done! Because even in the dimmest light, even in the dying embers can a fire be reborn.

I can say from experience, humanity is always at its greatest in the face of impossible odds.

Show Salem why we are still here.

Show that even without knowing the path, we can forge one anew.

Because even after all this time, I still carry hope.

Can you?