In a hidden alcove somewhere in the extensive tunnel network underneath Shade academy, Ozcar holds what he knows to be his final meeting with his most trusted follower…

A tall woman with long black hair draping behind her like a cape stands behind a frail looking teenage boy sitting in lotus position inside a magic circle. A faint shimmer of magical energy flows from the woman's outstretched hands into the boy.

Raven: "You should take as much of my magic as you can. It will be enough to stabilize your soul for the time being."

Ozcar: "Yet all it will accomplish is delaying the inevitable."

Raven: "We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it. How much time do you have left?"

Ozcar: "At most… no more than half a year. But it's no matter. The final battle will be upon us well before then."

Raven scoffs, turns, and opens a portal to leave.

Ozcar: "Don't ignore me Raven. We both know that Salem has given Cinder a mission to hunt me down and finish me off for good."

Raven closes the portal and turns back to find Ozcar standing and looking at her intently.

Ozcar: "But should she fail, I should presume that Salem will turn to you."

Ozcar paces around the room and gingerly stretches his limbs before resuming.

Ozcar: "You must be the one to kill me, Raven. It is the only way. Only then will the Grimm Queen trust you completely."

Ozcar stands still and closes his eyes before continuing.

Ozcar: "There will come a time when Ruby Rose must be told something. But you must wait until Salem is at her most vulnerable."

Raven: "Must be told what?"

Ozcar: "When Summer Rose set out to confront Salem on her own, it was not due to a failure on her part that she did not return. Rather, it was quite the opposite."

Raven shoots a venomous glare at Ozcar at the word 'failure'. Ozcar holds up a hand in a conciliatory manner.

Ozcar: "She succeeded in establishing the true nature about the silver-eyed warriors, and the key to Salem's defeat."

Ozcar opens his eyes.

Ozcar: "I have fought against Salem ever since she became the Grimm Witch, for so long that I doubt any mortal can even imagine what I've experienced. I know her as well as I know the back of my own mind. And she has never changed! Her behavior was as constant as clockwork and I knew exactly what action to take at what time to elicit a given response from her. Until that fateful meeting when Summer Rose embraced her death at Salem's hands and the Grimm Witch somehow fell unconscious for weeks afterwards. And when she woke up, she was without a doubt different… by the pattern of her actions I could tell that she was… closer to the original woman that I knew her to be so many eternities ago."

Raven shrinks back a little, in apprehension at what Ozcar seems to be implying with his words.

Ozcar: "The truth of the silver-eyed warriors… is that they are fragments of Salem's own humanity. Each fragment is fated to reincarnate endlessly on Remnant until they find their way back to her. And that is why they are also the key to Salem's defeat. She will remain a blight upon the world so long as the Gods' curse on her remains. The condition to breaking the curse and releasing her soul is for her to feel remorse, in other words, to regain her humanity. I have seen it, with every silver-eyed warrior Salem kills, the curse grows closer to being broken. And Ruby Rose is the last silver-eyed warrior remaining."

Raven: "So, when the time comes… the girl must die?"

Ozcar: "Yes… yes, and Salem herself must be the one to do it. That is essential."

Raven: "I thought… all these years that we were protecting her… for Summer."

Raven gnashes her teeth in anger and frustration.

Raven: "You have kept her alive so that she can die at the proper moment."

Ozcar: "Don't be shocked, Raven. How many men and women have you watched die?"

Raven: "Lately, only those whom I could not save."

Raven laughs mirthlessly.

Raven: "You have used me."

Ozcar: "Meaning?"

Raven: "I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Summer Rose's daughter safe. Now you tell me you have been raising her like a pig for slaughter!"

Ozcar: "Don't tell me now that you have grown to care for the lass."

Raven: "For her?!"

Raven holds out her hand palm up. The air around the two shimmers with magical energy for a moment. Suddenly, the space around them is saturated with a shower of slowly falling white-and-red wild rose petals. Within the domain of the petals, water drops from the ceiling of the cavern can be seen floating through the air as they fall at a fraction of the pace that they should. This was the power of Summer Rose's semblance, the ability to stop time, replicated through Raven's Maiden magic.

Ozcar gasps.

Ozcar: "Summer…"

Ozcar stares wide-eyed at the rose petals. The magic of the Maidens allowed them to replicate any semblance, but only after an intimate learning process with the original owner of the semblance, as one would expect of what is needed to copy the power of another's soul. Yet Raven did not gain her Maiden powers until after Summer's death.

Ozcar: "After all this time?"

Raven: "Always."