Tilly Grimes

Major Story Arcs

Universe and End of Days

Tilly Grimes worked in pentagon; she was cataloging prophecies and used her skill to predict what would happen. She was one of the selected to monitor the Gate of hell entry in Jerusalem, she noticed that Mr. Black like know what was about to happen to the soldiers sent there. When people working on the project started to disappear, she then with few of her work buddies stole G.I.M.P (Gyrostatic Internal Matrix Producer) plans and escaped from pentagon. Now she a leader of a rag-tag group who wants to save a world. She later went back to spy on Mr. Black's operation in Jerusalem. On a certain star alignment she went to Tom Judge, who was supposed to find a Rapture and wield it, and save the world with it. When she found Tom, she told him to wear the artifact, thus fulfilling the prophecy. Next she blew Tom's apartment to cover his tracks. Walking on the down they ended up in same area where Devil dined, Tilly sent Tom to talk to the Devil, avoiding him herself. When Devil sent Tom to Hell to save Jackie Estacado, Devil came to accompany her. They shared few stories and a few laughs until Tom came back. Tilly and Tom then went to her apartment, she lead him there because Mr. Black had found where she was and was planning an attack. She of course knowing that had moved all the important work to safe location and now she was there just to cover tracks again. Tom transformed and beat up Mr. Black soldiers, apartment was rigged to blow, Tilly and tom escaped to underground. Tilly now showed Tom the secret hideout where her gang lived. They had built themselves a G.I.M.P from the stolen blueprints. G.I.M.P is an artificial gateway to hell. Tilly sent Tom Judge to hell with the machine to collect some info on Mr. Black. Tilly gets a wish to travel to the country to a picnic, but she hides her actual reasons. She predicted a death of one of her friends in crossfire and wanted to make his last moments as good as possible. They hung out until angels and demons arrived to battle over the Rapture. At the end of days, Tilly loses her ability to predict future. Tilly and Tom get separated when he travels to hell to pass on rapture.

Witchblade - Signs and Portents

Several weeks pass, Tilly has her powers back. Suddenly she gets a call from Tom Judge. They hook up again, Tom confesses that he has some major bad guy on his heels. They spend a night together, and then Lachryma arrives. Tom pushes Tilly out of the window, when she gets back up, Tom is dead, and Lachryma is gone. She then does some quick math with Tom's blood and learned Lachryma's next victim, the bearer of Witchblade. She gets arrested then and meets detective Sara Pezzini in interrogation. Tilly tells Pezzini the story of Rapture and how she could locate this Lachryma with a equipment she has. Because if Lachryma bonded with the Rapture, it would mean destruction in biblical terms. Pezzini believes her, and they go to Tilly's friends. When they get there, they find all the guys dead, one hangs barely on to life. Lachryma is already there and was luring them into a trap. Sara gets into a fight with her, but Lachryma seeing that Great Beast has arrived on earth takes a hasty leave. Sara Pezzini promises to anything in her power to get Tilly proven innocent.

Artifacts

Tilly also resurfaces after Tom Judge returns from hell to warn the world of the joining of the Thirteen Artifacts.

New Universe

After the universe is destroyed when all 13 Artifacts come together and the universe is remade by Jackie Estacado, Tilly Grimes has become the bearer of the Rapture; her appearance has also changed, while her hair is still pink, she now has it styled longer and has shaved half of her head bald and sports several tattoos on her biceps and around her belly button. After searching for some time, she finds Tom Judge in St. Anna’s Church in New York City, where he does not recognize her, but recognizes the Rapture around her neck and grabs it, causing him to remember the old universe. Tilly thinks that Tom is trying to grope her and pushes him away but he gets up, telling her that the Rapture is his and to give it to him but she doesn’t, claiming that it has been in her family for generations and gets angry and turns into the Rapture form before Tom backs off. He does and asks why she is seeking him out and she says that she is a numeromancer, meaning she sees numbers and equations like a language and can use them to know things and predict the future, and that no matter what formula she works with, it always ends up with Tom as the answer and now she wants to know why. Tom answers that he doesn’t know but maybe something else wants them together, like the Rapture, because they both know the power it commands and Tilly reiterates her unwillingness to give it away and Tom agrees. Tilly then asks why Tom has the Rapture scared into his abdomen but he doesn’t answer and goes outside to get some air. They go to a park and Tom starts talking about how something about the world feels wrong but Tilly reassures him that everything is fine but Tom tells her that he sees her as her appearance keeps changing from her current one to what she looked like in the old universe, a phenomenon that Tilly is completely unaware of. Tilly asks what Tom thinks happens since he believes the universe has changed with little things being different, like Tilly bearing the rapture instead of him, and explains the concept of the 13 Artifacts, which Tilly accepts in stride.

When Tom calls Danielle Baptiste, Tilly stands by and warns him of an attacking man who claims to be the Angelus. Tilly changes into Rapture form and is briefly able to overpower the man before he throws her off and slams her into the ground so hard, it severs her connection to the Rapture and Tom picks it up and uses it to quickly kill the man, commenting on how weak the new Angelus is. Tilly is amazed at Tom’s skill with the Artifact and listens as Tom tells her that something is wrong because the Angelus isn’t moving to a new host, and then the two are attacked by five people, all claiming to be the Angelus. Tom starts fighting and Tilly tries to back away from the fight but is attacked by one of the men and he starts to choke her as Tom cannot get to her. Tilly is saved by the timely intervention of Danielle Baptiste, who shoots the man and kills him. Tilly thanks her and Dani reveals that she is a detective, and looking for Tom, who Tilly points out, is still in Rapture form, and Dani almost shoots him. After everyone calms down, Tom tries to give the Rapture back to Tilly, but she tells him to keep it, saying that he is more effective with it that she is.

The three go back to the church where Tilly uses her numeromancy to try and figure out what Jackie Estacado’s connection is to what is going on. As Tom explains to Dani his theory, Dani doesn’t believe him until Tilly, who goes into a trance-like state to use her ability, agrees with Tom, sayin that no matter what she does, in the grand scheme of things, it all goes back to Jackie, making him the center of everything. The three drive off so that Tom can confront Jackie and Tilly waits in the car with Dani and when Tom returns, she says she thought that Jackie would kill him. The three decide that their next move should be to make Dani the Angelus again. They go to a nearby park and Tilly waits a fair distance away with Tom and calls him out for putting Dani in such clear danger by giving her the Rapture since that is what the previous group of Angelus warrior wanted and Tom says it needed to be done. A flash if light signals that there is a new host for the Angelus but when Tilly and Tom arrive, the host is not Dani, but Finch, who was passing by and stopped to talk with Dani. The Angelus, which dominates Finch’s mind, flies off to try and destroy Jackie so Dani, Tilly, and Tom drive after her and arrive right before Jackie is about to finish her off and stop him. After threatening Tom and Finch, Jackie leaves, and Tilly comments that Tom just made a serious enemy before Finch flies off and the rest return to the city.

A few weeks later, Tilly is with Tom when he checks in with Dr. Rachel Harrison, the current bearer of the Heart Stone, and as the other two talk, she gets a call from the FBI saying that they are needed in Washington DC and Tilly drives, making it there in record time. When they arrive at the crime scene, a ritualistic murder at the Lincoln Memorial, and after seeing it, Tilly says that the murder is on a ley line. Tom tells her to write down the markings that have been drawn in blood around the victim. The pair leave and Tilly asks Tom what he isn’t telling her about the crime; he explains that the blood markings are in fact the language of Hell and while he can’t read all of it, he recognizes it as a summoning attempt. The two return to their hotel and Tilly starts trying to translate the language but is frustrated as though the language is number-like, she can’t fully translate it. After several hours, she finally gets it and goes to Tom’s room, where she discovers that Tom is not there, and never was. After Tom finds and arrests the killer, Tilly joins him in the police station and believes that the man has been possessed (he has but there is no evidence other than Tom’s word) and thinks that the man is innocent because the demon is the killer. Tilly watches as Tom is granted permission to perform an exorcism and is successful and leaves to smoke after telling the cops to get the man an insanity lawyer. Tilly angrily confronts him about his casual dismissal saying that he should do more to help the man but Tom responds that the man’s DNA is all over the scene and there is nothing more he can do and they have more important things to do, like finding the Angelus; the two return to New York City.

Powers

Tilly is a numeromancer, meaning that she can read numbers and equations like a language. This ability allows her to know things and make associations that are not always clear and it even grants her a glimpses into the future. With it she can see things like names and addresses; the ability is not limited to pure numbers as she was able to translate the language of Hell as it was number-like even though it took a while and was difficult.

In the new universe she was the bearer of the Rapture Artifact for some time and it granted her the ability to transform into the Rapture, super strength and durability although she was not every effective at wielding it’s power claiming that Tom Judge “…did more in ten minutes that [she] had done in her entire life.”