Grace was out training with Regulus when she decided to test out the glyph she had copied off Weiss when she first summoned the greater frost dragon.
Regulus had her hold the glyph long enough for him to get a good picture of it. Summoning spells were rare, and he had some knack to glyphs. Apparently it was something all magical-born hunters who had their aura unlocked could do. For those who came through from "Earth", their glyphs were determined by their personality and power levels.
As a half blood from a distinguished line, Grace was naturally very powerful. The fact she had the metamorph ability meant her glyph set was more versatile.
Regulus couldn't wait to see what sort of familiar she got from this.
Grace let her aura determine what to drag through the realms. What she got completely threw her for a loop though.
It was blue. It looked like a koala with weird spikes coming out of it's back and six legs, rather than four, with two antenna on it's head. It had a short, stubby tail and highly intelligent eyes that looked around intently.
In short, it looked more like some weird form of dog than anything that would require the amount of magic she put into the summons.
That lasted for exactly ten minutes, when Regulus started cursing out the furry pest (who retracted the 'spikes', the middle legs/hands, and the antenna to look like a weird dog with blue fur and long rabbit-like ears) stole his left shoe.
Grace took one look at Regulus, then at the grinning menace and smirked.
"You live for chaos, don't you?"
The thing tilted it's head and grinned at her evilly.
"We're going to get along perfectly. However we need to properly prepare for our chaos so our victims don't get wise and suspect us first. Now, do you have a name?"
"I called Six-Two-Six," the creature responded in rough, but thankfully understandable English.
"That sounds far too much like an impersonal designation for an experiment. From now on your name is Stitch."
The newly designated Stitch wagged his stubby tail, grinning evilly. He also climbed onto her shoulder, grinning at Regulus who was still missing his left shoe. The gray eyed man glared at the thing.
"Alright, I'm going to try my luck at summoning. Just keep that pest away from me!"
Regulus would summon something he called a "runespoor". Apparently it was some sort of three headed snake from their world. He was very startled finding out she could speak snake.
She didn't get what the big deal about this "parseltongue" was or why he cared. All she knew was that he had forbidden her from using it if they reached their world in public. Something about the "dark lord" Regulus served before he realized the truth.
"What in Oum's name is that?" asked Weiss, eyeing Stitch oddly.
"You got Diamond, I got Stitch. He's surprisingly useful, even if he can't stand large bodies of water," said Grace.
She learned that after seeing the looks he shot the ocean when they flew back to Beacon. Apparently his near-indestructible nature didn't include being able to float very well.
But the odd blue "dog" was damn near bomb proof, if the way he had swallowed the Dust crystal Regulus threw at him in the hopes of blowing him up were any indication, and after seeing him hack Regulus' scroll while the man was asleep to leave some nasty surprises, had the brainpower of a supercomputer.
She promptly bribed Stitch to deal with any and all budget issues in the student council and the academy.
She was tolerable at maths, but trying to budget the larger number of expenses for the school (Ozpin claimed it was good training for when she took over for him... she knew he was only half joking) gave her migraines the likes Oum had never seen.
She hated math. It was a necessary evil, but not one she would do unless it was unavoidable.
It was rather ironic, as most would assume she was a natural at doing math considering her hacking skills, and she did have some talent at the harder equations.
Talent and skill did not equate enjoyment. It just meant she had a natural knack for the art.
The blue "dog" looked at Weiss and wagged his tail.
"My name Stitch. I is familiar," he said proudly. He loved having Grace as a partner.
Once you got past her "strict" mask she put on that made her seem as disciplined and mature as her mother, there was the mind of a demon bent purely on harmless chaos and mischief that had the experience for some truly epic pranks! She was disciplined enough to hide her true nature from the authorities, but she could come up with some really creative havoc when she put her mind to it. And because of her mask, no one would realize she plotted each prank to the point she could calculate how long it took for the authority figures to get to the scene of the crime so she could avoid the blame.
She was also really good at finding just the right spots to make his back legs go nuts...
Weiss stared at him, then at Grace.
"...I'm not going to ask."
"Probably best."
Stitch had found the perfect spot on Grace's shoulder, since she didn't mind if he sat there. It was rather hard for him to keep up with her fast pace of walking, even the rare times she wore heels.
Most of the time she wore decorative sandals that were specially designed for huntresses who liked to look fashionable while still retaining the proper functionality for rough terrain. Not everyone was as insane as Weiss was, to wear high heeled shoes.
"So he's the familiar you summoned using the glyph you copied off me?"
"If it makes you feel any better, Professor Black got a three headed snake that likes to cuss him out because he's not warm enough and won't share body heat," quipped Grace. Seeing the white-haired girl's look, she shrugged, "Apparently I can speak snake, the regular kind. Not sure why, and it's not particularly useful."
Weiss shuddered. Snakes were disgusting.
Stitch tugged her sleeve. Grace handed him her spare Scroll, and he promptly began playing "Angry Grimm".
The game was a weird brain child of a bored hunter. The goal of the game was to destroy the 'wood and glass' structures to make the Grimm fall to their death. You had to use some sort of weird sniper-weapon that launched different Dust types at the structure, and the effects varied depending on the way the Dust was shaped. It taught young hunters to take trajectory into account, was highly addicting, and was relatively cheap to buy upgrades for.
Stitch was currently trying to beat her high score, which she would unashamedly admit to cheating for. Hacker skills FTW!
("Angry Grimm" is basically 'Angry Birds', with the Dust taking place of the birds and the Grimm the pigs.)
"That is so beyond weird I can't find the proper words to describe it."
"At least it keeps him from stealing everyone's left shoe and then clogging the toilets of Ironwood's ship again."
"What?"
"Nothing," said Grace, a little too innocently.
Stitch had followed Penny to Ironwood's massive ship, stolen every left shoe in the place, and then somehow managed to flush them down the toilet, causing the septic system to almost burst onto the unlucky people below. He also messed with the electrical systems of the ship, thus causing merry hell with the controls.
You had to turn on the light to open the door, and hit the button to open the door in order to flush the toilet. It was chaos on a rather impressive scale and it was going to take ages to unscramble the commands.
Ozpin had been impressed. Fortunately he had discovered "Stitch" had a similar addiction to coffee and thus bribed him with a supply of his own brew in exchange for never unleashing that sort of chaos on the school.
Stealing the shoes was fine, messing with the plumbing was not.
Stitch now had his own mug, complete with the insignia of Beacon, and there had been some doubletakes when he took a sip of his coffee at the same time as Ozpin.
Needless to say Grace had been endlessly amused by this sight.
"So who are you taking to the ball?"
"No idea. Boys are too terrified of me to ask, and I've never had a proper... say Weiss, you haven't got a date have you?"
Weiss blinked twice before she cottoned on.
"Seriously?"
"Why not? At least we know the other can dance and not step on our toes, and it means Stitch can go with Diamond."
Weiss mentally thought of her dragon and the odd 'dog' Grace had summoned dancing. It was a weird image.
"I was planning to ask Neptune actually."
"Be my date to the ball and I'll talk him into dancing with you," said Grace.
"No bribes, and you have a deal."
Grace smiled.
She was glad to have a date to the ball and not have to worry about being too "scary" for the boys.
Honestly, guys were such wimps at her age...
Grace enjoyed the dance, and more to the point so did Weiss. Having a date that wouldn't step on your toes made it much more enjoyable all around, even if they had to get over the weird image of Jaune in a dress because of some silly declaration he made to Pyrrha.
And no, he would not get all the photos Grace had Stitch take of that image on her scroll. She was too busy laughing her ass off at the sight, because if he had a bigger chest he might actually look good in a dress.
At least Pyrrha wasn't surprised by Jaune's ability to dance. It was how Grace had been training him from the start after all.
However the night wasn't all fun and games.
Ruby had followed someone from the dance to the communication's tower, only to come up empty. However they had been near one of the consoles long enough to upload something, since it took her a minute or two to get up to the area.
Grace was very, very happy Regulus had mentioned that problem, and that she had hacked into the internal network with Stitch's help and placed a "quarantine" program before the ball.
It was rather innocuous and not something that would come up on the weekly inspection of the network. The core of the program was beautiful in it's simplicity.
If something entered the network via an external source, then it would be "quarantined" from the main programming and an alert would be sent to Grace's scroll in a discreet way. If it contained malicious script, she could move it to another network where it wouldn't do nearly as much damage.
Grace's scroll alerted her to the program after the dance, when she got finished making sure Ruby hadn't seen the figure properly.
The second she recognized what it did, she moved the script someplace where it could do limited damage.
Namely she hacked Ironwood's mechanical army and rewrote part of the script to shut the machines down or at least cause them to target each other if the script went active.
She only really liked Penny, out of Ironwood's creations.
She almost wished she could see Cinder's face when the machines turned on each other, rather than the tower going dark.
"I would ask why we're heading to a secured, anonymous location, but even I know better," said Grace. Her tone and posture was all business.
Glynda was nothing if not a role model for crisp professionalism. Even her familiar was alert, wary, but otherwise silent.
Compared to the likes of someone like Ruby, Grace was a model for other huntresses.
"We have an unexpected visitor. They were attacked and the guard barely managed to get her in time to make contact. I don't need to tell you the gravity of why I brought you along," said Ozpin, his playful demeanor gone. Even his cup was missing, which was another major sign.
It took Grace a few moments to catch on to what he wasn't saying.
"...April or July?"
"October," he replied, catching her quick code with ease.
"Heal or replace?"
"We're hoping to leave the second as a last resort only."
This was serious. If one of the Maidens was that close to death, then of course they would need to have a replacement handy just in case. The last thing they needed was for the Fall Maiden to fall into the wrong hands, especially when someone was tracking them down.
Whoever hurt Amber might have stolen some of her power, so having Grace take on what was left would be a contingency plan.
There cannot be two Maidens with the same power. She would have to take out whoever hurt Amber to the point of death to reclaim it.
"Who's the guard?"
"If we have to go for our last resort, Penny will be assigned as your permanent official guard, with Qrow acting as your contact. He was rather reluctant to bring you in."
Grace was her mother's daughter, and she found out by accident about the maidens.
She had been maintaining a strict secrecy for years since they found out what her Semblance mixed a healthy dose of her untrained magic could do. She had the clearance to know things most people didn't have an inkling to since she was eleven.
The fact she had a reputation for fighting without using her Semblance meant she would have a slightly easier time hiding the Fall Maiden's powers, if it came down to it, as was the fact she was close to the current defenders.
No one would question it if they found out, unless they had the rest of the Fall Maiden's powers... in which case they would be swiftly dealt with. Possibly in a very painful manner.
Grace and Stitch followed Ozpin in silence. What they found had her reaching for Storm's Embrace with a sincere desire to unleash it on whoever did this to the woman in the stasis capsule.
Amber had been nice to her, the one time they had briefly met. She knew Ozpin liked to share photos of his "minion" to his friends. Even if he was her Uncle, Ozpin was the closest thing to a father she had ever had.
Grace could tell just by being this close Amber was too far gone to be saved.
He didn't need to be told, and Qrow was very pissed off.
If they found the one who did this, there would be absolutely no mercy.
As gently as they could, especially since she was doped up with enough painkillers to almost kill someone in their sleep, Amber was woken up.
Grace could feel when the Fall Maiden's power passed on to her, or what was left of it after Amber was viciously attacked.
Considering the official "origin" story of the power, Grace knew the moment it did that the story, while edited for public consumption, wasn't that far off. Except it was missing quite a few things that apparently weren't passed down.
She had a sneaking suspicion she knew why people from Earth kept finding themselves in Remnant.
No one spoke as they left the room. Qrow quietly grieving for the fallen Maiden.
"Alright brat, spill. What the hell happened to your core? I can feel a massive boost and you haven't even charged up your spells yet," said Regulus the second she entered the room.
Ozpin shared a nod with her.
"Remember that story you shared of how Merlin and his wife disappeared one day after Arthur fell?"
Regulus blinked.
Merlin and Nimue had left for Avalon, supposedly, after the fall of Camelot and were never seen since. Many had set out to find the lost land of magic, and generally it was considered a story to share to the children. Much like the Tale of the Three Brothers.
There was some speculation about the fact that they hid because Nimue was pregnant, but no one ever clarified if that was true.
"I think I know why magicals keep ending up in Remnant."
Regulus heard her theory, and was silent for a solid ten minutes. Then he started swearing.
"You don't agree with me?" she asked, dismayed.
"No, that's the problem. I do agree with you. It makes far too much sense if Merlin ripped open a hole and was unable to close it properly. And now that you mention it, it is equally possible that these 'Maidens' are in fact his daughters, or at least their magic passed down to acceptable recipients. Even if only some of them are fully able to use their magical gifts."
"As fascinating as this is, could you clarify it to those not from your particular background?" asked Ozpin. Nearby, a very unhappy Qrow stood waiting.
"Long story short, there are some families who can pass their magical inheritance to people not of the bloodline so long as certain conditions are met. It wouldn't surprise me if Merlin or Nimue were one of them. These... Maidens, could very well be their descendants. Which means I'm going to have to switch up her magical training from the basics to the Sorcerer level shit."
He suddenly grinned viciously.
"Which means she's about to get a crash course in rituals, arithimancy and runes. As well as how to properly channel large amounts of magic without it blowing up in her face."
Grace had an annoyed look. She hated math. Then she looked at Stitch and said "Is it acceptable to learn how to channel my familiar bond instead?"
Regulus snorted.
"That pain in the ass is magical enough that you can let him handle the filtering aspect, and possibly most of the mathematical formulas you're going to need. At least once a proper telekinetic bond is formed. He's about to get some major upgrades, so I'd advise getting him started on basic weapons training now. It'll be easier if he can learn to bleed off the excess safely through Dust rounds. They take a lot of power before they go off."
Stitch perked up at that.
"Stitch know how to shoot. Can handle four guns," he announced proudly.
"Wonderful, her pet dog is a sniper," said Qrow.
"Stitch, you work with Headmaster Ironwood on getting you properly outfitted with weapons. I'll work with Penny since it seems we'll be partners for the foreseeable future," said Grace. She was already starting to create a mind link with him, this just meant they had to ramp up the schedule a bit.
And best of all, most would mistake any powers attributed to the Fall Maiden as a side effect of her Rogue Semblance copying it, once they found who stole the other half.