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Disclaimer: I don't own them.
Author's Notes: I own no one. They are all the property of Joss Whedon. Aside from that, I suppose this story and the ones that will follow it require some explanation. As of the latest episode, “Expecting,” I have decided it might be fun to write down journal entries the way I imagine Cordelia would write them. There will be at least one to mark each episode of the series thus far, and will end whenever the Angel Series Finale airs. Hope you enjoy the look into Cordelia’s mind as much as I will enjoy writing about it.
On a side note, each entry will be subtitled with a quote from the episode of which it’s about. Enjoy:
“Don't We Have Enough On Our Hands Without Burning Monster Fiends Coming Here?”
January 18, 2000
Los Angeles, like Sunnydale, is teeming with monsters; that much is obvious to me. I always assumed though that those evil things would be all Angel would ever have to fight, but it’s so not true. There are also warriors on the same side as you that you have to watch out for, especially the ones who are only looking out for themselves.
On that refreshing note, let me tell about our little hoop-of-the-week. This one began early one morning when I came into work marveling over the success of the party I’d thrown last night... well, successful despite the fact that Angel managed to suck all the fun out a room while he was there. I know he’s Mr. Serious, who reserves all his fun points for battling the forces of evil, but you’d think that he would mellow out and let loose once in a while!
In any case, I think it kind of hurt Angel when I outright stated that Wesley had been “cooler” than he was, even though the latter had managed to make a fool of himself on several counts. Nevertheless, the subject was soon changed when it became apparent Wesley was only at our office to scour for food, which led Angel to outright hire him. I was already to call it a cause to celebrate, especially considering I didn’t have to take a paycut, but another of those darn visions hit me first.
I could tell from the start that this case was destined to be the most stressful. After all, it’s not every day you find a guy burned to death in an ICE factory, or witness it firsthand in my case (yuck!). Anyway, it had the guys going to investigate while I sat around recovering from a piercing migraine. And when they got back, Angel had the pretty much standard news to report.
As Angel put it, he met up with some otherworldly being named... Tal, I think... at said ice factory. And no, Tal wasn’t the murderer, but another victim, who claimed he was after the real killer to put a stop to it. From all accounts, Tal made it sound like our creature of the week was something to be very much feared, something we should use caution around... This isn’t very far from the truth, when you look at the big picture, but our supposed comrade as of that point wasn’t very trustworthy either.
Naturally, Angel went out that evening to check around the victim’s office, which was where he met up with Jhiera for the first time. Definitely wasn’t some big scary monster from his account, but rather... well, in short, a female freedom fighter.
Angel brought her back to the office after a failed rescue attempt on her part. The whole deal is that Jhiera and Tal and all the rest of their people live in a dimension separate to our own, where, as I understand, the women are forced to live in slavery. Something to do with the source of their personality and passion being removed against their will when they come of age, making them more than compliant... Oh, well, I don’t have much understanding of the whole thing, but I do know this. If I was in Jhiera’s shoes, I’d want to escape too before I let someone take my fire away.
However, in Jhiera’s case, I mean that literally; chick’s got the power to use fire to kill. Not that she actually did. In fact, said victim was dispatched by one of her girls, who was new to our realm and not able to control this power like Jhiera could. Apparently, adolescent females from that realm, as a side effect of entering “puberty”, tend to retain a lot of heat under their skin for a while that makes it almost unbearable. Guess it needs an outlet in some form or other, although the standard method that Jhiera uses is to order a ton or more of ice.
Anyway, while Angel was getting all this from Jhiera, Wesley and I went out to track down Tal and his followers, see if we could glean any new information. And what we eventually learned was that they found where Jhiera and her girls were hiding and were on their way to get them.
Wesley and I hurried back to the office to fill Angel in on this, then the three of us took off to help her. We arrived just in time to aid in getting the girls out, only when Wes and I hurried back to help with the fight, two of the men took us hostage and threatened to kill us. Naturally, Angel was opposed to this idea, but not Jhiera. Still, it came as a shock to everyone when she ran out, prepared to let US die if it meant her girls were safe.
It all turned out for the best though, as Wesley are still alive and kicking, and Angel helped Jhiera escape regardless (which was still the right thing to do, I guess). She showed up at our office the following day though to report that the girls were safe, in a more secure location. And Angel informed her--alone in his office, though I was eavesdropping--that if she pulled a stunt like that again, she’d be begging for some serious consequences from him as well. I don’t know if Jhiera will actually concede to this, will try harder to make sure her war doesn’t harm innocent humans, but I do know that we haven’t seen the last of her.
I can only hope that, whenever our paths do cross again, that she’ll be completely on our side. Because bottom line is, the last thing I want to do is worry about both her AND the men she’s fighting with. Getting in the middle of a battle is never fun when both sides are against you, after all...