Desdemona

Desdemona's History

Desdemona was a jaguar cub who, along with her two sisters, was granted human form by Mayan priests. One of her sisters died after the ritual was performed. They raised Dez and her surviving sister Penelope, among others from other jaguar litters, to be their Jaguar Warriors, to fight on their side during the prophesized "end of days". Growing up, Dez and Pen were the subject of monthly rituals to retain their human form, but were also kept prisoner and beaten if they rebelled. Pen felt that they owed the priests their humanity, but Dez was tired of being treated like an animal, and was willing to risk her human form by escaping.

The sisters travelled to Los Angeles, and were present when the city was sent to hell. As Dez found work as an assassin for the Lord of Sherman Oaks, Pen began to revert to feline form and could not change back. Dez performed the ritual to return her sister to human form, but during the spell, Los Angeles returned to normal and Pen inexplicably disappeared. Meanwhile, across L.A., animals were being transformed into humans; Dez realised what was happening and worked to return them to their natural forms, recognising that, unlike her, they did not want to be human. To pay her dept to the Lord of Sherman Oaks, Dez was sent to assassinate Angel, the vampire Champion of L.A. Instead, she betrayed the Lord and allied herself with Angel, helping put an end to the assassination attempts. However, Angel's allies Kate Lockley and Gwen Raiden didn't trust her, and followed her. Gwen witnessed Dez returning a gorilla to it's normal form, and, wrongly assuming she was transforming humans against their will, took her prisoner. Kate eventually released her, listened to her story, and helped her return the remaining animals back to normal. When the Potentates tried to return Dez back to jaguar form, believing that she was an "abomination against nature", Connor and the rest of Angel Investigations defended her.

Dez became a full-fledged member of Angel Investigations and actively took part in a mission to locate Angel after he was kidnapped by Innovation Labs, a facility created to turn the rich and famous into vampires using Angel as a reluctant sire. One of those who helped save Angel was an ex-Watcher named Laura Weathermill who joins the team as well. Weathermill's supernatural expertise eventually outed the Potentate James as a powerful demon in disguise. Dez is later killed by a Soul Eater named Liss, sent by James to kill Angel and Spike. Dez's soul was consumed by the Soul Eater, who then tried to attack the others. In the aftermath of Dez's death, Illyria asked the team if they should grieve; Angel promised they would.