An angel and the girlfriend of Alex and Lorelei. She first appeared in Good Intentions.
Biography[]
Rachel was an angel of the Third Host.[1] Her exact age is unknown, but she was older than Lorelei, or at least 3 000 years old.[2][3] Her first known role was as a librarian in Heaven. Around 500 BCE she discovered the theft of a book, caught Zafirah—the thief—and retreived the book.[4] Some time later she quit being a librarian and became a messenger on the mortal plane, so she could be closer to her boyfriend Vincent.[5]
In 1517 CE she observed Martin Luther announcing his Ninety-five Theses. Realizing that Vincent lacked courage and only loved himself, she broke up with him.[5]
Meeting Alex[]
Rachel was still acting as a messenger when Garrison captured her and Lorelei in a ritual, intending to bind them to him. She was rescued when Alex intervened in the ritual, causing the Sacred Heart cemetery fire. In doing so he also became the focus of the binding.[6][5] Alex’s prior guardian angel—Donald—was removed afterwards, since he had abandoned Alex. Rachel was assigned as Alex’s guardian angel since she already had been bound to Alex, despite that her abilities and strength were very limited after the ritual.[7]
Rachel soon started to fall in love with Alex. Her initial attitude towards Lorelei was however very negative, despite Rachel having left Alex with Lorelei immediately after the fire. Her decision to leave Lorelei with Alex and without taking further action was met with criticism from other angels. This was complicated by opposition against her from Vincent, who held Dominion over Seattle. Her decision proved justified by Lorelei’s redemption, which was enabled and prompted by Alex. Lorelei’s redemption also helped Rachel to recover her full abilities faster.[8] During this, Rachel also started to fall in love with Lorelei.[9]
Lorelei had encouraged Rachel to approach Alex, and one week after the fire Rachel and Alex consummated their love. Their tryst was cut short when Rachel was summoned and captured again, this time by Molly Murray and Onyx. The two mistook Rachel for Lorelei, thus thinking Rachel was a demon.[5] They released her from captivity when they discovered that Lorelei and Rachel were two different people, allowing Rachel to intervene in the Battle of Blackthorne manor. During the battle she killed Harrow and helped Alex kill Baal.
Dominion of Seattle[]
“Again, we still have a shitload of out-of-town monsters fuckin’ around in this city. Do not feel constrained to any of that ‘cycle of nature’ bullshit. They are fucking monsters. You see fangs or a trench coat with tentacles or some jackass with two legs and a tail, you are weapons free! Don’t give ’em any breaks. No free dinners in my city. Miracles are authorized.”
— Rachel, Natural Consequences, chapter 11
After the Battle of Blackthorne manor Rachel replaced Vincent as Dominion of Seattle, since he was judged to have done his duties poorly.[10] She also moved into Suite 1705 together with Alex and Lorelei.[11] As Dominion she was extremely proactive and aggressive, actively hunting down demons, vampires, and werewolves. She encouraged the local guardian angels to be proactive, and also to work together.[12][13] This led to a flight of malign beings from Seattle, leading to tension with the neighboring Dominions.[14]
She rescued Alex, Jason, and undercover FBI agent Amber Maddox from vampires and werewolves at the Battle of the Bus Tunnel in late October. Amber was part of an investigation by the Special Task Force into the Crew, where Donald—Alex’s former guardian angel—attempted to discredit Rachel by using Hauser—the leader of the investigation—as his pawn. This caused most of the Crew to be arrested by the FBI and the Battle of Magnuson Park. Throughout this Rachel had to balance her duties as an angel, her loyalty to the Crew, what she could tell her friends, her love for Lorelei, and the distrust that many angels had toward her.[15][16] The distrust that many angels had against her and Lorelei was a common theme for her throughout this period.[13][17]
She fought Sammael at the Battle of the Casino but couldn’t prevent him from escaping. When a bungled spell sent Alex to Iraq she followed him there, delegating her duties as Dominion to Marvin. Upon finding Alex she managed to help him reach Beirut, where they sought the assistance of Zafirah. Sammael intervened and followed them back to Seattle and the ongoing Battle of Suite 1705. Rachel’s return proved decisive and helped turn the battle.[18] She finally managed to corner Sammael as he was attempting to kill Alex, and Sammael was killed by Lorelei.[19]
Demotion to guardian angel[]
Following the battle Rachel was removed as Dominion after little more than three months, and returned to being a guardian angel. She filled in as a guardian angel for several members of the Crew.[20][21] Her replacement as Dominion was Javier, who continued with several of her policies. This allowed her to continue to take an aggressive and active stance against demons and other malign beings.[22][23]
In March she accompanied the Crew to Vancouver and the Family party. She received little support from George, the angel in Dominion, and was badly wounded by the magic of the Family when she intervened in order to extract Lorelei and Alex from the Family party. The two managed to bring her to the angels of Vancouver for healing. She recovered in time to intervene in the Battle of the Silver Delta, where she killed Kashvi and Roman. After the battle she met the freed Joel and took the captured demon Leanne into her custody.
Reputation[]
Rachel had a poor reputation amongst many angels, for varied reasons. Her language and open skepticism and disregard against many of Heaven’s rules and protocols was one.[24][14] Her relationship and later breakup with Vincent might was another.[15] Fallout from retreiving the book that Zafirah stole from Heaven might be a third.[20] Her time, actions, and results with Alex and Lorelei partially changed that, but also seemed to have hardened some attitudes against her.[15][25] Word of her also started to spread in Hell and perhaps other parts of the Shadows.[26][27]
In mundane circles she was keeping a low profile as Lorelei’s and Alex’s privacy-minded girlfriend.[28][29]
Personal[]
“Listen, Rachel ain’t big on the long-term subtle maneuver stuff. If she sees a problem, she generally deals with it or she’ll say why she won’t. I’ve tried to get some existential answers out of her before. She doesn’t dodge or try to finesse it. She tells me she can’t explain and that’s that. And her first response to scary monsters is her big scary sword. She’s good with you. If she wasn’t, we’d all know.”
— Wade, Past Due, chapter 27
Rachel contrasted with the rest of her fellow angels her use of blunt, crass, and coarse language. She was much more proactive than most other angels, both in helping people and in combating malign forces.[29][22] She was courageous and activist enough to seek out and fight demons with little or no hesitation.
She was usually careful in what she told Alex and the Crew about the supernatural. She was also careful with interventions in mortal affairs, though much more proactive than other known angels.[15]
She tended to react with stress eating when under stress or pressure. She also enjoyed alcohol, though it had little effect on her.[30][4]
Rachel viewed consensual sex—both casual and romantic—as a positive good. She had a strong submissive streak, but it appeared to require deep trust from her side. She was voyeuristic and had a romantic and sexual desire for demons.[13] She also expressed an interest in and enjoyed anal sex.[31][20]
She appeared as a lithe, blonde, athletic, and beautiful woman in her early twenties.[32] She dressed mainly in simple white dresses, but also expressed some interest in widening her wardrobe, inspired by Molly and Onyx.[33]
Relationships[]
“You’re swept away by the romance of loving a demon. You feel you shouldn’t fixate on it, that you shouldn’t fetishize, but it’s so hot.”
— Lorelei, “Clear Communications”
Rachel lived in an open polyamorous relationship with Alex and Lorelei. Unlike the other two she was not interested in further romantic or sexual relationships.[12] Her combination of voyerism, viewing sex as a positive good, and feeling Alex’s pleasure as her own made her very supportive and often enabling of Alex’s dalliances.[34][35]
She may have had prior sexual relations with her mentor and confidant Hannah. Apart from Alex and Lorelei, Hannah is the only one known that Rachel had expressed her submissive desires to.[24] Her boyfriend was Vincent for several hundred years, until Rachel broke with him. Like many other angels she also had sexual relations with Sammael before his fall.[31] It is however possible that Alex might have been the first person to do cunnilingus on her.[5]
She thought highly of the Crew and considered them friends, though her role and duties as an angel means that she had to keep a certain distance from them. Her most enduring friend was probably Zafirah.[36]
She had relatively few confidantes and friends in Heaven besides Hannah, and a long history of being treated with prejudice and rejection.[5][15] Even her recent accomplishments did little to change this.[14] She did however develop friendship or at least respect with Jon, Julia, Lawrence, and Marvin. It is likely that these prejudices went back at least to her catching Zafirah, and became worse after breaking up with Vincent. This is however not a universal trend, and there were other angels who valued her accomplishments or understood her choices.[12][13]
Abilities[]
Rachel possessesed all the abilities common to angels. She could discern the state of a human soul at a glance and had the power to influence minds. Her insight into Alex was especially acute.[37] She could summon a sword of angelic fire, possessed the powers of flight, invisibility, and intangibility at need, and incredible strength and endurance. She also had extremely potent healing powers.
Her bond with Alex meant that she had to obey him for a limited time, and possibly also that she was compelled to protect him.[20] The most relevant and lasting effect of the link was however that she could feel his pleasure and that good and unselfish actions taken by Alex made her horny.[15][14] The latter effect also extended to Lorelei, though possibly to a lesser extent.[38][37]
As a stand-in as a guardian for several of Alex’s friends she could easily see them even from afar, as long as they were not in a warded area.[39]
As with any angel, a lot of her strength and capabilities were tied to her role.
Theories[]
Rachel’s highly negative and belligerent early attitude against Lorelei probably had several interlocking reasons. Some possible ones were:
- Regular angelic prejudice against demons.
- Rachel’s frustration and resentment over not being able to be with Alex, while Lorelei could.[40]
- She was greatly stressed and unbalanced after Garrison’s ritual, and then falling in love with a mortal.
- She was greatly attracted to Lorelei from the start, but attempted to deny those feelings.[13]
There have been several proposed reasons for why Rachel fell so quickly for Lorelei. Here are some of them:
- Garrison’s ritual created a mystic link between Lorelei and Rachel, due to the way their essences were mixed.[6]
- Alex asked the two to be cool with each other and to bury the hatchet, while the ritual’s demand to obedience was relatively strong.[1][41]
- The act of redemption held a powerful attraction to angels, and Rachel had a ringside seat of Lorelei’s redemption.[8]
- Rachel was turned on by good deeds by Alex, and several of these good deeds had Lorelei at their center.[8]
- Rachel’s lust or fetish for demons, even before meeting Lorelei.[13]
Note that none of these reasons are mutually exclusive, and might have reinforced each other.
In several of Rachel’s battles with demons she started out using—for her—less than lethal forms of combat, only switching to her flaming sword late in the fight. Examples included her fights with Serena,[26] Karma,[42] Sarah,[22] and Cynthia.[23] In at least the case with Cynthia she attempted to reason with and interrogate the demon, and reacted with dismay to the demon dying on her sword.
The cause of this restraint is unknown. It might be attempts to capture the demon for formal judgment or some form of policy from Heaven.
Sources[]
Key stories involving Rachel include:
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Good Intentions, chapter 2
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 2
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 16
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Personal Demons, chapter 18
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Good Intentions, chapter 15
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Good Intentions, chapter 1
- ↑ Good Intentions, chapter 6
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Good Intentions, chapter 12
- ↑ Good Intentions, chapter 13
- ↑ Good Intentions, chapter 19
- ↑ “Lifestyle Changes”
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Past Due, chapter 5
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 “Clear Communication”
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Past Due, chapter 10
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 Natural Consequences, chapter 5
- ↑ Natural Consequences, chapter 11
- ↑ “Trust”
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 23
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 24
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Personal Demons, chapter 25
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 20
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 “Good Neighbors”
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 “Red Flags”
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Natural Consequences, chapter 18
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 22
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Halloween for Life
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 18
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 1
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 “Like a Professional” (noncanon)
- ↑ “Can’t Stab Everything” (noncanon)
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 Personal Demons, chapter 13
- ↑ Natural Consequences, chapter 6
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 14
- ↑ “Supportive Relationships”
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 27
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 8
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 “Amends”
- ↑ “The Spirit of Giving”
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 28
- ↑ Good Intentions, chapter 10
- ↑ Good Intentions, chapter 8
- ↑ Skin