Whistler (Buffyverse)

Whistler was the alias taken by a demon with human form who, despite his origins, served The Powers That Be. He was the one who recruited Angel to the side of good.
== Biography ==
=== Origins ===
Whistler was conceived by a humanoid pure-blood demon and an agent of the Powers That Be,
 an unthinkable union. The Powers and demonkind united to punish the 
couple; the couple was killed, but the child of their union was left 
behind. Though the demons wanted to kill it too, the child was 
subsequently protected by the Powers. They sought to put this unique 
child, Whistler, to good use, by making him an agent of maintaining 
balance in the universe. They bestowed upon him the power of precognition.
Whistler's career saw him appear in Ancient Greece, usher Arthur towards the sword in the stone in medieval England, and even burn down significant buildings in later human history.
 Whistler was also present at Hiroshima shortly after the Americans 
dropped a nuclear bomb on it, and witnessed the dead and dying in its 
immediate aftermath.
 After centuries of this sort of activity, he became convinced of 
another way to maintain the balance between good and evil: the prophecy 
of Universal Recreation, which centered around the Slayer Buffy Summers and a vampire with a soul, Angel. Whistler believed this to be a sort of cosmic irony, given its resemblance to his own origin.
=== Putting Angel on his path ===
Whistler, whose real name was unpronounceable for a human as it 
consisted on a series of whistles, referred to his mission as 
"maintaining the balance between good and evil". In 1996, he was present
 in New York City, where he approached the vampire Angel.
 At the time, Angel was living on the streets, feeding on rats and 
refusing to come into contact with any human being, fearing he would 
fall to his impulses and feed on one of them, as he had done in the 70s.
Whistler convinced Angel to join him on a trip to Los Angeles, where the two witnessed Buffy Summers being informed of her calling as the new Slayer,
 and later witnessed her first slaying. Whistler warned Angel that this 
new, unprepared Slayer would face serious danger. Having fallen in love 
with her, Angel asked Whistler to train him, to show him how to become 
someone to be counted on.
Two years later, Whistler, aware of the upcoming awakening of the demon Acathla, traveled to Sunnydale to seek out Angel, whom he believed was destined to stop the demon. He met Buffy at Rupert Giles' apartment,
 telling her he had not foreseen Angel losing his soul and she needed to
 be ready to do more than just fight if she wanted to stop the end of 
the world. Whistler's words proved true when Buffy was forced to send 
the re-ensouled Angel through Acathla's vortex in order to put the demon
 back to his eternal sleep.
=== Role in the Twilight crisis ===
Years later, Whistler approached Angel with the bleak news that in most 
possible futures he had foreseen, Angel fighting alongside Buffy would result in them losing against the coming darkness. Instead, he advised Angel to take up the mantle of "Twilight"
 and attempt to limit the power of the anti-Slayer factions and 
manipulate them by directing their actions, while also guiding Buffy 
toward ultimate power.
A few months after Buffy and Angel desert Twilight, and the destruction of the Seed of Wonder,
 the heart of magic, Whistler apparently was unable to contact the 
Powers That Be, and his clairvoyant powers were no longer working 
properly, and he blamed Angel for not going through with the plan. He 
approached Pearl and Nash, a pair of half-demons who had been part of Twilight's cabal,
 after they had massacred all the patrons of a bar, and informs them 
that the world, which doesn't know it's dead yet, needs to evolve. The 
duo accepted Whistler's proposition for the sake of bringing in the next
 stage of evolution and getting payback on their old boss.
Attempting to find Angel, Whistler tracked him to Giles's former apartment- where Angel now lived with Faith
 as he attempted to complete Giles's unfinished business and find a way 
to bring the now-dead Giles back to life-, but only discovered Giles's 
aunts as Angel was currently in another dimension with Faith, Willow and Connor.
 Informing the Giles family that he intended to complete the ascension 
that Buffy and Angel had interrupted as part of a plan to save the world
 by evolving it to the next stage, Whistler gave the aunts a card with 
an address on it and told them them to tell Angel to meet him there on 
their 'anniversary'.
Whistler's meeting with him went as scheduled, briefly coming to 
violence when Angel showed his fury of him working with Pearl and Nash 
but it was quickly ended. He talked with him about destiny and expressed
 his anger that he had deserted the Twilight
 plan. Angel, however, remained unrepentant and defended himself, 
explaining that their friends were in danger and Buffy needed his help. 
Whistler admitted flippantly to him that at least two billion people 
were meant to die in order for the Universal Recreation
 prophecy to be completed but it was necessary for the balance. He 
revealed to him his origins and how Angel was predestined to meet Buffy 
but falling in love with her was unexpected, greatly shocking Angel. 
Whistler also mentioned to him that before all of this had happened, he 
saw a possible future for Earth that was dark and grim, one that he wanted to be avoided. He asked him to help him "save the world" and restore balance.
Though Angel admitted that he would always be grateful to Whistler 
for introducing him to Buffy and giving him a chance for redemption, he 
made it clear that he would not help Whistler if it meant killing any 
more innocents or causing any more collateral damage, bluntly stating 
his belief that Whistler had gone insane from being cut off from the 
dimensions. Outraged, Whistler attacked Angel and nearly staked him 
before managing to stop himself, stating that Angel was still his 
"favorite kid" and he didn't want to kill him. With that, Whistler took 
his leave, warning Angel to stay out of his way.
When Alasdair's "cloaking device" for his magical items was shut 
down in an effort to help resurrect Giles, Whistler and his group 
quickly arrived on the scene. Pearl and Nash fiercely fought with Angel 
and Faith, intending to steal the items necessary. Eventually, when the 
three managed to steal the items, Whistler ordered the two of them to 
retreat since they had gotten what they wanted. Reluctantly, they obeyed
 and Whistler left again with them on his mission.
Miraculously, Giles was successfully resurrected, but as an adult
 in a twelve-year-old body. With Giles' urging, Angel and the 
others headed out to stop Whistler's plan with the mutual agreement that
 not all of them would survive the fight. In the ensuing confrontation 
on a rooftop in Hackney, London, Angel desperately attempted to reason 
with Whistler, not wanting to fight his friend and benefactor, but his 
pleas fell on deaf ears; still believing that he was saving the world, 
Whistler unleashed a magical plague, mutating several people into monsters.
During a close fight with Angel, Whistler assumed his true form, a 
tall horned demon resembling his mother only surrounded in blue flames. 
His demonstrated dramatically increased strength and the ability to 
project flamethrowers from his palms.
 Angel tried to reason with him that certain costs are not acceptable, 
but Whistler coldly maintained that in the long run the death of the few
 was an acceptable cost to save the many, citing the Hiroshima bombings 
as an example. Though he was briefly swayed and affected when Angel 
stated exactly why he backed out of Twilight and forced him to look upon
 the suffering of those afflicted by the plague ball, he nonetheless 
declared that he had gone too far to stop now.
Managing to retrieve the plague ball, Whistler was about to go 
out and spread it throughout the world, but Angel intervened and 
challenged him to a duel, declaring that now it was time to find out if 
Whistler's philosophy of "it's always the big moments that define who we
 are" was true.
After Angel overpowered him and drained some of his power through
 the plague ball, Whistler reverted back to his human form. Angel tried 
to reason with him one more time, reminding him of the damage and horror
 his plan would cause. This time, Whistler was remorseful, acknowledging
 that he was right and what he was doing was wrong. He absorbed the 
plague ball in his body to prevent it from spreading globally, charring 
his body to a fatal level. In his dying moments, he expressed to Angel 
his gratitude for saving him from himself and the realization that it 
wasn't always about balance; rather, it was just about doing the right 
thing. Whistler finally died, much to Angel's sadness.
== Personality and traits ==
Despite the important mission he performed for The Powers That Be,
 Whistler remained a down-to-earth individual. He was also prone to 
sarcasm and irony, for which people like Angel and Buffy found him 
somewhat annoying. However, despite his way of relating to people, he 
remained a wise figure ready to offer guidance, despite not being asked 
to.
Following the failure of the plan to evolve the world into Twilight and the subsequent end of magic,
 Whistler became more short-tempered and hostile, preferring to continue
 with his plan in the belief that he was 'saving' the world rather than 
allowing Angel and others to try and tackle the problem their own way. 
Angel himself speculated that Whistler had gone insane since being cut 
off from the Powers and the multiverse, this theory being confirmed when
 Whistler expressed regret after he was expoed to enough magic to 
restore his sanity.
== Powers and Abilities ==
Whistler possessed a psychic link to the Powers That Be that allowed 
him to perceive potential futures, though he was unable to foresee 
everything, as he failed to foresee Angel losing his soul. However, 
after the destruction of the Seed of Wonder, his powers became severely 
affected.
During a confrontation, he displayed a degree of superhuman 
strength and the ability to apparently generate blue energy from his 
hands, although the extent and nature of this power is unclear. He also 
possessed enough skill in hand-to-hand combat to overpower Angel in a 
fight and even punch a hole straight through his chest.
Finally, Whistler could shapeshift into a demonic state due to 
his half demon physiology (which most hybrids were capable of). In this 
form, he displayed his maximum power and could fight Angel, a powerful 
opponent even while severely weakened. He also displayed the power to 
project fire capable of melting objects, which he demonstrated on 
Angel's sword.
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