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[The question surprises her. It surprises her to the point that it shuts her up for almost a minute as she contemplates the best answer for that. Lots of people would say that Spike getting his soul was about Buffy and his love for her. Lots of people would say that Spike might have had Angel envy. But both camps would be wrong. Dawn knew Spike. She sat back and she paid attention to him beyond the good or evil or demon or vampire parts of him. It wasn't anything intimate or even romantic, although there were times when she had crushed on him. It was just the way they had always interacted. Neither of them pulled any punches with each other. And that wasn't going to change now.
She exhales a slow breath and looks down to the ground for a moment before looking back up to Spike and leveling her gaze with his.] The military put that chip in your head. And it... wasn't just a physical change where you physically couldn't hurt humans. It eventually became a psychological thing. But it was hard because you still had the monster in you. So for all your wanting to be a good man... the monster was always right on the edge. It's why Buffy never fully trusted you... or any of the Scoobies, for that matter.
[Notice she didn't add herself in that, because she had always gone straight to Spike when she needed away from the Scoobies. He'd always been honest with her, never treated her like she was a freak. She couldn't say that about the rest of them, even Buffy.] There was an incident that... well I think it was the tipping point for you. And yeah, it involved Buffy. But I don't think she's why you went to get soul-ified. You did it because you'd been living in the middle of two worlds for so long and you had to make a choice between always being preyed on and possibly controlled by the big bad inside you, or become the one calling the shots.
[She pauses here, considering whether telling Spike that he'd almost raped Buffy here or not. She decides to leave that out unless he asks what the incident was.] You chose being a man over being a monster. And then once you had your soul, since we all know that even souled things can be evil, you chose to be a good man rather than a bad one because you had changed... on the inside. You took control, Spike. You took control over the demon inside of you instead of letting the demon play you like a marionette... which, super creepy, marionettes... right?