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The first option - is for him to eventually win his soul back - krj1168

On another forum, a poster encapsulated something I'd wanted with regard to Spike and his soul, but had never managed to phrase correctly. Spike likes to be someone, especially someone grand. But a vampire's mind isn't whole the way a human's is; specifically, no choice figures into whether they're a good or bad person, they're bad on autopilot. In Fool For Love, he said that after he'd been turned he'd "decided [he] was through following society's rules." But he didn't really choose that; it was chosen for him by the fact that he was a vampire. He could promise to never hurt someone he loved, and mean it, but not have it count for anything the long run. And Spike, before or after turning, isn't the kind of person who'd like something so important being decided so externally. So getting his back soul could be about that choice: he doesn't care whether he's good or evil afterwards, just so long as he's good or evil on his terms,* and not because he's a vampire. So you could hit him with something that drives home how all the delicious wickedness he likes about himself isn't really his choice, just programming he can't control, and send him questing for that control back. (In the canonverse, the attempted rape of Buffy would have served this purpose; in the Ultimate-verse, you'd need something else - perhaps an attempt to eat one of the gang one time he's sufficiently ravenous).

* Kind of a parallel to how I see Buffy, who I never saw as really wanting not to be the Slayer as much as wanting the chance to meaningfully choose whether to take up the lifestyle.

For Cordelia - while the short term plan is for to develop along the similar lines as she did in Angel Season 3(i.e. become part demon)... The question is what kind of demon, and should she still become a "higher being" for the PTBs.

I think it ought to include at least some level of nonhuman appearance, even if it's not ugly (making her a Brachen might be a nice nod back to Doyle). Becoming a higher being would be a write-out unless you're including some version of the Jasmine plot (on an emotional level, if you do that, don't make Skip evil; Skip was cool).

For Dawn ... but maybe she's still affected by "remaining energy of the Key".

Natural channeller of some kind? If you're giving Cordy visions, I guess you don't want to do the same to Dawn (in the sense of time/space channeller, making her a pre-/postcog and clairvoyant). Life force channeller: can draw life force out of people like Ampata, but not to the point of having to kill them; and use it to heal herself or other people? Natural navigator: always knows her way around, and where she is, even across planes?