BUFFY: I'm more concerned with where that thing came from. If there are more of those spider demons running around, we need to know about it. We should hit the research, find out if?

WILLOW: I know where it came from.

(cut to a little later)

BUFFY: How many?

WILLOW: Ten, twelve.

XANDER: When were you planning on telling us?

WILLOW: I'm telling you now.

XANDER: Great. Thank you. Willow, it's Anya. How could you let us? How could you not have told us?

BUFFY: Xander...

XANDER: How could you not have told me?

BUFFY: Xander. It's OK. She didn't tell us for a reason. She didn't tell us because she knows what I have to do. I have to kill Anya.

(commercial, resume)

BUFFY: She's not the Anya that you knew, Xander. She's a demon.

XANDER: That doesn't mean you have to kill her.

BUFFY: Don't act like this is easy for me. You know it's not.

XANDER: There are other options.

BUFFY: I've considered them.

XANDER: When? Just now? Took you all of ten seconds to decide to kill one of your best friends?

BUFFY: The thought that it might come to this has occurred to me before. It's occurred to you, too.

XANDER: But we can change what she did. Fix it. These are mystical deaths, right? There has to be something.

WILLOW: I don't have anywhere near that kind of power. I didn't have that kind of power when? And I-I don't think I trust the power I do have.

BUFFY: (to Willow) It's OK. Xander, I know this is hard for you to hear, but it's what I have to do.

XANDER: Hard for me to hear? Buffy, you wanna kill Anya!

BUFFY: I don't want to.

XANDER: Then don't! This isn't new ground for us. When our friends go all crazy and start killing people, we help them.

WILLOW: Sitting right here.

XANDER: I'm sorry. But it's true.

BUFFY: It's different.

XANDER: Because you don't care about her the same way I do. Buffy, I still love her.

BUFFY: I know. And that's why you can't see this for what it really is. Willow was different. She's a human. Anya's a demon.

XANDER: And you're the slayer. I see now how it's all very simple.

BUFFY: It is never simple.

XANDER: No, of course not. You know, if there's a mass-murdering demon that you're, oh, say, boning, then it's all gray area.

BUFFY: Spike was harmless. He was helping.

XANDER: He had no choice.

BUFFY: And Anya did! She chose to become a demon. Twice.

XANDER: You have no idea what she's going through.

BUFFY: I don't care what she's going through!

XANDER: No, of course not. You think we haven't seen all this before? The part where you just cut us all out. Just step away from everything human and act like you're the law. If you knew what I felt?

BUFFY: I killed Angel! Do you even remember that? I would have given up everything I had to be with? I loved him more than I will ever love anything in this life. And I put a sword through his heart because I had to.

WILLOW: And that all worked out OK.

BUFFY: Do you remember cheering me on? Both of you. Do you remember giving me Willow's message: Kick his ass.

WILLOW: I never said that?

XANDER: This is different?

BUFFY: It is always different! It's always complicated. And at some point, someone has to draw the line, and that is always going to be me. You get down on me for cutting myself off, but in the end the slayer is always cut off. There's no mystical guidebook. No all-knowing council. Human rules don't apply. There's only me. I am the law.

XANDER: There has to be another way.

BUFFY: Then please find it.

(Xander leaves. Buffy turns to Willow)

WILLOW: I can't. I'm sorry.

(Buffy exits with sword)

• Slayerhood
• Xander & Anya
• Xander & Buffy

written by: Drew Goddard; Transcribed by: CariCranberry. Edited by me. . Full transcript at:
http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season7/transcripts/127_tran.php