BUFFY: When I hit him, it felt like my arm was broken, it hurt so much. I can't be just a person. I can't be helpless like that. Giles, please, we have to figure out what's happening to me.

Giles opens his briefcase and pulls out the case with the syringe. He opens it, lets out a deep sigh and sets it in front of her.

GILES: It's an organic compound... of muscle relaxants and adrenal suppressers. The effect is temporary. You'll be yourself again in a few days.

BUFFY: You?

GILES: It's a test, Buffy. It's given to the Slayer once she... uh, well, if she reaches her eighteenth birthday. The Slayer is disabled and then entrapped with a vampire foe whom she must defeat in order to pass the test. The vampire you were to face... has escaped. His name is Zackary Kralik. As a mortal, he murdered and tortured more than a dozen women before he was committed to an asylum for the criminally insane. When a vamp...

BUFFY: (sobbing angrily) You bastard. All this time, you saw what it was doing to me. All this time, and you didn't say a word!

GILES: I wanted to.

BUFFY: (sobs) Liar.

GILES: In matters of tradition and protocol, I must answer to the Council. My role in this... was very specific. I was to administer the injections and to direct you to the old boardinghouse on Prescott Lane.

BUFFY: (crying and shaking her head) I can't... I can't hear this.

GILES: Buffy, please.

BUFFY: Who are you? How could you do this to me?

GILES: I am deeply sorry, Buffy, (reaches out to her) and you have to understand...

BUFFY: If you touch me, I'll kill you.

GILES: (imploringly) You have to listen to me. Because I've told you this, the test is invalidated. You will be safe now, I promise you. Now, whatever I have to do to deal with Kralik... and to win back your trust...

BUFFY: (interrupts, sobbing) You stuck a needle in me. You poisoned me!

CORDELIA: What's going on? Oh, God. Is the world ending? I have to research a paper on Bosnia for tomorrow, but if the world's ending, I'm not gonna bother.

GILES: (desperately) You can't walk home alone, Buffy. It isn't safe.

Buffy stops. Cordelia doesn't understand and looks at her.

BUFFY: (facing away) I don't know you.

CORDELIA: Did something take her memory? He's Giles. Giiillles. (grins) He hangs out here a lot.

BUFFY: Cordelia, could you please drive me home?

CORDELIA: (surprised) Of course. (to Giles) But if the world doesn't end, I'm gonna need a note.

• Angsty Traumatic Confrontations
• Buffy & Giles
• Slayerhood

written by: David Fury; Transcribed by: AleXander Thompson. Full transcript at:
http://www.studiesinwords.de/46helpless.html