BUFFY: Look, I know what you're thinking, but I had a visit at the school today from Caleb.

DAWN: Buffy, why didn't you?

BUFFY: I'm fine. I mean, it wasn't fun, but I'm fine. I'm better than fine. I?I figured something out. He kept making all this noise about the school.

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Is it that seal again?

WILLOW: Do we need to try shutting it again?

BUFFY: No, that's just it. We've spent all this time worrying about the seal and the hellmouth. Why isn't Caleb guarding them? Why doesn't he have someone there protecting it? Why is he camped out at the vineyard? The bad guys always go where the power is. So if the seal was so important to Caleb and the First, they would be there right now. They're protecting the vineyard or something at the vineyard. I say it's their power, and I say it's time we go in and take it away from them.

FAITH: Or, in the alternative, how 'bout...we don't? I mean, it's a neat theory, B, but I'm not going back in that place, not without proof, and neither should you and neither should they.

BUFFY: I'm not saying it's gonna be easy.

PRINCIPAL WOOD: I think Faith had the floor.

FAITH: Maybe it ends OK the way you wanna play it, but maybe it doesn't. And right now, I don't think I want you playin' the odds.

BUFFY: Did you come here to fight?

FAITH: Listen, we're fighters, all of us, but you gotta give me something to fight, something real, not?

GILES: Windmills.

BUFFY: There is something there.

GILES: Maybe. But we can't be sure of that. This is a hell of a lot to ask.

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Too much.

BUFFY: I?I don't understand this. For 7 years, I've kept us safe by doing this? exactly this, making the hard decisions. And now, what? suddenly you're all acting like you can't trust me?

GILES: Didn't you say to me today you can't trust us? Maybe there's something there that should be addressed.

BUFFY: Is that why you sent Spike away, to ambush me?

GILES: Oh, come on.

RONA: You know what? I am sick of your deal with this Spike guy. This isn't about him. This is about you. You're being reckless.

BUFFY: What?

RONA: You are! I don't even know you, and I can tell! You are so obsessed with beating Caleb, you are willing to jump into any plan without thinking.

BUFFY: That's not what I'm doing.

KENNEDY: Well, that's how it feels to us. People are dying.

WILLOW: Kennedy...

KENNEDY: Why are you always standing up for her?

WILLOW: (softly, sadly) I'm not.

BUFFY: What do you mean, you're not?

WILLOW: With everything that's happened, I? I'm worried about your judgment.

BUFFY: Look, I wish this could be a democracy. I really do. Democracies don't win battles. It's a hard truth, but there has to be a single voice. You need someone to issue orders and be reckless sometimes and not take your feelings into account. You need someone to lead you.

ANYA: And it's automatically you. You really do think you're better than we are.

BUFFY: No, I?

ANYA: But we don't know. We don't know if you're actually better. I mean, you came into the world with certain advantages, sure. I mean, that's the legacy.

BUFFY: I?

ANYA: But you didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. You've never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn't make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us.

BUFFY: I've gotten us this far.

XANDER: But not without a price.

BUFFY: Xander?

XANDER: I'm trying to see your point here, Buff... but I guess it must be a little bit to my left... 'cause I just don't.

BUFFY: Look, I'm willing to talk strategy, OK, I'll hear suggestions on how to break this down, but this is the plan. We have to be together on this or we will fail again.

GILES: We are clearly demonstrating that we are not together on this!

BUFFY: Which is why you have to fall in line! I'm still in charge here.

RONA: Why is that, exactly?

BUFFY: Because I'm the slayer.

RONA: And isn't Faith a slayer, too?

FAITH: What? Whoa, whoa, whoa. So not what I meant. I'm not in charge chick. I think B here needs to just...chill out for a little bit, take a siesta or something. But I'm not the one you want.

KENNEDY: Maybe we need a vote... to see who wants Faith to have a turn in charge.

BUFFY: No.

KENNEDY: No, what?

BUFFY: No. You don't get to vote until I've had my chance to pal around, you know, get everybody drunk. See, I didn't get this was a popularity contest. I should have equal time to bake them cookies, braid their hair?

FAITH: Learn their names?

BUFFY: You're just lovin' this, aren't you?

FAITH: You have no idea what I'm feeling.

BUFFY: Come in here, take everything that I have... You did it before. Did you tell them that? Did you tell them how you used to kill people for fun? Hey, you guys think that's nifty?

GILES: Buffy, that's enough!

FAITH: I didn't come here to take anything away from you, but I'm not gonna be your little lapdog, either. I came here to beat the other guy, to do right, however it works. I don't know if I can lead. But the real question is...can you follow?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: So we vote.

BUFFY: Wait. Guys... I can't watch you just throw away everything that? I know I'm right about this. I just need a little? I can't stay here and watch her lead you into some disaster.

DAWN: Then you can't stay here. Buffy, I love you, but you were right. We have to be together on this. You can't be a part of it. So I need you to leave. I'm sorry, but this is my house, too.

(Buffy looks around then walks out the front door.)

RONA: Ding dong, the witch is dead.

DAWN: (viciously) Shut your mouth. (outside) FAITH: (concerned) Hey. Look, I swear I didn't want it to go this way? BUFFY: Don't.

FAITH: I mean it, I?

BUFFY: Don't...be afraid to lead them. Whether you wanted it or not, their lives are yours. It's only gonna get harder. Protect them, but lead them.

• Angsty Traumatic Confrontations
• From Beneath You it Devours
• Slayerhood

written by: Drew Z. Greenberg; originally transcribed by: CariCranberry. edited by me.. Full transcript at:
http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season7/transcripts/141_tran.php