XANDER: Something goin' on out back?

BUFFY: Vampire.

XANDER: Oh.

BUFFY: (sighs) Anything?

GILES: Nothing you want to hear. The ritual is, uh...

BUFFY: Explain it again.

GILES: There's nothing new to-

BUFFY: Go through it again.

GILES: The Key was living energy. It needed to be channeled, poured into a specific place at a specific time. The energy would flow into that spot, the walls between the dimensions break down. It stops -- the energy is used up -- the walls come back up. Glory uses that time to get back to her dimension, not caring that all manner of hell will be unleashed on Earth in the meantime.

ANYA: But only for a little while, right? The walls come back, no more hell?

WILLOW: That's only if the energy is stopped. And now that the Key is human ... is Dawn ...

GILES: "The blood flows, the gates will open. The gates will close when it flows no more." When Dawn is dead.

TARA: I have places to be!

XANDER: Why blood? Why Dawn's blood? I mean why couldn't it be, like, a lymph ritual?

SPIKE: 'Cause it's always gotta be blood.

XANDER: We're not actually discussing dinner right now.

SPIKE: Blood is life, lackbrain. Why do you think we eat it? It's what keeps you going, makes you warm, makes you hard, makes you other than dead. 'Course it's her blood.

BUFFY: Pretty simple math, here. We stop Glory before she can start the ritual. We still a couple of hours, right?

GILES: If my calculations are right, but Buffy --

BUFFY: I don't want to hear it --

GILES: I understand that --

BUFFY: No you don't understand! We are *not* talking about this!

GILES: (yells) Yes we bloody well are! (calms down) If Glory begins the ritual... If we can't stop her ...

BUFFY: Come on. Say it. We're *bloody well* talking about this! Tell me to kill my sister.

GILES: She's not your sister.

BUFFY: No. She's not. She's more than that. She's me. The Monks made her out of me. I hold her and I feel closer to her than... It's not just the memories they built, it's physical. Dawn is a part of me. The only part that I...

WILLOW: We'll solve this. We will. Don't have another coma, okay?

GILES: If the ritual starts, every living creature in this and every other dimension imaginable will suffer unbearable torment and death. *Including* Dawn.

BUFFY: Then the last thing she'll see is me protecting her.

GILES: You'll fail. You'll die. We all will.

BUFFY: I'm sorry. I love you all, but I'm sorry.

(there's a long silence)

• Buffy & Dawn

written by: Joss Whedon; I modified text from Rayne's shooting script to match televised version & my formatting.. Full transcript at:
http://www.studiesinwords.de/100thegift.html