The feathers fell, their ashes slowly blowing away. Soon the seven wings were gone, and all that was left to bear testament to their existence were the seven tears in the back of the girl's robes.

They wavered in midair, then began to sink unsteadily until they touched ground. Spike was so surprised at his reuniting with solid earth that he dropped the girl. She fell to the floor, motionless.

"Murderer!" the Ascenders cried. "False prophet! You've stolen the archangel! King of Demons!"

Spike smirked and licked his lips, surprised to find that the funny-tasting blood had already evaporated.

The Scoobies rushed forward, and Willow knelt down to cradle the girl's head in her lap.

"Oh Spike…what did you do?" she whispered.

Giles bent down and touched the brunette's skin. He winced when he felt the icy flesh, but jumped up instantly.

"What is it, G-man?" Xander inquired. Anya was digging her fingers into his lower arm, and he had to pry her off to regain circulation. "Anya?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"She moved…" Anya and Giles said together. The older man ran a sleeve over his glasses and blinked hard.

"No pulse…but she moved."

There was a shocked silence, then a sharp gasp all around as the girl's body twitched, then sat up and opened her eyes.

"Wh-…where…" she tried to speak. But she stopped and looked at herself. "So numb…I can't feel anything."

"Of course you can't. You're dead."

The cruel words came from Spike. He gave the group a cold stare, then turned away and left the room through the hole in the wall.

The girl's eyes were blank. "I'm…what?"

Willow touched her shoulder. "Well, you're not…all dead. See, I'm sure he just didn't understand…and so he…" She looked in desperation to Tara, who shrugged hopelessly and turned to Giles.

The man began to clean his glasses. "Yes, well. While I don't support his decision, in retrospect it does seem like the only thing we could have done in any case."

"Whose decision?" she asked emotionlessly.

There was silence for a moment before Buffy exploded.

"Spike's. That stupid, stupid vampire that just turned you and left," she raged.

"What's your name?" Willow asked, trying to change the subject.

She looked into space. "I don't know. It doesn't seem that important, though. Like I never knew in the first place."

Willow looked again to Giles, who cleared his throat.

"That was probably in that nasty ball of programming we put in her brain that I see someone pulled out and tossed over there," he explained, going over to examine the tangled mass of black wiring.

"So you don't have a name? Well we would name you!" the redhead covered cheerily.

The girl shook her head. "They called me Gabriel."

"But that's a boy's name. What about-…"

"Gabrielle." She smiled a bit.

"That's good. Gabrielle's a very pretty name."

The newly dubbed Gabrielle stood up and stretched out her hand. The pads of her fingertips traced the painted image of the seven-winged angel silhouetted by the moon. She stared at it for a long time, till only Willow was standing nearby, protecting her from the departing Ascenders. When everyone was gone, the witch tapped Gabrielle on the shoulder.

"You…you think we should go now? It's going to be light soon…and we need to get you somewhere dark."

Gabrielle looked up through the skylight at the lightening sky. She nodded and followed Willow out of the room with a last look at a half-finished sketch of a creature with one feathered wing and one bat-like, leathery appendage…

………………………

Willow brought Gabrielle back to Buffy's house. The blonde opened the door and her face became as emotionless as stone.

"Oh no. That thing is not staying here," was all she said.

"Well where's she going to go, Buffy?" Willow pleaded with her.

"I'll tell you where," Buffy spat as she stepped outside and grabbed Gabrielle's robes.

"She's gonna meet her maker."