A/N: This is a rewritten version of the story Fly Away. I will be rewriting chapters as time permits, so as you go through, you'll be able to tell the difference between the two. It should be done within the next week or two, and then will segue right into the sequl to this, which is posted as 'Holy Ground'.

The pain was everywhere, unbelievable and undeniable and unbearable all at once. Could I go on any longer? Could I force my feet to keep moving and my brain to follow suit?

It was beginning to become doubtful. The sharp feelings shot through my leg every time my foot hit the ground, and the exhaustion was seeping into every single part of me. I couldn't stay alert, I couldn't hear or see or anything to save my life.

And to literally save my life, I meant. If I didn't keep going, if I didn't push on, they would kill me like they killed her.

It was brutal, I could remember that much. Her screams were loud enough to echo through the building and I stayed in hiding until I couldn't take it anymore. And then I ran.

When the shot hit me, I didn't stop. It didn't even faze me with the adrenaline that was pumping through my veins. Like some sort of super human, I continued running, sprinting, dashing until I could get away from it all.

And now? How far had I come? Only to give up and let the darkness wash over me. I stumbled on, though I knew it was futile, and I hoped beyond hope for my body to die unmarred by those creatures. To die an honorable death, and not have my sense of self butchered and hacked away by a harness. It was all I could ask for in those dark moments between my pressing on and my failure.

And by failure, I meant my legs giving out as soon as I could hear people. Actual people, would you believe it? It sounded close enough to heaven for me and I continued on toward it, falling to the ground when I seemed close enough to paradise.

The last thing I remembered was being lifted up in my dazed state. I didn't see a face, no. Of course an angel couldn't be seen by a human, though I was just a facsimile of a human by then.

I could just feel myself being carried, and it seemed like I was at home for the first time in so long. So I succumbed to the blackness and lost consciousness all too willingly.