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A/N: The first of the edited and revisions of this story. More info and better story-telling. Check it out!

Prologue

As I fell through the air, an overwhelming sense of calm and peace took control of my soul. I could only stare aimlessly ahead of me and I watched the first wave of bullets come. Each round of metal pierced the thin membrane of my wings, creating small explosions of blood and flesh revealing them to be their target all along.

It gave a strict, horrible reassurance that using my wings to escape their attack would be futile. Despite the bullets running through them, they had already been too weak to even attempt to fly, too damaged from the hooks connected to the chains that held my body up during the days before, when I had been hung from a stake to ensure my punishment before this execution.

I could not use them to survive this fall. so fall I did.

Had I finally obtained it? I wondered. Had I finally reached the ultimate sense that surrounded us angels, the spiritual essence that detached me from feeling, able for me to finally become a true ice angel?

I had to laugh, as I thought realistically. It was probably due to the shock, the shot of adrenaline that coursed through my veins. It allowed me to forget how injured I was, how close to death. In this haze of pain, I began to hallucinate. I lost all feeling and still the angel warriors continued to shoot down, even as I fell out of their reach.

An image formed from the black spots before my eyes, becoming a tall young woman; beautiful, with long brown hair and a gentle smile. She looked alright now, not the bloody mess she had been left as on the cold, Heaven floor. And she continued to smile at me like before, unchanged, as though she had forgiven me, even though I had not been the one to spill her blood, regardless what the others had spoken of me.

Hisui, my beautiful and kind mentor. I will be with you and Father Daniel soon.

There had not been a trail, nothing but theory and the fact I had been the first to discover the scene, to discover the crime, that had convicted me as the offender, to sentence me like a criminal. But I was charged, tortured without mercy and became a source of amusement to my superiors, the righteous angels who claimed to follow God's path. They watched as I was branded like a cow, scorching my skin with the Mark of Pecado, the brand which officially marked me as a Fallen. Now here I fell, ripped of the final card that might have saved me, if I had wanted to be saved.

What was light? What was salvation?

It was a damn shame that I had never known what those two meant. Now, I never will.

--

The light of the sun burned my eyes, bringing me out of unconsciousness as someone came near where I laid.

"Are you a demon?" a woman asked in a voice filled with fear, but also with concern.

I blinked in surprise, finally realizing that I was not dead and I was so filled with pain that I could not move. My mouth was so filled with blood I could not respond to her, eve as I tried to gurgle an answer.

She came closer, still slightly afraid of me even when it was obvious that I could not move to harm her. Then, she gasped. "Kami-sama! You have wings! But… they're so torn and bloody…"

I remembered hating her look of pity and I turned my face away in sham. I could not answer her anyways with my mouth still bleeding.

A gentle hand touched my face, making me gasp softly in shock and surprise as I returned my gaze to the woman, wincing at the pain it brought. She had braided white hair that reached her shoulders, emerald eyes and red markings in the shape of ovals over each eyebrow. She looked tired, haggard with abuse and mistreatment. But to me, she was the most beautiful creature I've ever seen and in Heaven, there was plenty of them. She outshined them all.

"What is your name, tenshi?" she asked quietly. I could not respond, as I passed out again because of the pain.

--

Her name was Kyoko, hailing from a clan filled with mad warriors. She spoke of their name, but all I can remember that it started with the letter K. she was kind. She took the risk of caring for me, hiding me from her family and clan members as she nursed me back to health, even trying to mend my broken wings.

It had been a slow, brutal process as Kyoko put my wings in a makeshift cast made simple out of strong sticks and able strings. Then she took out all of the bullets that had been embedded in flesh or bone. She tried to be optimistic, distracting me with stories about her childhood and clan, speaking of a son she barely saw.

She would tell me to watch the birds in the sky, seeing their flight and tried to make me forget, to try to believe that I would soon join in their flight.

I didn't need to know the truth, for it was painfully brutal to believe. There will never be a day when I would ever join those birds in flight ever again. During her care for me, she gave me a name, since I would always refuse to tell her mine. Tenshi was what she called me, a name appropriate for me since it meant angel.

I didn't want to admit this, afraid of what my emotions might bring to my already precarious situation, but Kyoko made me happy. She didn't give me the choice to live or die. She chose for me, and she wanted me to live.

When I grew stronger, I would cast spells of illusion over my part of the forest, to dissuade any pursuers Kyoko might bring when she came to visit me. But it was unnecessary as I later found out. We were quite safe. No one care much about her to notice that she was gone long periods of time, always within the forest. She could have taken a lover and they wouldn't have cared, despite being the clan leader's wife.

So really, all she had was me, as she told me about her son's fate, taken away at the ripe age of two when his kekkei genkai, or bloodline limit as she explained it to me, was discovered. Kyoko could not see him, was forbidden to all these years apart.

I felt great sorrow for her and the only thing I could do to ease her pain was to simply listen. I was not comforting, nor did I speak words to cheer her up, keeping my silence as I've always done during my time with her. But she told me with a smile that it was enough. She thanked me, something no one but Hisui had ever done. It nearly made me cry.

In the end, Kyoko was the first to die.

When her clan was destroyed, none of the others cared. Her clan was allowed to slip forgotten into the tides of memory, banished from history and only remembered as the foolish, bloodthirsty clan of warriors.

From the forest, I knew something was amiss. I was still weak, so my mode of travel was a slow, near crawl of a walk. When I finally reached it, the village was empty. All that remained was the small huts of houses and belongings that were left behind, as their owners had the belief that they would return. I also found a cave prison, where the prisoner had carved the figure of a man into the cave's wall. At last, I went and searched for the leader's house, my trek lasting all night at my slow pace and well into the next day.

I finally found the house (or chamber of rooms, actually) where Kyoko had lived and found it empty as well. Only the air of dried blood and the musk of death lingered behind. I remembered sighing, a feeble attempt to try and hold in my sorrow behind a mask of icy indifference. Then, I overturned all of the remaining light lanterns and stepped outside to watch it all burn..

As they caught fire, I swore then and there that I would get strong, that I will finish what Kyoko had started and complete the healing process.

Not to gain revenge for myself and not to avenge Hisui and Father Daniel. No, neither of them would want that from me and I didn't want to disappoint either of them, even in death.

Instead, I will get stronger for the sake of surviving and for the sake of being a true ice angel. To find the light. To learn what salvation means. Those shall be my reasons for strength.

I turned around and left, leaving the burning village behind.

I never thought to return to the past. I thought I had left it behind me. At least, that was what I believed.