“My whole life, I've dreamt about being dead.
I leave my body,and I see myself from above.
A normal girl, just... normal.
I stare at her perfect normality, until I wake up and realize that I'm still the freakI've been my whole life.
One thing I've learned since then… life has a really fucked-up way of making your dreams come true.”
~ Ava Silva, age 19. Status: dead

A Monk ( Daniele Fileti ) and a stern Nun (Frances Tomelty) (we will later learn this is Sister Frances) stand over Ava’s (Alba Baptista) dead body.. The Monk feels saddened by the fact that someone so young with such a pleasant face is in his mortuary. Sister Frances, reacts just the opposite and scorns his words with “The Devil may present a pleasing visage.” She doesn’t try to hide her disdain for this young woman. He states that the Sister assumes Ava is in hell and Frances tells him that it wouldn’t matter as Ava was in hell already.

Makes you wonder what she means by that and why does this nun hate her so?

He asks for the name, age and cause of death for the book. Sister Frances tells him “Ava Silva, 19. Leave the cause of death blank.” He doesn’t want to but she insists.

So how did Ava die? Why is she refusing to say?

The Monk gets a text message and dismisses Sister Frances from the building. Before she goes he tells her - “But please remember, she cannot ask for forgiveness anymore. so it's up to us to forgive her. For God knows all and sees all, and will be thy judge.”

Sister Frances sneers at him and replies with, “I'll take my chances.”

Wow she is nasty.

As she leaves the building she sees a group come into the compound. They move quickly, watching their backs as they do. She dismisses it and leaves.

Back inside, the door burst open with Mary (Toya Turner) and Sister Beatrice (Kristina Tonteri-Young) carrying the Warrior Nun, Sister Shannon (Melina Matthews) who has been gravely injured. They place her on a table. Shannon calls for Mary and Mary takes her hand and tries to console her. The blue glowing Cruciform Sword lays beside Shannon.

Sister Lilith (Lorena Andrea) comes in with the Surgeon (Katya Fernández). Mary tells the Surgeon that it is Divinium shrapnel and to get out of Shannon so she can heal. The Surgeon examines Shannon, who cries out in pain, and tells her that the shrapnel has pierced Shannon’s organs and is the only thing keeping her from bleeding out. Beatrice asks the Surgeon to give Shannon something for the pain. Mary turns to Beatrice looking for confirmation that they have seen worse. Beatrice shakes her head no they have not.

Mary is hoping beyond hope, you can see it in her face.

Lilith speaks up about the protocol they need to follow. Mary snaps at her. Sounds of a firefight disrupt them. It’s getting closer. Beatrice gets a message that they were followed but the other sisters will handle it. Lilith doesn’t think they will be able to for long. She pleads with Mary again about what needs to happen. Mary tells Beatrice to get Lilith out of there before she shoots her. Beatrice leans in and quietly says, “She's right.” This sets Mary off, she doesn’t want to give up on Shannon. And it seems like everybody else does.

Her feelings about Shannon are so clear. She is the most important person there to Mary.

Shannon taps Mary’s arm and tells her, “Mary, I'm not gonna make it.” She turns to the Surgeon and tells her to “Take it out.”

Mary shouts “No!” and points her shotgun at the Surgeon.

Mary is ready to kill anyone who takes Shannon away from her.

Shannon pulls her St. Christopher’s Medallion and taps Mary’s arm with it. “Take it.” she tells her.

Mary looks down at Shannon and sees how much pain she is in. She takes the Medallion and Shannon’s hand in her own. With tears she tells Shannon, “In this life, or the next.”

The fighting is getting closer and Beatrice reports that they’d broken through. She tells Lilith to stay and kisses Shannon’s forehead softly saying, “I'll miss you, Sister.” A tear from Beatrice splashes down onto Shannon’s face. Mary is openly crying now and looking so distraught. Beatrice leaves and Lilith looks almost jovial. Shannon tells Lilith that she knows Lilith is ready. Lilith, trying not to look excited about what is next for herself, nods.

The Monk, Mary and the Surgeon turn Shannon over. Shannon groans as they do. Mary kneels down and lovingly cradles Shannon’s head, trying to sooth her. Shannon, so near death, struggles to talk. “Keep it safe,or all will be lost.” Mary leans face into Shannon.

Shannon: “Mary?”
Mary: “Yes?”
Shannon: “Mary.”
Mary: “Yeah.”
Shannon: “Don’t trust…”
The Surgeon puts a mediaeval looking contraption on Shannon’s back and twists it into the flesh. Shannon groans.

Mary: “Who”
Shannon’s eyes are unfocused and she doesn’t reply.
Mary asks again: “Who?”
Shannon: “Anyone.”
This comes out as her last breath.

The Surgeon has removed the Halo from Shannon’s back. It glows brightly. Mary looks up at it in awe. Lilith looks hungry for it. Mary tells Shannon that it is beautiful, but Shannon is gone. Without the Halo to keep her alive she succumbed to her injuries. The Surgeon asks if Mary is the next Bearer. Mary looks down at Shannon, realizing she is gone, closes Shannon’s eyes. She goes to tell the Surgeon that Lilith is the next but is disrupted by an explosion into the room.

A mercenary enters the room shooting. The only one left standing after the explosion is the Surgeon. She races out of the room with the Halo, tripping she loses the Halo in the hallway. Another Mercenary tries to pick it up and loses his fingers as the Halo burns through them. The Surgeon uses the mediaeval tool to pick up the Halo and runs into the room where Ava’s body is. She turns Ava over and puts the Halo in her back. The fingerless Mercenary sneaks up behind her and she hits him with the tool. They struggle.

Ava in the meantime, having received the Halo, is starting to move. She starts to convulse. We are shown flashes of her life before and of a life in the distant past.

We will later find out these flashes are of Areala - the original Halo-Bearer. This makes me wonder if Ava is Areala reincarnated.
There is also a foreshadowing moment. Ava makes a joke about being tickled, Sister Francis gets mad, her roommate starts laughing and Ava comments about Diego “See? He's dying over there.

We, also, see the vision of Ava convulsing in the orphanage bed and her death. Also, Sister Frances telling her that she is a burden. Finally, Sister Frances saying, “The poor child has left us.”

In the present, Ava opens her eyes and screams.

I can only think that she screams because every nerve ending in her body is suddenly awake. She hadn’t felt anything below her chest in twelve years so the sudden awakening of the nerves would be quite painful. Like when your foot is asleep to the point it feels like a lump on the end of your leg. And when it starts coming back and you step down it hurts so much. Imagine that through your whole body. I think I would scream too.
Or
It could be that her soul is ripped out of the afterlife and being shoved back into her body.

Ava quickly looks around and through blurred vision she sees the two other people in the room struggling. With all her willpower she rolls off the table to the floor where she finally realizes that her arms and legs work. She is surprised and scared at the same time, especially after seeing the Mercenary break the Surgeon’s neck.

With great effort, Ava pulls herself to her feet. She hasn’t walked in 12 years and struggles to get her feet flat on the floor.

It’s assumed the Halo has healed all of her, her spine, her muscles and ligaments, which would have atrophied with lack of use.

She gets her balance just in time to see the Mercenary stand up with a demon rising up behind him, taking him over. His eyes turn black. And he approaches her.

Ava: "The fuck."
Ava picks up the forgotten Halo tool and wacks the guy. The Halo flares.

This is the only time we see a possessed person disintegrate. Guessing they thought it would be too much FX to do it all the time or maybe the ones who are unredeemable or impossible to save from possession perish that way.

Ava forces her way out the door into the hallway where she hears gunfire.
Ava: “This is not a dream.”

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