The factory was located in an industrial area that had long ago fallen into disuse. It was no wonder it was abandoned. Nearly all of the buildings in the area were.

For that reason the streets were thankfully empty of infected. That was a relief to the three of them when they arrived. During the trip there they had observed how bad the situation was becoming, with swarms of mutants rampaging across the streets and the bridges that connected different sections of the city. They appeared to be converging on the city centre.

The sight had made Aska's heart sink. Even if they did find a cure how would they possibly be able to produce enough of it to restore all of those people?

If that scum is even still there.

He tried to push the thought from his mind. They couldn't fail this. They couldn't! But his fears remained.

Hope seemed to sense his feelings. She put a hand on his shoulder and said gently, "have faith Aska. We'll find a way, just like you and Chage did when you saved me."

"Thanks" he replied, feelings the weight on his spirit ease.

They touched down in front of the factory. Aska and Chage got out and paused briefly to check their guns, having reloaded during the flight there.

Aska looked back at Hope. "You should wait here, it could be dangerous" he said.

She shook her head. "I'm coming with you" she said firmly.

"All right but stay close to us."

They entered the building through a boarded-up window. Chage took point, with Hope in the middle and Aska at the back as they warily crept through the barren, empty corridors.

Fortunately the Chief had sent them the factory blueprints along with the co-ordinates. It did not take long for them to locate the main control room of the factory.

Chage opened the door slightly and peered inside. He suppressed an urge to cheer as he saw there was a man sitting at a computer console.

"We got him" he whispered with a delighted grin.

He kicked open the door and burst in with Aska right beside him.

"Freeze!"

Osta whirled around in his chair to see the two officers aiming their guns at him. He was startled but regained his composure quickly.

"Ah yes I thought they'd send someone after me" he said smugly.

"Get up! Hands on your head!" Aska demanded.

He obeyed. As he did so however his smug look became one of amazement as he looked past the officers to see Hope. She was standing in the corridor looking in through the doorway.

"So the rumours were true" said Osta, his tone one of awe. "The Lord gave Nova an angel to serve him."

"You are mistaken" she said. "My father did not give me to anyone. Your leader imprisoned me when I told him what he was doing was wrong."

He shrugged. "It matters little now. Within less than a day everyone in this city will be dead and the Sight will be avenged."

"That's not going to happen!" Aska exclaimed. "Tell us how to cure the disease and we'll commute your sentence."

He laughed mockingly. "Cure? There is no cure. There is no hope. Go ahead and kill me. It will make no difference."

As he spoke Hope felt an odd sense of disorientation. For a second she was no longer in the derelict factory with her two friends. Instead she was once more flying above the earth. Below her was something she recognised at once…

The vision ended and she was back in the factory. Chage and Aska wore expressions of horrified dismay while Osta was grinning fiendishly.

"You are wrong" she said with quiet, firm resolve. "There is always hope. And there is a cure."

The two officers turned to glance at her, looks of relief on their faces. In that moment of distraction the former cultist made his move. He opened a concealed compartment in the console and snatched up a pistol.

But before he could get off even a single shot Chage and Aska opened fire.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Osta collapsed against the console, four bullet wounds clustered over his heart. He drew in a final breath with a surprised expression on his face before his pupils dilated and his head lolled back. His eyes stared upwards, unblinking.

Aska looked down at the body regretfully. Despite everything the man had done he took no pleasure in his death. He glanced at Chage who nodded understandingly.

Hope clasped her hands together and closed her eyes. "May your soul rest in peace" she said softly.

When she opened her eyes Aska said, "you said there's a cure?"

"Yes, I had a vision of it."

"Like the vision of us in trouble?" Chage asked.

"That's right."

Just then Aska's radio sounded the emergency call. Concerned he immediately opened the channel.

"All units please respond! We're being overwhelmed, we need backup, we…"

He was cut off by more screams and growls. A second later and the line went dead.

Aska was grim-faced as he said, "Chage, we have to help them."

"I know" he replied.

Hope clearly wanted to object but did not. She knew they could never ignore a cry for help. Instead she said, "go to your friends and hold these poor sick people back. I can bring the medicine to you."

"Will you be okay?" Chage asked. "You'd have to fly there and back, with cargo."

"I'll be fine. It's not too far" she replied.

"Then let's hurry" said Aska.

When Chage and Aska traced the call they were alarmed to find it had come from near the city centre. As they sped to the location they saw how truly dire the situation had become.

Large sections of the city were completely empty, abandoned by the infected citizens in search of new victims. As the neared the city centre however the streets were packed with the snarling, growling creatures that its people had become. The police had done everything possible to slow their advance, constructing barriers out of whatever they could find but ultimately it was not enough.

Finally they touched down to find the police had formed a perimeter. They landed and hastily found the chief.

He looked exhausted, almost as if he'd aged years since they'd last seen him. As he saw them he tried to smile but it couldn't seem to fully form.

"Please tell me you boys found something."

"Sir, we were forced to kill Basalok in self-defence" said Aska. "But there is a cure and it'll be here shortly. We just have to hold them off a little longer."

The chief shook his head. "Those damned spores spread like wildfire. We tried to contain it but it was useless. We had to fall back again and again. Now it's too late. There's no way there's enough for all these people and no time to manufacture enough. We've lost."

"Chief no!" Aska exclaimed. "We can still save the city! We just have to hold on!"

"Yeah!" Chage agreed. "We, uh, well we can't really explain it but you've got to trust us!"

Seeing their determination the chief managed a smile. It was small and wan, but genuine. "I've always trusted you two. If you say we can win then that's good enough for me."

He drew himself up to his full height. "Come on, these people need us!"

"All right!" Chage exclaimed as he punched the air.

Hope was relieved to be out of the city and once again flying up in the sky where she belonged. Even under the best circumstances the city felt too closed and oppressive for her. She could appreciate the irony though that in this case she was desperate to return to it as quickly as possible.

Then she saw it. Relieved, she swooped down and landed in the middle of a field filled with beautiful blue flowers. They seemed to dance in the breeze and their sweet, fragrant scent filled the air. Insects flitted from one flower to another, distributing pollen.

She had discovered the field soon after Chage and Aska had freed her. It was located midway between the contaminated land surrounding the city and the mountain where she now lived. Right from the start it had become one of her favourite spots to visit. Even now the flowers beauty brought her a sense of joy despite the gravity of the situation. More importantly though, she knew from her vision that the flowers were the key to healing the sick people.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you but I must" she said as she unfurled the blanket she'd brought with her. "Innocent lives are in danger and this is the only way to save them."

Hope hurriedly gathered up as many of the flowers as she could and placed them in the blanket which she then wrapped up securely. Fortunately it wasn't too heavy.

Unfortunately she now had to take off from the ground; something far more difficult than taking off from an elevated position. Not only that but she was getting tired. Flying back and forth at top speed across such a distance was exhausting, and as Chage had pointed out this time she had to do so while carrying extra weight. Nonetheless she beat her wings and gradually rose into the air until she was able to catch some thermal updrafts.

Firmly holding on to her precious bundle she set course for the city.

"Hold on" she whispered. "Please hold on just a little longer."

The chief had never been so proud of the men and women under his command. They had fought bravely against impossible odds, using every means at their disposal to block or at least slow down the advancing mutant horde. Water cannons, knockout gas grenades, makeshift barriers, anything they could use.

Ultimately though it wasn't enough. There were simply too many infected. All too often one of them would get close enough to infect and turn an officer, resulting in a perimeter breach which in turn forced them to fall even further back. They were rapidly running out of places to retreat to and it would not be long before they were fully overrun. Despite that they refused to give up.

He glanced at Aska and Chage. In their usual style they had come up with a way to improve the effectiveness of their limited resources. Aska would fire a gas grenade and once it hit its apex and started to fall, Chage would fire his pistol, hitting the grenade in mid-air and sending it tumbling further through the air. This meant that when it came down the resulting gas cloud engulfed more infected.

Those guys the chief thought. Best cops I've ever had under my command. If this is how it ends then I'm glad to go down fighting alongside them.

"This is the last grenade" said Aska.

"Let's make it count then" Chage replied.

He was raising his pistol to fire when he saw something. An overjoyed and relieved grin spread over his face and he lowered the weapon. Aska immediately looked up as well and the same expression appeared on his face.

The chief thought, What have they seen?

He tilted his head to see what they had. His jaw dropped in astonishment as he saw something he'd never expected to see again hovering in the sky above the seething mob.

That's the winged girl Chage and Aska saved four years ago! What's she doing back here?

He watched as she held up some kind of bundle and tipped it forwards. From the bundle fell a stream of blue flowers.

As the flowers fell they spread out, carried by air currents. Blue petals broke off and fluttered on the breeze, ever downwards until finally they touched down on the infected people.

The change was instantaneous. The brutal growls and snarls fell silent, lesions melting away as their skin and eye colours returned to normal. The merest contact with one of the petals, no matter how slight, was enough to cure the mutation.

Flapping her wings the angel flew around in an ever widening circle. As she flew she let more flowers fall. They too were carried down by the wind to the mutants who also were immediately cured by the flowers touch, leaving them looking around in a daze.

Almost the entire city's population had been infected. It shouldn't have been possible that the bundle held enough flowers for them all, yet somehow the bundle never seemed to run out. Only when all trace of the spore plague was gone did the rain of flowers cease.

"YES!" Chage exclaimed as he punched the air triumphantly. "Way to go Hope!"

"She did it!" Aska agreed.

She looked down and smiled at them fondly. For a brief moment time seemed to stand still as the gathered police officers all looked up in awe and wonder while Aska and Chage continued to cheer.

Then their cheers stopped instantly and their comrades awe became dismay as a sudden tremor went through Hope. Her eyes closed and she dropped from the sky like a stone.

Aska and Chage dashed over just in time to catch her before she slammed into the ground. They looked down at her, worry and concern etched onto their faces as the chief and some other officers ran up.

"Is she okay?" the chief asked anxiously.

Aska gently felt for a pulse. He exhaled in relief as he found one.

"She's okay. I think she just passed out from exhaustion."

"Yeah" Chage agreed, his own relief evident. "No wonder. She had to fly to wherever those flowers were and back while carrying them."

Gently holding her, they both stood and turned to their boss.

"Chief we…"

He held up a hand. "Don't say anything." A knowing smile appeared on his face as he went on, "right now the decontaminators are in no shape to be hunting down anyone. I'd say it'll be a while before word even reaches them about an angel in the city. And until that time we haven't been instructed to bring in anyone."

Chage grinned as he realised what was being said. "Thanks chief."

Hope groaned softly as she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Aska's worried face looking down at her.

"Aska" she said. She tried to sit up but her head immediately swam and she fell back down.

"Easy" he said gently. "It's okay, you're safe. We're in the hover-car on our way out of the city."

Indeed they were. Hope realised that she was lying on a bench with a blanket draped over her. More carefully this time she sat up.

"Did it work? Are your people all right?"

"Everyone's fine, the city is safe" he reassured her. "Thank you so much."

"I was glad to help" she said as she stood up, fully rested and recovered.

Chage walked up, having set the hover-car on auto-pilot. "You okay?"

"I'm fine" she replied. "Where are we now?"

"On our way out of the city through the very same tunnel we used before."

Just then the hover-car was flooded with brilliant sunlight as they exited the tunnel.

"Ah here we are, just entering the Danger Zone. Brings back memories huh?"

"Will you be able to fly from here? You gave us quite a scare when you fell like that" said Aska.

"It's okay. I'm fine now." Her expression became concerned. "This is the second time you've helped me leave the city. You won't get into trouble will you?"

Aska smiled. "Not at all. By the time the decontaminators are in any position to give the order to look for you it'll be too late. We haven't disobeyed any orders so we won't be in any trouble at all"

"Besides even if we did it'd be worth it" Chage said with a grin.

"I know" she replied gratefully. "It was so good to see you both again."

"Same to you" said Aska fondly.

For old times sake Chage gently took Hope's hand and kissed it. She smiled at both of them. "I will see you again"

"We'll look forwards to it. For now goodbye" said Aska.

"Goodbye."

The side door opened and she jumped out. Her wings unfurled, catching the wind and she rose into the sky. Aska and Chage watched her until she finally disappeared from sight.

"Well let's get back. There's going to be a lot of mopping up to do" said Aska.

"Nothing we can't handle" Chage replied. "Especially after seeing Hope again."

"I know what you mean. You remember what I said about how she was well-named because she gave me hope that the human race can still make it?"

He was fully expecting his friend to make some friendly joke at his expense but instead he just said, "yeah me too."

"I thought you couldn't ever be serious?"

"I'll make an exception just this once" Chage said with his familiar grin. "Don't get used to it."

"I won't."

With that they turned their vehicle around and headed back to the city.

As Hope flew back to her mountaintop home she was also thinking of her friends. It had been good to see them again and to again be reminded of the nobility and courage humanity was capable of.

I meant what I said. I will see you both again she thought. Not for many years but it will happen. And I will look forwards to it.

Buoyed by the thought she flew on.