Fire and Ice
Blind
By the Empress of the Eclipse

Disclaimer - I don't own Digimon. Not now, not ever.
A/N It's suddenly occurred to me that the Digimon are doing very little in this story. I think I ought to warn you this is mostly because I don't care about the Digimon and view them as mostly unimportant to my stories. So sorry if you were hoping for the Digimon to have big parts but that's unlikely.

"Matt? Matt?" TK shouted "Matt, where are you?"
There was no reply. TK sighed miserably.
"I'm running out of voice," he said "Someone else try?"
"Where is he?" Davis said "He can't have run this far!"
"Well he must have done, mustn't he?" Sora snapped impatiently.
Tai said nothing. He was silent, miserable and angry. He wasn't sure which one he was the most. What was he supposed to say to Matt when they found him? And what if he didn't even want the blonde to forgive him? How could they work together?
"Do you think something's happened to him?" Iori asked.
"I don't know," Sora said "Maybe."
"TAICHI!"
Matt's scream ripped through the air. Tai looked round, fear suddenly racing through him.
"Did anyone else..."
"Where did it come from? Quick!" TK cried "Matt! Matt, where are you!"
There was no reply. Tai meanwhile was trying to work out which direction the scream had come from. Hoping he was right, he took off, shoving his way through the undergrowth towards the direction of Matt's scream. He could hear the others following him but ignored the distraction until he fell into a half clearing.
Matt was lying crumpled on the floor, unconscious. A beautiful woman was kneeling over him.
At least, she would have been beautiful. But Tai could see her bottom half. The twisted, decaying, mouldering bottom half.
"Oh....God," he choked out, trying not to be sick.
The woman looked up.
"How eerily appropriate," she said "So....you're the famous Taichi."
"Matt," Tai said, struggling to ignore his repulsion "What have you done to Matt?"
He could see blood on Matt's face, oozing from long scratches.
"He did most of that himself," the woman said lazily, brushing a strand of hair from Matt's face "Poor little thing."
Tai heard the others arriving behind him, made himself ignore their horrified reactions to the woman's condition.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"Helmon," the woman said, still sounding lazy. She smoothed Matt's hair again.
"Get away from him!" TK shouted.
The woman - Helmon - finally showed some reaction. Her lip curled in disgust.
"You must be Hope," she said "How revolting. Bartlebimon will enjoy breaking you."
"No one will ever break me!" TK said.
"How amusing. You obviously haven't met Bartlebimon yet. Or for that matter, my father. Still...."
She stood up smoothly, her eyes running over each of them.
"Puny Digimon," she said contemptuously "I can see what my sister meant about you all though. Very interesting."
"Puny!" Davis yelled "We'll kick your ass!"
"I wouldn't advise you trying," Helmon said.
The Digimon began to digivolve. Before they could finish, Helmon calmly held up her hand and said "Power Decay!"
There was a woosh and the Digimon were all flung backwards, only partially digivolved. They each shrank back to their In-Training forms.
"How feeble," Helmon said "I shan't waste my time here any longer."
She twirled round. There was a puff of smoke, and she was gone. For a moment, everyone stood still. Then Tai ran over to Matt.
"Matt? Matt?"
He was breathing. Tai felt a stab of relief go through him.
"Matt snap out of it! Wake up!"
Matt's eyelids fluttered. He gave a violent shiver then began to cough, a violent, hacking cough that sounded desperate. He clutched at Tai, shaking. The others had gathered round and were staring.
"Matt! Are you all right?"
"Tai?" Matt choked out "I....can't see you. Can't see anything. Tai, help me, HELP ME!"
He started coughing and retching again. Tai stared at him, not sure what to do. Eventually, he looked at the others, praying that they'd say something. None of them moved.
"Matt," he said "Matt. Stop it. It's all right Matt, just calm down, please."
"You hated me," Matt sobbed "You hate me, you called me a freak, you hate me! Tai, I can't see!"
Tai slapped him. The sound echoed round the clearing. Matt froze, his hand pressed to his face.
"Stop it!" Tai ordered harshly "We haven't got time for hysterics Matt. Now. Look at me."
Matt turned his head. Tai gulped. Matt's eyes were slightly glazed and they looked strange somehow. It was clear that he wasn't seeing anything around him. Blood ran from the deep scratches on his cheeks, his forehead, around his eyes...
"God Matt, did you do this?" Tai asked softly.
Matt nodded.
"I just wanted the voices to stop," he whispered "I just wanted them to go away!"
TK knelt down and hugged his brother.
"It's okay now Matt," he whispered "It's all okay. I promise. We'll take care of you."
Matt shivered.
"Come on," Izzy said "We need to find a safe place the spend the night and where we can check Matt over properly."
Joe and Tai carried Matt between them. None of the Digimon could digivolve yet. They were all exhausted, drained. They just had to move and hope. By a small stroke of luck, they found themselves a cave. Iori ran off to get some water to wash Matt's scratches with while Joe examined Matt's eyes.
"Has he scratched them?" Ken suggested.
"Probably. I don't know," Joe said eventually "I can't tell. I'm not that good."
Matt started coughing again. It was a horrible cough, deep and wrenching. TK wiped his face, trying to pretend that he wasn't crying. The others just watched anxiously as Iori returned with the water. Joe carefully washed out the cuts.
"Matt, what happened?" he asked.
"I....I was in the clearing....and Helmon came," Matt said "She...she said....I don't remember! I don't remember what she said! She said something....about herself....and the others....but I don't remember! I just remember her saying that you all hated me and then....then the pain....it hurts!"
He began coughing again, violently. TK hugged his brother again, obviously wanting to make it better.
"Matt, why do you keep coughing like that?" Yolei asked.
"I can't breathe properly," Matt said "Air just....keeps getting stuck."
He shuddered. Painful spasms racked his body as he coughed.
"We should all rest," Joe said quietly "Maybe Matt'll be better in the morning."
They all scattered, too tired to eat or do anything else. Sora nudged Tai.
"Go and apologise to him," she hissed "Now!"
Tai slowly moved over. TK was huddled next to his brother. He gave Tai a dirty look as Tai sat down but moved away.
"Matt?" Tai said softly.
"Tai?"
"I...I'm sorry," Tai said awkwardly "I didn't mean.....I'm sorry I was so horrible."
"You...you forgive me? We're still friends?"
"Yes," Tai said "We're still friends."
Matt smiled.
"Thank you," he whispered "Thank you Tai. I....I never meant to make things wrong between us."
Tai patted his shoulder and stood up. Matt grabbed at him.
"Tai? Please stay with me."
"I can't," Tai said "I...I have to be on guard duty. TK will be with you though."
"But I want you."
Tai swallowed.
"Matt," he said as gently as he could "We're friends and things are okay between us. But I....I don't want you to think that there can ever be anything more between us than that. So I think maybe it's best if you and I don't get too....close....for a while."
Matt didn't react on the surface. Tai thought he saw one tear glisten in his eye. Then he nodded.
"I see. Goodnight Tai."
Tai moved away, feeling troubled. He saw TK go straight back, snuggling up with his brother again. Tai sat down next to Kari and cradled Koromon in his arms.
"How're you little guy?" he said softly.
"I'm fine Tai," Koromon said "I feel much better now."
"I guess these new Digimon can drain powers," Tai mused "I hope that we can get enough energy to fight them."
"Of course we can!" Koromon said fiercely.
Tai smiled.
"How did things go with you and Matt? Are you friends again?" the little Digimon asked.
"I guess," Tai said doubtfully "I don't know."
Koromon sighed. Tai slid down the wall, still holding his Digimon and closed his eyes. Soon, everyone was asleep.
Except Matt. He remained awake, sightless eyes staring over the cave, silent coughing spasms still shaking his body from time to time.

The End of Part 5.

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