An Angel's Eyes
by Digi Angel
(Ever wonder what Angemon looked like without the helmet? You're not the only one. We'll probabaly never see his real face, but it's fun to imagine. This story is for anyone who's ever thought of the mon in the iron mask. ~_^)
T.K. knew lots of things. He knew that if you laughed and drank soda at the same time, it would squirt out of your nose, or that you should never hold a cat and a dustbuster at the same time. He knew all of the words to Matt's favorite song, "Scar Tissue", and he could even tie his shoes with his eyes closed! The only thing he knew he didn't know was Angemon.
Well, of course he knew Angemon...Angemon was his guardian who he loved very much. Angemon would give his life up for him. He was a loving Digimon who was very powerful and brave. But he didn't know the real Angemon. A little bit of him was hidden, and it seemed to hide him all.
What was missing were his eyes, masked behind the silver helmet he wore on his golden-haired head. He had to have eyes. Everything that could walk and talk had eyes. T.K. had tried pulling his hat over his own eyes once, and just couldn't see; there had to be a way Angemon could do it. After all, Angewomon had eyes. He had seen them before, when she was Digivolving, right before her mask slid over her face. They were kind of weird, though.
It finally got to the point where it confused him. And when he was confused, there was only one person to turn to: his brother.
"Matt," he asked, tugging at the bottom of the older boy's shirt. "Matt, everything alive can see, right?"
Matt looked down, blinking. "Well, uh, not everything, T.K. Plants and trees can't see but--"
"I mean, animals. People. Digimon."
Matt shook his head. "Not even all of them."
T.K. blinked. "Whadda you mean?"
"I mean, some things are blind," Matt said. "People, animals, some of them are born blind, or get sick and then they can't see anymore. That's what blindness does to you, T.K. It takes away your sight."
T.K. began to feel sick. Poor Angemon... "So...when you're blind you lose your eyes?"
Matt laughed. "No, no, it's nothing like that! When people become blind, they still have eyes, they just can't see. What made you think of that?"
T.K. leaned against him, sadly. "It's Angemon."
Matt was surprised. "Wha?"
"Angemon," T.K. repeated. "I've never seen his eyes. Does he even have any?"
Matt turned a little red. "Well, uh, T.K., I can't exactly tell you that. I've never seen them either, so I don't really know..."
This made T.K. feel worse. "Then how can he see? Is he blind too? I wanna see his face, I wanna see his eyes! I wanna see what Angemon looks like!"
All of this attracted the others' attention, and naturally Tai turned to Matt, frowning. "Matt!" he said, "Are you being insensitive to T.K. again?"
"No way!" Matt snapped back, defensively. "I was just trying to answer one of his questions, thank you. If you're so smart, Mr. Leader, mabye you can do it!"
"I bet I can!" Tai said cockily, striding over to T.K. and kneeling down in front of him. "Tell me what's wrong, T.K. What do you wanna know?"
T.K. was a little hopeful. "Does Angemon have eyes?"
Tai sweatdropped. "Well, uh, erm..." He swallowed thickly. "Izzy can answer that a lot better than I can. Can't you, Izzy?"
Izzy was caught off guard. "What?! No Tai, no way. You know I can't--"
"Use your computer!" T.K. interrupted. "Your computer knows everything about Digimon!"
Izzy gave in and sat down, tapping away at the keyboard on his laptop for quite sometime. His eyes never left the screen, and he never seemed to blink, but Tentomon eventually landed beside him to peer over his shoulder. After about twenty minutes, they both jerked upright.
"I don't believe this!" Izzy exclaimed. "Impossible!"
"What, what?" Everyone asked eagerly, crowding around the computer.
"I have no information whatsoever on Angemon other than the fact that he is the Champion form of Patamon and that he is a vaccine with the attack Hand of Fate. My picture of him isn't too good, either."
The others groaned. "I thought it was something important," Tai muttered.
"Why don't you just ask Patamon, T.K.?" Izzy asked, turning to him as he closed his laptop. "Wouldn't he know?"
"Patamon says he knows but he can't describe it to me," T.K. said gloomily.
Izzy blinked. "Wouldn't a simple 'yes' or 'no' be adequate?"
"I don't remember," Patamon said, flitting in for a landing. "I know what I see but I don't know how I see. I haven't been Angemon enough to remember much about being in that form."
"You know, Angemon hasn't been in many battles at all, come to think of it," Sora said thoughtfully. "He fought Devimon once, Myotismon twice, Venomyotismon, and then he tried to fight the Dark Masters when we first came back here, but that's all."
"We could sure use him now," Tai said. "These evil Digimon are getting really powerful!"
"You humans know nothing," Gatomon said, joining Patamon on his perch. "I know when I digivolve that I still have eyes. I don't know why it would be any different for poor Patamon here."
"So how do you see?" T.K. asked.
Gatomon opened her mouth to reply, then closed it and let her body droop, ears, tail, and all. "I don't remember..." she said quietly.
The others sighed. Eventually, they moved on.

Two days later they came uppon a beach, filled with fine white sand that was warmed plesantly by the sun. It led right up to a perfectly clear, sparkling ocean. It was almost like they were in the Bahamas or something, for it was all very tropical and beautiful.
"Oh, wow!" Mimi exclaimed. "I've always wanted a visit to the Carribean! I can finally catch up on my tan here! Oh, but I didn't bring my bathing suit. Bummer." She pouted.
"Mimi, I think that's the least of our problems," Tai said with a half-chuckle.
"Like, what's our biggest problem then?" she demanded, irritably.
"Like, we need to get across this ocean to the other island, that's what."
"Why don't we rest for a little while?" Joe suggested. "We all could use it, and it would give us time to figure out how we'll get across the water. Besides, I can tell all of our Digimon are tired, and they can't fight if they're tired."
Tai looked around. Everyone was tired and panting, except for Tentomon, who had been flying, and Patamon, who had been riding on T.K.'s head.
He gave in. "Alright."
Everyone cheered and plopped down for a nap in the shade.

But later that afternoon, something lurched out of the ocean, something that looked like a man and a mantaray combined. A man that just happened to look like Devimon. He spied the sleeping Digidestined and smiled evily, but Gatomon's sensitive ears caught sound of him slipping out of the water, and she yowled loudly to wake everybody.
"Mantamon! Mantamon is comming! Wake up!!!"
Startled, everyone jumped awake. "Mantamon?" Tai asked. "What's that?"
"Mantamon is a devilfish Digimon in his Ultimate form," Tentomon said, raising a claw up to his mouth. "He's a merciless fighter who is very hard to get rid of."
"Everybody, Digivolve!" Gabumon said.
"No, wait!" Patamon said. "He's a Devilfish, right? Let an Angel take care of a Devil!"
"Go, Patamon!" T.K. said, jabbing a fist into the air.
"Patamon, Digivolve to............Angemon!"
"Gatomon, Digivolve to...........Angewomon!"
Mantamon didn't seem impressed, and to their horror, he had lightning quick reflexes. In the blink of an eye, he was over to Angewomon and wrapping his long and sinewy tail around her neck, just as she finished Digivolving. She struggled to get free but he only constricted her tighter.
"Let her go!" Angemon said, speeding up beside Mantamon and breaking his tail with his golden staff. Mantamon howled and flew back, but Angewomon was so out of breath that she shrank back to Gatomon. Kari caught her right before she hit the water.
"Angiemon," Mantamon said with an evil sneer. "You're not strong enough to defeat me. You are but a Champion! Just look at what I did to your Angel friend, and she's a level higher than you!"
"I fear nothing," Angemon said.
Mantamon's sneer only grew. "Of course you don't. But you'd be afraid if, say, this happened!"
Before Angemon knew what he was doing, Mantamon swooped down on T.K. and stung him with the tip of his tail, paralyzing the boy and sending him into a deep sweat. Paniced, Matt ran over to him, trying to see if he was alright.
"T.K.!" Angemon cried, feeling his blood run cold.
"Oh, I forgot to mention," Mantamon said, giving a Myotismon grin. "My sting is poisonous. The boy will die in a matter of minutes."
"No!" Angemon was literally seeing red now, through the viewer in his helmet. His fury only made his right hand glow hotter than it normally would, and he raised it up to attack. "Hand of Fate!"
He hit Mantamon hard, and the devilfish fell into the water with a giant splash. A moment later, he bounced back into the air, clutching at his side. "Lucky shot!" he sputtered.
Angemon kept battering him, without mercy, not caring if he got hurt or not. And he did get hurt pretty badly, including breaking a wing, but he knew that if he made it through this, he would heal quickly. One Hand of Fate after another, he lost track of everything else. Sweat trickled down his forehead and out from under his helmet. Seconds seemed to last for hours. He wouldn't have stopped had it not been for a gentle hand grabbing his own as he raised it yet again to attack.
"Angemon," said a soft voice in his ear. "You can stop now, Angemon. Mantamon is dead."
"Mmm?" Angemon jerked back into the present, realizing the mutilated black body of Mantamon in the water below, the warm body of Angewomon against his own. A glowing arrow straight through Mantamon's chest sparked like a broken wire, and suddenly he exploded in a million tiny dots. He felt like crying. "Thank you, Angewomon."
"Don't worry about me right now," she said, turning him towards the kids. "Go heal your boy."
"T.K...." Angemon felt horrible. "How?"
"Use your staff," she said, tapping his weapon lightly. "Just make sure it touches the crest and you should be alright."
The two landed, and Angemon knealt next to T.K., fumbling in his shirt for his crest. He layed his staff diagonally across the boy's chest so that it touched the crest, and suddenly both began to glow and T.K. slowly opened his eyes. With an overjoyed and relieved cry, Angemon scooped him up and hugged him.
"T.K.!" he said, crying.
"Angemon?" T.K. asked weakly as one tear dropped on his hand. It seemed to totally revitalize him. "Hey, you're crying!" He hugged the Angel tightly, lovingly. "Aw, Angemon, don't cry."
"Hey!" Matt said. "If Angemon's crying, then he does have eyes!"
"What?" Angemon said, looking at him. "Why wouldn't I?"
Matt's face turned red. "Well, I uh..."
"It's the helmet," Kari said, speaking for them all. "You never take it off, so we don't get to see your face. We've seen Angewomon's, but not yours." Beside her, Angewomon smiled.
Angemon grinned and set T.K. straight on his feet, kneeling down on both knees as low as he could so that he could be as close to his height as possible. He reached over and took off the boy's hat, setting it on the ground next to him, then he reached up and slowly took off his own helmet. Long golden bangs spilled over into his face and covered his eyes, giving everyone no chance to see them, as he placed his helmet over T.K.'s head.
"Hey, no fair, Angemon!" Tai said, staring at the bangs. Angemon laughed.
"Whoa, cool!" T.K. exclaimed, looking around with the helmet that was too big for him covering his entire face. "I can see all of you!"
Sora blinked. "What? How?"
"It's almost like seeing you on TV!" T.K. replied. "I can see you on a screen. It says you're a human!"
"Why hadn't I guessed it before?" Izzy asked himself, tapping a note down on his computer. "There is a mini-computer inside Angemon's helmet that gives him statistics for battle. It also serves as protection for his face."
"I knew that," Mimi said, blinking. "By the way, you need a haircut. May I braid your hair later?"
"Mimi," Izzy said.
"What?"
Angemon smiled as T.K. looked back at him, and as his little hands reached up to take the helmet off of his head. "But Angemon," he said, "I still can't see your face."
"Then you should look at it," the Angel replied, then leaned towards him and brushed back his bangs, revealing a pair of stunningly beautiful blue eyes that made up a handsome, flawless face. All of the boys in the group gasped, while the girls, including Angewomon, went into awe.
T.K. had no words, but he didn't need any. As he gazed into Angemon's eyes, which were like twin mirrors of the sky, he could only smile and hug him again, just happy to be with him. He knew everything would be alright as long as Angemon was fighting by his side, and he knew that at heart, Angemon was just as human as he was.
"I love you," he whispered.

THE END

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