Digital

Chapter 5

Missing

Chapter edited on: 6/3/11

A/N: Thanks to: everybody who reviewed the last chapter.

Previously on Digital:

Realizing that he had been told the history of his planet, Harry did the only thing he could, he sat down and stared into space as he tried to assimilate all he had been told.

It was going to be a long day.

And now the continuation:

Harry decided to spend a good portion of the rest of the day hidden away in the depths of a bush in the park, going over what he had learned from his alter ego.

Likewise, while Harry was busy reviewing what his digital ego had told him, said 'ego' took some time to fine comb through Harry's memories of his life, hoping to learn about its hosts past.

It only had one purpose and that was to train, advise and protect its host at all costs, in short to help him in any way. To do that it needed as much information as possible. The more it understood about the current timeline, its factions, who was allied with who and who wasn't, the better it could hope to defend its host and therefore also in turn, itself.

Harry's digimon personality was shocked by how little Harry, or anybody else for that matter, knew about the digimon, or the old ways.

It seemed people had totally forgotten about the great digimon race or its great human predecessors and it vowed to remedy that mistake soon.

Deciding to wait a few hours before moving on, thinking it best to wait until it was completely dark and in the early morning of the next day, (his brief encounter with the parent of the little girl had convinced him that this would be wise) Harry soon found himself inside the thickest, most concealed bush he could find and did what he could to make himself as comfortable as possible.

The few nettles or briers which were there hardly troubled him at all. Harry's fur and feathers, it that's what they truly were, were more than enough to protect him from any scratches or stings which he could have received from the troublesome plants.

Even if they somehow managed to scratch or sting him, it wouldn't have mattered to him one bit. Those weren't even registered by his (or any) digital body as damage and so didn't loose him any energy.

In fact, he found that non lethal plants, like nettles and briers had little effect on a digimon at all, if any.

The small wasp hive he found he simply ignored and settled down nearby, if anything they were the perfect deterrent for any passing humans and therefore on his personal 'under protection' list. At least for now.

As it was, the only thing Harry felt was a slight little prick whenever one tried to sting him, which wasn't that often. Harry could live with that any day.

It was then, when he had to move through a few briers that Harry received his first real evidence that he was now in fact 'digital' and not 'flesh and bones,' as he had thought until that moment.

To Harry's immense interest, any feathers or fur which somehow became entangled or were pulled off his body by the briers - it was still a novelty to Harry how something digital could become entangled in anything in the first place - simply disappeared after a few seconds in small wisps of data, only to be replaced by his body in the missing areas mere seconds later.

Harry was pleasantly surprised and very pleased with the fact that, as a digimon, he could get no actual wounds and so could not loose any random body parts. Besides the first feeling of pain and any potential loss of energy which he may receive as a result from an attack, he would have nothing to fear.

As 'EGO' (that's what he named his alter ego) had explained it to him; he couldn't receive any wounds, he could however loose energy. If he lost too much energy he 'could' destabilise his data, which meant, if he was in his evolved form, whether it was Mega, Ultimate or Champion, he would automatically 'de-digivolve' back to one of his weaker forms, which, depending on how much damage he took, could be either his default rookie form, which Harry learned he was in now, or if he was particularly unlucky, to his in-training form, which was even below rookie and which was only used when training a new digimon...or in the case of an extreme emergency when his body did not have enough data to hold his rookie form.

If however by some unlucky twist of fate he was already in his weaker form at the time of the hit, or simply lost too much energy to begin with, too much for his body to safely recover from, even in his in-training form, he would automatically faint, or rather, temporarily shut down as his body tried to perform an emergency regeneration. That is, he would faint if it was still possible to do so. If not…well, if he lost it all, then the alternative was always deletion, which of course was the equivalent to being dead.

Game Over!...In every sense of the word. Ergo, it was something which he obviously did not want.

Ego, spent the whole evening, before, and for a few hours after it got dark, giving Harry a complete rundown on important everyday digimon facts.

Harry learned what he and other digimon could do (physically) ie.. how fast he and others could be expected to move, how strong in terms of physical strength he and others were against other digimon and humans, (In Harry's case he lost out a bit on strength and overall destructive fire power of attacks - at least in his current form - but made up for it with his extreme speed, high agility and his advanced stealth capability).

Harry was taught about special abilities, which every digimon had and learned that he could use them at will by using a small amount of his life force, or energy, (if he used too much he could faint) and found out that he could currently use two abilities in his current form:

'Firefox storm,' an attack of above average power, (for a rookie) where numerous tiny flaming dart like feathers would fly out from his body to strike at the opponent and even explode on contact, if possible. This had been the same ability he had used against his aunt during his escape from privet drive.

And 'Kitsuni Flash,' which was a very fast, practically unavoidable (for most rookies and a few champions) 'two stage' attack where Harry would first teleport or 'flame' in close to his target, using a version of the unique phoenix fire travelling technique of his phoenix side and would then strike his opponent up close and personal with a few very fast strikes of two sharp blades which would have become red hot and on fire after extending from his arms after briefly glowing white.

It was around this time, as Harry named his abilities that he also found out about his name.

According to Ego every digimon had a name, or so he said, a name for his default 'rookie' form, which was the form he was currently in.

Due to the fact that he really did look a lot like a kitsuni type fox… and more like a fox than a phoenix, particularly a young fox, Harry was somewhat happy when Ego told him his registered digital name was in fact ' Kitsunimon ' (Kitmon). 'Kitsuni', because that's what he was, a young inexperienced fox (kit) and mon because that was the standard ending that any and all digimon had, meaning monster.

Harry also learned about: 'Digimon Types', ('Data,' 'Virus,' 'Vaccine,') what they were and the strengths and weaknesses of each different digimon type, (ie,..Virus types were strong against Data types but weak against Vaccine types, Harry found that he himself was a Data type).

Harry's alter ego taught him about 'Digi-evolution and how it worked, as well as about the tamers and the extremely intimate role they played in the Digi-evolution process of the digimon in the past.

While very pleased to find out that somewhere inside of him he had the ability to evolve into three greater, more powerful forms known as his 'Champion,' 'Ultimate' and the fearsome 'Mega' form, all stronger than the other, Harry was however annoyed and extremely unsure when he was told that he 'might' actually need to find a tamer before he could reach his mega form and wondered where he could possibly find one worthy enough for him. He really didn't like the idea of relying on or partnering up with anybody. At least now he understood what the girl in the park had meant with her wanting to be his tamer.

Harry was shocked when he was told that the phrase 'bio merging' was taken literally in every sense of the name. He would have to physically and mentally combine with another person, fully, and without regret or uncertainty... to become one with his partner so to speak, before he could reach his 'Mega' stage. To bio-merge with another person both participants had to have complete trust in each others.

Harry had shuddered at the thought of how close he had come to have become partnered with one of the girls in the park and was particularly shocked when he learned that once chosen, it was usually for life and irreversible.

A digimon could only be set free in three ways… one; if both sides agreed to separate; to do this the tamer would have to forcefully destroy their digivice to set their digimon free. Only then could the digimon be truly free.

Two; if the tamer died, (without the digimon dieing at the same time) which was extremely rare. His alter ego told him that; in no case had there ever been case where a digimon had ever killed or harmed their own partner. At least not willingly.

Or three; by a formal challenge of abuse, where the digimon would have petitioned its removal from the tamer through legal ways. Indeed, in the whole history of digimon, under old law, any tamer found to abuse their digimon, would have automatically lost their tamer licence if it was indeed proven that the digimon was indeed unhappy and abused by their tamer.

Because of this and seeing as a digimon could actually speak, unlike common animals who could not, and would therefore be able to complain, abuse was fairly rare. This was the only other way a digimon could have been set free prior to the death of the partner.

A digivice Harry learned, was a special device created by the first tamers used with the express purpose of controlling, (taming) their partners during the galactic-wars, back in the old galaxy and, while tamer and partner were usually treated as equals, in every sense and way, it did give the tamer near complete control over their digimon.

Not a pleasant thought for Harry to say the least, who, having lived with people like the Dursleys for most of his life, and having had to deal with manipulative people like Dumbledore, hated to be controlled in any way, by anybody, no matter who it was.

Of course the digivice, or D-Ark as it was also known, was not only used to control the digimon. While it was indeed part of its function, though a small one, its real function, which was what made the tamers so feared in battle, was the ability to 'power up' their digimon using special 'plug-ins', little plastic cards, usually in the form of a trading card game, which, when used, had the ability to give the digimon better powers, higher defensive capabilities, a complete restoration, or to simply make them faster or stronger against their adversaries.

It had even once been rumoured that, just before the end of the war, a card had been created which could resurrect a digimon back from death itself, after the death had already happened, provided, of course, that the tamer was still around to use it and that the digivice was still intact. Unfortunately though there had never been any evidence to support the claim.

The final thing Ego taught Harry was the old digimon government, 'the ruling eight' as they were called and how they functioned.

According to Ego,' since the creation of the digital world it had always been ruled by 'the council of eight' which was and had always been headed by one supreme ruler, known as the 'Digital King'...or queen as the case may be. (Digimon have no real sex and could choose to become either sex at any time, a fact which made Harry blush then try out immediately. It worked. For the next few hours, before changing back, Harry spent his time as a female digimon)

This 'King' (or queen) ruled with the powers of a feudal tyrant, and his/her word was law.

Only two beings in the whole digital world, were known to be immune to his power and could never be ordered around - though they too could only suggest he do something, never order him either - and those were the digital protector of the realm, who also acted as his majesties advisor and link to the digital mother, and the digital mother herself, who was the first digimon ever made by Tern himself, and from which all other digimon and the digital world itself were created from.

No one fully knew what the mother looked like but Myth had it that if one of the two, the protector or the mother were ever to be deleted, the whole digital world would collapse and cease to exist. So far nobody had ever challenged it and that was how it was likely to remain.

The mother always spoke through the protector and they were and are in every sense, one and the same, yet still separate.

Directly below the King were the five digimon lords or digital deities, also known as the 'Sovereigns (or Omega/Last class)' (The king himself was also considered a deity in the digital world)

These five massive digimon, were actually once five powerful humans, rulers of their own planets, who at the time of the 'great transformation forsook their human bodies for those of digimon.' Five massive 'Sovereign' type digimon who, through time, found a way to become even stronger than usual and never looked back.

They were the only other digimon, besides the king, to gain rank of 'sovereign' digimon, the only form known to exist above the fearsome armoured Mega (or Alpha-Mega/A-Mega class). No other digimon had achieved that rank since. As it was only the King himself had ever been known to be stronger than them, but then again it was also rumoured that the king got his vast powers directly from the mother herself.

These eight individuals made all the laws of the digital world until a few millenniums ago, when the former king himself decided to travel to the 'real world' alone…and never returned.

Nobody ever found out what happened to him, even after a full search party, consisting of the kings personal guard, twelve of the kingdoms finest Mega's, known as the 'Olympus Twelve' were sent out to look for him, but found nothing. Since then, one of the sovereigns had been ruling the digital realm in his name, as a regent of the realm, always on the look out for the king should he ever return, or if not, then his heir, who would one day take his place.

With those last few words Ego fell silent and waited for Harry to ask any questions he might have had.

Harry did so for a while then settled down to digest what he had learned once more and to make plans for his future. It was a lot to take in, in such a short amount of time.

Many hours later in the middle of the night and early morning of the next day, Harry finally stood up.

It was time to leave.

After a big discussion with Ego where both tried to decide where they would go next, seeing as there really weren't a lot of options open to him at present since the vast population would scream if and when they simply even just saw Harry.

And agreeing on those who they wouldn't go to:

Dumbledore was out of the question because he had an unhealthy obsession with Harry, because be was to manipulative, because of what Harry had become, (not to forget a certain book which he had illegally taken from the library) and because he would only bring him back to the one place he wanted to avoid at all costs anyway.

The Weasleys were not a good idea because they were too loyal to the old man.

Sirius, Harry's godfather, while he was actually a viable option, was also out. Harry decided against him because he was currently on the run himself.

The only other adult he could think of who could possibly help him was professor Lupin, but due to the fact that it was currently a full moon he was also out of the question, he finally made up his mind and started to leave the park to go to the only other place which he could think of. Out of everybody he knew Harry felt he could trust her the most, his best friend and co conspirator in crime; Hermione Granger.

Harry hoped that if anybody knew what to do, then she would be the one. He had no intention of being under Dumbledores, or for that matter the Dursleys thumb any longer.

No more…. Not as a human and definitely not as a digimon.

He was free...and he wasn't going to give it up this time…not without a fight.

Privet Drive, after Molly's floo call, several minutes after Harry's departure from privet prison.

Dumbledore stood still and stared in dismay at the remains of what had once been Harry's room at Privet drive.

He came as soon as he had received the message that something was wrong at Harry's house and after flooing to Mrs. Figgs home he had apperated directly into what had once been Harry's room. (The wards had fallen after Harry had left the house)

Imagine his surprise when he was greeted not by Harry or a few Death Eaters, but by a room full of hungry burning flames which immediately began to climb up his robes.

A frantic quick doze of water from an aquamenti charm later, on his robes and key places around the room and they were gone.

Looking around what was left of Harry's room, Dumbledore realized for the first time the full scale of the battle which had taken place there.

The whole room was completely destroyed. The windows were all but shattered and the numerous holes which littered the walls of his student's room spoke volumes of the ferocity of the battle which had taken place.

The door which had at one point held over a dozen locks was now nothing more but a few loose splinters and pieces of wood which littered all over the upstairs corridor.

All in all it was as if a full scale war had raged in the once almost pristine clean home.

For the first few seconds Dumbledore simply stared in shock at the damage, only to be brought back to his scenes by a sudden full body wash of incoming water.

Taken by surprise, his clothes now soaked, he swirled round, wand in hand ready to face his attacker, only to realize that Harry's aunt was standing in the door way, with an empty bucket in her hand.

From the looks of her she had also been in the battle, if her numerous cuts and bruises had anything to say about it.

"YOU!" she practically screamed the moment she noticed who was standing in the room.

She was infuriated at seeing him to say the least.

"Don't you think you lot have done enough damage yet…I thought we had a deal! You said that he would never be allowed to use his accursed magic while he was with us and that we would be left alone by your kind, if we agreed to take him in!" she continued screaming. She was totally enraged and only too happy to vent some of her anger at the one man she hated more than anybody else, her nephew included.

"My dear…" Dumbledore tried to say, putting his wand away, he thought it best not to infuriate her more than he had to, ironically thinking the same words Harry had a mere hour before.

"I'm not your dear… Get out!" She screamed, picking up the nearest chair she threw it at him.

"I'm sure it was all only a misunderstanding, I'm sure he didn't mean it…," Dumbledore continued to say, dodging the incoming chair, which shattered against the wall behind him, only to find himself interrupted again a second later.

"No…I've had it with the freak. I've had it with all of you freaks. Because of him Vernon is downstairs, a crippled man. That brat broke all of his bones…all of them, every single one…do you hear me!" she screamed.

"Because of him we lost thirteen good years of our lives which we had to spend looking after him. Because of him Dudley is corrupted by his freakish ways," she wailed.

Spit was now flying all over Dumbledore, covering his face as she spoke and he had to close his eyes to avoid it getting into his eyes, effectively interrupted him as he tried using some legilimency on her to find out what had happened.

The next thing Dumbledore knew was a sharp sting as Petunia slapped him across his right cheek.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked in a tired voice, rubbing his now burning cheek, while sighing quietly to himself. This was not going well at all.

Petunia stared at him for a second, true hatred evident in her eyes, before she turned around and headed out the door and into the bed room which she and Vernon shared.

Unsure of what to do Dumbledore first stayed where he was as he tried to decide how to quieten her, then he started to follow.

Now sure that she wouldn't cooperate no matter what he said, Dumbledore, decided to stun her, then to use legilimency on her once she was subdued.

His mind made up, he put one hand on the door knob and walked in.

Petunia, it seemed, however had other plans and those where not letting an old man command her any more. Freak or no freak, this freak was going down.

Utterly at the end of her nerves and extremely annoyed that the old man wouldn't leave her alone, Petunia went back to her room and collected the same shotgun she had used during her encounter with Harry.

Slowly she sat down on her bed and faced the door, weapon at the ready. She didn't care what happened anymore. If the old man came in she would shoot him on sight.

Then it happened, the door opened and she pressed the trigger.

Unknown to Albus, three police officers, alerted to gunshots coming from the house earlier that day by a few concerned neighbours, were just approaching the house when Albus apperated inside.

One walked up to the front door with the intent of knocking and politely asking if everything were alright and if assistance were required, when suddenly another shot rang though the house.

One fleeting look at his colleges and all three officers decided to skip normal etiquette as they stormed into the house.

Once inside, briefly giving Dudley an incredulous look, (he was still busy watching television in the sitting room totally oblivious, or so it seemed, to what was happening upstairs) two of the officers quickly proceeded to run up the stairs, leaving the third behind to look after the boy and to guard their flank.

Pistols at the ready, both officers rushed towards Harry's old room only to stop in surprise at the carnage of what had once been a room.

Looked at each other, serious looks on their faces at the damage, their attention was suddenly shifted towards noises coming from the next door. A few brief hand signals later, one stepped forward and kicked it open.

Dumbledore looked furiously at the woman who was lying on the ground in front of him. He wasn't just furious; he was also in great pain.

'That bitch of a woman shot me,' he thought as he gritted his teeth, nursing an ugly wound in his right shoulder. He couldn't believe it but she had actually shot him.

Dumbledore had always known that the Dursleys were bad people. After all, he had picked them out for that very reason, under the ruse of special blood protection, so that they would abu... look after the boy in the hope that Harry would trust him more when he was rescued from them at the start of every year, but this was going a bit too far.

She had actually shot him…HIM…the great Albus Dumbledore, Greatest wizard alive, defeater of Grindlewald and many other titles to boot… it was unheard of.

Looking down at the woman with disgust, he pointed his wand at his arm and quickly applied a healing charm to it sealing up the rest of the wound.

A few seconds later, his wound replaced with a scar, he grabbed Harry's aunt and holding his wand in his right hand, forced Petunias eyes open with the other.

Slowly he bent forward to look inside and into her mind, only to be interrupted.

With a crash the door to the room flew open and two police officers, armed with pistols at the ready, stormed inside.

The first thing they saw as they entered the room was Dumbledore crouching over a woman on the floor, a stick in his hand pointing straight at her.

Had he been unarmed they would have simply ordered him to step away, however he was holding a stick and pointing it at her in what seemed to be an obvious threatening way.

That was all they needed to know.

"POLICE! Drop your weapon, get down on your knees, put your hands on your head," one of the officers called out in a loud no nonsense voice. The man may have looked old and frail, but he wasn't going to take any changes, at least not if the damage from next door was any indication of what had happened. For all he knew the old man could be a disguised agent of some sort…or worse.

Never stopping, too busy to take a moment to consider what the man had said, Dumbledore ignored him. Being a wizard and not used to muggle law, he never fully realised who he was talking to anyway.

Had he looked up he might have realised what was happening…however he did not.

Mistaking 'Police' with 'please, thinking it was a request and not an order (although a loud one at that),' he simply refused; "Stay away, this doesn't concern you," he said pointing his wand at the officers.

This was obviously the wrong thing to say... or do.

It was all over in a flash. Reacting automatically, honed with years of experience, not taking any chances, that he was about to attack them, the officers moved in. Quickly, one grabbed his arm, snapping his wand it in the process, then proceeded to restrain him.

So shocked, in silent horror, was he by the loss of his wand that Dumbledore never even fought back. He was so shocked that he had been disarmed… and worse, that his wand had snapped that he simply froze in shock.

The next second Dumbledore found himself shoved flat onto the ground, his face down in the dirt with his hands held tightly on his back. Then, they were tied up.

It was all done so quickly he never even had a chance to react. The next thing he knew was that one of his captors reciting him of a list of certain 'rights' he seemed to have, while his snapped wand was put into a sealed bag named 'evidence.'

Dumbledore never heard them, nor did he seem to care. At that moment, a look of pure horror was his face. All he did was mumble a few distinct word: My wand…What have you done…NO!...NOOOO!...The elder wand!

High in the heavens on cloud 112, in his private office, an infamous immortal spirit known as 'Death' looked up from a table full of paper work as a dark glowing letter appeared on his desk. Slowly he picking it up and opened it. Reading it slowly, his eyes widening with every word, he gasped. A moment later he began to giggle then laugh.

With a sudden movement and a cry of glee he leapt out of his chair and began to do a jig across the room before he finally sat back down to continue his work a smug smile on his lips.

In another room next door, 'Life,' frowned than shrugged. Some things were just not worth wondering about.

Inside of privet drive house number two, Mrs. Fig had just finished feeding her twenty cats when she suddenly saw a few officers walking up to number 4.

Frowning, briefly wondering what had happened this time, she quickly made herself a cup of tea.

The tea ready, she placed it on the table and sat down in a chair near the window to watch.

She was just about to take a sip when the unthinkable happened.

Spluttering, then coughing from swallowing the wrong way she gasped as none other than Dumbledore himself was led out of the house, in handcuffs, by three policemen.

For a moment she gaped at the scene, then she rushed over a cupboard nearby and took out a camera. Quickly snapping off a picture or two, she grinned, mumbled something about blackmail for the future, then and only then did he run to the floo.

A second later she was connected to Order HQ.

"Ah, Arabella, How are you?…. "

"Oh I'm fine...it seems Dumbledore isn't though...

...he's just been arrested."