Mummymon poked and prodded at the hair sample, hoping to goad out the purple thing he had seen before. What had been that thing? He had to find out!

Meanwhile, Carbunmon curled up on his lap, and he stroked her fur, taking a break from poking just to watch it while patting her to sleep. She hadn't gotten enough sleep, he thought to himself. She had a bad nightmare the night before and devolved into her Baby form after work, so he usually patted her until she could fall asleep most of the time.

This was an embarrassing topic for her at first, he recalled. But after he found out why, how she needed it on bad days (such as today) or when her past memories chose to haunt her, he understood and just said with an amused smile on his face, "You sleep like a kitten."

Her only reply was? 

"I-I DO NOT!!"

(She did not win that argument, for the sake of recording this fact. He had recorded it and showed it to her, and even she admitted it to the camera a few seconds before she realized what he had done but couldn't get rid of the evidence due to mountains of backups. A trick he learned from Akila's partner and who had her own extensive database with valuable data. Ever since then, he would pull it out as either his trump card of blackmail or to tease her about it.)

Ah, she was genuinely cut-

Movement from the virus cut his thought process off, which made him blink as he leaned in-

And barely dodged a red squirt that nearly attacked him were it not for Aliana barely making it to push them both out of the way. The laboratory chair fell to the ground with a loud clang, scaring the patients near the lab as they worried about the legend of the Hospital Ghosts that had been circulating ever since they got here. 

Mummymon rubbed his head while sighing. "Thank you, Aliana." 

"No problem, Dad," she answered, stepping over the red goop. "Yuck, that thing looks nasty."

"I assume it probably is, considering what it is doing to Aegiochusmon," he said. 

Here, Aliana frowned. She was slowly recalling just what was going on, and she had to express her feelings. "Amit... Will she be fine, Dad?"

"I do not know, Aliana. I do not know... But we will keep on persevering no matter what."

That was enough to make her smile in relief as she curled up onto his lap, falling asleep once he began petting her.

He chuckled and prepared to pick up the liquid when--

"HEY DOC I NEED-"

"Betsumon, GET. OUT."

"But-"

"Now."

"BUT-"

"DO YOU WISH TO BE ANNIHILATED?! I SAID, GO BEFORE I MAKE YOU, BETSUMON!!"

It should be noted, however, that while one hand was holding his weapon, threatening the terrified Betsumon, another had placed earmuffs for Aliana to sleep peacefully while he dealt with a... Nuisance. He DID need a test subject, after all~~

However, he did hope Clockmon could hold on while that happened. 

As it turned out, Clockmon had less time than he thought.

"CLOCKMON!" 

He jumped, surprised at the person storming up to him while garnering looks from fellow Digimon patients who looked terrified by her expression. Honestly, he would be too. Olive green and white irises (or lack thereof, in the case of her left side) seemed to glow in rage as she stormed over. He even swore he saw Kiyoshiro take one step in, look at the scene, and turn on his tail to run. It was a totally natural response, so he totally got it. 

Still, he could only stammer. "A-Aegi-"

"Where have you been!?" she snapped. "Did you really get that tired of me!? Why are you leaving me behind?! You even cut my hair!"

Huh? He admitted to the hair cutting but wasn't tired of her or planning to leave her! "Aegis, what [nonsense] are you talking about?"

"Nonsense?! NONSENSE?! How could you say that!?" Tears of rage and sorrow began falling down her cheeks. "You're the worst! You're nothing but horrible! This is what I get for being loyal to you!"

Clockmon's eyes widened, hurt flashing in his eyes after she said those words. Horrible mon...? He had changed from then! How could she-

Wait, he hadn't said nonsense, though. And now that he thought of it, he recalled instances when she had said stuff that didn't align with the actual words spoken. Something was amiss.

But he had to test his hypothesis. A small conversation should give him something. 

"Aegis, please, [don't] calm down," he said as he walked over, but she backed away, growling. 

Her crystal and eyes were purple while she snarled, "Stay away from me! What are you going to do, huh!? Make me bits of data!? Is that why you cut my hair!?" 

He couldn't help but get defensive here. "Aegis, that's ~~not~~ true! I ~~love~~ [hate] your hair!"

"Excuse me!?" she hissed. Even after the modifications HE had made, Clockmon thought it was weird?! "You're pathetic! How dare you!"

"Aegis-"

"Don't say anything, you weak mon! You can't even evolve! You're so weak you need a GIRL's help to win battles!" she snapped. "Mons like you should have been deleted long ago!"

"I-I..." he backed away. He was... reminded of how close he had been to dying. Once... When he had tried to get revenge on someone he now considered a friend...

"I want to save Clockmon!"

That simple wish of a child... it had been his saving grace, he found. Gammamon and Hiro's desire to save him changed him, making him realise that taking time from others was bad. 

It taught him that he could change. Especially once he formally met Gulus. How different he seemed from the Jet Black Champion he had heard about back in the Digital World. 

Aegiochusmon seemed to interpret his contemplating differently, though. "You don't have anything to say to me!? Wow, you really are the worst! Ugh! I can't take this anymore! You can go die and have your Digitama smashed for all I care! For a clock you're so rusty you buffer like a broken gear!"

That snapped him out of it. "Aegis, please ~~don't~~ go! I want to ~~talk~~ [make you realise just how pathetic you are]!"

"Pathetic!? PATHETIC?! Coming from you!? What the **** you arrogant *******!? You have NO RIGHT! NO RIGHT, I TELL YOU!" she screamed. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS LIKE FOR ME BEFORE I MET BOSS! JUPITERMON TREATED ME LIKE **** AND NO ONE CARED FOR ME! ONLY BOSS AND THE OTHERS HAD! I WAS A FOOL FOR THINKING YOU CARED AT ALL! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT YOU ONLY VIEWED ME AS A TOOL SO YOU COULD SLACK OFF! I AM NOT YOUR SERVANT, YOU SPINELESS EXCUSE OF A DIGIMON! DIE!  DIE! dIe!!!!!"

His eyes widened. His mouth was open. His legs were shaking. Heck, his grip on his mallet had loosened so much it dropped to the ground with a loud CLANG!, scaring more patients away. His heart seemed to shatter at those words. Aegis...

She snarled, but turned around and stormed out, leaving him there to process everything. He had been right. Something was wrong with her ears. It was making her hear things all wrong!

Her heart, though? He had a sinking feeling it was all him. Clockmon was starting to understand that he had forgotten something. Something very important. Something that meant a lot to Aegis and him. 

But what was it?...

Ugh, even with sleep he was still foggy with his memory! Dang it! Mummymon had told him that memory processing could be impaired if he didn't sleep enough! Now he was paying the price for taking it for granted! 

He groaned, rubbing his head. He would have to figure it out later! He had to get back to Mummymon. He could only hope that the doctor had a clue about what was going on, because... He couldn't bear this anymore.

"A sense-corrupting virus?" Clockmon repeated.

"Indeed." Mummymon nodded as he sighed. "And it is a malicious kind. It mainly targets the heart, the eyes, and the ears. So anything Aegiochusmon sees and hears is twisted while the heightened pain only hurts her even more."

"So Aegis is... hurting a lot...?" he asked. 

"In a nutshell, yes." Aliana nodded. 

Mummymon hummed. He did know that Aegiochusmon had been preparing for her and Clockmon's anniversary, so surely that could help out in this context, right? 

"Perhaps telling her how you felt about the gift she prepared for your anniversary would suffice?"

Immediately, Clockmon felt all the colour drain from his face. The missing pieces clicked in all too well. He felt sick, angry at himself, disgusted...

How did he... How had he...?

"I... I forgot about our anniversary..." he shook.

".... Pardon?"

"WHAT? YOU DID WHAT?!"

Their words fell on deaf ears as tears fell down his cheeks. What...

Just what had he done?  

Tick tock, tick tock... A time limit decrees that if you don't hurry, your girlfriend could end up stuck like this... You need to make this right. You let this happen to her. If you had just been... If you had just followed.... Perhaps... Just maybe... You would have avoided all this. But now you need to fight her. Can you... Can you save her? Next time, on Digimon Ghost Game: I Still See You Arc, Final Part: Burning the Virus Within!

I am pretty sure this ain't as long as the first one. Forgive me for that. But I hope that you like this part. venusaura