"What's up?" Eos asked as they yawned, rubbing their eyes to stay awake. Ryubo was no better, at least. The amount of bags under their eyes was prominent, having stayed up for a good portion of the night before switching with Kiyoshiro and Blues in the morning due to being the oldest of their respective groups, but they had been awoken because of a... certain situation.

"Well..." Kiyoshiro twiddled his fingers. "We have... another problem. Mei... she just texted me that she had just arrived back in Japan." 

"... Pardon me?" Hiro nearly dropped his tablet, which he had been using to do his math homework with Blues assisting. Gammamon actually caught it since his brother was now in a frozen mode, eyes wide as his mind began to register this. Once this was done, his mind spat out various what-if scenarios. What if Mei found out they had lied?! What if she got so mad at them that she cut off contact with them? Oh, the endless possibilities were enough to make him unable to respond to outside stimuli. 

"W-What?!" Ruri was so pale. Oh no oh no oh no!!!!!! They were done for!  They were going to be killed! Mei was going to ban them from seeing the kids! She was going to cut off contact with them! She would hate them until they were old!!! NO!!! HOW WOULD ANGORAMON FARE!? 

"I-Integer overload...." Kiyoshiro fainted on the spot, his mind having loaded way too many worst-case scenarios. They were all dead. Mei was going to murder them and hide their bodies!!!

"Oh no...." Eos rubbed their temple as Pumpmon and Gammamon patted the frozen Angoramon's back, while Jellymon was trying to zap Kiyoshiro awake. Meanwhile, Bokomon was being comforted by Oujiaoaomon, ironically. "We're in a lot of trouble. We need to hurry this up then. We just have to fix up her base code, don't we?" 

"Yeah, but that's not going to be easy," Blues said, eyes burning with rage as he continued, his voice rising with frustration, "Have you seen the amount of damage Tsukumo did to her code by reactivating Malicemon's code?! Even after all the work we did to ensure otherwise!" 

Everyone looked away, flinching since they knew how right he was. Days, no weeks of hard work undone simply by the disgusting actions of a pride-ridden human...

"Sis, please, stay strong," Amoramon was watching her sister with fear and pain in her eyes. She had caused this pain to her... She had claimed to be against the Day of Unity, but... She had caused it with her actions. 

Oujiaoaomon had her eyes closed as she shed some tears. She had... Why had she forced Ryubo to end it all? If she hadn't... if she had been kinder... 

She rubbed Amoramon's back as the other cried on her, with Culumon X joining in while the others watched Shiramon sleep inside the cage. She hadn't done anything but sleep even after they fixed up most of her code. What were they doing wrong? How had they messed up!? They had even followed HIS notes to the T. Despite how much they hated HIM, HE was a brilliant scientist. With HIS notes, they had managed to fix most of it. Even then, she wasn't waking up. Why? WHY-

Hold on...

".... Hey, Blues, can you check which parts still need fixing?" Hiro asked, a bad feeling creeping into his mind. Something about those notes bothered him. 

"Hm? Sure," Blues nodded as he ran a diagnostics program on the body, but after he saw the results, he nearly spat out his coffee. 

Everyone was pale once more. They hadn't noticed the small 0 that shifted into 1 every so often, yet when zoomed in, they saw a huge hole. One that formed an all-too-familiar symbol. 

"The... Wrath Sin Code... We... We need to reactivate it," Kiyoshiro whispered into the deafening silence. 

".... No. No... NO..." Angoramon refused. 

"Angoramon-" 

"NO!!" He insisted, going to his knees as tears fell down his cheeks. Ruri hugged him, gripping him tight out of fear and terror. 

It hit them right there. To save her, they had to bring back the one thing Shiramon hated the most... The Sin Code.

Everyone shared a quiet glance, and Violet was crying too, "I-Isn't there a way for us to fill it in w-without the Sin Code?"

"We don't have time for that!" Blues countered. "Mei could arrive any moment now!" 

"He's right on that. I'm against this as much as you guys, but we have to do it! We need to wake her up!" Eos agreed. 

"We can always use remnant data to fill it!" Ruri insisted. "There has to be a way. There HAS TO BE!!" 

She couldn't... No, not Shiramon. Not after all the suffering she had been through. 

Why? Why was fate so hard on her? Why couldn't Shiramon live a long and happy life without someone ****ing with it!?! Stupid fate and its stupid mechanisms! She didn't deserve the pain she was getting! COULDN'T SHE GET A BREAK!? First with the entire thing of being a modified Labramon to be HIS perfect weapon, then Malicemon, now this? Even after all the people she had helped! She remembered how Shiramon had helped her, had tried so hard to confess to Angoramon during Lust. How she was forced to be cold because of the crystals that Ryubo had placed in her no thanks to Amoramon. How she had forced her partner to hurt her so badly with his words, to become a monster that shared his face. How she was powerless to stop him, and how she had promised herself to never let Shiramon suffer after she was brought back. To atone for her mistakes. To fix what she had indirectly broken. 

Angoramon was terrified of losing his wife a second time. He couldn't, he refused to have any part in prolonging her suffering! No matter what he... he couldn't...

He went to his knees. The rational side was telling him this was the only way out... But...

Once they did it, there were no takebacks. It was a choice she would have to live with forever. 

He couldn't, he... He...

He... he had to, didn't he? To save his wife. Even if they managed to make something that would cover it up, would her body accept it in the Sin Code's place....?

There were too many worst-case scenarios, so...

With a heavy heart, he turned to Blues, "Please... reactivate the Code." 

"Are you sure? There are no takebacks," He asked with a serious look.

Everyone shared a glance but nodded. It was time. They had no time to waste!

"Let's do it," Hiro nodded.

".... Very well then," He sighed and inhaled before his finger hovered over the enter button.

"I'll do it if y-"

"No, Mother. This... I have to do it. As a way to atone. To repay Shiramon."

"Blues..." Violet looked at him with a frown. She worried about him... She wasn't there during the Lust arc, but...

"It's okay," He gave Violet a smile before he inhaled again.

Looking at the button, he turned to the others who had grim but hopeful looks on, and nodded.

Then, he... He pressed it.

For a few moments, they held their breaths. Would it work? What if it didn't? What if it left her to dissolve and die off-

"U..."

Huh?

"Ugh..."

A familiar voice snapped them out of their trances as Shiramon groaned, "My... Head..."

"SHIRA!!"

"Hu- What?!" She gasped upon being tackle-hugged by the team while Ryubo, Blues, and Violet watched with smiles on their faces.

She was back!

... Although... It came with a price, Shiramon realised as she saw a familiar mark on her left bicep.

Something that wasn't there before. That had been wiped off her body after her sacrifice.

She couldn't... She couldn't speak. It was... Back... The one thing she hated the most about herself.

Being the Vessel of Wrath.

"S-Shira..." Angoramon looked down. "We're really-"

"It's not your fault," She cut in, surprising the others with her smile. "It had to be done, right?"

"Y-Yeah..." Ruri nodded quietly.

"Then it's okay. Don't worry about it. I'm glad to be home at least."

Yeah, maybe she fibbed a bit. But they wouldn't know, they were too happy to have her back.

She would be forced to carry the Sin Code until her death... Again, like during the Sin Code Arc...

She hated that. She wished they could have done something else, but at the same time, it wasn't their fault.

She would just have to bear with that one mistake they made. No matter what.

Just then, the door opened, making them all turn to see Mei walk in with a smile, "I'm back!"

"Hey!!" Pump happily hugged her with Gammamon, while the others shared a smile. Crisis averted!

Or so they thought. Mei opened up the TV an hour later to the news, and one particular piece caught her eye.

"Recent sightings of a skeleton monster have sent the citizens of Tokyo in a frenzy. It has been roaming around Fuji Park, well-known for its emulation of real-life forests, at night for some time, only to mysteriously vanish! Just what could it be, and could it be connected to the invasion of Tokyo a year ago?"

Mei then sighed as she turned to the others, "Explain."

They shared a glance, but Hiro exhaled and said, "Fine." 

And so, the story came out. Every second, they waited with bated breath, terrified of how she would react. Would she blackmail them so badly that they would never be able to walk outside without being insulted? 

After a long while of waiting, Mei stood up, and walked over to them. 

"AHHHH!!" Kiyo jumped, paling like a ghost. "Please don't murder us!!"

Ruri hid behind the door and Hiro even ducked under the table, while Eos shivered. Oh no... She was mad... She was enraged--

".... You're banned from seeing the babies and Shiramon for four days," she said, turning away. She couldn't help but feel pained. Why hadn't they trusted her? Why hadn't they just said the truth? She would have understood.

Even after everything, did they still not trust her?...

Sensing this, Shiramon sighed, but walked to join Mei as they left the lab. 

Everyone then exhaled. They managed to save Shiramon, but... at what cost?

The Wrath Sin Code had returned, at long last. 

And with it...  

"Huh? Who are you!?" Azami snarled as she saw Mei and a different Digimon in her Hologram Ghost form approaching her. "Are you with that monster?!"

"She is not a monster," Mei hissed back. "You are the monster here, Tsukumo Azami!"

"How so!? She nearly killed us all! I saw that news report, she was always a mon-" Azami's words were cut off by a punch from Mei. The electrical lockpicker Kiyo had made for her was finally being used. She was so grateful she had asked him for it. 

"She is NOT a monster!" the other person besides her spoke up, eyes burning with rage; something normally seen on WrathIramon's face, but not for Shiramon. "You created it! You never change, do you!? You will never make it big no matter how much you try because stuff like that only comes to those who deserve it! YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING, NOTHING TO DESERVE WHAT YOU DESIRE!!!" 

"Let's teach her a lesson she'll never forget, WrathIramon," Mei cracked her knuckles. 

"Ah!" she materialised and stood beside Mei. With the light shading them eerily, it surely gave Azami something to fear. 

What scared her even more, though? 

That song... It seemed to echo as they beat her up. A quiet whisper in the wind. A lullaby of doom and death. 

Malicemon's song. 

"Awaken Sloth's Slumber~" She was kicked by WrathIramon.

"Rob Greed Blind~" Mei punched Azami in the gut. 

"Strave Gluttony~" Both punched her on the face. 

"Make Envy Cry~" WrathIramon kneed her. 

"Leave Lust Heartbroken~" Mei kicked her multiple times on the back. 

"Shatter Pride~" Azami could only let herself be hurt, frozen in fear by the sheer amount of evil, of darkness filling the room's shadows. 

"Call to Queen Wrath~" A shadow formed behind Mei and WrathIramon, and Shiramon could hear the final whisper from Malicemon before she disappeared. 

"I will return~ You cannot stop the flow of sin in this world~ No matter what you do, you will lose~ And I will become Queen once more~"

Shiramon could only repress the shiver. It wasn't over. 

The fight against Malicemon, no, the Sin Codes, was never over...

Alright, this was really fun to write! Hope you like this venusaura! 

Also, this is how the lockpicking would look.