(A/N) Hey there! I took a few more days than I first thought I would take to finish this chapter so that I could make sure I got everything right. To make up for the wait, I made this chapter a bit longer. Well, here's Chapter 7. Enjoy!

Chapter 7: Jeremie, Meet Jeremy

"Let's get 'em!" shouted Odd and with that battle cry, he started running on all fours towards the creepers dodging the Creeper's energy bolts. He then began jumping around one and started doing what he always did with Xana's monsters: talking to them.

"Wow, you sure are ugly" he commented, "I wonder what mutations Xana gave to you guys?"

As if it was giving Odd an answer, the Creeper suddenly wrapped itself around Odd in such a way were Odd could not even move an inch.

"Uh, Ok, this is kinda weird," Odd said, not knowing what to make of his situation, "I mean, I missed you guys too, but a hug? Really?"

"Odd! Get out of there!", Jeremie yelled into his microphone, "I am detecting a massive amount of energy building up in that creeper. If it's energy collection continues along the same rate that it going right now, that Creeper's energy capability will be bypassed and it will burst!"

"Could you repeat that, but in English, Einstein?" Odd said, who was now starting to get pretty irritated with the Creeper.

"It's gonna self-destruct and take you with it!" Jeremie exclaimed, panic starting to take full control of his thoughts.

"Too late!" yelled Ulrich as the Creeper that was holding Odd gave one last vocalization and then blew up. The Lyoko Warriors were just barely able to see Odd get devirtualized in the center.

In the real world, Odd stepped out of the scanner holding his stomach. "Ok, this is really bad", he said to Jeremie once he got up to the control room. "The rest of the gang plus Aelita's brother are stuck in that room with 9 more of those Creeper bombs. I guess the good news, at least is that if they blow up, we still only get devirtualized."

"Yes, that is partly true, Odd", replied the nerd at the computer, "Except that I still need a few more minutes to isolate the Weapon's genetic code. If the Creepers blow him up, he will be lost for ever."

"Well, let's just hope that the rest of the gang can hold the creepers off for long enough."

Meanwhile, on Lyoko, the Warriors and the Weapon had started to fight viciously after seeing Odd's defeat. Ulrich and William both used their speed abilities to each surprise a Creeper and destroy it before it could attack. Unfortunately, this still left 7 Creepers remaining and Ulrich and William found it hard to dodge all the reapers that were coming after them. Aelita and Yumi proved to be very useful at this point because since the Creepers now were focusing on close combat rather than what they used to do, which was a minor version of sniping, Aelita and Yumi were able to try and pick a few off with their attacks while Ulrich and William, unknowingly at first, ran distraction. Thanks to Yumi's fans and Aelita's Energy Fields, they were able to destroy 4 Creepers between the two of them before the 2 of the remaining 3 creepers decided to chose them as new targets. Fortunately, Jeremy was there guarding Aelita and was able to run behind the girls deflecting the Creepers' energy bolts with his scythe.

Ulrich, at this point, was unfortunately distracted by the thought of Yumi in danger and did not notice the 3rd creeper come up behind him until it was too late. The Creeper wrapped itself around him and started building up energy. William saw this and started to run to help. He was able to get one slash in before he heard Ulrich yell, "No William, help the girls!"

"Why?", William responded, confused that Ulrich was willing to sacrifice himself.

"If I get blown up with this I will only be devirtualized." Ulrich yelled, struggling against the Creeper. "We need to save Aelita's brother and if one of the Creepers get's a hold on him, then it is game over! So GO!"

William did not need to be told twice after hearing this. He started running towards the girls and the two creepers following them. He then began to wonder where Aelita's brother was. He looked around and then saw that Jeremy was keeled over on the ground groaning. Apparently, a few seconds earlier an energy bolt from one of the Creepers chasing Aelita hit Jeremy as he was running. The Creepers noticed this and started converging on him.

"No!" thought William and just as he started to form the words "Super Smoke" in his mouth, the Creeper holding Ulrich exploded. Ulrich was obviously devirtualized and unfortunately, William was not far enough away from him to not be caught in the blast.

"William!" Jeremie yelled, "Watch out, you and Aelita's brother are both down to your last 10 life points and the Creepers have almost reached him."

Using his giant sword, William pulled himself up and then used Super Smoke to get himself in between the Creepers and Jeremy. Alas, this put too much of a strain on William and he collapsed after reverting back to his solid form.

"William!", exclaimed Aelita, after she and Yumi jumped in between the Creepers and the two weakened boys, defending them.

"Aelita, I can't move and there is nothing I can do." said William, defeat apparent in his voice.

"You're right, there is nothing you can do, but there is something I might be to," said Jeremy standing up with difficulty. "It is risky though and it might result in my devirtualization."

"No, don't do it whatever it is," said Jeremie, "I just need 30 more seconds and then I can materialize you."

"Sorry, but I can be kinda stubborn when I put my mind to something," replied Jeremy. He then turned to William. "I am assuming that you don't want to be blown up, right?

"Right", said William, who was not sure where Jeremy was going with this.

"Ok, if it is alright with you, I am going to use another ability of mine to absorb your life points. It will devirtualize you but at least it won't be painful. I think."

"You think?" said William doubt prevalent in his voice. "Fine, do it."

"Thank you", said Jeremy and with that, he placed his hand on William's, and said, "Reaper Absorb!"

William was suddenly standing in the real world in a scanner holding his head. "Ah, that didn't so much hurt as it felt weird. Kinda like some kind of energy being sucked from my chest."

Back on Lyoko, Jeremy started glowing. Aelita and Yumi were able to destroy one of the two remaining creepers but the last one had broken through and started slithering towards Jeremy at a break neck speed. The two girls then noticed that all of a sudden, Jeremy outfit started to change. The parts of his outfit that were white before turned to the same shade of orange that was on Williams outfit. Also, Jeremy's left arm gain a small spiked wrist-guard, once again the same as William's. The most drastic change though, was the scythe. It's blade suddenly grew to twice it's normal size and yet Jeremy was still able to spin it around with ease.

"Well, this was unexpected," said Jeremy, "My dad had told me that this ability would just heal me. He never said anything about transforming me. Well might as well use this big blade."

He suddenly jumped towards the Creeper and raising his giant scythe over his head, he yelled, "Die Creeper!"

His scythe split the creeper in half and destroyed it utterly. Yumi and Aelita just stood there dumbfounded. This boy was able to still be so powerful with just 20 life points left. As the boy stood up, he suddenly changed form again, this time back to his original form. He was keeled over on the ground now, extremely exhausted.

"What's wrong?!" Aelita asked worriedly.

"I don't know." replied Jeremy, exhaustion taking full effect as he collapsed on the ground.

"I think I do", said Jeremie, "But I will tell you guys about it once you are all back safe and sound. Thankfully, I just got a lock on the Weapon's genetic code. Materialization, Yumi! Materialization, Aelita! Materialization, Weapon!"

A few minutes later, the entire gang was in the scanner room. Everyone was gathered around Aelita who was sitting on the floor with her unconscious brother's head in her lap.

"So what happened, Jeremie", asked Aelita, "Why did my brother keep collapsing today?"

"My theory is that it is backlash." Jeremie said with scientific precision.

"Backlash?" asked Aelita, "What do you mean by that, Jeremie?"

"I mean, that his collapsing is backlash from using his powers", replied Jeremie, "We all can agree that your brother has some incredible abilities on Lyoko. I noticed though, that every time your brother uses said abilities, his life points get reduced. It must be because of all the power that he expends to use those abilities."

"Is there any way to fix this 'backlash'?" asked Aelita, looking down at her brother's sleeping face.

"I can try but it might take a while." said Jeremie. Aelita knew what that meant: more sleepless nights for Jeremy. She was about to tell him off, but then her brother stirred.

"Wow, you would do that for some one you just met?" said Jeremy, "Don't worry, I just woke up a few seconds ago but I heard what you said, Jeremie."

"To answer your question," replied Jeremie, "I am doing it so that our team gets stronger, not for you."

"And that is if we decided to let you on the team." interjected Ulrich, who was still holding a grudge.

"Come on Ulrich, you saw what he can do," said Yumi, "We need some one like that on the team".

"And it's not like we can just do a return to the past to erase his memory" added Odd.

Ulrich relented. "Ok fine, he is on the team, but he hasn't earned my trust yet."

"Gee thanks" said Jeremy as he got up. He was in his normal outfit and suddenly realized something. "Wait a sec, on Lyoko I was about an inch shorter than Aelita but now I am about 3 inches taller than her. What happened?"

Jeremie grinned at the gang as everyone else started snickering. "Well, it seems like since Aelita has aged outside of Lyoko for about 2 years and since the super-computer registered you two as twins, apparently, the materialization process ramped you up to the exact same age as Aelita, give or take a few minutes."

"That certainly is weird," said Jeremy, who now had to get used to being taller. "But not in a bad way. So any way, I think I have gotten everybody's names." He then proceeded to list their first names off correctly. Once he got to Jeremie, though, Odd decided to speak up.

"Okay guys, before we do anything else, we have to decide how we are going tell the difference between talking to Einstein and talking to Aelita's brother. I mean, we can't refer to them both by the same first name now can we?"

"Hmm, Odd does have a point," Ulrich said, "It is gonna get pretty hard to tell who we are talking to."

"I've got an idea!" said Jeremy, "Jeremie, why don't you and I play Rock-Paper-Scissors for the right to use the name Jeremy. Whoever loses has to use another name."

"Why should I agree to that?" said Jeremie, "I was in the gang first!"

"Afraid that you'll lose?", taunted Jeremy.

"Fine! Lets go!", yelled Jeremie, falling for the Jeremy's obvious teasing.

Jeremy won the first round and Jeremie won the second. When it came to the third, Jeremie (Belpois) won with paper covering rock.

"A deal is a deal" gloated Jeremie, relieved that he had won.

"Okay, for my nickname I'll combine my first and middle initials." said Jeremy, "How does the nickname 'Jace' sound?"

"Sounds good to me" said Aelita. Everyone else agreed with her.

(A/N: From now one, I will be referring to Aelita's brother as Jace)

"Ok, Jace it is then", said Aelita.

"Ok, now that we have sorted out the name problem," said Jace, "Aelita, can we go see Dad?"

"Uh-oh," said Jeremie, "I forgot. You don't know how much time has passed."

"What do you mean?" asked Jace, "You said just two years right?

"Actually Jace, there is something I need to tell you," said Aelita, a sad look growing in her eyes. "And you are not going to like it."

-Ten Seconds Later-

"10 YEARS! I've been gone for ten years?!"

"Yes, Jace, but that is not the worst part.", said Aelita, tears now streaming down her face.

"What could be worse than being forgotten about for 10 years?!", yelled Jace.

"Jace...Daddy is dead."

(A/N)...I think that that was pretty good ending for this chapter. You can bet that the next chapter will have a bit more sadness to it. In speaking of which, Chapter 8 is going to be called "Hi, Kadic Academy, I'm Jace Stones". Once again, I will try to get that chapter up as soon as possible. Until then, please keep reviewing, even if you have already reviewed before. I really like a lot of feedback, whether it be good or bad. I wanna know how I can do better.