I do not own Code: LYOKO. This is a rewrite of Bad Connection that has Eva and Kayla in it and is the eighth installment of my Light and Shadow series. I hope you like it. It's taken a lot of work for me to get this just right. I had to watch the episode several times, take the time to write down the dialogue, and memorize what movement went on in a scene. I hope that it's all worth it in the end. As a recap of what happened in the last story, Illuminating the Shadows, Eva fell into the digital sea and was saved by Franz Hopper. Her parents were arrested for abuse and the untimely death of Eva's sister, Mackenzie. Jim has adopted Eva.


It was the middle of the night and most children in their early teens should have been asleep. Most were, but two in particular were still awake. At the factory, Jeremy sat at the controls and was running every test and scan he could think of on Eva. Eva was just standing in the scanner as Jeremy ran his tests.

"Okay, Eva," said Jeremy. "I'm going to send you to LYOKO."

He virtualized her on LYOKO to see if she could fight and use her abilities.

"Everything is working properly," said Eva after trying her invisibility and firing a few power pulses. She would try a possession, but there were no monsters around for her to try it on.

Jeremy studied the monitor for a long moment, tapping several keys to change windows. "I don't get it," he said, leaning back in his chair. "I should have found something by now."

Eva looked up at the LYOKO sky of the forest sector. "Perhaps there is nothing to find, Jeremy."

Jeremy breathed a heavy sigh. "Eva, you fell into the digital sea," Jeremy said. "And then you reappeared in the scanner after Franz Hopper saved Aelita and the tower was deactivated. Even if those things didn't happen, you shouldn't be here right now. Speaking from a scientific standpoint, you should be lost in the network."

"Can you not just accept that Franz Hopper saved me?" asked Eva.

"But why?" blurted Jeremy in exasperation. "Why save you? I can understand him saving Aelita, but why you? You don't mean anything to him." Jeremy gasped. "Eva, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it to come out that way."

"It's okay, Jeremy," said Eva.

But Jeremy wasn't sure if it was okay. It was hard to tell what Eva was thinking, even when he could directly look in her eyes. She hid things so well.

"No, it's not," Jeremy said.

"Jeremy, it's okay," said Eva. "Really, it is. Franz Hopper never met me, has no connection with me and the only connection I have to him is his daughter, whom I promised I would protect and serve to the best of my ability, and I made that promise out of my own freewill. For reasons that you and I do not know, he chose to save me. He may have done that out of love for Aelita, out of the goodness of his heart, or he felt like he owed me for attempting to save his daughter. Whatever the reason may be, there is a chance that he saved me and nothing more. There may not be anything to find."

Jeremy knew that Eva may be right. Franz Hopper may have saved her and that was the end of it. What bugged Jeremy was what Eva said after she got out of the scanner and was explaining what happened.

"You hold all the answers now."

What did that mean? Did it mean that they had the means to defeat XANA once and for all and rescue Franz Hopper from the network? Or was it something else? Something that could help Aelita in the future when she was an adult? Something about her past that she didn't know about?

"Jeremy?"

Jeremy pulled himself back to the present. Eva was still on LYOKO.

"Can you call me in or is there another test that you need to preform?"

"Uh, no," said Jeremy, tapping quickly on his keyboard. "Materialization Eva."

Eva stepped out of the scanner and got into the elevator. The doors opened to the computer lab. Jeremy was just finishing turning off the computer for the night. He got on and Eva hit the up button to take them ground level.

The walk back through the sewer was a quiet walk until Eva broke the silence.

"Do you feel threatened by me, Jeremy?" she asked.

Jeremy turned to her, his eyes wide and his glasses sliding down his nose. "Threatened?" he asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "N-no. Why would you think that?"

Eva didn't look at him. Her eyes were fixed on the tunnel ahead. Jeremy was glad she wasn't looking at him. Those dark brown eyes of hers could see the truth just as well as they hid her lies. The way her hair fell over her shoulders also obstructed her view of Jeremy if she decided to look at him out of the corner of her eye.

"I came here and wormed my way into your circle of friends, discovered your secrets, became close to Aelita, outshone you in academics, and now this," Eva said. "Do you feel threatened by me?"

Jeremy sighed and lowered his head. "I won't say threatened," he said. "You didn't come here with the intention of becoming friends with us or learning about LYOKO. At first I was a little scared of you. I think we all were. After Kayla told us what happened to you, we felt sorry for you."

"And now?" asked Eva.

"And now," Jeremy repeated. "And now I'm jealous of you."

For the first time on their walk back to school Eva looked at him. "Jealous?" she asked with a frown. "How so?"

"Well, for one, you're intelligent. Like you said, you did outshine me in academics," said Jeremy. "I'm still getting over that. And you connected with Aelita in a way I never could. You've saved her life a couple times in the past. That's something I could never do."

"Sheep dip!" exclaimed Eva. "You've done that for all of us one time or another. Remember when XANA caused the dorm building to collapse with me and Nicolas in it? If it wasn't for you, I don't think that I would be the only one dead. And what about all those times before Kayla and I came around? You're a hero, Jeremy."

Jeremy shrugged. "Then there's your dancing, your capoeira, and your parkour. You're very athletic and I think that you can even give Ulrich a run for his money on the soccer field. I'm just a skinny toothpick."

Eva stepped in front of Jeremy's path and stared him down. Jeremy forced a lump out of his throat.

"Jeremy Belpois," she started in her raspy low voice, "I don't want to hear it. If you want to know, I'm a bit jealous of you."

"Huh?"

"I can't program a computer and I can't create vehicles and virus programs to aid us on our missions. You can. Jeremy, don't go selling yourself short because someone else can do something you can't. You're just as important if not more."

Eva stepped out of his path and the two of them continued back to the school.

"I do have one more question for you," said Jeremy.

Eva glanced at him. "And that would be?"

"Is it true that you and Nicolas Poliakoff are dating?"

Eva whipped her head around and glared at him. "Who told you that?"

"Theo Gauthier," replied Jeremy.

Eva said nothing more and kept walking. Jeremy got the idea. It wasn't any of his business if Eva was dating or not or who she was dating. He did know that he just sold out Theo and there was going to be some painful payment coming his way from Eva tomorrow.