Splitting from the middle of Episode 65, Final Round. What if William wasn't captured?
"William? Are you okay?" Aelita had finally reached William after being separated by a sudden wall. William was getting up from the floor, recovering from the scyphozoa. He suddenly turned around, the eye of XANA plainly visible. Aelita immediately backed up, charging up an energy field in each hand. William was able to deflect the first one with his sword, the second one colliding. He fell back to the floor. "Jeremie, we have to devirtualize William," Aelita explained. "A possessed warrior is too much of a threat. We can't afford to risk it." Jeremie briefly thought it over and agreed. "Go ahead Aelita. I'll try and contact Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi again." Aelita charged up another energy field and hurled it toward William as he was recovering, devirtualizing him before any major damage could occur.
William was recreated in the scanners, and exhausted from his first trip. All he remembered being captured by the scyphozoa, and then reappearing in the scanners. Aelita changed direction and headed for the core chamber. Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd were each able to arrive nearly as Aelita entered the core chamber. By the time she had arrived, Lyoko's core had already lost a shield. There was a massive amount of creepers in the chamber. She began picking them off, one by one, progressing up the spiral. The ones further up continued to fire, no longer in simultaneous fashion. The remaining Lyoko warriors arrived shortly after Aelita was devirtualized, after withstanding several blows from creepers. They followed in Aelita's footsteps, killing off creepers.
Outside, Aelita and William watched over Jeremie's shoulder. The second layer blew, and the creepers were beginning to peck at Lyoko itself, corrupting files. There were simply too many creepers to handle. The program to find Franz Hopper had popped up, distracting them from the health of the core. As the program ran, it was interrupted by a fatal warning: The core of Lyoko had been destroyed. Jeremie began quickly entering the code for devirtualization, as the Lyoko warriors watched the world fall apart from inside. There were small bugs first, collision errors, texture glitching, latency. Followed by more serious errors, such as the sudden absence of anyone's models. Eventually, Lyoko collapsed. the core detonated, like a monster being destroyed. There was a massive surge of energy, and then a massive influx of energy being stripped away. If anyone had been outside of Sector Five they would've seen the outside of Lyoko - the physical membrane separating it from the World Network - Being pulled into the core, as if it were a black hole. The membrane was violently torn apart, a hollow ball collapsing in on itself. The digital sea began gushing in. As the warriors were rematerialized, as XANA called back his monsters, Sector Five ceased to exist, as did Lyoko. The only physical hint that it ever existed being an area in the World Network oddly devoid of architecture.
Franz Hopper was not rematerialized, there was not enough time. William felt awful and guilty, even though his actual involvement was minimal. Anger was briefly taken out on William. He defended himself that he was brought in to a fatal situation on his first trip. Aelita defended him with the fact that she too, fell victim to the scyphozoa, several times. It wasn't his fault. Dispelled of blame, on anyone, they headed to the Hermitage to mourn the presumed death of Franz Hopper. Their mourning was cut short by a message - he was still alive. The fight against XANA would continue, XANA having merely bought time, rather than capturing a very powerful pawn.
