As the dust cleared, Aizen took in several shaky breaths. His hands clenched and unclenched at the air around them, the touch of his beloved Cherry no longer there. He slowly looked down, seeing the shattered remnants of his beloved. Before he could react, before he could begin to mourn, he was put on the defensive. Yhwach rushed at him, bringing down his sword and pushing him back. Aizen barely managed to block in time, and made a half-hearted to go on the offensive. It was no use - his morale was shattered by the loss of his true love, and it bled into his technique. Every strike he made, Yhwach parried, every feint, Yhwach saw through.
'Dammit, I can't keep up with him at this rate (is it even worth it?). I need to find a way to get past his defenses (but why - why should I bother?).' Suddenly, Aizen was thrown into a wall by the force of Yhwach's blows. Taking advantage of the dust, he quickly shunpoed to the Quincy Emperor's side, placing a hand above his heart. "Hado #63, Raikōhō." The lightning shot out of his hand, searing the side of the Quincy Emperor. For a brief moment, Aizen thought he was gaining headway. Then he felt it - the sensation of steel piercing his side. Aizen looked down, and saw the Quincy King's sword piercing his abdomen - the sight was quickly followed by the megalomaniac slamming his palm into Aizen's chest, sending him flying back into a pile of debris.
"So, this is all the great Aizen Sōsuke is capable of? I'm disappointed." Yhwach summoned his bow, and called upon the reishi around him to create a giant arrow. Within seconds, it was flying at Aizen, ready to pierce his heart and end his life. Aizen took in a steady breath, ready to meet his fate. 'Cherry, my dear Cherry, I'm sorry I couldn't avenge you.' As the arrow flew at him, the colors of reality seemed to grow dull, and time came to a stop. Then, Aizen heard a voice he never thought he would hear again: "Really Sōsuke. You've given up so easily?"
Sōsuke opened his eyes, and was greeted by the sight of shattered mirrors. He stood up and took the in sight of the house of mirrors that made up his inner world. "It's, it's been so long..." Before he could reflect upon it more, he was sent reeling back by a punch to his nose. He gripped the now bleeding appendage, and looked down to see a sullen five-year-old girl with a messy mop of blond hair and blue eyes. "Kyōka Suigetsu. It's been awhile. How are you here?"
"I live here you dumb shit. The question you need to be asking yourself how you're here."
"Well, I was on death's door, and I assume that you pulled me back to this place," he said, gesturing to the hall of broken mirrors around him. "What I don't understand is how you're still alive, or how you managed to pull me back to my inner world. You only should have been able to do that once, 150 years ago, when I first heard you, and furthermore, you were destroyed when the Hōgyoku began to regenerate me after I was hit by Kurosaki." Kyōka Suigetsu smirked before bursting out into laughter. "No, no I wasn't destroyed. By the time you had managed to attain your final form, you were no longer able to hear me - you had rejected my powers in favor of the Hōgyoku. The only reason my shikai continued to stay released was the amount of power that the Hōgyoku was pumping into your Zanpakutō. Once that energy was no longer there, my shikai had nothing to sustain itself, and simply disintegrated. I was able to pull you back here because of your inability to hear me, and because, as angry as I am with you right now, you do need my help."
"What do I need your help with now? It's over, we've lost. Within moments, Yhwach's arrows will kill us." Kyōka Suigetsu suddenly jumped onto Sōsuke and looked him straight in the eye. "Sōsuke, why did you set out to overthrow the Soul King."
"So I could fill the unbearable vacancy in hea-"
"WRONG! You may have been able to fool everyone else with that lie, Sōsuke, but not me. Now tell me the truth; why did you set out to overthrow the Soul King."
"I... I did it for him." Sōsuke said meekly.
"You did it for who?"
"Him. I did it for him... I did it for Cherry."
"And why did you do it for Cherry?"
"Because so many others would reject him, would reject our love. No one else would understand the difficulties of being the spirit of furniture, and no one else would appreciate what he managed to be in spite of that. How wonderful and caring he was, his intelligence, his offbeat sense of humor - no one else would appreciate him. So I strove to give him the very best, even if that meant overthrowing the Soul King, and giving him the Soul King's throne." Sōsuke let his tears fall to the ground, listening to the mirrors around him crack even more. "And now he's gone... Gone forever."
"And are you just going to sit there and let the bastard that killed him get away with this? Are you not even going to try to avenge him?"
"What can I do? I'm just one man."
"Sōsuke, I want you to extend your senses to the Dangai. Tell me what you feel there." Sōsuke did as he was told, and reached into the Dangai, where he felt him: Kurosaki Ichigo. "Kurosaki..."
"On your own, you might not be able to defeat Yhwach, but with Kurosaki, we can put this bastard back where he belongs - in the ground." Sōsuke stared down at the ground before him, pondering with Kyōka Suigetsu had said. "I'll need your help. And we'll need to find a way for me to channel your powers - I don't have an asauchi."
"I think the Hōgyoku will do nicely." Sōsuke got up, and prepared to head back to the real world. "Very well. It's time to make the bastard pay."
"Then go Sōsuke. Alter their realities, manipulate the weak, redirect the strong. Break down the barriers between the imagined and the real. Shatter the ideas of truth and falsehoods. My name is..."
Yhwach smirked as his arrow flew towards Aizen, on course to penetrate his heart. Soon, the so-called mastermind would be dead, and all that would remain would be Kurosaki. Victory was his. Then, the unexpected happened. A column of dark energy erupted from Aizen, causing his arrow to dissipate, and pushing Yhwach back. The next thing he saw, Aizen was on his feet again, his wounds healed, and the Hōgyoku glowing brightly. "I really must thank you for destroying those restraints. I am now able to use my power freely."
"Impossible, you were on the verge of death!"
"My power just needed some time to wake up is all, speaking of which... Shatter, Kyōka Suigetsu!" Yhwach tried to shield his eyes, but it was too late. "A shame you did not take my shikai's release into account when you activated your all-sight. Oh well, you'll have plenty of time to reflect on that in hell!" The next thing Yhwach knew, he was being put on the defensive, with AIzen's every strike forcing him to call upon more and more power just to stay alive. It was only through sheer luck that he noticed Kurosaki and Abarai enter the battlefield. He would need every ounce of his power to win this fight.
As Sōsuke pushed the Emperor back, he prepared illusions to help Kurosaki and Abarai kill the man. There would soon be a time to mourn what had happened, but now was not the time. Now was a time of conflict, of vengeance. 'Cherry, I will never forget you, and I will make sure that the Quincy King suffers for what he did to you.' The final scene of the Thousand-Year Blood War had begun.