Author's Note: Well, this is it. This concludes the final battle with Aizen. There will be one chapter after this one, an epilogue of sorts, and then My Master's Voice will finally be complete after ten years.

I spent many years wondering how to end this fanfic. There were so many ideas, so many possibilities, but I decided to go with this ending over all of them. I know it strays from the real way Aizen lost the battle but it seemed oddly fitting for this fanfic. This chapter is full of angst but I hope you will read the epilogue.

Thank you all for sticking with me throughout everything. Thank you for all the reviews, all the follows/favorites, and all the support you've given me these past ten years. And to new readers who are reading this fanfic after its completion, thank you for giving this fanfic, and me, a chance.

She had to make a decision. Deep down she knew what she had to do, even if it meant that a sacrifice must be made.

Ulquiorra had punched a hole right through her chest, forcibly removing her beating heart and killing her in cold blood. He hadn't been himself when he killed her, his mind trapped by his human memories which tormented him to sheer insanity, and he had no control over his actions. The Ulquiorra that Orihime had grown to love during her captivity in Las Noches would have never harmed her, that much she knew, but she had seen visions from his human life before and knew he could no longer run from his past. Raikuro, the man he had been when he was human, had accidentally killed his lover, Tsubaki, hundreds of years ago, in a heated rage. He had tried to hide from his past, and Aizen had helped him by locking away his memories until now. Once Aizen released his hold over his tragic memories when he had been a human, Ulquiorra lost himself to the pain of his past and the heartbroken Raikuro had returned to the surface, determined cut down anything in his path to numb the agony tearing at his heart.

Orihime had known that there she was nothing she could say to reach Ulquiorra, but actions were always louder than words. The only way to bring Ulquiorra back would be to make him finally face the truth about what happened to Tsubaki, to remind Raikuro that she was gone no matter how much it killed him on the inside so that he could finally find peace. Tsubaki didn't blame Raikuro for killing her. All those years her spirit just wanted him to be free. She wanted him to forgive himself and find a way to move past it instead of run from it, and the only way to do that for history to repeat itself.

Not once but twice did he kill the love of his life. Feeling Orihime's blood on his cold hands had been enough to bring him back to reality, to force him to accept what he had done in both the past and the present, but the cost had extreme. Her plan had worked; the Ulquiorra she knew and loved was back. He could finally atone for his sins by defeating Aizen, by saving everyone else when all hope was lost, but Aizen was still too much for him to handle on his own.

It wasn't fair. Orihime had given her life so that Ulquiorra could defeat Aizen and save Soul Society, and even the entire land of the living, but it hadn't been enough. He was still too strong for Ulquiorra, too strong for Ichigo Kurosaki, and even too strong for all of Soul Society to fight off.

That is, unless, she made one more sacrifice.

In exchange for sparing Ulquiorra's life, Aizen had asked the girl to heal his wounds. This would have required him to bring her back from the grave so he could call upon her aid one final time. Healing Aizen would have meant that the battle would be over; no one could beat him at his weakest point, so there was no chance of anyone defeating him at his top strength. She'd be sentencing so many people to death by helping Lord Aizen once again, but at least Ulquiorra would be safe. He had promised to spare Ichigo Kurosaki's life, too.

"All right. I'll do it," the ghost of Orihime Inoue told Aizen. A bit of hesitance laced the edges of her voice as she avoided looking him directly in the eyes, but the former king of Las Noches didn't need any further prompting as he prepared to insert the shards of the Hogyoku into her body, ready to raise her from the dead.

Aizen had bent down on one knee, dropping one of the glowing, broken shards into the hole of her chest. He watched with a smirk on his face as the gaping hole began to close up, sealing her heart and the glass shard inside. All the blood that she had lost was returning to her body as the color returned to her pale cheeks. Each of her organs started to repair themselves, and even her once severed heart was now pumping in its rightful place while her lungs began to inflate.

She took one deep breath and her spirit immediately returned to her body.

"Wake up, my princess. It is time we end this fight," Aizen's deep voice lulled her back into consciousness, and soon the girl was opening her silver eyes, once again alive and breathing.

This was the second time Orihime's soul had returned to its body after a traumatic experience, the first time being when she met the Hollow form of her brother, Sora. She expected to be in heaps of pain, or at least a little bit sore after dying in such a horrible manner, but her limbs felt light and refreshed as she slowly sat up. She wasn't dizzy, fatigued, or even sluggish; in fact, she felt better now than before she had died. How was that even possible? Was it because of the Hogyoku?

Aizen had let her have some space as she stood up from the ground on her own, wiping the remnants of sand off of her torn gown.

"You made the right choice, Orihime," Aizen told her. "Since you're being so compliant, I'll go ahead and release Ulquiorra from the Kurohitsugi so you'll know that I'm keeping to my word. You can heal his injuries after you fix me."

When she brought her gaze back up to his face, she saw him snap his fingers, making the black coffin that Ulquiorra had been confined inside disappear in an instant. The spears that had penetrated his body vanished as well, and he fell to the ground roughly. His wings were torn, his body had multiple lacerations, and he couldn't even get back to his feet now that he was lying on the sandy ground.

"Ulquiorra!" Orihime gasped, attempting to push past the man blocking her path so she could run to him. Aizen, however, jerked out an arm and kept her from running forward.

"Not yet, my little flower," the brunette purred against her ear. "Did you not hear what I said? You can heal him after you heal me. We had a deal, didn't we? It'd be a shame if I had to put Ulquiorra back in the Kurohitsugi. I don't think he'd make it after being in there a second time...In fact, he might not even make it as it is if you don't heal him soon. I'd highly recommend you get to work on restoring my body back to its highest strength immediately."

From where she stood, Orihime could see dark blood spurting out from the many injuries Ulquiorra had sustained from Aizen's attack, and it made her tremble with worry. She needed to get to him fast and heal his injuries before he bled out…but there was something she needed to do first.

Aizen was right. It was time to end things.

Her fingers gently touched the hair clips that pulled back her fiery red hair, and a sense of relief washed over her when she felt all the petals were in their proper place. The Hogyoku must have healed her Shun Shun Rikka after Ulquiorra crushed her offensive fairy, Tsubaki, earlier. That was a wondrous thing in itself, and Orihime smiled knowing that each of her fairies were safe, but now it was time to put all of their strength to the test.

"Ayame, Baigon, Hinagiku, Lily, Shunou, Tsubaki," Orihime breathed, saying each of her fairies' names as she placed a gentle hand on Aizen's bare chest. "Lend me your strength…You have the power to reverse time and events, to heal all wounds, and even bring the dead back to life…But now I ask of you to do something else, something we have never done before. I know we can do this…Instead of using our strength to reverse death, it's time for us to cause death…It's time to reject Aizen Sousuke's very existence!"

Before Aizen had any chance to back away, a golden light enveloped the two of them, trapping him in place.

"SOTEN KISSHUN! I REJECT!"

Once the words slipped out of her lips, Aizen's entire body began to disintegrate, his skin crumbling to dust before his very eyes. First, his feet began to turn to ashes that blew into the wind before his legs were swept away shortly after.

"Wh-What?! What are you doing to me?!" He roared, reaching to grab a fistful of her hair, determined to make her stop whatever it was she doing. He was gradually fading out of his existence, his life and body being shredded from reality. "No! It won't end like this! The Hogyoku will not let me die! I refuse to accept such a fate!"

Each member of the Shun Shun Rikka was giving it their all as Orihime channeled all of her energy into this one fatal attack. She winced as Aizen held her hair prisoner but continued to focus all of her attention on completely deleting him from this world. As long as she was standing, he would continue to crumble away into tiny particles.

"You conniving little wench!" Aizen shouted as his thighs began to disappear. In just a few short moments, he would be nothing but a memory. No body, no mind, no soul. There was nothing he could do to change his fate, but that he didn't mean he wasn't going to go down fighting until his very last breath. He released his grip on her hair, only to reach for her throat instead, fingers curling around her delicate skin. "If my story ends here, then yours will end along with me!"

His fingers dug into the sides of her throat, nails clawing painfully into her flesh. She choked against his hand, struggling for breath, but kept her mind focused on her final attack. She had to fight through the pain, struggle through his hold on her throat, and stay awake and alert until there was nothing left of him, lest she risk the Hogyoku undoing her powerful spell.

Aizen's grip tightened even more around her neck, threatening to crush her windpipe, until a powerful blast of Cero tore through the arm he was using to choke her, releasing his grasp on her.

Ulquiorra was lying on the ground, his hand held up in the air, as he offered the healer his assistance. He watched as the hand holding Orihime's neck prisoner was completely burned away to nothing thanks to his Cero. Once Orihime could breathe normally again, she continued to finish the job as the golden aura surrounding her and Aizen burned even brighter.

"I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED! IT'S NOT OVER! DO YOU HEAR ME?!" Aizen's voice carried throughout the night air of Hueco Mundo until his face started to diminish away into nothingness. The last thing Orihime saw was a panicked look in Aizen's eyes before there was nothing but dust where he had once been standing. His existence had been successfully erased from reality, the Hogyoku completely vanishing from this world along with him.

When the incantation was over, Orihime fell to her knees, breathless and unsteady, as she finally tried to cough after nearly being choked to death by Aizen's merciless grasp. She looked up to see Ulquiorra slowly approaching her, and a smile spread across her face.

He was still alive. She had beaten Aizen and saved her lover.

Ichigo Kurosaki, although he had lost all his powers, was safe now, too, and it even looked like Gin Ichimaru was still breathing after suffering a few major injuries from his former partner. She could only hope that the Gotei 13 were successful in putting a stop to the other Espada's attack, but something told her they were doing just fine.

It was time to go home, to put Aizen and his evil reign in the past. She continued to watch Ulquiorra come towards her, her heart fluttering with happiness, until she saw one of his batlike wings turn to dust, just like Aizen's entire had done moments prior.

"Ul…quiorra?" Orihime choked out, finding it difficult to speak. She watched as he fell to his knees as the horns atop of his head slowly began to dissipate into the air.

Something was wrong. Her attack was only supposed to negate Aizen's existence, not any of the other Espada's! He was slowly disappearing, slowly fading out of his existence, and she needed to undo it all before it was too late.

She forced herself to stagger to her feet so she could run to him. As she weakly ran towards him, she kept telling herself that everything was fine. He had been gravely injured by Aizen's Kido spell, but she was still the best healer in all the realms. Whatever injury Aizen had dealt could easily be reversed, and soon he would be back to his normal self.

When Orihime was only a few feet from him, she shouted out, "Soten Kisshun! I reject!"

The Shun Shun Rikka were still in their physical forms outside of the hair pins, floating in the air beside her. They had followed her while she sprinted towards Ulquiorra, but Shunou and Ayame were not obeying her commands; they were not surrounding him in a veil of light.

Confused, Orihime turned her head to look at the fairies flying by her head. "What's going on? Did you not hear what I said?" She asked impatiently. "I said…Soten Kisshun! I reject!"

Ayame and Shunou looked at each other with solemn expressions before turning back to their mistress. "I…I'm sorry, Orihime," Ayame said in a soft voice. "But…But we are unable to perform any magic at this time."

Orihime's heart slammed against her ribcage as panic surged through her. "Wh-What do you mean?! We can still save him! Come on! Just do one last spell….Soten Kisshun! I reject!"

The two fairies remained in place, but it was Tsubaki's turn to speak.

"You have exhausted all of your reiatsu into negating Aizen's existence," he tried to explain. "We literally cannot do a damned thing. We're just like Ichigo Kurosaki right now—completely drained of all power."

The girl turned away from the Shun Shun Rikka to stare down at a fatally injured Ulquiorra. The ground beneath him was covered in blood and he could barely manage to sit up on his knees. He opened his mouth to try and speak, but there was a gaping hole where one of Aizen's spears had severely damaged his vocal chords. Even an Espada couldn't regenerate themselves after an attack like that; Aizen had put everything into that Kido spell, making it the deadliest attack he had ever conjured up.

Orihime fell to the ground beside him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He was disintegrating away from her slowly, his body melting into dust, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"Ulquiorra! I'm…I'm so sorry!" She choked out a sob, holding him close to her. His blood was soaking into her clothing, covering her in crimson as she leaned her forehead against him. "Please…Please don't leave me! Not when I finally got you back! Please, just stay with me! We can go find Unohana, or maybe even Kisuke Urahara, and we can save you! There has to be something somebody can do!"

Although Ulquiorra was in immense pain, he didn't let it show on his face. Instead he just smiled at her and pulled away just a bit so he could get one final look at her face. He pushed some of her long, copper hair out from her eyes, noticing the heavy tears that poured down her cheeks like waterfalls. "Ori…Hime…" He tried to speak but his voice sounded rough and scratchy. This was going to be the last time he'd ever get to talk to her, so he wanted to make his words count.

"I'm…So proud of you…" He muttered out, attempting to dry her damp cheeks with his hand. "You defeated Aizen when none of us…could…You saved everyone."

His words were like a thousand needles jabbing into her heart. "No, you're wrong. I didn't save everyone! I couldn't save you!"

In the end, she knew she couldn't sacrifice the lives of everyone she knew just to save Ulquiorra. When she first decided to betray Aizen, she hadn't been positive that she would even be capable of erasing someone out of existence. She had put everything on the line, taking a risk far greater than her own life, in hopes of destroying Aizen Sousuke once and for all.

And it had worked. By god, it had worked. Between Ichigo Kurosaki's Final Getsuga Tenshou, and the combined efforts of Ulquiorra and Gin, she had turned Aizen's weakness against him and killed him.

Ulquiorra, however, had finally succumbed to his injuries. Aizen's final attack, the Kurohitsugi, had defeated him, and he had just enough strength to blast off that bastard's arm so Orihime could do the one thing she had been meant to do all this time.

He was still smiling up at her as he grew lighter and lighter in her arms as more parts of him flaked away into the night air. All this time Orihime had just wanted to see him smile, but why, of all times, was he choosing now to smile?

"You…Saved me a long time ago," he reminded her. If it wasn't for her, he'd have remained a slave to Lord Aizen's rule up until the very end. She had shown him what the heart was and where it could be found, and no gift was better than that. "The heart…is such a painful thing to have…But it's also the most precious thing in the world…Thank you for showing me that I still had one, after all this time…"

She was losing him. "Ulquiorra, please! Please don't leave me! I need you…I don't want to be without you."

He wanted to tell her that he would always be there with her, that he'd always be inside her heart, but he didn't get the chance. The winds of Hueco Mundo picked up and with one final breeze, the rest of his body withered away to ashes, and his remains joined the moon and the sky.

"Ulquiorra! ULQUIORRA!" Orihime howled, her screams piercing through the stillness of the night air. She keeled over, clutching her chest as she sobbed over the loss of her beloved, the pain too much for her fragile heart to bear. There was nothing left of him for her to hold onto, and no matter how many times she tried repeating her healing incantation, there was nothing she could do to bring him back to her.

"Soten Kissun…Soten Kisshun…Soten Kisshun…" She mumbled to herself over and over in between coughs and hysterics. She wasn't sure how long she sat there kneeling on the sands, praying to the gods that her powers be somehow miraculously restored to her so she could undo Ulquiorra's fate, but the Shun Shun Rikka were completely sapped of all power. Orihime was nothing more than an ordinary human girl now, and no amount of praying, chanting, or believing would change what happened to Ulquiorra Schiffer.

He was gone.

Orihime had cried herself to the point of exhaustion until a figure came up behind her, gently trying to pull her away from the spot where she had last seen Ulquiorra. "Orihime…Come on, it's time to go…" Gin Ichimaru told her in a gentle voice as he knelt down beside her, fingertips brushing against her arm.

Jerking away the arm he had tried to touch, Orihime shook her head, her hair falling over her face and keeping her eyes hidden. She couldn't even bring herself to speak as she just continued to sob.

"We need to get Ichigo Kurosaki back to Karakura Town. You may have any healing powers, but you can still save your friend. I don't think it's a good idea for him to stay in Hueco Mundo too much longer," the silver-haired Shinigami said, trying to reach out to her. He had placed a gentle hand on her back, sitting beside her on the sand.

She slowly lifted her head, looking at him through misty, bloodshot eyes. Gin wasn't in the best of shape, either. Aizen had done a number on him, and although he could walk and stand, he needed to get to a healer soon.

"Go…Go on without me," she sniffed, not ever bothering to wipe the tears away from her face. "I want to stay here…in case my powers return…"

Gin frowned. He wanted to tell her that her powers would never return, but couldn't bring himself to crush the tiny bit of hope she was clinging to. "If your powers return, we can come back here whenever you want. I saw the way you destroyed Aizen without any hesitation, so if you were able to kill him with your powers, I'm sure you'll be able to restore Ulquiorra's life no matter where you are. But for now, you need to come with me back to Karakura Town."

There was a certain brokenness in her eyes, and as much as Gin wanted to believe that there was a way she could bring Ulquiorra back, he knew the truth. She must have sensed that he was lying just to reassure her, but she said nothing about it as she finally let him help her to her feet.

"Let's get you and Ichigo home, Orihime," he said, reaching for her hand. "It's what Ulquiorra would have wanted."