Title: One drop in the ocean

Date first posted: 28/04/2013

Author(s): Rael Orion

Summary: As Aizen's power rises even higher than he thought possible, he comes to realize just how strong an opponent he is facing. Alternate final battle between Aizen and Ichigo. Surprise ending, I think. Spoilers up to chapter 421/Deicide 23

Main pairing(s): n/a

Main character(s): Sosuke, Ichigo, Kisuke

Genre(s): kinda Suspense

Time period: Deicide 21/ Chapter 419

Rating: Pretty sure it's T.

Warning(s): Violence? Barely.

Completion status: Complete

Word count: 1933 words. Damn, wanted more.

Chapters: 1/1

As he felt the rush of power course through his veins ,Aizen Sosuke felt elated. This was it. After all this time, all these years spent plotting, masquerading amongst prideful shinigamis, ruling over foolish arrancars, going through a scheme so perfect that nothing, bar a few ultimately insignificant details, had foiled it.

He had achieved perfection.

As the pain faded, and the blood covering him trailed down his body and the cliff upon which he was perched, he relished the immense energy he now wielded. It was really incomparable. He knew now without a doubt that he could do anything. There was nothing he could not accomplish. No foe he could not vanquish. Nothing he could not destroy. Nowhere he could not go.

Power rolled off him in waves, pure and unleashed. The rational part of his mind urged him to control his own power, that it would be even more powerful when under precise control, while the rest of his being insisted that it would be pointless. After all, what use could it serve when he was already above everything? None.

Still, he had not come so far, become such a godlike entity by being careless. He forcefully stomped out his enthusiasm, and the sole thought of being enthusiast about something seemed ridiculous to him, and he flexed his commendable willpower over his being. It took several moments of concentration to bring all his power under control, a true testament to just how much he had gained, and once all of it was securely held within his grasp, the jolt he'd felt earlier almost doubled and he almost let it all out again in his euphoria. Almost.

He looked at his hands. Or hand, rather, as one had changed to a sharp, black blade. He flexed his lone hand with the slightest of frowns but shrugged it off; cosmetic beauty held no sway over power. He traced his hand over his face and restrained another frown. His hand traced lower to his chest where he felt the gaping hole. Reaching into it, his uncovered teeth settled into a disturbing smile as he felt the Hogyoku brush against his blackened skin. Such a small, nonthreatening object and yet it had given him so much raw power.

Had he become vain in his newfound superiority? Was this why his current appearance displeased him? Or had he always been like this? It was a possibility, he thought idly. Such pride would have only hindered him before.

He briefly flexed the appendages on his back to find that apart from the head-like protrusions at their tips, the wings had suffered no important changes.

As the Hogyoku pulsed within his chest and sent another shock of power up his spine, he started to shake ever-so-slightly in glee as he finally deigned to look in the direction of the boy standing several meters down and away from him. His eyes and smile widened and a cackle racked his throat when he saw that he had not budged a single inch, his eyes still staring disinterestedly, dispassionately, at him, unaffected by his grand transformation.

In a spur of the moment, he sent a surge of energy to the mouth-like protrusion of his upper right wing, which opened to form a ball of energy, much like a 'cero', in its maw. It took a brief moment to charge before the wing reared back and then chucked the attack straight at the immobile teen.

Upon contact, a huge shockwave of wind blasted in all directions as a pillar of flames engulfed him. Aizen waited with a halted breath- such power!- as the inferno continued to rage before a small gap in the flames allowed him to see the orange-haired teen, arm outstretched, looking as though nothing noteworthy was happening from the look in his eyes.

With speed he could barely believe he even had, Aizen rushed through the gap, seizing the black clad teen by the throat and pushing him through and out of the tower of fire, which extinguished soon after. Holding him above the great crater he'd just made, Aizen looked at the unmoving boy in his grasp, his eyes shadowed by his grown locks of hair. As his wing-mouths, all six of them, recreated the same orb of destruction he'd just let loose, he could not resist the urge to taunt the boy, mocking his efforts for which he had only gained a charred and useless left arm.

"It's over, Kurosaki Ichigo!"

And then...

Faster than he could comprehend, the teen, Ichigo, had blasted him away with a swipe of his sword, simultaneously disrupting all the spheres of destruction surrounding him. Aizen floated back to the edge of the crater, mind uncomprehending as he stared at his enemy. What just happened?

Tendrils of black energy- spiritual energy!- began to manifest around Ichigo, leaving Aizen shocked. It was impossible! He couldn't sense anything from the boy! And the nagging voice at the end of his head, which proposed the theory that Ichigo had done to him what he'd done to the lesser shinigamis, rise above their awareness level, refused to be stomped down.

Aizen let out a howl of rage as he manifested his power, every single bit of it, around himself, refusing to be outdone.

Suddenly, all sound died in his throat as his form stilled. His eyes, as wide open as they'd ever be, stared into nothingness. He felt it.

A drop of water into the ocean.

That was it. That was all he was. That was the peak of hundreds of years of hard work. All he'd ever done amounted to this very moment and he fell short. So terribly, terribly short. His unfocused eyes slowly wandered into the knowing ones of the man in front of him, and he realized that Ichigo knew. From the very beginning.

Sosuke Aizen, for all that he was and for all the power that he'd amassed, was nothing more than a drop of water in the ocean of power that Kurosaki Ichigo had at his disposal.

His knees shook. His whole body soon followed. No. This couldn't possibly be happening. He'd been toyed with since before the battle even started? No, it couldn't be.

But how could it not be so? He could feel it; the power. There was no denying it. It was real. All of this was real. He was nothing. His pride, his confidence, all washed away in moments. Legs trembling, he looked up to see the eyes of his foe, looking down at him as a god would look down upon the most mundane of the mundane, or at least that was what Aizen felt, crushed as he was under the pressure of his power.

A sharp spike and Aizen could suddenly breathe again.

It took his addled mind several moments to identify the source of the change in pressure, the sudden intake of air in his lungs as he took a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He looked at the figure standing in the middle of raging black waves of energy for several moments before they subsided and he got a good look at the man, who he recognized belatedly as Ichigo. He looked uncomprehendingly at his new form, black energy he could see but not feel, before it dawned upon him yet again as he fell to his knees.

Was this it? Was this really it? Again? At the apex of his power, he'd finally understood that his adversary had been, literally, on a whole other level than him. And now, he could even go beyond that? From the moment he'd seen him in that town, he already had the means to rise so far above him?

Aizen laughed. Not the hysterical laugh of someone who finally snapped, nor the disillusioned cackle he'd made earlier. He laughed because he'd been beaten, on every possible level. Because no matter how much more power he could possibly grow into, Kurosaki Ichigo would always be several steps ahead. Because his whole existence had just lost all meaning.

As his laughter subsided to low chuckles, the soft thuds of bare feet on earth sounded before him. His clouded gaze focused upon the god in front of him, clad in dark blue bandages that covered all the way to his nose and shrouded in a wispy black cloak. His long, spiky black hair flowed unrestrainedly in the breeze of his own power and his bloody amber eyes, glowing with power, looked down on his kneeling form with a wisdom he would have never expected to see there.

His chuckles seized and he looked up in the eyes of the man who had defeated him. Neither flinched when a white light surrounded Aizen, returning him to his former appearance. The Hogyoku fell off his chest cavity as it sealed itself shut. Both looked at the other, locked in a silent conversation.

Urahara Kisuke arrived to this scene. He stood to the side, not daring to make a sound at the most unexpected happenings before him. This went on for several long moments, each minutes making the scientist even more nervous at the lack of any movements. He was about to break the silence when Ichigo- for the black-haired man standing in front of Aizen could only be the substitute death god- took two steps back. Kisuke was instantly on guard, hundreds of scenarios playing at once in his mind as he saw Aizen stand on one knee. His nervousness turned to panic when he saw him reaching for the Hogyoku laying at his feet.

However, Kisuke stilled when Ichigo raised his hand in his direction, stopping him. Kisuke briefly considered making a dash for it anyway before uncomfortably shifting in place as he decided not to. He'd trust that Ichigo knew what he was doing; it was the least he could do after all he'd done for him, for them, for everyone. He just hoped it wouldn't be misplaced.

Ichigo lowered his arm, having never lifted his eyes from Aizen as he slowly, reverently picked up the tiny round crystal from the ground. The brown-haired man looked at it for an instant, eyes unfocused, before, to Kisuke's complete shock, he bowed his head and lifted the Hogyoku in his hand above his head.

Ichigo looked at Aizen for several seconds, unmoving. His face, half-covered by bandages as it was, revealed nothing from his thoughts, and Kisuke kept shifting his eyes between the two unmoving powerhouses in front of him in utter confusion. Finally, after what seemed to be hours of tense silence, Ichigo reached for the Hogyoku and took it from Aizen's hands. He studied it with a disinterested glance before throwing it carelessly in Kisuke's direction, who almost dropped it in surprise before he placed it securely into one of his clothes' many inner pockets.

Minutes passed again in an incredibly uncomfortable silence as Aizen lowered his arms and Kisuke waited with bated breath, expecting, hoping, for his hidden seal to activate at any moment.

"Aizen Sosuke."

The sudden words startled Kisuke, who looked at Ichigo in surprise and curiosity, while he was secretly glad the awkward silence was finally broken.

"What is your answer."

Kisuke was puzzled at this, not knowing what the question had been. He also started to wonder about the unnatural maturity and calmness Ichigo was showing. He'd have to ask him about it later but for now, he locked his attention on Aizen, who hadn't moved an inch. As Aizen's mouth opened, Kisuke paid rapt attention to him.

"I now live to serve you."

Kisuke choked on his own spit.

"Master."

Author's note

I got goosebumps writing the end. =D

Little something that went through my mind. The original idea was much shorter but I liked how I fleshed it out. Hoped you liked the surprise ending.

Edit (2018-04-11): Someone once asked the nature of the new relationship between Ichigo and Aizen. I liken it to 'Noblesse'' Raizel and Frankenstein's relationship(Master and servant/butler).

Because I felt like it.