A/N: Part of the wonderful Seven Sins Works the FoxPack threw together as a celebration of the anniversary of Bleach. Got some Inspiration from timewaster123456789's 'Underbelly' work, especially 'Inferno'. (Go check it out now!) I'll mark the exact part down below with a *.

Italic - direct Quotes from Canon, Poems by Tite Kubo.

Title - taken from Bleach, chapter 399-421.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Bow to our almighty King! Long live, Tite Kubo!


Deicide - Immortality (by Salazar Marvolo)

'Since the beginning, no one has ever stood in the heavens. Neither you, nor me, not even God himself. But that unbearable vacancy in the throne of heaven shall be filled. From this day forth, I shall stand in heaven.'

oOoOoOo

It had taken time. Time and infallible planning to gather his Espada – his ten swords, willing to be wielded by only him. His power, his leadership, his charisma, his promises, had drawn them in like moths to a flame.

Rage, Solitude, Time, Sacrifice, Emptiness, Despair, Destruction, Intoxication, Madness and Greed.

Motivations so easily molded to his will, changed as needed and adapted when possible.

Ready for him to use.

Like he had used everybody – everything – around him to gain an advantage. No matter the cost, no matter the lives lost, if it brought him closer, even closer to his goal.

But patience was of the essence. Time was a valuable good. Easily wasted, and even easier lost. He strived not for fame, or wealth…not even power, even though it was rudimentary to achieve his goal. But time. Infinite time. The lifespan of a god. The goal.

A human, a Hollow, a Shinigami.

What were their lives worth in comparison to his achievements? Their suffering and anguish in the face of a rising God? Who were they if not meaningless ants awaiting their fate?

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'It's very difficult for me to step on an ant without crushing it.'

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But it had started long before that. Before even the creation of the first Espada. Before Kisuke Urahara should create what would become the one mean to the end he wished to achieve. Before the pendulum swung backwards. Yes, it had started the second he had opened his eyes to a world that was lost.

Unforgiving, cruel, cold.

Lost.

The world was nothing more than kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Live or die. His young eyes had seen too much, too early. Had seen death and birth, blood and healing. And other than most around him – he understood. Understood the universal truth that was life.

If you want to live - live a life without fear or blood or death - you either died trying or grew strong enough to keep what is rightfully yours.

Your life. Your blood. Your fearlessness.

For there was no reason to fear in a world that held none, was there? Why then had God created fear? Or blood? Or death? If he was good…Should he not wish for his creations to live on? And if he was omnipotent should he not make it so?

But his young eyes had seen and learned.

There was no true God in this world. No salvation for those too weak to protect what was theirs. The thing that was playing at being God, vile and cruel in it's ruling held no life, no reason. It was and existed - this so-called 'Soulking'.

He strived to be different. To walk through life with those ever-seeing eyes and witness the truth of everything in order to own it – make it his – and ultimately change it. For he knew that he could, because his eyes could see the 'truth'. And he could be what the current 'God' never was.

Yes, it was long before Kisuke Urahara should create the Hogyoku that Aizen Sousuke decided to rise above all.

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'A victor must speak not of the current state of the world, but of how it should rightfully be.'

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There had been mistakes, small and insignificant in the ultimate scheme but still…undoubtedly there. He counted the Vizard among them.

A lapse of judgement on his part.

He had known of course, of his Captains suspicions, of the true reason he was allowed to remain at his side. Shinji Hirako had never been a man of subtleties, always too bright, too outstanding to fall beneath the radar of any being in his vicinity. It had been the same for Sousuke, he was aware of the stares – calculating and piercing. He was aware of his Captain wherever he went. His suspicion easily bleeding into their interactions, their steps, their postures.

Sousuke had played his part well. There hadn't been a single Shinigami questioning his motives, doubting his smiles, waiting for the façade to drop. Not a single Shinigami – but Hirako Shinji.

And so, he had been eradicated, through an admittedly unexpected outcome to a flawlessly executed plan. He had originally planned on experimenting on those first few Shinigami of the ninth that would come to investigate the scene, luck had been on his side when not only his dear Captain, but also one Urahara Kisuke had shown up.

A nuisance and a hinderance – dealt with on the same day.

Their escape had been unexpected, if not surprising. Yoruichi Shihoin had always held an unnatural fondness for the founder of the Research and Development Department – a weakness to be noted for the future. Had he known the father of the Hogyoku would not only take the orb with him but hide it well, he would have done more to stop them from their escape.

Truly…a lapse of judgement.

For he should have known that Kisuke Urahara, armed with a truly frightening intellect, would be the second man to question his mask.

None other ever doubted him. After all, he had been among a great many Shinigami through the whole 'tragedy', his supposed involvement falling on deaf ears as his alibi stood without question.

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'Any betrayal you can see is trivial, what is truly frightening and much more lethal, is the betrayal you cannot see.'

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It must have been a shock. When he had shown his true face. There on Sougyoku Hill, the bleeding Ryouka at his feet and the Hogyoku in his hands, untouchable to the Shinigami he had played and betrayed as he retreated to the realm of his Espada - his ten swords. What a sight it had been. All of them standing with disbelief on their faces, as even those still questioning the truth of Isane Kotetsu's words stood witness to his treason.

An unknown strain had been lifted that day, no more need to mask his true intentions and desires, no more need to conceal his power. Keeping the face of warmth and sympathy had been a task demanding a surprising amount of energy, yet he had withstood. For patience was of the essence. Change was not something achieved over the course of days, no it came like a creeping illness, starting with an ache in your bones and working its way into your heart – into your head.

Time was something he wielded with care.

He knew of its fleetingness, the speed of a hummingbird's wings similar to the lifetime of some unfortunate souls – yet, the day he rose to become God, time would be his to mold.

No death. No blood. No fear.

He would be the tailcoat the powerless hung onto. His name the one to leave their lips when they uttered a meaningless prayer upon their deathbed. A vicious circle of beings searching for someone stronger than themselves to rely their weight upon. And he would shoulder it. Would gladly carry the weight of their world if it gave him the power he desired, if it gave him the time he deserved. For there was no amount of gold and possession more valuable than time. Some wish for prosperity and power in the name of wealth and fame; but his 'truth', his greed, his fault, laid in his wish to wield time itself.

Stop and rewind as he wished.

Immortality.

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'All creatures want to believe in something bigger than themselves. They cannot live without blind obedience. And to escape the pressure of that trust, those in whom faith is placed in turn look for someone higher than themselves. And then those people, in turn, look for someone even stronger. That is how all Kings are born. That is how all Gods are born.'

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His quest for power, surpassed by a mere boy. An experiment created by him, ironically enough to fill the time. Never would he have thought that a mismatched creation like him could rise to such heights. The power the boy wielded with such ease and natural grace unbecoming of the destruction it was causing.*

How? How could he have failed? All he had wished for, all he had wanted, was time. To wield as he saw fit. To change the world into a place that wasn't filled with death and blood and fear. He had longed for it from the day he had opened his eyes.

Watching those around him run out of time again and again and again. Their lives as fleeting as the beat of a hummingbird's wing.

But he had been different. Superior.

In power and intellect and 'truth'.

For he had searched and drawn and molded the people he needed...to achieve his goal. His greed knowing no bounds as he had taken what was offered and that which wasn't. But he had never played them. Never told them that he could be trusted, even his Espada - his ten swords - had never been asked to trust him, the only thing he commanded being their obedience and companionship. But sadly, not many have the strength to follow without trust.

He would have become a god to pray to, to sing praise to, but a god that rarely answered. For he was above them all. And what were the lives of a Human, a Hollow, a Shinigami? Fleeting specks of dust in the grand scheme of existence. A sand corn in the hourglass of life. And he was to be the hand that guided said hourglass twisting and turning to prevent it from ever running out.

Before darkness claimed him, he wondered.

Had he achieved his goal?

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'Time usually encroached from behind, raising a howl as it flows and ebbs away. Give up. As time seems to wash away your exquisite past and tears away your fangs. Do not look forward, your hope encroaches from behind. There is nothing but darkness in the muddy stream.'

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The darkness of Muken is said to eat you alive, a darkness so black it can blind your eyes. Brown eyes that held: No regret, no remorse, no guilt.

For he had done what he had opened his eyes for. And he would wait. All 20,000 years.

For patience was of the essence. And what were the lives of a Human, a Hollow, a Shinigami in the face of the lifetime of a God?

Immortality.

For not even the darkness of Muken will be able to eradicate those striving to become God.


* inspired by timewaster123456789 fanfic 'Underbelly' - 'Inferno'