Characters: Szayel-Apporo
Summary: The greatest thing to fear is the one who always watches.
Pairings: None
Warnings/Spoilers: spoilers for Hueco Mundo arc
Timeline: pre-Hueco Mundo arc
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
He's always watching, the one so flamboyant but somehow almost impossible to notice from the shadows. There's a simple explanation for that: Szayel-Apporo Granz's flamboyance is little more than an act, a cover for the reality that working from the shadows affords far more opportunities for working in peace.
But most can tell, even if they don't know who it is who watches them, that there are eyes following them around, everywhere they go. Las Noches is a den of paranoia for a reason, and all Arrancar there know that without their guards raised and senses on full alert they may find themselves writhing on the ground or trapped in some dark, dank place with no escape.
They all know what happened to Neliel. Something comparable can happen to them just as easily.
Szayel doesn't mind being the cause of such fear. If anything, he relishes it. He has always thrived on fear and the ominous threat of violence; from it he came, and to it he shall return, though in a way he can not foresee and suspects he won't like.
So these people are frightened of him.
Good.
Everyone needs something to fear, and why not fear the one who always knows where they are, what they're doing and the time and their motives behind doing it? There is nothing more worthy of fear, Szayel knows, than the one who always knows what you're doing. Perhaps that is why Aizen takes such an interest in Szayel's surveillance systems.
No one notices the watcher, though all know, instinctively, that he is there.
No one ever notices the worm, inching its way along a cool, dry path, leaving trails behind it.
But it is waiting for the moment when those around it forget it is there.
Then, when there will be no resistance, it will strike.