PROLOUGUE
Darkness.
Once we were one
Now we are two
The Darkness betrayed me, banished me to a place I once called sanctuary.
The people were scared of the Darkness.
To them, the Darkness was inherently evil
A place where the Devils kin lurked
But they are wrong.
The Darkness is not good or evil, and neither is The Light
It is simply darkness
A time when all the worlds are at rest
Of peace and quiet
The Darkness does not possess the people, nor swallow them up into the abyss
They simply blind themselves in it.
Ever afraid of someone with greater power, they steep deeper into it, surrounding themselves in an impenetrable shroud of Darkness
Until so big they lose themselves in it, forever wandering to try and escape the never-ending Darkness of their own souls
And even then, the darkness would not truly corrupt them simply nullify their feeling and emotions in the peace of Darkness
Until it happened.
The Darkness became a being
Its own entity, with its own mind
And a dark purpose
It turned on its brother, the light, sending beings made in his image into his realm.
Feeding on the light in peoples hearts, all unified with one purpose
Chaos and fear
For fear is what gave these dark beings more power
It fuelled the new and tainted mind of The Darkness, giving it steadily more power
Almost as much as the light of peoples hearts
I tried to stop it
To reason with it
To make it remember when it and I were brothers, companions travelling throughout the realms together
But this was not The Darkness I once knew
This was
The Darkness as people thought it to be
The Darkness in their minds and hearts
In the end, I fought the darkness
For days we fought, a stalemate in every way
And in the end I bested it
And for the last time tried to help him see the error in the path of destruction
But he used this to plunge his power into me, controlling me, blinding me with rage
That they should love darkness over light
I slew millions, each time I took a life going deeper under its control
Even the angels, immortal as they are, were unable to defeat me.
Until something happened that had not happened in millennia
The Gods intervened.
They took my power and smothered me in it
A prison of my own power
Sealed by six keyblades and the X-blade
To forever in anguish of my fatal mistake
To avoid the creeping thoughts of taking my life, I made a vow.
That if I ever got a second chance, I would not fail.
I trained for millennia, becoming stronger, faster, better.
I learned to stop relying on the darkness
And fend for myself
But that doesn't mean I've forgotten The Darkness
I increased my prowess with the darkness
Until I was sure I could use its powers without being controlled
And then I felt it.
The shattering of the X-blade
I doubt there was a single person in the realms who didn't feel it
And without the X-blade, the lock of my prison weakened
Feeling this, I redoubled my efforts and training
In hope of my freedom
After the shattering, I learned that I could see out of my prison, and even converse with people for short periods, but only if the person was in the Realm of Darkness
After a while, I met someone, the first person in over 1000 years, a Keyblade Master by the name of Aqua.
After telling me of Vanitas and Ventus' fusion for the X-blade, and how it shattered, as well as a Keyblade Master named "Xehanort" who possessed her friend Terra
And how she stayed here to save him
I asked to see her keyblade, and reluctantly she let me, and through it I learned four things
one, It wasn't hers, it was her masters, but the keyblade permitted her to wield it.
Second, I conversed with the keyblades spirit, and got a good grasp on what happened in my absence from the realms.
Third, I learned that her master left her with all his memories and all his knowledge of the keyblades as well as all his spells and abilities, which I quickly memorized.
Lastly, I learned that when the X-blade shattered, its power went into all the keyblades, powering them up and giving them special abilities. I couldn't hold the connection any longer and had to return to my prison.
But something's changed.
Xehanort wants Kingdom Hearts
And he knows how to get it
And when he does, they'll need me
At last, I will be able to redeem myself for my sins
And Azrael, The Prince of Darkness, will walk the realms once more