As Azazel lay awake, waiting for the morning to come, he reflected on his journey through the worlds. He reflected upon how he watched Heartless consume worlds, how he documented the effects of losing one's heart. He watched innocent people become consumed by Shadows, noting how they screamed as their bodies were torn apart. He looked into the mirror and saw it in his eyes. His own Heart screaming to save those people and his cold logical Mind silencing it so that he could find out how to control it. Control the Dark, so that the rest of the multiverse could live without fear of the shadow. 

As Azazel lay awake, he tried not to reflect on before. Before the Darkness ate Eden. Before every time he closed his eyes, he saw the death of everyone he knew. Before he unlocked his Keyblade, before he slaughtered thousands of Heartless with Magical Destruction. Before he used Wind to tear apart Soldiers, before Magnets could be used to create a black hole from which nothing could escape, before Ice turned all it touched into a tundra. Before he knew Magic was a weapon and before he was even Azazel.

He was Chen Chideta, a simple magician in a simple world. He entertained children, he solved problems. Not once had Chen imagined that life could be anything but happy. Sure there was minor stuff, like a bad breakup, a family member dying. He could never imagine another human being dying of something other than time. He couldn't even fathom the idea of any being hurting another being. Not in a world where violence didn't exist, the closest thing to perfection one could imagine. But that passed.

The Darkness came. Never-ending Darkness, swarming through the streets. Where there was once boys and girls playing in the streets, now there was nothing but Shadows. He once remembered laughing with his best friend at the ice cream store on a bright Sunday morning. Now all he remembered was the screaming coming from the open windows as a Fat Body crushed the lady who owned the store. Chen remembered the smell of freshly baked cinnamon pie rolling through his window as he looked at another person's problem and wondered, 'How can I help?' Now all he remembered was the burning flesh as swarms of Red Nocturnes fired upon those he had called friends. Every time Chen closed his eyes, he saw burning. And he screamed, he pleaded, he cried and he prayed and he wished for just one chance. To turn back time so he could tell everyone, nobody was safe, tell them that they needed to run.

But his prayers remained unanswered. On that day, Chen Chideta died. Only Azazel was left, Azazel and his insane goal to grab the Darkness, to grab it and direct it. Azazel would make sure that no family, no child, no city, no world was ever destroyed like his. Even if he had to throw away his Heart in the process. He would become one with the thing he hated most. But not yet, now he would journey with these Keyblade Wielders, those who remained in the Light he had fallen from. But for now...

For now, Azazel lay awake.