Except that Ascot was not in the Spirit World. In fact, he had not been with the group since mid-way through their journey. Rather, he had just...vanished during the trip through the Lanes Between, there one second, gone the next. It was as if he had been teleported away...but that was impossible, wasn't it? It took someone like Merlin to teleport people, and few people were of that caliber, right?

That didn't change the facts; Ascot had been magically transported, magically transported into a dimly-lit dungeon where, as soon as he emerged, he was stabbed by a strange weapon, a crooked dagger that seemed magical in nature, and which, when it struck him, cut not his flesh, but his Metaphysical Heart, aka his Light. As the knife was pulled back, the boy tried to conjure up his Keyblade, only to find himself unable to. Nor can he use his magic, including his second Limit Break.

"Sorry, boy," spoke a hooded figure which held the magical dagger in their hand, "but we can't have you conjuring up your 'Keyblade' just yet. Nor use Magic. This dagger, this is called the Blade of Severance, which temporarily severs the link between Mind and Heart, meaning that you cannot conciously use Magic. And this, this my boy, this is one of our cells, not just in a literal, but in an organizational sense."

"You're another group," spoke Ascot, noticing the fact that the hoods worn by the figure were not the same as that worn by the Past Organization, the Six Senses, and certainly not the Riders. No, these hoods were red, with a golden trim. "Who are you? What is your goal? How does it conflict with the other enemies? What is your understanding of the Universe?" That last question was more useful than was thought.

"I...I am A'mael," the voice was now evidently female, "and I am one of the cells that serve The Universal Cartel. Our goal is simply to destroy the barriers to profit and money - munny - that the Old and New Keybladers embody, and it conflicts with your other antagonists in that they uphold those same barriers, as far as we know. As for our understanding of the Universe..."

"...Long ago, the World was united, whole and full of Light. But the Light cast a Shadow, and both Light and Shadow we lurked. In the day we were traders, exchanging vital goods across nations, in the night we were criminals, trading drugs, flesh, and other forbidden items. That was a day when we lived upon mountains of gold, in luxurious quarters, with armies of minions who obeyed our every whim."

"Then the Keyblade War happened, and the destruction after it!" A'mael finally screamed. "Almost overnight, the worlds were divided, our profits lost, our networks sundered! It was only our securing the secret of immortality that saved us...only to find that whenever we tried to rebuild, your Keyblade Orders always found a way to stop us!" A'mael then looked at Ascot, who was staring at her skeptically.

"But you want a [i]moral[/i] argument, don't you?" she sneered. "Well, how about this? The divisions you foster between the worlds encourage stagnation. In the interests of preventing a new Keyblade War, you have stopped progress, technological and magical advancement, legal trade. You have also prevented worlds from learning from each other, helping each other. If your world had traded with others', would it not have progressed beyond tribal and medieval norms?"

Then, suddenly, the dim lights grew much brighter, as more torches lit up the room where Ascot was. He can see now other people, not just other Cartel members in Red and Gold; a dozen of them besides A'mael, but also other prisoners, adult men and women, chained unconcious to the wall. All of them were from his homeworld. The implications suddenly came to Ascot.

"You, you're here to enslave us, aren't you?" he asked A'mael.

"Yes, yes, yes!" shouted the Cartel member manically. "Your homeworld provides an entire population of primitives easily captured and coerced into labor. As for you, well, you're young, and scrawny, but with regular stabs from the Dagger of Severance, you can be very easily kept and broken. Once you are sold to the highest bidder, or kept as our pet; whichever comes first, you are going to make your owner very happy indeed..." she said in a lustful tone.

"We will destroy all of you!" shouted Ascot. "Joshua will hunt you all down!"

"Not even [i]your brother[/i] can be everywhere at once," spoke A'mael. "And even if he kills [i]this cell[/i], there will be others; and we are all decentralized. If he saves you, he'll have to take up the duty of happily hunting hundreds of us, scattered across dozens of worlds..."