The darkness is so abrupt and so complete that it startles Ben. He stumbles back, as if it were some physical thing, striking him in the face. For a confused moment he thinks it is a regular corridor of the Anchor and that this is one more measure those pesky robots have gone to, in order to ensure people stay for the entire duration of their beloved Goop Festival.

But something is not right. The usual, low-level hum of machinery is absent, replaced by a slow dripping. Other things, too. The temperature and humidity of the air has shifted, radically. And the smell... the smell is different. Not like anywhere Ben has been in the Anchor.

The sound of the bottle hitting the ground and breaking startles him badly; Ben flinches back, heart racing. He's just about to set a hand against his chest, laugh and make a joke about how much it had scared him...

...but something's wrong. Really wrong. He knows it the moment he hears Cole's voice. There's an urgent fear in it that Ben has heard before, but only once - back when they were confronting those nanites that had turned into the shape of Despair. Ben's eyes adjust slower but he hears Cole moving in the darkness, feels the shift of air as he searches for the door they'd just come through.

The door which, Ben barely sees through the gloom, is no longer there.

"Cole?"

He doesn't know what this is or where they are or how they are here but Cole is afraid, and Ben reaches for him. He does it automatically, fingers searching out Cole's shoulder, not wanting to lose him in the dark. If he can keep him close he can protect him. If anything attacks them, Ben has his powers, and he's not letting anything hurt Cole.

"What is it? Where are we - what happened?"

Because he thinks he can hear, in that breathless terror, something of recognition. Understanding what has happened or where they are.