WHO: Annie Wheaton and Luke Skywalker WHAT: A trip to 'Annie's Tower'. WHEN: It's a little irrelevant, since it's not in the physical realm. RATING: TBD STATUS: In Progress
Annie hated feeling helpless, especially when someone she cared about was in danger. There were times, of course, that she wasn't in touch enough with reality to realize someone was in danger, but when she did realize it and couldn't help? That was even worse than not knowing in the first place.
Right now, she was feeling that way in regards to Luke. As lucid as she was capable of being, Annie had spent most of her time since the boy had been brought safely back to the Hyperion trying to figure out a way to help him. She'd drawn picture after picture - eventually making an entire pile of them - and had built up (and knocked down) more dominoes than she could count. She'd played music until she was almost tired of hearing it, and had spent enough time in her garden that she was almost growing sick of it. Still, nothing helped. No distraction took her mind off the boy who was so badly injured, nor did any inspiration find her.
It might have continued on that way, too, with her own behavior growing more and more agitated with each passing moment, had something Sister said not finally registered.
"Sometimes I wish I could get stuck in that tower you're in, Annie," she had murmured late one night while sitting at her bedside. "It has to be better than the things going on around here."
Almost instantly Annie had realized that the answer she'd been searching for was right in front of her all along. And, sometime that night, she left her bed and moved to the center of the floor in order to put that answer to good use.
Retreating inside of her own head was easy. As was finding Luke's mind amidst the sea of others that were floating around. Assuring Mantis that she meant no harm, she allowed her powers to take over her body and, almost instantly, her tower appeared around her. While physically she was still sitting on the floor in her room in the Hyperion, mentally she was on another plane of existence entirely. She was protected by stone walls and surrounded by lush furniture. There was nothing but pure, good energy here - a safety from darkness and evil and everything that the Bad Man represented.
Best of all, though, Annie was able to be herself here. She wasn't trapped as she was in the physical world. She could only hope, as she relied on her abilities to summon Luke to her side, that the same could be said for him.