Scene: The Fallen Icon

"Now, what you've all been waiting for!" The man on the stage spoke into the microphone, which echoed through the auditorium. "The leader of the Resistance, Maggie Ellison!" Cheers filled the room, clapping, whistling, while a woman was manhandled onto the stage.

Maggie Ellison, leader of the Anti-Dependent Resistance. Or, she was a month ago. She'd made news outlets all over the country. She was on every TV in America. The Dependent Program was a violation of rights! America used to stand for freedom! Now, they were silencing anyone who spoke out. Including her.

The conversion was a literal Hell. Remembering it was tricky - like a dream that had vanished after waking up. She knew how much it hurt. She knew how cruel it was. But she couldn't remember the details. Now, she stood a foot shorter than she used to - a meager four-six - and her foggy eyes struggled to keep their clarity.

The two tall men in suits set her in the center of the stage, wearing a pink frilly dress that did nothing to hide the very thick diaper beneath it. Bunny ears were placed on her head, and her hair tied in pigtails. Her bib read "Little Princess", and her stockings had pink bows. They did everything in their power to make her appear as just another Dependent. But she wasn't one. She had beat the system, and she was going to show the world that they could too!

"I'm not a Dependent," she shouted into the crowd. But they couldn't hear her over the cheers. The security let her go and she shoved the man in front of the microphone. Her voice boomed throughout the auditorium.

"I'm not a Dependent!" A silence fell over the crowd. "I fought them, and I won! All the people out there watching this, all the people who are afraid, you can fight too! You can win!"

"You can fight yes," came a voice from one of the curtains off stage, a man in a cleanly pressed mint green suit.

Everybody knew who he was, too; his alabaster skin, his well-trimmed mustache, and his enormous 6'10 stature that even without the Dependent Program, would have made him bigger than any of its graduates: Mahogany James, current head of innovations and research for the Dependent Program. Where other executives and founders kept a lower profile, Mahogany James went out of his way to take interviews, photo opportunities, gush earnestly of the virtues of the program any moment that he had.

He walked slowly to the girl, to Maggie Ellison, and loomed above her with a well practiced and polished smile full of perfect teeth.

"You fought the system, Maggie, you made it through to the other side and somehow managed to retain who you are. Your passion, your virtues, your drive to send a message. How do you feel? You're Quite Dependable Now aren't you?"

His voice didn't sound any different to the crowd, to the watchers on the TV, to anybody else: but to Maggie those words were little torpedo's that targeted deeply hidden routines within her psyche. Her passion for the program. Her virtues in pushing for everybody who showed hope to be a part of it. Her need to spread the word. And best of all, so much better than all of this: she'd know. She'd know she stood against everything the Dependent Program was, and she'd know that she was promoting it.

It was never going to be enough to reprogram her into someone else: she would remain herself, and she'd do all of this anyway. That was the cost of rebelling.

Maggie hesitated. Her head spun. Those words felt so heavy, like anchors on her shoulders. She shook her head and approached the man, who towered over her. He was nearly twice her size, and she felt an inkling of intimidation.

"Y-you're not..." Her voice broke when she spoke. It sounded different. Smaller. Weaker. She took a deep breath again and tried to focus. Focusing - that's how she saved herself! She did it once, and she could do it again.

"You're not in control of me, you monster," she said loud enough that the microphone picked it up. But Maggie's skin felt numb. Her head felt like it was full of cotton, and she had to swim through it to the surface.

"Of course I'm not, Maggie. I would never try to control such a force of nature as yourself." everybody in the crowd had quietened down to see how this would play out. "You're Quite Dependable Now, a trusted voice in the community, to the resistance, and you have the stage - how about you share with people your deepest thoughts on what happened to you, during the conversion? Share with everybody what you think, how you feel, having come out the other side?"

He was so confident and smug in his words, glossy statements right out of a magazine, and he gestured to the microphone at the front of the podium. The fire in her eyes was burning, and confusion completely absent: she'd feel guilt for everything she was about to say, sailing humanity down the river, but she'd know all her words to be truer than truth.

"I will," she said, sure of herself. But Maggie's voice had changed. Airy. Light. Carefree. She approached the podium with a smile and opened her mouth to speak. About the atrocity. About the cruelty. About how terrible this whole program was, and she finally had a platform for it.

"I'm not a Dependent," she said again for the room. "I'm enlightened. I went through the whole process, and I fought, and I learned one important thing." The whole of America was quiet for that moment.

"It's not worth it to fight."

Maggie talked for half an hour about giving up. Giving in, finally. The peace and serenity that came with it. The safety and joy and wonder you lose growing up, but now you can have it back. How fighting had been her biggest mistake, and how much she regretted it. And how she was so much happier now. Not as a Dependent, but as the spokeswoman for the program, dressed just like Brilliant Bunny Brainwash.

She said it all, and she couldn't stop. She gave the whole speech, and she smiled, and she hated it. Everyone cheered, but she felt no joy. Then, as she was led off the stage, she started to cry. She looked up at Mahogany James while she sobbed, and she felt the diaper between her legs growing warm and wet.

"What... what did you do to me...?"

"Becoming a Dependent is a reward, Maggie, a joyous release from all the awful things in the world; crime, famine, independent thought and decision - it's a true freedom that only good girls get to experience. You were not a good girl - you did quite a lot of damage to our program, and you set back the conversion process for countless hopefuls, by far more than you might have realized. Or perhaps, exactly as much as you realize." He stroked his mustache with a little smile, and stepped closer to her, reveling in his imposing stature.

"You will never know that reward. You will never be allowed to become a Dependent. You'll retain your mind, your misguided arrogance, your views that you hold so dearly, and you'll always feel that way. But you'll find yourself unable to speak anything but highly of the program. You'll need to gush about it, to promote it, to see every single member of the Resistance converted, and you'll do anything to see that through to the end. You'll long to be there when they fall, to watch each and every one of them, to be their personal Brilliant Bunny Brainwash. And you'll suffer, you'll burn, and you'll smile the whole time - our living mascot. You are Quite Dependable Now, after all. Now be a good girl and show Uncle Mahogany what Dependents love doing most in their diapers, won't you?"