Blue eyes shot open, the girl whom they belonged to bolting upright in her bed. A light sheen of sweat covered her exposed arms, face, and lower stomach as she gasped for air to calm her racing heart. After taking several deep breaths the girl began to settle, taking time to wipe blond locks of hair from her face and air out her short sleeved pink night shirt that clung to her moist skin.
Moonlight shined into the room from the window, illuminating the room that was a mix of adult and childish elements; piles of stuffed animals and plushies scattered around the room, a giant teddy bear twice her side rested in the corner of her bed, it's leg doubling as a pillow for the girl. Next to the door to the room's exit was a desk with several folders worth of paperwork upon it, some folders bearing the red 'classified' brand. Upon the door, the girl's name and rank printed in big and bold green letters, 'Commander Prairie.'
Once settled, Prairie let out a sigh. "Another year gone, and it hasn't gotten any easier."
Looking to her right, Prairie set her gaze upon a framed photo. The photo displayed two blond haired blue eyed girls, one clearly an adult while the other appeared to be in her mid teens, both clad in similarly pink colored coats and uniforms. The older woman was hunched over and behind the younger, arms wrapped around the teen as she leaned onto her back while hugging her from behind.
The teen, Prairie, was leaning back into the woman's embrace, her right hand resting over the woman's left. Tucked under her left arm was a white cat stuffed animal, surprisingly in great shape despite being nearly a hundred years old, something only Prairie and woman holding her could claim to exceed.
"How did you do it Sis?" Prairie asked the photo. "How'd you keep it all together with all this pressure?"
Tears welled up in Prairie's eyes, causing her to scrub her eyes furiously with the back of her hand. "It's so hard running everything." Prairie sobbed quietly. "Why can't I figure out what happened to you? Why haven't I been able to find you Sis?"
No answer came, just the soft echo of her shuttered breathing as Prairie struggled with her emotions. She always had difficulties this time of year, the anniversary of her big sister and predecessor's disappearance. Be it day or night, her performance and ability to function suffered in some way.
Looking down at herself, Prairie took note of the evidence supporting that fact. Just barely exposed from under her blanket and bed sheets was a grey plastic covered disposable diaper taped to her waist. Instead of wearing one of the lighter and more cheerfully decorated disposables she preferred, Prairie had to wear this visually unappealing brand, one better able to deal with bigger and heavier accidents.
Reaching out, Prairie grabbed a cat stuffed animal, the same from the picture, and hugged it to herself. As her eyes became glazed and unfocused, Prairie lost herself to the memories of times long past.
Just over a hundred years ago, an energy crisis reigned over the most power nation in the world, Neo Arcadia. Humanity was seen as the more important species to those in charge at the time, leaving reploids to suffer for their convenience. High energy using models were often branded as Mavericks, hostile and dangerous individuals to all, simply for that very reason, and then terminated with extreme prejudice.
Prairie had been born into that terrible era, but not as the para-military commander she was now. Instead, she'd been specially built for a grieving but wealthy couple of humans who were mourning the loss of their eight year old daughter to disease. Her child body had been built to the human girl's specs; height, weight, physical features, knowledge and mannerisms programmed in, and she even had some systems purposely flawed to mimic some of her medical issues. Not an hour would go by without the young Prairie having at least one coughing fit, she tired quickly which affected her mobility, and the reploid equivalents of her bladder and bowels rarely alerted her to the need of release, resulting in the girl being in diapers 24/7 so as not to make a mess of her clothes or beddings.
The plan had been to slowly fix the flaws over time, mimicking the improvement of their daughter's health that never came in reality. Unfortunately, the young Prairie had never gotten to meet her 'parents,' as just when they were going to pick her up, their expensive hover car was hit head on by a semi, killing them both instantly. Upon hearing this her creators, knowing no one would pay for such a specific and flawed model, labeled her a Maverick and sent her to a Retirement Plant to be broken down for parts and recycled.
Her short time at that Plant would haunt her for many years to come, but Prairie never regretted not fighting her creators harder to escape; had she managed to avoid the place all together she would have likely never met the person who would become her big sister and idol, Dr. Ciel. But a teenager herself at the time, Ciel had lead a group of reploids, a Resistance movement, to take over the Retirement Plant and free the innocent and wrongly branded reploids before they could be executed. Thanks to Ciel's advanced programming and hacking skills, the Resistance forces had managed to save two-thirds of the remaining reploids in the Plant and escape without a trace, all in just over an hour.
The young Prairie had been an odd mix of star-struck and lost after her rescue. She was free and going to live but at the same time she had so little life experience and knowledge that she didn't know how to move forward. Between her body's intentional flaws and having only been online for a month, the young girl was essentially a baby and that with no direction or seeable support, she was afraid of being abandoned again.
Those fears fled when she met Dr. Ciel in person. After learning of the young Prairie, Ciel took a personal interest in her. With the technology available to her, Ciel was able to remove the hourly cough and adjust her system's energy management capabilities, allowing the young girl to be as mobile and active as she wanted. Ciel even gave her, her first name; Alouette.
The only issue Ciel had not been able to immediately fix was her incontinence, due to a lack of proper parts. This had frustrated the Alouette as her programmed personality reflected the ill child's feelings, who had hated having to wear diapers. Ciel refused to do anything with the girl's personality programs and tried to explain the morality behind it, but that explanation had been over the young Alouette's head. Despite denying Alouette the quick and easy fix Ciel still helped her adjust and grow, going to lengths that would surprise Alouette looking back years later.
Ciel helped Alouette face the issues that bothered her by addressing them head on. Early days in the Resistance would find Alouette in Ciel's lab/bedroom, usually in only a small shirt and her diaper fully on display, doodling in a coloring book or playing with a cyber-elf. To Alouette's shock, Ciel herself would be in a similar state of dress, just her top and a diaper her size, while she went over reports and worked on her research. When taking breaks for meals or rest, Ciel would often cuddle with Alouette, sometimes feed her, and sometimes even play with her for a bit. And of course there was the occasional diaper change when needed too.
To Alouette's surprise, Ciel's idea worked. Her thought process changed from her initial programming, which in turn altered her personality programming over time; Alouette enjoyed cuddling with Ciel, making doodles to hang on the wall, and even chasing around cyber-elves. She grew indifferent to her need of diapers, especially knowing Ciel wore and used them too and was still as capable of leading the resistance as when she first met her.
Despite the positive changes, Alouette was still left with one question; Why? Why did Ciel go to all these lengths for her? She had no obligation and it wasn't like Alouette could provide anything to the Resistance besides the basic running of supplies and verbal messages. When she finally asked, Ciel had pulled her onto her lap and wrapped her in a hug.
"Have you noticed how alike we look?" Ciel had asked. "We could be sisters...I've always wanted a family, someone who I could trust and confide in. I suppose I should have asked you first, and I apologize if I've made you uncomfortable."
"I want to make this world a better place, but I also want to be more than just what I was created for. I want to do more than just what I was intended to do. Being able to see that my efforts aren't in vain, even in smaller things, helps me to keep pushing forward. Again I know this is selfish of me, and I hope I haven't offended you, but I've seen so much bad in the world that I hang onto everything good I come across...it's the only way I know to keep moving forward."
Alouette had sat in silence for several minutes after that answer, thinking it over. She reflected on her own purpose, which had ultimately been to help a grieving couple over the loss of their daughter. When she was finished thinking Alouette knew two things; she wanted Ciel as her big sister, and she wanted to be just like her.
Prairie smiled softly at the memory, closing her eyes and hugging herself as she recalled the moment she gained a family and knew she wasn't alone in the world. She felt a brief pressure in her lower region before the bottom of her diaper began to expand beneath her. Instead of reacting, Prairie continued to reflect on her memories.
Young Alouette and Ciel's time in diapers would only last 3 months, the first month due to not having the parts for Alouette and the remaining two being the time it took to potty train; Prairie remembered it took Ciel longer to retrain herself then it took herself to get train the first time. The pair had still enjoyed time cuddling and playing together occasionally, but it would be seventy years before diapers made a return in their lives.
It was the transfer from her child body to her new teen body that caused it. Her new body, and new name, was to help her be more active and able to assist with the Guardians organization Ciel had founded. What both sisters had forgotten was just how much data was being transferred from Alouette's body to Prairie's. The amount of data her new body could store was much less then her old and augmented body, causing Ciel to scramble to save her sister.
It had been a mess but Ciel had managed to save most of Alouette's memory data, the downside had been the sacrifice of several years of memories as well as her new body's ability to function. Ciel had basically had to treat Prairie as a baby until she could be upgraded to contain more data and then get the necessary programs to function installed. It had been a frustrating time for Prairie, having limited movement and needing care like that when the whole point of transferring to a new body was to become more able, only for things to go in the completely opposite direction.
That being said, Prairie would be hard pressed to say she'd change what happened if she'd had the choice. While she didn't like how torn up Ciel had been over the accident, the pair had once again bonded with one another and in doing so Prairie had also rediscovered her the positive feelings babyhood could bring. It would later be one of the few things that let her pull herself together when Ciel disappeared.
Glancing across the room, Prairie looked at the picture of herself and the newest member of the Guardians, Aile. The Transporter turned Guardian was a tough girl, but she'd fallen to pieces when her mentor and father figure Giro had died saving her. She'd struggled to push forward and honor his sacrifice, but her body wasn't cooperating. The poor girl had barely managed to sleep more than a few hours a night, each night to wet sheets, and had troubles during the daytime as well.
Prairie had taken Aile under her wing the moment she learned how serious the girls issues were. Aile hadn't been happy about getting diagnosed as suffering stressed induced incontinence, much less about her mandatory return to diapers, but she was appreciative of everything Prairie was doing for her. Prairie would talk and comfort Aile when the girl needed to speak, made certain no one would say anything about her diapers if they noticed, and privately would do for Aile as Ciel had done for her; the pair would work in her room with diapers exposed, getting Aile used to them and not to feel ashamed over what was a necessity for her now.
A loud alarm caused Prairie to jump as she was snapped back to reality. Wincing slightly at the squish beneath her, Prairie stuck her hand under the giant bear's bottom and pulled out a hand communicator.
"Report!" Prairie ordered as she crawled over the side of her bed.
As the operator on the line started to explain the situation, Prairie clenched the communicator between her neck and shoulder as she began tugging on one of the drawers built into the base of her bed frame. She tugged on it twice, but the drawer seemed to be jammed. Suddenly Praire's eyes widened at what she was hearing, her third tug on the drawer being done with all her strength.
The drawer came loose under the strength of Prairie's pull, fully extending before catching against the frame. Prairie let out an "Eep" as she found herself rolling forward from the recoil, landing back on the bed as a mix of changing supplies and soiled diapers sprayed from the drawer. Holding her head, Prairie grumbled an "I'm okay" into her communicator before she began giving orders.
Rolling across her bed, Prairie made her way to her closet and grabbed her jacket. Still rattling off orders into her communicator, Prairie phased her jumpsuit and armor over her night wear and threw her jacket on; there would be time to change later. Picking her hat up from her desk she made her way to the door before pause.
Pulling the communicator away from her face, Prairie looked back at the photo of herself and Ciel. "I'll find you sis, and until then I'll make you proud. I promise."
The door to her room slid open and Prairie stepped out onto the command station, spouting off orders to address the emergency at hand.
