Hi! And here is chapter 4, right on time! I never thought I'd be able to say that... I'm very happy to finally be updating something on time! Now if only I could do that for Sanctified By Oppression...

White-Winged Angel: Thank you. And yes, Demolisher being reformatted is, indeed, going to be in this story, and is in this chapter.

Saikoro: Thanks!

Duel Mistress K: Go foam #1 hand thingies! Thanks for the review!

Haley Macrae: Yes, I rather liked that twist myself. I was afraid the journal entries would sound kinda choppy, but if they made the story feel more realistic, then I'm glad I had them!

Shade- S.E.C of Nothing: "Whooshreviewreviewreview"? Okay then... Glad you like the chapter, and glad you like how I'm handling Cy.

Ducks Quack: There's a word I made up called Psychico, it means you're either a psychic psycho or a psycho psychic. I think that's me. Glad you think I'm good at this, it makes me feel... smiley and stuff. STUFF!! (erm, ignore that.)

Pivot: Yeah, poor Leader-1. Decepticons in Unicron like leaving little kids in the control room of a missile base? Yes, it sure is. Luckily for the rest of the universe, Unicron's still half torn-up, and basically useless to the Decepticons till they get more Energon. You like the "I flew a no-hitter" line? Hah! I didn't think I could come up with a pun people like, much less a pun that sounds like something Cy would say. Thankee for the review. And, yes, I'll try to get back to Sanctified By Oppression.

Seeker Nami: You're gonna kill the Autobots?!? ((pulls out bazooka)) Take me with you! But spare Ironhide. I like him. Demolisher and Cyclonus cute?? Erm... never really thought of it that way... Cute? Hmm... Giant evil transforming robots, "cute." My brain hurts.

Okay, this fic starts some time after Demolisher gets his new body. For those who haven't seen Energon, an Energon shield (lethal to D-Cons) is just being activated, right where it'll hit Megatron, so Demolisher shoves him out of the way, gets fried, vows revenge on Prime (who happened to be fighting Megs when the shield activated), and blows up. Megatron saves Demolisher's spark and rebuilds him the next episode. He's about 50% more violent, likes beating the scrap out of Autobots, and dislikes sitting around as long as Autobots still exist somewhere in the universe. And did I mention he's a little psycho-ish? Except if Cyclonus/Snowcat isn't really a psycho (as I like to believe), than Demolisher in his new form isn't either. But, that's just my opinion.

Anyway, on to chapter 4! YAY!

Disclaimer: Why do I do one every chapter? Why?? Um, anyway, ((ahem)) I have a document to read from today. "The members of the first party, hereby referred to as the members of the first party..." I don't like this part. ((riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip)) Now then, "The members of the second party, hereby referred to as the members of the second," no, don't like this either. ((riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip)) "The members of the third party..." ((riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip)) "The members of the fourth..." ((riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip)) Um, I'm out of paper. Ah well. The Transformers don't belong to me, and neither does the above stupid quote from the Marx brothers' movie, "A Night at the Opera". They went through over ten parties.

.....

Never to move freely

But in the vacuum of space

Ice creeps down your back

But statues can't feel cold

Try not to fear when you can't move

You may notice something new

Something about yourself you hadn't found

And don't want to

Your greed

While you can't move

The one beside you can't breath

Don't let the panic catch you

You know you can move

If you can escape your body

Leave your cold statue to drift...

((Cyclonus tossed the datapad down then. He didn't want to read anymore of Demolisher's selected poems. Most of them were just dull until he had become a slave. Then they had gotten disturbing. But this was the creepiest.))

((He tried not to think about why. But he guessed maybe it was because of the line about greed. He knew who it was that couldn't breath.))

((He didn't even notice the other reason – he wanted to leave his ground-bound body behind. It's a good thing he didn't think of that.))

.....

((Several weeks after Cyclonus' visit to the old Decepticon base...))

There was, finally, a lull in the war. It might last several weeks, or only a few hours. It didn't matter to Cyclonus, as long as he got to get out of the base for a little bit. He couldn't stand being so near everyone all the time. And Shockblast was unbearable.

Plus, there was the really creepy feeling someone was watching every move you made. And seeing as Megatron had control over Unicron's innards (which in itself is freaky), it was quite possible. Cyclonus didn't like being watched. He could never let his guard down.

Cyclonus liked target practice. He got to go into space and let out any stress that had built up by blowing up asteroids, and he had a chance to sort out his thoughts. He had also discovered during one of his "target practice" sessions that when he had gotten his new body he had acquired the ability to yodel. He used this newfound ability every chance his got, as a little personal revenge. It was his way of telling Megatron, "See? This form was supposed to be punishment, but I can enjoy it! HAH!" Pitiful, to say the least, but Cyclonus also needed to remind himself that he wouldn't let this new body be the end of him. Besides, it was annoying, which fit his act perfectly.

Cyclonus had warped out to an isolated asteroid field, galaxies away from Earth, Unicron, or Cybertron. It was just like all his other "target practice" sessions, except for one difference: This time, Demolisher had come with him.

Cyclonus tried to concentrate on shooting asteroids, but it wasn't very easy with Demolisher running around behind him shooting whole groups of asteroids down with one launch from his grenade launcher. Eventually, one was bound to hit him. Besides, Cyclonus couldn't get the poem in Demolisher's datapad out of his head, or what it might mean to Demolisher himself.

Whooping excitedly, Demolisher whizzed by Cyclonus, kicking easily from one asteroid to another. Cyclonus had only recently mastered the ability to do that. Demolisher had always had to do that to get around in space. As a flier, Cyclonus had never needed to know how.

Until now.

Cyclonus followed Demolisher, wondering if Demolisher regretted losing his old body at all. He didn't act like it. In fact, he seemed to like his new one more than his original.

"How can you stand it?" Cyclonus said quietly.

"What?" Demolisher said. Cyclonus cringed. He and Demolisher had been talking over comlink earlier. Apparently, Cyclonus had forgotten to turn it off.

"Nothing, just talkin' to myself," Cyclonus said lightly, kicking off an asteroid to go in the opposite direction from Demolisher, aiming at and destroying a few asteroids to show him everything was fine.

He slowed down when he saw Demolisher had kicked ahead of him and was blocking his way. "Yeeees?"

"Seriously, Snowcat, do you expect me to buy that?" Demolisher said wearily. "I know it's not 'nothing.'"

"Why do you say that?" Cyclonus asked, trying to sound casual.

"Snow, you hit every asteroid you shot at! You can never hit anything unless you're trying not to think about something."

Oops. Cyclonus shrugged, looking away from Demolisher. The one good thing about his facemask is he didn't have to act as much as he would have otherwise. "Guilty as charged. But it's no biggie."

"Well?" Demolisher prodded. "What's wrong? And what did you say earlier?"

If Cyclonus had been human, he would have sighed. There was no way now that Demolisher would let him go without answering his questions. "I said, 'How can you stand it?' Stand your new body, I mean."

"Why?" Demolisher asked suspiciously, looking down at himself. "It's not /that/ bad looking, is it?"

Cyclonus smirked behind his facemask, and allowed a small chuckle to slip out. "No, I mean don't you miss your old one?"

Demolisher thought for a few seconds. "No... not really. It was okay, but no better than this one. Why? Do you miss yours?"

Cyclonus didn't answer for a moment. He looked around. Was there any way he could get some distance between himself and Demolisher so he wouldn't have to answer? If he yodeled loud enough, he wouldn't be able to hear if Demolisher called him. That wouldn't offend any Decepticon. They'd either persist or respect the other's privacy, and Demolisher was usually more of the latter. But someone with Autobot programming might be hurt...

Cyclonus felt guilty all of the sudden. He wasn't supposed to know that. Demolisher deserved to know, so that they would be at least a little closer to being even. "I can't fly."

Demolisher looked at Cyclonus as if expecting more, but no more came. Cyclonus had spoken and didn't want to do any more than the minimum. To the inferno with extra credit, he'd take a C.

"That's all that's been bothering you the last few weeks?" Demolisher said, sounding unbelieving. "You can't fly? I've never been able to fly! What's the problem?"

"What's the problem?!" Cyclonus said, surprised that Demolisher didn't get exactly what the problem was. They were supposed to understand each other. At LEAST Demolisher should be able to get how much the lack of flight hurt Cyclonus. "I know you've never been able to fly, but it's a big deal for me! I've always been able to fly! It'd be like you not being unable to walk. 'Never to move freely/But in the vacuum of space.' It's not a happy way to live!"

If Cyclonus hadn't realized he had quoted one of Demolisher's poems, Demolisher probably would have dismissed the lines as coincidence. Maybe Cyclonus had read the same poem back on Cybertron, or he had just happened to say the same words. But as it was, Cyclonus did realize what he said, and proceeded to blow any illusions Demolisher might have had straight into next week.

"Oh! Er, I... um... Oops." Cyclonus laughed nervously. "Uh, sorry?"

Demolisher stared at Cyclonus in shock. "You read my datapad??" he asked. "But when..."

(("So where were you?"))

(("Oh the moon, visiting the old Decepticon base. Good times, eh?"))

(("Better than living in Unicron's corpse. What were you doing at the base?"))

(("Just using the warp gate, which is much cooler than what we have now. Some things just don't need to change."))

(("But they do anyway. Who knows why?"))

"Oh." Demolisher tried to think of something else to say. "I see."

Cyclonus didn't apologize. It was a known fact and could be scientifically proven that Cyclonus didn't apologize unless he was trying to get something or being sarcastic. Even so, he wished he now more that he ever had that he could bring himself to apologize to Demolisher. Instead, he leaned uneasily against an asteroid, waiting for Demolisher to say something else.

"So..." Demolisher paused. He didn't REALLY want to know, but... "How much did you read?"

Cyclonus cringed. He was afraid Demolisher was going to ask that. "Um... I skimmed a couple of contract-thingies... read that really beat up datapad..." Demolisher swore quietly, but since the comlink was still on Cyclonus heard it, "... read the pad that said Leader-1 is Prime's mother, and I took it back with me, hope you don't mind... eh... and I read one of your personal datapads."

"Which one?" Demolisher asked.

"The one where you talked about meeting me," Cyclonus said, assuming Demolisher would remember what else was on that datapad and hoping he didn't.

He did. Demolisher swore even louder.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Cyclonus mumbled.

There was another long stretch of silence. But at least it wasn't because Demolisher was trying to keep himself from killing Cyclonus. He seemed to be taking the whole thing quite well. It looked more to Cyclonus like he was just figuring out what to say next.

"That was a really stupid thing for me to do," Cyclonus finally said. It was the closest he could bring himself to apologizing. "D'you know... is there any way to, say... free you?"

Demolisher looked up at Cyclonus. "What?"

"Um, you know... to get you out of that mess."

Demolisher stared at Cyclonus, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'What? He doesn't believe that I'd want to help?' Cyclonus thought defensively, then shoved the idea aside.

Demolisher finally grinned, slowly. "That isn't really a problem, Snow. But thanks for asking."

Now Cyclonus was getting confused. Why was Demolisher grinning? "Why isn't it a problem?" Cyclonus asked before he could stop himself. "I mean, seriously, you're a slave! That sounds like a problem to me."

"I'm not any more."

"I mean it's just... Um, what?"

Demolisher shook his head. "How closely did you read that contract?"

Cyclonus looked carefully at Demolisher, trying to determine if he'd gone crazy. "Pretty closely..."

"Then you know the terms of my 'enslavement?'"

"Of course!" Cyclonus said. He couldn't forget them. "'The members of the Cybertronian Autobot Faction hereby claim all rights to the prisoner of war Demolisher's spark, mind, body, and...'"

"Okay, I'm convinced. You know it," Demolisher interrupted. "Spark, mind, body and health in return for my right to life, right?"

"Are you going somewhere with this?" Cyclonus asked.

"You remember when I shoved Megatron aside and the Energon shield around the Miranda zapped me instead?"

"Oh yes, I do," Cyclonus said, resisting the urge to shudder. The look on Demolisher's face had been one of the most terrifying things he'd seen in his life. It was right up there with Unicron destroying Cybertron.

"The Autobots almost killed me, didn't they?"

"Don't remind me," Cyclonus muttered.

"And in the contract, I received the right to life from the very Autobots that tried to kill me, right?"

Cyclonus was beginning to catch on. His optics widened. "So you're saying..."

"They broke the contract, and if they don't hold up their end I don't have to hold up mine."

"So, what, the contract's numb and volleyed?"

Demolisher stared at Cyclonus, mystified. "'Null and void,' Snowcat?"

"Tomaeto tomahto!" Cyclonus declared. "It'd dead, right?"

"Exactly." That explained why Demolisher hadn't been too mad when he found out what Cyclonus had read. It didn't matter anymore.

Demolisher grinned. "By the way, you've noticed I've been acting a little... different, lately?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Well, when Megatron gave me my new body, he also made a few modifications to my mind. Nothing big, I just have all my original Decepticon programming back." Demolisher's grin widened, and it was then Cyclonus noticed the malicious glint in his optics. "And having Decepticon honor codes, I'm afraid I must slag the scrap out of you for going into my room."

"Oh. Okay. ... You ARE kidding, right?"

Demolisher chuckled evilly. He sounded a lot like Megatron.

"Oh, Primus!" Cyclonus kicked off the asteroid he was on and sped away from Demolisher as he fired the first round of grenades. "CAN'T WE TALK THIS OVER?!?"

"TALK FAST!" Demolisher yelled, firing off more grenades. Cyclonus wouldn't be able to avoid them all for long. Might as well enjoy it.

"Just try to catch me, you ex-Autobot!" Cyclonus taunted, and was rewarded by a roar from Demolisher.

"I'll do better than that, you..." Demolisher paused, "you... ex... helicopter!"

"Ooh, I'm quaking!" Cyclonus yelled sarcastically, then kicked of another asteroid, a fraction of a second before Demolisher blew it up. He sped towards the next asteroid, cackling like a maniac. And for once, he wasn't faking it.

...

Megatron heard Cyclonus and Demolisher pass behind him, yelling threats, and turned off his datapad. They sounded back to normal. Especially Demolisher. Good. Getting rid of those pesky Autobot programs had done wonders for his attitude. And his loyalty.

"So how did 'target practice' go?" Megatron asked, turning. By the looks of them, he could guess.

"It went great!" Demolisher yelled. "I think I'm much better at hitting moving targets."

"I was the moving target," Cyclonus grumbled. He was covered in dents and asteroid dust.

Megatron smirked. "Well, you can still talk, can't you, Snowcat?"

"Well, yeah," Cyclonus whined, "but it hurts like-- Ohhh no. Nice try, but I'm not falling for that again!" He had been reformatted enough, in his opinion.

"C'mon, Snowcat, let's go. You said you brought up the datapad with the thing about Optimus?"

"Um, yeah, about that," Cyclonus sounded sheepish. "I hung it in Megatron's room."

"You WHAT?!"

"Well, it's not like I have a room to hang it in!" Megatron had made copies. He had even sent one to Ocean City.

Demolisher was trying to keep himself from strangling Cyclonus. "I can't believe you... never mind. Let's just go." Demolisher turned to leave. Behind his back, Cyclonus gave him a mock salute and muttered, "Yes sir."

When they had left, Megatron turned his datapad back on and continued writing. "Demolisher seems to have recovered, and I don't know the exact phrasing on his contract, never having seen it, but from what I can tell, by sacrificing himself to save me the contract is invalid. I'm not completely sure how that works, though. I plan on finding a copy of that contract. We may run into this problem with other Decepticons. I'm sure Demolisher wasn't the only one made a slave.

"Cyclonus is still showing signs of depression after being changed into Snowcat. I didn't think it would affect him this badly. His history of depression must stretch back farther than I thought. It's too bad he doesn't keep a journal like Demolisher does: it would make tracking his problem a little easier. As far as I know it might even stretch back to joining the Decepticons. No matter. I suspect that Demolisher will be able to set him straight."

Megatron shut his datapad off and prepared to go back to his private quarters, stopped, and turned it back on. "When he tries to be, Cyclonus can be excellent at masking his emotions. And he's a master at being disturbing. I think that after it's certain that Cyclonus has recovered, I might be able to employ him as an interrogator. Leave him in a room with an unarmed Autobot until they're sobbing, then offer freedom if they tell Cyclonus everything they know. Given enough time, he could possible crack Prime." Megatron smirked, shut off the pad for the final time, and went back to his quarters.

.....

Don't let the panic catch you

You know you can move

If you can escape your body

Leave your cold statue to drift...

((That was what Demolisher had done, in a way. Escaped his old body, into a new one, and was free again. This poem wasn't about escaping life, it was about escaping your old life and making a new one.))

((But still...))

((Cyclonus had dug himself in to deep. How could he escape his old life?))

((He tried to block these thoughts and finish reading the poem.))

Never to move freely

Until you can accept...

((Cyclonus gave up and put the datapad aside.))

.....

So that's chapter 4! A happy ending for Demolisher, but not yet for Cyclonus. Don't worry, Cyclonus might think he's dug himself in too deep, but I don't. I'll get him out of this yet. Just watch me! Next update Monday. It'll be the first chapter I post that isn't done before I post the current one. When I posted chapter 1, I had chapter 2 written, when I posted chapter 2, I had 3 written, et cetera, et cetera. But, even so, it will get done! This'll also be the first chapter I don't have planned out. Up 'till now I've known exactly what was going to happen. Chapter 5 will be an experiment, and also the last chapter. Don't worry, there'll probably be an epilogue... but the ending will be a surprise, even to me! So, wait for that.