Wheelie was watching Steeljaw slowly lose his mind. Ravage was on Cybertron today—the first time they had seen him since his abortive raid on Shockwave's tower, and he was stalking back and forth on a sweep of the entire construction site, including the two accessible levels above. Steeljaw was tracking him, but after two hours of this behaviour, Ravage had yet to indicate any purpose to it.
Which was why Wheelie was becoming convinced the purpose was to drive Steeljaw crazy. He looked at Rewind, who was, as usual, absorbed in discussion with the Constructicons and wondered if he should tell him.
"Lost his mind, tell Rewind; sooner or later, which is greater?" He realised he was muttering aloud, and automatically checked his surroundings to find Bonecrusher staring at him. Wheelie stared back, and Bonecrusher shook his head and walked away.
Wheelie took that as a win, and it emboldened him to yank Rewind out of his conversation and into Steeljaw's path.
"Wheelie, I was in the middle of explaining—"
Wheelie ignored him and addressed Steeljaw. "Consider retraction. Cat's mission: distraction."
Steeljaw growled half-heartedly, his eyes still tracking Ravage as he disappeared into the hallway, but he stopped and sat down.
"Oh. He's been walking around all day, hasn't he?" Rewind finally caught up with the present. "We can just ask what he's doing. Any Decepticon down here is supposed to be working directly on the crypt."
"He walks, not talks," Wheelie pointed out.
"I meant we'll ask Soundwave," Rewind said calmly. "Come on."
When Wheelie didn't move, Steeljaw made the odd little vocalisation which seemed to specifically exist to get Rewind's attention. The other cassette glanced between Steeljaw and Wheelie and then around the entrance hall. They were the only Autobots there. "On second thoughts, maybe Wheelie should stay here and keep an eye on the Constructicons. Springer and Arcee are with Soundwave so they can back us up."
As if the extra mass would be of any use against a mind reader. Yet Rewind had given Wheelie an opt out of the danger, and he was not too proud to take it. Instead, he counted how many times the Constructicons could trip over the bolts they'd put in the middle of the floor for the ornamental pyre they planned to install the next day. It only happened twice before Rewind returned, giving him a thumbs up.
"Soundwave has put Ravage on a time out. Thanks for the heads up!"
Wheelie found himself unprepared for gratitude after bailing on the cassettes. "No problem. You got 'em."
He returned to watching Hook pick fights with Scrapper, until the Constructicon leader finally gave up and returned to the ship in exasperation. Hook was left to direct the others in the installations. He turned down Wheelie's offer of help, but he did rope the Decepticon cassettes into assistance. As Rumble fell over the bolts on the floor for the fourth time, Wheelie wondered if Hook regretted his choices.
Nevertheless, by the time the Decepticons returned to their ship for the rest period, the ECS, light fixtures and plinths (with flame features inset), were all installed and functional. The only thing left to do was for the remains and markers to be interred.
"The Decepticons have to be up to something, right?" Arcee asked as the Autobots settled into their base camp to recharge.
Sat next to Wheelie, Steeljaw gave a low growling rumble which Wheelie believed was an affirmative.
"Historical precedent agrees with you," Rewind admitted. "But… there's always a first time."
Springer pointed at him. "That's the gamble Rodimus is making. Maybe this is the first time."
"And if it's not?" Arcee pressed.
"We pull out." He shrugged, and Wheelie couldn't figure out if he meant it or not. Springer was the only one of the team he had never seen in combat; they had been on different ships for Unicron. "Rodimus sent us here to help if he's right, but if he's wrong, all we're asked to do is survive."
"No small task; one big ask." Wheelie snorted.
Arcee nodded, her face wry. "I guess I was hoping we could do something before we got to the hopelessly outnumbered part. I'm kind of tired of running for our lives."
That phrase, 'running for our lives,' caught in Wheelie's head. Nobody had ever done much living while they were running. You could live in hiding—that was virtually his entire life—but running was just a prelude to dying.
He tried to refocus on the conversation, but Springer was saying placatory stuff that didn't quite line up with his observations, and he couldn't figure out where the discrepancy was.
"Maybe they're just annoying us out of habit."
Except it wasn't just Autobots the Decepticons were annoying, Wheelie realised. "Intent's infernal; dissent's internal."
There was the usual pause as the others interpreted his utterance, that the Decepticons might be plotting against each other rather than the Autobots. Rewind tentatively agreed: "They don't seem to like each other very much."
Steeljaw rumbled again, dissatisfied this time, and Wheelie shrugged at him. Time would tell, but today wasn't the time.
"Hey, Rewind?" Springer remained light-hearted. "Is it possible that the reason a ceasefire has never worked is because the Autobots were too damned paranoid?"
Rewind gave him an innocent look. "It is a curious thing, Springer, but according to my datatracks, the Autobots were always right."