I discovered a handful of songs by Nightwish last year and Crownless was one of them. I thought it fit my personal interoperation of Inferno rather nicely, so I wrote a quick little oneshot before the idea was lost. Beast Wars is not owned by me. Be glad too, because the Predacons would have always won.

Crownless again shall be the queen

Trophy on her grave still remains unseen

Crownless - Nightwish

i

The first thing I will tell you is that my Queen is crownless.

Do not get me wrong, I know the Queen will always be the Queen to the colony I serve - I dare not even question the fact for a single given moment - but Mega… I mean, my Queen is crownless nonetheless. He does not actually wear a crown - it is a metaphor - but it is the concept behind it that makes him crownless. As much as it is treason for me to say, he does not deserve to even be called the Queen.

I just recenly burned down a whole forest for him on his command in a vague and halfhearted attempt to draw out some Maximal drones that had been hiding within the area. I assume they retreated long ago since they never confronted me about me taking out this entire part of the woods, but I will not go after them. The Royalty told me to look for them in this sector: Not the other sector where I know they probably ran off to now. I would never dream of going against the Queen… no matter how corrupted he has become.

A single tongue of fire licks at the air and dances about erratically, sending ash into the sky and about the flame scarred forest. I had destroyed it long ago, and the forest fire had decimated everything. The bark of every tree is stained black, the grey branches are bare, and several small, burnt animals litter the ground from place to place, leaving a horrible trail of corpses everywhere I can see. Even now, the flame I am watching is burning a leaf on a lone surviving ant hill, nearly destroyed already from when I accidentally stepped on it. It is the only bit of fire left, and I am drawn to watch it burn like I moth is drawn to a flame.

The first day I came online, I knew - or at least my beast-mode made me know - that it was my duty to serve the Queen from my moment of rebirth as a Predacon to the moment I died in a blazing inferno of possible glory. The concept seems like a dictatorship, I know and I have heard, but it is not. The Queen is not an all powerful and viciously greedy ruler. She is not supposed to be anyway. Her sole purpose is to serve the colony by sparking new workers and soldiers to serve the entire cause for greater good and, overall, she is to be our savior.

I suppose I should just call him Megatron now. He is nothing like what a Queen should be.

The ants under the burning leaf are abandoning their colony now, scurrying like… like ants. The twisted irony irritates me somewhat, making me utter an inaudible snarl of frustration more suited for a cat or dog than an insect, but I continue to watch the leaf burn the smaller colony anyways. If I could help them, I would. Seeing as I am not one of their own, I cannot. I wish I was though. The colony I am part of is nothing like what a true colony should be. Megatron, unlike what a Queen is supposed to be, is selfish and cruel. When I first met him, I was just glad I was adopted into another colony without being taken prisoner. Our colony was small compared to what a normal colony would be, but it was enough to satisfy me for a time.

Hundreds of ants are pouring out of the ant hill, some of the unlucky ones dropping dead from the smoke and some even catching on fire. Many soldiers seemingly form a perimeter around the burning leaf and around their ant mound and, suddenly, I see her. Several workers and soldiers are working together to drag their Queen out to safety. She looks hurt, burnt even, and even when she cannot walk due to her massive size, her colony still drags her out to safety.

I would do that for Megatron in a spark beat. He would not care though. He would much rather throw all of us away - all of us Predacons - like we are nothing.

I should not deter Megatron like this, he still is the Queen after all, but he cares nothing for the greater good of our colony. His schemes are entirely selfish and will only help to assist his cause and not that of the colony. He calls us worthless, deems us incompetent, and even says we are all insubordinate. How would he be if all of us - being the Predacons in the colony - left him.

Simple. He would have no colony to rule and no possibility to survive. He would be more crownless than he already was.

The Queen the soldiers and workers are carrying weighs them down for a moment and the heat from the fire sets the Queen ablaze. She burns up to a crisp faster than I can blink, and those who tried to carry her burn to their deaths as well. The ants that did survive stand about, doing nothing and knowing nothing will happen. Without their Queen, they have no purpose and no reason to live. Without her, they will simply stay there until they all die.

I know that, if we leave Megatron, we will undoubtedly die too. Despite that he lost the privilege to wear his crown, he is still the Queen. I must follow him until I perish in a blaze of final glory.

"Inferno! What is your status on eliminating the Maximals?"

I was not expecting to hear him quite so soon. Obediently, I open the radio link and report back. "Nothing here, Megatron. The Maximals have fled. I was unable to pursue them."

There was a silence over the radio for a brief moment. I thought I had lost the link for merely half a cycle, but Megatron responded back a moment later. "Did you just call me Megatron?" A solemn surprise and slight disbelief leaked through his voice like the smoke rising from the fire leaking through the leafless tree line above me.

The skepticism in his voice shakes me back to reality and I quickly respond back. "My sincerest apologies, my Queen." I feel brainless for having let my alertness slip, for letting my loyalty waver for a moment. I hope he does not notice that and the tone of my voice, but he responds before I can asses it myself further.

"Yes, well then… return to base. Megatron out."

And the Queen leaves me to wallow in my mixed feeling of hate and love for him. He is the Queen, it is impossible to not adore him, but I hate him for the fact he is no true Queen. He is a fraud.

I turn sharply on my heel and walk away in a soldier like fashion. Out of the corner of my optic, I can see the leaf that had sat upon the ant hill finally show its final display of orange flame before dying. The skeleton of the leaf that once was had turned gray and spindly looking. Almost as if it were a demented and sickly crown.

Despite that, even that was not worthy for Megatron. Not matter how much of royalty he is, he deserves no crown.

For all its significance, I know for a fact he will never get to wear one.

Fin