A/N: Here we go! Warning for cute sparkling crying. This chap? Ain't fluffy.

Family is forever – Chapter 11 – Fear

As curious as she was, Harmony couldn't help but walk or crawl away whenever whoever was looking after they got to talking about big-bot stuff when she wanted to play. She knew not to make a fuss, and she knew that throwing a temper tantrum never had any effect on her parents. So she merely sat quietly when she wanted to be active and play. Once the bot who was looking after her was too absorbed in what they were doing, she toddled away as fast as she could.

This time it was Mirage.

She wasn't sure if she liked the noble.

He was trustworthy enough. She could feel the honesty in his spark.

It was his ability of turning invisible that freaked her out. The spy had done it for the first time in front of her while she had been held by her papa, and she had shrieked when he suddenly appeared.

After calming her down, her papa had told her that Mirage was just a special mech with a special ability.

It still made her scared in a sense.

Regardless, she had walked to the entrance of the Ark, looking out into the world called 'Earth.' Father had told her that this was not their world, that their world was far, far away. When she asked why they weren't there, there had been something sad in his optics when he had told her that it was not able to be lived in at the moment.

Oh well.

Still, Earth was pretty to look at.

Such curious things! Like that moving black dot.

Wait.

Moving black dot?

Harmony frowned, looking out. It was getting bigger and bigger. It was running straight at the Ark. In fact…it looked a bit like a human panther, but so much larger. As it got closer, she let out a sharp squeal. It had red optics, and was now looking right at her.

Knowing to run away from the red-opticed mech, Harmony, searched through the bond, calling to both creators to come and find her now. They sent her pulses of warmth and encouragement in reply, telling her they'd be right there. Still, fear took her as she darted a look back, her little winglets sensors going haywire. The big cat was getting closer!

"Help!" she called, her little pedes working as fast as they could.

But it was too late.

Feeling something slam into her back, the white femmeling cried out in pain as the heavy weight jarred the sensors in her winglets, and something sharp grazed against her neck. She fell, skidding along the metal of the Ark floor, leaving streaks of white paint behind her. She stopped, and turned around to get up, when black and a flash of red filled her vision, and she felt sharp teeth pierce her shoulder and throw her into the wall. She screamed loudly, and tears began to fall out of her optics and down her face, blurring her vision.

However, it didn't blur her vision enough to obscure the sight of the metal panther stalking towards her slowly, teeth bared and flashing.

And those optics.

Those red, red optics. They looked so dangerous.

Harmony sobbed, reaching out to her creators, feeling their fear as they saw the brief mental image she transmitted over their creator-creation bond. Her shoulder hurt so much, and something wet was leaking out of it, staining her white chassis pink.

The sobbing noises seemed to irritate the black four legged mechanoid, and he growled and snapped at her, coming closer.

"L-leave me alone!" she sobbed out.

"I need you for my master," hissed the feline.

Harmony's little blue optics widened and she screamed out, "PAPA! DADDY!"

Ravage snarled at the femme sparkling, moving forward and clamping his teeth over her damaged shoulder, picking her up and shaking her to try and shut her up. It would not do for him to carry a screaming and crying sparkling back to Soundwave. He winced as her scream got louder and tears slipped out over her optics. Ravage thought it was quite ugly, the way her faceplates scrunched up and energon tinted her cheeks.

With another growl, he turned and made to leap out of the Ark entrance, when a commanding voice snarled behind him, "Drop my daughter now and I won't kill you."

If Ravage had been organic, his fur would have stood up on end.

'Blast. Should have left as soon as I got her,' he thought.

"Daddy! Help me!" called Harmony, upon seeing her creators standing there, murderous looks on their faces as they glared at her captor. Their guns were out, and her father's shoulder rockets were up and targeted on the panther-bot. Her papa's visor shone red for a moment, and his posture was low, deadly.

She shrieked in pain as Ravage shook her and growled, facing her creators. He was using her as a shield.

"Ya asked for it, kitty-kat," growled Jazz, he and Prowl springing forward as one, motions in tandem from years and years of working with each other.

For Harmony, it was all a fuzzy as to what happened next. There was a bolt of pain, a yowl, a voice yelling and rockets launching off to make their impact as familiar, warm arms caught her and cocooned her in them. She heard the familiar spark beat of her carrier and felt the soothing energy given off through the spark. Whimpering, she clung tighter, hearing her father roaring in rage and the horrid sound of metal tearing apart. There was another yowl, and then silence.

Footsteps neared, and if it wasn't for the fact Harmony knew it was her sparker, she would have been more afraid. Her parents cooed at her soothingly, Jazz bringing her up so they could both hold her as they walked to the medbay.

As Prowl ran a soothing hand over the damaged winglet nubs, Jazz whispered, "Ya get 'im good?"

A grim, yet satisfied smirk passed over the tactician's face. "I left him just barely alive. I'd like to see Soundwave and Ravage just try to get revenge."

"Not now, love," reminded the saboteur. He was furious as well, but Harmony, clinging to both of them like a limpet, was far more important right now.

"I know. Hamony? Can you please look at me?" Prowl asked softly, stroking a finger over her helm horns. She did, turning watery blue optics up at him. He went on, "I just want to say how brave you are. You called for help, and you fought him. No sparkling should ever have to fight like that, and I'm sorry."

Sniffling, Harmony replied, "Papa said bad things might happen cos war. That cat part war?"

"Yeah, darlin'. He's a bad one too. A spy. That's why ya gotta be with a bot at all times. Because ya're special," Jazz added, cradling his daughter close and kissing the top of her helm, he and his bondmate keeping a strong pulse of comfort to their femmeling, hiding their own fear and fury.

"Shoulder hurts," whined Harmony.

"We know, darlin'. Let's go see the Hatchet. He might even give ya one of his special energon goodies for bein' such a brave little femme. Whaddya say?" asked the visored mech, smiling a little to lighten the mood.

It worked, and Harmony smiled a little through her pain.

"I have to go, though," murmured Prowl, and Jazz knew it was to talk to Optimus about the incident. Harmony pouted, but received another kiss on her helm from her Praxian father and a reassuring smile. "We'll play poker later, okay dearspark?"

When Harmony nodded, Prowl have her a small smile, kissing Jazz chastely and leaving with a determined stride in his step.

Before he went into the medbay, Jazz took a moment to reflect on what happened. Seeing his daughter, his baby, his sparkling, with energon leaking from her shoulder was awfully sobering. Seeing her dangling from Ravage's maw, screaming and crying fat tears of coolant really scared him for the first time in a while. More than when the last time Prowl suffered heavy battle damage.

And the fear.

The fear in her little azure optics had burnt into his spark. No parent should ever have to see that. Ratchet would fix her physically. But he couldn't fix her fear.

Jazz could only hope he could never see that expression or that look in Harmony's optics again.

A/N: PLEASE REVIEW! I bet none of you were expecting that! I wanted to demonstrate just how tenuous Harmony's life is with the Decepticon's still around. Let's me just mention that the plan to kidnap Harmony? Yeah, the Seeker's weren't involved, because Megatron knows about their tendency to revert back to their original programming in caring about sparklings.