She had failed.

The only reason she was probably still alive is that Lord High Elder Gothwrain probably considered this imprisonment a worse torture.

He was right.

She would rather be dead than where she was right now. In cell, with a water bottle, forced to contemplate that it was all her plan that had placed her and her partners in this situation.

Gothwrain had known the whole time, and instead of giving them a second chance to prove themselves. He had abandoned them.

Her reason for living, since she was a little cub, was over.

"Hey, you know, she's like been quiet for two days now," Moisha said in the wererat sign language, glancing at Lydia in the middle of the room huddled over her knees. The normally angry expression on her faced replaced with one of blank apathy. "Shouldn't she like, be figuring out how to get out of here?"

"What's the point?" Romeo asked, signing back. "Didn't you hear Lord Gothwrain? We're stuck here. We screwed up and he caught us on it. I'll bet he's already training some replacements for us."

"Chwa," Moisha responded, translating the sound into sign by some freak of savant genius. "He can't do it that quickly, we're like the product of years of training, you know."

"I'm sure there are back-ups," Romeo said. "Face it, unless something unexpected happens, we're stuck in Munchkin Village until the cows come home."

At which point the alarms started blaring They looked up, except for Lydia who didn't seem to have heard, and then the entire castle shook, causing the glass cage wall to fall out away from them and smash open.

"Would, like, that count?" Moisha signed, putting a sarcastic accent on it. Romeo didn't bother to answer.

"Lydia the cell is open," he shouted, grabbing her and drawing a slow uncaring look. "Let's get out of here, come on." Lydia stared at the open cage for a moment, blinked and then stood straight up, almost knocking Romeo to his feet.

"Right," Lydia declared. "But first we're going to make a little withdrawal. Gothwrain wants us to pay back Zero, we'll pay back Zero! COME ON YOU &#$#$$!" She stalked out of the cage carefully keeping an eye out for guards.

"Well, she's like feeling better," Moisha said, as they followed their determined and driven leader.

"What be all this ruckus?!" O'Keith demanded.

"The winds be a moaning in the night, sir!" a security technician said.

"What?" O'Keith asked.

"The fire's red and it's flamin' spread! The trees like torches blaze with light!"

"Make yourself clear corporal!" O'Lura demanded stalking, into the room. "Before I have your blarney stones in a sling an' use them for tiddlywinks!"

"There be a great bloody gold stealing worm attacking the Castle o' Shoes McKeith," the tech said.

"What?!" O'Keith demanded. "I thought all the Dragons were up North aways, fighting the Diggers and friends."

"Well one o' them came this a'way," the tech informed them. "An' this dragon's ire is more fierce than fire!"

"And the bloody mecha are still in the shop," O'Lura snapped. "An' most of our forces are tracking the dragons to their lairs to lay claim to their gold!"

"Oh," the tech said. "One more thing."

"What is it?" O'Keith asked.

"Those three rodents have gone an' skarkered away."

The castle shook again and three rats held still, hoping the ventilation vent they were in would suddenly give in and drop them into the waiting arms of the Shamrock Brigade below. When the shock settled the rats breathed a sigh of relief and continued walking through the vent, the three of them walking abreast through the hidden passage.

"Why don't we, like, just get out of here?" Moisha asked in her small rat voice.

"I have no idea what's going on, Lydia," Romeo said. "But I DON'T want to get caught between those little green people and whatever it is there fighting."

"That's why we're not going towards the #$%# fighting," Lydia snapped. "Like I said. We get our stuff, get some gold get #$ outta here!" She sniffed about, following her own scent to its source, an almost manic look in her little rat eyes.

"She's like, gonna get us killed," Moisha muttered. "Ain't she."

"Die here, or die when Lord Gothwrain finds with nothing," Lydia snapped back. "So get a #% move on and stop #% # chattering."

"But I…"

"SHUT UP!" Lydia stops at a ventilation shaft and wondered briefly why the vents hadn't been shut off. Whatever it was the leprechauns were fighting, the halls were starting to fill with its foul reek. She almost didn't find this trail to their gear. "Here's our stuff, so let's not blow it this time!"

"O'Keith, sir!" a technician shouted. "We've spotted the rats. They're in one o' the lesser vaults am' takin' back their gear."

"Cush la McCree," O'Keith shouted. "An where be the dragon?!"

"Layin' low our reservers frail!" another tech shouted. "They all four be makin' for the vault I reckon."

"Still can't reach the Danny's column o' iron in the hills," another tech said. "The dragon must have destroyed the Raven relay sattelite dish on first go!"

"Ahh!" O'Keith said. "All that's left is them bloody Crows, an' that'll let everyone know the Leprechauns be gwttin' atomped under the hills."

"Oh," O'Lura snapped. "For the love of St. Pete, I'll wink over in a jiffy and then Danny o'the Iron will be right over those hills quick as you can blink."

"Well, hurry on it Princess," O'Keith shouted. "Or they be havin' us over a barrel for sure."

The rats stopped as they came to a section of the ventilation shaft that was twisted and torn and open to below.

"This is not good," Romeo said. "This is not good."

"Quiet!" Lydia snapped. "The vault's around her somewhere. I'll head in and distract whatever's there, and you two take the bag and snatch as much #$ gold as you can. Just don't touch that $ # machine or they'll really be after us. I'll give you three minutes got it? Then I #$% book."

"Ain't this, u know, the same plan that got us caught before?" Moisha asked.

"You know what they say," Lydia growled. "Third #$% time pays for all."

"Lydia," Romeo said cautiously. "This is our SECOND attempt!"

"Well, we ain't gonna need a third!" Lydia growled. "After all the #$ # messes we've been in, fate owes a #$ # reward. Now move it."

The path to the vault was easy to find, miniature versions of light armored vehicle lay scattered about, like some landscape after filming a godzilla movie. The rats snuck forward and found the vault wall, torn open by something monstrous and gulped, before heading into the vault. It was the same vault from before, with no visible damage, but it smelled of something reptilian. And it smelled of fire.

"You know," Romeo said. "I'm beginning to get a bad feeling about this."

"You always have a bad feeling, Romeo," Lydia muttered.

"So, like, what's a red lizard that breathes fire and likes gold?" Moisha asked, sounding somewhat shocked.

"How do you know whatever it is, is red?" Lydia asked. The pink wererat pointed to a massive red tail lifting out of the water and cutting through the waterfall. Lydia and Romeo nearly choked on their own lungs at the sight of the tail. Moisha was merely in shock from having discovered it first.

"A d..d…dragon?" Lydia asked.

"You want us to sneak gold past a dragon?!" Romeo demanded.

"Sssssshhh!" Moisha insisted. "It'll, you know, hear us."

"P…plan's the same," Lydia said. "Get to it!"

The fire dragon Phume sniffed at the air as something small passed through the waterfall behind it. The extradimensional space of the vault itself had expanded to accept the dragon's great bulk, the outer vault would do likewise once he left the room. He had been thinking of staying actually. Why bother moving all this gold when he had a perfect lair right here. He smirked as he realized that what had entered the room with him was no Leprechaun.

"Well thief, I can smell you, and feel your motion, hear your breath," he growled, his voice echoing through the vault. "Come forward, there is plenty for all of us to gain at the leprechaun's expense."

"Hell no," a small voice squeaked out. "I'm not here for the treasure, and can't have the little twerps following me around. I merely wished to look and see who had knocked a hole in that # ^% cell wall so I could get out. Damn, but I didn't expect anything at all like this."

"You have….some manners for thief and liar," the dragon growled. "Why might I ask were you in the cage to begin with, and who might you be? If it is all right to ask."

"Sure you can ask," the voice called out. "What's wrong with # ! asking. But I don't think you're the least interested in me. Shouldn't you be worried about the Green Corps and their box top army?"

"Ha!" the dragon laughed, and the cavern shook. "My armor is like five layers of kevlar, my teeth are knives, my claws chainsaws, my tail a cruise missile, my wings a EMP and my breath, taxes. What need I fear of little men with toy bombs?"

"So, you ain't got nothing to worry about underneath then," the voice asked.

"You listen to those old tales?" the dragon laughed, and then turned itself over. "See, armored above and bel…EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!" The last was the sound of a dragon being struck by multiple magic shurikens after exposing a very sensitive and vital part of HIS anatomy. Lydia ran through, and grabbed Moisha and Romeo as she passed.

"Let's get the # $^ out of here!" Lydia shouted dashing along.

"You were going to give us three minutes!" Romeo protested after saying the magic word to shrink the sack.

"I ran out of #&* ideas!" Lydia snapped. Moisha was laughing for some odd reason.

"Chwa, did you here that big lizard screaming like a…"

"LITTLE RAT! I KNOW YOUR SMELL! AND YOU BOTH YOUR FRIENDS SHALL SEE WHO IS THE TRUE TERROR IN THIS CASTLE!"

"Like…I think he's mad," Moisha whimpered. She glanced back in time to see a huge claw come out of the torn open vault and shift into a human form. Then what seemed to be a human limped out with as much speed as it could muster after them.

"Ah ha!" O'Keith said, watching over the viewer as the reinforcements started arriving. "Now we are not helpless, now we have an army t' fight the blatherscapes with!"

"Most of our forces are still chasing that flight o' dragons that little insane bugger told us about. And they'll be fighting at the very gates of the mountain," the tech said. "Them thievin lot be a leaving right now."

"Let loose the outer alarms, let em know company be a commin'!" O'Keith shouted. "And someone wink out to tell the others about the dragon's weak spot. At least we have to thank them scoundrel rats for that little piece of information."

As soon as they got out into the open air the rats saw a shadow spread out behind them.

"Ah #$%#$," Lydia shouted as something swept down and smashed the three of them into the ground. There they were, dead, for purposes, beneath his feet. A second claw reached down to gingerly pick up the magic bag of gold.

"Ahhh," the dragon roared, scooping up the rats and standing up. "This is mine I believe. And now I shall swallow you three down like the…where the…" The dragon's claw was inexplicably empty.

"NOW!" Lydia shouted, shifting into her hybrid form. On top of the dragon head, the three wererats slammed down their blades into the dragon. The dragon reared up, roaring angrily as it lost an eye to the irritating pests upon its body. At the same time the tramp of doom could be heard in the form of a column of leprechaun artillery and armor lumbering minutely over the hills.

"FIRE!" Princess O'Lura shouted as the dragon tried to shake off the rats. A roaring sound shook the area as over a hundred guns fired off, aiming for the same target.

The dragon shuddered and froze, shuddering and trying to roar in pain. Nothing more than a small gasp of shock squeaked as the dragon gripped the magic bag in two claws and, with a shocked, disbelieving expression, ripped it in two.

Many miles away, at the same moment, a flash of light signaled Brittany destroying the Dragonblade as the host of dragons and dragon-kin that had invaded the Earth were sucked back into their own world. All except for one that had choice torn up an extradimensional pocket.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The dragon finally shouted, shaking away the rats, mostly by accident. Twisting out from the torn bag, and mixing with the gate sucking in all the dragons, the essence of magic swirled around the four beings, (one no longer possessing of gender). It was incredible light show, of course the rats were encompassed in it, the dragon was otherwise occupied and the leprechauns were busy chasing the gold showering down from the broken bag, and in some cases being buried by it. So no one saw it enough to appreciate the asethetic.

"I knew this was a bad idea!" Romeo shouted.

"Like what now?!" Moisha asked.

"# ##*$#*&^%*%*$#*^#*^*$*$*%*&*#(&$(*#*^%*#&*#*^#*#^*#*^%#*#!" was Lydia's response.

Lydia reached and snagged a scale on the shoulder of the dragon as she was passing it, slicing in with her sword and swinging to catch a grip back on the dragon. She twisted around again and reached out to grab at Romeo and Moisha as they swept by her. She just missed catching Romeo's hand as they fell into the center of the magical chaos. Lydia actually screamed as she saw what seemed to be them being torn apart. And then everything whited out.

It was a peaceful evening in Jade, a few miles west of Main Guard. Travelers were making the last few miles of the Journey towards the city of the famous Edge Guard, eager to be in the bounds before nightfall and sleeping in a nice cozy inn-bed. Then the skies were torn open above them.

Men looked up with their faces pale, and saw the dragon descend from on the heights. Bells were ringing in the town as Edge Guard were summoned to deal with the problem. Dragons could be friendly, but they rarely dropped out of the sky screaming like little girls, so they sort of doubted this one would be one of the nice set.

"You are dead, wererat," the dragon shouted in a distinctly falsetto voice. "Your friends are dead. Your whole family shall be wiped from existence and I shall use their blood to drink and to polish my scales over a thousand years."

She shouldn't have been listening to it, for dragon speech had the power to enforce doubt and guilt even when spoken by a dragon in seizures of pain and rage, but she heard it any way as she climbed up the shoulder. To the creatures throat.

"$%##% ! YOU!" Lydia shouted as she stabbed upwards with her sword into a soft piece of flesh under the dragon's chin. The dragon barely noticed the pain, but brought a claw up to swipe at its puny attacker. Lydia felt the claws smash into her and tear her open, snapping her spine, crushing her entirely, but merely stabbed up again, and swiped out, neatly cutting the dragon's throat.

Then they finally landed on Jade, a small shower of gold coins hitting the ground with them.

Lydia had already sunk down into herself before the Edge Guardians were about her and drawing her body away from the dragon's blood seeping into her wounds. She wasn't aware that she still lived, she was only certain of two things.

Romeo and Moisha were dead.

And it was her fault this time as well.

An ocean away a similar light show entertained onlookers as it flashed into existence and then faded away. There was no huge dragon to alert the citizens of Lrith City that it had been an accidental and out of control gate. So no one really witnessed two figures appear about two hundred feet above the ground and then fall to the ground, screaming in panic, until the loud thud that signaled the end of their travels.

After being pelted by gold for several minutes Romeo and Moisha finally woke up and stretched as well as they could. They weren't completely healed yet, but it wouldn't take much longer. In the mean time they glanced around curiously.

"Chwa…that hurts," Moisha moaned irritably.

"Hey," Romeo asked, setting his leg to speed the healing. "Where are we?"