Authors note: I wrote 'No End to the Lengths We'll Go' a couple of months ago and 'pallysd'Artagnan' suggested that there might be more to come for our Musketeers...well guess what, they were right.

You don't need to have read 'No End to the Lengths We'll Go' (but I won't stop you) to understand this as I have briefly summarised that story within the narrative.

For those that need to know, it's Aramis and d'Artagnan whump.

Chapter One

'Apparently,' said Aramis as they strolled along the road, 'he's been playing the same three men for a week now and they have yet to work out he is cheating them.'

'Perhaps he's not cheating, he told me he wasn't,' replied d'Artagnan as they moved around a stall holder packing up his wares for the night.

'This is Porthos we're talking about,' remarked Aramis with a grin.

They continued for a few seconds watching the citizens of Paris winding down for the night. The city never became completely still but it did get quieter. The road they were on, leading towards the garrison was one of the quieter ones, the rumble of carts going in the opposite direction and a few people making their way home the only thing impeding their way.

D'Artagnan skirted around a woman and her small boy as they walked past, the boy tiredly rubbing his eyes.

'He's offered to buy us dinner tonight, that's all I care about,' d'Artagnan said, 'I've heard that tavern does a good stew.'

Aramis chuckled, 'are you becoming like him, thinking about food all the time?'

'Free food? Always.'

Aramis laughed at the response as they turned off the main road into a smaller street. They walked a few paces before d'Artagnan found himself stopped by Aramis. D'Artagnan looked at his friend who was looking ahead of them intently. Following Aramis' gaze, d'Artagnan could make out what he was looking at. Three men were loitering in the shadow of an overhanging building several yards ahead of them.

'I'm not in the mood for a confrontation, my friend,' said Aramis as he glanced across.

D'Artagnan nodded and began to turn around. The men were clearly waiting to ambush them both. Although they would have no problem taking the men out if they could avoid a fight it was preferable.

What d'Artagnan was not expecting was for four more men to have appeared behind them. The men wore scarves hiding their faces. Each man had a gun in his hand aimed at the two Musketeers. D'Artagnan was about to turn back the other way again when he was grabbed from behind.

Strong hands pushed him up against the wall of a house holding him firmly, one of the men pressed a gun into his temple. D'Artagnan looked at the man who put his finger to his lips. D'Artagnan who had been about to shout out stopped himself.

The men holding him roughly pulled his arms behind his back and began to bind them. He tried to look around for Aramis but could not see his friend, although he did hear a few muffled curses and a hiss of pain. D'Artagnan guessed Aramis had managed to put up a bit of a fight before being restrained by the men.

D'Artagnan tried to resist being gagged but was slapped to the side of the head for his troubles. Finally, he was blindfolded, the fabric tied tightly around his head.

He was pulled from the wall and forced to walk. The men held him firmly, preventing him from falling. After a few seconds, he was pushed forward before being pulled up and shoved uncomfortably down, forced to lie on his side. D'Artagnan guessed he was on the back of a cart. The cart moved as more people climbed on. A groan behind him told him that Aramis had been forced to join him.

D'Artagnan wondered why they had been taken and what was going to happen next.

MMMM

The brief journey in the back of the cart had not been pleasant. Aramis had tried to sit up, tried to shout but the gag muffled his voice enough that he would not be heard over the sound of the wheels on the cobbles. His weapons belts were roughly pulled off before a search of his doublet and boots was made for any other weapons.

Aramis could hear the men hitting d'Artagnan, hear his muffled shouts. Aramis had tried kicking out at the men to no avail, the men continued to hit d'Artagnan. When one of the men thumped him, he fell back to the floor of the cart, stunned.

After a few seconds, he could hear d'Artagnan complaining. He could not make out what his friend was saying. One of the men put his boot into Aramis' back and pushed him onto his front pressing down. Aramis quickly found it difficult to breathe, he tried to squirm away but the man just pressed his foot harder into his back.

When the cart had stopped and the boot at his back was removed all Aramis could do was try to catch his breath. He was hauled from the back of the cart but found he was unable to stand on his own as he gasped for breath. Aramis was aware of being dragged forward, he was pushed to sit, his arms awkwardly pulled over the back of the chair. More ropes were wrapped around his arms and chest pinning him uncomfortably to the chair.

The gag was pulled from his mouth. Aramis coughed a few times before hands were on him again pulling the blindfold from his eyes.

The room was dimly lit. He looked to his right and found d'Artagnan similarly bound to a chair having his gag and blindfold removed. The younger man had grazes across his cheek and forehead, a bruise blossoming on his jaw. Aramis guessed he looked in a similar state. D'Artagnan looked at him for a few seconds. A commanding voice from the shadows had them both look forward.

'I have one simple question for you both,' said the voice, Aramis guessed the owner of the voice was of a wealthy class, he was well spoken.

'If you answer it to my satisfaction you will be returned to your garrison.'

Aramis glanced at d'Artagnan with confusion. D'Artagnan shook his head it was obvious his friend had no idea what was going on either.

'You were both guests of Monsieur Legrand a few weeks ago.'

Aramis was a little shocked at what the man had said. Legrand had been a nobleman who, with a group of unknown men, would hunt people for sport. D'Artagnan and he had been unfortunate to be the man's last victims. They had been lucky to survive the encounter.

The man in the shadows continued, 'what I want to know is if you know who the other hunters were?'

D'Artagnan was staring into the dark corner where the voice was coming from.

'What if we do?'

'That is not an answer.'

Without warning Aramis was hit hard across the face, the strike almost knocking him over. It took him a few seconds to focus again. D'Artagnan was watching him carefully, he nodded to his friend that he was alright.

'Do you know who any of the men were?'

'How could we know that; the men were all hooded,' Aramis said.

A man stood beside d'Artagnan stepped forward and slapped the bound man. D'Artagnan looked shocked at the assault.

'That is not an answer.'

Aramis glared at the dark corner, 'we were being hunted, we weren't exactly paying attention to what the men looked like.'

The man next to d'Artagnan hit him again.

'That is not an answer.'

As d'Artagnan straightened himself up he glanced across at Aramis.

'He thinks he can play us off on one another,' said d'Artagnan who appeared to regret speaking straight away.

'That is not an answer!'

Aramis tensed up as he was again punched, his chair rocked dangerously to one side by the impact.

'We don't know who the other men are,' said d'Artagnan firmly.

D'Artagnan looked across to Aramis, a worried look on his face. Aramis unconsciously leaned away from the man who had now hit him several times.

'Thank you,' said the voice. 'You can have a little fun with them, but France needs her soldiers. Return them in one piece to their garrison by dawn.'

Aramis watched as the door to the dim room was opened, light flooding in for a few seconds. The man stepped out, closing the door behind him. The other men in the room, their faces still hidden behind scarves stepped towards them. Aramis did not like to think about what they were going to do, but he suspected he knew.

MMMM

'I'll see how many men I can spare,' said Treville as he joined Athos and Porthos who were looking towards the garrison gate.

Athos nodded his thanks, 'I just wish we had some idea what has happened to them.'

When neither d'Artagnan or Aramis had appeared at muster he had raised his concerns with Treville. Porthos had already remarked that he had been expecting to see both the missing men at the tavern he was frequenting. After asking a few of the other soldiers who had been at the Palace with their friends it became apparent that both had left together late the previous afternoon.

Porthos took a couple of paces forward, Athos followed his gaze through the garrison gate before following him as he started walking purposefully.

'What?' asked Treville.

All three men watched as two horses trotted up to the gate and paused for a few seconds. Their missing friends were lying slumped over the backs of the horses. The cloaked riders pushed the men off the horses with no care for their wellbeing. As the men slumped to the floor, clearly unconscious, the riders sped off.

Porthos reached them first, crouching beside Aramis he gently turned the man onto his back. Athos watched Treville trying to rouse d'Artagnan. Both men were bruised and bloody, their weapons and other personal effects were missing.

'Let's get them into the infirmary,' said Porthos grimly, 'I can't see anything too serious on him…'

Treville shook his head, 'd'Artagnan just appears to have been beaten,' he paused for a few seconds. 'Was this a random attack?'

Athos shook his head, 'we will have to wait until we can ask them.'

MMMM

As gently as they could they went about stripping the unconscious Musketeers. Porthos pushed Aramis up to sit and eased his doublet off him, with help from Athos they pulled his shirt off revealing bruising across their friend's chest and a nasty looking boot shaped bruise on his back along with grazes and a few cuts.

Treville and Barbotin, one of the other Musketeer field medics, worked on d'Artagnan finding similar injuries on the young man.

'If this was just a robbery they would have been left where they were attacked,' said Porthos as he dipped a cloth into water to start cleaning the cuts and scrapes to his friend.

Treville looked at his injured men and sighed, 'I agree, why bring them back?'

Barbotin, who had moved to look Aramis over stood up and looked at the expectant men, 'neither of them is badly injured, I can't find any broken bones. We'll know for sure when they come around.'

'Thank you, Clemont,' said Treville, 'we can watch them. We'll let you know if we need you again.'

Barbotin nodded to the rest of them and retreated from the room.

A moan from Aramis drew their attention. Porthos lay his hand on the injured man's chest to stop him from moving.

'Aramis?' he said. 'Try not to move too much. You're injured, you're in the infirmary...d'Artagnan is here as well.'

Aramis slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times before focusing on Porthos who smiled.

'Water?'

Aramis managed a nod and allowed Porthos to help him sit up a little bit, wincing as he did so. Porthos held the cup of water to Aramis' lips when it became apparent the injured man was still too uncoordinated to hold it himself.

'It was one of the hunters,' Aramis managed to say.

'What hunters?' asked Treville, the confusion evident on his face.

'Legrand,' Aramis replied.

'What?' said Porthos. 'You mean one of the hooded men did this?'

Aramis nodded as he looked across at d'Artagnan for a few seconds, watching as Treville continued his own ministrations.

'He had help, they grabbed us...took us, somewhere...they were all disguised. The man just kept asking if we knew any of the hooded men that had been hunting us. We told him we did not. He left...after telling the men they could beat us up, but we were not to be killed. He told them to bring us back here.'

Aramis paused for a moment looking at d'Artagnan again.

'I guess they did as they were told.'

Treville shook his head as he went back to cleaning the grazes on d'Artagnan's face. Porthos found the sight quite endearing, watching his Captain tend to one of his men.

'Is this going to be an ongoing problem?' the Captain asked after a few seconds. 'You said that there were, what, thirty men hunting you?'

Aramis nodded before looking down.

'Hey,' said Porthos, 'this ain't your fault. We suspected something like this might happen. There were bound to be some of the wealthier hunters who attend the Palace.'

'I just hope this isn't the start of something,' said Treville.

Porthos nodded towards d'Artagnan who was starting to wake up. As Porthos had done a few minutes before with Aramis, the Captain spoke calmly to d'Artagnan to reassure him he was safe.

After helping d'Artagnan to sit and assuring himself that his Musketeer was alert and aware of what had happened, Treville stood. He looked at the two injured men for a few seconds.

'Should I talk to the King? Tell him that there may be people in his court right now that were involved in the attempted murder of two of his Musketeers?'

'The question would be will that make it worse for them?' said Athos glancing at the Aramis and d'Artagnan.

'This might be the end of it,' said Aramis, 'it might be a one-off.'

'Might be,' said d'Artagnan quietly.

'I'll not say anything for now. The man might not even be a courtier, he could have just been rich enough to be able to hire some thugs to beat you both.'

Porthos said, 'so we carry on as normal?'

'No,' said Athos, 'we remain vigilant.'

Porthos chuckled, 'we carry on as normal.'

'If either of you think you see someone you recognise from the hunt, or you get the impression that someone is watching you, you will keep us informed,' said Treville, 'this is not us mollycoddling you both.'

D'Artagnan had looked like he was about to protest.

'I don't want a repeat of this,' Treville continued with a sweeping gesture of his hand taking in both the men lying in front of him.'

'I doubt we'd know most of the hunters. We saw perhaps a handful with their hoods down,' said Aramis before blinking a few times.

Treville nodded, 'but they don't know that...Now, rest, both of you.'

Treville walked from the room shaking his head again as he went.

Porthos lay his hand over Aramis arm and with the hint of a smile said, 'don't worry...we'll protect you.'

Aramis rolled his eyes, 'if I didn't hurt, everywhere, I'd show you I don't need protecting.'

MMMM

A few days later…

Aramis tried not to wince but knew he had failed, the last couple of steps could not be negotiated without placing his hand on the railings. Fortunately, there was no one around, the Palace itself was busy, but the gardens were not. The cooler weather had driven the Royal Family inside with the courtiers and hangers-on following.

D'Artagnan and he were still showing signs of the beating they had endured and to prevent questions from the King, Treville had assigned them both to patrol duty outside the Palace.

They had both spent a couple of days in the infirmary as their assortment of bruises made themselves painfully known. D'Artagnan had been left half blind as one eye became swollen shut and Aramis had found it almost impossible to sleep due to the bruises on both his back and sides leaving him very tired.

But they were now on the mend and back on duty, albeit simple patrols in areas of the Palace that the Royal Family rarely ventured. The likelihood of trouble finding them both was slim.

Aramis rolled his shoulders, he could still feel the bruise on his back where the thug had pushed his boot into him. He continued this slow stroll along the veranda. Each stone column a potential hiding place, but he had seen no one for a couple of hours.

As he walked he spotted a couple of men walking across one of the manicured lawns. The men were talking together, Aramis did not recognise them. He guessed they were visitors to the Palace and had taken the opportunity to view the gardens. They did not seem to pose a threat, Aramis continued walking.

As he passed the next stone column he was surprised to be grabbed and forcefully pulled a few steps to the side. He was pushed, hard, into the column, the force aggravating his already painful back. Unable to stop himself he cried out in pain only to find a gloved hand over his face smothering the sound.

Aramis was shocked to see who had grabbed him.

MMMM