Disclaimer: The Musketeers are not mine. I'm just borrowing the concepts and characters for a little while.
Spoilers: 3.10 We Are the Garrison.
A/N: When I wrote the first draft of this back at the end of August, I had yet to see the final episode of the series. As of this posting, which is in honor of the upcoming U.S. release of the DVDs for season three, I still have not yet seen the series finale (3.10).
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Many places I have been
Many sorrows I have seen
But I don't regret
Nor will I forget
All who took that road with me
~~~~~~~"Last Goodbye" by Billy Boyd.
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Porthos
General Porthos du Vallon survives the war between France and Spain, distinguishing himself and elevating the Musketeers more than once in battle. None of that mattered to his wife, Elodie; all she cared about was having her husband home safe and sound. With Porthos now retired from service and home for good, her children wouldn't have the misfortune of having to grow up without a father, like her firstborn.
The two have several more children of their own, though he adored his eldest child, the one he helped to bring into the world in that village in the woods, just as much as any of his natural children. He strived hard every day to give them the kind of stable, loving childhood that he had never had. Porthos more than succeeded in his goal, something no one could deny and of which he was immensely proud.
Porthos loved telling his children stories of his days as a soldier and Musketeer, and of his friends who were still closer to him than any brothers born of the same parents. His brothers of the heart featured in the majority of his tales, and they were the ones his children demanded to hear most often, enjoying how animated their father would get in the telling.
Those beloved stories were handed down from generation to generation until one of Porthos's descendants finally decided to write them down. Surely others would love to read about his ancestor's grand adventures, wouldn't they?
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas became one of the most popular and well-known novels ever to come out of France. It was so successful that Dumas wrote two sequels and many other well-known works. Over the years, the stories have been enjoyed by millions, whether they have read the books, saw one of the movie adaptations that were eventually made, or watched the television series.
As with any story handed down over time, the tales told had evolved somewhat and the adventures had become larger than life. It was difficult to say exactly where the line between fact and fable was drawn. Needless to say, the four Musketeers featured in the books became legends.
What is lost to history is if the real men, upon whom those characters were based, were anything like their counterparts.
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Aramis
God grants Aramis the good fortune to be able to watch his son grow up and have a place in his life; he is also given the opportunity to be with the only woman he has ever truly loved. He cared little for his title, but did take his position quite seriously, helping to make peace between France and Spain.
His son grew up to become a good king though perhaps a bit too fond of warfare, which Aramis believed might have been inherited from him. The boy, who would one day be known as the Sun King, le Roi-Soleil, was always demanding stories about the man who gave his life to save him from the traitors who had kidnapped him when he was but a young boy. Aramis was always more than happy to tell Louis stories of Tréville's life, service, and willing sacrifice for his King. Plenty of the stories also featured the King's beloved Musketeers, especially of those men Aramis fought beside and thought of as family.
Sometimes he missed being a Musketeer, but only because he missed the adventures he used to have with his friends. He never did like or enjoy killing, though he had been good at it due to his excellent marksmanship skills. The best part about being a Musketeer had been the camaraderie of his brothers-in-arms and the brothers he held in his heart. He even sometimes missed the quiet nights where the four of them would stay up late into the night talking about everything and nothing.
Though not planned and at great risk to their lives, he and Anne did have another child in secret – Phillippe. They had to hide the pregnancy from everyone, for it was just as treasonous to have a child with a widowed queen who was Regent as it was to have a child when her husband, Louis XIII, had still been alive.
Over time, the secrecy over the child's existence became excellent fodder for gossip. The tales that were told became ridiculously exaggerated. Eventually, they grew to become a story about an unknown man in an iron mask. Long after the principal players had passed on, a book would be written about the secret child, his tale twisted beyond recognition so that he was said to be a twin to Louis XIV.
Regardless of the rumors surrounding the boy's birth, or the stories that came to be written about him in the future, Aramis and Anne loved their second son just as much as their first. Louis was also very fond of little Phillipe, though he was never able to openly acknowledge his younger brother as family.
It wasn't until Aramis was dying from a protracted illness that Louis admitted that he knew who his real father was. Aramis spent his final days on earth being happy to finally call Louis "son" – if only in private.
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Athos
In due time, Athos and Sylvie had a son that they named, Raoul.
Tragically, Sylvie suffered childbed fever and died a few days after their son was born. She only got to hold her baby once for a few minutes just after she gave birth.
Athos's grief nearly consumed him as he fell back on old habits for a time. He had loved Sylvie, but at times he had wondered if they would've been truly happy together in the long run. Her politics and his had never quite meshed and had been a source of contention between them more than once when she had still been alive.
However, to lose another woman that he had loved, one who had given him a healthy, handsome son, was just too much for him to handle, especially when he knew that Milady was still out there in the world. For a while – too long – after Raoul was born, he sank into a wine-soaked depression, all but ignoring the precious new life after finding someone to care for him.
It wasn't until a visit from a certain young Captain of the Musketeers that Athos started to come back to himself. It took a punch to his jaw and all his wine poured out onto the ground, but he snapped out of his depression. He finally began to live again. He stopped drinking for good this time and devoted his life to raising his son, who had the happy childhood that Athos did not have. He and his brothers were thrilled to see that Raoul seemed to have quite the talent for the sword, like his father before him.
Several years after his son was born, Athos heard a rumor about a female spy and assassin being hanged for espionage and murder in England. Not wanting to bring up old guilt or grief, he chose to not pursue the truth of those rumors.
When he came of age, Raoul unfortunately fell in love with the wrong woman and had his heart broken. This led to the young man deciding to join the military; it was during one of King Louis's many military campaigns that Raoul was killed in action.
With the death of his son and only child, Athos's heart and soul were completely shattered beyond all hope of repair. He became a living ghost, and though his remaining brothers tried to keep him in this world, it was to no avail. He passed into the next world not long after his son died and was entombed next to him in the family vault.
His brothers mourned Athos to the very end of their days, but kept his memory alive through the tales they often told about him to anyone who would listen.
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D'Artagnan
As Captain of the Musketeers, d'Artagnan flourished in the role, rebuilding the garrison to its former glory – and then some.
He continued to train recruits to become soldiers of the King's elite guard, though he occasionally accepted secret missions on behalf of King Louis.
Once the war was over, Constance finally confessed to her husband that she had been doing all she could to keep from getting pregnant. Up until then, d'Artagnan had lamented more than once that they had not yet been able to have children, sometimes unable to hide his jealousy that his brothers had offspring of their own.
Besides his wife and the brothers he'd found in the Musketeers, he had always wanted a family of his own. He had especially wanted a son that he could name after his father, who he hoped was proud of the man he had become.
Constance had her reasons for not wanting to have children while France was at war. Her utmost one was her fear that, if her husband died, then she would be left alone to raise them on her own with very few prospects for earning an honest living. However, for d'Artagnan, those reasons felt like a betrayal of not only their marriage vows but to him personally. Even if he had been killed, didn't Constance realize that they had friends who would've helped her raise their children and that she would not have been left to become destitute?
How could she think so little of their friends, their family of the heart? How could she never tell her husband of her fears about having children with him? Why marry him at all when she knew he was a soldier and was aware of how badly he wanted to have a family with many sons and daughters to make up for the fact that he was the last of his line?
Constance had told him the truth because she finally felt ready to have the children her husband so desperately craved. However, her long-time deceit broke something in their once loving marriage.
D'Artagnan took some of his more senior recruits at the time on a training mission in order to gain some perspective on the situation. On the way back, after sending the recruits back to Paris, d'Artagnan visited his nephew, Raoul, and talked the issue over with Athos. In talking things out with his best friend, he found that he still loved Constance though he knew it would take some time to mend the rift her revelation had caused in their marriage.
The two of them found their way back to each other eventually, but they never had any children. They tried for several years before Constance died of a wintertime fever.
D'Artagnan's grief never truly waned. The love of his life was gone and he didn't have any children to help remind him of her.
He threw himself into his work, though he curiously never received another promotion despite his many years of devoted service to the Musketeers and King Louis.
Finally, after many years as Captain, he received a promotion to become a Marshal of France, but before he could take up the role, he was felled by a sniper's bullet through the neck when he stepped in front of a shot meant to take the King's life.
Athos once told Tréville that d'Artagnan had the potential to become the greatest of all the Musketeers. Did his many years of loyal service, which saved the country from ruin time and again, make him the greatest? Could he be considered the greatest for sacrificing his life in order to save his King's life from an assassin's bullet?
Or, did the novels fictionalizing d'Artagnan's life, and the adventures he and his friends had as Musketeers, make him the greatest by elevating his story to that of legend?
Only those who know his true story can be the judge.
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The end.
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A/N: This story is a combination of elements from real-life history, the series (including some things that were spoiled for me), and the books by Alexandre Dumas. The title is inspired by the second book, Twenty Years After.
Just a reminder: I've not yet seen episode 3.10.
Many thanks to Celticgal1041 for proofing; any remaining mistakes are my fault.
Thanks for reading!