Disclaimer: The Musketeers are not mine. I'm just borrowing the concepts and characters for a little while. All quotes taken from "Family" were used by permission from the author.

Spoilers: Season One.

A/N: It has been quite a while since I last posted a story, but I've definitely not been idle in the interim. I've have been working with the awesome Celticgal1041 on a series of tags and missing scenes to accompany and expand upon her new story "Family."

For each of her chapters, there is a corresponding story written by me that was inspired by a quote from "Family." Some require her story to understand, while others do not. Several of them take place pre-series/pre-Family, so I'll be incorporating timeline notes (and other warnings) at the beginning of each chapter.

Some of you have likely noticed that I like to begin my stories with a quotation**. Each chapter has its own quotation taken from Celticgal1041's story, but there is also an overall quote for the whole of this effort that I believe is extremely fitting. For fun, I'm going to parse it out a little at a time and invite you to guess its source without using the internet. Hint: It's from a film made within the past 15 years.

Timeline: Prequel to Chapter 1 of Family; takes place before d'Artagnan heads to Paris and after his father is murdered. Can stand on its own.

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"What happens if, …"**

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Chapter One: Alone

"No matter what the man did to his body, his mind had retreated deeply inwards where a warm flame burned brightly and reminded him that he was not alone."

~~~~~ d'Artagnan, Chapter 1 of "Family" by Celticgal1041.

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Alone.

He was all alone now.

Not just in the sense of no one presently in his company, but in all senses of the word.

When he'd been younger, his mother had been taken by a mysterious illness, silencing his prayers for the sibling he had so badly wanted.

His mother's family was completely unknown to him, and now that his father was dead and unable to pass on any knowledge about them, that part of his life seemed forever closed off to him.

His father's younger brother and family, who had lived in the next village over, had been killed by bandits the year before. D'Artagnan had still been reeling from the loss of his two best friends, who had become closer to him than the siblings he had always hoped for but had never had.

D'Artagnan's father had been devastated to learn of his brother's death. The fact that they were twins made them closer than most siblings could ever hope to be. Alexandre had often joked that Jean-Claude was the baby brother, though they had been born only minutes apart. One night, just after his uncle had died and his father had drunk a little too much, Alexandre had confided in his son that he felt as if he was missing another piece of himself, inferring that his mother had been the first piece that he'd lost. It seemed that God had determined then that d'Artagnan and his father were to be all the family either of them needed.

In death, his uncle had managed to save his 'older' brother. As sole heir, his father had inherited Jean-Claude's land. By selling it off, the proceeds allowed Alexandre to not only pay off the brother's debt, but most of his own debts as well, though they were still a little behind on their taxes.

Their farm had been made relatively safe from being taken away from them, but that was not the case any longer. The King's taxes had risen yet again and there were rumors of the Intendant of Gascony resorting to violence to collect back taxes as well as imposing high fines for being overdue. Without intervention from the King, there would be no relief from the intolerable burden of the taxes that had been levied across the region.

Because he was respected amongst the locals, Alexandre d'Artagnan had been elected to go to Paris and speak to the King about relief from the too-high taxes. Because it was too dangerous for his father to travel alone, d'Artagnan had accompanied his father on the journey. Because of a series of choices, his father had been murdered.

He had not been able to stop his father from dying, but he would find his father's killer. The question of whether it would be justice or revenge was still to be answered.

D'Artagnan crouched down and laid his hand on the cold mound of dirt before him.

"I'm sorry, Father, that I could not take you home and lay you to rest next to Mother. Even this time of year, it's too far to travel before…"—He bent his fingers so that the tips were buried in the dirt—"It's just another failure on my part, I guess. The innkeeper said the men who attacked were Musketeers. I can hardly believe it after all the stories we've heard… They're supposed to be honorable men!"—d'Artagnan bowed his head and closed his eyes—"I won't rest until I find this Athos of the Musketeers and kill him. I know you would rather I seek justice than revenge, but I'm just not sure I am capable of that right now. This Athos took you away from me, the last of my family. I am alone in the world because of that man."—d'Artagnan lifted his head and straightened his fingers, lightly patting the mound once before standing—"I failed you in life but I refuse to fail you in death. And if I die in my pursuit of Athos, then at least I will be with my family again and won't be so alone anymore."

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The end.

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Next time: A missing scene and another piece of the overall story's quotation.

Thanks for reading!