When Arabella saw that the young man, in front of compartment V, had found what could have been the plans, she knew she had to do something. She quickly took her pistol and sighed. She really didn't want to hurt or kill anyone, but if it protected her, then she had to.

Arabella slowly stepped out from behind the pillar and took slow, cautious steps towards the young man. She took a deep, silent breath as she raised her pistol up towards him. When she was only a few feet a away from him, she saw that he had opened a jar that contained a scroll and something told her, that that was what she had been looking for.

Becoming very nervous, Arabella took one step closer.

"Don't." She blurted out, sounding more threatening that she had hoped. At that same instant, she loaded the pistol in her hand.

The young man's shoulders straightened and he slowly turned around.


"Great…" D'Artagnan thought. "If this is Milady behind me, I'm going to-"

D'Artagnan turned around and saw a young women standing before him. Her hair was dark and in tight, long ringlets that fell down to her elbows. Her eyes were an enchanting hazel color. She wore a simple blue dress with a black cloak over. He had no idea who this girl could be.

"Give me the plans, please." She commanded him, rather nicely. The pistol was still pointing straight at his chest.

D'Artagnan couldn't help but smirk and kept the plans firmly in his hand.

"And if I don't?" He asked.

"The answer to that is fairly obvious, don't you think?" The girl told him.

"You wouldn't even shoot me." D'Artagnan said confidently but suddenly regretted saying that.

The young girl raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean? Of course I would-"

Bravely, D'Artagnan walked closer to her and the pistol was right up against his chest.

"No, you wouldn't. See? You would have done it already." He said.

The young woman glared at him and opened her mouth to speak but at the exact moment she did, an explosion was heard from upstairs.

D'Artagnan looked up and heard a muffled "Damn!" which obviously came from Athos.

"Well, we better get out of here." He said, looking back at the girl.

She kept her glare fixed on him.

"Not without the plans."

D'Artagnan took a step back.

"What does a girl like you want with some diabolical plans?" He asked.

"That is none of your concern. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to be on my way."

"Oh, by all means, go ahead."

"With the plans, please!" The young girl begged.

"Wait, wait..." D'Artagnan told her. "My name's D'Artagnan. Nice to meet you." He gave her a warm smile.

The girl rolled her eyes and lowered her pistol. "Plans, please" She said and held out her hand for the plans.

"Plans Please? Interesting name. Nice to meet you Plans Please." D'Artagnan said and shook her hand for more than a second before she quickly pulled it away.

"No, my name isn't Plans Please! I mean, I want the plans, please!" The girl said impatiently and groaned.

"Well-"A second explosion was heard from upstairs. This explosion made the catacombs seem as if it were going to collapse. Small clouds of debris fell from the stone ceiling.

"Now, we really should leave." D'Artagnan said as a third explosion sounded.

"Agreed." The girl said to him but kept her eyes on the plans which were still in his hand.


"You! D'Artagnan, you ruined everything!" Arabella thought to herself.

Here she was, ready to please her brother and try to save herself from getting punished but of course, something had to ruin it. In this case, it was someone. This D'Artagnan boy was going to pay.

Suddenly, she felt herself being pulled by the young man and the two were running. A fourth explosion sounded and soon, things were flying out of compartments.

"So? What actually is your name, Mademoiselle?" D'Artagnan asked as he ran in front of her.

"Oh, you don't need to know." Arabella said as she quickly followed.

"But I believe I do."

"Well if you must know, it's Arabella." She mumbled.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" D'Artagnan asked as he stopped in front of the staircase that led them out.

"Arabella." She said again and pushed him out of the way and walked up the staircase.

When she reached the top, she noticed D'Artagnan wasn't following her anymore and he still had her brother's plans.

Arabella quickly walked over to the entrance to the staircase.

"D'Artagnan?" She asked.

She was about to ask again but she heard a loud booming sound and a stained-glass window, across from her, shattered.

"D'Artagnan?" She called out again, no answer. She felt a pinch of worry and guilt for not waiting for him but that feeling was soon replaced with anger because she hadn't gotten the plans.

She shrugged her shoulders and was soon walking towards the door that led out of the stone passageway to find Milady or her brother, who would not be pleased with her.

"Arabella, wait!" She heard someone call out from behind her. She turned around and sure enough, D'Artagnan was standing right there.

"D'Artagnan, I really need to get back with the plans. Please give them to me and you'll never see me again." Arabella told him.

D'Artagnan gave her a quick smile. "Well, I stopped you to tell you that I don't have the plans anymore."

"What?"

"When I was about to walk up the staircase, the loud boom caused the catacombs to jolt, thus, causing me to fall slightly back, which caused me to drop the scroll containing the plans. And that jolt caused a torch, that was hung on the wall, to fall to the ground which so happened to be where the plans were. So, the plans were set aflame and I could do nothing about it."

And that was the truth. Arabella stared at him for a few moments before telling him –

"That's the most pathetic excuse I have ever heard. Stop lying to me! I know you still have them."

D'Artagnan sighed.

"I swear to you, that isn't a lie. Now, once again, why do you want them anyway? Did Buckingham make you do this? Is he holding you against your will? If he is, I will gladly do something about it."

"Well… I guess you could say I am being held against my will, in a way."

"How?"

"Lord Buckingham is my brother and if I don't deliver the plans he hid sometime ago to him, I will be punished and he really needs them. Not that I agree with anything he does, but I have no other choice, don't you understand?"

It was D'Artagnan's turn to stare. He had no idea Buckingham had a sister. He felt that she was probably a wonderful person who was trapped in the person who Buckingham had forced her to be and he didn't like the thought of that at all.

"That's terrible." D'Artagnan murmured.

"Of course it is! Wait, why do you say that? You don't even know me." Arabella said and she nervously twirled a strand of her long hair.

"But Id' like to." D'Artagnan told her.

Arabella looked away. "But-"

"Watch out!" D'Artagnan yelled and pushed Arabella and himself down to the stone floor. The remaining stained glass windows in the room shattered around them and the stone walls slowly began to crumble. D'Artagnan had his hands over his head the whole time and quickly sat up to look around the damaged room. The wall was slowly collapsing and he knew they had to get out fast if they intended to live.

"I suggest we get out of here, fast. This doesn't look good." He said.

When he didn't hear a response from Arabella, he looked over at her and saw she was lying on the floor and seemed unconscious.

"Damn, I must have knocked her down, hard" He thought.

He sighed and quickly picked her up and held her in his arms as he looked around for the safest way to get out. He ran for the door that led out of the passageway.

After a lot of running around and dodging falling objects, he was finally outside and saw Athos, Aramis and Porthos in the airship, custom made for them by the King's workers. The ship still was in somewhat of a good condition, on the lawns of the now destroyed monastery.

"I can't believe he got away, again." Porthos mumbled.

"We were so close." Aramis added.

"Yes, but apparently, not close enough." Athos said as he put his gun away.

Porthos leaned over the rail and saw D'Artagnan.

"Ah, boy! You finally decided to join us!"

"May I bring her aboard? She's hurt!" D'Artagnan told him.

"Who the hell is that?" Athos said looking at Aramis.

"A girl…" Aramis said.

"No, really?" Porthos said.

"Her name is Arabella!" D'Artagnan said as he walked up the gangway of the airship.

"Wait, wait, who said you can bring her aboard?" Porthos said as he stepped in front of him, preventing D'Artagnan to come aboard.

"Well, no one gave me an answer so I assumed I could." D'Artagnan said.

Athos looked at Porthos then at D'Artagnan.

"Bring her on, then. Put her below deck, as well."

"Thank you, Athos." D'Artagnan said. He glared at Porthos as he walked by him with Arabella and went below deck.

"Athos, you just let him bring a stranger on our ship!" Porthos said.

"Oh, come now, Porthos. She looks harmless and innocent." Aramis said.

"Everyone looks harmless and innocent while they are asleep or unconscious!" Porthos said.

Athos walked towards the wheel of the ship and soon the ship was in the air, returning to the King's palace.

"Porthos is right. Women can be deceiving, Aramis. No matter how lovely or innocent they may seem…" Athos said as he served himself wine.

Porthos and Aramis glanced at each other and said nothing. The two served themselves glasses of wine as well.

"I don't know when she'll wake up. I think she hit her head on the stone floor. Well, what did I miss?" D'Artagnan asked as he walked to the main deck a few minutes later.

"Not much. Failure, defeat… More failure and defeat." Athos said.

"Sounds exciting." D'Artagnan said.

"It truly was. Did you get the plans?" Aramis asked.

D'Artagnan hesitated before answering. "Well, I had the plans but they decided to get away from me and are now probably burnt to a crisp in the catacombs."

Porthos slammed his cup of wine on the table. "Damn! Now how are we supposed to know what Buckingham is going to do next?" He asked.

"This can actually be quite an advantage," Athos began." If the plans are destroyed, then Buckingham doesn't know them either. He probably has forgotten what he wrote down years ago and that's why he was there looking for them."

"Which means he is now thinking of something much more disastrous, correct?" Aramis asked.

"No. He could be thinking of something much less disastrous. Those plans must have been very terrible if he had to hide them." Athos answered.

"I still don't understand why he would send Arabella to retrieve them if he knew they would be safer with him." D'Artagnan thought out loud.

"What was she doing?" Porthos asked.

"Finding the plans for Buckingham." D'Artagnan said.

"Why on earth would she do that?" Aramis asked.

"She's Buckingham's sister."

This time, Athos slammed his cup of wine on the table.

"Buckingham's sister? D'Artagnan, you've led an enemy into our midst!"

"But, Athos, she isn't so much of an enemy! She's just confused and she's forced to do it."

"My God." Aramis said and quickly drank his wine.

"I feel that she really is a good person, we just have to give her a chance. And, who knows, she may want to help us defeat Buckingham! She might be useful." D'Artagnan explained.

"Might." Porthos said.

Athos sighed and looked at Porthos and Aramis, then back to D'Artagnan.

"I need time to think this over, but know this, D'Artagnan, if she does the exact opposite and tries to destroy us one by one, you do realize that Buckingham will take full control and we will all be killed? The future of France will not be a bright one."

D'Artagnan nodded. "I won't let you down, Athos, and I have faith, she won't let us down either."