Chapter 2

The musketeers are not mine! Although I wish! Anyhow, only Lisa, Mike, Mitch & Amelio are mine. I'll explain later. Italics are people in the future. Bold will be the musketeers thoughts. Regular words are the musketeers, Raoul, Philippe & Anne

The light slowly faded as everything began to take shape. Raoul watched as the others rubbed at their eyes in hopes of holding off the glare of light. Porthos was the first to look up.

"Where the hell are we?!" They seemed to be standing on some hard, silvery surface, the walls all around them a bright white. Funny looking chairs were placed in rows about the room, most of them empty except the ones facing a door at the far end. Three of these chairs were occupied by men. Three others held a child's coat each. The men were frantically speaking and one stood up to pace.

"Welcome to the future everybody. This is only a portion of what we've come to see. We are in a hospital. It's a building where doctors and their assistants, called nurses, work. Anyone can come here medical help. Not just those of royalty or with connections to royalty." The party of six nodded and waited for the next move.

"Come on. We have to go down to that end of the room." Raoul turned and headed towards the only people in sight. The men and the children's coats. As they approached, words began to form, first in broken pieces then in full sentences.

"I hope they're alright. Michelle looked terrible." A blonde man was speaking to his comrades. The brown haired man on his left nodded. He had a black bandana wrapped around his head, pushing back his long hair.

"Something was wrong with baby. She could feel it but because we were so tight on money, we couldn't get her checked out and you know Christophe would never take money from us."

"Let's just hope they both survive. The boys have been hoping for a baby sister for a long time now. Losing their aunt would be hard but losing the baby too? It would devastate them."

"Who's Christophe and Michelle? What is this baby these men are talking about? And who in the world are they?!" D'Artagnan as firing questions so fast that Raoul couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"These men are some of your descendants. They are Athos, Porthos and Aramis and the two they are talking about is D'Artagnan and his wife.However, due to complications, the baby ends up without her mother."

"It's a girl?" Athos asked, his voice giving away his surprise.

"Yes it is. But these three here are not the ones I'm worried about. It's the boys they've mentioned. They're right over there at that little table."

Three boys, all of them no older than ten, were sitting on their knees playing cards. You could already see the resemblance between them and the musketeers.

"Are they… us? As in brought back to life?" Aramis, as a believer in God, thought that if you worthy enoughthen you get the chance to brought back to life.

"As a matter of fact, yes. You do get brought back." Raoul said with a smile. But as he looked at the door, his smile turned to a frown.

"Now shush. Looks like Christophe is coming out."

A man who greatly resembled D'Artagnan's father walked out through a pair of double doors. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, his face drained of all colour. His eyes were haunted and a semblance of fragility flitted across them. The other men stood at once and made their way over to him. Athos was the first to reach him. He wrapped an arm around his shoulders and steered him to a chair.

"Christophe, what happened? Is Michelle alright? And what of the baby?"

His mouth opened a few times but no sound came out. Tears began to slide down his face as he clenched and unclenched his fists is his lap. He jolted out of his seat and moved a couple of feet away from the others. They watched his every move from their re-seated positions.

"There was so much blood… It wouldn't stop. The baby… she was all red and… the screaming, the cries of help…. I couldn't save her.. I couldn't…" He broke down in tears, dropping to his knees on the floor. Porthos walked over and helped Christophe to his feet. The man's hands were quaking with shock.

While everyone was watching the men, Philippe slipped over to stand by the boys who were watching from afar and yet still heard every word. They knew what their uncle was talking about. They knew their aunt had died.

"Aunt Michelle is dead." The blonde boy stated grimly. Little Aramis looked up at his blonde companion.

"Does this mean that our sister is dead too?" Little Athos looked down.

"I don't know Amelio. I really don't know. I hope that she isn't though. What about you Mitch? What do you think?"

Little Porthos looked over at him, his face blank. He just shrugged.

"Who knows? But fate always screws us over so this is really nothing new."

Anne looked around for her son while the musketeers were busy peppering Raoul with questions. She spotted him by the children, just standing there, watching. Her heart went out to the youngsters as they waited in despair, even if they didn't show it all that well.

"I want to know if our sister is ok." Amelio Aramis said, his voice laced with guilt at the thought, as if it was disrespectful to his aunt.

"She's probably alright. It's not like the doctors don't know what they're doing." Little Athos put in, silencing Aramis.

Philippe made his way back over to the men and his mother, his head hung low, his chin touching his chest. Athos was the first to notice, other than Anne.

"Philippe, is everything alright? You seem a little… sad." Philippe shook his head.

"I'm fine Athos. Really. Just this… it's just getting to me that's all." Athos simply nodded.

"Quiet over there you two! They're talking again!" Aramis whispered fiercely.

"Monsieur D'Artagnan?" A doctor had come out of the doors, his white trench coat swaying with every step. Christophe looked up at him, his eyes still shedding tears, the haunted look never fading.

"Although we were unable to save your wife, which I hope you will accept my condolences for." He paused as the man nodded before he chose to continue.

"We were, however, able to stabilize the child. It's safe to say that she is a perfectly healthy little girl. She just, for some strange reason, turned while in the womb. Would you like to see her?"

Christophe stared at him for a moment before hopping to his feet and following the doctor out of the room. The others merely shook their heads.

Christophe paused by the door and looked back. He waved for them to come along. They glanced at each other for a minute before shouting to the boys to hurry along so they could see their newborn sister and fourth musketeer.

Raoul snapped his fingers again and everything vanished and the group were now standing in nothing but white space.

"What now Raoul? Aren't we going to see the baby?"

"It's not necessary. We should be moving on."

"No way! We want to see this kid that has all of them so worked up!" Porthos shouted, the others nodding their agreement to his words.

"Raoul, would you please take us back? Just for a bit? Jut so we can see how they react to the baby and she is?" Anne's quiet but strong voice put in hopefully.

Raoul gave a soft sigh and thought of arguing with her but he could never say no to a beautiful woman. Least of all, the queen herself.

"Alright. But only for a few minutes! After that, we must be on our way! We've got much more to see!"

He waved his hand and everything returned.

"Like I said, please make this fast."

They nodded and took off through the doors. They didn't even notice that they went right through them, that the doors didn't open.

"Next thing they'll ask me is how come they haven't been spotted yet. Just wait and see." Raoul muttered to himself before following along at a slower pace.