Trigger warning: mentions of nonconsensual sexual activity within.
And so it was that during the ensuing week, Porthos and Aramis imparted what techniques D'Artagnan may use inside jail in order to ingratiate himself to Vadim. If D'Artagnan, spotting Athos, managed a query or concern, he was flagged away.
"He's undermining any confidence we may be building up in the boy," Aramis commented to Porthos.
"He don't get the extent of his influence on 'em," Porthos replied. "If he don't think D'Artagnan can succeed, then neither will the pup. You see the comments he's already makin', doubting himself."
The day came and went when D'Artagnan was thrown into prison. When the three of them witnessed the Guard hit the fleeing D'Artagnan, then striking him again, causing him to fall, they all winced, none more than Athos.
Then, during the mission after Vadim and D'Artagnan's escape, at the ad-hoc meeting with the boy at the Bonacieux' residence, Athos was hesitant to allow D'Artagnan to go back in, as the boy suggested; however his resolve had softened a bit, partially since D'Artagnan seemed to have carried himself well, so far.
It was at that meeting, however, that Aramis, ever the one cognizant of other people's feelings, had to intercede when Athos once again proved to be tone-deaf as to how his manner and words could negatively impact others; in this case, Constance was the unlikely casualty of Athos' words.
Athos had already reluctantly agreed to let D'Artagnan go back in, after the boy's insistence that he could do this, and his pleads to trust him. However after the boy left the home, heading directly back to Vadim and potential danger, Athos voiced his nagging reservations to his two brothers.
Shaking his head, he said, "This is a mistake. He isn't clever enough to finesse this type of work. A Gascon farm boy against Vadim? He's going to get himself killed. Plus, he's impatient; if he thinks he isn't gaining Vadim's trust fast enough, he'll press it, raising Vadim's suspicions. At which point Vadim will kill him, or have one of his cronies do it."
Everyone overheard this, including Constance and her husband; Constance clearly blanched at Athos' prediction. Aramis slowly walked up close to Athos and pleaded, "Please keep your voice down…"
"And why should I do that?" Athos asked.
Aramis whispered, "You're scaring Constance; she-likes D'Artagnan, and-"
Clearly Aramis' warning wasn't understood or heeded, as Athos simply replied, "What are you talking about? I'm starting to think we may have just seen the last of D'Artagnan alive, and- what is she scared about?"
Aramis dropped his head. Sometimes his brother could be so oblivious.
Soon after their rendezvous at the Bonacieux residence, their sources and research began to uncover more information about Vadim. He was a career criminal, prone to suspicion and extremely unlikely to allow anyone else into his small, tight-knit group of villains. And since Vadim's past did involve some examples of brutal violence, including murder, it all tended to be focused around one simple goal- robbery.
Why this was distressing was because D'Artagnan, unaware of these findings, may still be pressing to embed himself with Vadim. This, they know, was unlikely to work at this point. At worse, as Athos had already voiced as a concern, it could invoke suspicion on Vadim and his partners' parts, putting the boy at risk.
Outside the Palace, with Vadim having escaped along with his cronies, as well as D'Artagnan, suddenly Athos, Porthos, and Aramis ran straight into Vadim. No sign of the boy.
"Is he- alive?", Athos managed to croak.
Vadim spat, "In about a minute he won't be- in fact, by then you can probably collect his head in Germany, his arms in Spain, and his torso may make it all the way to England.
"He proved himself useful at the end, what with that pretty mouth of his; of course, to make sure he didn't bite anything off, we had to first knock out all of his teeth. He certainly demonstrated some excellent sodomy skills. But any second now…pshhhhh!," he said, sticking his fingers in his ears, letting them know what to expect.
"Get DOWN!", Athos screamed, before the sound of the explosion filled the air, shuddering throughout the entire area. Bricks from the adjacent building went flying, knocking the three of them senseless.
By the time they regained consciousness, they had no idea how much time had lapsed.
After they awoke, they were witness to total chaos. People were screaming in terror, and while their first impulse was to find D'Artagnan, as well as capture Vadim, they recognized their first responsibility was to calm the citizens, as well as tend to anyone who had injuries. No matter what may have weighed in the back of Aramis' mind, he was simply incapable of ignoring anyone who could benefit from his medic abilities.
While doing so, Porthos and Athos got busy restoring order and calming people down as best they could (when Aramis decided he didn't need their assistance for any of the injured subjects).
Several times Athos attempted to break away and pursue Vadim, but the fearful crowd would impede his efforts, and crowd control became essential. Someone yelled out that they had heard more bombs were coming, and irrational fear and confusion abounded, necessitating his calm intervention.
After an hour or two where it was revealed that the peoples' injuries were for the most part superficial, in general everyone seemed to begin to calm, as the initial terror of the blast had settled. The Three Musketeers urged the people to return to their homes, and check on loved ones. Finally the crowd had dispersed.
They were about to pursue Vadim when a servant of the Garrison, Pierre, approached them.
"Captain Treville wants to see the three of you back at the Garrison immediately."
"We have to find Vadim!" Athos responded.
"Vadim is dead," Pierre responded.
Small consolation. So was D'Artagnan, apparently.
No one was eager to return to the Garrison; with Vadim dead, the threat over, and arriving back at the Garrison meant they would learn the (morbid) details of the boy's death, not something they were looking forward to. But who had killed Vadim?
Their progress was also hampered by Aramis' insistence on examining both Porthos and Athos; Aramis implored them to both look him in the eye so that he could check for concussion. After he asked on their being dizzy or nauseous, he was satisfied when both answered in the negative.
"And yourself?" Athos asked. As preoccupied as he might have been, he still also needed to know how Aramis was.
"I'm fine. We were all lucky."
"Not all of us."
"No," Aramis had to admit.
"We should be collecting him first before returning to the Garrison."
"We have our orders. Anyway, you wanna bet ten livre that D'art survived? We thought he was dead after Gaudet, after all." Porthos sounded half-hearted but didn't want to abandon hope that the boy had somehow miraculously managed to live through this.
Neither Aramis nor Athos said anything.