Author Note: A lot has been happening in real life, so thank you all for the patience. I would have had this chapter up over the weekend but it was my birthday, so that didn't happen. But I'm here now so fear not. Our other 3 beloved gentlemen make an appearance in this chapter and another original, so YAY! This one is also a bit longer than my previous chapters so again YAY.

Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters from the original book/show/all the movies. I am borrowing them for creativity's sake.

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Chapter 3

Athos handed the torn letter back to Porthos whose face had turned pale and his knees began to shake as if unable to support him for long. D'Artagnan closed his eyes and an his hand down his face stopping over his mouth. Athos remained expressionless with difficulty, but placed his hand on the younger man's shoulder in a silent show of support. They all knew that Aramis must be in terrible danger, if not already dead. They didn't know if he had been captured, or killed, if he was on the run wounded and bleeding, or lying unconscious on the side of the road. They just didn't know. Athos looked at two of his best friends, who were looking at him in both concern, determination, and in Porthos' case fury.
Making a decision Athos yelled to one of the cadets in the stables. The dark haired boy ran over and stood at attention in front of his captain.

"Take this to Minister Treville," indicating the bloody letter, "and tell him that D'Artagnan, Porthos," he thought for a moment before continuing, "Raul, and myself have gone to find Aramis. Do NOT let ANYONE else deliver this letter. You must be the one to place it in the Minister's hand. Do you understand?"
"Yes Captain," and taking the letter, the boy ran off.
D'Artagnan looked at his captain in confusion, "Why Raul?" D'Artagnan had nothing against the young man, but it just didn't make sense for him to be coming along.
Athos looked at him a small sadness in his eyes.
"He has been training with Aramis as a medic, and from the looks of it, we may need one."

3 hours later...

It was getting later in the afternoon when the group of Musketeers decided to slow their pace, They had been riding hard for the last few hours and needed to give their horses a break before they collapsed from exhaustion. Athos directed them to a clearing in the trees not to far from the road, but could hear the sound of rushing water from a nearby stream.
"Water your horses and rest for an hour, we'll press on till there is no light left." D'Artagnan and Raul led the 4 horses towards the sound of water not far in the distance. Athos turned to Porthos "Take a look around and see if you can find any signs of..." "CAPTAIN, PORTHOS!" a voice came from not far off, "OVER HERE QUICKLY!" it was Raul, and he sounded worried. Pulling out their weapons they sprinted into the trees after their companions and horses.

Spotting Raul, whose weapon was not drawn, Porthos looked to the Gascon, who wasn't moving. He just stood staring at a small clearing not 10 feet away from where they stood. "D'Artagnan?" Porthos asked concerned, "you alright?"
Still holding the reigns to both his own and Porthos', eyes never leaving the flattened grass up ahead, "That clearing right there... d...don't you see it?"
Moving closer Porthos saw what he was looking at. There was a small mile of charred wood, and as he drew even nearer he could detect the smallest of heat radiating off of it. There looked to be signs of occupants, the trampled grass all around the campfire, bedrolls and blankets, 3 of each were left behind. But Porthos moved passed all of these things. Keeping his eyes on the small bundle of leather that had grabbed his attention.
Moving slowly Athos followed Porthos and watched as the big man knelt down to pick up the bundle that was lying next to a familiar crushed feathered hat. The ornate pauldron was gripped tight yet somehow gently in Porthos' hands, who, in turning to face them, looked lost. There was a pain in his eyes. A pain the Athos hadn't seen since before the war. Even before D'Artagnan had stormed into their lives. It was the pain that he had only seen when word had come from Savoy that none had survived a massacre. A look of complete emptiness of thinking that his best friend in the world had been taken from them forever. The loneliness and betrayal that the big man was emoting through his eyes made Athos' heart cry out in sympathy.

Raul was coming nearer to the three now, having tied all the horses to some fallen trees. The young medic had heard of the close bond that the four men share. He had heard the stories of their bravery even before the war. It was stories of them that made him want to become a Musketeer in the first place. But seeing the pain in Porthos' eyes, only confirmed what he already knew. These men were more than comrades in arms, they were brothers through and through, and now one of them was missing possibly dead. Raul didn't even want to think what that would do to these men. That's when he looked at the bedroll directly across from where Porthos stood. "Captain?"
Athos turned to the voice behind him and glanced at what the young man was looking at.
Porthos, shaking himself out of his own head, followed closely behind. They all looked down at the dried blood staining the blanket. There wasn't a lot of it, but enough to be concerned. "Spread out and look for anything that may give us a clue as to which direction they could have gone."

D'Artagnan went over to where the abandoned pauldron had once been, and looked around the area. There was a rope with frayed edges that was clearly used as bonds. There was also a few droplets of blood lying painfully close to Aramis' feathered hat. D'Artagnan picked up the crushed object and attempted to straighten it out.
"Look at this Athos." Porthos stated as he held out he pauldron. "The bastards cut it off of him." Staring at the sliced edges of the leather straps, Athos knew that Aramis wouldn't have made it easy for his captors, he would have put up a good fight. The thought made Athos grin, yet sorrow gripped his heart at the idea of his brother, fighting with everything he had to keep the only recently returned object. Athos briefly thought of another pauldron left lying in a forest without an owner, but unlike Marsac', Aramis hadn't left his willingly, and Athos and the rest were determined that it would once again reside on their friend's shoulder.

"I think I've found something," Raul shouted from close to the road. "it's a Spanish coin. Does this mean the Spanish have him?" Porthos took the coin from the young man's outstretched hand. "I think that it's safe to assume so, seeing as how Aramis' mission was in Spain."
"But it could be from some random traveler or even Aramis himself." Raul commented.
"The truth is we don't know but it's the best we..." Athos was cut off by a shout from D'Artagnan
"Athos!" D'Artagnan was crouched down looking at something on the road. The others ruched over to him as he stood to meet their eyes with hope in his eyes. He grinned pointing at the droplets of blood leading them back from where they came, "I've found their trail."

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Aramis came to awareness rather suddenly. His leg was throbbing painfully, along with his head. The next thing he became aware of however, was the fact that there was a blindfold over his eyes and a gag in his mouth. The ground beneath him was moving which made him realize that he was on horseback with his hands bound behind his back. He could hear people around him on either side, yet slightly ahead of him. Then he remembered what had happened. The month long mission, the name of the traitor, the attack in the campsite, the attempted escape. It all came flooding back, and Aramis could only hope that his horse had made it back to Paris, and that his comrades found their way to him in time.
"Looks like he's waking up." A voice Aramis recognized as Tomas said
"About time, I'd begun to think that that he hit his head or something," Antone chuckled. "you've been out for a good 6 hours musketeer."
"Thought we were going to have to toss a bucket of water over his head to wake him up."
"Well first we'd need a bucket, which we don't have. I could always have just smacked him again, jostle his brain a bit"
"I think that's why he was unconscious in the first place you idiot."

Aramis just sat atop a horse and listened to the friendly banter between the two. He had been away from the Garrison and his friends for over two months and missed this kind of comradery between friends. He had wanted to bring Porthos with him, but he understood the urgentness of the mission and Porthos had been away on another mission and wouldn't have been back for another week. The name of the traitor inside the King's war council was of utmost importance, and he was one of the few musketeers that spoke Spanish, and the only one who spoke it fluently. So it had made sense for him to go. He had successfully passed himself off as one of the Governor of Lille's guard and infiltrated the Spanish court, making contact with their man on the inside. The whole mission had gone well and would only have taken about 3 weeks without the travel time. But first he had to travel north to Lille, then to Le Havre, then a 2 week boat ride to Spain and on to Madrid. All while pretending to be a part of the Governor's guard. The Governor was the only one other than the King and Treville to know about the mission, so how did these men know who he was... and what he was carrying? Someone must have betrayed them. Unless the King let slip at one of the council meetings what Aramis was up to. Which actually wouldn't have surprised Aramis all that much. Louie was his King and Aramis would die for the man, but he was also not very good at keeping important things to himself.

"You're being awfully quiet musketeer."
Aramis was drawn from his contemplation by Tomas' voice.
"That's probably because he has a gag in his mouth, you dim witted fool." Antone replied in jest. Placing his right hand over his heart Tomas smiled at his large friend, "You wound me" he jested, in mock pain. Suddenly the blindfold was taken off of Aramis and the marksman squinted at the sudden brightness of the evening sun. Slowly his eyes adjusted to the new light and he took in his surroundings. They were on a dirt path, to narrow to be a major road, in an open field of amber grain. Not far in the distance ahead of them was a dense forest atop hills. Looking at Antone, he noticed the purple and black bruise he was sporting on the bridge of his nose where Aramis had broken it. Despite his situation a small grin formed on Aramis' lips, that shone through to his eyes.
"You find my pain funny musketeer? We'll see who's laughing in a few hours." As he spoke he had gotten right into Aramis' face, and Aramis, always willing to take the opportunity when it presents itself, tilted his head back and smashed his forehead into his nose again. Causing Antone to howl in pain once again and blood to pour out of the barely healed cut from before. Antone, in retaliation, smashed his fist down hard on the already agitated musket wound in his captives leg.
Aramis released a pained groan as he tried to grasp the would to somehow stifle pain with his hands, but their current position behind his back didn't allow the movement. So he took to doubling over on the saddle, head resting in the horses mane.
"ANTONE, let's not be brutes." Tomas scolded
"But he..."
"No. Would you have done anything differently were you in his position?"
"No. But it doesn't make it hurt any less." the larger man grumbled under his breath.
"Now, Musketeer." Tomas turned to face Aramis as best he could while still staying in the lead of the strange trio. "I don't suppose you'll tell us what we want to know now and get it over with would you?"
Aramis raised his eyes to meet his captors and glared at him as if offended by the very thought that he would betray his king. Which of course, he was. Reading the expression Tomas nodded and resumed a forward position on his horse. "I didn't think so, but trust me when I tell you ... you are going to wish you had." There was something in his voice that made Aramis believe he actually meant it. It almost sounded as if there was pity in his voice, no he must have imagined it.

As they had been talking, they had entered the forest. The tall trees were close together, not allowing much sunlight through despite the sun still shining behind them.
"Almost home...just a few more miles my friend." Tomas glanced and his still bleeding friend. "Do you dink dat Gabriel id back yet?" Antone asked through his blood clogged nose. "He must be, he was due back yesterday. He's probably sitting around some table, cheating at cards, waiting for us..."

His captors continued talking about their friend, Gabriel, and Aramis had to tune them out. This friendly banter was so painfully familiar that it hurt Aramis to listen to. There was a time that he could have these care free conversations with his friends. Now he had to choose every word he said with the greatest of care. Careful as to not offend anyone by mentioning lies and loyalty, because it would just be thrown back in his face. Aramis looked up to the canopy of trees, and prayed that he would have the chance to fix all the problems he'd caused over the years. If he was to die his greatest regret would that he never mended things with his brothers, especially Porthos. He knew why there were holes in their once unbreakable friendship, and that they were his fault, but he didn't know how to fix them. And at this point he didn't know if he'd ever find out if he even could.

"Here we are!"
Three words, three simple words that wouldn't ordinarily make anyone feel this filled with dread, but that is exactly what Aramis felt as the gates to his captors camp opened to reveal what was inside. The timber doors opened to reveal a large force of battle ready soldiers. Sentries on every wall and hundreds of tents forming a circle around the center of the camp where there were 3 larger circular tents and one that was bigger than all the rest. Aramis looked around trying to grasp the sheer number of men this camp held. If there were any thoughts of escape before, they had just become FAR more complicated.

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Don't worry Aramis, help is ON. THE. WAY!
That's chapter 3 for ya'll. Hope it lived up to all of your expectations. I would like to thank everyone who reviewed. All of your input and your comments make it feel worthwhile. I loved writing this fic so I'm excited that so many people are interested in it. If you have any questions feel free to pm me or write a review ;) "Till next time, I'm your host Tardimpalarts, Have a good night"