A/N: This story was written after my holidays in the mountains. It just gave me an idea and I had to write it down. This time I risk publishing my translation without beta-reading. Please let me know, if something is wrong.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters and I don't get any profit from writing except from my own satisfaction.
The worst scenario
The night had fallen long time ago, but don Alejandro still sat in his study, ordering his documents. During the years, he had made his own system of writing down every change in the number of his cattle, every year crops and all these things, that were important at the ranch. The elder de la Vega was proud of it, but unfortunately it required making regular records. And this evening was as good as any other to take care of these documents.
Don Alejandro couldn't focus, though. Diego still wasn't back and his father began to worry. Since Gilberto Risendo had died in their courtyard, Alejandro had got to know the truth about his son and started to be concerned. He often wondered, where Zorro was, but today... Today Diego wasn't about to risk his life. Today, if everything had gone well, and Alejandro was impatiently waiting for this reassurance, today could be one of the happiest days in his son's life. And despite this Diego didn't come back and, besides being worried, Alejandro started suspecting, that his son was doing something improper.
The slum of the front door took his attention from the documents he wasn't reading. Alejandro rushed to the corridor and frowned. For one moment he felt, as if he had seen a specter.
Diego de la Vega stood right behind the doorstep in the black Zorro's outfit, but without his mask and hat. His ungloved, trembling and scratched hands were wrapped tightly around a body, which was covered by his black cape. Diego's face, grayed and somehow aged, had frozen into emotionless mask.
"Madre de Dios!" Alejandro groaned, when Diego stepped from the shadow and he saw, who his son was holding in his arms. A frail body, a dirty, colorful skirt looking from under the black silk, stormy black hair... Alejandro gasped, when he realized in what position the head was, grotesquely turned at one side. Now he had no illusions – señorita Victoria Escalante was dead.
"Diego?" Alejandro spat out. "Dios, what happened?"
His son didn't answer. Not looking at him and pressing his beloved one to his chest, he went straight to his bedroom, as if he was in a lethargy. When he passed the frightened Felipe, who had ran from his room, Alejandro saw something else.
"Son, you have to get changed," he said softly, but firmly. "Someone will see you! Diego?" he called, scared, because his son didn't let him know by word or sign, that he had heard anything. Diego passed his father and escaped to his room, slamming the door behind himself.
"Dios," whispered Alejandro, looking at the door, where his son had disappeared. Victoria... Suddenly he saw the whole irony of this situation. His son had been pacing nervously the entire morning and there had been a panic in his eyes. A fear that Victoria will reject him when she gets to know the truth. Dios, it now seemed so trivial! The rejection was the worst scenario Diego had predicted. But this... Alejandro feared that he didn't know everything yet. He looked around and realized, that next to him Felipe was breathing spasmodically. Paradoxically, it forced him to do something. Diego was completely shaken, so he had to keep his mind clear.
"Felipe, find Toronado and take him away, before someone sees him," he said quietly. The boy nodded automatically and went outside. Alejandro took a deep breath and knocked to his son's room. There was no reaction.
"Diego?" he asked softly.
Nothing.
"Diego, please, open the door," Alejandro repeated pleadingly.
Still silence.
"Diego, may I come in?"
No respond. Alejandro hesitated, but made a decision. He carefully pressed the handle, as if he was afraid to make any noise. He opened the door and went inside. Diego was sitting on his bed and hugging Victoria's body. No matter how he tried, the woman's head always fell at one side and looked nightmarishly. Alejandro was shaken. He didn't know, what had made greater impression on him – Victoria's empty eyes, wide with fear, still open, or the sight of his son, embracing his beloved, indifferent to everything, as if the world didn't exist to him.
He didn't know, how long he was just standing and staring. He didn't dare to repeat his previous question and ask, what had happened. Whatever it was, it shocked his son. Finally he decided to break the silence.
"Diego," Alejandro took a step forward and knelt beside his son. Diego still didn't look at him, having his eyes locked at Victoria's motionless face. "Son, please, look at me!" the elder de la Vega called with a breaking voice. He stroked his son's arm with trembling hand, but even this simple, tender gesture didn't cause any reaction.
That was how Felipe found them. At the sound of his quiet steps Alejandro turned back.
"He's not responding," he said with despair. "I can't, I don't know..." his voice broke. "Diego..."
Felipe stood, paralyzed, but then went to the wardrobe and took some shirt. He signed to don Alejandro, gesturing slowly, so the elder de la Vega could understand him.
"Diego, you have to get changed, " Alejandro said softly. "Please, let us... We will lay her here..." he was talking clearly, as if to a child, but Diego didn't even move. He didn't take his eyes off Victoria and Alejandro feared they wouldn't convince him to lay the body on the bed.
Felipe was more daring. He came closer to Diego and started unbuttoning his black shirt. Alejandro had a feeling, that the boy must have been helping him many times, when Zorro had had a bad luck. Diego let him do this. Only when the shirt was unbuttoned, Felipe hesitated. To take it off, Diego would have to let them take Victoria off his arms. The boy sent a pleading look to the elder de la Vega.
"Diego, let us..." Alejandro stopped and tried to loosen the embrace of his son's arms. He knew they were strong and expected resistance, but Diego had given up completely. It took only one movement from Alejandro and Diego's hands fell down numbly. The elder de la Vega barely managed to catch the body. He took Victoria and laid her on the bed. The silk cape slumped on the floor and don Alejandro de la Vega, though a former soldier, barely fought nausea. The white woman's blouse was red of blood, and Victoria's limbs, until now covered mercifully by the cape, stuck out in strange positions, broken and livid.
"Dios..." he whispered to himself. He covered the body as quickly as possible, wanting to spare Felipe this sight. He knew it didn't matter for Diego; he already had this image etched in his memory and he would probably never get rid of it.
Felipe buttoned the white caballero's shirt, but Diego remained indifferent. Then the high Zorro's shoes were put into the corner. The young de la Vega still didn't move, he only stared at Victoria. Don Alejandro, more and more frightened, stroked his son's cheek, but something in Diego didn't let him just embrace him. Then Alejandro saw his hands.
"Felipe, give me some water," asked the elder de la Vega. The boy took a bowl standing at the dressing. Alejandro carefully grabbed his son's hands and soaked them in the water. The right one was bruised and swollen. It must have hurt, but Diego didn't make any sign that he felt anything. Dios, what must have happened, that it had ended so tragically for Victoria? What must Diego have seen, that he stood out from it? Alejandro dried his son's hands and realized, that Felipe sat near him and was crying soundless, trying to hide his tears. The elder de la Vega wondered, what else he would need to also break. Even now he was barely controlling his voice, and Diego's sight was breaking his heart even more than Victoria's body.
"Diego, please, say something!" he begged one more time. "Are you hurt? Please, answer me!" he repeated with growing despair. "Diego, son... You're safe, you're safe..." Alejandro was speaking quietly. He felt, that his son's hands, still covered by his own, clenched into fists, the right one with effort, as if that movement had cost him a lot. Besides, Diego didn't move and Alejandro also frowned, waiting for anything. The silence overran, but de la Vega didn't have any idea what to do. Then the silence was broken.
"Di... Di-e-go."
This name, said in an unsure, trembling voice did more that all tender gestures and his father's pledges. Diego suddenly raised his head, as if he was poured by cold water. For the first time, he turned his gaze from Victoria and looked at Felipe with wide open eyes. The boy lost countenance. He remembered, that he had once managed to call Zorro by name. Threatening of his mentor's life was a stimulus strong enough to delete the barriers that had kept him silence. Then, when the tension was gone, he wasn't able to say a word. That's why Felipe was looking at Diego with despair. He couldn't, he just couldn't stammer now.
"Di... Die-go," he repeated with more sure voice. Next to him Alejandro was too shocked to say a word. "Yyy-ou sca... scar... scar-red me." The boy looked at his mentor, surprised by his own achievement, but then he stopped and started signing.
"Felipe... Madre de Dios, Felipe," Diego said quietly with a hoarse voice. "Say something more, talk," he begged. He reached his hand and Felipe didn't hesitate to move closer and let Diego hug him.
"I... Di-e-go," the boy obediently articulated words with effort, hiding his face in Diego's chest. "Y-ou a... a-re bbb-ba-ck."
Then all the barriers fell. Diego shrank and covered his eyes with his hand. A grimace of pain went through his face, as if he finally realized he had injured it. Diego's back was shaking from sobs.
"Don't keep it inside, son," said Alejandro softly. He recovered a bit. Diego's tears had also destroyed this wall of inaccessibility. The elder de la Vega sat at the bed by his son and embraced him with his arm from the other side. He felt his eyes stinging, but he tore his own tears away. He had to stay strong for Diego.
"There is nothing wrong in tears, son. Please, don't lock up with your grief," Alejandro was talking patiently, letting his son cry off. Diego was still shrinking and hugging Felipe tightly, as if he was afraid to lose him too. Finally he calmed down and loosened his embrace.
"I'm sorry, Felipe. I didn't..."
The boy involuntarily answered by signs, but Diego closed his eyes, forcing another reply.
"Ne... ne-ver mi-nd."
"Do you want to tell us, what happened?" Alejandro asked carefully. Diego nodded, uncertain.
"I guess... I guess I should," he said. He rejected a proposal to move to the library and started talking with quiet, emotionless voice.
The day was sunny and warm, almost encouraging to do a trip, especially after recent rains. The sun had dried all the puddles, but left the fresh green of grasses. That's why Diego had decided to choose that day. The death of Gilberto Risendo, his brother, and then a talk with his father had made him realize, that he shouldn't wait anymore. He had given himself few weeks to recover and heal his arm, but then his father reminded him, that it is rude to make a lady waiting. After these words Diego found the courage and left Victoria a note, asking her to meet him outside the pueblo. Victoria came punctually at the pointed place. Zorro was waiting for her, pleased by her presence, but also nervous. They rode ahead, talking.
"So, where are you taking me?" Victoria asked finally, when her partner didn't make any sign that he wanted to stop. "What's the occasion?"
"I'm kidnapping you to some beautiful place," replied Zorro enigmatically. "As for occasion... It's six months since I proposed to you. I would like to go further."
"It means?" the señorita looked at him. "Further? Are you... Dios, are you going to tell me, who you are?" she exclaimed, excited. Zorro sent her a nervous smile.
"Yes. You will get to know today," he promised. "Soon."
"Soon?" repeated Victoria. „Oh, no, I want to know right now!" she said rebelliously.
"So you will have to guess," laughed Zorro. "It might be interesting."
"Oh, indeed. But if I don't guess before we arrive, promise me, you will tell me," stipulated Victoria.
"Of course," promised Zorro. "Be careful, the path is narrow," he warned. They were riding alongside the cliff, where was a beautiful view.
"I always feel safe with you," Victoria replied freely and smiled playfully. "So, who's hiding behind this mask?"
"Guessing?" asked Alejandro, when Diego dropped off. "After all these years, she started guessing?"
"Yes," Diego nodded quietly, thoughtfully playing with the end of the bandage Felipe had used to make a makeshift dressing. "She knew I was one of the caballeros," he admitted. Then he laughed hysterically. "She mentioned few, but there was always something wrong. The age, height..." he dropped off. On the one hand talking was very hard for him, but on the other – it helped. He wasn't alone with it, his father's and Felipe's presence gave him insignificant relief.
"Did she also mention..."
Diego shook his head.
"Hmm..." Victoria went silent for a moment, as if she was thinking, and then she found another name in her memory. "Don Pablo Pepito Punson?" she asked. Zorro choked with laughter and Victoria also started laughing.
"Miss."
"Right," she said, still laughing. "You are at least half of a head higher," she noticed. "And I hope, you can sing better than him," she laughed again, remembering the caballero, the matchmaker had once brought to her tavern.
"I hope so too," Zorro smiled and looked down. He was getting more and more nervous. When Victoria had started enumerating the names of several caballeros, he was silently counting, that she would also mentioned his name. It seemed, though, that the señorita hadn't even thought about taking her friend Diego into consideration.
"I give up," Victoria waved her hand with frustration. "I will never guess. Remove your mask," she asked.
"No," replied Zorro. "I won't remove my mask until you know, who I am. I want you to believe, before you see."
"Then tell me, who you are," Victoria leaned forward to him and stopped paying attention to the surroundings. Her mare went freely beside Toronado. Zorro trusted his mount, and Victoria did the same.
"I..."
And then the nightmare began.
The señorita's mare slipped suddenly at the sodden path. Toronado neighed, scared, which frightened her even more. The mount fell into a precipice. Victoria flew out the saddle and fell along with her horse. Her frightful scream merged with Zorro's cry.
Diego broke off and shrank. He turned and reached with his hand to the body covered with a sheet, as if he wanted to see, it was real. He needed a while to compose himself.
"Vi... Vic-to-ria feee-ll?" Felipe asked unsurely, signing his question at the same time. Diego only managed to nod.
"Dios," whispered Alejandro. This explained the injuries he had seen at the señorita's body. The elder de la Vega could only guess, what Diego had felt at that moment.
"I... I couldn't do anything," confessed the young caballero with despair. "She was falling, screaming, and then..."
Victoria hit the rock and her screaming stopped. Diego recovered from shock. He was already on the ground, taking the rope and tying it around a huge stone.
"Victoria!" he called. "Victoria!" Diego started walking down hurriedly. Please, answer me, say something. "Victoria!"
He reached her. There was barely a place for him to kneel beside her. Far away, down, his hat was lying; Diego had lost him while he was going down.
"Madre de Dios, Victoria!" Diego threw away his gloves and mask and leaned feverishly over his beloved. His hand rested on her neck, looking for her pulse. And then it fell.
Her eyes, that looked at him, were empty and blind. These beautiful eyes, full of life, that he had so much loved, looked at him deadly. Victoria's head laid in an unnatural position that it had no possibility to ever be on its own. The red stain on her blouse was getting bigger, her blood leaked, but her heart wasn't beating anymore.
"Victoria... no..." Diego's whisper turned into a spasmodic cry. He grabbed the woman and hugged her. He stroked her cooling skin, he kissed her face, but didn't bring back her life. He had to give up.
He hit the rock. One, two, three times... The pain was sobering, but didn't wake him from this nightmare. He was hitting the rock until, he lost feeling in his hand. The world had just ended.
"She didn't get to know," whispered Diego. "I was about to tell her, and she..." his voice broke.
"Don't think about it," said Alejandro. "I think, that deep inside Victoria knew for a long time."
"No..." Diego's voice turned into a fitful sob. "If I hadn't taken her today, if I hadn't wanted to tell her, she would be alive now."
"Shhh, Diego, shhhh. Don't think about it in that way. She wouldn't want that." Alejandro embraced his son. "She didn't suffer long, remember it," he whispered. For a long he just held his son in his embrace, giving his as much comfort as he was ready to get. "You should rest, you're exhausted. Come on, we can... we will take her..."
"No, don't move her," Diego protested weakly. "Let me... leave me alone. Let me stay with her... one more time," he asked. Alejandro hesitated, but nodded. He embraced Felipe with his arm and left, closing quietly the door behind them.
Don Alejandro felt people's gazes, when he drove his carriage into the pueblo. He didn't have to turn back, he knew, that the body, covered with a sheet, was still behind him. He felt a burden of the responsibility that rested with him, the awareness what he was about to do. He had decided to take the body instead of Diego. His son was too devastated to bear it. He had finally understood that he couldn't close himself with Victoria forever in his bedroom and let his father take the body, but he didn't want to leave his room. Alejandro didn't insist, he knew Diego needed time.
The curiosity grew, when he stopped by the church. More people saw the body now. They started whispering, but the alcalde's voice could be heard above them.
"What happened, don Alejandro?" he asked, coming closer with Mendoza and two other lancers. "Who is it?"
"Señorita Victoria Escalante," answered grimly the elder de la Vega. The people went silent. When no one said a word, Alejandro continued to get through it. "She fell off the cliff. Zorro brought her body last night."
"Zorro? So he is the one to be blamed for her death?" asked de Soto.
"No," said Alejandro. "It was an accident. I don't know anything else, Zorro was too distraught. He asked us to take care of the body and left," he explained shortly. That was what they had agreed with Diego at the hacienda. It seemed logical, that Zorro couldn't take part in all funeral affairs and he entrusted the body to Victoria's friends.
"Madre de Dios," sergeant Mendoza took off his hat and crossed himself. He made a step forward, and when don Alejandro wanted to take the body, he came closer to help him. They disappeared together in the church.
"She was so young," whispered the sergeant, when they laid the body. He didn't dare to uncover it. "Poor Zorro... But," he looked suddenly at don Alejandro, "where is don Diego?"
"He stayed at home," replied the elder de la Vega. "He's heartbroken, it has really given him a very difficult time. He..." Alejandro hesitated for a moment. "Diego loved her. He never said a word to her and now he can't come to terms with it."
Padre Benitez was a silent witness of their conversation.
Night and day became one thing. Diego wouldn't be able to say, what he was doing in the afternoon or in the evening. He was pacing at the hacienda, trying to find himself anything to do, but everything slipped from his hands, whatever he took. He only remembered, that he couldn't sit by the table with his father and escaped, before Alejandro found him. He associated the fact, that hunger had finally reminded of itself and Diego even forced himself to eat something, but what was it...? Somewhere in all this was the pain in his hand, but it was merely an insignificant fact.
The night didn't give him peace either. He laid down, but the thought, that Victoria's body had been there the previous night made his sleep fly away. When the fatigue had finally overtook him, one sight, returning like a boomerang, didn't let him sleep. Hunted by the image of Victoria's fall, still hearing her last scream, Diego finally gave up. He spent rest of the night, shrank in the armchair, reading without understanding some book. He wouldn't be able to repeat its title, if asked. That was where Felipe found him in the late morning, when he dared to enter his bedroom. The boy stood by him with a tray and didn't move, until Diego raised his head.
"I'm not hungry, Felipe," he said quietly, subconsciously playing with a bookmark. "Thank you."
"I-I wo-won't gg-go," insisted the boy. He laid the tray on the table and sat down. "E-eat," he begged and started signing. Diego followed his gestures, and then looked at the tray with a breakfast for two.
"You eat, Felipe," he said. "I don't feel like eating."
"No," repeated Felipe. Diego gave up and took a plate with his left hand; he couldn't use his right one, but he hadn't let anyone touch it. He started eating and went back to his thoughts. One thing didn't want to go away, but he couldn't find the courage to make a decision.
"Please, stop it!" Don Alejandro pleaded finally. He couldn't stand Diego pacing pointlessly from one room to another at the hacienda. He had finally dressed up and put himself in order, but still couldn't find himself any pursuit that would keep his mind preoccupied longer than ten minutes.
"Forgive me, father," Diego stopped pacing nervously and sat down. "I'm just trying to collect my thoughts."
"Have you finally done something with your hand?" asked Alejandro. "It doesn't look good," he pointed. Diego shook his head.
"No, nothing," he replied, as if it didn't matter to him. His thoughts were somewhere far away.
"Doctor Hernandez should look at it," stated the elder de la Vega. "I will send Felipe to bring him here."
"No," Diego suddenly stood up, as if he had made some decision. "I will ride to the pueblo."
"Are you sure?" Alejandro wanted to know. He had seen people's reaction the previous day and expected that Diego would be approached. The elder caballero feared, that his son might not stand it.
"I have to talk to padre Benitez," replied Diego and disappeared in his cave after opening the secret passage.
The little church was quiet and peaceful. Diego hid there with pleasure, escaping from the crowded square, unaware of the fact, that he was observed by a pair of vigilant eyes.
"How can I help you, Diego?" asked padre Benitez, looking with concern at the young de la Vega, who looked as if he hadn't slept for two nights. Which was probably the truth.
"I..." Diego hesitated, but then continued. "I would like to put something into the coffin," he said quietly. He took two small things from under his coat – black Zorro's mask and a pen. "I... I think she would want it. I... so much..." he broke off.
"Of course, Diego," agreed the padre, not commenting anything or asking, how Zorro's mask ended in the hands of the young caballero.
"Gracias, padre. God, she never got to know!" Diego suddenly groaned with despair.
"Never got to know what?" the padre looked at him with curiosity.
"Who is Zorro... that I loved her..." Diego's voice finally broke. He covered his eyes with his bandaged hand to calm down. "Zorro... agreed that... that she may have something from both of us," he finished, whispering.
"She always had," said the priest softly. "You always had an important place in her heart. Remember about it."
"Si, padre," Diego nodded shortly, still not sure about his voice.
"The memorial service will be at six. Go home and rest, if you can," added the padre, but Diego only shook his head and left the vestry.
The funeral unexpectedly appeared to be the next part of his nightmare. Diego wondered how in the Earth he could stand in the church with other people, because he whole-heartedly wanted to escape from there. At the hacienda, he could at least try to pretend for a moment, that nothing had happened. Here, in the church, among the people, many of them crying openly, he couldn't. There was something final in this closed coffin standing there in the middle of the church, something that Diego couldn't cheat. Victoria Escalante had really died.
So many people came. Señorita Victoria Escalante, happy and always smiled owner of the only tavern in Los Angeles, had won a friendship of many people, who now came to farewell her. Many of them regretted, that she had died so tragically, some felt sorry for Zorro. And he, Diego, had to be in the middle of this all and listen to it. He wanted to cry out, that they shouldn't pity Zorro, for he was the reason of Victoria's death. He wanted it, but he couldn't even whisper his prayers. For a moment he wondered, if that was how Felipe had felt during all these years, when he couldn't say anything. The pain in his hand, clenched into a fist despite bandages, reminded him, that it was all real. Diego stood in silence, almost unaware of his father's presence at his side, and stared at the coffin disappearing under the soil. That's the end, he thought, when a cross was put on the top of the fresh mound. But no, the nightmare went on.
Ignacio de Soto was also present at the funeral. He stood at the side, along with his soldiers, ready for Zorro's coming. He had no doubts, Zorro would come and farewell his beloved one. But when Zorro didn't appear in the church nor at the cemetery, the alcalde turned his attention to someone else.
Don Diego de la Vega stood there in the front with his father and Felipe. De Soto saw his grey face, his fogged eyes stuck to the coffin. The black suit of the young caballero strangely matched his wide shoulders, now shrank. The alcalde suddenly reminded himself what he had heard the previous day. Diego de la Vega was in love with señorita Escalante, and judging by his behavior, he was madly in love with her. Zorro had brought her body to the de la Vega hacienda. What, if de Soto was wasting his time waiting for the outlaw to appear on the funeral? What, if he was here all the time? That would explain everything. The suspicion turned to the certainty when de Soto thought again about the secret love of the young caballero, the one that no one had known until yesterday. No one except from Zorro could hide himself like don Diego de la Vega was.
"Sergeant, arrest don Diego de la Vega," ordered de Soto, when the funeral ended.
"I beg your pardon?" Mendoza was surprised. "Don Diego? But for what?"
"For being an outlaw known as Zorro."
"Don Diego? Zorro? But alcalde, this is..." the sergeant was very nervous. He didn't have time to dry his tears after the burial of señorita Escalante, and now alcalde ordered him to do such thing.
"Just do it!" drawled de Soto.
"Ss-si, alcalde," Mendoza turned and went to the de la Vegas with two other soldiers. The alcalde was two steps behind them.
"Don Diego, you... you are under arrest for being Zorro," Mendoza spat out. Don Alejandro paled, and Felipe gave his adoptive father a frightened look. Diego didn't even move.
"What are you talking about, sergeant?" Alejandro was the first who recovered from shock. "That's my son, he's not..."
"Be quiet, de la Vega, or you will join your son," said de Soto. "Well, well, Diego, you have misled us long. Have I not told you, that this woman will finally give you a bad luck?
The young de la Vega didn't reply, he just stared at his former acquaintance from studies, then his arch enemy. He stared and realized what was happening and, that he didn't care.
"Alcalde, have you lost your mind?" asked don Alejandro harshly. "Can't you see, how he is feeling? Leave him in peace!"
"Take him away," ordered de Soto, as if he hadn't heard the elder caballero. "The execution will be at the nightfall."
"Alcalde, you can't! Not now, not Diego!" cried Alejandro.
He went silent, when he heard his son's voice.
"It doesn't matter now, father. Please, forgive me," said Diego quietly and want after the sergeant, not looking at anyone. Maybe the nightmare was beginning now, but for him it had just found it's ending.
THE END