Part Seven: Connections Remedied or Things are Never what they Seem

Diego paced in his moonlit room. "I was too harsh, I think," he told Bernardo. "No matter what I've heard, nothing she's done was truly the actions of an evil heart. Just a foolish, lonely girl. Zorro needs to see her again. Saddle Tornado."


Magdalena's sleep was plagued by disturbing dreams, not really nightmares, but unsettling just the same. She woke many times with a gasp, only to fall asleep again in moments. Now she had woken again, but this time she hadn't been dreaming

She sat straight up in bed and started—Zorro sat on her windowsill. Her eyes widening, she started to climb from the bed but then remembered she wore only her chemise and laces.

"Do not get up, Senorita. I only wish to apologize. I was too harsh on you. I…do not know your full past. Boredom could not have been the only thing that drove you to this."

She nodded slowly, unable to take her eyes from his face.

"All the same, you do need to take the first boat back. Galindo will try again." He continued.

"Si," she said, then regained her senses. "Why did—how did you know to ride after us?"

He tilted his head, considering. "Zorro knows many things."

"How does he know? Does he have an informer?"

He shrugged lightly, raising one shoulder. "I have eyes and ears everywhere."

"As does Don Diego?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" He asked, but his tone was wary now, not easy.

"I am finding many similarities between you and Don Diego."

"Oh?" Like that response.

She hesitated, and then climbed from the bed, hastening to wrap her mantilla around herself like a shawl. He had looked away when she had climbed from the bed, and now avoided looking directly at her.

"Senor Zorro…I…thank you for saving me. And for apologizing, but you were not entirely wrong when you spoke of me." She walked a few steps closer and then halted.

"I just want to say I was bored but it was combined with loneliness. I did not have many friends…I met an agent at a fiesta. My dress was ruined—someone had spilled wine on it. He was very kind, I—I liked him and he spoke of a movement, one that would make California a great nation, a separate one and he spoke with such passion, such fervor. He truly believed in his cause! I was taken in. I accepted to carry a feather to a certain soldier the next day. It was exciting then, and I enjoyed my little illicit adventure. I felt involved in some great cause. But when I returned to him, he had changed. He wasn't kind. He was threatening. He told me straight away I had to continue helping, or death was promised. I realized my mistake but had no remedy. He threatened my life numerous times and I just got in deeper and deeper until I was completely trapped. Zorro, I—"

"Shh." He whispered, placing a finger to his lips. "I believe you." He paused a moment. "I must say farewell now, Senorita." He started to climb back over the windowsill.

She raced to his side and touched his shoulder. He turned surprised eyes to her. She felt shy, and lowered her gaze. "You will let Don Diego know, also?"

He was silent for a long moment. "Si." He said hoarsely. His gaze had fallen from her face and the knowledge brought a blush to her cheek. His eyes returned to rest on her lips. She slipped back, letting her hand fall from his shoulder. He caught it in his own and raised it to his lips.

"Adios, Magdalena." He placed a kiss in the center of her palm. She could only stare, wondering if any motion of any man had ever caught her heart fast and held it as tightly as this one did.

And Zorro was gone, riding into the night. She stood at the window a long while, just watching him, and remembering his words.

Yes, Diego and Zorro were one and the same. Two men could not have the exact same effect on her…and she on them.


Renata arrived early the next morning with clothes for them both. Tio helped her father dress, and Renata helped her out of her stays.

"You must have had an uncomfortable night." Renata said as she unfastened them.

"A bit, yes," Magdalena replied. "Let's forgo stays today?"

"That is what I thought you would say!" Renata replied.

Finally she was dressed in a dark blue gown, and made her way down the stairs to the tavern. Her father sat eating breakfast. She joined him. "Father, I do not wish to leave Los Angeles."

"But Zorro—"

"I do not care. Please, I wish to stay."

"But the Magistrado will send more men after you!"

"I do not think he will. I mean to give him an altered feather. If it means what I think it means…"


"It comes down to this. Will you trust the feather or not?" Magdalena spoke in her most commanding voice.

Galindo looked sour-faced; he had been livid when she had walked through the door, but now seemed doubtful. "You say last night's feather was tampered with?"

"Si. I only wish I had noticed in time."

He paced, looking chagrined. "I cannot confirm this."

"Why not? Simply contact Alenez. I got this order straight from him. He can tell you." Please don't really contact him.

"I can't," Galindo complained in his most grating tone. "He was executed."

"What?" Magdalena was shocked. Her whole world stopped spinning in that instant.

"They found him out. The Eagle had meant to rescue him but he couldn't. Apparently his influence does not extend that far…yet. You say you only had contact with Alenez? There is no one else to ask?"

"Si!" She made her tone irritated, as though she were fed up with his slowness.

"All right," he raised his hands. "I will trust you, but only because this feather is so important. Go. I will never contact you again, so long as you do not…make me."

She fairly flew down the stairs of Galindo's office. She was free! But then two menacing, bulky men blocked her way.

"Let us take a little journey," one said, as the other clamped a hand over her mouth. She struggled, trying desperately to free herself. But lack of air was making her lightheaded, then dizzy, then everything was black. She knew no more.


Renata hurried to Don Francisco, bearing a folded note. "Don Francisco! Magdalena, she said for me to give this to you."

He took the note, frowning, and quickly opened it and read the message written inside.

Father, I am sorry, but I have been offered too much. The Eagle promises me grandeur, more than I could ever attain by marrying Diego de la Vega. He means to marry me, I have learned, and must accept. It is my dream, you must see that, to be such an important figure, as I will be when I am the wife of the ruler of all California. Adios, mi padre. Magdalena.

Francisco couldn't believe his eyes, reading the letter over and over before he crumpled it up in fury. It was Magdalena's hand! No one else could have written it!


Diego walked into the tavern, just as Don Francisco, whose right arm was in a sling, crumpled a piece of paper and threw it on the ground.

"Don Francisco? What is the matter?" Diego asked in worry.

"Magdalena, my Magdalene, she has…eloped…with a…a man. I—that is—she had led me to believe she meant to—well, you must have heard the rumors! She made me think she would settle down and now she tells me she is marrying a strange man. And she gives no direction, gives me no way to follow her, and prevent her from this tragic mistake…Madre di Dios! Adela, help me now!" He said, running to the stairs and going up them.

Diego felt frozen. After what had happened, he had expected Magdalena to return to Mexico City with her father, not…this. He had felt so strongly towards her these past days. What anger he had felt last night was nothing like now. When she had spoken last night, "You will let Don Diego know, also?" he could have sworn she knew.

Knew that he and Zorro were one and the same. The light in her eyes, the softness of her touch on his arm, how she had looked in the middle of the night, her hair tousled by sleep...

He had wanted so, so much to kiss her lips then, not just her hand, but he had known if he'd done that he would have had a much harder time leaving her windowsill. He couldn't afford to think that way.

Magdalena's betrayal cut him to the quick. His heart felt shattered. He could never remember her happily again. He strode from the tavern and rode home as fast as he could, feeling the urge to take the sheet of paper with the lyrics for her song on it, and rip it into shreds. Mi Corazon…no, I don't think so.


A/N: Well, I don't know if you noticed or not, but I'll apologize anyway for taking so long to upload a new chapter. I've been without internet since last Wednesday, quite unintentionally. Here I will also mention that the plot I intended this story to have was completely abondoned for a wholly new plot and while the ending will be quite trite, how it gets there will probably be unexpected.