A scream was heard from the balcony as Jesus prepared to give Zorro the deadly blow, but the sword changed trajectory mid-movement. It took the people watching the strange scene a while to realize what had happened, as Jesus crumbled to the ground.

While aiming his gun at the combatants, undecided which one to shoot, the still-hangover De Soto had some trouble identifying a target. He hesitated but, forgetting they had a truce, eventually decided to point his gun at his archenemy. Antonia saw him and screamed to warn her friend but, in doing so, also determined a slight hesitation in De Soto's hand. As a result, instead of either flying between the two combatants or finding a target in Zorro, the Alcalde's bullet ended up a little to the left, straight into Jesus' head. As for the bandit's sword, the death of its handler and his subsequent fall, made it find its way into Zorro's left arm, instead. Unfortunately, it left a deep wound in the said arm, and blood began to flow freely from it.

Failing to properly apply pressure to stop the bleeding, aware he might soon become a target for the lancers, Zorro knew he had but minutes to make his escape. He, thus, mounted Tornado and left the pueblo just as De Soto was returning to his bed, rather disappointed but glad that, at least, the swordfight was over and he could go back to sleep again.

As soon as Tornado sprinted towards the cave, Antonia made a sign to Don Armando and, careful not to be noticed, hurried to the stables, where she mounted Argento and followed Zorro.

ZZZ

At approaching the cave, his hand dull from the blood loss, the masked outlaw almost fell off the horse, had Antonia not reached him just in time to help him regain some balance. He pulled Tornado up short to reduce his speed and they safely arrived at the cave a few minutes later.

Alerted by the detective, Manuel and Felipe hurried to help him climb down the stallion and Doctor Hernandez came to check his wound, which was still bleeding, although not as profusely as earlier.

"The cut must have touched an artery!" Doctor Hernandez said impatiently, examining the wound while his patient was on the brink of losing consciousness. "When was he injured?"

"About 15 minutes ago." The detective replied.

"He's already white as milk. I am not sure there is enough blood left in him to survive!" The doctor stated as he started his work on the wound, realizing that, while the bleeding had almost stopped, Diego's heartrate was accelerated and he was having trouble breathing. If his patient had, indeed, lost too much blood, Doctor Hernandez knew there was little he could do to save him and Antonia feared the same.

"Is his father in the hacienda?" She asked Felipe, as a sudden idea occurred to her. The youngest De la Vega nodded.

In fact, Don Alejandro had returned an hour earlier to change his shirt, after the already-mentioned incident in the tavern, and had decided to stay home for siesta.

"We need him!" She stated.

"Yes…He should be here if Diego is to die…" Doctor Hernandez stated.

"No! We need him for a transfusion." She clarified.

The doctor hesitated. While transfusions had been attempted for centuries, the practice had been forbidden in some countries since it had proven too risky for the patient. He had read in The Guardian about a British doctor who had discovered that people suffering from acute blood loss can be saved with the use of the blood from a family member. He had tried the procedure once, about a year earlier, but had given up when he was unable to replicate the effects, and ended up losing his patient even faster than he would have otherwise.

"We have no other choice!" Antonia insisted, at seeing his hesitation.

As Diego's condition was worsening, Doctor Hernandez knew there was nothing else he could do, so he agreed.

"Bring him here, Felipe!" He eventually asked the young man.

It was Felipe's turn to hesitate, though. He wanted to do everything possible for his adoptive father but, at the same time, he knew Diego didn't want Don Alejandro to know his secret yet, so he was scratching his head, trying to come up with a solution.

"Hurry!" Antonia ordered him. "There's not much time!"

Pacing a little and trying to think what to do, Felipe signaled Manuel to accompany him and took with him a rag on which he poured some ether. Silently entering the library, unnoticed by Don Alejandro, who was dozing off in a chair, his back at the fireplace, and a book on his lap, the youngest De la Vega placed the rag on his grandfather's face. After he was sure the older man was fast asleep, he carried him to the cave with Manuel's help.

Doctor Hernandez would have been amused by the idea of stealing blood from the unconscious don, had he not been so concerned about Diego's prognosis. He found the biggest syringe in his bag and proceeded to take some blood from his life-long friend, carefully injecting it into Diego as soon as he managed to find a proper vein. Encouraged by the lack of reaction to the new blood, he repeated the procedure a few more times, taking blood from different parts of Don Alejandro's body, until the son received almost half a liter of his father's blood, and his pulse and heart rate had stabilized.

As soon as that was done and they noticed Don Alejandro was beginning to wake up, Felipe reapplied the cloth on his nose and, again with Manuel's help, carried him back to the library, leaving him in the same chair from which they had taken him.

Returning to the cave, the young Hernandez collapsed on the chair, in pain due to his condition and the effort of carrying the older man.

ZZZ

Don Alejandro woke up, about twenty minutes later, at hearing someone knock on the entrance door. He felt rather dizzy, his back was stiff and his arms and legs were a little sore, but he didn't think much of it.

"Victoria, my dear! What happened?" He asked at opening the door and finding the young tavern owner there.

"It's Zorro! He's been wounded!" She replied. "I …I don't know what to do and where to go. I don't know how to find him to make sure he is alright!"

"I am sorry to hear! What happened?" He asked while he led her to the library.

She hesitated for a moment.

"He was fighting in the plaza and his opponent's sword cut his arm."

"That does not sound like a reason to panic."

"There was so much blood, Don Alejandro! He left a trail I managed to pursue for a mile, but then I lost it. Since I was already on your land, I thought I should come and ask you…even if you don't want to tell me who he is...I thought you might at least know how to help him…"

"I don't, Victoria. Truly!" Don Alejandro told her. "If the blood loss was so severe, I think he might need a doctor."

"But Doctor Hernandez is away. Diego! He might be able to help him."

"Diego left yesterday for Santa Barbara. He hasn't returned yet, I'm afraid. Even if he had, how could my son help if we don't know how to find Zorro?"

"Will you, at least, come look for him with me, Don Alejandro? I can't bear the thought of him bleeding to death in his cave…"

"His cave?"

"Si…He has a cave. I was there once but I don't know where it is. I don't think it can't be too far away, since he carried me in his arms while escaping some bandits. My wagon had crashed just half a mile away from here, on the road to Santa Paula."

"There are a few caves in the hills behind the hacienda, but I don't think there's any the Alcalde hasn't inspected yet. I don't believe that's where he is, Victoria."

"Please, just help me look for him! Por favor, Don Alejandro! I need to do something."

"Alright, I'll come search for him. At least we could erase the blood traces if we find them, since I don't think Zorro would like his blood to lead the Alcalde straight to him."

As he said that, the two left the hacienda, heading for the spot where Victoria had last found the blood trail.

ZZZ

Meanwhile, Felipe had overheard the conversation from the cave and, after checking on Diego, he took some water, a cloth, and a knife, making his way out of the cave.

"You were lucky!" Doctor Hernandez uttered, addressing Diego, after Antonia told them all that had happened in the plaza. "The Alcalde could have shot you, or the Ramirez could have killed you, the lancers could have arrested you in the plaza or pursue you till here, you could have fallen off Tornado...Good Lord! If your father hadn't been in the hacienda or the detective wouldn't have had the inspiration to suggest a transfusion, I wouldn't have been able to save you. Diego, had any of the things that went right for you today would have gone wrong, you'd be dead by now!"

"I am alive. Let's focus on that. Thank you for saving me, Doctor, and you, Senora! I owe you my!" Diego muttered, still feeling rather weak and dizzy.

"You must have a legion of angels guarding over you, my friend!" Manuel stated, unable to believe himself the series of fortunate circumstances that had ensured Diego's survival that day.

"I met one of them once…" Diego stated.

"What?" Doctor Hernandez asked.

"Nothing. I am dizzy. Don't mind me…" Diego replied, regretting having opened his mouth, since he was clearly not in a position to share with them his stranger adventures.

The doctor made him drink a lot of water and got him to eat some leftovers from the lunch Felipe had brought them. Diego was already feeling better and, with some help from the doctor, managed to get to the cot he had placed in the cave a few weeks earlier, for exactly this type of situation.

ZZZ

"There!" Don Alejandro indicated to Victoria, finding the blood trail a few meters away from the last place she had seen it.

The two followed the trail half a mile, back towards the hills behind the hacienda, and then completely lost it, together with Tornado's own tracks, which seemed to have vanished into thin air.

"I don't understand…" Don Alejandro told her. "It's like both the horse and the rider have suddenly vanished."

"Where are we?" Victoria asked a little disoriented.

"My hacienda is half a mile south-west from here. We are close to the hills behind it." Don Alejandro answered.

"Perhaps we should search a little further. Maybe we can find again the trails in the hills." Victoria suggested as they both directed that way.

ZZZ

As soon as Don Alejandro and Victoria had left to search for Zorro, Felipe went to erase the trails. He started with the ones near the cave entrance, then reverse-followed the blood, eliminating all trace of it until he noticed Don Alejandro and Victoria coming towards him. They did not spot him only because they were preoccupied with finding the blood trail, so he ran back to the cave, and exited on Tornado, erasing, once more, the prints near the cave and directing the half-wild stallion away through the hills, and further north. A couple of hours later, after having made sure he misguided his grandfather and Victoria, he returned to the cave to find Diego already able to stand and move around, despite some persistent dizziness and dullness of his left arm.

As soon as he could move well enough, at Antonia's suggestion, he eventually decided to make an 'official' return home, just in case De Soto might send someone looking for him again. To make sure he was alright, she followed him from a distance, mounted on Argento. Antonia arrived five minutes after Diego to the imposing property, under the pretense that she was returning the stallion, since she was leaving town the following day.

His father and Victoria, coming back about an hour later due to Don Alejandro feeling weak and sundown making their chase for the ever-elusive legendary fox impossible, found the two discussed in the library.

"Son! You're home! How was your trip?" Don Alejandro asked him.

"Quite good, actually. I came back to all the ingredients I need to test the soil for our new vineyards and corn crops. I was just explaining Don Antonio the process." Diego stated.

"Don Antonio!" Don Alejandro exclaimed, just noticing the man. "Victoria told me you made sure to keep her out of harm's way this morning. I wanted to say that we appreciate your timely intervention, senor!"

"Yes, I did hear there was some excitement at the tavern in my absence." Diego pretended to have just been informed about the events.

"Excitement? That's an understatement!" Victoria sighed as she took a seat next to Diego.

"You seem preoccupied, Victoria. Is there something wrong? I hear those outlaws had been captured." Diego uttered, looking for an opportunity to put her mind at ease.

"Zorro has been injured!" She stated, as her eyes filled with tears. "He lost a lot of blood and I am very worried about him."

"It is true, son! We have tried to find him to see if we might help him, but we haven't been very lucky. However, from what I could see and what Victoria told me, he was bleeding profusely." Don Alejandro agreed.

"I am sure there's no reason to worry. If you could not follow his trail it must be because, at some point, he made sure to erase his tracks, which means he was well enough to do so…" Diego reasoned.

"It's quite true." Antonia agreed.

"You really think so? You don't believe he might be in danger?" Victoria asked with renewed hope.

"I am sure that's not the case. Anyway, Don Antonio told me it was an arm injury. They are hardly life-threatening." Diego stated and was glad to see that his secret fiancée was suddenly calmer and less concerned.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," Antonia got up and readied herself to leave "I believe should return to the tavern and get myself ready since I'll be leaving leave tomorrow. As I already told Don Diego, I just stopped by to return your magnificent stallion and to thank you for having agreed to land it to me these couple of days." She explained, directing herself to Don Alejandro.

"Well, senor, I must say it was a pleasure to meet you and I hope to see you again, soon. I just hope that today's events have not given you a wrong impression of our little pueblo." Don Alejandro stated.

"To be absolutely frank, Don Alejandro, today's events, as well as the recent ones in San Diego, are starting to make me doubt my decision of settling in California. I confess, I am considering returning to Spain." He stated.

"Oh? I am sorry to hear that!" Don Alejandro mentioned.

"Don't be. I have a rather large estate there which I had left unattended for quite some time. Not to mention, I truly miss my life in Madrid."

"Well…nothing in the colonies compares to the capital of our Empire, does it?" Don Alejandro agreed. "Although, I confess I have always been partial to Barcelona."

As the conversation was over, Antonia smiled and nodded, trying again to take her goodbyes.

"Diego, how about we all go to the tavern?" Don Alejandro suggested. "You look rather pale, son. Some fresh air might do you good and it would also give you the opportunity to make up for the dinner you missed yesterday."

"That is a very good idea, Don Alejandro. Diego, please accept! I would feel so much better knowing you are at the tavern, in case Zorro decides to return and needs help." Victoria asked her friend.

Feeling cornered, Diego had no alternative but to go into town with the three of them, despite the risk of being outed by the captured men, who were surely able to identify him. As for Antonia, all she could hope for was that Don Armando had managed to follow through with her instructions.