As the sun began its daily stroll through the sky, two days after their wedding, the newlyweds woke up again in each other's arms. After taking a few minutes to enjoy being together, Diego cupped his wife's face and lowered his lips to kiss hers, soon enough feeling, once more, that those kisses were no longer enough.

About half an hour later, he got dressed and went to the kitchen to ask for their bath to be prepared, then returned to his room, discarding his clothes and getting back into bed.

"Do you think I might be pregnant already?" Victoria asked him as she was running her fingers through his hair.

"Maybe. Do you want to be pregnant?" He asked.

"I always wished to have a house full of children, Diego. The friends my age already have at least two."

"We have a lot of lost time to make up for, mi amor!"

Victoria did not reply, just caressed his face.

"It is strange." She uttered some minutes later. "I fell in love with Zorro, but right now, there is a big part of me who wishes that he had never existed. We could have been together all these years…"

"Zorro served a purpose, an important one." Diego replied. "Who knows what would have happened had I never invented him. I couldn't openly fight the Alcaldes without risking prison or even a death sentence. Luis Ramone would have had nothing to fear and God-only-knows what kind of pueblo Los Angeles would be right now. God knows what would have happened to Father and Felipe…to you…" He sighed and closed his eyes for a while before speaking again. "That's not true, actually. I know. One Christmas, some years back, I saw it. A world without Zorro. One in which Father was dead, Felipe was rotting away in Devil's Fortress and you were lost to me forever."

"What are you talking about, Diego?"

"Do you remember that Christmas when I was fighting a cold? I stopped Luis Ramone from whipping citizen Frias, and didn't say a word to you, as I normally would have?"

"Yes…you came to the party later as Zorro and then as Diego, and I told you that you had just missed…yourself." She chuckled. "It's still funny when I think about some of the things you did…or said…or the things I said and shouldn't have…I'm so sorry, Diego!"

"What for?"

"For how I had treated you…what I said to you as Zorro about you as Diego…I'm so sorry, my love!"

"Don't be! Don't even think about it! It's all in the past and I never held anything you said against you." He assured her and made certain that his point came across with a soft kiss.

"You were telling me about that Christmas." She reminded him after their lips parted.

"Yes…I don't really know how to explain it without sounding mad, but I was doubting my resolution to continue as Zorro. It felt to me like I wasn't truly making a difference. My father and I had just gotten into an argument, you see…He was upset that I hadn't accompanied him to protest the Alcalde's cruelty, and I couldn't just tell him the truth. After he and Felipe left for your party, I was visited by an angel. His name was Fernando and he showed me what kind of place Los Angeles would have been without Zorro. It was a nightmare, Victoria. One that made me realize Zorro was still needed and had, indeed, changed things for the better."

"What would have happened to me?"

"What?"

"You said you would have lost me. How?"

Diego looked at her and, for a brief moment, remembered the Victoria he had seen then. "You don't want to know." He replied, turning on his back to face the ceiling.

"I do. Tell me!"

Taking a moment to ponder on what he should say, Diego turned back to face her. "The Victoria I saw in that nightmare had lost her will to fight, her sparkle. She didn't want me, didn't care about me, and had allowed for her tavern to become overrun with men and women of ill repute."

"Was I also one of them?" She questioned.

He needn't answer with words. The sad look in his eyes said it all.

"You saved us in more ways than we will ever know, didn't you?" She concluded rather than asked. "My Zorro!"

The couple was interrupted at that moment by a loud knock on the door and the servant's voice which informed them that the bath was ready. Diego guided his wife towards their adjacent bathroom, although she knew exactly where it was. Victoria got in the tub first as her husband proceeded to thoroughly wash her body with a cloth before he also slipped in and she did the same for him. They didn't speak, just enjoyed feeling each other's soothing touches and, when they again become one, right in the hot water, Victoria straddled around his hips, they forgot all about lost time and nightmarish visions.

ZZZ

An hour later, after getting properly dressed, both wearing the same wide smile on their faces, which they found impossible to erase, Victoria and Diego headed for the dining room, where the breakfast was already served.

"Good morning, Don Diego, Dona Victoria!" The Emissary uttered as he joined the two, some twenty minutes later.

"Good morning, Emissary!" They both replied at the same time.

"We hope you had a pleasant day yesterday." Diego said as he was sipping on his coffee.

"Yes, quite pleasant, in fact. The Governor and I spent the morning reviewing some reports and the afternoon on the picnic arranged by your father for everyone who attended the wedding."

"That sounds nice." Diego noted.

"Indeed. We also had some very interesting conversations about Zorro."

"Zorro?" Victoria questioned, feeling rather uneasy at the mention of her husband's alter-ego, just as Felipe was also silently taking his seat, greeting everyone with a big smile.

"Yes…You see, it dawned on us that your masked hero is very much alive, senora…but then, you must already know that, since you've just married him."

Diego eyed him, then his son, who was grinning, waiting to see his new parents' reaction at the rest of the conversation.

"Don't fret, Don Diego!" The Governor uttered as he, too, joined the table, after overhearing the Emissary's last statement. "After a careful analysis, we have concluded that your actions were righteous, which is why I would like to offer you this." He added, handing Diego the official pardon. "Call it a delayed wedding gift. The announcement was already made yesterday and I'll make sure it will reach all of the Californian garrisons and presidios as soon as possible."

"I hope you will not insult our intelligence by denying that you are Zorro, Don Diego!" The Emissary asked, seeing that the younger man was not decided on how to react.

"What do you mean Diego is Zorro, Emissary?" Don Rodrigo asked as he was entering the room followed by Don Alejandro.

"Was." His cousin corrected. "I did think that was pretty obvious considering the way he defended the pueblo two days ago."

"You knew about this? You knew your son is an outlaw?" Don Rodrigo asked.

"Was." Don Alejandro replied again.

"Who was what?" Don Eduardo asked as he was also joining in, followed by his daughters, Rafael, Marguerita, and Dona Carmen.

"Diego Zorro" Don Rodrigo answered.

"Diego? Don't be absurd!" Don Eduardo denied the idea, with his eyes scolding his brother for mentioning his nephew's secret in the presence of the Governor and the Emissary and trying to telepathically ask him to recant such affirmation.

"They already know!" Felipe pointed out with some amusement at seeing his efforts. "They offered Father a full pardon, for which we are all grateful."

"Yes. Thank you, Your Excellency!" Diego confirmed.

"You knew?" Don Rodrigo asked Don Eduardo after also noticing his brother's scolding gaze and recognizing it for what it was.

"My daughters told me the day of the wedding; although, I only became convinced after seeing him fight those brigands."

"They told you?" Diego asked, eying the two sisters.

"We tell papa everything." Antonia confessed.

"Really?" Diego looked at them with a wicked smile that caused the two to swallow hard. "Did you also tell him that Victoria's brothers are courting you?"

"What?" Don Eduardo, Don Alejandro, and Victoria asked at the same time, while the officials were looking at the scene with increasing amusement.

"Oh…You didn't know?" Diego asked his uncle innocently. "But you just said you tell your father everything!" He addressed the sisters, feigning disbelief. "Uncle, I really think you should consider chaperoning the four of them. Now, if you'll all excuse us," Diego said as he got up from the table "my beautiful bride and I need to go to the pueblo this morning. I'm sure we'll see you all later." he stated as he took his goodbye and left the room, practically dragging Victoria after him.

"I guess my father doesn't want to talk about him being Zorro!" Felipe noted after the newlyweds left.

ZZZ

The week after the wedding passed rather fast. The guests started leaving one by one, Francisco agreed to replace Lieutenant Mendoza in the garrison and Ramon and Pilar remained in charge of the tavern, at least until Mendoza would be ready to take over his share of duties. The Los Angelinos slowly got used to seeing Diego de la Vega walk around with Zorro's weapons and riding Tornado, although they found it more difficult to get used to seeing their soon-to-be Alcalde sharing most of his meals with De Soto, and to the friendly manner in which they were interacting.

Victoria's brothers declared their official courting of the De la Vega twin sisters the day their father found out that they were already doing it, without his expressed consent. Had Don Eduardo not had the opportunity to meet the two young men and determine that they would take good care of his treasured daughters, he would have opposed the matches. As things were, though, and seeing how his cousin was treating the two as family, he was more than happy to accept, especially considering that the twin sisters had, each, rejected at least 8 potential suitors thus far, and he was becoming tired of giving the bad news to the hopeful young men.

With De Soto due to leave in just four days, after the two high-ranking officials had departed, Victoria and Diego took the chance to escape Los Angeles and head for Santa Paula, eager to spend some days alone in their own world.

Leaving in the afternoon and stopping at the abandoned windmill for the night, they arrived at their destination a little past noon and took the inn's best room, spending the rest of the day in bed, unwilling to see anyone else. It was not until their second day there that the innkeepers saw them, the two having decided to eat their breakfast in the taproom and spend the day horseback riding and taking in the sights. Victoria also proposed to go for a picnic at the seaside – a perspective Diego found enchanting, especially given the fact that he knew a perfectly secluded spot which would allow them enough privacy. They were discussing what to take with them when shots and nervous horse neighs started being heard from outside. The other guests and the owners ran to see what was going on, while Diego rapidly climbed the stairs to his room and returned fully armed just a few moments later. He tried to ask Victoria to remain inside, where it was safe, but his wife was both too stubborn and too worried about him to do as asked.

Following everyone outside, the two witnessed as five bandits were about to make their escape with all the horses in the tavern's stables, including Isabel and Tornado. The lancers who had tried to stop them were all lying in the ground, two of them nursing their wounds, one dead and three more knocked out by the bandits and their horses.

Assessing the situation, Diego waited a few minutes for the thieves to be further away from the crowds witnessing their escape and for their guns to empty. At that point, he simply whistled and both his stallion and his wife's white mare reared and set themselves free to return to their masters. The same sudden motion also led to two of the bandits' horses to rear and throw off their riders. Mounting Tornado, his whip in his right hand, Diego pursued the thieves and caught up with them just outside the pueblo, where he disarmed the remaining three men on horseback. Using his sword to cut their saddles, and his swordsmanship to subdue them, he returned some twenty minutes later, the horses and the thieves tied up behind him.

As the lancers took over the thieves and the tavern's owner returned the horses to their stables, the people witnessing the deed started cheering for the man of the hour, who realized it was for the first time people were acclaiming Diego de la Vega, instead of Zorro.

"Let's go to Santa Paula!" they heard one of the bandits mocking their leader as they were being escorted to jail "Los Angeles is guarded by Zorro's ghost! There's no Zorro in Santa Paula!"

Diego and Victoria smiled at the scene and pitied the bandits to a certain level. After all, how were they supposed to know that the man behind Zorro's mask was visiting Santa Paula exactly on the day they chose to make their move?

ZZZ

By the time they returned, given the fast progress of Francisco and Ramon's courtships of the two De la Vega sisters, Diego's uncle was already making plans to relocate to Los Angeles, in order to be close to his only children, after their marriage. The perspective was welcomed by both his brother and Don Alejandro, who also offered to act as guardian for Clara and Antonia, while his cousin left to make the necessary arrangements to sell his current estate and move his possessions up north.

ZZZ

"Everything ready, Ignacio?" Diego asked at entering the Alcalde's office the afternoon before the older man's departure.

"Almost."

"Where is the painting?" he asked, looking around, and finding a particular spot on the wall was blank.

"Already packed. I've decided to take it with me. It makes the perfect souvenir: the town I was trapped in, painted by the man who trapped me here."

"I hardly trapped you! You could have left long ago if you really wanted. It was your decision to stay and run around chasing me. Why don't you just admit you are taking it because you'll miss Los Angeles?"

"You are…deluded, De la Vega!"

"Am I?"

"Yes. Now…since I am rather busy, why don't you tell me what is it you really want, anyway?"

"What I really want? World peace, equality, and justice. But, since you're hardly the person to give me all that, how about dinner at the tavern, instead?"

"Is that an invitation?"

Diego did not answer, just nodded.

"Why not? I'm tired of packing anyway." De Soto decided.

"I thought you had Sepulveda do that!"

"Well…yes…but I still have to supervise him!"

"Exhausting, I'm sure! Shall we, then?"

"After you!" De Soto decided. "So…How's married life?" He asked while crossing the plaza.

"Exceeding my expectations, to be fair. And they were quite high, to begin with!"

De Soto chuckled. "I, for one, am only sorry I can't be a fly on the wall when the two of you have your first fight! Don Alejandro will probably consider it a miracle if the hacienda will remain standing!"

"We already quarreled once, I'll have you know. It wasn't that bad, frankly." Diego stated as they reached the tavern where over fifty people, including lancers and several dons, were waiting for them.

"What is this?" Ignacio asked with the same tone he would have used had he suspected he was to be the victim of a lynching.

"Your goodbye party, Alcalde!" Don Alejandro answered. "Don't just stand there! Come in!"

De Soto made his way inside the taproom and looked suspiciously at the people who had come to bid him farewell, as each of them shook his hand, many even offering him parting gifts. Diego was generous enough to allow him to dance with his new wife, once, while Victoria was glad De Soto managed not to step on her feet.

As the night progressed, the people left one by one, until only the De la Vegas, Mendoza, Sepulveda and the Escalate brothers remained. After deciding that Francisco and Ramone were a little too forward in their courting of his nieces, Don Alejandro and Felipe also decided to escort the young women home, leaving Diego and Victoria to spend the night together in her old room, one last/only time before Mendoza took it over.

With the Escalante brothers decided to continue the party and the three army men not intended on leaving anytime soon, the two newlyweds eventually left them and headed upstairs, where, after Diego made sure to remind Victoria, a couple more times, just how much he loved and desired her, they both fell asleep, naked, in each other's arms.

In the meanwhile, the men downstairs, having declared their intention to get De Soto drunk, managed, once more, to overdo it with the alcohol and, after spending a lot of time bantering, they, eventually, fell asleep at and on the tables they were sharing.

De Soto woke up at dawn with only one thought on his mind: that he never got to see Zorro flying. Still under the influence of the alcohol, he hesitantly made his way towards Victoria's room, decided to knock on it until waking up the couple. Unfortunately, since he had only slept for a couple of hours, he stumbled and fell, face-first on the door. Given that, in his eagerness to undress his wife, Diego had neglected to lock the room the previous night, the couple thus woke up with a startle at seeing De Soto lying down on the room's floor, where he fell, luckily, on his good hand.

Victoria's first reaction was to scream, and the men downstairs were on their feet in seconds and hurried up, fearing something bad had happened. Diego barely had the time to hurriedly cover his wife in their blanket, before ordering the other four men who were, by then, standing frozen in their doorway, to take De Soto and get out.

"I want a fencing lesson and to see you fly!" Ignacio stated as he was being dragged back to the taproom. "I won't be leaving, otherwise!" He menaced.

As the door shut after them, Diego and Victoria looked at each other and started laughing, while her two brothers only wanted to erase from their mind the image of their covered-yet-naked sister resting her head on their best friend's very naked chest.

The newlyweds emerged from their room some twenty minutes later and, while Victoria headed straight for the kitchen to make coffee, Diego was still deciding whether to forgive Ignacio or send him to Spain with a black eye. After seeing the pitiful state in which he found the five men, he determined to abandon all thoughts of punishment and head for the kitchen to help his wife with the coffee cups.

"I meant it!" De Soto uttered after taking a few sips of the black-colored drink. "I'm not leaving until I see you use that thing. And I also want that fencing lesson!"

"I believe I gave you several fencing lessons over your time here, Ignacio! It is not my fault you were never interested in learning anything from them!" Diego answered with a sly grin.

"I wouldn't mind seeing you fly again…" Victoria mentioned, smiling at her husband.

"We'd also be interested in seeing that!" Francisco supported her and the other two soldiers also nodded.

"And we'd also like to see the cave. Except for the Corporal and us, everyone else here had seen it! It is wrong of you not to grant us the same courtesy as to take us there!" Ramon pointed out.

Diego looked at them and decided he didn't want to take the risk of having De Soto miss his ship.

Two hours later, after having taken the necessary precautions to prevent everyone from knowing the exact location of the cave while retrieving the glider, Diego was about to do a flying demonstration. Victoria had meanwhile gone to the hacienda to get the wagon, in the process also informing the already-awake Don Alejandro, Felipe, Antonia, and Clara about Diego's decision. Thus, by the time everything was ready, Diego already had a rather big audience, the De la Vegas, the Escalantes and the military men having also been joined by many of the servants, vaqueros and stable hands working at their ranch, after some of them overheard Victoria's discussion with her new father-in-law.

Felipe drove the wagon at full speed and, after some thirty minutes in the air, his father gracefully landed in the field next to their sumptuous house.

"I found the missing cattle!" He informed his father. "They are some five miles east, on the Henche lands."

"I'll tell the men! Maybe you should do this every time we lose livestock!" Don Alejandro chuckled.

"I'd rather not. It is quite dangerous and I have no intention of dying like Icarus." He replied. "So, Ignacio, do you want to give it a try?"

"You just said it was dangerous." De Soto frowned.

"I'm sure a brave soldier, such as yourself, would laugh in the face of danger."

"Yes…I'd rather die on the field of battle than fall from the sky, though, De la Vega!"

"In that case, let's get to fencing, so that you can finally leave us in peace!" Diego uttered half-joking, and proceeded in instructing Ignacio on several mistakes he was committing while fencing.

With the stagecoach scheduled to depart from Los Angeles at 9am, the lesson was, by necessity, rather brief.

By the time they returned to town, the people had already gathered to bid De Soto farewell, despite the mixed feelings they were harboring towards him. In the span of one week, he had gone from being despised by most of the inhabitants of the pueblo, to being acknowledged as the man who had saved their hero. Twice. So they parted with him rather warm-heartedly, to his growing amazement, many wishing him a successful future career back in Spain.

As he embarked on the ship due to return him to Cadiz, the former Alcalde realized how much he would, indeed, miss Los Angeles and the people there, including the one man he had hated all that time and from whom he ended up parting as a friend.

ZZZ

It was a sunny day when the two Escalante brothers married the De la Vega twin sisters in the same church Victoria had married the young women's cousin. By that time, their sister was already four months pregnant with her and Diego's first pair of twins, a boy and a girl to be named after Diego's parents.

Don Eduardo had sold his properties and, with the Cordera Ranch seized and put up for sale after the traitorous actions of Don Alcides, he had bought the property, which he managed with Ramon's help, the young man proving to have as good an instinct for business as his older sister.

Francisco moved into De Soto's former apartment at the cuartel with his new bride and soon became invaluable as his brother-in-law's right hand. Around the time Mexico took over California and with Diego having already decided to step down from his office as Alcalde in order to spend more time at the hacienda, Francisco was elected by the Los Angelinos to be his successor, an office he held for several years. When he finally decided to make good on his decision to give up his military career, he found it less difficult than expected to exchange it for the life of a haciendado as he, his second-time-pregnant wife, and their six-year-old Alfonso Escalante moved in with his brother and in-laws.

Mendoza started managing the tavern as soon as Victoria announced her first pregnancy, after having spent two months being trained by her for the job. He also proved unexpectedly good at the business and was more than happy with the new life he was leading. A few years later, after marrying Pilar, he bought the place from Victoria, he and his wife becoming its sole owners.

No longer needing to be Zorro's accomplice, Felipe left Los Angeles a year after his new parents' wedding, to go study law in Mexico City. While there, he made a name for himself as a swordsman, winning several competitions, and became a constant presence at the most important parties and soirees held in the Capital. Years later, when he returned to California, he brought with him his new wife, Maria-Luiza, whom he had married after a very brief and intense courtship.

By 1825, the De la Vega hacienda was, thus, housing two pairs of twins – one girl and three boys - belonging to Diego and Victoria, and two more infants, - the product of Felipe's love for Maria-Luiza,- which meant that Don Alejandro had, finally, gotten his grand-foxes and some great-grandfoxes on top of that.

About a decade later, when Diego and Victoria's first-born son, Alejandro, was getting ready to head out to Mexico City for his university studies, and the couple had no longer expected to have any more children, Ramon de la Vega was born.

The End

ZZZ

AN: Thanks for sticking with me on this story. I know it took a while to get here and I apologize for making you wait a little more than usual for the last chapters. I also want to thank La Cuidadora for helping me make the necessary corrections to my English and to all my reviewers for their support, encouragements, and, in some cases, ideas to include in the story. I hope you all enjoyed it and leave a comment if you did. They are much appreciated! :P