Pablo, one of the De la Vega vaqueros, woke up the garrison, asking for Mendoza's help, unaware that Jessie had been so upset with her husband that afternoon that she had forced him to remain in his quarters at the garrison, instead of accompanying her back to the hacienda.
"What's going on?" De Soto asked at hearing the commotion and exiting to the courtyard half-dressed.
"Don Manolo has abducted Señorita Victoria and said he'd kill her unless Señorita Angela was turned over to him by sunrise." Mendoza hurriedly related to him. "Don Alejandro is already on his way to his hacienda and Señorita Angela also headed that way.".
De Soto took a few moments to try to make sense of what the man was saying.
"Absurd! How does Don Alejandro even know Don Manolo had done such things?" He asked, hoping what he had been told was not true since, had it been true, he'd be forced to arrest the influential new haciendado, and he really wanted to avoid doing that.
"He and his men came by the hacienda to search for the señorita. He hit Don Diego, hurting him quite badly. He was not even able to stand when we left and his head was bleeding a lot." Pablo answered him. "Juan was already sent to get your wife to help him, Alcalde!"
"What? Has Don Manolo gone mad?" De Soto wondered. "Choose eight men to accompany us, Sergeant!" He then ordered before heading inside to get fully dressed.
Ten minutes later, the men led by the Alcalde and the De la Vega vaquero were heading towards the Baro Hacienda, hurrying to catch up with Don Alejandro before his arrival there.
ZZZ
Diego carefully avoided his father and his men as he hurried west, doing his best to remain in the saddle as the mare galloped at full speed and his dizziness came and went.
As for Angela, she was nearing the hacienda, Zorro a few dozen feet behind her.
"Señorita Angela!" He called her just as the haciendado's men saw her ghostly figure and went in to warn their patron. "Señor Zorro!" She uttered as she turned around to see him, slowly stopping Esperanza. "He will kill Victoria if I don't give myself up! Please don't try to stop me!" She asked just as she dismounted. "Don Diego and Don Alejandro were both hurt because they tried to help me. I can't allow Don Manolo to cause anymore harm to others because of me. I am not worth it!"
"Giving yourself up is not the answer! I will help Señorita Victoria. And, if I fail, Don Alejandro and his men are coming here, and they will get her released." He replied, not noticing the haciendado and the rest of his family making their way towards the entrance, just thirty feet away from them.
As their argument was continuing, Diego also arrived at the hacienda and, noticing his friend had stopped Angela and everyone was at the door, aware he was unarmed and there was little he could do to help in his condition, ignored the throbbing in his head, and, after steering his black mare towards the back of the hacienda, he made his way through the window into the sala, and hurried to untie Victoria.
In the meanwhile, Don Manolo, at seeing Angela arguing with the masked man, took a gun from one of his vaqueros and, after making sure it was loaded, he pointed it at the young woman. The black-clad man barely had the time to save her, putting himself in the way of the bullet. He was hit just below the waist, the bullet entering and exiting through his right side, causing him to groan loudly as he fell on one knee.
To Angela everything seemed as if it was happening in slow motion. She saw that her protector was clearly in pain, but she had no idea what to do, so she just kneeled beside him and, after a few moments of hesitation, helped him untie his sash so that it might be used to put pressure on the wound and help stop the bleeding.
The people in front of the hacienda all saw he was hit, and Isadora, leaving her mother, ran to also try to help the injured man.
Diego and Victoria heard the shot right as the caballero was untying the taverness, and the two of them hurried to exit through the window and see what happened.
"Zorro! Look out!" Victoria shouted as the haciendado aimed another loaded gun towards them and was about to press the trigger. Angela, reacting at seeing the threat, stepped right in front of the masked man and embraced him, frightened, yet ready to give her life to save him if need be. Diego tried to run towards Don Manolo in order to stop him from firing, but, considering his state, stumbled and fell some ten feet before getting to him.
A shot rang and a cry was hurt. The next thing everybody saw was Isadora falling to the ground, a red stain growing on her chest. The teenager had seen her half sister had decided to protect Zorro, but she had no intention of allowing her stepfather to kill Angela.
Doña Luisa screamed and ran towards her, while everybody else watched in disbelief.
"Isadora!" Angela shouted as she turned to see her sister fall right behind to her, and, at her turn, hurried to help her.
It was then that Victoria saw De Soto, his lancers, Don Alejandro and his vaqueros making their way towards them, so, afraid for the black-clad hero, she ran to help him, finishing tying the sash around his waist in an effort to stop the bleeding.
"You need to go or you'll be captured!" She uttered, glancing between the masked man and the lancers.
He stood up leaning on the taverness.
"She's hurt." He muttered looking towards Isadora, unable to understand the turn of events.
Diego hesitated at reaching them, but kneeled next to the young girl, whom, he realized, was in more need of his aid than his friend. Ripping off the ruffle trim of his blouse he used it to stop her bleeding, worriedly glancing between Isadora and his masked friend.
"How did you get here?" Zorro wondered at seeing him. "You're badly injured!"
"I'm fine. But you need to leave unless you want the Alcalde to capture you." Diego stated, having also noticed the lancers.
The masked man nodded and, with Victoria's help, lifted himself into Tornado's saddle.
"Go, Tornado!" Victoria ordered, and the stallion galloped away.
"Should we go after Zorro, Alcalde?" Sepulveda asked as they all watched the masked man leaving at a gallop, hunched over the black stallion's neck.
De Soto hesitated. He had heard the gunfire, and he sensed his nemesis might be injured, but something told him it was not the time to catch him and upset his wife even further. Besides, he was there on a different mission, and had already promised Jessie to try to become a better man. "No, Corporal. That horse of his is too fast, and you won't be able to see him anyway!" He, thus, replied, watching as the black-clad man merged with the night around them, already about a hundred feet away. "I see you are safe, Señorita!" He then said as he saw the taverness at reaching the hacienda.
"Dios, Victoria! Are you injured? What happened here?" Don Alejandro asked at noticing some bloodstains on her torn dress and the people trying to help Isadora just a few feet away.
"No… Just some bruises, Don Alejandro. The blood is Diego's." She answered as she looked at her hands and skirt, then glanced at the tall caballero, remembering that he had, indeed, been badly injured. "Señorita Isadora was shot." She continued to say as she watched her friend try to save the young woman.
By that time, though, Diego had already realized that the fight was to soon be lost.
"Why did you do that?" Angela asked as she was sobbing next to her sister.
"I couldn't… let… him… shoot… you…" She said, using most of her remaining strength. "I love… you… Ange…" She continued to utter as, letting out a last breath, her pupils dilated and she remained, mouth half-opened, lying lifeless on the ground.
Her sister let out a scream as she embraced her, rocking her in her arms.
"I didn't shoot at her. The foolish child got in the way of the bullet." The don tried to tell his nonresponsive wife as he dared approach the group, just as De Soto and his men dismounted next to them.
"Sergeant, arrest Don Manolo!" The Alcalde asked, and his man, barely able to contain his tears, signaled for two of his lancers to carry out the order.
"No! You can't do this! The governor will hang you if you touch me!" Don Manolo told the Alcalde. "Besides, I was shooting at Zorro and that is not a crime since the man is a wanted criminal! Had she not put herself in the way of the bullet, that fiend would be dead by now! I already wounded him! If you send your men after him they are sure to catch him!" The Don tried to excuse his actions.
"He's wounded?" De Soto asked, pretending he had not noticed that.
"Yes!" The don said triumphantly. "I hit him just below his waist!"
"I doubt that. He seemed fine as he galloped away." De Soto then stated.
Diego glanced at him, then at Victoria, his eyes finally resting on his adopted son, who was standing right next to the shocked Don Alejandro.
"Felipe!" He asked the young man as he stood up, his shirt open and hands half-bloodied, a grief-stricken expression on his face. "Please go home and tell Maria to prepare a guestroom for Victoria."
The younger man understood that he needed an excuse to go in search of the black-clad man, so he hurriedly obeyed.
"What? Why?" The taverness inquired as she, herself, was hoping to get to the tavern, certain Zorro would go there seeking her help.
"After what happened tonight, I would feel better if you remained at the hacienda for a while." Diego simply answered, eying Don Manolo whom, despite being surrounded by lancers, was confident they were not going to arrest him.
"So would I!" His father confirmed, then turned towards his son. "Diego? When did you get here? And how? You were barely able to stand when I left home." Don Alejandro asked.
"Just a little earlier. I took Luna." The caballero said, looking regretfully towards the lifeless body of the teenager and the sister still rocking her in her arms, asking for her to wake up. In her nightgown and with her hair loose, her name seemed to befit her better than ever. For a moment, Diego even wondered if there was any miracle she could perform to bring Isadora back.
"Alcalde, I demand that you arrest Don Manolo! He is not only responsible for that sweet young girl's death, but also for kidnapping Victoria, and attacking me and my son in our hacienda. And I also want his men arrested, since they have acted as his accomplices!" Don Alejandro stated, enraged by the useless death of the brave señorita
De Soto nodded. "Don Manolo, you and your men are all under arrest." He informed the caballero with little enthusiasm, signing for his lancers to carry out his orders.
"You can't do this! You will pay for this! You, too, De la Vega! Next time I will put a bullet right through your brain!" He threatened as he and his men were being tied up.
Doña Luisa breathed deeply for a few minutes, just watching her dead daughter. "You killed her!" She accused her husband, first in a low voice, but then it seemed like she exploded. "You killed my daughter! I may have been disappointed in her, but she was mine! My blood! And you murdered her! You took the only person I ever truly loved! I have nothing without her!" As she said that, she stood up and, depriving one of the lancers tying up her husband, she used it to impale Don Manolo before anyone had the chance to intervene. The don looked at her with wide, puzzled eyes, then fell dead to the ground.
"Arrest her!" De Soto ordered his men who hurriedly obeyed.
"I should have never married that monster!" She muttered as she was being tied up.
Diego didn't need to check the don's pulse to realize he was beyond any help as the last remaining Baro man hurried towards his father, glancing in disbelief between him, Isadora's dead body and his stepmother.
The Alcalde instructed his men to find two wagons so that they might carry the bodies to the church in the pueblo and then allowed Angela and Doña Luisa to accompany Isadora's body in one of them, and Don Manolo's son to accompany, together with the arrested vaqueros, his father's body in the other.
"Are you sure you can make it back?" Don Alejandro asked his son who had already mounted his horse.
"Yes, Father." Diego replied as he was helping the taverness up to sit behind him.
"I… I first need to go to the tavern…" Victoria said hesitantly, as she didn't want anyone to know that she believed Zorro might be there. "I… I need to… change... And get some fresh clothes."
"Then we'll go to the pueblo, and I will wait for you to get your clothes." Diego told her, and his father agreed.
"I'll stay behind with Señorita Angela. I'll see you two at the hacienda." The older don told him, having decided to accompany the convoy so that he might convince Angela to go back to the hacienda with them after the arrangements for her sister's burial had been discussed with Padre Benitez.
ZZZ
D'Artagnan silently cursed his bad luck all the way to Los Angeles. Feeling he was no longer able to continue to the hacienda, he had directed Tornado towards the medical office, hoping he might stop the bleeding there and, thus, be able to continue on his way. For a brief moment, he also allowed himself to hope Diego, Felipe or Jessie would be there to help him.
As he reached the pueblo, the horse silently took him to the back of the office, as if sensing that was where he was headed, since the man on his back was hardly in a position to command him. The masked man crawled through the window and landed with a thud on the floor.
"Zorro!" He heard Jessie exclaim as his cousin entered the room at hearing the noise. "What are you doing here? What happened?"
"I was shot." He managed to answer with a groan as the doctor pushed him to lie on his uninjured side while she took off the sash and hurried to examine the injury.
"I don't believe anything vital was hit. I think it might have hit a vein, which would explain why your sash is soaked in blood, but the bleeding has almost completely stopped, so that's a good sign. The wound itself looks quite superficial." She pointed out as she started helping him out of the black-silk blouse.
"My pain is not… superficial." He told her.
"I can imagine that, but it's not exactly the first one you received, is it?" She wondered as, instinctively, she glanced at his back, trying to find older injuries on his torso.
"What are you doing here?" He questioned instead, unsure how to answer her question.
"Diego de la Vega was also injured tonight. I went to the hacienda to examine him, but he wasn't there, so I thought he might be here." Jessie replied as her eyes rested on an old scar on the man's back.
Shaking her head, she got up and headed to the other room for her medical supplies, stopping right as she closed the door.
"Impossible!" She muttered just for herself, then, returning to focus on her task, she gathered the supplies she needed and went back to the other room to help the masked man, suturing his wounds and giving him a sweetened willow bark tea to drink. Then, as soon as he was able to lift himself off the floor, she helped him to her old bed, since it was the closest one and he was too heavy for her to help him further than that.
"You need to rest now, Señor Zorro! I also need to find you a blood donor. Can you tell me which type blood group you have?" She wondered.
"Blood group?" He asked, visibly confused.
"Yes… Didn't you have yourself tested?" Jessie inquired just as they both heard the garrison return."I need to put off the light in the other room, or they will know I'm in the pueblo." Jessie then uttered as she stood up, heading for the door.
The Alcalde, noticing the light, entered just as she was turning off the lamp there.
"Jessie? What are you doing here?" He asked his wife, having just caught a glimpse of her before the room became dark.
"I came to see if Diego was here. Apparently he received a rather bad head injury." She answered. "But he's not, so I was just leaving."
"He was at the Baro Hacienda earlier, so you don't need to worry about your colleague. He didn't seem exactly gravely wounded, considering he arrived there even before me and my men, then headed this way with Senorita Escalante." De Soto stated with some jealousy in his voice, just as he noticed light emanating from the other room. "But if he's not here, what were you doing in the other room? Is there someone else here?" He asked suspiciously.
"No. It's just a lamp still burning." She replied, decided to do her best to prevent her husband from entering the back room, positioning herself in front of the door.
In the meanwhile, the black-clad man, knowing he'd not only put himself in danger, but Diego, as well, should he be discovered, reached for his shirt and his sash, then got off the bed and, leaning against the bed frame, headed towards the window, where Tornado was still waiting.
The people in the medical office heard a small table falling just moments later.
"There's someone in there!" De Soto asserted at hearing the noise, and reached to open the door.
Jessie prevented him from entering, thus providing the masked man enough time to get on Tornado and steer him towards the cave. Her gesture, though, also gave her husband the chance to see that her hands were bloodied.
"Zorro's been injured." Ignacio muttered. "You helped him, haven't you?" He asked and, seeing how Jessie was determined to stop him from entering the other room, he lifted her up in his arms to move her away from the door and stepped inside, just in time to hear Tornado galloping away.
"What are you doing?" Jessie questioned as he started looking around the room.
"He just left, didn't he?" He asked as he glanced out the opened window.
His wife folded her arms across her chest, looking defiantly at him. "What did I once tell you about this being a sacred space as far as you are concerned?" She asked.
"What were you thinking? Don't you understand that helping that fiend is a capital offense?" He inquired, not caring much about her reply.
"I have taken an oath to help anyone who needs my help. If obeying it is a capital offense, then you can hang me in the morning." She answered.
De Soto shook his head a few times, frustrated, then, grabbed his wife's forearm and dragged her to the front office.
"You need to wash!" He told her as he soaked a cloth and headed back to the other room, from where he returned a few minutes later, the cloth red with blood.
In the meantime, Jessie had managed to get rid of most of the blood on her hands.
"Where do you usually throw this?" De Soto asked her, referring to the dirty water.
"Just take out that cork. Diego installed a pipe system which takes care of the problem." She answered and watched as her husband studying the engineering work for a few moments before he headed to the other room.
Ignacio return with the lamp and the dirty sheets a while later while his wife was finishing washing the rest of the blood off her hands.
Hiding the sheets in Jessie's bag, he put off the lamp as he again grabbed Jessie's arm with one hand, taking her bag in the other, and exiting to the plaza.
"Corporal!" He called Sepulveda, who was guarding the entrance to his office. "Are the prisoners in jail?"
"Si, Alcalde!" The man answered.
"Good. I want you to take a couple of men and search the pueblo and the nearby area. I doubt Zorro was, indeed, injured tonight. But, if what Don Manolo said turns out to be true, he might come here in search of help. Also, take care of my wife's horse! She'll be riding home with me."
Jessie tried to free herself from his hold, but her husband was rather upset as he escorted her to his stallion and placed her right in front of him, ignoring her protests, before galloping away.
"I would rather die than order your execution, so don't put me in that position!" He said as they were exiting the pueblo. "The new governor has already threatened to take over the search for that masked menace! I already let him escape tonight although I knew I could finally catch him. And, after what has just happened at the Baro Hacienda, Governor Frasquez might very well decide to make good on his words and come here in person. If he does… Let's just say that he will not be merciful with either Zorro or anyone who might have been helping him." Ignacio then told his wife. "Don't you understand that I'm afraid for you?"
She stared at him and stopped any protest, just embraced him and rested her head on his chest as they continued their journey.
"I feared you were falling back into all your old habits." She uttered after a while, a proud smile on her lips as she raised her head to look at her husband. "You may not be changing as fast as I wish you to, but you are changing…"
ZZZ
Diego and Victoria arrived at the tavern around the same time Jessie was patching up Zorro, some 10 minutes before the rest of the people heading that way as the caballero could no longer endure a gallop and had to slow down. Having guessed Victoria's thoughts, yet doubting that D'Artagnan would have sought refuge in the tavern, he greeted the lancers on guard and steered Luna towards the main entrance, where Victoria hurriedly dismounted.
"Would you mind getting me some water?" Diego asked as he also dismounted, feeling worse by the minute.
"Of course not. I'll be with you right away!" She said as he sat at one of the benches on the terrace.
Victoria entered her establishment and, looking around to see if Zorro was there, she headed for the kitchen, poured Diego some water and returned with it.
The caballero drank and gave her back the glass, then stood up and told Victoria he'd go saddle her horse and wait for her by the kitchen's entrance. The young woman understood that he was offering to help, should the injured mask man be at the tavern, and nodded gratefully.
"Si, Diego." She uttered. "I'll get my things and be right there."
As she entered the taproom, she started searching for Zorro.
In the meanwhile, Diego guided Luna towards the back of the establishment, and saddled Victoria's mare. He was just about to head for the kitchen's door with both horses when he noticed Tornado by the medical office and headed that way, just in time to see his injured friend trying to exit through the window. Realizing he needed help to do so, he pulled him out, hurrying at hearing a table fall as the masked man's leg pushed it as he tried to get out.
"How are you feeling?" Diego asked him as he signed for Tornado to kneel so that his temporary rider might mount him.
"Good enough to endure the rest of the ride." He answered just before the stallion's master ordered him to head home.
Moments later, as he heard De Soto's voice from inside the room, the tall caballero hurriedly made his way towards the nearest corner, and hid behind it just as the Alcalde glanced out of the window through which the masked man had escaped.
About 20 minutes later, after De Soto and Jessie had already left the pueblo, Victoria returned to Diego carrying a small bag, a frustrated look on her face.
"He's not here. I searched everywhere!" The taverness told him as she hung her bag by her mare's saddle horn.
"I'm sure he's fine." Diego said, daring to hope his friend was already safely back at the house, in Felipe's care.
"Has Don Alejandro and the others arrived?" Victoria wondered at hearing the old don's voice.
"Yes. My father and the young Baro are talking to Padre Benitez about the funeral arrangements. But we should go." He uttered, the throbbing in his head worsening by the moment as the effect of the tonic was fading.
"I… I think I'll go see how Angela is holding up." Victoria decided instead, guiding her mare towards the church without waiting for Diego to object.
Absent other options, he followed her and had to endure waiting the following half-an-hour for Don Alejandro to finish the arrangements while Victoria was doing her best to convince Angela to come to the De la Vega hacienda as the young woman didn't want to let go of her sister's frozen hand.
In the end, it was the elder De la Vega who, at seeing Diego had sat down on one of the church's benches and seemed in pain, asked two of his men to accompany him home. Victoria, feeling guilty at realizing she had forgotten the fact that Diego was also injured and, instead of making sure he'd rest, she had prolonged his sufferance, also offered to accompany him after she made Don Alejandro promise he would soon return with Angela.
ZZZ
Felipe had headed straight for the hacienda, not finding any trace of the masked man on the way, especially since it was a rather cloudy night, and he could not see Tornado's tracks.
He found the cave empty. After a few minutes of waiting, he hurriedly went to wake up Maria and have her prepare Victoria's usual guestroom, then returned to the cave to wait for the stallion and his rider. Half an hour later, his patience exhausted, he decided to take a lamp and go search for them on the way, but, just as he was exiting through the hidden panel in the fireplace, he heard Tornado making his way to the room below.
Closing the panel back up, he hurried to return and arrived just in time to catch the masked man as he slipped off the stallion's back. Felipe looked reproachfully at the horse who shook his head, then stepped into his stall and started munching on some hay. Had the mute young man been able to speak he would have spent the following hour chiding both D'Artagnan and Tornado, informing the latter, in very harsh words how disappointed he was that he had allowed a stranger on his back, and the former that he should have known better than to believe he could be Zorro when he was neither as strong, nor as fast and clever as his adoptive father.
His silent reproaches were forgotten, however, when, at checking on the injured man's wound, he saw that it was already sutured and bandaged.
"Jessie…" The masked man uttered when he noticed Felipe's inquiring glance.
The young man started signing at hearing the answer, asking if she knew who he was.
"I don't understand you." D'Artagnan stated as he took off the mask. "But if you're worried that my cousin might have found out, don't be, 'cause she didn't!"
Felipe left him to take off the rest of his clothes, and hurried to his room to get him a nightshirt and a robe, barely avoiding Maria on the way.
"Jessie said something about finding me a blood donor… Whatever that is…" The injured man uttered as his younger friend was helping him change some minutes later.
Felipe didn't bother to gesture his signs this time, just took a syringe and used it to get a blood sample from D'Artagnan before he even realized what the younger man was doing. Taking it to test the blood type, he left the puzzled injured man to finish changing clothes all by himself. After he was certain he knew what blood type D'Artagnan needed, he again looked scornfully at him, then, taking the syringe used for blood transfusions, he took some of his own blood, then slowly injected it into the confused older man. When he finished, he repeated the operation once more, then helped him into his bed, leaving him to rest, just as Diego, Victoria and their companions arrived at the hacienda.
The adopted De la Vega hurried towards the entrance to open the door as he heard them. His adoptive father more-or-less collapsed on a chair as soon as the vaqueros managed to help him to the library.
"Dios, Diego! What possessed you to come to the hacienda if you were barely standing?" Victoria wondered as the worried Felipe hurried to take off his bandage and check his wound.
"I thought I might help… I freed you, at least." He answered.
"Yes, Diego! You did free me. In fact, you were very brave tonight." She confirmed with a smile, which faded as soon as she and the younger man realized that Diego's head bleeding had not completely stopped yet, and the wound risked getting infected. "I think this wound needs stitches, Felipe!" Victoria remarked.
"And ether." Diego muttered, trying to distract her and the other two men from his earlier bravery. "I don't believe you want to hear me scream when Felipe stitches me…"
Victoria rolled her eyes and looked at the younger man who pretended he hadn't heard his father, since he couldn't have seen his lips from where he was standing. Instead, he signed to Diego that it would be best if he sutured the wound in his room so that he might be able to rest afterwards.
The caballero agreed and, looking at him said "Ether" and his son nodded before the vaqueros helped Diego to his room. The taverness followed them but left with the vaqueros when Felipe ordered everyone out before he started helping his father take off his clothes.
"D'Artagnan?" The tall caballero inquired as soon as she exited his quarters.
The younger man signed that their friend was sleeping and that he seemed to be doing fine, but that now he needed to take care of him before his head wound got infected.