"I…" Victoria started at noticing none of the men said anything, "I am Victoria Escalante. I am 29 and I own a tavern."
"That's your character, honey. I was wondering about you. Oh, and Victoria is 18 at the beginning of the show. Do you think she can pass foe an 18-year-old?" Jane asked her colleagues.
"I don't see why not. She is very attractive and she doesn't exactly show her age…" The older man there answered as he lit a cigar.
The women there seemed bothered by the smoke, but said nothing to make him put the cigar away.
"So… Back to you. Can you tell us what other shows and movies you've done?" Jane again addressed Victoria.
"Wait! If they are method actors, why not let them speak for the characters? Let's see if they are able to fully understand them…" The man with the cigar proposed. "You may go on…"
Victoria looked increasingly dumbfounded as she continued after exchanging a confused glance with Diego. "I… I have two brothers, Francisco, who is two years older than me, and Ramon, who is a year my younger." She continued. "Though they live in Venezuela now…"
"Do we already know who's playing them?" Jane asked.
"Guest actors, depending on the budget. We'll probably go for European actors. They're cheaper…" Another of her colleagues answered.
"Alright. And how do you see your relationship with Don Diego?" Jane asked Victoria as they again returned their attention to the people in front of them.
"My relationship with Don Diego?" The taverness inquired, visibly confused.
"John, why don't you start the air conditioning? It's becoming unbearable hot." The older man with the cigar asked.
"Jane says to turn it off, you want it on… Why don't you just make up your minds?" The man asked with some discontent as he went to turn on the device.
The five out-of-timers looked in awe at the device that started cooling the room and Diego briefly wondered what kind of energy source they were using for it, but decided against actually asking what was on his mind.
"So… You were saying…" Jane uttered as John returned to the table. "About your character's romance with Don Diego…"
"Ah… There is no romance between me and Don Diego!" Victoria protested. "He… He's my oldest friend… But I am in love with…"
"Zorro. Right." Jane uttered. "I forgot you don't know in the show who Zorro is. So then tell us about your romance with Zorro…" She continued to ask.
Diego swallowed nervously as the young woman he loved gave him a suspicious look.
"Ah… You know about him?" She replied. "What am I asking? Of course, you do. Stories about him must have survived… Zorro is the most wonderful man I have ever known. I love him so much… Although I don't know who he is, I know he is brave, and good, and wonderful…" Victoria said, dreamily, wishing her hero was there to reassure her everything would be alright. "I just hope he'll be able to marry me before I grow old and grey… If we ever get back home, that is…" She added that last part in a low tone of voice, only for her companions to hear.
"Well, you'll have to wait for at least five seasons for that wedding… maybe more. Though I am not sure we'll ever have him publicly unmask…" Jane said. "But we are considering a wedding in the last episode. It would be a fitting ending to the series, I think. Thank you, Victoria, I think we head enough. Why don't you take over from her?" She then addressed Don Alejandro.
The older caballero glanced at his son, who just shrugged.
"I am Don Alejandro de la Vega." The older caballero introduced himself next. "I am 61. I own a hacienda near Los Angeles… I am a horse and cattle breeder… I'm a widower… This is my son, Diego…"
"And how do you feel about Diego and about Zorro?"
"Ah… About Diego and Zorro? Well, Diego is my only son, and I am, of course, proud of him… as any father would be… He is a very good son. He is kind, has a good heart and a good head on his shoulders" He said and the younger man smiled gratefully. "As for Zorro, well… He's helped me quite a few times… I owe much to him. He's a very brave man, with a keen sense of justice and a good heart. I certainly admire him for that, as everyone else in Los Angeles…"
"Speak for yourself! Zorro is but a brigand!" De Soto uttered. "Why are we even talking about him?"
"Now that's an interesting character. Luis Ramone. The bad guy…" The older man spoke, pointing at De Soto.
"I beg your pardon?! I am Ignacio de Soto, alcalde of Los Angeles, appointed by the king himself…"
"Ignacio de Soto? Did we change the villain's name?" The same man to have spoken earlier asked Jane.
"No… I took no such decision…"
"Alcalde Luis Ramone died at Devil's Fortress... Ignacio replaced him…" Diego felt the need to explain.
"Oh! No… I don't think we'll replace the villain… Unless we have issues with the actor we choose…" Jane said. "Perhaps a backup wouldn't be the worst thing, though… De Soto… Don't we have character by that name in one of the scripts? Some don coming home from Mexico City?" She then addressed her colleagues, who just shrugged their shoulders as none of them had memorized all the names of the characters in the show. "But if you don't have the scripts, how do you know the name?" She then addressed Ignacio.
"I know it because it's my name! And who do you think you are to ask me to… to tell you about myself? And calling me a villain? I will let you know that I'm a decorated hero of the Spanish Empire!" He said quite full of himself. "We should be trying to find a way back rather than waste our time with these… these insolent Yankees!" He then addressed his companions. "Please, Diego, think of something!"
"I kinda' like what he did there…" The older man said smiling as he put off his cigar. "He's definitely in character, and one can already see he's not a black-and-white villain. He's complex… And it's clear he has a very interesting relationship with Don Diego… I like it!"
"Well… Perhaps we should, indeed, go…" Diego mentioned.
"But I didn't tell them about me yet." Mendoza muttered.
"h, yes. Sergeant Jaime Mendoza… The comic relief…" Jane told the others.
"Comic relief?"
"Yes. Like Sergeant Garcia in the Disney's Zorro."
"Who's Garcia?" Mendoza inquired.
"It would have been you but, unfortunately, we don't have the rights to the character. That reminds me, we need to figure out another name for the horse… we also don't have the rights to Tornado..." Jane told her companions.
"We can just write it with another O – Toronado…" One of them suggested.
"That is not a Spanish word." Diego remarked. "Why would anyone name a horse that?"
"Well… You, or whoever we chose for the roles can still pronounce it like the Spanish Tornado, but, at least, we won't have any legal conflict to deal with. Right, Peter?"
"No… We should be in the clear. We certainly don't want to go against Disney… We just don't have the budget for the lawyers…" The same man who suggested the name answered.
"Yes. Now, let's return to you. I believe it's time to hear from our hero. Don Diego…"
"Hero?" De Soto asked with a burst of laughter. "How is he the hero?"
"Well… He is Don Diego… Hence, the hero of the show!" Jane answered, rather confused.
Diego stared rather unsure at the strangely-dressed people who, he had started to fear, knew too much about him for his comfort.
"Diego a hero?" Ignacio chuckled. "Who in the world would believe that absurdity?"
The people at the table looked confused. "Oh… Still in character!" Peter remarked. "For a moment there, he almost had me believe he doesn't know. He's committed!" He remarked, smiling at the others, who just nodded their approval.
Diego seemed quite reluctant to speak as they redirected their attention towards him but, since everyone was staring, he found himself forced to answer anyway. "Well, there's not much to say about me… I'm a haciendado… I help my father run the hacienda… And in my free time, I am the editor of the pueblo's newspaper –"
"Was that in the character's bio, Peter?" Jane asked the man to her left.
"I don't think so, but it's a very good idea." He answered. "I mean, if Clark Kent is a reporter, why wouldn't Diego de la Vega be one, as well? Within the proper historical context, of course…" He replied. "You may go on." He addressed Diego, realizing he had stopped to let them talk.
"Well, there's not much left to say, I guess… Except that I have an adopted son called Felipe. He's a deaf-mute."
"Felipe is your servant since you won't be adopting him till the fifth season at least. And I'm not sure we should use that term... Deaf-mute…" Peter said, glancing at the other people sitting next to him.
"I think we can still go with deaf-mute. He will have to justify why he's not talking, and we're no longer in the 1950s to say he's deaf and dumb." Jane mentioned.
"Alright… Please, go on!" The man asked the increasingly dumbfounded caballero.
Diego glanced at the people around him before answering. "I am also somewhat of a man of science, I paint, play the piano… read a lot."
"Yes…"
"I guess that's it… Now, we really should go…" He said nervously.
"What about Zorro?" The man said.
"Zorro?"
"Yes… Since you started with the character's bio, do tell us how you will approach him. Tell us about your motivation! Your drive to put on a mask and defy the alcalde in search of justice! To pretend you are a different person when in public than you truly are, and to court the woman you love from behind a mask."
"Huh?" Victoria inquired, as they all glanced at a very nervous Diego.
"Method actors!" The chubby woman who had arranged their audition told the others at entering with the scripts. "He is probably trying to hide his secret identity from the rest of them, since they're not supposed to know about it."
"What? Is that true, De la Vega?" De Soto asked enraged.
"You're Zorro, Don Diego?" Mendoza inquired in disbelief.
"Ah…" The tall caballero suddenly felt cornered and had no idea how to get himself out of that particular predicament.
"That is exactly the reaction I'd like to see from the alcalde and Mendoza…" Jane told the others, "if there was ever a reveal… maybe we can arrange for a final duel. Diego, not Zorro, eventually fighting the alcalde, thus revealing himself… or, maybe, he should just tell his father and Victoria… We'll see at the right time."
"We could consider ending the fifth season with such a scene right before his wedding to Victoria." The older man said.
"His wedding to me?" The taverness asked confused, glancing between the strange woman and Diego.
"Son, is what these people say true? You are Zorro?" Don Alejandro asked both baffled and enraged.
"No! No! No! I have to stop you right there." Peter interrupted them, standing up. "That's not genuine. You're his father! You had some suspicions, at least upon his return from Madrid, when Zorro appeared just days later. For God's sake, it was his father to arrange for his fencing classes with Sir Kendall! To a certain level, subconsciously, your character knows his son is Zorro. The news mustn't come as that much of a shock, and it certainly can't anger you. You are proud of him…"
"Proud? Of course, I'm proud!" The elderly caballero replied in a rather loud tone. "But how could you lie to me for so many years?" He then shouted at his son.
"And I found out that he's been right under my nose the entire time, while, like a fool, I was patiently waiting for him to take off that mask! Couldn't you just court and marry me like a normal man?" Victoria questioned.
"As soon as we get back to our time, I will see you hang, De la Vega!" De Soto threatened.
"That's definitely not in the script!" Jane said. "Stop! Whatever you're doing, while I see some potential there, you have it slightly wrong. If I may just give you some pointers, I think I can get you on the right track. Then we can start with the scripts."
The five people who had found themselves in a time which wasn't their own shut up at that, none able to actually think of anything to say in reply.
"So," the woman thus continued, "Don Diego, Zorro, is the hero of the show. He is the archetype of the romantic hero: bright, handsome, sensible, but, at the same time, brave, self-confident, very clever, resourceful, amazingly skilled with the sword and the whip, a great rider… You can all ride horses, right? It doesn't matter, we'll just hire an instructor, and there are stuntmen for the most difficult scenes…. So, where was I? Yes… Diego… He is also rather idealistic to the point of being naïve at times. I mean, he must have some flaws or he'll seem too good to be real. He is, of course, in love with Victoria Escalante, but, deep down, he fears that she doesn't truly share his feelings for she only loves half of him: the dangerous, mysterious half he can only show the world when he puts on that mask –"
"Is that really what you think?" Victoria interrupted to ask.
"Of course. Victoria does give him very mixed signs, after all. It's why he is taking advantage of every opportunity he has to test her." Jane answered instead. "Which takes us to Victoria. Obviously, she is beautiful, quite naïve, as well, and utterly misguided many times, for which reason Zorro must risk his life to save hers on several occasions. A passionate woman, she many times puts herself in danger to help others. She's not the classic damsel in distress, as you must have already realized, and her character will, of course, grow and evolve to become truly worthy of the man who is Zorro: a partner, not just a victim to be saved by him. Though in all this time she convinces herself she feels only friendship for Don Diego, not even realizing she is in love with her best friend. Which doesn't stop her from becoming jealous every time he even looks at another woman..."
Victoria just stared at the strange woman who seemed to know her better than she knew herself, for, indeed, she had felt jealous just 30 minutes earlier, when that high-heeled tart so bluntly promised Diego a good time, literally throwing herself at him. At her Diego!
"The alcalde," Jane continued, leaving Victoria to ponder her words while addressing De Soto, "is Diego's antithesis: evil, driven by ambition and a love for quick money, proud, despite not truly having a reason to be, seeing how he has always cheated his way to any position he has held, foolish, a bad swordsman compared to our protagonist, and doomed to see all his plans to capture Zorro fail miserably. Though we were considering only casting for Luis Ramone, and we already have a very promising candidate for that part. I guess it doesn't hurt to have options, though…"
Her words also left Ignacio baffled and quite outraged, unable to decide, at the moment, what to say or how to react, considering if shooting her was an option.
"Don Alejandro," the woman went on, "Diego's father, is a good man, a former soldier and a widower, who is in many ways responsible for the creation of Zorro, not only because of the way he had raised his son – having arranged for his saber lessons in Madrid and so on – but also by being, together with Victoria, the reason why Diego puts on the mask in the first place when they get themselves thrown in jail for opposing the alcalde. Of course, while he has his suspicions on occasion, he is unaware of his son's secret considering that Diego has been doing a great job pretending to be a different man than he is, only allowing Felipe to help since the boy, who fakes being deaf, is beyond suspicion.
"Felipe can hear?" The elderly caballero asked.
"He most certainly can. But it's a secret. He's Zorro's eyes and ears in the pueblo. But Don Alejandro is unaware of that, as I said. And, seeing how he is also unaware that Diego is Zorro, he, at times, believes his son to be lazy, uninvolved, and quite a disappointment. But he also perceives he is hiding something. He does love him, of course, since Diego is his only child; but he is many times hurtful to him precisely because he doesn't know his secret but does feel that there is some pretense in the younger man's reactions and words. You see the conflict there? I want to also explore Diego's pain at finding himself the target of his father's frustrations… but those are not parts we will insist on, though, seeing how the episodes are all quite short."
"Besides, considering our target audience, we will have to focus on the action parts… and on the romance, of course, so there will be little time for much else…" Peter also explained.
"Exactly." Jane agreed.
"A…" Mendoza shyly uttered, "what about me?"
"Oh, Mendoza! He is a little tricky. Jaime is also partly responsible for Zorro's creation as he is the one to actually give Don Diego the idea leading to him putting on the mask, thanks to a story he tells him in the tavern, just after his father and Victoria are arrested. In the course of the show, we will see him evolve, while remaining somewhat stuck in between his barely-disguised admiration for Zorro and his duties to capture him. Still, after a more complicated relationship at the beginning, he starts admiring Zorro, and becomes his silent ally of sorts, even going so far as to prevent his capture. But, at least at one point, he and his men will also come close to causing Diego's, or better said, Zorro's death; when he falls down a canyon, for example. Dont' fear! With Felipe's help, he makes it through, and Mendoza is non-the-wiser. After all, as I already mentioned, he is the comic relief of the show. Whenever things get hard to swallow and we fear tragedy is ahead for our hero, Mendoza will lighten to mood so that the audiences don't turn off their TVs."
"I almost caused your death, Don Diego?" Mendoza asked his friend, on the brink of crying.
"It was not your fault, Sergeant…" The caballero replied kindly.
"I could have lost you! God only knows how many times… And I gave you all that grief… Oh, Son, I'm so sorry! You deserved so much better from me…" Don Alejandro muttered.
"I do love you, Diego! I… I think I always have. I just didn't know it." Victoria also burst out. "But now that I do, we can finally be together. We can marry and..."
"And hang together!" De Soto cried out. "I will hang the whole bunch of you! And that mute accomplice of yours, Senor!" He threatened Diego.
"Careful, Ignacio!" The caballero replied with a menacing innuendo in his voice. "You have never bettered me, and I will surely not allow you to harm anyone I love."
"Yes! That is our Diego! Did you see that?" Jane enthusiastically asked her colleagues.
"Incredible! I could see both Don Diego and Zorro as he spoke just now…" Peter answered. "Let's… let's try the scripts! I think they got it…" He then ordered and the woman who had them headed for the group and gave each a copy.
After exchanging a very confused look, the five of them took the pages and started reading them in silence.
"You will read for Luis Ramone, if you don't mind, seeing how we don't have an alcalde De Soto in the script…" Jane informed Ignacio.
He stared at her, then back at his pages.
"You may start." She encouraged them.
ZZZ
About an hour later, the five were walking down a boulevard in silence.
"So…" Diego muttered at one point, "we start filming next week. I wonder what filming is…"
"But, Don Diego, didn't that woman say we'd have to go to Spain? How are we to get to Spain by next week?" Mendoza inquired.
"Maybe we'll have to take one of those iron birds!" Don Alejandro replied, pointing a finger at a plane that had just taken off and was still close enough for them to have a rather good look at it.
"I'm not getting into one of those!" Ignacio uttered.
"Of course, not! You're not coming! They said it was just the four of us..." Victoria replied with some satisfaction, her hand reaching for Diego's.
The caballero caught it and took it to his mouth to kiss as he gave her a loving look.
"You're not leaving me alone here!" De Soto replied.
"You just threatened to kill us all." Don Alejandro said. "I'm certainly not taking you with us! Who knows what you'll be up to."
"I wasn't serious! Please… Diego…"
"I… I suppose it wouldn't be right to go without him… We came here together. We should stick with each other." The caballero uttered. "But if you attempt to harm…"
"I won't! I swear! I'll behave."
"Didn't you just say you won't step foot into an iron bird?" Victoria inquired.
"I… Perhaps… Perhaps there are fast ships now. We might not need to get into one of those…"
"What is that?" Victoria stopped abruptly to ask, pointing at a puddle right in front of them.
The five of them all stared at the puddle, which was growing by the moment, then at each other.
"Yes! We're going home!" De Soto muttered as the puddle suddenly grew to swallow them all. "I will get to hang the whole bunch of you!"
ZZZ
Victoria woke up with a fright and sat on her bed, her mind revising the strange dream she had just had.
"Diego is Zorro?" She muttered incredulously. "No… That's absurd. Diego is nothing like Zorro! It was just a silly dream… with iron birds and tall, glass buildings…" With a chuckle, she lay back in her bed. "Still… He is as tall as him, and Zorro did appear after Diego returned from Madrid… Besides, he is very good-looking…" She continued to consider with a smile.
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AN: I hope I managed to put a smile on your face. If so, don't forget to put on on mine by leaving a review.
PS: No OC is meant to resemble anyone who worked on the staff of the tv show and if they do it's by mere coincidence.