Notes: So here I thought this would be a nice, quick edit (since this was written years ago and I just decided to do a fast edit and post it) and it's turned into a far heavier re-write than I anticipated.

So, while my beta works on three other stories (no, not LOTR, thethirdtroll, yes, one of them is Shattered Dreams for the person who keeps begging me to update that one, Flesh and Blood, and a sequel to Trial By Fire), I'll keep posting chapters of this one. It hasn't been beta'd so any and all mistakes are mine and mine alone.

Chapter 2

It was a few hours later that Zorro awoke again, better rested and able to get to his feet for short amounts of time. A deep chill had settled in his body and he knew he was feverish. What little energy he had, he spent digging through the large chest. Finding a heavy bladed cutlass, he glanced curiously at the small palm-sized chest, he closed the lid of the man-sized chest and placed the smaller one atop it.

With a quick, hard, flick of his wrist, he brought the hard steel blade down on the lock of the small chest, splitting it in two instantly. The clang of metal reverberated throughout the cavern and Zorro winced at the sound.

Setting the cutlass in the sand, Zorro knelt beside the smaller chest and slowly opened it. There was no gems or precious stones in the small chest like he had thought. nstead, there were dozens of small gold coins. In the dull light, he could not tell if these were Spanish minted or not.

The gold glittered in the dim light of the cavern and Zorro considered the good that could be done with the gold

He set aside the chest and searched more carefully for some indication of where these coins had come from. Hidden in a secret compartment beneath the gold coins there was a dried parchment barely readable but with an easily recognizable seal at the bottom.

It was a document from the King dated before he was born and addressed to a man named Serra. Zorro could not read the text on the paper as it had been smudged over the years but he was well educated in the history of Alta California and of the man Junipero Serra who had come to California to teach religion to the Indians. The churches and presidios along the Alta California coast all bore his name in some form or another. He had done a great deal of good in converting the Indians before he died in 1784.

From what Zorro could read, the coins had been sent from the King of Spain to one of the missions over which Father Serra had been presiding but they never reached their destination.

When he could get back to his cave and examine the old letter in more light with his microscope, perhaps he could recreate the text and be able to read exactly what it said.

Zorro put the letter back into the secret compartment and began to walk along the walls of the cavern. There was no way to climb out. The only way he could have gotten in was from the water.

After a few minutes he was fatigued and the pain from his various could no longer be ignored. He sat down with his back against the wall and stared at the water. The tide must be out because the waterline was much farther away than the marks on the sand and rock indicated it had been previously.

As his eyes closed in exhaustion, he noticed that the water was darker in one place than it was in the others. His curiosity piqued, he moved toward the water, ignoring his protesting muscles. Shedding what clothing he wore, he stepped into the cool water and walked as far as he could before the water covered his head. It was very light in the cavern now and he only assumed that the sun was setting and casting it's glow into the cavern through the water.

Deciding it was better that he rest before he attempted to swim beneath the water, Diego emerged and donned the dry clothes. Lying with his head propped on his arms, he fell into a restless sleep.

Victoria had refused to leave the cave or put the journal down until she had finished reading it. Felipe and Alejandro brought her food and water but it had not been touched after hours of reading.

Alejandro slid over a chair and sat next to her, resting a heavy hand on her slim shoulder.

"Please Victoria, eat something. The journal will be here once you have finished." Alejandro had become accustomed to having his son gone for long periods of time but getting used to his only son being gone from his life permanently was something that would take longer to get used to.

He knew that Victoria had been adjusting in her own way and he was finding it so incredibly difficult to absorb the fact that his son had led a secret life. On top of his personal grief for the loss of his son, he was left to watch the woman his son obviously loved go through the same emotional turmoil.

She looked up at Alejandro, eyes wet with fresh tears. "I remember everything written in this journal so clearly." She sobbed. "Everything he said to me when we were alone, every action, every expression. I should have known. He gave me enough clues."

She held the open book to her chest and could not stop the tears. They wet the page and she quickly brushed the liquid off the page.

Alejandro nodded and fought back his own tears. He wanted to believe that his son was not dead. But he saw the cliff for himself. His son couldn't have survived the fall, not after Victoria told him Zorro had been shot before he fell. Alejandro resolved to be strong for Victoria's sake. For if his son had not been killed, eventually, he firmly believed, Victoria would have married into his family. Alejandro loved her like a daughter already and would treat her as such from now on.

They both turned when Felipe entered through the secret fireplace and reached for an old textbook on a shelf nearby. He opened the book and took the piece of parchment nestled between two pages of poems and both the book, and the parchment to Alejandro.

The older man quickly scanned the poetry before removing the letter. Victoria leaned over his shoulder and sobbed when she read the first line.

"He quoted that to me when we were caught in the rainstorm and had to spend the night in the windmill outside of the pueblo." She sobbed, running her fingers over the words as that night replayed in her mind.

'And only your cool sweet lips will quench my burning desire.'

'Your smile almost quenches my burning desire….'

She shook her head remembering the line Diego had quoted in the windmill and Zorro later on that same day. She should have known right there! He had given her the hint, whether intended or not. But because the two men were so completely different, she had dismissed the first thought that came to her mind – that her best friend and the man she loved so deeply were one in the same.

"I remember. I expected Diego to return that night with news but then it started to storm. I thought you stayed the night in Santa Paula."

"I think he wanted to kiss me that night." She said quietly. Memories of that night flashed through her mind and she forced herself to suppress a sob. She had come to look at Diego in a different light when he had stood up to the king's emissary and yet she could not put two and two together.

Even speaking with the emissary showed that he was determined to help the people of the pueblo in whatever manner he could…without, she now realized, compromising his identity.

She thought back to the many other times that he had provided hints as to his identity and she had dismissed them as completely as she had when he'd quoted the poem.

"You should have a husband."

A hesitation.

"Someone like…Diego perhaps."

Had he been testing her to see if she had any feelings toward Diego? If that was the case, she surely failed that test with her response.

She shook her head. So many clues and she had never put them together. She realized that she had cared for Diego but could have easily fallen in love with him had Zorro not entered her life.

"And I never told him that I loved him," she sobbed.

Alejandro's heart broke. He didn't know how to comfort her. He didn't know how to comfort himself.

"I'm sure he knew how you felt." Alejandro didn't know what else to say.

"Zorro knew that I loved him. Diego…."

Alejandro couldn't bear any more. "Victoria please eat something. You haven't eaten all day." He reached for the bowl of soup untouched on the desk and held it out to her.

She shook her head and lifted the journal to read where she had left off.

Alejandro sighed, set the bowl down and opened the letter that had been inserted between the pages of poetry.

It was from Diego. As he read further down the page he suppressed a gasp and Victoria tore her eyes from the text she was reading to see the tears begin anew down Alejandro's cheeks.

"It's ….a…will…."Alejandro sobbed, wiping the tears away only to be replaced by others that he had no more energy to stop.

When Zorro awoke, he was stiff and grimaced as he pushed himself to his feet. He knew he had to get out of the cavern and get his wounds properly treated. He was deathly cold despite his dry clothes.

He changed into his black pants, dropped the other clothes into the chest, and dove into the cold water before his aches and pains changed his mind for him.

After a few minutes of searching he found where the water was light and then dark again. Indicating the depth and hopefully the exit into the warm California sunlight.

"There is no sign of him, mí alcalde." Mendoza had been searching up and down the cliff side for Zorro's remains but there had been no sign of a body.

"The body must have washed out to sea," De Soto pulled at his beard, scowling, "And I wanted to have the distinct pleasure of ripping that mask from his body." De Soto glanced at the cape he held in his hand. "This will have to do."

Mendoza lowered his eyes reverently.

"Back to town," De Soto waved to the lancers still half-heartedly searching for Zorro's remains, and mounted Mariposa.

"Sí alcalde." Mendoza turned to the lancers and called, "Vamanos muchachos."

As they turned and mounted their horses, none of them noticed a small speck appear in the water far below.

Zorro struggled to stay above the water as the waves pushed him against the sharp rocks. He fought the waves as he treaded water until he was able to grasp an overhanging rock and pull himself mostly out of the water. He collapsed in complete exhaustion, needing to gather his strength before he attempted to climb the rest of the way up the cliff he had slid down the night before.

Darkness was settling behind the vast ocean and he moved behind the rock so that the strongest of the breezes would not hit him. He didn't want to sit there for the rest of the night, but he needed to gain more strength so that he could climb out of his predicament and get back home.

Home. He couldn't even begin to think about the explanation he was going to give his father for being gone so long. Not to mention returning with so many improperly treated injuries. He knew Felipe would come up with a reason for Diego's disappearance, and he would need to find out what that was before being seen. But Diego would need to come up with another believable reason for his injuries. He could not think clearly enough to come up with a suitable excuse and simply leaned heavily back against the rock and closed his eyes.

Victoria embraced Alejandro and held him tightly. This was the first time since they had learned Diego's secret that she had seen Alejandro cry, really cry for his son's death.

"He knew that this would happen someday," Alejandro broke from her tender embrace and stared at the young woman with eyes filled with tears. "This is a will dividing his possessions between Felipe and you, Victoria."

Felipe and Victoria exchanged mournful looks.

Alejandro finished reading the will and gave it to Victoria as he sat weakly into the chair she had just vacated.

She read over the parchment, drawn up and legitimized by the family lawyer, and couldn't help but hate herself for the way she had treated Diego in the past. They had always been friends, but she had never realized, until now, the depth of his feelings.

"I need to devise a reason for Diego's absence," Alejandro said flatly.

Victoria blinked and turned to stare at him. Felipe nodded slowly, remembering the times when he would have to come up with an excuse for Diego being gone. This time the absence was going to be permanent.

Felipe stood and indicated that they should all leave the cave and get some rest. They had been up at the crack of dawn to look for any signs of life and it was now well past dark. They all needed some rest.

Victoria reluctantly agreed and, holding Diego's journal close to her chest, followed Felipe out of the cave. Alejandro and Felipe watched as the young woman walked slowly toward Diego's bedroom. Neither of them tried to stop her as Alejandro followed, shut himself in his room and cried himself to sleep.

Victoria ran her hands over the soft white sheets, the warm, thick blanket, and slipped between them, covering herself to her neck. She clutched the journal tightly to her chest and buried her head in his pillow. Soon it became a basin for her tears as they spilled down her cheeks. It was a long while before she was able to fall into a fitful sleep.

Felipe buried his head in his pillow and soon, it too, was wet with the tears shed for the death of his best friend.

Sometime in the night, a black form stumbled through the cave entrance and collapsed into Tornado's hay. Diego rested there for a few minutes and then struggled up to his laboratory to boil some warm water to see if he could raise his temperature. He was freezing and could not keep his teeth from chattering as he boiled the mixture.

He dropped a few herbs into the water, and indian remedy, and sighed wearily. It would help him sleep as well.

He changed quickly out of his wet clothing and put on the clothing that was hanging on the rack. Curiously, his jacket was missing but maybe Felipe had taken it. He didn't give it another thought.

He drank the cactus tea and slumped into the chair at his desk.

Need to get to bed, he thought as he held the edge of the desk to maintain his balance as he stood. He noticed that his journal was missing and resolved to ask Felipe about it in the morning.

In his haste to feel the warm comfort of his bed, he didn't even check the spy hole before he pushed the lever to open the secret door behind the fireplace. It was the middle of the night and no one was ever up this late.

Diego held the wall as he limped toward his room. A small candle was lit in the hallway and he found that strange but let it pass as the anticipated softness of his bed called to him. He clicked the door open quietly, so as not to wake his father, and slipped into the room. He locked the door behind him, not wanting to be interrupted in the morning before he had the chance to speak with Felipe.

He didn't notice the small lump in the bed as he gingerly slid between the covers. Just as his body relaxed into the softness of the mattress, the blanket beside him moved.

His breath caught in his chest as a slim form turned over in the bed and stared wide eyed at him.

Through the dim light in the room, Diego could see the shocking disbelief cross Victoria's eyes.

"Victoria!" He tried to stand but his injuries and weakened body screamed out in protest. He grimaced in pain and slid as far away from her in the bed as he could without falling out of it. What was going on here? His exhausted mind frantically sought for an explanation.

"Diego?" Victoria was instantly awake and he stared disbelievingly at her. Her eyes were red as if she had been crying. She was not in a sleeping shift and she was holding his journal – the one from his laboratory – tightly against her chest.

She noticed his gaze sweep over her and stop at the journal she held. The cherished book replaced her on the bed as she slid out and dropped it onto the mattress. She moved to Diego's side of the bed and stared incredulously down at him.

"We thought you were dead. I saw you fall over the cliff. I thought –" She sobbed and fell into his arms.

He grimaced in pain but returned her embrace with the barest hint of hesitation. Some part of his conscious was relieved but another was worried that if Victoria knew, then his father and the whole pueblo probably knew as well. He worried that a price had been placed on his head and those he loved were in danger.

"Where are you hurt?" Victoria broke his embrace sooner than he would have liked and pulled the covers down his body. He grimaced as she accidentally hit his injured leg.

"I've fixed everything that can be done tonight," Diego said with a weak groan. He was exhausted and wanted to be left alone so he could sleep.

"Let me get Felipe and Don Alejandro." She started to stand when his hand gently encircled her wrist. "They will want to know –"

"Stay, please."

She smiled and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. He took a deep breath and took her head in his hands and gently pressed his lips to hers. She shivered momentarily before she allowed him to pull her into the bed beside him. His lips covered her cheek, eyelids, nose, before sliding back to her inviting lips.

When he released her, she slid her head down to the hollow of his shoulder and sighed heavily. This wasn't the most proper of positions but she didn't care, and, so it appeared, neither did Diego.

In minutes, they were both fast asleep and did not wake until the startled gasp from Alejandro's lips roused them from their slumber.

TBC

Thethirdtroll – I understand about not having time. My beta reader (and the author of my favorite Zorro stories!) is back in school, teaching as well as taking a class, so I'm not getting my fixes of her writing as fast as I'd like!

This story might sound familiar to you. I wrote it about five years go. It may still be posted in its original form somewhere. The re-write will go up on my site as soon as I'm done posting it here.

You can beg until you're purple but no more LOTR stories until the muse returns from its vacation.

WolfDaughter – Thanks for the comments. There are some pretty major changes (from the original) in this story coming up. Hope you like the re-write!

Beverly – Of course, you can't skip this . . . there are some very different changes coming up from the first version you read a few years ago. I'll be doing this with all of my stories as I have time. I don't like any of my old ones anymore so they will all end up getting pretty heavy re-writes. This one turned out to need far more re-writing than I thought. So, now I'm afraid to go on to another old one!