Disclaimer: This story is inspired by the NWZ tv series (and, in this particular case, also by the WDZ) and it is dedicated to all the fans out there. It is not intended to infringe on the copyrights held by Goodman/Rosen Production, New World Television, Zorro Productions, the estate of Johnston McCulley or on any others who might have a legal claim on the characters. The ideas and the OCs, however, are my own and their use without my express agreement is forbidden.

AN: This was one of the first stories I have ever written. As it sometimes happens with authors, however, at rereading it, I noticed several faults in the original storyline, so I have decided to republish an improved and reviewed version of it. And, while I still very much like the plot, I decided that, although it makes for a good end-of-series, it can also be an alternative ending to Of Men and Legends, a story I have written to integrate the rest of the stories of the post-end-of-show series and add a few more, and for which this story was supposed to be the original ending.

So, while part of this story is integrated and it does inspire the last chapters for that one, it is a quite different version of how things could have happened.

As always, my gratitude goes to La Cuidadora, who had the patience to correct this story.

Reviews are appreciated.

Enjoy!

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Diego and Felipe's wedding gift for Don Alejandro and his new wife – who also happened to be Igancio de Soto's natural mother, even if most people found that reality still hard to believe – was a cottage by the sea. The two younger De la Vegas, as well as some of their most trusted servants and vaqueros, had spent the entire month between the day the Alcalde had announced the impending marriage and the day of the wedding building and furnishing it. The end result was stunning.

Placed close to a cliff overlooking a small bay, the two-room house built in stone granted a breathtaking view of the ocean on one side, and of the De la Vega lands on the other. It only consisted of a well-equipped, beautifully-decorated and fully-supplied large kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom, but it was all Don Alejandro and Doña Maria really needed and they both felt their eyes filling with tears at entering it.

Considering the don's duties to the pueblo as its Alcalde, all the two could afford was a few days together, rather than a full honeymoon, but that little cottage became their sanctuary and they returned to it every time they managed to get some time alone.

A month, then two thus passed in a blink of an eye. Diego still occasionally rode as Zorro, but divided most of his time between the medical office, The Guardian and the ranch; Felipe was now talking fluently, despite still pretending to be a deaf-mute, and had already received a letter of acceptance to the University of Mexico City, where he was due to start his studies that fall; and Don Alejandro was enjoying being a newlywed.

The kind older woman he had married moved into the De la Vega hacienda a few days after the wedding. Diego thus gained a new mother and Felipe a grandmother who adored all the three men of the house.

De Soto and Jessie started having every Sunday lunch at the hacienda, Victoria also joining them whenever she could. Diego and Ignacio started bridging the divides which had once separated them, the influence of both Jessie and Doña Maria over the former Alcalde more noticeable by the day. To Ignacio's despair, however, it seemed that the women in his life were trying to model him on his new stepbrother, both of them unable to help themselves from constantly expressing their own admiration for his former schoolmate.

No wonder he had nightmares about his wife leaving him for the tall caballero!

ZZZ

It was a sunny day of July 1822 when Don Alejandro, Diego and Felipe, having finished their lunch at the tavern, were crossing the plaza together. It was very hot and they would have rather remained in the coolness of the hacienda, but each of them had business in town that day. Don Alejandro had to make the final preparations for the arrival of the Governor later that afternoon, Diego was tending to the medical office, and Felipe had promised to help with the latest edition of The Guardian before joining his adoptive father at the medical office, where he acted most days as his colleague/assistant.

"I don't understand, Father," Diego inquired continuing the discussion they had started just before his father decided he needed to return to resume his work. "why would the new Governor ask for most of your men to go to Monterey for training just as he is coming to Los Angeles?" The information, which he only received during lunch that day worried him because it made very little sense.

Glancing towards the cuartel, he casually noticed Sergeant Mendoza and one of his lancers wearing a white ribbon, carefully attached to his uniform on the right side of their chest. He found himself wondering in passing what had possessed army men to wear ribbons when they were clearly infringing on the military dress code. He almost asked his father, but then he remembered the Alcalde did not care so much for those regulations and, whenever there was no reason to impose them - such as an official visit, for example - he did let the men go around infringing some of them. But there was an official visit scheduled for that day. A visit of the new Mexican Governor, no less, so the infringement made less and less sense.

"Who knows, Son?" Don Alejandro replied, chasing out of Diego's mind all thought of ribbons and regulations. "These politicians are quite hard to understand. I just hope he is a reasonable man. If he is anything like the former ones... Diego, if I see another politician asking me to capture Zorro, I swear..." the old don muttered this last phrase barely able to contain his anger.

"Father! I think we should meet the Governor before jumping to any conclusion. It is just this decision to decrease the number of soldiers guarding the pueblo, right as he gets here, that bothers me."

"I don't know, Diego..." the Alcalde continued his own train of thoughts. "I am not sure he is any better than the other ones. You know I asked him for a full pardon for Zorro two months ago and he has yet to give me any sort of reply?"

"A full pardon for Zorro?" Diego asked, glancing at his son, unaware his father had written to the Governor on the subject.

"Well, I hardly think it right for the man to be considered an outlaw after all he has done for us, Son! Furthermore, Victoria deserves to be happy, and Marisol deserves a real father. By the way, you know Victoria told me that, somehow, Marisol has not yet met Zorro, despite having been here for months already?"

There was some truth in his father's words, and Diego knew it quite well. He had been more careful in his visits to the tavern to meet with Victoria since Marisol had arrived. But there was also a good reason for that.

The day Victoria's niece got to Los Angeles, and threw herself into his arms calling him her new 'papi', he had decided he was not going to share that little girl with his alter ego. Not because he had a vague feeling the girl would not be as easily deceived as everybody else – she was just a two-year-old toddler, how would she be able to know better? – although he did consider that, but because he saw no reason to let her get just as attached to the illusion he had created as Victoria did.

"And you believe that, by receiving a full pardon, Zorro will reveal his identity?" Diego asked his father.

"Of course he will, Son! You don't imagine he wants to hide behind a mask his entire life! He did make a promise to Victoria almost ten years ago! Perhaps he should finally keep it! Ten years is a very long time and she deserves to be happy with the man she loves, just as he deserves all the happiness he can get. Oh, I tell you, Diego, I am quite looking forward to finding out who Zorro truly is. I really hope you two can be friends. There is much you can learn from him, Son. You know he took a bullet for me?"

"Yes, you told me the story quite a few times, Father." Diego replied almost feeling again the pain that bullet had caused him.

Two señoritas turned their heads to look after Diego as they passed them by. The tall caballero was wearing black knee-length boots, white pants, a rather simple white shirt and a dark-blue bandana around his waist, an attire he had set upon wearing every time he worked in the doctor's office, since he felt more at ease in it than in one of his Alejandro noticed the look the señoritas gave his son, even if he seemed to completely ignore them.

"Diego, may I just say you look quite… dashing in these clothes?" The old don felt the need to point out as they stopped in the middle of the plaza, from where they'd all go their separate ways – Diego to the medical office, Felipe to the newspaper office and Don Alejandro to the Alcalde's office. "It is true, Son!" He continued, as Diego tried to deny out of a sense of modesty. "I noticed quite a few señoritas turning their heads to look at you, and I am not talking only about the two who did so just now! I even caught Victoria staring at you a few days ago!"

Diego chuckled at that remark and dismissed it out of a sense of modesty as he took his (temporary) goodbye from his father and son, but had to admit to himself that he regretted not having noticed Victoria's stare.

ZZZ

An hour later, as Don Alejandro was in the cuartel's courtyard, one last time instructing the men on how to receive the Governor due to arrive later that afternoon, a coach entered at full speed into the pueblo, accompanied by four armed soldiers.

"A doctor!" One of the military men asked a lancer as the coach stopped in front of the Alcalde's office. "Fetch a doctor now!"

Don Alejandro, Diego, Felipe, as well as many other people in the pueblo rushed into the plaza at hearing the commotion.

"I can help, Sergeant!" The tall caballero stated as he hurried towards the new arrivals, Felipe on his heels. "What happened?"

"It's the Governor. There was an assassination attempt on him, and he was shot." The man answered. "He is in the coach with his daughter."

Diego opened the door and climbed in to have a look at the injury. It was not life threatening by itself, but the young woman accompanying the wounded man had done a poor job at stopping the bleeding, so he had lost a lot of blood by the time they got there, having already passed out.

"Bring him to my office!" The caballero requested, addressing the soldiers as his father proceeded in asking for more information about what had happened from the rest of the men forming the military escort.

As soon as they were back at his office, Diego took a blood sample from the Governor and one from his daughter, then gave them to Felipe to test as he asked everyone else to step out and started working on stopping the hemorrhage. A few minutes later, as Felipe returned with the result, realizing the young woman was not a compatible donor, he took the list he had made when he had stumbled upon the idea of blood types, and studied the names in one of the columns.

"Soldier!" He asked one of the two men guarding outside, after deciding on a name on the list. "Go to the garrison and call for Sergeant Mendoza to come here!"

The Governor's man left in a hurry and rushed back minutes later with Diego's friend.

"You sent for me, Don Diego?" The Sergeant asked at entering the office.

"I did, Sergeant." Diego confirmed as he was cleaning the wound, preparing to operate. "The Governor needs blood, and yours should be compatible. I am not sure he can make it without it."

"My blood, Don Diego?"

"Yes. And don't worry. I just need some of it. You will have plenty left!" Diego reassured him. "You'll just need to take off your tunic and your shirt, then sit in that chair." He indicated to a comfortable armchair to the Sergeant's left. "Felipe will take care of the rest." He added, in a calming voice, as his adopted son took out the syringe used for transfusions.

Mendoza didn't like having a needle stuck in his arm, but he had to admit to be rather fascinated by the procedure, and honored by the idea that his blood would flow through the Governor's veins.

ZZZ

About an hour later, after he finished the surgery and bandaged the wound, Diego exited the office.

"Is my father going to recover, Doctor?" Señorita Josefa, the Governor's daughter asked as she was impatiently waiting outside the door for news.

"Fortunately, no internal organ was affected." He answered. "Infection is still possible, so the wound will need to be kept clean, but he should be fine. In fact, the Governor is just waking up, Señorita. You may go in to see him!" He continued, leaving Felipe with the Governor and his daughter and exiting to the plaza for some fresh air.

At the very moment he left the office about twenty more soldiers poured into the pueblo, one of them dragging behind a beautiful white stallion across whose saddle Diego noticed a blood-stained body.

"Sergeant!" One of the men asked, addressing Mendoza, who was feeling particularly dizzy after his blood Doñation, and was resting in a chair situated on the porch outside the Alcalde's office. "We need a proper place to put Captain Dos Santos' body until a funeral can be arranged. Can you point us towards the morgue?"

"Morgue? There is no morgue in Los Angeles, Soldier." Mendoza answered as he stood up. "But my men will show you to a room in the barracks where you can take him."

"Did you say Captain Dos Santos?" Diego asked, having overheard the man's name.

"Si. Captain Emmanuel Dos Santos, Señor." The soldier confirmed with sadness in his eyes.

Diego's face drained of color as he hastily covered the distance to the white stallion.

"Emmanuel!" He whispered at reaching to take the Captain's body off the saddle and look at his face. "What happened to him?" He asked the soldier.

Diego had not seen his friend since he had left Madrid, heading for Alta California, but they had been in correspondence, and, although the letters seemed to arrive further and further apart, he knew quite well that Emmanuel had eventually decided to join the Spanish Army.

He had always been a good fighter, his fencing skills making him quite a competition for Diego, although, after long, friendly matches, and to his friend's constant frustration, he would always end up winning. Emmanuel was not, however, a bitter loser as his admiration for the young De la Vega would only seem to grow every time he found himself defeated.

As for Diego, he always saw a kindred spirit in Emmanuel, their inquiring minds and passion for finding ways to better the world being what had drawn them together in the first place.

He, however, had no idea that his friend was in California, least of all, under the command of the newly-appointed Mexican Governor, since he had not received any recent letter from him in over a year, and even the news he had received then was several months old.

"He was shot off his horse, Señor, as we were fighting the men who attacked the Governor." The soldier answered, unable to understand the stranger's interest in his commander's fate.

Indeed, the man had a gunshot wound in his back, but, as he was holding him Diego felt that hot blood was still pouring from the opened wound, an unusual thing had his friend been truly dead, practically impossible if his death had occurred an hour or two earlier. With a deep breath and a silent 'Please, God!', Diego reached to check his pulse. It was barely perceptible, but it was there.

"He is still alive!" He exclaimed hopefully. "Come, take him to the tavern!" He asked two of the soldiers, knowing that there wasn't any more room for another patient in the rather small medical office. "There might still be time to save his life!" He added as he ran to the office to get his son and some of the equipment he needed.