Just as Diego had planned, as soon as the army rode into town, the time-delay devices started going off, some of them exploding, some just releasing a thick, smelly gas, scaring the horses which reared, throwing down their riders, and ran away, raising the dust as they made their way through the plaza.
Then, the other explosives went off, and the marksmen started shooting at the soldiers, convincing the enemies that they were facing a much larger army than their commanders had led them to believe. Panicking, they were no longer able to keep formation, and many scattered.
As the explosions ended, Diego fired a second red flame. At that point fourteen of the soldiers, mounted on their horses, exited through the back alleys and attacked the enemy army from two sides, causing mayhem.
With most of the cavalrymen on the ground, some trampled by their own horses, and many of the others scattered, the enemy army was now reduced to a little over forty men, still more numerous than their own forces.
As some of the enemy combatants started entering the pueblo, Diego, Sergeant Donato and the rest of the soldiers who were positioned on the outskirts of the plaza, charged. Diego, assuming his Zorro personality, took out the first two men headed towards him with his whip, then, drawing his sword, his lash in his left hand, launched in the midst of the army, cutting his way through the enemy ranks, his skill and bravery encouraging the men under his command.
ZZZ
Meanwhile, in the tavern, the Governor asked to be helped to get to the window in order to see the battle, and Mendoza had to eventually comply, helping him to a chair. As they looked outside, though, it was not Don Diego the Sergeant saw, but Zorro dressed as Don Diego. The two men watched open-mouthed, in silence, until the Sergeant unwillingly uttered: "Don Diego is Zorro?"
The Governor looked at him incredulously at first, but realized soon enough the Sergeant was probably right. He had never seen Zorro for himself, but, if all accounts were indeed true, that man had to be him. It now made sense why Diego was so sure Zorro would not join the rebellion, however counter-intuitive it had seemed to him. Dos Santo was quite right to admire him so much. He realized with a grin.
ZZZ
The battle was fierce, made even more difficult by Diego's order for his men to avoid taking their enemies' lives.
At some point during the struggle, Mendoza noticed one of the soldiers preparing to shoot Diego in the back, and shouted his name through the window in an attempt to warn him. His friend did not hear him, but, seconds later, Don Alejandro who, together with the lancers positioned downstairs had heard the Sergeant's cry, rushed through the door, fearing that his son might have been injured or even killed.
As he got there, however, he saw that Felipe had joined the fight after having jumped from the roof of the building on which he had been positioned, landing on the man who was threatening to kill his adoptive father, and, thus, causing the soldier to misfire. From the window, Don Alejandro then witnessed his grandson taking a sword from the ground and starting to fight, proving excellent swordsmanship and a similar fighting style as Diego's.
Felipe defeated three men, causing injuries that prevented two of them from fighting, and knocking one of them unconscious. Turning to fight a fourth, though, his sword was sliced by a strong thrust, and he was almost pierced by the saber of his opponent. Moments later, Diego, having seen his son was in danger, shouted his name and threw his sword to the younger man. Felipe turned, caught it right in time to stop a new dangerous blow, and continued fighting, while his father fought using his whip.
Not much later, after barely saving Sergeant Donato's life, Diego heard a scream and turned to see a man whose right shoulder had been wounded by his Toledo-steel sword thrown by his son who, he realized, had saved his life for the second time that evening. Taking the sword out of the injured man, who was now on the ground screaming in pain, Diego saw that Felipe was again armed – he had collected another enemy's sword -, and continued fighting.
Another ten minutes passed, at a decreasing rhythm, as all the combatants seemed to be getting tired. By that time, most of their enemies were lying on the ground, knocked out or injured and the few who were still fighting, realizing they had lost, decided to give up their weapons and surrender. As they did that, Diego tried to look for the commanders and noticed that, having watched the fight from the outskirts of the pueblo, they were now galloping away.
Instructing his cavalrymen to chase down and capture all those who had scattered, Diego whistled for Tornado and asked Felipe to mount him and follow the leaders from a safe distance.
With the fight over, the soldiers taking the prisoners to the barracks, Diego proceeded to take off his belt and weapons, carefully placing them back into the blanket. He then knocked on the tavern's doors, calling for Jessie to help him assess the wounded and for the lancers to help transport those in need of medical assistance.
"Gracias, Dios mio!" Victoria whispered, relieved at hearing his voice, as the door to the cellar opened and she rushed outside to see him and make sure he was uninjured.
He saw her look and smiled, but did not head towards her. As much as he wanted to hold the woman he loved, Diego had no time for embraces and romantic gestures. Instead, together with Jessie, he started to select the patients who needed urgent surgery. To everyone's surprise, there were but five men whose wounds were endangering their lives, all enemy combatants. Most of the others had suffered only localized injuries, which were not life- threatening. Among their own troops, only six, including Sergeant Donato, had suffered rather minor flesh wounds.
As the triage was done, without paying much attention to anyone else, they rapidly proceeded to patch the men up, converting Victoria's tavern into an improvised hospital.
In the meantime, Ramon and Doña Maria took a scared Marisol to her room, where they remained trying to convince her to go to sleep, as Señorita Josefa ran to hug her father who, aided by Mendoza, had decided to come down and sit next to a wall, watching the doctors operate.
The tavern fell almost silent for the next hour as no one dared disturb Diego and Jessie from doing their jobs as fast as they could.
Finally, after convincing his daughter to get some sleep in one of the upstairs rooms, the Governor could not keep it in him anymore.
"That was quite an impressive fight you put on, Señor!" He stated, making Diego realize that Zorro's secret identity was, quite probably, no longer a secret from the one man who had power of life and death over him.
He had hoped they would do as he had asked and stay away from the windows, but he knew that, by fighting as Diego, the chances of exposing his secret identity were rather high.
"Quite a fight, Don Diego! Quite a fight!" The Sergeant approved, a big smile on his face, still almost unable to believe what he had seen with his own eyes.
"I cannot describe how proud I am of you, Diego!" His father added, barely containing his tears, the only remark that put a subtle smile on Diego's face.
He did not reply, but Jessie heard the remarks and raised her eyes to gaze at him, then glanced at the people around the room.
There was the Sergeant, whose face betrayed idolization for his old friend - a sentiment she knew the man only harbored for Zorro; the Governor, who looked at Diego with admiration; Victoria, who had surely been crying, but was now following the caballero's every move with big, loving eyes, visibly fighting the urge to embrace him; Don Alejandro, on whose face one could read a wide variety of emotions, ranging from pride to respect and even gratitude; finally, Doña Maria, who had barely returned from Victoria's room - where she had left Marisol sleeping in her uncle's arms - now holding Don Alejandro, lovingly watching the two of them operate, ready to help with whatever she could, yet somehow completely oblivious to what was going on with everybody else.
"You, Diego?" Jessie eventually asked as she refocused on her patient, a big smile on her face.
She did not ask a full question, but there was no need for her to do that, anyway, since the two of them had a way of somehow reading each other's minds. Diego did not reply, but, after quickly looking around the room, he found Jessie's eyes and nodded his head a few times, almost imperceptible.
Another half an hour of silence followed. Then, without a warning, the man Jessie was operating on suddenly woke up and, clearly scared, grabbed a knife she had been using during the surgery. Putting it to her throat just as he got down from the table, he demanded to be set free. Seconds later, however, he screamed in pain, his right hand pierced by a blade no one even saw Diego throw. His knife no longer at her throat, Jessie set herself free and rushed back to the table, as far away as she could from the man who was now standing before her, his back to the bar, set on removing the blade from his hand.
"As you must probably already feel, Señor," Diego stopped him while making a sign for the others not to intervene, "that blade is paralyzing your hand. Therefore, unless you want to lose it, I suggest you get back on the Doctor's operating table to let her extract it safely, especially since she is only trying to save you."
The man looked at Diego with wide eyes, noticing that the same man who had led the offensive against them was now trying to help them, operating on one of his friends. He then looked at the wound in his abdomen, suddenly becoming aware of the pain it was causing him, and noticed that it was, indeed, half-sutured. Another gaze at Diego and then at Jessie, together with the sudden feeling his right hand was somehow missing, convinced him. The man carefully climbed back on the table where Jessie quickly gave him some ether to smell, leaving the cloth on his nose as he fell into a deep sleep.
"There are no nerves here which could cause him to lose the use of his hand, Diego! It barely needs a bandage!" Jessie remarked as she examined the wound to his hand. "You must certainly know that!"
"I do." He replied. "But he doesn't."
She smiled and took a moment. "Ignacio never stood a chance against you, did he?" She then asked with a grin.
"You have no idea how close he came quite a few times!" He answered as the mood in the room begun to change, smiles appearing here and there.
ZZZ
Both doctors were operating on their second badly wounded patients as Felipe came bursting in, signaling.
"The commanders have taken refuge in the... De Soto Hacienda?" Diego made sense of his son's strange language as Doña Maria gasped and Jessie raised her eyes to look at him, a fearful grimace on her face. "Ignacio and two of his men are their prisoners? Thank you, Felipe!" He said, returning to his patient.
"Well!?" Jessie asked at seeing Diego was carrying on with the surgery. "Aren't you going to do something?"
"I will." Diego replied calmly as he concentrated on suturing the wound on his patient.
Doña Maria, was watching the scene, unable to understand why was Jessie asking for Diego's help, her eyes begging her husband to do something.
"Perhaps I should send the lancers." Don Alejandro suggested, uncertainty at his own idea clear in his voice.
"No, Father!" Diego stopped him. "They will just get the prisoners killed. Plus, we still need those commanders."
As he finished bandaging the man on his table, Diego asked for the lancers to take the patient to the barracks and, after carefully washing his hands, he leaned against the wall pensive, smiling at Victoria who, as he did that, wasted no time in running straight into his arms and resting her head on his chest.
"Perhaps," he said as his right hand was caressing Victoria's hair, "there might be a way to do more than just free Ignacio from these men. Perhaps, we could find out, with certainty, all the details of their plan. That will win the war."
Victoria looked up, seeing him for the first time as he truly was, this mixture of the don she thought she knew and the hero she loved unconditionally.
"I feel another plan coming," the Governor said with a smile. "And if it's anything like the last one, Señor, you can go ahead with whatever you intend on doing. My men are yours to command." He assured him.
"I appreciate the confidence, Your Excellency, however, your men are also injured and in need of rest. Plus, this time, it is not your men or your approval that I need, but that of Doña Maria and of Señora De Soto." Diego replied.
The two women looked at each other.
"If you are getting my husband out of this alive, I am fine with whatever you are planning!" Jessie assured him.
"Yes... But what I intend on doing involves torturing Ignacio." He stated, that funny Zorro smile on his face. "I am talking about psychological torture, Doña Maria," he then felt the need to clarify at seeing the older woman's frightened look, "not physical torture, of course."
The two women again starred at each other, then at Diego.
"Fine by me!" Jessie decided. "I do that all the time. As long as you make sure he stays in one piece!"
"I promise to make sure he remains in the same condition I find him." Diego replied, unwilling to promise more than he could deliver, but rather confident Igancio was still alive. "Are you alright with handling the rest of the patients?"
"Yes! Go!" She ordered while Diego placed a kiss on Victoria's lips under the warm smile of Doña Maria.
She had known those two were destined for each-other ever since she first saw them, Marisol attached to his neck and calling him "papi". If only Victoria was able to give up her obsession with Zorro and see Diego for a change! So good-looking, so kind, so intelligent the woman many times though when looking at her stepson. Now she was finally happy that the mere idea of losing him had made the young taverness see reason.
"I hope it goes without saying, Señor," the Governor felt the need to assure Diego, "that I understand exactly your choice, and I will act accordingly!"
Diego approved with a smile then, after lovingly caressing Victoria's face, he gave her another, rather rushed, kiss and, breaking away from her embrace, took the blanket in which he had concealed his weapons. Heading for the kitchen, he easily climbed the wall to the upper passage, changed his clothes and, dressed in black, a mask on his face, saluted everyone and left, whistling for Tornado. As soon as he was gone, Doña Maria, the only one in the room who didn't already know he was Zorro, fainted in her husband's arms.
Felipe, who realized his father's secret was out, stared at the Governor, wondering what he was going to do with that knowledge and what exactly did he mean when he said that he was going to act 'accordingly'.
Rather skilled at reading facial expressions, the official understood his look as soon as he noticed it, having realized the young man was not as deaf as everyone thought him to be, and, thus, concluding he had most probably known Diego's secret for at least a while. A long while, considering his fighting skills.
"Don't worry, young man!" The Governor decided to fatherly reassure Felipe. "I might not be able to give him the millions of pesos my enemies seem willing to pay for his services" he said with a smile, realizing that scheme had quite unexpectedly worked out in his favor, since they clearly underestimated the man's character "yet I will not only grant him a full pardon, but I will make sure he is recognized as the hero he truly is."
Felipe smiled and so did Victoria, Don Alejandro, the Sergeant, Jessie and Doña Maria, grateful to know Diego was not in danger of ending up before a firing squad or on the gallows. Not that any of them would have ever allowed for that to happen!
"I never knew until tonight!" Don Alejandro felt the need to mention. "I had asked you for a pardon for Zorro, but I never knew I was asking you for a pardon for my own son!" He continued.
"Yes, Alcalde! It is quite obvious to me that the only one who seems to have known about your son being the legendary Fox of the Night was the young man over there!" The Governor emphasized, pointing at Felipe who shyly lowered his head.
"I told you not to take off that mask, Felipe, when he was injured! You promised you wouldn't, but you couldn't help yourself, could you?" Don Alejandro admonished. "Perhaps it was for the better. At least it gave him the chance to teach you how to fight! And he certainly did a good job at that!" He added with pride.
"No." Answered a voice no one in that room had ever heard before. "I did not take the mask off that night, since I didn't need to. I always knew my father was Zorro!" Felipe added as everyone turned towards him in shock.
"It seems, my young friend, that your disguise was even better than your father's." The Governor concluded, looking around to discover that the young man suddenly confessing to not being a mute had somehow rendered everybody else speechless.