The rain was still falling. Lin Chen was glaring at the window, as if he could force it to stop.

It wasn't working.

Fei Liu giggled again – a crystalline sound, pure and childish, like a ray of light in this dark, cold and wet night.

- "Again!" the boy demanded, clapping his hands happily.

Lin Chen turned his head lazily towards them. Diego de la Vega had woken up earlier and was now performing magic tricks for the little bodyguard. He wasn't fine, to say the least, but he was smiling and trying his best to pretend he didn't feel like crap.

He was a lot better at that than Changsu.

Lin Chen tried not to let his worry drown him. His friend was probably chilled to the bone, by now. Possibly developing a fever. Maybe coughing blood. Definitely getting worse. They would never make it in time to see the rainbow mountains: more likely they would spend the next month locked in some stuffy rooms, fighting old demons and failing organs.

Lin Shu would be back.

Lin Chen hated Lin Shu. Mei Changsu was reasonable about his condition (if reasonable meant knowing overtaxing yourself would kill you and still bribing the monks to let you do whatever you wanted to), but Lin Shu was irritable, acid, restless – a wretched soul in a broken body. When Mei Changsu was really sick, when his mind got lost in his nightmares, Lin Shu took over and it was hell all over again, like in the first years.

Lin Chen had not once regretted saving the young captain, but he never wanted to go back to the time when his patient was only charred skin and shattered bones, a screaming mass of blood and hatred.

Mei Changsu was his friend. An incredible leader, a brilliant mind, a compassion above any other, a deep laughter, a kind smile.

Mei Changsu was the one Lin Chen had dedicated his life to, even if it meant making sure Lin Shu would live long enough to see his country rid of corruption and his people ruled by a good king.

The young doctor pursed his lips, fighting back the tears swelling up in his throat.

Sometimes, on dark cold nights like this one, he doubted he was the right man for the task his father had entrusted him with. What Mei Changsu wanted to do was so big, so great, so crazily courageous and selfless and Lin Chen… Lin Chen was just a selfish, foolish, irresponsible sod.

- "I don't think so", said the stranger, sitting heavily next to him after looking in his bag for something he had given Fei Liu.

Lin Chen didn't bother asking about the western candy. Fei Liu had the stomach of a mountain yack. He would be fine.

- "I beg your pardon?" he said instead, hastily fanning himself with the least grace and natural he had ever shown in his life.

The man laughed. His blue eyes twinkled.

- "It's cold", he said.

- "It smells", retorted Lin Chen, arching a brow to show he wasn't fazed at all by the stranger's capacity to read minds.

- "I don't read minds", said Diego de la Vega gently. "But I can see when someone is feeling miserable. My brother makes this kind of face quite often, unfortunately… Come on, cheer up, Señor. I'm sure you didn't fail your friend. If he's with my brother and Felipe, he's in good hands. You'll get him back in one piece. Stop beating yourself."

What kind of devil could learn your language so fast?

Lin Chen glared at the blue eyes that were smiling kindly. This colour wasn't natural, after all. Maybe the monks were right, and the westerners did come from hell…

Fei Liu climbed on the bench and squatted, circling his legs with his arms, his face smeared with red sugar, looking as happy as a bee.

- "More", he ordered.

Diego chuckled. He produced a lace handkerchief, poured some water from the wineskin on it and proceeded with cleaning the young bodyguard's sticky face. Fei Liu flinched at first, but then he complied, fidgeting only a little, as if the pained flash of incomprehension in the stranger's eyes had been enough to convince him he had nothing to fear.

Lin Chen was seriously starting to wonder if Diego de la Vega had mysterious powers.

- "I think I must remind him of your friend. What does he look like?" asked the stranger. "Señor Sous-gueux-gueux, isn't it?"

Lin Chen convulsed in laughter and Fei Liu shot him a glare.

- "Su-gege", the boy corrected solemnly.

- "Oh, I'm so sorry", apologised Diego very sincerely.

- "His name is Mei Changsu", specified the doctor, still wiping fake tears of laughter at the corner of his eyes. "And yes, you do act a lot like him. You don't look the least alike, though."

Diego fiddled absent-mindedly with his moustache.

- "I wouldn't dare think so, of course. Could you tell me more about him? He must be someone very dear to you both. You've been eating yourself with worry and Little Fei Liu here wouldn't have given his trust to an ordinary man."

Lin Chen practically burst with pride. He felt very much like a mother gloating about her favourite daughter, but this didn't stop him.

- "Oh, you won't meet another man like Changsu in ten dynasties! A brilliant mind, a strategist like no other, with an incredible capacity of overseeing many outcomes to one single event. He's at the top of Langya List for his wisdom – a true gentleman and the fierce leader of one of the most powerful sects in all Jianghu, the Alliance of the Eastern River."

- "Wow", said Diego, looking genuinely impressed.

Lin Chen beamed.

- "But that's not all! He's also-"

- "Nice", interjected Fei Liu very seriously. "Su-gege, good."

His round eyes were bright and clever like those of a loving child, but a fleeting shadow had darkened them fugitively, like a forgotten memory.

- "Su-gege save Fei Liu", he went on, crouched on the bench, making small incomprehensible gestures with his lithe hands. "Bad people. Screams. Blood, hungry. Hurt. Snow, lots of snow. Lost. Su-gege comes. No more bad. Eat well. Warm. Learn new things. Fei Liu love Su-gege. Never away. Always protect."

The monkey's smile was always so proud and so beautiful when he was telling his sad little story... Lin Chen wished he could paint it, but he couldn't, because it hurt too much to remember who truly had saved who.

- "Su-gege sick", added Fei Liu, frowning. "Digo-gege sick too. Who protects you?"

Diego smiled, but he looked like if he was about to cry. He reached out again – really, the man relied too much on his lucky star – and patted Fei Liu's small head.

- "Gilberto and Felipe take very good care of me", he said. "They love me just as much as you love Señor Mei Changsu. He's… we are blessed men to have people like you in our lives."

He looked up and his blue gaze pierced through Lin Chen's soul with incommensurable kindness.

- "There's nothing more you need to do. There's nothing to prove. We don't want to be saved – we're not asking for a miracle. You've done everything you could and it's fine. It's all right. We just need you by our sides, now. We want to share whatever time is left with you."

Lin Chen bit his lip to blood. He was very pale. He slowly shook his head.

- "I won't stay still", he muttered, carefully controlling his voice, afraid it would tremble. "I will try again and again and again, until the end. I won't let him live only to accomplish his mission. He deserves more – much more than anyone else – and I will save him. Even if it means defying him."

Diego closed his eyes wearily. His right hand brushed against his chest, absent-mindedly massaging his ailing heart, then fall back to the bench… only to meet Fei Liu's dark mop of hair. The boy had curled up by his side and was yawning.

Diego reopened his eyes and smiled.

- "Hungry or sleepy, my young friend?" he asked softly.

- "A lot hungry, a little sleepy", said Fei Liu. "When see Su-gege?"

- "Tomorrow. Or maybe even later than that", drawled Lin Chen, even though he knew it was unkind of him.

Fei Liu glared at him, but Diego soothed the boy's head with his large hand.

- "I might have another candy somewhere in my bag. And when we get there, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to have a wonderful meal at the inn. I'll pay for it. I don't know what I would have done if I had not met you two."

Fei Liu and Lin Chen snorted at the same time, startling Diego a bit.

- "Inn no good", said Felipe flatly, waving a finger in the air from his still curled up position on the bench, by Diego's hip.

- "He's not wrong about that. But we left friends in Nankin and they'll have us for the night. Believe me, they will make sure we're fed till our bellies are about to burst", explained Lin Chen. "I'll put in a word for you to stay at our place until your brother gets back to you."

- "You're most kind", said Diego gratefully.

Lin Chen lightly tapped his chin with the closed fan, debating with himself how much he needed to tell the stranger about the local den of the Alliance.

- "I won't ask questions", said Diego.

He looked drained, but his blue eyes twinkled again when the doctor pulled a face, visibly annoyed by this yet other demonstration of mind-reading powers.

Fei Liu was playing with the frills at the man's cuff, humming happily, but his sharp ears were aware of the least noise in the hallway and there was a shadow in his dark eyes that told of his silent longing.

Diego looked uncomfortable and worried, despite his calm voice and his kind smile as he told the story of a black fox driving some bad officer crazy with pranks in a faraway sunny land.

Lin Chen sighed.

Helpless. They were both helpless. And he was quite sure Mei Changsu and the mute boy called Felipe were in the same fretful state.

He could only hope this Gilberto had more sense in his head than to let himself drown into culpability.

oOoOoOo

Gilberto was whipping himself mentally for taking the wrong train – again. It could be read plain and clear on his face. Felipe and Mei Changsu shared a look and sighed together.

- "What?" snapped Gilberto.

- "Nothing", signed Felipe, rolling his eyes.

- "Do you have a place to stay in Zhengzhou?" asked Mei Changsu, shifting uncomfortably on the wooden bench.

He wanted to get up and stretch his legs, but the train was shaking too much and he knew he would feel dizzy anyway. The fire in his bones always felt fiercer on cold nights and the journey had exhausted him. He longed for a quiet room, warm soft furs and a cup of fragrant tea, but he knew he would only get disgusting medicine, worried people fretting about him and a restless night waiting for a pigeon from Nankin.

Felipe nudged him.

- "You don't look too good", he signed. "Do you carry your medicine with you?"

Mei Changsu wanted to laugh. This boy was almost as bad a mother hen as Lin Chen.

- "My medicine needs to be brewed", he explained. "I'll have it when we'll arrive. I'm sure Li Gang – he's my butler and a faithful friend – will have some ready when we get there."

He coughed and wiped his lips tiredly, not bothering to hide the little smear of pink on his sleeve. Felipe held to him the wineskin he had found nowhere to refill, and the man drank gratefully the last drops.

- "You are very welcome to stay at my place for the night", he then said. "There won't be trains until tomorrow morning, and I think it's best to wait for news from my friends before doing anything."

Gilberto nodded, but the frown did not leave his brow. He knew it was the best solution, but he couldn't bear thinking of Diego left alone in Nankin.

- "They will invite your brother", softly reminded Mei Changsu. "He'll be safe there. Lin Chen is a very skilled doctor and Fei Liu is the best bodyguard you can get."

- "Why do you need a bodyguard?" asked Felipe.

Gilberto perked up a bit: this had also been a question trotting in his mind since they had met the stranger.

Mei Changsu smiled.

- "I'm the leader of a very powerful guild of merchants. Which means I have many enemies – in the trade and outside as well. But, as you can see, I can't protect myself. Fei Liu makes sure nothing happens to me."

Gilberto was convinced there was more to this, but he couldn't well express his doubts without being rude to their host, so he kept quiet.

- "Gilberto can protect you. He's a swordsman", Felipe signed proudly. "The best swordsman in the whole of California!"

Mei Changsu's eyes flickered for a second on the caballero's hands, like if it was something he had long guessed.

- "Really?" he said politely.

Gilberto shrugged.

- "Fei Liu prefers to fight with his bare hands and feet", added Mei Changsu a minute later, as in some after-thought. "I don't know what would happen if you two were to duel."

He smiled again, but sadly, just when Gilberto was wondering if the man was taunting him and if he should feel offended.

- "Fei Liu loves a good brawl, but I'd rather him pluck flowers from neighbouring gardens. He's only a child, after all… I was younger than you, Fe Li Pe, when I went to my first war. I had been trained to fight all my short existence, but… I still remember it to this day, although it wasn't the worst battle I was into…"

He shivered.

- "Battles are no place for children."

- "They're no place for men either", said Gilberto darkly. "Killing isn't natural. It drives people crazy to smell human blood and one can never forget the feeling of ripping flesh and bones with a blade."

Mei Changsu was even paler than before, if it was possible.

- "You were a soldier", he whispered.

- "So were you", said Gilberto, his blue gaze burning into the brown eyes of the man. "I figured from the moment we met. I just couldn't find any evidence. You must have been sick for a long time, Señor."

Felipe looked at them both alternatively, surprised. He never would have thought the man had such a past.

- "Is that true?" he asked. "What happened?"

Mei Changsu closed his eyes for a minute, then reopened them with a sad smile.

- "It's too long a story to tell in a train. And I promised someone I wouldn't wake up the ghosts of the past before another year had passed… Please do excuse me. I am weary and I don't feel too well."

Felipe nodded hastily, patting the bony white hand with compassion. He glared at Gilberto to warn him not to insist, but Zorro had never been man to forgo his lead when he was on a trail.

- "I spent seven years hiding under a mask", he said slowly. "I used to pretend I was uninterested in politics and too much of a bore to get into the trouble to care for anything else than my poor little self."

Felipe urgently signed that it wasn't true, but Gilberto captured his hands and brought them down to shut him up.

- "My brilliant brother – Diego – was the brains and the heart of the hero we had created. He never once stopped fighting for freedom and justice, even though he was sometimes so ill we thought he would…"

He cleared his suddenly constricted throat, then went on, acutely aware of the muddy depth of the brown eyes that were listening to him.

- "We got what we wanted, in the end: a better place to live for the people, reasonable taxes and a fair alcalde. Zorro wasn't needed anymore. He faded into the shadows and no one – except for our father and Señorita Victoria, my brother's fiancée – ever learnt of the Fox's identity."

- "Were you disappointed?" asked Mei Changsu in a low voice that was no more than a whisper.

Gilberto shook his head. His blue eyes were blazing – Felipe didn't remember ever seeing him in such a passionate state.

- "Never", he breathed. "Zorro lives on. A legend and a hope. He's a lot bigger than I am. I'm glad I had a part in this, but I don't need any thanks. It was my duty and my honour to fight for my country, alongside my brother. It was a cause worth dying for, not a cause you'd live on the glory after."

A tear glistened on Mei Changsu's pale face. He slowly nodded.

- "I understand", he said. "I do."

And Felipe felt a shiver ran down his spine, because he only now understood that far from collapsing, like he had feared it would happened if Diego had died during Zorro's time, Gilberto would have carried on with his mission with the same cold resolution he could read on Mei Changsu's face – until the end.

- "I don't need to know what happened to you or what you're planning to do", said Gilberto, frowning. "But here's one little piece of advice which I think I'm the only one who can give you. You can be ready to die for your cause – but try living for the ones who love you, under your real name or another. The world, even if it's at peace, will be a very lonely and very sad place for them to be if you're gone by the end of your quest."

Felipe swallowed hard. Mei Changsu sighed. His brown eyes were very soft.

- "Thank you. But you know, it's a bit different for me… My friends have already grieved for me", he said simply. " I died a long time ago. I just need to remember it too."

oOoOoOo

By the time the train got to the next station, Diego de la Vega had had two more episodes. They had not been too bad – not the kind that would have needed throwing a bucket of cold water on him to stop the spell, which would have been quite difficult on a train where there was neither water or bucket – but they had exhausted him and frightened Fei Liu. The boy was stuck to his new friend, whimpering softly at the smallest sigh of the patient, holding his large hand in his small paws and looking at him from so close that it made Diego chuckled weakly whenever he opened his eyes and found himself stared at from less than two inches.

- "He's going to be fine", grunted Lin Chen for the umpteenth time. "I suppose it's your way of coping with not being able to care for your Su-gege, but-"

- "I don't mind", said Diego gently. He pushed himself on his elbows, trying to get a bit more comfortable on the bags piled behind him, and gave up when his heart started to race again.

- "Ask, if you need something", scolded Lin Chen, helping him up.

He checked him for a fever, grumbled something about western almost-see-through fabrics, pulled the blanket over the man's chest, then realized what he was doing and stepped back, sitting on this opposite bench. At Diego's feet, Fei Liu opened an eye, reached out and completed the gesture.

Lin Chen snorted. He flipped back his long black hair, fiddled with his fan, then tucked it back inside his sleeve.

- "He needs to be kept warm at all times", he explained. "We've taken into the habit of lighting a brazier in his rooms even in Summer, and we're always worrying about the weather. Even Little Fei Liu knows his master's biggest enemies are snow, rain, drafts and damp clothes."

Diego did not ask what ailed Mei Changsu, but Lin Chen went on anyways, as if talking about this to a complete stranger somehow relieved him from a too heavy burden. The candle's light flickering in his dark eyes made them look even sadder.

- "I had never heard of this illness before I met him. My father himself knew it only from the books. It's a bitch of a disease, you see, and a very ironic one. It can be describe as having a fire raging in your bones… and yet the patients are always freezing", he muttered bitterly. "Most of the time, I can't do anything, just watch him suffer or dose him so he won't be in pain – but then it's like robbing him from his own life."

Diego nodded: he understood very well. Gilberto was often giving him laudanum at the beginning, too, but he had stopped afterwards, not only because it was dangerous, but mostly because his twin had begged him not to.

He could come to terms with dying – everybody died, after all – but not with slipping out of his life without even noticing it.

- "It's so unfair", said Lin Chen through gritted teeth. "There are so many people out there who deserve to suffer torments like these, and it's him who…"

He bit his lips, lowering his head, crushing his hands together on his lap.

Diego shook his head.

- "No one deserves to suffer", he started gently. "I've…"

- "Oh, believe me, some do!" cut in sharply the young doctor, jumping to his feet, his eyes blazing furiously. "You've no idea what they did to him! There's no-"

He stopped suddenly, clenched his fists, sat back slowly.

- "It's nothing you need to know, after all", he grunted.

Fei Liu, who had sat up, on alert, curled back again, looking like an annoyed cat woken up during a nap, and went back to sleep when Diego gently stroked his head.

- "I'm sorry", said the stranger. "I have no right to lecture you."

Lin Chen rolled his eyes, because pursing his lips hurt where he had gnawed them.

- "I suppose you do, actually. What's the matter with you exactly?"

Diego de la Vega smiled to him – and oh, there really was something magic in these kind blue eyes, because Lin Chen's anger was already melting away, only leaving behind his worry and his love for his friend.

- "I got sick when I was in Spain for my studies, ten years ago: something stupid, like chicken pox. Most of our fellow students got it. Gilberto got it. But I, for some reason, could never recover. When my brother brought me back to California, my heart was already irremediably damaged, and the doctors had told him I would probably die soon. I didn't die, obviously, but I never went back to the healthy man I was before."

Lin Chen nodded thoughtfully. Diego sighed.

- "I sort of hoped you'd say there was a solution, you being the genius doctor you claim to be", he said almost humorously.

Lin Chen cringed.

- "Well, I'm no miracle maker. Bones, flesh, even awfully burnt or scarred skin… it can be mend with proper care. Or replaced. But I can't take off someone's heart and sew another one instead."

His voice choked a bit and Diego almost didn't hear the next sentence he said.

- "Changsu's heart was the only thing still alive in his body when we found him, that's why we could work at saving the rest…"

He closed his eyes, wanting to chase away the dreadful memories of their first year at the young captain's bedside, but they were burning as hot as the fires of the Northern Mountains and tears were stinging under his lashes.

- "It never stopped you from doing things you thought were right, though", he groaned. "Being sick and weak, I mean. If I take that half of the stories you told Fei Liu were true, you've been tremendously busy for a dying man in the past decade."

Diego grinned.

- "My brother did all the physical work."

Lin Chen tucked a strand of long black hair behind his ear and tisked.

- "Well, that's how he intends it to be too. He'll be the brains and those helpless fools will execute his orders to the last brush of ink."

Diego's blue eyes were staring at him intensely and he knew what the next question would be – but he could not answer it. He had already said far too much. The Californians were kind – and foreigners. Surely there was no way they could be spies for the Emperor or his sons. But one could never be too careful. Mei Changsu had worked too hard at his plan for it to fail just because Lin Chen would have been too trusting.

Fortunately, the train slowed down with perfect timing and its whistle echoed deafeningly, startling up Fei Liu who jumped into a fight position.

- "We're entering Nankin's station", said Lin Chen after a quick glance outside, frowning because the rain was still falling heavily.

He turned to Diego, his narrowed eyes sizing him up and down.

- "Will you be able to walk?"

The man nodded and sat up painfully. And then frowned and gagged and was sick on the floor, effectively spooking Fei Liu who was fairly familiar with Mei Changsu's bouts of vomiting, which always ended with throwing up blood and having his life on the balance.

- "Easy there", said Lin Chen, grabbing the boy's shoulders before he would get frantic and steadying him. "Diego-gege will be fine. It's not the same illness. He just got up to fast, that's all. It's like… D'you remember when you got clubbed on your head by that big uncle in Hangzhou? You were feeling dizzy and throwing up just the same. He's going to be alright; I promise."

Fei Liu's bright round eyes were full of fear and anger at his own powerlessness, but he nodded, his lips tightly pursed, and unstiffened a bit.

Lin Chen looked at him with pity, then he gathered the luggage and threw it casually by the window, not minding the least the crystalline sound of broken glass in one of the leather cases.

- "Come on, help me get him down to the platform, Fei Liu. He's too heavy for me – or you – to carry alone. Then you'll go fetch Wei Zheng at the big house and hopefully we'll be having a nice cup of tea before sunrise."

TBC