Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; the elements taken from Frozen are obvious, and while this version of Zorro is taken mainly from Mask and Legend, I've incorporated elements of his history from other adaptations. Even the original idea for this fic was inspired by the artwork of shishyoukai on DeviantArt, although I have created my own narrative for it; the artwork only inspired the idea of a certain sister becoming Zorro.
Feedback: Always appreciated
AN: This is a more dialogue-heavy chapter, but it was important for Anna to learn the facts here, as well as establish some details of Zorro's history beyond Alejandro's own 'origin'. For Diego de la Vega's background, I took some inspiration from the novel Zorro by Isabel Allende, but made some significant modifications to account for Rafael and Esperanza's presence in Diego's life.
In terms of dating events, I had to take certain liberties for the timeline for Zorro to make it a better fit with real-world events, although with Frozen I felt relatively free to set it whenever I wanted so long as it accommodated the fact that photography was still considered new by the time of the second film. Legend of Zorro stated that the events took place in 1850, but since the Transcontinental Railway depicted in that film was only actually built in 1869, I chose to set Legend towards the end of the 1850s; amend the plot so that they're dealing with a shorter railroad, and the Confederacy can still be a key part of the scheme even if it maybe wasn't as formally organised as depicted in the film. Beyond that, the precise dates aren't important save that Anna was born in the mid-1860s, towards the end of the Civil War (and I'll elaborate on Anna and Iduna's early lives in America at a more appropriate time), with this chapter set in the early half of the 1870s.
The Frozen Fox
As she sat on her favourite chair in the de la Vegas' main leisure room, her mother alongside her as the de la Vegas sat on the couch opposite, Anna could barely restrain her excitement at what she was about to hear. She'd had more than a few talks with the de la Vegas over the years, both with her mother and on her own, but the knowledge that she was talking to Zorro…
She was trying not to give in to the urge to let out a joyful squeal at this revelation, but Anna was still fully aware that she was grinning like a lunatic as she looked at Alejandro. The idea that she was sitting opposite the man who had done so much for this state… there were even rumours that Zorro had worked to save the country on a few occasions…
"I… would like to stress that the only thing we regret about your discovery is that we did not tell you the truth ourselves," Alejandro began as he looked at Anna, his expression as solemn and serious as always when he was talking with Anna about something important. "Before we begin, I wish to apologise; if we kept this secret from you for so long, it was not out of a lack of trust in you, but simply a desire to be sure that you were ready to hear it."
"I'm ready!" Anna nodded urgently, even as her mother placed a discreet hand on hers as though to stop her doing anything too embarrassing. "And I don't mind about not being told before, I know that it's a big secret and I want to keep it and I'd probably have been even worse about it than I'm being now if I was younger-!"
"Yes, that is possible," Alejandro held up a hand as he smiled warmly at the little girl. "Even I was possibly a bit… embarrassing… when I first visited the Lair of the Fox."
"When was that?"
"To tell you that story properly is to tell you the true history of Zorro himself, going back to when the first Zorro originally developed his skills," Alejandro began, sitting back on the sofa alongside his wife as Joachim sat off to the side, a curious smile on his face as he looked at Anna. "Are you ready to hear it?"
Anna practically bit her lip to restrain the eager squeal she made at that offer, only able to otherwise nod her head so rapidly it was as though her skull would become detached from her neck if she'd been nodding any faster.
"It all began nearly seventy years ago, when Spanish soldier Alejandro de la Vega arrived in California," Alejandro began. "He made a name for himself when he stopped a series of raids being carried out by the natives, led by the mysterious chief known to all as Grey Wolf. After Grey Wolf's defeat, it was revealed that she was a half-Spanish, half-Indian woman whose true name was Toyprunia, and Alejandro became interested in ensuring that she would have a good future. De la Vega was able to arrange for Toyprunia to be provided with a suitable education in deference to her Spanish heritage, and from there, the two of them developed a strong attraction to each other. The de la Vegas received this ranch as a wedding present, but complications during childbirth meant that Alejandro and Toyprunia only had one child, in the form of Diego de la Vega, named on the insistence of his mother."
"And he was Zorro?" Anna asked. "The first Zorro, I mean?"
"You worked it out?" Elena smiled encouragingly at the little girl.
"Well, Don Alejandro couldn't have been the original, and there are all these stories about how Zorro disappeared for over twenty years, so…" Anna smiled tentatively at Alejandro. "Well, I guess that he got old and you took over?"
"It is… more involved than that, but we will discuss that soon," Alejandro responded, nodding at her with a brief smile.
"In any case," Elena took up the story, "when he turned ten years old, Diego was sent to Spain to receive a more detailed education. During this time he stayed with Tomas de Romeu, an old friend of Alejandro's, where he also met two people who would have a defining influence on his life. One of these was Esperanza de Romeu, the daughter of his host, and the other was Rafael Montero, the nephew of the man who had helped to 'civilise' Diego's Indian mother before she married his father."
"And… Diego and Rafael both fell in love withEsperanza?"
"Naturally," Elena nodded at the eager little girl, returning Anna's teasing smile with one of her own before her expression became more serious. "But only Diego truly understood her, because while Esperanza had the training of a traditional lady, what she truly enjoyed was the opportunity to explore her interests in new areas that went beyond what was expected of her gender. For all that he admired her, Montero only truly wanted the proper lady Esperanza had been raised to be, where Diego recognised Esperanza's passion for freedom and justice that he himself shared."
"And they fell in love?"
"Naturally, but it took time for them to reach that point," Elena smiled at Anna's eager grin. "Not wanting to jeopardise his time with his host, Diego focused on his lessons rather than Esperanza. These lessons included instructions in fencing from a master who encouraged Diego's tentative youthful views on justice into a more focused vision. Diego may have grown up among the rich, but he had also seen the other side of life through visiting his mother's people back in California and spending time in the streets of Spain, and this left him with a great resolve to prevent such people being treated unfairly. He learned many skills from the fencer, but learned further interesting skills from his time training with a circus, where he worked as a trapeze artist and knife-thrower in disguise."
"Was that when Zorro-?"
"Diego did not use the name at the time, and he would refine the disguise once he returned home, but that is when he started wearing his mask, yes," Elena nodded in approval at Anna's guess. "It began with a few small acts of heroism in Spain, releasing unjustly imprisoned men and exposing those who sought to frame them, but such efforts were always performed anonymously, with his black attire making it hard for others to even know that someone had been where no man should have been."
"What happened to make him leave Spain?"
"Eventually Montero's obsession with Esperanza inspired him to attempt a risky strategy in the name of winning her affection," Alejandro explained with a mocking smile. "He attempted to have Esperanza's father arrested as a traitor so that he could 'save' the other man in exchange for her hand in marriage. However, Esperanza's father was a wise man who recognised who Montero was and refused to put himself in debt to such a man, even when he did not know the full price that would be expected. He asked Diego to guard his daughter and take her to safety, and Diego was able to escape Spain with the aid of the gypsy circus he had previously been training with, accompanied by Esperanza."
"They… they…?" Anna began, waving a hand as she looked uncertainly between the adults.
"I believe the word you are looking for is 'eloped', Anna," Alejandro clarified, his smile now softer with an undercurrent of understanding. "And no, at first Diego and Esperanza simply spent a few months travelling with the circus, until they made it to the coast. Once they could arrange passage back to America with the captain of a ship, that captain also agreed to marry them during their voyage home."
"Yay!" Anna clapped her hands together with a broad smile.
"Yes," Iduna nodded at her daughter. "It was a happy turn of events… for a time."
"A time?" Anna repeated, her smile faltering as she looked at the three adults. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened to them personally, but when they returned to California, it was to learn that Rafael Montero had arrived first," Alejandro explained. "The tragedy of the new de la Vegas having to travel discreetly where Montero could travel openly; by the time Diego had come home, Montero had been able to pronounce Alejandro de la Vega a traitor and have him arrested, while Toyprunia had already left to return to her people just days after Diego left for Spain so long ago."
"And… that was when he went public as Zorro?" Anna asked with a cautious grin.
"Exactly," Alejandro nodded. "His first step was to free his father from Montero's fortress and expose the deceptions that had sent Alejandro de la Vega to prison in the first place, but Don Montero escaped justice as Zorro could not prove that he had done anything wrong himself beyond acting on the information in false documents. As he developed his reputation, Esperanza would occasionally act as a false Zorro to draw attention from Diego by taking rides or accomplishing simple rescues while Diego was in public, but for the most part Diego acted alone in his campaign against Rafael Montero's attempts to enforce his power on California. When he was young, Diego posed as a disinterested rich fool to stop anyone thinking that he might be Zorro while his father took a more active role in occasionally helping the people on Esperanza's encouragement. After Alejandro de la Vega died, as far as the public were concerned, Esperanza simply encouraged her husband to continue to uphold the reputation formed by his father, when in reality both men were equally committed to helping the lower classes."
"And nobody realised he was Zorro?" Iduna asked curiously.
"The timing of Diego's return and Zorro's debut raised some questions, but nobody could ever be certain," Alejandro explained. "Diego was always careful to space out his outings as Zorro accordingly and maintain a distance in each life so that those who knew him well would be specifically closest to one name or the other. He took care to minimize his direct contact with Don Rafael as much as possible when he was not wearing the mask, and he and Esperanza made sure that she rarely interacted with Zorro in public. Things continued this way for some years, until, eventually, Diego and Esperanza had a child… Elena de la Vega."
The soft smile on Elena's face confirmed everything her husband had just revealed.
"You… you're the daughter of the original Zorro?" Anna looked at Elena in surprise before she looked back at Alejandro. "But you- I thought- his father- the name-?"
"I was as surprised as you when I learnt that fact, Anna," Alejandro smiled at the little girl in understanding. "I have since speculated that my name was another reason he chose to train me; Diego attached great importance to symbolism and destiny in many forms."
"Oh," Anna said, unsure what else to say after that revelation.
"Anyway," Alejandro continued as he sat back in the chair, "I first met Diego when I was a boy myself, a few years older than you are now, on the day when Don Rafael Montero was forced to leave California in response to the revolution of General Santa Anna. Consumed by his vendetta against Zorro, Don Rafael staged an execution of three random peasants to bait him into a trap, but my brother Joachim and I were able to distract a group of guards at a crucial moment. The trap failed and Zorro escaped, with his last words being to thank my brother and I for our help, even giving my brother a silver amulet as thanks. He subsequently departed the courtyard on his familiar steed, and after that… well, as far as the public knew, Zorro vanished without explanation for twenty years."
For a moment, the de la Vegas fell silent as they looked at each other, an apprehension in their faces that told Anna that what she was about to hear wouldn't be pleasant."
"…What happened?" she asked at last.
"After Diego returned home that evening, Don Montero came to his house with a small number of soldiers," Elena explained, a pained expression on her face. "Don Montero had finally deduced the true identity of Zorro… and as he attempted to arrest my father, one of his soldiers shot my mother in the back as she tried to protect Diego from that same attack."
"Oh, my dear…" Iduna looked sympathetically at Elena.
"That is not even the worst part," Elena observed bitterly. "Driven by his hatred of my father and his obsession with my mother, Don Montero had my father sent to a distant prison, and took me to raise as his own. He acknowledged Esperanza as my mother, but for the next twenty years, Don Montero told me that he was my birth father and that my mother had died giving birth to me."
"Was he-?"
"He was not a bad father, but… I have come to realise that the tales he told of my mother were always tales of what he had believed her to be, rather than what she truly was," Elena continued. "He presented her as a proper noblewoman, denying the free spirit and passion that had led her to marry my true father instead, always unaware that I still imagined her to be as she truly was. He allowed me to train in horse-riding and sword-fighting when I expressed an interest, but I always got the impression that he took care to show subtly greater interest when I explored more… 'lady-like' activities."
"It is important to remember that even cruel men are not always cruel, Anna," Alejandro said as he looked at me. "That is one of the many reasons that Zorro does not seek to kill when he acts; I will not be judge and jury unless I am certain that I face a truly evil man, and even then I do not seek such men out unless I know they are a danger to others."
"It was one of the first lessons my father taught him," Elena put in with a proud smile.
"When was that?" Iduna asked.
"When Don Rafael Montero returned to California after twenty years," Alejandro took up the story once again. "His first action upon returning to the continent was to visit the prison where he had left Diego to confirm if his foe was dead, but that visit gave the man who had been Zorro the necessary incentive to escape prison at last. At the time, my brother and I made a living as horse-thieves and bandits stealing from cruel land-owners, but around the time of Diego's escape…"
For the first time since he had started to tell his story, Alejandro bowed his head, as though overcome by grief, before he seemed to collect himself and look back at the people facing him. "During our latest raid on a small military outpost, our associate was captured and my brother killed by Captain Harrison Love, the head of Don Rafael's military forces. Diego and I met in a bar where I was trying to barter away the amulet he had given my brother years ago in exchange for more whiskey, and when he recognised me and heard my story, he offered to train me to become capable of avenging my brother and defeating my enemy."
"And then you became Zorro?"
"It took dedication and time, and weeks of intense training… but eventually, yes," Alejandro nodded at Anna's eager smile. "After I was able to infiltrate a party at Don Rafael's mansion, I learnt that Montero's plan was to use gold he had secretly mined in California to buy the state itself from Santana and divide it up among the Dons, putting them permanently in control of the state. I was able to find proof of this deception, but then I had to free the prisoners he was using to mine the gold before Don Montero could destroy all the evidence, while Diego confronted Rafael himself."
"And it was during that confrontation that Diego- my father… told me my true history," Elena put in, sorrow on her face as Joachim reached over to hug her arm. "I was sceptical at first, but when he mentioned the flowers that were hung over my crib as a child… I had recently met an old woman in the market who had been my nurse, and the details matched too well for me to ignore what Diego was telling me, despite Don Rafael's attempts to present him as a madman. We followed Don Rafael to the mines, and my father kept Rafael occupied while Alejandro battled Captain Love, leaving me to free the prisoners from their cages. We were able to save the innocent, and Alejandro and my father claimed their revenge on their enemies… but in the process, my father sustained fatal wounds."
"Oh," Anna said, her interest in the story shifting to sorrow once again. "I… if I… you don't have to-"
"It is fine, Anna," Elena smiled reassuringly at the girl. "When we were making arrangements for my father's funeral, Alejandro discovered documents prepared for him before the battle. To get down to the essential details, these documents included Don Diego de la Vega's will, in which he proclaimed Alejandro de la Vega as his son and heir, as well as private documents for us detailing the history of Zorro that we have shared with you."
"Your father named your husband his heir?" Iduna looked at Elena in surprise.
"He knew and approved of our relationship, and it was the easiest way to allow me to reclaim my family name and title without going into detail about what had happened to him for the last twenty years," Elena explained. "As far as the rest of the world knows, if they ask, we simply claim that Don Diego de la Vega went into seclusion after the death of his wife in a tragic accident to raise his son in private."
"Nobody knew his child had been a girl?"
"I was barely a few months old when it happened, and the de la Vegas were always private people; none of the other dons had been close enough friends with my father to be told much about me, and those who knew otherwise were either dead or trusted friends," Elena answered Iduna's question. "In any case, the new paperwork would confirm that Don Diego de la Vega had simply returned to California at the same time as his old associate Don Rafael Montero, which led to Don Montero's crimes being exposed before both men died in unrelated accidents as their children grew closer."
"It is… not a perfect deception, I admit, but the important thing is that Diego is acknowledged as Joachim's grandfather and the family name continues," Alejandro put in, actually looking embarrassed for a moment as he scratched the back of his neck before he continued with a smile. "In any case, while I will admit I have contemplated hanging up the mask on some occasions since that day, I have also long since concluded that a world that can create the likes of Zorro will always require men and women like Zorro to protect them from such threats. Even a nation as great as this one cannot always officially protect its citizens from the most exceptional of threats, and so we must bend the law in order to save lives and stop the guilty however we can."
"Such as we did during the War," Joachim put in with a grin.
"The War?" Anna repeated before her eyes widened and she grinned in new understanding. "You mean the Civil War? Zorro fought in the Civil War?"
"Not in the sense you are likely thinking, but we took an active role in events where possible," Alejandro clarified with a smile. "Obviously one man could not make that great a difference in such a great struggle, but once we had established ourselves back in the original family estate of the de la Vegas, we were safe to condemn the practice of slavery as a family and do what we could as Zorro. We were able to send gold to the Union and help to defend the trains transporting it, support an underground railroad that was used to get slaves out of the city, assist any battles taking place in California itself where possible…"
"And I got some training where he could spare the time, naturally," Joachim put in with a grin.
"Training?" Anna looked at Joachim with new curiosity and a cautious grin. "As in… to be Zorro?"
"It is a worthy position that I cannot do forever," Alejandro nodded at the young girl, before he looked at her in a more serious manner. "Would you like to see our next session?"
Anna would only realise some time after that statement that it had been perfectly set up to stop her asking where she and her mother fit into the history of Zorro, but by that point she was also too focused on what was coming next to care.
I'm going to see Zorro training his successor…!