Author's Notes: And here is the conclusion and the final explanation of this tale. I hope it was ultimately entertaining and all the important questions are answered (I did want to leave some things to the imagination).

Thanks as always to Ghetto Outlaw who tweaked my tweaks on this chapter and fixed the ending as always.

And thank you to everyone who has commented so positively. It has definitely helped with the feeling that I had that this was utter tripe that should never have been published.

Epilogue

Tis a peaceful, soothing region

Diego and Victoria had ridden back to the pueblo in the early hours of the morning, reluctantly separating, but knowing they needed to behave as they would have if they had not gone through such an extraordinary experience the night before. It felt frustrating to keep something like this a secret, but it was a secret they shared, one of the secrets they now shared.

"Come to dinner this evening," Diego had said. "I know my father would be glad to see you and hear your version of our meeting with the Emissary."

"I would be glad to," she had said.

And then Diego had ridden home, only to discover that Felipe was dealing with bandits who were trying to steal from the pueblo, and Zorro had to ride out. He was somehow not surprised to discover that two of the bandits were the rude strangers who had ridden up before he and Victoria had left for Santa Paula. Tired though he was from his long travels, delivering them to Mendoza at the pueblo as a gift was very satisfying.

Victoria had been on the tavern porch, but she didn't particularly try to gain his attention, and he left with a salute in her direction. It was too soon to behave too differently as yet, especially since they still had some plans to make.

~Z~Z~Z~

It was fortunate that Don Alejandro had been given a heavy dose of pain medication the night before and slept much later than usual, so he was unaware of when Diego had actually returned, and Diego could easily postpone a full discussion of his and Victoria's trip until dinner, though he did let his father know that they'd succeeded in convincing the Emissary to put a halt to the alcalde's new illegal tax initiative.

Despite Diego's protestations, Don Alejandro insisted on leaving his room for dinner. Diego at least made sure he was sitting comfortably as they ate.

"Victoria," Don Alejandro said, "it is a pleasure to have you here, and especially since I'm sure to get the full story of your meeting with the Emissary. All Diego has told me so far is that the meeting was a success."

"It was," Victoria said. "And it was all due to Diego. You should be very proud, Don Alejandro. He used words every bit as cleverly as Zorro uses his sword. By the time Diego was finished, Don Basilio was convinced that the alcalde's tax initiative would reduce revenue to the king and moreover, reflect badly on how the Emissary handled his duties."

"Good strategy, son," Don Alejandro said. "If you can't appeal to a man's better nature, then you can strike at his ambition."

"Well, I had your arguments to offer," Diego said.

"But you had the courage to make them," Don Alejandro said. "That's the de la Vega in you. Now I want the details. I want to know every argument and how the emissary tried to argue. I've always thought the man to have less intellect than a mule. I wish I could have been there."

"All right, all right. I know you do, and I'll be happy to tell you all about it." Diego gave Victoria a quick glance. "But first, I was recently reminded of an old ghost story my mother told me about a family called... Amador. Do you know the story?" Diego asked. It was not as smooth a transition as he would have liked but he knew his father and sometimes to change the subject with him required brute force. Besides, he was really hoping he could learn more about his and Victoria's strange experience.

"Amador?" his father said. "Hmm. Oh, yes, don't tell me you saw the mysterious disappearing/reappearing hacienda on your trip back from Santa Paula." He grinned. "Well, I guess you wouldn't have, or you wouldn't be here now, would you?"

"Why do you say that?" Victoria asked.

"Well, that's the end of the tale. One version at least," Don Alejandro said. "So... yes, here's the story as I remember it. It took place some time before we came to Los Angeles, so it's all second hand. There was a man. What was his name? Oh, yes, Lucio Amador. He'd once been in love with a woman who chose to marry another man. Already bitter, he became more twisted up when she died in childbirth within a year. When the same thing happened to his only sister who left her daughter Constanza in his care, his abhorrence of love and marriage grew even stronger, and he swore to keep his niece safe from what he called the 'horrors of love.'

"They came to California where Lucio built a hacienda meant to keep out all threats. But despite all his oversight, Constanza fell in love with a vaquero named Benito. Lucio forbade the union and Benito went off to join the army to make his fortune, swearing to return for Constanza.

"Now here is where the ghost story begins. It is said that Lucio had long been dabbling in the dark arts and used them to prevent Benito from ever returning, exactly how no one is sure of. He imprisoned his niece within the house and let no one else inside. While no one knows what really happened, what is known is that one night during a terrible storm the hacienda disappeared along with Lucio and his unfortunate niece. Some say she fought back against his unnatural powers and killed him, but as he died he cursed the house and any lovers so unfortunate as to find their way inside. All I can say is that there are rumors of the hacienda reappearing on certain nights of the year, and anyone so foolish as to enter it and not leave before midnight is never seen again. Some say that the spirit or spirits take on the appearance of friends or foes to try to trick them into remaining until there is no chance of escape..."

"The appearance of friends or foes?" Diego interrupted.

"Yes. Of either the living or the dead," Don Alejandro said.

Diego furrowed his browl. "So hypothetically, if someone like... Zorro were to be drawn in, he might see the ghost of an old foe like Luis Ramone," and assume it was his living twin because that was more believable, "while..." he glanced briefly at Victoria, "some one else might see someone that reminded them of a beloved family member, who was trying to be helpful."

"Exactly," Don Alejandro said. "Yet either way, the spirit would be working on the person's fears and weakness, so that they would never be able to find the way out." He grimaced as his movement clearly pained his ribs. "Of course, from what I was told was that ultimately, only a couple with courage and a strong love would ever be able to break the curse on the house and release the victims of Lucio Amador's power," Don Alejandro finished. "At least, that's the version your mother told me. She always did enjoy a ghost story."

"Yes, she did," Diego said. And this one apparently had been true enough. He still had trouble believing it.

"The other voice. It was Constanza," Victoria almost whispered.

"What other voice?" Don Alejandro asked, turning to Victoria..

Victoria looked at him startled and clearly as unwilling as Diego to speak of their strange experience. "Oh..." she hunted for words, "in the version I heard, in addition to strange appearances, there were voices that spoke to travelers, one drawing them in, the other warning them away, and I just realized that the other voice, the warning voice, had to be Constanza's."

That was as likely an explanation as anything else, Diego thought. Trapped, desperate but not wanting anyone else to suffer even if it meant the possibility she could escape. And once they were in the trap, something— no, someone— had been guiding them to the right solution, even as whatever malignant force was trying to manipulate them into the wrong one.

~Z~Z~Z~

As the evening wore on, Diego honored his promise and related every detail of the meeting with the Emissary, pausing only occasionally to allow his father to add commentary on the Emissary's competence (or lack thereof).

At length, Don Alejandro sighed deeply and said, "Well done, Diego, well done. The pueblo can rest easy…for at least a little while." He yawned. "And so can I. I think I'm going to bed."

He struggled to get out of his chair and Diego moved quickly to help him get to his feet. "Do you need help getting into bed, father?"

"No, no. I can manage on my own." Don Alejandro walked slowly toward his room but stopped and looked back. "I'm glad you both made it back safely. And again, it was well done, Diego."

"Thank you, Father."

After Don Alejandro had retired to his room, Diego crossed to the fireplace. For a long while, he stared into the fire without saying anything. Victoria eased up beside him. "Diego?"

"Yes?"

"Do you…do you think it was all real?" she asked. "That Constanza was helping us escape?"

"I think it had to be," he said slowly. "We could hardly have dreamed the same dream. And... someone certainly seemed to be on our side."

Victoria looked up at Diego. "Well, I hope if it was Constanza that she was reunited with her Benito, or at the very least, her spirit found peace."

"She would certainly deserve it." Diego moved in closer to Victoria. "I know I'll always be grateful for what she's given us, and I hope that wherever she is that she's found the happiness we have."

Victoria put her hands on Diego's shoulders. "Your father said only a couple with a strong love could break the curse."

Diego smiled warmly and leaned in close. "The strongest love," he said just above a whisper.

For a moment, they were still, simply watching the light from the fire dance in each other's eyes before their lips met in a sweet kiss.

End Notes:

The end of the beginning. And let's just assume that rather like in my ridiculously long epic Love Has No Rhyme and No Reason, they find a way to make the change in their relationship work as well as let Don Alejandro into the secret.

And now some more detailed notes that were left out before because of potential spoilers.

First, while I do like playing with dreams and writing dream stories, I always set that up clearly from the beginning, as I do hate the "it was all just a dream" trope when it comes out of nowhere. So this was never meant to be a joint hallucination on Victoria and Diego's part or even just a dream for one of them.

Next, the fact that a date was never named was deliberate from the beginning. I didn't just cut it when I missed a Halloween posting. I had actually considered it taking place on other significant supernaturally related dates during the year, but in the end decided to leave it unstated.

I also had the hardest time coming up with the names for the ghostly backstory; I have no idea why, but I ended up cycling through several variations on everybody's name and who and what was doing things and why they were doing it.

Actually, I had a hard time coming up with the ghostly backstory in its entirety. All I knew from the beginning is that I wanted Victoria and Diego to end up in a mysterious haunted hacienda, but I wasn't sure what form the haunting was going to take.

At one time, Constanza was the only spirit, and she was merely trying to push Diego into telling the truth to Victoria because she had lost her love and didn't want those two to miss their chance, a sweeter thought, but the writing on that version was dull, and nothing really seemed to happen except the two of them wandering through a spooky house with the occasional ghostly outburst for atmosphere.

Then there was a version with an evil suitor who was responsible for the curse in his attempts to possess Constanza, but that didn't work out either. And there were other variations one of which Constanza had gone mad with grief and made a bargain with the wrong entity, but it was only when I'd come up with the uncle who'd gotten a hatred for love that I finally found the path I wanted to go down, though I do regret one part of the change because in most drafts, I did have the spirit calling Diego a coward because of his keeping his identity as secret from Victoria which I had to cut because in the final version it didn't fit what was trying to be accomplished.

And that's a large part of why this story took so long to write, and why I wasn't entirely satisfied that I'd worked out all the issues. However, it had been so long since I'd posted anything, that I decided to press ahead.

Also, in case it wasn't clear: the bolded lines were from Lucio, the malevolent force trying to trap Victoria mainly but also Diego, and the underlined lines were from Constanza who was trying to first get them out and then lead them to breaking the curse once they were trapped. She couldn't do very much as Lucio was the dominant force until the end.

One question I was asked that I couldn't figure out how to work into the epilogue was why Constanza called Victoria "Little Sister". It was really meant as a term of endearment, as Constanza felt for Victoria as she was the primary intended victim of Lucio, just as Constanza had been so many years before. Just a declaration of universal sisterhood really.

And that's it. The end of my first multi-chapter story in nearly 3 years (and that one was the end of a much larger work). All comments and reviews are much appreciated and can be inspiring.