"Victoria!" The elderly caballero called when he and his party arrived in Los Angeles, as he hurried towards the tavern.

"Si, Don Alejandro!" The young woman uttered as she came to the terrace to find out what was going on.

"The Governor's daughter needs a hot bath and some dry clothes. Can you take care of that?" He asked, and Victoria was surprised to see the young woman dripping wet on her father's horse

"Of course! Have her brought inside and I'll take care of everything." The taverness said

The Governor dismounted and helped his daughter down from his horse, then accompanied her inside and towards Victoria's old room.

"Mommy, may I go play in the vineyards with my f'ends?" Marisol inquired as her aunt was leading the newcomers upstairs.

"Alright, but first find your uncle and tell him I need him!" She said, not paying much attention to the child as she was rather worried for her new guest. "And tell Pilar I will need some towels brought upstairs!"

Marisol nodded and left joyously, heading for the kitchen, as she did her best effort to remember everything she had been asked to do.

"I should fetch one of my nightdresses, as well…" Victoria realized.

"I can arrange for her own clothes to be brought to her, Señorita." The Governor uttered.

"Very well, Your Excellency." She answered as they entered the room. "I will take it from here. You may wait downstairs." Victoria then said.

He stared at his daughter worriedly for a few moments, then nodded, soon returning to the taproom, where Don Alejandro was waiting to introduce his wife and stepson to him.

While she helped Josefa out of the dress, the taverness noticed that she was more than a little traumatized. Josefa was mostly unresponsive and seemed not to care about what was happening around her. Eyes staring at the floor, it seemed as if the younger woman's entire world had been turned upside-down, and she didn't yet know how to cope with that.

Pilar soon knocked on the door with the towels and some lancers followed with Josefa's luggage – two heavy chests. Ramon came knocking just as they left and Victoria asked him to get the bathtub upstairs and heat some water for a bath.

Josefa continued to seem unresponsive as the older woman helped her out of her damp dress, then slip into a dry nightshirt and into the bed while Ramon brought the tub and started bringing the hot water.

"I don't mean to intrude, Señorita, but if you want to talk about what happened, I'm a good listener…" The taverness cautiously uttered as there was nothing left for her to do but wait for the buckets of water her brother was bringing every few minutes to fill up the tub.

"Have you… Have you ever fallen in love with someone only to find out he was just tricking you? That he was just leading you on and didn't even care about you?" Josefa asked after a while.

Victoria was almost startled to hear her voice. "No… I can't say I have…" She replied with a kind smile.

"Then you won't understand!"

"Maybe not… But I do find that talking sometimes helps work through the pain and the disappointments people cause us…"

Josefa looked inquisitively at her, then sighed. "Fernando… He was so charming and attentive… Since we first met, he treated me like a precious jewel… He… He said he'd do anything for me. That he loved me more than life itself…" tears restarted flowing from the young woman's eyes as she was talking. "He asked me to marry him… Asked my father for my hand. We even invited our relatives to attend the wedding. They are due to come from all over Mexico…

"But there will be no wedding. He never loved me. All he wanted was to get near my father, and now it turns out that he's been plotting to kill him. The man I loved tried to make me an orphan this very morning, then used me to save himself before discarding me like… like a useless piece of clothing one no longer wants… A few days ago he was professing his undying love and today he almost killed me! I keep telling myself that it must be a nightmare. That I will wake up and nothing will have happened. That he will still love me and everything will be alright. But I can't… I can't wake up!"

"Fernando? Not Don Fernando de la Cruz, the Deputy Governor…" Victoria asked dumbfounded by her guest's story.

"You know him?"

"Yes… I never liked him much… No matter how nice he tried to seem something about him was just… not right…" Victoria uttered.

"I wish I could have seen that… I wouldn't be brokenhearted right now, had I known."

"Brokenhearted? Because of a monster who almost ended your life? You should count your blessings instead!"

"Zorro said something similar…"

"Zorro?"

"He was the one who saved me. I had thought it was the end… and I welcomed it… As I was falling and there was no more air… I thought that, at least, the pain would be gone. But then I woke up, and Zorro was right there… I don't even know how he knew to get to me in time…"

"Well…" Victoria said with a dreamy smile, "he always did have a way of knowing exactly when and where he was needed…"

"Are you the woman he loves?" Josefa inquired at noticing her gaze. "Señorita Escalante? I heard stories about your love…"

"Oh… Actually… Zorro and I… Well… It's a thing of the past. I am due to marry Don Diego de la Vega in just a few days…" The taverness answered before going to check on the bath.

"That's a shame… My father intends to offer him a pardon. You could finally be together. Though, Don Diego is also a very attractive man… He has the most beautiful eyes… and he seems very kind. I don't think he'll ever break your heart like Fernando did mine."

"Is that true? Is your father really going to pardon Zorro?" Victoria asked, her tone a little more enthusiastic than a woman who had truly split with the masked hero was expected to use.

"Yes. It's why he came here. To make sure it was right for him to pardon your masked hero.

"Considering both he and I owe him our lives, he's probably writing that pardon right now," Josefa answered, managing a soft smile.

ZZZ

It was about ten minutes later when the Governor, Don Alejandro, and Ignacio all stepped out of the Alcalde's office after being informed that Mendoza had arrived with the younger De la Vegas and Comandante Dos Santos, as well as with the injured rebel who was lying still unconscious in a wagon they had taken with them.

"Sergeant, please have your men take the wounded to the medical office. I did all I could for him, but maybe Jessie should also have a look." Diego uttered as he dismounted, followed by his friend.

"Emmanuel?" The Governor asked, surprised at seeing him.

"Your Excellency," the Commander said, "I am sorry to have failed you this morning."

"Failed me? No! It is I to have failed you, Young Man!" The Governor said, heading to embrace him. "It was Fernando... All this time, my worst enemy was right by my side... plotting to take over this territory… He almost killed my daughter today!"

"I heard. Sergeant Mendoza recounted everything for Diego and me on the way here. It was fortunate Zorro was around to save her." Emmanuel said, glancing gratefully toward his best friend.

"It most certainly was. But you've been wounded. How bad is it?"

"Not as bad as it could have been," Diego said.

"I see you've been busy." Don Alejandro chided him. "Where on earth have you two disappeared to after the Señorita was taken?"

"I noticed Emmanuel almost unconscious behind the hacienda, so Felipe and I went to check on him. By the time we brought him to the house, you were already gone. I'm sorry if I have worried you, Father."

Don Alejandro looked unconvinced but still seemed to accept that explanation. "How did you get there? I thought you had never been to Los Angeles before…" He addressed the Commander after hearing his son's explanation.

"Zorro took me. He saved me from those thugs and took me to your house, then left me to go after Señorita Josefa." Emmanuel answered.

Diego and Felipe grinned complicity at him.

"Well… He's surely keeping busy that masked hero of yours…" The Governor muttered.

"Ha! Hero…" De Soto couldn't stop himself from uttering disparagingly.

"Ignacio de Soto…" Emmanuel remarked at just noticing the white-haired man who had not hurried to greet him. "It's been a long time since I last laid eyes on you…"

"Can't say I missed you much, either, Dos Santos…" Ignacio said. "And, to tell the truth, I am still half-suspecting you might at least be De la Cruz's accomplice. Diego seems inclined to believe whatever you tell him, but I'll be keeping my eye on you!"

"As diplomatic as ever, I see," Emmanuel remarked with a grin. "I'm glad you haven't changed, though. At least this way I know who I am dealing with. But you're wasting your time if you think I would have anything to do with any plot to harm either Diego or the man I serve."

"We'll see..." De Soto said suspiciously, again taking his hand to his no-longer-existent beard, and again being disappointed at not finding it there.

"Well, if you two have finished bickering, perhaps we can focus on what we need to do to defend the pueblo." Don Alejandro uttered, heading for his office.

Just like the others, Diego was about to follow him inside when, glancing around the plaza, he noticed several men wearing similar ribbons on their vests and jackets. "Son!" His father called at seeing he wasn't coming.

The tall caballero refocused on him and silently headed inside, after signaling to Felipe to head for the medical office.

"… for all we know he still has at least 40 men at his disposal." The Governor was telling Emmanuel when Diego entered.

"We have just as many. Placed in the right position around the pueblo, on the taller buildings, and near the gates, we stand a good chance of repelling any attack." Dos Santos uttered.

"Perhaps… or, perhaps, we might already be late…" Diego contradicted him.

"Why do you say that?" His father inquired.

"Because of something I've just noticed… there are many new faces in the pueblo, and I don't just mean the guardsmen who have accompanied the Governor. Just now, I counted twelve people I have never seen before, all wearing ribbons on their chests… And I don't recall any celebrations requiring such adornments today…"

The other four men in the office all exchanged a glance and headed for the small window allowing them to look towards the plaza.

"He's right!" De Soto said, as he carefully looked around. "There must be over a dozen strange men wearing those ribbons already in the pueblo. Assuming they are all Don Fernando's men..."

"They are his Trojan horse..." Dos Santos pointed out.

"We need to arrest them on the spot!" Ignacio said, for a moment forgetting he no longer held any official position.

"No!" Diego replied. "We don't know how many others are there, nor do we know where they are... We should assume that each lancer and guardsman in the pueblo might, at this very moment, be targeted by a shooter. And if they aren't targeted, they surely are followed."

"So what do you suggest we do?" His father inquired.

"Use the same tactics as they are…" Diego suggested.

ZZZ

"Has everyone done as I had asked?" Fernando queried as he and his guardsmen arrived at the meeting point after taking the long route there to make sure they had not been followed.

"Yes. Fifteen of our men are already in Los Angeles, awaiting their orders." Franco, his lieutenant, answered. "Twenty others are waiting in the vineyards, careful not to be noticed."

De la Cruz glanced around, inwardly counting thirty men still with him.

"Get ready! The plan has changed." He informed his men.

ZZZ

Victoria returned to the taproom about an hour after having headed upstairs with Josefa. A dreamy look on her face at thinking about Diego and how fortunate she was to have gained his love, especially considering there were men such as Fernando de la Cruz in the world, she found her brother, Pilar, and Doña Maria still washing dishes.

"Pilar, will you keep vigil on the Governor's daughter, por favor? She is very upset and I fear leaving her alone." She uttered. "I can take over the dishes…"

"Of course, Victoria." Her employee replied. Drying her hands on a cloth, she hurried upstairs.

"Where's Marisol?" She then asked, not noticing the child.

"I'm not sure… Probably still playing…" Ramon answered.

"But it's past her siesta time. She should be in bed, Ramon!" She chided him.

"She and her friends probably lost all sense of time. Children are like that, my dear!" Doña Maria said.

"I know… She does this almost every day. Can you go look for her?" She asked her brother.

The young man nodded and headed outside, hurrying in the direction of his niece's favorite playground.

Not hearing either her voice or that of the older children she usually played with, he started wandering around in confusion, trying to hear their voices. Instead, as he headed downhill through the vineyards, he noticed a group of men and decided to head towards them and find out if they had spotted Marisol.

"El Liberador doesn't want children murdered." He heard as he was near enough to understand what they were saying.

"This one is already a teenager." Another man said, pointing at a brown-haired boy. "He must be at least twelve!"

"He could look older than he is. It's not like you know much about children." Came a reply from one of his cohorts.

"As if you do!" The man who had spoken earlier remarked.

"I know the girl is a toddler. We can't kill her. And the other two are barely a few years older than her."

"We can just keep them here." One of them suggested.

"That's true! Sooner or later someone will notice their absence…"

"And come looking… What do you suppose will happen then? They'll find us!"

Realizing something was afoot, Ramon did his best to hide, inwardly cursing himself for not having taken a gun or, at the very least, a knife with him.

Marisol spotted him and remained there, her eyes on the vineyards behind which he was hiding, as she started to mutter something unintelligible.

"What's with her?" One of the men asked as they also looked in Ramon's direction.

At first, they didn't notice anything. Then one of them pointed out to the others that one of the vineyards seemed to be wearing boots.

Moments later, Ramon found himself targeted by several pistols as the thugs surrounded him.

"I was just looking for my niece…" He muttered, feeling a knot in his throat. "If you'd let me take the children I won't bother you any further…"

"Really?" One of the men asked with a chuckle. "So? Shoot him or take him prisoner? What should we do?" He asked the others.

"We are not here to harm innocents, remember? He obviously only came looking for the children." A member of the group, the same who had opposed harming the little ones, said. "Señor, forgive my friends. We mean you no harm. On the contrary. We are here to liberate you."

"Liberate me?"

"Los Angeles."

"Los Angeles is free… The pueblo is under the rule of a good alcalde and is prospering. Who would you liberate it from?"

"A good alcalde? That tyrant playing by the Governor's tune? The one who just executed 40 men without a trial?"

Ramon looked rather puzzled. "Don Alejandro is not a tyrant. He's been a champion of the people before being elected to the office, and has been doing a lot for Los Angeles since then… And the men you say he executed are still alive…"

"No... They are dead. And El Liberador clearly said…"

"El Liberador?" Ramon inquired.

"Our leader! He's going to save California."

"You're some of those misguided rebels? Working for the Deputy Governor? How can you side with such a man? He almost killed his poor fiancée earlier because she was of no use to him anymore. What sort of man does that?"

The men glanced at one another in disbelief.

"That's a lie…" One of them said.

"She'd been crying on my sister's shoulder for an hour. Had it not been for Zorro, the poor young woman would be dead, drown in the dam…" Ramon replied. "All your Liberador" – he said the title mockingly – "wants is to sell California to the highest bidder. He doesn't care about the people living here!"

The men exchanged a glance. "That can't be true!" One uttered.

"We can find out." Another of them said.

"Find out what? He's probably an acolyte of the Alcalde. We can't believe a word he says." A man decided.

"But what if he isn't? And what if the men are truly alive? Something always felt fishy to me about all this. Why not go to the pueblo to investigate?" Another suggested.

"No… We need to wait for Enzo to return. He only went to the tavern to get some food… He should be back shortly."

"The tavern has been closed for half an hour already…" Ramon informed them. "Please, just let me take my niece and her friends… One of you may also come and talk to the Alcalde. I will do all I can to guarantee your safety."

"You? Why would we trust you?"

"I have a better idea…" One of the men, the same who had suggested keeping the children there, uttered. "You can go to the pueblo and bring the alcalde here for a chat."

"He'd come with the soldiers!" Another pointed out.

"Not if he wants to see the children alive…"

"We can't kill them, you idiot, so that's hardly a threat!" His cohort uttered.

"You're the idiot for just telling him that!"

"Why not have one of us go to the pueblo and keep this man and the children as hostages until he comes back?" Someone suggested.

The rebels exchanged a glance and agreed, then took ten more minutes to decide which of them to send to Los Angeles.

When a decision was taken, one of them placed a ribbon on his vest and entered the pueblo to find it mostly empty.

Glancing around, the misguided rebel noticed a man sitting, sombrero over his face, next to one of the houses, and headed for him. "Señor," he said, "may I ask you some questions?"

The sleepy man brought his left hand to his sombrero and removed it from his eyes to have a good look at the man who had addressed him, then got up. Moments later, he hurriedly took out a gun and pointed it at the rebel, signing for him to head towards the Alcalde's office.

"I didn't mean to disturb you… You need no gun…" The baffled man uttered as he slowly obeyed.

"Alcalde! I found another one!" The disguised lancer said as he knocked on the door, then stepped inside with the newcomer.

"Good work, Sepulveda. Get right back to it!" Don Alejandro said as Mendoza tied up the newcomer.

"Enzo?" The rebel uttered at recognizing the man being interrogated at that very moment.

"A friend of yours, Señor?" Dos Santos inquired the prisoner as he noticed the newcomer's bafflement.

"Good grief!" The Governor muttered. "Where are we to put them all?"

"You could always have them executed." De Soto suggested.

"I won't execute men without a fair trial!" Don Alejandro and the Governor said at the same time, then exchanged a glance.

"Well, what will you do with them, then?" De Soto asked.

"We have prisoners! Let us leave or my companions will kill them!" The rebel found himself threatening.

"Prisoners? What prisoners?" Diego asked just as Victoria also entered.

"Diego," the young woman said, heading straight for the man she loved, "Marisol is missing and Ramon went after her half an hour ago and hasn't returned yet."

The caballero looked at her, then glanced at their newest prisoner. "Where are you keeping them?" He asked as he pushed him against the wall. "Have you harmed them?"

"They are unharmed... I swear!" The man answered nervously as the caballero seemed quite intimidating. "Let us go and they'll be released." He answered.