With a smug look on his face, Fernando was dismounting when Tornado suddenly appeared and rushed towards him. His white horse reared at the sight of the black stallion, throwing his rider to the ground, then ran towards the pueblo's gate, Tornado in pursuit.
Diego, just like many of the others gathered in the plaza, chuckled as De la Cruz, dusting himself off, got up and headed towards him. The people there – almost 70 locals, including the lancers, as well as the twenty-five guardsmen and Fernando's fifty remaining men – formed a semi-circle around them, curious to witness the duel.
While most of the Los Angelinos were visibly worried about the tall caballero's chances to win, the rebels were all fully confident in their leader's chances, just as they were still firmly convinced about the righteousness of their cause.
Several children passed between the lancers and under the people's feet to stop right at the inner margin of that semi-circle.
"Papi will kick you' tushy!" The toddler in Victoria's arms threatened as she saw the Deputy Governor nearing the man she had chosen to be her new father.
"Marisol, proper Señoritas don't speak like that!" Her aunt chided, embarrassed, as several people in their vicinity couldn't prevent another chuckle.
"Son..." Don Alejandro muttered worriedly, though what he truly said with that word was "Good luck, I am very proud of you, my boy, and I love you very much, Diego!" He also added a silent prayer that would forever remain only between him and God.
His heir nodded assuredly as he glanced at the elderly don, then, when his adversary attacked without saluting, he made sure to get out of the way.
Turning as he took a few steps towards the middle of the plaza, he raised his sword and grinned while waiting for another attack to come.
Fernando turned on his heel at no longer finding Diego where he had been a few moments earlier. "I knew you were nothing but a coward... It's why I chose you, De la Vega..."
The caballero smiled confidently. "That will prove a very wrong choice, De la Cruz… as those made for the wrong reasons usually are." He replied, as his adversary, raising his sword again, attacked once more.
This time, the caballero parried, then pushed him back and they paused for a few moments. Another attack followed, and again Diego pushed him back, also making sure to turn a little as he did so, thus determining Fernando to fight with his back at his men, while the caballero's back was turned towards the tavern, from where, with Felipe and his other loved ones watching from the terrace, he feared no cowardly attack.
Their swords continued to dance together as neither of the duelers moved much from their spots.
"Why is Diego fighting the Deputy Governor?" Jessie came to ask her husband after exiting her office after hearing the swordfight.
"He's fighting for the Governor. If Don Fernando wins, we're all doomed. If Diego wins, he and his men are doomed." Ignacio answered. "So far, my stepbrother is holding on far better than I had expected..."
"That's because you underestimated him." Dos Santos said with a smile. Jessie looked at him and the Commander glanced at her admiringly. "Don't tell me this is your wife, De Soto! You can't be worthy of such an angel." He uttered.
"I am and he's not. And you are...?" She replied with a smile.
"Charmed." He answered. "Emmanuel Dos Santos, at your orders, beautiful angel." He then said, bowing down to kiss her hand.
"Instead of attempting to seduce my wife right in front of me, why don't you better think of a way to help Diego win the duel?" Ignacio chided.
"Help? You should consider getting glasses, De Soto. It's Don Fernando who needs help, not Diego..." Emmanuel uttered.
Jessie glanced toward the fighters and found herself agreeing with him. "I knew he tricked us. I knew it..." She muttered to her husband's puzzlement. "I just don't know how..."
"His cousin helped him," Ramon said from behind her, where he was leaning against a pillar, watching the fight.
"Rafael? And you knew about this?" She inquired, and the younger man shrugged his shoulders.
"Knew about what?" De Soto asked, but nobody bothered to answer his question. Instead, everyone turned their full attention to the duel.
"I must admit you're better than I had given you credit for, De la Vega..." Fernando uttered.
Despite the fact that he truly was a very good swordsman, De la Cruz had been forced to retreat for a while at that point, and, realizing he was not dealing with a beginner, but with an experienced adversary, who could very well defeat him, he decided to ensure his win. So, as he found himself nearing his men, he pretended to twist an ankle, and, with Diego temporarily ceasing the attacks, he stepped a few feet away, seemingly to take a short break and regain his footing.
The tall caballero saw him take his right hand behind his back and, thanks to Sergio, knew exactly what to expect, so he raised his sword.
"Look out, Don Diego!" The boy warned him from the sidelines, as he noticed the knife falling into Fernando's hand.
His warning came only moments before De la Cruz threw the dagger toward his opponent.
The caballero smiled and, to everyone's surprise, with a fast move, used his sword to redirect the knife, which landed right between Mendoza's feet.
The Sergeant stared at the dagger, then raised his eyes in disbelief towards the man he considered his best friend but had suddenly started to display all of Zorro's skill and finesse. While he was smart enough to realize exactly what that meant, it was still hard for Mendoza to deal with that particular reveal.
Fernando, on the other hand, looked both baffled and furious.
"I see Emmanuel ended up being the one who was right about your son, Don Alejandro..." The Governor uttered admiringly.
"But… How is it possible? I saw the two together… He couldn't have been in two places at once…" The older man stuttered as all sorts of memories invaded his mind.
"It's not him!" De Soto uttered from a few feet away, shaking his head at recognizing Zorro's move. "He can't be..."
"Don't be sad, Ignacio!" Emmanuel pretended he wanted to console him. "Consider this: Diego can't be more pleased to be the stepbrother of the man who has spent years trying to capture and execute him than you are to be his." He pointed out, then chuckled as he glanced towards De Soto, who looked just like any man would at realizing the entire universe had just collapsed and had chosen his head to collapse on.
"You tried to capture and kill your brother?" Doña Maria asked her son, completely appalled at overhearing the Commander.
Meanwhile, the duel went on, this time Fernando being the one pushing Diego back, or, at least, believing he was.
"Father? What's going on?" Josefa asked as she exited the tavern, having spent the last hour sleeping in Victoria's old room until the gunshots woke her up, and the time since the confrontation stopped putting on a dress and with Pilar's help. "Why is Don Diego fighting Fernando?"
Just then, finding himself next to the central fountain, the tall caballero changed his sword to his left hand before jumping on the edge of the water feature. After he met his adversary's thrusts a few more times, noticing De la Cruz was about to attempt to pierce him, he rapidly jumped back down a few feet to his right.
Fernando, thrusting at air, ended up falling, head first, into the fountain. Surprised at finding himself half-submerged, for a few moments, he didn't understand what was going on, only focusing on getting back to the surface.
"If you needed a bath, Your Excellency," Diego mocked as he rested his sword on his shoulder in a very Zorro-like manner, giving his adversary the chance to recover, "you should have jumped into the dam yourself a bit earlier."
Furious, Fernando got up while a majority of the gathered people chuckled whole-heartedly, and, exiting the fountain dripping wet, attacked again.
Diego parried several attacks until his adversary pressed his sword, the two of them now crushed against each other, both trying to force his foe back, yet neither one moving.
"I'll have your head, De la Vega!" Fernando threatened.
"Not with such abominable swordsmanship! Instead, why don't you have a bite of dust?" Diego asked as, ceasing any opposition and rapidly stepping aside, he used his foot to push the already-unbalanced De la Cruz, and the man fell into the dirt, causing the gathered people to laugh even harder.
At that point, the two of them were just a few yards away from the tavern's terrace and the people gathered there.
Spitting out the sand that had entered his mouth as he fell, Fernando stood up and again turned towards Diego.
"You know..." the caballero uttered, "the Governor mentioned a while earlier that you had learned your swordsmanship from your cousin. I remember he was one of the best swordsmen I've ever fought. It's a shame he only taught you the very basics of the sport."
"If you would have truly fought Berto, you'd be dead!" Fernando uttered, certain he had just caught him lying.
Diego chuckled. "Actually, the way I remember it, I was just about to disarm him when Ignacio's gun discharged into his heart, depriving me of that particular victory..." He said.
His adversary turned completely red at those words, realizing the true magnitude of his mistake in choosing Diego as his opponent.
Letting his anger get the best of him, he again attacked, carelessly, just like a mad bull. This time, one flick of the caballero's sword was enough to send his own flying into the fountain.
Fernando found himself standing in the middle of the plaza, disarmed, as almost a hundred people – lancers, guardsmen, peasants, vaqueros, and caballeros; men, women and children – were laughing at him.
Clenching his fists, he turned towards Diego, who was watching him with a smug face, a face he very much wished he could punch bloody at that very moment.
"A million pesos!" He shouted. "A million pesos to whoever shoots De la Vega dead!"
Nobody reacted. Diego's smile only widened.
"You were defeated in a fair fight. At least keep some dignity, Fernando!" The Governor advised him.
"A million pesos! What are you waiting for? Shoot him!" De la Cruz shouted, eyeing his men.
This time, one of his lieutenants raised his gun to shoot Diego in the back.
"Father!" Felipe shouted at noticing him, springing from the tavern terrace.
Diego was about to turn around at his warning just as a gun discharged. The caballero found himself pushed towards the ground, his son's body on top of his. Seconds after the first shot, another one rang from some ten yards behind him. The bullet whistled past Diego's ear as the two of them were falling, and continued its trajectory.
As everyone glanced around in confusion, Fernando looked down at his shirt, which was quickly becoming red. Raising his eyes towards his men, he saw Franco falling from his horse and remaining inert on the ground. Moments later, he fell to his knees, then to his side on the ground, eyes widened in surprise as his blood started forming a small pool right underneath him. Coughing a few times, he then remained frozen, his eyes empty, blood also dripping from the corner of his mouth.
Victoria covered Marisol's eyes to prevent the child from seeing that, as Diego raised himself on his forearm, glancing in confusion between the dead men, then at his son. "Are you alright?" He asked Felipe, who, despite the small, bloody scratch on his forehead, nodded as he raised himself to a seated position.
Nobody dared to speak as the caballero and his son stood up slowly, the older man also picking up his sword as he did so.
"Are you two alright, Don Diego?" Mendoza came to ask, a gun still fuming in his hand.
He had managed a perfect shot, killing Franco from over ten yards away, but the man had already managed to pull the trigger just as the Sergeant's bullet pierced his chest. The projectile deviated only inches from its original trajectory. Had Felipe not acted, it would have killed the tall caballero. Had the Sergeant not taken the shot as Felipe launched on his father, Franco's bullet would have killed the younger man. With both of them acting at almost the same time, though, the rebel leader's bullet found a target in Fernando instead, though it also scratched the young man's forehead as it passed by him.
"We are fine, Sergeant," Diego answered gratefully, before glancing at Victoria, who passed Marisol to her brother, and hurried towards him, holding him tight and resting her head on his chest as she did so.
Diego smiled down and embraced her.
"I'd say I trusted the right man..." The Governor muttered as most of the people there glanced around in confusion. "Lay down your weapons and no one will hurt you!" He then addressed the ones who had accompanied his now-dead deputy, while his daughter slowly headed towards her fiancé's body. "I know Fernando deceived you into following him. He deceived me, as well, into believing he was a good, honorable man. I want no more bloodshed. God knows I've seen enough."
None of the men moved, all of them still in shock.
"He would have made us rich..." Marco told the others. "Perhaps there's still a way..."
"A way for them to get themselves killed?" Diego asked him, letting go of Victoria to turn towards the rebels. "All he truly wanted was to enrich himself. There was nothing noble or just about his cause, and if you think he would have shared his money with you, I believe you are sorely mistaken. How much more proof do you need to finally see the truth? To finally see what sort of man he truly was?"
Glancing at each other, the rebels slowly dismounted, taking out and leaving their weapons on the ground, then remained there expectantly.
"Señorita," the Governor told Victoria, "be so kind as to give these men a few cups, so that they might drink some water, then have them fed. I doubt they ate much today…"
"There are others..." One of them muttered at hearing the official's request, realizing the older man would respect his promise. "Garrisons all over California are due to rebel in just a few days. They have orders to kill all those who are not on our side."
"Then we should make sure that doesn't happen. There's no reason for anyone to die." The official told him. "Please, help me make sure of that!"
The man nodded his agreement as he guided his horse towards the fountain, his companions following him.
Turning back towards the dead body, the Governor noticed his daughter just stayed next to it, seeming unresponsive, just watching Fernando's face. "Sergeant Donato," the official uttered, "why don't you see to it that the Deputy Governor's body is prepared for burial? Arrange for him to be laid to rest next to his cousins, if at all possible. And have that man who shot him buried right beside him."
The sergeant nodded and called for two of his men to take the body.
Turning towards his daughter, the Governor wondered for a few minutes what to say. "Josefa, I know this must be hard for you..."
"Bastard!" She shouted, kicking the dead body just before the lancers got to it. "You damned bastard! I hope you rot in hell!" She continued as her father hurried to stop her and take her away.
Diego looked with a mixture of pity and amusement at Dos Santos. "Good luck, my friend..." He then uttered, patting the confused man on the shoulder, as he and Victoria were heading inside the taproom, followed by Felipe.
"Diego, if I may have a word with you and... your son... Victoria, my dear, please excuse us..." Don Alejandro stopped them.
The tall caballero glanced at his father, then at the woman he loved.
The taverness looked at him with a smile and squeezed his hand before releasing it, allowing him to follow the elderly caballero towards his office. After his little display of swordsmanship, there was hardly a chance Don Alejandro hadn't finally put two and two together and realized, just like most people who had witnessed the duel, that his son was Zorro. Nor was there any chance he hadn't noticed, like everyone else, that Felipe had spoken, which meant he had also drawn the right conclusions about him. They certainly needed the chance to have a long conversation about those revelations, and she very well knew that.
Glancing at each other with some dread, the younger De la Vegas crossed the plaza, following Don Alejandro, while doing their best to ignore the whispers and the admiring glances they were receiving from the gathered people as they passed them by.
The End…
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Of this story…
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AN: I was tempted… so very tempted to end here… But, luckily for my readers, I am not that sadistic…
Long epilogue to follow.