Diego frowned. He was getting thoroughly sick of this game, of two steps forward, one step back. Now he couldn't even talk to Victoria. The bandits had decided to sit almost on top of them and wait for the ten minutes.

Maybe he could act when one of them rose to check that the soldiers had truly left. They had chosen to tie him to Victoria which hampered things a little more. Sitting back to back, he couldn't even see her face.

She wriggled a little.

"You could have told me," she whispered. He smiled a little. At least Victoria wasn't consumed with fear, as Isabella would have been. Isabella was intelligent and imaginative enough to invent catastrophes in her mind. Victoria was obsessed with justice and right and wrong. Now she was overwhelmed with the injustice of him being Zorro, and not telling her.

Diego sighed. "I wanted to…"

One of the bandits kicked him, and Diego stopped talking. He glared at the bandit. He hated feeling powerless.

Zzz

Stefano had crept back through the passage again. His pistol was still ready to fire – he had no cause to use it as yet. He wanted to kill the man who had taken his brother, and had cursed him with nightmares ever since.

Zzz

Paonessa stirred and woke. His right hand man stood very attentive.

"What happened to me?"

"The caballero struck you, sir."

"Where is that pest?"

He gestured, and Paonessa rose, making his way over to the pair of hostages.

"Move them to the back wall," Paonessa said quietly.

Diego stared at him with confusion, as they were separated for a moment, only to have their hands bound again. They were positioned side by side, and Diego was filled with a vague dread. His suspicions were heightened when Paonessa loaded two pistols, and glanced his way.

"As you are aware, Zorro, or whoever you might be," the bandit leader murmured. "I am not as great as the sword as you. But then, I never professed to be. My weapon of choice has always been a pistol. Much faster, you don't spend all day playing with your victim before you actually finish them."

"You're planning on shooting us? Right here, right now?" Victoria said, bewildered. She glanced at Diego, as if expecting him to do something, but he shrugged a little.

"I'm sorry, Victoria. For everything. Whatever it's worth, I love you," Diego murmured softly.

"You're just going to stand there and let him kill us?" Victoria said angrily. "What sort of a hero are you?"

Diego thought about charging at the bank robber, but it wouldn't stop the inevitable. Paonessa readied the pistols simultaneously, and Diego thought at least the man would kill them quickly.

He waited for a few seconds, and stepped in front of Victoria, determined to keep her alive a little longer. Perhaps he could save her, with one last ditch effort.

The sound of the shot made him flinch, but no pain came. He had closed his eyes to ready himself for the blow of the shot, and he opened them hesitantly. Stefano had strode into the room, and had thrown down his spent pistol and was now holding Paonessa's loaded ones.

The bandits stared at the teenager in confusion, as Stefano forced them to move towards the entrance. Diego quickly rubbed his ropes against the rock wall, and untied Victoria.

Victoria threw herself into his arms, and he automatically embraced her. Their lips met, and nothing else mattered for a few moments.

Diego was much too involved in kissing Victoria's mood away than he was in the distant rumble that seemed to be coming from further back in the cave system. She was kissing him as if he was in costume, and it felt amazing, and his heart was racing. Adrenalin raced through his body from the afternoon they had spent racing from one near death experience to another.

The rumbling came a little nearer, the noise louder….something nudged something in Diego's mind, and the kiss was broken. Rumbling in a cave system? Diego stared into her eyes, momentarily caught in their brilliance. Rumbling in a cave system meant run, and it always had meant that.

"Victoria," he murmured, glancing around them. They were in the back of the cave foyer, where Paonessa had positioned them for his makeshift firing squad, which was the worst place they could have been. He took her hands because she seemed just as dazed by their kiss as he was.

A rock fell near his feet, and it sparked action. "We need to get out of here, Victoria. Now!" Diego ran towards the entrance, but he had left the run too late. He saw a sturdy table near a pile of supplies, and realised it was the only source of shelter in the whole room. It wasn't much help, but it was better than nothing.

She raced at his side, which surprised and pleased him. Sometimes Victoria wasted too much time debating matters, and time was of the essence. Life or death decisions needed quick thinking, and timing. Hopefully they had not cut it too fine.

Zzz

Destara's scout marched the survivors of the bandit group back to base, just out of view of the cave. Stefano and the scout had managed the five bandits easily.

"I thought there were more bandits," Alejandro said. "You said something like ten, including Paonessa."

"Paonessa doesn't need to be counted anymore. There were several dead bodies at the entrance to the cave. I think the soldiers cut down a few."

"I'm glad of that. We've managed to lose a few fine men today. Sepulveda was shot in the back as he switched places with the sergeant," the alcalde said with a touch of disgust. His men were hopeless incompetents, but they were his hopeless incompetents. Every death made him shiver, and chalked another mark on his conscience.

"Stefano, you're a credit to your brother," the alcalde said, shaking himself out of his sudden despondency, patting the teenager on the back. "What a tactical mind you have there."

"Where is Diego?" Stefano said, turning in surprise. "He was right there, right behind me."

Alejandro glanced towards the cave. Something like a roar of thunder had startled him, but it was a perfectly fine, cloudless day. A shiver went through him.

"What was that?" He murmured. The cave… "The cave has always been unstable…. All the gunfire…"

"We need to get them out of there," Destara said quickly. "If it collapses…"

"No, that can't happen," Alejandro murmured. "Diego…"

He hadn't even had a chance to talk to his son. He never stood still. They needed to talk about Zorro and the implications surrounding it. He hadn't even asked his son to forgive him about being so harsh with him. He hadn't yet had an apology for all Diego's lies.

All the possibilities for the future, all his hopes, all his dreams were caught up in his fine son. They had to save him. It couldn't be too late.