AN: I never said I'd simply repeat the TV show, have I? While some episodes will be described in more detail, some, will only be summarized in order to be put in context. 'Dead men tell no tales' is one of the latter.

As the episode is the first to have aired and I approach the series chronologically, taking the order of the episodes as representing the order in which the events took place, I also noticed there are many aspects there that were never explained. So I tried my best to do exactly that.

Enjoy the next chapter!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

After those first two encounters with Zorro, things seemed to be improving for the people of the pueblo as the Alcalde seemed rather subdued.

As for their masked defender, during the week following Zorro's public introduction, he had become the Los Angelinos' favorite subject of conversations. Diego listened, with some amusement, to the increasingly exaggerated account of his first public appearance in the pueblo, just as he noticed Victoria radiating every time she mentioned the name of his masked alter ego.

The young woman seemed captivated by El Zorro, and the caballero considered it might be a positive development since, now that he had found his calling, he knew it would be some time until he'd be able to put away the mask and settle down. The fact that Victoria seemed willing to wait for Zorro to fulfill that impulsive promise he had made her only worked to his advantage under the circumstances.

What didn't work to his advantage was any clue that his unmasked self, Diego, harbored any romantic feelings towards the senorita in question, since that might have given others a possible clue about Zorro's true identity.

He, thus, concluded that the prudent thing was to keep his distance from the taverness, doing his best to convince everyone that he saw nothing more than an old friend in her. To achieve his objective, he started treating her formally, addressing her as 'Senorita Escalante' and, soon enough, she started referring to him as 'Don Diego', instead of Diego, as she had called him most of her life.

Also during those weeks following his creation of the masked avenger, while his father was marveling at the beautiful wild mare and foal he had brought him, and tending to the ranch, Diego and Felipe also spent a lot of their time furbishing the cave and installing a small laboratory there. To do so, they used some older furniture his father had long since put in storage, then covered its absence by installing a second, smaller, laboratory in the storage room, thus justifying the furniture's disappearance and the money Diego spent procuring all he needed for his experiments.

Gunpowder, the caballero also took from the hacienda's reserves, a small amount at a time, thus making sure nobody would notice the absence of what, eventually, amounted to a few barrels.

Using old horseshoes to find good fittings for Tornado, the De la Vega heir took care of the stallion's hoofs himself, during an early morning, in the same meadow he used to train him. With the Alcalde on his best behavior, he and Felipe also got all the time they needed to finish training the horse and, less than two weeks after their first encounter, Tornado was already the perfect partner for Zorro. The fact that he also arranged for the stallion's mare and foal to spend some time with him on occasion, only led to him becoming even more faithful to the caballero.

ZZZ

During those weeks, Luis Ramone spent most of his time brooding over his injured pride and derailed plans to control the pueblo, while trying to come up with a solution to his fox infestation. The masked man had defied him and attacked his men, actions punishable by death and torture in his book, no matter what the order. All he needed was to catch him.

Seeing how he had no clue as to who Zorro was and where he had come from – or where he had gone to, for that matter – nor did he know how exactly had the masked man managed to steal back the glider from the cuartel, the Alcalde eventually decided to make good on the promise to reward whoever would be able to bring him information about his new nemesis. As such, after checking the money in his safe, he posted an announcement offering a 500 pesos reward to the man or woman who'd help him capture El Zorro, dead or alive.

Since his actions had absolutely no result, and the lancers mentioned to have heard people saying that, had they known the name of the man behind the mask, they would keep that information for themselves, even should the Alcalde offer 1000 pesos for it, Luis Ramone counted again his reserves and raised the reward to 1200 pesos.

That didn't help either, if for no other reason, even just because nobody had any idea where to find Zorro; at least, nobody besides the man himself and his (about) 11-year-old helper.

Bounty hunters soon appeared, however. They also left soon after they had shown up, more precisely after unexpectedly encountering and being easily vanquished by the man they were searching for, and who took their presence there as an opportunity to practice his swordsmanship.

As for Don Alejandro and the caballeros, seeing how a solution to their Alcalde problem presented itself, rather unexpectedly, but to everyone's advantage, they soon gave up any thought of forcing the evil man out of the pueblo, already certain their masked defender had put him in his place and he'd think twice about his actions in the future.

Indeed, besides posting the reward for Zorro's capture, for almost a month, Luis Ramone limited himself to doing his duty, even managing to arrest a thief called Leonardo Montez, accused of stealing the Blessed Stone of Guadalupe.

It had been little more than a fortunate coincidence, that much was true. The information regarding the bandit's physical description reached the pueblo half an hour before the man himself, and Luis Ramone, heading towards the tavern around that same time, bumped into him and arrested him on the spot.

Fortunately, it was evening, and, as he didn't find the stone on the thief, he decided to interrogate the man only the following day, thinking a night in jail might help loosen his tongue. To his misfortune, the following morning, warned by Zorro, the Commander of the Presidio of Santa Barbara arrived, just in time to take the man away, before Luis Ramone was able to get any information from him.

A week later, as several cattle had been stolen from three of the haciendados, and Ramone's men seemed to be doing a rather bad job at tracking them down, Zorro also decided he needed to lend a hand in capturing the rustlers. It only took him one afternoon to do so.

"Alcalde!" He called as he came into the pueblo that evening, dragging the three tied-up men and the cattle behind him. "I believe you've been looking for these thugs. You looked, I found them."

"Zorro!" Luis Ramone uttered. "Arrest him!" He ordered his lancers, gesturing towards the masked man.

The soldiers moved cautiously, only Riqueta charging full on, causing Tornado to rear in defense of his master. The corporal found himself thrown up several meters, and fell on his bottom.

Zorro rapidly dismounted and, taking out his sword, used it to disarm several of the lancers, while his horse pushed the others towards the cuartel. Just as the fight seemed over, the Corporal got up and, recovering his sword, he proceeded to attack the masked man again, in a manner which made him look like an amateur. He was relieved of his weapon in a matter of seconds, and punched unconscious.

Mounting his horse, the masked man proceeded to greet Victoria, who had joined her other patrons on the terrace and had been anxiously watching his latest feat of valor, then rode off, glad about the opportunity to give Riqueta the promised lesson in manners.

Two days after that incident, as Luis Ramone decided to confiscate the cattle Zorro had brought back with the rustlers, thinking he might use them in order to trap the masked man, the Alcalde woke up in the morning to find a large Z carved into his blanket, and a note on the pillow next to him.

The ranchers got back their cattle that very day, and Riqueta, who had been on duty the previous night and was sleeping soundly that morning outside Ramone's room, was transferred to a garrison in Baja California for having failed so miserably in his task.

ZZZ

While Diego de la Vega spent most of his time reading, painting, working on some experiments or even watching the stars with his new telescope, even if he made sure to go to the pueblo at least every couple of days, the masked avenger was capturing bandits and small thieves; giving the occasional lesson in manners to cads passing themselves as vaqueros prone to devastating the plaza just to 'blow out some steam'; and always helping those in need - from the San Pedro coach driver, who had found himself and his coach, passengers included, stuck in a deep puddle one day, to Victoria Escalante, whose horse had been frightened by a mountain lion while she was gathering flowers, leaving her in the middle of nowhere, just before a storm. On that occasion, the masked outlaw had found and brought back her mare, then made sure she got back to the pueblo before the storm hit. Unfortunately, as he, himself, was caught in the rain, the man behind the mask, spent the following few days in bed with a fever.

Soon, everyone in Los Angeles was getting used to Zorro being around. And, just like the Alcalde, they were also beginning to suspect the masked man was not inclined to injuring or taking lives.

ZZZ

It was after receiving a letter from an old friend of his, announcing him he was in San Diego, when the Alcalde got an unexpectedly brilliant idea about how to capture the masked fiend. After all, seeing how rumor had it that the masked man had a weakness for a certain senorita, he didn't even doubt he'd not hesitate to come to her rescue.

Luis Ramone, thus, wrote to his friend, telling him about his plan and inviting him to come to Los Angeles.

The man found the idea fascinating, and the money Luis Ramone offered him – 200 pesos - were not to be disregarded, either.

He played his role to perfection. Arriving in the middle of the night, so that he'd make sure the only person still awake at the tavern was Victoria, he asked her for a room, requested an early breakfast, then prepared the stage, making sure he'd stay awake so that he'd be ready for his performance at dawn.

When Victoria brought him breakfast the following morning, she screamed at seeing the man with a red bloodstain on his shirt, then, as he had intended, she picked up the bloodied knife he had left just next to the bed.

Mendoza, whom the Alcalde had asked to wake him up at dawn that day, and was just eating an apple he had taken from a merchant while washing his face in the public fountain, hurried at hearing her scream.

"I found him like this!" She told him as soon as her shock had passed, seeing how the lancer, having found her with the knife in her hand and a dead man lying in her guest bed, had already reached the wrong conclusion. "I did! You must believe me, Mendoza!"

"What's going on here?" Luis Ramone wondered as he also entered the tavern, just minutes after the Sergeant. Climbing the stairs and seeing the scene for himself, doing his best not to smile, he signaled for Mendoza, and the man complied.

"I'm sorry, Senorita," he said, "but you are under arrest."

The taverness found herself in the same prison cell in which she was put when the Alcalde had first arrested her, three months earlier, the first time she had ever seen Zorro.

ZZZ

The Alcalde's plan, as he should have foreseen, ended up in disaster.

One of his lancers – the garrison's cook, to be more precise – had been wounded, by him, when he was trying to shoot Zorro; the masked man had escaped, again; his desk displayed a new Z, which, his men, no matter how much they tried, couldn't fully conceal; he had been exposed as a man willing to sentence an innocent, and his friend had been utterly humiliated. Worse still, after having forced her to spend two nights in jail and almost executing her, Victoria publicly forbade him from putting foot in her tavern for a whole week, thus forcing the Alcalde to eat the foul food the new garrison cook made for him and the lancers.

Thinking about all that had happened, Luis Ramone remembered the telescope the masked man used to burn Mendoza's uniform, and an idea occurred to him. There were few who could afford such an instrument, in and around Los Angeles, thus one of them must have given his to Zorro. That of course, unless Zorro himself was one of them. Whether he was or not, he thought it safe to assume that, at least, one of the caballeros was in league with the outlaw – which could only work to his advantage once he'd accuse the whole family of treason and confiscate their possessions. All the Alcalde had to do was find the man whose telescope was either missing or broken, since he couldn't imagine it had survived intact after being thrown off a roof.

"De la Vega!" He thought and almost slapped himself for not having made the connection sooner. Zorro had appeared just after the De la Vega heir had returned from Madrid, he had a telescope – Don Alejandro had even mentioned him having ordered one from Monterey – and the masked man had first shown up to save his father and his childhood friend, Victoria Escalante. Even if the thought that the studious Diego de la Vega was Zorro seemed absurd, that didn't mean that he couldn't have hired a swordsman – perhaps a servant who had secretly accompanied him back from Spain – to put on the mask.

Instructing his Sergeant to gather nine men, the Alcalde, thus, headed towards the De la Vega Hacienda.

ZZZ

"Diego!" Don Alejandro called his son, passing by the library and heading for his room.

The caballero, who heard him from the cave, immediately headed for the spy hole. Checking to see that nobody was in the library, he made his way through the sliding panel, just in time to get a book from a shelf and meet his father as the older man was returning from the other side of the house.

"Here you are, Son!" He said, looking around rather confused. "What were you doing?"

"Just catching up with some reading," Diego answered.

"You and your books, Diego!" Don Alejandro chided. "I really wish you'd start using your time more productively. In fact, I was wondering if you might be up for some exercise."

"Exercise? What kind of exercise do you have in mind?" The younger caballero wondered.

"Well, as you know, I've just returned from visiting with our lawyer, Don Luis Cristobal, in Santa Barbara. His son is among the most wonderful swordsmen I've ever seen! Which reminded me I haven't seen you use a sword yet. So, I thought, it's high time you showed me just how much you have learned from Sir Edmund." His father replied.

"Father…"

"No, Diego! You will not postpone this any further. I understand you may not be a master swordsman, and I don't expect you to be. But, unless you practice, you will forget even what you do know. Trust me, I speak from experience! Believe it or not, in my youth, I was one of the best swordsmen in the Spanish Army." The don said with a proud smile. "Now, get your sword and meet me in the courtyard!" He ordered as he took the ceremonial sword he was keeping in the library.

"You want to practice with real swords?" Diego asked, seemingly taken aback.

"Of course. I told you. I want to see how well you can use one." The don replied.

Thinking his father's idea might very well prove an opportunity for him to make sure the older man would never even suspect his son was leading a double life, Diego did as asked, and met his father in the hacienda's back courtyard a few minutes later, just as the Alcalde and his men were stopping before the house.

Intrigued by the sounds of swordplay he started hearing, just as he was about to knock on the door, Luis Ramone signed for his men to stay there and, only taking Mendoza with him, rounded the house to have a better look at the combatants, inwardly preparing to arrest Zorro.

"For Goodness sake, Diego! You are still at beginner level! Did you learn nothing while in Spain?" Don Alejandro's voice resounded as the fighting stopped.

"I'm sorry, Father!" Diego uttered, hands on his waist, looking disappointedly towards his blade, which rested on the ground, where he had intentionally thrown it while pretending his father had disarmed him. "I tried. Really… It's just that…"

"This requires dedication, Son! Out of all the caballeros in California, you must be the worst swordsman. How can that be, it's beyond me. Come, pick up that sword! We'll start again!" The elderly don asked, and Diego headed for the weapon, noticing, at picking it up, the Alcalde, arms folded across the chest, chuckling as he was watching him.

"If you want lessons, Don Diego," he said with a sneer, "I might be convinced to allow Mendoza to give you some."

"Is that why you're here, Alcalde? To offer the Sergeants' services?" The caballero wondered as his father neared him.

"No…" The Alcalde chuckled. "I am, in fact, here to ask you to show me your telescope. I understand you have... just bought a new one? "

"My telescope? I didn't know you had an interest in Astronomy." Diego replied, pretending he had no idea what the man's true purpose was, inwardly glad he had already cleaned the Z Felipe had painted on the objective lens.

"Of course, not. I have better things to do than waste my time with such nonsense! But I will have a look at it, anyway, if you… still have it…" Luis Ramone replied, in a tone which very much resembled the one he used to threaten people.

Diego pretended neither to hear the offense, nor recognize the tone. "I'm not sure I understand, then. But if you want to have a look at it, it's in the library." He said, inviting the Alcalde and Mendoza inside, and guiding them to the mentioned room.

The Alcalde took the telescope rather rudely and started checking it for signs of damages, to his disappointment, not finding even a scratch.

What he didn't realize at the time, though, was that Diego cared for his scientific instruments enough not to be careless with them. While Zorro did appear to simply discard the telescope he had used to attract everyone's attention, the man behind the mask had made sure it would fall into a pile of hay, thus avoiding any damage to it. Felipe then took care of recovering and returning it to the hacienda.

"Please be careful!" Diego uttered, his hands instinctively reaching to grab the telescope, as he noticed the Alcalde carelessly spinning it around to have a better look at the glass. "It's not a toy, Alcalde. One wrong move and it might break."

Ramone allowed him to take it back, frowning at the man's obvious attachment to his 'toy'. With a frustrated look on his face, he signaled for Mendoza to head towards the door and followed him, only stopping once to look back once, wondering how he had ever even imagined the bookworm would have any connection to Zorro.

The De la Vegas stared in confusion as he and his men left, heading for Don Sebastian's hacienda.

"He is a very strange man." Don Alejandro concluded, and Diego looked at him innocently, then winked at Felipe.