Silence, nothing but complete silence could be heard. The ground was no longer hard or rough in texture. The restraints no longer seemed to be binding his hands or his ankles. Diego opened his eyes and to his amazement, he was in his own bedroom. He was safe and secure in his own bed. Confusion had begun to set in.

"How did I escape and end up here?," he wondered aloud.

After what he had just been through he decided against pulling up his covers and going back to sleep. Diego quickly got out of his bed and began to examine his body to see how severe his injuries were from being beaten, kicked, and whipped. Nothing! He could see absolutely no evidence of the attack that he had been through. His legs and backside showed no evidence of lacerations and there was absolutely no bruising on his abdomen.

He knew that it could not have been a dream, but he could not explain how his body seemed to be completely fine. Diego dressed himself and found that his appetite was definitely intact. Lost in his thoughts he wandered through his home. He barely paid any attention to his surroundings until he was able to sit down and see his breakfast on the table in front of him.

Once again he found himself staring at a morning meal of eggs and the same pastries from the previous morning. He was still trying to make sense of where his previous day had gone so wrong and how he had allowed himself to become so distracted. Diego was definitely disappointed in himself.

"Diego, are you listening?" his father's voice broke through his troubled thoughts.

"I'm sorry father, I wasn't paying attention," Diego reluctantly admitted to his father. Once again, he had been stuck in his own mind instead of listening to what his father had to say. His father, who seemed rather frustrated with Diego, exhaled and took another bite of a pastry.

"Nearly two dozen heads of cattle and horses have gone missing from local ranches," his father informed him.

"Again?" he asked with his voice full of frustration.

His father looked up at him with a look of confusion and shook his head. Diego could only wonder why his father seemed flustered by his response. He reluctantly chewed the pastry he was holding in his hand as he waited for his father to respond.

"As far as I know, this was the first occurrence in our area," his father replied in between a few more bites of eggs.

"Did you not just tell me about the stolen cattle and horses yesterday morning?" Diego quizzed his father.

"No, I just heard about it this morning," his father replied in an irritated manner as if he thought Diego wasn't paying attention.

His father excused himself from the table and left Diego wondering why his father had been repeating himself. His father always seemed disappointed with him more and more. He could never seem to be the man his father wanted him to be as long as he continued to act as if he was nothing like Zorro. Leading a double life was starting to wear him down more and more.

After what had happened yesterday to him he had decided not to involve Zorro. He was tired of trying to be a hero and longed for some normalcy for once. Diego needed to relax and be himself for a while. He found himself wandering through the hacienda and decided to play the piano. Feeling his mood beginning to soften he threw himself into the melodic tune. As he played the final note, Diego found himself eager to go into the pueblo and see what a day without sharing it with Zorro would be like.

He saddled up the horse he had purchased from the Gitanos and headed towards anywhere other than the hacienda. A joy ride was exactly what Diego was craving. He remembered what must have been a nightmare, and was very observant of his surroundings. The horse was a very steady and agile creature. Her speed was fairly comparable with Toronado's fastest pace. He could definitely see himself riding this horse when he was unable to be riding his faithful companion.

"What do you think about the name Fenix?" he asked the horse as if expecting an answer.

The horse began galloping even faster and seemingly made sounds of approval. One might think that the horse knew exactly what Diego had said, or that he was able to speak "horse". The dust flying behind him reminded him of the times when he was riding as Zorro. He pushed the memories towards the back of his mind as he approached the entrance to the pueblo.

Everything seemed to be business as usual. Children were playing and laughing. Women were gossiping with each other. DeSoto could be heard harassing a poorly dressed farmer due to his long overdue taxes of which were most likely a farce. It wasn't Diego's problem today. He was determined to let the farmer handle DeSoto or some other person with a hero complex. Diego tied his horse to a post and set about to find some mouth watering tamales in the tavern.

Victoria had a blissful disposition while keeping order in her establishment. A table of grimey men were boasting and telling tall tales in the far corner. They were getting a bit loud, but it was nothing to worry about.

"Could the pueblo actually prosper without Zorro's help?" he could not help but entertain the question in his mind.

When Victoria saw him she immediately smiled and casually sauntered over to take his order. He felt a sensation of heat rising through his body as he noticed the sweat glistening on her skin.

"And just what will you have today Diego?" she playfully asked.

"Might the special be your infamous tamales?" Diego inquired.

She frowned slightly and answered, "Yes, but Sargent Mendoza has eaten almost all of them already."

"I will make sure that you get a heaping portion before I completely run out," she added.

He continued to observe everyone in the tavern as he waited with the smell of food making him feel even hungrier. Victoria brought him a steaming dish, and he tucked into it as if no one was watching. Diego couldn't resist daydreaming as he devoured the very tasty yet comforting food. He wondered what it would be like to kiss her as himself. He imagined bringing her home with him as his wife, and… Suddenly he was interrupted by screams and the roar of an angry crowd outside of the tavern.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and rushed to see what the commotion was. Diego's heart jumped into his throat. There in front of him was DeSoto with two wagons and a man connected between them by ropes. Gasps from the crowd and voices asking where Zorro could be were heard over the screams and his own heartbeat.

"What did he do?" he asked the woman who was cowering next to him.

"He tried to defend Enrique and his wife by confronting the alcalde when he tried to throw them in jail," she answered him with her voice quivering.

"Fire!" DeSoto yelled across the gathered crowd.

A gunshot rang out over the sound of the horrified crowd. The spooked horses began to run pulling the wagons in different directions as the man screamed in white hot agony. The petrified horses continued to attempt to flee but were getting nowhere as the man's screams subsided into an eerie void of silence as the crowd had become too shocked to utter a sound. DeSoto clapped his hands as an evil grin spread across his face.

"Let this be a lesson to all of you on what will happen to you if you cross me!" he boasted to the now silent crowd.

"Release the wagons and dispose of this man," he informed the soldiers.

Diego found himself feeling ashamed and full of guilt. He knew that he could have prevented the man from experiencing such gruesome torture and certain death. He had chosen to ignore the family who needed his help and chose to keep Zorro away on purpose. If he stopped living his life as Zorro completely no one would be safe from the evil actions of those with no morals or kindness.

It was a very long and lonely ride back home to the hacienda. He was going to do everything he could tomorrow to focus on hunting down the thieves that he had ignored after the discussion with his father. He hadn't even spoken to his father before he left. Diego had been too self absorbed in his thoughts and dwelling on his own problems. He was having a hard time trying to understand how he could have let himself become so callus and self serving.

Diego had arrived with a determination to find his father and resolve the tension that had been building lately. He removed the saddle from Fenix and proceeded to brush her mane coat, and tail.

After he groomed her and left her with the other horses he turned to find a distraught Felipe with a tear stained face. It suddenly dawned on him that the hacienda had been unusually quiet.

"What is it my boy," Diego asked him as he tried to imagine what could have made the boy so distraught.

Felipe signed to him, "Your father has been killed by thieves who were trying to steal some of the horses."

Diego began to run inside while begging God to not let it be true. Before he could even get inside he saw his father on the ground. His father, Don Alejandro, was motionless on the ground in an awkward position. Diego dropped to the ground and grasped his father's cold hand.

"I'm so sorry father!" he cried.

"I have failed you when I should have been looking for those thieves!" he admitted to his father who could no longer hear him.

Suddenly he heard a deafening buzzing noise as the ground beneath him had begun to shake. He closed his eyes and gave in to the dizziness that had begun to overtake him. His heart had been broken and he had no desire to fight against the strangely familiar sensation.