De Soto slowed down as he neared a canyon not very far from the port. The road was treacherous and he was not very familiar with the area. It was dark, the full moon having been swollen by a rather thick cloud.

He dismounted and let the horse guide him as the animal negotiated his ground, then, as rain also started, certain his tracks would be impossible to spot, he found himself shelter inside a grotto, and made a fire to warm himself up.

Soon, exhausted after the rough day he had had, he fell asleep, and, for the first time in many years, dreamt of Diego. It was a strange sort of dream. In it, the younger man's shadow insisted of following him wherever he went until, at the edge of a cliff, it merged with the man. Then, Diego grew taller and taller until he touched the sky. All Ignacio could do was look up at that ever-growing figure until his neck became stiff, and he suddenly woke up, panting.

In the morning, he remounted his horse due to continue his way west. About an hour later, he realized that he had taken the wrong path and that he was, in fact, heading northeast. He, thus, turned southwest, heading for the main road.

As he reached it, though, he noticed Mendoza and three of his lancers.

The Sergeant and his patrol, having camped on the way the night before, just stumbled on De Soto as they were heading towards the port.

"Alcalde," the Sergeant shouted as the former official was considering his options, "you are under arrest. Please don't make this difficult!"

"The Governor will hang me if I return with you, Sergeant!" Ignacio replied, reaching for his pistol.

"I'm sure it won't come to that. Besides, the Count convinced him to give you a fair trial."

"Did he? Please, Sergeant, you can't be so naïve! That man is certainly not interested in helping me!"

"I still have to take you back Alcalde. The Governor said that if I come back without you, he'll conclude that I had helped you escape." Mendoza told him.

De Soto stared at him, thinking. Then, as he reached his conclusion, the raised his pistol and shot Sepulveda in the shoulder. "He'll understand if you let me escape while you tend to your injured man!"

As Mendoza and his other men were rushing to help their friend, Ignacio turned his horse around and restarted towards the port. As he had calculated, the lancers didn't follow him.

ZZZ

"Sergeant, what happened?" Zorro inquired as he, attracted by the gunshot, found his own way there, coming from the direction from which De Soto had come just minutes earlier.

"The Alcalde! He shot Sepulveda." Mendoza said, a frightened undertone in his voice.

Glancing down the road, where he could still spot the dust raised by De Soto's mount, the masked man dismounted to check on the injured lancer, then returned to the horse to take some bandages from his saddlebags. "You need to keep pressure on the wound to stop the blood loss," he said as he finished bandaging the injured man. "He won't be able to ride, though. One of you should head back and get a wagon. Bring Doctor Hernandez, as well!" He advised before remounting Tornado.

"But the Alcalde…" Mendoza uttered. "He will escape!"

"I have no intention of allowing for that to happen!" Zorro said as he saluted the lancers and headed at full speed after the former Los Angeles alcalde.

Once the Sergeant made sure to send Gomez after a wagon, and helped Sanchez take Sepulveda under a tree, where he'd be more comfortable. When that was done, Mendoza mounted his horse and followed Zorro.

ZZZ

About three miles down the road, the masked man again started noticing the dust left by another horse, so he pushed Tornado faster, soon confirming it was Ignacio riding it. A mile later, he caught up to him.

De Soto noticed the black stallion from the corner of his eye, so he drew his gun and fired, missing the rider by an inch. He shot again, and, when no bullet exited the barrel, he remembered having used one on Sepulveda. He, thus, focused on avoiding being captured.

His horse, though fast, was not as fast as Tornado. Slowly, the black stallion came to run shoulder-to-shoulder with Ignacio's mount, and, as they neared a pond, the masked outlaw stood up in the saddle and tackled his nemesis, causing them both to fall into the water as the horses continued on their way.

De Soto took a moment to realize what was happening as he found himself completely soaked. As he recovered, he noticed Zorro trying to stand up. Taking advantage of the fact that the masked man had his back at him, Ignacio attacked him, pushing him underwater.

Zorro was taken by surprise at finding himself unable to breathe. De Soto's hands were holding him from the back, not giving him the chance to fight back. The water was muddy, and he slipped when he tried to find his footing. He was a strong man, but there was nothing to hold onto, nothing to help him use his strength to rise above the water.

His air was rapidly finishing, and his heart started pounding louder and louder till it was the only sound he could hear anymore. The thought crossed his mind that his father already knew that he had drowned, and it seemed like a self-fulfilling prophecy that he was now to die that way. Despite everything he had been through, he was to die just as victory over his enemies was finally within reach.

De Soto felt Zorro going numb, so he kept him underwater a while longer. Exhausted, he turned to head for the shore.

As he did that, however, he heard a splash of water behind him. Next, he found himself submerged, this time, Zorro's strong arms keeping him in place.

"You really thought it would be so easy? You thought there would be no consequences…" The masked man asked as he was panting and coughing out the water that had entered his lungs. He didn't care the white-haired man couldn't hear him. All he wanted at that point was revenge and he didn't care how he was to get it. "You really thought you would defeat me now? I survived hell! I will see you pay for what you did to me!" He continued, as he became increasingly exhausted.

Feeling De Soto spasming from the lack of oxygen caused him to relent. Moments later, he let Ignacio get some air, then dragged him to the shore.

As soon as they returned on dry land, Zorro took off his sash and used it to tie the older man's hands, rather clumsily for once, before, exhausted, he lay down to get some rest.

They both lay there for a while, both panting. When he decided he had rested for long enough, the masked man got up and forced De Soto to his feet, before whistling for Tornado.

"No! You are not taking me back!" Ignacio said, as he managed to free himself, and drew his sword.

"You were never a better swordsman than me, De Soto!" Zorro replied as he also drew his blade. "But, if you want to do this… I was looking forward to carving a new Z in your jacket!"

Ignacio attacked, finding that a tired Zorro was not as able a swordsman as a rested Zorro. He, however, was at least as tired as his adversary.

They took turns advancing towards each other as they both attacked and parried, the swords reflecting the light of the new day's sun, and drawing Mendoza's attention.

A few more moves and De Soto's sword flew from his hands, planting itself into a nearby tree.

"Let me go, and I promise –"

"You have nothing to offer me, Ignacio!" Zorro interrupted him. "Nothing but revenge. Which I will have as soon as you are put into a jail cell, sentenced to remain there for a very long time."

"You want revenge? What for? Alright… I placed a reward on your head and tried to catch you. And yes, I tried to drown you, but I did not succeed… If you think about it, I did nothing to you!"

"Nothing? Five years of my life are not nothing! That's how long you took from me! My youth! And much more than that…"

"What are you talking about? I did no such thing! We have no score to settle!"

"Oh, but we do… Do you know what loneliness, what utter uncertainly does to a man, Ignacio? Do you know what it feels like to constantly wonder whether your loved ones are still alive, but have no way of finding out? To decide it's better to kill yourself than go on living; not because you can no longer endure, but because you have convinced yourself that the ones you love would be better off knowing that you are dead? We'll have settled our scores when you'll have properly understood all the pain you have caused me!"

The white-haired man stared at him as if trying to see through the mask. "Who are you to say I am guilty of whatever you may have been through?"

"Who am I? Who am I?" Zorro shouted, then reached to rip off his mask. "I am whatever is left of the man I was when we first met, Ignacio! I am your reckoning!" He replied, a hate-filled look in his eyes.

At recognizing his former colleague, De Soto's eyes grew so big that anyone watching might have believed they'd soon pop out of their sockets. "Diego de la Vega!" He uttered, raising a hand to his temples and grabbing his hair as if trying to force a nightmare out of his head. Taking a few steps back, when the face before him refused to change, he did not realize that he was standing on the edge of a precipice. "It wasn't me… It was Risendo," he said, terrified. "He has some vendetta against your father… His mother is –" The earth gave way preventing him from ever finishing that sentence. The last thing Ignacio ever saw was the young De la Vega's face surrounded by the blue sky, as if the young man was watching him from the heavens.

Diego had only noticed his former schoolmate fall when it was too late and, though he tried to reach for his arm, he was not fast enough. Instead of saving him, he was forced to watch his body impact with the ground, some fifty feet down.

He remained there for a couple of minutes, watching in disbelief the corpse of the man who had gone from being his colleague and friend to becoming one of his worst enemies. A man he didn't want dead, however.

Only as he slowly got up, did Diego notice Mendoza by his side, also looking down.

The Sergeant glanced at his unmasked face, and they both stared at each other for a few long moments.

"Had I not seen him fall all by himself, I would have thought you might have pushed him," Mendoza confessed. "Are you really who he said you are, Zorro? Are you Don Diego de la Vega?"

The black-clad man took his mask and put it back on. "No one can know that, Sergeant." He said, wondering what to do about the lancer.

"I will not tell a soul…" Mendoza surprised him by replying. "I owe you at least that for all the times you helped me and my men… Besides, now that the Governor rescinded the order for your capture, I guess there's no harm in keeping your secret..."

"He rescinded the order for my capture?"

"Yes. After he returned from the Count's Hacienda, yesterday."

Zorro nodded, then headed for Tornado.

"You don't remember me, do you?" The Sergeant asked. "We used to be friends when we were children. Sergeant Garcia used to let us play around the cuartel."

"I remember, Jaime," Zorro answered. "Just as I remember we have once promised to always help each other. It's why I know I can count on you."

"Si, Don Diego!" Mendoza nodded with a smile.

"Zorro! While I am wearing this mask, it is the only name you may use!" his childhood friend corrected.

"Si… Si…Zorro… You can count on me! Don Alejandro and Señorita Victoria will be very happy to have you back."

"They are not to find out yet. Remember that! De Soto is dead, but his accomplice still lives. My loved ones are still in danger." Saying that, he mounted. "I trust you can take care of De Soto's body by yourself; but still, I'll send the lancers your way to help," he promised. "Adios, Sergeant!"

ZZZ

"Ignacio's dead?" Emmanuel asked in disbelief after Diego had recounted to him what had happened.

"Yes…" The taller man confirmed.

"Are you alright?" Felipe signed to ask, aware of what must have been in Diego's heart at that point.

"No, Felipe… I… I didn't want the man dead. I just wanted him punished for his crime… Death is not what he deserved…"

"Not what he deserved?" Emmanuel almost exploded. "Not what he deserved? He forged evidence against you. Together with Risendo, he sentenced you to rot in Chateau d'If… Today he also tried to drown you. If he felt any remorse after that, it was surely not for his actions but for not having succeeded...

"Besides, how many others died or had their lives destroyed because of De Soto? Like that innocent man he had hung despite not having any proof against him? Or your father, whose sufferance, whose losses are all traceable back to De Soto?

"Or my uncle… Whom he executed… Or me… Me, who lost everything when he decided to burn down my home. Me, whose life would have most probably ended by now had it not been for you, my friend?

"He deserved to die, Diego! I am only sorry for not having been there to kill him myself!"

"He killed your uncle?"

"He gave the order."

"He was a soldier…"

"A Spanish soldier, working for the French! The man was a cheat and a blackmailer, a traitor, and a criminal! He deserved far worse than he's gotten!"

"That might be so but…" Diego started to say, then simply stopped himself. "I'm sorry, my friend. You have as much right to vengeance as I do. Forgive me for depriving you of it…"

"You didn't. De Soto paid with his life, and that is good enough for me." Emmanuel uttered as he stood up and headed for the stable to pet Tornado. "Besides, I'm glad you made it!"

"Me too… Though I came quite close to not making it this time…"

"Yes…" Emmanuel muttered. "Diego," he then turned to say, "I didn't come with you here searching for vengeance. I did hope to find it, but it's not why I am here. I am here because you… and now Felipe, are the closest thing I have left to family."

"I know," his friend replied with a smile. "As I hope you know you are, to me, the brother I was never lucky enough to have."

Felipe signed at that.

"No," Diego replied. "I never saw you as a brother… To me, Felipe, you are a son. And, one of these days, should you agree to it, I will make that official."

The boy smiled, nodded, and, feeling that he was close to tears, hurried to start cleaning Tornado's stable.

Smiling at his reaction, Diego allowed him his privacy and turned towards Emmanuel. "Now, tell me how it went with my father!"

"It was painful," his friend confessed. "It took a lot of apologies, but it is all better now."

"He believed you were sleepwalking, then?"

"He seemed to believe it…"

"I surely hope he did, or he and Victoria might start putting two and two together…" Diego pondered, remembering that the young woman knew that one of Zorro's acquaintances had been under Lozano's spell, just as his father well knew that Rafael had been acting quite unusual that same afternoon. The Doctor, of course, could have also suspected something was amiss, seeing how the Count had asked about possible causes leading to a sudden change in behavior. But, as long as they each kept what they knew for themselves, not sharing it with any of the others, it would have been quite hard to make all the right connections.