"Are you sure you want to do this?" Victoria asked her husband a few days later, while they were both in bed, unwilling to get up just yet. "Why can't one of your men go instead?"

"You don't want me to go?"

"Of course, not! I'll be worried sick." She said, lifting herself on her elbow to stare at him.

"I know how to take care of myself, my love." Diego said with a smile, as he took her hand to kiss. "Better put your energy into making sure our sons don't break anything while I'm away."

"That's not an easy task!" She uttered, turning to lie on her back. "I swear those children are part monkeys. I found them on the roof just two days ago. And yesterday, while we were in the pueblo, Juanita had to climb the big oak tree on the hill behind the hacienda to get them down. Thank God Elena had gone to tell her what they were up to, or they might have fallen and broken their necks."

Diego wasn't sure what to say to that. He knew the twins were troublemakers and he doubted he could do much about that. They'd change as they'd grow up, but, for now, aged four, they were copies of himself growing up. And, precisely because he could see himself in them was why he didn't worry constantly, like their mother did.

"Maybe we should tie them with a cord when letting them outside. Like we do with young horses…" He muttered just loud enough for Victoria to hear.

"Don't think it hadn't crossed my mind! But I doubt that would help much." She replied. "A couple of weeks ago, I caught them training to escape bandits. They had asked Eleonora, the new maid, to tie them up really tight, and they managed to untie the knots in but minutes!"

"Two new Zorros in the making, then! By the time they'll grow up, I might need the help…" Diego mused.

"Don't even joke about it! It's enough I have to worry about you every time you put on that mask."

"You needn't worry, my love. I think I already proved that nothing can stop me from returning to you." The young man uttered, placing a kiss on Victoria's forehead before getting out of bed and starting to get dressed.

"Are you sure?" Victoria asked again, while looking at him. "Are you certain you can trust your brother?"

"Is that what worries you?" He wondered. "I thought we agreed to forgive him…"

"Yes… But that doesn't mean I fully trust him… I'm not sure I'll ever be able to."

Glancing at his wife, his determination to head out that day waivered, but only for a moment. Then he sat on the bed by her side.

"He saved my life, Victoria. And he knows the truth. He knows everything. About me being Zorro, the Count of Dragonera… Everything." He said.

She sat up at that. "You told him? Why? And when did he save your life?"

"When he shot Palomares. The man had realized who I was during our fight, and was about to tell everyone. Had Dario not fired at that precise moment, he would have. And that would have been quite a conundrum. I'm not sure how I would have gotten out of that one."

"What? You were almost publicly unmasked and you're only telling me now?"

"I… I have been trying to come to terms with it, myself, Victoria. My brother also realized it was me under the mask during that duel. He had followed Felipe to the pueblo in the morning, and saw him take some of the riffles in The Guardian's office. I had instructed him to make sure the guardsmen don't try to shoot me during the duel, and he didn't realize Dario was there.

"When Palomares declared he knew my identity, he decided to act and, using one of the remaining rifles, he shot the man. He had been his fencing master, Victoria… I doubt it was an easy decision for him to make."

"Did he tell you why he did it?"

"Yes. He said that he had once promised himself to never betray my trust again, and that he would go to any length to keep that promise… But I didn't want him to take a man's life…"

"He finally did right by you, then," Victoria uttered, feeling relieved. Taking her hand to his face to move away some of the stray black locks on his forehead, she rose to her knees and placed a kiss on his lips. "Alright. Go help him find Juliana, my love! Palomares' men have done as you asked and already left. Felipe will make sure everything is alright at the hacienda; and Emmanuel will be back from Monterey soon. So I think we can survive a few weeks in your absence. But hurry back to me, Diego! I hate sleeping alone."

He smiled and kissed her back, nodding his promise to soon return.

ZZZ

"Be safe! And take care of each other!" Don Alejandro added as he said goodbye from his sons.

The two of them left alone, Diego having decided that his remaining men were needed more at the hacienda, to help his father and to guard his family. Besides, with Zorro away, they were also needed should it become necessary to keep the alcalde in check and to help Emmanuel should he find himself forced to put on the mask.

They spent the first twenty miles galloping and enjoying their brotherly rivalry during an impromptu horse race. Neither won as their horses proved equal in speed.

"We should do that more often!" Dario said as they stopped on top of a hill to let the mounts rest for a while.

Diego just smiled his approval, wondering how their childhood might have been had they grown up together.

"I was thinking," Dario said a while later, as they prepared to start again towards Buenaventura, "what if she ended up on one of the islands near the shore?"

His brother slightly shook his head. "I sent one of the ships to investigate them, as well." He said, mounting his stallion. "The crew found what looked like some of the remains of a shipwreck on the island of San Miguel, but no one who had washed ashore. We don't even know if the remains they found were from the ship Juliana had boarded in Monterey."

Dario nodded as they both restarted on their way. "You never told me why my wife had gone to Monterey…" He said at one point.

"That is because I never really knew for sure," Diego answered. "One day, she just informed me that she needed to head for Monterey. She said there was an important reason why she needed to go there, but she refused to confide in me on that matter."

"She never confided in me…" Dario said. "Even after we were married. Not that I blamed her, considering all the pain my actions had caused her."

"We tried… all of us, we tried to convince her to give you a second chance."

"Yes… Juliana told me as much… And I am grateful to you for trying." The De la Vega firstborn said with a sigh. "You know… While I was in the pueblo's jail, I kept imagining how our relationship might change once I'd been freed. You might find this hard to believe, but I became quite infatuated with her while I was in there. I mean... I liked her since first I laid eyes upon her. But I only started to love her after we were married. Still… I did love her… the best I knew how."

"I'm sure you did." Diego uttered with a kind smile, then became serious. "I don't know why she went to Monterey." He said next. "But there is a suspicion I harbor about the reason why she left," he continued. His brother just glanced at him, so he went on. "About a year before she went missing, she had started dedicating herself a lot to her own education. As you may know, she could hardly read or write when she first arrived at the hacienda."

"Yes… But how is that a clue as to her decision to go to Monterey?"

"Well, she did do a lot of progress in a rather short amount of time. She was quite intelligent, your wife." Diego remarked. "Anyhow… About a month before she left, I remember she asked me whether there were records that could be found about murder victims and their final resting place.

"I told her that the Missions do keep records of such things, but, at the time, I didn't think much about why she had asked me.

"After the shipwreck, however, I started thinking… And I concluded that –"

"She had been looking for her parents…" Dario interrupted him at coming to the same conclusion his brother had come to years earlier.

"Exactly. All she had ever known of them was that they had been killed by bandits, not long after getting to California. That and the fact that they had died near Monterey." Diego replied with a nod. "Victoria remembered that piece of information."

Dario glanced sadly at him.

"I don't know if she ever found out what she needed to know," Diego pointed out, "But, yes, I think she went there looking for them… for their graves, that is."

ZZZ

"Are you sure you don't want to stay a while longer?" Doña Alma, Diego and Dario's aunt from Monterey asked the young Dos Santos that very morning, as they were having breakfast at her hacienda.

Both the middle-aged woman and her husband, Don Nicolás had become very fond of the young man since first meeting him at Diego and Victoria's wedding. So, every time he was in Monterey, though they knew the De la Vegas had a perfectly comfortable residence in town, they insisted on Emmanuel staying at their hacienda.

"I would surely like to, but Diego mentioned in his latest letter that he and Dario headed north to look for Juliana together. I know he'd feel better to know me in Los Angeles, looking after his family while he is gone." He replied.

"It's a shame you can't stay… At least for a few more days. My friend, Don Janus, and his family are due from Mexico City any day now. I would have liked to introduce you to them. Their daughter, in particular, I believe, might be a very good match for you."

Emmanuel smiled. Both his hosts had done their best to introduce him to the single señoritas in the area, no doubt hoping he might fall in love with one of them.

"And the Gamboas have land in Los Angeles, and intend to build a house there. So you'd still be near the De la Vegas, should you move to their hacienda." The middle-aged woman added.

Emmanuel smiled, doubting that the De la Vegas would agree to him moving. After all, he was a part of the family at that point. In fact, he, himself, couldn't imagine leaving them.

"In that case, Doña Alma, I will certainly be more than happy to make the Gamboas' acquaintance when they'll come to Los Angeles," Emmanuel answered with a smile.

About an hour later, his luggage was on the coach he had used to make the journey north, the young stallions he had acquired in Monterey were tied up to the back of the vehicle, and the men Diego had insisted accompany him there were already mounted and ready to go. Dos Santos took his goodbye from his hosts and began the journey south.

ZZZ

Diego and Dario began their search the day of their arrival in Santa Barbara, the tall caballero taking his brother to meet with all the people he had spoken to when first searching for Juliana.

"The remains of a wreckage washed ashore on Santa Rosa, Señor, a few weeks after the night of that bad storm that sunk my boat… Remember? I told you about it when you first came to ask about the ship," a fisherman said as the young men again asked if he had any new information about the woman they were searching for.

"But you told me at the time that you knew nothing of a shipwreck."

"That's because I didn't." The man replied. "My brother-in-law was fishing near the island at the time, and mentioned it when he returned home. But he said that all they had found was some wood and an empty chest, nothing else."

"It might be that it sank further away from the shore than we had thought," Dario reasoned. "The current may have taken the debris there and to San Miguel."

Diego seemed pensive. "But if the ship was somewhere between the two islands at the time the debris would have washed ashore within days, not weeks." He considered out loud.

"The currents might have played a part in that," Dario said. "You said yourself that you had searched the entire coast, from Ventura to San Luis Obispo, yet found nothing. And, yes, I know you had your men search the islands, as well. But, perhaps, they didn't search at the right time."

"Yes… That is possible."

"Then we should search again. Who knows? Perhaps, this time, we'll have more luck." His brother replied, hopeful.

ZZZ

Emmanuel and his escorts had been on the road for three days when they ran into a gang of bandits who were just robbing the public coach heading from Santa Barbara to Monterey.

Several gunshots, followed by screams were what warned them of the danger, and the driver had the foresight to stop the coach before the bandits were able to spot it, behind a nearby hill. Led by Dos Santos, while one man was left behind with the horses, the rest of them, pistols at the ready, carefully made their way to the nearest point from where they could see what was going on.

What they saw, made them all speechless from anger.

The thugs had shot the coach driver and two of the travelers. Two more men were on the ground, neatly tied up and gagged, watching in horror as three of the bandits had pinned the women to the ground and were fondling their clothes, set on raping them.

Unwilling to allow that, Emmanuel gave the order for the men to shoot. The two thugs who were both guarding their prisoners and gathering everything they could find of value, while their cohorts had their fun, fell to the ground dead as soon as the first shots rang out. A third thug, who had been preparing to rape one of the women by the side of the road, met a similar fate.

"Get off of them!" Emmanuel then ordered the remaining ruffians as he brandished his second, still-loaded gun, and neared them.

The men looked at him with big, hate-filled eyes, clearly trying to decide if to obey the order. A few moments later, the sun reflected off a blade, and it was Emmanuel who hesitated now.

With an almost-impossibly-fast move, one of the thugs had pulled out a knife, and it was holding it at the neck of the woman he had tried to rape. Hurriedly pulling up his pants, while forcing the young woman to stand up, shielding him from any attempt by Emmanuel to shoot him, he encouraged his friend to follow his example. He, however, was not as fast as his companion, and, while trying to reach his knife, found himself shot by one of the servants accompanying Dos Santos.

"Stay back!" The other man shouted in fear at seeing his only remaining cohort lying dead on the ground. "Stay back or I swear to God I'll kill her! Don't think I won't!"

"No, mi hija! No la lastimes!" One of the other women begged as they stood up. "Please, Señor, don't let him hurt her!" She addressed Emmanuel.

The two men stared at each other for what seemed to the poor older woman like an eternity. Her daughter was trembling in fear, tears running down her cheeks.

"What the hell is that?" Emmanuel asked, seemingly in awe at something behind the thug.

The man hurriedly looked back noticing his stare, but saw nothing.

Dos Santos inwardly smiled. He had taken the bait. Aiming his gun at the thug, he fired, and the man fell instantly lifeless to the ground. The blade he had been holding to the young woman's neck, however, in falling, caused a rather bad injury to her arm. Corroborated with the pain of it, the sight of her own blood, and the stress of the ordeal she had just been through, it caused the young woman to faint at that point, her numb body falling right on top of the dead bandit.

"Hija mia!" Her mother shouted in horror, fearing something worse had happened, and hurried to her.

In the meantime, Emmanuel's men released the bound men there.

"Diana!" One of the released coach passengers shouted next and hurried towards his family.

"She's just fainted." His wife consoled him. "She's alright. We just need to take care of the wound."

"We owe you our lives, Señores!" The other passenger said as he neared Emmanuel.

The young man had been watching the two parents tend to their daughter, a worried glance in his eyes, as he hadn't expected her to become injured and felt responsible for that wound.

At hearing the passenger's voice, however, he turned towards the man who had spoken. "You owe us nothing, Señor. It is every man's duty to help those in need." He said, then hurried to check on the injured people there.

One of the shot men had died. One of the women stood over the other man who had been wounded, crying and asking him repeatedly to wake up. He was still alive, although barely.

"He needs a doctor!" Emmanuel uttered as he studied the bullet hole in the man's shoulder. "But first, we must stop the bleeding. That alone can kill him before we get him help." Hurrying to his coach, he soon returned with a bottle of alcohol and clean bandages. "Señora," he addressed the woman, after he poured some alcohol into the bleeding injury, causing the man to regain consciousness for a moment and scream in pain, before becoming unconscious again, "You must use these bandages to keep pressure on the wound. My men will help take him to the San Luis Obispo Mission. I'll send someone to get there with a doctor." He said, and the woman nodded having understood the instructions as she continued crying. "Lerato," he then addressed one of his men, "head to San Luis Obispo and find out where the nearest doctor is, then bring him to the Mission and have him wait for us."

The tall, strong, dark-skinned servant, who had been in Diego and Emmanuel's employment since they had freed him from the slave merchant, could always be trusted to fulfill whatever task he was given. Nodding his understanding, the man mounted his mare and returned to the Mission they had only just left that very morning.

After Lerato hurried to comply, Emmanuel proceeded to help the coach driver, who had been shot in the back, and had broken his leg while falling from the coach but was still conscious and aware of everything that was going on around him. "I am not an expert, but you might just be in luck," he said, examining the man's wound. "I can feel the bullet under your skin. The doctor should be able to remove it with ease. And it doesn't seem to have caused much damage. But, just in case," he added, pouring some alcohol on it. The man let out a short scream of pain. "What worries me, however, is your leg," Emmanuel added as his patient calmed down.

"I don't want to lose it, Señor." The poor man said, pleadingly.

"It looks quite bad, I'm afraid. I can try to immobilize it with some splints… The doctor should know how to proceed."

Once the two men were given the first aid, Emmanuel had them loaded into the coach together with the wife of the most seriously injured man. The body of the dead passenger they put on one of the spare horses, decide to give him a decent burial at the Mission.

"I fear the rest of you will have to ride in my coach." Emmanuel informed the others right before sending the first coach to the nearest Mission together with two of his men for protection.

Next, he ordered the luggage that had been removed during the bandits' search for valuables to be loaded on top of his coach. After also offering alcohol to the distraught mother to disinfect her daughter's injury, Emmanuel and his remaining men lay the bodies of the thugs, none of whom had survived, in the shade of a nearby tree. When it was done, they headed for the coach where the rest of the people were waiting.

"Why did you leave them there like that?" The elderly man, who almost lost his daughter and wife to those bandits, asked as soon as Emmanuel's coach started north.

"That way they'll be easy to spot. I'll inform the nearest garrison about their whereabouts. They must be wanted men." Emmanuel explained. "How is your daughter?" He then asked. The young woman was unresponsive, though conscious. Her mother had bandaged her wound, and was now trying to convince her to dink some water.

"She's been better." Her father said. "But, forgive me, Señor. I have yet to thank you for all you just did for us."

"There's no need for that. All I did was what anyone would have done in my position." Emmanuel answered.

"You did far more than that!" The mother replied. "You saved us… and we don't even know your name…."

"Oh… forgive my impoliteness. Indeed, I don't believe I introduced myself. My name is Emmanuel Dos Santos. My men and I had been traveling south, heading to Los Angeles." He said, and smiled noticing that the young woman glanced at him for the first time since saving her life. She had the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen.

"What a coincidence." The other passenger on the coach said. "My name is also Emmanuel. Emmanuel José Antonio Villareal. Es un placer conocerlo, Señor Dos Santos."

"Igualmente!"

"I am Don Janus Hugo Gamboa, and these are my wife, Antonia, and my daughter, Diana." The other man introduced himself.

"We are forever indebted to you, Señor," the older woman said, and Emmanuel smiled at her before his eyes rested on her daughter's angelic face.

"Gamboa?" He wondered as the name sounded familiar. "I believe Doña Alma and Don Nicolás Moncada mentioned you were due to arrive in Monterey a few days ago."

"You know my friends?" The man asked dumbfounded.

"Indeed. I am a good friend of their nephew, and they always insist on me staying with them when I have business in Monterey."

"Really? What an amazing coincidence! Yes, we were due to arrive by ship in Monterey. Alas, our ship suffered some damage a little south of Santa Barbara, so we had to either wait for it to be repaired or head north by coach. My wife wanted us to wait, but I insisted we take the coach. A decision that I regret and, had it not been for your timely intervention, would have cost me more than just my life."

"Indeed, Señor Dos Santos; were it not for you, our lives would have surely been forfeited." The other Emmanuel uttered.