Chapter Text
(Episode 1: The Return of Monastario )
Salesman Dante Montalbán, tied to a wooden chair in the middle of the cuartel, let out another yelp as two of Sergeant Garcia’s men whipped him in the back, his tan shirt beginning to stain with traces of blood. Tears were beginning to sting at the corner of his eyes from the vigorous burning sensation as a result from his several whippings. But despite being on the verge of a breakdown, he never shed a tear and shivered violently as Privates Morales and Ortega got up into his face and glared at him with a venomous gaze.
“I’ll ask you one last time,” Morales hissed. “Next time it won’t be a question.”
“Where did you get this money from?” Ortega asked, with a snarl.
“I told you, I found it in an abandoned barn house outside of the pueblo. I was bringing it here to report to the Commandante,” Dante exclaimed.
“Abandoned or hidden?” Ortega asked.
“Buried away so you and the rest of Black Lobo’s men that still breathe could come back to it later and flee to Mexico, perhaps?” Morales pressed.
“I would never support that monster, I’ve told you that a thousand times now,” Dante said. He cried out in pain as Morales whipped him again.
“You make me sick,” the private hissed. “Protecting that beast even from the grave.”
“I’m not one of Black Lobo’s men, I swear on my mother’s grave. Had I’d been able to, I would’ve killed that monster myself.”
“Oh, you wished to have power yourself, is that what I’m getting at?”
“I don’t want power, and I don’t want any of that blood money. For God’s sake, let me go, I’m just a simple salesman.”
“Which gives you even more motive to follow in that man’s footsteps.”
“You realize a little girl almost lost her father because of your gang?” Ortega sneered.
“She just about died herself when she thought her father was dead.”
As the two privates continued to grill the trembling salesman, from above one of the rooftops Zorro’s little daughter silently climbed over to the side facing the courtyard and crawled over a bit before coming to a halt. She began thinking of a fight strategy as she observed the proceedings below. She reached up to straighten her father’s hat, who had given it to her to wear until he was well enough to join her again and for good luck, then focused her eyes on the two privates and the frightened man she was determined to save.
“I heard what happened to Diego de la Vega, and I know the torture that little girl went through when she thought he was gone,” Dante remarked, sheer terror ringing in his voice. “I know the de la Vegas, I would never do anything to hurt them.”
“If you feel as bad as you do for little Carolina, then you will open that mouth of yours and tell us everything you know.” Morales snapped. “For the last time, where are the rest of Black Lobo’s men hiding?”
“I don’t know,” Dante cried. “I just came here to report my findings to the Commandante so he could make a report. I’m not one of Black Lobo’s supporters, I’ll never support that filthy animal.”
Morales whipped Dante again, and the salesman cried in pain as he received a sharp whack on his shoulder.
The private gave the salesman a cold, dark stare before turning to Ortega. “Bring in the box,” he ordered.
“Box?” Dante shivered. “ What box?” He watched as Ortega and Corporal Reyes pushed over a large wooden crate with lots of snarling and growling coming from inside it. Dante shook his head frantically, beads of sweat beginning to form on his face. He turned back to face Morales, who was watching him like an eagle ready to come in for the kill.
“I hear you’re afraid of large dogs, Señor Montalbán ,” the private said coolly. “Attacked by one when you were a child.”
Dante began to shake violently as a sharp chill ran throughout his body. “Where did you hear that?” He barely croaked.
“Your father was very cooperative with us when we questioned him earlier. Told us all sorts of things about you,” Morales said.
Dante shook his head, his eyes widening to the size of dinner plates. “No,” he said. “No. My father wouldn’t betray me like that.”
“Your father doesn’t support any of Black Lobo’s men like the rest of Los Angeles,” Ortega remarked.
“Sweet little Carolina screamed and cried when she faced her greatest fear; now it’s time for you to scream and cry as you face yours ,” Morales said.
“It is only fair that you suffer the same agony you made that little girl suffer from yourself.”
“I’ll do anything you want,” Dante said, straightening his posture. “Anything you want. Beat me, shoot me, throw me behind bars, anything but this.”
“It’s too late,” Morales answered, with a snarl. “You had your chance to avoid all of this, now you’ll suffer the consequences of your crimes. Stealing, arson, murder, attempted murder of Diego de la Vega, emotional trauma on an innocent little girl, you’re lucky just to be avoiding the death penalty right now.”
“Please,” Dante begged. “Please. Please . I’ll do anything, please. Don’t let those things come near me!”
Morales gestured with his head to Ortega. “Open the box,” he said, his eyes never straying from his prisoner.
“No,” Dante screamed, trying to pull up his tied legs to his chest as he began to cry. “No. No. No! Zorro! Zorro! Zorrrrrrrrooooooooo!”
Knowing it was time to act, Zorra grabbed the edge of the roof as she carefully climbed over, then let go and softly landed on the ground and pulled out her saber. She watched as the three soldiers turned at the sudden soft thud, and their eyes nearly fell out of their heads.
“Zorro!” Ortega exclaimed.
“That’s not Zorro,” Morales said.
“Yes, it is, it’s Zorro.”
“No, he’s too little, look at him.”
Zorra tilted her head to the side and gave a mischievous grin. “You might want to change that pronoun, there,” she teased.
“A girl ?!” The two privates gasped.
“My father sends his regards,” she answered.
“Fa, fa fa fa, fa fa fa fa fa, Father?” Morales stuttered.
“Oh no,” Ortega whimpered, as he closed his eyes and turned his head to the side.
Reyes pulled out his saber without hesitation and immediately began fighting Zorro’s daughter, quickly proving to be nowhere near her and her father’s match. Soon she was shoving Reyes away and watched as the corporal fell over a bunch of crates filled with gunpowder, while the two privates began fighting Zorra. They, too, struggled to unarm the young girl, and it eventually led to Ortega tripping over a rock and falling flat on his back, leaving Morales the only man left standing.
Zorra fought the private for a good while, but she came to defeat him, as well, and shoved him backwards before Morales screamed and fell down the well with a loud splash.
Taking advantage of the quick opportunity, Zorra sprinted to Dante’s side and sliced off his ropes to free him.
“Grab a horse from the stables, and get out of here. Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Diego, anywhere but Los Angeles,” she told him.
“ Sí, Señorita Zorro. Gracias ,” Dante said, with a gentle pat on the shoulder, then did as instructed and quickly rode off into the hills.
“Sergeant Garcia!” Reyes cried, getting into a sitting position. “Sergeant Garcia, it’s Zorro’s daughter. Zorro’s daughter is in the cuartel.”
Zorra watched as the fat sergeant and several other soldiers stormed out into the courtyard and used the box of angry dogs as a diversion. She took the tip of her saber and slipped the lid off, releasing seven large, angry dogs and began chasing after the soldiers in a fury. She then took off to a corner near the gate and climbed up several stacked crate boxes, while Garcia and his men screamed and ran away from the dogs or tried to climb up something to where they couldn’t be reached.
Three soldiers tried chasing after Zorra in attempts to grab her, but as Zorro’s daughter sat on the edge of the wall, she kicked the stack of crates and watched as the boxes and soldiers all went tumbling down in a heep.
Meanwhile, Garcia and his men continued to run from the infuriated dogs, the fat sergeant himself and Reyes jumping up onto a bench and trying to bat two dogs away with the butt end of their rifles. Other soldiers tried reaching for rooftops, locking themselves into prison cells, or climbing up poles if they weren’t being chased around the compound. Some screamed, some cried for more lancers, and a few even broke into tears and begged for help.
Hearing all the commotion, Commandante Leonardo Cabrera came barging out of his quarters and walked down the steps of his porch with an agitated glare on his face.
“Sergeant Garcia,” the captain hollered. “What in God’s green earth is going on out here?”
As he tried to figure out what was happening in his pueblo, he failed to see a large brown dog running at him and biting the end of his pants. The dog began growling and shaking his leg violently as Cabrera tried to kick him away.
“Get this mangy mutt off of me,” Cabrera shouted. “Sergeant Garcia! Sergeant Garcia!”
As the commandante continued to shout furiously at his head sergeant, Garcia shivered up on the bench and did all he could to pull himself away from the two dogs snarling and barking before him and Reyes.
Watching from the safety of the wall ledge, Zorra began giggling and covered her mouth with her hand as she watched for a moment longer. She then swung over to the other side and fell to the ground on her feet before making a loud whistle. Soon the friendly faces of her father’s horse, Tornado, and Bernardo appeared from the shadows, and she quickly climbed onto the horse’s back before galloping off into the night laughing with Bernardo.
Back at the de la Vega hacienda, Diego lay on the living room sofa reading a book, while Alejandro sat near the window with his son’s guitar and tried to teach himself how to play. Besides for a few chords and the short beginnings of a few simple songs, he wasn’t getting very far with his goal and became quite agitated about it quickly. When he tried to play ‘Here’s to a Soldier of the King’, he only got a couple bars in before strumming a chord that sounded like an angry bull.
“Ehyah,” Alejandro cried, with frustration. He set the guitar to the side of him and shook his head. “Stupid wooden piece of garbage. It’s completely defective.”
Diego chuckled lightly as he set his book on the coffee table and placed his hand on his belly, which was still fairly swollen due to his healing injuries obtained by the infamous Black Lobo. “Father, you can’t blame the guitar for something it has no control of. It can not play itself, you know.”
Alejandro scoffed. “It may not be able to play itself, but the strings are far from being up-to-date. No wonder it sounds like garbage.” He paused in his rant when he heard the slight sound of leaves rustling from outside the window. He turned to look and felt his blood pressure rise as he saw his new mule again eating from his late wife’s flower garden.
The older ranchero grabbed his bullwhip from the table and whacked the animal away from the house. “Dog gone it, Bandit, get out of there. I gotta tell you a hundred times to quit eating this garden, now get! Go back to the field where you belong.”
“Bandit,” Diego chuckled.
“It was Carolina’s idea to name him it,” Alejandro answered, sitting back down on the couch. He shook his head. “Get a mule, they said. It’ll make ranching much easier.” He scoffed. “Well, that is certainly the last time I ever take advice from Don Pizzaro.”
“Don Pizzaro,” Diego said. “Isn’t he your friend that’s always trying to give you and your other friends love advice?”
“And look where all of his advice has left him. Four annulments, and he’s about to have a fifth one.”
“Sounds like he should stop giving love advice to you.”
“He should stop getting married , is what he should do. By how much they have in common, I’m beginning to think maybe he and your Uncle Esteban should marry each other.”
Diego silently chuckled as Bernardo and Carolina came out from the living area closet and were laughing about something in particular.
Bernardo started doing hand gestures and facial expressions displaying how Garcia and his men had run around the cuartel crying from being chased by the angry dogs. Carolina laughed in response.
“They looked like chickens with their heads cut off,” she giggled, causing the two of them to laugh again.
“Alright,” Alejandro said. “What are you two cackling about over there? I take it Zorro’s daughter had a successful night?”
Carolina grinned with mischief. “I might have let a few dogs out of the bag tonight.”
Diego smiled. “You mean cats , my sweet.”
“Nope,” she answered. “Dogs. They were going to torture Señor Montalbán with his biggest fear of dogs, so after I got him out of the cuartel, I opened the crate the angry dogs were being held in and let them chase after all of Sergeant Garcia’s men while I escaped.”
Alejandro began busting out laughing and nearly bent over from how hard he was cackling. “That’s a girl, Carolina, very good, Angelita . You are becoming a fine young Zorro already.”
Carolina turned to look down at her father and smiled. “I’ve got a good teacher,” she said.
Diego returned the same smile and gently rubbed her arm. “And you are a remarkable student,” he told her. “You’ve picked up on quite a few things quickly these last two months. I’m excited to see you in action starting tomorrow.”
“Action?” Carolina’s face lit up like sunshine when it came to her. “You’re go, you’ll get t, you’re gon…”
She was cut off by Diego chuckling. “Dr. Hernandez just cleared me today. As long as he lays off heavy lifting and strenuous physical activity for a while longer, Zorro is able to ride again starting tomorrow.”
The little teenager squealed and jumped up and down a bit, causing Diego to laugh.
“I thought you would like that good news,” he told her, getting an eager nod in response as he reached his hand up and placed it on Carolina’s cheek.
“Speaking of Zorro, I think it is way past his daughter’s bedtime,” Alejandro said, turning his gaze to his granddaughter.
“Ah, Abuelo,” Carolina groaned.
“You must get all the rest you can get if you’re going to help me with the bulls tomorrow.”
“Alright, I’m going, I’m going,” she said, and gave her grandfather and father each a hug and kiss goodnight before heading to her room and leaving the men all to themselves.
“I better get to bed myself,” Diego said, slowly rising to his feet and holding his middle. “Zorro will need all the sleep he can get if he’s going to start riding again.”
“Indeed, he must,” Alejandro answered back.
The two men exchanged goodnights, then Diego and Bernardo walked in one direction, while Alejandro walked in the other to turn in for the night. Tomorrow would come soon and bring many surprises with it.