I don't own The Patriot

James Wilkins had lost count of the amount of civilians that Tavington had killed ever since he had joined the Green Dragoons. In the early hours of the morning, he and the cavalry had been called upon by the colonel after he got word that a family had aided Benjamin Martin and his rebels. The cavalry had gathered around a small plantation where a family, that consisted of a mother and two sons and a daughter, were forcefully pulled out of their home and into a nightmare that they hoped they would escaped from. The captain watched as the mother pulled her three children close to her, as if her arms were a shield in protecting them from harm's way, whilst one of the Dragoons galloped about with his horse making sure that they family stood where they were.

The woman kept her head bowed to the ground but her children curiously looked up to see whom these strange men in horses were and why they had caused such distraught upon their mother. It wasn't long before the woman finally glanced up and her eyes landed on James. His eyes locked with hers and a pit formed in his stomach. He recognized this woman from one of the colonists who had participated in the General Assembly. Her lips mouthed the words 'Mr. Wilkins' almost as if she was pleading for him to save her from Death that was hovering above her and her children.

That honorific form of address was something that James had not been associated with ever since he had joined the Dragoons, and it felt strange when he heard in being uttered by the civilians who once knew him. A certain thought had crossed his mind many times after he had been the one to initiate the flamed torch being thrown towards the church at Pembroke. What did the people, who were once his neighbors, thought of him now? Before his participation with Tavington and his cavalry, he firmly believed that he did not care what others thought for his decision in where his loyalties lied. But now, he couldn't even bring himself to even question it! If he were to suddenly, and willingly, leave the cavalry he didn't know what sorts of punishments lied before him.

The galloping of hooves suddenly broke James out of his inner thoughts as he watched Tavington's horse trotting back and forth before the woman and her children. "Have we obtained any new information?" Tavington questioned one of the captains in the cavalry.

"None sir," the captain responded with a shake of his head.

All of this unwillingness to participate made the colonel infuriated. Did these people want to watch their houses burn to the ground or even face Death? He watched as the woman kept her eyes glued to the ground. All this fear that he had spread only fulfilled his ego as well his reputation as 'The Butcher.' He pulled the reins on his horse before ordering two words that James had grown to detest. "Kill them."

"Wa-" the woman shrieked before four bullets blasted out of the firearms, causing a flock of birds to escape from the tree branches and into the morning sky.

James averted his eyes from the sight, especially when the rest of the Dragoons raided the home for anything of value and torched the house on fire. He knew that he should have been used to all of this violence by now but there was no honor or morals into any of this. He pulled the reins on his own horse and obediently followed the rest of the cavalry where he hoped would be returning back to headquarters and not to another plantation to cause more terror. The horse trotted up next to Tavington, where James hoped that they wouldn't hold any sort of conversation. Ever since Captain Bordon's death, where the Dragoons were ambushed by Gabriel and the militia, James had been promoted to second in command. It would have been a high honor that James wished to have enjoyed but that only meant facing more of Tavington's brutal tactics.

The two men remained silent for a mere couple of minutes until Tavington broke the silence between them. "It just occurred to me Captain," he began causing James to grip tightly onto the reins of his horse, "you have given me plenty of knowledge about Benjamin Martin and yet, we have not been fortunate enough to find him nor of his rebel army. When we were in Pembroke, you happened to mention that Ms. Smith knows plenty about Benjamin Martin, mostly through her father. You said that you will get some information out of her...and yet, she has not uttered a single word about it."

James had hoped that Tavington had forgotten about the lie that had slipped. It had been a moment of panic but James had stood a watched a burning church full of people whom he knew and didn't utter a word. He wasn't about to let a woman, whom he had desired, be thrown into the fire and watching her burn to death.

"Either she knows and chooses not to say anything or," the colonel turned his head and looked at James, almost causing the captain to wither away from his cold icy stare, "she has no knowledge and you chose to save her."

James could tell that this was not a question, but a fact. He remained quiet for a moment before saying, "I don't understand what you mean Colonel. She could possibly be too afraid to talk."

"Is that so?" Tavington asked and rose a brow at James's assumptions. "There were a lot of noises happening at the lieutenant's library a couple of nights ago. Now what could that possibly mean Captain?"

That statement made James alert. He knew that he shouldn't have been fooling around with Catherine in there but in that moment of desire that rippled between them, they just couldn't control themselves until James had stopped her before they made any more noise. "What are you trying to say colonel?"

A smirk formed upon Tavington's lips, though he didn't turn his eyes at James. He would have berated James for even questioning him in such a fashion but he took some real pleasure in watching his discomfort. "Only to be cautious...for your sake."

The remainder of the journey for Anna and Gabriel had begun and was in ending, in Gabriel's perspective, in complete silence. There were no snide remarks and no 'are we there yet-s' coming from Anna. Then again, she had her own horse and Gabriel had his and there was no point in even starting a conversation if she continued to be upset with him. Anna was a couple of feet ahead of Gabriel with her horse, though it wasn't until she directed the reins in a different direction from where they had come from.

"Anna where are you going?" he asked her.

Anna didn't answer him but continued to walk down that mysterious path with the horse. Gabriel let out a sigh and direction his horse towards that direction as well. The path looked familiar to Gabriel. It was one that he had rode through many times before the war but the closer he got to it, there was a burning scent that was all to familiar to him. When he finally caught up with Anna, he noticed her horse standing in front of four corpses and Anna sitting rigid on the horse as she looked at the sight before her. She had seen all those men back at camp, suffering from their wounds and some of them dying, but this was a far more sorrowful sight. A mother and her children, shot down and their home set on fire.

That fire. The same aroma and crackling that she had heard back at Pembroke when the church, as well as her home, had been enflamed by those devious torches.

Gabriel approached Anna with his horse and looked at the sight before him. There was nothing that he could say but to mourn for the innocent lives that were lost throughout this war. How many innocent had to die before this war was over? There was so much that the colonists and the militia could do in order to protect its civilians and not everyone could be saved. Just like Anne Howard and her family. Gabriel had vowed that he would love and protect her until death do them part and he had not been able to do that. And Death had already parted them.

He looked over at Anna before he hesitantly put his hand on her shoulder. She didn't push him away but only flinched at his touch as if she hadn't expected him to be there. "God rest their soul," Anna whispered more to the family than to herself. She turned her eyes and looked over at Gabriel, "what should we do?" were the first words that she had uttered ever since their journey.

Gabriel look back at the four slayed civilians. He knew that this was most likely the work of Tavington and his cavalry. He wished that there was something that they could do for them, but it was too dangerous to even stay here any longer. As the fire continued to crackle and burn the architecture of the home, there was a disturbing noise from the roof of the home falling upon the house. Wood, debris, and flakes of fire fell in front of Gabriel and Anna, causing distraught upon the horses. "Whoa boy," Gabriel said to the horse and grabbed onto Anna's reins before she was flung off hers.

"Come on," Gabriel said to Anna and pulled the horse towards him. The longer that they stayed, the more of a terrible sight they were going to see and from what he saw in Anna, he knew that giving help to this poor family was beyond their reach.

A/N: All chapters have been edited, hopefully less typos and grammatical errors, as well as some extra detail in certain previous chapters. Thank you for the reviews thus far!