This was it. This was the moment of truth.
This was the moment everyone in this room would remember as what Jose Ramse really stood for.
There was a gun on Cole; it was a gun he'd originally been meant to hold. For whatever reason he wasn't now but he was standing beside the man who did wield it.
There was a gun drawn on Cassie; this must have been 'the' Cassie, Cole's Cassie, the one he always talked about as if angel's breath came off her tongue and loyalty and love were her compass.
Those things used to be his compass but they'd gotten lost and warped, somehow twisted along the way.
How had he let it come to this?
He remembered Elena and Sam and the need to protect that had always been his way, now for them more than anyone or anything else. Even more than Cole… And he didn't originally mean for that to be the way of it, it just happened. His brother took a backseat to his child and this reality meant more to Ramse than a few long lost bygone years with Cole. He couldn't erase his son or his time with Elena. He could erase himself; that he could do, but he could never erase Sam.
The Army of the 12 Monkeys was adamant the future had to happen and they'd used Ramse this whole time to further their endeavors, their mission. Ramse failed to see it until it was too late, but that's all he'd been to them, a tool. None of those madmen, or women, had ever cared about him or his little family back in 2043, and they never would. All they cared about was the end of days and bringing about a world with a thinned herd, a more dedicated flock.
"Don't struggle Doctor Railly." Olivia said, holding the gun on Cassie herself. "We tried to be accommodating. We tried to spare your life when Mr. Marker begged for it but you simply wouldn't let Mr. Cole meet his end, would you?"
"No." Cassie spat the one word back like venom from a Viper, her pearly white teeth bared in passionate anger and dispassionate hatred. She pitied these people. She pitied Ramse; he could see it in her eyes. All this hate and all this pain; it was bottled up specifically for this end and for the damnation of Cassie's and James' souls. "I would choose him and our mission and the entire world over my own life every time. Every…time… It doesn't matter how many loops we'll end up going through or how many times we get it wrong. We will come for you and all it takes is one slip, one mistake one time and you're finished. We'll make sure of it."
Listening to her declaration of loyalty weighed heavy on Ramse. He'd once been that kind of fidelity and support to Cole and all it took was once, as she'd so eloquently put it, and he'd turned his back on him. Come Hell or high water it seemed the blonde doctor was adamant about her side and standing firm on her position; she would not be moved. She would not be swayed. She was not another Jose Ramse. He'd fallen so low as to think this world was as shallow as one man and one family. There was so much more at stake. And Cole, though his eyes remained ever vigilant; he remained silent as the grave as Cassie stood by him in every way that he needed her to. It wasn't until Olivia clicked the safety off on the gun that Cole became vocal…
"Get your fucking hands off her!" James yelled, wrenching against the two strong men who held him bodily in place, the third man with the gun on him across from Cole and beside Ramse. "Get that goddamn gun out of her face or I swear to God-" He was cut off or he would have said more…
"You swear to God you'll what…hmm, Mr. Cole?" Olivia taunted him, her pasty gaunt face all the more eerie now holding a gun on an innocent woman. "What will you do that we haven't prepared for in our training this whole time? Hmm? You're nothing without Cassie just as she is nothing without you. We've always known that not one of you as a single entity would be anything without the other. So now, we shall simply settle for letting you both rot in your graves…since not one of you saw reason…"
Ramse was being the witness, yet again, forced to incur all of this suffering from both sides and envelope it with his as he'd always done before this. He didn't like it, not anymore. The rage and injustice he'd felt had all but burned out of him when he thought he'd killed Cole in 1987…all those years in prison… "Stop it." Ramse spoke. It wasn't the first time he'd spoken out of turn but it certainly was the first negative he'd ever said to the pale ghost of a woman and her maniacal friends.
Olivia's fire emblazoned eyes settled on him. "What? Would you prefer to do the honors yourself, beloved one, beholden to us…?"
He didn't know exactly what he'd been expecting when he spoke out, but this wasn't it. Ramse balked inwardly at the proposition, scared to say no but not willing to acquiesce. "I just want all of this ended. I don't want any more killing. I just want my life back with my son, with or without Elena… I just want my son."
"You should have thought about that before you injected yourself and splintered to 1987, Ramse; that was a shit move and damned insane!" Cole grumbled at him.
Cassie's eyes set on Ramse and she shook her head. "You can't blame Ramse, Cole… He was trying to protect his loved ones just we need to protect the world…and each other…"
And that was enough; that was all it took. The split second where Cole's Cassie validated him and his need as real and Cole nodded, not exactly agreeing but not blowing it off, either; that was the one moment Ramse decided.
He couldn't allow this to continue. He'd fucked up enough for them.
He'd simply screwed up so much…
Olivia was about to fire and at the same time the man holding the gun on Cole took a firing stance to shoot him. Ramse made eye contact with Cole. There was only so much time. Only one could be saved. Which would he choose? And in that instant lock with Cole, Ramse understood everything and all things that he never understood before. Sacrifice was greater than one body, one person. Sacrifice was meant to be unselfish, unfettered by personal gain or retention. "I love you, brother. Always have… I'm sorry…"
"Ramse…no! Ramse! Cassie!" Cole yelled just as the two guns simultaneously fired.
Ramse ran for Cassie. Cassie's eyes were wide, disbelieving. The world seemed to slow now as if entering a period of slow motion. Real time clicked by in ten thousand frames a second, so fast it seemed extended. Cole shook off the men, dodging the bullet meant for him and taking out the man holding the gun on him, shooting the two who'd been holding him. Cassie was hit full force by Ramse's strong body, pushed flat to the wall as Olivia unloaded the entire clip…into Ramse's body. Blood flecked up from the impact of the bullets tearing through flesh and flecked up onto Cassie's face and neck, into her hair.
"Ramse…oh my God…Ramse! …Cole!" Cassie screamed, holding up a man that was twice her size in stature and weight both. "James, please! Ramse! Oh my God!"
One more shot rang out and Olivia was dead. Cole killed her. There was no more left of the Army in that room now. Only the witness…and his life was fading from his eyes…
"Brother…hey…hey, man…" Cole was over him, kneeling beside him as Cassie laid him over her lap, the blood soaking into her jeans. "Ramse…what you did…"
"Can't be…undone…nothing…can…" He sputtered, blood coughed up and speckling his chin, lips, teeth. "Just…can't change…"
"That's not true brother. You changed and you came back from that. You're still my brother. Always will be…" Cole smiled tightly, nodding. "You did good brother…you did good…"
Cassie held onto Ramse until the last breath wheezed from his throat and died on his blood stained lips. She was in shock. She held him all the way home to the hotel/motel they'd been renting by the week since the bookstore was no more. They sat in their vehicle for a while and still she wouldn't even let him go when Cole came over the seats into the back, needing to take him from her to bury him.
"He saved my life, James. He had a choice…and he saved me… Why me and not you…?"
"Because he knew I'd be nothing without you just like he was nothing without Elena. We were shells of men before we met you both…and would be again. He was…for a while…" Cole's eyes were sad as Cassie looked up into him, tears in hers, running rivers down her cheeks. "He made the choice I would make for him. Save the one we loved…because that's all that matters after all."