He was going back, back to 2015 where Cassie was. Back to a time where she still thought he was gone, erased by time. Did she miss him? How would she respond to him being back? All he wanted to do was to run to her and hold her close, to feel that she was still alive, to feel her heart beat against his chest and her breath on his neck as he held her. He needed to feel that she was alive, that he still had a chance. He wanted to hear her call him James again, to see her blue eyes staring back at him, to see her smile up at him.
It didn't take him long to find his way back to her bookstore, he knew the way by heart now. He knew she kept the door unlocked when she was there, she really needed to learn better safety measures, but for right now he was happy it was unlocked. It meant he would be seeing her that much sooner. He opened the door and started to make his way inside, and when he looked up he felt his heart skip a beat. There she was, alive. He could see the surprise written on her face. He wanted to run to her, to pull her into his arms, but he saw Aaron was there. Why was he there? Aaron was not happy to see him, but what else was new? Cassie was slowly making her way to him, her face still frozen in shock. What was she doing with a knife in her hands? She stopped in front of him, and whispered that he was still alive, probably to convince herself more than to tell him. He was more focused on the fact that she was alive though, standing in front of him. Why wasn't she in his arms already? But one glance over to Aaron and he realized now wasn't the time.
He lead Cassie over to her table, wanting to fill her in on all that had happened. The Monkeys had the virus again, Chechnya wasn't the end, neither was the Night Room. They had missed something. Aaron was quick to point out that it was Cole's fault, but Cassie wasn't blaming him. Or at least as far as he knew, she wasn't. Oliver Peters, wasn't that the guy Leland called a Rolling Stone? Cole didn't understand what a Rolling Stone was, but it sounded important. He was there for Operation Troy? Aaron didn't want to help, didn't want to go through it all again, but Cassie was on board. Even if she didn't look convinced. Aaron though, Aaron was yelling at him. Blaming him for getting Cassie killed, again. It wasn't like he wanted Cassie to die, or even that he wasn't trying to prevent it. Cole would do anything to prevent it, anything to save her. He just didn't know how to save her yet. He had her alive, safe, for now. He just needed to figure out how to keep it that way. Aaron blaming him, talking to him like he wanted Cassie to die, that was too much for him. Aaron wanted to get in his face, he could get in his face too. He stood up ready to say something, but he heard Cassie call his name. Cole, not James; that gave him pause. The future was bleak, Cole knew that, but he was trying. It's not like he had planned for any of this. The mission was supposed to be find Leland Frost, kill him, save the world. That hadn't worked, so he and Cassie had been trying to figure it out ever since. He was the first to admit he wouldn't be anywhere if it weren't for Cassie, but that didn't mean he'd admit that to Aaron. He watched as Aaron stormed out, and as Cassie's face filled with disappointment.
As Cassie and Cole started their search for Oliver Peters, Cole could tell something had changed. Cassie was helping, saying all the right things, but her heart wasn't in it. It was as if him returning had let all the air out of her, and that fact cut him deeper than any knife wound he had gotten. She was able to get an address for Peters, and they started towards the house. The car ride was silent, the two of them only speaking when needed. When Cole started coughing though, he could see the concern flash on Cassie's face. He didn't have an answer as to what happens now, he didn't know what to say. He wanted to say they would keep searching, keep fighting, but he knew that wasn't the answer she wanted. She had lost hope, in the mission, and apparently in him, and he didn't know how to fix it. Nothing stays the same, he heard himself say, and even he could hear the sadness in his voice. She looked over at him, but didn't comment at first. He thought they'd spend the rest of the ride in silence until she said that she had gone looking for him in Chechnya. She traveled all the way to Chechnya, to try and find him? She cared that much about him, or was it so she could see if the mission was over? He could feel in his heart though, he knew all along that she would go looking for him, he knew that she would try and find him. He wasn't sure how to explain that to her, so he settled for telling her that he knew. Instead of dwell on his revelation, and have her pick up on his thoughts, he decided to change the topic, to talk to her about Ramse. He hadn't told her too much about Ramse, just that they had grown up together and that they were like brothers, both of which were true but it wasn't the whole story. He didn't know how to tell her about Ramse and Elena and their son Samuel, or how Ramse was abandoning the mission, turning against it in fact. She could read him though; she knew he was worried about Ramse. Instead of elaborate, he lost himself to his thoughts while they drove.
They didn't have much further to go and they soon found themselves at the address. It was a laboratory or some sort, instead of try and be gentle about getting in, Cole found a crow bar and used that to break their way in. As they forced their way through the room number they had, they were met with a familiar, yet pungent smell. Death, mixed with lavender and jasmine. The Monkeys had beat them here. How were they always one step ahead of them? It wasn't Peters though; it was his husband. The Monkeys had Peters, and his hard drive. They had unlimited access to the virus as long as they had those two. They hadn't changed anything, he heard Cassie say with disgust. He was about to reply when the headache that he was becoming all too familiar with, came back. He saw it again, the face, a man standing in the distance, a gun being fired, milk shattering. The more he saw the sequence the more he was sure it was Cassie he was seeing, he just didn't understand why, or how. He felt blood start to trickle down past his nose again, and knew it was getting worse. Cassie was asking him if he was okay, but he couldn't tell her the truth. He didn't even know what the truth was, really, he just knew something wasn't right. He told Cassie he was fine, but he knew she didn't believe him, he didn't even believe himself, but he saw the disappointment cross her face. He knew this wasn't helping his chances with her, as he watched her turn away. He was going to say something, but she had pulled out a book from Peters' desk, she said she had seen it with Peters at the CIA. If you have something that you know other people want, what do you do? His answer was easy, hide it. Peters had hidden the recipe for the virus in the book. It was rather brilliant actually. They had what they needed, they could get out of there before someone found them.
Don't Fear the Reaper, the name sounded familiar. Hadn't he heard that before? He chose the song from the jukebox and let it start, before heading back to Cassie at the bar. She was drinking, moving on to her second drink. He wasn't sure what she was drinking, but he didn't think he had ever seen her drink; not like this, anyways. She was reading Peters' book, there was a picture of the strange corpse he had seen before. It had a name? The Annapurna Remains. A strange name for a strange subject. It was found in the Himalayas in the 80s, but the virus was far older. There was a newspaper clipping on the other page, it was in symbols he had never seen before. Cassie said it was Japanese, as he looked he saw that it references Tokyo, the White Dragon, 1987. First Goines, then Wexler, why did that keep coming up? It had to be where it all started, where Goines got the virus, they had found it. Cassie didn't seem nearly as excited as he was about this revelation, as she sipped on her drink. He needed her to help him find Peters, he didn't like boiling their relationship down to such simple terms, but he thought it might get through to her. He saw, as well as heard the sarcasm in her response, before she took another sip of her drink. He wasn't used to seeing her like this, it was bothering him seeing her so defeated. He tried to talk in terms of the mission, saying her drinking wasn't helping them, because he knew trying to talk to her on an emotional level was not an option right now. Splinter. Apocalypse. Rinse. Repeat. Why was she behaving like this? He wasn't supposed to be here, he knew that, but he was. He was trying to save the world, save her, from the virus. He didn't like it any more than she did, but he wasn't giving up until she was safe. Even if it killed him, which seemed more and more likely by the day. He thought he was hiding it better from her, but she knew. How could she read him so well? She knew about the nosebleeds, the headaches, she knew it was killing him. Could this be part of what was upsetting her? He tried to pass it off, cheer her up, saying he was going to be fine, but he could see she didn't believe him. He wanted to leave on good terms, but it seemed this was as close as he was going to get for this time. He still never got that hug.
He landed back in 2043 with relatively no incident, he started to tell Jones all that they had discovered, but as he looked to her, he knew that something was wrong. Ramse had done what? As he looked around at the charred remains of their information board, he couldn't understand how Ramse had done it. He knew Ramse was turning against the mission, but to burn their information, take their splinter serum, and to hurt Dr. Adler in the process? This was too much. Cole felt his blood pressure rising, and he thought it was just his anger, until the world around him went black.
He woke up to Jones standing over him, running tests. He was hooked up to some machines, he wasn't sure what they were doing, but he figured Jones would tell him. His condition was worsening, faster than Jones had expected. He saw a machine behind her, it looked like a human-sized test tube, ones said something about it being a conditioning system for molecular stabilization. He was going inside that thing? It was almost humorous, he had no issue traveling through time, but that machine had him on edge. He didn't want it; he didn't need it. He started to sit up, he just wanted to jump to 1987, to finish the mission. Jones forced him to lay back down, saying he would die trying. If he couldn't do that, he could at least try to find Ramse. There was a camp that he and Ramse had heard of before they found the facility, it was only a short distance from the facility. He was most likely there, with Elena and Sam. He was trying to protect Elena and Sam, he understood that. Perhaps more than he ever would have, thanks to Cassie. If he was in Ramse's place he'd probably be doing the same thing, if not more, to protect Cassie and their child. Their child, now there was a thought. With the way things were now between him and Cassie, he'd be lucky just to keep her friendship. Jones wanted to know where the camp was, but he needed to know that Ramse would be unharmed first. He couldn't get Ramse killed, no matter what Ramse did he was still a brother to him. With Jones' promise, he told her where Whitley could find Ramse. She went off to tell Whitley and send him on his way before coming back to prep him and the weird test-tube machine. Dr. Adler declared he was ready to go into the machine, even though Cole didn't feel ready, and he certainly didn't want to be ready. He nodded to Max before laying down on the metal slab that went inside the machine. Dr. Adler put a mask over his nose and mouth, and Cole wondered if it was for air or some form of treatment. It didn't take long before the world went black again.
He awoke to an alarm blaring, and Dr. Adler standing over him helping him remove the mask. Something was wrong. He wasn't sure how long he had been in the machine, but he knew it wasn't as long as Jones had said he would be. He turned to Max, hoping she would give him answers on what was going on. When she didn't, he tried to get up, to find out for himself, but Dr. Adler stopped him. Max stepped forward and said she would check it out, but he had a feeling she already knew. He sat with Dr. Adler for a little bit longer, waiting for the effects of the treatment to wear off.
He heard the faint sound of gunshots coming from somewhere in the facility and screaming, he couldn't wait any longer, so he quickly stood up and started running towards the noise. He started towards the splinter chamber, figuring that was where trouble was most likely to be found. In the control room overlooking the machine, he found Max, shot in the stomach. Who had done this? He knew the gunshot was most likely fatal, especially without Cassie there to sew it up, the thought saddened him. He may not be in love with Max, but he still cared about her, and didn't want her to die. She looked up at him, and said the last name he expected to hear. Ramse. Ramse had done this? Was he out of his mind? Don't let him go, she said. Go where? What was going on? Max's body slumped forward and he knew she was gone. How could Ramse have done this? He heard Jones screaming at the machine, what was going on? Was Ramse trying to splinter? Didn't he know that could, and would most likely, kill him? Dammit Ramse. He could see the injection was hurting Ramse before he splintered, didn't he have to wait after the injection to splinter? That was what Jones always told him. Where was he headed? Jones said the machine was programmed to take him to 1987, the jump Cole was supposed to make, but there was no telling if he had or had not made it. He had never splintered before, the machine wasn't prepared for him, and he jumped before the serum had settled in his veins. The odds were against Ramse's safe arrival, and without a tracer signal, they couldn't find him or bring him back. Regardless, Cole was still splintering to 1987, it was his last jump, any more would kill him, if this one didn't. They were out of time. 1987 was the end game. He had to find the source of the plague, and eliminate it. If Ramse had survived the jump, he would try and stop him, that one Cole could figure out on his own. If Ramse tried another stunt, Cole would kill him. It was something he never thought he could go through with, but now, it seemed it was the only option. Ramse or the mission. Ramse or the seven billion. Ramse or Cassie. There was no choice.