If you had to die for something, it better be something you believe in. Ames believed in Max, in Ray, in Oliver. And he was going to do everything in his power to ensure that they survived.
The Day of the Coming was here, and although, he was taught all about it, this was definitely not what his peers had envisioned. He was taught that the Day of the Coming would come during his time; that prior to that day, humans - most of them - would die; and that the Familiars would ascend to power and they will reign on Earth. That was the history that they were taught.
He had to unlearn all of that with the rebellion. He had unlearned all of that thanks to Max.
The problem with Familiars was that there were not as many as they believed: Children were few - after all not all humans were compatible to carry a pregnancy and those who were had very hard pregnancies, including the process of "just" getting pregnant- he knew, he had first-hand experiences of that. So despite being physically, and mentally superior to mere humans, they weren't as numerous as they thought themselves to be. Or maybe it was that they were taught from a young age that they would reign supreme, that the question of their numbers didn't really matter.
The transgenics changed that. From what Ames understood about their physiology, the transgenics were made to be on par with Familiars, but more than that, they were made to - for a lack of a better term - breed. Case and point Max got pregnant two times out of two heats with his child and if not for the retrovirus, he knew that she would have carried the first pregnancy to term too.
The familiars realized - but a bit late - that they were targeted. They were so used to being the predator and not the prey that he supposed it took time for them to adjust to the new norm. But despite gaining some advantage against the Familiars, the rebellion and the transgenics hadn't gained friends with the humans.
They saw Familiars as just another kind of transgenics, and the tried and true: kill what you don't know was still very prevalent in Human History. Ames was glad that some of his former peers got a taste of what they made him feel in his childhood.
But as they stood on the precipice of war, he was scared. Not for himself, he had made peace with his destiny. He was scared for Max, for Ray and for Oliver.
It didn't look like peace was on the agenda for them. They would probably win against the Familiars, but then, they would have to face the rest of the world. And because they had destroyed the Genocide plan of the familiars, the humans were definitely not going to die.
Well some were bound to, they were humans after all, but not because of some grand plan. If the meek should inherit the world, it definitely should not be the humans, no matter what Max thought of those pesky parasites. He sometimes felt as if she was bred to care for all those who were weaker than her. Well, she was in a sense: she was created to protect. She would have to cross that road at one point; he was just sad he wouldn't be there to take some of that load off of her. Her big heart would probably break.
Funnily enough, he thought of Alec and the conversation they had before they had left TC. Him, a romantic! He shook his head, she was way more romantic about life than he ever was or will be. Maybe because she had dreamed and yearned for that normalcy for so long. She had pictured a happy ending for them, whereas, he would just be happy to be alive. He had lived the white-picked fence dream and he'd take Max and everything that came with her any day. He just wanted her. And Ray, and Oliver.
He would have to just be happy imagining them being alive and well.
He performed a last check on his gear. Time to die, he thought as he took the security of his gun. He never saw the cocked gun to his head and fell unconsciously into someone's arm.