Phoenix:
4.
Team
2004
Serpiente Rojo, Spain
Sometime after meeting Leon Kennedy and then encountering Luis Serra, Ashley began to understand what it meant to be part of a team.
She'd once been part of a play in school. She'd been cast as a supporting player. Passed over for the lead by a girl without much social standing. Even then, her father had been a rising star on his way to the White House. To be cast aside for a relative nobody had stung.
Ashley had suffered her first rejection and declared it would be her last that day. She'd started working for herself in most things. She made sure she was the head cheerleader and captain of the debate team. She pushed to be the best at everything. Because she hadn't liked being the worst at anything.
She didn't do well in the middle of the crowd. She liked to stand out. The idea of working with anyone when she could work for herself had seemed stupid.
The minute her life erupted in blood and death, she stopped trying to be in the spotlight. She'd have given anything to be in the shadows again. She'd have traded places with anyone else in the world than be who she was.
It took five minutes in the company of two men with nothing to lose to make it clear she didn't know her ass from a hole in the ground on what it meant to really be a part of something that mattered.
The crackle and smell of fire over flesh would be something that stayed with her for the rest of her life. The wind made it worse, forcing a cloying stench into your mouth and nose that left a film behind, like the butter off movie theater popcorn that never quite leaves the back of your tongue. She could taste the dead as if she'd put her lips to theirs to kiss them goodbye.
The cold air slid under her skirt, tickling over her butt as she walked and making her wish she'd worn more than tights beneath the fashionable wool. The lace panties she'd put on that morning when she'd so eagerly thought she'd be having her first real kiss were pretty but useless. They couldn't block the cold any better than the silk scarf she wore neatly around her neck. They were fashion, not function, and before her world had imploded - Ashley had adored pretty things.
Now they taunted her like bullies on a playground. They lingered on her body as a reminder of how naive and stupid she'd been - thinking she was in the bosom of the most elite detail in the Western World. Thinking she was a pretty bird in a gilded cage, protected, insulated, and denied the reality of a world without bars. She knew now...the bars she'd had were nothing next to real ones.
The protective shell she'd lived in had done nothing to prepare her for what waited beyond it. She was almost a child compared to the two men in her company. Leon clearly came from training she couldn't even begin to guess at and Luis from, as he put it, the school of hard knocks. She simply didn't know enough about survival to offer much in the way of help.
As they moved through the ruins of what might have once been a beautiful village, Ashley kept pace beside Luis. Leon took the lead, moving like a quiet sentry. Luis walked with her but guarded their rear as they moved. When she shivered, Leon secured her a coat from a wall inside one of the abandoned huts. Luis found her a stupid-looking scarf and wrapped it around her head, declaring, "There. Now you look local. Very rural and domestic."
Ashley had felt her mouth twitch with humor as she answered, "You sure? This feels more babushka than farmer."
Luis had considered her before answering, "You make a cute nesting doll, I think. So, embrace your inner abuela"
When she shook her head with a smile of gratitude for his teasing, Luis glanced at Leon and mused, "What hat suits Sancho? Not sure they make one for heroes."
Ashley glanced at Leon's back as they walked. If he had a hat what would it be? A flight cap? A beret? A gas mask to conceal while it protected? Maybe a set of glasses like Clark Kent to disguise the superhero within?
Luis commented, "Maybe some cat ears."
Surprised, Ashley glanced at him as he clarified, "Some whimsy, I think. To take away from his perpetual scowl. What do they call that cat with the puss on all the time?"
With a small chuckle, Ashley offered, "...grumpy cat."
"Si, perfecto! Perhaps I will think of him now as that -grumpy cat, and picture him in plastic cat ears to humanize him."
Ashley shook her head with a grin. "You can't be serious for a moment, can you?"
"Eh," Luis seemed confused, "I could, but the ladies prefer to laugh. So-"
"So you need a clown hat," when he looked down at her with sparkling good humor, Ashley shrugged and finished, "if the floppy shoes fit..."
He chuckled. Leon glanced back and warned, "Don't fall behind. Keep up. The terrain gets rough here. Luis, if you've got time to flap your lips, you've got time to scout for a way through the wreckage up ahead."
Luis gave Ashley a bobble of brows and put his fingers over his head-like ears as he made an exaggerated grumpy face. She smiled and appreciated him as he moved down the embankment into the seemingly abandoned huts lining the path they were on. The more Leon focused, the more Luis tried to lighten the mood. She understood why. Leon was painfully professional. He was here with one focus - saving her life. He'd kill or take down anyone that got in his way to do that.
Luis seemed to be trying to...what? Make her like him, clearly. He seemed to want to put her at ease. Leon was good at a lot of things, but relaxing wasn't one of them. He'd take a hatchet to the neck for her, but he struggled with the smallest jokes. It's like he felt making one was a betrayal of what he'd come here to do. She wondered what kind of life he'd led to be so close to the edge.
She wanted to lighten him up a little, just to see him smile. Because when he did, he looked like he could have been rushing any fraternity in the Ivy League. He was handsome like a movie star and as charming as sandpaper toilet paper. But she couldn't blame him. Hell, he was the only damn reason they were alive at this point. It wasn't like he had time to make quips while he was doing ninja flips all over the rotting villagers trying to kill them.
She knew things were ugly. She knew it was almost hopeless. But with Luis with them, she also knew they had a chance to do more than escape. He knew how to get out the things in their bodies. He was leading them there. He was trying to help.
She had no doubt it was a mea culpa for whatever he'd done before this, but it didn't change the push on his part. She had started to wonder if he was the cause of the infection in the village. The more he talked, the more he implied, she knew she wasn't far off. He'd done bad things, clearly, but he'd made it his mission to get them to safety now. Maybe that was how he made peace with what he'd done.
Or if not peace...maybe that was just how he looked at himself in the mirror.
She wanted to ask, but she was a coward. She didn't ask Luis about his actions. She didn't ask Leon about his motivations. She just huddled down and wished she'd gone out for ROTC instead of cheerleading. Maybe then, she'd be able to help more and wouldn't feel like a brick tied to a string dragging them down.
At one point, they had her hide in a closet. She'd looked at them both with a clear irritation on her face. "You kidding?"
Leon had responded, "Please? Trust me here."
"There's a dumpster over there," she'd returned with a little tone of teasing, "you sure you don't want me in there? It's kind of my thing."
Luis had responded, "Not a bad idea, carina, but just because you're American doesn't mean you're trash."
Leon had rolled his eyes, "Not helping, Serra. Seriously."
Ashley sighed, "Fine. How will I know to come out?"
"I'll whistle."
She'd looked at Leon for a moment before demanding, "Like a dog? Really?"
Exasperated, he'd encouraged, "Please? Ashley? Just do this."
She'd gone into the closet while Luis had added, "Sit, girl. Stay."
Her mouth twitched again as Leon closed her in and she waited. The amusement died as the fight began. She heard the rev of chainsaws. She heard Luis let out a whoop of battle. She heard Leon demand he focus.
There were bumps and thuds. There was a crunch of bone. She froze, terror turning her insides to jelly as the noises died to nothing. She waited, but no whistle came. She breathed harshly, afraid they'd both died, and left her alone. How long did she stay in here!?
She almost talked herself into running for it when the whistle came - sharp and quick. She opened the door, peeped around, and hurried toward the stairs. Leon and Luis stood at the bottom surrounded by bodies.
The Spaniard was saying, "You are something else, amigo. You didn't get those skills as a cop."
Surprised, Leon gave him a calculating look, "How did you know I was a cop?"
Luis twitched a smile, "I have sources too, Sancho. I like to know who I'm working with."
"We're not working together," Leon denied and moved to intercept Ashley on the stairs, "you ok?"
She nodded, "I'm fine. Thanks...sorry for arguing about hiding."
He shook his shaggy head, "It's ok to ask questions, Ashley. But remember -"
"I know," she interrupted, "trust you."
He nodded. "Right," he turned and gestured with his gloved hand to the door, "jokes are all well and good, but there's a time and a place for that too. Focus. Be pretty stupid to get snuck up on while this joker over there is making you laugh."
He slipped through the door with Ashley and Luis behind him. Luis snorted and muttered, "See, Ashley? Not clown - joker."
Ashley smiled lightly as they emerged into the cold. She cuddled the big coat around her as they moved. As they turned a corner, a door flew open on one of the huts. The three villagers inside got the rush on Leon.
He took them on but they bombarded him. It drove him back against the rock wall of the mountain pass and Luis surged in front of her as two more made a beeline for Ashley. One swung a hatchet that he parried with a pitchfork he grabbed from the hay bale beside them. The other stabbed him right in the chest with a small eating knife while Ashley screamed.
She started to surge forward and Leon blew apart the head of the one stabbing Luis. Luis grunted, finished goring the other with his pitchfork, and Leon stepped clear of the three dead he'd left behind him. He came toward them as Ashley called, "He's hurt!"
And Luis just laughed, "Not quite...but mierda...that was close."
He spread open his jacket to show the vest he wore beneath. It was like the one Leon wore, clearly meant to stop blunt force trauma, bullets, and most penetration. Ashley blew out a breath and admitted, "I thought you were a goner."
Leon checked the bodies at their feet and rose, offering the little eating knife to Ashley as he did. She glanced at it, and at his face, as he told her, "Just in case. Keep it in this."
He secured a velcro sheath at her left thigh above the knee. The knife slid in as she nodded, feeling a little better with even such a pathetic weapon. She palmed the knife to get the feel of it and he instructed, "Don't waste any movement. You grab it, you jab it. It's not a sword, so you don't swing it like one. Clear?"
She nodded again.
"Killing wounds only, Ashley. Neck. Heart. Don't waste a single strike. If you don't put enough force behind it, it'll notch on the sternum or the clavicle, and then you've just wasted your only attack and pissed off your opponent."
Ashley blew out a breath. "Strike fast. Strike smart."
"Exactly," he demonstrated on Luis. The Spaniard smirked as he deflected the jab and Leon punched him in the side for it, "like that. If he deflects, you hit him in the fucking nuts or belly."
Luis winged his brows, "The nuts, amigo? Dios mio, how will I make babies without them?"
To which Leon simply answered, "Adopt."
Luis chuckled.
Leon stated, "Remember the golden rule, Ashley - if it bleeds, it can die. Hopeless doesn't mean helpless."
She looked at him like he might have the answers to the universe in his mouth, "...right. Thanks."
"You bet."
He patted her shoulder and turned to move toward the far side of the huts. Luis started to make a joke and he glanced over her head instead. His humor died as he advised, "Run, Ashley. Now is when you run."
She heard the crunch of rocks and did what he said. She ran. Behind her, the voice of the big man who hunted her called, "Stop resisting. Submit. And become."
She let out a terrified shout as she ran toward Leon. He shot three times into that enormous man pursuing them. For all the good it did. It was like peppering a tyrannosaurus with a BB gun. All it did was irritate him.
Leon ran in front with Ashley between him and Luis. Luis shouted, "Don't you know when to give up, you stupid rat!? Maybe you keep hoping instead to get your teeth on the big cheese!"
Leon shot and moved, with no hesitation. He kicked. He cut left at a wooden walkway with Ashley fast behind him. When her foot stuck in some rotting slats, he turned back to help her and Luis jerked her free to toss her into Leon's arms. The agent caught her and they ran. They were barely to the other side when the big man hit the wood.
And it simply gave out under his massive weight.
It collapsed behind them as they ran with Luis laughing, "Lay off the butt putty, you bastardo gordo!"
Mendez roared, "Repent! Find god! Before we lose our faith in you!"
As they rushed on, Leon muttered, "Forget god, that tub of lard needs to find Weight Watchers."
Surprised, Ashley glanced at his face. He caught her looking and queried, "what?"
She shook her head and retorted, "I've never heard you joke."
Leon turned them down a narrow path and replied, "I can...I just kinda do it under stress...like a bad reflex."
Her lips twitched, "You turn corny under threat of death?"
His eyes almost sparkled in the moonlight, "...I've been known to."
To which Luis teased, "There's hope for you yet, Sancho."
"I got your sancho right here, Serra." Leon signaled his gun and had the Spaniard nodding.
"Touche, amigo, nothing will make you find god faster than the promise of death. Turns out, staring down the barrel of a gun, we all turn holy."
Leon narrowed his eyes. "...pretty sure that was a pun."
"The ears hear only that which they want, I'm afraid. Take it any way you want it."
Luis grinned and shrugged. Ashley glanced between them and understood finally what was happening. Through circumstance or design, they were on the same side here They might have been enemies in another world, but here, at this moment, they were allies. Reluctant.
But the goal was the same.
And Leon met his with steadfast, unshakeable determination. Luis answered the same with humor and tongue in cheek attitude. They balanced somehow. They worked. They suited each other with her as the conduit between them that gave them both purpose.
Apart, they could get the job done, they could help her and protect her. Leon would get her home, she did not doubt that. And Luis? She was understanding his drive was nearly as strong. He was going to make sure she made it too. Not just her, but Leon too. Something in him had to get them safe. It had to save them.
Or die trying.
And maybe Leon didn't like Luis for whatever he'd done...but he liked that. He respected that drive to protect and help. And as a reward, it earned Luis a bad joke or two. Such a small thing, but a big nod of approval from a man who rarely leaked out anything but professional stoicism.
The rare peek behind the curtain of iron will was a nice change. It turned a badass agent into a human you could relate to. It made you understand he was the job, yes, but that wasn't all he was. Something about this job was personal for him.
And it was the same for Luis.
That slim connection bonded them all together. And made it so they went from strangers to a team. However long it lasted, they were in it together now.
When they reached a collapsed barn, the only way through appeared to be dropping down into the dilapidated building. Leon signaled to Ashley to wait and Luis paused before jumping down after him into the barn. He unzipped his jacket, took it off, and unlatched his vest.
She blinked as he slid it over her and latched it in place beneath her jacket. It fit well when he latched it tightly, securing it over her torso. She stated, "But what about you? Don't you need it?"
He winked at her, "I'm expendable, carina. You? You need all the protection you can get. Besides, not even your hero down there can stop a knife in the back."
He'd leaped down after Leon while she waited atop.
And she couldn't even scream as the big man emerged from the shadows to take them out.
She climbed down the mess of the barn listening to the battle. She fingered the knife on her thigh like it was a good luck charm. Her hand slid against the vest she wore like a lover's caress. She was protected. She'd been insulted most of her life.
But it didn't mean she was useless. It didn't mean she'd cower and wait to see what happened. They were a team. And she was going to do what she could to live up to the meaning of that.
The only way they survived this, she thought as she hurried to find a way out of the burning barn for the two men with her, was by working together.
2005
Team had so many meanings. It was about companionship and respect. It was about trust and working together.
And sometimes it was the only way to defeat your opponent.
She and the other recruits learned that the hard way on day one of combat training. Leon tossed them around like toys. He was faster, better, stronger - and one step ahead at every turn. They kept rushing and running at him.
They were every man for himself.
They were all trying like hell...but they weren't doing it together.
As Ashley sat in a bar after training and sipped a vodka tonic, she was putting the pieces together. The pieces of her time in Spain where she'd figured out how to work with others and survive. The pieces of who she'd been before she'd been kidnapped. The pieces of who she was now.
And what she'd become when it was over.
The first step was letting go of this rage, as Leon had advised her, it had no place in what she was doing. She had to focus. She had to remember that what she was doing here, wasn't about her. Not really. Not anymore. It was a job. It was a choice.
If she went in with chips on her shoulders and demons on her back, she'd be on her knees with a scythe taking her head before she could make any difference.
She wouldn't save anyone with only her demons to guide her.
But she might if she started acting like a team.
She glanced at Carter and Kyle. They were at a table with a girl named Misty who looked like a cheerleader and a smaller girl named Sue who reminded Ashley of Newt from Aliens. Ashley picked up her drink to join them at the table.
They welcomed her with smiles and cheered at her bravery during combatives.
Ignoring the praise, Ashley advised them, "We can't win against him if we keep doing what we're doing."
They stopped talking to listen. They looked at her as she outlined a plan. She used napkins and glasses to demonstrate. She told them about Leon - he was fast, he was savvy, he was quick to recover from hits and respond with an ingenious solution to complex problems. They'd never beat him one on one.
They had to work together to take him down.
When they'd formulated a plan for the next day, Ashley rose from the table and went to pay her check. She was headed out to catch a cab back to her dorm room during training when a motorcycle slid to the curb ten feet to her left. She waited, the helmet came off, and Leon shook his hair free to look at her.
The leather jacket suited him, snug and black, striped white at the arms for visibility while he rode the flashy Ducati he sat on like a knight atop a trusty steed. She held his eyes as he said, "You lost your cool today."
Ashley arched a brow at him, "I did," he looked surprised as she admitted it, "I was too worried about proving myself to you."
"And now?"
She met his look equally, "And now I realize it's not you I have to prove myself to...it's me."
She lifted her hand to hail a cab, "I know my father asked you to go hard at me to make me quit."
Leon said nothing.
She tossed a look at him, "Yeah. I knew he would. He was hoping I'd see the error of my ways and give up because you were mean to me," she laughed lightly, "I might have...a few months ago...I probably would have," she flicked a gaze over the cool look on his face, "but somebody told me I was capable of taking. care of myself once. They said I didn't need them."
Leon arched a brow, "That guy might have been an idiot."
Ashley laughed lightly, "Nah. He was too smart for his own good, I think. But he was right. I needed him once," she gave him a solid stab of eye contact and finished, "I don't anymore. I came here to learn, Leon. Teach me, or get me someone who will."
His head tilted, "You think I wasn't today?"
Ashley shrugged, "Maybe you were. It worked. You reminded me that I can't rely on desire to get the job done. I gotta get skills, " she thrust her hands into her back pockets and rocked on her heels, "and I know my father doesn't want me to have them. So...you can either do what he wanted, or what I need. The choice is yours."
Leon tapped a finger on his thigh as he studied her. She held his gaze, unflinching. She wasn't the girl she'd been. In her bones, she knew she was turning into someone else. Who? That was yet to be seen. But she meant it. She'd either get what she needed from Leon, or she'd find someone else to help her. It was up to him if he wanted to be on the same side here or wash his hands of her.
She couldn't force him to see her as a teammate. But she was hoping he'd give her the opportunity to prove herself.
After a moment, he decided, "Alright. Show up tomorrow, show me whatcha got."
Ashley nodded, and a cab finally rolled to the curb in front of her.
Leon offered, "You need a ride?"
She gave him a cool look, "Nah. I got this. But thanks for the offer."
Impressed, he smiled at her, "See you tomorrow...rookie."
Ashley gave a soft laugh. "Enjoy your night, Agent Kennedy."
She slid into the car. She didn't even glance at him again as it pulled away from the curb.
And she didn't see the grin that spread across his face as he encouraged, "...yeah...you got this. I'm gonna make damn sure of that."
She wasn't the damsel in distress anymore. It was up to her if she had what it took to become a hero.
