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The first thing the woman in red says when she walks into the underground lab is: “So you’re still alive.”
Ashley snaps her head around at the sound, her eyes bloodshot and hair sticking up at all ends, ready to be on the defense. But once she recognizes the woman, her nervous expression melts into one of relief. “Oh, my God, it’s you!”
The woman in red takes careful, purposeful steps into the inner lab, just barely glancing at Leon’s unconscious but now Plaga-free body. She almost seems to avoid looking at the tools dangling overhead as her eyes sweep the room, settling on a row of machines Ashley could barely guess their purpose for.
“Leon, yeah, he’s alive, I think, I heard a heartbeat! No, not think, I did,” Ashley says in a rush, words tripping over each other to get out of her mouth. “I swear I thought I was gonna break my back heaving him up here, but—what do you think? Is he gonna be all right?” She moves to his other side and leans her face so close to his, a tangle of matted hair nearly tickle his cheeks. “Me, I feel fine, I mean, I'm beat, but inside, I—”
“He’ll bounce back.” Unresponsive to Ashley's babbling, the woman’s voice floats through from around the area where a dozen or so manila folders have been piled; some of them half burned in apparent haste to destroy. Her back is to the pair. “Wouldn’t you know he’s been through worse.”
Ashley’s gaze lifts from Leon’s face and tries to follow the woman in red’s voice. She finally settles on the back of her head, pouring over whatever she can salvage on the desks. With her sleek and styled dusky black hair, coordinating black boots, and red ribbed dress—Ashley gets the inkling that she’s seen something like it in a back issue of Vogue—she gives off an air of importance, of ability, of danger. A woman that has seen the worst of humanity and beyond.
“So you’ve worked with him before,” Ashley says.
The woman in red picks up an empty, broken beaker. Ashley angles herself slightly to the right to see what she’s doing. She appears to examine it, though the bottom part is only jagged glass. “Several lifetimes ago.”
A beat. Ashley's tired brain is working overtime to figure out her cryptic responses.
“Well… thank you for saving us,” Ashley offers weakly. “Guess when Leon wakes up, he'll owe you one.”
The woman finally turns away from the materials and regards Ashley. Her hands are still gripping the chair’s arms as a lifeline, never once moving from Leon's unconscious side—in fright or in determination, neither one could say. Ashley’s hazel eyes meet the woman’s dark ones.
“It would have made my life harder if I hadn’t,” was her terse reply. Her lips, a gradient cherry red, barely move as she speaks. (It has to be MAC, Ashley thinks. She remembers gazing at the samples at J.C. Penney, swatching them on her wrists with her friends. Would she tell her what brand if she asked?)
“In that case, why don’t you come with us?” The words tumble out of her mouth before she can stop herself. “Soon, Leon’ll be…”
She tries to continue, but she’s cut short with a look that plainly says: No way, little girl.
“Don’t worry about me,” the woman says. “You’ll take care of him, won’t you? He really needs a friend.” She glances to the double doors just a few feet away. “Turns out there’s nothing for me in here. Good luck.”
“W-wait!” Ashley pleads. “Listen, I don’t know if you’re working for the FBI or whatever but don't you think it's better to stay together than split up? That guy who kidnapped me, I'm sure he's still out there... and, yeah, I know you can handle yourself. Plus..."
She was speaking too quickly again. The woman was staring at her, expression unreadable. "We all worked so hard to survive tonight. It’s only fair we all leave together.”
The woman's expression hardens. The words just continue falling out of Ashley's mouth. "Also, um, since Leon knows you, I’d, uh, like to get to know you too." Ashley attempts a weak smile. "Maybe you're not a good terms, but... I think he cares about you."
God, she sounded so juvenile right now, but could anyone blame her? Luis was gone; Leon’s life was literally between life and death right now, and the last human that didn’t want to kidnap or kill her was just going to leave all by herself.
The sides of the woman’s mouth quirk up into an almost smile. She breathes out a short laugh. “You say fair. You’d do well to learn the definition of that word.” She steps away from them, Ashley swiveling her head in her direction, a plea ghosting her lips.
“Miss—”
“It’s Ada. See you around, Ashley Graham.”
She watches Ada push and disappear through the heavy steel doors, the sound of her boots swallowed up by the thick material. Ashley lays her head on the arm of the chair, feeling more exhausted than ever before her life.
Take care, Ada.
Should she had tried to convince her more? Was there something she should have said? If Leon was awake, would the situation have changed?
Ashley closes her eyes and imagines a crimson sun on the horizon, banishing their long night.
Ada feels sick. It’s Raccoon City all over again.
Leon, unconscious and hurt. Ada, herself, chasing after a little vial of something deadly.
But the girl isn’t part of the story.
Ada couldn’t protect Leon from Annette’s bullet. She had to escape into the darkness of the sewer and leave him half-dead. This time—
This time, things are different.
Ashley Graham, twenty years old, First Daughter, a sophomore in college. Everything Ada isn’t. And here Ada finds her, hovering over Leon’s body, praying Sera’s research will perform a second miracle in the bowls of an island from Hell. For a First Daughter, her expectations meeting her made her envision the 2004 equivalent of meeting Leon from 1998: a teary eyed, nervous, shivering, tall child. Someone who is too trusting; too ready to believe in the goodness in people.
She looked Ada in the eye and said, sincerely, “It’s only fair we all leave here together.” It took everything Ada had to bite back a laugh. The poor girl. She hasn’t seen all the evils of the world, yet. She’ll soon go back to her little nest and this will eventually be a nothing more but a nightmare.
As it happens, their shared nightmare is Ada's reality. She will survive, and so will Leon. They will play their roles once again until the master that feeds will tug them back into the endless cycle of fighting—and perpetuating—bioterrorism. Ashley Graham is not a part of that world.
She’s not jealous of her, nor is she angry. Letting herself breath for a second in the dim lightning, she swallows down that nauseous feeling. Is it...relief? Yes, relief; gratuity that someone can do what she couldn’t, six years ago. Time is turning itself back and she’s watching things play out differently, giving Leon a second chance at happy ending. Rather, a chapter in his life that can end happily instead of with the lingering aftertaste of betrayal.
Ada wonders what she should have done, back there, as she makes her way out from the steel catacombs. What if, for a second, she took up Ashley’s request and the two waited until Leon came to, sitting side by side. Maybe they'd make small talk. How'd it feel to have a parasite inside you about to kill you? She imagined Leon’s reaction to their brand new partnership as Ashley explained everything; too caught up in her newfound infatuation to notice Leon being pissed (and for a good reason). To be honest, she’s not much into teasing him right now. She thinks she’d be too distracted by Ashley’s bright, bright eyes, still full of unbreakable trust, to agree to it.
She’ll take responsibility for robbing that twenty-year-old rookie cop of his ability to trust people. She lied, even if her morals complicated things a bit. Six years later, she still yearns for that naivety: the innate belief human goodness exists. Ada thinks of Ashley’s eyes: strong, but tender. “It’s only fair we all leave together.” She still wants that kind of world to exist, even for a second.
A selfish part of Ada would like to see that brilliance again, one more time.