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[arratesope]

Awakening Past

Chapter 19

NOTE I want to make an annotation for this chapter. This is a fic that, as you can see, is very long and I have realized that there are chapters that get out of hand to the point of having to make two parts. I have been writing another 7-chapter fic in which I condense the story and the way of narrating it, so I wanted to implement a personal limitation for the length of the chapters that will come after this one. I would like to know your opinion about this chapter. I would like to know what you think about the transition of time, the events and the pace at which it takes place. I would appreciate if you could leave a comment to know your opinion about it! :3

pairing: Ashley Graham x Leon S Kennedy.

Content: (+18) romance, angst, gore, erotic/suggestive themes at some point, slow burn, violence, action, self-harm, death talk,

If you're a MINOR DON'T keep reading, thank you.

Archive of our own / WORK LIST / Awakening Past Masterlist

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Everything was spinning horribly.

It felt like she had a goblin stuck in her head hammering against her skull.

Ashley grunted for the umpteenth time trying to focus on the papers. The dogs had laid down in the corner and were playing with a worn rope.

The call she got from Victor to see how her injuries were going was like a punch in the face and she was about to say something outrageous to him, but managed to control herself.

It was a brief call, she would probably give it to Leon as well and she was grateful that Victor was concerned about her strange cases. It put her mind at ease.

She took a second coffee, but the goblin was still pummeling her brain and she could only drop her head against the table.

Everything was a blur.

From a moment during dinner she no longer had clear images of what happened.

She just hoped she hadn't done anything foolish.

The door opened to let in Jill, Chris and Leon, who were chatting over a cup of coffee and stood still when they saw Ashley with her head against the table.

“Should we be worried?” Redfield said with an arched eyebrow.

Ashley grunted.

“ Don't expect much from me today.” she mumbled with her forehead pressed against the metal table.

That answer seemed to calm the three of them down and Jill walked over to the dogs.

“What a show you gave us yesterday.” smiled Valentine scratching Mint's belly.

Leon glanced sideways at Ashley who snapped her head up.

“ Tell me I didn't do something stupid.” his voice was alarmed.

Chris laughed sitting down on a stool.

“ It depends, if you consider it stupid to sing an "exciting" song.” he emphasized the word with a mocking air.

The three of them could see the blonde's face gradually turn red and then she slammed back down on the table.

“ Oh God... it was not a dream…”

Jill and Chris laughed, but Leon couldn't get out his trademark laugh. Too focused on not thinking about what happened the night before for Ashley not to smell his nerves. So he tried to deflect it onto someone else.

“ You don't know how you were sticking it to Chris.” Kennedy joked, taking a seat on the other side of the room.

Ashley tried to sink her head deeper into the table, holding her hands to the crown of her head.

“ For God's sake, stop it. You're never taking me out to party again and I'm never drinking again, I'm done.” she said, red up to her ears. Leon could hear her heart beating wildly.

“ Oh come on, the song was great, people would pay to see you perform.”

Ashley almost gagged as she imagined doing that whole show for an audience and the embarrassment made her groan under her breath.

“ Chris…” she whimpered in embarrassment.

Chris, Jill and Leon laughed, but the latter still remembered that dark look he gave her during the deep words of the song. He was under the influence of alcohol, but he wondered to what extent the things Ashley had done the day before had been unintentional.

The two ex-Stars teased him for a while longer until Narsson and Maria arrived an hour later.

Vazquez turned to Ashley and the blonde pointed at her in warning.

“ Don't. Start.” she stressed every word. “ Not a word of this to my father or James, is that clear?”

Maria pretended to be offended.

“ Me? I would never do that to you.”

Ashley closed her eyes.

“ You recorded me and sent it to James the first time, I'm still saving it for you.”

Vazquez rolled her eyes and sighed.

“ What a poor sense of humor you have Ashley.”

“ I want to keep my dignity.” she argued.

From Leon's point of view, even if Ashley had been drunk, at no point did she lose her dignity. Quite the contrary. She captured the attention and the hearts of those who saw her sing that night like a femme fatale.

Narsson noticed the way Leon watched Ashley as she argued with Maria. Enma scratched her chin and began to feel her curiosity demon emerge from the bed and poke its head out.

She approached Leon cautiously and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

“ Hey did something happen yesterday?” she whispered in a playful tone.

Leon knew instantly what she was talking about, but played dumb.

“ What do you mean?”

“ Oh come on. Yesterday Ashley was over the top and the same way she clung to Chris she could cling to you. Did something happen last night?” Enma hinted with an arched eyebrow.

Leon kept firm eye contact, until a sudden image of Ashley on top of him came to his mind, making him blink and blush subtly.

“ Nothing happened.”

"Little liar" thought Enma even more eager to know what had happened and continued to press in.

“ Wow, I think someone's going to grow a nose.”

Leon looked at her in surprise.

“ I'm not lying, nothing happened.”

“ Mmm…”

Like lightning he turned to Ashley.

“Ashley what-”

Leon quickly covered her mouth with his heart in his fist and with a smile dragged her out of the room like a sack. He closed the door on his way out.

Ashley blinked not quite understanding what was going on, but it struck her as odd that Leon was acting so...close to Narsson.

Her heart skipped a beat as her mind processed the information.

Did something happen between them last night?

*

“You're supposed to be an adult, dammit," Leon growled down the corridor, away from prying ears.

“Well then tell me what happened.” Enma crossed her arms.

Leon rolled his eyes.

“Why the fuck do you want to meddle in Ashley's personal life?”

She glared at him.

“I want to make sure that the team I'm working with isn't suffering from problems that could affect the performance of the investigation.”

Leon threw back his head with a "Ha!" and looked at her coldly again.

“ And I am Julius Caesar. Now tell me you're not going to ask her.”

Narsson drummed his fingers against his arm.

“ She doesn't remember?”

Leon sighed.

“It doesn't look like it, and I'm not going to ask her to confirm it.”

This time it was Narsson who rolled her eyes.

“ Have you had unprotected sex?”

Leon hissed, covering her mouth with his red face.

“No, damn it. We haven't had any of that.”

Enma pressed.

“Unprotected and you finished inside.”

Leon clenched his jaw wanting to strangle her.

“Your FUCK- She pinned me to the floor, touched my lips and painted them with what she was wearing on hers, happy?”

Enma blinked at the sudden confession that was not at all what she had expected.

“Did she kiss you?”

“No. She smeared her fingers with her lipstick and then painted them on me.”

Narsson was speechless for a few seconds.

“Are you kidding me?”

Leon turned red up to his ears and approached her menacingly.

“Do I look like I want to joke about a situation like this with the president's daughter?”

She thought that argument was solid enough, but that didn't stop her from doubling over in laughter and trying to hold back a laugh.

“My God...it's not like you guys are Mormons, are you really in such worry about that?”

“Yes, is there a problem?”

Leon's flat voice made Narsson stop laughing. He stared at her and saw the seriousness in his expression.

“Aren't you going to tell her?”

“It's stupid and I don't want her to feel any worse about it than she already does.” Leon said decisively, really aware that knowing something like that wouldn't help Ashley at all. “ And I hope you don't either.”

His voice was a clear warning and Narsson held up his hands.

“ Let's make a deal.”

The agent arched his eyebrows.

“Enma, don't fuck with me.”

“I want the special homemade croissants from the bakery across the street from the Museum as my breakfast in exchange for my silence.”

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose, not understanding this woman.

“How many..." he sighed.

“I want you to buy me one in the morning for a month.”

He grunted heavily and utterly defeated. He really was persistent.

“All right, it's a deal.”

Enma held out her hand with a broad smile that Leon reluctantly took.

“Perfect. You can go for the first one today.”

Narsson spun on her heel and headed back toward the lab. Leon wanted to slam his head against the wall, but he took a deep breath and went after her, thinking about that darn croissant. 

Ashley turned when she heard them enter the lab. Narsson was smiling broadly and Leon followed her with his hands in his pockets and then grabbed the dogs and announced their departure.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked in a slightly more... defeated tone.

“You know mine.” Enma said like a teenager, turning back to her notes and oblivious to Ashley's gaze.

The blonde didn't understand what was going on.

“Bring me another coffee.” Maria said and Leon nodded before leaving with the dogs.

Ashley stared at the door for a few seconds and then turned back to Narsson. Her former teacher was glancing at her notes calmly and Ashley felt a small thorn begin to lodge in her chest.

Something had to have happened between them, right? She could ask Chris or Jill about it, but... it made her feel bad to pry into other people's private lives.

So she decided to focus on her notes.

Half an hour later Leon returned with Maria's coffee and another bag that he handed to Narsson.

He didn't want to think about it. She really didn't want to think about it, but it was enough that she didn't remember the events after last night's dinner very well to make her feel uncomfortable.

She tried to focus on work, finally receiving the box with the fossil samples and carbon results.

Ashley focused on applying her studies alongside Enma without thinking too much about other things. but every time she looked at her former tutor and her former bodyguard, her mind decided to throw her a little party.

Had they kissed? Had they had sex? Had they had...?

"Ashley, stop it. Enough." she said to herself over and over again, feeling bad for thinking those things. They were adults, they could do whatever they wanted.

It was their lives, not his.  So she swallowed her thoughts .

*

For the next two days, Ashley and Narsson spent the next two days sorting through all the fragments and elements of the fossils that Graham, Leon, Chris and Jill found in Spain. They located on the world map and in the areas where more types of these bivalves had been found, trying to look for a pattern of origin. But so far with no luck.

In those two days Ashley saw how Leon brought Narsson the same bag from the bakery across the street from the Museum and Enma always smiled at him with a thank you. 

She didn't like that feeling. She didn't like that tiny demon that had started to wander around in her head.

She didn't ask any questions. She didn't want to know and it was none of her business, but one of those days she had to take a break.

She saw Leon watching Narsson too much, as if he was watching her. Was it about what Leon stopped her from saying a few days ago?

Whatever it was, she needed to strangle that horrible demon whispering in her ear.

“I'm going out for a while.” She announced getting up from her seat and not waiting for anyone to offer to accompany her.

Leon watched her go and for a moment thought about following her on impulse. After being her escort for three months he had become accustomed to going wherever she went.

But he had a feeling that this was not the time.

*

Ashley walked down the hallway toward the museum library. One of the benefits of being doing research in the lab was that they were given access to other worker-only areas.

She needed to disconnect. To stop smelling her scents. 

She opened the door showing her badge and lost herself among the shelves of the place. She read the spines of the old volumes that adorned the shelves and inhaled the faint scent of the dust that accumulated on the less used books. Her amber eyes reached the other side of the aisle, where she perceived another figure, but to which she paid no attention.

She continued to snoop around, glancing at some document that might bring her something, but finding nothing new that they didn't have in the lab. She remained engrossed until she perceived someone approaching her.

“ Excuse me," said the man. 

Ashley turned to him. A dark-haired boy with a grayish eye was looking at her with a curious air.

“ Yes?” she replied, not recognizing him at all. Even his scent didn't ring a bell.

The boy seemed to watch her for a couple of seconds, as if he were confirming something.

“ Forgive me for being so blunt, but did you sing at the river bar three days ago?”

Ashley's face turned hopelessly red.

“ No... I think you're confused.” she tried to evade the question, because all she needed was for someone to spread the word that the president's daughter had gotten drunk in public and then put on a show.

“I'm sure it's you, it was unbelievable. I never would have expected to run into you in this place. I'm Dylan, by the way.” He held out his hand, which she took, still a little confused.

“ Ashley, are you sure you're not confusing me?” she insisted, but somewhat surprised that he didn't know who she was.

“Of course, you can't forget a show like that.” he winked teasingly, making Ashley blush hopelessly.

“Oh, please, I was drunk.” she covered her face and heard him laugh softly.

“Well, you didn't look it.”

“Well, I was.”

Dylan laughed again and looked at the shelves Ashley had been browsing.

“How long have you been working here? I've never seen you.”

She looked at him. He definitely didn't know who she was and that... relieved her.

“I started this week.” She smiled at him, finding the man's scent very pleasant.

Dylan nodded and scratched the back of his neck gently.

“I've been here for a year, if you want... I could show you some departments of the museum.”

Ashley was quiet for a moment.

Was he hitting on her?

 Her brain stopped processing.

“Only if you want of course, but I'd love to show you around.” Dylan finished with a soft smile.

He was definitely hitting on her.

Ashley was stumped not knowing what to do for a moment. She didn't realize she had been silent for too long.

“Ashley?” he called out to her, looking for a response from her.

She blinked finally and a shy smile tugged at her lips.

“Sure, I'd love to.”

Dylan's eyes widened with delight and his irises sparkled.

“Great. I'm kind of busy today, are you working tomorrow?”

Ashley couldn't help but feel infected by that smile.

“Yeah, do you want to meet up for break?”

“Sure, I'll see you tomorrow.” He said goodbye to her with a gentle caress on her shoulder and left.

Ashley stood in place for a few more seconds, still processing what had just happened.

She tried to be logical. To think clearly. She didn't know him and didn't know what his intentions were. She might discover some side of him she didn't like. She tried to think that he had only offered to give her a tour of the museum, nothing more.

And yet she clenched her fist and whispered a low "Yes!" of victory. 

*

Ashley re-entered the lab with a totally different expression than the one she had left with and Leon noticed. The agent was surprised at the sudden change, but didn't think much of it, perhaps he had just needed some fresh air.

Thanks to the small encounter, Ashley managed to focus much better that day. Her mind stopped paying attention to the little gestures between Narsson and Leon, or at least she could not give them too much relevance.

She kept that horrible demon in the back of her skull at bay, but was unaware of the way she avoided interacting with Leon Enma at the same time.

The rest of the day was uneventful. This time they didn't stay so late and Ashley was, surprisingly, the first to leave mid-afternoon. Though not exactly of her own free will, but because Jill forced her to.

" With a hangover you don't work well." she had told her as an argument, something that made Leon turn to them and simply added a " Take her word for it, trust me."

Ashley didn't ask, but knew it was something that happened a long time ago.

So after she finished labeling the fossil samples, she decided to call it a day. She took the dogs and said goodbye to Leon quickly as she felt his intrusive thoughts creeping back into her head.

When she returned home she decided to make dinner early and take a nice bath. She wanted to look her best for tomorrow, something she hadn't given much thought to in a while.

But he was looking forward to it.

The fact that Dylan didn't know she was the president's daughter and that he had approached her because he liked hearing her sing...it felt good.

So she gave herself a little treat in the bathtub.

She wanted to have a normal opportunity. Interact with a guy interested in her as a girl her age. Sometimes she'd been told she was too narrow-minded or too strict. Not swoony and loose enough like a normal college girl.

Ashley leaned back in the tub with a long sigh.

She wanted some of that... everyday life back, but she had to rein in her mind as she started to ramble on about possible situations or conversations that hadn't happened.

" Ash, calm down. tomorrow you have a date with him and you can chat and see what he's like." she said to herself in an attempt to calm her paranoid thoughts.

*

The package Leon left on top of Narsson's desk was the same as the day before.

And the one before that.

And the one from three days ago.

He sighed heavily, planting himself in front of the clipboard Ashley and Enma had been filling in.

No luck so far. The evidence was still the same, and it was somewhat difficult to investigate with caution lest he mention the plaga or the bug that was storing them. Everything they saw on that expedition to the Spanish mines was confidential to Narsson. At least the part about the biological weapons, the rest they had told him roughly.

Leon glanced at Ashley's desk shortly before Narsson arrived and greeted the rest of the team.

Even if he had made a deal with Enma, he didn't have a hair's breadth of confidence that he wouldn't inadvertently slip his tongue. So he kept an eye on the woman at all times.

What he had noticed were the long breaks Ashley had been taking these past few days.

“The sheets have stuck to your face Narsson?. - Jill joked with the teacher, who held her fingers to her face.

“You have to get your beauty sleep.”

Maria scoffed.

“And the extra hours? To rejuvenate to ten?”

Narson rolled her eyes at Vázquez's taunts.

“The extra hours of sleep are to recharge my batteries to support you.” Emma reproached her.

“I love you too.”

They laughed and the teacher walked over to her former student to compare the latest notes.

Leon sipped his coffee.

Yes. He had noticed Ashley's slight change in mood and... in her image.

She was putting on mascara.

Anyone would think it was bullshit, but he knew her and in the time he'd spent with her, she never wore makeup to class. Only on the day of the presentation.

So the fact that she was slathering on a lightly scented body cream and mascara was enough to make him wonder what was going on. 

Was it a bet with Casey? he wondered, but quickly dismissed it when he knew his friend wouldn't ask such a thing.

“These are the last labels.” and Ashley reported, holding out the papers to Narsson.

“It's been a long time since I've felt so blocked in an investigation. You've brought me a tough nut to crack.” sighed Enma, sitting down at the clipboard.

Ashley leaned back in her seat with a grunt.

“So much for that. It's neither mammal, bivalve, nor bird. Being a fossil we can't extract anything to tell us what its genetic code is, so we're just left to look for possible places it's been.”

Narsson stared at the fossilized specimen on the table.

“I still don't understand how this got to Spain. We said another bug seemed to have transported it, but we don't know where this creature came from either.”

Graham waved the pen in his hand.

“I don't know why I get the feeling there's something terribly obvious we're missing.”

Leon heard them sigh heavily as Chris, Jill and Maria discussed another extraneous topic.

“I've seen a Thai restaurant across the river, maybe we could go there sometime after work.” “Jill said, looking up the place on her cell phone.”

“Ugh, I don't know if that's a good idea.” Maria wrinkled her nose, unconvinced by the proposal. Chris arched his eyebrows and looked at her.

“What's the matter, any bad experiences? Did they serve you cat?” Redfiel scoffed with a laugh.

Maria tapped him on the shoulder.

“No, you idiot. I just don't tolerate very spicy things very well. I went to a Korean once and almost wanted to die. It was like opening Pandora's box.”

“PANGEA!!!”

Ashley and Narsson's scream made Leon spit out his half-swallowed coffee. He coughed loudly watching the blonde open one of the many encyclopedias and spread it out with a thud on the table.

“How had we not noticed this before?” Enma said turning the pages.

“I told you it was right under our noses.” Ashley told her with a big smile.

“And sometimes the most obvious thing is the thing you see the least yourself.” Narsson's eyes lifted for a moment to Leon and he tensed like a wire.

It was a second and then he went back to the map, but Ashley noticed. She saw the fleeting glance and felt something shrink in her.

This was already so much more. She couldn't be misreading things. It was impossible.

Her mind wandered for a moment, but she swatted the thoughts away. 

"No. Not now."

Narsson found the world map he was looking for. A depiction of the supercontinent of Pangea. Ashley refocused and frowned slightly.

“ The specimen I found is from the Cenozoic.” Ashley thought aloud and Emma listened intently.

“Yes, and Pangea formed in the middle of the Paleozoic. From that point to the Cenozoic, we have the entire Mesozoic in between.”

“It could come from anywhere…” Ashley started to say, sensing that they were back to square one.

“Think a little." said Narsson.

Ashley took her old teacher's advice and looked carefully at the map. The other four agents approached them curiously.

“The bug is from the Cenozoic and we found it in Spain, probably transported by another bug that hunted the fossil we have in an area that is now Norway. That puts us one route north.”

Narsson smiled at her former student's witty remark and she added

“Northward it could have gone through England and Ireland, but seeing how the continents split, the north was the last to split, so we can rule out the southern hemisphere for now.”

“True, we still have no evidence that it came from a single specimen indigenous to the other continents.” nodded to Ashley.

“We can narrow the search to Europe and North America.” Enma pointed out, but Ashley pointed to the map.

“We can't rule out Asia or northern Russia. Siberia could also be their place of origin.”

“It could be, you're right. For now we could get in touch with some English and Norwegian museums. Maybe the ideal would be to visit the museum where I discovered the fossil and start connecting dots from there?”

Ashley thought for a few seconds and then slowly nodded in affirmation.

“Yes. Now that we have a possible pattern we can start looking.”

Leon sensed the enthusiasm in Ashley's voice and was glad that after almost a week they had been able to find a new clue.

“I'm going to ask for the visit request as soon as possible," said Narsson with a smile. Ashley looked at her watch and quickly added.

“Since it's time for a break, I'm going to go to the library to get a better map, maybe I'll have more information.” she said putting down her books and stretching out her arms.

Leon seemed somewhat surprised by Ashley's haste to take the break. Just like the previous days. He watched her take off her lab coat and leave the lab. The rest had their coffee break there, but Leon... he was curious.

Too curious. So he poured some turpentine on his hands so Ashley couldn't catch his scent and went out into the hallway.

She had already gone ahead of him and he had to hurry after her.

Ashley was acting a little different lately, especially with him and Narsson. As if she was avoiding them.

That week they hadn't had dinner or lunch together even one day, when, from time to time, they used to go out training together and then eat at someone's apartment. But since the party... they had barely interacted outside of work. Maybe it was the fact that now he was no longer her escort. He used to have to accompany her everywhere and maybe that was the reason, or so he had been telling himself all week.

Leon turned down the hallway and saw Ashley's figure heading for the cafeteria, not the library as he had originally said .Where was she going?

He didn't follow her any further. He walked up the stairs and watched from a distance. He saw her enter the cafeteria and walk to a table where another person was seated.

A person he did not know.

He watched as she took a seat next to the boy and as she smiled like a teenager. They chatted and laughed side by side and Leon began to perceive small gestures between them that gave away the relationship. He watched as the boy stretched his arm over the back of Ashley's seat as she leaned closer to him to see whatever he was showing her. 

They were flirting.

When Leon realized what was going on, he felt dirty. He looked away and walked in the opposite direction down the hallway.

That boy was the one who had changed Ashley's mood these past few days how had he not noticed?

"Think Leon, Ashley's personal life is none of your business either." he said to himself, but for some reason... he felt a strange feeling in his chest. A subtle discomfort that made his thoughts revolve around that boy.

She had to have met him there. Would he be nice? Who was he? Was he nice to her? Was he trustworthy? Would he be approaching her out of interest? Was-

He stopped his thoughts in their tracks as he stopped at the other end of the hallway. He was no one to question Ashley's choices. She was her friend, and she was getting a little sick to her stomach about the discomfort coursing through her body.

“Hey, Leon.”

The agent looked up at the source of the voice and saw Chris and Jill approaching.

“Are you guys leaving for the day?” he asked, pushing his intrusive thoughts aside.

“Yes, we have to call the base to report what Narsson and Graham are going to do.”

Maria was going to call the president later.

“ Hmm, good.” was all the man said, still lost in thought.

“Is something wrong, Kennedy?” It was as if Jill was reading his mind.

Leon blinked.

“Me? No, why?”

“You seem distracted.” Chris continued, crossing his arms. “Did something happen with Narsson? You bring him breakfast every day.”

Leon wanted to tear his eyes out and sighed.

“I made that deal with her so she wouldn'tAshley was peppered with questions about the night we all went out.”

Redfield arched his eyebrows.

“Did something happen or what?”

Leon waved his hand reminiscing about the incident.

“Nothing serious, Ashley got a little silly to a drunk, nothing more, but I don't want Narsson to start interrogating her. You saw how worried Ash got when you started telling her what she did when she was drunk.”

Jill and Chris looked at each other for a second as they analyzed Leon's words.

“Yeah, maybe you're right. Like Maria said, it's very personal for her..." added Valentine.

Leon was grateful for the understanding and put his hands in his pockets.

“I'm fine," he finally told them with a smile. 

Chris made the same gesture and gave him a gentle touch on the chest.

“Let's go out for a drink one day, you and me. No girls.”

Jill turned to her partner.

“Hey, it's not like we're the pest.”

 Chris put his arm around his partner's shoulders.

“Every once in a while two men share a bottle of whiskey in silence.”

Jill rolled her eyes and started walking toward the exit.

“Well, if you get drunk, don't call me or Ashley.”

Chris laughed and said goodbye to Leon and then followed his partner. The agent watched them leave and stood there, lost in thought again.

*

“I have to get back to the lab Dylan, were you able to find the world map I asked for?” said Ashley finishing her coffee with a smile.

“Yes, I got your message, here.” He held out a cardboard cylinder containing the rolled up map. Ashley smiled with a blush on her cheeks and took it.

“Thank you very much Dylan, by the way, I'll probably have to go away for a few days to another museum to do the research.”

Dylan looked at her in surprise and thought for a second.

“When are you leaving?”

“I don't know yet. Maybe in a couple of days or three. Shall we meet tomorrow at the same time?” she said enthusiastically, really looking forward to spending time with him on breaks. 

“Of course, I'll see you tomorrow.” he leaned over and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.” So you won't forget about me on the way.”

Ashley stiffened for a second and then her whole face turned scarlet. She smiled shyly and got up with her package.

“See you tomorrow.” she said goodbye.

“See you tomorrow.”

Ashley left the cafeteria with her heart pounding and walked back towards the lab. She was so engrossed and excited that she didn't notice that familiar smell and almost bumped into it.

“Hey princess, look straight ahead.”

Leon's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

“Oh yeah, sorry, I was... distracted.”

“I hope he's at least funny.”

Ashley blinked and got a little more serious all of a sudden.

“What are you talking about?”

Leon's logic told him to shut up, but that damn goblin in his head kicked in his reason and the words weren't the brightest.

“About that boy you're dating.”

Her amber eyes widened like saucers.

“You spied on me?”

“I wanted to go to the cafeteria, but seeing you there with him I didn't want to disturb. Now I understand why you were taking so long on breaks.” he lied.

Ashley frowned and smelled the smell of turpentine still on Leon's hands.

“You don't have to follow me, you're not my escort anymore, besides, what do you care who I'm seen with, it's none of your business.”

“I'm just worrying, Ash.”

“Worry? Or don't you like the fact that I get attention too?”

Leon just stared at her in bewilderment.

“What? Don't talk nonsense.”

Ashley frowned and shut herself off.

“Why don't you go with Narsson? It seems you can't take your eyes off her.”

Kennedy stood in place as Ashley stepped around him, bumping her shoulder into his.

“Ashley, it's not what you think .” He tried to defend himself, but unable to tell her the truth. Because she was right, he had followed her.

“Save your saliva for Narsson, you'll need it.”

It was like a punch that made him stunned.

Ashley hurried down the stairs, feeling an unpleasant pressure in her chest, like a prick.

He had followed her and spied on her while she was with Dylan.

She felt betrayed, but... it was confusing. There was a horrible mix of emotions that did nothing but choke her.

That feeling became more pronounced as she approached the lab. In the distance she saw Maria on the phone, probably talking to her father. She entered the lab and frowned even more. She set the cylinder with the map down with a thump on the table and Narsson turned around startled.

“You scared me, Ashley, by the way, have you seen Leon?”

Graham gritted her teeth and picked up her backpack with restrained fury.

“Don't worry, I'll leave you two alone so you can get laid. Just clean up when you're done.”

She slung her backpack over her shoulder and called off the dogs turning her back to her. Narsson watched her leave without another word and didn't know what to do. What she had said to her had been so abrupt, all her thoughts had ceased.

Definitely the deal with Leon had been a horrible idea.

*

Ashley barely managed to sleep. Her mind had mixed thoughts that she tried to push away at all costs, but ended up creating images between Leon and Narsson.

She hated it. I hated that stupid feeling. Why? Why did I feel that unpleasant pressure in my chest?

She let out a long sigh in the library. She hadn't been through the lab yet. I didn't want to. She didn't have the courage.

She leaned back in a seat hidden among the bookshelves. The dogs rested at her feet in silence, while their owner ate her head off by the second.

They had waited for her to graduate so they could have a free pass...were they in a relationship? Why the fuck was she still thinking about them?

She growled in fury, shaking her head in despair and earning a hiss from another worker for the noise.

Ashley pulled her knees up to her chest and sighed wearily.

She'd barely slept a wink and didn't have the head to sit in that lab right now. She exhaled heavily again and stared at the floor.

What she didn't understand was why it bothered her so much and why she couldn't get it out of her brain.

Mint lifted his head towards her and gently touched his nose to Ashley's foot. She looked up at him and the dog stuck his tongue out as if smiling.

“Sometimes I wish I had the worries you have and not the melodramas we humans have.” she said in an absent tone.

“Should I be worried about you conversing with the dog?”

The voice startled her. She hadn't smelled Dylan's scent approaching her.

“Dylan, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.” Ashley said getting up from her seat with a smile. Mint and Pepper sat next to her, staring at the boy.

“What about these?” he asked pointing to the canines.

“Oh, these are my dogs, Pepper and Mint.” she introduced them.

“I see, hi guys.” Dylan reached out his hand to Pepper, who sniffed his fingers and turned his head away suspiciously. Ashley was surprised by the dog's behavior, as he tended to let himself be touched after sniffing new people.

“A bit wary, I see.” Dylan said, pulling his hand away from the animal, who stared at him. “You haven't been by the lab?”

“No, I wanted to... take a walk around the Library first, you know, refresh my ideas.” Ashley lied naturally.

Dylan didn't suspect and nodded with a smile and then put his hand to his head.

“Em... look, since I found you here I want to tell you something.”

Ashley tensed when she caught the scent of adrenaline on him, who seemed much more nervous than usual.

“Yes? - she replied feeling her own heart start to race.”

“Do you want to go out to dinner with me tonight?”

Ashley took a while to process his words. Then she analyzed what they meant and after her mind blocked for a second, she answered.

“O-o-of course, I'd love to.” Her voice wavered exaggeratedly and for a moment she wanted to punch herself. How could she behave like that? Was she stupid or what?

Dylan smiled in relief and his cheeks reddened subtly.

“Oh thank you, I was afraid you'd turn me down. I'll see you today at eight o'clock? I'll send you the address of the restaurant.”

Ashley nodded as she couldn't get a word in edgewise and said goodbye to Dylan after telling him she would go ahead and get some work done so she could leave early for dinner.

She stood there with the dogs for a few more minutes.

" Relax Ashley, it's dinner, just dinner." she repeated to herself trying to calm her growing excitement for the night to arrive.

" The first normal date you've been asked on in four years YES!!!" she squealed inwardly and unable to contain herself she pranced on the spot, causing her dogs to look at her in confusion. She held back her excited giggles and decided it was time to go down to the lab.

At least now she wouldn't be thinking so much about Leon and Narsson.

When she opened the lab door she saw Chris dialing a number on his cell phone.

“Wow, you finally showed up, I was just about to call you.”

Ashley smiled at him and left the dogs in their usual corner. She looked at her watch and laughed helplessly. 

“Hey, I wasn't that late either.”

“Where have you been? You were out early.” Leon said from across the table.

Ashley glared at him discreetly and smiled.

“I've been out for a walk with the dogs, it's nice out today.”

Leon averted his eyes quickly and added no more. Chris became quieter and looked at the rest.

“Well, now that we're all here I'm going to tell you that our bosses are going to provide us with the trip to Norway.”

Everyone, except Narsson, knew what Chris meant by "our bosses". Enma did not know that they belonged to the BSAA and that was to be kept secret.

“Really? I'm going to start working with you guys more if it's going to be like this.” joked Narsson and Jill laughed. 

“It's a joint investigation and being a small team they were able to organize the trip for us.”

Ashley turned to Narsson.

“Enma-”

“Don't even think of telling me that I can't go. There is already too much secrecy in this project to leave me out of visiting the museum that made my name. Besides, you will need a guide out there and I am your best option.” Narsson sentenced without leaving many alternatives.

Chris and Jill looked at Ashley and she sighed. She didn't like to expose her teacher to possible dangers, but she was right. Her presence there would make the job of getting information in the museum easier.

“All right, but you're not going to be a tour guide, okay?” she warned him knowing his habit of doing a historical tour in any situation and more so in his homeland.

Enma put her hand on her chest.

“I promise.”

Maria grunted leaning back in the seat.

“So I'm staying on as a dog sitter?”

Mint and Pepper trotted over to Vazquez, laying their big heads on the woman's thighs.

“Oh come on, you love them.” Ashley said teasingly.

Maria stroked their heads energetically.

“Don't complain if they pick up a couple of pounds, Aunt Maria likes to spoil her children.” Graham's former escort teased, but the blonde knew her dogs were in the best of hands.

But her mind couldn't help thinking that now, that awkward situation she had been feeling around Leon and Narsson, would be more continuous.

She took a deep breath. She was having dinner with Dylan today and... Maybe with some luck, she could find someone to occupy her thoughts even during the trip.

“Ashley, let's organize the material for the trip.” Narsson told her, oblivious to her former student's inner debate. She raised her amber eyes to her and for a moment remembered what she had told her the day before. Her thoughts betrayed her and she looked at Enma's table as if searching for some trace of " that".

But there was no smell either.

“Yes, I'm coming.” replied the blonde putting down her bag and organizing all the notes the two of them had developed.

"Focus on the investigation Ash, nothing else." she said to herself as she made the list.

It was a fairly quiet morning, as they only had to organize the points of the trip they would make and the material they would bring. When they finished they saw that it was still early and decided to all go out for lunch somewhere nearby.

Narsson and Leon noticed that Ashley was talking to them just enough so as not to make them think she was ignoring them. But she was avoiding them.

At one point as she was chatting with Chris, Narsson approached Leon, who was walking behind everyone.

“I think she's angry.”

“Don't tell me.” the man rolled his eyes. 

“She thinks we're having sex.” sighed Narsson.

Leon turned around in surprise.

“Really? But if-”

“He said to clean up after we got laid in the lab.”

Leon suddenly fell silent and sighed heavily as Narsson told him.

“ I think you should tell her the truth.”

The agent grunted.

“And you think that's going to make anything better at this point?”

“Definitely. If you won't do it, I will.”

 Leon grabbed her arm.

“Don't even think about it, I'll... I'll figure out a way to tell her, I'll do it.”

Enma looked at the man who was massaging the bridge of his nose. Why was he making something so simple complicated? I really didn't understand sometimes what kind of relationship he and Ashley had to set up these scenarios.

“Hey lovebirds, let's go inside.”

They both turned to the front at the sound of Ashley's voice calling them that way. She looked at them casually, but Leon could sense a slight quickening in the rumbling of Ashley's heart as they approached.

Graham walked back into the restaurant, leaving Leon and Narsson outside.

“She definitely needs to be told," Enma said.

“Says the one who got me into this mess out of curiosity.”

Narsson went to argue, but bit her tongue as she realized that Leon was right.

 All because of her bloody curiosity.

*

Leon never thought an elevator ride could take so long. As bad luck would have it, all the neighbors seemed to have agreed to use the elevator at the same time. The time it used to take them to get to their penthouses increased fourfold, and Leon was convinced that Ashley could sense their growing nerves, as he could sense their erratic heartbeats.

But neither said anything.

Not even when they finally reached their floor and pulled out the keys to their respective apartments. When they closed the doors and were alone in their homes, they sighed. Ashley lay face down on the kitchen counter and Leon dropped onto the couch with a grunt.

The agent stared at the ceiling in thought. How the hell was he going to tell her that she made a suggestive entrance while drunk and he didn't stop her? How was he going to tell her that he practically didn't resist when he almost thought she would kiss him? He put his hands to his face and a deep growl reverberated in his chest.

Hopefully she'd hit him with a smack. With no luck... he didn't even want to think about it.

Now there was no use thinking that he should have told her from the beginning.

She thought he was sleeping with her old teacher. God, how complicated everything had become.

After spending half an hour on the couch cursing himself in every way he knew how, he decided to take a shower. Something that would make enough noise that he couldn't hear Ashley's every move on the other floor.

In the meantime, Ashley focused on her date. She managed to calm her earlier discomfort and focus on herself. She didn't want any more worries, she had enough, but she wanted to enjoy herself for once. To have fun with someone who was interested in her and not her name or social status.

She wanted to feel a little... normal.

So she decided to go for it. She took a long salt bath, washed her hair, filed her short nails into a rounded shape and even got her toenails done, something Casey always told her but never did.

But for their first date after four years she definitely would. 

Time passed. It was almost seven-thirty in the evening. Leon had laid down on the couch and was looking at his cell phone without paying much attention to it. He was sliding his finger down his YouTube shorts and waiting for dinner time to come. 

Then he started to hear footsteps and they weren't Ashley's house slippers. His finger stopped moving and stayed in place, listening to the coming and going of the footsteps. He heard the jingle of keys and arched his eyebrows, was he going somewhere?

Suddenly there was a knock on his door and he almost dropped his cell phone. He boiled on his elbows just before he saw Ashley open his door and Leon's heart stopped.

“Hey Leon, would you mind keeping the dogs?”

She was wearing the same satin dress. The outfit Casey had given her drew her figure back, as did the wedge and rope heels. She had done her makeup to perfection, subtly enhancing her natural beauty and had even curled her hair.

She looked beautiful.

“Leon.”

The man blinked, coming down to earth.

“What?” was all he could articulate.

“Could you keep the dogs?” she repeated with a subtle blush on her cheeks.

Leon got up from the couch, dressed in a simple tracksuit and feeling like a stray dog next to her.

“Em, yes, but where are you going?”

Ashley stepped aside and called Pepper and Mint, who scampered over to Leon's apartment with glee.

“I'm meeting Dylan for dinner.”

Dylan. That must have been the name of the boy she'd been meeting. They were going to dinner. This was a date. With a man he didn't know, about whom he had no information or-

"Leon, stop. Stop the fuck up."

“Oh, yes, Dylan, um... are you going to... come back too late?” he paused for a moment, aware of how controlling he sounded and added.- In case I have to go get the dog beds. 

Ashley looked at him for a second and adjusted the end of her dress.

“Uh... I don't know. I guess I'll be late, yeah.” She tried to stay calm as the silence between them started to become uncomfortable. “I should go, thank you.”

Leon's mind didn't think. His impulse was stronger.

“Ashley.”

The blonde turned and looked at him with those bright golden eyes.

“Yes?”

Leon stalled. What did he want to have told her, the truth? Now he was going to tell her that she'd almost kissed him drunk that night and then painted his lips? Was he really going to tell her?

She had prepared a lot for that dinner, he could see it. She was really looking forward to that date, he had to be a fool not to appreciate the effort she had put in. And he thought... was he really going to ruin one of the most important nights in the last four years of her romantic life?

“Have a good time, princess.”

No. He smiled at her and watched her leave after giving him some of the most dazzling smiles she had ever given him.

He closed the door and turned back to the dogs. 

He sighed leaning back against the doorway and dropping down to sit on the floor. Pepper approached cautiously and touched his dangling hand.

Leon stroked the animal's snout with a faint smile.

“Why are we humans so complicated, Pepper?”

The dog cocked his head to one side, not understanding what he was saying, but wagged his tail as if he did. Leon couldn't help but let out a weak laugh and sighed again.

“At least you're going to keep me company enough to keep my thoughts from eating my head.”

Pepper gave him a soft bark and Mint decided to join Leon in demanding petting. The agent laughed, grateful to at least have the dogs with him, even if his mind was still looping Ashley's figure.

Time passed and with the dogs he managed to distract himself enough. He prepared dinner for them and played with them and then made his own food. As he cooked, he missed the little get-togethers he'd had with Ashley since he'd lived in the same building. Sometimes she had invited him over for lunch or dinner after training or running errands, and sometimes he had done it himself.

His thoughts began to gather momentum as he ate alone, wondering if that date would end in something more...intimate. Would Ashley come back tomorrow morning? If she did the outcome of the evening would be clear. Part of him was happy for her. That she had found someone who seemed to treat her well and if that led to finally being able to have sex in bed...he could only be happy for her. But at the same time there was a little voice, like a cricket behind his ear, whispering the opposite. The part of him that didn't want those casual lunches and dinners together to end.

It hadn't even been two hours and his mind was already asking for answers. She would probably come tomorrow. They'd have a romantic dinner, go for a walk and then...probably go to his house. He knew Ashley wouldn't feel comfortable bringing a guy to her apartment when she knew Leon could hear them.

Yes, he should go get the dogs' bedding and their bowls to eat and set an alarm to take them out the next day for a walk and....

The door burst open and Ashley walked in.

Leon was stunned. Why had she come back so soon?

He turned to her as he sensed her heart thundering, as if she had come running back or... she was terribly furious. For a second he thought he saw her eyes water. 

“Ashl-”

He fell silent as she suddenly began to undress. Leon's chest almost burst out and his face turned scarlet.

“Ash, what are you doing?” he managed to react by looking away out of sheer embarrassment.

Ashley threw the dress to the floor, remaining in her lacy underwear. Her breathing was rapid and her brow was furrowed. She almost looked...desperate.

“Is there something wrong with me? In this?”

Her voice was shaky, but at the same time tinged with an anger and frustration that made Leon swallow saliva.

The man looked at her again and his cheeks flushed hopelessly as he looked at the pink and black lace lingerie. It looked great on her and looking at the garments he also noticed the fine scars on her side, the one from the Colmillo that bit her.

He noticed some older climbing marks and all the moles and creases that made up her beautiful body.

He didn't know how long he looked at her, absorbed like a fool, enraptured by the beauty and strength she conveyed with just her figure in front of him.

He raised his blue eyes to her amber ones, surrounded by a strong blush. He didn't understand what was going on, nor why she was behaving like that, but after restraining the urge to kneel down in front of her to make her tell him everything, he answered.

“No Ash, it's... you look beautiful and fit, why?”

“Good.” was all she said before grabbing her things and turning back to her apartment.

Leon blinked, perhaps more confused than before. He thought about following her and asking her what had happened, but he had a hunch that she wanted to be alone at that moment.

He turned back to the dogs, still sitting in the kitchen and just as confused as he was. He sighed, dropping his shoulders.

“You know what? You're sleeping with me today.”

They went wild and ran to Leon's room. The man looked at the door one last time and saw one of Ashley's heels. He picked it up and stared at it for a moment.

Tomorrow he would take it to her and maybe ... he could ask her about dinner and ... talk to her about the misunderstanding.

But that would be tomorrow.

[arratesope]

A study in a more comic style. I'll do more in the future to learn more tricks

[arratesope]

WIP, love how his stupid face came out XD going back to wolf-Leon Faery-Ashley AU

[arratesope]

The first one is an older piece I did a time ago, and wanted to give a continuation to this AU :3

[arratesope]

Awakening Past

Chapter 20

NOTE: I mentioned in the previous chapter my method of limiting myself to the pages I write. Well, in THIS chapter I seem to have FORGOTTEN. The ones that come after if I have stuck more to that rule XD

pairing: Ashley Graham x Leon S Kennedy.

Content: (+18) romance, angst, gore, erotic/suggestive themes at some point, slow burn, violence, action, self-harm, death talk,

If you're a MINOR DON'T keep reading, thank you.

Archive of our own / WORK LIST / Awakening Past Masterlist

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Narsson drank water for the twelfth time and cleared her throat softly. Here she thought the trip was going to be exciting and she would have a lot to talk about. They'd been provided a private jet for their trip to Norway and Enma would be elated... if Ashley wasn't quiet and impassive as an iceberg. What had gotten into her? She thought about asking him, but then... she remembered their mild confrontation days before, when she told him she was sleeping with Leon. It was definitely normal for her to be angry.

The teacher sighed and got up. 

"I'm going to get something to drink, want some?"

Ashley let out a single grunt of denial and Enma rolled her eyes walking to the back seats of the plane, where Leon, Chris, and Jill were. Redfield saw Narsson's long face and leaned back in the seat.

"Is something wrong, Enma?"

"I don't know what's wrong with Ashley, but she looks like she's carrying a ticking time bomb about to explode."

This time it was Leon who breathed heavily.

"Yes... yesterday... she came home very angry."

The three of them turned to him.

"And do you know why?"

The agent kept sliding his finger across his cell phone, reading the latest news.

"She didn't tell me, but..." he fell silent suddenly, remembering how she undressed in front of him.

"But?" asked Narsson with some impatience.

"She had a date, so whatever it was, something had to go wrong."

Enma's eyes widened in surprise. Ashley had gone on a date? With whom?

"Did I know him?"

"Narsson," Leon's voice was a little dry. "This is not the time for gossip, okay?"

The woman was surprised at the man's blunt tone, feeling a shiver run down her spine. It was as if... he was also irascible about Ashley's situation, had they fought? The truth was, it was burning Leon alive inside that night. The one date night Ashley had and she came back barely an hour and a half after she left. Something went terribly wrong. And from the way she asked him half naked if there was something wrong with her, he could tell it had been something that Dylan had done.

He raised his blue eyes to Ashley's seat in the back and caught her profile looking out the window. When they got back, she would have a little chat with Dylan.

"Ladies and gentlemen passengers, please fasten your seat belts."

Narsson hurried back to her seat next to a mute Ashley and they waited for the plane to land.

*

Time had decided to go against them. They had arrived in Oslo, where one of those rare summer storms would take place and the temperature was lower than they had expected. Even when they arrived at the hotel, they were notified that a polar front and probably snowfall would be coming in the next few days.

They went up to their respective rooms with little more than their carry-on bags, something that Narsson found horribly hard.

"I still don't know how you can travel with so little," said the anthropologist. 

Ashley dropped her backpack in the closet and plopped down on the bed.

"What more do you need than clean underwear, a toothbrush, a bar of soap, and two changes of clothes, huh? All that stuff fits in a bag and you have plenty of room left over."

Enma growled indignantly and Leon laughed softly, aware of the influence he had had on Ashley's attitude. Efficient and simple. Enma grunted at the blonde's response and went to the bathroom.

"I'm going to take a shower before you tell me to use the rain for that too."

Jill laughed and pulled out her things. They split up the rooms, leaving the three-bed side for Jill, Ashley, and Enma, and Chris and Leon the double on the other side of the room.

Ashley turned her head toward the large window and watched the dark clouds beginning to form on the horizon. She didn't mind the cold, in fact, it was pleasant to her in regards to the smells. Winter and autumn were the times when she had the least headaches, as the humidity made them cooler, unlike summer. Her thoughts were lost as she heard the voices of the agents in the background and Leon became aware of her absent air. He was still thinking about what Narsson had asked him on the plane. They were on an official mission and all he could think about was what had happened that night. Ashley hadn't told him anything else and it was eating him up inside. He sighed heavily and tried to think of something else. He glanced at the clock and grabbed his jacket.

"I'm going to go ask what time dinner is." He turned around to head out of the room.

"I'm coming with you."

Leon froze as he heard Ashley's voice and saw her walk past him. The man stood transfixed for a second, where he met Chris' eyes and he gave him a soft affirmation, encouraging him. Kennedy took a deep breath and walked out with Ashley into the hallway.

In the elevator, Leon felt his nerves churning in his stomach and decided to pull out something to chat about before Ashley noticed, although she probably would have already.

"Do you think I can't manage to ask about dinner?"

The soft laugh Ashley let out made the man suddenly calm down.

"I don't trust your Norwegian."

"The receptionist knows English."

"Yes, but the gentleman who works with her doesn't, so what do you do if he attends to you?"

Leon smiled.

 "I trust my sign language skills."

"Well, I don't."

Leon finally laughed and they were silent for a few moments. He thought about it and went to part his lips to ask her about the incident when the metal doors opened at reception. Ashley walked out first and Leon followed with a sigh. She could feel the tension between them since the argument they had at the museum, where he reproached her for only having eyes for Narsson. After that happened about her dinner and they hadn't spoken again. And she didn't like it at all.

She snapped out of her thoughts when they approached the counter and an elderly man served them in Norwegian. Leon turned to Ashley who gave a mocking pat on his chest and struck up a conversation with the man. Leon stood listening to her engrossed, when suddenly his cell phone vibrated. The man took his eyes and attention away from the counter and slid his finger across the messages, seeing a number he didn't know. It was Emily. He arched his eyebrows and opened the notification, not expecting what he saw next.

It was a piece of news. A short, unfocused video of an altercation in a restaurant with a gunman. Leon's thumb paused as he read another message from Connors.

“Tell me it's not Ashie.” 

Leon was struck mute and reflexively clicked on the link to the video. It was barely ten seconds, but in the low quality, he could see a gunman pointing a weapon at some people and one of them was tapping the gun before the shot and then reducing the assailant. It was not clear. It didn't have good quality or good focus. But it had blond hair. And the way to get rid of an assailant with a gun was the same technique he used.

His blue eyes lifted to his companion, who was still chatting with the old man at the hotel, and then he looked back down at his cell phone. Emily had texted him again.

"And?"

He took a second and then typed in the answer. If that video was real, the time Ashley arrived... how agitated she came back... it fit that situation. He told Emily and she replied.

“Has she told you about it?”

“No.” He replied.

“I see...” Connors took several seconds to text her again “maybe it's not her, if she didn't tell you it could just be a fluke.”

Leon knew Emily didn't think so, any more than he did. Because it was too much of a coincidence. But he answered her the same way, trying not to make a big deal out of it and then saying goodbye to her. But now there was already a demon inside him demanding to know what the truth was. His muscles were tense again and his heart was racing as he saw Ashley finish speaking and look for him in the crowd. It didn't take him long to find him and walk towards him.

"They have food service for the rooms, they have dinner here very early."

Leon affirmed without replying and Ashley arched her eyebrows.

"Is something wrong?"

The agent summoned all his training and answered matter-of-factly.

"Yes, the jet lag is killing me and I think I'd like to take a shower before I order dinner."

Ashley didn't doubt his words. She had no indication that he was telling her a lie, so she nodded and turned toward the elevator. Leon watched her walk and his countenance became somewhat more serious. Luck smiled on the man when no one else entered the elevator with them. His mind was going a thousand, still replaying the brief video he had seen, but he wasn't going to mention it to her, that wasn't right. So he opted for what he thought that day when he walked into her house and almost got naked in front of him.

"Ash, what happened that night?"

He heard Ashley's heart skip a beat and turned to look at her.

"And don't tell me 'nothing'."

The blonde sighed, aware that there was little she could hide from Leon at that point, but... she didn't want to tell them about her misfortunes.

"I guess everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong."

That was her answer and, honestly, Leon had expected something more elusive. Even if it was vague, it told him enough about the situation. He clenched his fists.

"Dylan did something to you?"

Ashley could sense the irritated tone of the question and for a moment she felt again everything she went through that night. Everything that made her arrive at Leon's house almost in tears and almost undress in front of him. He had to swallow his breath before answering.

"Why do you care so much? I didn't ask you about Narsson."

There went that little knife again. Leon frowned at his companion's hurtful words, but he didn't hold it against her. He was just being honest.

"Because I care about you, Ash, and... I've seen you down since then."

Those words made Ashley feel guilty for what she had just told him and she sighed to make amends for her defensiveness.

"I turned out not to be his type."

Leon watched her. Wasn't she going to tell him about the armed man incident? Or maybe she wasn't because it hadn't really been her.

"And what was his type?" he asked, wanting to see what else he could get out of her, but he didn't expect Ashley to give him a blunt answer.

"At least not one that could break his arm with her bare hands."

The elevator stopped with a "ding" and Ashley stepped out first, leaving her interrogator behind. She didn't want to tell him. She didn't want to describe the way Dylan looked at her when she took the gunman down, when she almost dislocated his shoulder. She didn't want to tell him about the helplessness she felt when her date had idealized the Ashley who sang drunkenly that last time. A woman eager for romantic affection and with a seductive, mysterious air. That was the image Dylan had had of her. And that was shattered with a simple show of force.

Ashley clenched her fists, holding back the lump in her throat. Even that night she refused to cry out of shame that Leon would hear her. And she still carried a needle in her chest. Was it that hard to like someone in all her ways? She opened the door and walked in with a sigh, followed by Leon, who looked at Chris with a long face. Redfield understood that whatever conversation they'd had, it hadn't improved the situation they were in much.

"Any news?" was all the brunet could say as Ashley jumped into the shower.

"We have to order the food," Leon explained, sitting down in the shared living room. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Ashley grabbed her sleepwear and walked quietly to the bathroom. It definitely hadn't changed a bit and worst of all, he knew she hadn't told him the whole truth. Was she ashamed to tell him? Leon thought for a second and finally growled to himself. How could she tell him about her romantic emotions when he himself lied to her every time she asked him about his? 

God, he was such a jerk.

*

After everyone had cleaned up and made themselves comfortable, they called room service to order dinner. Narsson had been lying in bed from the long trip, so Ashley took over translating the orders. Chris, Jill, and Leon listened to her like children, still amazed by the strange language that sounded alien to them. Ashley managed to tune out a bit by speaking in another language she had so far only shared with Narsson, and a part of her started to feel better when she was done.

When dinner arrived, Enma awoke from her coma and they ate together in the living room. They planned out everything they would do tomorrow at the museum and got a few things in order. Chris and Jill ran down the list to Narsson about the confidentiality of the trip and the half-truth about the BSAA's involvement as a means of security and blah blah blah. They all knew Narsson would end up doing her own thing, so they would make sure to keep an eye on her.

With their bellies full, it didn't take long for them to go to sleep, and although not everyone's mind was at ease, the fatigue of the trip ended up dragging them deep into the darkness of dreams.

*

They had brought a lot of new pieces with them since the last time Narsson came. It was Ashley's second time traveling to Oslo, the first being the year she started paleobiology at Amherst. Her amber eyes swept over the various display cases that protected specimens of the fossils found by Narsson early in her career as an archaeologist. Through the glass, she saw the three agents prowling the hallway with watchful eyes, on the lookout for any movement. She noticed Leon looking at some old bronze pieces and for a few seconds she remembered their conversation in the elevator. He knew perfectly well that he was hiding part of the truth from her, he was no fool, but at least he had been considerate enough not to bring up the subject again. At least for now.

"Narsson, long time no see."

A male voice sounded next to her speaking in Norwegian and Ashley saw a man hug her former tutor.

"It's been a while, Professor, do you remember my student? Well, she's graduated, she's not my student anymore," smiled Enma pointing to Ashley, who shook the man's hand.

"Of course I remember you, young lady. How's your Norwegian?"

Ashley smiled broadly. 

"Much better, sir."

The professor arched his eyebrows in surprise and clapped his hands proudly.

"Impressive."

Graham felt a great satisfaction come over her as the three of them began to chat and this time she actually managed to follow the conversation.

As the three of them chatted, Leon watched Ashley get into her sauce. Chris and Jill noticed the way he was looking at the president's daughter and decided to mess with him a little.

"You're going to erase her face from staring at her," Jill whispered in a mocking tone, causing Leon to turn quickly to her.

"Just listening," he turned to the other relic, but Chris rounded his broad shoulders.

"Yeah yeah, sure Kennedy. Hey, were you able to figure out why she was that mopey on the plane?"

Leon sighed, remembering the video and the conversation in the elevator.

"Sort of, although she didn't want to tell me."

Chris and Jill looked at each other and it was the woman who followed.

"Are you sure it's nothing serious?"

Kennedy thought long and hard about telling them, but he didn't want there to be any problems later, so he opted to tell them what Ashley had mentioned.

"It was a date gone wrong. Very badly," he finally punctuated, looking at the red stone bracelet on his wrist.

"Is she like this because of a bad date?" Chris was surprised and Leon glared at him.

"What, she can't be like that?"

Chris was amazed at Leon's sudden change in attitude and shrugged his shoulders with a sigh.

"I'm not saying she can't, but we've all been there, haven't we?"

"I think you and Jill have rejected others more than you've been rejected."

"Well, I mean, yes, but you get the same hard time," Jill justified.

This time Leon laughed derisively.

"No, it's not the same at all," he growled under his breath, the voice of his memories taking power in him, making him think of his past relationships and how they made him feel like a loser.

Chris and Jill sensed that darkness in Leon's words and were aware of how little they knew some facets of him. Chris cleared his throat and tried to work something out in the direction of the conversation.

"And... has she told you why?"

"No," the man answered in a whisper, ‘she just walked into my house all of a sudden and undressed.’ he thought to himself and then added. "But whatever it was, it's something that asshole told her."

Jill stared at him for a few seconds and Leon turned to another display case.

"You're not... jealous?"

Leon stiffened.

"Me? Jealous of what?"

Valentine jabbed his elbow gently.

"Of that guy asking her out."

He looked at her with reddened ears and frowned, looking away.

"I'm just pissed off because he gave Ash a bad evening, not jealous."

He remembered the dinner they shared after Ashley's presentation. On how they laughed and played. It was a very nice evening and that was how the one the other day should have been.

"He doesn't deserve her then," Chris said in a firm tone and Leon looked at him.

"Definitely not," he agreed with the dark-haired man as he looked through the glass of the display case at Ashley's figure.

Narsson chatted a while longer with his old professor while Graham said goodbye to him to go and explain the situation to the agents. The three turned to her.

"Well, he said-"

"Ash, in our language," smiled Leon. Ashley looked at him in confusion, until she realized he had continued speaking Norwegian.

"Sorry, we've been talking about Narsson fossils and the like."

Chris crossed his arms.

"What's the latest?"

"It's not a clue per se, but he mentioned to us that to the north, in the direction of Tradheim, in the more coastal area, they are carrying out small excavations in search of ancient Scandinavian vessels or objects. They seem to have found primitive sites half a year ago and started digging about a month ago," Ashley explained, looking at the notes in her notebook.

"It doesn't seem to have much to do with what we're looking for, does it?"

"No, but in Spain I doubt the miners in that town expected to find fossilized parasites. You never know."

It was a valid enough argument in view of the situation, so Redfield nodded without complaint.

"And where did you say it was?"

Ashley named the directions Narsson's professor had given her and watched Chris's brow slowly crease.

"I think I'm going to buy aspirin for the trip, my head is going to burst with this language."

"Don't be exaggerated," laughed Ashley and then saw Jill and Leon's expressions. Leon responded with a sigh.

"Ever since I started going to college with you, I still don't understand shit every time you talk to Narsson."

Ashley rolled her eyes at the sight.

"I'm going to buy you a goddamn dictionary," grunted the blonde.

"Hey, that's what we got you for, right? To translate," smiled Chris, but Ashley sighed heavily.

"The one who's going to need those aspirin, is going to be me...."

The agents laughed helplessly and one of the museum guards hissed for them to lower their voices, making all four of them blush with embarrassment. Ashley scolded him and they were invited to lunch by Emma's teacher, something none of them denied. Their stomachs, already empty, rumbled so loudly they feared they'd be thrown out of the museum at that rate.

*

Chris cursed for the nineteenth time when he heard the desperate voice of the GPS.

"Shut that thing up Jill."

Valentine rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't have to if you just followed the guide, why the hell didn't you turn at the exit?"

"Because it didn't look like it went anywhere to me."

Jill wanted to strangle him. Her murderous impulses were definitely starting to burn inside her.

"What didn't you think? You're in a foreign country! What the hell does it look like to you if you don't know anything around here!" Jill burst out, unable to take it anymore.

"Please forgive me, Miss Smarty Pants! I'm sure you've got the address wrong!" exclaimed Redfield, losing his patience and about to rip the GPS off the dashboard when it spoke again.

Jill looked at him in disbelief.

"So now it's my fault? You've got some balls."

The trio in the back seat listened quietly to the scene, but all three thought the exact same thing.

They looked like a marriage.

"I'm sure you spelled the address wrong." Chris repeated, tapping the little machine somewhat aggressively. Jill slapped his hand.

"You're going to end up breaking it, you handful."

"Then fix the damn address yourself."

"The address is right, I typed it in." Ashley said nervously from the back seat. Jill put her hands up to the sky.

"Thank God! Someone who agrees with me."

Redfield grunted, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

"Then the thing is broken."

"How about you do what it says and stop complaining?" Leon finally jumped in with a sigh.

"Kennedy, you shut up, you're prettier."

The agent grunted, throwing his head back and hearing Ashley and Narsson laughing beside him.

"You're a fucking ogre when you're angry." he mumbled.

"I'm not angry."

"And a liar too."

"I'm going to break your mouth Scotty."

Leon was annoyed at Chris's tone and his name.

"Oh, I'd love for you to try, Christopher."

When they managed to stop that pitched battle and Chris finally decided to listen to the GPS, they managed to get back on course, but made a stop for gas.

While Jill gave Chris a piece of her mind for being stubborn, the rest of them went out to stretch their legs.

They had rented a van to travel to the seaside town that Narsson's teacher had told them about. It was the most discreet thing to do and right now they didn't want to attract so much attention.

Enma went to the gas station to buy something to snack on and Ashley decided to venture towards the cliffs in the background.

The wind was strong and was stirring her blonde hair furiously. It was freezing cold, even though it was summer, and she could see dark clouds in the distance approaching land.

They'd definitely been hit with shitty weather.

Ashley lowered her golden orbs toward the churning sea at the foot of the cliffs. She felt the salty sea smell fill her completely. She closed her eyes and listened to the crashing of the waves hitting the bare rock, a sound that rumbled until it rattled her soul.

"Watch out for the wind."

She snapped her eyes open and turned in surprise toward the voice. A man with dirty blond hair was looking out at the waves as she did. Gray hair already decorated his sideburns and much of his beard. Ashley was surprised she hadn't heard him, but she noticed his salty scent, just like the sea.

She stared at him silently, doubtful that it was her he was talking to. But then he turned back to her, drilling his gray eyes into the woman.

"Beware of the wind." he repeated. "For it is the breath of the ocean beasts."

Ashley sensed a slightly thicker accent, but understood his Norwegian. Seeing that she was the one he was talking to, she smiled, looking out to sea again.

"At least their breath doesn't smell bad." she replied in the same language.

The man was surprised to hear the young woman's accent.

"Are you a tourist?"

"On a business trip, looking for vestiges of the past."

The man stared at her for a few seconds and then raised his gray eyes to the vast ocean on the horizon. Silence fell between them for a few moments, deafened only by the furious pounding of the sea on the cliffs.

"Many want to know the past, for the humans of old faced monsters that no one now believes in and perhaps are still among us."

Ashley heard the man's raspy voice. Even though it sounded faint in tone, it could be heard above the thundering of the waves and she felt a shiver run down her spine.

"Should the humans of now... forget the monsters of the past?"

They spoke in the breaks of the waves. After the question, another deafening thump enveloped them and the man answered in that deep, mysterious tone.

"When fishermen prayed to the gods for safe crossings or when we were still discovering these lands, beasts dwelt here. Monsters that in the long northern summers did not appear, but roamed everywhere in the dark winter months, when the cold and the shadows accompanied them. They were predators that only fables described and that were only forgotten after they were annihilated with the fire of the gods and the justice of Odin."

Ashley listened in silence, feeling the cold claws of memories brush her mind brazenly.

"They sound like fearsome beasts," she said in a lost, thoughtful tone.

The man turned to her calmly.

"Tell me, miss, have you ever seen monsters?"

A huge wave hit the bare wall, rumbling in her ears even louder and deafening her deepest thoughts, but bringing out her darkest ones. The young woman's golden eyes lifted to the horizon, lost in memories.

"Maybe."

It wasn't a lie. He might think she was just taking him for an old coot, but the man knew those kinds of looks, those expressions.

Too well.

"And you're not afraid to meet others?"

Ashley took a deep breath.

"I'm more afraid of knowing they're there, but not seeing where they're coming from."

The wind swirled around the two, as if caressing them with its icy hands. The man's voice became deep.

"There are many unknown beasts in the world, there always will be."

He took a deep breath and then turned to the stranger, looking at him with his amber eyes.

"I know, just as there will always be someone looking for them."

The wind howled and shook the trees as their gazes met.

Two strangers in a secluded place, talking about monsters of the past and beasts that could still live among them.

It seemed far-fetched and any normal person listening to them would think so, but... when two people who have seen shadows in the darkness were talking... it didn't take much to understand each other.

Then the man took a step toward her and without a word held out his hand. Ashley watched him for a few seconds and then gave him hers to shake.

The skin was rough and calloused. Weathered by the passage of time and demanding work, but he felt that rough surface on her palms as well. The man nodded and turned his wrist to make her open her hand and place a small object in Ashley's palm. He closed her hand tightly.

"An amulet. May Odin be with you, traveler."

He released her hands and turned to walk silently and leave with the same stealth with which he had appeared. Her amber eyes followed the man's figure until he was lost in the sea mist. She looked down at her hand and opened her fingers to see what the stranger had given her.

It was a leather necklace with a silver medallion on which were strange runes drawn forming a kind of pentagram.

It was a compass of Vegrisir.

Ashley was surprised and raised her eyes again to the direction in which the man had gone.

"Thank you," she whispered into the wind, hoping her voice would resonate even to that peculiar stranger.

Still lost in thought, she watched the medallion shortly before she caught the scent of Leon approaching.

Kennedy reached her and looked in the same direction she had seen the stranger Ashley had shaken hands with go.

"Who was he? Did he want something?" he asked curiously and noticed the leather and metal pendant her companion was holding silently.

Ashley clutched the amulet tightly, feeling a strange energy fill her, as if the words she had shared amidst the roars of the sea had encouraged her.

She took a deep breath and turned to Leon.

"And of those pieces of advice that sometimes you have to listen to."

Leon looked at her in confusion, not understanding the meaning of the words. He went to ask, but Chris's voice calling them made him turn toward the gas station.

"Are they calling us?" Ashley asked, putting the amulet in her pocket.

"Yes, we should go," Leon announced, turning to her again.

They looked at each other in silence for a few seconds, melting into each other's eyes as the sea wind gently swayed them.

"Let's go back," Ashley whispered then, taking her eyes off him.

Leon let her pass and walked after her with a strange feeling in his body. A mixture of calmness and... uneasiness.

*

By the time they reached their destination it was already dark.

Or so it was supposed, because it was the first time they had seen the famous midnight sun. While Narsson talked with the locals, the four Americans stood gazing at the sky, absorbed, earning soft laughter from some elderly people sitting on a porch.

Enma came soon after to take them to the small shelter in the village and the agents followed her.

It was a dwelling with an area set up for travelers like them. Narsson and Ashley greeted the kindly elderly couple who had put them up, and the other three smiled with a nod.

"You definitely need to learn a few words," Ashley laughed as she climbed the wooden stairs to the top of the house.

"Do you want me to pop a vein?" Chris grunted, crunching the wood under his weight.

"You're overreacting," Graham reproached him before opening the door to the room.

The room had nothing to do with the hotel. They all slept in the same room and had a single shower to share, plus a stove by the window.

It was much more modest, but it was sturdy. The beds were solid wood and the furniture was hard.

"At least the bed isn't going to split with you, Chris," Leon scoffed, setting the backpack aside.

Redfield rolled his eyes.

"Will you guys stop messing with me? You don't seem to have anything better to do."

Jill patted her partner on the back.

"It's too much fun."

The captain grunted and finally entered the room. There were two bunks and a small bed to one side. Leon and Chris decided to take the lower bunks, while Jill and Ashley took the upper bunks. They decided to let Narsson have the single bed.

After putting on the sheets and washing their faces from the sea salt, they decided to go down to the bar run by the hostel owner himself.

They had a drink and some food at a small round table. A few locals dared to say hello and Ashley was the one who took the initiative to talk.

The locals warned them of the unstable storm that was coming and would probably arrive tomorrow or the day after. They were very friendly to them and especially to Ashley, surprised to hear her speak their language.

They chatted some more and after several drinks from the Norwegians they stumbled off.

The group waved them goodbye and laughed among themselves, feeling the tension they had built up venting a bit.

There were many who paid them no attention, but there were others with curious eyes.

*

The next day they went down to the excavation early. They thought they wouldn't sleep a wink that night because of Chris, but it turned out that he didn't snore unless he got into a bad position, something Leon was grateful for, otherwise he would have tied him up with a gag.

The temperature had dropped a lot and they had to bring out more clothes than expected, but nothing they weren't all used to, although Narsson again complained about not being able to bring the luggage.

This time Leon was the one who drove to the excavation by general vote and Chris spent the ride with his arms crossed and grunting.

Ashley watched the scenery with a blank, thoughtful stare. Her thoughts caused her to reach into her pocket and pull out the metal amulet.

She looked at the shape of the runes and the structure of the engraving for a few seconds and then slipped it over her head and tied it around her neck.

Leon watched the action from the rearview mirror, his blue eyes scanning the small metal object that now decorated her neck. And he saw Ashley push her hair aside and tuck it behind her ear, raising her eyes to the inside rearview mirror. Their gazes met for an instant and Leon quickly averted his.

The GPS told him the end of the trip and Leon parked near the dock. The five of them got out and the sea breeze greeted them again along with the cloudy and increasingly dark sky.

"It looks like it's going to rain," Chris said, watching the storm clouds. They put on their jackets and walked towards the area cordoned off by archaeologists.

Narsson decided to go ahead to talk to the expedition leader while Ashley approached some of the workers. On the other hand, Jill, Chris and Leon scanned their surroundings, alert to any threats.

Some of the DSO department thought that sending so many agents to simply investigate was too much. The BSAA had already sent Chris and Jill and for the President to attach Ashley and Leon to investigate was something that some of the charges were not entirely convinced of, but President Graham was quite clear with his words when he said that he did not plan to mess up again and send just one agent.

Leon knew he was referring to how he was sent alone on a rescue mission that later ended up being something much bigger and even if he had survived, it would have been easier with more qualified agents.

Leon circled the fenced off area and watched the workers hiding in deep holes.

He saw Ashley chatting with some of them and even taking notes in her notebook. Maybe what she experienced in Spain made her take that path, but she was definitely passionate about what she had studied.

It went rather smoothly. Narsson caught up with the project manager and explained that they were looking for new samples of a reptile specimen that had been found. That revelation left Enma somewhat disappointed, as it had nothing to do with the creature they were looking for, but she decided to keep digging.

Meanwhile, Ashley had ended up going into one of the holes they were working on and an elderly man was showing her some shrapnel they had found, mainly seashells. It wasn't particularly new, being an area on the coast, so the man focused more on showing her the different layers that bounded the earth, and in one of them Ashley could see a slight darker tint. He even thought she smelled ash.

"What about this layer?" she asked the man in Norwegian.

"We think it belongs to Viking times. It may be from old sieges when they burned the villages they plundered."

Graham listened carefully and inhaled, wanting to pick up some nuance, but instead sensed something else.

She stood up abruptly looking in one direction. The three agents saw her blonde head peek out of the hole and pin her eyes in the distance. 

Leon turned in that direction and listened. Had he caught a strange scent? The three agents became alert when they saw her emerge from the hole. Ashley waved goodbye to the man and walked away from the excavation, sniffing the air.

But the scent was gone.

The blonde stood looking around as Leon approached her.

"Did you smell something?" he whispered discreetly.

"It seemed familiar, but it disappeared very quickly, so I don't know if it was just a passing scent."

Leon looked at her in confusion.

"Familiar? Of what?"

She sighed.

"I don't know, I think I've smelled it before, but I don't remember where or when."

"I'll tell Chris to keep an eye open." Leon's tone of voice became aggravated and Ashley assisted.

"I'm going to see if I can get anything off the premises."

Leon watched the woman walk toward the dock and after warning Chris and Jill to be on the lookout, he hurried to Graham again. Although he knew she could take care of herself, it was best not to get too far apart.

Ashley walked down to the dock and wandered among the old boats. She stopped in front of two men mending some fishing nets, and they looked at her with some suspicion. Graham approached and could hear one of them muttering disdainfully.

"Excuse me, may I ask you a few questions?"

The instant she began to speak their language, the fishermen's faces changed completely. They remained in their seats and looked at her intently. Leon stood back as he listened to them chat. He could see how well Ashley was doing and... how cheerful she looked.

The more she talked to the fishermen, the looser she felt. The anxieties that had populated her mind on the plane and a few days before were dissipating.

Like that feeling Dylan had put her through... the one that gave her the impression of being desperate for attention and physical contact. Like she was just looking for someone to share a bed with.

It made her feel like a desperate fool.

But there... no one knew who she was, where she came from or what she did, and yet she managed to connect with the locals just by speaking their language. They didn't look at her as a fool or see her as a piece of meat to pick at.

She felt... valued.

At one point in the conversation, she asked them about villages the Vikings used to ravage or even legends of monsters attacking villages. At first, she thought they would laugh at her and her wild questions, but far from it they told her about old tales and local myths.

And finally, she got to hear the word "monsters."

Ashley's eyes fell on one of the fishermen and she asked him about it.

They seemed to be tales for children who didn't want to listen to their parents, but Ashley felt there was something more behind the stories. There was something sinister that made those words almost come alive.

She asked them if those tales were from the area and the other long-bearded fisherman nodded, telling her that that whole area of coast suffered many raids and... misfortunes.

They talked without realizing that their voices sounded lower and lower and slower. Ashley noticed the fishermen's eyes, elusive and darkened by the passing years... or experiences one didn't want to know about. When she was aware of the depth of the men's words, she decided to ask one last question.

"Are any of your places nearby?"

Both fishermen looked at each other for a moment and then felt.

Leon watched Ashley say goodbye to the men and walk back to him. He sensed her amber eyes look to a distant area and knew she was thinking of something.

"Any leads?"

"I have been told that a couple of kilometers from here there are remains of an old fishing village, which was abandoned, they don't know if by a siege by Vikings or... by something else." Her last words were barely a whisper that sent a shiver down Leon's spine. The man looked in the same direction as she did and then put his finger to the small earpiece he, Chris, and Jill were wearing.

"Kennedy here."

A few seconds passed.

"I hear you." Jill's voice answered.

"Ash has spoken to some locals who have mentioned some old ruins. How's Narsson doing?"

"She is still with the manager, Chris has gone with her to look at the geological maps they are showing her. It looks like what they are looking for are old subway caves throughout the area that were buried."

Leon was thoughtful for a few seconds.

"Okay, I've got you on the line. Ashley and I are going to go ahead and take a look at the area. I'll keep you updated."

"Okay."

Kennedy pulled his finger away from his ear and turned to his partner.

"When Chris and Narsson are done, they'll come to our location. Do you have the radio on you?"

Ashley lifted her jacket to show him the device tucked inside a plastic holster. Leon reached up and gently took the backpack from her.

"Come on, I'll take it for a while. I'll follow you."

"Thank you," she said before setting off for the area the fishermen had told her about. Maybe they would get some answers there instead of more questions.

*

The sky turned dark and the storm clouds looked like they were going to engulf everything beneath them. The wind began to blow hard and to shake the treetops furiously.

The two figures walked silently along an old muddy path, now overgrown with brambles.

Leon began to hear thunder in the distance and raised his sapphire eyes to the overcast sky.

He didn't like thunderstorms. He turned to Ashley and the first thunder rumbled like an angry celestial drum. He watched her cringe for an instant and knew she wasn't too amused either.

The two walked in silence, their minds sinking in that sea of memories they shared.

In the storms and... in that night.

"Look."

Leon's voice brought Ashley to her senses and she raised her eyes to the craggy cove between the cliffs. It was farther from the sea than the town they had been in and at first glance it just looked rocky and overgrown with trees and grass.

They walked until they reached the place and as they approached they could see small vestiges. Small piles of stone covered by the moss of yesteryear could have been a stone wall to keep the animals in the corral.

Ashley knelt down to pull up some weeds and look at the bare rock blackened by some past fire. There was nothing left to indicate that there had once been a village there, only traces of stone and a very old nail that Leon had found while digging in one area.

Another clap of thunder echoed in the sky and the first drops began to fall. The two put on their hoods and continued investigating.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Leon asked, running his palm along crags made in the stone and then turning to face her.

He saw her crouched down as the rain poured down on her.

Graham stood up silently and looked around.

"Yes, this is it," she whispered. He stood motionless for a few seconds and then crept through the trees with Leon until they found a stranger abandoned on the ground. It was overgrown with brush, brambles, and moss, but it was strangely round. Leon and Ashley pulled out their knives and without a word began to cut and bring to light what was underneath.

A pit. Or what was left of the silhouette of one.

It seemed that at a more present time, someone had closed the hole in the well with timbers of questionable sturdiness.

"Well, this is something," Ashley said not quite sure what to do next.

Leon picked up a small stone and threw it into the plugged hole. He listened carefully and sighed.

"It doesn't look very hollow, maybe the earth has filled it in by now."

They both sighed and the rain got louder, making Leon's head buzz more.

"Maybe we should go ba-"

Ashley pushed him against a tree and covered his mouth in a second. Leon tensed and looked at her in confusion, but when he met her eyes he knew something wasn't right.

Ashley remained static. She inhaled softly and her pupils constricted. She let go of her partner's mouth and hid behind another tree trunk. Leon saw her tie her backpack tightly and then pull her pistol from her thigh holster.

Leon reflexively did the same and all his muscles tensed violently.

He glanced sideways at the woman and watched her lips move slowly.

"We've been followed."

Leon frowned and made sure the gun was ready.

The thunder began to deafen the place and Leon found it increasingly difficult to hear anything in the pouring rain. But for Ashley it was the ideal situation. The rain accentuated the smells more, expanding them and making them reach her more easily and clearly. She closed her eyes, listening to her racing heartbeat and steadied her breathing.

She sensed the shades of her followers and recognized them.

They had the same scent as the mercenaries who tried to kidnap Narsson.

For a second she thought about how they had found them, but if Wesker was as smart as Chris claimed, then it wouldn't have taken him long to come to that conclusion. Researching Enma's background was enough to find the museum where he displayed his old find. They would probably talk to Narsson's professor as well and he may have stopped by his classmates so the man could tell them where they had gone.

He was definitely a man you didn't want to have as an enemy.

Leon heard some whistling and had to make a great effort to make out the footsteps. He cursed inwardly at the intercession of rain and raised his gun, ready.

Ashley motioned for him to wait. They were still approaching.

"Where the hell did they go?" someone said in the background.

The footsteps were becoming clearer even to Ashley. A violent clap of thunder split the sky and Leon had to quickly cover his ears. He gritted his teeth and his blue eyes locked on Ashley's on the other side. They both looked at each other in silence as their hearts thundered in their ears. They didn't look away from each other as they heard the voices getting closer and closer.

Ashley breathed in softly and sensed three people... no, five. 

It was a small group like them, probably recon. Both Chris and Jill had mentioned to her that Wesker was not a man who was on the front line other than when necessary, so he may not have even gone all the way to the coastal town they were in and stayed in Oslo. Redfield also let it slip that he was no ordinary human, that he was a bioweapon himself, so she assumed his scent would be very different from that of the mercenaries.

He let the air out gently. He didn't want to form mist and give away his position.

"Look for them, they should not be far away." Another man's voice was heard in the undergrowth. "Do you have the thermal scopes?"

Leon and Ashley tensed suddenly and looked at each other in alarm. If they used those sights, they would be hunted down in a second. Graham raised his hand and his heart skipped a beat as he caught a scent approaching Leon. He motioned to his partner as another clap of thunder made Leon curse. The agent stuck to the log and waited.

And waited.

It was as if time stood still as the rain seemed to fall in the background. Leon stopped hearing it for an instant and focused on the footsteps as his heart pounded in his chest with a drum. 

He was close.

 He saw the tip of a rifle peek over the side of the tree trunk. He filled his lungs and held his breath. 

He had only one chance. 

First the gun. 

A hand peeked out. 

An arm... a shoulder... 

The soldier's eyes met the agent's and before he could even blink, Leon grabbed him by the throat. 

He tensed all his muscles and strangled him with all his might while covering his mouth. Ashley watched the man struggle in trying to break free from Leon's deadly grip, but to no avail. She smelled the adrenaline and watched his eyes roll until he stopped moving. 

Ashley felt her heart shrink as she saw the body left dangling in Leon's arms and he didn't blink. His face was now serious and hard as steel. There was no room for doubt or emotions. Only instincts. 

He thought the soldier's threat had passed, but then a beeping sound began. Leon and Ashley both blanched. 

"There!"

Shots whistled and the two ducked behind their trees. Leon looked at the soldier and saw a small bracelet. That made that sound. A bullet hit the trunk at Leon's head level and the man grunted. 

"Fuck," he shot in the soldiers direction. Ashley mimicked him, trying to spot his pursuers in the bush. Kennedy took firm aim and when he heard footsteps, he fired. One man screamed as he was hit in the shoulder and Ashley pushed back another.

Leon put his hand to his ear and pressed the receiver. 

"Chris!" a bullet made him flinch with a jolt. "Jill!" he called into the transmitter. But the sound of a click silenced him. 

Leon turned around. 

Ashley turned around. 

Between them flew a spherical object. A grenade. 

They saw it in the air. The rain stopped. Their hearts thundered in their ears. Their bodies rose up burning. 

Run. RUN. RUN. 

Ashley pushed Leon with her body and they fell into the hole of the well before the explosion. Wood and earth showed and the bomb shattered the rock walls. And they fell.

***

His ears were ringing between the impact of the grenade and the roar of the water. He felt a body clinging to him in the fall. 

"GET AIR!" 

Leon only reacted to Ashley's shout an instant before sinking into the icy water. They held on with all their might as the current swept them through those underwater tunnels. They shielded each other's heads and held their breath and the violent shaking. They felt the agony and the fear of not knowing if there was an end. If they would make it out. When the current spat them upwards. They stuck their heads out in desperation and breathed in pain. They gasped and swam until they touched the rough crevice. They groaned in pain and grunted as they climbed onto land, feeling their whole bodies scream. They had suffered bumps and abrasions. Leon looked at his legs with cuts, torn cloth and blood slowly oozing out. They were minor injuries, so he didn't take much notice of them. He turned quickly to Ashley with his heart in his fist and barely breathing. 

"Ash-" he coughed the seawater from his throat and watched her spit out the saltpeter. He saw some cuts on her hands and noticed her arms and back, but, like Leon's, they were only superficial.

He crawled over to her and pushed her hair away from her face as her gasps echoed in the cavern. 

"Are you... okay?" he asked breathlessly. She raised her eyes and clung to his arm. 

"Yes,... And... you?"

Leon looked around and took a shaky breath. 

"I'm fine." It took a few more seconds for their breathing to calm down. They stood up in pain and looked at the place where the torrent of water had spat them out. 

"Where are we?" Leon said, wringing the water out of his jacket and pulling his hair back. 

"It's salt water, so we still have to be on shore,” she replied, opening a backpack to make sure she hadn't lost anything. She was thankful she had packed samplers of plastic bags. After inspecting it she stood up and began to feel cold. 

"We should find a way out before we get hypothermia," Leon said rubbing his hands together and looking at Ashley. She inhaled deeply and arched her eyebrows.

 "I smell ... wood?"

Leon looked surprised. 

"Wood? Which way?"

She sniffed and pointed to a narrow gap between the walls. 

"That way." Ashley's tone of voice was a little louder and Leon grunted, covering his ears. 

"Speak softer, please," he whispered. His eardrums were still ringing from the explosion and the salt water that had gotten into his ears didn't seem to be coming out. It was a very unpleasant sensation that was just giving him a headache. 

"Sorry," she apologized in a whisper and then took his hand and led him. "come."

Leon let himself go. He felt terribly dizzy, as if he had been hit several times with the palms in his ears. He heard Ashley's footsteps mixed with the swaying of the water inside his ear canal. He grunted in frustration and watched Ashley squeeze into a small hole. He slid sideways and waited for her to reach the other side and then followed her to him. 

"Fuck... I barely... pass..." he gasped holding on to the stone so he could move forward. 

"You need to do less pull-ups, your pecs are too big," she scoffed in a soft voice wanting to take the heat off the situation and was happy when she heard Leon laugh under his breath. "My pecs are perfect." 

"Then tuck in your belly." 

"Idiot."

This time she was the one laughing. Kennedy finally managed to get out, but saw Ashley slip as she gave him her hand to pull him up. He grabbed her like lightning and they both fell down the slippery rock. It was more of a startle than anything else. They made it to the end unharmed in the blink of an eye. They got up carefully so as not to slip again and stood in pity. 

"Wow,” Leon whispered, shining his flashlight on the old and worn wooden structures. A graveyard of Nordic ships.

The hulls were mangled and almost rotten to the core, but the isolation of the cave had ensured that they had been preserved until now. Leon and Ashley approached carefully and Graham originated the wood full of algae and verdigris. 

"How long has this been here?" Leon lifted the flashlight to the masthead on the bow and then slid it down to the wreckage of other vessels. "They look like shipwrecks." 

"Yes, maybe the ocean currents dragged them through the caves." Ashley took out the knife to scrape the surface of the wood and then opened the backpack. 

"I'm going to take samples... shit."

Leon turned to her. 

"What's the matter?" 

The plastic canisters had broken from the impact they'd taken underwater. Ashley rummaged through the bottom, pulling out the unusable and was glad she'd packed bags of blood to use as possible liquids, something she didn't take to the expedition in Spain. 

"I don't have many containers, most have broken, but I think I can manage."

With great care and patience, she chipped the slippery wooden surface and inserted the remains through the tube of the bag. Leon watched her for a few seconds and then walked around the other side. The echo of the water between the tunnels echoed in his ears like waterfalls, making it difficult for him to even hear Ashley. He kept an eye out for an unlit area and an old plank that sagged under his weight. And he heard a creaking sound. Leon froze and all his muscles tensed. He didn't move, wondering what that had been.

"Ash?" he called to his companion with some urgency. "I think I stepped on something... that's not wood.

Ashley turned and finished putting the bag away quickly. She ran to him with flashlight in hand and shone her light at his feet. She knelt down as she saw that some of it was wood, but underneath was something else. Graham lifted the splinters with the knife and whispered.

“Lift the foot slowly.”

He obeyed gently and lifted the drop of rotten wood, letting Ashley see what was underneath. When she saw it, the flashlight almost fell off, and she gasped for air for a second.

Bones.

He had stepped on a skull. But her horror didn't end there.

When Ashley pushed aside a large chunk of wood, the two of them suddenly moved away.

A plaga.

They both saw that the creature was pierced in half and realized what that meant.

“That... is much bigger than the ones in... Spain,” Leon whispered, circling the body. “Haven't you smelled it?”

She shook her head. 

“Everything smells like salt and seaweed, it is very difficult to perceive such old and small smells.” She paused, following Leon, who found the other half of the plaga. “Besides, this... looks like the ones from the grotto I found in Spain.”

“The ones that were dismembered?”

Ashley nodded.

 “Those were far below even the catacombs we were in.”

Kennedy was silent for a few seconds. 

“So they're older than the ones Ramon had inside.”

They both internalized what that meant: the creatures had been around for a very, very long time.

Finally, Ashley reacted and pulled out the knife to extract samples of the plaga.

The water hadn't ruined the analog camera, so she was able to take some pictures.

“Ash, here's more!”

Leon had found an area overlooking the water where there were more bodies or remains of what had once been humans. From the looks of it, they had fought off the parasites, as they were all impaled, burned, or dismembered. It looked like the reason for the shipwreck was the plagas and the ship was at the mercy of the ocean just like the bodies, ending up being washed up there.

“Here, go take pictures of all this. I'm going to finish taking samples from inside the ship,” Ashley said, handing him the camera.

“Be careful.”

She smiled at him and walked to get between the skeletons of the old ships while Leon put his photography skills into practice.

Inside the ship, the smell was terrible. Ashley had to hold her breath every time she scratched the decaying surface filled with algae and some other mollusks.

The place felt... forgotten. As if time had disappeared and everything the sea had washed up there had become a mere eternal mausoleum. The air was heavy, and the cold went through the bones, making both Leon and Ashley shiver.

“When we get out, I call for the shower first,” Ashley said, grunting in disgust as a seaweed fell on her head.

She heard a soft chuckle in the background. “We'll draw lots when Chris and Jill find us.”

Ashley pulled out another baggie and saw that she only had one more left. She couldn't take too many samples.

“Jill?” she then heard Leon call out to the ex-cop. “Jill, do you read me?”

Leon could only hear choppy sounds and noise. He grunted, trying to focus all his attention on getting a response. They had to be looking for them; the explosion would have alarmed them. Leon and Ashley had locators, so at least they could track them.

He focused again on trying to hear his companions over the earpiece.

And a board hit his head.

Leon fell face first into the puddle of water he had been photographing. He jerked his head out with a grunt, but he was grabbed by the throat and plunged back into the water.

Who the hell was that? He hadn't heard him. He had been so focused on catching something from his companions that he had let his guard down.

He struggled with his attacker and felt his lungs burning from not being able to catch his breath. He managed to land a kick to his attacker's head, and he fell backwards. He came out of the water gasping and saw one of the soldiers. He must have pulled out a knife, and he saw Ashley emerge from between the boats. The man lunged at the officer with the gun, and Leon raised the gun, pointing it at his head.

But the man was quicker. “Knives are better for close combat, rookie.”

“FU-”

Leon dodged the fatal stab, but the blade sank into the side of his waist. Leon roared and grabbed the man by the wrist, striking him in the head. The soldier threw his body over him, and they both fell into puddles on the stone. Leon screamed as the man pulled the knife from his flesh and stopped him as he went to stab again.

Ashley jumped on the soldier's back, deflecting the knife and keeping it from plunging into Leon's chest. He hit her in the temple with his elbow, but she didn't let go.

She only saw red and smelled blood.

They wouldn't hurt him. Not anymore. She wanted to protect him. Save him.

Leon punched the soldier in the stomach, making him grunt. The agent threw him into the air with a kick, and Ashley didn't hesitate. She charged at him, and the soldier hit her hard, but she managed to cover herself and answer him with a hook that sent him reeling.

“Don't hesitate. Don't think. Act.”

She couldn't see. She was blinded by adrenaline and fury...along with terror. Her body moved on impulse, drawing the knife.

She dodged a kick and plunged the blade into the soldier's thigh. He screamed, but before he could react, she drove the knife into his neck with the violence of a hammer.

The man convulsed for a second before going still and falling dead to the ground.

Ashley gasped uncontrollably. The blood was warm, and the smell was suffocating.

The stench of blood... rancid and... hot.

“LEON!”

She couldn't stop. There was no time to think about what she had just done.

Not now.

Leon's grunts tore at her as she dropped to her knees beside him.

There was so much blood. Too much.

“God, God, God...” Ashley pulled off her jacket and pressed it hard against the wound, wrenching a scream from Leon. “Put it there, Leon, please!”

He ran for his backpack as he heard the man's pained moans.

This time, he was the one bleeding out. Not her.

Quickly.

She went back to him and pulled out some small towels she had stuffed in the backpack. She pulled out bandages and a first aid bag she always carried with her.

Leon was sweating and shaking. His face was paling by the second.

“Hold on,” she sobbed, lifting his shirt to see the wound. It was on the side of his waist. She didn't know if it had hit any organs—maybe not, as it was too far on the outside—but he was bleeding a lot.

She quickly took out the disinfectant and poured it all over the wound.

“FUCK!!!” he roared in pain, biting his other hand to hold back his moans and grunts of agony.

Ashley's eyes watered and clouded over. She had to hurry. Her hands couldn't shake now. “Please, not now.”

“Don't fail me now,” she whispered as she pulled the suture needle out of the little metal box.

Leon was running out of strength, and the color was leaving his skin too quickly. Ashley hurried to sew with her heart in her throat and tears in her eyes.

“No...no...please...hold on....”

She closed the wound, but the scarlet puddle that had formed was worrisome.

“Leon?”

She got no answer.

“Leon? LEON!”

She felt for a pulse and held back a scream as she felt how weak it was.

Blood. He needed blood.

She thought quickly. She was a universal blood donor. Yes, yes, she could give it, yes, come on.

Almost hyperventilating, she pulled the last remaining bag out of the backpack along with needles. God, she never thought she'd need these, she'd only brought them for fluids, and now she was going to do a homemade blood transfusion.

Either that or Leon would die.

She strapped the belt to her bicep and dug the needle into her vein. As the bag began to fill, she cut the sleeve of Leon's T-shirt and pushed the thin metal into his pale veins. She secured the IV and lifted the bag, then opened the path.

The time it took for the red liquid to flow down the tube into Leon was agonizing.

This was madness. She didn't even know if it would work.

She could only wait.

And with every passing second, she felt like a part of her was dying.

She didn't know how much time passed or how much blood would have entered Leon's body. She was still pressing on the wound with trembling hands when she heard a grunt of pain.

She turned breathlessly to him and sobbed with joy when she saw those eyelids part.

“ God... Leon... Can you hear me?” She whispered brushing sweaty locks away from his face.

 He took a second to focus his eyes and then look at the woman.

“ Ash... Are you okay?”

 Ashley laughed through her tears.

“ That's what I should be asking you... you idiot.” She stroked his cheek and Leon gave her a faint smile.

I need a few more minutes to fully regain consciousness and see Ashley's blood rushing into him.

“Are you... a walking hospital... or what?” he whispered weakened, but feeling the energy return to him. He hissed when Ashley moved the hand he kept pressing on the wound to see if it was still bleeding.

The towel was clean.

“ Being it was good for me.” And she took his pulse again, calmer now, and wiped away the sweat. - How are you feeling?

“ Wonderful.” he sighed with a soft laugh that made her grunt. “ Have I earned the first turn in the shower?”

Anyone would think this situation was absurd. That he wasn't behaving like a man who had been on the verge of bleeding to death. But Ashley knew he was doing it as much for her as for him.

“ Maybe I'm going to have to help you take a shower.” she joked now with dried tears.

 Leon smirked.

“ That doesn't sound like a bad plan.”

Ashley laughed softly and wiped her nose with her free hand smearing it with Leon's blood. The smell of iron and became so intense that it even eclipsed the scent of the salt surrounding them. But right now he didn't care if he couldn't smell other smells, now he just wanted to see Leon recover.

But the adrenaline was starting to drain out of her and her thoughts began to take hold.

She had killed a person.

She still felt the warm sensation of blood on her hands. Her body had acted alone and before she knew it there was a man lying on the ground with her knife through his throat.

Her body began to tremble and her breathing to shake.

But it had been so fast... everything had turned red when she saw Leon full of blood.

As if it wasn't her.

She didn't feel the hand that touched her wrist and the voice that called out to her. Only a sharp pinch made her react.

“ Ash.” she turned to Leon with dilated pupils. “Breathe.”

It took her a second to process that word, but she saw Leon do it and unconsciously imitated him.

“ That's it. - he whispered, breathing in and out with her.”

He may have been through a lot of things, but killing a person wasn't one of them.

And Leon knew how hard it was. He knew all too well.

They breathed together and even Leon stopped feeling dizzy. It seemed Ashley had given him enough blood.

“ I'm doing much better. The wound seems to have clotted, doesn't it?”

Ashley gently lifted the cloth, even she looked surprised.

“ It's very fresh, if you move too much it will open up, but it's not bleeding, did... my blood help?”

Leon sighed heavily.

“ Whatever it was, it is welcome.”

Ashley laughed softly.

“ You're not dizzy anymore?”

“ No, it was just in time, thank you.”

She smiled and let the air and heaviness out of her body, now fully stained with Leon's blood.

“ Be still for a while.”

“ Yes, ma'am.”

“ I'm going to take the-”

It was like nightmares in slow motion.

That strange feeling of stillness that he saw everything in great detail, but at the same time he was unable to react.

And what he saw was the nightmare coming back to him.

He saw a deformed face. Teeth closing around Ashley's shoulder.

And a scream breaking his ears again.

The pain of his wound disappeared and his instincts made him grab the hilt of the knife still plunged into that man who was no longer human.

But a monster.

He saw the teeth sink into her flesh and all his muscles pulled at the fist, severing the head all at once as it fell rolling to the ground.

Ashley brought her hands to the hollow air of her neck and shoulder. She felt the blood between her fingers, but it barely came out.

What it was doing was burning.

She looked at Leon and then at the man she thought she had killed. She saw her partner's eyes widen like saucers and terror fill his expression.

“ No... no, no, no, no, no, no, no.”

He looked at her in despair and when he saw those black veins spread from the bite, he felt like he was going back to that night.

To the same place. To the same nightmare.

“Leon what's hap-”

Ashley began to cough and her throat tightened. Her eyes contracted and her body began to shake and sweat. Leon grabbed her tightly.

This couldn't be happening.

Ashley's breathing became somewhere between ragged and anguished.

This had to be a nightmare. No...not again...not her.

She saw his amber eyes bloodshot and as she screamed at him. Leon didn't process her words, it took him a while to understand that she was asking him to release the IV.

What IV? Then he realized they were still sharing blood. Leon's thoughts stopped working as he watched those black veins spread across Ashley's skin. He began to feel hot. An unpleasant tingling running up and down his body.

He called out to her until his voice rasped from the effort as he watched her tremble more and more and the burn by the second. He was unable to react, but a part of him knew what was happening, what was happening to them. And he remembered the nightmare.

It was another bad dream. He just had to wake up.

He only had to wake up.

[arratesope]

WIP

I'm to into this AU XD

[arratesope]

Note of Awakening Past

I've had delayed work this past week and I haven't been able to upload chapter 21. It will be delayed for the week of the 8th of this month. Thank you.

[arratesope]

Some love for this two :3

[arratesope]

Awakening Past

Chapter 21 (sorry for the wait :3)

pairing: Ashley Graham x Leon S Kennedy.

Content: (+18) romance, angst, gore, erotic/suggestive themes at some point, slow burn, violence, action, self-harm, death talk,

If you're a MINOR DON'T keep reading, thank you.

Archive of our own / WORK LIST / Awakening Past Masterlist

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She did not know how long she burned. She didn't know how long she was falling through that immense darkness. The sensation of suffocation was overwhelming. She could not breathe, but neither could she suffocate.

She called out and screamed, but no sound came from her. But the pain was acute and she just wanted to cry, but the tears refused to come.

There was no way out...

There was no escape...

She was lost...

She slumped against the darkness and all her bones shattered.

*

She snapped her eyes open with a choked gasp and saw.

She was no longer in that dark pit, where was she?

In the dim brightness of the room, it took her a few seconds to realize what was in front of her.

Who was in front of her.

Leon.

She went to call out to him, but something muffled her voice. What was in his mouth?

The tiny sound she made was enough to see the man's eyelids twitch and part. His blue irises were barely discernible in the gloom, but even so, Ashley could perceive a deep redness in his corneas. She noticed his reddened, puffy skin around his eyes.

As if she had been crying.

It took her a second to realize that Ashley was awake, but when she did his eyes snapped open. She felt Leon's broad hands grab her head in desperation, and as her expression became anguished and... Terrified.

“Ash? Is that you? Tell me it's you for God's sake…”

Ashley froze at the sound of his voice. He was terribly hoarse and his tone was a desperate plea. Her whole body ached, but she made an effort to say something. Leon seemed to notice that and untied the knot behind the back of Ashley's neck. She sighed at the relief, but quickly felt Leon's hands holding her again.

“What ... happened?” her voice was barely a faint whisper in the darkness, but the sound of those words were music to Leon.

She was stunned when she saw tears welling up in his eyes.

“I thought... I was losing you..." the man's broken voice overwhelmed her and her own eyes watered. Leon held her with a trembling pulse and brought his face close to hers. Ashley sighed as their foreheads met and their noses brushed gently. Leon nuzzled, almost in terror, her nose with his own.

“I thought I'd lost you..." he told her with a sob he couldn't contain.

Ashley cried with him as images began to flash through her head. Her body began to shake and she snuggled against Leon under the covers of the bed.

God...now she was remembering what she had been through, but...a part of her still didn't quite know what it was that had happened.

But the way Leon was holding her as if her life depended on it, she let him know that she had been on the verge of not making it.

And she could only call out to him between her own terrified moans.

“Leon…”

They both wept in the darkness, clinging to each other like souls in grief. She had never seen Leon like this, though... the night of her nightmare he held her in a similar way.

But she didn't care. She just wanted to feel his body against hers at that moment. Leon's strong muscles contracted with Ashley's every movement.

“It hurts... everything…” she whispered with her nose still pressed to Leon's. He dug his fingers into the back of her neck and his warm breath caressed her lips.

“Me too... I... I tried to call out to you while you were passing out in my arms, but then everything went black.” he whispered to her in the gloom.

Ashley felt tingles run through her body at the closeness of their faces. Even with tears in her eyes, her heart raced hopelessly. She slid her icy hands down Leon's back, under his shirt, wanting to warm them.

She heard him sigh and tense at the cold touch of her hands, but then a subtle growl emerged from his throat as he relaxed. Ashley entwined her legs with his seeking warmth and he gave it to her. She tucked her arms under his shirt and sighed clinging to him as her heart pounded in her ribs.

 In the darkness there was only the sound of their bodies moving under the sheets and subtle sighs and agitated gasps.

 Ashley felt Leon's body tremble under her hands and closed her eyes, their noses still touching.

“You're on fire…” she whispered to him with effort.

“ Shh... don't talk Ash... you're weak.” he kissed her forehead and then her nose, making her sigh and almost moan at the pleasant touch. 

“And you... you're hoarse.” she smiled weakly at him.

“ It's not the same.” he answered hoarsely. “God... it's not the same Ash... you were shaking so much, you were burning up and sweating. I couldn't leave you, even though I was sick too, you were having the worst time.” He clutched Ashley's face in his hands and their breaths intertwined at the closeness. “You were calling me... over and over again, but you couldn't hear me, I couldn't bring you from wherever you were....

Ashley's eyes watered again.

“Stay... don't go, please... it was so dark…”

 Leon's heart broke and he felt her try to cling closer to him, even though their bodies were already entwined.

“ I won't. I won't leave your side. I'll sleep with you, you'll rest with me, all you want, I'm by your side, I'm yours.”

Ashley's heart skipped a beat and Leon listened, feeling his own racing and his body warming.

All she could think about was the closeness of the other. She clutched Leon's skin under his shirt with her hands as she inhaled his scent. Their breaths were ragged and they could feel each other's breath against their lips.

" He was hers..." she thought of the words he had said to her.

She opened her eyes and met those blue orbs that brought her in like a magnet.

They were so close...they could almost taste each other.

She felt his hands on the back of her neck press subtly and she slid one hand, snake-like, up Leon's torso to his neck, clutching him in the same way. Their intertwined bodies called to each other, whispered to each other somehow, wanting to merge. Their heaving breaths intertwined at the closeness of their lips, both remembering how close they had come to losing the other.

Ashley felt the little devils in her head quieting her common sense and whispering for her to taste those forbidden lips. 

She smelled the salty tang of his tears and Ashley's and Leon's imp wondered what the other's mouth would taste like....

A sudden knock on the door stopped the subtle brush of their lips.

They opened the entrance and the figure of Chris appeared holding the gun.

“Leon? Ashley? Is it still you?”

That was the same question Leon had asked me.

Still shielded by the darkness of the room, they parted and she answered weakly.

“Yes, what happened?”

The room light came on and behind Chris appeared Narsson with a terribly distressed expression.

Leon stood up first and seeing Ashley in such pain, he reached around her waist to help her sit up and lean against him. She thanked him, her lips still burning.

“Ashley?” the teacher's trembling voice made the blonde turn to her with a weak smile.

“You can come in Enma.”

The woman lunged for her to hug her, only to hear her moan in pain and Narsson apologize ad nauseam.

She had been terribly worried. When they heard the explosion, Chris and Jill went to the scene and asked Enma to stay with the rest of the archaeologists. The whole world almost fell on her when they found Ashley and Leon with an abnormal fever and covered in blood. Narsson told them they had to go to the hospital but... Jill and Chris refused for some reason.

Why didn't they want to be seen by paramedics?

 Enma grabbed Ashley's hands and sat on the edge of the bed.

“ Who attacked you?” she asked brushing a few strands of hair away from her face.

Graham thought back and looked at his old tutor.

“ I think they were from the group that tried to kidnap you.”

Chris frowned and thought of Wesker.

“ We neutralized them and the local police took them away, but I don't know how much longer we can stay here.” Chris sighed, putting the gun away.

“ Did you manage to save the evidence?” Ashley asked anxiously, remembering that she had carried a backpack, but couldn't see it anywhere. Narsson gave her a worried look.

“ Ashley, that's not important right now.”

“ Yes, it is, Enma.” she replied sharply, elating the teacher, who felt a serious concern for her student. This whole trip was definitely much more personal than she had thought.

“We've got the backpack, relax. Chris and I are with the photographs.” Jill soothed her with a sigh.  Ashley looked at the woman for a second and then turned to Leon next to her.

“Have you revealed them already? But... how long have we been in bed, Leon?”

The agent pinched the bridge of his nose.

“ I think a day and a half.”

“Almost three days.” Narsson interjected with a hard look on her face. “ You've been in bed for almost three days, for God's sake Ashley, if you're like this we should go back to-”

“ I'm fine Enma.” Graham hurried up and gave her hand a squeeze. “I'm much better now. My body hurts, but I think I'll be fine tomorrow.”

“ But-”

“ Professor, would you mind letting us talk to Ashley and Leon alone for a moment?”

Chris's voice made Narsson turn to him in confusion. She went to refuse, but the hardness in the man's gaze told her there was no room for argument. Enma felt a pang in her chest, aware of the secrecy this whole trip carried since they left the United States.

She sighed heavily and reluctantly let go of Ashley's hand. She left the room quietly and Jill closed the door.

The two former STARS sat across from the young men and didn't mince words.

“I don't know how you guys are alive.”

Leon sighed moving his arm from Ashley's waist to wrap it around her shoulders.

“Neither do I.”

“ That soldier seemed to have the same symptoms.” Jill added, massaging her eyelids.

Ashley looked at the three of them again and again, not understanding what they were saying.

“But what are you talking about?”

Chris and Jill looked at each other for a second and then nodded to Leon. It was Valentine who decided to explain the situation.

“That soldier had some kind of virus inside him. I don't know if... it's the same one that spread in Raccoon City, but the symptoms are definitely very similar.”

Ashley went pale and her voice trembled, making the lion's heart shrink.

“Symp...toms?”

“High fever, pale skin, dark veins all over the body, cloudy and bloodshot eyes. Leon, and especially you, have suffered from all that, but for some reason... you are still "alive" and "conscious".”

The way he pronounced those last words made her remember the ganados, both those who were still alive and... the corpses controlled by the parasite.

“ But... are you sure?”

Jill sighed.

“I suffered from that horrible fever and convulsions.”

“ And I saw the development of the body in the face of the virus.” Leon added.

Ashley looked first at the woman and then at her partner, who averted his eyes, as if remembering something horrible.

“But Leon and I... we're fine.” Ashley pulled her hands out from under the blankets to look at them. “We look... normal.”

Chris looked at Graham's limbs with a shadowed gesture.

“Yeah, and that's the weird thing, that's why Jill and I are thinking about canceling the mission.”

“NO!” Ashley started coughing at the sudden exclamation and groaned as her muscles contracted painfully. Leon held her concerned and trying to calm her down.

“Shh, calm down, maybe Chris is right Ash, we don't know what happened to us.” the agent told her softly. She raised her eyes, teary with pain, to him.

“ But Leon... we're on the clock, and we can't afford to go back now.”

“ At the cost of your health? At the cost of ours? Have you thought about whether your current situation affects us, Ashley?”

Graham was stunned. No. She hadn't thought about it, and the fact that he'd had to remind her of it felt like a kick in the stomach. 

Ashley looked down, embarrassed by her rash attitude. She was letting her emotions cloud her judgment.

“ I... I'm sorry Chris, I... I didn't... I didn't realize.” she whispered disappointed with herself.

Chris couldn't help but look at her tenderly and reached out his large hand to take her hand gently.

“ Don't martyr yourself, I just want you to think about the situation a little. It's night now, so you'd better rest and tomorrow we'll talk about it more calmly, OK?”

The captain's words calmed her down a little and Leon could feel her shoulders subtly relax.

“ Okay.” she finally whispered and the dark-haired man smiled at her and then got up with his companion.

“Perfect. Let's get you something to eat and the three of us will have dinner downstairs.”

Leon nodded as he watched them leave the room, closing the door behind them once more. The dim light of the room was their only companion for long minutes, until it was Narsson who came to bring them their food.

Although Leon and Ashley asked her not to risk it, the teacher dined with them. And to tell the truth, the young ones were grateful for it, because... they still had the thoughts on each other's hot breath, which not long ago they had been on the verge of intertwining. They wouldn't know where to put themselves if they were left alone.

Ashley was so weak that Narsson had to help her get a drink of water. The teacher kept them pleasant company, but also asked them questions about what they had seen down there.

The night deepened as they talked. Leon had leaned back against the head of the bed with Ashley leaning against him.

He was still processing what they had been about to do.

“ I took a look at the pictures of the ships you found.”

Enma's voice brought Leon out of his thoughts and saw her holding out the pictures to them.

“ I didn't understand what it said in some areas.” Ashley said pointing to old runes.

“ Yes, it's very worn, but I think it's old Icelandic.”

Leon arched the tiles.

“ Icelandic?”

The teacher nodded.

“ Yes. Iceland was a Viking area next to Norway, and from the look of those bow masks, compared to the Norse, I think they might come from there, although I still can't figure out those engravings.”

“ Yes, I wanted to take some more up close, but....”

But at that moment they tried to drown Leon while she played the tourist. 

Ashley frowned, still feeling bad about not smelling that mercenary. What good was her sense of smell if at times like that it failed her? If she'd sensed it earlier, Leon wouldn't have been stabbed, if she could have-

“ Ash, don't give it a second thought. What's done is done.”

Leon's soft voice near her ear made her shiver for a moment, then drop her head with a sigh.

“ Yes, sorry.”

Enma watched them and saw the weariness in their expressions.

“ Maybe it's a better idea to go back. We could edit the resolution of the photographs with the appropriate material and come back. After they look at you too of course.”

Ashley may not have been amused, but she knew Narsson was just looking out for them.

“ I'm sorry for dragging you into all this Enma.” apologized the blonde, contrite.

“ Don't mention it. I'm the one who agreed, so don't feel bad, okay? You're my student, even though you've graduated. You still have a lot to learn.”

Ashley looked at her with embarrassment, but then gave her a sweet smile that pleased the teacher.

“ Thank you.”

“ You're welcome.” She smiled back. “Now get some rest, because tomorrow we have to plan what to do.”

Leon and Ashley nodded and both lay down on the bed. Chris and Jill entered the room shortly after and as the two wounded were occupying Chris' mattress, they relocated.

Not without the captain complaining that his feet wouldn't fit.

*

She didn't know how long she had been looking at her hands and then staring at the ceiling. She had counted up to the boards on that side of the roof.

Forty-two boards in all. Now she was trying to discern the type of wood. And when she got it, maybe she would count the knots in each board.

She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply, and let the scent of her traveling companions soothe her.

She could still smell the saltpeter and algae in the cave, along with the rotting wood.

A sudden shiver ran down her spine and made her sigh with exhaustion.

“Can't sleep?”

Her body gave a jolt when she heard Leon's whispering voice beside her. She turned to him to see his dark ocean eyes watching her.

“ No, not really, can you?”

“ I've been listening to you count the boards.”

Ashley let out a soft laugh. What a pair they were. She was quiet for a few seconds and then raised her amber eyes to his.

“ What happened to us Leon?” she whispered to him in the darkness. She was still confused from everything that had happened in that cave and the bandages covering her neck and shoulder assured her that that bite was real. She heard Leon sigh heavily.

“ I wish I knew.”

Ashley remembered the words they had shared with Chris and Jill about Raccoon City and couldn't help but ask.

“ You said... you witnessed the development of the symptoms we've been suffering from.”

She saw Leon's eyes lift up to her and, even though everything was dark, she could perceive the man's frown. That gesture made her cringe and she felt a shiver digging its claws into her back.

“Yes, I witnessed it.” His voice had become deeper and raspier. “ the policeman who helped me, was attacked by a fellow officer and ...I saw him slowly deteriorate.”

Ashley listened to him silently, feeling the shadows of Leon's memories come to her, almost making the silhouettes in the room come alive. She couldn't help but swallow saliva and whisper cautiously.

“ Was there no cure?”

“ If there had been, don't you think I would have used it?” Leon's voice was harsher than usual, causing her to cringe and, at the gesture, he rectified. “ I'm sorry, I... I wanted to save him and I couldn't. As Jill said, there were experimental cures in the Umbrella lab, but they were destroyed.” he paused again. “And that's why I don't understand how we're still alive.

“ Do you think... it has something to do with the plaga?”

Leon sighed under the watchful eye of his partner.

“ I don't know, Ash, but whatever happened to you, I'm carrying it inside me too.”

Ashley fell silent. Leon was right. When the soldier bit her, they were still sharing the vial of blood. If she had ripped out the IV... Leon wouldn't have gone through the same thing. If she had been quicker, she wouldn't have infected him with whatever was now in his body, if....

“ Hey.”

She stopped thinking about everything when she heard his voice. When she perceived that tone. The one that told her he knew what she was thinking. The window of the room vibrated against the gusts of wind that had risen outside.

The smell of the sea was very subtle, but it came to her like a gentle reminder.

“ Sorry, I can't help thinking.”

“ I know.” he whispered gently. “ I know, princess, which is why, perhaps, Chris, Jill and Narsson are right. Maybe the wisest thing to do is to go back and make sure we are not dangerous for the rest.”

Ashley let her partner's words soothe her.

“ Yeah. As long as we don't bite anyone, right?” she tried to joke and managed to elicit a subtle smile from the agent.

“ That's right. Let's avoid having to be gagged again.” they both laughed in the dark. “Tomorrow we'll plan the comeba-”

Ashley snapped his mouth shut. She went pale and could see the confusion in Leon's expression.

She breathed in softly, flaring her nostrils and her pulse began to race like a racing motorcycle. She saw Leon's eyes snap open at the sound of her heartbeat.

Oh no.

He sniffed some more and his expression changed to one of terror.

They were in trouble.

She wanted to get up all at once, but her body shrieked from the pain. She groaned in anguish and felt Leon's hand hold her waist to lift her up. He rushed to wake Chris, who growled like a bear.

“ What the fuck, Le-”

“ Ash smelled something.”

Jill and Redfield jumped out of bed and grabbed their guns at full speed.

Ashley woke up a confused Narsson and put away all her belongings holding back the pain in her weakened body. She could see Leon grunt as he slammed his backpack over his shoulder.

“ What did you sense?” Chris whispered in the darkness as he laced up his boots and closed his bag.

Ashley inhaled again and frowned in anguish.

“ We've got company.”

*

The wind was freezing.

The roar of the waves buzzed in Leon's ears as he guided them between the houses, away from the lodge where they had been staying.

They had gone out the back door.

Jill was helping Ashley walk, while Chris was supporting Leon, and he was holding the bandage on his side. Narsson was walking in the middle, her face pale and her lips trembling.

They had to get out of there. How had they found them? Had they sent a signal in the previous confrontation?

Ashley felt her lungs burning and she was panting heavily, as was Leon. They had definitely been left in pretty bad shape by that virus, whatever it was.

“ Stop.” Leon whispered, raising his fist.

They all stopped and Leon signaled them to turn another way.

They didn't know where they were going. They had left the van at the hostel and had managed to get out in a hurry. They ran to a corner where they hid. Chris knelt down with Leon at his side and Jill let a panting Ashley sit down.

“ Where are we going? They'll have the whole area bugged for any calls we make.” Chris whispered with a grunt. Leon tried to think, but unfortunately he couldn't think of anything either.

Ashley listened to them think about their options. She tried to pay attention when a strange marine smell came to her. It was not the same as the salty one from the sea. It had a distinct tinge and... familiar?

She inhaled again trying to get a sense of the direction of the scent.

“Let's go to the dock.” she then whispered as the scent mingled with fish. Leon and the other two agents turned to her.

“ To the harbor?” Jill whispered uncomprehendingly. Ashley nodded, sitting up with some regained strength.

“ Maybe we can escape in a boat or something like that.” she answered following the scent she couldn't quite identify. The rest nodded and set off, avoiding lighted areas.

They crept along the paths in stealth until they heard the crashing of the waves against the stones of the pier. The smell dissipated into the air along with the saltpeter and wind, but they made it to the harbor. Ashley began to feel more anxious with each passing minute. Had a dead end brought them there? Would they find them there? They saw no one under that storm in the town, though, what did she expect? She felt the anxiety to eat her and her icy hands slid to her tense neck.

She felt the touch of a rope and when she remembered what was hanging around her neck, her eyes snapped open.

The Vegrisir of that strange man from the cliffs.

That was the familiarity she had felt.

Suddenly, her heart started pumping blood. He was there, somewhere. They had to find him, but... Would he help them? Or maybe not? Could all that scent be just her imagination?

Ashley doubted all her abilities when suddenly Leon raised the gun and made them hide against a wall. What had he heard? Wait a minute, the smell-

Leon grabbed the shadow by the throat and slammed him against the wooden wall. The hostage grunted in pain and cursed in Norwegian. Ashley's eyes widened.

“ Wait!” she stopped her partner. Leon turned to her confused, but still holding the suspect. The man fell silent when he heard the woman's voice.

“ The tourist?”

When the blonde heard that voice, she knew that everything she had sensed was real. She almost cried, from the relief her body felt. With a trembling voice and an anguished smile, she answered in her own language.

“ Yes, yes, it's me. How did you get here?”

Leon was reluctant, but finally let him go when he heard him talking to Ashley. But he kept his finger on the trigger.

“ I'm a fisherman, this port is on my route.” The man looked at the group and could see, in the gloom, the distressed expressions on everyone's faces. “Are you in trouble?”

 Ashley almost gasped in agony.

“ Can you help us? Please, we're being chased, we need to get out of here, please.” she begged in a raspy voice. Even Leon was surprised by the anguish in her tone, but the way they were in that situation... they had little choice.

The agent looked at the fisherman, recognizing him as the man who spoke to Ashley on the cliffs. For a moment he thought he would refuse, that he would leave them to their fate, not wanting to meddle in matters that did not concern him.

“ Follow me.”

It was the answer he didn't expect and that everyone understood. Leon was stunned and Chris gave him a push to make him react. They all obeyed and walked behind the fisherman across the wood and stone pier.

They looked behind them with every step they took, almost terrified to see the mercenaries appear at any moment. Cold sweat on something in their bones and adrenaline being the only thing that kept their legs moving forward.

But they didn't come.

They ran through the harbor until they reached a fishing boat moored at the bottom of a pontoon.

“ Wait a moment.” said the man before climbing aboard and entering the cockpit crew cabin.

The time it took to return was eternal for the group. They felt the cold breath of the storm on the back of their necks and their instincts made their muscles unable to relax. Leon was almost about to fire when the figure of the man suddenly appeared on deck.

“Come up.” he said to Ashley.

They stealthily boarded and Graham could make out three other figures on the boat. They were the three fishermen she had spoken to before her encounter with the first mercenaries.

They too seemed to recognize her and gave her a nod in greeting before leading them into the storage room.

The smell of fish was so strong down there, Ashley had to hold her nose to keep from vomiting. She was still too weak to handle very strong smells.

The man who had helped them spoke to his companions. He sounded like the captain and Leon couldn't make out what he whispered to them before one of the men climbed into the command cabin.

The group hid in a corner of the store room as the ship silently pulled away from the pontoon, then started engines and pulled away from that dark harbor.

It wasn't until the captain said they were far enough away from shore that they managed to slow their hearts.

Jill had to hold Ashley up when her legs gave out and helped her sit down.

The storm had saturated them from top to bottom and they were holding back their shivering as best they could. The other fishermen decided to help them with some thick blankets and offered to put the wet clothes on the cabin stoves. Ashley thanked them and curled up in a ball as she took off her clothes and was handed the blanket. Narsson sat next to her and they shared some warmth.

The teacher was still in shock. When she had agreed to participate in Ashley's research, she had never believed that "it's personal" would go this far.

She no longer knew the extent to which she was involved in an international issue with dangerous people interested in them.

Was it for something like this that they had tried to kidnap her for? Honestly, she was beginning to feel she wanted to know more about it, but Ashley's secrecy and the reticence Chris had shown towards her when the two young couple were unconscious, she was beginning to doubt the veracity of that trip.

But she had agreed, and Ashley had told her over and over again that it might not have been the best idea.

But now she needed to know the truth.

Her thoughts plagued her mind for who knows how long, until the fishermen brought them some old clothes to wear while the others dried. Ashley snuggled against Narsson for a while longer, beginning to feel her mind somewhat clearer. Her amber eyes stared at the floor of the boat for long minutes as she got used to the smell.

Ever since she had awakened she had felt a little tingling all over her body that had been gradually fading. She wondered if Leon had felt the same, but... then she remembered how close they had come to kissing.

Ashley sent her face between the blankets against Narsson.

“ Are you all right?” the teacher whispered.

“ Yes.” she nodded and crouched against her so she would think she was just seeking warmth.

But now it was all coming at her like a hurricane.

What had she been thinking? Their whole friendship, everything they had been through together and had forged the relationship they had. She had been on the verge of throwing it all away.

But he had come close too. Why had they felt that urge? When she'd woken up in Leon's arms, she'd just wanted him to hold her. For him to wrap her up like he had done so long ago.

But when she saw him cry... it was as if something in her surfaced. A feeling that... she thought she had overcome, even though it reappeared when she went to look for him in Spain.

That feeling that made her heart burn and pound in her chest like a sledgehammer.

An emotion she shouldn't have. Because she believed she had worked hard enough for those last two and a half years to get over it. And a part of her had been absolutely sure, but... it had only taken a few months for doubts to creep back in.

She sighed heavily, wishing her inner voices would leave her alone and she could get some rest, but it seemed that wouldn't be possible.

“ Hey, young lady.”

Or maybe it was. Ashley raised her eyes, along with the rest of the group, to one of the sailors who called out to her.

“ Me?" she replied in confusion.

The man nodded.

“ The captain wants to talk to you.”

It took her a second to process what he was asking, but then she nodded and stood up. She saw Leon start to get up as well, but she stopped him. He wasn't at ease letting her go up alone, but Ashley calmed him down by saying that they had been helped and if he needed help she would call him.

Although Leon seemed reluctant, Ashley climbed the metal stairs to the command cabin.

When she entered, her amber eyes met the gray ones of the man who had saved them. The Norwegian smiled subtly at her and motioned her toward the helm.

“ Do you want to talk to me?” she asked softly, them being the only ones there. The man nodded.

“ I think we could catch up on this peculiar situation.”

Ashley let out a long sigh.

“ I don't want to get you into any more trouble, I-”

“ How about we introduce ourselves first? I don't want to refer to you as a tourist, you know?”

Graham paid close attention to his words, as his Norwegian had a thicker accent than Narsson's, and then smiled tiredly.

“ Yes, you're right. My name is Ashley.”

The man nodded in satisfaction.

“ I'm Ragna, nice to meet you.”

They shook hands and that gesture calmed her nerves a bit, but the anguish didn't completely disappear.

“ Ragna... I really appreciate what you've done for us, but I don't want to get you into any more trouble.”

“ Well, at this point I think it's a bit difficult, besides, you told me yourself that you're looking for monsters, but the question is, where? “

Ashley was silent for a few moments, hesitating whether to give him the truth, but... he also deserved to know after saving their skins.

The inner voices debated in her mind and after putting all the options on a scale, she saw that there was no use pondering the pros and cons.

So, after sighing heavily, she spoke.

“ Iceland.” she paused to see Ragna's reaction, who was still staring straight ahead. “In that town... we found a graveyard of Norse ships and my teacher was able to decipher some Old Icelandic, but not which place.”

She said no more, at least for now. She didn't know how far she could break down information, but she had a strange feeling. The same one he sensed when they first met at the cliffs.

As if this man knew monsters and demons that ordinary people didn't even know existed.

“ Iceland... there dwell many shadows of antiquity, young lady. There are stories and legends in remote villages of human-devouring demons and bloodthirsty beasts. What are you looking for there?”

Ragna's voice had grown aggravated and barely rose above the roar of the waves outside.

Ashley clutched the blanket over her shoulders and her eyes were lost in the raging sea.

“ Answers.  At least to the questions we have now.” she paused slightly, feeling a tingle run through her scar. “ We seek... something that should never have existed, but that awoke and emerged from the depths of the earth and turned a simple village into hell itself.”

Her words were deep and cautious, but at the same time full of emotions and nightmares that Ragna could sense.

“Is that hell the cause of your journey?”

 Ashley nodded subtly.

“ I don't want it to happen again. I've seen those monsters still exist and for a long time, but I don't want to wait for them to rise again. I want answers to find out what they are and where to find them.”

Ragna listened attentively to the young woman, somewhat surprised by the weight that permeated her words. He did not know her, knew nothing of her. She was barely a child to him, and yet she spoke as one who had seen horrors too soon and too close.

It seemed she had not been the one who had played with fire, but she had been the one who had ended up burned.

“ I'd like to help you.” he whispered then, turning his ashen orbs to the young woman at his side, who gave him a worried look.

“ Ragna you shouldn't-”

“ I've seen things in the sea Ashley. Sometimes I think I've gone mad, other times, that the stories I heard as a child had some truth in them. I told you there are horrors, that this world harbors, that should not wake up and so I want to help you.”

Ashley looked at him dumbfounded, but his words were enough to make her see that they were in the same boat.

She reached into an inside pants pocket and pulled out the photograph of the skeleton they had found with an ancient plaga attached to its back.

“ This thing was among the corpses in the ship graveyard. We are trying to find the origin of this bug.”

Ragna's eyes were riveted on the photograph and he froze when he saw the creature.

“ By the gods... It's like... the stories I was told when I started at sea.”

Ashley looked at him intently.

“ Have you seen it?” her voice sounded more anxious than she would have liked.

But he denied.

“ No, but I have been told stories about ancient creatures they fought in some villages in Iceland. The old man who told me about them came from a village in the more remote areas of the island, but he never told me from where. I could only take you to the port where I met him, I'm sorry.”

Ashley felt her heart racing with excitement at having found a new clue.

“ That's already a lot Ragna, really.  I don't know how to thank you for all the help you've given us without knowing us.” she said with a subtle smile of pure gratitude, to which the man responded by curving his lips in the same way. 

“ Living. Live so that we can meet again and you can tell me that this monster you seek no longer exists. So that I can sleep through the darkest, quietest nights with one less fear.”

Ashley stared at him in disbelief, still surprised by the stranger's kindness. She wore a huge smile of relief and sincerity, and with a voice sweeter than honey she responded with a newfound affection for the man.

“ I will do it Ragna. I promise.”

*

A few words later, Ashley returned to the cabins in silence. The dim light from the lamps illuminated the reclining figures in the room they had been provided.

Everything creaked and rippled. None of them were able to close their eyes, or not for long to avoid possible dizziness. Their spirits were at rock bottom. Although Ashley gave them the news that Ragna was taking them to Iceland, the tension remained heavy.

They were alone in the middle of a storm on the ocean. The creaking of the ship hitting the waves was all they heard all night. Ashley found a corner to sit in, though also unable to fall asleep. Her thoughts were too violent and her memories more vivid than usual. Her eyes were lost in a distant world and she sighed deeply.

Narsson watched them and throughout the journey, she sensed the dark weight they all carried. Their gazes were somber as if they were seeing something that escaped her. She felt oblivious to the burden they carried, just being a spectator in the gloomy atmosphere that enveloped them.

 The moaning of the ship struggling against the incessant swell was all they heard.

 Until she began to hear a soft melody.

Her greenish eyes lifted to the blond ball in the corner, which hummed in a faint, muffled voice, but enough to perceive a slight change in the rest of the group.

In the dim light of the place, they became immersed in the soft voice. A mixture of calmness, but this time tinged with a deep nostalgia.

The agents' gazes did not flicker, but she did see their shoulders subtly slacken.

Enma listened in silence like the rest. She let the notes produce ambiguous feelings inside her, but somehow it soothed some of her anguish. She closed her eyes even though she knew she would not fall asleep, but she let the atmosphere soothe her a little.

 She could almost see, in her sleepiness, the shadows that sat on the shoulders of the rest of her companions. Like a dark smoke that didn't engulf them, but caressed them with its cold claws. Though with the melody, it seemed that even the nightmares became more affable.

*

The waves looked much calmer that morning. The rays of dawn reflected in the amber irises that looked out over the horizon. Deep dark circles under her eyes marked her face and her skin had become somewhat pale from seasickness, brought on by the rocking of the boat.

She lowered her eyes to look at her palms. No dark veins or strange marks. All normal. The constant tingling she had felt since the day before had also ceased and now she felt... as if nothing had happened.

She stared down at her palms, lost in thought.

“ Have you grown scales or feathers?”

The deep male voice brought her back to earth and she turned around.

“ Horns would be more useful for head-butting.” she replied sarcastically.

Chris laughed and leaned back with his forearms on the steel railings of the deck.

“ How are you feeling?”

“ Apart from the salt spray, the itchy head, the stink in my armpits and the accumulated fatigue, I'm fine.”

Redfield let out a soft laugh and then took a deep breath.

“ Did you feel any different?”

“ No, not really.”

“ I think our plans to return to Washington are going to have to wait.”

“ Yeah, it looks that way.”

They were both silent for a few long minutes, listening to the crashing of the waves against the hull of the fishing boat.

“ Are you going to tell your father?” whispered the captain, earning a sigh from Ashley.

“ Yes, I don't like to worry him, but after Victor tests Leon and me, I'll notify my father.” she paused thoughtfully. “ Honestly, I'm a little afraid of what he's going to find inside us.”

Chris glanced at her.

“ Try not to be too negative, maybe you possess some kind of resistance.”

“ Do you think so? Isn't that what happened to Jill?”

“ No. Jill would have turned if Carlos hadn't injected her with the antidote. Just like the Birkin girl was infected and saved by my sister, Claire, but she would have died too.”

Ashley listened carefully.

“ Are there exceptions?”

Chris interlaced his fingers and warmed them with his breath.

“ I don't know them.”

Ashley looked at the ground.

“ But that soldier turned after I killed him, he seemed perfectly fine.”

Chris was silent for a few seconds.

“ I wouldn't be surprised if it was some of Wesker's experiments.”

Graham raised her eyes to the dark-haired man and the wind ruffled her hair.

“ Could this Wesker do something like that?”

“ He is a demonic sociopath, but a very intelligent one. He is a man who is a biological weapon himself, who has lost his mind. He may have experimented with new things we don't know about. I understand he was after some plaga specimens, probably for his infernal projects.”

Ashley listened to him carefully.

“ We can't let him take any new plaga.” whispered the blonde in a more concerned tone.

“ Nor you.”

The sudden words surprised her.

“ What?”

“ We can't let him find out about your mutations, or Leon's, but especially yours.” he paused. “We've already seen the preference of scientists like him to use women as incubators.”

Ashley felt terrible shivers run down her spine at the mere thought, but she clenched her fists.

“ We'll have to tread carefully.”

“ You'll be a person of interest.”

Ashley couldn't help but scoff softly.

“ I've been a person of interest since my father went into politics. At least now I know how to shoot a gun.”

Chris laughed softly at the young woman's words and reflexively raised his hands to shake her head affectionately.

“ But don't forget to ask for help if you need it, okay?”

“ Roger that, Captain.”

They both smiled and stood watching the sun rise over the waves. Silence lingered for a few minutes, as the two were lost in their own thoughts.

They were both aware of the delicate situation they were in, with a civilian like Narsson in the middle. At least now she did not feel so weakened, so she could fight without much trouble. But ideally, for now, it would be best to hide and avoid possible conflict.

Ashley looked at her aquamarine bracelet and tried to put all the thoughts and events of the last few days in order. Her head was in chaos. She let out a heavy sigh and finally parted her lips in uncertainty.

“ I guess it wouldn't be a good idea to contact my father.”

Chris sighed in the same way.

“ We don't know if they can intercept our calls. Leon disconnected all the cell phones, so... we're on our own for now.”

Ashley felt a strange pressure in her chest. A sense of déjà vu took her back to the village, where no one could help them.

Where they were on their own.

“ So... what do we do now?” the words came out of her without thinking.

“ If you don't mind, a hot shower, a decent meal and a proper nap would be nice.”

The sudden voice caused the two to turn back to the source, meeting a pale Narsson with deep dark circles under her eyes.

Jill and Leon came up the stairs after them and they didn't look any better.

The truth was, they all looked awful.

“ I second Narsson's offer.” raised her hand at Jill in a tired voice.

“ So do I.” grunted Leon cracking his neck.

Chris and Ashley looked at each other for a moment and laughed hopelessly. The other three joined in and that simple gesture made their mood a little better. They may now be on their own on the road, not knowing when they might contact Hunnigan or the BSAA, but at least they were together. They had each other to have one another's backs.

*

It took them the day to reach a port northeast of Iceland. When Narsson hit dry land she lay down on the ground and wept, praising in Norwegian whoever she prayed to.

Leon felt as if a bucket had been removed from his head. The noise of the trawler's engine had made him fear going deaf. So he just plopped down on the grass with a grunt.

Jill and Chris practically collapsed on the bench next to him.

Ashley was grateful for the freshness of the land, in contrast to that of the trawler. Ragna and his crew would be staying the night to resupply.

“ Here Ashley, this is my number. If you have any problems, please do not hesitate to call me.”

Graham took the note with the data written down and smiled at her.

“ Thank you very much Ragna, where are you headed now?”

The man scratched his grizzled beard.

“ To Canada, we have bass to hunt this season.”

Ashley thought for a few long seconds and finally made up her mind.

�� I need you to do one last thing for us.”

The man turned to look at her carefully.

“ Whatever you need.”

The young woman knelt down and pulled from a tiny inside pocket of her boots a bundle of money. Then she picked up a pen and wrote a note.

“ I need you to go to Boston and deliver this message to President William Graham. The money is for the food and fuel expenses you need to divert.” Ashley rummaged through the backpack and found the credential they were given at the Norwegian Museum to get in. “Give this to them, tell them you're on my behalf and that we've been cut off, but that we're fine and traveling in Iceland.” She raised her amber eyes to the man's gray, pleading ones. “Could you do that?”

Ragna was taken aback at the request and the amount of money. He stood silently counting the bills and Ashley felt the anguish begin to eat away at her. Had she made a grave mistake? She was trusting a stranger too much? Maybe she didn't have to-

“ This is enough.”

Ashley blinked and Ragna handed her back some bills.

“What?

He took her hand and rested the leftover money in it.

“ Keep this, I've taken what I need. We'll reload and check the ship tonight and leave tomorrow.” He smiled softly at her, patting her gently on the head. “I'll do my best, do you have the Vegrisir I gave you?”

Ashley pulled the pendant out from under her sweater and Ragna nodded in satisfaction.

“ Good, wear it always with you, it will guide you on your journey.”

The blonde felt a lump in her throat and hugged it without a second thought.

“ Thank you so much Ragna... God, I don't know how to repay you.”

The man returned the gesture strongly and stroked her hair affectionately, much like William did. Maybe that was the reason why he inspired so much confidence and trust in her.

“ You will return the favor, I have a feeling that the gods will cross our paths again.”

Ashley smiled almost with tears in her eyes and thanked him countless times as their embrace lasted.

When they had to part, they gave each other one last smile before the man walked back to his ship and Ashley with her group.

The young woman held the metal amulet tightly. Now it was time to listen to her instincts and move on. Always forward.

She joined her companions and after taking one last look at the ship and the men who had saved them, they set out on their journey again.

*

At night few places were open. They walked through the small town looking for some place to stay and get some rest. They looked like walking corpses and were thankful for their luck when they found a sufficiently quiet bar.

They sat down at a somewhat more secluded table and ordered something to eat while they thought about what to do next. Fortunately, the young owners of the place spoke English, though it didn't surprise them, as Narsson had mentioned to them that it was a mandatory language in a school.

They decided that they would pose as simple tourists. Narsson and Ashley could understand a little Icelandic being a Nordic language, so if there was anything suspicious anyone said about them, they would spot it. So for now they were globetrotters visiting the northern landscapes.

They had entered the country incognito, so it was best not to draw attention to themselves for now.

“ Maybe we should ask the innkeepers if they know of any lodgings around here?” Jill asked, sipping her beer with Chris as they devoured their food.

Leon grabbed a potato from his square.

“ Do you think Wesker will know where we are?” asked the agent as Narsson excused herself to go to the restroom. Redfield's brow furrowed and he sighed.

“ I don't think so. Wesker's biggest flaw is his arrogance, he won't expect much from us. He'll probably be looking for us up north in Norway.”

Ashley swallowed eagerly.

“ That will buy us some time, where should we start?”

Enma sat back down between Ashley and Leon and stole some tomatoes from the latter. She listened to the blonde's question and pulled out her tiny notepad.

“ I wrote down some villages where there were Viking settlements, maybe we could ask.” the teacher advised.

Ashley stared at her water bottle and unconsciously touched her fingertips to the charm around her neck.

They were in a not at all favorable situation. Ragna had told her that he had heard stories about plaga-like monsters here, but that was many years ago. The Norwegian was probably his father's age and the old man who told him that legend was probably long dead.

 In Oslo, they had used the museum to search for clues and Wesker was most likely to find them that way.

 So, maybe... it would be a good idea to look in another way.

“ What if... we looked for legends?”

The group turned to Ashley, confused.

“ What do you mean?” Jill asked, curious.

“ These lands are places with many stories and tales. They are remote villages that hardly have much tourism, so maybe we could try and ask for local myths, we might find something in them.”

“ Chasing tales…” whispered Narsson with a thoughtful air. It was a risky thing to do and they didn't know if it would lead anywhere, but... Ashley found that ship graveyard thanks to the fishermen she asked. While she was with the settlement workers. So far, her student's hunches had led her to discover many things. Enma felt a tiny sting in her chest, but didn't show it. She leaned back in the seat and nodded her augmentation.

“ It might be a good idea.” Enma finally said. “We could find someone to take us to that northern town.”

The rest seemed convinced by the new decision.

“ But how are we going to find this place?”

“ Sorry to interrupt friends, but I couldn't help overhearing.”

Narsson became confused, while the other four tensed violently. Their gazes turned cold and lifted to the source of the voice.

Ashley smelled the scent of the man who had approached from her side and met bright emerald eyes. His face was decorated by a subtle lopsided smile, even sly and amused. The dim light from the bar created different hues in his blond hair as he moved his seat closer to their table.

“ Can I assume you are tourists?” he spoke again in perfect English, albeit with a noticeable Norwegian accent. There was another boy with him, watching them, but letting his companion do the talking.

He would be around Leon's age, a few years younger, perhaps, and Ashley sensed a pleasant tinge to his scent. She could sense a light air coming from him, almost carefree and playful, something that made Ashley unconsciously get defensive.

“ And can I assume you were never taught to stay out of other people's conversations?”

Those emerald eyes bore into her, startled by her sharp words.

The young man raised his hands in surrender, not looking for trouble.

“ Hey miss, I don't want a fight. I just came over because I heard you guys are a little lost.” He smiled softly as Ashley frowned.

“ We didn't ask for your help.” she was surprised at how rude she was being at first. Even she didn't understand why, was it because of the way he was looking at her? As if she were a pretty girl in distress? Or because she felt a... teasing tinge in his eyes?

“ You don't have to have asked for it to want to offer it, do you?” he gave her a gentle nod of his head.

“ But we're not interested.”

Leon's deep voice made the blond turn towards him and Ashley could feel a tiny tug on the stranger's neck.

“ Are you going to send me to hell without having heard my offer?”

Leon leaned back in the seat, crossing his arms over his chest.

“ We didn't come here for casual sightseeing.”

The blond smiled and mimicked Leon's gesture.

“ Well, all the more reason for you to listen to me. Unless you want to break your heads trying to understand the grandparents who don't speak English. Those are the ones who know the most stories.”

Ashley saw Leon's jaw tighten for a moment. He was thinking.  His blue eyes did not leave the intruder's green ones, as if he were a wolf on alert. The silence made the blond decide to take the lead.

“ Look, Iceland is pretty big and you seem to have come looking for something very specific. You could either accept my help and my partner's help to guide you around the area or you could start wandering around like headless chickens and end up in a deserted area with no idea how you got there or where to go back. It's your choice.”

The group looked at each other. Silence reigned at the table for long seconds, and even though, they had not crossed a word, they all thought something similar.

He was a stranger. He was not to be trusted. They didn't know if he was approaching for an outside interest or simply to make money. Chris looked at Ashley and Leon subtly. They met the captain's eyes and he saw them make a small gesture before he asked.

“ What's in it for you?” Redfield's deep voice made the blond lean forward, cracking an amused smile.

“ Of course, our services are not free.”

Ashley and Leon understood. He wanted to know if he was lying.

The two paid attention for a few moments, but noticed neither a distinct odor nor irregular pulsations. They both looked at the captain and nodded subtly. Redfield turned to Narsson and asked quietly.

“ How do you see it?”

Enma seemed surprised that he was asking her opinion. She thought for a few more moments and then sighed.

“ My knowledge of Iceland is limited and if we're already on the clock... I think it would be the best idea.”

Chris listened to her and nodded, the teacher's words being what they had all more or less thought.

The blond smiled wider and went to speak, but Leon went ahead of him.

“ The town we want to go to is northwest of here. If my calculations are right we could get there in about six or seven hours. Depending on what we discover there, we will require your extended service. We will pay for the gas, but not your food and the price for the service will be the duration of the trip, okay?”

The blond became mute and his smile faded softly. He fixed his green eyes on the man's blue ones and thought about how to bargain with him, but he didn't see many ways out, he could only add a trifle.

“ And for our translator services, you will need the language.”

Leon stood his arms and held out his hand, having foreseen that he would try to add some more service.

“ It's a deal.”

The stranger looked at the American's gloved hand and subtly clenched his jaw in frustration. This pretty boy was no fool. He thought he'd just been acting intimidating, but he'd caught him off guard and now he'd have to swallow his pride.

He rose from his seat and reached out his broad hand to take Leon's firmly.

“ Deal.” He nodded toward his companion at the table behind him. “He's Sven and I'm Einar.”

Leon smiled and Ashley sensed that worked and trained gesture. A perfect fake smile.

“ Great, we leave at sunrise.”

A few eyes watched from outside, sheltering under the gloom and the dark cover of the night. 

[arratesope]

Awakening Past

Chapter 22

pairing: Ashley Graham x Leon S Kennedy.

Content: (+18) romance, angst, gore, erotic/suggestive themes at some point, slow burn, violence, action, self-harm, death talk,

If you're a MINOR DON'T keep reading, thank you.

Archive of our own / WORK LIST / Awakening Past Masterlist

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Murphy's law could not have been more literal.

In the middle of the summer season, a horrible storm had to hit them. One of those rarities that was always said that it would not happen because of the remote possibilities that existed.

But those chances were never zero.

The storm was horrible and the temperatures had dropped to the point that they were forced to buy new clothes to be able to continue the trip. Even Einar said that this was abnormal.

Definitely, what luck was doing to the four agents... was an issue.

They decided to stop halfway, which had already taken longer than expected. They were heading northeast and had to go around the mountains, something that would take quite some time. Even if they had left at dawn, it was already almost mid-morning.

They stopped at a gas station to refuel the guides' van and while they were at it to have a drink in the warmth of the tiny cafeteria at the station.

Ashley pulled her buff up to her nose and watched Sven walk by Jill's side, still talking to her. His English wasn't as good as Einar's, but they were both at a very high level.

Ashley's amber eyes were lost in the vast landscape as violent lightning flashed across the clouds in the distance. She smelled one of the group approaching her, but didn't turn toward him until she reached his height.

“ How different is the landscape?”

She raised her eyes to Einar's green ones and then back to the front.

“ A little, there are lots and lots of valleys here.” she replied, cautiously.

The man watched her with a subtle, lopsided smile on his lips.

“ And what brings you here? You don't look like ordinary tourists.”

Ashley turned to him and tilted her head to one side.

“And what do ordinary tourists look like?” she answered with another question. Ignoring the first.

Einar crossed his arms with a soft laugh.

“Well, they usually take pictures of everything, selfies, videos... they bring three different maps and guides to places of interest.” he glanced slyly at Ashley, slyly. “But you just came with backpacks and no fixed direction.”

She listened to him and got the feeling that he wasn't really interested in her reasons. It seemed more like simple curiosity. And she had thought Ashley might be able to tell her.

“American, the youngest and blondest. Had she seen him look dumb?” she wondered to herself ponderously, already tired after her last failed attempt with Dylan.

“I'd say we're globetrotters, if you want to call us that.” the blonde replied, brushing aside Einar's interest in learning about her goals. - We like to go discovering.

“I see.” He paused to turn back to the gas station reception, where Sven was still engaged in conversation with Jill, or at least he was trying to be. “And tell me, are you all couples?”

Ashley arched her eyebrow for a second.

“ I was just asking, you're pretty striking, even though there are a lot of blondes here.”

Wait a minute... Was he hitting on her?

“ No, we're coworkers.”

Einar held back an inward smile and dropped his arms to put his hands in his pockets.

“ Oh, then I could invite you-”

“I'm not interested, thank you.”

Ashley turned away and left Einar with the words in his mouth. The man turned with a surprised gesture and although a part of him hadn't expected her to react this way, he was curious.

His emerald eyes could not help but watch the figure of the woman walk.

Another figure witnessed the scene as she filled the gas tank. Her sapphire irises darkened as she saw Einar start walking behind Ashley towards the coffee shop and her jaw thought for a few moments.

If she already didn't trust him, she liked him even less now.

*

The storm delayed the trip much, much longer than expected. If the plan had been to arrive at noon, they saw the entrance to the town late in the afternoon.

Leon was tallying up his cash reserves, aware that this was of great benefit to his guides.

After making sure he wouldn't need to use Chris, Jill or Ashley's reserves, he felt calmer and could focus on the conversation in the car.

I had gotten Graham aura in the front seat with Sven and Einar, per Jill's request so I wouldn't have to put up with the former.

Ashley was giving short, brief answers, especially to Einar, who was driving. She seemed to be more entertained by Sven's conversation and the cattle. Leon was so focused on his companion's gestures that it took him a while to notice Einar's glance at him in the rearview mirror.

It was fleeting and the blond averted his eyes sooner.

At one point, Chris got into a conversation about workouts and gym routines with Einar and they didn't stop until they reached their destination in the pouring rain.

They stopped to talk to a local and Sven conversed with him asking for directions. Although Narsson was the one who managed to understand Icelandic the most, Ashley could pick up on many things.

For their safety they had decided that only Enma would be the one to speak in a language other than English. They wanted to use the advantage of Ashley understanding some of what they said in Icelandic when they didn't know she did. So, if at any time they perceived any strange movements from their guides, they would know.

Enma translated for them in the back seat, informing them that they were trying to find somewhere to stay. Meanwhile, Ashley discerned, behind the curtain of rain, the houses of that town.  She was alert for any detail, for any smell coming out of the place. But for now nothing.

Even if she felt fully recovered, surprisingly, she was grateful not to have to expose herself to any more danger. Having dodged a grenade and avoided becoming the undead, even without knowing how, was enough. And he hadn't finished the trip yet. He sighed heavily with fleeting memories returning to his mind, especially those of Leon's lips.

He cleared his throat pushing those thoughts away and turned to her.

“Are there hot springs here?”

“ Hot springs are common around here, but I don't know this town too well. Maybe at an inn they can help.” He switched his attention to Sven, who closed the window so as not to drown in the rain. “ Well?”

“There's a small rural house across the street.”

Leon was still lingering on a question from Ashley about the hot springs and memories came to him as well.  He turned his head toward the window to hide the sudden blush that adorned his cheeks.

Now was not the time. He had to focus no matter how much he couldn't help but keep one eye on Einar.

The blond followed Sven's directions and they arrived at the house they had been directed to. It was small and they parked to the side and then ran up the driveway. Sven spoke to the owners, who looked at the Americans with a puzzled expression at first, but then agreed to let them in.

It was a cozy place. Half of the house had been set up as a second home for guests, and the couple led them to their respective rooms. There were only two bedrooms and a sofa bed.

“ I'll take the living room.” Narsson said, throwing her backpack on a piece of furniture. The other four looked at each other and Jill put her arms up in the air.

“ Well, how do we split up?”

Chris looked at Leon.

“I don't know if Kennedy can stand my “weird” snoring, maybe you're coming, Jill.”

Ashley stiffened when that option involved her sleeping with Leon. And he thought the same thing.

“Uh- no, it's okay Chris.”

“ He's used to dog snoring.” Ashley added with a nervous laugh trying to contain her blush. Leon cleared his throat before heading to one of the bedrooms.

“ But we'll take the biggest bed,” he said from the back of the room.

“Hey, let's draw lots.” Jill replied indignantly.

“If you're going to make me sleep with a bear at least let me not get thrown out of bed.”

Chris turned around with arched eyebrows.

“ Hey, it's not like it's an ordeal to sleep with me.”

“ You slapped me on a mission.” reproached Jill.

“Me?”

“ No, the Yogi Bear, I even got a nosebleed.”

Chris seemed to remember.

“ Wait, the one in the tent? But you told me it was from blowing your nose too hard.”

Jill pinched the bridge of her nose.

“ Sometimes I feel like I need to give you a master's degree in sarcasm.”

She went into the second bedroom with Ashley, and Chris stood in the living room blankly. He turned to Narsson and she smiled from the couch.

“ Now do you understand why I got the sofa bed?”

 Redfield sighed and grunted before picking up his bag and slipping into the room with Leon.

*

The storm eased enough that they were able to go food shopping. They were grateful for the small kitchen in their accommodation.

Einar and Sven stayed in their van, set up with a mini-fridge and electric stove and a bed for both of them.

When they went to the market, Narsson did most of the interacting, but Ashley managed to strike up conversation with some of the sales clerks. They weren't looking for information at the moment, just asking around the place for tips and curiosities. Everyone was closing up for dinner, so they hurried to acquire what they needed and get back to the inn before it started raining again. On their way back, Ashley paused for a moment and turned toward the back of the market.

It was that ephemeral scent. The same one she had smelled in Norway.

She sniffed the air gently and just as it came to her, the scent faded until it was gone. Her amber eyes looked around, but just like last time she saw nothing. It was... like a phantom smell. One second it was there and the next it was gone. It was so weird.

“ Hey, beautiful.”

She turned around when she heard Einar's voice in the distance, in a bar next to the market.

“Hitting the bottle so soon?” she said in an uninterested tone.

Einar raised his glass and smiled at her.

“ At some point it starts, do you want to come?”

She had to admit he was pushy and much more brazen than Dylan.

Even if so, he appreciated the honesty.

“ No thanks.” he replied dryly, to which Einar raised his pitcher in the air and subtly cocked his head to one side.

“ Suit yourself.”

The woman turned away and followed her group to soothe the horrible hole she now had in her stomach.

*

If she ever complained about how disastrous Leon was in the kitchen at first, it was because she hadn't seen Chris or Jill.  She knew Narsson had no idea how to cook, but it was one thing not to touch the kitchen because you don't know how to cook and another to try to prepare something when you had no idea what you were doing.

Ashley thought they were going to set the kitchen on fire and ended up kicking them out to avoid it.

And then they laughed around a round table that the five of them forcefully entered.

Chris almost knocked over the table when he didn't blow enough and burned his tongue. Narsson nearly choked when she laughed at Chris, and Jill came to her rescue by almost inadvertently pushing Leon out of his seat.

It was hilariously chaotic.

Ashley could see that none of them were used to sitting at the table for lunches and dinners, but even if it wasn't the most civilized setting the fact that they had all agreed to do so made her very happy.

She was beginning to feel a great warmth, like that of a second family. At first she gave that closeness between Chris, Jill and Leon, but as the days had passed and they had lived together they treated her the same as Leon, even though she was like the little sister.

She had no secrets from them. Chris helped her when she went after Leon and Jill was an admiring figure to Ashley.

And... she liked her. She really liked that little family of friends and companions they were putting together.

They may have been in a bind now, in comms already their lot, but they had each other.

Overnight, Ashley had them all sit down at the table together for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Unconsciously, they found a little normalcy after their investigations.

For the next few days they spent them gathering information.

The storm continued until the temperatures dropped and the rain was replaced by snow. The streets were covered in an unnaturally white blanket for that time of year as they talked to local merchants or store owners.

But Leon still didn't trust Einar and Sven. Especially the former.

He was very reluctant to have him accompany him as a translator around town while Narsson went with Ashley, and Sven with Chris and Jill.

Their interactions were brief and the tension between them, or rather Leon's towards the blond, was palpable.

He was still thinking about the conversation he overheard between him and Ashley at the gas station. Einar seemed like a straightforward man who didn't beat around the bush, so it didn't take him long at all to try to imitate Ashley, even though she had turned him down without a second thought.

But he still seemed curious.

Leon was aware of that part of him that told him he seemed like an honest man, that he didn't give the impression that he was working for Wesker or was a spy. All his instincts and knowledge told him that.

And yet she didn't like it.

 He didn't want to think those things, but the little demon in his head was whispering in his head and he couldn't help it.

And Einar was no fool. Maybe his carefree and teasing attitude made people think he was a very simple man, but he was not stupid. And that's why he was struck by the attention and the way the Americans looked at him in that bar when he first met them.

With suspicion and wariness. Almost with hostility. It was that detail that made him realize they were not ordinary people. He wasn't a detective, but while he was acting as a guide and translator through the town, he could see gestures. mannerisms even.

Most of the time it was with Leon and he could notice the way they walked among the people, the way they looked around every corner or even turned every corner. As close as possible to the walls as if... he covered himself with them.

They didn't look relaxed or carefree and that made Einar curious, but he didn't ask. He knew from the way Leon looked at him in the car that doing so would only make the situation worse.

So he just held up his end of the deal. Guide and translator.

*

That midday the snow was especially heavy and accompanied by more wind than usual. Ashley and Narsson had gone out for their usual research walk, as well as shopping for lunch and dinner. Today they would go to the Harbor Market, perhaps the fishermen and sea merchants would have more stories to tell them.

But first Narsson wanted to check out a local store selling crafts made from volcanic stone. Ashley listened attentively to her former teacher and from time to time they debated different opinions. It was something she had always enjoyed doing.

They crossed the street to the small market when Narsson put his hands in his pocket.

“Shit, I left my wallet at our house.”

Ashley turned to her.

“ It's okay, I still have money.”

The teacher shook her head intensely.

“ No you guys have paid for everything so far, let me at least buy the food.” she said decisively before turning on her heel. “ Go down to the port, I'll meet you there.” she finally said and Ashley watched her go.

Enma pulled out her keys and opened the door. She sighed at the pleasant warmth of the apartment compared to the freezing cold outside. She looked in the kitchen for her small purse.

“ Where did I put it…” she whispered as she passed into the living room and started moving the pillows. “Aha!”

He reached for the leather case, but as he did so he saw a folded piece of paper underneath. He arched his eyebrows, had she left that there? It didn't ring any bells for her to do so, so with a confused gesture she took the note and opened it.

“Have they already told you what they are looking for, Professor Narsson? Or rather what for? I know you are an intelligent woman, professor, but I have to say that they are using you, just as those who tried to kidnap you would have done. Aren't you curious to know the truth, to dismantle the real past of what they are looking for? It's strange to me that a woman as capable as you is letting them walk all over you like this.”

Enma's body went cold. Her greenish eyes riveted on the words of that mysterious note as if she were seeing a ghost.

Clearly, it hadn't been any of her companions. But then... who was it? It couldn't be the same ones who had perceived them in Norway, they would have captured her by now if they knew her whereabouts.

She looked around the house with her heart in her throat and her face pale. Her breathing quickened and she felt a growing anguish run through her from top to bottom.

There was someone chasing them. Someone was watching him. She had to tell the group, the rest of them, to-

Wait a minute.

She reread the note silently, only sensing the rumbling of her heart in her ears.

They seemed to... know them. Those words gave the feeling that it was familiar with her group.

She squeezed the paper and as she did so a corner lifted up and revealing a fold she hadn't seen.

“PS: I don't recommend you mention this note to your teammates we would be very glad of my existence. I just want to talk to you Professor.”

This person knew them.

This person definitely knew who Ashley and the rest were, and the fact that they hadn't mentioned to her that there might be someone like that interested in them... and it hurt her even more.

She dropped into the seat and her thoughts began to peek out of the darkest recesses of her mind. She had avoided having such ideas in her head until then, but as the trip dragged on and after seeing how dangerous it was becoming, and it made her doubt even more.

She felt left out. She felt that way when Chris brought Ashley and Leon unconscious in Norway. 

For almost three days they were in the room and she didn't tell him anything. It hurt like hell and it only got worse when they woke up and asked her to leave to talk to the four of them alone.

She clenched her fists in frustration, did they not trust her?

She had managed to keep all those horrible thoughts at bay, but now they loomed even larger. She looked at the note once more and wondered if this person would know things she didn't. Would they tell her anything about what her own group was hiding from her? Could she even trust their words?

Her musings rambled for so long that she lost track and when she finally realized what time it was she decided to shove all those demons in her head into a drawer.

She burned the note in the kitchen and left the house with a horrible feeling in her body.

*

Ashley jotted down a myriad of scribbles and addresses in her little notebook.

“And who told you that story? - asked the blonde in Norwegian.

The old man she was talking to, who at first was terribly surly and stale with her, answered cheerfully.

“ My grandfather told it to me, but it's a story we've told in my family for generations. My mother said that even when the first Vikings led here, this was already spirit land.”

Ashley ascended listening intently to the man, feeling she was finally getting useful clues.

“ And do you know in what area I might come across more such stories?”

“ Among fishermen we have very similar legends. Young people nowadays don't give them importance, but they serve as a moral for how dangerous the sea is. Although some that my grandfather mentioned were about land demons. He came from a family in northwest Iceland, from a small village that claims to be one of the oldest settlements today.”

Ashley and looked at him in surprise and quickly pulled out a map he had bought from the owners of his lodge.

“ Could you tell me in which area? “

The old man put on his glasses so he could point out the area to her, it wasn't specific, but it was an advance.

“ Young lady, what exactly are you looking for? It's a bit strange that someone your age would be interested in such ancient stories.” Ashley asked curiously and smiled at her as she put her notes away.

“ It's to make a compilation of the island's folklore.” she lied easily.

“ Are you from National Geographic?” a woman joined the conversation holding a basket of fresh fish. Ashley laughed softly at the association.

“ No, but it's research work.”

The new woman seemed surprised by the response and moved closer to start chatting with them as well. They ended up talking about everything and nothing in particular, as the snow continued to fall relentlessly. They asked her about where she had learned Norwegian, to which she replied that she had had a good tutor.

Talking to them she felt very relaxed, as well as... Appreciated. Their treatment of her was so pleasant that the time flew by and before she knew it and while the smell of freshly baked bread flooded her mind, Narsson appeared.

“ I see you have managed without me.”

Ashley turned to the woman and introduced her to the two elders she was talking to. Enma greeted them and also didn't know how they ended up talking about anecdotes and mundane topics. The two were lost in conversation without being aware, that Narsson helped her push her dark thoughts away.

*

“Hey, do you have a problem with me?”

Leon turned to Einar with a prophetic expression of surprise.

“Me? Not at all.”

The blond there was an eyebrow as they walked along the harbor.

“ Wow, then it must be my imagination that you abhor me accompanying you as a translator and seem to be trying to give me the slip away at every junction.”

“ Yes, it definitely is.” Leon replied dryly. If he had wanted to, he could have given him the slip at any time, but he wanted to avoid a possible scolding from Jill or Ashley. So he hadn't been the most “subtle” agent to tell the truth.

Einar massaged his septum and sighed.

“ Is it because of the blonde? If it's because of her-”

Leon's hand against his chest stopped him in his tracks and the man was surprised he hadn't seen him react.

“The blonde has a name and no, it's not because of her.”

He saw him lower his arm, but they just stood there. Leon stared at him and a slight shiver ran down the guide's spine.

“ You like her? Is that why? Because if it is, macho man, you're a little slow.”

The way Leon's gaze froze and turned aggressively lethal was enough to make Einar regret the comment. In my guide he remained static as Kennedy walked up to him and said softly.

“ Look Einar. You don't know me and I don't know you. I don't trust you one bit I don't trust anyone on this island but my own group. I know you're not dumb, you just do, so I'll tell you once. Let's stick to the agreement. Don't try to tickle me and everything will be fine. Fuck with me and you'll wish you hadn't turned around in that bar to talk to us, is that clear?

Einar's eyes were riveted on Leon's oceans, sensing a dark storm behind them as if there was a veil hiding demons that should not see the sunlight.

The guide swallowed his saliva very slowly.

“Yes.”

Leon patted him gently on the chest and started walking back towards the last tent they had left to see that day.

Einar watched him walk silently and after realizing that he had been holding his breath, he inhaled sharply to follow him.

*

The next day was meeting day. Well, if you could call it a reunion if it was basically a tea party with semi-burnt cookies, coffee instead of tea, leftovers from the day before as snacks and zero glamour as everyone was in simple pajamas.

Yes, it was a morning. Everyone spread out around the room as they discussed notes.

Chris put his feet up.

“The bakery man we ruled out as well. He and his wife are from Denmark.”

Jill let out a soft laugh.

“Well, that woman sure was hitting on you.”

Chris turned red with embarrassment and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“God, don't remind me.”

Narsson laughed and sipped his coffee.

“She looked like she was going to go for the jugular!” she laughed, telling Narsson next to her, who seemed very amused by the misadventures.

“ Did you have any luck Leon?” Chris turned to his partner. Kennedy walked from the kitchen with a coffee in his hand and a notebook in the other.

“Some things yes. I found an old woman who talked about the demons that lived here and that the first Vikings to inhabit Iceland were the heroes who kept them at bay.” he paused to sit down in his seat around the coffee table in the living room. “ I'm going to add that her daughter says she suffers from schizophrenia, so she could be exaggerating things or even making them up.”

“ Maybe not.” interjected Ashley quickly turning the pages of her notebook. “I spoke to a man yesterday who was told by his grandfather that this island was already a land of spirits when the first settlers arrived.”

The group stood in thought and Narsson noted down the new data.

“That's already a very close coincidence. Ashley told me that this man came from the northwest of the island.”

“ A young girl told me about a ghost story her grandmother told her about ghosts hiding in the northern lands where the sun in winter doesn't quite light up the sky.” Ashley added in a more determined tone.

They were seeing a pattern.

Narsson rose from her seat with a broad smile.

“ What do you say I go to the bar next door and get some food? Sven told me yesterday that they have takeout.”

The group seemed positive about Enma's proposal and accepted without resistance. The teacher got excited and quickly went to grab her jacket and boots.

“ I'll be back in a while, it's not going to snow.” she said in frustration as she trolled through the fabrics and took some money. “The usual?” she asked her companions who nodded in unison. Enma smiled and walked out.

The place was silent for long minutes until the lion stopped hearing Narsson's footsteps.

“ There's something I don't quite understand.” Jill's voice was the first to break the silence. The three turned to her.

“What is it?” Leon asked, taking another sip of coffee.

Jill looked at the notes spread out on the coffee table.

“ That these bugs haven't woken up here like they did in Spain.”

Chris looked at her partner and understood her point.

“ Does it have a reason?”

Ashley thought to herself as she listened to the voices of her companions rambling on about why there were no pests all over the place if they were supposed to have been there so long.

“ Maybe the cold.”

The young woman's sudden voice made the other three turn to her.

“ The cold?” Chris repeated in confusion.

“ Think about it, in these lands ice and snow predominate and the pests are insectile, sensitive to cold, Leon checked. They stayed in a state of hibernation, so that would explain why there weren't many. Besides, if they've been around this long, most of them would be buried underground.

And what Ashley was saying made sense, Leon was aware. He remembered that confrontation against one of Salazar's executioners, whom he could only defeat by freezing.

“ And with the temperature rise of the last few centuries? Would he have to wake up in the first in Spain? - Jill argued as she thought about the theory she had put forward. The blonde ascended, but the one who added the following was Chris.

“ But that would mean it's only a matter of time before those in colder places start to wake up, but also start to warm up.”

Graham's expression darkened.

“ Unfortunately, that's most likely.”

The four of them fell silent and after several minutes Leon's deep voice echoed through the room.

“ We have to hurry and find the source of those bugs as soon as possible.”

The other three nodded, making a silent promise that they would devote themselves body and soul to destroying these monsters.

The sound of the door opening broke the stillness of the moment and Narsson reappeared with the bags of food.

“ It smells great.” Ashley said, getting up from her seat and walking over to what her teacher had brought. Enma brought out the rations and the five of them sat around the small table, just as they had done the past few days.

“ By the way.” began the teacher as she took a bite. “ I heard at the bar that there's a celebration tonight. I think it's a small local party, but we should go, there's going to be live music.”

The other four didn't seem too sure and Enma rolled her eyes when she didn't hear them say a word.

“ Come on. Since we arrived in Oslo we haven't had a break. With everything that has happened to Leon and Ashley and then being chased and ending up arriving in Iceland on a fishing boat in the middle of a storm where we've only been investigating for days, I think we deserve a quiet night.”

Leon took a bite and arched his eyebrow.

“ Put it like that it looks like we've been through hell.”

Enma threw her hands in the air.

“ Thank you, someone with a little sense. We're going to explode if we don't relax our brains, I'm telling you from my own experience and it's not at all advisable.” he pointed to the fork with intensity.

Jill laughed and leaned back in her seat to look at the other three who had not responded.

“ It wouldn't be bad. We've come to a pretty clear conclusion today, so why not?”

Valentine's words were the final push they needed to make up their minds.

“ Well, rock, paper or scissors for the shower?” asked the teacher with a soft smile and those three words changed the mood.

“ Best out of three.” Chris's tone showed that this was a serious matter.

Enma held out her hand to the captain and the brunet took it decisively.

This was war.

*

It had definitely been good for them. The bar was packed to the rafters and the music was pouring through their veins like fire. There was laughter, singing and shouts of joy followed by a noisy toast. Although Leon and Ashley were unconvinced upon entering, they soon settled in. Chris let himself go first, drinking the first beer in one sitting. Jill gave him a slap to tell him to hold back, only to end up betting that she drank hers faster than Chris. Sometimes they stopped each other and sometimes they fed back at each other like fire.

They saw Einar and Sven too, but the two guides were chatting with two other people, so they just gave them a wave to carry on with their business.

The five of them dined and drank happily, feeling the anxiety and nerves of the last few days slowly fade away. They were now aware that they had not rested or cleared their minds for a single day, so they let themselves go a little.

Although Ashley was still on her first beer even long after dinner, Leon was encouraged to try a homemade whiskey that the bar owner made and was surprised at how much he liked it. Here he didn't have to drive afterwards, so he relaxed a bit by offering some even to Narsson. The teacher tasted from Leon's glass and the way her face scrunched up made Ashley cry with laughter.

“ I'll stick to my coffee.” was all she said before taking a drink of water.

The time flew by with laughter and giggles. Chris and Jill went outside to get some fresh air and hung out talking to some local baseball fans. Narsson excused herself to go to the restroom, and Leon and Ashley sat at the bar, a little farther away from the small band playing that night. Ashley had finished her beer, and Leon offered to share the bottle of whiskey he had ended up buying. So they ended up sitting there, listening to the hubbub as they got lost in the waves of their drink.

“How's it going with Einar?” Ashley broke the silence as she started to feel uncomfortable. Leon arched his eyebrows with the glass between his lips and after taking a sip he grunted.

“Fine.”

It was too dry of an answer. Ashley knew her partner tended to elaborate a bit on the impressions people gave her, but the fact that it was so terse and made her realize that fine wasn't the right word.

“ Just fine?” she asked, glancing at him.

Leon sighed heavily.

“ Isn't that good enough for you? I don't know him.”

“ But the mere way you talk tells me you don't like him.”

It was at these moments that Leon hated the most that Ashley read him so well.

“He's not exactly my favorite person.” he replied at last, taking another drink.

“ And may I ask why?”

“ You don't like him either and I don't ask you why.”

“ Well, I do.”

The man sighed in exasperation.

“ He plays dumb, but he's not. I just don't trust him.”

“ Is it because he's a flirt?”

Leon subtly cocked his head to one side.

“ Among other things.”

Ashley scoffed in disbelief and drank again.

“ So are you.”

Leon's eyes bore into hers.

“You know perfectly well I'm not the same.”

“ You've been very similar with some of your comments to me.” she teased somewhat annoyed.

“Maybe because of the small difference that I've known you for almost three years?”

A woman bumped into Leon's back and turned to face him. She was clearly drunk and her full lips quirked into a wide smile at the sight of him.

“ Sorry handsome, I didn't see you.” She looked at him and switched to English. “Are you new in town?”

Ashley watched as she snaked her hands around her companion's shoulders and her eye twitched for an instant. Way to jump into someone else's conversation.

She saw Leon grunt and set the glass down gently on the bar.

“ So-so.” He replied without interest and the woman raised her hand to rest it on the soft beard around his jaw.

“ You look a little lonely, would you like to join me for a while?” Leon stopped the woman's hand from sliding to his lips and looked at her coolly.

“ As you can see I'm with someone.” He pointed to Ashley with his head, but the woman looked at her with disdain for a few seconds.

“ She's just a kid, don't you want to play with real women?”

The glass in Ashley's hand splintered under the pressure and her amber eyes darkened, determined to talk back to the harpy.

“ I don't want to play, find someone else.” He pushed her hand away without much care and picked up the glass again, earning a snort from the woman.

“ Are you this nasty to everyone?”

Ashley listened to the conversation as she turned back to the front of the bar, holding back the urge to slap the woman. Suddenly she felt fingers brush against her arm and a horrible smell of concentrated alcohol reached her.

“ Only with those who have no manners, leave me alone.”

The woman growled and stormed off.

“ What's a little thing like you doing here?” a husky voice made Ashley tense up. And he spoke in English, maybe he'd heard them chatting with the other woman. Leon jerked wide-eyed toward him and the blonde looked at the man with a grim and rather grumpy expression. Ashley tensed her muscles as the stranger grabbed her by the wrist and went to snap his hand with a few words.

“Get your hands off her or I'll break your whole arm.”

Leon's snarl made Ashley froze and she saw how the agent had grabbed the stranger's forearm and squeezed it hard.

“ What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” growled the man in pain and letting go of Ashley's wrist.

“ Get the fuck lost. “

The intruder growled with a scowl and pulled out of Leon's grip and then walked away muttering curses.

Ashley blinked and shoved Leon away from her.

“ What the fuck is your problem?” she hissed angrily.

“ The guy was a pig.”

“I know that, I could take care of him myself, I don't need a thug.”

“ It's better not to waste time with people like that.”

Ashley clenched her fists and frowned.

“ What about that girl? I could have broken her nose, but I didn't say anything to her, so why did you get involved in my problem?”

“ It's not the same thing.” hissed Leon with the same angry gesture.

“Oh no? What the hell is wrong with you? Do you believe what that girl said? Do you think I'm a child? I can answer for myself.”

“ Ash, I know those kind of guys, and-”

“ And so do I, Leon. In case you've forgotten, I'm the one who gets picked on, so I can handle myself, but you don't seem to think so.”

“ You're not at your best, I'm just worried about you.” he replied, tense.

“ You think I don't know how to handle men?”

“ Your male choices haven't been the best this last time.”

She threw the whiskey in his face.

“ Fuck off.”

He watched her take the bottle from him and walk away as he growled. He put his hand to his face.

“ Shit” he mumbled wiping the alcohol out of his eyes and asking for a rag.

He had fucked up big time.

*

Enma finished washing her hands with a deep sigh. She had definitely overdone it with the spice in the food. She exhaled once and went to leave when another woman passed her. She waved at her and pushed open the door with the intention of returning to the bar.

“ Did you ask them?”

Enma froze when she spoke to her in English. Her heart skipped a beat and her greenish eyes turned to the stranger.

“ I beg your pardon?”

“ I don't think they've told you any more, really.”

Narsson stopped pushing on the door and turned to look at her. He locked his eyes on the woman's brown eyes, framed by hair as dark as a raven's feathers. Her features looked Asian, but her accent was not.

“ Who are you?” Enma asked in a voice more hesitant than she would have liked. The woman gave a subtle smile and brushed the snowflakes off her wine-colored coat.

“ Come on, Professor, what do you think?”

Those words sent a shiver down her spine and her throat went dry.

“ Are you the one who left me that note?”

The stranger smiled

“ See? You are perceptive.” She paused to extend her gloved hand to him. - You can call me Ada.

Narsson felt uneasy about this woman. There was something about her besides that mysterious aura that did not inspire confidence.

“ What do you want?” she asked curtly, refusing to take his hand. Ada smiled and pulled her arm away.

“ Me? Nothing especially. I know what you're looking for, but do you know?” his tone was insinuating, even teasing as if she were being played with. Enma felt subtly insulted.

“ If you know what we're looking for, I don't have to tell you.”

That answer seemed to please Ada and her smile widened faintly.

“ I see, and have they told you why they're looking for it?”

At that in more she fell silent, aware that the only thing Ashley had told her about it was that it was personal and that her scar was related to it.

“ It's none of your busin-”

“ They're using you Enma.”

Narsson fell silent all at once and Ada's dark eyes were locked on her like a raven's claws.

“ You don't know what their motivations or reasons are, you probably don't even know what happened on Ashley's trip to Europe before she met you. Do you know how she got that scar? Do you know what relationship Leon has with her? Do you know what relationship Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine have with them?”

Enma tried not to listen to her, but it was hard when she knew she was right. She hadn't been told anything. She knew Ashley didn't want to bring her into their problems for safety's sake, but she could tell her more. She wanted Ashley and the others to count her as one of them, but...when she sometimes heard them talking when they were gone she couldn't help but feel left out.

“Enma don't listen to her, she's playing with you” she said to herself forcefully and shook her head.

“ I may not know everything, but they have their reasons. I know Ashley, being the president's daughter, is a clear target and I know she doesn't want me to be as well.

Ada's smile faded for a moment.

“ They are going to destroy what you are looking for. When you find that fossil, its origin and location, they will leave no trace of its existence or the work you have invested in this research.” she gently approached Enma. “The danger you have run and the sweat you have shed will all be reduced to ashes when you reach the end of this journey.”

“ You lie.” Narsson growled, pulling away from her in a trembling voice.

This woman was dangerous, but... a tiny part of her whispered that maybe she was telling him the truth.

“ I believe in them.” she tried to quiet her own destructive thoughts.

Ada smiled and stepped back gently.

“ I see. Give them time and you will remember my words.”

The Professor felt a shiver as she passed her on her way out. The rumble of music that grew louder as she opened the door and felt the silence grow terribly heavy as it closed again.

*

Leon finished drying his hands now sticky from his slip with Ashley. He grunted heavily and craned his tense neck, but as he did so he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. A red shadow.

The man turned and looked toward the back of the room. His instincts told him that it had not been a mere shadow, nor was it his imagination. He rose from his seat with a darkened face and walked toward where he had thought he had seen it fade. He slipped through the crowd stealthily and ended up exiting the bar through the other side door, also crowded with people.

His blue eyes scanned the surroundings, but he didn't get to see anything, just a dense layer of snow from a white curtain falling from the sky.

He didn't like that feeling in his body.

“ Leon!”

The agent blinked and was again aware of the hubbub around him. He saw Chris approaching with a smile.

“ Getting some air?” asked the dark-haired man, to which he replied with a restrained sigh.

“ Yes, I thought I saw someone, but I think I'm already paranoid.” He massaged his eyelids tiredly and heard Jill approaching.

“ To say you saw someone in a crowded bar is a bit...” the brunette began.

“Stupid?” Leon completed the sentence with a weak, tired laugh.

“ Ironic.” corrected Valentin.

The three of them laughed and Leon tried to calm down a little bit his previous strange impulses.

*

Ashley filled her glass again and drank without blinking. The truth was that whiskey was good.

She had already drunk half a bottle.

Her body burned like embers, but she no longer knew if it was the alcohol or the rage.

Even Leon. Even he seemed to treat her like a fool as if she wasn't capable of handling things. What had happened to him? They'd talked about it and he'd stopped butting into her business, but...in the wake of meeting Dylan he'd done it again.

And this time it hurt. Even if he defended her. The fact that he'd gotten so aggressive without even letting her get a word in edgewise... it had hurt. A lot.

She growled under her breath once more and gave him another drink.

“ Looks like you guys are doing business with the tourists.”

Ashley heard a man's voice speaking Norwegian.

“ Yeah, well, we could have gotten more out of it, but one of them was smarter and he got ahead of me.”

That was Einar's voice. They were at the table behind her.

Glancing at her, aware of her presence but not changing their language. After all, they didn't know that she understood them.

“ Sven has a crush on the light-eyed brunette.” Einar teased his companion, who turned red up to his ears.

“ Oh, come on Ein, but have you seen how pretty she is?” Sven defended himself.

“ And the blonde who comes with them? She's very cute.” said one of the friends they shared a drink with.

“ Ein has tried to get into that one, but she's turned him down several times.” This time Sven got into it with his friend, who leaned back in the seat with his beer.

“ Nah, I was curious, but I'm sure it's because I scare her.”

“ You sure? Maybe she knows her way around in bed.”

Einar took a drink.

“ Maybe, but I'd probably break her.”

“ Well, well, do you think you're a bear or what?” joked the third friend with a laugh.

“ No, but she didn't look like much to me. I don't think she's as tough as she pretends to be.”

Einar heard a seat slide behind him, but paid no attention to it as he drank.

Only to stiffen when someone poured alcohol over his head soaking him from top to bottom.

“ If you think you're so tough why don't you suck yourself?”

The Norwegian tensed with his jaw clenched and his eyes bugged out. He turned to the voice that spoke his own language and felt his blood boil in a mixture of rage and shame.

“You know Norwegian?”

“ No, I just learned it, asshole.”

Einar stood up abruptly knocking over the table and bringing his face dangerously close to her, dropping drops of alcohol on Ashley's cheeks.

“You think I'm not going to slap your face for this?” he growled under his breath with all his muscles tense.

Ashley wasn't drunk, but her filters weren't exactly at their sharpest. She scoffed and defiantly pressed her forehead against his.

“ A slap? Wow, how weak do you have to be for you to break me with a slap?”

“ You asked for it.”

*

“ Hey, after we find that place we're looking for, we could stop by those famous hot springs.” Chris suggested with a cheerful smile.

“ You want to skip the paperwork already?” Jill teased, teasing him with her elbow.

“ Or come on, one day more, one day less, it doesn't matter-”

“ LEON!!!”

The three turned toward the alarmed voice and saw Narsson coming toward them with a face red with distress. The agents tensed and their expressions paled.

“ What's wrong Enma?”

Professor was slow to catch her breath.

“ Ash... Ashley is fighting with Einar!”

“ Ashley is wha-”

A body flew out of the window and fell into the thick snow outside.

People stared and some started cheering as another person walked out the door.

“ You're going to eat your words.”

Einar emerged from the crowd and advanced toward Ashley, who stood up with an infuriated grin.

“You call that a hook?” she took off her jacket and pumped her fists in the air. - Come on, don't make me laugh.

The blond laughed angrily and lunged for her.

The people in the bar came out to watch the fight and formed a circle around them, cheering and encouraging the couple who were engaged in a wild dispute.

“ Holy shit.” Leon went to intervene, but Chris grabbed his shoulder causing him to turn around in disbelief. “ What are you doing?! Let's stop her!”

Redfield watched Ashley dodge Einar's hooks without flinching. Her brow was furrowed and her jaw furiously tense.

“ Why is she so angry?”

Leon stood static at the question.

“ What's that got to do with anything?” he growled irritably at him. Chris scowled at him.

“ Everything, what happened Leon?”

The agent bit his cheek and growled like a rabid dog.

“ We had an argument and she told me to go to hell.” He paused and slipped out of Chris's hand. “But it doesn't matter, he's fighting for fuck's sake!”

But the captain grabbed him again.

“Remember what I said about two men sharing a drink for their personal issues?”

“ What the fuck are you talking about now Chris, Ashley's getting his ass kicked by our goddamn guide!”

“ There are times when two men have to settle some conversations with their fists. And Ashley knows that language. Let her talk.”

Leon was slow to process the brunet's words, but when he saw her fall to the side from a kick he understood.

That pent-up rage had exploded with his gaffe. If he intervened now he could even make it worse.

Reluctantly he watched as Einar charged at her and grabbed her clothes to keep her from escaping. Ashley reached down and pulled her clothes over her head, leaving her in her bra.

Those cheering behind her saw the scars and so did Einar.

He stood still for a second and regretted it when she punched his stomach without any qualms.

He ran out of air and punched her in the side. Ashley grabbed his shirt and tore it as it fell to the snow. Einar staggered feeling the cold flakes hit his bare torso, but he didn't take his eyes off her.

He couldn't do that if he wanted to avoid being knocked out.

The heat of the alcohol and adrenaline made them forget about the frigid temperature and they engaged in an exchange of blows. At first it seemed that Einar was landing all his punches, but then it became clear that she was receiving them and blocking them so that she could deliver more lethal blows.

The man found himself with a jaguar he had mistaken for a kitten and now began to regret it.

But he did not give up.

He dodged one of Ashley's pints and slammed his elbow into her cheek, making her grunt and take a step back. The blonde felt the taste of blood in her mouth and saw those green eyes locked on her with eagerness. Ashley blocked Einar's fist and kicked him in the ribs. He roared, that he didn't grab her leg with a triumphant smile.

But soon the joy was wiped off his face.

He saw the eyes of a devil watching him in slow motion as he watched her rise into the air with feline grace.

Where had he learned to fight like that? That look was not just any look.

He went to block, but in the blink of an eye the leg collided in an overwhelming twist against his head and threw him against the snow like a bundle.

Ashley fell backwards onto the cold surface, panting and sweating. She grunted in pain and rolled over on herself to spit the blood from her split lip.

She gulped in gasps of air and staggered to a boil on the patchy snow.

Her hands burned, red and bloody, as did the abrasions on her torso. She raised herself up in front of Einar breathlessly, her hair sodden, and in a worn, panting voice asked him.

“ Am I still not much?”

Einar was trying to catch his breath as he sat up on all fours. The muscles in his back trembled and blood dripped onto the snow beneath him. He raised his green eyes to her, showing the gap in his cheek.

Their gazes met and for several seconds they stood still, unblinking, listening to each other's gasps.

 And then Einar smiled.

“Little I don't think, but you're definitely a thing.”

Ashley was taken aback at the man's words and couldn't help but sketch the same quiet gesture.

With her muscles still burning and tense, she held out her reddened hand.

Einar looked at the woman and then at her palm. His heart raced and his smile grew wider. He dug a knee in to pull himself up and took Ashley's hand for support.

“ We're in pea-”

Einar's mouth took hers and Ashley was stunned to feel the searing heat of his tongue. It was brief, but so unexpected that she didn't know how to react when he pulled away. Their gazes met, again, bright.

“It's been a while since I've been beaten up like this, fuck, I like you.”

He held up Ashley's fist and the crowd cheered for the winner, but she was still in shock.

And so was Leon.

The man couldn't quite believe what had happened and when he saw Ashley redden up to her ears instead of throwing another punch, he felt his whole body go cold. How had everything taken such a turn?

An instant before she had been fighting like a jaguar determined to rip out Einar's jugular. And now... her golden eyes looked confused, surrounded with an exaggerated blush. 

She had been kissed.

Einar had kissed her.

And Leon could only think of the kiss they had almost shared days before. He hadn't gotten to taste them, but... his whole being had vibrated at their mere closeness. Everything about him had made him lose his mind after he'd held her dying in his arms.

Only to now be kissed by his damned guide.

A hand rested on the back of his neck and he snapped back to reality after realizing he'd been holding his breath.

“ Leon, snap out of it.”

Chris's voice made him finally blink and he saw there and Narsson run to Ashley to tend to his and Einar's wounds.

He saw the Norwegian grinning from ear to ear with scarlet stained lips from Ashley's bloody kiss. He watched them walk back inside the bar and his body turned away.

She dug her fingers into her hair and clenched her jaw.

“ I expected anything but that outcome.” Chris confessed with a soft laugh, though somewhat uncomfortable with the strange aura Leon was giving off.”Hey, are you okay?”

Leon was silent for long, long seconds. He had to say yes, as he always did when he was trying to shield himself.

His head was spinning and his heart was pounding in his chest mercilessly.

“ I don't know.” was what finally came out of his mouth.

Chris looked at him and although a part of him was aware of what Leon was suffering, he didn't want to add fuel to the fire. He exhaled deeply and ran his broad hand over Leon's shoulders.

“ What do you say we take a walk around the block and then go home?”

Leon sighed heavily and his gaze dropped to the floor.

“ Yes.”

*

Ashley hissed at the stinging and pinned her eyes to the bathroom ceiling. Her body was beginning to cool and with it the pain was becoming more noticeable.

Narsson draped a blanket over her shoulders and sat down beside her while Jill put some approach strips on her.

“You've done a crazy thing Ashley…” whispered Enma as she saw the reddened areas of her body gradually getting darker. “ Why did you do it?”

Valentine noticed the professor's worried expression and then turned to the blonde, who was still staring at the ceiling.

“ I don't know.” was the only thing she could answer. The alcohol in her body had almost vanished, but the burning and the haze in her mind had not yet ceased. “I was very angry.”

Jill tightened the bands that made Ashley look at her from the front so she could wipe off the blood.

“ Well, you're pretty pissed off to want to fight with a guy in four degrees below zero in the middle of a snowy street.” The woman's blue eyes were fixed on her amber ones. “Do you want to talk?”

Graham looked at the woman and didn't know what to say. Her mind was a jumble. A jumble of conflicting thoughts and emotions made her unable to articulate a response.

She still felt the taste of Einar's beer in her mouth and blushed hopelessly at how excited he had been, even though he had lost to her in brute force.

Was it... because he hadn't run away? He hadn't reacted like Dylan, and that made her heart pound in confusion and excitement at the same time.

And yet, a fleeting memory of Leon's lips came to her. On how she didn't get to taste them.

Her mind jumped between images of Einar and Leon endlessly, causing her to end up moaning in frustration. She sank her face into her hands and the words came out of her faintly.

“ I don't know what's happening, what's wrong with me…” she whispered trying to understand his sudden anger or insecurity.

This... no one had trained her for this. Maybe... maybe she should call Emily when they got back. Maybe she knew what was wrong and could help her. Yes, Emily would know what to do.

“ For now go get some rest, we have a long trip tomorrow.” Jill proposed with a gentle squeeze on the blonde's shoulder. She didn't want to mention Einar or Leon, because she could see in the poor girl's eyes the confusion those two people were causing her at that moment.

She only hoped that this situation would not compromise them or the mission.

She crossed her fingers.

[arratesope]

Some anatomy and shading practice with Plagas Ashley :3

[arratesope]

Darksiders 2 was my first game from the Saga when I was a teen. I found Joe Madureira's art after buying the artbook and it just captivated me. I wanted to give it a try to create a fanart in their last games' style, Darksiders Genesis from Airship Syndicate and made a mockup too :3

[arratesope]

Some nature study for a change :3

[arratesope]

A little more of this AU. Sometimes I get stuck on a piece that doesn't move forward, so I prefere to end it and start a new one instead of trying to fix it over and over again, never being totalu content. But I liked what I learned here :3

[arratesope]

OMG.

I love how you draw Death from Darsiders.

Maybe if you have some time can you do it with Strife also?

Hey! I'm glad you liked my Death version. I was planning on doing Fury, as Strife and War are already in Genesis and this was a personal project to add Death and Fury in the last game's style.

[arratesope]

A time ago I read some stories fo Leon becoming a teacher, so here he is :3

[arratesope]

Awakening Past IS BACK!

Chapter 23

pairing: Ashley Graham x Leon S Kennedy.

Content: (+18) romance, angst, gore, erotic/suggestive themes at some point, slow burn, violence, action, self-harm, death talk,

If you're a MINOR DON'T keep reading, thank you.

Archive of our own / WORK LIST / Awakening Past Masterlist

prev/next

The trip to the northeast of the island was... weird.

Sven took the wheel in an attempt to strike up a cordial conversation with Narsson, who had decided to ride in the front seat at Ashley's request. Chris and Jill got in the middle of the back seats, separating Leon and Ashley to the sides.

The two ex-cops looked at each other during the ride with a worried expression, watching the two young ones not speak to each other. At first they thought it would simply be a long and tiresome ride but it all got strange after the first break they took.

When Einar replaced Sven, he practically dragged Ashley to sit in front seat. The Norwegian seemed like a different person, or rather, he was much more expressive and loose than usual. 

Ashley tried to be terse with the conversation and responded with short words, but at some point they ended up speaking Norwegian and the woman got a little carried away. 

He managed to get a chuckle or two out of her and when that subtle sound echoed through the room, Chris felt Leon stir in his seat. He was pretending to be asleep, but Redfield knew perfectly well that he was attentive to the conversation, even if he didn't understand anything.

There was a devil within him that ate at his insides every time he heard a tiny laugh come from those lips.

But at the same time there was another devil strangling the previous one, aware that those emotions were not the right ones. At the time he would have been grateful that the stab wound at his waist was still fresh, so he could focus on something else.

But in just a week it was already a scar, just like the bite on Ashley's shoulder.

He remained thoughtful about it. If it was healing soon enough before, now it was an absolute anomaly. Something had changed in their bodies, something that had made them unable to succumb to that soldier's infection and that something had made them even more resistant to injury.

He managed to think about something else for a few minutes, until looser laughter began to take his attention again. During the ride he heard Ashley complaining about her injuries but Leon was sure that underneath those band-aids was nothing more than a small scab.

When he heard her laugh, at what sounded like a joke told by the Einar, he wished he was deaf for the rest of the trip.

*

It took them several hours to arrive, but, fortunately, the weather had been somewhat more merciful to them that day.

It was still snowing, but it was not impossible to drive normally. Einar and Sven told them some curious details about those high hills that were once completely frozen glaciers. Narsson paid the most attention to the guides' history lesson, while the rest began to remember the tension they had managed to leave behind for a few days.

They were getting closer and closer to their goal.

The area they reached was filled with steep hills, cliffs, and deep, long valleys. The roads meandered among the rocky ridges, but finally they reached the western fjords.

Snow was piling up on those landscapes. Narsson bit her lip at not being able to take pictures of all that wonder. It was a shame that the memory of that whole trip would remain in her memories. Unless they found what they were looking for.

They arrived at a village in the late afternoon. They decided to take advantage of the time and ask the locals a bit in case they could clarify further the directions they had gotten so far. It may have been like looking for a needle in a haystack, which it was, but the research gave them the names of 3 villages that were in the fjords. Very old settlements that still retained many stories and festivities from the time of the Vikings.

They decided to travel to the first on the list and spent the night there, but the next day the villagers themselves advised them to ignore the second village on their list, as what they were looking for was probably in the third village. Wow, what a coincidence that it was always the last on the list precisely the most important, wasn't it?

But they were grateful that it saved them both the destination, and the time they would have invested in the next spot they had intended to go to.

Enma felt like an adventurer, but at the back of her thoughts was a little goblin. A little monster slowly digging the claws of doubt into her mind, wondering more and more frequently what would happen at the end of that journey.

She couldn't help but think about that woman and her words. She tried to convince herself that they were just fallacies, but if what she was saying was true, then everything they achieved on the trip would be thrown away. Was that their purpose?

No. She had to trust them. Even though... she had been the one who had asked them to come on the trip, they hadn't counted on her in the first place.

By the time the dark whispers of the devils began to grow louder and Narsson began to fear her own thoughts, they reached the village.

Almost all the dwellings were of solid wood and stone, with bay windows and gabled roofs. The roads between the houses were gravel and Einar parked in the place that seemed the least steep and cleanest to him. He decided to go ask the locals if there was anywhere in the village to sleep, but the old man he asked spat on the ground and grunted, asking who they were. Einar pointed to the rest of the group getting out of the van and the old man mumbled like an old dog.

“ We don't want tourists.” was all he said to the Norwegian and he frowned to reply to the man sitting on the porch of his house, but a woman came outside and slapped the old man's head.

“ If you're so unpleasant to people, Grýla is going to come after your grandchildren.”

“ That old witch can suck my d-”

“ I'm Helga, can I help you with something?” The wheat-haired woman smiled at Einar and he relaxed his shoulders at being able to talk to someone civilized.

“ We are looking for a place to stay for several days.”

The woman got out of the car and walked toward the group.

“ Are you tourists?” she asked in English and the skies opened up for the Americans.

“ We are here for research work.” Jill decided to speak and the woman looked curious. 

“ Research?”

“ We are collecting the oldest cultural heritages of the island, and we have been told that many stories and customs are preserved here that are not preserved in other places.” Ashley interjected and the woman seemed surprised.

“ Wow, you don't see that every day.” she thought for a few seconds and then added. “Come with me to see the mayor and he might be able to accommodate you.”

The group looked at each other and decided to follow the woman down the steep dirt and stone paths. A few children peered out of windows or out onto porches to watch the curious visitors. Chris noticed the stares of some of the adults as well. 

“You don't seem to get many tourists.”

Helga laughed.

“ No, we get the occasional stray, but hardly any like yourselves who come to do field work.”

Ashley walked behind her hostess and soon after asked.

“ Forgive me for asking, but you mentioned a Grýla earlier, who is she?”

Helga turned at the crossroads and came to Ashley's side.

“ Grýla is the old woman of the mountains, a “witch” as some call her, many centuries ago she used to take children away. From time to time she still plays her tricks, but she hasn't been heard from for a long time. But I won't repeat her name too much, in case she hears me and comes for my children.”

Graham was surprised by the naturalness with which she told him about that witch, just as if she were talking about the neighbor next door.

“ Is that a Vesigrir?” she suddenly pointed to Ashley's pendant. She took the amulet between her fingers and smiled.

“Yes, a Norwegian fisherman gave it to me.”

Helga smiled.

“Don't lose it, it's a very useful amulet to guide your path and not lose the favor of the gods. Even if they don't usually make an appearance, you never know when they will make one.” she raised her arms to the sky. “Like snowing in the middle of summer, for example. We're thinking of doing a little Blót, maybe that will calm the gods down a bit.”

The group listened to Helga speak and couldn't help but think that this definitely seemed like the right place to continue the investigation. The woman spoke as if the gods could walk these very streets at any moment. She told them a bit about the town until they reached the mayor's house. She excused herself and entered the building to bring the man they were looking for. 

The group waited on the street and Ashley pulled out her notebook to go over her notes. Einar approached with a curious air and leaned over to look at the notes.

“ You have a nice handwriting.”

Ashley blinked and raised her eyes to the green ones beside her, closer than was appropriate, but which, for some reason, she didn't avert from him.

“ Oh, thank you?” she said sheepishly.

“But you've misspelled these here, see.” Einar wrapped his hand around Ashley's, who was holding the notebook, and picked up the pen to correct the mistakes she had mentioned. She stood static as his body came so close and she couldn't contain a slight blush.

Leon looked down at the ground and pushed a stone away so as not to say anything inappropriate. But it was just that he felt like he was taking so many liberties with her....

The door burst open and Helga stepped out along with another man who greeted them formally.

“Hello, I'm Gunnar. Helga mentioned to me that you are here to investigate the traditions around here.” He looked at the group and ended up at Leon and Chris, to whom he gave a long, deep look. “Are you Americans?”

The question made them tense for a moment and the four natives looked at each other.

“ Yes, is that inconvenient?” Ashley replied softly.

Gunnar looked at them silently for long seconds and then nodded to them.

“Let's talk in private.”

Narsson, Einar and Sven stood on the porch next to Helga with a confused expression, surprised by the distrust with which he had spoken to them.

They only hoped there would be no complications.

*

“ We don't want any trouble.”

The four of them stiffened at Gunnar's words. Ashley deeply and sat down on the seat in front of the mayor's desk.

“ We don't want to cause them.” she replied, peacefully, but the man's eyebrows were raised.

“ But there is something about you that tells me you are no ordinary workers. What have you come for?”

Ashley looked to her companions for support. They nodded and sat down in the seats next to each other. The blonde turned to Gunnar and was honest.

“ We're looking for traces.”

“ Traces? Of what?”

“ Of a creature that has lived among us for millennia and whose remains we found in Spain. Our research has brought us here.”

“ To this town? Forgive my mistrust, but I find it hard to believe.”

Ashley sighed and decided to take a chance.

“ We are looking for a monster that has been around since before the Vikings. A creature that denies the sun and dwells in darkness. A creature capable of corrupting the minds of humans and making them lose their sanity. A parasite.”

Gunnar's eyes widened and he stood up with a frown and his face darkened.

“ What are you looking to do with that thing?” The man had changed from intimidating to distrustful and worried. All the agents tensed.

“ Do you know them?” Ashley looked at him with hope in her eyes, feeling that all these past months of investigation might finally pay off.

“ You Americans are looking for beasts for weapons, is that it?”

That statement took them by surprise and they could see that this subject was much more than just legends in this town.

“ We are going to destroy it.”

“ I don't believe you.”

Ashley's impulses were quicker and the agents didn't get to stop her when she pulled out the knife and cut her palm. He looked at her pale and stared at her outstretched hand with blood dripping from it. 

The liquid fell slowly on the mayor's table, first abundant, then slower....

Until it stopped.

The man looked at the wound and saw the blood clotting when barely 2 minutes had passed. Ashley kept looking at the mayor, who in a trembling voice whispered.

“ What are you?”

That question resonated in Leon too, deep as the echo of a bottomless pit. They were freaks, one could start there, but he decided to take the floor while his companion kept her bloody hand raised.

“ We are survivors of that monster. We know what it is capable of. We have seen how it turns normal people into bloodthirsty animals and we are here to prevent it from happening again. We are looking for the source to destroy it.” he emphasized the last word with force, fixing his blue eyes on Gunnar's, who looked at the group with a frightened expression, but finally seemed to understand.

He sighed heavily and sat back down in his chair. Ashley looked at him as he wiped away the blood.

“You are looking for the Eyda.”

That name was new to them, but Ashley knew it was a word that meant annihilate or raze among other similar ones. Quite appropriate.

“ We know them as plaga.” Ashley reported.

Gunnar massaged the bridge of his nose.

“ Those beasts brought us to the brink of destruction when the first humans came here. But they had been living in this place for much longer than that. According to the stories, which no one remembers anymore, they took refuge in the northern area, annihilating us and not knowing where they came from, but it seems that at a certain point they began to dwindle.  After endless battles against them, they took refuge in this region of the western fjords. It is said that the warriors of the area cornered them in the rocky mountain ranges and glaciers, and there they were burned and buried.” The man paused for a second and then added. “They even raided ships when they had no food.”

Ashley then understood where all those ships in that cave came from. God, what barbaric plaga lived there millennia ago? They were lucky that the parasite didn't like sea creatures or flying creatures, otherwise the whole world would be plagued by those monstrosities. 

“ I know that our presence here does not please you, but we came here to put an end to that threat and that is why they tried to kill us.” Ashley explained, recalling the assault by those Wesker soldiers. “We want a slightly safer future.”

Gunnar looked at the woman silently, seeing that they were not messing around after having seen him cut his hand open with a knife.

The mayor sighed heavily and his shoulders slumped.

“ I have to talk it over with a few people before I make the decision. The storm is going to get worse tonight, so I could provide you with a shelter in the horse stables. There's a clean hayloft and a spare room in my house you can stay there for now, sorry it's not much.”

Jill smiled.

“ That's more than enough, thank you.”

The man looked relieved and got up. The rest followed suit and left the building to join the group.

They explained, briefly, to Narsson, that he was still undecided, but omitted the true nature of the parasite and Ashley's injury so as not to worry her further.

They decided that Enma would sleep in the room the mayor had offered, Einar and Sven in the van and the rest in the hayloft at the stables. Under the stares of the villagers they carried their packs to the mayor's stables and his house. Some watched them in silence, others murmured grudgingly as if they saw in them the presence of a bad omen. 

Leon listened to the whispers and hisses, making his body tense as he remembered the unpleasant feeling of always being watched. The voices he heard years ago in the dark or behind a dense fog had already caused him to react by instinct.

He sensed Jill approach Ashley as they walked toward the stables.

“ Hey, how could you even think of cutting yourself? What if it didn't close?”

Ashley looked around before removing the band-aid covering her split lip. Or supposedly split, because there was nothing left but a thin line over her fleshy lip.

“I seem to heal even faster than before.” she sighed with a worried tinge. “I wonder if it's because of what happened to Leon and me.”

The agent heard his partner mention him and felt a horrible pang run through his body. They hadn't spoken since the night before. He didn't know how to, not when he felt his body burn every time he remembered Einar's mouth on hers.

He shook his head with a grunt drawing Jill's attention.

“ Is something wrong?”

“ No.”

It was so dry, even Valentine was shocked. The man took the lead and the two women looked at each other. Ashley interpreted that he was still angry about their argument at the bar and throwing his drink in his face. She sighed heavily and Jill looked at her as well.

What was wrong with those two?

*

The next day Helga invited them all to breakfast at her house. The old man who spoke to Einar growled again when he saw them enter the house, only to earn another slap from his daughter.

At one point Helga's son and daughter ventured to scamper among them, slurring English, but with more fluency than the Americans would have believed.

They didn't know how, but they ended up dangling from Chris' arms in the living room, who was lifting them with ease. The little girl screamed that he was a big, strong, brown bear, because of his hair and eyes. They laughed and squealed with laughter, and when Chris asked for a break, they moved on to Leon. The little boy pointed at him with elation, saying to his mother, “Look at what blue eyes he has!” Leon was flattered by the kid and couldn't help but laugh when the sister asked if they were real.

The children made references to mythical creatures or Norse gods as if they were lifelong friends or everyday animals like simple cats. Ashley was fascinated by the esoteric aura they and the house gave off. The children compared her to Freya, because of her amber eyes and hair, pointing out that she seemed to glow with her own light. Those words made her smile helplessly and the little ones seemed unable to help imitating her gesture.

Leon could not contain himself from laughing softly, witnessing that power Ashley had to infect the rest of the world with her smile, even if she did not realize it.

The morning was pleasant, even if, outside, the storm was horrible. They had lit the fireplace and the children played with Chris and Leon in the living room, while Sven helped Helga clean up breakfast and Einar argued with Helga's father. Even if he was a grumpy old man the Norwegian was getting the hang of him.

Jill, Ashley and Narsson cleared the table as they watched two brats subdue, with tiny wooden swords, two men trained to break necks with their bare hands. 

Ashley didn't know that side of Leon and now understood how he had managed to handle her when they first met in Spain. Being kind and caring was an innate trait in him, even if he sometimes wanted to hide it behind a steely expression.

Finally, at noon Gunnar knocked on the door of Helga's house and entered to speak to the group. Narsson perceived that he spoke his words cautiously, glancing at her and the two guides from time to time, as if he was afraid of saying something improper. 

It seemed that they had reached an agreement and would help them find their target, but first they would wait for the storm to subside, as they would be going through steep areas and wanted to avoid accidents. The group rejoiced at the news and some of the anxiety they had felt that night disappeared. If they had not agreed, everything would have been terribly complicated.

After talking about the procedure they would take longer than they had thought, Helga ended up preparing the meal and inviting the mayor as well.

“ Won't your husband be mad that you invited so many people?” Gunnar joked as he helped open the dining table to let everyone in. 

Helga laughed loudly and looked at the mayor.

“ My husband is the one to blame for inviting people. If it were up to him, the whole town would eat in our house.”

Everyone laughed. Even though the aforementioned was not present, due to a business trip, Helga had talked to them enough to know that he was a good man.

Amidst more food, talk, drinks and laughter, the day passed without them noticing. Gunnar had said goodbye shortly after lunch, announcing that his wife was going to scold him and advised them to prepare what he would take on the trip. The rest of the group helped Helga pack everything up and when it was time for the children to go to bed they decided it was time to go back.

The little ones were terribly sad when they saw Leon and Chris grab their jackets and asked their mother to let them stay. The two men laughed and Leon knelt down in front of them with a gentle smile.

“ Tomorrow we will come again, we will need guides to get to know the village won't we?”

The children threw themselves around the man's neck with revitalized excitement and Ashley couldn't help but smile at the image.

When Helga managed to release her children's death grip on Leon, the travelers said goodbye to the family and went outside. The cold blizzard whipped them with a whack and they all shrank back with a jolt. They grunted inwardly and after saying goodbye to Einar and Sven, who were staying in the van parked in Helga's garage, they walked up towards the mayor's stables.

Back at the stables the four agents said goodbye to Narsson and went up to the hayloft. They lit a small lamp and sat around it while they ate some dinner and thought about what they would get for the trip.

“ Why do we always have bad luck with the weather?” Jill mumbled as she chewed calmly.

“ Maybe, although I think it will be favorable for us this time. The cold will keep whatever we find dormant.” added Ashley.

“ We could have used it in Spain, those damn dogs pissed us off.” Chris grunted, putting his plate aside. “Even so, I still don't like the cold.”

“ That makes two of us.” Leon drank the hot soup and sighed heavily. “We should get as much rest and replenish our strength as possible.”

“ For your babysitting session tomorrow?” Ashley laughed softly, but regretted it as she was aware that this was the first time she had spoken directly to him since the argument the other night.

Leon looked at her and they both averted their eyes as they met. They were at a point where they didn't know how to address each other and Chris and Jill had noticed. The two former STARS looked at each other for a second and heard Leon finally respond simply.

“ For example.”

God, the tension between them couldn't be cut. It could be kneaded and mashed into a brick with it.

“ The storm looks like it's going to be a while and this town is pretty cut off, so let's take the opportunity to disconnect.” Chris suggested, wanting to end that uncomfortable conversation.

“ Yes, I'll go ahead, good night” Leon said getting up and walking to his straw bed at the side of the room.

Ashley finished her cup and then got up with a sigh.

“ Me too, see you tomorrow.” She went to the opposite side of the room from Leon, where she slept with Jill.

Valentine and Redfield looked at each other for a moment and then sighed in unison and went to their respective beds. They only hoped that the whole situation would not worsen their relationship. If it did, they would be in trouble.

*

The next two days were... relatively calm.

As promised by Leon, Helga's sons were their guides through the town. The storm continued to be bad, but that didn't seem to stop most of the inhabitants from going about their daily lives.

Good thing they kept Leon entertained, because Einar didn't leave Ashley's side either day.

The Norwegian was back to his old ways, but this time Ashley didn't seem so reluctant to have a conversation with him. She had spent the previous night plagued by confusing and inappropriate thoughts, so she wanted something or someone to quiet those demons, which kept popping up.

And Einar was succeeding.

Even though they had beaten each other up days ago, Einar seemed captivated by Ashley's strength, wondering where she had learned to fight like that and if she could teach him any tricks.

That whole situation was the opposite of Dylan's, who was only interested in her more vulnerable, everyday side. And that made her a little more curious about the Norwegian.

Jill and Chris, on the other hand, noticed Leon's irascibility. He didn't seem angry, but for some things he did sound more blunt than usual. Jill even asked him if he was jealous of Einar, to which Leon only replied with a gruff, “ He wished.”

And the reason was that in the wake of his argument with Ashley, he remembered the words of warning he shared with Einar before that. And bringing up things he shouldn't.

On their journey they learned a few things about the village, mainly old stories that were still told about the depths of the mountains and the glaciers. The witch Grýla appeared in a few more anecdotes, and Ashley couldn't help but find some similarities to the ganados in Spain. But, even as she tried to distract herself with Einar and those stories, Leon was still a part of her internal struggle. And a thorn was beginning to form in her chest.

*

On the third day the storm calmed down. A thin curtain of snow falling slowly was all that remained of the previous blizzard. The group was on the move in the hayloft with the first rays of dawn and soon they were dressed and ready with everything they needed.

Gunnar didn't take long to show up at the stables and was surprised to find them coming down the stairs of the hayloft, ready. The mayor provided them with a few more things that the Americans might ask him for and once everything seemed in place, he got ready to speak.

“ We will go on horseback. It is far away and the animals are more accustomed to that terrain. They are safe and well taught, so if someone doesn't know how to ride they can rest assured.”

“ Are you sure? I'm very clumsy with mounts.” Enma was shy as she approached one of the animals.

Chris looked at Leon and Leon sighed heavily, turning to the woman.

“ You stay here, Enma.”

The Professor froze and then turned around with eyes like saucers.

“ What?”

Gunnar decided to leave them alone to settle the matter. He looked at Narsson with a hard expression.

“ It's too dangerous for you, Enma.”

“ And you're just going to leave me out of it? I'm a paleontologist like Ashley, we're the ones who know the tracks.”

“ Do you know how to fire a gun?”

Leon's voice was blunt and his hard stare made Enma shrink back in intimidation.

“ No...but-”

“ What would you do if we found ourselves in an adverse situation? You can't count on one of us being with you all the time. We don't want you to take unnecessary risks, Enma.”

“Or you don't want me to be a liability,” the voice of Narsson's inner demon began to gain strength.

She remembered the words of that woman, Ada. They echoed through the corridors of her thoughts, causing all the demons that were asleep in the shadows to begin to awaken.

Leon could see the professor's frown. Even if he wasn't aware of her thoughts, he could imagine that it bothered her. He raised his broad hand and rested it on her shoulder, making her raise those greenish eyes to his.

“ Thanks to you we have arrived here. Your contact in Oslo helped us and your interpretation of the photos brought us to Iceland when we didn't know how to proceed. But that doesn't make us want to put you in danger. If Ashley didn't know how to fight she wouldn't come either, I assure you. Please, Enma, you're safe here.”

Leon's tone of voice was so soft that it made Ashley look away. Narsson held those blue eyes for a few seconds and managed to push his demons back again.

“ You're right I'm sorry.” she let out a long sigh and smiled gently at them. “Be careful.”

All four nodded and Ashley gave him a tight hug. Gunnar looked up and, seeing that everything was settled, asked Narsson to help him prepare the horses. 

The ponies were small in comparison to what was usually seen, but one could discern, under the thick coat, a much more developed musculature than usual. 

Chris was assigned the largest of them all, an almost black chestnut who snorted at him in greeting. Chris and Jill had no idea about horses and Gunnar assisted them in all the preparation. Enma helped as much as she could and when they took the animals outside, she gave them a good luck salute. 

Once they were all mounted on their horses they set out on the journey to the mountains.

*

“ You two seem familiar with horses.” Gunnar asked, looking back.

The animals were climbing the stone slopes with astonishing ease and the village was no longer visible among the snow-covered hills. Leon rode next to Chris's horse, and Ashley rode next to Jill's, acting as their guides as they followed Gunnar. 

“ My parents used to take me to summer horse camps when I was little, I loved it.” Ashley smiled and stroked her cream-colored horse, which shook its head gently. 

Gunnar smiled and turned his body on the saddle to address Leon.

“ You ride like you have western reins.”

Leon looked at his hand holding the leather straps and the other resting on his thigh. He could sense, out of the corner of his eye, Ashley watching him and he subtly straightened up.

“ I grew up with my aunt and uncle from the age of 11. They had a farm and worked with the horses to drive cattle.” The agent explained, not giving too many facts. Talking about his childhood was not something he was used to doing, and even less so to strangers.

“ It gives me more peace of mind to know that, because from now on the road is more irregular.” Gunnar mentioned, looking ahead again.

Ashley was curious about Leon's aunt and uncle's farm. He had told her about it some time ago and said he would like to take her there sometime. She sighed softly.

For that they would have to reconcile. If they ever did.

*

Narsson walked through the village towards Helga's house. Her thoughts wandered through her head like a restless tide. She had conflicting feelings that clashed with each other and only made her want to bang her head against a wall. 

“ Hey, Emma!” a male voice snapped her out of her thoughts and made her look up from the floor. She found Einar playing in the garden with Helga's children.

“ Hello Einar.” she said with a tired smile. “What are you doing?”

“Helga had to go to the airport to pick up her husband, so we've been babysitting with the children.” The Norwegian looked behind the teacher and arched his eyebrows. “Isn't Ashley here?”

Enma sighed and walked over to the garden where they were playing.

“ She's out in the hills with Gunnar.” she greeted the children and sat down next to Einar.

“ And how come you didn't go?”

His words were of simple curiosity, with no hurtful intent, but they still hurt.

“ It's kind of a dangerous area and I'm not used to it, so I stayed for safety.”

“ Gee, well, I'll wait for her to come back then.” He lifted Helga's daughter into the air and the girl squealed with excitement. Narsson watched the man and his words came out without thinking.

“ Do you like Ashley?”

“Of course I do.” he answered without hesitation as he set the little girl down and walked away with his brother and Sven. “Did you see the punches she gave me? She hits like a truck and has the temper of a tiger.” he smiled proudly.

Narsson was surprised by this honesty.

“Really?”

He sat on the same bench as her.

“ I don't like princesses in distress or those that are delicate.” He paused, turning his head towards the woman. “Hey, you wouldn't happen to know if she and Leon have ever dated, would you?”

“They say they haven't.” Enma replied, leaning back on the bench with a sigh.

“They seem very close.”

“They are.”

“And they're not a couple? That Leon is either gay or dumb. Well, better for me, that's what he gets for not waking up.”

Einar smiled with his chest high and proud that he had gotten ahead of the American.

“ I think it's more complicated.”

“ Ashley doesn't tell me to fuck off anymore and we're getting along fine. That's enough for me, what she has or doesn't have with Leon is not my problem.”

Enma looked at him sideways, admiring the simplicity with which he saw things. She would spend the day with them, so at least she wouldn't stay in her room being devoured by her horrible demons.

*

The entrance to the cave was just a huge crack in the wall.

Gunnar had led them to an old house, where a stout old woman lived, who was the one who guided them to the cave. 

That woman was related to the villagers, but her ancestors had been living in that house since they banished the beasts. She was a sort of lookout guarding the entrance from strangers or lost climbers.

He had to argue with her until she agreed to guide them.

They dismounted and took their packs to go into the grotto. The mayor handed them each a radio to keep in touch. The curtain of snow began to get thicker, not allowing them to see more than 20 meters.

“ I will return to the cabin, keep me informed. I'll notify you if we see anything unusual from outside.” he paused. “Be careful with the terrain, this island has a lot of volcanic activity.”

The group ascended and after checking their weapons, equipment and clothing, they entered the dark crevice that would lead them to the bowels of the earth.

*

The flashlights illuminated the abyss. Their footsteps echoed and their breaths showed the gentleness of that place.

They followed Gunnar's instructions to reach the sealed entrance, avoiding the traps that, centuries ago, were set. They did not know if they were still working, most probably not, but they did not want to risk an arrow ending up embedded in someone's skull.

The four of them tied themselves to the same rope, making sure not to get lost. The light illuminated the stone wall that separated them from their target. Chris pulled out a small explosive to make a controlled detonation. He placed it on top of the rock that acted as a door and they moved several meters away before detonating it. The captain stared at the nook.

“ I don't think I'll go through there.”

“ Don't worry, under pressure anything goes through.” Jill scoffed, being the first to pass by. She was followed by Redfield, who had to be pushed from behind to get through the hole. Ashley followed and finally Leon.

When the four regrouped they surveyed their surroundings once more.

“ Gunnar, do you read me?” Ashley called in Norwegian, for line security.

“Yes, have you passed the entrance?” the robotic tone of voice came out of the radio.

“Yes, are there any more traps in here?”

“ No, the ones they set were so that no one would try to get in, not for the beasts not to get out.” said the mayor.

“ Good, keep us informed.”

The line was silent.

“ He said there are no more traps here.” translated the woman to the group. Chris and Jill nodded, but Leon scoffed under his breath.

“ So careful now not to speak English, did you forget when you argued with Einar?”

Ashley frowned at Leon's sudden hurtful words. The calm she had achieved over the past few days was gone.

“ Are you going to accuse me of things?” she snarled angrily.

The memories came back to him, sharp as if it had been yesterday. His blood boiled.

“ It was you who sent the cover to hell.”

“ I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't been such a jerk.”

“ Now it's my fault?”

“ SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU.”

Chris's deep roar struck them dumb and Ashley clenched her fists tightly and then spun on her heels.

Chris and Jill watched Ashley take the lead and the two soldiers sighed heavily. How had they gone from being an amazing pair of buddies on a mission from Spain to spiteful teenagers?

The way they descended was in silence. Their steps were calm and they looked both at their feet and around them. The terrain was uneven and they had to make use of Ashley's ropes and rings to descend at several points. 

It seemed as if they were traveling to the bottom of the earth, descending through time through those tunnels buried under tons and miles of volcanic rock.

They reached a point where they began to feel a little warmer. Ashley's theory about the cold slowing down the ancient plagas was logical, but in that volcanic realm it seemed more like they had been buried alive under those shifting lands, similar to Spain.

“ This seems to be alive.” Leon whispered in the darkness. To the rest of the group it was barely perceptible, but the agent heard overtones in the earth, like the subtle vibrations in the deep rock and the gas slipping into distant crevices.

As if growling from deep in the abyss. 

“It's a little scary, yeah.” Jill nodded, looking up at the vast walls of black rock that opened up in places and narrowed in others, like veins and lungs.

Then the ground beneath their feet creaked.

A slight tremor shook the earth and before they could react Jill and Leon plunged into the void. Chris and Ashley had no time to act and the weight of the two of them dragged them hopelessly into the depths.

*

“ Did you see that?” the old woman spoke to Gunnar, pointing to a spot in the soft snowfall that had calmed down in the last few hours. The mayor raised his binoculars and saw a subtle flicker on the other side of the hill.

“What the hell is that?”

The Icelander peered through the thermal sight of his rifle at the entrance to the grotto in the distance. 

There didn't seem to be anyone there.

“ There's noth-”

A violent blow to his neck made everything a blur. His body slumped next to the old woman, who lay unconscious beside him. He tried to reach for the radio, but a boot pushed her away from him. He raised his clouded eyes, the tunnel growing darker and darker, and he could make out only a dark reddish blur before he lost consciousness.

*

Grunts and coughs echoed through the grotto.

“ Are you all right” Chris's voice echoed with an effort.

“ Yes.” replied a female voice next to him.

Redfield saw Ashley's figure emerge from the rubble, but did not hear the voices of the other two. 

“ Jill? Leon?” he called out to them, but got no response.

Ashley spat sand and her radio beeped softly.

“ Chris? Ashley?” Jill's voice came out loudly. The captain and the young woman looked at each other and Redfield pressed the button.

“ We're okay, where are you?”

“ According to the scanner, we've fallen 100 meters. The rope broke at some point. Let's find a way back to the path at the beginning.” Jill suggested with a grunt of effort. 

“Okay, be careful, we'll meet you there.” replied the dark-haired man before cutting the rope.

Ashley and Chris raised their eyes around the grotto and saw that they were unnatural. They looked at each other before pulling out their weapons and started walking around looking for a way out.

That area was steeper and they had to slide between crevices and rocks. Ashley sniffed from time to time to avoid dangerous areas or find places with cleaner air.

Her footsteps were the only ones that accompanied the silence. Chris walked behind Ashley cautiously, shining a light into the strange grotto. He couldn't help but think about the previous discussion between her and Leon, he was still surprised by the sudden change they had undergone. If he was simply a professional he wouldn't ask, but he considered her a friend at this point and was concerned for her and Leon's well being.

“ Hey, Ashley.” sighed the captain finally, causing the young woman to turn to him. “Can you tell me what's going on with you and Leon, and don't tell me “nothing”.”

The woman's eyes widened at the question and she was speechless. She looked away, not knowing what to say at first.

“ We had an argument.” she whispered.

Chris rolled his eyes.

“ I've noticed that already, Ashley.”

The blonde shrugged her shoulders.

“ I don't think this is the time for this, Chris.”

“ I'd rather know now than you two have a fight later and endanger us all.”

Ashley grunted and sighed at the man's insistence. He was stubborn too.

“ He still doesn't see me able to stand on my own.” she finally said and Chris arched his eyebrows. 

“ If he didn't he wouldn't have let you come here or to Spain.”

The young woman looked at him with a frustrated expression, remembering the words he said to her in the bar.

“ I mean as a woman.”

“ What?” this time he didn't understand. Ashley sighed.

“ A lot of people see me as a little thing, a pretty girl who wants love. But that doesn't give him the right to threaten to break a guy's arm for talking to me.” she clenched her fists. “And then she tells me my romantic decisions have been shit so far.”

Chris pinched the bridge of his nose with a snarl.

“God, Leon, what have you gotten yourself into?” he thought hopelessly. He was precisely the last one who could say such a comment to Ashley. The woman had every right to be angry, but she could also partly understand why Leon was doing it.

“ Ashley... I can't give you advice. I understand that you're angry and that Leon was being a jerk, but... if I were in his shoes I'd be worried too.”

“ Won't you say jealous instead?” mumbled the blonde.

Chris sighed heavily.

“ Look, there's one thing I can tell you, and that's that, although Leon and I are different with women, I can assure you that sometimes he's as much of a jerk as I am.” he shook his hair, looking at her. - Sometimes we men are idiots and are incapable of expressing ourselves properly. Maybe Leon had a different intention than you think, but his more stupid impulses made him say what he said.

“ He was hurtful, Chris.” she frowned.

“ I believe you. I'm not saying to forget what he said, I'm just asking you to talk it out. I sometimes fail to say things and that leads to misunderstandings.”

Ashley stared at him, still hurt by Leon's words to her a few nights ago. But she listened to Chris.

And she realized that was something she used to say. To talk.

Because she hid many things from him that angered Leon and that by dialoguing they managed to overcome. She looked at the floor for a moment and exhaled deeply.

“ I will, but he has to apologize.”

“ Of course. It may have been a misunderstanding but he was the jerk.”

Ashley couldn't help but smile softly.

“ Thank you, Chris.” she whispered warmly and the brunet gave her the same gesture.

“ You're welcome, but you'll have to give the Einar thing a whirl too.”

The reality made Ashley growl again.

“ Yeah, that's another issue too.”

“ Whether your decisions are good or bad I'm not going to question, but the fact that you tend to get yourself into a bit complicated situations is a fact of life.” laughed the brunette trying to cheer up the woman and make her see that there was a solution.

“ Yes, I'm not going to deny it.” she sighed with a soft tired laugh. “But first things first.” she added, shining the flashlight to the bottom of the grotto.

“ Yes, ma'am.”

They walked for an hour.

Jill and Leon were fine, but they had not made it to the main path yet either. 

Ashley and Chris realized that the grotto they were walking through was...strange. Ashley noticed the walls on their way, until she realized that the markings they had been seeing since they had found that path, were claws. The Captain's face darkened when the woman mentioned it to him and they walked cautiously with their weapons held high towards the depths. 

But what they saw there did not please any of them.

Plaga corpses.

A jumble of bodies was piled up on the walls of the place, buried or embedded against the volcanic rock.

“God...” whispered Ashley in horror. She pointed her gun as she approached the fossils. 

“These are bigger than the ones in Spain.” said Chris brushing the stone with his fingers.

Ashley analyzed the bodies of the creatures and seemed to understand what had happened there.

“ They ate each other.” her tone sounded horrified and made Redfield turn to her with wild eyes.

“What?”

“Gunnar told us that the first inhabitants of Iceland locked them in. That grotto we saw, it seems there were so many of them that they made new paths in the rock, trying to escape from here. It may have taken them so long that they ended up feeding on each other to survive.”

“ I'm getting more and more disgusted by these things, and I haven't seen any of them alive” Chris mumbled, disgusted.

The two looked around the room and saw no other paths they could go down, although they did see small nooks and crannies. Ashley took a couple of bags out of the backpack and with the knife chipped the stone to get samples and fragments in much better condition than the ones they found in Spain.

“ If these Plagas are here, there has to be a “Queen Plaga" somewhere, after all they are the ones who store the little ones.” Ashley stood up with a sigh and took the small explosive Chris gave her.

“We may be able to make our way through one of those holes upstairs, you climb up.”

“ I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to stay where you are.”

Ashley and Chris tensed violently and turned toward the source of the voice. They pointed at the figure walking toward them and the flashlights illuminated a silhouette very familiar to Ashley. The radio beeped.

“ Guys, we've been attacked on the outside! I don't know who, but someone's broken in!”

Gunnar's voice echoed in the silence of the room, where three people were pointing guns at each other's heads.

“ A little late, she's already found us.”

How come she hadn't smelled her? At certain moments she had been able to perceive the scent of Leon or Jill, how come she hadn't smelled her when she was behind them?

“ Ada.” she whispered her name suspiciously.

The dark-eyed woman's subtle smile brought all of Ashley's instincts to alertness. 

“Well, well, has the little chick hatched from the nest? I'm sorry I didn't bring anything to celebrate our reunion, but I'm going to take that thing you pulled out of the wall.”

Chris raised his gun and Ada followed suit.

“ You're not taking anything for Wesker.”

The faint, subtle laugh that escaped Ada's lips made Ashley frown.

“Wesker? Oh, please, I don't work for that paranoid man anymore. If he carries out his plans I'm going to be out of a job in the future.”

Graham felt her blood boil at the woman's words. Her job seemed to be more important than saving thousands of lives. Ashley knew Ada had some conscience, but she was always going to put her job and herself before others.

The two agents watched the mercenary and the earth began to vibrate, as if it were growling.

“ I don't think it's very safe to stay here, don't make me repeat myself, give me the samples.”

“ Over me, Wong.” Chris growled, raising his gun. The woman sighed and her smile faded.

“As you wish.”

Ashley didn't see the smoke bomb coming and it clouded her sense of smell. She took a punch to the stomach and heard Chris roar before a shot rang out.

“ CHRIS!!!” Ashley screamed in panic as the earth roared even louder. She sat up on the curtain and pulled the knife out holding the backpack tightly against her chest. A part of the floor caved in under one foot and she jumped to avoid falling.

“ ASHLEY!!!” she heard the man's voice just before she saw a figure pounce at her. She managed to dodge the kick and as she went to kick her back, there was a violent crack and the grotto came crashing down.

*

Ashley grabbed as best she could at the sliding earth that carried her elsewhere. She rolled aimlessly until she collided with a wall of stone and water. She exclaimed in pain and the echo echoed through the caves.

She gasped as she tried to catch her breath, feeling the cold water up to her elbows. Where was she? 

“Chris?” her voice was barely a whisper from the effort, but she got no response. She grunted from the pain and sat up gently. She reached for the flashlight she had dropped and saw light between some rocks a few feet away from her.

Once she recovered, she looked around, searching for an upward path, but instead she remained static when she saw a body lying on the ground near her.

Ada lay unconscious with blood staining the side of her face and half her body in one of the cave's small water pits. It looked like a rock had hit her head.

Ashley hesitated and shook the woman's arm first before kneeling beside her. 

She examined the wound and found that it was not serious.She got up again with the intention of leaving. 

She had to find a way, maybe she could climb, there seemed to be ledges. She adjusted her harness and pulled out a long rope. She walked to the wall only to stand still, watching it.

She should leave her there, she had followed them. But she was unconscious.

Ashley kept up an inner struggle for several minutes and her thoughts ended up coming to the same place.

She had saved her and Leon years ago.

She remembered it was the first name that came from Leon's lips when she went to find him in Spain the first time and felt a pang in her chest. 

He would probably get her out of there.

Ashley cursed under her breath like a rabid dog and turned around. She walked over to Ada and after tending to her head wound and putting some bandages on it, towed her onto her back. 

The added weight was going to take its toll on her hands, but she could do it, Dana taught her not to give up.

She took a deep breath and with one push began to ascend.

*

EVERYTHING was crawling with pests.

On her ascent up the stone walls she could see remains and dismembered parts of the parasites, but next to them she could see...other fossils.

She followed the trail as she climbed, beginning to see prehistoric animals and to her dismay, she saw that most of them had huge Plagas attached to their skeletons.

With her hands raw and her heart pounding, she made it to a safer area. She took a few moments to catch her breath before moving on with Ada on her back. 

She had definitely used something to camouflage her scent. She could only pick up her scent with her so close and probably because the water they had fallen into would have dissolved whatever it was she had used to make it undetectable.

And now that she was analyzing her scent, she realized that it was the same scent she smelled in Norway, in the village they were attacked. How long had she been chasing them?

She climbed up a slope with her head in chaos, but the instant the flashlight shone on that path, Ashley felt terror coursing through every cell of her body.

Dinosaurs.

Those bones were unmistakable. She would have been happy to have discovered them if it weren't for the terrible silhouettes that accompanied the Jurassic creatures on the stone.

Plagas as big as cars.

She unconsciously drew her weapon and held it tightly, but the weight of the metal could do little to assuage her fears of beasts of that size. She noticed that they seemed to be coming from somewhere, all the skeletons facing the same way. She followed the trail and pulled out her radio to try to contact someone.

“ Chris? Jill? Leon? Gunnar? Can anyone hear me?” her voice echoed off the walls as she moved forward. In her wait she rounded a corner and almost dropped her talkie on the isle.

“ Ashley? Are you all right?” Chris's voice was a relief.

“ Yes.” she stood silently, unable to take her eyes off what lay before her, encrusted in jagged pinks as it had been engulfed by the passage of time. “Chris.”

“ Where are you? Where's Wong?”

Ashley's body vibrated at the instincts that were surfacing, imagining what those lands must have been like before the Vikings arrived. Hell on earth.

“ I found it.”

She had found the “Plaga Mother” of that whole place.

She laid Ada down on the ground and pulled out the small backpack. She armed the ice axe and slid her hands along the porous stone, trying to find the area where the creature's “womb” should be or where it stored the Plagas.

If it was like the one that merged with Salazar, then it would have even older Plagas inside and they would know with greater certainty the place or time they came from.

But the fact that there were dinosaurs buried there together with such large Plagas already told her that they coexisted with them in the Jurassic. 

But that thing was immense.

It had been incredibly well preserved, but it took her time to find the bag. When she thought she had found it, she bit into the rock with all her might. The sound of metal hitting rock was the only thing that echoed in the place along with Ashley's breathing.

Finally she plunged the point into a softer hollow, like hard mud, and carefully poked around. She felt a few lumps inside, some misshapen, some cracked, but when she pulled them out she saw what they were.

Eggs.

“ Chris, I found eggs inside this thing, I'm going to take them and look for your location, this bug had to get here somehow.” Ashley announced, opening the backpack.

“ Okay, we'll meet up with the radar.”

Ashley nodded and put the talkie aside. She pulled out some bags and carefully took out one of the eggs.

A sharp thud impacted against the back of her head.

Her body froze and her vision blurred. She fell to the ground trying not to close her eyes. She raised her clouded gaze upward, only to see a red figure.

“ It's not personal.”

Another kick knocked her unconscious.