Ash (character)

This article concerns the background of the subject in Apex Legends universe. For the subject and content related to it in the main game, see Ash. For the subject and content related to it in *Apex Legends Mobile*, see Ash (Mobile).

**Ash**, once known as **Dr. Ashleigh Reid**, is a character first introduced in *Titanfall 2*, and a Legend first introduced in  Season 11. A simulacrum Pilot, Ash joined the Apex Games to prove her superiority to both the other competitors and to her sympathetic split personality.

## Lore

### Background

Dr. Ashleigh Reid was born in 2613 somewhere in the Frontier. At some point, she lost her brother when he was young and had to learn that the only person who can look out for her is herself. In her youth, she lived a double life, working as a lab assistant by day and living in the Frontier's seedy underbelly by night, mingling with drug dealers and mercenaries. She was eventually hired by the Apex Predators mercenary group for a daunting task - infiltrate a group of scientists on Psamathe and steal branthium, the experimental fuel source they were developing.

### Promise

Unbeknownst to the Apex Predators, branthium wasn’t a simple fuel source - it was a brand new element that had been hypothesized by famed astrophysicist Dr. Mary Somers. According to Somers’ calculations, branthium could only be gathered on the accretion disk of a black hole. To prove this right and avert an imminent energy crisis, Somers and Reid departed in 2646 on a mission to a black hole to gather this mysterious element.

Upon arriving, Somers set out in a small shuttle and successfully gathered a sample. After sending it back to their main spacecraft, however, Reid betrayed Somers, disconnecting their tether and seemingly leaving her to die. Reid later returned to Psamathe and delivered the branthium to the scientists, collectively known as the Group, for refinement and replication.

In the absence of Somers, Reid served as a mentor figure for her son, Newton, who interned under her and the other scientists during their research on branthium, much to Reid's protests. Shortly before his work was to begin, Newton gave Ash a set of nunchaku that he had received as a gift from Lillian Peck. Unbeknownst to Reid, Somers had survived, and would return to the Outlands 87 years later due to time dilation.

### The Event

During the Group’s research, Reid often came to blows with Dr. Amélie Paquette, the resident geologist.

Initial tests of branthium as a power source repeatedly failed. On January 2, 2658, the reason for this was discovered: the refinery chamber used to process the element required constant calibration, and the conditions inside are too inhospitable for a human to operate the controls. While brainstorming a solution, Reid suggested that the Group repurpose a MRVN for the task. The other scientists agreed, and Reid offered to reach out to her connections at Hammond Robotics for suitable components. Construction and modification of the MRVN components lasted for just over a month, and finally concluded on February 4, resulting in the “birth” of a MRVN that the Group christened as “Pathfinder.”

On December 25, the Group had completed the refinement of their first batch of branthium and prepared to distribute it through a phase runner. That day, Reid decided to finally put her plan into motion. Not wishing to get Newton caught up in the events, she released him early for the day. As the Group celebrated, Reid entered with a contingent of Apex Predators soldiers and rendered her fellow scientists disarmed and bound - though not before Paquette locked down the site’s security systems.

Reid struggled to break through, as activation required the handprints of two staff members. Paquette bravely stood up to her former colleague, though Reid responded by brandishing a sword and slicing off her hand. With this, she was able to access the systems and redirect the phase runner to Gridiron. She received some brief interference from Pathfinder - programmed as the Group’s failsafe - who engaged the soldiers. Reid killed Dr. Anastasia Oliveira, another of the Group’s scientists, and disabled the MRVN with two shots from her Mozambique. Almost immediately, she was stabbed through the chest with her own sword by Paquette. Pathfinder redirected the phase runner to its original destinations and activated the facility’s self-destruct sequence, preventing the branthium from falling into the wrong hands.

Reid’s dying body was recovered from the aftermath. She agreed to have her mind uploaded into a robotic shell, despite the mental trauma this would cause. As a result, Dr. Ashleigh Reid became the simulacrum known as Ash.

After powering on, Ash continued to work with the Apex Predators, gaining control over a custom Ronin-class Titan.

### Battle of Typhon

As the IMC’s ARES Division sought to protect a mysterious device known as the Fold Weapon on the planet Typhon, General Elias Marder solicited the help of the Apex Predators, paying a hefty sum to gain their support. Ash deployed to the surface of Typhon, alongside Predators Kane, Richter, Viper, Slone, and their leader, Kuben Blisk.

During the Frontier Militia’s initial assault on Typhon, multiple Apex Predators Titans engaged esteemed Militia Pilot Tai Lastimosa and his Vanguard-class Titan, BT-7274. Ash quickly worked to disable BT-7274, using her phase dash to get up close and remove the Titan’s batteries. The Militia Titan was quickly subdued, and Lastimosa was killed.

After this skirmish, Ash retreated to the IMC’s Dynamic Testing Facility, where she spent her time sadistically forcing captured Militia soldiers into combat with experimental Reaper combat drones. When Militia Pilot Jack Cooper and the now-repaired BT-7274 entered the facility in their search for one of their comrades, Ash captured the Titan using construction equipment. Cooper pursued, with Ash leading him through the construction facilities of the World Foundry and into a simulation dome, where he quickly subdued Ash’s Reapers and escaped. Afterwards, Blisk would reprimand Ash for wasting time toying with the Pilot. In response, she decided to scuttle the facility, activating its self-destruct sequence despite the presence of hundreds or thousands of friendly IMC soldiers.

After reuniting with his Titan, Cooper made his way through the collapsing facility and encountered Ash in her Ronin-class Titan. The two fought, and Cooper came out victorious, crushing the simulacrum’s body with his Titan’s hand.

### Post-Typhon Conflicts

Ash’s remains were later recovered and rebuilt by the arms manufacturer Vinson Dynamics. She would then serve as a commanding officer for their mercenary corps. She additionally led raids against the Remnant Fleet, a splinter fleet of the IMC navy formed by Vice Admiral Spyglass after the Battle of Demeter, as she believed she would be able to learn about her past from them.

Eventually, Ash reunited with Blisk. The two made some kind of deal where Ash’s head was to be thrown into an alternate dimension. A reason for this was never given, with the closest explanation given by Blisk was something about “being thorough.” Ash’s head arrived in the Shadowfall dimension and was split into nine parts.

### The Broken Ghost

After Loba joined the Apex Games, she solicited the assistance of the other Legends (sans Revenant) to hunt down pieces of an “artifact” located on an alternate Kings Canyon, in the Shadowfall Dimension. The pieces of the artifact were buried beneath the island, so the Legends were sent on combat operations to unearth and recover each piece. These pieces were to be built together by Crypto and Wattson. Upon completion, the parts became a robotic head.

After the head was assembled, it was taken to a hidden IMC vault beneath the surface of Kings Canyon. At its center, Ash’s broken, headless body rested, attached to a machine of some sort. Mirage placed her head on her shoulders, reactivating the simulacrum. A reborn Ash then stated “Welcome to Olympus,” causing Octane and Lifeline to become perturbed at the mention of their childhood home.

### The First Ship

As per Loba’s deal with Hammond Robotics, Ash was delivered to them in exchange for information about the location of Revenant’s source code. Once she was in their custody, Ash was rebuilt and had the access codes for the floating city of Olympus extracted from her memory. She was subsequently discarded in a dumpster on Solace, where she was discovered by Pathfinder, who gave her a place to stay and began calling her his “girlfriend,” much to her chagrin.

Shortly after meeting Mirage and Rampart, she suffered a surge, and Pathfinder escorted the other two Legends away. Having regained the memories she had lost since her disposal by Hammond, she was contacted by Blisk. The two reunited, and Blisk told Ash that an “old friend” of hers had returned. Ash then departed from Pathfinder’s warehouse. She left a note thanking the MRVN, stating that, despite not liking gratitude, she still felt it towards him.

Some time after this, Ash underwent an overhaul, receiving heavy modifications to her chassis.

### Decrypt the Passcode

Blisk solicited the help of Ash to run a new facet of the Apex Games. Asking the Legends if they could impress her, she sent an invitation to the Legends for a new challenge - the Arenas.

### The Legacy Antigen

After the outbreak of the Medusa epidemic on Olympus, Ash approached Horizon, asking for a status update on her curtailment of the spread of the Medusa vines. The two argued, with Ash seeking a redistribution of resources and attention toward the preservation of an Arenas site, and Horizon wishing to prioritize the lives at stake. During their engagement, parts of the room’s ceiling broke loose, and Ash shoved Horizon out of the way, saving her life. Before departing, Ash stated that Newton would be proud of her work, leaving Horizon dumbfounded as to how she knows the name of her son.

After stopping the epidemic, Ash approached Horizon once more, telling her what she believes the latter’s friend and mentor, Lillian Peck, would have told her - that she is never alone.

### Season 10

Ash’s words weighed heavily on Horizon’s mind. One night, she has a dream where Peck tells her the exact words spoken to her by Ash. Talking with Pathfinder about this, he tells her that Ash held the access codes to Olympus, which were seemingly only known to Peck. Believing Ash to be a reconstruction of Peck, she began work to release her original personality, obtaining special codes from Crypto to do just that.

Traveling to Ash’s base of operations, she met the simulacrum and apologized about her fate. Ash’s ego retention system, however, censors the word “simulacrum” as “Pilot.” Before she could fully respond, Horizon began reading the codes and Revenant attacked her, fracturing her faceplate in an attempt to euthanize her and stop the pain of waking up.

With her ego retention system now broken, Ash entered an internal dialogue with the now awake personality of Dr. Ashleigh Reid (henceforth known as Leigh). Now aware of the presence of her original self, she placed the blame for all of her past failures on her weaker, more compassionate side.

Leigh, in a brief moment of lucidity, was able to take control of the simulacrum. Horizon, however, was astonished to hear the voice of her attempted killer. Leigh told her that she knows what happened to her son. Before she could continue, however, Ash regained control, suppressing Leigh.

Face to face with Horizon, she realized that this is what Blisk meant when he told her that an “old friend” had returned during their meeting on Solace. She explained her fractured personality to Horizon - with Ash as the cruel, perfectionistic persona, and Leigh as the “weaker” side. Horizon pressed her for answers, but she simply admonished her in return. She walked away as Horizon despairingly wept.

Ash then joined the Apex Games to prove her superiority - not just to the other Legends, but to Leigh as well.

### Trouble in Paradise

After joining the Apex Games, Ash began searching the various arenas for IMC sites, wishing to destroy the blade that killed her human body in an attempt to suppress Leigh. During a match on Olympus with Gibraltar and Pathfinder, she attempted to search the site of the Phase Runner accident, now known as the Rift. However, her teammates informed her that nothing present at the time of the incident is retrievable. Pathfinder then mentioned that Wraith and Wattson are both conducting similar searches.

During a later match on Storm Point, Ash used a Phase Breach to intercept a squad consisting of Wattson, Crypto, and Horizon, as the former two have been searching for IMC components on the island. She interrogated Wattson about this, who once again directs the simulacrum to Wraith.

Ash arrived at a small facility on Gaea, containing the personal belongings of The Group that were recovered from the aftermath of the Rift. In one such container, she found the sword she was searching for. Before she could act, Horizon arrived, intent on striking down the simulacrum. However, this causes Leigh to surface, who tells her former colleague that Newton did not die during the Phase Runner Incident. Ash, regaining control, shatters the blade. Looking at the next of kin listed near each scientist’s name, she noticed “Natalie Paquette,” whom she knows as Wattson. She then left, intent on killing the Legend to quash Leigh.

Ash reached the Lightning Rod on Storm Point, where she found Wattson stripping it for rare parts. Declaring her intent to sever the Paquette bloodline, Ash attacked, knocking her into a ravine. Staring down, she uttered “Let us begin, Natalie Paquette” before walking away.

Some time after, Ash approached Crypto, proposing a partnership. Crypto affirmed his wish to find information against the Mercenary Syndicate, and the simulacrum declared him a fine pupil. The two then departed.

### Weekend Warriors

One weekend near the anniversary of the Apex Games, Ash was placed on a team with Pathfinder and an unnamed competitor, who was eliminated early into the match. Eventually, she and Pathfinder were cornered by Crypto and his squad, who struck her with an  EMP, causing her to short out. While offline, she had a flashback to a meeting with Newton Somers, remembering the boy gifting her the nunchaku she continued to wield. After coming back online, she was told by Pathfinder that they had lost the match, giving her further resolve to excise Leigh's compassion.

## Appearances

* Into The Abyss

**Quests*** The Broken Ghost
* The First Ship
* Trouble in Paradise
* Weekend Warriors

**Transition Blurbs*** Me, Myself & Regret (mentioned)
* Crisis to Avert (mentioned)
* HELL
* Her Mother's Child (mentioned)
* A Poem for Ash (mentioned)
* An Adequate Reflection (mentioned)
* *Ashes to Ash*

**Trailers*** The Truth
* Legacy Launch Trailer
* Escape Launch Trailer
* Ignite Launch Trailer
* Legacy Lost
* Finding a Path
* How to Wake Up (mentioned)
* You're Not Alone

**Motion Comics*** Red Flags
* A Little Voice (mentioned)

## Trivia

* Character
* Cultural References
* Voice Actor

* Ash is the first confirmed combat-certified Pilot known to become a Legend.
	+ Wraith was a Pilot but a "Senior Science Pilot," so it is unclear if she was combat-certified. Even if she was, Wraith has lost her memories.
	+ Valkyrie was a "pilot" in the sense of piloting ships as a smuggler, and though she piloted her dad's Northstar-class Titan as a kid (and currently uses it as a jetpack), she never became a combat-certified Titan Pilot.
	+ She and Newcastle are the only known combat-certified Pilots to compete in the Apex Games.
* Ash/Ashleigh has the highest confirmed amount of deaths and rebirths: Killed by Amélie Paquette, revived as a simulacrum; destroyed by Jack Cooper, rebuilt by Vinson Dynamics; dismantled and hidden in an alternate dimension by Kuben Blisk, rebuilt by the Apex Legends, physically fully restored by Pathfinder, original identity unlocked by Horizon.
* Ash's mask is based off porcelain "death masks", taken as a cast of the deceased's face in some cultures around the world. As artist Joel Emslie describes, *"We were thinking she wears a death mask from her past human self on her current robot body."*
* Even as a human, Ashleigh had practice martial arts and yoga, and brought Newton along to her practice. This continues on as a simulacrum: one of her multiplayer introductions in *Titanfall 2* is giving a Chinese palm-to-fist salute and bow to the Pilots on her dropship, while another shows her performing the tree pose (Vrikshasana) or the "invisible chair" exercise before opening the dropship's hatch.
	+ This inspired Newton to purchase a pair of nunchaku for himself, which she eventually received from him and becomes her heirloom.
* When taking her down with an execution at the end of the fight against her in *Titanfall 2*, she will be crushed by in BT's hand and what appears to blood will be sent flying out. This is clarified in the "Ashes to Ashes" trailer, in which only her torso was crushed.
* Ash and Revenant share many similarities, aside from being simulacra:
	+ They are currently the only two known simulacra to have fully regained the memories of their human selves, the former thanks to Horizon successfully inputting the code to do so.
	+ They both act as announcers in special modes as well as being a Legend themselves.
* Ash has a pet rat, which has no name in lore, as Ash doesn't show affections or care about naming her rat. Nonetheless, it still shows how Leigh leaks through and betrays her vulnerability and human side. As Lead Writer Amanda Doiron stated, "Training and controlling the rat, on some level, is Ash showing the control she maintains over her fallible humanity who she fights, at all times, to keep down." The rat is female.
	+ Even in real life the rat has no name as a request from the animation department, in order so the work done doesn't bleed through into the finished animation.
* Ash's face-plate is removable, as seen in the Escape Gameplay Trailer and her banner poses.
* Due to damage to Ash's retinal array, her right eye cannot view wavelengths over 400 namometers, causing that eye to only see in shades of purple.

* "Ashleigh Reid" is named after Ashley Reed, a lead writer at Respawn and one of the first writers to work on *Apex Legends*. She joined Respawn after the release of *Titanfall 2*, so the character Ash came first.
* Ash's Chaotic Emerald skin may be a reference to the Chaos Emeralds from *Sonic the Hedgehog*.
* Ash's  Existential Threat skin is based on the MUTO from Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse.

Gallery
* Chaotic Emerald
* Existential Threat

* Ash's voice actress, Anna Campbell, has portrayed a variety of roles, including:
	+ Gunnr in *God of War Ragnarök*

## References

1. ↑ Ash In-Game Bio
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends/about/characters/ash
3. ↑ https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends/about/characters/horizon
4. ↑ Stories from the Outlands - Promise
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Weekend Warriors Chapter 3 - "Remnants of Affection"
6. ↑ Stories from the Outlands - Promise
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Stories from the Outlands - Ashes to Ash
8. ↑ The Truth
9. ↑ Pathfinder's Quest Chapter 11 - "The Truth"
10. ↑ Titanfall 2 Campaign Chapter 2 - "BT-7274"
11. ↑ Titanfall 2 Campaign Chapter 4 - "Into the Abyss"
12. ↑ Titanfall 2 Multiplayer - Vinson Dynamics faction description
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 The First Ship Page 6 - "The Second Time Around"
14. ↑ The Broken Ghost Prologue - "The Duplicitous Snake"
15. ↑ The Broken Ghost Chapter 8 - "The Unwavering Protector"
16. ↑ The Broken Ghost PVE Mission - Quest End
17. ↑ The Broken Ghost Epilogue
18. ↑ [1]
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 The First Ship Page 4 - "Dinner For Four"
20. ↑ The First Ship Page 3 - "High Five and Make Up"
21. ↑ The First Ship Page 7 - "The First Ship"
22. ↑ Legacy Launch Trailer
23. ↑ Decrypt the Passcode
24. ↑ Red Flags
25. ↑ The Legacy Antigen Epilogue
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Finding a Path
27. ↑ How to Wake Up
28. ↑ Trouble in Paradise Chapter 1 - "The Two Halves"
29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Trouble in Paradise Chapter 3 - "One Step Forward, Three Steps Back"
30. ↑ Trouble in Paradise Chapter 2 - "The One Who Walked Away"
31. ↑ Trouble in Paradise Chapter 4 - "Two Can Play"
32. ↑ Trouble in Paradise Chapter 5 - "Zero-Sum Game"
33. ↑ Trouble in Paradise Chapter 6 - "One Last Piece"
34. ↑ Trouble in Paradise Epilogue - "Zeroes and Ones"
35. ↑ The Art of *Titanfall 2* - Page 54
36. ↑ https://twitter.com/\_moyparra/status/1453451069074272256
37. ↑ https://twitter.com/AmandaDoiron11/status/1453455998400667648
38. ↑ *Apex Legends: The Official Cookbook*
39. ↑ https://twitter.com/\_moyparra/status/1453451069074272256
40. ↑ Escape Gamplay Trailer
41. ↑ The Broken Ghost - Retinal Array