Complete History and Lore of Ash

Born in the Frontier, Dr. Ashleigh Reid learned early that the only person who was going to look out for her was herself. She became Horizon's apprentice, and as part of "The Group" working on Project Iris, one of Pathfinder's creators. Through her work, she comes to know Darion Che and Eduardo Silva when they are kids running around the Peck Labs. However, she was secretly working with the Apex Predators to take the Branthium, and had infiltrated and psychologically manipulated the researchers for years.

She departed with Horizon on a dangerous mission to prove the existence of Branthium. After successfully extracting the Branthium from a black hole, Reid betrayed Horizon and left her to die in the black hole.

After betraying the rest of the Group on December 25, 2658 and trying to take all the Branthium for herself, she was stabbed by Amelie Paquette. However, contrary to what is known, she is merely mortally wounded, and at her request was made into a simulacrum.

Eventually Ashleigh, now known as Ash, became a Pilot and a mercenary, working under Kuben as one of the Apex Predators. As one of Blisk's lieutenants, Ash was given command of an IMC battalion stationed at the IMC Dynamic Testing Facility on Typhon, and piloted a customized Ronin-class Titan. Following the initial assault by the 9th Militia Fleet, Ash would deploy with the Predators into battle. Eventually, the group would come across the Vanguard-class Titan BT-7274, Piloted by Tai Lastimosa. Ash would use her Titan's Phase Dash to sneak up on BT, ripping several Batteries out and causing the Vanguard to be severely damaged. Believing the threat taken care of, Ash would then retreat to the Dynamic Testing Facility. The following day, BT-7274, now piloted by Jack Cooper, would arrive in the facility after having defeated Kane. Ash would soon capture BT in the claws of a manipulation arm used for construction. As Cooper pursued the Titan, Ash would proceed to taunt the Pilot, while often commemorating his dedication compared to those of the IMC troopers placed under her command.

Eventually, Ash would lead Cooper into a simulation dome, wanting to test the Pilot's skills against the newly-constructed Reaper. However, against Ash's expectations, Cooper would survive and escape the confines of the Dome. This would lead to Blisk berating Ash for wasting time instead of simply killing the Militia Pilot, leading to Ash activating the facility's self-destruct. However, Ash would confront Cooper and BT to prevent the duo's escape, resulting in a fierce battle. Ultimately, Ash would be 'killed', and Cooper would escape the facility.

Following her supposed death at the hands of Jack Cooper, Ash would be rebuilt by arms manufacturer Vinson Dynamics and contracted to lead their own military force on the field. It is unknown as to whether Ash and Vinson Dynamics were familiar before the events on Typhon, or whether Vinson Dynamics was able to retrieve what remained of her body and 'brain' before the planet's destruction. Likewise, it is unknown as to whether her memory loss stems from conversion to Simulacrum and/or Regeneration prior to the events of Battle of Typhon, or whether the reconstruction by Vinson Dynamics caused this amnesia. In any case, Ash continues to believe that the truth of her existence can be found with the Remnant Fleet, and so she leads field ops on behalf of Vinson Dynamics in hopes of discovering the truth about her.

Sometime after the Battle of Typhon and some years before the Apex Games took place, she reunited with Blisk. At some point, they made a deal which involved Blisk throwing her head into a portal, seemingly as a last-ditch effort for some kind of plan; her headless body was stashed on top of a charge tower inside one of the IMC's terminal stations under Kings Canyon. Ash's head ended up being transported to an alternate dimension where Revenant rules over Solace, and was split into 9 pieces scattered all over that dimension's Kings Canyon.

Around the year 2730, Hammond Robotics made a contract with Loba Andrade - in exchange for a rebuilt Ash, Hammond would give Loba the coordinates of the facility holding Revenant's source code. Loba recruits the other Legends to help her with this task, in exchange for help with their own personal problems. After some difficult excursions into a prowler-infested Kings Canyon, Ash's head is rebuilt and installed on what remains of her body, in the ruins of a facility underneath Slum Lakes in the main dimension's Kings Canyon. Ash is then delivered to Hammond Robotics, where the access code for Olympus are extracted from her memory banks.

Pathfinder later finds her into a dumpster, without any knowledge except for her name and the fact that Hammond had extracted codes from her memory banks. Pathfinder takes Ash back to his warehouse he woke up in and they live together in Solace City. Because Ash is a girl and she is his "friend", Pathfinder boasts to other Legends that he has a "girlfriend" which pique the interest of Mirage and Rampart. The pair visits Pathfinder and Ash, but Rampart accidentally triggers Ash's memories, including memories of the Legends reassembling her head (whether this occurred because of a code word or simply due to the possible proximity of Rampart's patron, Blisk, is unknown). Immediately after this flashback she is secretly contacted by Blisk, who later arrives to meet Ash while nobody else is around. Ash prepares to fight, but Blisk explains he was not trying to kill her; that in the past he had no choice but to send her to the alternate dimension, and they had part ways on good terms. He then tells her an old friend of hers is back. Ash then runs off with Blisk and leaves a note behind for Pathfinder, thanking him for his help.

Ash soon starts to run her own underground deathmatch arena, and eventually Blisk enlisted her to run the Arenas under the Apex Games.

Eventually Horizon, in her quest to return to the past, recalled that Ash has many knowledge similar to her friend Lillian Peck, and after acquiring the code from Crypto, forcibly unlocked the ego retention system of Ash and awaken Leigh, the dormant human side. After that, Ash joins the Games to prove she has transcended all humanity. Leigh’s determined to prove her wrong.