Ash is the newest playable character coming to Apex Legends

It’s confirmed: Ash is finally coming to Apex Legends as a playable character.

The Titanfall 2 antagonist, first revealed at the end of season five’s “Broken Ghost” quest, subsequently featured in following quest comics, and tasked with leading the Arenas in season 10, will be the new playable legend in Apex‘s 11th season, Escape. Ash’s introduction and awakening also bridges multiple seasons and centuries’ worth of Titanfall and Apex Legends lore.

The simulacrum we all know as Ash was originally Dr. Ashleigh Reid, the person responsible for Dr. Mary “Horizon” Somers’ journey through time. She was also the one who Pathfinder successfully fended off as he and the group of scientists trying to solve the Outlands’ energy crisis prevented her from stealing a cache of Branthium. Reid died in that conflict. But that was not her end.

Today’s Stories from the Outlands episode, “Ashes to Ash,” connects some of the blank spaces in Ash’s timeline. It shows her interacting with Newton Somers, Horizon’s son, as well as her own death and final moments where she tells doctors operating on her to transfer her brain and consciousness. 

From there things get fuzzy. It seems Horizon succeeds in waking up Reid’s consciousness within the simulacrum Ash, but that the two beings inhabiting the same robotic body are very far from the same. Reid takes control for only a couple of seconds, recognizing Horizon and telling her she knows what happened to Newton, before telling her “you have to stop her.” That “her” appears to be the simulacrum Ash, who speaks to Reid. She calls her weak and pathetic, and even implies Ash was the one who did things like abandon Horizon in space even before Reid became a simulacrum. Ash also says that she will “rid [herself] of you,” presumably speaking to Reid’s consciousness. Sounds complicated!

This seems like a very different situation to Apex Legends’ other simulacrum, Revenant. While Revenant had his own violent and mentally catastrophic awakening, realizing he was a simulacrum, there never seemed to be multiple personalities residing inside of his mind. Whether Ash is simply the more violent and ruthless portion of Reid’s psyche or something different altogether remains to be seen. One thing is for certain however: we’ll get to play as Ash in the Apex Games.

The trailer for Apex Legends‘ newest season, Escape, drops on Oct. 21.