Red Lining (An Arknights Fanfiction)

Chapter 14

"-Ashley! Wake up!"

These words brought Ashley back to reality, waking up with a gasp, surprised at the sudden call, or rather, she's just sloppy that she unknowingly fell asleep in the middle of important talk. It took quite a while for her eyes to adjusted, and when her eyes finally adjusted, she was met with a pair of bunny ears? Or donkey ears? She too is unknown to that answer.

"What...?" She whispered, clutching her head slightly, remembering the lost memories of hers. "Ashley! Why were you asleep? You were not supposed to be sleeping at time like this!" Amiya scolded, a little mad at Ashley's irresponsible attitudes, Ashley yawned, as if she didn't listen to Amiya's rants, "I'm sorry. I didn't know why I fell asleep." She apologies, slightly bending her body down.

"It can't be help." Amiya sighed, massaging her temple out of slight frustration, while her other hand resting on her hip, "Anyway, we need to move out. Let's do our best once again, we shall not let Madam Ch'en down." she said, keeping Ashley in line with the objectives. "Understood."

Soon, they'll move out to the area Madam Ch'en requested, with Amiya leading the team, bearing the leader title. They all kept high alert of their surrounding, except for Ashley, she kept spacing out, heavily distracted by her thoughts. The others seems to not yet realizes her current state, but Dr. Nicholas does, he always gave her quick glances, and he didn't seems to see a change of mood in her, which is quite worrisome.

Nicholas decided to talk a bit with her, he moves close to her, and tap her shoulder.

"Something bothering you?" He ask in a concerned tone, Ashley looked up to him, meeting his masked with helmet face. "Kind of...but I'm okay." She replied, slightly covering what she's thinking. "Well, you're free to talk whenever you're having trouble. I'm all ears." He smiled at her, though it was not visible to her, "Mm, thank you." She grinned, shaking her thoughts away for a while.

Meanwhile with Madam Ch'en

"You should've think twice before entering Lungmen!" Ch'en yelled, defeating the last Reunion member. "Lock them up!" She commands. She observes the Reunion groups she defeated, noticing Misha is not there. "She's not with this group. Dang it. Not with this group either..."

"They retreated too quickly..." L.G.D. Agent says, "It seems that Reunion also has it own hierarchy." Ch'en said, while inserting her sword back to it case. "They just left the riffraff to buy them more time." She added, looking down at the fallen Reunion members under her. "To think that a single person could delay our reinforcement...just who are they?"

"She's not with this one!" Liskarm reported. "Not with this either!" Franka yells, miles away from her. "Where could she be?" Amiya mutters, furrowing her brows slightly. Her train of thoughts was interrupted by a certain booming voice, "Amiya! May I supervise another area?" Ashley ask, approaching her from afar, "Alone? I'm afraid not. You might get ambush if we didn't keep our eyes on you." Amiya said, concerned about her going alone into an unexplored area.

"Psh! What do you think am I? A child? Heck no! I'm even older than you!" Ashley sways her hand in front of her, slightly mocking her. "Fine. You're free to go," Amiya paused, giving her another doubtful glances, "Just, please send us a signal if you meet Reunion members, okay?" Amiya said, still doubting if she can go alone or not.

"Of course! Leader Amiya!" Ashley goofily grins and playfully saluted her before running off to the unexplored area. Amiya remains quiet and silently looked at her back, watching her as she goes deeper inside the strayed forest. She can't help but let the smile of her formed on her face.

Amiya first met Ashley was when Kal'tsit introduced the two to each other. That time both of them was pretty young, Amiya can remember the idiotic smiles Ashley always put on her face, a lively one indeed. She remember how much troubles she always get in, fortunately Kal'tsit was kind enough to spare her. Ashley always has that bright, generous, cheerful aura around her, but somehow, Amiya always see her as a masked person, no one knew what she's feeling inside.

Ashley has a reason, reason why she excuses herself to supervise the unexplored area alone. And that is to have times alone with her mind, she still wasn't used working together on a mission with more than one person. She needed time with herself alone, yes, it is indeed selfish for her to do it, she's well aware of it, despite knowing the situations around her.

She sat down on a boulder and releases a long sigh. She closed her eyes for a bit, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere she's with, she still can't get rid over the dream she have, it keeps bugging her in any ways possible. Though, there's one thing that kept her thinking, who was the white haired girl? Someone she knew? If so, she hope she's still alive. She will be grateful if she get to meet her, sooner or later.

And without her knowing. Her wish just about to happen one day, she can only wait upon the way.

She suddenly felt cold and tugged her scarf up a little, enough to cover half of her face. She too is wondering where did she get this scarf that is now wrapped around her neck, one thing she knew is, she's already with this scarf ever since Kal'tsit found her, though she didn't mind if she knew who gave it to her.

Her little times was interrupted by the rushed footsteps her ears catches. Her ears perked up, listening to the footsteps until it stopped in a halt. She finally opened her eyes to see the Reunion members has got her surrounded.

"My, my. You bunch really are troublesome." She commented, hoping off the boulder she's at. "Let's see how you keep up with this." She grins with amusement, her hands gripping tightly on both swords of her, drawing it in front of her.

'Things just about to get interesting.'

After minutes of fighting off those Reunion members, Ashley finally left the strayed forest, only to received a worried Amiya. "Did something happened? Are you hurt? Are you the one who caused the explosion?" Without giving her times to answers, Amiya just bombarded her with questions.

"First, please calm down, Amiya. And yes, something does happened, Reunion managed to surround me but, I flawlessly wipes them, no I'm not hurt. Again, yes, I'm the one who caused the explosion." Ashley answered in a soft yet proud voice. "Thank god." Amiya sighed in relief, grateful that she's not wounded.

Upon seeing how protective she is toward Ashley, Nicholas started to think about their previous relationship, like, what made her to be so protective towards her? It must because of something beyond his expectations.

He look to his side, staring over at Franka who's standing still beside him. "Franka? Do you mind if I ask something?" He questions, in case she doesn't want to answers his questions. "Huh? Oh, yeah sure. What was it?" She returned the gaze at him, waiting for the question. "Did you know why Amiya is protective towards her?"

"Oh them. I don't really know but, these two are like sisters, both of them looked after each other as much as looking for themselves. Even though they are not blood related, but they treated each other like family. If you wanted to know better, it best to ask neither of them for answers, that's all I can say." Franka explained short summary of them to him, with a little smile on her face.

Nicholas shift his stares from Franka to them, who was still in their little siblings times. Amiya scolding her nonstop, while Ashley listening to her scolding with a bashful smile.