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The Kidnapping of Ashley Graham is an event that occurs in the timeline of the Resident Evil universe, explored in both the original 2005 version of Resident Evil 4 and its 2023 remake.

Mission Details[]

Arrival in the Village[]

El Pueblo

In late 2004, Leon Kennedy was assigned by US SOCOM to head to a rural area of Spain in order to locate and rescue Ashley Graham, daughter of the then-President of the United States, who had been kidnapped by an unknown organization. Upon making contact with the local authorities that led him towards a small farming village, Leon discovered that the locals were hostile. The villagers all seemed to be in a state of extreme bloodlust and exhibited extraordinary strength and endurance compared to normal people. What Leon would later realize was that he was dealing with a bioterror threat, not entirely unlike his experience in Raccoon City in 1998.

With the aid of SOCOM contact Ingrid Hunnigan, Leon would learn that the crazed villagers were all involved with a fanatical religious group known as the Los Illuminados. This mysterious group was suspected of being responsible for the abduction of Ashley Graham which Leon would confirm not long into his investigation of the village. While investigating an old house in the village, Leon was ambushed by the village chief Bitores Mendez and rendered unconscious. While he was out cold, Leon was injected with a parasitic organism which he would later learn was known as Las Plagas.

The Hunt for Ashley[]

Leon later regained consciousness, tied up along with a local called Luis Sera, who claimed to be a member of the Madrid Police. The two were able to escape captivity and separated, and so Leon continued his search for Ashley, battling through hordes of crazed villagers and other bizarre creatures along the way. Whoever was behind the Illuminados had somehow managed to acquire Bio-Organic Weapons or the technology to produce their own. After fighting his way through the village and slaying two large B.O.W.'s, Leon came across a church where he found Ashley being held prisoner. It was then that he encountered the leader of the Los Illuminados as well: Osmund Saddler. Saddler revealed that he had implanted both Leon and Ashley with the Las Plagas parasite, and that when the creatures hatched and matured, both Leon and Ashley would become susceptible to the influence of Saddler's dominant-strain Plaga which allowed him to control the minds of his followers. Saddler had planned to send Ashley back to the United States as his pawn, letting her spread the Plagas to the highest levels of the American government and thus allowing Saddler to seize control of the US and eventually the world.

The Los Illuminados were able to shoot down Leon's extraction chopper, preventing his and Ashley's quick escape. After fleeing from hordes of Ganados, the pair took shelter inside a solitary cabin where Leon once more encountered Luis. Together, they held off Saddler's army of brainwashed puppets until the horde was mysteriously summoned away. Leon and Ashley took advantage of this reprieve and continued onward towards the outskirts of the village. Before they could escape, however, Leon was forced to contend with Chief Mendez, who mutated into a hideous new form. Leon was able to kill the Chief and took his false eye which served as a key for the gateway out of the village. Pursued by a mob of Ganados, Leon and Ashley took shelter within a nearby castle. This castle was not the safe haven they had hoped it to be...

Castle of Horrors[]

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Leon and Ashley soon found out that the castle was by no means a sanctuary. Everywhere within its walls, strange robed figures lurked in the shadows. These were the zealots of Los Illuminados and they were commanded by the diminutive Ramon Salazar, the eighth Castellan of the fortress.

Not long after entering the castle, Leon and Ashley were separated after Ashley was caught in one of the castle's many traps. Inside the castle, Leon could not maintain contact with Hunnigan and the line was jacked by Salazar, who regularly taunted and threatened Leon as he made his way through the castle's halls. As well as facing new monsters, Leon also encountered an old acquaintance he had met back in Raccoon City: the mysterious woman in red known as Ada Wong. Ada was in the castle in order to acquire a sample of a dominant-strain Plaga in order to further the aims of her employer, the sinister Albert Wesker, and her mission parameters didn't include  helping Leon with his assignment. As for the Plaga sample, Luis was able to steal such a sample from Saddler, but he was unable to give it to Leon. He was ambushed by Saddler, who killed Luis and took the sample back from him. Before his death, Luis gave Leon a bottle of pills that would help to suppress the growth of the Plaga inside him.

Leon would soon find Ashley again, trapped by metallic bindings that held her to a wall. From a balcony above, Leon shot each of the bindings loose and freed Ashley, allowing her to escape and make her way back to him. However, it would not be long before she was re-captured and Leon was forced to contend with the maniacal Salazar. Salazar merged with the gigantic Queen Plaga and transformed into a terrifying monster and attacked Leon. Using all of his wits and courage, Leon overcame Salazar's assault and killed him. As for Ashley, she had been taken to an island where Saddler and his militia were waiting.

The Island[]

Island Illuminados

Leon made it to the Illuminados cult's island stronghold thanks to Ada, who had commandeered a speedboat. After arriving, he was soon confronted by Ganados which were stronger and better trained than those he had previously fought. He also encountered new breeds of B.O.W. and was struggling to keep control of himself as the Plaga within him grew to maturity.

Among the many new threats on the island, Leon also encountered a former comrade of his from US SOCOM: Jack Krauser. Krauser had supposedly died two years previously in a helicopter crash, but it was then revealed to be a ruse so he could slip away unnoticed. After faking his death, Krauser allied himself with Albert Wesker, joining his cause to re-establish the bio-warfare giant Umbrella, and he had feigned loyalty to the Illuminados merely to acquire a Plaga sample from Saddler. Leon and Krauser fought a bitter duel to the death and even though Krauser had been enhanced with a dominant-strain Plaga, he still lost to his old partner.

As Leon got closer to rescuing Ashley, Saddler's militia rallied in order to stop him once and for all. Fortunately, Leon was able to send out a transmission to SOCOM from a radio tower on the island. Although his message was garbled, SOCOM responded and a heavily-armed attack chopper laid waste to the Ganado encampment, clearing a path for Leon to reach Ashley who was trapped within Saddler's laboratory. With additional support from Ada, Leon managed to rescue Ashley at last and escape the few remaining Ganado forces. He and Ashley then found an apparatus within the laboratory which would allow them to destroy the Plaga parasites within their bodies, and while the process was extremely painful and potentially life-threatening, they both survived it and were freed from Saddler's influence. All that remained was the sample that Saddler had in his possession.

Leon faced Saddler atop a raised platform where the madman held Ada Wong captive, hanging from a cable suspended from a crane. Leon freed Ada and then he engaged Saddler in a final battle. Saddler mutated into a huge, powerful creature and attacked, but Leon proved to be as difficult to kill as ever. Leon saw that Saddler was equally difficult to kill as he seemed to recover from whatever damage was inflicted by Leon's weapons. Ada came to Leon's rescue once more and threw him a rocket launcher that he used to finally finish off the mutant cultist at last.

Escape[]

Incredibly, the sample that Saddler carried survived the rocket explosion and Leon retreived the vial from Saddler's corpse. Unfortunately, that was the moment when Ada turned on him, holding a gun to his head and demanding he hand over the sample. Ada then boarded a chopper sent by Wesker to extract her, but she threw Leon a key to a jet-ski waiting below before departing. The island had been rigged to explode in a matter of minutes, giving Leon precious little time to rendezvous with Ashley, find the jet-ski and get away. Sure enough, Leon and Ashley found the jet-ski and escaped through a tunnel that collapsed around them as the charges across the island began to go off. They had done it: Saddler and his cult had been destroyed and Ashley was saved. All that remained was for Leon to get Ashley safely back to the US.

Involved Individuals[]

  • Leon Scott Kennedy - A former cop who had survived the destruction of Raccoon City in 1998, Leon was recruited by the US government almost immediately after the incident. US SOCOM recognized his ability to remain cool and professional even under the most dire circumstances and provided him with advanced training so that he could deal with other threats and situations similar to what he dealt with in Raccoon, but on a greater scale. In 2004, Leon was assigned to rescue Ashley Graham, daughter of President Graham, who had been abducted by an unknown assailant.
  • Ingrid Hunnigan - Field Operations Support officer assigned to provide Leon with intel and guidance on his mission.
  • Ashley Graham - Daughter of President-elect Graham. She was abducted by the Los Illuminados on her way home from university and the cult planned on infecting her with a Plaga before sending her home as their sleeper agent. She was to implant her father and the presidential staff with parasites, allowing the Illuminados to control them and, thus, the whole of the USA.
  • Luis Sera - Though he claimed to be a Madrid cop when he first met Leon, Luis was actually a former Umbrella researcher hired by Saddler to conduct research on Las Plagas. He became disillusioned with Saddler's plans and betrayed him, stealing a dominant Plaga sample that he had intended to pass on to Ada Wong, but he would be killed before he could accomplish this task.
  • Ada Wong - A woman Leon encountered in Raccoon City. She worked for an enigmatic organisation that sought to acquire the dominant-strain Plaga. Though she had been instructed to kill Leon by her superiors, she disobeyed as she had developed feelings toward him during their time in Raccoon. She even went against her employer Wesker by only giving him a subordinate-strain Plaga.
  • Jack Krauser - A former US Secret Service agent along with Leon, he faked his own death and disappeared, deciding to join with Wesker for the purpose of restoring Umbrella to establish a new order in the world. He was responsible for abducting Ashley Graham and delivering her to Saddler as a means of buying his trust, but his goal was to obtain a dominant-Plaga sample to deliver to Wesker. He would fight against both Leon and even his partner Ada after being given a Plaga of his own which enhanced his strength considerably, but he would still be defeated and killed.
  • Osmund Saddler - Leader of the Los Illuminados. Obsessed with the Plaga parasite and driven by hatred towards American society, he intended to use the Plaga to bring the US government under his control and take over the world.
  • Ramon Salazar - Eighth Castellan of Castle Salazar and one of Saddler's lieutenants.
  • Bitores Mendez - One of Saddler's lieutenants and chief of the village.
  • Albert Wesker - Former member of the Umbrella Corporation turned bioterrorist. Though he does not appear in person, he directs Ada Wong and Jack Krauser from behind the scenes. He wants the dominant-strain Plaga in order to further his own plans of world domination.

B.O.W.'s[]

Below is a complete list of all B.O.W.'s utilized by the Los Illuminados.

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