Alexia Ashford

Alexia Ashford was the granddaughter of Umbrella co-founder Edward Ashford, and the main antagonist of Resident Evil Code: Veronica.

Early life
Her story begins with her disgraced father, Alexander, who had damaged almost beyond repair the reputation of the Ashford family, once considered as one of the first and foremost of the globe. To restore his lost honor, Alexander started genetic studies whose purpose was to find the gene that regulated intelligence. Succeeding, he took DNA belonging to the ancient matriarch of the Ashford family, Veronica Ashford, and "enhanced" it by including the newly-discovered intelligence-raising gene, before fertilizing a surrogate's egg with it. All of this was an attempt to "resurrect" Veronica, with whom Alexander had become obsessed.



From this union, twins were born: Alexia and Alfred. While Alfred was born as an accident with slightly above-average intelligence, Alexia was born with a phenomenally high one, and was considered the premiere of the two: Veronica incarnate. She was so knowledgeable, in fact, that she became alienated from her peers and was isolated from everyone except her brother. This isolation embittered her and made her immensely egotistical, and she began to view herself as special and set apart from the "ignorant masses". However, her exceptional knowledge allowed her to finish university at the age of ten and be named the youngest-ever chief senior researcher of the Umbrella Corporation (much to William Birkin's chagrin).

T-Veronica foundations
In February 1983, some time around her twelfth birthday, her brother Alfred told her about a secret room in Antarctic Base, at which she was working at the time, and told her he needed her family gemstone, a large ruby inside a silver choker, to open it. Offering it to him, she aided him greatly in opening the secret corridor. Once inside, the twins learned the complete truth about their creation, and both grew immensely hateful of their father.

Capturing him in March 1983, they used him as a test subject for the T-Veronica virus that she had created by binding together the Progenitor Virus and the remnants of an ancient virus found within a queen ant. The experiment turned Alexander into the insane monster known only as Nosferatu.



Taking notes on her father's progress, Alexia discovered certain flaws in her virus, and planned to inject herself with the virus to become a superior being. Using the data she had obtained from her father, Alexia discovered a way to harness the full power of her virus: by having herself put into cryogenic suspension for fifteen years while the virus, slowed by the ultra-low temperatures to a point where it would not destroy her tissues through overly rapid mutation, matured within her unconscious body. In December 1983, she assigned Alfred to protect her and carry out her will while she was inactive, and proceeded to enter the cryostatic state.

Resurrection


Fifteen years after this, she awoke in the body of a twenty-seven year old woman, with the first sight of her new stage being the death of her brother (whose body she cradled in her arms). Now in full control of the virus she sought to begin her plan of dominion over the world as its queen, and using her new-found powers, she remotely controlled one of the massive tentacles resting below the Antarctic Base to destroy the escape vehicle of Claire Redfield and Steve Burnside. Also, she captured Claire and Steve for the purpose of subjecting them to her experiments.

She imprisoned Steve in a Coliseum with suits of armor and repeated the experiment that mutated her father, only with her own mutant strain. Later on, she appeared to confront Albert Wesker in the replica of the Spencer Mansion under the Antarctic ice.



There, she first evolved with the Veronica strain into the first step of what, she envisioned, was true godhood, shedding her human skin and hair and turning into a powerful being, that greatly resembled her human stage with gray skin, darkened vessels and arteries, and chitinous growths covering her body as a form of rudimentary armor. She also controlled her body's blood (which by then had acquired flammable properties, usable through bloodshed). She and Wesker engaged in a brief fight, Wesker quickly found Alexia impervious to any physical blows he could launch, and thus retreated and left Chris Redfield to fight Alexia, who soundly defeated her.

Death


Weakened by her first defeat, she once again attacked Chris by fusing with one of the Veronica mutant breeder pods, creating countless imperfect larvae to attack him along with her tentacles, fire and insect-like appendages. Despite this, she was once again defeated. However, Alexia was not beaten yet; she responded by evolving further using the insects that lay below the platform covering her, then she shed the carcass of the breeder pod and became a giant dragonfly-like monster, capable of spewing great amounts of flame and absorbing all gunfire. Nevertheless, Chris managed to destroy Alexia, with an experimental weapon called the Linear Launcher, thus ending the Ashford family legacy.

Strategies - Second Form
Alexia's second form is noted as one of the hardest bosses in the Resident Evil series. However, there are ways to defeat her easily despite this.
 * Alexia's upper body is actually her weak point and shooting her in her upper body inflicts the most damage. To do this, the player must get close to her and aim up to ensure the weapon hits her. It should be noted that the player will take some damage doing this and should have some healing items in case of this.
 * About five to six Grenade Launcher Explosive Rounds to her upper body will make her go to her third form provided that Chris is close enough for all grenades (the CV Burst rounds have spread and fires multiple projectiles at once.) to hit at once with each shot.
 * Interestingly, the Colt Python actually does less damage to Alexia than on other enemies, even when she is shot in the face with it, with two nearly full clips not damaging her as much as the grenade launcher rounds do.
 * This is a video demonstrating the Grenade Launcher strategy: thumb|274px|right

Strategies - Third Form
Alexia's third form doesn't require much strategy in story mode as the player can simply fire the Linear Launcher multiple times and eventually hit her with it. However, in Chris's Battle Game Alexia 2 and 3 are his boss.

Since Chris can't get the Linear Launcher (unless the player has cleared Battle Mode with all characters getting an A Rank.) in Battle Mode, he will have to resort to using his Shotgun or Colt Python. The best way for this to be pulled off is by getting in close and using the change aim button and pressing it repeatedly. This takes a long time and can be frustrating but since Battle Mode has infinite Ammo for all weapons, the player can continuously fire. Blood will spurt out of Alexia 3's body when she is hit. Eventually, she will be defeated if the player continues to use the change aim strategy. When killed in Battle Mode, a cutscene triggers where Alexia 3 will fall on the ground and die squirming similar to a dying insect.

Trivia

 * Early in the game's development, Alexia's name was Hilda Krueger.
 * Alexia's final form and destruction mimics her and Alfred's torture of the dragonfly, as shown in the filmstrip in Alfred's trophy room early in the game. Alexia refers to the mass of humanity as "ants" in her journal, and Chris must reassemble a dragonfly to form the key to the Antarctic facility's reactor room; thus, the dragonfly regains its wings. Metaphorically, Alexia's final form resembles a dragonfly, yet she is slain by Chris, "an ant."
 * In the novelization of Code: Veronica written by S.D. Perry, Alexia is depicted as a megalomaniac with delusions of goddesshood, considering all lifeforms beneath her. She only undergoes the first and second stages of her mutations, perishing after Chris succeeds in blasting off her two lower wings and then directs a blast from the Linear Launcher into her abdomen.
 * In Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Alexia is a much darker character. She kills Alfred simply because he didn't wake her up on time, in contrast to her original appearance in Code: Veronica, wherein she instead cradles Alfred's body and sings to his corpse. She also displays a much more talkative and less serious personality, light-heartedly mentioning Alfred's murder, taunting and giggling at the Redfield siblings even as they shoot at her, and referring to "Veronica" as if it was a separate entity with a mind of its own, e.g. "Thanks to you, Veronica's angry, and she makes me stronger". Overall, the personality chosen for The Darkside Chronicles fits with a shallow, spoiled young girl with severe delusions of grandeur; this choice has been controversial, with some fans feeling that this change markedly deviates Alexia for the worse, while others believe that it matches up perfectly with her background as an aristocratic, hugely narcissistic child prodigy.
 * She seems to have had some sort of rivalry with William Birkin. In one of the EX files in the N64 port of Resident Evil 2, a note comments that a problem at the Antarctic Facility has caused massive damage. The note goes on to assure Birkin that he need not worry, "the Ashfords' reputation" is irrecoverably tarnished. Their rivalry was further alluded to in the remake of the first Resident Evil, in which Birkin writes how his discovery of the G-Virus will allow him to surpass Alexia.
 * Alexia has some similarities with Manuela Hidalgo; they both display inflammable blood, coexist with the T-Veronica virus, and sing a lullaby.
 * Alexia's hair style in The Darkside Chronicles is similar to Ashley Graham's, since both hair lengths reach the shoulders.
 * She is briefly mentioned in Wesker's ending in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. Here, she is mentioned as an experiment gone right, in sharp contrast to Lisa Trevor.
 * The fact that she's able to retain her intelligence is best seen in The Darkside Chronicles, when she actually speaks when mutated due to the T-Veronica Virus.