Alexia Ashford

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

T-Veronica Foundations


Her story begins with her disgraced father, Alexander, who had damaged almost beyond repair the reputation of the family, once considered as one of the first and foremost of the globe. To restore his lost honour, 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 dangerous intelligence-raising gene and his own DNA. All of this was an attempt to "resurrect" Veronica whom Alexander had become obsessed with. 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 smart, in fact, that she became alienated from her peers and was isolated from everyone except her brother. This isolation embittered her, made her immensely egotistical and she began to view herself as special, though it also allowed her to finish university at age ten and be named the youngest cief senior researcher ever of the Umbrella Corporation.

In February 1983, some time around her twelfth birthday, while she lived in the Antarctic Research Facility , her brother Alfred told her about a secret room in the place, 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. Later, she was informed of the complete truth about her and her brother's births, 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 she had created binding together the remnants of an ancient virus found within a queen ant and the Progenitor Virus. The experiment turned Alexander into the insane monster known solely 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 cryogenically preserved as the virus covered her unconscious body and matured within for fifteen years. In December 1983, she had Alfred carry out her will while she was inactive, and proceeded with 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). She sought to avenge his death, and using her new-found powers, she remotely controlled one of the massive tentacles resting below the Antarctic Research Facility 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 Arklay 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 armour. Despite the fact she controlled her body's blood (which by then had acquired flammable properties, usable through bloodshed) she was soundly defeated by Chris Redfield.



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 lie 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.

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, killing Alfred herself simply because he didn't wake her up on time, in contrast to her original version 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 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 from the original Alexia's character, and 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. 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 Darkside Chronicles, when she actually speaks when mutated due to the T-Veronica Virus.