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"Fear what you will become, and become what you fear..."
— Alex Wesker

Dr. Alex Wesker (アレックス・ウェスカー?) was a high-ranking Umbrella Pharmaceuticals employee who was part of the Project Wesker eugenics program. In the years following Umbrella's downfall, Wesker took control of a number of islands where she began viral research while ruling over a people that hailed her as the Messiah or even a goddess.[3][4][note 2]

Biography[]

Early Life and Umbrella Employment[]

"I hope you'll be delighted to know that the experiment's going well."
— Alex, to Spencer

Alex Wesker's early life and true surname are unknown. She was taken from her parents at an early age as part of the Wesker Project, a eugenics project and renamed after the project leader, Dr. Wesker. As part of the project, she was given a privileged upbringing with access to the best education around while at home being instilled with the world views of Dr. Oswell E. Spencer, Earl Spencer. Dr. Lord Spencer's ultimate goal was that these children would be infected with a Progenitor Virus strain and usher in a Utopian superhuman society and though the virus was not yet ready for this goal, he recognized the need for the several hundred candidates to share their world views with himself.[5] As a young-adult, Alex left her home into higher-level education in a field of her choosing and was headhunted by Umbrella Pharmaceuticals as one of a short-list of as little as thirteen candidates.[6] How many of the other Weskers that Alex was raised with is unknown, though she was close to Albert, an Umbrella virologist who along with Alex was considered the best candidates from the project.[7]

Albert Wesker &

A portrait of the Wesker children.

By the 1990s, Alex was mostly or even fully aware about Project Wesker, kept a secret to others and was an acquaintance of Dr. Lord Spencer as a senior member of the Umbrella Intelligence Division. On the Umbrella CEO's instructions, in 1998, the Wesker candidates were infected with the Prototype Virus as part of the next phase in the project.[8] Alex and Albert were the only confirmed survivors of this procedure, though Albert was able to fake his death for several months. The virus had a 20% probability of negligible mutation for each candidate and became a certainty in Alex due to an incurable illness that she developed.[7] Consequently, she possessed no superhuman powers.[9] When confirming Albert's apparent death in August 1998, Alex strongly suggested replacing their losses by infecting the hundreds of washout candidates who, though not as academically successful still shared the same upbringing, but it appeared that this never came into fruition.[10]

Alex's Betrayal of Umbrella[]

Alex herself was not as loyal to Dr. Lord Spencer as he believed and made sure to use her position to build a power base of her own while Umbrella Pharmaceuticals still had resources that she could use.[11] On July 19, 2000, Alex and a team of Umbrella researchers and her loyal confidant, Stuart landed on Sein Island[12] which was a small Russian island which suffered from an economic collapse during the fall of the Soviet Union. Alex chose to take advantage of their desperation before using them as guinea pigs. Using Umbrella's funds, Alex kickstarted an economic recovery by hiring the locals to construct a research complex. Seeking to eventually use the locals as guinea pigs, she also saw the re-opening of its mines which made an ideal place for abducting test subjects.[12] Unaware about this, she was hailed as a messianic figure by the locals for her actions.[13]

After the final collapse of Umbrella in 2003, Alex remained at Dr. Lord Spencer's side. Sent out to Umbrella's old facility at Sonido de Tortuga Island, Alex was instructed to divert viral weapons research toward the creation of a virus which would halt the telomere-shortening properties of human cells which made ageing an inevitability. To be infected with a such a mutagen would have made him biologically immortal.[8][14] Already feeling the effects of her own degenerative illness, Alex gave up on the project and abandoned Sonido de Tortuga,[15] taking all of the research data with her to Sein Island where she reformed it into the t-Phobos project in 2006, a year after beginning the initial research.[16] Instead of keeping an aged body alive, Alex's new project instead aimed at developing technology that could digitise her consciousness and transfer it into a host body, with a virus being developed that would create a superhuman for this copied consciousness to inhabit. This may have been brought on by her illness as a new Alex would not suffer from a terminal disease. The problem in developing this virus was that brain chemistry was the deciding factor in creating the superhuman - production of hormones associated with fear would fail a candidate and six months of exposure to the virus and the mind transfer machinery was necessary for Wesker's copied consciousness to take over.[17]

During work on t-Phobos, Wesker received news firstly about Spencer's death in mid-2006 and secondly about Albert Wesker's death in early 2009. Though she grew to see him as a feeble old man with delusions of grandeur, she appreciated his eugenics views and strove to see t-Phobos become a success which would realize his dream, but by making her the god of the new world instead.[11] When she heard about Albert's death, she took a more personal blow and as the sole remaining of the thirteen candidates, she insisted that the project should be sped-up.[18] Outside t-Phobos, Alex also setted the Kodoku Project up which aimed to create new bio-weaponry, being developed by the loyal researchers within Umbrella's abandoned base on Sonido de Tortuga.[19]

t-Phobos completion (2011)[]

t-Phobos research was tested on the wider population since 2008, largely by recruiting the mine workers as a source of research and passing their absence off as they are signing on to a full year's work.[12] Alterations to the virus in January 2010 reduced the chances of killing the host and reducing the chance of them developing an immunity,[20] but the test subjects to continue failing, having been overcome by their fears and turned into mutants rather than becoming viable superhuman hosts. Toward the end of the project, Alex separated herself from it, possibly due to her health and moved on the duties of chief researcher to another[21] who worked with her and Stuart.[22] With the virus finalized, though without any candidates, day-to-day work moved on to modifying the Uroboros Virus.

Running out of options, Wesker began looking for new candidates from outside the island and found her solution with Neil Fisher. Though the leader of the prominent NGO, TerraSave, Fisher secretly shared the views of the incarcerated FBC leader Morgan Lansdale that the radical actions had to be taken to ensure global stability in the face of bioterrorism. The two agreed to a pact: He would supply the members of his own organization who had experiences with facing mutants in exchange for a sample of Uroboros so a vaccine could be created, rendering it worthless as a black market product.

Alex and Natalia

Alex uses Natalia Korda for an experiment on the transfer of consciousness.

Sometime in 2011, the operation began with the abduction of over a dozen people at a company party with Fisher himself surrendered as an alternative body to use should the others fail. One by one, the pool was met with failures again, seeing the mutation of Gabriel Chavez when he attempted to escape from the island in a booby-trapped helicopter while several others were killed by mutants, leaving only three remaining candidates: Claire Redfield, Moira Burton and Natalia Korda. Stuart's team continued monitoring the survivors' progress and concluded that Korda, a child, was the ideal candidate as her childhood trauma made her incapable of feeling fear.[23] Fisher was ordered to abduct Korda and take her directly to Alex[24] so she could be put in a comatose state for the next six months to ensure the experiment's success.[17][23]

REV2 Alex, after shot herself

Alex, after committing suicide.

Seeking to tie loose ends up, Wesker infected Fisher with Uroboros to turn him into a monster rather than simply handing it over. Stuart oversaw the killing of all researchers ahead of his own suicide so they should not accidentally interfere with the other plans. As Korda was placed into storage in a bunker beneath her tower, Wesker was confronted by Redfield and Burton, the two remaining candidates who also became unnecessary to her plans. Believing everything to be complete, Wesker took a handgun out and shot herself in the head which triggered the facility's self-destruct system.

Dark Natalia (1)

Part of Alex's consciousness appears to Natalia as her "evil" side.

Wesker did not die as planned. In her final moments between pulling the trigger and her intended death, she felt the fear of dying and becoming nothing. Her unconscious body began to quickly mutate, turning her into a powerful and disfigured mutant, wearing robes and a mask to disguise her deformation. In the six-month wait for Korda's awakening, Wesker fell into an existential crisis. She once triumphed the project as effectively making her immortal, birthed into a new body, but was disturbed at the idea of two Alexes existing simultaneously. Korda began to be seen as an impostor Alex, unworthy of holding the mantle of a god.[25]

"I understand how you felt, Albert. It's not enough to live. I want to transcend!"
— Alex before transforming
Monster alex 2nd form

Alex after injecting herself the Uroboros virus.

When the weeks approached before Korda's awakening, Alex began planning her death and released the Uroboros B.O.W.s, Revenants onto the island with the goal of killing everything left.[25] Alex found Korda outside the mines, escorted by BSAA supervisor Barry Burton. Knocking Burton off a cliff, she was free to do with Korda as she pleased. Infuriated that Korda showed no sign of the copied-consciousness, she declared her to be a failure and began choking her. With Korda close to passing out, something sparked in Alex's mind and she fled before finishing the job.[26] She confronted Korda and Burton again in the mines where she infected herself with the Uroboros virus.[27] Alex tried once more in trying to kill Korda, but was knocked to the ground by Moira who survived the past six months on the island as well. Chasing the three out to a cliff-edge, Alex's time ran short when faced with a BSAA assault on Sein.[28] With weapons supplied by the BSAA, Alex was killed by a rocket launcher fired by Claire Redfield before she could achieve vengeance.[29]

Legacy[]

Natalia leyendo

Natalia reads Franz Kafka's works, which were a favourite of Alex's.

Alex's legacy continued after her death, though not entirely as she planned. The copied consciousness, by June 2013, achieved a seemingly success in Natalia, who started reading the writings of Franz Kafka and newspapers articles on bioterrorism. The following year, the Kodoku Project was completed with the researchers offering themselves as test-subjects out of a cultlike devotion to Alex, though the Ultimate Bioweapon on Sondio de Tortuga was destroyed during a BSAA operation coinciding with an attempt by Shén Yà Pharmaceutical to steal the research.

Sources[]

notes
  1. She was 51 years old in 2011
  2. These files have been heavily altered to remove religious connotations. The Japanese versions explicitly describe her as the messiah (救世主様 Kyuuseisyu-sama?) and goddess (女神様 megami-sama?), respectively.
references
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 BIOHAZARD REVELATIONS 2 ULTIMANIA
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 LiveJournal: BHZREV2 Ultimania「アルティマニア」; Page 20 of the BHZ Revelations 2 Ultimania guidebook
  3. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015), file: "Town Resident's Memo".
  4. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015), file: "Mine Worker's Diary 1".
  5. Resident Evil 5 (2009), file: "Albert Wesker".
  6. Resident Evil 5 (2010), file: "Test Subjects".
  7. 7.0 7.1 Yasuhiro Anpo Interview (Project Umbrella)
  8. 8.0 8.1 Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, (2010), file: "Spencer's Memoirs 1".
  9. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), file: "Virus Memo".
  10. Resident Evil 5 (2009), file: "Report on Project W - August 28, 1998".
  11. 11.0 11.1 Resident Evil Revelations 2 (2015), file: "Alex's Memo - Spencer"
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "The Old Man's Journal".
  13. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015), file: "The Old Man's Journal".
  14. Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition (2010), file: "Spencer's Memoirs 2".
  15. Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition (2010), file: "Spencer's Memoirs 4".
  16. Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition (2010), file: "Spencer's Memoirs 3".
  17. 17.0 17.1 Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Notes on the Transfer Procedure".
  18. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Stuart's Memo - The Wesker Project".
  19. BIOHAZARD heavenly island.
  20. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Clinical Experiment Notes".
  21. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Research Facility Chief's Journal 1".
  22. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Research Facility Chief's Journal 2".
  23. 23.0 23.1 Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Stuart's Memo - Natalia Korda".
  24. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Neil's Report".
  25. 25.0 25.1 Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Hatred of Natalia".
  26. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "No Longer Afraid".
  27. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Transcend".
  28. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Hope".
  29. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2014), file: "Finding Our Way".