Twenty seven years ago, Alexander Ashford was watching his family name crumble and his influence in the world vanish. His bloodline, established by a female genius four generations ago, had been one of the founding forces behind the international pharmaceutical and bio-weapon conglomerate Umbrella Inc. Due mainly to his own ineptitude, his family had lost most of its influence in Umbrella. To rectify this situation, Alexander engaged in a series of genetic experiments. Using the DNA of his "great ancestor" Veronica Ashford, he created two clones which he then raised as his own.
The male twin, Alfred, had above-average intellect, but not nearly as much as his sister. Alexia Ashford was a prodigy and a genius the likes of which the world rarely sees. By the tender age of ten she had mastered the field of biogenetics, and was running a number of Umbrella's research labs. Alexia discovered a special viral DNA strain in a queen ant, and began to experiment on combining this viral DNA with the highly successful "T-Virus" that had been discovered by Umbrella. The T-Virus had the ability to regenerate dead tissue, but was limited and often produced results that were just as deadly to the researchers as they were to victims.
Alfred somehow discovered the truth about the twin's birth, and they turned on their so-called father. She injected her now-completed and dubbed "T-Veronica" virus into her father, but was disappointed by the fact that the rapid mutations destroyed his intellect. She intuited that the only way to profit from the virus was to inject it into herself and put herself into a form of advanced hibernation using cryogenic technology decades ahead of its time. At only twelve years old, she sealed herself in a hidden research lab in the Antarctic, waiting the next fifteen years to emerge. Due to the freezing, the mutations would be slowed to such an extent that Alexia could control them, and retain her superior intellect. This fact has been concealed from the world at large, due mostly to her brother Alfred's growing insanity.
Alexia is a genius, and she knows this. She likes to think of herself metaphorically as a queen ant, and all other people in the world as drones. She even views her twin brother in much the same way: though she does have some affection for him, he is clearly her inferior and she treats him as such. The fact that Alfred is fanatically devoted to her, to the point where fifteen years without her has worn away what little sanity he had, helps them maintain a comfortable relationship. Alexia is also insane. She believes that it is her destiny to rule over the world, and she wishes to use the power of the T-Veronica virus to transfrom the world into a utopia... with her, of course, as its ultimate and undisputed ruler.
The mutations of the T-Veronica virus have granted Alexia a great deal of power. She can mutate her body at a whim, transforming from her normal human appearance to a variety of progressively more formidible battle forms. She can generate and control giant tendrils of flesh, which she can direct at high speeds miles away from her body and with strength enough to punch through steel. She produces a fluid much like blood that she can spray that ignites upon contact with the atmosphere. She also produces a slow-acting but probably quite lethal toxin which she can also spray through a process similar to her internal napalm. She can generate autonomous drones that she can direct to attack or poison her foes. Depending on the amount of mutation she is willing to inflict on herself, Alexia can produce a variety of specialized limbs, including functional wings, claws and so on. Alexia's control of the T-Veronica virus is so great that she, unlike many of the creations of Umbrella, can resume her human form at will. Alexia enjoys a degree of superhuman speed, strength and stamina in her inhuman forms, the degree depending on how inhuman she is making herself at the time. Alexia's one weakness is that she seems to be vulnerable to pain. While she can regenerate most damage, a sufficient shock to her system can knock her unconscious and she is unwilling to experience pain even if she is actually far away from the confrontation and merely directing one of her drone tentacles. Alexia's other limitation is her unwilingness to actually kill her enemies. She much prefers "experimenting" on them.