TWELVE
ALEXIA ASHFORD WATCHED HER TWIN DIE AT
her feet, bleeding and in great pain, reaching out to touch
the stasis tank with adoration in his dying eyes. He'd never
been particularly bright or competent, but she had loved
him, very much. His death was a great sadness ... but also
the sign she'd been waiting for. It was time to come out.
She'd known for some months that the end would be
soon - or rather the beginning, the emergence of a new
life on Earth. Her stasis had remained stable for most of
the fifteen years she'd needed, her mind and body unaware
of life - unaware that she was suspended in freezing
amniotic fluid, her cells slowly changing and
adapting to T-Veronica.
In the past year, however, that had changed. She had
hypothesized that given enough time, T-Veronica would
raise consciousness to new levels, expanding areas of
the mind that would surpass simplistic human senses,
and she had been correct. For the last ten months, she
had begun experiencing herself in spite of stasis, testing
her awareness ... and she had been able to see through
her human eyes, when she wished.
Alexia reached out with her mind and turned off the
support machines. The tank began to drain, and she
stared out at her dear brother, most unhappy that he had
died. She could choose not to employ her emotions, but
she had been human with him; it seemed appropriate.
When the tank was empty, Alexia opened it, stepping
out into her new world. There was power everywhere,
hers for the taking, but now she sat down in front of the
tank and laid Alfred's bloody head in her lap, experiencing
the sadness.
She began to sing, a child's song that her brother had
liked, stroking his hair back from his drawn face. There
was sadness in the lines around his eyes and mouth, and
she wondered what his life had been like. She wondered
if he'd stayed at Rockfort, stayed at Veronica's home,
the home of their ancestors.
Still singing, Alexia reached out to her father - and
was surprised to find him missing, either dead or beyond
her range of perception. She had touched his mind only
recently, studying what was left of it. In a way, he was responsible
for what she had become; the T-Veronica had
turned his mind to sludge, had driven him insane ... as it
would have to her, if she hadn't tested it on him, first.
She stretched her awareness, finding sickness and
death in the upper levels of the terminal. A pity. She had
been looking forward to beginning her experiments
again, immediately; without test subjects, she had no
reason to stay.
She found two people not far from the Umbrella facility
and decided to flex her control over substance, to see
how much effort it took - and found that it was hardly
an effort at all. She concentrated for just a few seconds,
saw a male and female inside of a snow machine, and
wished for them to be brought back to the facility.
Instantly, lines of organic matter tore through the ice,
ripping toward the vehicle. Amused, Alexia watched
with her senses as a giant tentacle of new-formed substance
rose up and curled around the machine, lifting it
effortlessly into the air - and then threw it back at the
facility. The machine tumbled end over end, its engine
bursting into flame, and came to rest against one of the
Umbrella buildings.
Both were still alive, she thought, and was well
pleased. She could use one of them in an experiment
she'd been thinking about for weeks, and would surely
find a good use for the other in due time.
Alexia continued to sing to her dead brother, intrigued
by the changes she could see coming, looking
forward to gaining a fuller mastery of her new powers.
She stroked his hair, dreaming.
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