Alexia Ashford was a beautiful girl.

Long blond hair like silk, cornflower blue eyes. She was tall and slender, mature for her years in both body and mind.

"You'll have to beat them off with a stick, Alexander," was once said when Alexia was ten, by an old friend of the family with even older money. Alexia wasn't often seen in public, but she made an impression when she was. Though, it wasn't just her looks.

Alexia Ashford was a genius.

College by eight, head researcher by the incredibly young age of ten. She was unmatched by any, and going to places none had ever been.

And on those rare occasions she was seen, everyone always complimented her. Such beautiful hair, such smooth skin, such an amazing understanding of science.

She was the perfect girl, on the outside.

But, no one ever commented on the little things that were wrong about Alexia.

No one ever mentioned to her father, Alexander, about how strangely close she was to her twin, Alfred, even though it was seen by anyone who cared to look. No one ever spoke of that cruel streak in her, or that frightening intensity that so often came over her face when she wanted something, or was angry at someone.

But everyone breathed easier when she died.

The science community mourned the loss of such a brilliant mind, and Alfred went insane, holed up by himself in his mansion, but those few who had known her while she was alive were aware that something hadn't been quite right about her.

Was she mad?

No one knew, or wanted to say. Alexia was a genius, and with genius did madness always come?

Sometimes. Maybe it was the isolation that came with it, the premature jading of too short a childhood.

No one wanted to know, and it didn't matter.

After all, Alexia Ashford was dead.

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Author's Note: Yeah, so I was playing Code Veroncia today, and I just ... wrote. Hopefully it makes a little sense.

Oh, and the slightly-implied-in-one-line incest. Yeah. Gotta love it. How two twelve year olds could REALLY be incestuous is up for debate, but hey, I'm with it.

Anna