Alexis Fontaine was born as the youngest of three children at the Fontaine compound on Natucket. Her childhood was perfect; her family the absolute model of the American Dream gone right for generations. Both corporate lawyers, Alexis' parents were often away from the estate in Boston, representing their respective companies' interests in various ways. Despite the millions surrounding the three children, Alexis' two older siblings, Sophie and Gregory respectively, saw the youngest of the three as a plaything more than an equal. Right under her loving, but driving parents' noses, Alexis was all but abused through her young existence, building a deep resentment to her family: her siblings for their abuse and her parents for their negligence.

This abuse continued far into adulthood as both her siblings had gone on to do fantastical things. Sophie was now one of Boston's top surgeons and Gregory had started out strong in investment banking; both of them were considered 'bright and promising' in their fields. Alexis' parents started to push her harder than ever before, which only fostered her resentment. Instead of allowing it to break her, however, she harnessed her near-hatred for her family into ambition, garnering an acceptance to MIT's bio-engineering program. After graduation, she walked right into Harvard's business program, graduating with her MBA and summa cum laude. She had thought this would be enough to at least ease the yoke from her parents and garner enough respect from her sister and brother. How very wrong she was.

As a last resort to escape, she applied to various companies, including those in bio-engineering as that was her specialty. Due to some interference from her brother, she had difficulty securing interviews that would take her away from Boston, but one finally came through: Deimos Research. She accepted in a heartbeat, allowing herself to be whisked away to their corporate office to start in a very low-level management position, but management all the same. According to her supervisor, those who show promise and drive in Deimos get pulled up fast, so she took his advice to heart. She showed the executives the things they wanted to see, promise and drive, but gave them something else they were all too happy to see: ruthlessness. Within two months, her small department's efficiency quotas went sky-high, catching attention. After four months since her employment, she was promoted to a larger department. Four months after that, she took the reigns from her original supervisor with his sage advice.

Having reached the top of the food chain in her department, she managed to turn her rather cumbersome and marginally-profitable department into, in the words of a senior board member, "a money printing machine." She reigned over this department and the research, mostly tame in nature, for another year before she received notice she was being reassigned. She was told to pack up and head to the Arklay Island facility, where she would personally oversee the laboratory as Director. After establishing herself comfortably, she started "working her magic" on the facility, driving quotas higher and higher. Everything was looking good as she had just entered the low-level executive zone. She was away from her parents and siblings, away from their money, and well on her way up the ladder of a super-powerful corporation. Then the outbreak occurred.