[Josée's Update: This has now been seen by the Ref and is now canon! *cheers*]
Alixandra "Ali" Greenwood
Alixandra Greenwood ("Ali", as she prefers to be known) was born Delilah Jane Greenwood in 1986. She was a determined, feisty young girl, who much preferred to play "cops and robbers" with the boys than with the dolls and jewellery that were thrown upon her on her birthdays and Christmases. She rebelled heavily against her parents in her teenage years, becoming something of a revival Punk in the mid 1990s. As her parents despaired, 15-year-old Delilah (taken to calling herself "Alix" or "Alixandra" because it was "edgy") found herself spending time with some Army Cadets who frequented the same music clubs she did. Their talk of proving themselves, making a difference and being part of a team hit something within her and she enrolled in the Army Cadets, one of the oldest new recruits that year. One of the cadets was a reenacter and got her involved in the local historical reenactment society, where she learnt to fight with sword and shield (which was, in her words, "fly").
She enrolled in the Army (much to her parents' horror) in 2002, on her 16th birthday, the same day she filed for a name change under deed poll to "Alixandra". Because women were restricted from the infantry and close-combat units, Alix joined the Royal Artillery and trained as a Light Gunner. She took part in several campaigns around the globe, but it was in 2006 that she found herself placed in a highly active, highly dangerous warzone. She was part of the first Artillery units that went out to Helmand Province. She was fairly well-liked in the unit, especially by those who had never entered a warzone before. She was strict and task-focussed...but she was also one of the first to take the new guys under her wing, and show them just how important they were to the unit. This lead to good relations with most of the unit, and Ali becoming known as something of a "lioness"; she'd nurture and explain everything to the new guys as if they were cubs, but would just as fiercely tear them to shreds if they put others in unnecessary risk. She was on several manoeuvres there over the years, but was sent home from her final one in 2012 due to two linked, but separate reasons.
She had begun to see things that everyone else claimed weren't there. She saw demon, or devil-like creatures in the marketplaces and trading centres of local villages and towns, sometimes even standing by the Camp gates. She thought she had seen other, more animalistic creatures roaming the barren desertlands but was always told she was imagining it. The unit began to fear more and more for Ali's sanity, and she was pulled from a few missions "to give the other guys a shot" (but, really, it was for the safety of the unit.)
This resulted in her aiming her artillery gun at "something that wasn't there", and giving away her unit's position to the insurgents. The unit was quickly swarmed, and several soldiers were injured, Ali being one herself. She was sent home with a punctured lung and several wounds to her thigh and shoulder. She was treated back in Britain, where (after assessment) she was declared "psychologically unfit for military operational deployment" and recommended for discharge from service, for the safety of her unit.
After a year of recuperation, Ali returned to the city of her birth, and began trying to build the civilian adult life she had never intended to have, renting an apartment on the Riverside. She was snapped up by a security firm (having...forgotten...to mention some of the reasons for her discharge from the military) and began to work as a doorwoman for the local nightclubs. It was shortly after this (and a few more strange sightings) that she was approached by a mysterious member of the "NDF"...and realised that she was the sanest person there had been in Helmand.
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