YOU NEVER SAW ME BEFORE,

BUT YOU SEE ME NOW, DOWN THE BARREL OF YOUR GUNS.

Before Zharik became who he is, he was an exo from the Last City, who everyone knew as Jericho-4. His memories before arriving to the City are fuzzy at best, considering that he didn't make the journey there himself. A lone guardian exploring on Mars found his body in a cryopod in the remains of Braytech, probably having been put there to use for some kind of experimental project with Rasputin, but there's no way to tell. The guardian brought him back to the Last City, where he was carefully tended to and reactivated. Jericho was deeply grateful to the guardian for having saved him, and despite not having much memory of anything prior to being roused from stasis, he was welcomed into the City as a citizen.

Jericho began to idolize the guardians, finding them incredible and magical, and wishing with all his might that he could be like one of them. However, his idolization of the guardians eventually drove him into a deep depression, knowing that the only way he could ever be like them would be to die and be resurrected, but that was no guarantee, and it made him sink further into his helpless despair.

After having tried numerous times to get a job working for the Vanguard, and being rejected each time, Jericho's depression began spiraling into anger. He would never be good enough, would never be enough of anything to be considered worthy of working with the guardians. Instead of dealing with his anger in any remotely healthy way, Jericho kept it all bottled up inside of him, waiting for it to burst.

It finally exploded when Dominus Ghaul invaded the Last City, igniting the Red War. Seeing the guardians brought to their proverbial knees, stripping them of their power and immortality, it made Jericho feel nothing more than purely vindicated, and instead of feeling fear that his city was being destroyed, he felt an evil sense of pleasure and enjoyment at seeing guardians being slain in the streets, people he had once revered as gods being more helpless and useless than even some citizens.

He would never think of them any other way.

Jericho left the Last City, making his way to Firebase Hades, and somehow managed to gain an audience with one of the higher-ranking cabal officers. After spilling his pathetic story, and begging them to let him join their ranks, the officer agreed, as long as he'd pass a test. The test in question was executing eight guardians that they had captured some time earlier. They handed Jericho one of their guns, and he did not hesitate to accept it, nor did he hesitate to put a shot in each of the guardians' heads. Believing his wishes to be genuine after this display, Jericho was admitted into their ranks, under the clause that he had to leave his city name behind, and they gave him the name of Zharik, which he accepted.

Even after the Red War came to a close, Zharik stuck with Red Legion, deeply attached to those he keeps company with, and still never hesitates to put a bullet in any guardian he comes across.

At some point after the war, Zharik happened to encounter a guardian hunter trespassing in his territory. Wanting to keep his platoon safe from an inevitable destruction, he lured her away, where the two ended up unexpectedly fucking. After the guardian left, Zharik thought that would be the end of it, but she came back for more some time later. It grew to become a regular thing, against his better judgement, knowing who she was and his hatred of her kind.

Ultimately, Patch-13 wasn't a Vanguard loyalist, and took more than a liking to Zharik, and began using her status to request any and all patrols in his general area to keep other guardians from killing Zharik and his company. The more the two kept meeting, they both fell in love.

Over the years, Zharik has remained steady with Patch, and her patrols have helped to keep his force's casualties to a minimum, which has earned him praise from higher command. He's risen through the ranks a little bit, having just recently been promoted to the rank of Val, and having been given more area to cover and keep. Patch does what she can, but at this point, it now falls on Zharik and his company to keep themselves safe against guardians, eliksni, and hive.

Sometimes he thinks of the City, but he tries not to. There's always a small piece of him that wants to go back, and he wants that piece buried.