Zhar sat quietly in his quarters aboard the Doranz, turning Tali's offer over in his mind as he cleaned and then reassembled his sniper rifle. It was a model specially developed for the Revenants, and as such it was lightweight, but still packed a fair punch and held a large magazine. The only drawback was the range. Cutting down on weight had meant making it more compact, and this made it inaccurate at longer ranges – placing it somewhere between an assault rifle and sniper rifles like the M97 Viper used by Alliance Special Forces.

Zhar played all of this through his head, but still couldn't shake Tali's offer from his thoughts. There was a faint knock, and Zhar looked up to see his brother at the door.

"Veetor, how are you feeling?" Zhar clipped the scope to his rifle and laid it on his bunk.

"Fine," his brother nodded. "Better actually. I think speaking today actually helped me."

"That's good to hear," Zhar smiled, and looked away. A small window next to his bed showed the Migrant Fleet, a multitude of ships of all shapes and sizes - some even as old as the flight from Rannoch. Amongst this, Zhar saw the faint glimmer of a frigate docked with the Rayya.

"Are you going with Tali?" Veetor asked, joining him at the window.

"How did you know she asked me?" Zhar frowned. "Did she tell you?"

"I told him, Lieutenant."

Zhar recognised the voice of Admiral Raan, but was surprised to find the whole Admiralty Board with her.

"Admirals?"

"Tali'Zorah informed us of her desire to take you with her," Raan continued. "We believe this would be in the best interests of this Fleet."

"We're at war, Lieutenant," Admiral Han'Gerrell stepped forward. "If this mission fails, the entire galaxy will be at risk. Shepard needs the best, and that's you. Trust in his judgement, Zhar'Nara. Trust in ours."

Zhar was silent for several moments.

"Admirals, I've spent my whole life fighting for the Fleet – fighting to survive. I think it's time to fight for a cause."

Admiral Raan nodded. "Shepard plans to leave immediately. Come with us."

Zhar slung his rifle onto his back and followed the Admirals out of the ship with his brother. The Normandy was docked on the other side of the ship, and each quarian they passed seem to know where the Admirals were going, and why Zhar was with them. Most simply nodded at him as he walked by. A pair of marines saluted. When they reached the airlock to the Normandy, an honour guard of Revenants stood to attention on each side of the docking tube.

"Lieutenant…" Raan began to speak, but seemed at a loss for words. "It's been an honour to have known you. Lieutenant Zhar'Nara vas Doranz nar Hanha, go with the blessing of the Admiralty Board, and the hopes of the quarian people in your heat."

"Revenants, salute!" An officer shouted. The soldiers snapped to attention. Unbidden, one began to recite an old quarian poem. Each step Zhar took beat like a drum as he walked.

"Go now, for the world I long to see,

Go now, to the place we used to meet,

Under star, under moon,

I will be with you soon,

Though I have long since died,

I am always by your side."

The last line was spoken by Tali, who was standing with Shepard by the Normandy's airlock.

He looked at the Revenants around him, the Admirals, Tali, and lastly Veetor.

"Keelah se'lai. I will not fail you."

With that, he followed Tali and Shepard onto the Normandy. She led him past surprised the surprised crew and down to the engineering deck, while Shepard took up his position on the bridge. They didn't speak until Tali had opened the doors to the clean room Cerberus had set up in the port-side cargo bay.

"Well, that seemed excessive," Zhar said as he sat on the bed.

"There's a lot riding on this mission," Tali leaned against the wall opposite him. "Hearing them say that though, it sounds like there's even more riding on you."

"There are a lot of people counting on us. On both of us,"Zhar looked away from Tali. "How are you holding up? I heard about your father."

Tali sat down next to him. "I just can't believe he's actually dead."

"I worked with him a number of times, he was a good man."

"But what he did," Tali sounded close to tears. "How could he think that I would want that?"

"Tali," Zhar placed a hand on her shoulder. "He did it because he loved you. No matter how little he showed it, how indifferent he seemed, he always loved you."

Tali tentatively raised her hand to Zhar's and took hold of it, wrapping her slender fingers around his wrist.

"Thank you Zhar," Tali said shakily. "I think I needed that."

"Remember it. And when the time comes, when you're being beaten down by everything, take strength from it."

"Zhar…"

The door opened, and the two quarians sprang apart. Zhar saw a redheaded human female standing at the threshold, who approached him with an air of total confidence. Zhar grew wary at the site of the Cerberus uniform. His eyes narrowed, and he felt a strong impulse to kill the human where she stood. Even as he watched her walk, Zhar was establishing a dozen different ways to kill her. The most amusing involved throwing her into the mass effect core.

"Kelly, this is Lieutenant Zhar'Nara vas Doranz. He's joining the mission," Tali explained.

"Yes, I heard," Kelly extended a hand. Zhar turned away, shaking his head. "I'm the ship's yeoman, I came by to check on Tali."

"I'm fine Kelly," Tali said to her, still watching Zhar.

"The Admiralty Board can provide files on me, if that's what Shepard wants," he stopped pacing.

"I don't want to read your files, Zhar," Kelly smiled. "I want to know you."

"I… What do you want to know?"

"I don't want to ask you anything, I want you to talk to me. About anything."

"I take orders. I give orders. I fight for the Fleet."

"I need to go see Shepard," Tali said suddenly, standing up and walking towards the open door. "I'll be back soon."

Zhar watched her go, then turned to face Kelly when the door slid shut.

"Do you care for her, Zhar?" She asked, looking at him inquisitively.

"That's my business, yeoman," Zhar paced the room, always keeping her in sight. "I don't like working with Cerberus. It goes against the Fleet, against my past."

"What happened?"

"I was in command of a squad," Zhar started talking and it poured out. "We were sent to extract a quarian on his Pilgrimage after he was captured by batarian slavers. Only we weren't the only ones."

"Cerberus?" Kelly inquired.

"Yes, they were there," Zhar nodded. "They waited until we had called for evac, we were tending to the wounded. There was no honour in what they did."

"What happened?"

"They attacked us with a damn army, that's what happened!" Zhar shouted. "Over fifty Cerberus troopers against five quarians. I'd known them for years – since childhood. To see them wiped out like that…"

"How did you escape?"

"The mission parameters didn't change. They gave their lives to give us time."