Victor Zakhaev (Reboot)

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Victor Zakhaev (Russian: Виктор Захаев), also known as Mr. Z, is a character featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and the secondary antagonist in the Special Ops mode and the main antagonist of the Modern Warfare Storyline in Call of Duty: Warzone. He is also an antagonist of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Zombies, which sees him attempting to use Aetherium against the West.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Born in the 1970s, Victor Zakhaev was the middle son of Imran Zakhaev, a high-ranking official in the Interior Ministry of the Soviet Union. Victor's childhood coincided with a series of monumental political changes to his country. The introduction of new economic and cultural freedoms crippled the USSR as a major world power, much to Imran's dismay. As a child, Victor had a rare access to the to the tunnels and bunker systems of the Eastern Bloc, thanks to his father.Biographies: Victor Zakhaev; and Archived
Loving, but also fearing his father, Victor had to learn to speak Italian, German, English and French. At the age of 16, he was enrolled into a prestigious preparatory school in Verdansk but was expelled soon after following an altercation with a teacher for grabbing the teacher's cane and breaking it to evade his corporal punishment. As punishment, Victor was sent to the Suvo Military School, where his peers were the more austere families of Soviet military personnel.
Victor graduated with the qualification of paratrooper, serving in the last unit of the Soviet Airborne Troops. In 1990, he was deployed to as part of a peacekeeping force to ebb the ethnic clashes that would lead to a string of civil wars activated by the Soviet Union's collapse.
Deputized by his father, Victor Zakhaev emerged as a leading advocate for the reclamation of mother Russia following the spreading of privatizations and ownership of former state enterprises. Living somewhere beneath the wing and under the shadow of his power-wielding father, Victor assumed some of his father's duties after he received a heart surgery in 1994. Victor joined the most secret division of the Federal Security Service, fighting terrorism and organized crime in and beyond.
===Arms dealing and Ultranationalism===
After the death of Imran Zakhaev in 2011, Victor's growing disenchantment with Modern Russia led him to sneaking out of the country along with his wife Yuila. It was then that he saw the potential in trafficking weapons to former Soviet nations that had descended into ongoing chaos in the wake of the power vacuums brought about by their budding independence.
Victor Zakhaev reportedly used what was left of his father's loyalist contacts and created Zakhaev Arms to smuggle weapons from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East. Using his gun-running, Victor continued to wield influence with an eye toward fulfilling his father's unrealized dreams of returning the Soviet Union to its former glory through leveraging the threat of nuclear war.
In November 2019, following the death of General Roman Barkov, Captain John Price held a meeting with Kate Laswell where she informed him about Zakhaev's intention to take Barkov's place. Price assumed that Laswell was talking about his father Imran, whom he almost killed during a mission in Pripyat with MacMillan, another SAS operative. Laswell, however, clarified that it was indeed Victor. She went on to discuss how Zakhaev approved of Hadir Karim's actions and would help him escape from Russian custody.
===War in Verdansk===
Following the death of Al-Qatala's leader, Omar "The Wolf" Sulaman, Victor Zakhaev freed Khaled Al-Asad from his prison. Al-Asad seized command authority over the extremist group and founded Al-Qatala-Aljahdid. Zakhaev then forged an alliance with Al-Asad and became an adviser and arms supplier for the new Al-Qatala leader. On March 3rd, 2020, using Zakhaev's armaments, Al-Asad launched a full-scale assault against the city of Verdansk resulting in countless deaths and ultimately the mass evacuation of the city's civilian occupants.
====Fall of Armistice====
While Armistice fought to repel the Al-Qatala threat in Verdansk, Zakhaev facilitated the movement of several nuclear weapons to bunkers around Verdansk. While Armistice was able to remove a nuclear core from Al-Qatala's possession, ultimately they did not succeed in crippling Al-Qatala. Zakhaev retaliated by strategizing with Al-Asad, causing conflicts between Armistice operators.
As the final blow, Zakhaev and Al-Qatala released a massive amount of poisonous gas into Verdansk, trapping Armistice operators and causing extreme tension as they fought over extraction from Verdansk. The events that unfolded led to the dissolution of Armistice. At some point, Zakhaev allowed Al-Asad to return to Urzikstan while he continued operations in Verdansk.
====Moving underground====
Task Force 141 operative Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley assisted remaining operators in tracking down Zakhaev in Verdansk, but for a time this provided no leads. However, Al-Qatala comms traffic was discovered by the Allegiance from within the Acropolis National Arena. This intel was given to Shadow Company, who used explosives to violently breach the stadium's roof and search for Zakhaev.
Shadow Company's efforts were fruitless, but Ghost continued to supply intelligence on tracking down Zakhaev. Eventually, a subway system was discovered by Price, which Zakhaev and Al-Qatala had been using to travel undetected. Farah Karim, leader of the Urzikstan Liberation Force, and "Nikolai," leader of Chimera, investigated but found that Zakhaev had not been using the trains, but instead traveled on foot through the tunnels. "Nikolai" powered the subways, and joined in fighting against Zakhaev.
====Shattered dreams====
Zakhaev used the tensions between the Coalition and the Allegiance to power up all the bunkers in Verdansk without realizing it, allowing him to activate the ICBM silo hidden within Bunker 10. His plan to fulfill his father's wishes ultimately failed however as Task Force 141 managed to get the abort code for the missile, 6157, and launched an assault with the help of Farah, "Alex" and Marcus Griggs' Demon Dogs in order to create a diversion. Price infiltrated Bunker 10 when Zakhaev activated the missile. Price shot him in the shoulder before throwing him off to the bottom of the silo. With Zakhaev neutralized, Price received the abort code from "Nikolai" and prevented the ICBM from launching.
===Dark Aether Saga===
Unbeknownst to Task Force 141, Zakhaev managed to survive his encounter with Price by landing in water at the bottom of the missile silo.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o2bxsRvvEE&t=5234s After escaping, Zakhaev began searching for new weapons. He soon learned about Aetherium and the conflict between Requiem and Omega Group. In 2021, he hired Terminus Outcomes, led by Jack Fletcher, to help him track and find the remaining Aetherium. He also hired Dr. Ava Jansen, a disgraced researcher, to further develop Aetherium-based weaponry under the guise of researching clean energy and medicine.
With a squad of contractors, Zakhaev and Fletcher traveled to Zaravan, Urzikstan where they first ambushed a group of police at an American checkpoint to create a diversion. After breaching into a basement, they discovered the remains of Grigori Weaver and three other corpses around a device placed on a table. The device opened and Zakhaev retrieved two vials of Aetherium. As they escaped, they were attacked by police reinforcement, including military police. Pinned down, Zakhaev tossed one of the vials at the police to create an Exclusion Zone which turned people, both dead and alive, into zombies. Zakhaev managed to return to the LTV with Fletcher before leaving the area, realizing the effectiveness of Aetherium.
Terminus Outcomes would establish strongholds across Zaravan as the CIA would create Operation Deadbolt as a response to the outbreak Zakhaev started. He would then record a message to his late father, vowing to continue his legacy and strike against the West, naming Washington, D.C., London and Paris as targets for his revenge. Zakhaev also learned that one of Price's protégés, Johnny "Soap" MacTavish, was working for Operation Deadbolt, and swore that he would take Soap's life as vengeance against Price for nearly killing him in Verdansk.
====Thwarted Again====
Eventually, Dr. Jansen would come to realize the truth behind Zakhaev's operations in Urzikstan and attempted to contact Deadbolt to defect. A strike team was deployed to her co-ordinates, where Terminus was in the middle of fighting off a horde of attacking zombies. Jansen succeeded in escaping Zakhaev's clutches and deleting her research off Terminus' servers, but not before Zakhaev starkly warned her that she had made the wrong move in betraying him. While she was being interrogated by Deadbolt, Zakhaev would be staring at his vial of Aetherium as Fletcher approached him, talking about how much money they could make off Aetherium. Dismissively, Zakhaev replied saying that once he's enriched enough to make more weapons-grade vials, Fletcher could do as he pleased with the rest. Fletcher then asked about Jansen, to which Zakhaev scoffed and stated that she'd played her part, and that Fletcher should find and kill her.
Operation Deadbolt, with Jansen's help, would create a prototype Aetherium Neutralizer and deploy it across the Exclusion Zone, but not before coming across a pair of Terminus SAM Turrets. As the Deadbolt strike team fought against the mercenaries, Zakhaev taunted Deadbolt by stating he'd offered bonus pay to any Terminus operative that could bring one of them alive. Eventually, Deadbolt succeeded in activating the Neutralizer, but the signal proved too weak to affect Zakhaev's weapons-grade Aetherium. 
Stealing data written by Oskar Strauss from "Legacy" Baranov, Deadbolt created an amplified Neutralizer and deployed it to Zakhaev's enrichment facility to de-activate his Aetherium once and for all. Zakhaev continued to threaten Deadbolt, and ordered his troops to destroy the Neutralizer. After a battle with Orcus, an Aether Worm, Jansen was able to activate the Neutralizer, which created a vortex that began to suck everything in its wake. As he stared at the vortex in horror, Fletcher warned Zakhaev that they had to leave. Unconcerned with Fletcher's warning, Zakhaev watched as his Aetherium vial destabilized, dropping to the ground in disbelief. Fletcher then grabbed Zakhaev, throwing him to safety inside a building.
Following this defeat, Zakhaev once again went into hiding, leaving Terminus Outcomes to operate independently in Zaravan.
==Gallery==
===Call of Duty: Modern Warfare===
VictorZakhaev ConfidentialTeaser MW.png|Portrait of Victor Zakhaev in a call with Khaled Al-Asad.SECURE COMMS LINK /// EYES ONLY; via YouTube
ImranZakhaev Wanted SpecOps MW.jpeg|Picture of Imran Zakhaev from Modern Warfare Remastered used to depict Mr. Z
VictorZakhaev Young Season4Intro MW.png|Victor as a child.
Zakhaev End Cutscene MW.png|Zakhaev prepares to launch the nuke.
Zakhaev points pistol MW.png
Price vs Zakhaev MW.png|Zakhaev is confronted by Price.
Zakhaev death MW.png|Zakhaev falls to his presumed death.
===Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III===
Zombies Promo2 MWIII.jpg|Zakhaev with Aetherium vial.
Zombies Promo6 MWIII.jpg|Zakhaev and Jack Fletcher seeing the Aetherium effect.
Victor Zakhaev Zombies HUD MWIII.png|HUD icon for Zakhaev.
==Trivia==
*Victor Zakhaev has a past with the Spetsnaz Operator Nikto, having personally tortured him and left permanent damage.
*Victor Zakhaev was depicted as "Mr. Z" in the Special Ops mode using a picture of Imran Zakhaev from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered.
*Victor's personal .50 GS is the Sub Rosa blueprint, which is not obtainable in-game. This blueprint bears the Zakhaev Arms logo.
==References==
Category:Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) Ultranationalist Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) Al-Qatala Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Zombies Characters
Category:Antagonists
ru:Виктор Захаев (перезапуск)
fr:Victor Zakhaev (Reboot)