Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy nor Mass Effect (1 or 2). They belong to their rightful owners and creators.
Chapter 1
Faith was standing trial for destroying a Mass Relay and killing thousands of lives because of it. While she stood there in her dress blues she couldn't help but discreetly looked around the room and found her brother, his wife, and their daughter. She also saw Jeff 'Joker' Moreau standing off to the side. Not far from him were those that had made the jump through the Omega 4 Relay. She noticed standing next to Councilor Anderson was former Gunnery Chief now Lieutenant Ashley Williams, who was also the newest human spectre.
Faith started to think of what is was that lead her to this point. Thinking back to three years ago on a bloody routine mission, she guessed that's when it all started.
Flashback
The year was 2183; Faith and her brother were on the new stealth frigate called the 'SSV Normandy'. Faith had just been named XO under the command of Captain David Anderson. While her brother was a biotic specialist on the ship, the twins figured that Anderson didn't really want to separate the two. The two Shepards found their way to the bridge where they found Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau were bring the Normandy into a Mass Relay for a jump.
The two also noticed the Turian that had been on the ship since the Citadel standing behind Joker. Nihlus made a comment about something being good but Faith really wasn't paying attention to that. It wasn't until she heard Joker's comment to the Captain did she focus back into the going on.
Joker spoke over the intercom, "Nihlus is heading your way Captain."
Anderson replied, "He's already here. Send both Commander Shepards."
With that the sibling headed to the debriefing room. After learning why Nihlus was on the Normandy they heard a distress call. The ground team had landed on Eden Prime. The mission had gone from bad to worse as first the small ground team lost a member before meeting up with the only surviving Marine.
After dispatching the creatures, the Marine introduced herself, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. Are you in charge?"
Looking at John, who shook his head before pointing at his sister, Faith stepped forward saying, "I'm Commander Faith Shepard, this is my brother Commander John Shepard and that's Lieutenant Alenko," she studied the woman for a moment before adding trying to lighten the mood, "You still owe me a rematch Chief."
Ashley started before realizing why the other woman looked familiar, "That I do Commander." After that she gave a report of what had happened. The small group headed to the space port where they found Nihlus dead. After fighting their way through more Geth and taking a tram to the other port where they found bombs, they found the beacon which had activated when John stepped to close. Faith shot forward but was unable to shake her brother loose before both were hit by a vision from the beacon.
Both Shepards had found themselves in front of the Council. Where Faith couldn't help but think 'huh still can't get along with a Council no matter where I am.' They worked to find evidence to support their case and collected three more members. The two Shepards were given the honor of becoming the first human spectres.
Faith and John were given the Normandy for their mission. After debating a bit the two decided to start with the lead that dealt with Liara T'Soni. After saving the asari from Therum, she offered to try and decipher the vision.
After explaining about the mind meld, Faith spoke up saying, "If you do, go with Johnny." She didn't want anyone knowing about what was in her head. The Normandy's crew dealt with problems on Feros and Noveria before heading to Virmire, where Faith had to sacrifice one of her crew. The Slayer Commander felt sick at having to leave Alenko behind but she decided it was for the best.
Upon going back to the Citadel, the Normandy got grounded. Ashley found Faith in the gym while Liara found John leaning on his locker. Just before John could kiss his love the two heard a loud roar come from the gym.
Ashley watched as her skipper pounded away at the heavy bag, when suddenly Faith roared in anger and kicked the bag off its chain. Not expecting it Ash didn't move in time but she was lucky that Liara catch the bag in a Mass Effect field as John headed to his sister to calm her. Just as Joker came over the intercom saying, "Hey Commander, Anderson wants to meet with you."
After the meet with Anderson, the Shepards headed to Ilos. They got there and found out what was so important. The ground crew was able to get to the Conduit. They saved the Citadel and the Council. They stopped Saren and destroyed Sovereign. The two Shepards agreed that Anderson would take Humanity's sit on the Council.
Faith and John where sent to clean up the remaining Geth. During that time Faith had gotten a dream from the PTBs
Dream
The Oracles spoke as one, "You have done well, Dark One."
Faith replied, "That's all well and good but what happens if someone tried to see my memories and notice the second set?"
The female oracle answered, "You memories as Faith Lehane the Dark Slayer are joined into your soul, not your mind. So while you know about your past life no one else will know unless you tell them."
End Dream
When they were attacked by an unknown enemy, Faith had told Ashley to get her brother and the rest of the crew off the ship. As Chief Williams got the rest of the crew including John and Liara, Faith forced Joker into the last escape pod before she herself went down with the ship.
Flashback end
Faith Shepard caught the eyes of her former crew from the first Normandy. She could still see that they were backing her even now. She couldn't help but think back to her resurrection at the hands of Cerberus. At that thought, Faith let her eyes drift to the still enigmatic scientist she met all those years ago, but had just recently gotten to know. Faith studied the familiar plane of Miranda's face before catching the woman's eyes. She found herself drifting into her memory to the first time she woke up in the Cerberus lab and the mission that followed it.
Flashback
Faith found herself drifting into consciousness and heard two voices over her head. One was a female's voice while the other was male.
"There," The female spoke, "on the monitor something's wrong."
"She's reacting to outside stimuli," the male stated, "showing an awareness to her surroundings." That's when both speakers looked down at the figure on the table. It was just then that the man noticed Faith's eyes open as he said, "Oh my God, Miranda. I think she's waking up."
"Damn it, Wilson she's not ready yet," the newly identified Miranda barked, "Give her the sedative."
Faith used one hand to push herself up as the other reached for Miranda. The raven haired woman caught Faith's out stretched hand before gently lying the barely conscious Commander back down saying, "Shepard, don't try to move. Just lay still and remain calm."
Faith felt her adrenaline spike in contest with her Slayer fighting the sedative they were giving her. The man named Wilson noticed this stated, "Heart rate still climbing. Brain activity is off the charts." He then added, "Stats pushing into the red zone. It's not working."
Miranda ordered, "Another dose. Now!"
Faith knew if they were to knock her out they'd need more than two doses. So she lifted her hand one more time with only three fingers up. It was just as Wilson panicked saying, "That didn't work!"
Miranda noticed movement from the Commander where she again caught the subjects hand but noticed the three fingers up before saying to Wilson, "One more dose."
"But that could kill her."
"Do it."
Wilson watched the monitor saying, "Heart rate dropping. Stats falling back into normal range that was close, we almost lost her."
Faith felt the third dose of sedative enter her body as she looked up into ice blue eyes staring down at her before the Slayer could no longer keep her eyes open. She vaguely heard the woman Miranda say, "I told you your estimates were off, run the numbers again."
The next time Faith woke up was when the station was in udder chaos. She woke to Miranda's voice over the speaker. After putting the armor on and grabbing the pistol, Faith fought her way out of the medbay and towards the escape shuttles. Along the way she met up with two station workers, who helped her move forward. She also learned that it was Cerberus that brought her back. One of the men was Wilson from when she first woke up. The other was a solider named Jacob. Along the way, Faith found progress updates on how they put her back together. One of the updates mentioned an oddity of her healing quicker once the part of the body was reconstructed. Once at the shuttles the three met with Miranda, who shot Wilson. After a short conversation about why she did it, they left.
On the way to the next station, Faith was quizzed about her memories of Akuze, Virmire, and who was put in humanity's sit on the Council. At the station, Faith found herself in front of the Illusive man so to speak. He asked her to investigate the disappearing colonies.
Once on Freedoms Progress, the small group was attacked by mechs. After getting through the mechs, Faith felt her jaw drop at seeing Tali'Zorah vas Neema.
Tali spoke, "Shepard is that… you're alive?"
"Hello Tali. How'd the data John and I give you work?" Faith replied.
"It helped." The Quarian replied before ordering her men to lower their weapons. The two groups worked together to get Veetor. The Quarians had gone ahead and where demolished by the heavy mech. After learning what happened to the colonist, Faith let Tali take Veetor but not before getting the data from the younger Quarian's Omni-tool.
The three returned to talk to the Illusive man where Faith met her new pilot. She turned around to see Joker standing behind her. The two talked as Joker showed Faith the new Normandy.
Faith and her crew first went to Omega to get the three possible new members. Then they went to Purgatory and got Jack before heading to the Citadel where they collected Kasumi Goto. Faith met with the Council and was sort of reinstated.
Faith asked Anderson, "What happened to Johnny and Ash after the Normandy was destroyed?"
Anderson answered, "John is on Illium with Liara T'Soni. He retired after you were declared KIA. I hear the two have a daughter now. As for Operations Chief Williams she's still with the Alliance but I won't tell you more while you're with Cerberus."
"So I have a little blue niece? As for Ash, I get it."
After that Faith set course for Korlus to get Okeer only to get a tank bred perfect krogan. With a newly name Grunt, Faith couldn't help that she was collecting the oddest group of people. She set a course for Horizan after having a talk with the Illusive man.
Faith and her crew saved half the colony and ran into Chief Williams. The Slayer Commander said, "Hey Ash."
Williams growled, "'Hey Ash' that's all you have to say after two years?"
"Um… never did get that rematch." With that comment the two former crew members argued over what Faith was doing right now.
After Horizan, Faith headed to Halstrom to get Tali. Fighting her way through Geth found Faith next to Kal'Reeger a Quarian Marine that was sworn to protect Tali. Faith herself gave him an order to stand down saying, "I'm not having Tali lose her entire squad just so you can play hero. You and I both know a good marine knows to follow orders." With that Faith stood up and started to head for the sniper perch. Just as she stood up the Geth Colossus fired an energy pulse that slammed into Faith, whose shield had already been knocked down. Grunt and Miranda watched in shock as their Commander just stood back up and shook the blast off.
After rescuing Tali, the Normandy set a course for Illium. Once there, Faith met with Liara, who called John in. John walked into his wife's office with their daughter to find his sister standing awkwardly off to the side. He hesitated before saying, "Faith?"
A slight smirk crossed under the helmet, "Hey Johnny-boy." The Slayer found herself in a bear hug from her brother. After the reintroductions and introductions were done, Faith asked about a couple of people she was trying to recruit. Leaving the office Faith headed to the transport station. The Slayer helped the justicar and got the justicar's help in return. Then Miranda asked for help with her sister's relocation. They dealt with the mercs and recruited the assassin.
The Illusive man sent them into a trap on an inactive Collector ship. After that Faith decided to help as many of her crew with their personal issues as she could. She kept Tali from being exiled, helped Mordin find his student, Grunt with his rite of passage, helped Samara with her daughter, Thane with his son, Garrus with his vengeance, and Jack with her past. She also helped Zaeed and Kasumi with their missions. Before going to deal with the Derelict Reaper and the IFF that they needed for going through the Omega 4 Relay, they found a disabled Geth that Faith reactivated and named Legion. After making sure the ship was upgraded to top specs, Faith helped Legion reprogramming the heretics, Faith broke up a fight between Miranda and Jack by saying, "We don't need this distraction right now, let's focus on the Collectors and then you two can have your battle royal, hell I'll even sell fucking tickets. But save it." She also had stopped Tali and Legion from blasting each other by commenting, "Tali if those experiments were done on humans, I'd of told the alliance but Legion, Tali you two need to stop fighting one another and focus on the Reapers right now."
While the squad was off ship the rest of the crew were taken by the Reapers. Faith growled, "Enough. We going through to get our crew back, damn it." They went through and only lost Jacob before they blew the base sky high.
Flashback end
Standing in front of the Alliance brass, Faith thought back to the two missions that lead her to this point. While the chase for Saren and the fight with the Collectors were bad, she knew it was helping Liara and John take down the Shadow Broker and doing a mission gratis for Admiral Hackett that got her here.
But before the trial could get that far underway the alarms in the building went off as the very building started to shake. Everyone headed for their ships. Joker and both Normandy crews got to the newly upgraded Normandy. It was as John and Liara were running out of the building they watched in horror as their daughter tripped and the roof started to fall on top of her. Little Danni was scared as suddenly her Aunt Faith was covering her with her aunt's own body. The little asari watched in awe as her Aunt lifted the roof off of them and pick her up. She buried her face into Faith's neck as the Slayer jumped out the third story window and landed in a crouch about fifteen feet from John and Liara, who were both standing on the loading ramp of the Normandy. Faith shot forward and made the five foot high jump onto the ramp as large ships descended onto the Earth's surface.