Kaidan, "power failure"
Kaidan barely kept up as Shepard went through one of her "whirlwind of battle" moments as they ran down a narrow street in the East End. She riddled a swarm of husks. She was gone before they hit the ground, leaving Kaidan to jump over the bodies like a row of tires at football practice. Shepard snapped a Cannibal's neck with a single blow with the butt of her Mattock. He smiled as he felt his amp cooling down. He'd be ready when they reached their target.
Kaidan felt a concussive shiver. Dust and chips of concrete fell from the rooftops near them. He hadn't heard or felt an explosion. What the hell?
"We need to run left at the end of the alley. Get ready!"
"Shepard, there's something—"
They ran straight into an ambush as they cleared the alley. Wicked fire hit them from all directions. Kaidan was so surprised he didn't throw up his Barrier. Before he could clear the alley, Shepard had head-shot three marauders shooting at them from behind cover, shrugged off shots all over her body, chucked a grenade, and dove for cover behind a block of concrete that looked like it used to be a monument, but now was little bigger than a dog house. The marauders kept up steady fire but they weren't hitting her. Kaidan crouched behind the engine block of a crashed sky car.
Kaidan frowned as he saw the rain of shots pelting Shepard's cover. He didn't hear her groaning or swearing from wounds like she usually did.
They weren't shooting at her. They were holding her still.
The concussions he felt before shook him again. One, two, three, four—
Footsteps?
Two brutes jumped off the buildings behind them and slammed into the ground, framing Shepard between the two of them. Through the eye slit of her helmet, Kaidan saw something he'd never seen before: Shepard's eyes, crystal-blue and wide in shock.
"Shepard!" Kaidan screamed.
Everything happened in slow motion. Kaidan breathed a sweaty, sharp hiss. He reached deep inside himself, far enough to feel blood vessels bursting around the corners of his eyes. He saw the brutes stepping toward Shepard. She dove to her left, too slow. One thought flashed into Kaidan's mind: BURN. Kaidan felt like he stood in a river as dark energy rushed through him and wrapped around the brute's body. His cool amp surged with heat. Kaidan kept pushing. Tens of thousands of needles of biotic reave flayed the brute alive, tearing the synthetic flesh off its body.
The blinding blue flash made the marauders duck and caused the other brute to miss. It swung wild, hitting the Kaidan's brute and finishing it off. Its arm turned to shredded meat as it passed through the reave field.
Kaidan screamed again, but not in fear. He couldn't stop the reave. The heads-up display in his helmet flashed red warnings for his amp. He felt like his brain was on fire. Numbly, he saw Shepard shove the staggering second brute head-first into the field, where the beast fell apart into a disgusting, bloody pile of meat and Reaper circuitry.
Inside his head, Kaidan felt something pop, heard something break, like stepping on a light bulb. The dark energy vanished. Kaidan dropped to his knees. He couldn't hear. He could barely see.
"Get down!" he heard Shepard yell. He tried to do as she said, but he moved too slowly. Why was it so hard? She shoved him down. Kaidan felt grateful for his helmet as his torso hit the ground. He heard the Mattock firing some more. It didn't sound like there were any more shots coming the other way.
"They're running. Hold still," Shepard said. He heard a hiss as she applied a medigel pack to his armor. Soothing relief eased all over his body. Kaidan's head tingled with warm pins and needles. Shepard lifted him up. "Easy, there, buddy. Are you okay?"
"I... I think so..." He tried to stand. Something wasn't right. He felt deaf, even though he could hear.
"That was one hell of a reave! You saved my life. Scared the shit out of the marauders, too. That last one I... Kaidan?"
Kaidan trembled. He ran the diagnostic in his suit twice to be sure. Most of the systems were working. All his weapons worked. Except one, showing a steady, blood-red marker in the status menu.
"I'm not okay," he said. "Shepard... I burned out my amp. And... and my implant."
Shepard stared at him. "Are you sure?"
"I think so. We need to check back at the base, but if I'm right, it'll take surgery to fix it. At least a week to recover. My lights are out."