Solitary Birthday Celebrations

[Kiki]

Kiki rose, angry.

"You pathetic - you - you," Kiki backed away from him, her eyes - much more obvious now of the right eye purple and the left blood red - glowing dangerously.

"How dare you?" She asked. She was suddenly aware that the bracelet was now only slung on her wrist by the knuckles on her hand. She shook the silver chunk back down her arm and glared at him.

"How do you propose to get her back? I believe there seems to be the small hurdle of her death?" She asked scathingly.

[Ace]

Ace watched, silently, as Kiki hurled attempted insults at him. His green gaze followed her carefully as she tried to rage at him, and focused in on the way she shoved the silver bracelet back down her arm angrily... after it had been gradually falling from her arm.

A light dawned behind his reflective eyes, and his gaze raised to meet Kiki's in realisation. In a second, he was on his feet and advancing towards the angry Head Girl, not caring what she did to him, finally knowing what he had to do to really get the old Kiki back.

Grabbing her wrist that held the bracelet, he looked once more into her eyes, and softened a little. No matter who this girl was, they had shared something that was beautiful in it's own way, and he would miss it... and her. Leaning in, he planted the softest kiss on her lips as he tore the bracelet from her arm.

"Goodbye," he whispered, stepping away from her.

[Kiki]

The bracelet glowed a bright snake green in Ace's hands, so strongly that the pair had to shield their eyes from the glare.

Kiki was in mid-shield when she collapsed silently onto the row of chairs behind her, unconcious.

The bracelet tried to clamp itself on Ace's wrist, but something threw it hard from his grasp, the green light sailing through the air lighting up the grounds as if it were day.

It landed with a huge, almost unbelievable splash in the lake, the silver slowly cracking from the heat of the light with the cold of the water.

The green light disappeared and everything went silent.

Then, with a roar, the bracelet regained its serpent-coloured glow and exploded into a thousand tiny pieces.

[Ace]

Ace stumbled backwards as the bracelet seemed to explode amidst a lightshow of powerful green light - it fell into the lake, with a mighty splash, and then exploded for the final time, the heat from the explosion rippling all the way to where Ace and Kiki were thrown haphazardly over the benches in the Quidditch stadium.

Turning to Kiki quickly, he saw that she was unconscious. "Oh great..." he muttered, striding his way up the benches with minimal effort.

He bent down and inspected her - she didn't seem to be very hurt, she had just been knocked out by the power of the bracelet's light. Feeling very thankful, Ace quickly took off his shirt, impervius to the cold, and arranged Kiki delicately on the bench upon which she had fallen, placing his shirt under her head.

"Wake up, Ki," he whispered soothingly. "It's time to wake up now."

[Kiki]

Kiki's eyes fluttered and she opened her eyes, her head heavy for her to lift.

"Ace?" She mumured, her tongue feeling thick and almost foreign. She closed her eyes again, trying to remember what had happened. There seemed to be a thick veil covering her mind at the moment. She recognised the face in front of her, that was a start.

"What happened?"

[Ace]

Ace gave a tiny laugh, relief flooding his body... everything about her was the real Ki - he got it right, she was back, she was back!

"Welcome back, love," he said tenderly, pushing back some of her hair from her face.

Suddenly his smile quickly faded. The last thing this Kiki would know was death. Ace killing her. Would she remember all that happened while she had been taken over by the bracelet's power? It didn't seem to matter either way - she would still end up hating and/or fearing Ace... and could he blame her? Firstly, he killed her, then secondly, he had taken advantage of her possession by sleeping with her! What kind of friend did that?

Ace cleared his throat nervously. "It's... gonna be OK. You, er, have had a rather rough time - do you... do you remember?"

[Kiki]

Kiki tried to sit up and managed to manuover herself into a position where she could see Ace's face and lean against the wall of the stand at the same time.

"We're in the Quidditch Pitch?" She asked. "What are we doing here?"

Something came back to her then. A flash of green light.

"Has someone done the Killing Curse?" She asked nervously, glancing around. "All I remember is green light."

[Ace]

Ace gave a nervous laugh. What should he say now?

"Er... no. I think you were... being possessed, love. By... by this bracelet thing you had on?" he said questioningly, hoping that Kiki could figure the rest out herself. "And... the green light happened when it exploded... I got it off. I got you back."

All Ace wanted to do was hug Kiki, so glad he had her back... but he was already moving away from her, dreading her reaction when she realised what has happened to her.

[Kiki]

Kiki frowned as she noticed Ace shifting away from her.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "Whats hap - "

Then all the memories slammed into her. Everything. Her death, her rebirth, her attitude, her bracelet, her and Ace.

Kiki's eyes widened slightly and she looked over to Ace for confirmation of this. Inside she was torn, she wasn't sure if she wanted it to be true, the other half of her was desperately wishing it wasn't.

She didn't have to say anything. She knew that Ace would read her perfectly.

[Ace]

"I..." Ace trailed off lamely as he saw Kiki's largen almost inhumanely as, he presumed, all her memories flooded back to her. By the way she was looking at him right now, she even remembered what happened while she had been possessed.

"Oh God," groaned Ace. There was no way of getting out of this now - what was done was done, and he couldn't very well hop on his broom and fly away again.

Feeling quite sickened, he looked Ki in the eye, shame and regret all over his face. "Ki, I'm sorry - I didn't know, I thought... I thought maybe..." He didn't even know how to finish his sentence - what had he thought? That the other Kiki was the real her? That what happened between them was normal?

Shaking his head, Ace buried his head in his hands, waiting for the eruption of hatred he was certain was going to come from Kiki any moment.

[Kiki]

Kiki was finding ti hard to comprehend everything.

"You mean we...us...together...us?" She could barely string a sentence together.

"Why?" She asked confused. "What on earth convinced you to do it?" She sighed and everything fell silent. She knew Ace was feeling throughly guilty for what he'd - they'd done.

She stood up and walked unsteadily over to him, and hugged him tightly.

[Ace]

Utterly astounded at Kiki's tender and apparently understanding reaction, Ace let out a small groan.

"I just... how was I supposed to know it wasn't the real you? And hey, I'm only inhuman, am I supposed to turn down what's offered to me on a plate? I mean..." He turned to her, piercing eyes pleading with his best friend to try to understand. "You remember most of it, right? Though it was weird, there was something between us, some kind of attraction I can't... I just can't explain."

He fell silent, and looked down at his hands again. "I'm really sorry."

[Kiki]

Kiki shuffled through her memories. There was some kind of attraction between them. Kiki felt for it now, and was somewhat surprised at what she discovered. A lowly spark. Maybe that was of her own making, or maybe it was friendly love?

"If she meant so much to you," Kiki was seeming to read Ace's thoughts, yet she spoke quietly, almost afraid of what Ace might say next.

"Why'd you try to bring me back?"

[Ace]

Ace shrugged half-heartedly, wondering quite why he'd done so himself.

"Because... well, the whole thing between me and... her... was just a passion. A whim. And fiery things that they are, they burn out fast... I knew that, in the end, it wouldn't last between us and I might just lose my best friend forever." He looked up into Kiki's eyes. "I missed you. Being with her was a distraction from remembering what I did... but you can't run from your mistakes."

Heaving a great sigh, he pulled himself to his feet wearily, and offered a hand down to Kiki, pulling her up with him. Slowly he wrapped his arms around her, feeling abounding relief at knowing that the Ki he held in his arms was genuine - the real thing.

"I couldn't keep living my life knowing you were still out there somewhere, lost, because of me," he whispered.

[Kiki]

Kiki stiffened slightly in Ace's hug. It was strange having him this close to the real her after what he'd done to her. She shook that thought out of her head reasonably quickly. After all, he'd rescued her hadn't he?

'That didn't stop him from killing you before,' a voice in her head said.

"Ace?" Kiki twisted out of his arms and faced him, having still a hand on his arm to steady her.

"Why'd you do it?" She murmured, her now back to normal purple eyes fixing him with a curious stare. "Why'd you kill me?"