AN: And we have another chapter. I know I seem a little over enthusiastic with the updates but the story is completed and I just couldn't wait to share it with you all.

Chapter 5

Kili's arms felt like jelly by the time he made it back to the inn. He had spent the better part of the day firing arrows into trees as substitute for a real target. His body was exhausted but his mind was still racing.

His heart was screaming at him that Fili was right, that they needed their father but a much more prominent instinct was screaming 'danger.'

This was one time in his life he wasn't willing to be reckless. He wouldn't go charging head first into something he didn't understand. And there were definitely forces here that he couldn't possibly comprehend.

"Where have you been?" Fili asked as soon as Kili stepped through the door to their room.

"Needed to clear my head." Kili dropped his bow at the foot of the bed before flopping face first into the mattress.

"Well now that that's done, we have work to do." Not this again. All he wanted to do now was to sleep.

"Fee..."

"Kili I'm not going to argue with you. We've been given the chance to right a wrong. Why is this so difficult for you to understand? Do you think I would just toss an opportunity like that aside?"

Kili sighed. Sometimes it seemed as if Fili had too much heart and now it was clouding his judgement.

"Fili, try to think about this logically." Kili's attempts to reason with his brother so far had not turned out so well, he didn't know why he thought this would be any different.

"Logic?" Fili laughed. "When have you ever used logic. You have been reckless and foolish your entire life, usually dragging me down with you. Well now it's my turn. I'm doing this with or without your help. I never took you to be a selfish coward."

Kili reared back as if he had been slapped, a look of hurt passing over his face.

"Kili, I didn't mean..." Fili was never able to finish his apology as Kili grabbed his bow and ran from the room.

Kili kept running, not caring where he was going and completely unaware to the storm that was beginning to stir over the mountains.

Since this journey began, Kili has been bruised, abused and tossed into an impossible situation. He has gone home but it isn't truly his home and was surrounded by his kin who he loved dearly, except they had no idea who he was.

He was living in a world that was topsy turvy but he knew that through all the madness he would be okay because he had Fili by his side. The same could not be said for now.

Kili's foot caught on a tree root and he went tumbling head over heals into the dirt. His shoulder connected hard with the packed ground but the physical pain he felt was nothing compared to the pain Fili's words had wrought.

Maybe he was just a foolish child. He wanted to go home and just pretend this had all been a bad dream. Except, he didn't know how to get home and Fili had no intentions of leaving without accomplishing his task.

Lightning flashed across the sky, followed quickly by a loud crack of thunder that shook the very earth. It suited Kili's mood just perfectly.

"What in Mahal's name are you doing out here with this storm brewing?" Kili almost groaned when Vili's voice reached his ears. He really was in no mood for this right now.

"Your father should have taught you better sense." He seems to be making up for lost opportunities, Kili thought ruefully.

"I had a fight with my brother and I stormed out. I didn't realize how bad the weather had gotten." "What about?"

For a moment, Kili considered telling him the truth. He would think him mad as a hatter and...actually that might not be such a bad idea. He could warn Vili about the threat on his life and leave it up to the older dwarf to watch out for himself. It wasn't exactly changing history and it would give his father a fighting chance.

Before he had the chance to think too much into the idea and possibly talk himself out of it, Kili sprang to his feet, startling the dwarf in front of him.

"Vili, you have to listen to me, this is of the utmost importance. You're life is in danger."

"What?" Vili's hands gripped his swords, Fili's swords, he realized and looked around him as if he expected something to jump out from the shadows and attack.

"Not now," Kili clarified. "But in the coming days." Oh he was making a mess of this.

"Look I just need you to trust me." "Bain, are you feeling alright?" Kili shook his head. "My name isn't truly Bain, it's Kili and I'm..." The sharp blast of a horn, more ominous than any thunder crack split the night, chilling their blood.

Orcs.

Fili thought it best to let Kili cool down despite ever instinct screaming at him to run after his brother and beg his forgiveness.

He had called his brother a coward. The very memory churned his stomach like sour milk. Kili was anything but a coward. He had proven that time and time again on the quest to restore Erebor, even receiving a poisoned arrow to the leg as he saved the entire company.

Foolish and reckless he may be but Kili was never a coward.

Fili scrubbed his hands over his face as a rather familiar knock beat against his door. Furrowing his brow, he glanced over. Many times during his childhood had he heard that knock and knew of it's varying degrees of severity.

The harsh pounding continued, making Fili cringe. Rising from the bed he swung open the door, unsurprised to find Thorin standing behind it. He knew it was only a matter of time before he received a visit from his uncle and quite frankly after that horrible attempt at a cover story he and Kili concocted the night before he was surprised Thorin had waited this long.

"My king," Fili said respectfully, though the words tasted foreign on his tongue. "Won't you come in?"

"You don't seem to surprised to see me." Thorin said, stepping in the room.

"I had a feeling you might drop by," Fili muttered.

"Could that be because you and your brother are lying to me?" Thorin raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "I want to know who you are and why you're here and this time I want the truth." Fili sighed and knew it was futile to continue with his lie.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me." Thorin's tone left no room for debate and Fili had to fight the urge to shy away from his uncle's piercing gaze like a dwarfling. Steeling his resolve, he lifted his chin.

"I am Fili son of Vili and Dis, prince of Erebor and heir apparent to the throne." Balin would be proud of the way he delivered his full title, Thorin however seem more angry than anything.

"I told you you wouldn't believe me."

"You stand here and claim to be my nephew, my five year old nephew and you expect me to believe that?"

Fili could see how that would be a little hard to swallow, which is why they had alias' to begin with but it was too late to back down now, he might as well get the rest of it out.

"I am Fili," he stated. "From seventy-seven years in the future."

"The future?"

"Yes. Kili and I, my brother," he clarified. "Were somehow sent back in time." Thorin nodded his head slowly.

"Have you perhaps seen a healer, they might be able to help."

"I'm not crazy, uncle," Fili shouted indignantly.

"Don't call me that." Thorin's eyes darkened. "If you were truly sent back in time then tell me how." Fili grabbed Kili's pack from his side of the room and pulled out the ruby.

"With this," he said, holding it up for Thorin to see. "I don't know how it works. It just got hot and everything started to shake we must have blacked out because the next thing I know we were in a forest far away from where we had been."

Thorin took the stone and turned it over in his hands. It looked like a normal gemstone albeit a very big one.

"Let's say I believe your story, however wild it might be. How do you intend to get back?" Fili shook his head slowly.

"I don't know." He had been so caught up in trying to save his father, he never really stopped to consider that. "I really don't know."

Thorin pushed himself to his feet, gripping the ruby tightly.

"Come with me; we're going to see a friend of mine."

"Balin?" At Thorin's confused stare, Fili shrugged.

"Kili thought he might have an idea on what it was."

"Right." Thorin ushered Fili out the door ahead of him and closed it firmly behind him.

Balin's huge brown eyes blinked behind his loupe as he studied the giant ruby.

"It seems like an ordinary stone," he said. "You said it started glowing?" Fili nodded.

"From the center; a small light that gradually got bigger and hotter."

"Interesting."

"A fairy story, more like it," Thorin grumbled.

"A fairy story, it may be," Balin agreed. "But that does not make it true."

"Are you saying you believe him?"

"I'm saying that I have heard tell of such an object. Durin the deathless was said to have possessed such a stone which allowed him to pass through time itself. Many believed it was as you said, a fairy story," he held out the ruby for them to see. "But I think this may be the proof it was not." Thorin grumbled and shook his head.

"Did these stories say how to get back?" Fili asked.

"Possibly," Balin shrugged. "But I doubt I could remember." Fili's face fell. "Although I might have a scroll around here that could tell us more."

He veered off down a long hallway but Fili made no move to follow him; he had been through here before and had no desire to get lost among the dusty tomes.

Thorin still glared at him from across the room making Fili squirm in his seat.

"There is something you still aren't telling me." There was a lot Fili was not telling him but he doubted Thorin wanted to know every little detail. How did one go about telling someone that their brother in law was doomed to die?

Fili decided there was no easy way to go about it but maybe if he warned Thorin he could prevent it.

"Three nights from now there will be a surprise attack on the settlement by orcs," Fili began slowly. "And my father will be slain."

Thorin's eyes widened as he processed the information, still deciding on whether he should trust him or not.

"I hope to prevent that."

"I'm afraid that won't be so easy, laddie," Balin said as he popped back out with a dusty book in his arms.

"Time travel is a rather tricky thing, there are rules and dire consequences of you break those rules."

"What did you find out," Thorin asked. Balin laid the book on the table. A hand drawn picture of the very same ruby Kili had found stared back at them.

"The world requires balance and things like time travel tend to shift that balance so the world shifts back."

Fili rubbed his head, he really had no desire for riddles right now, especially when Bilbo wasn't here to translate them for him.

"Meaning?" he asked.

"Meaning that if you try to save Vili's life another will have to be taken in his place. A life for a life. Balance restored."

Fili was certain that if he hadn't been sitting his knees would have given out on him and he would have gone crashing to the floor. Kili was right, what he desired was impossible. He needed to find his brother and apologize.

"How about how to send them home, does it tell you that?" Thorin asked.

"Aye, that it does. That part is rather simple really. All one has to do is hold it and think of the place and time they wish to goes and the stone does the rest. We're you perhaps thinking of your father before this, laddie?"

Fili could only nod his head. Kili probably had been too since he was the one to actually hold the stone.

"Then it's settled." Thorin stated. "You two will be returning home tonight. I can hardly have you running around and mucking up a time line. I can already see your mother will have one hell of a time trying to raise you boys, may Mahal bless her."

The bid goodbye to Balin and went off in search of Kili. Fili knew of all the secret hiding spots he liked to visit when he wanted to be alone so it shouldn't take them too long to find him.

The rain was already starting to come down by the time they made it outside, soaking them to the bone and making the ground squish beneath their boots.

"I'm sorry, uncle. Thorin," he corrected quickly.

"What's done is done," Thorin said sharply. He sighed and allowed his features to soften.

"It wasn't your decision to be sucked back into the past and you can hardly be blamed for things beyond your control."

"I just wanted to save my father." Thorin placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know and in your position I can't say I wouldn't do the same. Let's go find your brother and get you two home."