Chapter 7

"Somebody help!" Fili yelled when they reached the healing house. There was no answer. He was about to call again, louder this time when Oin burst out from inside.

Oin took one look at the ragged band of dwarfs and the limp bundle they carried and ushered them in.

"Bring him inside, quickly."

They hadn't needed to be told twice and quickly moved Kili out of the rain where a stretcher was already waiting. The deposited him on it but Fili was reluctant to release the iron grip he had on his hand. His brother needed him.

Thorin grabbed a hold of him and gently tugged him back.

"Fili, let them take him; let him go." Fili reluctantly did as he was told, watching as they carted Kili away. A sob broke free from his lips and he fell to his knees.

Thorin pulled him to his feet and drug him into an empty room, Vili following close behind.

"Fili, I need you to calm down. You will be no use to any one like this. Kili is strong; he is of the line of Durin, he will be alright."

Vili who had been standing quietly in the corner now broke his silence.

"What in Mahal's name are you two talking about?" Thorin and Fili turned towards the sound of his confused voice, seeming to remember that he was in the room with them.

Fili's mouth opened and closed as he fought for something to say. This was hardly the way he wanted to reveal to his father who he was.

"Thorin?" Vili said turning to his brother in law. "What's going on? What does my son have to do with any of this?"

Fili turned to Thorin for guidance as he had done so many times before and Thorin nodded slowly.

"I am Fili," he said cautiously. "I'm your son, only from seventy seven years in the future." Vili looked between the two.

"Is this some kind of a joke?"

"It's not a joke, Vili," Thorin said.

"And the other one, Kili?"

"He's my little brother. He won't have been born yet in this time."

Vili's legs seem to turn to jelly as he reached out to steady himself on the first thing he could reach, a supply cart in this instant.

"That's impossible."

"Not according to Balin it's not."

"You're telling me that its not impossible for my five year old son to be standing before me now as a grown man and the son that I have yet to meet could die before he's even born?"

Fili's face paled at his words but he remained silent.

"Not with this it's not." Balin stepping into the room looking half drowned and held up the stone. "The time travelers stone of Durin the deathless." He turned to Fili.

"I heard what happened, laddie. I'm so sorry."

"He's gonna be alright." Fili's words sounded more like a prayer than anything. Balin shook his head slowly.

"I don't think so, laddie. A life for a life remember. This is the world attempting to restore balance."

"What...no... that was supposed to take place for another three days."

"Your very presence here changed things and when Kili saved Vili's life he set in motion a chain of events that knocked the world out of balance."

"Screw balance," Fili shouted. "It's not fair!"

"Is there nothing we could do?" Thorin cut in.

"I'm afraid there is very little."

"Hold on," Vili said waving his arms. "Someone is going to have to explain to me what the hell is going on because I am lost here."

The three of them looked at one another, unsure how to proceed. In the end it was Balin who stepped forward, saving Fili the burden of having to tell his father of his fate.

"I'm afraid, laddie, that you were not meant to survive that attack. Kili unknowingly shook the balance of the world when he saved your life and I'm afraid it will cost him his own in return."

Fili started to sob again, fisting his hands in his hair. Guilt and grief replaced the anger and worry that had been so prominent before.

"My son is going to die because of me?" Pain and disbelief laced Vili's words.

"Aye," Balin said sadly. "I wish it wasn't true but it is."

"It's my fault," Fili moaned. "Kili tried to warn me that messing with fate was a bad idea but I didn't listen. I just wanted my father back, I wasn't thinking and now Kili is going to die and it's all my fault."

Vili knelt down beside his son and placed a hand on his shoulder. He knew how to chase the monsters from under the bed and sooth a nightmare but when his son needed him the most Vili was at a loss at what to do.

"I just wanted you back," Fili whispered. "But I can't trade Kili's life. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Vili lifted his hand fro Fili's shoulder and used it to stroke his golden hair.

"Oh, my precious boy, I don't want you to."

The door to the room opened, breaking up the moment between Fili and his father. Oin took a few slow steps inside, stopping only a few feet from the door. Fili scarcely dared to breath as he waited anxiously for news of his brother.

"He is stable for now but the blade did some serious damage. I have done all I can for him; the rest will be up to the lad."

"Can I see him?" Fili asked. Oin nodded.

"Aye, but only for a few minutes, he needs to rest."

Despite what Fili had revealed to him earlier Vili still felt as if he were intruding on a private moment and decided to slip away unnoticed. He needed to get home. Dis would probably be sitting up by the fire worrying over him and he needed to see Fili. He needed to hold his boy while he still had the chance.

Vili stroked Fili's soft blond locks as the boy slept peacefully in his bed. He had done the same when he had tried to comfort the older Fili earlier on but he had been far from peaceful.

Fili's eyes, a soft blue that he had inherited from the royal side of his family, were haunted and filled with so much pain that Vili couldn't even begin to chase it away.

He was so young and he had already been through so much and from what it sounded like Vili hadn't been there to guide him through it. Three days he had said, in three days he was supposed to have died in an orc attack before they had changed things.

He thought about the babe Dis carried in her belly. He would have never of had the chance to meet his second son and left Dis to care for two small dwarflings on her own.

But by some miracle, he had been spared. He had the chance now to watch his children grow up and teach them about life. He could grow old with the woman he loved more than life itself, his One. He could die in his bed at three hundred years old after having lived his life to the fullest. He had been given that chance.

He only had to sacrifice his youngest son to get it. Fili was right; it wasn't fair. Fate was a cruel mistress but they all had to play their parts and bend to her will.

Balin had said there wasn't anything they could do but that wasn't quite true. The world required balance; a life for a life. Vili knew the path he must take. In order to save his family, he must first rip it apart.

He bent down to place a kiss on Fili's forehead, letting his tears fall onto the pillow. It was not a decision he made lightly, when he knew of the grief they would endure but over time their pain at his passing would dull. Vili feared if Kili died, Fili would soon follow and he would not loose his sons.

Blowing out the candle, Vili made his way to the room he shared with Dis. He would be selfish and allow himself one more night with the woman he loved and tomorrow he would right a terrible wrong.