AN: We have come to the final chapter. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read and review this story. It has meant so much to me that you all like it.

Chapter 9

Kili's miraculous recovery had baffled the healers. The wound was still there of course but it wasn't as severe as it had been and his fever had almost completely diminished. By the next morning, Oin was convinced he was healed enough to be released albeit with a stern warning to rest.

Fili draped his brother's arm around his shoulder for added support as the stood with Thorin and Balin in a small clearing far from the settlement. The red ruby was gripped tightly in Fili's free hand.

"You know what you have to do, laddie?" Fili nodded in response to Balin's question. "Think of the exact moment when you left. It would do any good to have two of you running around."

Fili sent a look to Kili, silently asking if he was ready and Kili nodded shakily.

"Take care of yourselves," Thorin said. Fili smiled.

"You too."

"See you in about seventy years or so," Kili added in.

Fili held the sphere out in front of them and he thought of home.

"Over here," someone shouted. "I've found them."

Fili felt a great weight lifted off his chest, allowing him to breath freely. Light was shined in his eyes, blinding him momentarily before Dwalin's face appeared before him.

"Easy, laddie. We're going to get you out."

For the first time Fili noticed the boulders that surrounded them and remembered the rock slide that had buried him and Kili when they first found the time travel stone.

Kili lay beside him, half buried under the rocks. His eyes were closed but his breathing was thankfully steady. Fili reached out his hand, entwining his fingers with Kili's as he allowed unconsciousness to take him.

It was early morning before Fili woke up again, this time laying in a soft bed in the healing houses of Erebor.

"It's about time you woke up." Kili sat propped against a pile of pillows in his own bed right next to Fili's, starched, white bandages were tightly wound around his chest.

"I've already been watching you sleep for an hour and a half."

Fili's brain still felt cloudy and he shook his head to try to clear the cobwebs.

"What happened?" Kili shrugged.

"We made it back. From what Oin was saying we were laying in that rock slide for a few hours before they were able to dig us out."

Fili noticed that apart from a few bumps and bruises, he was relatively unharmed but then again he was healthy and fit when he went into the rock pile; Kili had not been.

"How are you feeling?" He asked him, his voice laced with concern.

"Always such a mother hen," Kili quipped. Fili glared at him, he was hardly in the mood to deal with Kili's jokes. Before he could voice his displeasure however, Oin walked back in followed by Thorin.

"Ah, you're finally awake," Oin said as he began to fuss over him. A few minutes later, he gave the young prince a clean bill of health.

"You should be able to leave here whenever you wish but you should probably take it easy for a few days. You however," he said, pointing at Kili, "are going to be staying here for a while longer so I can keep you under observation."

"How is that fair," Kili protested.

"Because Fili only has minor wounds, he didn't almost collapse his chest cavity."

Fili winced at Oin's blunt words, no doubt their time spent under the rubble had pushed back his recovery by weeks. Kili would not be happy with that news and would probably become down right insufferable to live with until then.

As suspected, Kili opened his mouth to protest but was shot down by Thorin.

"Kili, do as he says." Kili closed his mouth with an audible clop and proceeded to pout like a child.

Thorin moved a chair to the space between the beds and sat down between them. Fili knew of the lecture that was about to come, they had after all wandered down into a restricted section of the caverns.

"What in Mahal's name were you two doing down there? You knew that area hadn't been cleared and this was precisely the reason why. It wasn't stable." Thorin stopped his tirade and sighed. "Do you realize what I went through when they came and told me that you two had been involved in a rock slide? My heart nearly gave out then and there. Was it not enough that I had to endure almost loosing you three months ago; you had to go and try to get yourself killed?"

Fili lowered his head like a scolded dwarfling.

"We're sorry, uncle."

"It was my idea," Kili cut in. "And it was my fault."

"It was both our faults," Fili corrected. "I should have never of let Kili talk me into going down there."

"It doesn't matter who was at fault," Thorin said. "What's done is done but that doesn't mean you will be getting out of being punished. I expect to find both of you two accompanying Balin for record keeping, for a month. Maybe that will teach you not to scare me so."

Both Fili and Kili groaned at the prospect but Fili realized it could have been worse. The biggest dangers they would encounter from record keeping was death by boredom or choking on dust.

Both Thorin and Oin bid them farewell after a stern command for them both to get some rest.

"They don't remember," Kili said once they were gone from the room.

"Perhaps it's better that way, Kili." Fili burrowed down in his blankets and shut his eyes, wishing he could do the same.

Dusk was beginning to settle over Erebor. The setting sun seemed to set both the sky and the surrounding lake ablaze as it dipped lower in the sky.

Fili stood on a rocky outcrop that over looked the lake, pulling his coat closer to try and block out most of the biting, winter wind. The time travel stone setting heavily in his hand.

It was such a simple thing but it had almost cost him his whole world. They had meddled with things they didn't understand and paid the price for them; Fili was going to make sure no one else had to endure that.

Pulling back his arm, Fili hurtled the ruby into the air and watched as it disappeared into the deepest part of the lake where it would hopefully remain for a long time to come.

AN: I know there were many of you who would have liked to see Thorin and Balin remember Fili and Kili's adventure but as we covered earlier in the story, no good comes from knowing too much of the past; so in a way it would be the universe keeping balance.