Spoiler warning, but then again if you have not seen the film then you have no business being anywhere near this site.

Saw The Battle of the Five Armies the other day. The worst part is knowing it will happen and there is not a single thing that could be done about it.

Fair warning, this will not be a happy story. Most of this is also done from memory of this particular scene so if some things do not match up I apologize.

Enjoy.

She had tried to fight her way here, through orc after orc, to reach Kili. If she could find him then she could protect him, or at least fight by his side.

To the death if need be.

Not that he really needed protecting, he was a great warrior himself. He might be more than a little reckless but he was no novice. It must have been why Thorin had brought him and his brother up here to this tower. Them being his nephews also had something to do with it.

Twice before she had already saved him. Once from the spiders of Mirkwood, the second from the poisoned arrow. This would have been the third time, but as it turned out it was Kili's turn to save her.

Tauriel slew many orcs until she encountered the one Legolas spoke of, Bolg. He was far stronger than any she had ever faced. The prince said that he was the spawn of Azog the Defiler, the beast was living up to that description.

The she-elf fought as hard as she could but she was no match for his strength. Tauriel was more resilient than she looked though. It was not until Bolg threw her against the nearby rock face that she was slowed.

Attempting to get back up, she was on the ground when she looked up to see Bolg raise his weapon to finish her off. He was too close, there was nowhere to dodge and she had no weapon that could parry his mace from the ground.

This was her end, she was going to die before ever seeing Kili again. Her last parting words to the dwarf prince being the ones they shared on the shore of the lake. There had been so much unsaid in that back then.

Before the deathblow could come, Kili arrived. As if sent by the gods themselves, Kili jumped from a platform directly above Bolg and landed atop the orc. Kili tried to drive his sword down into him but Bolg managed to raise the shaft of his mace to parry the attack.

Tauriel tried to get back to her feet as dwarf and orc pitted their strength against one another. Bolg was much stronger, he pulled Kili off his shoulders and in front of him. With one arm holding the dwarf, his weapon arm drove the bladed shaft of his mace down. Kili struggled to hold the weapon back from his chest but Bolg was just too strong.

Seeing her opening, Tauriel jumped onto Bolg's back with her blades in an attempt to get him to release Kili. Despite the combined strength of elf and dwarf, it was not enough. Bolg grabbed onto her body and effortlessly threw her aside.

Tauriel's body rolled across the frozen ground and stopped barely inches from falling over the ledge to the frozen abyss below.

Tauriel looked back up but could only watch in horror as Bolg drove his weapon down through Kili's chest.

Everything around Tauriel ground to a halt. Her body turned colder than she had ever felt but it had nothing to do with all the snow and ice around them.

The blade pierced deeper but Kili let out no scream of pain, only a quiet gasp as he coughed up blood. Kili's head turned toward Tauriel, his eyes locked on hers. Kili's hand raised toward her, but Tauriel could not move.

The elven woman could feel nothing for several long moments. Not even the tears that slowly began to run down her cheeks.

Bolg slowly tore his blade free smiling with the orcish glee that only could be wrought of a fresh kill.

When Kili's body hit the ground with a heavy thud, Tauriel snapped back to reality. Her eyes turned to Bolg, a rage bubbling within her like nothing she had ever felt.

All Tauriel could think, or even feel, was a burning craving to avenge Kili.

With her elven agility and dexterity, Tauriel rushed toward Bolg. Dodging his attacks, she climbed onto his back and drove her blades into his shoulders. Bolg snarled in pain as he tried to knock her off. The weight of Tauriel on his back threw the orc off balance sending the creature stumbling toward the same edge Tauriel had almost fallen from moments before.

Tauriel would have normally been more cautious in battle. She would have paid attention to a hazard such as the ledge, but her mind was so far gone in grief and rage that her senses were clouded.

So much so that she barely noticed it when her and the orc fell from the edge together.

Tauriel and Bolg both hit the rocks of the cliffside hard in a roll. In the process, Tauriel lost sight of the large orc. Her descent finally stopped when she reached another platform in the rock.

At some point in the fall, Tauriel had hit her head on the stone. Her mind was swimming, her eyes incapable of seeing straight.

By the time Tauriel was able to regain her feet, Bolg was nowhere in sight. Thinking the orc to be dead, Tauriel's mind instantly switched to something else.

Kili.

With her mind still unfocused, she scaled the cliffside as fast as her hands and feet could manage. She had to reach him, maybe he had a chance.

Tauriel was lying to herself, a small part of her knew it but the rest was stubbornly refusing to accept that Kili could be dead.

After making her way up the mountainside, stumbling and nearly losing her footing many times, she found him.

Kili lay exactly where Bolg had dropped him. The stillness of the dwarf prince did nothing to abate her worries. His skin was already deathly pale, not as bad as when he was poisoned but still far too pale to be healthy.

Dropping to one knee beside Kili, Tauriel felt what little calm she had managed to gather together fleeing rapidly. The panic was beginning to take over again before she even had a hope of stopping it.

Kili was already dead. He was gone.

The tears were running freely now. Tauriel had no desire or ability to stop them. Tauriel felt something deep within her heart shatter even more than it already had.

The elven maiden gripped Kili's hand in one of her own. "Kili..." Tauriel brought the hand up to her cheek and closed her eyes, the tears still running in rivers down her cheeks. She would have normally felt the warmth of his skin through the glove covering his hand but now she could barely feel him.

Tauriel received the shock of her six hundred years when the hand gripped hers in response. It was weak, but still there."T...Tauriel?"

The elf's eyes shot open to look down to see Kili's open staring up at her. The relief and happiness that swelled up within her was so strong that when she tried to speak, nothing could come out.

Kili's lips turned to that same smirk that made Tauriel's heart melt, even on this frozen mountain while the he bled out. "Did I... take your breath away?"

Only Kili would say that at a time like this. The dwarf's words were so rough and wheezed out that Tauriel realized he was not as well as she had been hoping when his eyes opened.

"Lie still, don't talk." Tauriel's own words were a whisper, it was all she could manage. The elven woman was surprised her voice held even the slightest bit steady.

"Tauriel..." Never in all her life had anyone said her name with such reverence. As he spoke, Kili's hand had reached up to weakly cup her cheek.

Tauriel placed her own hand atop his to press it into her cheek as she looked over his condition. There was a large gaping wound in the middle of his chest where Bolg's blade pierced his flesh. Were it any other dwarf, they would already be dead. Kili was holding on somehow but barely.

"My last sight... in this world... is more than any I could... have ever wished for..." Kili spoke slowly and with heavy labored breathing, the blade likely pierced one of his lungs. The smile never left his face.

Tauriel would have assumed the last thing Kili wanted to see would have been his brother Fili, Thorin, or even Erebor or even his mother. No, the sight he wanted was her. The words brought a rush of affection that faded as quick as it took Tauriel to remember Kili was not going to be leaving this mountain alive.

As gently as she could, she gathered the fading Kili into her arms to hold him close. His hand never leaving her cheek for even a moment.

Even if the wound was less life threatening, they were way too far from the healers for the prince to have any chance of survival. There was no magic she was capable of that would be able to save him this time.

Kili was going to die here on this mountain, far away from his kin, far away from his ancestral home. With only her, an elf, at his side.

More time, that was what Tauriel would have given anything for. Time to hear more stories like the one about the fire moon, time to actually get to know the dwarf prince that had charmed his way into her heart. Their time was almost out though, Tauriel still did not have any idea how he was still alive.

Perhaps the gods had granted him just a little more life, enough to say goodbye.

"Kili..." Tauriel sniffled quietly as more tears came. She did not want to let him go, she could not. When Kili died, her heart was going to pass with him.

Kili weakly pulled her face down to his level, Tauriel followed without hesitation. Their foreheads touched as the pair closed their eyes. They tried to savor this one last time together before it was gone forever.

In a different time, in a different life, they could have escaped this mountaintop together. As one they would have faced down and slew Bolg, side by side they would survive this battle.

Perhaps... even made a life together when the dust settled. Tauriel was never like most elves around her, too brash, too impulsive. Always looking at the here and now instead of far into the future. Even her red hair singled her out form everyone else. She was not alone however.

Kili was much like her. Among his own people he was taller than most, preferred a bow to the more traditional weapons, had trouble growing a beard. Tauriel never got the chance to tell him but she actually liked his stubble the way it was.

Maybe it was all of this was what drew her and the young dwarf prince together. They were both like outcasts among their own people.

If given the opportunity, she would have happily given up immorality for even a chance to be by Kili's side. She was no longer afraid to admit that. A shorter life was nothing in comparison to what she would gain from its loss.

Their moment was interrupted when Kili began coughing violently.

Now it was all too late. Kili was dying and all of what could have been was being torn away in an instant. To replace it was a blank, hollow void of nothingness.

With blood on his lips, he pulled her down to him again this time to whisper in her ear. The words made Tauriel's eyes widen larger than saucers, never had anyone ever said that to her.

Before Tauriel could respond, the dwarf prince went limp in her arms.

"Kili?" There was no response. "Kili!" Tauriel gently shook him but there was still no reaction. His eyes were now closed, his body still and lifeless.

Kili was dead.

Unable to hold back any longer, Tauriel clutched her dwarf prince tightly to her chest and sobbed loudly into the frigid air.

What was Kili's final words you ask? I don't think they need be said.

We will all miss you Kili, may you rest in peace.