Balthazar curled in on himself at the back of the cell as Asmodeus approached the exterior of his cell again. He was cold and tired and his grace was dwindling on the edge of nothing. Not that it mattered. He couldn't die yet. They may have lied about some of it- he wouldn't dare speak the names- but he was very clearly unable to die.

A fact Asmodeus had taken great joy in for months now.

"I would like to kindly ask you again, Balthazar. Where is your brother?" Balthazar glared in silence at the Prince of Hell.

After a year of this, he'd have thought the demon had gotten the message. Clearly he hadn't, though. Or he had and he was just enjoying torturing Balthazar.

Possibly both.

"I'm going to say it one more time. I do not know where he is. From my understanding, he's not even in this plane of existence, and even if he was here he can burn in Hell for all I care. I don't know where he is."

"You know what?" The demon's eyes flicked to yellow and a strange sickening feeling coiled in his gut at the wicked gleam in them. Something was… no. "I believe you." The demon continued on, drawing on a very familiar blade, a hauntingly familiar blade. A blade embedded with the grace of it's owner, disturbingly, impossibly familiar.

"Where is he?" Balthazar shifted slightly, cringing at the sizzling sensation on his flesh as he spoke softly.

"I don't know. He could be in another plane of existence- oh wait, he was." Stepping aside, two demons stepped through the doorway at the front of the hallway, shoving a bound and restrained Gabriel through the doorway.

"When I get free, and I will, I will rip you apart you arrogant piece of-" The words died on Gabriel's lips when he spotted Balthazar, the demons shoving him forward until he was standing at the bars.

"Gabe-"

"Let him go."

"I'll think about it." Waving his hand, Asmodeus turned his back on them and made his way towards the door as the two footsoldiers shoved Gabriel forward, the archangel stumbling through the bars, Balthazar's quick movement the only thing that stopped the archangel from faceplanting into the ground with his cuffed wrists.

"Gerra." Gabriel yanked out of his grip with the ancient nickname rolling from his tongue. It wasn't familiar, it wasn't friendly, it was angry.

"Marvelous to see you too." Balthazar scowled, backing away to the far corner of the cell while being cautious of the tender fleshless bits of his vessel that had to heal.

"What are you doing here?" Gabriel demanded, expression melting from angry to wary as he took in Balthazar's state.

"I was bored, got too close to a demon."

"A demon." Gabriel repeated and Balthazar huffed an irritated breath, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away. "Why? What in the name of God would you possibly-"

"Why does it matter!"

"Because, you arrogant little asshole. You're why I'm in this bullshit mess! I was perfectly safe in hiding and then all the sudden I get this prayer. 'Either show up or we rip your lover's grace from his vessel and slit his throat'." Balthazar didn't move as Gabriel inched closer, gaze following the careful movements Gabriel made. He felt like he was being treated like a wounded animal in the way that Gabriel moved but he didn't bother telling him off for it.

After all, he'd always liked the archangel on his knees.

"So why'd you come?" Balthazar snorted, "Not like you've been around for… what's it been? Six years. Skipped over the whole end of the bloody world, again."

"I've been in another reality." The honesty in the words made Balthazar stare a bit, eyes widening, "I was impersonating some human actor, my alter ego as it were. Had some fun with that, with him. It was fun. He was surprisingly amendable and then, out of the blue Asmodeus, Prince of Hell, prays to me and you know what I did? First thing I did, because of you, my dumbass mate. Can you guess?"

"You abandoned me." The accusation died in this throat though as Gabriel crawled the remaining distance, pressing his hand against his knee and sending a rush of grace through him that almost made him crumble apart. God help him, he missed this.

"I know." Looking away, Gabriel fell back, sitting and crossing his legs, "I left you to deal with the guilt of a bullshit decision that you shouldn't have had to make, but I never stopped loving you. Not for a moment. And every single day I've thought about it."

"Yet you stayed away."

"I'm a resentful asshole." Gabriel's golden eyes lifted to meet his, sharp and sincere, "But the moment I knew about this? The second he told me that he'd learned you can't die? I didn't think. I did what I had to, I did the right thing."

"Maybe in your mind, but not in my mind." Balthazar snapped back, anger burning in his gut with an intensity he wasn't prepared to handle. "You selfish arrogant dick. You bloody bastard. Do you honestly think I wanted to be saved!"

Gabriel huffed an unamused laugh. You idiot.

"We're both morons." Balthazar breathed out, unable to help the sharp laugh that tore from his throat when the brutal irony of the entire situation flared to life. "We're both morons, and he's going to kill me now. You do realize that, right?"

"No. He won't." There was an underlying promise to the words that set off all sorts of warning bells.

"What did you do?"

"Something that you will never forgive me for."

"Gabriel-"

"I made a deal." Gabriel was shifting himself slightly, head turned to the gates. "Princes keep their deals, it's part of what Lucifer wanted to guarantee with them. Loyalty. They can't break deals and they can't sneak around them."

"What deal did you make?" Balthazar demanded and Gabriel shook his head.

"You're going to hate me. Magical bindings on this level… they recoil, spread outward. I'm going to take your grace, leave you human. Then you're going to walk out that door, he's going to set you up with a new identity and life, and you're going to run. You're never going to look back, and you're not going to try to save me."

"No!"

"I'm sorry, gerra. I am, but it has to happen like this. But what you need to know is I won't stay willingly. I will fight for my freedom and when I'm free, I'll come to you. I'll come back because I have, and always will, love you. You're my everything. The only reason I'm alive is because you threw your cards in for me."

"Gabriel, don't you dare-"

As realization clouded him, he tried to fall back, to fumble away, but Gabriel was ahead of him. Before he had a chance the heavy weight of the archangel was falling onto him, one cuffed hand catching his wrists as he was pinned up against the wall, Gabriel's gaze burning into his as they came nose to nose.

"I'm sorry." Forgive me.

"Don't. Gabriel, don't do-" Then their lips were crashing together, the grace of an archangel pressing firmly against his as he fought and writhed against it. After everything, after all of this time he had never once considered that this would happen- that Gabriel would leave him.

With all of his strength he held onto his grace, twisting and writhing against the brutal intensity of his once-lover drawing it from him.

Leaving him human.

"I will follow you to the ends of Creation." I'm bored, my sun.

"Not if I do it first." Then we better do something.

"Is that a challenge?" Are we going to fly?

"If it was, would you take it?" Come with me.

"Always." Of course, I love you.

"Fly with me." Never stop loving me.

"Only if you join me." As long as you don't.

"I love you." Gabriel pulled away, leaving him a broken mess on the hard ground as he let out a whimpering sob, "And I'm sorry."

"I hate you." He breathed the words, the words he had never once meant because it hurt. Every ounce of his being screamed in protest, and in that moment?

They were true.

Gabriel fell from his lap, rolling his shoulders and averting his gaze as the cell door clanked open.

There was nothing he could do as the demons heaved him into their arms, as he was drug from the compound and ultimately left in the streets of France.

He was alone.