After leaving the bar and his best friend behind with great reluctance, Gabriel figured he should head straight for their allocated meeting place. They'd only ever visited it once before, and for a mere fifteen minutes at that, therefore Gabriel was slightly concerned that he wouldn't be able to find it. On top of this, the meeting place was completely angel-proof (as well as demon-proof, of course) and even archangel-proof to prevent Raphael from entering. You're probably wondering how on earth Balthazar and Gabriel – an angel and an archangel respectively – could possibly get into their own base. Well, there was an incredibly tiny angel-proof-proof hatch around the back of the place that Gabriel had protected with his Trickster powers so it appeared invisible to anyone other than him and Balthazar. There was also a charm placed around the building which rendered any angel unable to fly; however, this meant that it could only be reached on foot from a three-mile radius. Basically, Balthazar's fear of Raphael coupled with Gabriel's fear of being discovered as alive made them paranoid as hell.
As the archangel teleported to the three-mile boundary, he sighed. "I may have chosen to protect humans, but that doesn't mean I can't say the fact that they have to walk is totally pathetic." He spoke to nothing in particular, then began the three mile trek to ultimate safety. Not that Gabriel believed in such a thing, but it was good enough for him.
Around forty-five minutes later, Gabriel had arrived. The place was exactly how he remembered, albeit a little dustier: it was a dilapidated barn in the middle of a cluster of giant fields that continued on for miles and miles and stood tall and loyal despite its previous neglect. Sandy wooden slats that were the very foundations of the barn creaked wearily in the breeze, yet somehow the noise gave it life. Even though Gabriel was sure he'd bolted the front door last time, it wafted gently open, as if welcoming the angel and thanking him for not abandoning the building. But he couldn't enter that way. Stepping around the outskirts of the barn, Gabriel located the hatch and crawled through it in the least dignified manner possible.
Stretching out once he was standing at full height again, Gabriel then exhaled deeply and turned his mind to Balthazar. There were only 23 hours left for him to wait for his friend to arrive. It couldn't be that difficult, right?
"Honey, I'm home." Balthazar declared to Castiel the moment he re-appeared in front of him, smiling humorously. However, it wasn't long before he started to stumble, clutching his side. Luckily, he staggered right into his friend's arms.
"You're not well. Let me heal you." Castiel commented gravely as he wrapped his arms firmly around Balthazar, maintaining his support as he helped him to stand.
"No… I'm fine. Weapons… first." Balthazar gasped in pain and lack of oxygen between words. But his weakened obstinance wasn't going to work on Cas this time.
"Balthazar, with all due respect – shut up." The trench coated angel grabbed his friend's arm with one hand and hovered his other hand above Balthazar's stab wound. Castiel frowned in concentration as his hand emitted a startlingly bright light along with a painfully high-pitched squeal. His angelic powers soon got to work as the broken flesh knitted back together as if there had been no injury in the first place.
When he'd finished, Balthazar straightened up and sighed in a regretful yet somehow appreciative manner. "You always have been as stubborn as me."
"You would have died a thousand times over by now if I wasn't." Castiel retorted, meeting the other angel's recalcitrant gaze with an equally fierce one until Balthazar glanced away. Only then did Cas ask the expected question, with great concern in his big blue eyes. "Are Dean and Sam safe?"
Balthazar rolled his eyes in a 'ugh-I-knew-you'd-be-asking-after-your-crushes-sooner-or-later' kind of way, but still answered without hesitation. "Of course they are. Who do you take me for? Actually don't answer that."
"Where are they?" Cas persisted.
"In an alternate universe, would you believe. Sometimes I think our lives are just badly-written fanfiction. Anyway, Raphael shouldn't be able to reach them, and even if he somehow does, there's no mojo in that world. The Winchesters would have a significant advantage for once. Happy?"
Castiel nodded warily, but he figured he should be able to trust Balthazar. "Yes, I appreciate your help. Now, where are the weapons?"
"Hold your horses, darling. I did tell you it would take some time to find them, which is why I needed to send the Winchesters to the other universe as a diversion as well as keeping them safe. Anyway, if you come with me, we can get to it…" When Balthazar finished speaking, he smirked and placed two fingers on Castiel's forehead, zapping them to a new location. In fact, the two of them had to zap to quite a few places and do a lot of pain-stakingly tedious searching until they eventually found the weapons. Once they were safely in Cas' hands (well, 'safely' was still debatable), it was time to return to Sam and Dean to retrieve them from their parallel universe, and to come face-to-face with Raphael now that Castiel had the advantage in their civil war.
Back outside the motel window that the Winchesters had luckily managed to return to their own universe through, Raphael (dressed up in a whole new, differently gendered vessel) squeezed her fist and caused the brothers to double over, clutching at their stomachs in agony.
"The key." She remarked, picking the object that Balthazar had given Sam before he'd forced them into a whole new world up from the ground where it had fallen from the human's hand.
At that, Balthazar chose his timing well and appeared. "And that will open you a locker at the Albany bus station."
"Really." Raphael remained unconvinced.
"You see, I needed a modest decoy to make it more convincing."
It was at that point when the archangel finally realised Balthazar wasn't bluffing, so she became instantly more direct, not to mention furious. "Give me the weapons."
"Sorry, darling. They're gone." Balthazar acted nonchalant, knowing it would only serve to piss Raphael off even more. But hey, it was a small victory overshadowed by the larger, more central one.
"What?!" Raphael exclaimed.
"I said, too bloody late. You see, they were so well-hidden that I needed time to find them. So, I volunteered these two marmosets for a game of fetch with Virgil. You two were such an adequate stick." Balthazar then turned to address Sam and Dean, who looked startled and vaguely annoyed. "Thank you. Thank you, boys."
"You've made your last mistake." The archangel hissed aggressively, desperate to cause Balthazar even the slightest bit of doubt that his actions were justified. She was determined to ruin him in every way possible, even if he had the upper hand now.
However, Balthazar remained unfazed. "Oh, I've got a few more up my sleeve, honey."
Unfortunately, the sarcastic angel's final use of a pet name pushed Raphael over the edge. Evidently preparing to kill him, Raphael stepped purposefully towards Balthazar, raising her hand threateningly.
Keeping the same level of good timing as Balthazar, Castiel then fluttered into sight to back up his friend. "Step away from him, Raphael. I have the weapons now. Their power is with me." To rub salt in Raphael's wound of defeat, he showed off his full black angel wings in a dramatic strike of lightning, their shadow cast and magnified on the wall behind him.
"Castiel." Raphael breathed in a greeting of sorts, though her weakened voice proved she felt threatened enough not to attack.
"If you don't want to die tonight, back off." Castiel spat in a dark tone, his hooded eyes warning the archangel off with the truest intent. His menace worked sure enough; Raphael immediately teleported away, leaving Balthazar looking smug as ever.
"Well, Cas..." Balthazar took a few steps towards his friend, his expression elated due to their joint triumph. "Now that you have your sword, try not to die by it." After sharing his obvious concern as well as a warm smile, the angel also fluttered away, content with leaving the situation as it was. After all, he had absolutely no intention of hanging around and getting any more involved in the celestial war.
Now, his next stop was Gabriel.