(A/N)-Here is chapter 7, which continues to follow "The Third Man"! Reviews are lovely, so please, hit that little review button and type a few words. I don't own, you know the drill. (And I'm sorry if this chapter is a little slow. It kind of recaps the whole episode. Sorry about that!)

Lydia was on Sam's laptop, trying to find everything she could about the Staff of Moses. The boys had all gone to question Darryl Birch about the death of the police officers, but Lydia had volunteered to stay back and research some more. Anything to avoid Cas. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about him, and every time she so much as looked at him, her heart would skip a beat. She told herself it was stupid and she shouldn't waste her time, but she couldn't help it. She knew, in the back of her mind, she still had feelings for the angel that had completely changed her life.

"Cas, you realize you just kidnapped a kid?" Dean's voice caused Lydia to look up. Dean, Sam, and Cas were all back, Cas carrying a young boy over his shoulder. He laid the boy on the bed and studied him curiously.

"If the angel we seek truly bought this boy's soul, when a claim is laid on a living soul, it leaves a mark, a brand." Cas answered.

Sam looked at Cas and asked, "What, like a …like a shirt tag at camp?"

"I have no idea," admitted the angel. "But I can read the mark and find the name of the angel that bought the boy's soul. But it will be painful. Excruciating." Cas said.

Dean, to say the least, was against the whole thing from the beginning. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. He's a kid, Cas!" Dean exclaimed wildly. "A ki…Sam?" The older Winchester looked at his brother, waiting for Sam to back him up.

Instead, Sam asked Castiel, "Any permanent damage?"

"Sam!" Lydia yelled. "Dean's right! He's just a child! You can't do that to him!"

Cas completely ignored Lydia's cries of protest. "Physically, minimal."

"Oh sure! It's only minimal pain! That makes it okay, then!" Lydia sarcastically replied.

"Lydia!" Cas barked. "If I can get the name, I can work a ritual to track the angel down."

Dean cut Lydia off, knowing that sparks would fly if she opened her mouth. "And I'm all for that. But come on. There's got to be another way."

"There is no other way." Cas insisted.

Dean sounded absolutely horror-struck. "You're gonna torture a kid?"

"I can't care about that, Dean!" Cas was trying desperately to convince Dean and Lydia, to no avail. "I don't have the luxury!" Before Dean or Lydia had a chance to stop him, Cas stuck his arm in the boy's chest, causing Aaron to scream in pain. Dean tried stepping forward to stop the angel, but Sam held him back. The three humans in the room watched as Aaron's body lit up from the inside, then watched him stop screaming and slip back into unconsciousness after Cas had removed his hand.

"He'll rest now." Cas said simply.

"Did you get a name?" Lydia couldn't help but glare when Sam said that. How could he possibly have been okay with this, torturing a child?

Cas seemed trapped in his own little world. "I thought he died in the war."

"A friend of yours?" Lydia asked.

"A good friend." Cas nodded as he sighed.

"Well, now he's going around buying souls?" Lydia folded her arms across her chest. "Like a crossroads demon or something?"

"Balthazar." Cas replied. "I wonder…"

Lydia stared at the angel. "So can we find him now?"

"Balthazar." The hunters and Cas turned to find another angel in the room with them. "Thanks, Castiel. We'll make good use of the name." The angel pulled out an angel-killing sword and attacked Cas with it. The trench coat-wearing angel blocked it-barely-with his own blade.

"And by the way," the angel said, somewhat smugly. "Raphael says hello." Dean, Sam, and Lydia watched as Cas and the other angel fought violently. Lydia thought about jumping in and made a move to, but Dean's hand on her shoulder stopped her. She realized it was probably best that she not get involved, anyway; Cas was a good fighter. He could hold his own. Eventually, both angels jumped out the window and started to fall several stories down.

"Cas!" Lydia couldn't help but call her former lover's name and race for the window with the brothers. They looked down and saw Cas standing next to a destroyed car parked on the street. Only after looking at it for a few seconds did Lydia realize it was Sam's car.

"My car." Sam stared at his totaled car, horrified. Lydia had to bite down on her lip to stop herself from laughing.

Dean, on the other hand, looked positively thrilled. "Okay. Silver lining."

"He's gone." Lydia and the Winchesters turned back away from the window. Cas was already back in the hotel room.

"Alright Cas," Sam said. "Who was that guy?"

"A soldier of Raphael," Cas replied. "He must have followed me when I answered your call."

Sam seemed confused. "Raphael? The archangel? I'm sorry, what's going on here?"

Castiel didn't answer him; he only went to get a bowl from the cupboard. "I can explain later. Right now we have to…"

"No, not later." Dean protested, stopping Cas in his tracks. "Now. Stop, all right? Too many angels, Cas! I don't know who's on first, what's on second…"

"What is 'second'?" asked the angel.

Dean opened his mouth to answer back, probably to keep the joke going, but Lydia snapped, "Please don't start that."

Cas merely ignored her. "It is simple: Raphael and his followers, they want him to rule Heaven. I-and many others-the last thing we want is to let him take over. It would be catastrophic."

"You're talking civil war." Sam seemed to realize the gravity of Cas' situation.

Cas nodded. "Technically, yes. Which is why we have to find Balthazar and the weapons before Raphael does. Whoever has the weapons wins the war." Cas then reached under Sam's bed and grabbed the weapons that were in a bag.

"And what happens if Raphael wins? What-what does he want?" Dean asked.

Reaching through Sam's bag, Cas pulled out a flask of Holy Water. "What he's always wanted-to end the story the way it was written."

"You mean the Apocalypse?" Dean pressed. "The one that we derailed?"

"Yes. That one." Cas continued to rummage through the bag. "Raphael wants to put it back on the rails."

"But why?" Lydia finally chimed in. There were so many questions that Castiel wasn't answering, and it was frustrating her to no end.

But Castiel didn't answer her; he simply ignored her question, as if she hadn't said anything at all, just like he had been doing since they were over. "I need myrrh."

"Cas!" Lydia was really frustrated now. "Can you slow down and tell us exactly what's going on?" Then, as an afterthought, she added, "Myrrh?"

Cas, however, was already reappeared behind Dean and was drawing on the kitchen table with chalk. Dean tried again. "Why does Raphael want to bring back all this crap?"

"He's a traditionalist."

Dean sighed. "Cas, why didn't you tell us?"

"I was ashamed." The angel said calmly. "I expected more from my brothers. I'm sorry." He looked up at the hunter. "I need your blood." Cas reached over, grabbed Dean's palm, and sliced it.

"Whoa, whoa! Hey!" Dean winced in pain. "Why don't you use your own?"

"It wouldn't work," explained Cas. "I'm not human."

Dean squeezed his hand shut and watched as the blood ran down his hand and into the blood. Cas then added myrrh, the Holy Water, and other things to the bowl. The humans in the room watched, when suddenly, they heard sirens in the distance.

"Uh, Cas, how long does this spell take?" Sam asked.

"Got him." Castiel finally said. It seemed to take forever, and the sirens only got louder with each passing second. "Let's go."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Dean gestured towards the boy still lying on the bed. "What about him?"

Cas only looked confused. "Don't you think the police will take him home?"

Later that night, Lydia found herself with the two other hunters and Castiel, waiting outside a huge mansion. It was deadly quiet outside, and Lydia couldn't help but get an eerie feeling as she stared at the mansion.

It was Dean that finally broke the silence. "Huh. I was expecting more Dr. No, less Liberace."

All four of them started advancing towards the mansion, weapons drawn and looking around, ready for everything. Eventually, Cas found himself in a foyer, alone…except, he realized, for Lydia, who was right next to him. He didn't even know how they ended up in the room with each other, but she seemed entirely focused on the mission at hand, he decided that he should be, too.

Cas suddenly narrowed his eyes and was staring intently up the stairs. "Go back to Sam and Dean," he told her. "I need to go up there…"

"No!" Lydia impulsively reached out and grabbed his hand. Lydia blinked once, only once, and found herself upstairs. She looked around, surprised.

"What the hell…?" she looked back at Cas, who looked both surprised and angered.

"Why would you grab my hand when I am teleporting?"

Lydia shrugged indignantly. "I didn't know you were teleporting! I just didn't want you going alone!"

"Why not?" Cas' words were bitter and mocking. "I thought I 'disgusted' you."

"Jesus Christ, if you're going to be like this, I'll just go back downstairs." Lydia rolled her eyes and started for the stairs. Instead, Lydia felt her heart race when she Cas' hand touched her shoulder, holding her back.

"You can't go back down there now. You'll get yourself killed. Just stay with me right now."

Lydia shrugged his hand off of her and smirked at him. "I thought you said I was nothing to you."

"Sorry to interrupt…" Lydia and Cas both jumped apart, Lydia grabbing her gun and Cas his sword. Lydia stared at the man-angel?-in front of them. He was dressed lavishly and staring at the two of them with a smug look on his face. He had a British accent and looked at Castiel like they already knew each other. (Which, Lydia then remembered, they did.)

"Balthazar." Cas said. He hadn't seen his friend in years; he thought for sure that he was dead.

Balthazar smiled back at his brother. "It's so good to see you. He told me you were floating around." Then, he nodded at Lydia. "Pretty thing you got there with you. You finally got a girl, huh, Cas?"

"I'm not his girlfriend…"

"She's not my girlfriend…"

Lydia and Cas looked at each other, clearly annoyed with each other. They had both said nearly the same thing at the same time, and they looked less than thrilled about it. Balthazar had to resist a laugh-clearly, there was something between going on between these two.

"Anyway, Cas, I believe you and this guy over here know each other…" Balthazar flipped on the lights and stopped the music. The lights reveled the body of the angel that had attacked Cas earlier that day.

Cas stopped Balthazar before he could say anything else. "I grieved your death."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry about that, you know." Balthazar waved Cas' concerns away with a flick of his wrist. "I wanted them to think, you know, so…they wouldn't come looking for me?"

"What…" Cas gestured around the room. "…is all this? What are you doing?"

"Whatever I want!" Balthazar said it as though it was obvious. "This morning I had a ménage à…what's French for 12?"

Lydia decided that enough was enough. "You stole the Staff of Moses, didn't you?"

"Sure, sure," the angel with a British accent nodded. "I stole a lot of things."

"I know you…" Cas continued seriously. "You're not some common thief."

"Common? No. Thief? Eh."

"But you still stole the Staff!" insisted Lydia.

Cas sighed, obviously under a great deal of stress. "I need your help. I need the weapons."

"Don't ask that."

So much for that. "Why take them? Why run away?" Cas questioned his brother.

"Because I could!" Balthazar explained. " You're the one who made it possible, Cas. You did more than rebel. You tore up the script and burned all the pages for us." Balthazar laughed. "It's a new era. No rules, no destiny. Just utter and complete freedom."

"And this is what you do with it?" Lydia raised her eyebrow critically.

Balthazar shrugged. "Hey, screw it, right? I mean, dad's not coming back. You might as well blow coke and jump on the bed. You proved to me that we could do anything, so I'm trying everything. What difference does it make?"

"Of course it makes a diff…" Cas couldn't even finish his sentence, he was so angry. "It's civil war up there!"

"I know."

"You know!" Lydia grew angry as well. "Your brother freaking needs you! What the hell are you doing, fooling around on Earth!"

Cas nodded. "She's right, Balthazar. If we can beat Raphael, we can end this! Just give me the weapons!"

Balthazar, in response, only laughed again. "You know what's funny about you? You actually believe that you can stop the fighting. It will never stop. My advice-grab something valuable and fake your death."

"You've gone insane," Cas studied his brother closely. "Your little holiday is over. Raphael knows you're alive by now."

"Oh, Raphael can try me anytime. I'm armed." Balthazar didn't seem to concerned at the mention of the archangel. "I'm sorry, Cas. All else aside, I'm really, really happy to see you. Even though you still have that stick up your ass." He nodded at Lydia. "She's a nice-looking girl. Get laid once or twice, it might help a bit."

Instead of a response from Cas or Lydia, thunder sounded from overhead. The tiniest bit of worry showed on Balthazar's face. "Was that you, Cas?" When Cas shook his head, Balthazar took a deep breath. "Oh, that's my cue then. Tell, uh, Raphael to bite me." Lydia blinked once-only once-and Balthazar was gone.