The Third Man

Balthazar's POV – very end of Season 6 episode 3. One year since the Reichenbach Fall

I walk out onto the stage where my – well my vessel's – piano is to see my brothers. I must admit I was quite surprised to hear that after everything they were all able to put aside their differences and work together. If anything, I thought only Parker could pull that off. Well, Savannah too I suppose, but she enjoys the chaos far too much.

Yes, there they all are. The men I call family. Michael who has worked so hard to keep his newly reunited family together, Lucifer who must cope with the loss of his one true love, Gabriel who must protect his Savannah, and Castiel the baby of the family. Now I know it all sounds condescending, but I truly do love my brothers. However, considering what I know and what someone will do to me if I let it be known – condescension is my best bet…well, unless Luci gets his hands around my throat.

"So," I start letting my presence be known. "You're all here."

Michael looks at me coolly, "Balthazar."

"It's so good to see you all. He told me you were floating around," I tell them smiling a genuine smile. Remember, just like Cas and Gabriel, I had good times with my brothers before the bad.

Castiel's eyebrows knit together, "He?"

I gesture to my dead brother – the one with frogs coming out of his throat on the floor – with the hand that holds my whiskey. "I'm told you flew together." I let out a light chuckle before snapping my fingers and turning the lights on. My brothers stare between him and me. "Oh, you all know the old frog in the throat."

"Even I know that's a bad joke," little Cassy says looking away from Raphael's bitch. What? You all know it's true. "I grieved your death."

"We all did," Gabriel pipes up looking at him.

I roll my eyes, "Yeah sorry about that. I wanted them to think, ya know...so they wouldn't come looking for me."

Lucifer's patience, as it always has, grows thin quickly, "What is all of this you little runt? What the hell do you think you are doing?"

I smirk, "Whatever I want. This morning I had a ménage…uh, what's French for twelve?"

I see Gabriel cock his head in approval while Michael just stares at me. "You stole…the staff of Moses?"

"Sure, sure," I say walking passed him. "I stole…a lot of things."

"You were a great and honorable soldier. We fought together!" Castiel points out shocked at my little declaration. What? You haven't yet noticed that Castiel is innocent? Hm. I thought it was quite obvious.

I nod in agreement. "Yes, too many times to count."

"I know you, Balthy," Gabriel says stepping forward. "You're not some common thief."

I click my tongue and shake my head. "Common, no. Thief…" I tilt my head back and forth. "Eh."

Lucifer just sighs and is about to say something when Michael jumps in stopping him. "We need your help."

"Oh, I know. I've been hearing all about it," from someone you think is dead I think in my head. "As far as I'm concerned – Michael, Lucifer, Gabriel – nothing's changed. We're brothers. Of course, I want to help you get back at the man that caused your precious girl's death."

There's a small twitch in Lucifer's face while Castiel's smiles, "Thank you." Then his mouth opens slightly as if to say something else, but he stops. I raise an eyebrow.

"We need the weapons of Heave-" Michael starts.

"Don't ask that," I tell him.

Lucifer steps up to me, "Why take them? Why run away?"

"Because I could. What other reason do I need? Look. I know what you want. You need your archangel swords because Raphael and Uriel are collecting them on their way to raise Zachariah. However, I don't have them. Father already spread them to the corners of the earth…along with the Savior's sword. Not as though it could be used now," I add quickly remembering that Parker is dead.

Frankly if you want to know about the Archangel swords go read The Sister Archangel. The Savior's Sword is what you should be really interested in. It was a sword forged long ago that was meant for the one that would sacrifice everything to save Heaven. It's all starting to click now isn't it? Yes, that means that the Savior Sword belongs to Parker and it cannot get into the hands of Raphael. Of course, that means we'd have to be able to find the damn thing.

"Boys, Parker tore up the pages. Ripped up the script. We have no rules anymore. It's just utter and complete freedom!" I say blissfully. What can I say? It's an amazing feeling.

Castiel gestures to the room, "And this is what you do with it?"

I nod with a sour look on my face. "Hey, screw it right? Dad's not coming back, so you might as well blow coke and jump on the bed. Parker made it so we could do anything, so I'm trying everything. What difference does it make?"

"Of course it makes a difference!" Michael screams. "It's civil war up there. If we can beat Raphael, we can end this. Just give me the weapons."

My eyes dart around the room as I let out a nervous chuckle. Michael could tear me apart if I didn't have the protection I did. The problem is remembering that I actually have protection now. "Do you want to know what's funny about you all? You actually believe that you can stop the fighting! It. Will. Never. Stop. Parker was our only hope. She's gone. So my advice? Grab something valuable and fake your own death."

I turn around and begin to walk away. "You've gone insane," Gabriel whispers.

Stopping myself, I turn around and face them all once again. Might I say that for as many times I've said Parker's name…Lucifer is holding it together quite well. However, the pain is not nonexistent. My poor brother. "Your little holiday is over," Lucifer says with a smirk. "Raphael knows you're alive by now."

"Oh, Raphael can try us – me anytime," I catch myself from saying us and feel a slight shock hit my shoulder. Don't cringe, don't cringe I remind myself trying not to turn around and glare into the room behind me. I continue looking at my brothers. "I'm armed. I'm sorry, brothers. All else aside, I'm really happy to see you all doing so well and working together. Especially after Parker. Even though you all still have those sticks up your asses."

Suddenly, a crack of thunder sounds and everyone begins to look around the room. "Was that you?" I ask them. They shake their heads no slowly. "Oh, that's my cue then. Tell, uh, Raphael…to bite me."

I click my fingers and the lights go back to party mode and I disappear to the underbelly of the mansion.

Fast Forward to when Balthazar comes back!

"Hey!" I scream at Raphael as he moves to stab Castiel with his archangel sword that he already found. He turns around. "Look at my junk." I hold up one of the weapons of Heaven – a large crystal.

Raphael holds out his hand, "No."

The crystal begins to glow and Raphael's vessel turns into…well…salt. I smirk and let out a chuckle at Uncle Raphi's expense. "Same thing happened to Lots wife. Iodize the poor sucker and your kitchen is stocked for life," I explain to all of my brothers as they recover from their fight with Raphael, Uriel, and their minions. I've heard those swords are no joke, but I never expected the archangel swords to have that much power. Too bad that the sword disappeared when Raphael was turned into an ingredient. That's what happens when you make swords that fuse with somebody's grace!

"You came back," Michael says unbelievingly.

"Well, now Raphael will have to go shopping for a new vessel. Should give you a nice long head start on him for the rest of the archangel blades," I tell them exactly what I was told to. "Till next time boys."

"Next time?" Gabriel asks.

"No time like the present," a deep voice says behind me as I hear the click of a lighter. Well, shit. I think as I turn around in time to see Dean Winchester drop the flame and I am surrounded.

I look around. "Holy fire. You hairless ape! Release me!"

"First, you are taking your maker off of Aaron Burcher's soul," Savannah Winchester declares as she steps out of the shadows with Adam the youngest of the Winchester siblings.

Rolling my eyes I respond, "Oh, am I?"

"Sam!" Dean yells.

The Sam steps out of the shadows uncapping a container of holy oil, "Unless you like your wings extra crispy…I'd think about it."

"Castiel," I say slowly. "I stood for you in Heaven. Are you going to let these –"

"I believe," he cuts me off. That little runt! "The hairless ape has the floor."

Savannah lets out a strangled chuckle and I turn to glare at her causing big brother Gabe to step forward putting his arm in front of her protectively. I look between all of my brothers before laughing a sarcastic laugh, "Very well." I say and return the boys soul. "The boy's debt is cleared. His soul is his own."

"Why are you buying up human souls anyway?" Dean asks.

"Ha! In this economy? It's probably the only thing worth buying besides witches souls," I realize I said that too late.

Lucifer steps forward menacingly. "Did you do something to the soul of Parker Bishop?" he asks with a low growl added to his already low voice.

Dean or should I say "Daddy" steps in. "How do you know about Parker anyway? She never met you, asshole."

"Are you serious?" I ask looking at him. "How do I know the girl that stopped the prize fight? Stopped those two" I gesture to Michael and Lucifer. "From killing each other? Gave up her life for a group of angels because she fell in love with one? Oh trust me…I know her. And to answer your question, I didn't touch her soul."

This caused the room to go quiet. Lucifer and Gabriel's eyes are wide and Dean wants to ask me about the angel his daughter fell in love with, but Michael saves his baby brother. "Then why bring up witches souls?"

"Because of Parker," I state. "Ever since her death, witches have been on the war path. They aren't happy about what happened to their most powerful member, the last member of the infamous Bishop clan. That means to stop them, Raphael has been buying their souls through the deceit, and they are quite valuable because of the power they hold. No I have answered your questions, release me!" I command.

"Suck it ass clown nobody said anything-" Dean starts but Lucifer has different ideas. He raises his hand and slowly lowers it, lowering the flames.

Dean looks back shocked, "Lucifer, what the hell?" My big brother just stares at me.

"How'd you use that thing?" he points to the crystal that I used on Raphael. "The power it would take to use that to destroy an archangel's vessel is astronomical. You don't have that power."

I feign a look of hurt. "You underestimate me," I joke, but turn serious quickly. "Not everything is a conspiracy, Lucifer. I know it's been hard. You were free because of that girl and now she's gone, and for that I am truly, truly sorry. I still love you. I never stopped. To see you in pain puts all of us in pain. That girl was your salvation…if only she could have continued to be."

He looks down for a moment before looking up. He wants to say something, but he just nods his head at me in thanks. Each of the angels grab one of the Winchesters – Michael: Adam, Lucifer: Sam, Castiel: Dean, and Gabriel: Savannah – and fly out of my house before Dean could make a response. I feel bad for my brother for the screaming he's going to have to listen to now that Dean knows his daughter was in love with him. I let out a sigh and snap my fingers causing another glass of whiskey to appear and the crystal to disappear.

Then I look up, "You know you could have eased up with the power you fused into that crystal. Lucifer could have found something out." No response causes me to sigh. "We have the weapons of Heaven to arm the others with, but we need those swords. They are hunting for the swords, too. We're bound to see them again."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," a light 18 year old voice sounds back.

I shake my head. "You've given up so much. Your mom has died, you almost died, and you can't be with the people you love because they think you are dead. You had to go through all of that because you wanted to stop the fight and free Lucifer. You decided to 'die' and reunite my family, steal the weapons of Heaven to arm them with, and find the swords to have Raphael take Lucifer's place in Hell. You don't deserve that."

"Everyone is born for something," her stoic voice says again. She misses them.

"Thank you for your suffering. I don't think I tell you that enough. I want you to know something, though. I pray to my Father every night that you will one day get the life you deserve with the people you love," I turn around to see a 5'10" athletic – bordering on too skinny – frame leaning against the doorway playing with the necklace Lucifer gave her. Brown hair covers one of her forest green eyes. "Because you really, really do deserve that, Parker."

Those green eyes slowly were raised to look at me. She wants to say something. How do I know? That pain that shows in her eyes is the same exact pain Lucifer had when he looked back up at me. They both have things to say, but are too prideful to say them. Quickly her eyes are overwhelmed once again with fierce determination – determination to save her family and mine. "We have work to do."