Sorry it's a day later than I promised. Things have been a little hectic the last few days, I'm hoping that they will calm down fairly soon as well. Lets push on!

Castiel considers his old friend warily. He would be a fool to think that Balthazar will not ask a high price for his aid and even though Castiel would place Dean above everything he suspects that this may prove to be a price that the hunter will find too high. Dean has ever placed too little worth upon himself in Castiel's opinion. Balthazar has been in hiding for some time, that the situation has drawn his attention cannot bode well for any of them.

He can feel Dean's soul, however, on the edges of their bond. He can feel Dean's mind screaming for him to come, begging for him to end this torment. It is rare that Castiel can hear Dean's thoughts about him, only in the moments when the hunter is so incandescent with rage towards him or desperate for his help that they seem to soar through the bond. This is a moment of the latter and though Castiel knows that Dean will not willingly or lightly betray him, he is equally as unable to stomach the idea of not going to him should the hunter verbalise his calls. Even this, this waiting for Balthazar to return and make his demands, is slowly eating at Castiel.

He needs to save Dean, he cannot lose the hunter to Raphael.

"It's only going to get worse you know," Balthazar's now familiar voice tells him as the other angel reappears. "You know what Raphael will do to Dean's soul the longer that he holds him."

Castiel knows, he knows all too well what the repeated touch of an angel upon a living soul can do. He knows of the madness that it can bring, the fear and the agony of it. He knows how an angel's grace can sear and tear at a living soul until only the faintest remnants of that which made the soul unique remain. In actual fact, something very like Sam would be created. Empty and all but soulless. There is a reason that he was dubious about getting Sam's soul back from The Cage.

"I'm aware," Castiel informs his brother with as little emotion as he can manage.

"And still you haven't gone to him. You're restraint amazes me, brother," Balthazar mutters and Castiel knows that the words are a jibe at him. He does not respond, no longer the same naïve angel that Balthazar has always known.

"I'm not going to simply rush in without some sort of plan," he informs the other. "I will be of no use to Dean if Raphael kills me."

"That's if there's anything of Dean left, of course."

Those are not words that Castiel wants to hear, not something that he even wants to contemplate and for a second he loses his grip on his temper. For a moment he reverts back to the man that he became eighteen months ago and that is something that he cannot afford to have happen. He needs to remain in control and he needs to be seen to be in control otherwise everything might fall down around him. If that happens, no matter what the outcome of saving Dean, Castiel's life will be forfeit.

Were it not for the number of his brothers and sisters who rely on his continued existence, Castiel thinks that it would be worth it to die for Dean once more.

"I take it you have a plan?" He asks instead, knowing that Balthazar would not approach again if he were not certain of his position. "And I assume that you will want payment." The thought of having to repay his old friend for services rendered sickens him, makes him think of a time before Lucifer when those he was close to would give aid freely and happily.

"Naturally, and in this day and age there's only one thing that has any significant value."

"Souls." It does not take much for Castiel to remember Balthazar's words when the Winchesters were holding him in the ring of holy fire. A number of times these last months, with so many heavenly weapons sold to mankind, Castiel wonders why he did not simply let the brothers deep fry him. To be in debt to someone is an inconvenience at the best of times and it had seemed better to clear it there and then. Now Castiel is not so sure.

"Yes, souls," Balthazar grins, the expression far more feral than Castiel is accustomed to seeing there. "Except that I don't want just any soul, Castiel," it makes something in the angel shiver. "I want Sam Winchester's."

"No, Sam would never agree to it," the angel insists even though a part of him thinks differently, a part of him believes that Sam would sell his soul in a moment if he knew what Dean is going through. It is not something that Castiel will permit, however. The Winchesters have sacrificed too much for one another and for the world for him to allow the cycle to continue. He does not want to contemplate why Balthazar is so keen to get his hands on that particular soul, however, it is neither the time nor the place.

"Don't you think that maybe that's Sam's choice?" Balthazar queries. "It's not like I'll be taking all that much from him, he didn't want it back anyway."

"That was then," Castiel points out. "You are not taking it nor being given a claim to it. Find something else."

"There is nothing else, Cas, it's Sam's soul or I simply won't help you. So how about we go and ask him?"

oOo

Dean hurts, although perhaps hurt is not a strong enough description of the sensation. His skin feels like it is at once too tight and again that it has been shredded into tiny pieces leaving an open window to his soul. The pain that Raphael has taken such delight in inflicting upon him over the last couple of days is a constant hum now, much in the same way as the torture of Hell was never ending. The real difference is that in Hell Dean could convince himself that he deserved it, that he had given himself over to that eternity. With the torment that Raphael is causing him, Dean cannot help but think on how unfair this all is. He cannot help but blame Cas a little for his plight because without this bond, Raphael would likely never have targeted him.

Dean is alone now, the archangel has left him for a time to recover himself a little. Dean suspects that means that the screaming was starting to wear thin on the ears of even an archangel's vessel, but what it probably really means is that Raphael is waiting for Dean to call Castiel while he thinks he is alone. It is not a trap that Dean will fall into easily. He will not call to Castiel aloud.

His thoughts, however, are another matter entirely.

Castiel will come for him, Dean knows, because eventually the angel will come up with a plan to get him out of this. The hunter knows that it cannot be much longer, that Raphael is tearing into his soul in a way that will either leave him a drooling wreck or as robotised as Sam was before his soul was shoved back down his throat. He knows that it cannot be long until Castiel comes for him, he hopes that the angel never does.

"This is your fault, you know," Raphael comments as he returns. "This war, my brothers slaughtering each other."

Even the presence of the archangel makes Dean's stomach rebel, makes a vile taste fill his mouth and throat as his soul rolls within him. He has never recognised it before, the way that his soul would react to things and people, the way that it shifts languidly when it is calm and tosses like a storm filled sea when he is angry, upset, or afraid. It is doing it now, shrieking inside of him even as he remains as stoic and silent as he can in the face of his tormentor.

"Why continue the pretence, Dean? Why carry on pretending that he will come for you and not blame you for all that we have suffered through? You taught him to become what he is, you convinced him that an angel can have free will. Angel's are not permitted to have free will, Dean. We do not think for ourselves, we are better than you!" With the final word he plunges his hand back into Dean's chest and this time there is something different.

This time when Raphael touches his soul, something shatters.

I think I just broke Dean... Oops?

Artemis