Thanks to everyone for the spike in reviews/viewers again! Welcome to the ride.

Balthazar carried the unconscious hunter over to a bed. He had taken the liberty of getting a room with her money, but Catherine's possible annoyance on that situation was not even an issue for him right now. He just gently laid her down and looked back up to Gabriel, who was leaning against the wall with a little bag of gummy worms. Bal glared. "If I knew you wouldn't turn me into dust, I'd punch you."

Finally, he felt safe enough to actually talk. Or, rather, he felt that Catherine was safe enough.

Gabriel just smiled back. "Even then, you still wouldn't. I saved your girlfriend, remember?"

He didn't bother to correct the remark or glance to her, before Balthazar straightened up and moved closer to his elder brother. "You summoned those ghosts."

"Maybe." Gabriel took a bite of his candy, allowing Balthazar to lead their conversation. It was better that way.

And lead he did, getting gradually more and more annoyed. "Were you actually that bored? Was that really the best thing you could do with your time? Really?"

"Yes," the archangel smugly replied, moving off of the wall and planting himself in a chair at the table. Once he was done licking his fingers and Balthazar hadn't ran on, he continued. "It was the best way of doing things without revealing myself. I'm supposed to be dead, you know."

"Revealing yourself," Balthazar scoffed. "So, what? You've been in hiding this entire bloody time?" Probably not and he knew it. However, this was a better way of getting questions answered from someone like Gabriel, who preferred to have as many cards up his sleeve as possible.

"Oh, no. Luci shish kabob'd my ass," Gabe shook his head and smirked again, "Just like Castiel shanked yours."

Already, his tactic had backfired in his face. Of course. Bal shifted. "What do you mean? How do you know that?"

"Just because I can't fly doesn't mean I'm blind. I can see you," he pointed to the younger angel, "The scar's still there." Balthazar brought a hand to his chest before looking back to Gabriel, who just smiled. "I've always liked those zombie movies. Especially that Thriller thing. You remember that?"

"We are not zombies," Bal sighed.

"Well, what else would you call us? Lazaruses? … Lazuri?"

"Okay, stop." the younger angel put a hand to his head and rubbed his eyes for a moment. "Let's just... go back. If you didn't want to be revealed, then why did you show yourself?"

He raised an eyebrow and crossed his legs. "Balthazar," he said in a mock tone, "Are you not thankful?"

Now this was something he really didn't want to admit, so Balthazar just groaned in response to the direct question. "If you really wanted to hide, I don't think that one human's life would have swayed that decision on your part."

"Maybe. Maybe not." Gabriel shrugged one shoulder and pursed his lips together. "If she did die, I have a good feeling that you would have veered off your righteous path of hunting up those two knuckleheads and we can't have that."

Wait... "You know-... Of course you know about that."

"Did it ever occur to you," Gabriel leaned against the chair, "that the ghosts were actually leading you somewhere?"

Ah. Now things were getting a little bit clearer. Sort of. Balthazar sighed. "You didn't think to leave a note?"

"Incognito, remember?" He took a bite out of another piece of candy before continuing. "Though, I mean, the ghosts were supposed to be challenging, but not deadly. When I found out my stuff was getting tampered with, I started heading back the way I came. You guys showed up right after I smoked the demons, but you didn't really give me enough time to clean up after them."

Well, that did explain a few details, but not even close to the big picture, so Balthazar decided to just come out with it. "Why did it interest you so much that we find the Winchesters?"

At that, Gabriel tapped his nose and pointed back to the younger angel with a big grin. "Million dollar question, ain't it?"

"I wouldn't know," he just grumbled back, "I'm still trying to figure out what the hell is going on."

Gabe just shrugged and leaned back in his seat again. "It's not those bozos I want you to get to, though. It's Crowley. Just... trying to help you do exactly what you wanted to do really."

"I was going to ask him what the hell is going on," Balthazar argued, getting more and more agitated.

Especially as Gabriel nodded. "Exactly."

"You don't know." Bal sighed and rubbed his forehead before leaning against the wall as his brother had done earlier. "That doesn't explain why you're so interested."

"Please," his brother huffed, "Do you really think Abbadon wants the grace of an angel to kill one ego-centric crossroads demon?"

"Unless something really major happened while I was gone, which is entirely possible," Bal groaned, running his hand along his face and actually feeling quite tired, "I'm going to have to say no."

Gabe just raised his free hand. "And I want to know why. That's all."

"If you want to know why, then it must be something bad."

The elder scoffed and raised from the chair again. "There's a billion things a Knight of Hell can do with an angel's grace, okay? I'm just doing damage control."

Balthazar gave a loose smile to that. "What do you really think she wants, Gabriel?"

"She probably just wants to jump your vessel's bones," he answered, beginning to chew on another gummy worm.

Right. He wasn't going to get any answers from this and he knew it. Likely, Gabriel probably just didn't know and didn't want to admit it. At least, he hoped that was the reason or this really was a bad deal. "After the fall, an angel's power is weaker," he sighed again, "It's going to be easy for Abbadon."

"Ehhhh." Gabriel shifted and tilted his head. "That's kinda why she honed in on you, bro. Not everyone got the short end of the stick."

… Balthazar leaned off of the wall and squared his shoulders at this accusation. "Excuse me?"

"Your wings got seared off," he said, motioning to the other, "That only takes away flight, not everything else. Why did you think I had to do such a light show to bring one person back to life?" The other only had enough time to look back to Catherine before Gabriel answered for him. "We're dead, Balthazar. Zombies. Or at least, we were. Heaven hasn't gotten the memo that we're back yet."

He looked back to the archangel, genuinely concerned about this turn of events. "Heaven doesn't know that we're- Not the people up there, but Heaven itself."

Gabriel just nodded. "It'll catch the hint as more of us pop up, but for now? You just got whatever goods you came in with and no more. Looks like you went and used most of that up already... Well, I say most. Takes a lot of juice to bring someone back to life."

"She wasn't dead!"

Catherine groaned and stirred in her sleep from the outburst, but didn't wake.

The movement had drawn both angels' attention, but Balthazar was the one to shift in place and force himself to calm. Gabriel only bit at his candy with a smirk, opting wisely to not say what was on his mind.

Bal let out a long breath before finally turning his attention to Gabriel again. "Where are Sam and Dean?"

"Lebanon, Kansas," he answered back, happy to get back to business for a change. "It's kinda hidden, but you'll be able to find it. I'll draw a path."

"Not with more ghosts, I hope," Balthazar muttered, but continued before there were any comebacks. "What do you want out of Crowley and how do I find you again?"

Gabriel just smirked wider. "You don't. Just ask ye ol' king whatever you were already gonna ask him and that'll be that. I'll know what he told you."

At that, Balthazar furrowed his brow. "How?" he growled.

"Don't worry," was the chuckled response, "I'll know by your retaliations."

He hated this. Gabriel had a lot of ideas of what Abbadon was planning and he wasn't giving up any of them. Not that Balthazar could really do anything about it. The only reason the archangel hadn't down something about his younger brother's attitude was because he was being a willing pawn. Thankfully, Gabriel had been one of the better ones before he left Heaven, so there weren't too many qualms about helping him out, but he would like to know what he was aiding in exactly.

Instead of going down another path of conversation that would lead to dead ends, Balthazar glanced back to the sleeping Catherine again. "When will she wake up?"

"Whenever she starts feeling better," Gabriel answered, balling up his now empty plastic bag and tossing it into a garbage bin behind his Bal. "I'm sure it'll be any day now," he smiled, pushing himself from the wall and going to the door.

Balthazar, nearly alarmed, watched after him. "Where are- You're leaving now?"

"I finished my candy," Gabe shrugged back, opening the door. "I'll be in touch. Maybe. Hopefully not... Been a hoot, bro." Gabriel left with a wave. At least he had the foresight to quietly close the door behind him.

Catherine stirred again, but her eyes opened this time due to the sound of rain. What she found was a small motel room with Balthazar leaning against the window frame and watching the weather outside. Aside from his solemn look, it appeared as normal as the last few days have been, until her memories of the last time she was awake came back to her. After blinking for a moment, she began to sit up.

Hearing her movements, Balthazar was next to her in a second. "How do you feel?"

A little shocked that he had already moved, she looked up to him before swinging her feet to the floor. "I feel..." That was actually a hard question to answer in the moment. "Alive... What happened?"

He stood there for a second to make sure she was steady and to process her question, before giving one of his annoyed smiles. "My brother happened."

"The angel?" At this, she became wide awake and full of questions. The angel they had been hunting saved her?

"Gabriel," Balthazar growled out, sitting down on the bed across from hers and pointing to the door. "He just left a few hours ago."

Catherine quickly turned to the door before looking back at him again. "The... archangel?"

"He had been leading us to the Winchesters," he said, propping his chin up with his arm. "And he took care of the demons, of course. He wants us to speak to Crowley and figure out what's happening."

Her eyes narrowed to him, trying to put all of that together. "He was-... He couldn't just leave a damn note?"

Balthazar barked a hollow laugh before twisting around and falling back onto the bed. "Said he wanted to stay incognito, but at least he'll stop with the bloody ghosts... You know, I think I could actually sleep right now."

She shook her head in confusion. "So... he saved me, told you to find Crowley, and... left?" On that last bit, she looked back to the door again.

He just threw his arms into the air. "Not like there was anything I could do about it. Archangels are at the top of the food chain, after all."

"But why would he do all of this?" Catherine turned to look back at him again. "An archangel is interested in what Hell's planning?"

"Now you see why my best plan is to sleep through it," he muttered, not entirely liking whatever they had found themselves in the middle of. Abbadon was right. It was much bigger than he initially thought.

After a second, she finally asked the question he was dreading. "He told you where they are?"

Balthazar let out a long groan and rubbed at his face again. "Lebanon, Kansas. He said he'd mark the way for us."

"Lebanon..." She looked to the bedside clock and stood. "We can be there by tomorrow."

Balthazar only watched her stand, not making any movements himself. He kept his eyes on her even as Catherine began to walk away before she stopped and slowly turned back to him. They looked between each other for a long moment until she finally broke the silence. "Are you okay?"

Still, he watched her for another minute before finally reacting to the question and looking back to the ceiling again with a sigh. "Oh, I'm brilliant."

"Bal."

He paused in responding again. Really, he felt like he was only stalling and it wasn't from seeing those two boys again. He couldn't save her and things were only going to get worse. At least, that was the reason he gave himself as to why that was eating at him, rather than it had to be Gabriel, the one who didn't even stick around or care for her at all, that had saved Catherine instead of him. She needed him and he fell through and an apology was in order, but he couldn't dig it out. Perhaps it was her acceptance that he couldn't save her that was holding the words back, because that was also eating away at him.

Thoughts like that were... uncomfortable, so Balthazar just took a deep breath and rolled out of bed before she could ask him what was the problem again. "Let's just go."

Winchesters and (hopefully) Crowley will be in the next chapter! It still may be the chapter after next that we fully figure out what's going on from Crowley, but we're really really close to it now! Also, I can't really say right now how closely this is going to follow season 9's timeline. It's obviously going to skew off into an AU, of course, but I'm still trying to decide on Gadreel's placement in this fic, if he's going to have one at all.

Anyway! I hope you guys liked this chapter and I hope to have the next one up as soon as I can! I'm so excited for what's to come, guys.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!