So, a few notes. First, chapters might be coming a little slow again, as school is coming back in swing soon. Second, I apologize for typos and things I keep finding. This proves that writing and proofreading at 2am does no one any good.

Lastly, yes, Gabriel will be coming back. It's going to be a handful of chapters yet until he returns, but after that he's going to be pretty regular. Don't worry. You'll enjoy his return to the scene.

Welcome, new followers!

Catherine remained largely quiet as Balthazar did most of the talking. He knew them, after all, and she hadn't been a big fan ever since that Dean guy had gotten the jump on her. However, she did take notice to how Bal talked to them and what exactly he told them. He mentioned the demons, Abbadon, trying to find the boys, the ghosts, and no more. Nothing about Gabriel, and Cat took the liberty of honoring that idea. If he didn't mention the archangel then that was reason enough for her not to mention him. She trusted Balthazar far more than these two morons.

However, they proved to have just as much trust in the pair as they themselves did with the brothers. Dean was the first to bring it up. "Some angel painted this whole area. Who told you where we are?"

She couldn't blame them for wanting to know. They were hiding from angels, after all, but she still didn't speak. Balthazar continued on as he had been. "My sources choose to remain anonymous. If you have a problem with that, then you're just going to have to deal with it."

… She would have chosen a more peaceful approach, though.

"And you want us," Dean pointed between him and his brother, "to let you two... in our place."

Bal smirked to them. "Or you can drag the king out here. Either way, we're not leaving until we've had a nice chat with Crowley."

"Or," Dean continued, "maybe you can sit your asses here and we can go have a chat with him."

Catherine was getting as annoyed as Balthazar was, but he did a much better job of reigning himself in than she would have done. Honestly, she probably would have knocked them both out by now and let herself on in, but whatever. Still, he gave them a dangerous smirk and his eyes glinted just the same as when he faced off against Abbadon, what seemed like ages ago. "I didn't rise from the dead to argue with you two ignorant pricks."

"We don't even know her," Sam interjected, motioning to Cat before moving to the angel, "and you're not exactly high on our list of people to trust. Remember the Titanic? And the blood from your father crap?"

Balthazar's jaw tightened, causing Catherine to not ask after the Titanic until later. Dean, on the other hand, furrowed his brow. "Blood from your- He told you to do that?"

Sam rolled his shoulder and looked back to Dean. "I asked first but yes. Where else did you think I figured out that spell from?"

"A book!" the older brother exclaimed, "Why didn't you tell me that before we started including him-"

"Boys!" Balthazar brought attention back to himself after stepping closer to them. Once they had shut up, his eyes darted between the two of them dangerously. Catherine hadn't seen him this tense before, even against Abbadon, and she had to wonder if this was part of what was bugging him before or some whole other thing. He started speaking to them again, but slower and quieter than before. "Do either of you have any idea how old I am?"

Not expecting that particular question, the brothers didn't have time to form a comeback before he continued. "Because I am very very old... I am that old simply because of self preservation. Do you know what that means?" He didn't bother to give them time to interrupt again. "It means that I don't listen to two mortal heathens of God that like to send people on suicide missions against archangels!"

Catherine stiffened a bit, definitely not expecting the burst of anger or the mention of his death. She had no idea they had been involved and this was not the situation she wanted to be in when she found out.

The brothers shifted under his gaze and Dean swallowed a lump in his throat, but it was Sam that the angel approached further. "I died because of you two imbeciles... I want to speak to Crowley. Now."

Sam glanced over to his brother, not daring to speak for the both of them in the situation he was in, even if he was the one that had pissed the angel off in the first place. Dean, shifting again, took in a deep breath before admitting, "Castiel's here."

It took a long moment before Balthazar looked over to the speaker. "Then by all means," he spoke, "warn him."

The brothers shared another look, before Dean slowly nodded. "Wait here," he told the pair without glancing over, patting his brother on the arm and walking around them all as he went back to the front entrance. Sam slowly moved around the angel to follow after his brother quickly.

Balthazar watched the two go until he could see Catherine out of the corner of his eye and turned back to avoid looking to her. She watched him for a long moment while he continued to say nothing. In all honesty, she hadn't asked after his death before for several reasons, most of which were led from respect. However, she no longer cared at this point. "What happened?"

He didn't bother being annoying and asking what she was referring to. It was a little obvious and he couldn't really blame her. So, Balthazar finally turned back to face her again. "They might have been involved in... all of that nonsense." She did not look in the least bit pleased with his answer, so he adjusted his jaw and tried again. "They asked me to keep an eye on someone and I did. That person found out and I ended up dead. That double agent stuff is only good in theory really."

She nodded back, looking away from him as she searched for a border between angry and upset. "Why does that angel matter so much, then?"

It was Balthazar's turn to shift this time and he sighed while folding his arms in front of his chest. "He may have been the one I was meant to keep an eye on."

"He killed you." She could not believe he did this. After all of that, all of the searching, all of the hardships, they had been looking for his murderer and his accomplices the entire time. It didn't help that the same people who distrusted that angel had still kept him around after he had killed Balthazar.

He, on the other hand, was thinking that the hunter had come to a completely different conclusion, but he would have liked to avoid this conversation all the same. "Well, I had my back turned at the time, so I couldn't really say for sure if-" His sentence trailed off due to her glare. Right. Bal gave another deep sigh. "Yes. Castiel was the one who killed me."

Catherine let out a hollow laugh as she rubbed her eyes with one hand. "You weren't going to tell me." It wasn't a question. She wouldn't have come here if he had told her. "What made you think it was a good idea to seek out the guys that ended up getting you killed? Did you think that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same spot or something?"

… Perhaps he should have known better for her to question whether or not he deserved to be killed, but it only put the conversation on a different path that was just as difficult to get through. Trying to not show his surprise at her reaction, he just adjusted to the new situation. "They have Crowley," he told her, "What else were we supposed to do?"

"Go after Abbadon," she answered the obvious, "Confront the bitch face to face instead of getting tangled up in more people who want us dead."

"They don't want us dead," he argued back, not entirely sure if that statement was true and definitely not liking this conversation. They had fought plenty of times before, sure, but that was usually over senseless things, not... an actual fight. "They didn't exactly intend for me to die when they sent me on my merry way, and Cassie was nuts at the time."

She was quiet for a second, giving him an incredulous look. "Is that supposed to make me feel better about this?" She was fairly sure it wasn't making him feel any better about it, given the way he had mentioned his death before. He didn't answer her, so she continued. "What are we even doing here, Balthazar? Unless this is some sort of revenge plot that you've also neglected to tell me about."

"If this was about revenge, I would have killed them," he answered all too honestly. "Does that help?" Bal stood resolutely as she glared back at him. Again, not the first time she shot a look like that towards him, but it was the first time that she really meant it.

Finally, after another tense moment, she approached him as he looked away again. "If you want to help, then tell me why we should trust them any more than Abbadon. How am I supposed to know that they won't kill us when our backs are turned?"

He looked back to Catherine, seeing just how serious and... worried she really was. "Fine. Don't trust them," he eventually answered. "But trust me." That only seemed to make her angrier. "Do you trust me?"

"Balthazar-"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes!" she finally exclaimed, "But what am I supposed to trust after they kill you? Again?"

For a second, he didn't have an answer to that. He was angry with the Winchesters and he was far more than angry with Castiel, but, so long as something bigger was going on, he knew that he was in no danger, Cat even less so. That is, so long as they didn't start any trouble. "I just need you to believe in me, Catherine," he finally spoke, "Please."

She didn't answer him again for a long moment, but finally just nodded instead. It wasn't like she was going to convince him to leave now and he was definitely going to get in there to see Crowley with or without her, so it was the only option she could go with. Still, she was willing to trust him despite that.

Footsteps brought both of their attentions back to Dean, who stopped approaching them when they noticed and pointed behind him. "You and Cathy wanna come in or what?"

Nearly growling, she moved her glare onto the Winchester before walking towards him, adding in a shove as she passed. "It's Catherine."

He watched her go before turning back to Balthazar who had joined him. The angel was going to tell him that she was harmless, but revised his comment at the last minute. "I'd, uh... I'd watch my back." He continued on before Dean could make a remark.

Balthazar walked ahead of her as they moved down the stairs. Sam was standing on the bottom landing next to another young man. Catherine assumed that was Castiel until her own angel stopped in front of her and tilted his head. "Who's that?"

"Um, Kevin," the young guy said, shifting in place. He obviously didn't seem too comfortable with an angel entering their sanctuary.

"Kevin," Bal repeated before smirking and continuing down the stairs. "Charmed, I'm sure. Where's Cassie?"

Dean passed them by and answered before anyone else could. "Away on leave."

"You mean, hiding," Balthazar corrected. Cat glanced around the very nice room, making sure that it was just them there. This place was much bigger than it looked and she wasn't very comfortable with being led to wherever they were keeping the demon. Thankfully, they hadn't asked for her weapons.

Dean huffed at Bal's comment. "You want to see Crowley or not?"

He only hummed in return, before Kevin and the brothers began walking towards a corridor. Catherine could hardly get a proper look around as she followed after the boys, still being wary of both Castiel and the demon. Then again, she wasn't so sure of what to expect from this infamous Crowley, aside from a really tough demon that, for some reason, had been kept alive by hunters. As if that alone didn't send up red flags about these people.

After a quiet walk, they all arrived in what looked to be a room devoted to archives, and she was already calling it a trap when they moved two bookcases aside. The man inside the room – chained to a chair with sigils poured over the walls – blinked at the sudden light, but held a smile anyway. "Decided to stop by and visit-..." Balthazar walked in ahead of Catherine while Crowley tried to find his tongue. "The Hell?... You're dead, my good chap."

"A preexisting condition," Bal smiled back while she placed herself beside him. Kevin tucked himself into a corner while the Winchesters stood at the entrance. She still wasn't comfortable about the situation, but at least they did seem to have Crowley.

"It would seem so," the demon finally said, looking the other up and down. "Bringing angels back to life, now. I have a funny feeling God wasn't involved in it this time, eh?" Bal didn't answer, so Crowley smirked. "Maybe you should ask your hosts. They know why the angels fell and I don't think you're going to like that story very much."

Sam looked to Dean, who interjected before that got any further. "We'll cover that later, but we don't know why he's back to life or the rest of the answers to what he's come to ask from you."

Balthazar only glanced to Dean in distaste before looking back to the prisoner, who smiled a little larger. "That so," Crowley chuckled, "Angels coming to demons for intelligence. I like that turn."

Catherine, again, looked around the room as Dean went back to standing against the door. It was then that she noticed someone else in the archive room approaching quietly. When his eyes fell on her, he had already stopped coming forward and didn't look as if he would interrupt anything. On the other hand, that didn't sway her opinion of him at all as he glanced back to Balthazar beside her. It didn't take a genius to figure out who it was. Dean turned, too, when he noticed her watching something behind them, but only nodded to the new person in the room. He nodded in return and took a careful step back.

After looking him over one more time, Cat turned back to the demon as he chuckled once more. "Please, Balthy. How can I be of some service?"

The angel took a breath and began explaining what he knew of Abbadon.

Finally. FINALLY. In the next chapter we will FINALLY figure out what the hell is going on. Why is Abbadon looking for an angel's grace? Why is Gabriel interested? When are they gonna make out? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Send in what you think is going on! I would love to hear your theories and, more importantly, see if anyone has figured out where this is headed.

Thanks for reading, everyone!