Hello again, all! As said before, this is a goodies chapter of things from this fic. Sorry to anyone who popped in thinking there was ONE MORE new chapter, but you're not entirely out of luck either. Here, I'm going to post summaries of scenes that I had to delete for the story to go fluidly and alternate paths this story almost took, so consider it AU ideas for this AU.
But first! I want to give a shout out to the reviewers. More importantly, the reviewers who have been with this fic for a good bit and who I have come to recognize and look forward to hearing from. They are: animagirl, Stardust67, FireChildSlytherin5, MusicIsTheSoulOfMan, R3ICH3NBACH, Marlowee1856, EmmaMarie, Quest's Tails, and CeliaSingsSongs. Let it be known that these guys are just the honorable mentions. I know I haven't really replied to reviews, but every single one of them was absolutely more than appreciated. I loved hearing about how you guys love a particular scene or certain emotions. It made it all wonderful.
Second! Everyone loves some music, right? Well, I may have been influenced by a few songs I've come across, most of which played on in the background as I typed up this beast:
lina-trinch dot dreamwidth dot org/5322 dot html (Replace the "dot" with periods).
So I may have made a playlist/CD sort of thing for this fic. Oops. Anyway, most of the songs that helped this fic along are there with links to YouTube and 8tracks for your listening pleasure. And yeah, I made cover art one evening after work when I was really tired. Don't mind me. Anyway, enjoy it as much as I've been. I hope you find a new song you like.
AND FINALLY! We come to the real reason why you're all here. Before we get to the twists and turns that almost made this fic something completely different, here's some of the scenes that I ended up completely taking out for one reason or another.
In Chapter 10: Instead of finding Gabriel right off the bat, the archangel heals Catherine, without the readers knowing why she's suddenly cured, then traps her and Balthazar in an alternate dimension of television genres, making them go through things such as post-apocalyptic war, Hunger Games-style survival, Victorian-era dinner parties, street racing, and other random scenarios. Their mission in every genre was to find each other (as they would always start out separated) and escape each world together. Eventually a situation would arise where only one of them could leave and the other would have been forced to stay behind. When they decided to stay together anyway even if it meant remaining trapped there, Gabriel would reveal himself and lift the illusion. It was a grand entrance fit for a grand character, but I decided that would have been a whole extra chapter or two added to the story, so I just skipped it and went along.
In Chapters 23-26: Something crazy happens during a fight and Balthazar is forced to leave his vessel behind, a lot like the Supernatural episode where Jimmy Novak was introduced. I didn't do this because I would have had to make up an entirely new OC and figure out how to get Bal back into his vessel. It was a neat idea, but not needed to forward the plot at all, so it was sacked.
In Chapters 30-33: After Catherine's death, Balthazar gets into a fight with a big group of angels and only just manages to make it out alive. Injured and leaving in a hurry, he quickly gets lost and accidentally finds the same house he and Cat spent their first night together. The car breaks down, ensuring he can't leave, and he gets very angry. It was going to be a very emotional scene, but if I added that, then I would have had to add Bal getting over his injuries, which would have taken some time. I could have added it right before Gabriel comes to look for him, but that would have changed how her ghost/soul started speaking to him, so I just skipped this, too. Instead, I put a homage to this idea in Chapter 33, where he dreams about that night.
In Chapters 30-36: Catherine's experiences while dead with Balthazar's grace. At first, I decided to push back any scenes with Cat's soul, because I wanted it to be a least a little bit suspenseful as to whether her soul still existed or not. There at last, though, when it was revealed that she had been with Balthazar the whole time, I figured you guys would just want to see what's going to happen next what with Bartholomew and Michael and all of that instead of reading about Cat questioning everything and not knowing what's going on. Another problem was that I couldn't decide on how to write it, what the setting would be, if Bal's grace would manifest itself to interact with her, if she'd figure out what was going on, etc. There were a lot of problems with this idea, despite how neat it would have been to explore. Again, there's a homage to this in Chapter 36, at the very beginning where Cat is realizing that she can't sense Balthazar's closeness anymore. I kept it pretty vague cause it's a little out of place to suddenly have the dead chick narrate.
In Chapter 33: Instead of getting interrupted by her ghost, Balthazar gives in and finally goes through Catherine's bag. A hurtful moment, but there's a sense of closure from her death there as well. He was to end up falling asleep with a shirt of hers. Again, very emotional scene, but I didn't want him to find a shred of closure, because she needed to come back. If he found some closure to her death and accepted it, it was likely he would have ended up listening to Gabriel and sent her to Heaven once she was found. Also, if he gained a little bit of acceptance of her death and she suddenly showed up again, it would have been very hard for him and he would have had serious attachment issues that I didn't want to go through.
In Chapter 40 or a possible second part to the fic: Balthazar stays on Earth and lives out Catherine's life with her. Not so much a deleted scene as much as I would have taken a bit of time to write out their life together. Also, there would have been a son involved. That was the entire reason I didn't write out any of this, because I figured they would eventually end up having a child. That would have been at least another 20 chapters or so.
In an epilogue: Their time in Heaven together. Balthazar is overprotective of her soul and never leaves, though she doesn't mind. In an extreme case of this, he doesn't allow anyone else into her Heaven or he kills them on sight. If I had continued on with this idea, he would have eventually been forced to leave her there for one reason or another and either he would have died or she would have been taken or something. Either way, if I wrote out this one for a lengthy bit, it would have more than likely been a sad ending and I wanted this to be a happy ending. Since I didn't write this, they are forever happy together in Heaven. Isn't that much better?
And now, here are a bunch of alternate routes this story very nearly took:
-Balthazar gets his wings back, but fails to find Catherine. It's presumed that her soul was destroyed. He goes back in time to Chapter 5 or so to tell himself to leave Cat in Sioux Falls. He explains that he fell in love with her and that she suffered because of it. Chapter 5's Balthazar doesn't really believe he fell in love with a human and takes the warning with a grain of salt. His curiosity leads him to stay and figure Catherine out. An alternate time line begins.
-Lucifer takes Catherine to Hell and either ends up making her into a knight (which was the original idea for this story) or Balthazar manages to go to Hell to save her.
-Michael had Catherine's soul the entire time after her death and uses her as leverage to control Balthazar. He starts out as an inside man against Gabriel and the Winchester's, but becomes their enemy as he's forced to fight against them.
-Balthazar's fears and predictions come true and Catherine's soul is happily with Sidney's in Heaven. Bal remains alone and vigilant for the both of them, living out the rest of eternity in heartache.
-Catherine allows Balthazar to not accept his grace and she leaves with him the night he confesses to her. More adventures begin as the resulting end is pushed back due to more prolonged fighting. Michael doesn't lose his graces and Gabriel's plan to trick Lucifer fails, possibly ending in someone's death.
-Catherine gains a slightly flirtatious relationship with Gabriel, Dean, or both. They care for her in return and Balthazar is extremely jealous. Her affections remain with Bal, but when he accepts his grace, she opts to be with Dean as he's human. She believes she would only hold Bal back and hurt him more when she inevitably dies. Bal doesn't argue or speak out when she leaves him, but he continues to love and watch over her, still hurt despite her trying to prevent it.
-After Catherine dies, Balthazar leaves the group with Castiel by his side instead of by himself.
-It's discovered that Catherine's soul was destroyed at the time of her death. This could have gone two ways. 1: Balthazar can't handle the loss, resulting in mass, horrible murderers everywhere he goes, hoping someone will kill him eventually. 2: Bal starts to quickly seem like he's over Catherine and her death. He's like his old self until someone mentions her, causing extremely violent and upsetting reactions.
-When he loses his grace, Balthazar also loses his memories. Catherine tries to help him know and remember who he is, but he doesn't really believe that he's an actual angel. He begins to subtly cling to her and distrusts everyone else until he warms up to them.
-Catherine goes through with Lucifer's deal, though not be choice. Balthazar tries to stop the war with the others anyway, dodging Luci's chances to give his grace back, but the war goes on, the world is destroyed, and he's the last living thing left. Lucifer forces his grace on him and locks him up in Heaven, completely alone for eternity.
-During the fight between Balthazar and Michael, things take a turn for the worst and the archangel gains the upper hand. He destroys Catherine's soul, forcing Bal to watch.
-During the same fight as above, Balthazar begs Michael to spare Catherine, telling him that he is willing to do anything. Michael takes him up on the offer and forces Balthazar to torture Catherine, effectively losing her trust, before she is released to safety. The two angels then leave to cause mayhem around the world. All the while Cat thinks that she was betrayed and Bal only acted like he cared for her the entire time. Eventually, with the rescue being forwarded by Castiel, they kill Michael and set Bal free. Balthazar instead surrenders to them as the guilt of what he's done has been eating him whole and he admits that he is willing to let Catherine kill him if she wants to do so. But, after learning the truth of Michael's manipulations, she lets Balthazar live under the condition he never comes near her again.
-While looking for Raphael, Balthazar is gravely injured and quickly nearing death. Catherine is beside herself with grief until an angel begins to speak to her. Bal tries to stop Cat from listening, but the angel promises to heal Bal if she agrees to be a vessel. Against Bal's begs and pleas, she says yes.
-Instead of Sachiel, the cherub, it is actually the goddess Aphrodite forcing people to fall in love, but they always end up dead.
AND that's it! If you really really want to read one of the deleted scenes or alternate courses, let me know and I might even write it out as an extension on to this fic. If you have your own ideas of things that could have happened, I'd also love to hear that, too. :)
It's like the extras on a DVD, isn't it?
Anyway, thank you all so much once again for reading. I hope you've enjoyed this little goody pack. :) This is my THANK YOU to you.