"You have got to be kidding me." These were Stu's first words upon seeing the outside world (or, to be more specific, reality) after stepping out of the small bubble life that was essentially his prison cell. The vastness of the main chamber of Balthazar's mind was truly overwhelming to his human senses, and he simply couldn't comprehend the iridescent swirls of angelic grace floating around him. It all appeared too beautiful to make any sense. "This doesn't look at all like a prison."

"Well… it is." Gabriel's reservoir of excuses had run dry, so he mustered up a half-hearted reply and hoped Stu would buy it.

"I don't believe it. This place looks like something out of a bloody sci-fi TV show." Stu remarked comically.

"You ain't too far from the truth, buddy." The archangel muttered under his breath, then turned back to Stu with a forced smile and an overly cheery tone. "Yeah! It sure does. But it's also real, and we really have to go now 'cause Balthazar's in trouble, remember? Great! Now that's all cleared up, let's go-"

"Hang on a minute…" Glaring suspiciously at Gabriel, Stu stopped him in his tracks. "How do I know this is all for real? None of this makes the slightest bit of sense, logically, and why should I trust a stranger of all people?"

Gabriel was getting restless now, especially as he was well aware of the limited time they had to help Balthazar. However, he also knew that if he couldn't get Stu to trust him, he could revolt and potentially eject the angel possessing him, making the situation a whole lot worse. So, he remained as patient as possible, considering the circumstances. "Okay, I understand why you're thinking that way, but we've been through this before – why would I invent something so stupid? If I was lying, I'd make up something more believable, right?"

"Very well. God, I swear I'm dreaming." Stu reluctantly agreed.

"If you are, then you'll wake up soon. Now come on, we really, really have to go." Gabriel grabbed Stu's arm and led him through Balthazar's (and technically, his own) mind before he could protest again.

This time, instead of selecting an arbitrary door to enter, Gabriel felt as if he were being guided by some kind of superior force to the necessary memory; he wasn't sure if this was because Balthazar was subconsciously accepting his help by leading him to where he was, or if it was down to Stu's recent freedom and active presence in his/Balthazar's mind, or perhaps it was a mixture of the two. Regardless of the reason, the archangel and the human soon gravitated towards a particular door that swung wide open before they were even in the close vicinity. Knowing this was the way to go, Gabriel entered first by cautiously yet courageously stepping through, closely followed by Stu.

Upon crossing the threshold of where the memory began, Gabriel knew instantly that this was where Balthazar was trapped. First of all, it wasn't just a singular memory – it was a loop of a few different memories continually repeating. And secondly, Balthazar wasn't actively participating in his memories – he was simply stood there in the memory, not speaking or rehearsing the actual events, only watching silently.

The first memory in the loop appeared to be set in one of Heaven's wars (either the Michael versus Lucifer Apocalypse war or the more recent civil war), and it was just after Balthazar had faked his own death for the first time. Castiel was in a defensive fighting stance at the very centre of the battlefield – the large meadow where most celestial conflict ironically took place – where he clearly didn't want to be, although the situation called for it. He was participating in weapon-to-weapon combat with some generic angels of a similar rank, blades blurring in a rapid flurry of violence, when he noticed his best friend was no longer fighting by his side.

"Balthazar?" The lone seraph called out in initial confusion, then his voice raised in panic when he realised Balthazar was nowhere to be seen. "Balthazar!"

Frantically avoiding knife blows or punches, Castiel manoeuvred his way around the field in an attempt to locate his missing friend, but his search was fruitless. Balthazar wasn't Gabriel, therefore he lacked the ability to create a convincing illusion of his death to other supernatural beings; instead, he had to settle for a more vague deception of leaving in the midst of battle and never returning, leaving his departure to the limited imagination of the angels. In short, after not having found a body, Heaven assumed he had died.

It didn't take such a small amount of time for Castiel to accept this, however. He continued with the battle until it came to a natural end, but the first moments in which there was nothing to do, nothing to distract him from the grief of losing his dearest friend, were the worst. The angel crouched down in the field, where he had last seen Balthazar, and squinted into the distance, scanning the area he could perceive by eyesight in the hope that he could detect even a small hint of his friend. Closure was all he was looking for, just the knowledge that Balthazar was definitely gone, that he was in a better place. Of course, Castiel would never know if death brought a better place for angels, though he made accurate judgement that anywhere could be better than a corrupted Heaven wrought with war and suffering.

During all this, Balthazar from the present remained in an invisible position four feet away from memory-Castiel, his eyes blank and unseeing, his face completely devoid of emotion. Gabriel was just about to reach out to him when the memory morphed into a different one, like a TV channel changing without anyone having touched the remote control.

The second memory in the loop wasn't all too dramatic, although it did hold a certain degree of significance for Balthazar, hence why it was one of the memories he was trapped in. It was a moment from around a year ago, when Balthazar had the unique and morally questionable idea of buying human souls through a crossroads demon-esque contract deal, and Castiel had tracked him down as a result. It was just a repetition of their whole conversation, with Cas acting warily concerned, and Balthazar acting obnoxiously nonchalant as always. Meanwhile, present tense-Balthazar acted as passive as he had been doing.

Gabriel was a little puzzled about why this memory stood out, but this was soon solved when the last memory started rolling.

The third memory in the loop was the most recent in Balthazar's mind: Castiel killing him. Technically, he killed an illusion of him, not the actual angel, but that wasn't how Balthazar saw it. All he envisioned was his best friend succumbing to the ultimate betrayal by, quite literally, stabbing him in the back in an act of cold-blooded murder. In the past two memories, present-Balthazar had been standing off to the side as he observed the scenario, but in this one, Balthazar was in the same place as his illusion. He was the one being killed.

This was the moment when it clicked for Gabriel. Balthazar wasn't stuck in random significant experiences of his life, because all these moments contained a certain person. Balthazar was trapped in the story of him and Castiel.

Gabriel knew his friend wouldn't be able to free himself from his own mind until he broke the cycle of feeling so very betrayed, and the archangel figured the best way of causing this to happen was to enforce it. Therefore, he stepped forward just as the memory loop was restarting, and addressed the angel with a firm tone.

"Balthazar. Look, I understand the pain and hurt you're feeling right now. Hell, I had to deal with it about ten times worse when ol' Luci killed fake me. Difference is, I didn't have any friends to haul my ass out of the fire for me, but you do. And when I say 'haul ass', I mean I will literally drag you, kicking and screaming, out of your own damn brain if I have to. So you better snap out of it, pronto, buddy!" Gabriel yelled forcefully, but Balthazar gave the exact same response that he had for everything else so far. He remained completely passive, giving no indication whatsoever that he was even aware of Gabriel's presence. Instead of feeling upset or put off by this, the archangel only became frustrated. "Ya hear me?!" He added, desperate for a twitch of an eyelid, just anything to let him know his friend was still in there.

At this point, Stu intervened, placing a hand on Gabriel's arm in a gesture of restraint. "Maybe we shouldn't charge in, all guns blazing. The volume of your voice isn't going to affect Balthazar's state if he's feeling as trapped as he appears to be. Just tone it down a bit, eh?"

Although he knew Stu's advice was valid and he was only trying to help, Gabriel couldn't help his rage bursting out. "What's your plan, then? Hm? I mean, you're just a stupid ape that was as trapped as Balthazar was until I got you out! What use are you?"

Stu was shocked and utterly affronted for a moment, but he knew he couldn't focus on his own feelings. He felt sympathy for Balthazar, and empathy for Gabriel, so he wasn't about to pretend he didn't by acting insensitive and arguing over some petty, off-the-cuff comment. No, he was far more mature than that. So, swallowing his infuriation and sarcasm that was dangerously close to the surface, Stu took the moral high ground. "I'm going to ignore that, because quite frankly, it doesn't deserve a response. But this I will say: give me a chance, alright? You helped me escape and brought me here for a reason, so I'll be damned if you'll push me away now. Take a moment to cool off, and I'll speak to Balthazar."

Guilt and regret was written blatantly on Gabriel's face from making such rude remarks about Stu, but he knew it wasn't the time to apologise. Instead, he heeded the human's words, though his anger still hadn't simmered down entirely, meaning there was still a passive-aggressive phrase ready to roll off his tongue. "What do you know about Balthazar? I'm his friend, I know what to say to him. What makes you think he'll listen to you?"

"I don't think he has much of a choice in the matter." Stu retorted, then regained his sincerity. "Besides, what harm can it cause? I'll speak, and he'll listen. If it doesn't work, we'll do something else. Trying never hurt anyone, did it?"

Gabriel had to admire Stu's resolve. All reluctance and bitterness gone, Gabriel stepped back and smiled, allowing Stu to take to the floor. "Fine by me. Go ahead."

Taking a hesitant step closer to Balthazar, Stu clasped his hands together nervously as he began to speak. "Balthazar? I know you can hear me, but of course there's no pressure to answer. Now, I'll be honest with you, I don't have a bloody clue who you are. I don't know what kind of odd, superhero comic type of business you're wrapped up in right now. I've never met you before in my life, and I don't imagine I will again once this is over. But your friend here has told me good things about you. You're a nuisance, and perhaps more trouble than you're worth, if the way Gabriel talks about you is anything to go by. But all in all, you are a good man. By the sound of it, you're also destined to save many lives and defeat evil. And you can't very well do all that if you're stuck here reminiscing about things you can't change, now can you? Sure, life's a drag sometimes, but it's the heroic moments that are worth living for. Life's a battle, but no one ever overthrew the bad guys by sitting there thinking and watching. You've got to take action. Get up off your arse and win.

"I probably have no influence on you, but Gabriel believes in you, and that's enough. The faith of one person is enough to motivate you through the bad times. Think of him. Think of all the people who could be in terrible situations if you don't muster up the courage to save them. Just do it. If not for me, or even Gabriel, then do it for yourself. I mean, staying in here forever would be so boring! And your reputation won't exactly come out smelling of roses. That's just about everything I came here to say. I'm done. I just hope you decide you're not."

"Damn, that was a good speech! Sure, it was cliché as hell for the most of it, but that was Oscar-worthy!" Gabriel remarked playfully, yet meaningfully.

Before Stu could reply, Gabriel interrupted again. "Hang on a sec… The memory loop – it's frozen."

Sure enough, the repeated loop of memories had stopped rolling, causing silence and a slightly uncomfortable atmosphere to descend. Gabriel and Stu didn't make a sound, didn't even breathe, in the next few moments. Just when it felt like nothing would change, Balthazar's head slowly tipped upwards as he turned to take in his surroundings, then Gabriel, and finally, Stu.

"Thank you." The angel whispered with the utmost gratitude.

When Gabriel blinked, he was back in the real world, back in the safe bar on Earth. It took a moment for him to grow accustomed to his location, especially since exiting someone's mind was massively disorienting. Once his eyes were focused again, his gaze immediately snapped onto Balthazar, who was still sat in front of him, staring blankly into space.

"Balthazar? Balthazar, are you with me? Oh, please tell me that whole thing worked…" Gabriel anxiously studied his friend's face, clinging onto the never-diminishing hope that he'd be okay, that everything would be okay again. Just when the archangel was fit to burst with panic, Balthazar snapped out of his trance.

"Bloody hell." He breathed, blinking rapidly as he adapted to the outside world again.

Gabriel felt vaguely light-headed as the adrenaline left him in one big rush. It was such a relief, knowing his friend was just fine after such an excessive roller-coaster of fearful, painful and sorrowful emotions. "Balthazar, you scared the crap out of me, man!"

"Yes, I rather scared the crap out of myself, too." Balthazar would have laughed if he weren't so overwhelmed.

"I thought you were gonna stay like that forever. How come you didn't snap out of it as soon as I got thrown out of your mind?" Gabriel inquired.

"It took a short while for me to re-organise my head, it was kind of all over the place, darling. And then there was Stu…" Balthazar sighed regretfully. "He is such a brave fellow, Stu. So brave and so very kind at heart. But since you broke him out of his happy little bubble in his mind, it was more difficult to keep him out of the picture this time. I had to create another illusion and trap him in there again. I'm back now, though, and that's all that matters."

"Yeah I suppose. I really do feel guilty about deceiving Stu, though. Are you sure he's okay?" Gabriel asked.

"Of course. If he thinks he's living in the real world, it doesn't take much to please him. There's no need to worry about him. And besides, vessels are only collateral damage and it's not like angels have ever cared about that, right?" Balthazar's nonchalant tone was really quite inappropriate, but Gabriel decided not to instigate an argument about that or his attitude towards humans. It wasn't the time, so he smoothly changed the subject.

"Speaking of collateral damage, I'm guessing there's a hell of a lot of it surrounding Castiel right now. Wanna go check it out?"

"What, and reveal I'm still alive? I don't think so." Balthazar scoffed.

"No, I mean go spy on what's going on, not get involved. Silly." Gabriel smirked.

"Maybe not just yet. We could do with some chill time."

"Good call. I'll get drinks."

Although there were some hard times ahead for the angels and the rest of the world yet, now was the time to kick back and relax. At least while they still could.

A/N:

I have gone off on a ridiculous tangent in this whole story, and I really am sorry about it. Right now, I'm going on a mini Christmas hiatus, but when I come back in the new year, I promise I'll get back on track. This story is far from over, and I will get on with it.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great holiday, and I'll see you again in 2016!