Once, Raphael had been known as the quiet, but kind, archangel, the one who comforted and took care of his younger siblings when they were upset, the one how you could turn to if you needed a quiet place to rest. Once, he'd known - well if not intuitively - how to be nice, how to care and take care of others.

Those days were distant now, and yet not - the change had only really began after Lucifer's Fall, and compared to the length of time since his creation, humans were still very new. Here, without the pressure of Heaven, Earth, everything in Creation weighing on him...it's easier to slide backwards into that. To reconnect.

But that doesn't mean he would have stopped Sam from closing the Gates of Hell. Had Sam still be waffling on it, Raphael would have been encouraging it, just comforting and providing strength while here. Not because of the Apocalypse but because closing the Gates of Hell was the righteous thing to do.

"If something starts to go wrong, I will tell Sam first. And I will give him time to tell you. But if he doesn't, I will tell you. Although it's likely I'd tell Castiel first." Because how ever much he didn't like it, Castiel had claimed the Winchesters as his, and that played into his decisions.