A NEW ORDER
I do not own Supernatural, Star Trek, or Touched by an Angel, and I am making no profit off of this.
This story is going to be an alternate universe reworking of everything in Supernatural after the end of Season 5 and comes directly out of the events that occurred in Chapters 6 – 8 of my crossover story Time and Space. You won't have to read that story in order to understand this one though. Everything is the same in this universe as it was in the first five seasons of the show except for one thing. Gabriel manages to survive Lucifer's attack in Hammer of the Gods.
CHAPTER 1
THE RETURN OF AN OLD FRIEND
Dean Winchester had only been living with Lisa and Ben for a few weeks when trouble started up once again, and he got sucked right back into the life of a hunter. Deep down inside he always knew that he could never live a regular life, but he had really wanted to try.
He had wanted to do it for Sam because he knew that was what he had wanted for him. He had also wanted to do it for himself because he loved Lisa and Ben so much. They were like the family that he had always wanted growing up but had never got to have.
He really had tried to make it work. Apparently, it just wasn't meant to be.
The day that it all fell apart had started out like every other day for him since he had gone to live with Lisa. It was just another normal boring day where he was getting up to go to his normal boring job when suddenly he was given the shock of his life.
As he had just been about to head off for work, Jo Harvelle suddenly appeared in front of him out of nowhere. She looked scared out of her wits as she ran up to Dean and embraced him as if she were clinging on to him for dear life.
"Dean," Jo said as she began to cry in what Dean could tell were tears of joy.
Dean could say nothing for a moment as he stood there in shock while she refused to let him go. He knew that it was really her somehow. He didn't know how he knew that, but he knew that with absolute certainly without even having to test her to see if she was a demon, a shapeshifter, or anything else.
After what seemed like an eternity, he finally spoke as he said, "Jo, how are you back? I mean you and Ellen were blown up. You don't come back from that."
"Oh, yeah? Like you and Sam don't have a revolving door of death? How many times have both of you died and come back? You even know a Reaper on a first name basis, Dean. You're hardly one to talk when it comes to saying that it's impossible to return from the dead," Jo said angrily as she let Dean go.
Dean had to laugh at that as he said, "Welcome back, Jo. Now I know for sure that it's really you. No one else could ever give me attitude like that."
"I don't know how I'm back," Jo said in a low, scared voice.
"What?" Dean asked.
"I don't know how I'm back. I just am. I suddenly woke up in a deserted field somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea how I got there. My last clear memory before that was of dying in my mother's arms. Not a very pleasant memory to have to wake up to when you suddenly return to life. I have some very fuzzy memories after that of a place that I think might have been Heaven but I'm not sure. It's like I'm not supposed to remember too much about my time there," Jo said.
"Did you walk all of the way here then?" Dean asked as he looked her up and down.
She didn't look like she had spent a long time walking anywhere really. There was no dirt or dust on her clothes, and it seemed like she had just gotten up straight out of bed and come right over here. The biggest thing against that theory was that he had literally seen her just appear out of thin air right in front of him with his own eyes.
"I don't know. I've only been walking for what seemed like a few minutes, and it seemed like I was going nowhere fast. I could see nothing but endless desert all around me for miles around. I was lost and alone with no idea what was going on, Dean. I began to fall apart, and then I thought of you. I wished that you would come and find me. As soon as I thought that, I was suddenly here wherever here is. I've never been so glad to see someone in my life," Jo said as she embraced Dean tightly once again.
"It's okay, Jo. We'll find out what's happened somehow. Maybe I can ask Cas. I haven't exactly been able to talk to him lately, but maybe he'll answer the prayer hotline now. I bet he's the one who brought you back," Dean said as he returned her embrace in an attempt to comfort her.
"Why didn't he bring my mother back too? Why just me? What's so important about me?" Jo asked.
"I'm glad that you're back, and I don't care why or how at the moment to be honest. It was my fault because you died saving me from the hellhounds. I'm sorry. It should have been me that died instead," Dean said in tears.
"It's not your fault. I gladly sacrificed myself to save you, and I'd do it again. I would rather have a lot less pain the next time though, and I'd definitely prefer not to have my guts hanging out thank you very much," Jo said.
"How can you even joke about that?" Dean asked as he began stroking her hair without realizing it.
"I have to. If I didn't, I'd probably start screaming and never stop. That's your defense mechanism, isn't it? Face everything with humor?" Jo said.
"Yeah I guess it is. Don't tell anyone though. It's my little secret," Dean said.
"I promise I won't say a word," Jo said as she rested her head on Dean's shoulder while the two of them continued to embrace each other in gratitude.
They heard a throat clearing behind them, and Dean knew that it was Lisa. She saw the way the two of them were acting and had automatically assumed that he and Jo were doing something that they shouldn't. She had no idea that he was just comforting a scared friend. That was all that he was doing. It was totally innocent. Wasn't it?
"Lisa, this is my friend, Jo Harvelle. You're probably not going to believe this but up until a few minutes ago she was dead. Now she's suddenly alive again with no idea what happened. To say the least, she's pretty upset about it; and I know what that's like. I'm one of the few people on this planet who knows exactly what she's going through right now," Dean explained.
Dean could see her expression go from one of jealousy and anger to sympathy and concern in an instant as she saw the truth of what Dean had just said in Jo's confused and frightened expression. Dean smiled at her in pride and thought to himself that this was one of the reasons why he loved her so much.
"Come on inside and sit down. Are you thirsty? Would you like something to eat?" Lisa said as she started to lead Jo inside of her house.
"No. Oddly enough I'm not thirsty or hungry at all. You'd think I'd be starving but I'm not. Not in the slightest," Jo said with a surprised expression on her face as she just now realized that.
"Really? I was when I came back. I broke into a place to get some food right away," Dean admitted.
"I don't know what it is. I just don't feel hungry at all. You don't think that I'm some kind of monster, do you? I mean I feel human. Maybe you should give me some tests. Come to think of it, you didn't even test me at all, did you? You're slipping, Dean. Time was you would have done that right away when something like this happened. Apparently, living a normal life all of these weeks has started to make you go soft," Jo said.
"How did you know that?" Dean asked as he became suspicious of her for the first time now.
He got in between Jo and Lisa now as he began to fear that maybe Jo wasn't real after all. Lisa began to look at her in concern too now as both of them wondered how someone who suddenly appeared out of nowhere could know that kind of information.
"I don't know how I know it. I just did. Just like I know that you think that I'm here to hurt you but I'm not. I would never do that. I don't know what's going on. What's happening to me?" Jo asked in such despair that Dean instantly believed that it was her again.
"I don't know. I'm going to find out though I promise," Dean said.
Dean began to silently pray to Castiel in an attempt to summon him. Jo gasped in shock as she found that she could hear his prayer. Dean looked at her in equal shock now as she began to repeat what he had been praying word for word.
"Dean, how am I doing this?" Jo asked in a frightened voice.
"Jo, I think I know what's happened to you now. It would really help if Castiel would take time out of his busy schedule and get himself down here to tell me for sure though," Dean said in an irritated tone.
"You think I'm a what?" Jo asked as she read his thoughts again.
"Can someone please tell me what's going on here?" Lisa asked.
"I don't know for sure, Lisa. Dean seems to think that I'm an angel though. Isn't that hilarious? Me, an angel?! I know that you don't know anything about me, Lisa, but I can assure you that I'm no angel," Jo said.
"You're a lot better than some of the angels I've known I'll tell you that much," Dean said.
"Comparing me to Zachariah, Lucifer, and Uriel isn't exactly fair. They're not exactly your average angels. Not all angels are as bad as they were, Dean," Jo said.
"How would you know that unless you are one?" Dean asked as he grinned in triumph. She seemed to be proving his point.
"I don't know. I just do," Jo said in confusion again.
Lisa began to be afraid now. She had heard all kinds of terrible stories about angels from Dean, and she suddenly feared that Jo was here to destroy them all for some reason. Her mind went to Ben almost immediately. He was at school now, but if she was an angel she would know where he was instantly.
"I'm not here to hurt you, Dean, or Ben I promise. I'd never do that," Jo said to Lisa's unspoken thoughts.
"If you're not an angel, then how did you know what she was thinking?" Dean challenged Jo.
"I don't know. Maybe I could tell by reading her facial expressions? Duh!" Jo said in anger.
Lisa backed away in fear over Jo's sudden anger, and Jo immediately calmed herself down as she said, "I promise you that I'm not here to hurt anyone. I'm not even an angel so it's not an issue. You know how I know that for sure? Angels don't have emotions, Dean. In case you couldn't tell, I've just been going through several of them in the last few minutes. I've also been crying. Since when can angels do that? I thought that you were supposed to be the big expert on them, but I seem to know more about them than you do."
"You're wrong when you say that angels have no emotions. I've seen for a fact that they do. They just try their best to suppress them just like Mr. Spock in Star Trek. Everything seems to add up. I know exactly how to make you believe me, Jo. There's one sure way to tell if you're an angel or not," Dean said.
"Holy Fire," Jo said.
"Yes. Will you let me test you? I mean if I do this to you, you're not going to go all vengeful and smite me, are you?" Dean joked.
"I didn't even know that you knew that word," Jo said back with a chuckle.
"When you've been attacked by as many angels as I have, you kind of tend to learn that one really quickly," Dean said.
Dean went to get his supply of Holy Oil and left Jo there with a nervous Lisa. Jo smiled warmly at her in an attempt to assure her that she was friendly whatever she was. She was beginning to even doubt what she was herself now as she could keep hearing Lisa's worried thoughts about her as clear as day.
Then she froze in shock as she caught one particular thought of Lisa's. She knew that Dean didn't know this so there was no way that she would have heard it from him. If what she had just thought that she had heard from Lisa's mind was true, then maybe she was an Angel.
"Lisa, is Ben Dean's son?" Jo asked.
Lisa stared at Jo in shock. She was now totally convinced that Jo was an angel.
"There's no way that you could know that unless you just read my thoughts. You are an angel. I don't know why you've been sent here, but please don't hurt us. At least spare Ben. He's never done anything to anyone," Lisa pleaded.
"I promise that I would never do that," Jo said as she tried to put a comforting hand on Lisa's shoulder.
Suddenly Jo stiffened as she felt a presence nearby. It was an unnatural presence that she somehow knew right away was demonic in nature.
This was confirmed a moment later when Crowley showed up in front of her out of nowhere. She instinctively gestured at Crowley, and he began to scream as blinding white light came from her hands and struck him in the heart. She continued to attack with a constant barrage of it until she finally realized what she was doing and immediately stopped in shock.
She looked down at her hands in complete disbelief as Crowley said, "Are you done trying to kill me? If you are then maybe I could tell you what you want to know about how you suddenly got turned into an angel."
"In exchange for what, Crowley? You don't do anything out of the kindness of your heart," Jo said in a distracted voice as she still tried to recover from what she had just found out about herself.
"Is he a demon?" Lisa asked.
"Yes. He's one of the worst of them too. He's trying to make himself the King of Hell at the moment but so far he's getting his butt kicked by my old friend, Meg. You know that's one good thing that I can think of right off the bat about being an angel. I can finally smite the ever living crap out of you and Meg. I think I'll do you first," Jo said in anger.
"Wait just a moment. You don't want to do that. In addition to providing you with valuable information on exactly how that you're suddenly running around with a pair of angel wings, I can also tell you where to find Sam Winchester. He isn't in the cage with Lucifer and Michael anymore you know," Crowley said.
"Yes, I know. He's out there right now trying to find out just how he escaped. What you're not telling me is that you brought him back in exchange for trying to get him to work for you in order to get his soul back. His soul is still trapped in the box being used as a chew toy by Lucifer and Michael though. Am I right so far?" Jo said.
"How do you know all of that?" Lisa asked Jo in complete surprise.
"She's an Archangel now that's how. She's in the most powerful order of angels. She's only matched in power by Gabriel, Michael, Lucifer, and Raphael now," Crowley said.
"How is it that you know all of that? I didn't even know it myself," Jo asked.
"I'll tell you everything that I know for a favor of my choosing to be determined later," Crowley said.
"Oh, no. I'm not falling for that. You just want an angel on the hook with you. That's all that you care about. Go home, Crowley. I'm not helping you to beat Meg even if I do hate her more than you right now. I'll kill her for free not because you want me to," Jo said.
Crowley scowled in anger as he sensed that Jo's mind was made up. He had hoped that as a neophyte angel who was still confused and conflicted about herself that he could tempt her into making a bargain with him in exchange for more information about what had happened to her. Apparently, he had been wrong. It would have been great to have had an Archangel in his debt, but he now knew for sure that that was not going to happen. He decided to get out now while he still could. He could feel that she was debating with herself on whether to try to kill him even now. The only thing stopping her was that she wasn't sure if she could or not. He didn't want to be here or anywhere else around her when she finally figured out that she could destroy him quite easily with no problem at all now.
After Crowley left, Jo sat down in one of Lisa's chairs with her head in her hands as she tried to absorb everything that she had just learned about herself. Lisa finally lost her fear of Jo after she realized that Jo seemed to be just as lost and confused about the whole situation as she was. In fact, her heart was now going out to her.
As Dean finally came back with the Holy Oil, Jo looked up at him and said, "Some good you were. If I had to rely on you for protection, I'd probably be toast right now."
"A demon was just here," Dean said as he smelled sulphur.
"Really? It's a good thing that I have you here to tell me these things. It was Crowley, Dean. He was trying to trick me into making a deal with him in exchange for what he knew about me. Needless to say, I didn't bite so he went home before I decided to hit him with the Holy Light again," Jo said.
"So I was right," Dean said with a triumphant grin.
"Yes, you were right. I am an angel. I'm an Archangel according to Crowley. I still have no clue how or why though. I'll worry about that later. Right now, I have to find Sam and figure out a way to get his soul back to him," Jo said as she thought out loud.
"What? Wait a minute! You mean Sam's back, and he doesn't have a soul?" Dean asked in shock.
His heart began to swell with joy. He knew that Sam would turn up again. It was only a matter of time. He did have to admit to himself that he had started to give up hope recently though. The whole no soul thing had kind of thrown him for a loop, but he could fix that with Jo's help he was sure of it.
"Yes, I believe that I just said that. Keep up," Jo said as she began to smile at him in amusement. She loved being able to have one over on Dean.
"You know I was really hoping that you'd be more like Roma Downey, but you're turning out to be just like the rest of them so far," Dean said with a sigh.
"Relax. I'm still me. I always had an attitude if you'll remember," Jo said.
"I know. I was just hoping that being an angel would help you to mellow out some," Dean said.
"No chance of that. I think if anything I'll probably just get worse," Jo joked.
"And here I thought I'd have an angel at my beck and call at last," Dean said.
"Think again. I don't work for you. I'm pretty sure I don't work for anyone but God now. It'll be interesting to meet Him if I ever get the chance to. For now though until and unless I hear differently, I only work for myself. Now let's go find Sam," Jo said.
"Yes, Ma'am," Dean joked.
"I like that. I think I'll require you to call me that from now on. If you don't, I'll smite you," Jo joked.
"She's just kidding," Dean assured Lisa.
"No, I'm not. Let's get going. I know where he's at," Jo said.
As she noticed Lisa looking at her in concern, Jo quickly said, "I really was just kidding."
"I know. I just want you to promise me that you'll bring him back safe and sound," Lisa said.
"I will. I promise. I'll have him back before you know it," Jo said gently.
Then she concentrated on Sam, and she and Dean were instantly teleported to his location. Lisa was left behind to wonder if this was it. Even if Dean did come back, would he still want to stay now that he had found his brother again?
She very much doubted it. She sighed as she resigned herself to the fact that Ben would probably never get to know his father. She wasn't going to tell him the truth and keep him here that way. She wanted him to stay here of his own free will because he wanted to and not because he felt that he had to.
Then she had a sudden horrible thought. Jo knew now. Would she tell Dean? If she did, what would happen then?
She worried about that all day and all of that night as she waited for Dean to return. She finally went to sleep that night for the first time in a long time without him by her side. She began to wonder if she would ever feel his presence there by her again.
Meanwhile Gabriel, who had been watching all of this without anyone knowing it, grinned to himself as he turned to Castiel. He was very pleased at how today had gone. Very pleased indeed!
He was so glad that his new friend, Jessica Baker, had saved him from dying at Lucifer's hands, or none of this would be happening now. Without him here to set things on a different course, the future would have been very, very different than it was going to be now. He hoped that if things turned out alright that he could save everyone a whole lot of needless trouble and pain.
"Well, I think that everything's going well so far, don't you?" Gabriel said happily.
"Not for her," Castiel said as he looked at Lisa.
"She'll be alright in the long run. Trust me," Gabriel said.
"So this is your plan? To make Jo into an angel?" Castiel asked in confusion.
"Yes, it is actually or at least the first step of it. She's going to be the first of a new order of angels. I'm going to test her out though to see how she does before I go any further. I have to admit that so far she's done pretty well. She's passed all of the tests that I've given her. She was dumped all alone in the middle of nowhere with no idea what was going on, and she instinctively sought out Dean for protection, friendship, and maybe a little something more while she was still weak and vulnerable. That shows that she has good survival instincts. She resisted the attempt by Crowley to tempt her with an easy solution to her problems even though she was dying to know the truth about herself. That shows that she can't be tempted so easily. She comforted Lisa when she was afraid of her and didn't act all superior to her even after she realized what she was. That shows that she still has her humanity. She also didn't give away Lisa's secret to Dean when she easily could have showing that she can be trusted to respect other people's privacy and not to tell things that she shouldn't. I'd say that so far she's passed through all of my trials with flying colors," Gabriel said.
"Why don't we just tell her the whole story about what's going on and set her mind at ease?" Castiel asked.
"No, I don't want to do that. She has to learn how to work things out for herself and to become able to solve her own problems without any help from anyone else. I mean she's going to have to learn how to become completely self-sufficient if she's going to be running the whole place someday after all," Gabriel said.
Castiel stared at him in shock at what he had just said as Gabriel smiled at him mischievously but said nothing further. That was all that Castiel needed to know for now Gabriel thought to himself.
Next: Dean and Jo locate Sam, and then they set about trying to find out how they can get his soul back. Also will Jo tell Dean the truth about Ben or keep it to herself? Oh and Anna returns. Don't worry. She's in a much better mood than she was last time.