AN: Yeah, I know, I know. I shouldn't have started a new story, but once I got this idea, I couldn't stop from writing it! Curse my muses, curse em! Eris, but the first part of this chapter made me bawl my eyes out. In order to stop it, I whipped out my CD player, and put in my Chicago CD. Yep, that always stops me from crying. I think I'm going to have just as much fun with this as I well with my other stories! Maybe even more, because Eris is here. And Eris makes everything fun. Yes, there's a reason Walker mysteriously got stronger, and it has something to do with Danny's mysterious new mission.

Danny Phantom doesn't belong to me, but this fanfic, Danny's new look, and this interpretation of Eris do. Steal them, and I take your brains and feed them to my zombie army. Won't that be fun?

Reincarnation

Chapter One: Death and Rebirth

"Danny!" The word ripped itself from the mouths of Danny Fenton's two best friends, Sam and Tucker, not believing what they were currently seeing before them. It had all started as a fairly routine battle with Walker, but it had quickly turned sour. The prison ward had somehow gotten stronger, much, much stronger, and Danny found himself unable to fight against him. Sam and Tucker had tried to distract Walker, tried to get his guard down, but instead the ghost bound them to the wall with a wad of ecto-goo.

It had taken one well-placed ecto-blast to bring down their ghostly friend. His bright green eyes went wide before he collapsed on the ground, reverting back to his human form. The two friends stared at his un-moving form, praying silently that he was just unconscious, that he was okay, that he wasn't dead.

Death.

It was an unimaginable concept to them, even though they almost daily fought with ghosts, and even though their best friend was half-ghost, and therefore technically half-dead, himself. They simply never thought it could happen to one of them, not now, or anytime soon. True, Sam and Tucker had once been in a near-death situation before, but they remembered none of it. Sam and Tucker had no real memories of the near explosion of the Nasty Burger, only knowing what had happened because Danny told them after Clockwork has altered the time stream to help him.

But it had happened, and it had happened all too soon.

Danny Fenton was dead.

Walker smirked, his job was over. He then vanished, back into the Ghost Zone. The ecto-goo over Sam and Tucker vanished as he left and the two friends quickly scrambled over to the fallen body of their closest friend. He wasn't breathing, and he wasn't moving. Sam leaned in close to his chest, listening desperately for the steady beating of his heart that she was so hoping was there.

There was none.

"No... this can't be!" Sam screamed, her tears starting to flow uncontrollably out of her eyes. But this wasn't a fairytale, and her tears couldn't bring to boy in front of her back to life, no matter how much she cried. "This... isn't true. It just can't be! Come on Danny, open your eyes! Look at me!" She shook the body angrily, as if the motion would bring her fallen friend back to life. "Come on..." She said, falling over the body of her friend. But he was more than just that to her. She loved him so much, and she had always been waiting for the perfect time to tell him.

But that time now, would never come. He would never know.

"Danny..." Tucker mumbled, not wanting to believe what was in front of him either. "Sam... what do we do? Sam?" He looked down at the girl, but she didn't respond. She was sobbing hysterically. "Sam, come on..." Tucker put his arms on her shoulders, trying to rouse her, but she shrugged him off.

"Leave me alone..."

"Sam..." He knew that this probably hurt her a lot more than it was hurting him. He wanted to say something, to comfort her, but for once, words failed him. He couldn't think what to say, he couldn't think of anything except for the fact that his friend was dead, and there was nothing that he could do to save him.

The two friends sat there for a long time, in the darkness of the night. Sam gently cradled Danny's head in her lap, her tears continuing to fall like miniature waterfalls. Tucker sat there too, all the times that Danny had saved them running through his mind. And in the end, they could never return the favor. They couldn't save him when he needed it the most.

Eventually, Tucker gathered up enough strength to make the phone call to Danny's parents. He knew, in the end, they'd have to tell them Danny's secret. It would be the only way to explain to them why their son was... was dead. He stumbled over the word, even in his thoughts. It was all so unreal, like a bad dreamt hat he desperately wanted to wake up from.

But it wasn't a dream. He knew it, they all knew it.

Danny's family arrived quickly, even faster than they would if a ghost was attacking. They rushed to the body of their son, their brother, and simply stared at it, words, for the moment, failing them. Then they all came back to them in a rush, all coming out at once, thoughts rushing through their heads at lighting pace.

Jazz was cursing her stupidity for letting her brother go out alone. She couldn't help, like Tucker and Sam, but blame herself for this. If only she had been with them, maybe she could have made a difference. Maybe she could have repayed him for that time he saved her from Spectra, for all those times he had saved her.

Maddie and Jack were just so stunned. Their son was dead! The boy they had spent the past fourteen years raising, was dead! But not only that, but he was the very same ghost boy they had spent so long hunting. Maddie sunk to her knees by the fallen body of her son, picking up one of his cold, lifeless hands, silently cursing her own stupidity. She should have seen the signs! All of the ghost equipment reacting to him, his paranoia, not to mention the fact that he was never around when the ghost kid was. If only she had known, she could have helped, and this wouldn't have happened. She looked weakly up at her husband, and knew he was having the exact same thoughts.

Danny's funeral was held two days later. His parents had given the cause of death as an accident, not wanting everyone in town to discover their dead son's secret. Almost everyone at Casper High came to the funeral. Even people who didn't like him, like Dash, Paulina, and Star came. Even Mr. Lancer showed up, the grown man was actually crying. He had never thought in all of his years as a teacher that he would have to see one of his students pass away like this.

Everyone was having a moment of conscience. Dash simply stared at the coffin, stared at the pale face of the boy he had bullied for so long. He wished now that he could take it all back, that he could somehow start over. All the reasons that Dash didn't like Danny simply faded into nothingness. No one deserved to die so young, no one. Not even geeky Danny Fenton.

Kwan's thoughts were a close mirror of his. The boy had never really hated Danny. He usually just clung to what Dash had to say because in the end, he did have really low self esteem. For as much as he pushed around other people, he could be pushed around just as easily.

Paulina too, gazed at the lifeless body in the coffin. She remembered how she had always used Danny in order to get close to the ghost kid, always knowing that Danny had a huge crush on her. She regretted it now. Sure, Danny was kind of geeky, but he was really nice too, better than how most boys at the school acted. It just took her this long for her to finally realize that.

Star stared silently at the corpse. She didn't know the boy very well, but she had never really liked him, mainly because of his ghost-hunting parents. Now she regretted it, wishing she could have had the time to get to know him better. She knew Valerie really liked him, so she might have liked him too. If only she had the time..

Valerie, of course, was there. She wanted to stop the tears that were pouring out of her eyes, she wanted to look strong, like she always did, but she couldn't stop them. They just kept on coming, no matter how much she wanted to push them back. Now she cursed herself for focusing more on ghost-hunting than on Danny. She had missed her chance to be with him and now she would never get it back.

Even Vlad came. Even he, was not immune to the guilt, anguish, and sorrow that filled the room so thickly that it was almost hard to breathe. He had never, ever, thought to see Danny in this way-dead. All dead, not just half dead. Yes, he had made Danny's life so much tougher, but now he was slowly starting to see what an idiot he had been.

Everyone was thinking of the maybes and the if onlys. All of them were cursing themselves for the things they didn't do, for the things they never got to say, and for the things that they did to him. No one, that day, had the will to hate, all of their feuds pushed aside.

Danny blinked his eyes open, wincing them shut again from the strange blue light around him, bright but somehow dark at the same time. He noticed, confused, that he was in his ghost form. Usually when he passed out, he reverted back into his human form. He wondered why he was here, and where he was, for that matter. Did Walker drug him or something, then drag him here? Then it all came back into a rush, his eyes snapping open.

He had died.

Died.

"Oh, you're awake!"

Danny blinked, turning his head toward the voice. Floating upside-down besides him, with her legs crossed was a women with long midnight blue hair and ice blue eyes. She wore a light tank-top sleeved dress, a black ribbon tied around her waist, and dark blue sleeves sewn into the tank top sleeves. The outfit was completed with a silver bell anklet on each ankle, her feet bare. Oddly enough, even though she was upside-down, her hair and clothing were acting as if she was right side up.

"Who...? And where...? And how?" Danny mumbled about looking around. It definitely didn't look like the Ghost Zone, at least not any part he had ever seen.

"Eris. Judgement. I brought you here." The women said.

That name sounded a little familiar. Danny found himself recalling Sam's mythology books. "Wait, isn't Eris..."

"The Goddess of Chaos and Discord? Un-huh..." The women said, nodding to herself. "Seriously though, they give me such a bad rap in those myths and all. Suuure, you cause one big war, and everyone curses your name..." She muttered, looking irritated. "If they had only invited me in the first place, none of it would ever have happened! Those little arrogant stupid-" She blinked, realizing she was starting to babble. "Oh, sorry. I rant like that sometimes..."

"Uh..." Danny was pretty much speechless. "You... ah, what do you want with me?"

"I brought you to Limbo to bring you back into the human world. That, and because if I left your reforming soul in the Ghost Zone, Walker would've gotten to you. That's what he wanted, you know, to take your soul so he could put you in ghost jail and you couldn't escape like you did last time."

"I thought this was Judgement..." Danny said, confused.

"Eh, Judgement, Limbo, The Middle World, it's all the same thing." Eris shrugged. "Anyways, as I was saying, you weren't meant to die just then. But some of those damn ghosts just have no respect for when someone's time is supposed to be. Plus, it's going to annoy the hell out of Walker. Hate that guy..." She glared off at nothing, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"You're going to bring me back?" Danny said, hopefully.

"Un-huh... Unfortunately, I can't restore you exactly the way you were."

Danny blinked. "Why not? I mean, not that much time has passed, right?"

"It's been two years."

Danny started at her, uncomprehending. Eris sighed, scratching her head, still floating upside-down.

"It's like this. When someone dies, it takes awhile for their sprit to reform. It took shorter time with you though, since you were already half-dead to begin with. So by now, your old body's decomposed."

"...you don't mean I have to start over as a baby, do you?"

"Nope!" Eris said, grinning. "It's really quite simple. Tell me, have you ever heard of people who are born into comas? It's rare, but it happens." Without letting Danny answer, Eris continued on. "It's what happens when the Soul Formers make a mistake, and there winds up being a body without a soul. Now, a human can indeed survive without a soul, but their left only with an unemotional mind. A human like that is very dangerous, so it's my job to make sure they never, ever, ever wake up. Well, as it happens, there's a free male body of this type, same age as your friends are now. Not only that, but it's in Amity Park too. Orphaned too, so no complication with new parents..."

"It can't be that easy, can it?"

"Naw, not really. Fortunately, I've had two years to set everything up. Tweaked the history and everything, even gave him a your name. Well, the first one anyways. Can't do anything about the physical appearance though, but it pretty much matches your old one anyways, except it's blonde." Eris nodded to herself. "Now all that's left is smacking your soul into the body. Yeah... I'm such a genius."

"...Um, are those reasons you gave me the only reasons you're doing this?" Danny frowned, suspicious. Why would anyone go out of their way to do something like this?

"Nope." Eris grinned at him, admitting it easily. "But it isn't any fun if I tell you anymore. But it's important, and you'll know it when you see it. And when you get back... make sure you guard your friend Sam very, very carefully." Her expression suddenly turned serious, then quickly went back to her usual carefree one. "But the rest is a secret! Oh yeah, and you'll still have your ghost powers, because they'll be important for your job. But you can't tell anyone who you were in your past life until your job is done. Then feel free, by all means."

"What? How can you not tell me something this important?" Danny protested.

"Like this. See you later Danny!" She waved her hand, and Danny blinked, and found himself to once again be fading into black.

Once again, Danny found himself waking up to bright lights. However, he quickly found that these were present in the form of hospital lights, and that he was lying in a hospital bed. He blinked, pulling himself up, looking around. Was it all a dream? Did Walker actually not kill him, and was he just wounded? He blinked then, crossing his eyes, and pulling down one of his hairs. Instead of black, it was a pale blonde. He blinked, looking around the room.

"So it wasn't a dream..."

"Oh, you're awake?" A nurse peeked her head in, smiling. "Well aren't you a lucky one! You were the only survivor of that car accident..."

Danny blinked, then recalled what the strange women had said about tweaking the history. It made sense, now that he thought about it. Someone who had been in a coma for all of their life couldn't act as if he had any knowledge of the world. It would arouse suspicion.

"Um... could I have a mirror?" The nurse smiled and left, coming back with a mirror handing it to him. Danny peered at it, a somewhat unfamiliar face staring back at him. He had the same facial structure and hair style, though it was just a tad longer. However, his hair was now a pale blonde, and his eyes were a very light green, reminding him of his ghost form. He was also older, sixteen, he guessed. He wondered if anyone had noticed that Phantom had disappeared after Danny Fenton had... died. He bit his lip as he thought the last part, it still coming as a shock to him.

He sighed, leaning back in the bed, and placing the mirror on the bedside table. This was going to take a little getting used too. He continued to idly chew on his lip, his mind once again drifting back to his encounter with the strange women. Was she really a goddess? She seems... so weird. And what does she want from me? What does she want me to protect Sam from? Arg, she didn't tell me anything! Stupid goddess person... thing. How could she not tell me anything? You'd think with all that babbling, she'd let something slip... Man, she kind of reminds me of Tucker.

Danny made a face at the odd comparison he had just made. "Oh man... Sam and Tucker, and everyone... How did they deal with it?" He had been too otherwise occupied to think about it before, but now that he did, he started to feel really guilty, like he had abandoned them. He remembered though, that Eris had said not to revel who he was... or used to be, the whole idea of what had happened still confused him. Danny thought it was a good idea to not go against her wishes, after all, she must be fairly powerful if she could do all she did. And Danny didn't exactly relish the idea of dying again... or suffering any other possible punishments, for that matter. I mean, if she started a war just because some other gods didn't invite her to a party, I'd hate to get on her bad side...

After Danny had settled in, so to speak, everything happened quickly. He was given a discharge, as well as clothing, which he had no doubt Eris had provided somehow. The clothing consisted of a black tank-top with a pair of dark brown, slightly baggy cargo pants, and a pair of black combat boots. Not exactly his style, granted, but he didn't exactly have anything else to wear, so he put it on. He was then escorted to a nearby orphanage. Ironically, it was just down the street from his old home. Danny wondered how he had missed this place for all those years. Then again, maybe Eris had managed to randomly plant it there somehow. He wouldn't put it past her, frankly. From his window, he could see the building, and spent most of the day staring out at the window.

He spent the rest of the day going over the... differences, as well. A new hair color, new age, a sort of new eye color, new height, new clothes, new home, new past, and new last name. Marsh, it was now. He was staying in a room with three other boys his age, if it weren't for that, he would have tried to experiment with his powers again. He did practice turning his arm intangible and invisible behind his back, however, and found it was just as easy as it had been for him in his other life.

He had heard from the person in charge, telling him that if he felt up to it, he would be going to school tomorrow. He had assumed the fact that everyone was tip-toeing around the supposed car accident that he had supposedly just been in, that he had supposedly just lost his parents. Danny knew this wasn't the case, and said that he was fine going to school, even if he felt it would be a little... awkward. Still, it was better to get it over with. So tomorrow he would be going back to school, once again seeing Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, Paulina, Star, and Kwan. Mr. Lancer too, provided he hadn't retired, but Danny doubted it. Dash as well, provided he hadn't flunked out. Honestly, Danny wouldn't be surprised if he had.

"Well... tomorrow is going to be very, very interesting..." Danny muttered, staring out the window.