determined lantern (please note this fanfic is not canon with any of my other stories but please enjoy it nonetheless)

"Flesh." A small black ring flies down from far above before diving strate down to wards a small grave yard. "Chara of earth. RISE!" the mysterious black ring drills it's way into the grave and through the small wooden coffin below, but this is no ordinary grave. the grave belongs to the adopted child of the Dreemurr family. after the child's death their adopted brother Asriel, used their soul to return them to their village to be buried and finally be put to rest. until now. chara's decayed hands smash through their coffin, shattering the cold silence of the night. Chara digs their way through the dirt and mud to the surface, the walking corpse that is Chara, slowly stands up straight and looks around the graveyard withlidless eyes as white and empty as pearls, before looking at the strange black ring with an odd symbol on it sitting on their right hand, and even with no lips to cover they zombie like teeth, they smile. an evil, psychotic smile which soon turns to laughter; laughter that echos across the cemetery, almost loud enough to wake the rest of the dead. Chara feels the cool night air fill their lungs once again. "finally. i was so tired of being a corpse. now... it's finally time for some real fun! no more whispering in frisk's ear, no more sitting around in frisk's head waiting for a chance to take control. NO MERCY! tonight, i finish what me and frisk started. but first! i'll need some partners." Chara holds their arms out as they instinctively cry out an oath to literally awaken the dead."The Blackest Night falls from the skies, The darkness grows as all light dies, I crave your souls and your demise, By my bloodied knife, the dead shall rise!" with that Chara falls to their knees as they begins to cough and gurgle before vomiting up dozens of rings coated in a black ink like substance. "Flesh." the rings say as each of them immediately take off heading in different directions around the graveyard. as this happens, seven more rings of different colours fly past overhead. all heading in their own directions. "well... looks like i'm not the only one getting a flashy ring tonight!"

Muffet sits in the back room of her bakery enjoying a cup of tea as she flips through some letters.

" hmm, lets see? junk mail, bills, junk mail, post card, junk mail, Tai food menu, and more junk mail. Jezz! if i knew humans produced this much junk mail i would have stayed underground."

Muffet takes a sip of her tea as she notices one more letter sitting on her desk.

"great! another letter from Mettaton asking me to bake Mettaton themed pastries. fantastic!"

Muffet says sarcastically while angrly tossing the letter in the trash.

"what is it with that guy? doesn't he have enough publicity already? t-shirts, lunchboxes,merchandise, he's even got his own music album for crying outloud! what? was cooking a steak shaped like his face not good enough?! my business is doing well enough as it is, i don't need to make a doughnut after some self centered robot to drive up sales! sure my prices might be steep but a spider's got bills to pay right? i swear if Mettaton asks me to make something that looks like him one more time i'll-"

before Muffet can finish her rant she is interrupted by the sound of a window breaking in the main shop.

"oh perfect! and i picked TONIGHT of all nights to leave my pet with a friend."

Muffet grabs a baseball bat near by and slowly walks towards the main shop, yelling at the presumed intruders.

"you better not be thieves or vandals! i just washed some graffiti off the side of the store and i don't need- what. on. earth?"

Muffet drops the bat in shock as she stands there, motionless and dumbstruck by the mysterious orange ring floating in the middle of her bakery. the ring fixes Muffet with what could be described as a gaze. Muffet doesn't say a word, instead she stands there as the ring draws closer "Muffet of earth." the ring speaks. "you want it all." Muffet, stand frozen on the spot in a trance like state. muffet, reaches out for the ring, like a child reach out for it's parent for the first time. "mine." the ring slides itself onto one of Muffet's six hands as it's light grows brighter and brighter. the amber energy of the ring swarms around Muffet, changing her clothing pure orange and the ring's strange on the surface of the ring now appearing as a tattoo like print across Muffet's face. Muffet's fears and confusion are wiped from her mind as her thoughts are drowned by a new feeling: avarice. hundreds of spiders begin to fill the room. each one crafted out of hard light by Muffet, each on as sentient and alive as a real spider and each one loyal only to their new master. the windows of Muffet's store are smashed open as Muffet herself steps outside into the cold black night accompanied by her construct spiders which await her command.

"come my children! the time has come to claim what is rightfully mine! this town has become fat and bloted but soon it will all belong to me. i want it all; AND I WANT IT NOW!"

Alphys stands on her home's porch watching the stars through a telescope while Undyne practices her fighting near by. Alphys takes her attention off her telescope for a moment to ask Undyne a question.

"y-you sure you don't want a coat or s-something Undyne?"

"nah thanks Alphys, i'm good!"

"oh... okay i-its just... it's only about 5 outside, a-and you're wearing a tank top and sweatpants."

Undyne stabs her spear into the ground as she pauses from her training to talk to Alphys.

"relax babe, this is nothing. besides i used to train in just my underwear when it was way colder."

a drop of blood drips from Alphys' nose as a dirty thought of Undyne enters her mind. Alphys turns away from Undyne slightly to wipe her nose with her sleeve.

"hey Alphys, you alright?"

"w-what? oh sorry. it's nothing. you uh... you better get on with your t-training. i'll uh... i'll k-keep checking out the stars."

Alphys sheepishly goes back to looking through her telescope while Undyne places her hands on her hips, unsure why Alphys recently spent so much money on such a simple device.

"remind me Alphys, you spent 50 bucks on that thing because?"

"Because Undyne, after m-monster were locked underground we never got a ch-chance to study or observe the surface. heck, most of us d-didn't even know what stars were. until now. with this, i'll be able to get a m-much clearly view of the night sky. now where did i put my note p-pad?"

"right were you left it babe. on the table next to you."

"oh... right. uh... thanks."

Undyne continues with her training while Alphys looks over her notes.

"let's see. I've already g-gotten Orion, Ursa major and Scorpius. i j-just hope i can get Lyra, Draco and Ursa minor noted down by-"

Suddenly while peeking through her telescope Alphys notices two bright glowing lights in the sky over head. the lights streak at tremendous speed across the night sky.

"w-what is that thing?"

Alphys looks up and sees the two bright light zoom across the night sky. their auras so bright that it catches Undyne's attention as she also stares up at the glowing obs of light.

"uh... i don't much about stars or anything, but THOSE, are not stars."

"t-their not comets either, Undyne, my Calendar says the n-next comet isn't for another two weeks. Even if they are comets or meteor t-they should have burnt up by now. also i'm pretty sure comets aren't yellow or pink."

"they're what?!"

they two glowing lights quickly change their courses heading straight for Undyne and Alphys.

"they're coming right for us! Alphys, get inside!"

"w-what?"

"NOW!"

Alphys jumps in surprise at Undyne's suddenly raised voice and without a second thought grabs her telescope and rushes inside. Undyne, meanwhile summons her spear in her hands ready to battle this unknown threat.

"alright. i don't who or what you are, but you picked the wrong planet punks!"

the lights draw closer and closer until the violet light changes it's course heading towards Undyne and Alphys' home while the yellow light maintains its heading towards Undyne. The violet light ignores Undyne, and smashes through a window into the house. Before Undyne, can rush over to check on Alphys, the yellow light zooms in front of Undyne, stopping her dead in her tracks. The light lowers its aura revealing itself to be a small yellow ring with a strange symbol on its face. the ring hovers in front of Undyne, and begins to speak.

"Undyne of earth. you have the ability to in-"

"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS BS! GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

Undyne swats the ring aside and dashes over to the house. kicking the door in, Undyne, sees Alphys, backed against a wall, staring at the violet ring like in some kind of trance.

"Alphys?! what the hell are doing? get away from that ring!"

Undyne reaches her right hand to try and grab the ring, when the yellow ring from earlier swoops in and places itself on her middle finger. Undyne's spear hits the floor and disappears as her attention switches from Alphys to the ring on her finger as it finishes it's declaration from earlier.

"Undyne of earth. you have the ability to instill great fear. welcome to the Sinestro corps!"

"what the hell?! Alphys! Don't just stand there, get this damn ring off of me!"

Undyne, grabs her hand in order to try and pull the ring off, but the ring's energy hits undyne with some form of feedback, forcing her to quickly abandon that plan. before she can come up with another, the rings energy fully surrounds Undyne, altering her appearance. The ring forms clothing similar to her old royal guard armour, The armour bears yellow and black markings, with the symbol for this "Sinestro corps" covering the upper chest. Undyne, screams out in pain as golden energy and sparks cascade all throughout the room, causing the television in the room to explode and the surrounding windows to shatter. during all of this Alphys stares at the violet ring, oblivious to everything happening around her.

"Alphys of earth. you have great love in your heart. welcome to the star sapphires!"

the ring slips itself onto Alphys' left hand as the ring's violet energy wraps around her body, changing her clothing almost pure pink, with only her glasses and lab coat keeping their original colours.

"WHOA! t-this feeling! I could get used to this! hey Undyne! you have g-got to see this!"

Alphys, looks up from her hands only to see Undyne, with yellow energy shooting all over the house.

"Undyne! whats wrong with you?!" Undyne looks at Alphys for a moment before the yellow ring sends out another wave energy, shocking undyne and forcing her to throw her head back and scream out in pain, all while Alphys, watches in confusion and fear.

"UNDYNE! NO! hold on! i'll think of s-something, i promise!"

Alphys looks at the ring for a few moments, trying to come up with a plan.

"alright. l-lets see what this thing can do."

Alphys points the ring at Undyne but disappointingly only produces a small splutter of light.

"error. conflicting emotions detected. love levels insufficient for construct creation."

"st-stupid ring! Undyne's in trouble! c-can't you anything?"

Alphys, points the ring at Undyne again, except this time the ring summons a large violet crystal which incases Undyne save for her head.

"undyne, are you alright?"

"never mind me, what happened to you? you just stood there staring at that ring thing. why?"

"i d-don't know. but it... it s-spoke to me." Undyne looks on even more confused.

"spoke to you? how? what are these things anyway?! and why did they pick us of all people?"

"i-i'm not sure. but i don't think we're the only monsters to get rings like this. it's a long story, but from what i gathered t-there are these... black rings going around reviving the dead and these r-rings are our only hope at stopping them."

Undyne rolls her eyes at the absurdity of everything she is hearing.

"great! we have to fight a bunch zombies with emotion fueled jewelelry?!"

"cr-crazier things have happened undyne! either way we better find those other rings; we're going need all the h-help we can get to fight these black lanterns."

"ahem! aren't you forgetting something? how exactly am i supposed to fight while trapped in a giant pink crystal?"

"heh heh... yeah a-about that... uh..."

"let me guess. you don't know how to use that ring, do you alphys?"

alphys awkwardly smiles while rubbing the back of her neck as undyne sighs in frustration.

"oh this is going to be a long night."

asgore sits alone in his home, sadly sipping a cup of tea. "still not as good as tori's." asgore states dissatisfied as he stares at his fire place. asgore takes another sip of his tea before staring at an old family photo. the photo was taken many years ago, long before frisk freed monster kind. the photo contains: asgore and toriel smileing proudly. while asriel and chara excitedly hold a bundle of golden flowers. asgore smiles warmly as he remembers so many good memories. only to have those memories replaced by a lesser feeling: sadness. sadness at what happened so soon after. chara fell ill and passed on. asriel took their soul and crossed the barrier with chara's body. asgore tries not to remember that night. but still, he remembers a few key details. the smell of his son's blood, the feeling of helplessness as he watched asriel turn to dust in toriel's hands, his vow to kill any human who fell into the underground, and the look of anger on toriel's tear stained face as she vowed to keep any human safe from him. even after forgiving him of his crimes, toriel still preferred to speak with asgore a little a possible. neither asgore nor frisk were happy with this but they both agreed knowing their was little they could do to change her mind. asgore's train of thought is quickly lost by the sound on knocking on his front door. "who could that possibly be at this hour?" asgore thinks aloud as he puts down his cup and walks over to the door. asgore opens the door and after looking around for a moment he looks down only to see a child sized figure standing in front of him. confused asgore reaches a hand out to try and grab the figure.

"frisk? is that you?"

"NOT QUITE, DADDY-O!"

suddenly the figure fires a beam of black energy, knocking asgore across the house. asgore gets up angry as he summons his trident and points it at the figure.

"you dare attack me in my own home?! who are you?!"

"oh asgore. how soon you forget your own kin." the figure steps forward into the light reveling their identity to asgore.

"chara?!"

"that's right father. i'm back! and better than ever!" shocked and confused, asgore's trident disappears as he slowly approuches chara.

"what- -? how... how can you be here?"

"what? so asriel can come back, but i can't? is that it?!"

asgore puts his hands up in defense. "n-no! of course not! but... why did you attack me? and how?"

"alot has changed father. this ring i wear has brought me and many dead back, and now! together, we can destroy anyone who opposes us! humanity will pay for what they did you us!"

Asgore takes a step back as he resummons his trident, once again pointing it at chara.

"no! fighting is not the way! things have changed; frisk has-"

"FRISK?! you mean that little pipsqueak who freed monster kind?"

"yes! that's them! wait. how do you know about frisk? they fell below long after you did."

"i know alot of things, asgore. i know you care more for some second rate fool then me! i know you murdered all those humans because you thought if you could break the barrier and some how avenge asriel and i. but best of all! i know the reason you care so much about frisk! because you're the biggest IDIOT of them all! i gave you all the second child you could never hope to have again! i gave asriel the best friend he always wanted! but once i pasted on, you all forgot me, left me in the past, and moved onto the next determined human in line! sure! frisk may have brought asriel back, but they're still not even half the person i was! and nither are you! weak! pathetic! worthless! you only love them so much because they did what YOU were too weak to do yourself; they saved monster kind! you coudn't even save your child."

chara's rant infuriates asgore as his fist is engulfed in fire. asgore dashes forward and delivers a punch so powerful, it blows off half of chara's face, sending teeth and chunks of grey flesh across the floor.

"YOU'RE NOT CHARA DREEMUR! i know not your origins but i know the real chara would never speak to me in such a way!"

the two begin their fight, each one exchanging punches and kicks allwhile chara continues to taunt asgore. "keep telling yourself that,father. but ask yourself! do you think it's this ring making me say these things? or is this just what i've always belived?" chara sees asgore's rage growing as it begins to blind him, making his attack easier for chara to dodge. even so asgore finally stabs his trident deep into chara's chest pinning them to a wall, as he continues to yell into the human's face. "whether you are a construct of some unknow sorcery or an illusion meant to test my will, i care not! but if you were really my child saying these things, I'D GIVE A FROGGIT'S ASS!" chara grabs the trident and courupts it with a black aura, causing it to knock asgore through a window on the other side of the room with its feedback. asgore lays only ground injured as chara floats over smiling and towering over asgore. "you might not care what i have to say, father. but what you SHOULD care about is the piece of glass in your arm." asgore lifts his arm up only to see there is indeed a shard of glass lodged firmly in his major artery. blood slowly dripping down his forearm and onto the cold dirt beneath him. "i don't know much about medicine; but even i know you'll bleed out pretty quick if you try to pull it out. so here's the deal: join me in killing that failure, frisk and your crybaby son asriel. together the dead will wipe this world clean before moving onto the next!" "or what? you'll slay me here and now?" asgore asks as he clutches his wounded arm. "you make it sound like i'm giving you a choice." chara states as they slowly float to the ground, still standing over asgore. asgore thinks for a moment; but seeing no other way, he accepts chara's terms. "very well... i'll do it. so what now? are you going to kill me and let that black ring revive me as it did you?" "no that'd be too easy. instead, i snatched one of these on my way here. just to give you an idea what we're up against." chara holds out their hand revealing a ring simular to their's, but red with a diffrent symbol. asgore gets to his feet as he begrudgingly puts on the ring. "asgore dreemur of earth. you have great rage in your heart. you belong to the red lantern corps!" the ring's energy envelops asgore, creating a new outfit simular to his old armour around him. the armour bears red and black markings all across it with the red lantern symbol lining the chest plate and down the cape like a crimson flag of rage. asgore grits his teeth as blood drips from his mouth and eyes. asgore throws his head back as he gives a deafaning roar, spraying red napalm blood across the grass, burning and scolding like acid as it melts the dirt into carbon. chara's lipless mouth grins exsitedly, even as Asgore, imeditly points the ring towards Chara.

"now that i have this power, whats stopping me from using it against you?"

"easy. because that ring isn't some trincit that you can just take off. it's linked to your heart now, if you try to take it off you'll just die. oh, and before you ask how i know this, here's a better question: how do you think i got my hands on that ring in the first place? now so long as you're wearing that ring you'll do as i say! GOT IT?!"

Asgore, lowers his ring in deafeat. now seeing no other choice, asgore, kneels before chara. finally swearing his allegence to chara. "what is thy bidding? my child."

time passes by so quickly for sans as he stands on the balcany of his and papyrus' home, staring at he chaos and destruction unleased by these "black lanterns."
sans thinks about what alphys told him and papyrus over the phone.

"i've never seen anything like this in any timeline. if things get too bad THEY may decide to reset. but if i go down there, things might go down hill even quicker." papyrus walks up onto the balcany, worried about sans' refusel to help.

"sans? you're still up here?" "

i am."

"and you still think it's better up here than down there?"

"i do."

"sans, your laziness is second only to your puns; but this is ridiculous!"

"i'm not sitting here out of laziness , papyrus."

"then what?! fear? is that it? i'm afraid too, sans. but we can't let that hold us back. monsters and humans are getting hurt and all you've done about it is sit here for nearly an hour!"

"paps, i... i just think things will get worse if we try to help."

"WORSE?! sans, the dead are litarly rising! how could things go any thougher down hill than this? between your cryptic warnings and not explaning anything, i'm certain the human and their brother, the prince, are either in danger OR WORSE! we're suppost to be like their big brothers, their protecters. i suggest instead of sitting here, we get out there and at least try to help!"

sans grits his teeth as he angrily turns to face papyrus.

"you're right. we're their protecters. but what'll happen if we fail? what do you think they'll do if they die, or we die, or someone else frisk cares about dies? what then?!"

"brother i... i don't understand. what ever do you mean?"

papyrus thinks for a moment before realising what sans is talking about."wait! you're... you're afraid the human will reset, aren't you?"

sans dosn't answer. instead lowering his head in shame. "sans, we both know the human won't do that, they promised remember?"

"you don't know them like do, papyrus. i've heard them make that same promise a hundred times. each time they broke it. either it's because they wern't satified or were bored, either way it dosen't matter. they even broke it a few times after freeing us from the underground!"

"but i'm sure they had good reasons, sans. besides, you saw the look in their eyes. they truly meant it this time. i'm sure they'll only reset if they REALLY have to. which is all the more reason we should be out there. even if i have to fight these zombie, lantern, things myself we have to do something otherwise this whole timeline you're so worried about, might come to an end!"

sans' temper finally runs out as he looks directly at papyrus. sans clenches his fists as his eye glows blue and he snaps at papyrus.

"MAYBE I'D RATHER IT END THEN LIVE THROUGH IT ALL OVER AGAIN!"

papyrus just looks at sans shocked, having never heard his brother rase his voice in such an angry tone. sans' eye turns back to normal as he calms down and realises the gravity of what he said.

"paps... i... i'm so sorry i... it's just... i..."

sans struggles to find his words as he starts to break down.

"you don't know them like i do paps. you can't know what it's like. imagine waking up in the perfect world where everyone got the happy end they wanted. only to have it all taken away with you being the only one remembering that whole other life. i've seen that kid reset so many times i've stopped keeping count. even after freeing monster kind they still wern't happy. i can't live through it again, paps. i just can't. seeing all the good frisk has done for us taken back like it never happened, it's not fair. sure frisk shared their soul with Asriel, but no two time lines are ever exactly the same. something that important might not work the second time round. it's even got to the point where i've stopped caring wither or not monsters make it to the surface. cause whats the point seeing something to it's end? if you can't even get past the first few steps."

sans hangs his head in shame again as papyrus sees the defeat in sans' eyes. papyrus walks over to sans and kneels to height before wraping his arms around him in a hug, much to sans' surprise.

"i know you're scared right now, brother. we all are. but a threat as big as a reset shouldn't make you sit here in fear and shame. it should inspire you to fight for what we have in the time we have left. even if i have to do it alone, i, the great papyrus, shall defend the inocent and rise up!"

papyrus lets go of sans and strikes a confident pose.

"how...how do you do that paps?" sans asks. "how do you always look on the bright side of things? even when everything seems lost?"

"easy, brother! because i know that even after i'm long gone, i'll have still inspired others to look out for the best. that way everyone can be as great as me, and everyone can get the happy end they want. just like you, sans."

for the first time in who knows how long, sans feels something he'd forgotten. something he'd been too afraid to feel for countless timelines: hope. suddenly the two skeleton brothers look to the sky to see a blinding blue light slowly float down. the light dims it's aura to revele a small blue ring. the ring flys pass sans and over to papyrus, who takes off one of his gloves and puts on the ring, accepting it's power.

"papyrus of earth. you have the ability to inspire great hope. welcome to the blue lantern corps!"

the ring's energy envelops papyrus. changing his boots, gloves and scarf blue and changing the symbol on his chest plate into the blue lantern symbol. papyrus stares at his new form and power in amazement as sans cracks a joke in his usual manor.

"i always new you had a familiar RING to ya."

before papyrus can get angry at sans' joke, the two are starteled by a large figure that leaps onto the egde of the balcany. sans and papyrus stand frozen in shock and fear as they immediately reconises the figure as Doggo, one of the old sentries from Snowdin. this was sans and papyrus' first real look at these "black lanterns" and the two skeletons were instantly frightened by the canine's appearence, which resembled that of a corspe. sunken in eyes, lipless mouth and his figure more slender then normal. like a feral mammal that had not eaten in days. Doggo's paw bore a black ring on his finger with the black lantern symbol lining his chest as a bright white contrast to his jet black clothing.

"there you two are! i thought i heard voices up here, and don't think i can't bloody see you cause you're standing still! this new ring has given all sorts of new powers. i can even see what emotions you're feeling. that nice mix of fear and hope should make for quite the snack, better than any dog treat. now...why don't you do your ol'mate, Doggo, a faver? AND LEND US YA SOUL!"

Doggo leaps towards the two brothers, but before sans can grab Doggo, with his powers, papyrus fires a blast of blue energy at Doggo. the blast completly destroys Doggo and his ring for good as papyrus' ring announces: "connection severed. black lantern threat: neutralised."

Sans looks back at Papyrus, still marveling at his new power. "heh. guess this is gonna be one of THOSE nights. glad to see me and paps have a way to even the fight, i just hope Tori and the kids are okay."

"How?! how could this happen? Who could have done this?!"