Aftertale
Chapter 5: Secrets in the Dark

Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale or any of the characters involved except Arin

Frisk and Arin enjoyed the ride in Mettaton's car all the way to the Skeleton brother's house. When they pulled into the driveway Arin immediately noticed that despite it being late August the house has Christmas lights strewn from the rafters. When he asked Frisk about it she said that the Skeletons had lived in Snowdin before moving to the surface. The trio approached the front door and Frisk knocked.

It opened revealing the skeleton that Arin had met on his first day of High School: Papyrus.

"Nyah! Human! Mettaton! And… other human!" Papyrus shouted seeing them, "What are you all doing here?"

"Frisk wanted to stop by and hang out, and we met Mettaton on the way here," Arin told him.

He looked to Frisk and his cheek bones turned a light shade of red, "You want to hang out with me Human?"

Frisk nodded.

"Very well! Allow me to address Mettaton's need and then we shall hang out! Nyeh heh heh! In the meantime come in and make yourselves comfortable,"

Papyrus stepped aside allowing the trio to enter. Arin immediately noticed a few key features of the house: Firstly it was pretty bare, the doorway led into what he guessed was the living room based on the couch and tv, a single sock was lying on the floor near the couch, and a smaller skeleton was sitting on the couch with a remote in hand flipping through the channels on the tv. A doorway on the far right side of the room led into what Arin guessed was the kitchen based on what he could see, and on the opposite side was a set of stairs going up to a landing that had two doors on it. They were decorated but Arin wasn't able to see what was on them.

"Mettaton, we can discuss what you needed in the kitchen. The humans can stay here with Sans and watch some tv,"

Arin and Frisk nodded before walking over to Sans on the couch. Mettaton and Papyrus walked past and Sans' eyes followed them until they disappeared into the kitchen.

"Huh, didn't expect Mettaton to show up… how ya doin' kid?" He asked Frisk.

She explained that she was excited to hang out with him for the day and she'd brought Arin along so they could be properly introduced.

Sans looked at Arin before his eyes flittered down and then back up to his face. He locked eyes for a moment before extending his hand.

"Put 'er there kid,"

Arin was skeptical at first but reached out anyway and grabbed the bony hand, a loud farting noise filled the room as he went to grasp Sans' hand. A second later the skeleton began to laugh.

"Oldest trick in the book, gets 'em everytime," he said as he held up his hand and revealed a small whoopee cushion.

"Seriously?" Arin asked.

"C'mon kid, can't you take a joke?" Sans asked.

Arin sighed before a small smile appeared on his face.

"That'll do for a start I suppose, anyway, why don't you kids pop a squat and we'll watch some tv huh? You humans get so many more channels up here than we did in the Underground,"

The two kids sat down and began to watch Sans flick through channels attempting to find something good.

Meanwhile, the dark figure appeared in a flash of orange light in the middle of a crowded sidewalk. Monsters and humans walked past it without seeming to notice it. Looking around it was almost surprised to see humans and monsters. In a rush it pushed past the passerby causing quite the scene, but eventually it retreated into a small alleyway where it cowered, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Are you wondering why I brought you here?" A voice echoed in its mind.

The figure looked up and tried to find the source of the sound.

"You won't see me around here, I'm not physically there at the moment," The voice said.

"What… what do you want?" The figure asked, it's voice was cracking and raspy from dis-use.

"I want something that was taken from me. Taken by a human child… I've given you your freedom so that you can find it for me… Do that and you'll be able to live freely forever,"

"And… if I refuse?" The figure asked.

In a second it was back in the dark gray room deep in the underground. Its eyes widened, then it tried to run but only found nothing but an empty void.

"This… this is what will happen if you refuse," The voice said to him.

He nodded "I'll do it… tell me where the child is,"

"Good… but first, you'll need to build up your strength… and to do that you'll need a new source of power,"

"But… DETERMINATION… that's the strong source of power there is,"

"No… it is not… I have found a much greater source of power,"

"What?"

"…Hatred,"

In a flash the void was filled with seemed like liquid darkness. The black, ink-like substance washed over the figure and engulfed him. It felt like he was drowning, but almost as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, and the figure was once again in the alley where it had first heard the voice. It looked at its bony hands that had two holes in the palms, before clenching its fingers over them. Standing up straight the figure walked out of the alley and looked at the nearest figure: A cat-like humanoid monster.

"Hello there," it said kindly "Saw you dip into that alley a little bit ago, you alright?"

The figure reached out its hand and put it over the cat-man's face.

"Hey! What's the big i-" he was cut off as the figure drew out what seemed to be more of the liquid ink that had drowned it moments before. The cat-man dropped to his knees before collapsing, his face completely pale and his eyes blank.

The figure looked to his hand as the liquid drained into the hole in his palm before forming a small sphere. He smiled to himself with an evil looking grin and held out his hand, a large, skeletal beast's head appeared next to him and charged a black-colored energy in its mouth before firing it down the street.