Handplates - Pills -

Combat

Sans lifts up an arm, slamming Chara into the left wing of the hall. His fist clenches, sending the corpse hurling into the air. It used to be his body's actions, now he feels these actions are entirely his own. His anger simmers and he watches the body hit the tiles with satisfaction. There's something almost... musical about it. 

Again the vision glitches, and Sans grimaces as the vision cuts out - he didn't get Chara that round. 

As Chara reappears again and again, and Sans gives himself over to the vision, letting his body sway and shift, like in a trance. Arms up, body left. Swing right to avoid the knife, arm down, fist clench. Slide left, duck the knife, arm up. This dance is what Sans lives for. He savours the salty tang of blood. 

Earlier conversations with Gaster weave through his conscience, the sound of the pills clicking together always repeat in the back of his mind. 

***

"so, doc, in my vision, i'm pretty good at fighting, huh?" Sans asks, casually. He sits on a stool, swinging his legs, watching Gaster as the doctor bends over his handplate. Gaster said he was fixing something or other, and Sans can start finding out what he wants to know. Besides, it's nice to use his voice once in a while. Recently, Pap has stopped all communication with Sans... but it's best not to dwell on it. Besides, he has some questions. 

"Yes, 1-S, you appear to have had collected quite an arsenal of attack patterns before you died."

"so, is there a special kind of skeleton fighting method that i relied on?" Sans asks the question, sweetly, innocently, as if he hadn't spent more than a second thinking about it.

"Well, skeletons do have several techniques..." Gaster pauses his work on the metal plate and looks up into Sans' face. He seems to think for a few seconds, before saying sharply "But I don't think it would benefit the vision for you to know them."

"why? it would only make my reaction times quicker."

"Yes, that's true. Your smaller actions can change, but the main points of the vision will stay the same either way. Therefore, there's no point, as the core vision would stay the same." Gaster doesn't add that the idea of Sans becoming physically adept at fighting when outside the vision would be a danger to his mission, but they both were thinking it. 

"but-" 

Gaster cuts Sans off. "No more talk of it. I need to focus."

***

Sans shuffle runs down the hallway. It's been a few days since the conversation, and he's spent every single night planning out another. Gaster strides next to him, his long legs making Sans have to half-jog to keep up.  

"so, you know... " he pauses as the doc slows down. "well, i have a vision. um, i was wondering, do you?" 

Gaster turns to look him in the eyes - he answer is curt and brittle.
"Do you think I would think to take the pills you're on?"

There's a short silence, and Gaster looks guilty. He didn't mean to sound that harsh, but coffee and lack of sleep make him brusque and irritable.  Sans feels his own irritation rising, but he suppresses it - he can't ruin his plan now. 

Gaster sighs and revises his sentence. "No, I'm sor-." He cuts himself off. He shouldn't be sorry to a test subject. "Everyone does, but I haven't decided to take the risk of taking a pill myself."

"do you know what it would be like? can you guess?"

"I'm sure it would be a bloody brawl like yours, I can say that much, I-S."

Gaster jolts. He didn't mean to say that. He looks down to Sans, but the skeleton doesn't seem to have heard him. He inwardly heaves a sigh of relief. 

Sans smiles to himself. The old fool doesn't know combat. That will make everything easier.

***

The vision flicker snaps Sans back into the present. It's a repeat of an earlier scene -  Chara zigzagging along the tiles, dodging volley after volley of bones. This time, Sans can predict their next move. He shifts his arm up and clenches his fist. Two, no, three shards through their heart. They hang, lifeless, for a second or two. The vision reverts back to another split in the time mainframe. 

Sans smiles.