A/N: Okay, so super quick explanation for why I wrote this. Sometimes when I study incredibly hard, I have insanely bizarre dreams (nightmares?). Since this past week I had a total of 6 exams I, of course, had some pretty odd dreams, with this being one of them. But since I had such an odd dream, I figured I'd use it as a writing exercise and share. So, enjoy this complete little random AU twist that my study-brain plagued me with.

Brushing off excess pollen that had accumulated on his jacket, Roy Mustang hurriedly made his way to the front entrance of Riza's apartment building. Sneezing as a result of the dust cloud that resulted from his rushed gesture, Roy silently regretted buying the entire flower cart from the Armstrong woman.

Under any other circumstance, he would have stopped and purchased a vase and placed some into it to give to his… "favorite subordinate," but now was certainly not the time. Instead he opted to grab a fistful of posies and lilies that were strewn about in the backseat of his car to present to her. He felt that they would remedy the situation he had formulated and visualized in his mind; whichever one it was. But Roy couldn't help but worry and wonder because when he had talked to her on the phone, something seemed off…

Opening the door, he veered left and toward the staircase that would lead him up to the third floor. Though he had only been there a handful of times since they had transferred to Central, his body naturally gravitated and steered him toward her apartment. As he briskly ascended the steps, Roy's thoughts immediately turned back to their conversation, trying to extract any information he could deem valuable before facing her.

They automatically turned to her current predicament, with her remaining under the watchful eye of the Fuhrer himself as she acted as his hired hostage.

He knew that coming here was an extreme risk, even though he had taken every precaution to ensure that he was not followed. Still, the feeling that sat in his gut had become completely unbearable; this feeling that something was horribly, horribly wrong.

What if it was she that was being followed now? He knew well enough that she was being scrutinized just as harshly as he, but the thought that someone could be stalking her, watching her at every moment, terrified him. What if they had threatened her further? What if they hurt her?

Swallowing thickly, he stopped outside of her apartment and raised his fist to knock, but allowed it to hover there for a few moments. What if they were there now and that was the reason she had seemed so cold and distant during their conversation? And if that were the case, what would they do when he made his presence known?

With that thought he reached into his pocket and produced his ignition gloves, slipping them over his hands while he balanced the bundle of flowers on his arms. Because if there was someone there, he would need to be ready to fight.

When he had mentally prepared himself, he gave her door a few loud rasps, and waited patiently, straining to listen for the usual clicking that would normally announce Black Hayate's presence in her apartment. Instead, however, there was nothing, which he found highly unusual. Normally the young Shiba pup would throw himself against the door and alert his owner of a visitor's presence, especially this late at night. While the possibility that she had stepped out with the dog was probable, it seemed unlikely as Hayate's normal outdoor area was in front of the building. He would have seen them if that were the case. And while it was also possible that she may have taken him for a walk, Roy quickly decided that that was improbable as well, especially with the way their conversation had gone.

His thoughts were broken when he finally heard movement inside the apartment. A few moments later he heard a click as the door was unlatched and opened slightly, only to be caught on the chain that kept it locked otherwise.

Riza's eyes widened momentarily as she recognized him, and then narrowed slightly, as if in annoyance. "Colonel Mustang… I wasn't expecting you."

Confused by this odd display of formality, Roy held up the bouquet as a peace offering and answered, "I know. I figured I would just stop by. You seemed a bit stressed when I talked to you a few minutes ago."

She stared at him for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and replying hardly, "Well, as you can see I am fine, sir, so good night-"

Just as she was about to close the door, Roy instinctively stuck his foot between the door and threshold, preventing her from closing it further. When she stared back critically, Roy appealed to her, "Riza, I just want to be sure you're fine." He then nodded toward her apartment, hoping she'd understand his silent request to comb the premises.

For a moment she did not waver, the corner of her lip twitching agitatedly. But at long last she relented, closing the door and unlatching the chain that served to keep the door's opening angle to a minimum. Stepping out of the way as she pulled the door open, she begrudgingly allowed him inside.

As he stepped in and surveyed the dark apartment, his thoughts immediately went back to its other occupant. "Where's Black Hayate?"

"Sleeping," she replied mechanically, quickly, as she took the flowers from his hands and turned toward the small table in the center of her dining room. "I took him for a long walk before you called me and it tired him out."

Following behind her, he reached up and placed his hands on her shoulders, causing her to tense up. Frowning, Roy said, "Did something happen today?"

"No," she replied shortly as she set the bunch of flowers down on the table. "But I think you should go," she insisted again, a touch of annoyance in her voice.

Remaining where he was, Roy slowly turned her around so that he could look her in the eye. Placing his hands once again on her shoulders, he slowly guided them up so that he cupped her face in his hands.

Before he could even react or even think, she lunged forward and hurled him against the wall, slamming her forearm against his throat and holding it there, knocking the wind from his lungs. In a desperate struggle to make sense of her actions, Roy attempted to flail and push her away, but found that his arms and legs no longer seemed to work, feeling as if they were pinned to the wall he was firmly pressed against.

"You should have gone home when I told you to," she said impassively as he attempted to struggle against the increasingly overbearing pressure on his neck, threatening to suffocate him at any moment. "Because if you had, I wouldn't have needed to kill you."

"Wh-why," he managed to wheeze as he fought against the darkness that had begun to cloud his vision and the lightness in his head that accompanied it.

"Why indeed," she replied nonchalantly as she steadied the pressure on his neck, allowing a small amount of air to enter his lungs as he continued to frantically gasp. "Maybe it's because she still lives and there is so much of you and so little of me…" As if this statement had caused some sort of revelation, she thrust her arm forward, once again forcing the air from his lungs.

Leaning toward him, her eyes narrowed dangerously, she spat venomously, "The last thing this body remembers is fear, and yet there is a feeling of desperation that is bound to me. As if this desperation belonged to me before I even came into existence. But that assumes I existed before the moment I was born…" Once again the pressure on his neck decreased slightly as she cast her eyes downward, darting back and forth as she tried to recall whatever memory she desperately needed. "But she remembers shadows," she muttered to herself as she continued to wrack her brain.

And as she did, the darkness that consumed Roy's peripheral vision slowly began to creep forward and toward the center of his perception. It was at that moment, however, that he realized it wasn't a darkness induced by a decrease in oxygen or even stress.

No… This darkness was tangible and moving… As if it was alive.

"They were desperate," she mused. "Desperate because they were dying-"

Mixed in with the darkness that seemed to envelop them, he saw something else moving near his seemingly weighted arms and legs. Small, jagged shadows wrapping themselves around his appendages, literally holding them tighter and tighter.

Tangible, living shadows that were seemingly moving in tune with her emotions.

"-Hohenheim," she whispered to herself, "They said it was Hohenheim that did this to them-"

They continued to move up his legs and arms, reaching up and across his chest as they snaked up toward his neck.

"-So they sought refuge in the only container they could find," she revelated, as if putting the final pieces of the puzzle together.

At last the shadows reached his neck and tightened around it, cutting off his air supply yet again.

Releasing her hold on his neck, Riza took one step back, then another as she stared down at her hands. "It all makes sense now," she murmured cryptically.

Struggling, fighting against the dark restraints that held him, Roy at last managed to sputter, "Wh-what-"

"The shadows' desperation was mine and mine was theirs," she said as she looked up at him, a gleam of amusement in her eyes. Stepping toward, she reached up and ran her hand down his cheek, causing the blood in his veins to run cold as he was struck with realization.

She had found it… The last Homunculus.

"Therefore," she said as she looked him square in the eye, her lips tugging upward in a smile as his vision began to darken and cease, "Those shadows were mine… Those shadows are Pride's."

A/N: Just for the record and for your piece of mind, Black Hayate is not dead (I could never do that to him ;_;).

Anyways, that was fun to write out (thanks for bearing with my unusual and extremely odd dream, which I think was also induced by a comparison between Riza and Pride, since she could be considered to be Humility, the exact opposite of Pride). I was going on the assumption that, like the second Greed in FMAB, a second Pride probably wouldn't have the memories of the first.