An exhausted Ling, carrying Lan Fan’s body, runs through the streets after using a grenade and a smoke bomb to escape the building he was trapped in with the Homunculus. Reattaching the blindfold, Wrath (King Bradley) orders Gluttony to follow their scent. Meanwhile, when more cops arrive at their location, they wrap Winry in a jacket and Ed convinces her to come with them while he backs off Al, who is fighting Scar. Ed promises to tell her everything when he gets back to their hotel, with Winry wondering what she can do as she watches him leave. After hearing a report about Winry over the radio, Colonel Mustang orders Lieutenant Hawkeye to back them up. As Hawkeye grabs a medical disguise that she can use, Mustang gives her a scrap of paper explaining that they will meet later at an empty house outside of Central and asks her to make sure she is not being watched. As he leaves, Hawkeye reminds Mustang not to go to the field, as he hasn’t fully recovered from the battle against Lust.
Ling continues to run as Gluttony continues to wallet him and Lan Fan and Ling are cornered. Following the trail of blood left by the injured Lan Fan and noticing an explosion likely caused by Scar, Wrath orders Gluttony to go after Scar and deal with him before he finishes here. Realizing that her injured left arm has rendered her useless, Lan Fan tells her prince to leave her, or else she will abandon her dream for her clan and the people will be in danger if he continues to travel with her. As Ling declares that this will never happen, Lan Fan says that there are things that must be left behind and pulls out a kunai knife, and Ling fears what she might do with it. Meanwhile, as he dodges Al’s alchemy attacks, Scar laments that Al’s body is hollow due to alchemy, to which Al counters that he doesn’t see it that way despite the problems he’s had with his Blood Rune since Ed saved his life that day. Just as Scar uses the water from the damaged water tower to turn into steam to blind Al and finish him off, Ed returns and stops the attack. After confirming that Winry has been taken to safety and that he made her cry because he saw him in battle, Ed prepares to resume the battle, but then the Gluttons arrive. Scar recognizes him from an earlier encounter and the Elrics realize he is a Homunculus due to the Ouroboros tattoo on his tongue. When Gluttony lunges at him, Scar dodges and uses his decomposition technique on his head. As Wrath follows the blood trail, Gluttony quickly regenerates and knocks Scar over, injuring him. When the Elrics attack Gluttony, Wrath discovers that the trail led to Lan Fan’s severed arm, as Lan Fan had just then cut off her left arm to throw him off their trail.
A shirtless Ling then emerges from the sewers at the Elric’s location and lands on Gluttony’s head to give him a grenade. He warns everyone to back off and he runs away as Gluttony’s upper body is blown away by the explosion. When Ed turns the railroad track into steel wire, Ling uses it to bind Gluttony’s body before it can fully regenerate, so it can bind Gluttony and prevent him from moving. As Wrath admits how well played he was with his severed arm tied to the dog, Lan Fan, who used Ling’s coat to bandage his wound, hides in the sewers while holding back the loss of blood from his severed arm with his right hand. . Just as Scar learns that Gluttony is a Homunculus, Hawkeye arrives in a jeep in her disguise and shoots him in the leg. Realizing they have to pretend they don’t know her, the Elrics continue to fight Scar as more cops arrive, while Ling leaves with Hawkeye after putting Gluttony’s body in the jeep. Before they can finish off Scar to avenge the people he murdered, including Winry’s parents and Nina, a mysterious girl and her pet arrive and use martial arts to knock them both to the ground, enraging Ed by calling him a bean sprout. Just as more MPs arrive, the girl uses alkahesters on some nearby trains to create an explosion to use the smoke as a distraction for herself and Scar to escape.
As they drive, Hawkeye reveals that she has already been informed of Ling’s identity and explains that she is heading to a safe house. Ling demands that they pick up Lan Fan first because she will die if left alone for too long without medical help. Despite her initial objections, Hawkeye reluctantly agrees if Ling can do it quickly. Along the way, he passes Bradley, who recognizes Ling, along with Hawkeye through her disguise, while also admitting that he is tired of the games Mustang is playing. As May heals Scar’s leg wound, Scar remembers that the look on Winry’s face was the same as his before he dedicated his life to revenge. Yoki arrives and informs them that the deputies are approaching, and as they leave, May notices that her pet Xiao-Mei is missing. She is shown to be traveling with the Elrics when Al hid her in his armor because she was alone on the battlefield and he doesn’t want to leave her alone. After Xiao-Mei fails to bite Al and thinks she is above the chain of power compared to her master and Scar, the Elrics arrive at Central Command and Al puts her in his armor. When she finds Bradley with Winry, she encourages them to protect their childhood friend before leaving. Winry then asks Ed to keep his promise to tell her everything. After Ed tells her about what he heard from Shan, they return to their hotel to find that Winry has a call from Mr. Garfiel, who wants her back in Rush Valley due to her customer’s complaints because she is doing a better job on the repairs automatic mail than does.
The Elrics see her off to the station and Winry is happy that she still has a home to return to. After her train departs, Winry realizes that she may fall in love with Ed. Mustang picks up the Elrics and then drives to Dr. Knox’s house because he needs his surgical skills. Mustang says he will understand if Knox refuses. After agreeing as he no longer has a relationship with his family, Mustang takes them to his hideout and Knox is angered to find Lan Fan walking through the canal with her left arm severed. As Knox begins a painful procedure to stop the bleeding with Hawkeye’s help, the Elrics encounter Ling, who blames himself because it was his idea to help the Elrics with this mission and that he wasn’t prepared to face the consequences. Once the procedure is done, Ed asks if there is anything he can do, and Lan Fan admits that the trap he used against her earlier was effective and that it helped her survive. Ed promises to put her in touch with a mechanic to get her an automatic arm.
At that point, Mustang and Ling formally introduce themselves to each other, and Ling thanks Mustang for providing him with a doctor, just as Mustang thanks Ling for his help with the Maria Ross incident and the capture of Gluttony. Like Knox, he is informed of the Gluttony and Mustang admits that they can