As Al throws away the Philosopher’s Stone in his hand, Pride and Kimblee realize that it somehow got into his hands. He creates another cloud of dust and uses a smoke screen to attack Kimblee from behind. Even as he creates a stone wall to block Kimblee’s counterattack, Pride slices it up with his shadows, and Al can only dodge his attacks and use his Philosopher’s Stone to regenerate any damage to his armor. He gains the upper hand by turning the metal leg he had previously discarded into a sword and blocks Pride’s attack before transmuting it further to penetrate his defenses and attack him. However, Kimblee gets in the way, and although Al manages to trap the homunculus again, Pride breaks free, not wanting to get caught in another trap like this again, only to find one of Fu’s Xinges lightning bombs near him. This is actually bait for Al to use another flash bomb he recovered to destroy Pride’s shadows and then trap him in another dome. Kimblee notes the power of the stone and questions why he didn’t use it to restore his body, since he could have easily escaped with it and used it to restore him and Ed back to their original bodies. When Al admits that they couldn’t save everyone, they realize it was because of their commitment to the Equivalent Exchange. Al then questions why there are always two options, holding out his stone and asking if it would be possible to do both. After mentioning that it’s possible for the opposite to happen, Kimblee reveals that he has a Philosopher’s Stone in his mouth, just like in Central Command, Major Armstrong’s transmuted spikes seem to have no effect on the sloth.
Alex’s second attack managed to injure the sloth’s head, allowing his sister, Major General Armstrong, to attack the area with her sword, making her realize that his weak spot was under his skin. As Sloth regenerates and complains that everything is a nuisance, two soldiers arrive and order Olivier to surrender. Just as the two notice the sloth, it kills them with superhuman speed and scrapes off her injured arm. Impressed by the speed, the two quickly realize that despite his weight, the Sloth is able to move too fast for them to see, confirming that he is the fastest Homunculus. When Alex is hit in the face, Olivier realizes that he is too fast to control himself. She then trips over some rocks and allows the homunculus to shoulder into her. Meanwhile, the new dome containing the Pride is broken and both he and Kimblee realize that Alphonse is hiding nearby. He appears and creates a new cloud of dust, but Pride, with her new sense of smell, sneaks up and catches him with her shadows. However, Jak is bound and Pride admits that even with his stone, Al cannot win alone. Al admits that this is where they will prove how tough humans are, and reveals that he no longer has the stone. Pride quickly realizes that these repeated clouds of dust are meant to use the winds to help block his sense of smell, and just as Kimblee realizes this, the transformed Heinkel attacks him from behind and bites his neck. Kimblee wondered how he could move in such a state and quickly spotted Dr. Marcoh with the Philosopher’s Stone that he had previously used to heal Heinkel.
Back at Central, Colonel Mustang’s group goes unnoticed by using alchemy to change the ice cream symbol on the car into a meat packer symbol. Realizing that all the entrances to the command center are blocked, he decides that instead of cutting his way through what will be left for the Briggs soldiers, he and Lt. Hawkeye will take a secret route while 2nd Lt. Ross takes Mrs. Bradley to their secret destination. In the white room, Ed’s group continues to fight the mannequin soldiers using their respective fighting styles, and after Scar suggests targeting their legs, though he hesitates at first, Ed summons his transformed spear and continues the attack. Elsewhere, it is revealed that Alex stopped Lenh’s earlier attack to save his older sister’s life. Using all his strength to hold back the sloth, he performs a ground attack to send him down a floor. Olivier then notices his injured left hand, which she admits is actually dislocated, and then admits that her own injured hand has some fractures. Sloth then attacks from below, sending them downstairs, and after catching his breath, Alex realizes his sister is unconscious just as Sloth is ready to continue his attack. Meanwhile, Pride tries to stab Heinkel, but he holds an injured Kimblee in front of him, causing his shadows to stop and retreat. Al is surprised by his behavior and Pride responds to his earlier remark that even with human toughness they still can’t win against them, with his father in Central and still having to face him right here.
Pride then tries to kill Marcoh, but Yoki arrives in a jeep that deflects the attack and knocks him down, which also frees Al. While dragging Al by his leg and with Kimblee’s body in his other arm, Heinkel heads in their direction. Marcoh is surprised that Yoki is there, and Yoki breaks down in tears, admitting that even though he usually leaves the fight to them, he just wanted to help once. Heinkel asks where the car came from, and Marcoh reveals that it’s the one Kimblee was riding in and that he bound the soldiers in Kaname with alchemy before stealing it. Throwing Kimblee’s body toward the Pride, Heinkel quickly got in and the car with the group narrowly escaped his counterattack and sped off toward Central. Knowing it doesn’t matter, Pride notices a badly injured Kimblee, who admits he was crazy to get into this from the earlier Heinkel attack that crushed his breathing tube. Pride acknowledged that he always wanted to see what the world would be like and that he would refuse to die in a place like this, so he uses his shadows to absorb his body to live in. At the central headquarters, Oliver wakes up to the stunned looks of the soldiers nearby, only to find that Alex has transformed a giant spike that penetrated Sloth’s right arm and head to restrain him as he rushes inside. Alex says that if Olivier dies, only he will inherit their mansion, to which she confesses that she will go to Mustang, angering him that she would do this without the family’s consent. As they argue, Sloth regenerates, and when the soldiers hear gunfire from another room, the door opens to reveal that the soldiers there are being attacked by Mannequin soldiers and not by Mustang troops.
Olivier asks if it has to do with Briggs’ soldiers and says that he mustn’t compare them to his own, saying that they were probably sent by their superiors. One soldier holds her at gunpoint in shock as she is unaware, but she says the superiors don’t care. As she points out that she and Alex can handle these monsters, Lenh’s trapped hand falls away, allowing her to regenerate, and he begins to rise, breaking the spike that entered his head and allowing him to move again. Still holding the gun pointed, she also questions whether to shoot her, which would result in their deaths at the hands of these monsters, or whether she and Alex will help ensure their survival, saying that they need these soldiers to decide for themselves. Underground, May continues her fight against Envy, who is now able to use her new body to extend her arms for her attacks. More mannequin soldiers appear, and while Envy believes she has an advantage because they can’t die easily due to the sage stones infused into them and that she can absorb them to make them stronger, May points out that more soldiers mean. that it is easier to escape, in which he escapes. As he runs, he realizes that the philosopher’s stones that keep these soldiers alive are what he needs to complete his mission to save his clan. In the white room, the mannequin soldiers keep coming, putting Ed’s group at a disadvantage as both Zampan and Jers run out of quills. Just as Ed is pinned down and about to attack him, Mustang destroys the wall Ed created earlier, saving him in the process. Mustang admits that Ed always tends to cause a ruckus wherever he ends up, so he offers to help him.