Wearing Al’s armor, Martel launches an attack against Kimblee, determined to avenge Greeda and the death of her friends. As Martel holds him at knife point, Kimblee reveals to Al and Martel that he is once again the State Alchemist, further angering Martel. Once Kimblee gets Al to stop Martel, Kimblee uses his alchemy on a soldier nearby and throws the body at Martel as he frees himself from Al. However, Al pulls Martel away at the last minute and jumps down onto the grass field. After Kimblee insults an unaware Martel about being a Chimera, Al fights him to protect her. Al uses transmutation to create some rocks that allow Kimblee to transmute, then at the right moment he creates a giant stone wall that surrounds Kimblee. This causes Kimblee to use his own alchemy against himself and come out with an injured hand. Al requests that Martel be allowed to flee just as Mustang and other soldiers arrive. Mustang points out that Al is under his jurisdiction and Kimblee will have to file a formal complaint against Al. Kimblee threatens to turn Al’s armor into a bomb the next time they meet.
At Führer HQ, Bradley assigns Hakura to act as the Führer’s deputy while he heads out to quell the rebellion in Reola so he doesn’t end up like Ishval. He’s actually heading there to destroy it with Juliet Douglas (a sloth) and Wrath.
At Reola, Scar confirms that Ed is aware of what he is trying to do as Lust and Gluttony observe them, with Lust surprised to hear about the Philosopher’s Stone. Once Scar confirms to Ed that he killed Nina four years ago in Central out of mercy, Ed accuses Scar of using Rosé and the other townspeople as human sacrifices; Scar is surprised that Ed knows Rosé. Ed and Scar fight, with Scar trying to deconstruct Ed’s automail limbs like before, but can’t. Ed reveals that Scar needs to know the metal composition in his automail in order to deconstruct it, so he changes the metal around so that Scar can’t destroy his automail, but it causes problems with the mechanical parts inside, so he has to end the fight. quick.
Lust and Gluttony intervene after Ed takes a few hits on Scar, who grabs Ed’s left arm, reminding him that he can destroy meat. Ed frees his hand with the automail by transforming into hot steam, which is used on the two Homunculi, but they regenerate. Lust reveals that she and Gluttony will protect Scar because he wants to create the stone. Scar takes out the locket he obtained in Ishval and asks if Lust recognizes him, which stuns her and forces Gluttony to take Lust and retreat.
Lyra and Rosé appear and Lyra asks Ed to hear what Scar wants to say, which is what Rosé wants, causing Ed to realize that Rosé is now mute.
At Rosé’s house, Scar reveals to Ed the story of his brother and his girlfriend dying of an illness. His brother became an outcast for performing human transmutation to resurrect her. Ed reveals to Scar that Lust was created from this transmutation, as Homunculi are created from failed human transmutation. Lyra remembers hearing this from Dante, who was performing a human transmutation, which Ed suspects is Greed. Ed mentions that someone is probably behind controlling the Homunculi and bringing them together. Ed takes the locket, sees some pieces of hair in it, and explains that Homunculi are weak to material from the person they are modeled after, which happened to Lust.
Continuing his story, Scar reveals that after the sudden attack and the outbreak of war, his brother returned with the knowledge of how to create the Philosopher’s Stone, but was ignored by the loyal Ishvalans and later abandoned his research. Ed admits that he met Ishvalan in Kishua and heard the story that the stone requires a large number of human sacrifices, so the city or civilization must be removed. Scar mentions that anger, frustration, and malice are also needed to combine to create the stone.
In the past, Kimblee attacked Scar’s group under orders to assassinate every Ishvalan present. He tortured Scar by giving him his X-shaped scar and taking away his original right arm. When Scar’s brother came to save him, the transmutation circle that was drawn on his body absorbed Kimblee’s red stone before the Iron-Blood Alchemist Basque Grand attacked. Scar woke up with his brother’s right arm and tattoo because his brother sacrificed himself to save Scar, knowing that Scar was also in love with his girlfriend. Ed realizes that Scar’s brother transmuted lives into the transmutation ring before passing the symbol to Scar, and that its incompleteness is why it absorbs the red stones.
Ed thinks that Scar is using Rosé as a pawn, but Lyra corrects him that Scar will not sacrifice Rosé and her people. Instead, he lures the soldiers to Reole and uses them as sacrifices with a giant transmutation field after the townspeople escape unharmed through the underground tunnels. Ed is upset that he sacrificed the soldiers and saw Rosé holding the baby. Scar reveals that Rosé became this way due to torture while being held prisoner by the military.
As Al returns to the military base looking for Martel, he learns from Lt. Havoc that the Führer has arrived. Crawling through the vents, Martel overhears Bradley secretly meeting with Kimblee and Tucker. Bradley wants Kimblee to lead Tucker’s new chimeras to Reola to force the people there to fight back and make it look like they attacked first, similar to Ishval, so the military won’t be accused of wrongdoing. Bradley also wants Kimblee to murder Ed if possible to support this heroic image. Not wanting this to happen, Martel attacks Bradley with the tip of a knife as he leaves, only for Bradley to parry the knife. Bradley’s eyepatch easily dodges Martel’s attacks and peels off to reveal his Ouroboros tattoo. Bradley, who is the seventh Pride Homunculus who can predict attacks with his eyes, follows Martel as she runs to Al, who has her in his armor. As Al’s expression changes, Bradley arrives and repositions his sword, allowing him to pass through Al’s armor and kill Martel, scaring a visibly disturbed Al in the process. Bradley explains to Al that he dealt with the escaped chimera that hid in his armor and thanks him for his help before leaving. Al visibly continues to break down and mourn for Martel, ending the episode.