Introduction Arc
10 eps
8 canon 2 mixed 📷 4
Former State Alchemist Isaac McDougal attacks Central with water and ice alchemy, drawing Edward and Alphonse Elric into a city-wide manhunt alongside Mustang, Armstrong, and the military. Isaac tries to activate a massive transmutation circle beneath Central and warns the Elrics that something is deeply wrong with the country and Führer Bradley. Ed and Al help stop the circle, but Bradley personally kills Isaac before he can expose anything more.
The story returns to Resembool, where Edward and Alphonse grow up studying alchemy after their father leaves and their mother Trisha dies. Their attempt to bring her back through human transmutation costs Al his entire body and Ed his left leg, followed by Ed sacrificing his right arm to bind Al's soul to a suit of armor. Roy Mustang later finds the brothers, Ed accepts the brutal path of automail and the State Alchemist examination, and earns the title Fullmetal Alchemist.
Ed and Al arrive in Liore after hearing that Father Cornello can perform miracles with what appears to be a Philosopher's Stone. They meet Rose, who believes Cornello can resurrect her dead boyfriend, and expose the priest's miracles as alchemy powered by a counterfeit Stone. Ed defeats Cornello and tells Rose she has to move forward under her own power, while Lust and Gluttony eliminate Cornello after the brothers leave.
Mustang introduces Ed and Al to Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist, so they can study biological transmutation while preparing for their next lead. The brothers quickly become close to Tucker's daughter Nina and her dog Alexander, only to discover that Tucker has fused them into a speaking chimera to preserve his State Alchemist certification. Ed nearly beats Tucker to death, but the military takes him into custody, and Scar later kills both Tucker and the Nina-Alexander chimera.
Ed and Al are still reeling from Nina's death when Scar continues his campaign against State Alchemists, killing Basque Grand and then targeting Edward. Scar destroys Ed's automail arm and badly damages Al's armor, leaving Ed willing to die if Scar will spare his brother. Mustang, Hawkeye, and Armstrong intervene, and Scar escapes after Armstrong exposes the Ishvalan tattoos hidden beneath his clothes.
Armstrong escorts the damaged Elrics back toward Resembool for repairs and recognizes Tim Marcoh living quietly as a small-town doctor. Marcoh admits that he worked on the military's Philosopher's Stone research and gives Ed a clue to where his notes are hidden, warning him that the truth is ugly. In Resembool, Winry and Pinako rebuild Ed's automail, and the brothers leave for Central with their first real lead on the Stone.
Ed and Al return to Central to find the First Branch Library burned down, apparently taking Marcoh's research with it. Sheska, a former library employee with a photographic memory, reconstructs the notes from memory, and the brothers spend days decoding what looks like a collection of recipes. The hidden message finally reveals the ingredient they never wanted to find: a Philosopher's Stone is created using living human beings.
Ed and Al investigate the abandoned Fifth Laboratory beside Central Prison, where Ed fights the armored Slicer brothers inside while Al faces Barry the Chopper outside. Both opponents are murderers whose souls have been bound to armor, and Barry exploits that similarity to make Al question whether his own memories were fabricated by Edward. Ed defeats Slicer using Scar's destruction technique, but Lust and Envy kill the guards before they can reveal more and destroy the laboratory to erase the evidence.
Ed recovers in the hospital after Laboratory 5 while Winry arrives in Central to repair the automail arm that failed during his fight. Al cannot shake Barry's claim that he might be an artificial soul with false memories, and his suspicion finally explodes into an argument with Edward. Winry forces the brothers to confront what they are actually afraid of, and Ed admits that he had always feared Al resented him for binding his soul to the armor; after a familiar sparring match, the brothers reconcile.
Ed, Al, and Winry leave Central for Dublith while Maes Hughes continues investigating the military conspiracy surrounding Laboratory 5 and the unrest spreading across Amestris. Hughes realizes the pattern is much larger than a few corrupt officers and tries to contact Mustang, but Lust attacks him before he can report everything he discovered. He escapes long enough to reach a public phone, only for Envy to take Gracia's form and shoot him; Hughes is buried with full honors while his friends are left behind without knowing what he died trying to expose.
Dublith Arc
4 eps
4 canon
On the way to Dublith, Ed, Al, and Winry stop in Rush Valley, where the pickpocket Paninya steals Ed's State Alchemist watch and leads them to the automail engineer Dominic. Winry is fascinated by Dominic's work and asks to become his apprentice, but he refuses until a sudden emergency gives her a chance to prove herself. When Satella goes into labor with no doctor nearby, Winry delivers the baby herself, leaving Ed and Al awed by a kind of human creation that alchemy can never reproduce.
Ed and Al reach Dublith and reunite with their formidable alchemy teacher, Izumi Curtis, hoping she may know more about the Philosopher's Stone. Their visit brings back memories of the month Izumi abandoned them on an island and forced them to survive without alchemy until they understood what 'one is all, all is one' actually meant. Izumi recognizes the signs of human transmutation in her former students, admits that she committed the same taboo trying to revive her miscarried child, and the three finally acknowledge the pain they have all been carrying.
Izumi formally expels Ed and Al as students, effectively telling them they have grown enough to face her as equals. Al is then kidnapped by chimera working for the homunculus Greed, who wants to know how Ed bound a soul to armor because he believes the technique may lead to true immortality. Ed tracks Greed to the Devil's Nest and learns how to break through his Ultimate Shield, only for Izumi to crash the fight before either side can finish it.
Bradley leads a military raid on Greed's hideout, but his real target is the rogue homunculus himself. In the tunnels beneath Dublith, Bradley reveals that he is Wrath and overwhelms Greed with terrifying speed, killing Dolcetto and Roa when they try to intervene. Martel is stabbed while hiding inside Al's armor, and her blood splashing across his seal unlocks Al's lost memories of the failed human transmutation; Greed is then taken before Father, melted back into a Philosopher's Stone, and consumed.
Northern Campaign Arc
12 eps
12 canon
Scar kills another State Alchemist and meets May Chang, a young Xingese alkahestrist travelling with Yoki in search of the Philosopher's Stone. Meanwhile Ed, Al, and Winry meet another Xingese visitor in Rush Valley: Ling Yao, a prince seeking the secret of immortality so he can secure his clan's future. Ling's bodyguards Lan Fan and Fu test the Elrics in battle, and after the damage is repaired, Ling joins the brothers on the road to Central.
Ed, Al, Winry, and Ling arrive in Central, where Ed and Al finally learn that Hughes did not retire from the military at all: he was murdered. The brothers visit Gracia and Elicia and blame themselves for pulling Hughes into the Philosopher's Stone investigation, but Gracia tells them to keep moving forward instead of abandoning the path he died helping them follow. Elsewhere, Envy moves to obstruct Mustang's investigation and Maria Ross is suddenly arrested for Hughes' murder.
Maria Ross is interrogated as the supposed murderer of Maes Hughes, while Barry the Chopper decides to break her out before the military can dispose of her. Ling escapes alongside Ross, and when Ed and Al encounter the fugitives, Barry holds the brothers off long enough for Ross to run. Mustang intercepts her and appears to incinerate her with a single blast, leaving Ed furious at his commanding officer until Armstrong abruptly drags him out of Central on an unexplained trip.
Armstrong takes Ed through Resembool to the ruins of Xerxes, where Ed discovers the truth behind Mustang's cold performance: Maria Ross is alive, and her death was staged so the real conspirators would stop hunting her. Fu escorts Ross toward Xing while Ed explores the ruins and meets Ishvalan refugees who tell him that Scar was the man who killed Winry's parents. Back in Central, Barry's original body attacks the group watching him, and Hawkeye is left facing Gluttony.
Mustang rushes to Hawkeye's aid and joins Havoc, Al, Barry, and the others in following Barry's body beneath the Third Laboratory. Lust ambushes Mustang and Havoc and leaves both men grievously wounded before turning on Hawkeye, who believes Mustang is dead. Mustang returns after cauterizing his own wounds and repeatedly incinerates Lust until the Philosopher's Stone powering her regeneration is exhausted, killing the supposedly immortal homunculus for good.
Ed returns to Resembool and finds Hohenheim standing at Trisha's grave, reopening every resentment he still carries toward his absent father. After overhearing Hohenheim question whether the thing Ed and Al transmuted was really Trisha, Ed and Pinako dig up the remains and discover that it was not their mother at all. Izumi confirms the same truth about her own failed transmutation, proving that the dead cannot be brought back while giving Ed renewed hope that Al's real body still exists beyond the Gate.
Ed begins wondering whether his own body is supplying some of the nutrition keeping Al's body alive beyond the Gate, while Mustang confirms just how deep the conspiracy may reach and promises the paralyzed Havoc that he has not been discarded. When Scar returns to Central and kills more State Alchemists, Ed and Al deliberately make themselves visible to lure him out and force the homunculi to respond. Ling and Lan Fan join the trap, but Bradley suddenly ambushes Lan Fan while she is fighting Gluttony.
Ling tries to escape with the injured Lan Fan while Bradley and Gluttony hunt them through Central. During Ed and Al's fight with Scar, Winry arrives just in time to hear the truth that Scar killed her parents during the Ishvalan war and raises a gun at him in shock. Scar remembers losing his brother, receiving his brother's arm, and then killing the Rockbells in a rage; back in the present, Ed places himself between Scar and Winry and refuses to let her become a killer.
Ed leaves Winry with the military and rejoins Al in the fight against Scar just as Gluttony arrives to capture him. Ling binds Gluttony while Lan Fan escapes Bradley by cutting off her own injured arm and attaching it to a dog to throw off his tracking. May helps Scar escape, Winry returns to Rush Valley, and Ling reveals to Mustang and the Elrics that Bradley is a homunculus just before Gluttony erupts in rage over Lust's death.
Marcoh remains a prisoner of the homunculi while Ed, Al, and Ling try to contain the enraged Gluttony. Envy arrives to protect the Elrics because Father still needs them alive, but the fight goes wrong and Gluttony swallows Ed, Ling, and Envy together. Elsewhere, Mustang tries to bring his suspicions to the military leadership and discovers that Bradley is not acting alone: Central's senior command is already part of the conspiracy.
Ed and Ling wake inside the seemingly endless darkness of Gluttony's stomach and eventually find Envy, who reveals that Gluttony is Father's failed attempt to recreate the Gate of Truth. Envy also admits that he deliberately triggered the Ishvalan civil war, provoking Ed into a fight before exposing his monstrous true form. Outside, Bradley isolates Mustang by scattering his subordinates and keeping Hawkeye as his personal assistant, while Al convinces Gluttony to take him directly to Father.
Ed and Ling struggle against Envy until Ed realizes that the Philosopher's Stone inside Envy can power a human transmutation and open a way out of Gluttony's false Gate. The plan works, and Ed briefly passes through the real Gate of Truth, where he sees Al's emaciated body waiting on the other side and promises to return for him. Meanwhile, Bradley tells Mustang how he was created as Wrath, while Al, Scar, May, and Gluttony make their way toward Father's underground lair.
Briggs Arc
11 eps
10 canon 1 filler
Hohenheim dreams of sitting apart from a festival in Resembool years earlier, speaking with a younger Pinako while reflecting on the foolishness and resilience of human beings. The episode revisits major events from the story so far through his memories and inner argument with himself. Hohenheim finally wakes from the drunken dream and continues the journey he began after leaving Resembool.
Al and Gluttony reach Father's underground lair just as Ed, Ling, and Envy escape from Gluttony's stomach. Father heals the Elrics but then demonstrates that he can shut down their alchemy completely, while Scar and May's alkahestry still works differently enough to resist his control. Interested in Ling's determination, Father implants Greed's Philosopher's Stone into him and creates a new Greed, leaving Ling conscious inside the homunculus as Scar and May help the others escape.
Envy escorts Ed and Al to Bradley, who openly confirms that he is Wrath and threatens Winry if Edward tries to resign from the military or stop cooperating. Mustang learns that Bradley did not personally kill Hughes but gets no answer about who did, while Greed briefly surfaces long enough to pass Ling's message to Lan Fan. Scar finds Marcoh imprisoned beneath Central, and after Marcoh admits his role in Ishval, Scar demands the entire story instead of simply killing him.
Hawkeye and Marcoh separately recount the Ishvalan war, revealing how the military escalated years of conflict into a formal extermination campaign. State Alchemists including Mustang, Armstrong, and Kimblee were turned into weapons, while Marcoh helped create Philosopher's Stones from Ishvalan lives and one of those Stones was handed to Kimblee. The episode also reveals the origin of Mustang's Flame Alchemy on Hawkeye's back and the promise Mustang and Hawkeye made to change the country even if they must eventually answer for what they did.
Ed and Al decide to find May and learn why her alkahestry still worked when Father shut down Amestrian alchemy. Mustang's team is scattered to distant posts, but he quietly reconnects with Grumman and reminds Ed of the 520 cens he once borrowed; Ed refuses repayment until Mustang becomes Führer. Meanwhile, Envy releases Kimblee from prison to hunt Scar and Marcoh, while Scar disguises Marcoh and heads north to recover his brother's research notes.
Ed and Al search Central for May and study Xingese alkahestry while Mustang secretly meets the disguised Grumman and rebuilds his network of allies. Armstrong gives the brothers a letter of introduction to his sister, Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong at Briggs, after learning that May was seen travelling north. Before leaving, Ed and Al unexpectedly meet Bradley's cheerful adopted son Selim and visit the Führer's home, then board a train north as Kimblee closes in on Scar.
Kimblee catches Scar's train and discovers that the hooded passenger beside him is Yoki rather than Marcoh, leading to a vicious rematch between the two men from Ishval. Scar badly wounds Kimblee and escapes, while May and the disguised Marcoh continue north and begin recovering Scar's brother's research. Ed and Al finally reach Briggs, where Captain Buccaneer attacks them on the mountain path before the fortress soldiers capture the brothers and bring them before Olivier Mira Armstrong.
Ed and Al are brought inside Fort Briggs and quickly learn that Olivier Mira Armstrong has little patience for secrets, weakness, or the Elrics' reputation. Ed's steel automail proves badly suited to the northern cold, while Major Miles challenges his assumptions about Ishvalans serving in the military. Their questioning is interrupted when Sloth suddenly bursts into the fortress from underground, and Olivier orders her soldiers to find a way to stop an enemy who seems impossible to kill.
Olivier's soldiers immobilize Sloth by soaking him in fuel and forcing him into the freezing air, then take Ed and Al into custody until they explain what they know. Investigating the tunnel Sloth dug beneath Briggs, Ed and Falman realize that its path connects the sites of Amestris' major wars and forms an enormous transmutation circle around the entire country. General Raven arrives at Briggs and begins tempting Olivier with the military leadership's promise of an immortal army, unaware that she is listening for proof of the conspiracy.
Hohenheim remembers the years he spent with Trisha, Ed, and Al and the pain of leaving them because his immortal body would outlive everyone he loved. At Briggs, Raven orders Olivier to return Sloth to the tunnel and seal the passage, while a search team below ground is attacked by a creature moving through the darkness. Olivier decides Raven has told her enough, kills him, and hides his body in the concrete; soon afterward Kimblee arrives with Winry, making it clear that the Rockbells' daughter is being used to control the Elrics.
Winry upgrades Ed's automail for the northern climate while Kimblee keeps the brothers under close watch. In Central, Hawkeye discovers that Selim Bradley is Pride, the first homunculus, after his shadows corner her and warn her that he is always watching. Kimblee orders Ed to hunt Scar and Marcoh and carve a blood crest at Briggs, offering a Philosopher's Stone as payment; Ed accepts only as a cover for his own plan, and Winry insists on travelling with the brothers.
Promised Day Arc
27 eps
27 canon
Ed, Al, and Winry reach the mining town of Baschool and slip away from Kimblee's guards, where they reunite with May, Marcoh, Yoki, and Scar. Scar is attacked by Kimblee's chimera soldiers Jerso and Zampano, but the Elrics defeat them and take Scar into custody. Winry finally confronts Scar face-to-face about her parents, and when Kimblee closes in he sees what appears to be Scar taking Winry hostage before an explosion tears through the building.
The apparent kidnapping is revealed as a plan Winry devised herself, allowing Scar, Marcoh, May, and the others to escape Kimblee while making it look as though Winry was taken by force. Miles agrees to help after explaining that he intends to change Amestris from within rather than abandon the military, and Al heads into a blizzard to warn the fugitives that Central has seized control of Briggs. During the storm Al briefly sees his real body and fears it may be trying to pull his soul back, while Father counts the human sacrifices already gathered for the Promised Day.
Olivier returns to Central and secures Raven's place among the senior command, while Hawkeye secretly tells Mustang through a coded conversation that Selim is a homunculus. Father remembers ancient Xerxes, where a nameless slave called Number 23 met the small being created from his blood, received the name Van Hohenheim, and learned alchemy from it. The Dwarf in the Flask manipulates the king into sacrificing the entire country, creating Philosopher's Stones inside both Hohenheim and itself; in the present, Hohenheim later meets Izumi, eases the damage to her organs, and reveals what he has become.
Miles prepares an attempt on Kimblee's life while Scar's group leaves the mine and Al warns them that Briggs is now controlled by Central. Kimblee detects the ambush and follows Ed underground, where Darius and Heinkel attack on his orders until Ed uses the ammonia in dynamite to overwhelm their heightened senses. Ed knocks away Kimblee's Philosopher's Stone, but Kimblee reveals a second one and detonates the mine, leaving Ed impaled on a steel beam; Ed forces the chimeras to pull it out and sacrifices part of his own lifespan to close the wound long enough to survive.
May deciphers Scar's brother's notes and discovers that, when rearranged, they reveal both Father's nationwide transmutation circle and a second alkahestry circle designed to counter it. Hohenheim arrives in rebuilt Liore and discovers that Sloth's tunnels run beneath the city, where Pride attacks him but cannot move beyond the tunnel's boundary. Hohenheim deliberately sends Father a warning through Pride, while Kimblee manipulates Drachma into attacking Briggs to create another blood crest and Zampano secretly contacts Envy with Marcoh's location.
Drachma launches its attack on Briggs only to be annihilated, creating the blood-soaked crest Kimblee wanted around the fortress. Zampano's apparent betrayal draws Envy directly into a trap prepared by Marcoh, May, Scar, and the others, and Marcoh uses his knowledge of Philosopher's Stones to destroy the souls powering Envy from within. Reduced to a tiny parasitic form, Envy is handed to May for her journey back to Xing, while Olivier is shown Central's hidden army of artificial human soldiers and Al's group reaches Liore, where Hohenheim is waiting.
Ed recovers from his near-fatal wound with Darius and Heinkel and escapes when the military discovers the clinic where he is hiding. In Liore, Hohenheim finally tells Al the truth about Xerxes, Father, and the nationwide plan for the Promised Day, while Al shares the countermeasure uncovered in Scar's brother's research. Elsewhere, Bido finds the new Greed and expects his old friend to recognize him, but Greed kills him before Ling's anger forces the buried memories of the Devil's Nest back to the surface; shaken by what he has done, Greed heads for Bradley's home to confront Wrath.
Greed attacks Bradley at the Führer's residence, demanding answers for the memories of his old companions, but Wrath overwhelms him and forces Ling to take control long enough to escape. Greed later runs into Ed, Darius, and Heinkel, and Ed agrees to work under him in exchange for what he knows about Father's plan for the Promised Day. Elsewhere Olivier forces the Armstrong family out of the country under the excuse of settling the inheritance, while Envy tricks May into turning back toward Central.
Months pass and spring arrives as the allies quietly take their positions for the Promised Day. Winry returns to Resembool and finds Ed hiding there with Greed, Darius, and Heinkel, while Scar and Marcoh coordinate resistance groups and Al travels with Briggs forces. Grumman's men destroy Bradley's train on a bridge, throwing Central into uncertainty, and that night Pride ambushes Al in the darkness and takes control of his armor.
Ed's group reaches Kanama and reunites with Hohenheim, who finally tells Edward the full story of Xerxes and Father's plan; Ed answers by giving him Trisha's final message, reducing Hohenheim to tears. Their reunion is interrupted when Al appears under Pride's control and attacks, with Gluttony joining the battle in the dark forest. Lan Fan returns with automail and helps Greed fight Gluttony while Ed realizes that Pride's shadows depend on light.
Ed, Greed, Lan Fan, and the others exploit the darkness to fight Pride and Gluttony, using flashes of light to break Pride's shadows apart long enough to rescue Al. Gluttony retreats toward Pride after losing too many lives, only for Pride to decide that his brother is more useful as fuel and devour him, gaining Gluttony's Philosopher's Stone and sense of smell. In Central, Mustang begins assembling the people he trusts for the coming uprising.
Pride uses his new senses to regain the advantage against Ed's group, but Hohenheim and Al turn the battlefield into a trap. Hohenheim seals Pride inside a massive earthen dome with Al remaining inside, cutting the homunculus off from light and preventing his shadows from escaping while the others move on. As dawn approaches, the Promised Day finally begins and the resistance prepares to strike Central.
Mustang's forces launch their attack on Central while deliberately avoiding lethal force, turning the military's own soldiers against the senior command without giving the regime an easy excuse to brand them murderers. Mrs. Bradley is taken into Mustang's protection and begins realizing that the official story about her husband's disappearance may be false. Olivier makes her move inside Central Command, Buccaneer's Briggs troops enter the fighting, and Maria Ross and Rebecca arrive with ammunition supplied through Havoc's network.
Central's senior officers activate the underground Mannequin Soldiers, expecting an obedient immortal army, only for the creatures to attack anyone they can reach. Ed's group encounters the mannequins below Central while May is chased through the tunnels, where Envy escapes his jar and restores his full body by absorbing their Philosopher's Stones. At the same time Kimblee recognizes the code Pride has been tapping against Al's helmet, breaks the earthen prison open, and frees Pride; Heinkel gives Al Kimblee's discarded Philosopher's Stone so he can fight back.
Al uses the Philosopher's Stone to battle Pride and Kimblee at full strength, refusing Kimblee's suggestion that he should spend its souls restoring his own body instead of protecting everyone else. Heinkel seizes an opening and mauls Kimblee, allowing Al and the others to escape with the wounded chimera. In Central, Alex joins Olivier against Sloth, while Ed, Scar, and their allies push deeper through the Mannequin Soldiers toward Father's chamber.
Mustang's allies use Central radio to turn public opinion against the senior command while the fighting spreads through the city. Underground, Envy tries to divide Ed, Scar, Mustang, and Hawkeye by revealing that he murdered Hughes while disguised as Gracia. Mustang's grief turns instantly into controlled fury, and he pursues Envy through the tunnels, burning through every transformation and regeneration the homunculus can produce.
Envy disguises himself as Mustang to trick Hawkeye, but she sees through him and survives until the real Mustang arrives to continue the attack. When Envy is reduced to his tiny true form, Mustang prepares to kill him out of pure revenge, only for Hawkeye, Ed, and Scar to stop him from becoming the kind of man he once swore not to be. Ed recognizes that Envy's hatred of humans comes from jealousy of their ability to endure and support one another, and the humiliated homunculus destroys his own Philosopher's Stone rather than accept that truth; elsewhere the Armstrong siblings continue their battle with Sloth.
Alex and Olivier Armstrong continue fighting Sloth until Izumi and Sig Curtis arrive in Central and join them, finally wearing the homunculus down until his Philosopher's Stone is exhausted and he dies. Beneath the city, Hohenheim confronts Father directly and reveals that he has spent years speaking with and organizing the souls inside his own body, turning them against the being who stole them from Xerxes. Above ground, the Briggs soldiers celebrate too early when King Bradley walks back into Central alive and heads straight for the main gate.
Bradley cuts through the Briggs forces at Central's main gate almost by himself, destroying their tank and forcing Buccaneer into a desperate defense. Greed arrives and attacks Wrath while Fu joins the fight after realizing the Führer is the homunculus who threatened Ling, but even together they struggle to land a decisive blow. Underground, Hohenheim's souls attack Father from within and force him to shed his human-shaped shell, revealing a form closer to the Dwarf in the Flask.
Fu throws himself at Bradley in a final attack, and when Wrath cuts him down, Buccaneer uses Fu's body to hide a sword strike that wounds Bradley through the abdomen. Greed and Ling are devastated by Fu's death, while the mortally wounded Buccaneer stays behind to protect the main gate. Beneath Central, the gold-toothed doctor activates the human-transmutation array and the black hands of the Gate seize Edward, Alphonse, and Izumi, pulling all three away as Father's plan enters its final stage.
Greed continues battling the wounded Bradley until Briggs soldiers shoot Wrath from the battlements and he falls into the water below, while Buccaneer dies after entrusting the gate to Ling. Underground, the gold-toothed doctor tries to force Mustang to become the fifth human sacrifice by having Hawkeye's throat cut in front of him, but Hawkeye silently signals Roy not to give in and Mustang refuses to perform human transmutation. Pride then arrives with Bradley and the doctor prepares another way to force Mustang through the Gate.
Pride uses the gold-toothed doctor and the prepared transmutation circle to force Mustang through the Gate against his will, making him Father's fifth sacrifice and taking his eyesight as the toll. Scar opens a path toward Father's chamber and is intercepted by the still-living Bradley, beginning their final duel above the lair. Al wakes before his own Gate and finally sees his emaciated body, but refuses to reunite with it while his friends are still fighting and returns to the armor after promising that he will come back.
Scar fights Bradley as the eclipse begins, revealing that he tattooed the reconstruction array from his brother's research onto his other arm and can now use both halves of alchemy. Below them, Ed, Al, Izumi, Mustang, and Hohenheim are gathered as Father's five sacrifices while May tries to attack him and Greed races toward the center. Father activates the nationwide transmutation circle at the height of the eclipse, opening the planet's Gate and taking the souls of Amestris into himself so he can pull the being beyond the Gate down to Earth.
Father emerges with the power he stole from beyond the Gate, but Hohenheim activates the countermeasure he spent years planting across Amestris and returns the stolen souls to their bodies. Scar defeats Wrath as the eclipse light blinds Bradley at the decisive instant, then activates his brother's reverse transmutation circle, restoring Amestrian alchemy without Father's interference. Elsewhere Pride tries to steal Edward's body as his own vessel collapses, but Kimblee's surviving soul disrupts him from within and Ed reduces Pride to a tiny infant-like form rather than killing him.
With Father's control over alchemy broken, Ed, Mustang, Armstrong, Izumi, Greed, and the surviving soldiers attack him together and force him to keep consuming souls to contain the power inside him. Father's counterattack destroys Ed's automail arm and traps his remaining arm against the ground while Al's armor is nearly destroyed protecting May. Unable to reach his brother, Al asks May to help him perform one final transmutation and sacrifices his own soul, returning Edward's flesh-and-blood right arm so Ed can keep fighting.
With both arms restored, Ed batters Father until the power inside him begins collapsing, while Greed makes one last play by turning Father's body into fragile carbon and allowing himself to be reabsorbed so Ling can survive. Father destroys Greed, but the opening is enough for Edward to finish him, and Truth drags the Dwarf in the Flask back through his own Gate. Hohenheim offers his final life to restore Al, but Ed refuses and instead transmutes himself, sacrificing his personal Gate and all ability to use alchemy in exchange for bringing Alphonse back in his original body.
With Father defeated, Amestris begins rebuilding: Marcoh offers Mustang a Philosopher's Stone to restore his sight in exchange for helping rebuild Ishval, Ling prepares to return to Xing, and Scar chooses to help preserve Ishvalan culture rather than continue living only for revenge. Hohenheim returns alone to Resembool and dies peacefully at Trisha's grave after realizing that he no longer wants his life to end. Ed and Al finally come home to Winry, then leave again two years later to learn from the wider world; Ed awkwardly asks Winry to share her life with him, and the series closes on photographs showing the families and futures everyone built afterward.
