Episode 43: The Stray Dog (2003 series)

Winry Rockbell and Sheska arrive at Resembool, with Sheska surprised of how rural it is. However, a stranger who had been with them on the train mistakes Winry for her mother, Sara, causing the two of them to run off. While at Rockbell Automail, her grandmother, Pinako, is trying to learn what Winry has been up to since she left when the stranger shows up, causing both Winry and Sheska to hide. The man mentions he can't find his house, and noticing her nervousness, Pinako points out that while Winry was too young to remember, the man is Hohenheim, Ed and Al's father.

Ed and Al head across the desert since they're now fugitives and cannot go back to the military, what with both The Führer and his secretary being homunculi. This confirms Al's suspicions of Juliet Douglas' true identity (the result of their failed attempt at transmutating their mother) and when Ed refuses to talk about it, their squabble causes part of the Philosopher's Stone within Al's body to create an accidental transmutation where he sees The Gate. Ed concludes that he must avoid touching his brother to prevent further expending the stone's power, which would result in Al's body disappearing entirely. He decides they should head to Resembool first, where, despite it being the first place the military will look, he needs to get something to help him in their battle against the homunculi.

Back around the site of the former city of Reole, the injured survivors from Scar's giant transmutation array are being loaded up on a train bound for Central. Among them is a heavily bandaged Frank Archer, whose body was badly maimed during the transmutation. Heymans Breda and Jean Havoc update Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye about what their search had uncovered. Bradley arrives and believes that Edward Elric is partly responsible for the city's destruction, accusing him of cooperating with Scar in secret and causing the deaths of 1,000 soldiers (ignoring the fact that it was Archer's ambitious recklessness that mainly contributed to the soldier's deaths). Mustang volunteers to apprehend the Elrics, a request the Führer grants, although with a warning that should he fail, he'll have much to answer for. With some additional troops, the Mustang Unit and Major Armstrong depart. On the train bound for Central, The Führer (Pride) meets with Gluttony and Sloth in a secret compartment, revealing that they have confined Lust for allowing the Elric brothers to flee.

In Resembool, Winry finds Hohenheim around his wife's grave, and noticing him looking at her mother's grave, she explains what happened to her as Pinako watches them. At Winry's house, Sheska answers the door and comes face-to-face with Maria Ross and Denny Brosh. Winry returns home as Sheska argues with Brosh, accusing him and Ross of pursuing her and Winry from Central. As they show them the remains of the Elric household, the girls learn how a friend of Ross's is in Communications and delivered a report that the Elrics have become fugitives, which is the reason they are both there, although she can't explain it fully. Once Hohenheim makes a suggestion about the nearby river stream, Winry realizes it might be where the Elrics will come from and heads out with Sheska, while Ross and Brosh remain behind to hinder the search party however they can. As Ed and Al travel down the stream, they hide from Falman and Breda. However, Fuery and Havoc spot them and when Ed holds onto the tip of Havoc's gun with his automail hand, they recoil in pain when the gun goes off and the ricochet injures them both. Ed then transmutes Falman and Breda's uniforms into balloons as they make their escape. Mustang and the others meet up with them (Fuery and Havoc) and speculate how the Elrics will travel, with Mustang procuring some matches from the injured Havoc before he goes. When Winry and Sheska show up on a mechanical bike, Hawkeye quickly disables it with a well-aimed shot and takes them into custody (hostage). With the girls as their prisoners/leverage, the military group continues their search. Winry accuses Mustang of betraying Ed after helping him get into the military and Sheska states that all he cares about is his rank. When Winry brings up her parents' deaths, Hawkeye stops her.

The military group catches up with the Elrics. Ed admits to Mustang that he is through with the military as they talk it out. Despite Edward using alchemy to create a giant wave of water to render his flame alchemy useless, Mustang uses the matches he took from Havoc as a replacement for his gloves and combines his alchemy with Armstrong's to prevent the Elrics from fleeing. With them trapped and hearing Winry's cry to stop the fight, he admits that, during the Ishval Civil War, he executed her parents under orders when they refused to stop treating the Ishvalan insurgents. However, he reveals that after that horrific experience, he swore that he would never follow unreasonable orders like that again, and that the event is what led him to seek the rank of Führer for himself. He also reveals the reason why he took this mission was to find out why the brothers ran off without coming to him first.