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 as her mother, Sara, causing the two of them to run off. While at Rockbell Automail, her grandmother, Pinako, is trying to inquire information to what she had been doing after 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 know they're now fugitives and cannot go back to the military since both The Führer and his secretary are homunculi. This confirms Al's suspicions on Juliet Douglas' (Sloth) true identity 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 decides that he should not touch him to avoid further mishaps that would use up the stone's power, and risk that it would cause him to disappear. He decides to 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 next 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, including Frank Archer, whose body had been badly maimed from the transmutation and is covered in bandages. 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, and accuses him of cooperating with Scar in secret that led to the deaths of 1,000 soldiers, ignoring the fact that it was Archer's recklessness that also contributed to the soldier's deaths. Mustang volunteers to apprehend the Elrics, which the Führer grants permission, but warns him that he'll have a lot to answer for if he fails. 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 finds it's Maria Ross and Denny Brosh. Winry returns home as Sheska is fighting with Brosh, accusing them of pursing the two of them from Central. As they show them the remains of the Elric's house, the girls learn how the Elrics are fugitives due to a friend Ross has in communications that had received the a report and is also the reason why both of them are there, although she can't fully explain it. 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 will remain behind to slow the search party if possible. 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 Havoc's gun with his automail arm, they recoil in pain when the gun was fired injured both of them, followed by Ed transmuting Falman and Breda's uniforms into balloons as they leave. Mustang and the others meet up with them, and speculate how the Elrics will travel along with him taking some matches from the injured Havoc. When Winry and Sheska show up on a mechanical bike, Hawkeye quickly disables it with an accurate shot. With the girls as their prisoners, the military group continues their search, where Winry accuses Mustang for betraying Ed after helping him get into the military, in which 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 and Ed admits that he is through with the military to Mustang as the two 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 Armstrongs to prevent the Elrics from fleeing. With them trapped and hearing Winry's cry to stop the fight, he admits that he murdered her parents under orders when they refused to stop treating the Ishvalan insurgents during the Ishval Civil War. However, he reveals that after that horrific experience, he swore that he would never follow unreasonable orders like that again and is why he chose to seek the rank of Führer for himself. He also reveals the reason why he accepted this mission is to why they ran off without coming to him first.