Soul of the Guardian

Twentieth in the 2003 run, this chapter pits Edward against Number 48, an executed serial killer whose soul was sealed inside armor, while Alphonse trades blows with the equally hollow Number 66. The swordfight tests Edward's failing automail and his resolve, and both guardians needle the brothers about the fragile, uncertain nature of the souls keeping them alive.

Number 48 introduces himself as the death-row butcher once known as Slicer and confirms Edward's hunch that the lab exploits the neighboring prison. Edward argues the guardian is not truly immortal, since destroying his blood rune would end him, but 48 welcomes the challenge and presses his attack. Hampered by an automail arm that keeps failing, Edward takes wounds to his shoulder and side before he tricks the swordsman with an alchemical decoy and knocks the helmet clear, only to learn that 48 is in fact a pair of murdering brothers with a second rune hidden in the torso. Cornered and bleeding heavily, Edward recalls Scar's destructive style, mimics it, and blasts the younger Slicer apart at the waist, then refuses their plea to finish them off out of respect for the brother who shares their condition. Outside, Alphonse counters Barry with ease and unmasks him as the sadistic Chopper the Elrics once helped arrest, but Barry works to unsettle him by insisting his whole existence may be a fabrication, leaving Alphonse to wonder whether he was ever real.

The episode draws on the chapters The Two Guardians and The Definition of Human.