Reunion of the Fallen

At a bar, Lust reports Greed's death to Envy, who shrugs it off since their master can simply make another. When Lust asks aloud where their lives will go, Envy dismisses the thought, kills the owner, and feeds the body to Gluttony. Outside, a young man called Lujon heals a crash victim with an incomplete Philosopher's Stone and recognizes Lust. Meanwhile Edward, Alphonse, and Winry ride south hoping to reach the Ishvalan refugee camp for leads on the stone, and Ed rescues a woman named Lydia from attackers.

Two years earlier, Lust and Gluttony had come upon Lydia after a mudslide and met Lujon amid a fossilizing disease sweeping the village. When his alchemy failed and killed a boy, Lust, stirred by a memory of Scar's brother trying to save his own dying love, chose to help Lujon perfect his healing so he could rescue the townsfolk, including the afflicted Lydia. Lydia, who had planned to marry Lujon once cured, watched jealously as the two grew close.

In the present, Lujon admits he really left his village to find Lust again, and she grants him a fresh stone. Unknown to him, Envy engineered the epidemic so the homunculi could later strip away the cure and drive Lujon to forge a Philosopher's Stone out of despair. When Lujon confesses his love, Lust judges the mistake worthless and kills him with her Ultimate Spear. Without the stone the village succumbs once more, and the Elrics and Winry find only the dead, including Lydia, who dies in Lujon's arms. Lust rides off, plainly unsettled.

Lust reports Greed's death to Envy and begins questioning her own existence. She reunites with Lujon, a healer she secretly trained two years earlier during a fossilizing plague. Flashbacks reveal Lust's memories of Scar's brother surfacing as she taught Lujon. The homunculi's plan is exposed as a scheme to break Lujon into producing a Philosopher's Stone. Lust gives him a new stone, then kills him with her Ultimate Spear after his confession. The village and Lydia die without the cure, leaving Lust disturbed.

The episode deepens Lust's link to the lover of Scar's brother, on whom she is modeled and whose memories she shares; the locket Scar recovers from that grave is explained five episodes later. It marks the first time a homunculus experiences flashbacks of a former life, arguably beginning Lust's arc toward betraying her comrades and her master. Despite the grim outcome, the village and its dead are never mentioned again, an omission the following episode makes striking as the brothers reminisce over others they have lost.