Chapter 38: Signal to Strike

After Ling lays out the reasons behind Armstrong's abduction of Edward and Mustang's plan to flush out the homunculi, he spots Lan Fan's flare and identifies it as the cue to move. Alphonse, treating the operation as vital to unmasking Hughes' killer, joins in and promises Winry a safe return. Below Central, Lust assures Father that the loose Number 66 will soon be handled, but her confidence is misplaced: Envy has already been slain three times by Lan Fan, whose Xingese senses expose him even when he hides in the crowd. In the tower, Hawkeye empties her rounds into Gluttony's head to no effect and is nearly devoured before Black Hayate and Fuery intervene.

Mustang appears on the stairs and blasts Gluttony out the window with flame alchemy, dropping him onto Envy. Trying to slip away disguised as a dog, Envy blunders into Al and Ling and reverts to human form under Lan Fan's attack, and Alphonse glimpses the Ouroboros mark on his thigh. Lan Fan tells her prince these unkillable foes may hold the secret of immortality. The chase leads to Central Alchemical Laboratory 3, and though Roy orders a retreat, Barry rushes inside after his body, so the colonel improvises, telling the staff they are chasing a dangerous fugitive with backup on the way. The team splits, Al with Riza and Roy with Havoc, following the wreckage into a sealed basement.

In the derelict underground labs, bloodstains and leather-strapped operating tables betray illegal experiments, and Lust arrives to confront the pair. When she admits involvement in Hughes' death but denies being the killer, Roy shoots her leg, heart, and head, all of which regenerate, confirming she is a homunculus with a Philosopher's Stone at her core. She severs his sidearm, bursts a water pipe to neutralize his flames, then impales Havoc through the abdomen. To save his bleeding subordinate, Roy plunges his hand into her chest and tears out the Stone, but it re-forms her body, and she runs him through in retaliation. A cover illustration foreshadows the unit as chess pieces, and Havoc's lighter is noted as a gift from an ex.