Agent of God, you say? In that case, try passing judgment upon me.
For I am the Strong Arm Alchemist, Alex Louis Armstrong!
Allow me to show you the artistic alchemy that has been passed down among the Armstrong family for generations!
Another shot!
The opposite of destruction is creation.
The opposite of creation is destruction.
Destroy and create. This is the law of the universe!
I'll deal with you after I kill Fullmetal and Crystal.
A combination of physical strength and alchemy, huh?
This could be troublesome.
Brown skin and red eyes...!
Hold it!
The god of your people strictly forbids alchemy, does he not?
The transmutation process can be divided into 3 stages, comprehension, decomposition, and reconstruction.
You stop your transmutation process at the second one, decomposition.
It is still unmistakably alchemy.
I do only as this arm instructs me to.
Even if it is contrary to God's will!
Man cannot obtain anything without first sacrificing something.
In order to obtain anything, something of equal value is required.
That is alchemy's Law of Equivalent Exchange.
At the time, we believed that to be the true way of the world.
Brother, now what do we do?
Whatever we do, I'd like to stay as far away as possible from that guy in the sunglasses.
Marcoh...!
Excuse me, do you have a back door?
Aren't we going back to the Eastern Command Center?
Since Brig. Gen. Grand showed up,
...it could mean that there are reasons keeping even the colonel from protecting Doctor Marcoh.
That's right. To make matters worse, there are all those people from Central here now, too.
There are other people here from Central!?
The Fuhrer and his entourage.
To catch me!?
No, that's not why.
Okay, okay, here we go!
Hold on! Hold on! Hey, hold on!
Okay, I'm gonna get you!
I've had enough...
I don't care if I do get killed by that man.
He has the right to do so.
Colonel! We found him!
Major! Hey, Major! What happened!?
That was close...
This is intense.
Lt. Colonel, what about Brig. Gen. Grand?
If he's alive after that, then the Iron Blood Alchemist can come back to life after being turned into hamburger.
But he was an expert in military hand-to-hand combat, right?
It was Scar, without a doubt.
He's...
He's an Ishbalan...
Major, don't get up!
I'm terribly sorry I could not carry out your orders, Lt. Colonel.
I saw him...
His skin, eyes...
Those were definitely the traits of the Ishbalan people.
I see...
So that's why he's going after State Alchemists...
If he's of the Ishbalan people, then why do you have to be killed by him?
The Ishbalans instigated a war of independence, right?
There were a lot of them who died, but the military also took many casualties.
If everyone who ever lost in a war swore revenge, there'd be no end to it.
That was no war...
It was a massacre.
The people of Ishbal were a tribe in the Eastern Region that believed in Ishbala as the one and only Creator.
They held religious values that were different from ours.
We think of the world's composition as something which can be mathematically determined,
...and have high regard for the equivalent exchange of alchemy.
However, the Ishbalans thought of alchemy as the work of the devil,
...which perverts the world that was given to us by God.
As a result, there were resistance movements that sprang up from time to time.
And then, thirteen years ago...
Hey, what do you think you're doing!?
While an officer was conducting an inspection, he accidentally shot and killed a child.
That incident lead to the outbreak of large-scale uprisings and riots.
Soon, the rebellion had spread throughout the whole Eastern Region, and became a war that lasted for seven years.
Then, in the final days of fighting...
...the higher-ups decided to employ State Alchemists.
Why!?
Because of their doctrines, the Ishbalans have neither alchemy, nor up-to-date weapons!
What do you hope to obtain by antagonizing them any further!?
Have you brought them?
They're still under research.
Besides, there's no need to use them.
As a matter of fact, the rebellion is steadily spreading.
That's because you're trying to keep them down by force,
...and so more and more tribes are cooperating with the enemy.
Are you saying that what the Fuhrer is doing is wrong?
We already have several thousand soldiers and several tens of thousands of civilians who have become casualties.
This is war.
Crystal Alchemist, let me see them.
In order to hasten the end of this war,
...as of tomorrow, I authorize the use of alchemic augmentation agents!
So, then what happened?
Nothing.
Nothing?
For every battlefield the State Alchemists were dispatched to, it was all over in one night.
There he is!
Over here!
Yow!
Ow...!
Let me see.
On the battlefield, I came across this couple.
They were doctors, and would treat people, irrespective of who they were.
How's that?
Thanks!
That was incredible, huh?
However, they died.
Colonel Grand, what's going on!?
This place has become a contact point for Ishbalan refugees. The doctors were in cahoots with them.
They just wanted to save as many lives as they could, that's all!
The lives they save are killing my men.
Stop that.
You were just following orders.
The sin is upon me.
As fellow doctors, they saved lives.
Whereas I...
What do I do?
Would you keep quiet and let me run away?
And so, I left with the Philosopher's Stones, and all of the materials relating to them.
But it was too late.
The people of Ishbal had been exterminated. There were only a handful of survivors.
Even so, that's no reason for you to be killed!
He has a legitimate reason for his revenge.
How can there be any legitimacy to his revenge when he drags people who aren't involved into it?
He's only using a claim of being God's agent to satisfy his lust for vengeance, and then acting like it's all noble.
Still...
Brother, if you had been... I would do the same thing.
That's the Principle of Equivalent Exchange, right?
No! Taking revenge won't ever bring anything back!
All you'd need to do is live...
Live... live, and find happiness.
Here...
Marcoh, why don't you come hide in our hometown? It won't even take three days by train to get there, right?
It'll be a little hard on us going back, though.
There's a house there, where an automail craftsman named Rockbell lives.
I'm sure they'd let us...
Rockbell...
I can't go there... not me.
Marcoh!
What foolishness!
You would rely upon weapons that have been enhanced by the curse of alchemy?
In that case...!
That's far enough.
Col. Mustang!
Mustang? The State Alchemist?
Indeed I am.
Colonel!
I am the Flame Alchemist, Roy Mustang.
Yet another who deviates from the path of God?
You would still challenge me to battle, knowing that I am the Flame Alchemist?
Colonel!
What did you do that for all of a sudden!?
You're good for nothing on rainy days. Please stay back, Colonel!
You can't make sparks when it's this damp, huh?
Fire!
He sure is fast.
After him! Lt. Breda, you wait for Fullmetal at the train station.
Huh? Why would Ed be going to the train station?
It's obvious that he's thinking about getting Marcoh out of here.
Marcoh!
Wait up! We aren't going to take your research from you by force.
No! I can't go!
This time, I know that you are just a hollow suit of armor!
Al!!
By joining your hands together, you create a ring, and then transmute with power that circulates within.
Without this miserable right hand, you cannot transmute.
I will have to destroy it.
Brother!!
Brother, run! Brother!!
Brother!!
I will give you a moment to pray to God.
Unfortunately, I've stopped believing in God.
You said your older brother died in Ishbal, right?
He was killed... by a State Alchemist.
I am an older brother, too. Kill me. It will be an equivalent exchange.
What are you talking about, Brother!?
You said yourself that it wouldn't be an equivalent exchange, didn't you!?
He's not a State Alchemist!
I should be enough alone, right?
I promise you, I will not go after your brother.
However, you are wrong, Fullmetal Alchemist.
There is nothing that can be equivalently exchanged...
...for the despair over losing your brother and your people.
If not, then what is your vengeance for?
Brother!! What are you doing!? Get away! Get up and run!
Get out of there!
Stop!
Please stop!!
Marcoh...
You dumb bastard, haven't you run away!?
I investigated some ancient records once in Ishbal. In them, I saw the design you have drawn on your right arm.
This may be a dud, but it is still a Philosopher's Stone.
And sure enough, your arm is...
Stop! Don't say it!
What's going on?
Marcoh, is this different from when you were using the Stone's power?
The sewers, huh?
- I'm not about to go after him!
- Don't go after him.
Yo!
Is it over?
As long as you're here, you could at least help us out!
Lay off! Don't go dragging a normal person like me into you ridiculous folks' freak show!
Lt. Hawkeye, take crowd control. Don't let anyone come near.
Right!
Al, are you all right?
You... stupid brother!
What was that for!?
Why didn't you leave me and run away!?
But then, you would have been killed!
So you decide to go and die instead? You idiot!
Don't you call your older brother an idiot!
I'll call you that as often as I want!
Live on, live on, and survive! Research more alchemy.
And one day, we'll get our bodies back...
Dying... dying by yourself is one thing that I absolutely will not allow!
Look, now my arm has broken off, you moron!
We're falling apart, aren't we?
We must look just terrible.
But we're alive.
Uh-huh, alive...
That suit of armor...
I've never heard of a soul transmutation.
He must have risked his life to take on that transmutation.
That's why the tie between those two brothers is so strong.
Colonel...
It's the Fuhrer's secretary.
The Fuhrer's secretary?
The Fuhrer says that we will be taking custody of Marcoh. He will not come to harm.
- Very well.
- But...
Marcoh!
It's like I told you, Edward. I cannot go to your hometown.
Why not?
The doctor couple who died on the battlefield...
Their names were Rockbell.
Let's be going.
Brother, I just heard Mom's voice.
Dummy, you just had a brush with death. Don't start having unstable dreams, now.
Fullmetal Alchemist!
Episode 16: "That Which is Lost"
Brother's hand and leg... my body...
In exchange for having lost them, have we obtained anything?