Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal alchemist or its trademarks, nor do I own percy jackson and its trademarks.

SO ALL THOSE WHO READ THIS KNOW, I WROTE THIS STORY WITH MY SISTER, THE pH ALCHEMIST!

NEWS FLASH! CENTRAL CITY NEWS HEADLINES

NEW STATE ALCHEMIST IS CHOSEN. HE IS KNOWN AS THE PHOENIX ALCHEMIST. WHAT HE DOES IS STILL UNBEKNOWNST TO US, BUT WE CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HIM IN ACTION!

The first thing I realized was that I was in the woods. A cold breeze swept past me. Using my arms, I pushed myself up. It took my eyes mere seconds to adjust to the impending darkness that surrounded me. My hands went to my face. I still had everything. My eyes gazed downwards. I could still feel both my feet and legs. I wiggled my right arm in my view. I didn't bother checking my left arm, he already took that. It was a good thing that I had a tune-up a few days before, because otherwise, my auto-mail wouldn't have survived the trip.

The other thing I noticed right away was that I wasn't alone.

There was a campfire not 30 yards away from me. I told myself to calm down, and ask whoever was around the campfire where I was. And if they didn't talk, I had remedies for them. Sneaking up, being careful not to step on anything in my path, I began to catch parts of their conversation. At first it sounded like gibberish, but I began to piece together their garbled speech little by little.

" ...few days...gods..."

"...war over...bolt...zeus will...end...human apocolypse..."

"...can't be war...survive..."

I coughed. "Excuse me, can anybody tell me where I am?" Three teenagers jumped up from around the fire. One pulled out a sword, another pulled out a dagger, and yet another pulled out something that vaguely represented flute . " I think I may be in east Youswell, but with all these forests, I can't see any cities."

"What's Youswell?"

"Yeah. I've never heard of it."

"Are you from around here?"

I was suddenly bombarded by so many questions such as these that it took me awhile to catch up. When I answered most of them to the best of my abilities, they finally put their weapons away.

"So where did you say you were from?" the girl asked.

"I'm from the North area near fort Briggs, but I live in Central for my job."

They looked at me incredulously. "You have a job?"

"Yes. I'm a state alchemist. You've read the papers right, new state alchemist chosen, well, that's me, in the flesh."

"What's a state alchemist?"

"What's central?"

I was starting to get worried. "You know, Central City, the capital of Amestris? Isn't that the country I'm in?"

"I've never heard of Amestris, but I have heard of America. That's where we are now. Actually...I think we are three hours south of Manhattan."

"Manhattan? Is that a country east of Xing?"

"First of all," the guy with the flute said (becoming somewhat annoyed), "Manhattan is a district of New York City. And second, What's with your arm?"

"What. Oh, this? This is my auto-mail. Hand crafted by one of the best in the business. It's what allows me to clap transmutate." And to demonstrate my point, I clapped and made a statue of myself. "Pretty cool, huh?" They looked at me with their mouths open so far, their lower jaws were practically on the ground.

"How did you do that?"

"Dude, that is like not humanly possible."

"Are you a demigod like us?"

"What's a demigod?" I asked them, completely baffled.

The boy patted a spot on the ground next to him, indicating that I sit next to him. He reached out his hand, implying for me to shake it. I did so.

"Percy Jackson." he said. "Son of Poseidon."

"I'm A.J. Monroe." I replied. "State Alchemist."

"I'm Annabeth Chase." the blonde girl said. "Daughter of Athena."

"Grover Underwood." the short stubby kid said. "Satyr."

"He's half goat." Annabeth said, noticing my expression.

"The goat's a demigod?" I asked skeptically.

"No. Demigods are the children of a god and a mortal." the girl explained.

"So are you guys also gods, or no."

"No, just mortals, but we can gain..." she paused for the right word, "special abilities. Kinda like your clapping thing."

"That's how I perform my alchemy. Usually, people need to draw transmutation circles to perform alchemy, but not me."

"Why?" Grover asked. I hesitated. This wasn't a subject I was too keen on elaborating. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I replied, and the boy Percy loooked at me suspiciously.

"How can we trust you." He asked. "How do we know you're not a monster?"

"You mean the things that hide under kids' beds? 'Cause I can assure you, kids will be singing my praises, not scaring eachother."

Silence.

The fire dying, and we were all tired.

"Ok, 'alchemist'." The one called Annabeth said (with air quotes around alchemist). "Go get some firewood. Then we'll see about trusting you."

"Hey, look at this from my perspective." I sized her up. "I just dropped out of nowhere into a foreign country with 'gods' and 'demigods' (yes, i did air quotes) and weapons all shiny, and I can't even warm my automail up because you think I'm some sort of boogeyman! Talk about trust issues." I stomped off into the woods, using the Pulse to guide me.

"Don't you need a torch?" Grover asked.

"Don't need light to see, dumbass!" I called back.

Geez. I thought. Who do these people think they are? A guy with the rank of a major waltzes up to thier fire with an innocent question, and bam, he's treated like some sort of outcast. I found some twigs. And what about this Manhattan and America? Did Pride actually do it? No, impossible. There's no way he could have dragged me here without a toll. Unheard of, but I can bet a few of my professors would give a lot for that information.

They were wispering again, around the fire. I realized this was going no where fast. Yes, I realized they were talking about me, but did I want them to know that? I may be 16, but I'm not a douche bag.

I dropped the firewood at their feet. "Look, I know you don't trust me. What will it take for you to?"

Percy and Grover looked at Annabeth, and I inferred that in Manhattan things were based on a matriarchal society. "Take first watch. Percy will sit up with you. But don't try anything funny."

"Yeah." Grover added, trying to sound tough.

I shrugged. "Fine with me." I sat down next to the fire, finally getting the warmth I asked for. Annabeth placed her dagger at her side, and Grover was already out. Percy was staring into the flames pensively.

"You look like the kind who lost a parent." I asked. Percy continued to stare

"What makes you say that?" He asked.

"'Cause that's how I looked at your age. Broken and alone."

Percy turned to me. "You lost a parent? Does it have to do with that?" He pointed to my arm.

"I'm guessing you're about 12, correct."

"Yeah, so?"

I sighed at the memory. "I was that age when I became interested in alchemy. I had heard about it, but never seen it performed. I come from a small village in the North, one of the last before Briggs. News comes to us last, and along with technology." I was taken back to my childhood, the one I forsake chasing the impossible. "My father was killed in Ishval, and left my mother and I sustain the general store. We barely scraped by, year after year. I started to research alchemy because I thought you could turn lead into gold." I chuckled. "Boy was I wrong."

"So, what happened?"

"Another rebellion sprung up, this time after I got a job. I was a repariman in a suburb of East City, using my primitave alchemical skill to build and fix houses. All the money I earned I sent back to my mother and the store, any cenz helped." I bowed my head. "My village was razed in an uprising, no one left alive. Coincidently, I was on my way home for the weekend. When I arrived...chaos. My mother was burried in the rubble of her own store."

"I'm sorry."

I slammed my hand down on the ground. "Don't be. That's not the end. What I did afterwords, my choice to go against everything I ever learned about alchemy, that's the unforgivable part. But, I got what I deserved. I did honest work with my own two hands to support my only mother, the only one left for me." I laughed at the irony. "I can't work with only one hand, can I?"

"What did you do?" Percy demanded. "What is so unforgivable." Should I tell him? Sure, he didn't trust me. The real question was, how could I trust him? "I understand." Percy realized. "No trust, right? Why should I tell you? It's ok. Annabeth is like that."

"It will be a story for a later date." I decided. The sun was rising, the fire snuffing out. I could tell from the Pulse that Annabeth and Grover never truely slept. That's ok. Everyone needed to hear my story.

"I guess you could come with us." Percy said and stood up.

"Yeah. We could use someone with your skill." Annabeth said.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "What if I hide under your bed?"

"Ha ha, very funny." Annabeth said sarcastically.

Grover kicked some dirt over the fire. "We better get going. We only have a few days."

"Until what?" I asked

"We'll explain on the way." Percy said, and started walking away.

"Do you have any idea where we are going?"

"Yeah. We're on the highway to Hell."

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