Hello hello! And welcome to the next chapter of the Alchemist! Coming to you every Monday for your delight and pleasure.

This chapter is going to have a bit of details about the live Orion Pax currently lives, since he's the slave/lab assistant of a scientist. There will be some religious theory, as well as connection to Alchemy and it's laws and whatnot, and some other fictional world building, but that's part of the fun of this story.

At this point in the story, I'm focusing on Orion Pax and Megatronus, and the event's that lead up to their eventual war between each other. It will be slow going as I build everything up to get to the climax of the first act, but the payoff should be worth it. I'm having fun writing this story, and hopefully you guys will have fun reading it. Please leave a review. Anything helps.

And without further ado, on with the show!


Chapter 2


Alchemy is the science of transforming matter. The main purpose of this science is purification. The object in transformation must start at a state of imperfection, until it has achieved a state of perfection. For many inanimate object, this state of perfection is gold. However, for living beings, this state is Immortality. Even more so, the most perfect transformation of a human soul is God. In order to purify one's soul enough to achieve a God-like state, one must first purify the body, and then the mind. To purify the body, one must achieve immortality. To purify the mind, one must pursue knowledge and truth, in order to achieve the greatest of understandings of the world one's soul will become one with. In order to purify the soul, one must present their purified body and mind to the All Spark; a relic that is rumored to hold the soul of God Himself. If one is deemed worthy, they will be given the Matrix of Leadership; a piece of God's Body that can contain a perfect soul; and through that, one who has been given this blessing, will become a Prime; a God-like being, named after Primus; the true name of God.

"Pax!" Came a shout from outside the hallway.

Orion put the book down, and immediately lept towards his duties.

It had been a month since being sold to Alpha Trion, and Orion found himself worked to death. Every day, from five in the morning to eleven at night, Orion would do whatever Trion needed him too, from fetching scientific equipment, to giving assistance in the labs. While Orion loved the things he learned from Trion's work, he wished that he would be allowed to have actual breaks. Whenever Trion took a break, Orion was expected to continue the experiment during his absence. Messing up would lead to punishment. While Orion was lucky enough to have never suffered a beating by the hands of his master, Trion would often deny him food privileges for messing up, and sometimes the other overseers would beat him up themselves. Even so, Orion guessed he could consider himself lucky; his prison was filled with books, and he spent whatever small amounts of freetime he was given learning all he could about the science he was so precariously required to work on.

The stress of his job showed by the bags under his eyes, and his skinny body only getting thinner. Not only did he work long hours, but he had to spent night time studying, and even though he enjoyed learning alchemy, he would rather spend his nights sleeping. However, Orion knew better than to mess up on his work; he actually wanted to eat food. And the more he knew the better. Though, it just made him more exhausted, and Orion had come close to collapsing in sleep quite a few times.

Orion had just been allowed a five-minute break, and Orion spent it reading through the Alchemy book he had been given by Trion in order to learn more about the subject. The prospect of immortality was the core of Priminians culture, and those who achieved it where automatically considered the greatest of the great. Alpha Trion was an immortal himself, and therefore did what most immortals did with their life; tried to achieve a level of knowledge that would purify his mind, in order to become a candidate for Prime.

There hadn't been a Prime in many years. They had all practically died out, disappearing without a trace. But the Primas High Council wanted a Prime to be among them, for reasons that Orion didn't know. So, each immortal did their best to purify their mind; and Alpha Trion's methods of purification was apparently creating experiments.

Orion rushed into the lab, in time to see a petri dish explode, covering it's radius in flesh colored goo. Orion wrinkled his nose in disgust, but didn't say anything.

"Clean this up, Pax," Trion demanded. "And when your done, there are a set of notes that I want you to analyze and test out. I have a feeling I'm close to a breakthrough,"

Orion decided to ask a question he had never asked before; "Breakthrough on what? What are you trying to make?"

Surprisingly enough, Alpha Trion smiled, his eyes twinkling with pride and amazement. "I'm trying to create a creature only described in legions, a feat that only God Himself can achieve. The creation of a homunculus,"

Orion knew what a homunculus was; a human created by alchemy. It was an ambitious goal; while the creator of a homunculus was rumored to achieve instant mind purification, many people feared what the consequences for doing a feat only God could do would be. Apparently, Alpha Trion didn't care.

"A homunculus?!" Orion exclaimed in both apprehension and amazement. "But the creation of a homunculus is something that's never been done before!"

"Which is why I'm going to try it," Trion informed his student. "What I plan to do is create a growth-develop simulator, as well as a half-alive fetus. Something that can function perfectly, but simply lacks the life-spark to consider it alive. Like someone comatose, their Soul has left their body, but the body continues to live on in case the soul ever decides to come back. Once the body is created, we use Energon to create an artificial soul. I want you to do some research on Homunculi, Pax," Trion demanded. "This experiment cannot mess up. An alchemist must never stop growing until they reach perfection,"

Orion began to clean up the mini-explosion while Trion gathered more materials to continue on with his experiment. Once the table was all clean, Orion started looking through the notes that Trion wanted him to analyze.

Soon enough, a butler had knocked on the door and told Alpha Trion that it was time for him to go to lunch. Orion's stomach growled at the concept of food, but slaves were only given one breakfast and one dinner, sometimes less if they lost their meal privileges that day.

"I have no time," Trion told the butler, like he often did. The man was obsessed with his work, and the effect was showing as he grew thinner and more tired. Unfortunately for Orion, whenever Trion worked, he had to work, and whenever Trion needed to work but couldn't, Orion would be the one who worked.

"If you do not eat, you will not have the energy to continue on with your experiment," The butler told him logically.

"Fine," Trion muttered, walking out to follow him. "Orion, those notes better be analyzed by the time I get back. I want to start on the next part of this experiment as quickly as possible," And with that, he left.

Orion looked over the notes, trying to ignore his incredulous hunger. If he messed up, it was possible that his dinner privileges would be denied. Orion stared at the notes, and began reading.

The Principle of Human Life states that all Humans will hunger for knowledge, intaking the sacred food, and fuling the mind with precious information. This hunger will not be satisfied until the mind has reached the food… Truth.

Orion shook his head, realizing that he read the word wrong. Maybe he should start with a different pile of notes; one that did not describe the human hunger for anything. His stomach growled, upset at its emptiness, and the fatigue was starting to get to Orion. He couldn't think.

He realized that he had been staring at the note in hand without reading it. He looked at the sentence, the words slowing morphing into letters. They looked wrong, and illegible. Wasn't he supposed to test them out or something? That must mean that there was some part of the notes that contained an experiment. Maybe he should focus on finding that and not reading the theories behind them.

After a few minutes of page flipping, he finally found the formula for the experiment in his note pile. If he followed the instruction, then all shout turn out well. The first thing he needed to grab was iron. Orion skimmed the shelves, looking for the label that would alert him to the element he needed to find. After looking over every shelf, he finally found the iron at the first shelf he had looked for in the first place. He must've been very out-of-it today.

Orion brought the iron over to the table, before staring at the next element in the materials list, barely reading it, as his mind wandered into the corners of exhaustion. He remembered his mother, and how she would kiss him and his older brothers goodnight every night, no matter how old they get, or how much they insisted that they were too old for that kind of stuff. Orion missed it. He searched the paper again. It said "Sage". That was his mother's name; Sage Pax. Why would his mother be on the list? No, nevermind, that word was "Salt,"

Orion then realized how unproductive he would be if he didn't get some shut-eye. And he didn't want to get into trouble for not completing his task. If he napped for too long, he would also get in trouble, but there was nothing wrong with lying down and resting his eyes, right?

Using an old rolled-up tablecloth as a pillow, he laid down under one of the lab tables and closed his eyes, relishing in the beautiful darkness that covered him.

Orion saw his parents and brothers, standing in a field of grass. He had been to this park before. Confusion swamped his mind. Wasn't he someplace else before? And why did he feel like his family shouldn't be here?

"Hey! Orion!" Yelled his brothers. They were in the process of trying to climb up a tree. "Help us get Tea Bag down!"

Tea bag was their cat. It was stuck in a tree. But Orion couldn't remember a single time that they took their cat outside. Orion climbed up his brothers, who were sitting on eachothers shoulders, and climbed into the tree to look for the cat. It was a large birch tree, and it seemed to be bigger on the inside than out. There was a large treehouse in the middle, with bridges and huts, and Orion found himself wandering the entire tree house. He could've swarn the tree wasn't big enough to hold the tree house.

Eventually, he found Tea Bag sitting in a hut. Orion remembered Tea Bag as a normal house cat, but he was staring at a large, orange, black, and white striped tiger. Strangely enough, it didn't phase him.

"Come on, Tea Bag! Let's get down," Orion told the big cat, petting its face, and attempting to pull her along with him.

Tea Bag wouldn't move. It stubbornly refused. Orion wasn't sure why Tea Bag was being so stubborn, she was usually never like this. Maybe it was because she was a tiger instead of a cat.

"Come on! Our brother's are waiting for us," Orion said, tugging on the tiger,"

"Pax!" Shouted a voice Orion didn't recognize. He took a moment to wonder where it came from.

"Orion Pax get up this instant!"

Orion was shoved out of his dream with the feeling of cold water splashed across his face. He sat up, realising that he had actually fallen asleep under the desk. Not a single note had been analyzed or tested. There went his hopes for dinner today.

Alpha Trion stood over him, a large frown on his face. "Considering your slacking off, I have the right to assume you got all the work done, did you not?"

Orion shrunk into himself, scared as to what will happen to him.

"Did you not?!" He yelled again.

"No, it's…" Orion spoke out meekly. "Not finished,"

"And yet you slack off?"

"I was tired!" Orion tried to explain himself. "I was too exhausted to even read the papers,"

"I don't want your excuses," Trion interrupted him, his voice calm, but angry. "I want my experiment to get finished as quickly as possible, so I can move on to the next step. If you intend to waste time during the day, than I have no choice than to make you work at night. I want all those papers finished, and you better not do so much as close your eyes. You can sleep when I deem your work finished,"

It wasn't until one o'clock in the morning when Trion deemed poor Orion's work finished. The boy dragged himself off to his sleeping quarters, his stomach growling in hunger, since he hadn't been given any dinner. His quarters where a small broom closet, that was empty, dark, and dusty, but still enough for Orion to lay down in. His "bed" was a mat stuffed with straw and chicken feathers, and two thin sheets, one he rolled up and used as a pillow, the other he used as a blanket. It was cold, and dirty, but Orion supposed he should be glad he wasn't sleeping in the run-down, mold filled slave shack where the other slaves slept. He only got this space because he needed to be close to the lab and the library. He went into his emergency food - slices of bread he would hide in his room in case he needed them, and ate a slice of bread, saddened to realize it was his last slice left. Stomach somewhat filled, Orion laid down on his bed and immediately fell asleep.

He was woken up all too soon by one of Trion's butlers. "Get up," He demanded, harshly yanking Orion by the arm. "You've got work to do,"

Orion glanced out the windows in the lab room to see it was still dark outside. What time was it? Orion was suddenly handed a large stack of papers.

"Go through all of these. Test them out. No brakes until finished," The butler stated, before walking out.

Orion nearly buckled under the wait of the papers. He all but dropped them to the floor, and began to sort through them. If he could organize the papers, then maybe it would be easier to work on the experiment. He needed to get this done. If he went one more day without food, he didn't think he could take it anymore.

His throat felt dry, and Orion wanted to go find water. The pitcher that held water for experiments in it had been carefully marked so that Trion would know if any had been touched. Orion didn't want to risk it. Last time he did so, he ended up losing his food privileges for the entire day.

By the time the sun came up, Orion had sorted through all the papers, and had discovered the reason for his early start. Alpha Trion had been called to a High Council Meeting, that many of the leading immortals where required to go to, and he wanted Orion to do what he could while the man himself was gone. Orion had tried to sneak out for breakfast once, only to discover that some of Trion's slavers where carefully watching the door, making sure he didn't leave the room. Orion had taken the risk and drank some of the experiment water, but there must have been something in it, since he immediately started to dry-heave the moment the liquid entered his systems.

Orion had never felt more overworked. His head throbbed, and his body was sore, protesting whenever he moved it. He needed more sleep, and some food. His thirst was also starting to creep back, but he didn't want to risk the water again. There was nothing edible or drinkable in the entire lab, unless Orion wanted to make himself vomit the already little contaminants in his stomach. He walked a few paces forwards, feeling dizzy and nauseous. Suddenly Orion's legs gave out, and he feel to the ground.

Weakly, the young body tried to push himself up. He grabbed the edge of the lab table, and pulled, forcing his legs underneath him, before shakinly standing up. The moment he was up, he fell back down onto his knees, dry-heaving once again, before spitting up a small amount of blood.

This made Orion even more determined to get the work done. If he could get done, he could have a break, and finally get some much-needed rest. So, forcing himself to his feet, Orion began to start the experiment, following the instructions the best he could. He mixed a yellow solution with a stir-rod, the image of the fluid swirling around the bowl beginning to blur a little, and Orion felt himself sway. Finally, his vision blurred out, and he lost all his senses, his unconscious body falling to the floor.


Cliffhanger? Sorta? Whatever.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please leave a review. If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them without giving spoilers.

I'd like to thank my best friend, both online, and in real life, TheRoseAlchemist17, for reading this story despite not knowing a single thing about the show I based it off of. But have no fear, my friend, I am going to force you to sit through it and watch it if it's the last thing I do!

Anywho, hope you enjoyed the story. Let's see how this goes. Look for the next chapter next Monday!

~MotherUniverse signing out!