Assembled: Earth's Last Heroes (A Riordanverse and MCU crossover)

Chapter 14: Meg

As the outriders charged forwards, Thor, Meg and Apollo rushed to meet them.

"Get Reyna!" shouted Thor as he blasted Maw with lightning, making him lose his concentration and drop Reyna.

Apollo ran towards Reyna with Meg at his side, slicing away ferociously with her imperial gold siccae blades, killing outrider after outrider. Meanwhile, Thor was calling thunder and lightning down, then setting it on the outriders around him, blasting them off the ground. The outriders floated in the air for a second, then fell dead on the ground, unable to withstand such power.

Apollo reached Reyna and was just hoisting her up when Ebony Maw snapped his fingers and Apollo suddenly found himself suspended in the air, unable to move. Meg reached into her bag, pulled out a packet of seeds and threw it at Maw. The seeds sprouted almost instantly, growing into 5 metre tall vines, entangling itself around Maw, forcing him to drop Apollo.

Apollo crawled over to Reyna and carried her in his arms

"No, leave me," whispered Reyna weakly. "I'm not important."

"No. I'm not leaving anyone behind. Never again," said Apollo firmly as he started to run with Reyna in his arms. He was struggling from the weight and it felt like his lungs were about to burst but he knew that he couldn't give up.

"Hurry Apollo! I'm losing control!" screamed Meg. Beads of sweat had begun to form on her forehead and the vines were starting to quiver and break apart as its prisoner struggled to escape.

Meg grunted and staggered a bit, and just at that moment, Ebony Maw jumped out from the messy tangle of vines and raised his hand just as hundreds of Celestial bronze swords, daggers, knives and spears from the now-demolished weapons room flew in Meg's direction.

"Rejoice! You are about to die at the hands of the child of Thanos. The universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile... for even in death, you have become children of Thanos." grinned Maw maliciously.

Just at that moment, a blur of chubby flesh, leafy wings, and linen diaper hurtled downward and landed right in front of Meg.

"PEACHES! NO! " yelled Meg as the hundreds of weapons sank into the karpos' pink skin.

As the loyal karpos fell, two other karpoi landed on top of Ebony Maw and sank their deadly fangs into his skin. Then eight other karpoi surrounded Maw and started beating him up.

Peaches opened its grassy eyes for one last time and whispered, "Peaches," then closed them and never opened them again.

Time seemed to slow down for Meg as she looked at Peaches' fallen body. Her first friend. Her only companion when she was Nero's prisoner. Her saviour. Her vision blurred as hot tears started flowing down her cheeks. She held Peaches and cried and cried until she had no more tears, oblivious to the fact that the karpoi had surrounded her in a protective circle, oblivious to the fact that Thor had come over and put a hand on her shoulder, refusing to let go of Peaches no matter what.

"You must think that I'm a crybaby now," croaked Meg, wiping her tears.

"No. I get it. People cry not because they're weak. It's because they've been strong for too long." said Thor softly. "I'm sorry."

Meg looked up at Thor and could have sworn she saw tears in his eyes as well. She gave Thor a small smile. "I'm ready. Let's go back and join the fight. And...thank you."

Thor smiled back and flew into the sky, as thunder boomed and crackled. Lightning burst from the sky, killing hundreds of Outriders with a single crack.

Meg watched him go, then looked around at the karpoi surrounding her, protecting her. She put on a brave face, just had she had done her whole life.

"CHARGE! FOR PEACHES!"

"PEACHES!" roared the karpoi as they broke Meg's protective circle and charged at the Outriders.