The Means to My End

The Means To My End is a one-shot story written by Zam. It's about an alternate universe in which Nicole didn't leave Ever After High or University for adventure, and had instead repressed her feelings about her destiny until she snapped.

The narrative itself takes place sometime after Hank Morgan arrives in Camelot.

drabble
Nicole had once confessed, in confidence and on multiple occasions, that her destiny has not been everything she dreamed it would be. Where was the adventure? The romance? The chivalry?

Screw the destiny. She was going to find the adventure, the romance and the chivalry herself.

She took her dogs, her sword, her armor and left.

What she did that night, they called it desertion.

Everything she did after that, they called it treason.

And someone has to make her answer for it.

i
He finds her eventually.

She’s in some unnamed town, drinking up a storm with her friends.

Are they even her friends? Lance has observed her being with them for months, but you can never be sure with a band of criminals.

Her hair is cut short, barely brushing her shoulders, and she’s wearing a white blouse and trousers. No need for her armor right now—but she’s no doubt traded her now-tarnished bronze armor for more practical leather ones like other mercenaries would.

One by one, her companions trickle out of the pub, either to their rooms into the inn or somewhere else that Lance can’t bother to care about. It’s Nicole he’s here for.

ii
-later-