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Hughe had been a new student at the Academy, unused to and unprepared for the brutal surroundings that she found herself in.
It was a strange experience, having gone from the unassuming life of a public school student, to living in a prestigious and secret boarding Academy, the most elite of private schools.
The setting was so totally different from what she was used to, and it took her quite some time to become acclimated to the everyday violence and factions she found herself immersed in at King's Dominion Atelier of the Deadly Arts.
The only saving grace for her was that she had not been the first new student fresh off the street. Within the last several months, there had been a strange new boy that had come to the school.
It didn't take long for Hughe to settle into the school after she'd made a few new allies. Amongst the students, the Final World Order had become her closest friends, though she did not sit with them at lunch. Petra and a boy named Marcus had quickly become her closest allies, but she remained factionless.
She was more of a loner than most of the other students, and for all that everyone said you couldn't survive at the Academy without a pack or affiliation, she was doing quite well for herself.
She didn't even have much of a reputation coming into the school either. To be honest, she hadn't murdered a houseful of children to get into the school like Marcus supposedly had, and she hadn't grown up surrounded by assassins, gang members, or secret agents either. In fact, as far as her childhood went, compared to most of her classmates, it had been relatively normal. A tad dramatic and certainly traumatic, yes, but in comparison to her classmates, it wasn't particularly wild.
Her favourite class by far was chemistry and toxins class with Professor Denke. He was certainly one of the more morally upright professors at the school, if you could even say that given it was a school that trained literal killers.
She admired him very much for maintaining his beliefs in a school that was rather corrupt, all things considered, and it didn't hurt that she felt the most at home in his class. She wasn't one for swords or guns the way that some of her classmates were, but the poisons that she got to develop and work with possessed something very methodical about them.
She had to keep her wits about her so as not to screw them up or potentially hurt herself, as they were deadly. She held no delusions that she was making medicine or something equally harmless or even helpful.
Chemicals were weapons at this school, it was no secret.
She knew that she excelled at Denke’s class. Especially compared to many of her (often) incapable peers. It wasn't until Lex had tactlessly pointed out her grades and lack of failure in front of the class that Hughe had realised she was making a name for herself in the field.
She improved in her classes as time went on; kids would come to help with her on Chem, and in return she received immunity. Her strengths remained with the sciences; although she had picked up decent stealth skills in her other classes as well.
She’d continued rather normally for many months, right up until rumours began going around that Professor Denke was in danger of being fired.
His job, at least, was in peril, though she wouldn’t realise how serious it was until much later.
It was in January when Brandy mentioned that the man had gone away for a few days over the Christmas hols, which while not entirely unheard of, was incredibly unusual for teachers at the Academy.
One didn't just leave King’s Dominion.
That just simply wasn't done, and after that, she knew she had to keep an eye on him. Something was going on, and at first she'd written it off as paranoia.
Except that during meals, her other professors’ interactions with Denke began to change.
They still acted civil towards him, at least in public, with the same measures of respect and politeness. But the friendliness that had once existed; as far as assassin co-workers could possess, seemed to have dissipated.
He sat a bit further from the other professors, and the jokes that he was included in became fewer and fewer. It wasn't really noticeable if you didn't pay attention to Denke the way that she did, but, well, she'd always paid more attention to him than was perhaps normal.
So one day when she heard Master Lin come in at the end of class to summon Denke to his chambers she knew something was up. Before she'd even really realised it, the decision had been made, and that evening she was in her stealth clothing. Her favourite poisons were slipped into the pouch at her waist, and she'd hidden a dagger inside her left pocket.
Fifteen minutes ahead of when Master Lin and Denke were supposed to meet, she made her way into the ventilation system above his room. It was a little secret she'd found some time ago when she needed to get away from a class for some peace and quiet.
As Master Lin puttered around the room in preparation, pulling out a bottle of wine and two glasses, she sensed the unease. His shoulders were tense and at one point he almost dropped one of the glasses, his hands shaking.
This might be more serious than she was expecting.
When Professor Denke entered the room, he and Master Lin greeted each other formally, as she would expect; though the handshake they shared seemed a bit more intense than a typical meeting would have called for.
The two talked of politics and inconsequential things, until Denke said something that had the atmosphere in the room tense. Though she couldn't make all of the words out, the gist of the conversation seemed to be that Professor Denke was trying to leave or retire.
Master Lin was clearly not having it.
When the headmaster went to pour the wine for Denke, her hackles raised. Professor Denke brought the glass to his lips and sniffed. “You're trying to poison me,” he commented. “Sodium chloride, Lin? Really?”
Master Lin simply nodded an inclination of his head before he whipped out his cane and attacked Denke. The man rolled out of his way and a chair went crashing, glass shattering on the ground and books toppling as the room erupted in total chaos.
Hughe had decided before the meeting that if something like this happened that she would try to stay out of it, at least so long as her professor was safe.
And as things stood now, it wasn't exactly as though Denke had been caught entirely off guard. Unfortunately, as a poison and toxins professor his specialties lay in the subtler arts of assassination and not brute strength. He wasn't the type to carry a gun or sword around on his back, so as the two grappled he reached out with a hand to grab for a shard of glass to use as a weapon.
Lin saw what he was doing, however, and he kicked the glass away, leaving the white haired professor with near nothing at his disposal.
The two men rolled about the office until Lin managed to pin Denke to the ground, his thick hands wrapped around her professor's neck.
As he began to squeeze and Denke scrabbled in vain at the headmaster's hands, Hughe knew it was time — regardless of what the consequences would be.
She had to step in.
She couldn't wait to see if the headmaster would follow through with the kill, she couldn't risk it. Slipping her way out of the vent she landed mere feet behind the head master silently. She approached the men, only noticed by Denke who’s eyes widened at her presence.
Just as the headmaster turned to look at her she doused him in one of the toxins that she specialised in. It would incapacitate him for a while with no lasting effects, and it was uncommon enough that it would be a difficult toxin to have an antidote for in immediate reach. She reached out to her professor, helping him up as Lin rolled to the side and clawed at his eyes, cursing.
Denke was in worse condition than she thought as he limped, clearly favouring one side heavily. “Thank you, Miss Hughe,” he said as he tried to regain his breath.
There was no question about what she had been doing crawling about above the headmaster's office. She supposed that was one of the things about going to school for assassins. The unexpected was expected.
It would not be the strangest sight the school had seen for her and Denke to hobble out of the office and make their way towards his living quarters.
He groaned when his side clipped the wall as they passed by, and she tightened her hold around his shoulders.
“We're almost there,” she murmured.
Her wounded teacher was pale and tired by the time the pair made it to his quarters, and he immediately slumped into the nearest chair he could find.
Kneeling before Denke, Hughe assessed his injuries.
There were dark purple marks encircling his neck, and scratches ran down his arms and cheeks. Additionally, she suspected he'd sprained his ankle. Pulling out the medicines and bandages she kept with her at all times, she got to treating her professor.
“Hughe… What were you thinking, attacking Lin? You know you'll face expulsion,” Denke said, voice rough from the near choking.
Hughe remained silent, wiping the blood from his cuts in silence until her professor grasped her wrist. “Hughe. You need to get out of here. Lin isn’t going to let this go, and you have no family to fall back on,”
The young woman looked up at last, letting her professor see the look of resignation on her face.
“I’m not getting out of here. We are.”
The firm tone of voice she spoke in, and the steel in her eyes stopped Denke from arguing. He knew she’d need help navigating the world of crime and lies she would be thrust into by becoming a wanted failure of a student at King’s, and he was her only contact within the world.
“I don’t suppose you’ve planned this through, have you?” he questioned.
“Actually. I have my emergency bag ready to go, it’s right outside my dorm room. We can leave as soon as you’re ready.”
Denke just smiled at the sureness in his now ex-student’s tone, and he took the bandage she offered him to begin wrapping up his ankle.
“How about in ten minutes?”
“Sure thing, professor,”
Within twenty-four hours, the pair was on their way to Australia, resting in the peace and quiet of the large plane they had boarded in Dulles. As Denke finished rereading the chapter he was on in War and Peace, Hughe tapped him on the shoulder, motioning out the window towards the sunrise they were flying into.
He smiled down at the excited expression on her face, and let himself relax into the seat as he watched the sky outside change colour, knowing this would only be the calm before the storm that lay ahead of them.
For now, though, he would let the two of them breathe after the drama of the night before, vowing that he would keep the young woman beside him safe at any cost.
From his side, Hughe exhaled contentedly as she admired the view, and wondered what her future would look like after it changed so dramatically in one night, just like it had all those months ago when she first arrived at King’s.
On the run with her once-teacher, free from school, and legally an adult, she couldn’t wait to explore the world awaiting her.
She would step backwards into the unknown, a smile on her face as she embraced the chaos.