Out With The Old, In With The New

Chapter 1

Cater took a deep breath, focusing his vision on a picture of Ruggie that was taken days before the incident took place. The incident being his death. School had ended just a few hours ago, almost everyone was sleeping except for the students from these three dorms; Savanaclaw, Diasomnia and most of Heartslabyul. Almost a dozen were squeezed tightly together in a classroom as they watched Cater intensely. Leona and Jack watched in anticipation and worry. They all did. Cater said he could make a clone of Ruggie so they could all cope and no one else would notice that the hyaena hybrid was gone, leaving no questions about his disappearance.

In a few seconds a white flash appeared and then.. Ruggie replaced it. A clone Ruggie sadly, but it was Ruggie. Leanna and Jack rushed over, looking at the clone. Ruggie 2.0 looked at the two and smiled, saying a quick 'hi'. Leona looked away, about to cry while Jack just looked at the clone in disbelief. Leona was the one was responsible for the death of the actual Ruggie. And now.. a clone of his former friend was standing in front of them all, "Why are we in here? And why do you all look like you've just seen a ghost?" Ruggie 2.0 chuckled, looking around to see if any actual ghosts were around. It wasn't uncommon.

Leona choked a bit as he heard the word 'ghost', and walked out of the room quickly muttering an apology as he went. He couldn't deal with this right now. Maybe it was for the better? Like nothing ever happened in the first place. Yeah.. nothing happened! Jack and Leona didn't have an urn filled with sand on a shelf in their dorm and the sand totally wasn't the actual Ruggie.

While Leona was outside of the classroom with tears in his eyes, the rest of the large group was just staring at the newly created Ruggie who was utterly confused about everyone's expressions.

"Alright, what happened?" Ruggie 2.0 asked, crossing his arms.

Everyone finally snapped out of their worrisome trance and glanced around nervously, everywhere except at Ruggie. Jack sighed, stepping closer to Ruggie 2.0 and hugged him, opening his mouth to speak, "Nothing it's- it's nothing, don't worry bud. Let's all just go and sleep." He pulled away to walk out of the classroom. Leona startled slightly and wiped away his tears, he stood up from sitting on the floor and went back to the Savanaclaw dorm along with Jack and, Ruggie...

Ruggie 2.0, still pretty confused but decided not to question it any longer, he gladly jumped on his bed since he was feeling pretty tired. Leona and Jack stayed behind in the living room, looking at each other as if waiting for the other to speak about what had just happened.

"Are we.. really just going to replace him with a clone, Leona?" Jack finally mustered up the Courage to ask the lion hybrid, glancing at an urn that was placed on a shelf above their black couch before looking back at Leona. Said hybrid took a deep breath before answering Jack's question,

"I mean.. I don't think I could go another day without having him here like before. And the other students would have a suspicion, we don't want to deal with that.. let's just.. let's just go to bed now..." Leona concluded before going to his own separate room. Jacked sighed and nodded and went to his own room, hoping to sleep his worried thoughts away.

The next day seemed as normal as ever, just small hints of sadnsss that not really a lot of students picked up on. They did notice that Cater was a bit slow. Not by a long shot but he seemed out of it. Malleus and Leona weren't fighting as much as they normally did. It was quite odd to other dorms and students who didn't know what was going on behind the scenes. They didn't question it though since it wasn't THAT weird. They also were too focused on Ruggie since he hasn't showed up for a few days before.

Ruggie smiled, tail wagging slightly as he was currently in a joyous mood. The students from the three dorms, MC, and Grim were just watching Ruggie 2.0 surrounded by other students, being asked what had happened to him. He said it was all a blur before pushing past the mob to sit with the Savanaclaw dorm along with MC and Grim.

"Hey guys! They really should put me as a chef here. This food, yeesh." Ruggie joked, trying to break the obvious thick tension in the air. The original Ruggie always said stuff like that, always criticizing and critiquing the chefs work here and saying they should let him cook for at least a day. That really wasn't helping.

They thought making a new Ruggie would replace the old one just like that with no consequences and less sadness but that was obviously not the case. The thought of this being just a clone of their murdered friend who was now just sand was revolting to the mind. It felt so wrong and.. twisted.

Ruggie was always the more tolerable one out of Savanaclaw, not making enemies with anyone for no reason like Leona and Malleus. The Diasomnia dorm liked him even if the dorm leader hated the other's leader. And even if they were that close they were still close enough to Ruggie to feel what the other two Savanaclaw members were feeling at the moment. This also went to most of the Heartslabyul members.

The only one who didn't know that the actual Ruggie was dead was Trey. He was in the infirmary for a week since in the games Ruggie injured him pretty badly. They also knew Trey wasn't the best at keeping secrets so no one took their time to tell him about the whole situation. Didn't matter anyways, the Ruggie clone really did act like Ruggie so Trey wouldn't know any difference.

Malleus glanced at the table across from them, an uneasy expression replaced his once peaceful one just as he looked away. Something felt wrong. Not just because of the clone but something else he couldn't put his finger on. Lilia took notice and tried patting his back in reassurance without saying a word, shaking his head slightly before retreating his hand back to his plate to grab a slice of bread that was on his plate.

Leona acknowledged clone Ruggie's attempt, nodded and sighed. The gloomy air around them never left for a second, making Ruggie 2.0 uncomfortable. He chuckled before silently eating his food. The bell rung throughout the school, indicating that you should go to your next class now.

Class after class, there was at least one person who knew that he was actually a clone. It made it hard to focus and the people who knew just glanced at each other nervously.

No one else would find out though, and that's the good thing. A few days pass and most of the gloomy thoughts have disappeared though, Cater was looking more horrible day by day. Always yawning, zoning out, even sleeping standing up! Cater didn't know if he could pretend for much longer nor Leona and Jack. Yes they came up with the idea but now this idea just was bad if you actually sat and thought about it for a while, plus it was hurting their friend. All because Leona was a selfish, jealous baby because he was the next in line to be king. What a great friend right?

Riddle himself wasn't having it either. His close friend being drained slowly but surely just so they all could cope a death of another friend. They wouldn't have a clone anymore if the person making the clone died as well. That why Riddle called a meeting for all the people who know but mostly for Leona and Jack.

He decided to do it during lunch in the field so they could have some privacy. Ace and Deuce told the people while Riddle helped Cater to the spot.

"What do you want your highness?" Leona grumbled, a bit irritated since his beauty sleep during the break had been interrupted by Deuce waking him up just to say Riddle Rosehearts had called a meeting for them. Said boy simply rolled his eyes and crossed his arms with a sigh.

"I've called all you here to propose something. Or to tell really.." Riddle said, taking a seat on the ground near a tree that gave him shade from the hot sun, "it's about the clone. I don't think we can make ourselves not suspicious when half of us are still depressed and when Cater could fall asleep at any-" to prove his point a bit, Cater fell softly onto the small boys lap, soft snores emitting from his mouth.

Riddle pet his hair softly before shooting a glare to Leona and Jack, "you see? It wont be long until eveyrone finds out that this Ruggie is a fake created just because you couldn't get a hold of your emotions!" Riddle screamed but quickly calmed down when he remembered Cater on his lap.

Leona stood for a second before growling, "oh you're one to talk you uptight gnome! I never wanted Ruggie to die