Actually, the -c was in an example of a copy command that I found while working at my last job. I tried executing the command without the -c and got the same results as before, so I suppose I really don't know what it means.
Can you enlighten me
Read the fine manual before running stuff that you don't understand.
Then, provide a self-contained script that demonstrates the problem because at this point I am either unable to follow or untrusting of the written description of the problem.
Or consider using less indirection until you get something that is working and then add your layers incrementally testing as you go along.