#you'll implode reading the authors note on the ao3 port. i enter multiship mode to the xtreme.

[neko-naruto]

i've lost my ignorance, security, and pride

Summary: Copen never did consider a karma so cruel in his journals when he'd write about the potential of his justified path coming to bite him in the ass, nor does he truly believe it when it's so viciously forced into his face by none other than Nova

Warnings: unethical surgeries, verbal degradation, Nova has something going on, check Ao3 port for full tags

Authors Note: *laughs nervously as I stare at the 2 ppl who like gunvolt on tumblr* so how do ya'll feel about toxic yaoi? cause I got toxic yaoi with a side of unethical surgeries and a title from a Nine Inch Nails song.

"You're such a swine," Nova purred, hand firmly gripping Copen's jaw, "A filthy, worthless, pig."

Copen snarled up at him, "You're one to talk, Adept."

"You're a broken record. Adept, Adept, Adept- it's your favorite word, right up there with justice," Nova said, smug grin slanting to a cruel smirk.

"I'll tear your very heart out in the name of God," Copen threatened, tried too at least. The paralytics holding him down made it very hard to come off half as threatening as he wanted to. He just had to grit his teeth and grimace as soft hands held his face and tainted his skin.

Nove gives a single chuckle, "I doubt you could so much as scratch me in your current state." He takes a step back from Copen who struggles to reach out and claw him open, tug him and punch him, do anything to hurt him in any way possible.

He can manage seething, "I'll sooner die than watch you ruin everything."

Nova claps twice and a row of soldiers file in, "Boys, take him down to the lab, I wish to impart a gift upon him."

Copen's eyes widen as the soliders encroach on him, hands gripping his arms and legs and holding him securely to the point it hurts. The crackling purple remains to hold his joints locked in place and muscles contracted so he can do nothing but breath and take it. When enough hands have him secured, Nova claps once more and they don't hoist him up. The purple Adept leans just enough that they're at eye level, he's grinning this sickly smile that makes Copen feel ill.

"What are you going to do to me?" The hunter questioned.

Nova reaches out to run a finger from Copen's ear too his chin and tilts up, "I'm going to make you despise your very existence."

Nova shoves aside Copen who fumbles for words and writhes to the best of his ability. He watches as the Adept turns his back as he's slowly carried away, dragged on the ground.

"I want him in heavy restraints when I arrive, and I want him awake while I do it."

Copen's blood runs cold as the words sink into his paralyzed body.

-/-/-/-

All Copen can do is stare at the ceiling even after the paralytics have come down, he knows the restraints are too strong for him to break. He's been stripped of his dignity and his pride and his armor, he can't manage much of a fight physically at this point. LED lights sear his eyes as they shine down on him mockingly from the ceiling, he can see the glint of scalpels, needles, and vials from the corner of his eye.

He hears the door open and tries to turn and see it but he awkwardly hits the brace clamped over his neck. It aches from the physical struggling he tried mere moments after being locked in. The struggling earned him nothing but mocking and laughing from useless foot soldiers.

"No need to worry, I have it under control. Thank you for dealing with the first part for me."

It's Nova, he sounds as calm and collected as ever. He steps in and the door slides shut. He shrugs off his regal coat and hangs it up on the door and trades for it an apron.

"You're gonna kill me down here, while I'm vulnerable," Copen declared as Nova washed his hands and hummed a tune.

"I would never," Nova said with a faux tone of offense, he steps over to Copen's restrained form and grabs a marker, "I have something far more sinister in mind."

"You're gonna cut me open? Harvest my organs and let me live out my remaining days without them sickly and frail?" Copen questioned as Nova brought the marker to pale flesh and ran dotted lines across Copen's chest.

"Don't give me ideas now," Nova said with a light laugh as he capped the marker.

Copen took a deep breath, "Than what it is it?"

"You're a smart boy, you'll figure it out," Nova chided as he grabbed the scalpel and pressed it against skin, "This may hurt."

He pressed down and it did hurt, it was a clean type of hurting though. A simple little slice down the front of his chest, from his clavicles to the base of his rib cage. He felt his breath hitch as the pain diffused, it was quick to return when fingers pressed into the slit of flesh. He bit his tongue instead of screaming, body spasming at the unprecedented intrusion.

Nova gave a hum, "Someone doesn't like being fingered. I guess I'll open you up a bit more before we get to penetration." He laughs at his own words and Copen just feels a wave of disgust wash over him at the fact Nova is comparing this to sex. Albeit, in a very subtle and twisted way, but it's a comparison regardless.

The scalpel comes down along two more dotted lines and with one quick motion his chest opens up. He feels extremely nauseated, like he'd vomit if he had anything in his stomach. He dry heaves despite gravity working against him, he convulses and wheezes as fingers prod at his inner muscles. Tracing over the bits on his ribs and tapping his beating heart and pinching at his clavicles.

There isn't the comforting discomfort of latex either, it's just skin on flesh. The taint of an Adept's touch is being ingrained into his being with every passing second of Nova exploring his body in a very unpleasant way. His finger nails dig into his palm into Nova forces them apart with bloody hands.

"Don't hurt yourself, you don't even have reason to hate yourself yet," Nova said in a tone far too soothing for a man so sinister and cruel, but it worked. Copen relaxed, he let his body go as limp as possible because as much as he wants to defy, he knows he can't win this one. Nova grins, "You'll have plenty of reasons to hate yourself soon enough."

A needle is held high, a clear fluid fills it, and then it's plunged into Copen. Close to his heart, but not quite, narrowly missing the most vital of his organs. The glass tube rests nestled against his lung as the fluid is deposited into his body. His breathing starts to slow all the while and the prodding sensation of Nova's fingers inside of him.

Anesthetic, how kind.

Three needles are held this time, red, green, and blue. There's hesitation on Nova's face as he lays them atop Copen's rib cage and contemplates. He grabs red first, "You know, you'll be the first to have three Septima's implanted in your body."

Copen starts struggling again, "You're turning me into an Adept!?"

"I thought that was clear," Nova said smugly as he snapped his fingers, bright purple crackling across Copen once more to paralyze him. He lets a finger, dripping with blood, hover over Copen's lips. The taste of ichor rests heavy on Copen's tongue and he squirms as best he can, the terrible taste of his own blood making him feel ill. Nova smirks a bit, "Now hold still, I don't want to kill you during this process. Although, three at once may kill you in the long run."

As the first of three needles puncture his heart he passes out with a gut wrenching scream that makes even Nova feel nauseated. A rending pain running through every single vein in his body as a Septima is implanted in him. He sees Nova's smug face and a wave goodbye as he fades out of consciousness.

-/-/-/-

When he awakes he finds himself in a hospital bed with stitches running up his front and a crusty sensation coagulating near them. It makes him feel ill, even more when he hears them crackle as he sits up. A sharp sting pierces him and he tries not to hiss as a bare hand clutches at his clothed chest. He's wearing one of those hospital gowns, but the blood and puss and Septimal residue soak into it in the shape of his cuts.

"I wouldn't be moving for a while if I were you," Nova said calmly from where he stood leaning in the doorway, dressed to the nines in his usual outfit. He has a bouquet of flowers in one hand with a gaudy 'get well soon!' card attached, it makes Copen cringe.

"If it'll kill me then I'll make a point of it," Copen snarled as Nova stepped in and ever closer.

Nova chuckled lightly, "You idiot," He doesn't use anything innately insulting which is odd, he's dropped his smug I'm better than you aura. He takes a seat on the foot of Copen's bed, "You're stuck in here now, we won't let you die."

"What do you mean I'm stuck in here?" Copen asked.

Nova was so bold as to reach out and trace along the front of Copen's hospital gown, he smiled the entire time. He pressed just above the heart and Copen winced, "You're stuck with Sumeragi, your Septima's are prone to malfunctioning. They're unstable unless you're here with our technology monitoring you to keep you alive."

Copen goes wide-eyed, "What?"

"You have to stay with Sumeragi, attach yourself to a Glaive, and hope that we'll trust you to use your Septima in taking down QUILL." Nova crawls a little further up Copen's hospital bed, "That or you go out there and wait for the inevitably of a premature death."

"So I have to sit here at your beck and call like a dog or die?"

"You're a smart one, a bit slow, but smart."

If he wasn't already nauseated with how close Nova is too him at the moment he'd feel like vomiting. He goes pale he knows that much and he swears his head starts to spin.

"So," Nova begins, reaching out to touch Copen's face and now there's no divide between them. They've become equally low, Copen's been lowered forcibly to become the same dirt all Adept's are. "What'll it be?"

Copen can't answer, he just tries to look away.

Nova wrenches him back into eye contact, "Did you not hear me, filth?"

"I'll take the Glaive." He submits but he doesn't want too, he submits because he knows he'll find out how to break the leash when he can escape. Until then he'd like to stay alive long enough to shoot down the likes of Gunvolt and the rest of QUILL, even if it means working for Sumeragi.

Nova grins as he pushes himself back, "I'll get it fashioned right away, I'll make sure your armor is reminiscent of what you wore when you tried to defile my name."