Piccolo looked over his shoulder and saw the six limbed alien standing at the doorway, his arms folded behind his back.
The namekian growled "Who are you and what have you done to him?"
The old man simply shrugged while his small grin widened, revealing his long, needle like teeth "Just call me Doctor, or Doc."
"That didn't answer my last question; what did you do to Nail?" Piccolo turned around, Nail still clinging to him and staring at the doctor with wide, frightened eyes.
Doc didn't answer, his grin widening even more and increasing the amount of wrinkles on his white face and infuriating Piccolo.
With a quick motion, Piccolo was behind Doc, who fell to the ground unmoving. With Nail tangled up in his cloak, Piccolo flew from the train, blasting the ceiling and flying out and away from the island.
...
Dende nearly choked on his water when he saw who Piccolo was awkwardly carrying in his arms. Nail was asleep, though still shivered with cold and just looked miserable in general.
"I… I can't believe I'm seeing this! Separation should've been impossible!" dende's eyes bugged out of his head as he took a closer look at the unconscious namekian. Piccolo shrugged and began heading inside the building on the Lookout "Don't ask me, I don't know how it was done."
The three namekians were soon in one of many spare bedrooms, and Nail was placed on the bed so that Dende could examine him. The visible cuts and crude stitching had been healed, most of which had covered Nail's lower abdomen.
With a sigh, Dende sat back and examined his work, pleased that not a scar was to be found.
Piccolo, who was sent to get some water while Dende healed his older brother, entered the room and placed the pitcher on a table set next to the bed "How is he?"
"He'll be fine after he gets enough rest." the small kami rested his chin in his palms "though I don't know how long that is, since he seems like he went through a lot in the past five to six days, and when I healed him, something seemed off."
Piccolo only hummed in response as he poured himself a glass of water. Dende poured some of the water in the two remaining cups and took one for himself "Later on, we could go to Bulma's to have him checked over.
"Yeah. I hope he turns out ok. I can heal the body, but I can't heal the mind."
Piccolo looked at Dende as he took a long sip from his glass. The young guardian seemed worried as he stared at his unmoving brother for a few long minutes before turning to Piccolo, his expression changing drastically from worried to serious.
"Piccolo, tell me what you saw… back at the lab?"
The older namekian sighed and set his cup down on the table "I don't recall everything. When I was in the lab, I was in a container for most of it. Though I saw an alien that seemed to be in charge of everything."
Dende looked uneasy as Piccolo continued "When I went to save Nail, the basement area or whatever it was, was very dark, so I couldn't see much. I think that I saw a table sitting in the corner of the last car of a train that they seemed to be getting ready to retreat in. I believe there were charts there, about the alien's findings of our anatomy, but I'm not sure."
Piccolo rubbed his forehead "that's all I really know."
Dende nodded and stood up "Thank you for sharing this bit of news. I'm going to see if I can look further into this mystery. I'm curious on how you and Nail managed to separate, since it should be impossible."
Piccolo nodded and watched Dende leave. The warrior remained at his seat and crossed his arms as he fell into a meditative state for the night.
...
Three days had passed and Dende wandered into Nail's room with a cup of water.
Nail was still unconscious, though once Dende sat down, he stirred. The small Kami perked in excitement as he watched his brother slowly open his eyes.
"You're finally awake!" Dende started with an excited and childish grin "And don't worry, Nail. You're safe now on the Lookout."
Nail's little brother held out the cup of water to him, though once the tortured namek saw the clear glass of water, his eyes widened, seeing green fluids instead of water.
With a scream, Nail smacked the cup away, causing Dende to yelp in surprise as the glass shattered on the marble floor.
Piccolo soon came running in the room, hearing the crash and Nail's screaming. Dende had retreated into a corner, rubbing his bruising hand as he stared at his thrashing older brother in shock.
"What is going on?" Piccolo folded his arms as he took in the scene before him. Dende jumped, having not noticed the warrior entering.
"I… I offered him some water when he was starting to wake up, but then he started screaming and knocked the glass out my hand!" the young guardian's eyes were wide.
Piccolo sighed and motioned Dende to follow him as he walked over to the screaming and squirming namekian and grabbed his wrist, but that only made Nail struggle even more.
"God dammit, Nail! You're not in the lab anymore!" Piccolo growled as Nail's heel met his cheekbone. Dende had grabbed his brother's other arm, but it was yanked from his grasp.
Piccolo smacked the terrified namekian across the face, just enough to stun him and allow the other two to hold him down in case he began squirming again.
"Nail!" Dende started "Look around, you're not in the lab anymore. You're safe now, brother."
Nail blinked, staring at Dende and Piccolo with wide eyes as he took this in. He looked around, visibly relaxing as he realized what Dende said was true.
"I… where am I?" Nail breathed, sitting back against the pillows of his bed as he continued looking around.
"You're at a place called the Lookout. No ordinary humans can come here without an invitation, so you are safe from harm." Piccolo stepped back and crossed his arms, looking slightly irritated.
The namekian laying on the bed only nodded, still looking dazed "I see…"
Dende pat his big brother's arm with a smile "We'll let you rest and get adjusted to your room, ok? Mr. Piccolo, can we talk out in the hall real quick?"
The standing warrior nodded and followed the smaller namekian out into the hallway. Once the door was shut behind them, Dende turned to Piccolo.
"He still looks as if he doesn't believe he's safe," Dende puffed with his hands on his hips "he might still be in shock, and he may have side effects from the trauma, so later on, I'd like it if you contacted Bulma's to come over and take a look at him."
Piccolo blinked as he stared at the kami of earth, and after a few seconds he nodded "alright. Let's give him a few more days to calm down before we do anything. We might have to keep an eye on him too, in case he hurts himself."
Dende nodded and looked back at the door to Nail's room "I hope he'll turn out fine in the end. Not the best way to have a family reunion, is it?"