Time Warp: The Sun Is Gone

[Levi Xu]

U.S. Embassy, Tel Aviv. July 23, 2026

"Levi, are you going to have lunch with us?" Leah leaned over the interpreter's desk and waved in front of his face. "Hello? You still with us?"

"What? Oh, sorry. No, I've got to head over to the school in a little while. They've got someone from the Yǒufú de rén coming in later today, and I should probably be briefed beforehand."

"Do you ever do anything besides work and sleep?" She was joking, yeah, but they both knew there was a kernel of truth in the question.

"I sometimes splurge and eat something as well. You guys go ahead. I'll see you tomorrow."

The woman hesitated for a moment before nodding and leaving the office. The interpreter was a strange one, and had been strange since he'd come there. He was quiet, but sometimes there was a hint of wonder in his voice that seemed...odd. She knew he was a meta, but he hadn't gone into specifics about what his power was, and no one had gotten close enough to him to ask.

He did good work though.

Currently Unnamed Meta School, Tel Aviv. July 23, 2026

Levi readjusted the ever-present laptop bag slung over his shoulder and waved at the woman at the front desk. Though the school wasn't open yet, it was already busy. Everyone there knew him, though. American-Chinese-Jewish, he stood out a bit, even if he was quiet and withdrawn most of the time.

"They want me upstairs, right?" Levi asked, giving the receptionist a small smile.

"Yes, they're not the---"

Her voice was wiped out by the deafening blast. Levi felt the shock, but before he could feel the flames, everything went black.

[Evan Brackett]

The site of the attack is a municipal building being converted into a school for training Meta-Humans. It was meant to be a show of international support, as many of the other international schools--including The Hammel Institute in the United States--have been working closely with the Israelis to get it started.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the explosion, though it is believed to be the work of an anti-Meta group.

There are seven confirmed dead and at least two dozen injured. Though the school is not open yet, it was unusually full, with a delegation from the Chinese meta school there. The building is still burning, and we do not have numbers for people missing.

New York City. July 23, 2026

The entire office was buzzing with the news by the time Evan arrived. He thought it was going to be something frivolous again, because the office always found something to talk about (including his personal life). Then the words terrorists and bombing started flying around, and he began to listen. He shuffled to the break room quietly as the people walking through the doors were directed to the latest report, but he was distant as he stared at the television. Tel Aviv. That's what really got his attention. Levi was there, working for at the embassy, and he spoke Mandarin and Farsi. Chances were, he had been at the school to delegate.

Van was going to be sick. His face paled at the realization, and without a second thought to how it might effect his work performance, he pulled out his cell and taped out a quick e-mail to his boss.

Have to leave work early. Family emergency involving the Tel Aviv attack.

Three hours later, he was standing in airport security with his passport, a boarding pass, and a small suitcase. He had brought Levi's forwarding address with him, praying that we was going to get there and find the other man at home, perfectly safe and sound. It would make Evan look like a total fool, he was sure, but even if he got kicked out of the country by his ex, he could sleep soundly knowing he was alive. He didn't really know what he was getting himself into, not knowing the language or the culture. This was just something he had to do.

He had spent most of the last few months thinking about what he did to Levi, and what they had become. That was thing about being alone for so long, it made you think. He realized all too late that he had been wrong in blaming Levi for thinking they were together. Van felt victimized when the interpreter had told him that he had assumed they were in a relationship again. It was like he was purposely making it up, just to shit on Van and himself because of what happened to them as college students. Really, Van had taken advantage of him without even realizing it. He was a fucking moron. He always had been.

The phaser wished he had called Levi earlier, or wrote him a letter, or sent him an e-mail. Anything, really, just to say he was sorry. But he hadn't. He couldn't. He had been too much of a coward to do it. A coward. He had always been one of those too.

Where did that leave him? In the airport, trying to get to Tel Aviv so he could apologize in person if it wasn't too late. All he could think, as he finally boarded his plane, was that these machines didn't fly fast enough.

[Levi Xu]

Nomi was the first to arrive at the hospital, out of all of the families of the Americans injured in the attack. Her son was at home with her husband, and she knew that there were a lot of folks back home praying for her little brother. It was a small comfort.

She sat at his bedside, waiting. The doctor had said that the initial shock had thrown him against a stone wall, and a metal desk had partially protected him from the flames. He was lucky, they said, because he had been in the lobby, and so he'd been one of the first people pulled out. He was lucky, because most of the burns were only second-degree. He was lucky, because the ones that weren't were not on his face. He wouldn't be scarred forever. He was lucky because at least he was breathing on his own, and probably wouldn't have to be treated for smoke inhalation.

G-d, if he was so lucky, why was he lying in that bed, not responding to anything she said?

Nomi was praying too, praying that the doctors were right and that he was safe. The specialist had suggested he be moved to the burn unit from intensive care. At the moment, the biggest danger would be infection.... Finally, she got up and went into the hall to call her husband. "No, he's not awake yet. But they said that he'll probably make it. It was mostly burns.....I love you too. Goodbye.

She leaned against the wall for a moment, not wanting to walk back into the tiny, white room and wait for her little brother to open his eyes.

"Excuse me, Ms. Brown?"

Nomi jumped when she heard the nurse's voice, "I'm sorry, yes?"

"There's a man at the desk who says he's family, but he's not...I mean..." The nurse hesitated, "He's not Chinese, and at first he said he was a good friend."

"Who is it?" Nomi stared at her, wondering who else would have come.

"Brackett. He said his name is Evan Brackett."

"Bring me to him." The small woman's face was set. There was no way she would let that man in to see Levi.

[Evan Brackett]

The flight was awful, but that goes without saying. Not only did the phaser have to suffer the usual ails of flying, but he had to deal with his thoughts as well. It was suffering (and he may have cried once or twice en route).

Things didn't improve once he was back on the ground. It was an adventure and a half trying to track down the other man. Just finding his residence in the first place proved difficult, as Van was completely unfamiliar with the city and intimidated by the task at hand. Trying to find his way was a nightmare. Most people wouldn't talk to him to give him directions, even if they spoke English.

Eventually, he did the smart thing and went to the American embassy. It became clear that his efforts were a waste after he explained his situation to them. He learned that Levi was involved in the accident after all, and had been admitted to the hospital. Luckily, he was able to get a lift to it from there. Van hesitantly approached the reception desk, and watched quietly as the nurse typed away at her computer. When she didn't look up at him, he cleared his throat to get her attention. "Excuse me? I'm looking for a good friend of mine. Can you look up room numbers?"

"Name?"

"Evan Brackett."

There was typing then a pause. She rolled her eyes before looking at him. "No, the patient's name."

"Oh, um. Levi Xu. Spelt L-e-v-i X-u."

She typed the name into the system, then looked up from her computer. "I'm sorry, he's only allowed family visits at the moment."

"I-I am family?" he tried weakly. "Adopted."

The nurse eyed him warily for a moment, then asked him to wait there as she disappeared down one of the adjacent halls. When she returned, someone else was following closely behind her. It took him a moment to recognize the Chinese woman, but he was terrified the instant he did. Evan nearly booked it out of there. "N-nomi. Hi," he managed to stutter, taking a step backwards. He was certain she would maul him as soon as she was close enough.

Good thing he was already in a hospital.

[Levi Xu]

"What are you doing here?" Including the flight and the time spent sitting at Levi's bedside, it had been over twenty-four hours since she had slept. But it made sense for her to look so rough. Her little brother was in the hospital, and she loved him and was worried sick.

So what the fuck was Evan doing there?

She looked around the reception area, then grabbed the man's sleeve and pulled him off to the side. This was private, and she was not going to turn it into some public display. "Why did you come here? Do you want to hurt him again? He's had enough, if you haven't heard."

She crossed her arms and looked up at Evan. They'd only met in person twice, back when her brother had been at Hammel. Then, his teenage boyfriend had seemed like a nice young man. He'd been nervous, but she would have never suspected that he would be capable of destroying her little brother.

Twice.

"You should leave. Now."

[Evan Brackett]

He shrank under the woman's presence, waiting for the worst to come. "Levi," he squeaked a short response as she approached him. The woman was tiny, especially compared to him, but her anger was more than enough to intimidate him.

Being pulled aside only scared him more, not knowing what she was capable of. And, yeah, as much as this was private, and as much as he would like it to stay that way, having witnesses was slightly comforting. That wasn't much of a protection, but he thought it might deter violence. He wasn't going to have that advantage in the hallway. "He's still alive," Evan stated unhelpfully, just relieved that Levi had made it.

Then he properly absorbed the woman's words, and jumped to his defense. "No, I don't. I never wanted to hurt him." That was the last thing Van ever wanted, things just didn't work out that way. "And I came to apologize, to say sorry," he told her. Hopefully that would at least grant him access to his ex's room. He didn't think it was too much to ask.

"Please, just let me see him," he was begging, of course.

[Levi Xu]

She looked up at the man, eyes narrowed. She listened to him, but it was obvious that anything he was going to say would just bounce off. Whatever the doctor said, Levi was still in some danger, and she wasn't going to let Evan in to do any more damage.

Nomi paused though, because her brother had to mean something to the man, or else he wouldn't be in the hospital, begging to see him. Good. Evan deserved every bit of misery he got out of this. "I don't always understand my brother," she started, uncrossing her arms. She didn't need to be defensive, not when the hospital wouldn't let Evan go any farther without her permission. "I don't always understand him, but I know him. If he knows you're here, he's going to want to see you. And from what I know of you, he's going to end up hurt again. Don't put him through that. Again."

She turned, to leave Evan behind, to go back to her little brother's room, but then the same nurse who had brought her there returned, smiling sheepishly.

"Mr... Mr. Sh--...Levi is awake." She fumbled his last name, but that wasn't important compared to her news. "And he wants to see you. Both of you...."

"You told him he was here?"

The nurse jumped at Nomi's question. "I just said that you were there, and that you had come to see about another visitor. He asked who."

Nomi, priorities ever in mind, took off down the hallway, back to Levi's room.

[Evan Brackett]

Evan was miserable. Miserable and frightened and whole lot of other things that he completely deserved. He didn't want Levi to feel the same. He didn't want things to be like this anymore. This was his final opportunity to fix it, and he was going to do the best he could to make it better.

Even if that meant facing long flights, foreign countries, and terrifying, overprotective older sisters. He was going to prove himself to her if it was the last thing he ever did. (Well, second to last thing, because it would be pointless if he didn't get to apologize to Levi afterwards.) "I really didn't come all this way just to hurt him again," he pleaded as she turned away from him. That would be one really expensive, really exhausting, really dickish thing to do. "I just want to make things right."

He moved to grab her, in one last desperate attempt to win her approval, but stopped when he saw the nurse. The news made him smile, but he hesitated to follow the woman down the hall. He didn't want to get there to find out that she had locked him out of the room or something absurd. Deciding that was unlikely, he hurriedly caught up to her, and used her as a guide to find Levi, all the while staying several paces behind. She still terrified him.

Van let her rush in ahead of him, lingering in the doorway upon his arrival. He was afraid to see what had happened to the other man. And, whether or not it appeased Nomi at all, he wanted them to have their family moment first. It was the least he could do.

[Levi Xu]

The first thing Levi realized was that everything hurt.

Slowly, he became more aware of the room. He was in a hospital...he thought. Someone had taken his contacts out, and there was a ringing in his ears. The interpreter could kind of hear sound and movement around him, but it wasn't until he tried to speak and started coughing that he heard the voice.

"Take a deep breath, then drink this." Someone held a straw up to his mouth and he greatfully sipped some water. He didn't even realize how dry his mouth felt until he felt the water in it.

"What happened?" It hurt to talk, the side of his face felt stiff and stung.

The nurse gently touched his unbandaged hand and said, "There was a bomb. It's Thursday now, and your sister is here." Her voice was soft, which made it hard to hear over the ringing in his ears.

"Nomi came?"

"Yes, she's gone to the desk to see about another visitor."

"Who?"

"Um..." Suddenly, the nurse realized that if Nomi was turning away the tall man, she might not want her brother to know. Too late. "A Mr. Brackett."

"Evan came?" Levi tried to sit up, but his back and shoulders hurt to much. "Can I see them?"

The nurse squeezed his hand and left.

As he waited, Levi tried to piece together what had happened, and how it had brought his ex to Israel.

Were they even in Israel? The nurse had spoken English. He'd have to figure that out.

Suddenly, Nomi was there, sitting on the edge of the bed and talking to him in rapid Chinese, "Levi, Levi you're okay. I've been so worried about you. Are you in pain? I could get the doctor to give you something."

"What happened?" Levi responded in Chinese as well. "What happened to me?"

"There was a bomb. An anti-meta group claimed it, and you were hurt. You're in the hospital now, and the doctors say you're going to be okay. You've been burned pretty badly, but you will be okay." He could hear the tears and relief in her voice.

"Evan's here?"

"Yes. Do you want him to leave?" Nomi's voice got harder. "I can make him leave."

"No, I want to see him."

[Evan Brackett]

Upon entering the room and seeing the younger man wrapped in bandages, Evan's heart started to race and he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from gasping. It was worse than he had expect. Not as bad as being dead, of course, but still bad. He could only imagine this was how Levi felt when he first saw him in the hospital after losing his arm all those years ago.

God, it was awful.

Still standing awkwardly, just inside the door, Evan looked between the siblings as they spoke to each other in Chinese. He was sure Nomi was doing it just to keep him out of the loop, and it bothered him a little. He was smart enough not to protest, though. He noticed right away when his name came up, although he didn't move closer until the woman glared back at him.

Van gave her a small nod, and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. "Hey," he started, his voice strained from anxiety. He was able to build up some courage as he crossed the room, Levi's presence reducing his sister's intimidation. The phaser didn't stand next to her despite this, but on the other side of the hospital bed instead.

"I came to see you." Evan didn't know what else to say, at a loss for words at the most inopportune time. He supposed he could launch straight into apologizing, but he didn't want to do it with Nomi there. He didn't want to kick her out either. It was enough to just be there for the other man, for now. "I thought you might have..." he trailed off, unable to say the word "died". Levi wasn't dead. He was going to be okay. That was all that mattered.

[Levi Xu]

"You're here." Levi smiled a little, suddenly remembering the day when he'd opened his dorm room door to find that Evan was there. He was hurt and scared, but Evan was there, again. His smile was weak though, because he was still trying to process what had happened. He couldn't remember the bomb, he didn't even know where it had gone off. But somehow Evan knew where to find him. "Nomi says I'm not going to die."

He was probably on some sort of heavy pain medication, because he felt sort of detached and drifty. Yes, his body hurt, but it didn't feel real. Having Evan there made it feel even stranger. His eyes went wide as he wondered if he had died, and this was some sort of afterlife....but if he had died, wouldn't his grandparents be there, his mother? Nomi was certainly still alive, and so far as he knew, so was his ex.

Maybe, if he hadn't felt so dehydrated, he would have started to cry.

In the background, one of the machines that had periodically went bing started to bing faster. Nomi noticed and stood. She wasn't a doctor, but she had seen enough medical shows to know that the heart rate monitor shouldn't speed up like that. "Okay, Evan, I think you should go now."

[Evan Brackett]

Van found himself smiling too, although he wasn't sure why. There wasn't anything about the situation that called for it, accept maybe the simple fact that seeing him made Levi smile. "Yes, I'm here, and you're not going to die." And he couldn't be more relieved.

Most of those good feeling went away when the EKG machine started to speed up, and he, too, looked at the machine. He glanced at Nomi and frowned, panicking slightly. "No, I just got here." He didn't wait two hours in airport security, fly 13 hours across the Atlantic, and spend another few trying to find the man just to say hey and leave. Defiantly grabbing a nearby rolling chair, he pushed it next to the bed and sat down.

"I can't leave yet. I haven't even apologized," he told her, only holding her gaze for a moment before turning to his ex. He took the man's now-free, undamaged hand in his own, no longer caring that Nomi was there. She probably wouldn't leave if he asked, anyway. "Look, Levi, I--" But he hardly started before the woman had cut him off. He sighed as he looked back up at her, slightly infuriated by her interruption but willing to endure it. The phaser wasn't about to give up on this.

[Levi Xu]

Nomi had to interrupt him. Evan was toxic. Every time her brother got involved with him, he'd ended up depressed. He didn't deserve falling for the man again. "No, you are going to leave, now." She grabbed hold of the chair and would have pulled him away if he hadn't reached out for Levi's hand, and if her idiot brother hadn't taken it.

What was wrong with him?

Levi couldn't see the rest of the room clearly, not without his glasses. But he could hear his sister, and protested weakly. "No, I want him to stay."

Of course, Nomi's voice overpowered his. It always had. "I'm not going to let you hurt him again. The first time, he told me it was his fault, and I believed him because he asked me to. But you ruined him." Her face was red, and though it wasn't loud, her voice was cold. "I tried to help him find a nice Jewish girl--or even a nice Jewish boy--but you had him so messed up..."

Levi closed his eyes and protested quietly, "Nomi, stop."

[Evan Brackett]

Evan didn't want Levi to fall for him again. That wasn't his goal here. He wished that Nomi could see that, and that she would just let them speak for a minute. One minute was all he needed. "I'm not leaving," he reiterated, squeezing Levi's hand, and leaning away from his sister. He wasn't going to let her intimidate him anymore. He wasn't going to let anything get in the way of his apology.

He was going to do this, God dammit, and nothing was going to stop him.

The more she talked, the more she offended him. "I ruined him? The first time, he broke up with me. He broke my heart." Evan was still touchy about that breakup. He probably always would be, and he definitely didn't appreciate getting blamed for it. Especially when the person doing the blaming didn't know him, hadn't been there, and was biased. "Maybe he just didn't like your stupid set-ups. Did you ever think of that?" Although, he probably should have kept that last statement to himself.

"The second time, yes, I was an idiot. I wasn't fair," he admitted, his face softening. "Please, all I want to do is apologize, and then I'll leave. Please."

[Levi Xu]

"I can still hear both of you." Levi tried to sit up again, but his body wouldn't cooperate. He just wanted them to stop fighting, that was all. Well, he also didn't want either of them to leave, but it looked like that was going to have to happen, or they would never stop. "Nomi, can you give us five minutes? Please? And then he'll leave."

The woman bit her lip and shook her head slightly, "Levi, I don't think that's a good idea." Her little brother was thirty, but he'd never made good decisions. Particularly involving Evan.

"Please?"

She looked at him, ready to argue, but sighed. With one last glare at the architect, she said, "Five minutes. I'll be right outside."

When the door closed, Levi sighed himself and groaned. "I....I didn't like anyone she set me up with. I scared them off." Of course, because that's the point Evan wanted to talk about.