Time is immutable and past sins cannot be undone. It is too late for Asuka Soryu, too late for Shinji Rokubungi, too late for Yui Ichijo. Yet hope is not entirely lost for it is not too late for Asuka Langley Shikinami, for Shinji Ikari, for Rei Ayanami, for their time is only just beginning. And into that time steps those who seek redemption from their sins by forging a new dawn.
In Tune
is a Neon Genesis Evangelion Alternate Universe/Peggy Sue fic written by Z98. A relatively recent fanfic that seeks to ask how to truly defeat SEELE, a fact that is mostly swept under the rug by many fanfics.
In Tune includes examples of:
- Adaptational Sexuality: Maya has a boyfriend in this fanfic, while the original series only showed her having feelings for Ristuko. Though she did have Ship Tease with Shigeru in an officially released video game, so it isn't completely out of the left field.
- Alternate Self: The Collective is made up of characters from officially official Evangelion media.
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Soren Reimer is an alternative Shinji named Shinji Rokubungi who is far more calm headed and intelligent than either the Canon or Rebuild versions of Shinji.
- Broken Ace: Soren Reimer is a professional musician that is widely considered one of the best in recent years, a gourmet chef and incredibly rich and is a literal One-Man Army. But he comes from a timeline where he was abandoned by his mother, nearly caused the Third Impact to save Rei, the only person that treated him with continuous love and affection, and still lost her causing everyone to hate him.
- The Chew Toy: Poor Shinji; even with Amanda and Soren looking out for him the universe still finds ways to make him suffer. His first love dies in his arms, goes catatonic when memories of his mother's death surface, and the 11th angel infects him instead of the Magi computers.
- Crazy-Prepared: The Collective have a contingency for just about everything, for good reason and they're not just drawing from their own experiances; they've been scouring the entire multiverse to plan ahead. Notably, NERV's fail-safes actually work this time around, and have backups just in case.
- Didn't See That Coming: While the Collective is usually on top of things, even they are not omniscient as the appearance of Mayumi Yamagishi sorely proved.
- Drives Like Crazy: Soren is a poor enough driver that when he offers to drive, Amanda, Asuka and Misato (the lattermost of whom retains her crazy driving habits from canon) all respond with a "Oh, hell no!"
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Midori Kayabuki aka (older) Mana Kirishima would love to see her younger counterpart hook up with Shinji. However she knows from personal experience the relationship could potentially disrupt everything the Collective is working towards, so it remains a simple fantasy.
- Like Brother and Sister: What Shinji and Rei became when Shinji realized Rei's connection to his mother. At first wasn't too completely happy at the reveal but eventually accepted it.
- Mirroring Factions: A major theme in the fic. The Collective are generally protrayed as benevolent group, but many of their actions fall into the morally grey area; in fact, they can be just as ruthless and manipulative as Gendo and SEELE. The Irony is not lost on any of them, and they know that they're walking a fine line.
- The Multiverse: The Collective is made up of Evangelion characters from various different timelines all gathered to create a timeline that not only avoids the Third Impact but future threats as well.
- One-Man Army: Soren Reimer. Having an Adam Embryo and S2 engine makes him nearly untouchable as the JSSD painfully found out
- There Are No Therapists: Averted believe it or not. NERV actually has a base psychologist, and Amanda makes it a point to set Shinji up for regular therapy sessions. Misato gets sent too, after her stunt during the Jet Alone mess gives Amanda an excuse to force the issue. Doctor Hitomi Hayashima proves to be very good at her job and she's also a member of The Collective.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Four of them, actually.
- The first shows what everyone is up to a few years down the road and also sets the stage for a potential sequel. The second gives the story a proper happy ending in case the author never got around to writing said sequel.
- The last two are Distant Finales And we get to see the reincarnations of Amanda and Soren. Very Distant Finales; Amanda's takes place a couple hundred years later and shows humanity dealing with a new threat (the Ghana from Knights of Sidonia). Soren's epilogue is many thousands of years in the future, where he's a high ranking individual in a galaxy-spanning human empire (read: happier version of the Imperium of Man)
