Epilogue Alpha

"Tracking team, status on both units' current positions," Aoba queried.

"Unit 02 has reached operation altitude and has settled into the targeted orbit," a woman reported.

"Unit 05 was unable to reach target," a man followed up.

"Acknowledged. 02 will proceed with the mission alone," Aoba ordered.

"Roger, Unit 05 will act as support. Transition to shift seven."

"02 has passed the point of no return," Maya's voice sounded, "it is entering Area 88."

"Roger," Hyuga acknowledged. "Commence Operation US."

"Roger," the woman said, "Unit 02 is entering the final operational orbit, switching to deceleration."

"Igniting all engines, stage one."

From inside her launch pod Asuka Langley Shikinami felt the entire thing shake as the rockets thundered. This high up there was no atmosphere to carry the sound but that did not necessarily mean the young woman heard nothing. Then again most of what she heard was the status reports from mission control and what Asuka was generously treating as an attempt by her wingman to imitate a cat's meowing.

The rockets stopped firing and disconnected from the pod.

"Jettisoning stage one boosters," a man reported.

"Inputting mass variation factors," a woman said, "separation confirmed. Checking power systems, no problems detected."

"Opening drain valves, discarding propellant tank. Automating ignition timing. Stage two, beginning ignition."

The pods shook again as two more engines fired off for a few seconds.

"S-1C combustion complete," a woman reported. "Closing pressure valves."

"Jettisoning stage 2 booster unit."

While she could not quite feel it herself Asuka pretended that a great weight was lifted as the rest of the boosters intended for orbital correction detached.

"Deceleration complete," mission control stated.

"Preparing to enter final operational orbit, flipping unit head. Commence rotation."

The launch pod flipped about and the entire contraption began diving down towards the Earth. Asuka took deep breaths as she took over direct control of her descent, flicking switches to make minute adjustments to her trajectory.

"All remote guidance will end here, unit will now be controlled manually," Aoba said.

"Unit 02, remember that Unit 05 is already approaching reentry," Hyuga said. "It will only be able to support you for another ninety-six seconds."

Asuka glanced at the countdown and smirked. "No problem."

"Good luck," Hyuga offered.

"Jamming detected," Aoba reported. "Detecting enemy fire!"

The pod shuddered as the heatshield was punctured. With a kick the red Garde combat mech knocked the useless block aside.

"This damn thing's just getting in my way!" Asuka declared as she tore off her helmet.

Unit 02 let loose a torrent of rounds, scoring a handful of hits and destroying the satellite that had attempted to do the same to it.

"And four-eyes, stop with the damn singing already!"

A bright beam lanced up and sliced through another satellite. Mari Illustrious Makinami continued humming away.

"Fire support was two seconds late!" Asuka shouted.

"And you're three seconds ahead of position," Mari countered.

"It's called adapting to the situation," Asuka snapped, "keep up with me!"

"By your command," Mari said as her targeting reticule locked onto another target, "your highness!"

Another satellite was vaporized by her positron cannon.

"I've got through the Fullerene shift," Asuka declared, "breaking into the terminal defense area 89!"

The girl's eyes narrowed and she growled in irritation as the trajectory of her objective shifted.

"The target is moving! No time to correct my orbit, I'm going to brute force this!"

Grabbing hold of the launcher mounted onto the pod frame she fired off the three harpoons and was rewarded with all three sinking into the construct. The tether began reeling her in and she could almost feel the immense strain being put on the mechanical systems. The lines did not snap however as she swung about before being pulled in.

"Decelerating!" Asuka shouted as she ignited the rocket pods. "Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Ignition complete!"

The exhaust from the rockets died out and the last two pods detached from the mech.

"Retrieval complete," Asuka said with an exhausted sigh.

"Roger," Hyuga said. "Well done, Captain Shikinami."

Asuka smirked. "But of course. And even before four-eyes checked out."

"Well sorry for obeying the laws of gravity," Mari snarked back.

Asuka chuckled as the inside of her cockpit dimmed before resetting as the simulation ended. She gave a big yawn as she stretched before hitting the eject button. The next few seconds were spent waiting for the liquid inside to drain but once the cockpit rose out it was revealed that her unit had been in a large hanger the entire time, hooked up to the base's computer systems as part of the training exercise. Mari's pink unit sat right next to hers and the other woman was also in the process of climbing out. Asuka's attention however was on the young man leaning over one of the consoles in front of her mech. When he looked up she flashed him a wide smile and a V. Shinji Ikari smiled back at her and waved.

With almost casual disregard for her own safety Asuka zipped down the side of the rack holding up her mech and skipped over to her boyfriend.

"So, was I magnificent or what?" she beamed.

Shinji chuckled. "You were great Asuka. And I think that set a new record for completion of that simulation."

"Well of course," Asuka said proudly. "Once you power through the defenses it's a straight shot to the target, easy peasy."

Mari cleared her throat behind the girl.

"And four-eyes did an okay job with her fire support," Asuka added.

"Princess, you wound me so," Mari said in mock indignation before chuckling. "But still, that was a good time. I wonder if it's because you're looking forward to next week, hmm?"

"Oh stuff it Mari," Asuka said despite chuckling herself. "Anyway, I'm gonna go catch a shower, this fake LCL stinks compared to the real thing."

It was an opinion Shinji shared and why he was grateful Asuka had enough self-restraint to not hug him after getting out of the Garde mech.

"We should be ready for the debriefing once you've freshened up," Shinji said. "After that we can go home."

"Good," Asuka said wholeheartedly as she headed towards the lockerrooms. "It's been a long day."

"I'll help scrub your back," Mari offered with a smirk.

"No, no you won't," Asuka's fading voice could be heard protesting.

Shinji smiled to himself as he turned his attention back to the large mech towering above him. At only 30 meters tall it was less than half the height of an EVA but the Garde Mk 1 was in many ways a much more lethal weapon of war. So much more lethal in fact that Shinji had initially been horrified at the existence of the designs in the Codex left behind by Soren and the others. But as he learned more about what else was in the Codex he was forced to grudgingly concede that humanity really did need the Gardes. Perhaps not now, but in the future. And seeing as there was no stopping Asuka from getting back into the hot seat he would be there to support her however he could, short of becoming an active pilot again himself.

As for the Garde itself, it was quite a marvel. Whereas the EVAs were effectively clones of an Adam, or Lilith in the case of Unit 01, a Garde was a biomechanical construct of a different nature. Its limbs were formed by artificial muscles controlled by an equally artificial nervous system and the two together made the Garde an extremely responsive system. It was also extremely difficult to control, the neural interface needing to effectively be synchronized to a pilot's own synaptic pattern. That process took time and while it was possible for pilots to swap machines, the experience tended to be unpleasant and effectiveness when plugged into a foreign neural network plummeted. A Garde's neural net could be reset to allow for a new pilot to imprint upon it and that was likely to be what would happen to the unit Shinji had used as a test platform. Only eighteen Gardes had been built thus far and the young man could not imagine WILLE simply letting one sit idle when it could be reset and a new pilot brought onboard to use it. After they did something about the purple paintjob.

"Alright, that should be about it," Shinji said as he finished transferring the telemetry from the simulation to his laptop. "Good work today Kitakami."

"Thank you sir," the young woman with dyed pink hair said chipperly.

Shinji closed his laptop and headed for the exit himself, passing several other Gardes running simulations along the way. Each Garde station had the name of its respect pilot stamped on a plate and the young man mentally read each one that he passed. K. Kirigaya. C. Hazama-Memphis. M. Lee Strasberg. Quite a few of the names were ones Shinji had known for many years now and he considered all of them good friends. In point of fact a good percentage of the Garde pilots were former Trident pilot trainees, an irony that was not lost upon the former trainees themselves. But the Gardes had been designed with the safety of its pilots as a foremost priority and Shinji was personally determined that no one would get hurt due to negligence or corner cutting. It was a heavy responsibility for someone who technically had just graduated from university but he had spent so many years around this sort of technology that Shinji was confident in his abilities to shoulder them. As he left the hanger he made his way to carry out another part of those duties, the after action debriefing of the simulation he had just helped run.


"Yes, we'll be gone for about two weeks. What? No, the wedding's the second week after we get there, the first week is making sure all the preparations are complete. Asuka's mom has been running around like crazy trying to pin everything down and I'm pretty sure she has everything in hand, but we'll be there to lend her ours for the final sprint. Alright, I'll pick up the prescription tomorrow, that should last me for when I'm over in Germany right? Thank you very much doctor, I hope you have a pleasant evening."

With those parting words Hikari hung up the phone and turned her wheelchair around before heading towards the bedroom. The motors were almost completely silent with barely a whine as they spun up but once she was moving they were effectively inaudible.

"Toji, have you finished packing?" Hikari Horaki called out.

"Uh, just about," the young man shouted back. "Just, trying to find where my extra ties are!"

"Bottom drawer on the left hand side," Hikari said as she rolled into the bedroom.

"Oh uh, thanks Hikari," one Toji Suzuhara replied as he pulled open said drawer. "Why do I need to take so many ties with me to Germany again?"

"There's a couple of receptions we're going to," Hikari said with an all too sweet smile. "What, were you planning on wearing the same tie for all of them?"

"Not sure what's wrong with that," Toji muttered under his breath as he shoved the ties into his suitcase.

Hikari chuckled before ruefully regarding her boyfriend's attempt at packing. Things had been shoved in haphazardly to the point where she sincerely doubted Toji would be able to actually close the thing, much less find anything once they actually arrived in Germany. What to do, what to do. Hikari looked at the clock.

"Shouldn't you be going to pick up Sakura-chan?"

Her boyfriend's head snapped about. "Crap, you're right."

He bolted for the door but stopped long enough to lean over and give his girlfriend a parting kiss. Hikari obliged and after an all too brief moment of contact let him be on his way. Before the front door was even open she was next to the bed and busy untangling the massive wad of clothes. One by one she refolded them and set them neatly back into place. When she was done there was even space to spare and it was with some satisfaction that Hikari shut the suitcase closed with her own two hands.


As Shinji entered the apartment footsteps sounded and a happy squeal greeted him.

"Shinji-nii!"

The young man chuckled as an exuberant eigh year old girl charged at him and threw herself into his embrace.

"Welcome home!"

"I'm home, Madoka," Shinji said to his little sister.

"What's this, no hug for your big sis?" Asuka teased.

Madoka stuck her tongue out mischievously but still held out her arms to Asuka. The German woman ruffled the girl's hair but gave her a hug nonetheless.

"Shinji-nii," another voice greeted, this one also feminine but not quite as high pitched as Madoka's. "Welcome back."

"Ah, thank you for looking after Madoka, Sakura-chan," Shinji said to the teenage girl walking over. "Umm, will you be needing a ride back home?"

Sakura Suzuhara shook her head. "Nii-san said he was going to come pick me up." She paused thoughtfully. "Though he is late." The girl's cellphone beeped and she flipped it open. "Ah, he's on his way now."

Shinji nodded as he slipped off his shoes. "Alright. Well, no reason to stand around here waiting."

"Hey, when is Mama coming home?" Madoka asked.

Misato Katsuragi was these days a very busy woman. Now a major-general she served as the overall director of the UN Special Agency WILLE, NERV's successor in the defense of humanity. Much like its predecessor WILLE had several branches overseas, effectively inheriting NERV's old assets in Germany and the United States. The Chinese government had refused to contribute resources to the new effort so the old Beijing branch was the only NERV facility not under WILLE control, a point that was the cause of some not insignificant tension on the Security Council and the General Assembly. That of course was not the only matter that ate much of Misato's time and attention, more than the woman was really happy with.

"Umm, she said she would be back around the same time as us," Shinji said looking at his watch. "Did she get caught up with something else?"

Asuka snorted. "Knowing the good General? Almost certainly. You know how she's been trying to get as much work out of the way that she can for next week."

"I suppose," Shinji said.

"Awww, but she said we'd watch a movie together tonight!" Madoka protested.

Shinji gave his little sister an affectionate pat on the head. "I'm sure she'll be here, Madoka. Why don't we set up so that everything is ready when she gets back?"

"Alright!"

"So what were you going to watch?" Asuka asked the girl.

"Gojira!"

Asuka smiled ruefully. "Well it'll certainly be campy."

"I wonder where she gets her tastes from," Shinji idly wondered.

"Certainly not from Kaji," Asuka proclaimed confidently. "He had class."

Shinji chuckled. "So you think it's Misato's?"

Asuka nodded firmly. "Without a doubt."


A sneeze echoed in the massive chamber and Ritsuko Akagi turned towards her friend.

"Cold?"

"That or Asuka's trash talking me," Misato said wirily. "Let's get this over with though, being down here in the deep freeze is not my idea of fun. Especially since I'm supposed to be spending the evening with my daughter."

"I won't keep you for too long," Ritsuko said with a slight smile before her expression became somber as she gazed up at the massive creature before them. "I'm not exactly eager to be down here myself with this thing either."

Misato nodded in agreement. The Mark 06 had been kept in cryogenic stasis for the last eight years while NERV and then WILLE figured out what to do with it. Or rather how to destroy it safely. At first Misato had been flabbergasted as to why it had not been destroyed alongside the other EVAs and Lilith. As she, Ritsuko, and a few other trusted compatriots had dug through the collective's codex however they quickly discovered why. The collective had refrained from attempting to destroy the Mark 06 because they could not do so without triggering another energy reaction similar to what happened during Second Impact. Seeing as that would have pretty much finished off the human race, little wonder they left it behind for those native to the timeline to handle.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Misato asked.

"You know how there were four Adams in Antarctica when Second Impact triggered?"

Misato nodded. "Of course. One was implanted in Soren, another Ikari took for himself, and this is the third. The collective never did track down the last one."

"I think I might know where it is."

Misato blinked blankly for a few seconds. "You WHAT!?"

"Easy there," Ritsuko said. "I said I think I know where it is, not that I'm one hundred percent certain."

"Alright, so where do you think it is?"

"I think it's still down in Antarctica, at ground zero," Ritsuko said.

Her friend's eyes widened.

"Think about it," the doctor continued. "The collective was everywhere, they controlled Tabgha base on the moon and had people at every other branch. Amanda was Lorenz's own granddaughter. Do you really think they would have failed to dig up the location of the last Adams if SEELE really had it in their possession?"

"I, suppose so," Misato said. "But do you have anything concrete?"

"Yes," Ritsuko said to her friend's surprise. "Do you remember the Antarctica expedition Commander Ikari led to retrieve the Spear of Longinus?"

"Vaguely."

"They took a lot of sensor data while down there and on a hunch I fed it through the MAGI. It's faint and the signal strength is just above the threshold that we'd consider noise, but there is something with a blue pattern waveform down there."

Misato's eyes widened further. "Are you sure?"

"Sure enough that I think we should take a look," Ritsuko said. "If that Adams awakens, we could be in for a whole world of hurt."

"Definitely," Misato agreed. "The problem is getting down there, Antarctica is pretty much completely inhospitable to any sort of terrestrial life."

"We could use the Wunder," Ritsuko said. "It could get us there and back without any difficulty with its AT-field."

Misato chewed her lip. Wunder was perhaps the most contentious of prizes acquired by NERV-Tokyo after SEELE's defeat. It was an extremely powerful warship, armed with four railgun batteries and an ion cannon that rivaled Ramiel's in power. Its AT-field made it effectively impervious to conventional arms and that combination of offensive and defensive strength made a lot of people nervous. The only real limitation it possessed was requiring someone born after Second Impact to pilot, though why was something they were still trying to dig out from the codex. And it was not just anyone born after Impact, thus far only the former EVA pilots and those who had been EVA pilot candidates could control the ark. Still that particular restriction had not been enough to placate certain nations and elements of the UN and it was really on the fact that a sizeable stockpile of anti-AT-field weaponry had been stockpiled that let others breathe somewhat easier. Plenty of restrictions had also been placed on usage of the ark as well.

"I'd have to clear it with the Security Council," Misato said.

"Geneva isn't that far from Berlin," Ritsuko said with a slight smile.

An eyebrow rose. "You do know that I'm going over there for my son's wedding, right?"

"I know, but the wedding itself isn't for another week after your arrival," Ritsuko said. "And besides, I doubt you'll have too much trouble convincing the Security Council with something this important."

Misato sighed. "Alright, I'll go talk to them."

"While you do that, do you mind if I at least start loading up the equipment we'll need?"

"Won't that be seen as jumping the gun?" Misato asked.

Ritsuko shrugged. "No reason to waste time dawdling."

"I suppose. What do you expect to need?"

"The only thing of note would be the Spear of Cassius," Ritsuko said, "in case we need to subdue to Adams."

"Gotcha. I'll probably want to mention that as well. But Longinus stays right here in Terminal Dogma, got it?"

"Of course," Ritsuko assured her friend. "I have no intention of causing another Impact-level event."

Misato gazed up at the dormant Mark 06. "I know."


The occupants of the conference room were perhaps being overly dramatic with the dimness of the lighting but none present cracked any jokes along that vein.

"Are our assets in place?" the woman at the head of the table asked.

"Yes. We've infiltrated operatives into position at the ark's dry-dock. When the time comes, they will be able to provide a brief window of opportunity before WILLE's response teams overrun them."

"Their sacrifice will not be forgotten," the woman assured.

The man acknowledged the sentiment with a nod.

"With most of WILLE's principles away in Germany on the target date we may never get another chance like this," the woman continued. "Dr. Akagi has stumbled upon the hints of the last of the progenitor and if WILLE succeeds in retrieving it, we will lose any hope of completing our mission."

Grumbles sounded all about the table. The woman leaned forward, her face peering out from the darkness.

"My family's legacy was to be the ascension of the human race," Maria Vincennes declared. "That ascension is not yet beyond our reach."


The BMW rolled to a stop and Shinji and Asuka climbed out, the girl cradling a bundle of flowers. The two walked silently through the gates, passing the rows of stone memorials until they reached a particular row. There they turned and made their way to a specific spot. On the well cared for stone was carved a name and dates. Yamagishi Mayumi. 2001 – 2015. Asuka knelt down and placed the flowers before the grave.

"Hello Mayumi," Shinji said with a gentle smile. "I'm back, again." A nudge poked him in the side. "I mean, we're back. You remember Asuka, right?"

The German woman smiled and even bowed slightly.

"Umm, we came here today because we wanted to share the news with you," Shinji went on, trying to keep his tone composed. "Tomorrow, we're heading to Germany for our wedding. We, visited you before after I proposed to Asuka, remember? And I asked for your blessing back then."

The man's voice cracked ever so slightly and Asuka took hold of his hand. Shinji squeezed back instinctively.

"Well, now that the day is almost upon us, we're here to ask for it again," Shinji said. "I, I hope you're out there, somewhere, watching over us, Mayumi. And I hope that you'll be happy with me and Asuka being together." The young man took a deep breath. "I'll never forget you Mayumi, and I'll never forget my love for you. And I want to thank you, for teaching me how to love."

The flowers rustled as a slight wind picked up. A few petals came loose and gently twirled about the tombstone.

"Don't worry," Asuka spoke up. "I'll take care of the baka, and I'll make sure that he's never hurt again."

The petals settled down. Shinji and Asuka bowed once more.

"I'm glad I met you Mayumi," Shinji said. "Thank you."

End of Epilogue Alpha

You guys didn't really think me not mentioning the Mark 06 amongst the destruction of the Evangelions was an oversight, did you? Kayabuki I did genuinely forget to insert a line for her, though that is fixed in my master draft.

I'm pretty sure it was made obvious that Third Impact happened in Amanda and Soren's original timelines. I do not believe any additional information is required to interpret the last two scenes of the previous chapter.

Epilogue Alpha could be considered a prologue for a theoretical sequel to In Tune, assuming I ever find the will to write it. In Tune itself is over 370k words, which is starting to put me into David Weber or Robert Jordan ranges for story length, and that's without all of the stuff I either forgot to put in or ran out of time/energy to do. I have running notes in the master draft about stuff I forgot to do that I should do for a remaster. Even as is we might breach 380k with the next three epilogues.

A few more questions get answered, a few more loose ends tied up. And a whole lot of other questions probably created, though if you're having any difficulty figuring out just how Madoka-chan was conceived that is so completely on you.

Hmm, an ambiguous attitude toward my reviewers. I suppose that is a fair comment, I have made no secret of my frustration every time a request comes in to simplify things. I consider the best part about In Tune to be its inherent complexity after all, its interweaving plotlines and all that. Another part of the frustration however is due to a belief on my part that any simplification from what I've currently done would severely undermine a major piece of realism that I want to achieve, specifically regarding the whole Peggy-Sue trope in the EVA fandom.

Most Peggy-Sue fics involve Shinji, or maybe Shinji and the other pilots, being sent back in time one way or another and somehow using their past knowledge to prevent Third Impact. To which I ask, what the hell are the pilots supposed to be able to accomplish against the likes of SEELE? Let us not forget that SEELE managed to orchestrate not only the creation of NERV and all the funding that the agency needed, they also somehow came up with the money to put the EVA series into production. Then there's their unstated but obvious influence over the UN and various world governments, including their ability to manipulate the Japanese government into sending in the JSSDF to mow down everyone at NERV-HQ.

Contrast that to the EVA pilots, who are good for basically only one thing, defeating the Angels. Sure defeating the Angels is a necessary prerequisite to completion of SEELE's plans, but unless the pilots are prepared to intentionally lose, and thus dooming humanity to extinction at the hands of the Angels instead of their fellow man, there's not much they themselves can do to disrupt SEELE's objectives. Recall that after the defeat of the Angels it was not as if SEELE had lost control of the rest of their puppets around the world. Gendo was a threat to SEELE because he knew enough and had enough pieces to try to hijack Instrumentality, but otherwise no one at NERV was really a threat to them. And even assuming the pilots knew who their real, final enemy was, what means did they have to strike back? Sure, maybe they could have defeated the EVA series, but again, so what? The rest of the world under SEELE's control is still there and you can bet SEELE would have been able to cook up enough excuses to get everyone else to try to dogpile NERV out of fear and hysteria over what NERV might do with the EVAs.

Not everyone in the fandom tries to hand wave the above points away. Some try to come up with alternative networks of resistance or build up opposition against SEELE entirely separate from the pilots. This is done with varying levels of success and ultimately one of the bigger difficulties is coming up with something that could actually take down SEELE realistically. There was an old trilogy of fics involving a Shinji/Hikari pairing that had a subversive group of basically hackers working to take down SEELE. That was probably the weakest element of what was otherwise an enjoyable story. Once More With Feeling has Shinji go to Kaji, who then goes to the Japanese government, who then apparently starts preparing to off SEELE. Better, though I am ambivalent about whether the Japanese government alone would be able to do much of anything against SEELE. After all, the council is international in nature with levers of control in many countries across the world, several of which are major powers rivaling or surpassing Japan.

When I set out to write In Tune I decided first and foremost that I wanted to make sure that SEELE's defeat was not just some deus ex hand wave, that the forces opposing SEELE could credibly be considered strong enough to take on the council and win. Hence why I made the opposition basically a third column within SEELE's own ranks. They would have access to SEELE's own resources and levers and also be plugged into what SEELE was doing. And creating a believable third column necessitated a certain degree of complexity, any decrease thereof would have undermined the entire concept. And I don't really see how the sidestepper thing is that complex at all, Amanda pretty much explained it in blunt and simple terms a couple of chapters back.

Anyway, three more epilogues to go. Drop a line of what you all think. And I shift gears to A Cold Calculus.

Sidenote: I have a blanket policy of not accepting any story requests.