Reticence is a Rebuild of Evangelion Fan Fic written by Kraven Ergeist and set directly after the events of Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. Originally intended to be a short Fic meant to make fans feel better about 3.0, support from fans and the authors desire to see the story through to the end led to Reticence becoming a full fledged fan sequel.
The plot deals with Shinji Ikari trying to make up for causing Third and Fourth Impact (and also repair his relationships with his former friends and allies) and WILLE's ongoing war with Nerv and Gendo Ikari.
The story can be found here
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Reticence contains examples of:
- Bullying a Dragon: Ritsuko points out Misato is effectively doing this the longer she and the rest of WILLE treat Shinji like shit instead of trying to come to an understanding with him. Since Eva-01 reacts to Shinji's emotional state now without him even needing to be inside it, if Shinji ever gets to the emotional breaking point he decides he wants the world to die, Unit 01 would respond to that wish and there's not a damn thing any of them could do to stop it.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: The MP-Evas: the Dummy System controlling them shares an "Hive Mind" whose intelligence is divided the more there are of them. On their first appearance, they are nigh unkillable berserkers with super strength, super speed and the ability to use eyebeams. By the time of the final fight where there are thousands of them, they are reduced to Red Shirts easily shredded by the dozen by EVA 8+2, unable to use any of their previous abilities and having to resort to conventional Eva weaponry.
- Inverted with the EVA-13 Mass Produced copies, which are extremely strong even in great numbers.
- Cool Big Sis: Sakura seems to be this toward Shinji. Becomes a literal one in the final chapter when a still 14 years-old Toji comes back to life.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Misato and Asuka.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: It's not an easy journey for any of our heroes but by the end the world is recovering, Shinji, Rei, Asuka and Misato come out of it as better people and thousands people who were supposedly killed during Third Impact have come back (including Toji).
- The End of the World as We Know It: The world's technically already live through this with Third Impact and the barely averted Fourth Impact, but Ritsuko points out there's an even bigger worse-case scenario in the works: Since Eva-01 is linked to Shinji's emotional state, if Shinji ever gets to the point he doesn't care if the world ends, or even worse he wants the world to end, the results would likely be worse than a potential Fifth Impact.
- Fix Fic: The basic goal of the fic is to ensure our long-suffering protagonists Earn Your Happy Ending after the absolute cluster-fuck canon has left them in at the moment.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Shinji and Rei uses the Wunder to lift the Black Moon to space and throw it into the Sun, with no chances of escaping the subsequent shockwave of the explosion. Averted when against all odds they survive and crash back on Earth three years later, having drifted in space in a suspended state in the wreckage of the Wunder all this time. The epilogue reveals that it was Yui's doing, having used all of EVA-01's godly power to carry them to safety back on Earth, ultimately being the one who made the sacrifice.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Misato is in danger of falling head-first into this in the beginning. It's why Kaji, Mari, and even Ritsuko are willing to work behind her back (discreetly in the last one's case) to help Shinji and Rei Q out against her orders, as they recognize she's too blinded by her emotional baggage to make sound decisions.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Invoked by Gendo Ikari.
- Lighter and Softer: While still very dark Reticence is a lot less dark than You Can (Not) Redo.
- Naked on Revival: Rei-Q is absorbed into Unit-01's core, merging together with Rei-II and regaining her memories. Later, she is released from Unit-01, completely naked; somewhat mirroring the episode from the original series where Shinij is spit back from Unit-01, nude.
- No Romantic Resolution: The story ends on an ambiguous note in regards to the romance subplot with Shinji having feelings for Rei and Asuka and being unsure of who he wants to be with.
- Shipper on Deck: Mari tries through the story to get Asuka and Shinji together. She's joined by Sakura latter on.
- Ship Tease: Reticence ships Shinji/Asuka and Shinji/Rei.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The Nemesis Series, WILLE's main antagonists in 3.0, get rapidly replaced by the MP-Evas, copies of Mark.06 much tougher to defeat. In the final fight, they get replaced by Mass Produced versions of EVA-13.
- Take That!: On both sides. Its made clear that Asuka and Misato are wrong in completely blaming Shinji for what had happened, but its also pointed out that Shinji can't make it out that this isn't his responsibility. Not acknowledging that he had some hand in this scenario and instead blaming others is childish.
