A/N: Here we go! The battle against Mana Kirishima is in this chapter!

Shinji could not believe what he had heard. Mana, someone he thought who could be a good friend, was actually their enemy. An agent of darkness. A backstabber. And at anytime, she would bring Unit 07 to Tokyo-3 and try to kill them all.

Rei now knew Mana's treachery inside and out. And she had tried again to break Shinji and Asuka apart. Rei promised to herself that if Mana made her presence known again in this city, she would regret her actions as Rei promised she would.

Asuka was in a way glad that Mana was one of the bad guys. Now she had an adequate excuse to pummel the living hell out of her. But at the same time, she felt bad for Shinji because she knew Shinji hated to fight other children.

Toji didn't know Mana that well, but he felt bad at being betrayed by one of their own.

Elly was glad. She got visions of impaling Mana with a spear or bonking her on the head with an oversized hammer.

"I'm sorry Shinji," said Misato. "Mana tricked us all. As much as you may not want to believe it, she is NOT your friend."

"I know," replied Shinji. "It's just that… why though? I don't want to have to kill a kid my age."

Asuka tried to cheer him up and talk some sense into him. "Look Shinji. She doesn't give a damn about you at all. She used us all for her own personal gain. And now she'll come soon to try and kill us all. It's either her, or us."

Rei tried to talk sense into him as well. "You may have to kill Mana if the situation calls for it. But she can be beaten into submission. If she realizes she is beaten, she may surrender. We can always hope for that."

"Yeah, okay, but it still doesn't feel right though."

Just then, Zack and Ivana came into the holding cell where Misato was briefing the kids. Ivana was holding an icepack to the back of her head, and Zack had a bandage wrapped around his head.

"Good God, what the hell happened to you two?" ask Misato.

Zack spoke up. "To be blunt, we got beaten up."

"She was much better than either of us predicted," said Ivana. "An attack on this city of Mana is imminent."

"Are you two okay for battle?" asked Misato.

"The first thing we did was see Dr. Akagi," replied Ivana. "We were both medically cleared to pilot but we were told to be careful."

"Okay kids, PREPARE FOR COMBAT! SUIT UP!" said Misato.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gendo Ikari's Office

Gendo had been informed of the recent events. The Fifth and Sixth Children were unable to apprehend the Eighth. She was much more efficient than she appeared to be. 'It's amazing to know what hides behind a docile look.' He thought to himself. He checked the primary and secondary sensors around the city. No signs of anything yet. He had been in contact with the governments directly involved. They were ready to send military equipment if needed to.

He looked over the data once more that he had on Unit 07. He knew it could easily take out an EVA one-on-one easily. But with the large weaponry it had, he decided the best way would be for the EVAs to attack it two at a time. Units 04 and 00 would go first, followed by Units 03 and 05, then Units 02 and 06. That left Shinji in Unit 01 by himself, being the lone X-factor that Gendo based their hopes of success on. 'But would Shinji have the guts and the courage to go through what would likely be a horrible ordeal?' Gendo knew that only time would tell that story. And that story would be told soon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NERV HQ – Battle station

All the pilots were frozen in suspended animation again, just like when Zack fought the terrorist in space. This time, they would all be thawed out when Unit 07 was detected on the tertiary sensors.

Misato could only lie down on the cot provided by NERV and wait. This situation was way too tense. She tried to get some sleep, but she couldn't even get a wink of shut eye. To make the matter even worse, she wasn't allowed to drink beer while in the base either. She could only hope that God or some other supreme being would watch over her children as they were about to fight a battle that no one should have had to fight.

It had almost been an entire day. The civilians were getting frustrated from having to sit in the shelters for so long. But they were told that the city was on Second Stage Alert, so they would have to sit tight.

It was 8:00pm. The sun had just set. It was getting dark. A thunderstorm had also started. She had to settle with a coffee. She hated this, having to sit and wait for an enemy to come and try to destroy you. She just wanted this to be over with.

Suddenly, the tertiary sensor picked up something. This got the whole tech crew in action.

"It's big whatever it is," said Makoto.

"It's coming this way," said Shigeru.

"She's here," said Misato. 'This is it…'

Gendo Ikari was sitting at his observation post. "Wake up the children."

"Understood," said Maya. "Warming up LCL now."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NERV HQ – Launching Bay

The kids had been unfrozen and were ready to sent into action. Gendo Ikari took to the com. "Because this Unit is meant to fight multiple units at a time, we will send up two of you at a time. The first two pilots are Ayanami and Kharlamov.

In a minute, Units 00 and 04 were launched to the surface. They took positions outside the city. They couldn't see it, but from the footsteps, they knew it was coming. Ivana had a double bladed progressive sword for up-close combat, and Rei had the positron rifle, ready to snipe it from a distance.

There it was. Unit 07, slowly advancing as it moved closer and closer to them. Suddenly a com was opened up. It was Mana. "So this is my welcoming party. You had better make this interesting for me."

Ivana spoke next. "Kirishima, the people you work for are agents of darkness. Turn away from them. We do not have to fight."

Rei spoke next. "If you attack, you leave us no choice."

"Then come get me!" the mahogany headed girl said with a sneer.

The units just stood there in a standoff for about 15 seconds.

BOOM! Rei fired the rifle, the attack striking dead on. In the confusion, Ivana jumped in the air, preparing to take down Mana with one slash of her sword. She heard and felt her sword clash with something. As the smoke cleared, Ivana found out Mana had drawn two swords of her own and used them to block the blow. No damage apparently from the rifle shot.

"Let's do this Mana," said Ivana.

"Bring it on bitch," said Mana.

The two began their clash. Mana and Ivana seemed very well matched in their skills with a sword. Rei waited patiently for another chance to fire a shot at Mana.

After about a minute, the two EVAs appeared to be getting nowhere in their clash. However, Ivana had a plan. After blocking the last attack from Mana, she began to twirl her sword, throwing off Mana's concentration and knocking the sword out of her left hand.

"Good. So you're better in an EVA than you were at the train station," said Mana. She raised her remaining sword. "Let's continue."

Rei took this chance and fired again. Another direct hit! It didn't dent her armour, but the force of the shot was able to push Mana back a bit. Now Mana realized that she would have to deal with Rei to be able to take out Ivana.

Ivana attacked again. This time Mana jumped in the air over Unit 04. As she did a flip in the air, she used her left arm to point at Unit 00…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We're getting a high energy output from the target's left arm!" said Shigeru.

"It's that plasma cannon!" said Makoto.

"Watch out Rei!" shouted Misato.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rei barely saw it in time. She had to abandon her sniping position and the rifle to avoid being hit head on by the cannon. While dodging the attack, she wasn't able to dodge the explosion that sent Unit 00 flying and rattled Rei up quite a bit.

"Rei? Are you alright?" asked Misato.

"Yes. I am okay," replied Rei.

"Good. Ivana needs your help. Here's a sword for you." An equipment cache opens up with a progressive sword. Rei takes it and goes after Unit 07.

Both EVAs were attacking Mana, but she was still able to hold them off. Suddenly, she backpedaled, and the unthinkable happened. She pulled out another plasma cannon with her right arm. With a cannon in each hand, she fired at the unsuspecting pilots. The EVAs were sent flying and they crashed to the ground.

"Hahaha. I told you both that you were no match for me!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Units 00 and 04 were hit very hard. They can't continue at this rate!" said Maya.

"Send up Units 03 and 05," said the Commander.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"All right! Now it's our turn!" Zack was pumped at the chance to rematch Mana.

"Yeah! Let's get her!" said Toji.

Units 03 and 05 were launched out to the battlefield. They saw their comrades out for the count off to the sides.

Mana opened up a com to them as well. "Well, I hope you boys will be a better fight than those two were. I haven't even broken a sweat yet."

"The only thing I'm gonna break is you," said Zack. "I don't care how powerful you are. You're going down!"

"There's more to fighting than just power!" said Toji.

"Enough talk! Time to fight!" said Unit 07's pilot.

And so Round 2 began. Toji this time went with a missile launcher while Zack chose two progressive swords. Mana disarmed both her plasma cannons and went with her progressive swords as well.

Toji watched as his friend clashed with his enemy. He held the launcher in place. He waited for Mana to push Zack back or when he found a point where he could get a clean shot and Zack would know to move away.

As Zack clashed with Mana, he knew what Toji was going to do. So he took a chance. Once Mana blocked his attack again, he pushed her using all the strength he had. Mana did not expect this and stumbled back a few steps.

Toji saw his chance and fired the missile launcher. As Zack moved away, the missile hit its intended target. Once the missile hit, Zack charged back in to finish the job. As he went to stab the yellow behemoth, a large beam of energy shot out of the smoke and hit Zack directly. Unit 05 was sent flying and crashed into a mountain.

"Zack! Are you okay?" asked Toji.

Unit 05 slowly made its way back to its feet. Zack then responded. "Yeah, I'm fine. That sure didn't tickle though. Ouch! That smarts!"

Toji then fired off more missiles. Unit 07 walked through the missiles completely unharmed at all, its plasma cannon ready to fire again. Not knowing what else to do, Toji charged at Mana. Mana in response fired her cannon again, but Toji dodged it somehow.

Even Mana couldn't defend against the shoulder charge Toji delivered. Mana crashed into the ground. But she quickly rose to her feet.

"Not bad. I guess this means I'll stop toying with you."

Toji was full of confidence now. "Like I'll be fazed by that." He made another shoulder charge at Mana.

Mana was ready for it this time. Toji did not expect what would happen next. Mana suddenly fired a missile from her left arm. It was an N2 rocket! Toji was struck by the bomb and was thrown by the blast back over where he began the battle.

Zack, now fully recuperated, began a new assault on Mana with his twin swords.

Little did Zack know that Mana's EVA was full of nasty tricks thanks to other upgrades made by SEELE. This is why the fusion reactor was needed.

Mana allowed herself a sinister smile. "Eat my freeze missiles!"

Zack was caught by surprise and was frozen by the missiles. "Oh SHIT!"

Wasting no time, Mana pulled the plasma cannons back out and shot a helpless Zack. He also was now defeated.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Units 03 and 05 are down!" said Maya.

'Is she unstoppable?' thought Misato to herself. 'Can she be defeated?'

"Launch Units 02 and 06," ordered Gendo.

'But that means if Asuka and Elly are beaten, then it'll just be Shinji. Is Commander Ikari really going to make Shinji fight alone?'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as she reached the surface, Elly looked around for the survivors. She quickly found Unit 05 and ran over to it. "Zack! Are you okay?"

Zack opened up his com to Elly. "Yeah, I'm alive. I've felt worse than this though. Don't worry about me. I'm too damn important to die. Go get that bitch!"

"Count on it Casanova," replied Elly.

Asuka took this chance to talk to her enemy. "I can't believe you! What the fuck is wrong with you, you insane psychobitch!"

"It was all part of my plan. A two-pronged plan. If Shinji came to me as I hoped, I would have introduced him to a power that could set him free. The cover of darkness would protect him from the light he is so afraid of."

"That's just running away from your problems!" retorted Asuka. "That baka has worked his ass off trying to be a real person again! You tried to take that away from him and for that, I'm gonna kill you!"

"Come now. You earnestly believe you can defeat me?" said Mana in a taunting voice. "Let's do this."

"Elly, stay back and help the others," said Asuka. "I'll take care of Mana."

"Gotcha mate," said Elly as she began to drag the other damaged EVAs back to NERV.

"You plan to face me alone?" asked Mana. She was actually surprised.

"You bet I do."

"Fine. Let's go bitch!"

Mana disarmed her plasma cannons and planned to fight unarmed. Same with Asuka. The red EVA and yellow EVA charged into each other. The two began a fierce grapple. Asuka did a move she remembered and let Mana push her way forward. Then Asuka flipped Unit 07 over her should and it crashed into the ground.

Mana quickly got back up. "Not bad."

She retaliated even faster. Unit 02 got knocked to the ground quickly. Mana then went for the throat in an attempt to squeeze the life out of Unit 02 and Asuka. Asuka wasn't ready to let Mana win that easily. She used Unit 07's arms to pull herself up and take some good shots at Unit 07's head. After a good few hits, Mana was forced to let go of Unit 07's throat or else risk trauma to her head.

"So you're quite resourceful," said Mana.

"How do you think I've survived this long?"

"Dumb luck."

"I'll show you dumb luck!" shouted Asuka. She attacked Mana again, throwing punch after punch.

Mana decided it was time to stop fooling around and finish off Asuka. She countered and punched Unit 02 in the stomach, with Asuka feeling it big time.

Mana then made Unit 07 stand on its hands and spun around on her hands trapping Asuka in her deadly wheel kick.

Asuka was hit several times and finally knocked out cold.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shinji was in the launch bay in Unit 01 while all these events unfolded. Mana truly was an agent of evil. And she had hurt all his friends, including Asuka (excluding Elly).

He couldn't take much more of this. Mana had to be stopped. Otherwise, she would kill everyone he loved and cared for.

"Yes Shinji. Let that light be your guidance in the darkness…" said a voice.

"Mother. We need to stop her."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mana noticed Unit 02 go down. "Well she sure didn't last long. Oh well. I guess it's time I finished you off. I'll make sure to kill you Asuka so that Shinji won't have you around to brainwash him. Don't worry, he'll be in good hands."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Unit 02 is down!" said Maya.

"Elly! Don't worry about rescuing the others! Stop Mana!" ordered Misato.

Makoto couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Ma'am! Commander! Unit 01 has activated!"