After Rei boarded the EVA, Mari waited alone in the hangar for news.
She had no mean to watch over the battle occurring outside, so she could only wait for news in the hangar.
She understood how they didn't send her, and had a pretty good idea of why that was. They couldn't dispose of her, as she was sent to represent the American faction of NERV, so they benched her. Fated to be the last resort. She closed her eyes, almost as she was giving up on riding the EVA for that day. Some minutes passed, minutes so boring and heavy that the girl almost fell asleep on the iron plate beside which she was resting. But then, the speakers opened communication to an unexpected message.
"Mari, board on 02. You're gonna exit to fight"
Mari got up and started walking towards the 02 cockpit.
"Seems like the little doll failed."
She smirked and boarded the EVA.
"Well, the battle is to the strong"
The LCL fluid filled the cockpit, giving off the strange blood-like smell of its. Differently from every other pilot, Mari seemed to enjoy taking the fluid in her lungs. In that cockpit she felt good. Is not that she felt like piloting the Eva gave her meaning, like Asuka did, she just enjoyed the ride.
"Your first mission is to take the 06 to safety, he's close to the deploying station 3, 3 kilometers away from where you will be deployed, if you can drag it on the platform we will recover him. We don't know Kaworu condition, but if he's okay he could be useful in giving intel about what the angel does"
Misato dropped a lot of orders on Mari, talking without really taking any pause to breath. She showed panic and a little frustration, emotions that Mari read clearly, and from them she understood that the situation was as bad as she thought.
"Ok madam. Any idea on what the Angel does ? I understand from your explanation that he deactivated the Evangelions, but have you any idea on how he did it?"
" There's a giant rose placed outside the city, that when the flower blooms there's a flash and that's when we lose contact with the units."
Quite an important information, the fact that Misato left that out showed even clearly how panicked she actually was to Mari.
"Is there a route I can use to be constantly protected from the light?"
"You can hide behind some of the deployable shield in various part of the city"
That wouldn't be enough from a strategic standpoint. This operation was doomed to fail, it was desperate, Mari who only assisted to the NERV HQ's operations against the tenth and eleventh angel was wondering how they managed to get that far like that. Maybe the princess and the little boy really were that good.
"It's ok, I can manage"
"Good, Eva-02, lift off"
Mari was launched on to the battlefield in the centre of Neo-Tokyo. As soon as she popped out of the railroads that stopped her once out, she saw the flower. The rose grew so big to be seen clearly without any help from technological binoculars. That was not a good sign, Mari launched herself behind a cover, dodgning just in time another explosion of light.
For a moment the light reigned on the whole Neo-Tokyo, but then the situation returned to normal, with Unit-02 still operational.
"Good, this means that the trigger for the EVA loss of communication is watching the explosion, it's not something in the air or a sound. That makes everything easier."
The Rose was now starting to grow back up, Mari thought on going directly for the Angel's core, seeing that the flower needed time to grow enough to unleash another explosion. But at the same time it was not sage of her to disobey the orders right of the bat, especially seeing how untrustworthy she was considered inside of NERV HQ. Eva-02 sprinted, reaching the 06 Unit. Mari tried to open communication with Kaworu, and after some tries she got through.
"Oi moon guy, are you okay?"
The tired voice of Kaworu answered
"Yes, that light just messes with your brain. Physically I'm ok, but I don't now exactly what happened after the light reached to me"
The flower in background was still far from complete.
"DO you think you can take another explosion?"
"You want me to trigger the explosion to then approach the Angel?"
"Yes, I think I can reach the angel and kill it, but I'm the only one capable of that. So I can't be the bait."
Unit-06 exited from the cover behind which Mari dragged it, and like Mari anticipated the flower exploded. In that moment the scene was complete for Mari's attack. But at that moment her EVA finished the energy to move. The timing was just perfect for a her perfect show. While from HQ everyone was worried, because hope seemed lost, she triggered the same process because of which Gendo didn't trust her. The mecha started moving again, in a beast like manner, and sprinted towards the Angel. In a matter of seconds Mari was already nearing the flower, so much so that the angel attacked her with the same grab which immobilized Unit-01. But Mari evaded it, Unit 02 was simply too fast and unpredictable in its movements. Mari arrived to the flower, and saw the core. A good intuition, as Misato actually forgot to tell her about it. In that moment Mari just had to use the knife and destroy it, but that was not what happened. The EVA jumped and bit the core, trying to eat it. Bit after Bit, the core was destroyed. The battle was won, but the one who reclaimed victory didn't have an hero figure, but a much distorted one. A beast which only sought to fight, and beneath it, in a complete ecstasy, lied her pilot for that day. A figure as mysterious as the Evangelions themselves: Mari Makinami.