The film begins with Wille stopping in Paris, France, which much like the outskirts of former Tokyo-3 has been converted into core material. A team descends from the Wunder — comprised of Ritsuko, Maya, three of Maya’s male underlings, and Mari in Eva-08 — and lands on top of a mysterious black pillar. Ritsuko acts as a look-out while Maya and her men connect to the black pillar via laptop to resume the activation of an “Anti-L System” — something a team of Europeans had previously died while attempting. As the operation begins, large numbers of a never-before-seen Eva type, the aerial 44As, appear in four waves, and Mari holds them off, assisted by helmsman Sumire Nagara utilizing the Wunder’s intricate “cable flight” capabilities. Once the Evas have all been defeated, two more new enemy Eva types appear from a camouflaged cocoon: a 4444C unit with a Positron Cannon and the small army of generator-equipped Eva 44Bs that supply power to it. While cable-suspended warships equipped with ESVs are used to block the first shot, the team is left defenseless for the immediate second shot, as all the ships have been destroyed by the first shot. With Nagara’s assist, Eva-08 charges the 4444C with the felled Eiffel Tower and before it can charge up fully, Mari is able to twist the tower down the 4444C’s gun barrel, destroying both it and the 44Bs, at the cost of minor damage to Eva-08’s legs.
Maya and the others successfully activate the pillar, which was actually a giant version of the sealing pillars seen in the two previous films. A radius of effect is created that pushes back the core-conversion, restoring part of the city. A large collection of E.U. Nerv storage lockers emerges from underground, filled with Eva spare parts, munitions, and components for what appears to be an upgraded model of Jet Alone. The Wunder and its support fleet descends, with two teams being dispatched to retrieve the parts and spares, and Mari muses that Eva-02 can be repaired and Eva-08 will be modified for “Overlap” compatibility. The scene ends with Mari promising to come back for Shinji.
