Evangelion Mark.09

Evangelion Mark.09 is a Mark Series unit NERV fields in the Rebuild of Evangelion films, debuting in Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. At a glance it reads as a descendant of the Rebuild continuity's Unit-00, though the resemblance breaks down in the details: extra white accents, a larger central eye, bare arms without armor pieces, and a helmet that is nearly all white. A reinforced plate around the torso, with indentations shaped to receive it, exists specifically to anchor the strange jet booster the unit carries on its first sortie.

Decapitation early in the film leaves it headless for most of its screen time, and paired with the scythe it carries, the silhouette evokes the dullahan of Irish legend. During its attempt to seize the AAA Wunder it sprouts a new organic head lined with three rows of visors, clustered eyes, a horn, and a fanged mouth that recalls the berserk Unit-01 of the original series, while its shell darkens from orange-yellow toward the brownish red of Armaros.

Outwardly the Mark.09 handles like any Evangelion, wielding equipment such as its back-mounted tendril pack, which reshapes into a rocket booster for extreme flight speed, and the giant scythe it swings against Unit-02'γ. Its true nature runs far deeper. No cable or battery feeds it, pointing to an S² Engine, and the whole body functions as one continuous core: there is no weak point to target, and anything short of total bodily destruction regenerates, including two separate beheadings that never slow it down. It also fires the cross-shaped energy blasts that were the Angels' trademark. Mari and Ritsuko repeatedly call it a Vessel of the Adams, and when it later bleeds a glowing blue substance, similar to the Ninth Angel's, into the Wunder to seize the ship, Ritsuko identifies it as the vessel's original master.

Its first strike comes moments after the Wunder lifts off with Unit-01 installed as its power plant. Boring through the hull, the Mark.09 retrieves Shinji Ikari while its pilot calls his name from inside, shrugs off Unit-08β's repeated handgun hits even as one finally takes its head, and flies its prize back to NERV. It resurfaces in Central Dogma, headless and scythe in hand, screening the newly activated Evangelion 13 from Unit-02'γ until sniper fire from Unit-08β forces it under the fallen cross where Lilith once rested. After Evangelion 13 pulls the Spears of Longinus free, the Mark.09 beheads Mark.06 to release the Twelfth Angel sealed within. Once Evangelion 13 devours that Angel and awakens, a SEELE system overrides the Mark.09, a halo forms above its pylons, and the pilot loses every control from inside her entry plug.

As Fourth Impact unfolds and WILLE rams the awakened Evangelion 13, the unit answers the Wunder's rail guns with Angel-like energy explosions, grows its second head, then lands on the ship and pours blue ooze into the engines, hijacking the vessel outright. Unit-02'γ blasts away its chest armor with Anti A.T. Field rounds only to expose a special SEELE plate guarding the core, then activates Code 777 and mangles the vessel's neck in beast form. When Rei ejects her plug of her own will, Asuka fires straight into the open slot, but the wound closes in seconds, revealing that the entire frame is core. Down to ten percent power, Asuka arms Unit-02'γ's self-destruct and bails out; the regenerated Mark.09 crushes her Eva's head in a concealed toothed mouth an instant before the blast engulfs it, and the Wunder's crew immediately regain their ship.

The declared pilot is the Rei Ayanami clone known only by a tentative name, who occupies the unit throughout 3.0 until SEELE's system locks her out; she survives by ejecting during the final duel. In Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time the Mark.09 appears twice more, once as a rubber tokusatsu suit inside the mental film-studio landscape, and finally within Unit-08γ as part of the Final Evangelion, vanishing along with everything else Eva when the world is rewritten.