Mitochondria Eve
A mysterious, ancient evil that wants to reverse humanity's symbiotic relationship between the nucleus (banks of genetic information that dictate what cells grow where and when) and the mitochondria (organic power plants that fuel cellular activity). To this end, she takes over the body of Kiyomi Nagashima, wife of mitochondrial expert Toshiaki Nagashima, and forces her to crash her car. Toshiaki cultures some of Kiyomi's liver cells, giving Eve a place to grow a body, and one of Kiyomi's kidneys is transplanted into fourteen-year-old girl Mariko Anzai, whom Eve mutates the womb of so it can give birth to the Ultimate Being. After obtaining some of Toshiaki's sperm and implanting it into Mariko, Eve dissolves, unable to keep up with the energy output needed to sustain her own body.
A second, unrelated Mitochondrial Eve (possibly, see Continuity Snarl) takes over the body of New York opera singer Melissa Pearce in the Parasite Eve (1998) game with the same goal as her predecessor of creating the Ultimate Being. Eve-2 dissolves a solo performance crowd at Central Park into raw genetic material and allies with Melissa's former doctor, Hans Klamp, to procure sperm for her Ultimate Being. Aya Brea fights her several times around New York but is unable to seriously stop her plans.
The original host of the second Eve is actually Maya Brea, sister of Aya Brea, who was in a fatal car crash and had her kidney donated to Melissa and her cornea to Aya.
- Antagonist Title: Both Eves are the titular Big Bad and Puppeteer Parasite.
- Arch-Enemy: Eve-2 is often seen as this to Aya.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Several of Eve-2's later forms feature breasts that lack nipples, along with creative obfuscation of the pubic area. Strangely, artwork of Eve-2 in the official Parasite Eve artbook shows her having nipples, although the pubic area is still obscured.
- Big Bad: Of the book and the first game.
- Bishōnen Line: Eve-2 hits this plateau in her evolution fairly quickly and to an extent repeatedly, and for a freakish mutation, she looks disturbingly fetish-worthy. Her final form is a lot more humanoid and angelic than her previous forms.
- Blob Monster: When Eve-1 grows, she is described as giant piles of bloodless flesh.
- Body Horror: Eve-1 is this, while Eve-2 mostly inflicts it on others while riding the Bishōnen Line. Some aspects of Eve-2's body are still very horrific, however, such as her first form's 'tail' and freakishly large hands.
- Break Them by Talking: Eve loved to direct this towards Aya, hoping to force Aya to see things her way and join her or simply give up.
- Clothing Damage: As Eve-2 hijacks Melissa Pearce's body, her opera costume gets gradually shredded.
- Continuity Snarl: The only way the second Eve could be directly connected to the Eve-1 is if the Mariko in the book is the same Mariko that gave birth to Aya and Maya. And that does not work because the events of the book take place in 1985 and Aya and Maya's mother died in the 70s.
- Creepily Long Arms: Eve-2's arms are significantly longer than any regular human's, especially with her initial transformation after completely taking over Melissa's body. This helps compliment her enormous, clawed hands. Interestingly, she seems capable of switching between these grotesquely long arms
◊ and having them appear closer to normal◊. - Dark Action Girl: Eve-2 is the main antagonist of the first game and frequently comes to blows with Aya Brea, giving her trouble with her powers.
- Dying Smirk: A villainous example, as after being defeated by Aya, she flashes a smile at her just before she dies, since she's already given birth to the Ultimate Being.
- Evil Is Hammy: Eve-1 lecturing scientists about how mitochondria will take over, isn't necessary, but she does it anyways. Eve-2 goes a bit further, from the carriage ride in Central Park, to her being very sassy to Aya at Saint Francis Hospital as she antagonizes her. Hell, the last thing she does before dying is give Aya a cheeky look with a smirk.
- Evil Laugh: Her dialogue suggests this despite the fact that there isn't any voice acting in the first game. In the cutscene where she smashes the piano she was playing, however, she does let out a rather high-pitched laugh after mutating into her first form. It's rather chilling.
- Fan Disservice: She's nude (or at least topless) for most of her screentime, and it is anything but titillating. Especially Eve-2's gestating form from the museum encounter in Day 5.
- Femme Fatalons: Eve-2's hands.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Eve-2's last two forms are naked, though any titillation it may bring is absent due to her being a Humanoid Abomination.
- Hannibal Lecture:
- Eve-1 gives one of these in a rhetorical question form at a lecture on mitochondria and a more direct one at a different lecture.
- Eve-2 loves giving these during her We Can Rule Together speeches to Aya, rambling about how the nucleus is long overdue for a subversion of its smug superiority over the mitochondria.
- Hoist By Her Own Petard:
- Eve-1: Never thought that male mitochondria could actually be a threat.
- Eve-2: Never expected that the evolution she so fervently sought would produce her own superior on the food chain.
- Humanoid Abomination: Eve-2, who takes over and mutates Melissa Pearce's body but still keeps parts of it human-like.
- "Instant Death" Radius: After a fashion. Eve-2 is capable of immolating/mutating/melting/what have you any organic creature close enough to her if she chooses. And "close enough" means a distance of at least several city blocks. Aya being immune to this ability is why the police and later the army relies on her to hunt down Eve.
- Living Bodysuit: Kiyomi Nagashima, Mariko Anzai, and Melissa Pearce each serve as this to the Eves.
- Monster Is a Mommy: She wants to create an Ultimate Being by giving birth to it.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: One of the forms she assumes when Aya engages in the last battle with her on the collapsed Statue of Liberty.
- Playing with Fire: Her "aura" is capable of immolating people and animals (if they aren't mutated or melted down into biomass first).
- Power Floats: Both Eve-1 and Eve-2 are capable of levitation.
- Pregnant Badass: Eve-2's penultimate form is pregnant with the Ultimate Being. That time, she's the penultimate boss (of the regular game).
- Puppeteer Parasite: Hence the "Parasite" Eve.
- Recurring Boss: She's fought many times throughout the game, in various forms.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Eve-2 makes several changes throughout the first game and these changes appear to be permanent, as she is never shown reverting back to previous forms.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Eve-2's Living Bodysuit has green eyes and auburn hair.
- Took a Level in Badass: Eve-2 is way more powerful than Eve-1. She can set people on fire and mutate them, while Eve-1 was only able to set people ablaze.
- Two First Names: Eve-2's Living Bodysuit, Melissa Pearce.
- The Virus: Eve-2 can awaken and alter the mitochondria of living beings around them, mutating people and animals into monsters.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Eve-1 is capable of this. Her favorite form is Kiyomi. Eve-2 sticks with a mutated Melissa, but does not show any sign of being able to shapeshift.
Ultimate Being
Eve's "child", a human/mitochondria monster hybrid that has all of Eve's powers and complete control of its genetic code, that Eve wants to lead the mitochondria revolution. Eve succeeds in her goal of creating the Ultimate Being, but doesn't count on the male mitochondria from Toshiaki's sperm to rebel against Eve's mitochondria, causing the whole thing to self-destruct.
The second Eve also wants to create an Ultimate Being and spends most of the game attempting to create and give birth to one. In the normal game (Day 6), Eve dies but the being is born anyway, since she implanted it into the mito-mass at Liberty Island, where it serves as the final boss of the regular scenario.
- Bald of Evil: Especially so in the video game where each form he takes always has him bald.
- Eldritch Abomination: Dear god, there is barely anything human about it despite its appearance.
- Evolution Power-Up: In the first game, the Ultimate Being undergoes various evolutions as the battle progresses. That was also the purpose of the Ultimate Being in the first place, being able to compress thousands of years of evolution into only a few minutes.
- Fetus Terrible: The second Being's first form.
- Final Boss: Is this in the first game.
- No Biological Sex: Played with in the first game. While it's safe to assume that it would be female, as the sperm used to conceive the being had no male mitochondria, the Ultimate Being's Adolescent form has a masculine-like appearance and has what appears to be testicles underneath its tail.
- Rapid Aging: During its fight with Aya, the Ultimate Being changed forms at various phases, its appearance making it seem like it was aging; starting with an infant-like appearance before turning into a child, adolescent, and finally, adult.
- Ultimate Life Form: Was a part of Eve's plan to have a child that could rival her power and conquer the world without it having any of the weaknesses that the previous Ultimate Being (novel) had.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The first Ultimate Being's weakness is its dad's normal vanilla mitochondria. The second Ultimate Being that debuted in the game is weak to Aya's mitochondria via bullets laced with Aya's cells.