Inside SEELE's top-secret hangar, Hayato Noda could barely contain his excitement, the corners of his mouth curling upward despite himself.
Before him stood an enormous white head.
A closer look would have revealed, to anyone's surprise, that it bore an uncanny resemblance to Zero's head, with nearly identical Head Blades, a forehead light, and sharply defined corners to its mouth.
But in the center of its face was a single enormous eye.
That eye was hollow, devoid of any light.
A pair of red projections flanked its head like a demon's horns.
Hayato stared at the enormous eye, utterly enthralled.
A monolith appeared beside Hayato, with 01 engraved on it.
A voice came from the monolith. "So what was the purpose of your attack this time? Were you simply amusing yourself?"
Hayato slowly turned his head.
"I don't like being interrupted on the rare occasions when I'm happy..."
His words radiated such a chill that even Chairman Ghir, behind the monolith, was somewhat frightened.
"You... we poured untold resources and effort into creating this! An EVA truly capable of standing against gods!"
"And in return, didn't I help you finish building all twelve Mass Production Models?" Hayato countered.
Under SEELE's original plan and schedule, even requisitioning EVAs built by other nations would only have allowed them to complete nine Mass Production Models for taking over NERV and initiating the Human Instrumentality Project. But with Hayato's assistance, their number now matched the Dead Sea Scrolls, and all of them had already been completed.
They had not even needed to requisition the other nations' EVAs.
01: "This thing had better be able to defeat those damned Giants of Light..."
Hayato smiled, an utterly sinister smile.
"You don't need to worry about that."
"After all, I personally supplied its foundation. This material is