Sorry about the long wait on this one. Life in general has just been busy so putting this together took a bit.

One week had passed since the four children had been reunited with Zilla, and learned of another monster that was apparently his mate, which Mikasa named Komodithrax as it looked like an enormous komodo dragon. Although they wanted to see how Zilla and his mate were doing after that first day, circumstances had prevented them from coming back until today. Well, Armin and Annie could've returned if they'd desired, but Eren and Mikasa had spent the week helping their mother. Lately 7th Heaven had seen a larger than normal influx of customers, and so with Tifa's permission, the duo had assisted with minor things needed around the restaurant.

For the most part they'd been asked to keep the guest rooms, kitchen, and stock room clean. The tasks weren't hard by any means, and Tifa paid the two for all their work, so really they didn't mind being asked to work a few hours each day. Carla at first had been against the idea just the slightest, after all it was her job as a parent to work and provide for them, but then Eren explained that she didn't need to push herself to the point of exhaustion to take care of them and that she better get used to having them around for the week. The mother of two laughed rather hard that day, and treated her children to a roast that night as thanks for being so stubborn.

Carla voiced her negative opinion about them going down into the tunnels to seek Zilla, citing that they could be unstable and collapse on them, but in the end she relented to their plans. As usual she told them to look after each other and be careful. So, once more descending into the tunnels below to meet with the two monsters, the group of four was extra cautious of the chance that they could run into one of those giant rats. Nobody really wanted to be chewed up and eaten after all.

Eventually they once more reached the large chamber currently housing Zilla and Komodithrax, the latter of which was again resting partially in an alcove. Zilla, on the other hand, was laying along the edge of the water, one eye opening and glancing in their direction. He gave a barely audible growl of greeting, then turned his head towards the other large creature. A small noise towards it, with one in return, before they both looked to the children.

Annie pulled off her backpack and began to search for something she'd bought just for this occasion. Finally getting ahold of it, the blonde pulled out a very large salmon wrapped in paper. Sure, it wouldn't be much, if anything, compared to the amounts of fish that they probably ate regularly, but it was supposed to be a trust building gesture between their group and the monsters. Although Zilla was still very close with Armin, the gap in time since having last saw the others, and only having met Annie the week before, meant they needed to grow a bond in order to safely stay around. Plus, if they could get Komodithrax to trust them like they wanted Zilla to, it would only add to the situation in a positive way. After all, the foursome had discussed what the possible outcomes of keeping in contact with two large lizards could be.

Zilla eyed the offering for a moment before he opened his mouth, allowing Annie to toss the fish to him. The salmon was consumed easily, with the lizard letting out a groan of approval at the gift. Next, Eren opened his pack as well and produced a fish offering of his own to the Komodithrax. Said lizard growled when the boy moved a little too close for its liking, but upon smelling the fish it moved its head in the direction of the food. Like Zilla the female monster accepted the offering, small as it may be, and as thanks she extended her tongue and licked the boy.

"Ugh, I could've done without that you know." Although the saliva did have a smell to it, he wasn't truly all that upset. After all, it meant that positive progress was made towards getting the tan lizard to trust them. Armin had brought up the idea that, since Zilla had defended him and listened to him when Shiganshina was breached, that if they could get him used to their presence they could have something that would be able to push back the Titans and give humanity a chance to leave the Walls for good.

The idea was something that Eren himself was on the fence about. True, they'd seen Zilla take down Titans like they were paper, but considering that the land beyond the Walls was said to be an endless expanse filled with the man-eating monsters, taking back any significant amount of territory would be hard. But, for the sake of trying to do something, anything, the four would stick to the plan. Fate had other ideas, however, that would cause them to alter any plans they were thinking up.

"Hrrraa….grrrrllllll"

Zilla looked at his female companion, then down to the four of them, then he started clawing his way towards the other end of the cave. The humans had no idea what the lizard was doing right now, but with horror they noticed he'd begun to dig a fresh tunnel. Worrying about their current location collapsing crossed their minds, but worse than that was that Zilla was clawing in an inclining direction. It seemed that the monster wanted to breach the surface and he would not be stopped.

Stone gave way as the mutant began to make progress into the ground, steadily leaving their sight, and a moment after his tail disappeared the other mutant followed into the newly made tunnel. It took several moments for the worst of the shaking in the cave to stop, leaving four worried and frantic children to their own devices. For what seemed an eternity nobody said a word, until Mikasa finally broke the silence.

"We need to go after them. If they get topside there's no telling what the Garrison will do in response." Her normally stoic voice had the faintest hint of concern to it, belaying the urgency of the situation.

Annie, however, raised a thin brow at the other girl. "You don't expect us to be able to stop them do you? They could crush us to paste if they wanted."

"Of course not. What we need to do is try and run interference against the Garrison. With any luck they'll listen to us since Zilla was the one that defended the gate when we were attacked."

Now Armin turned his gaze from where his friend had been to Mikasa. "But, your mom told us to keep quiet about our connection with him. She said that the military might not like that little bit of information."

A small nod was the response, but the frown on Mikasa's face was steadily showing now. "Yes, but I don't think that's going to be helpful to us now. Either they'll listen to us, or if they go in swords first, they'll get slaughtered. We have to at least try."

"Enough talk, let's get going." Eren took charge of the group, a rare event to their foursome, and started a brisk jog up the tunnel. Without another word Mikasa followed him, Annie and Armin right behind her.

Elsewhere

He'd spent much too long underground. Although he and Possible Mate would venture out to the place where the humans used to live before the Large Ones invaded, making the entire area part of their territory, a lot of the time recently had been with the two of them staying below. It was nice of course. The coolness of their nest provided comfort when lounging around, and the watery areas provided an abundance of food. Yes, Zilla found their nesting area to be nice, but that's all it was: a nesting area. Should he and the female decide to mate she would lay the eggs there for protection against threats and to allow them to hatch with a close food source. The two mutants needed more though.

He could feel the stirrings of the desire to mate with his female, and that feeling was growing every day, and he himself was growing still. Where he'd once been the same height as the Large Ones, he was now able to look down at them. How tall he had become was not the only thing to change of course. He was stronger, faster, and the handful of times he'd used his fire it too had become more powerful. He was not fully grown, but he was getting there. As such, it was time to find another nesting area that could accommodate their size more freely.

It was with ease that one final push allowed his head to breach the surface. Next his arms pushed through the rock as well, and for a moment he paused to inspect the area around him. The little humans were everywhere, most running away and making a lot of noise. Huh. No Large Ones to be seen. While he knew there would be none in his territory, instincts told him to check anyway. He had to protect Possible Mate and Parent after all. A light pull with his arms, and finding stable footing with his left foot, and Zilla was standing his full 25 meters within Wall Maria.

Possible Mate was behind him, her head showing from their tunnel to join him. Taking a few sniffs of the area Zilla located a nearby water source coming from his left somewhere. When scouting for new territory it was always best to find water first once you were sure that no threats lingered in the area. The strange structures that some of the humans ran into surrounded him, so his only option was to go forward. Sure he could've jumped atop them, or even went right through them, but Parent had told him many times to not hurt other humans. Therefore: humans inside structures=don't destroy structures.

The mutant began his journey forward, stepping over some of the humans with ease. They continued to run in the same direction as him, as well as yelling in fear at the top of their lungs. Annoying, but he wouldn't let it bother him. He just needed to navigate the area enough to locate the water, hydrate himself, and then find an area to start creating a resting spot. It would be rather enjoyable to be able to bask under the warm sun, which happened to be high in the sky for the moment. Yes, bask under its warmth while cuddling with Possible Mate if she allowed for it. Last time he'd tried to do so without warning she had bit him in irritation.

Hmmm? On the ground before him was some small, furry animal that stood on four legs. It did not run away like the humans around it, instead barking at him somewhat aggressively. The little thing did not attack him, just barked like that would somehow scare the lizard away. It didn't obviously, but it did get the mutant to stop. The animal, a dog as the humans would call it, was no real threat to him or Possible Mate, not by a long shot. However, if it felt the need to challenge him like it was he needed to oblige the little guy, after all, he had to show that he owned the area.

Crouching down and looking the dog in the eye, which caused it to bark louder, Zilla opened his mouth to 'speak his mind' as it were. "Hrrrrrraaaaaaa!" The dog was nearly blown away from the force of the roar, and once Zilla stopped his call the pet ran away yelping as if someone had just stepped on his tail. With his dominance asserted Zilla resumed his pace to the water. A split in the path ahead was just what he was looking for. Intersecting paths would see him go left, forward, or right if he so desired. Smelling that his objective was still to his left he took that forking road, his long tail accidently brushing into some of the structures. It was just surface damage, so he wasn't worried about harming any humans then.

Ah, a number of the humans were landing atop the structures using that strange thing of their backs that let out steam. He remembered those from when he'd fought the strange Large One at Parent's request. The lizard had witnessed the tiny humans attacking the Large Ones with metal while zipping through the air. A good idea to keep away from the monsters since humans were so fragile. He wondered what they were doing. Most kept their eyes on him and his companion, yelling things to each other that Zilla didn't understand, nor cared to understand really.

He'd been asked by Parent to protect the humans, and he would do that, but that didn't mean getting cozy with them like he was with Parent and Parent Companions. So long as they did not attack him or Possible Mate, he would be fine. Ah! The water source was finally in sight, perhaps another minute of walking to reach it. It was a large river set between two sides of human made ground. Below him the humans had finally grown intelligent enough to run to the side instead of running in front of him. He'd avoided stepping on anyone, although a vendor stall that happened to be right in the middle of the street met with a terrible fate beneath his foot, and now that they were out of the way he could take longer strides.

Finally reaching the river the mutant lowered himself so he could take several gulps of water. He wasn't dying of thirst, but it was refreshing to get some of the fluid into his system. Possible Mate joined his side, extending her long tongue to scoop the water to her mouth. A small grunt to her, to find out if she wanted some food, while keeping his eye on the humans that kept gathering around them. She declined, for she wasn't really in the mood to eat at the moment. The tan lizard was more interested in finding a place to settle in.

A screech above him tore his gaze from her, looking to see if he could locate the source of the noise. Flying through the sky was a bat large enough the he was sure it could cover his whole snout if it landed there, heading in his direction while another of the humans held onto it. He answered its call with one of his own. He didn't know if the bat wanted to challenge him, but if it did he would make sure that it regretted so.

Outside the Walls

He had to get somewhere away from these things. Each hop put distance between it and those big things that had torn mother apart. She was large like them, but against a group she had stood no chance of survival. Seeing that he was still a juvenile and not as large as her, when he tried to defend his siblings the beasts dealt with him easily. They had never bothered his family until mother had tried to kill one of the smaller ones to provide food. That apparently set the rest of them off and within no time at all his whole nest was destroyed, siblings eaten, mother torn apart, and his jaw cracked. Although he could feel his bones slowly pulling back together, painfully of course, with no other member of the family left he got away as quick as he could.

They did not seem to be able to keep up with him that well. The beasts could run, but his jumps were long enough and frequent enough that the shrew put distance behind him quick. Perhaps it would be best to travel until the sun disappeared. With enough time and distance he could perhaps reach the circular structure that the family had once seen. Although the smell of lizard was all over the area according to mother, the tall rock would keep the beasts away, giving him a safe place to settle and nest.

So there's that. Tell me if you guys like when I write out the POV from the monsters. I feel it's nice to have, since it provides an interesting side to the human-monster dynamic I'm creating in the AU. Anyway, sorry about the wait. I'm hoping the next doesn't take this long.