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As much like cornered prey as they felt, and as much as it frustrated them to feel like prey for one of the first times in their lives, Jane and John unabashedly sagged with relief once the last of Klaus' men had left with him. John relaxed from the stiff, straight-back posture he'd been holding, and Jane unwound her arms from around his torso, simply resting her head against John's back. After a few moments, they separated simultaneously, withdrawing jointly to stand a foot apart, side to side. Facing Julian, Jane said aloud, separating unhappily from his mind while branching out to be certain the last of the goons were gone and out of earshot before speaking, "I'm sorry we couldn't go with your plan--" to which John looked to Jane curiously, but waited for her to finish "-- But I'm fairly certain Klaus took no notice of you. He did you no favours, and you showed no threat to him or his stupid little henchies." On the last few words, Jane's expression soured considerably, degrading into a childish scowl, still not fully over their reaction to her uglyface facade on their last encounter. "There's no logical reason for him to go out of his way to see you again."

"His plan...?" John said, employing a tone that implied patient curiosity, making it a question by end. "Which would be... what?" He set his hands on his hips, settling in for an explanation from Jane, though after a few seconds of her deliberately looking to Julian after catching eyes with John, he turned his attention towards their comrade. "Did you plan to attack him or something?" John couldn't imagine a thought that worried him more than having to risk attacking him and finding out why people were afraid of Klaus at the moment, and so avoided the subject by shaking the thought away and refocusing on Julian. To some degree, he was pushing for a long, detailed, extremely time-consuming plan to be explained, so as to put off the inevitability of their needing to track down this guy who looked lucky to have survived his numerous scars and wounds, but not at all happy about his luck. Though of course, a long explanation might mean by the time they got to the ruined park Klaus had mentioned the angry guy would be gone, and they'd have to try and track him down, possibly encouraging a check-up visit from their tiny German antagonist to see what was causing the delay.

Nervously almost, he pulled Jane along as he moved towards the nearest exit that was away from the exit Klaus had taken, asking, "Maybe you could explain on the way out. We gotta get started, or er, ready, or something." Get ready to kill some guy who looks about twelve times worse than Hell warmed over, and at least five times as tough. "Do you know where Hancock Park is, Julian?" Yeah, why not head there right away? Going home could be just as deadly. Jane resisted being pulled along at first, but followed readily as she recognized John's expression as the one he wore whenever she sat on the highest branch of a particularly tall tree. She instead looked back at Julian hopefully, not excited to be on her way to helping her brother try and hurt someone, but relieved to be in motion and going someplace.

Julian shrugged. He had not planned to attack Klaus so much as simply flee from him, and the fact that Klaus now knew his face was less than fantastic. Still, the situation could have gone much worse--he had to admit that Jane had handled herself much better than he had. Clearly having to factor in people besides himself in his planning was something he was unused to.

You may wish to readjust your thinking, then, said the Radiant. Like it or not, our fates may now be bound to theirs. Julian couldn't help but detect a faint note of relief in its voice; the spirit seemed to think Jane and John would be a good influence on him.

More out of stubbornness than anything, Julian replied, Says who? I don't owe them anything. Which was, technically, fairly true. He'd saved Jane, and in return, she had kept Klaus's attention off of him. Never mind the fact that he'd gotten into this situation in the first place because of them.

"I didn't really plan to attack him. I wanted to distract him," said Julian slowly. "Escape was my first choice, but it would have required careful timing, fire, and falling," he added with a slightly grim smile, trusting each twin's respective fear to keep them from asking additional questions. John had seen some of the Radiant's powers, but he wasn't about to give them all away. In answer to John's question about how to get out, he wordlessly beckoned them toward the exit and began leading them down and out of the building, thinking to himself. He could feel the Radiant pushing him to help them, but that was a long shot and the spirit knew it. As far as Julian could tell, Jane and John were caught between two scenarios of near-certain death--disobeying Klaus and confronting Rook. He didn't say anything until they were out of the building.

He turned to them, still frowning heavily. "I wouldn't do this if I were you," he said bluntly. Expecting both of them to protest, he plunged on. "You're more likely to survive running from Klaus than you are to survive confronting this guy--let alone killing the motherf*cker." He didn't add that their odds of either were not particularly good--he didn't feel he needed to. "If you're crazy enough to take on someone who looks like he could kill several army squads at once, at least go home and come up with a plan before going to Hancock Park."

"Not quite, I would still like to know where this 'summer home' of his is, if you wouldn't mind telling." Ryusaki said as he reviewed the man who was circling him like a predator that just caught its prey. He liked what he saw. So far the man was amused by him, which meant he didn't think of him as a major threat right now. Overconfident, and underestimating opponents played right out of Ryusaki's weaknesses and right into his strengths. Not being as young as the other three, he couldn't hold his form as long, so when ever he did change he had to make it fast, and if he could take the surprise then any battle may be over quickly. Of course he always had his swords.

Julian's strategic mention of fire and heights kept both siblings respective mouths dry long enough to simply follow him down the stairs in silence. Jane walked ahead, John holding his hand on her shoulder from behind. As they went, she occasionally sent back small snippets of what little she could get through, ideas that were more mental snapshots of conjured-up appearances Jane thought they could use when they met the Rook guy. A particularly interesting idea involving looking like two old women tided him over until they reached the bottom of the stairs, when the silence was broken by Julian speaking again. John and Jane again silently moved to stand side by side wordlessly and naturally as they listened, expressions tersely reserved.

Jane glanced askance at her older brother before answering for the both of them, "But what should we do if by going all the way back to our room and then to Hancock park we risk missing our window of opportunity? How do we find him? What if Klaus comes back to check on us before we can think of anything?" The worry etched in the lines of her creased forehead and deep frown was mirrored on John's face as well. Continuing without a moments lapse, he added, "And we have nowhere to go. Where else is there a place we can disappear half as easily from the rest of the world as a desolate, deserted, and destroyed sector of one of the biggest cities pretty much ever? Chance meetings with mob boss guys aside," he amended quickly, going on breathlessly. "To be honest, we don't think we have much more of a chance of success even with a plan anyway." No conference was needed for that point. Jane nodded silently and wound her hand with John's, a gesture of quiet solidarity.

"We'll go back if you think it's best, but please tell us you can at least show us to Hancock Park when we are ready with a plan or whatever?" Jane spoke that time, though her face and tone (hers and John's) were resigned, now drawn with an admitted certainty of imminent failure, defeat, et al. She even kept the volume of her mildly hysteric worries unrestrained, unafraid of the chance of anyone around hearing, unaware of the risk existing.