Taylor's Guide to Travelling with S-Class Threats (Sleeper/Taylor/Ash Beast)

[dhazellouise]

Summary: Twenty Years old Taylor Hebert triggers but she is uncertain of what her power truly is until she starts travelling. When she first goes to Russia, she meets a strange man who likes to read a book out loud to himself. Taylor speaks to him first, not knowing that her presence will attract his attention and she will end up traveling with The Sleeper himself all across the world, and picking up Ash Beast along the way.

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"Goddamnit!" Twenty years old Taylor Hebert curses once again as the tinker tech navigator she made finally stops working. Although she is glad that she is nearing a town just based on the last location her navigator has shown her.

She is somewhere in Russia. The first place she randomly picked to travel to after cremating her father a few weeks ago. She has promised herself to travel with her father's ashes so that she can scatter it all across the globe. And she isn't going to give up now even when her navigator stops working.

Taylor knows she is nearing Kovylkino, but she doesn't know how close she is before she arrives at the location.

She looks ahead again. Taylor has seen the strange storm from afar but as she nears it, it seems to dissipate swiftly.

Strange, Taylor thinks, frowning. It looks like parahuman activity but I can't be sure until I get there. Hopefully it's nothing.

It takes another two miles before Taylor passes the marker that denotes that she is entering Kovylkino and what she finds there leaves her with a sense of trepidation.

She drives into town but soon discovers that it is abandoned; quite hastily she might add just based on the abandoned cars and detritus on the road. It looks like it's been there for weeks. She would have immediately left the place if not for the fact that something inside her is strongly guiding her deeper and deeper into town until her hearing picks out the sound of someone speaking out loud in Russian, but one of her powers in her arsenal is able to translate it into english.

I thought this place was abandoned? She thinks in consternation. Who can that possibly be? Is it someone stranded here?

Taylor realizes that she has driven her car into a quaint suburb. It looks idealistic, if not for the eerie quietness that is broken by the smooth, masculine voice reciting something that sounds like an excerpt of a book.

"Yes, love, ...but not the love that loves for something, to gain something, or because of something, but that love that I felt for the first time, when dying, I saw my enemy and yet loved him," the voice recites. "I knew that feeling of love which is the essence of the soul, for which no object is needed. And I know that blissful feeling now too. To love one's neighbours; to love one's enemies. To love everything - to Love God in all His manifestations. Someone dear to one can be loved with human love; but an enemy can only be loved with divine love."

Taylor stops driving in front of a two-story house, where she can see a man sitting on a lawn chair while reading out loud an entry from what she begins to realize is from the book War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

She looks at the strange figure sitting on the lawn chair. She can't really see the man's face with the way he is reading the hardcover book right in front of him, which obscures his features.

The stranger continues to drone on with a strong Russian accent.

"And that was why I felt such joy when I felt that I loved that man. What happened to him? Is he alive? ...Loving with human love, one may pass from love to hatred; but divine love cannot change."

Taylor turns her engine off and comes out of her car. She hopes that the man is not dangerous or else she is going to regret following her instinct to come to this place.

She approaches the man who still hasn't noticed her arrival.

"Nothing, not even death, can shatter it. It is the very nature of the soul. And how many people I have hated in my life. And of all people none I have loved and hated more than her... If it were only possible for me to see her once more... once, looking into those eyes to say..." the man's voice trails off when her shadow falls on him.

She watches as the man slowly lowers the book he is reading.

"Hello, I am sorry to disturb you but -" Taylor begins to say but her words immediately die on her lips when her gaze finally meets a pair of arresting violet eyes beneath sooty lashes on a rather handsome face of the stranger.

Taylor stares at the man, who stares right back at her with a look of confusion on his face.

"я мечтаю?" (Am I dreaming?) The man mutters almost to himself as he stands up from his chair, only to loom over Taylor from his great height of maybe beyond 6'5. "я снова сплю?" (Am I asleep again?)

"No, you are not dreaming," is Taylor's words in English as she finally snaps out of her momentary daze. "You are fully awake."

The man's response to her words is to continue to stare at her.

"Are you really here?" He asks her, smoothly switching to English with a frown on his handsome face. "Because this is the first time that someone is able to come close and talk to me."

"Yes, I'm really here…and why has no one been able to come close and talk to you before?" She asks him, cocking her head to the side.

The frown on the man's brows deepens as he resumes to regard her with a sense of surreality.

Then, without warning, the man reaches out to touch her face, like he is checking her for falsehood in this reality.

Taylor can't help but flush as the man cups her face and scrutinizes her closely. She knows she should stop him for daring to touch her, but she is frozen in shock at the suddenness of his action.

"You are indeed real. But how can it be?" The man states as he finally lets go of her face. He looks at her like this is the first time he has made contact with someone.

Perhaps it is. She thinks, feeling a bit concerned for the strange man.

"Wait…my storm stops earlier than I anticipated. Was it you who stops—" the man is saying but Taylor interrupts him.

"Are you stranded here in this abandoned town? Or is this your choice to stay here?" She asks him.
The man is silent for a little while before he inquires, "Judging from your questions, you don't really know who I am, do you?"

"No…Should I?" Taylor replies, arching a brow at him. "I'm just passing through these parts. So I'm not familiar with local celebrities."

"I'm not a celebrity. Well...maybe I am in cape circles," the man says in amusement, his violet eyes twinkling merrily.

"Are you a local hero?" She asks him, looking curious.

"Does it really matter?" The man says with sudden evasiveness.

"No, not really…." is her only hesitant reply.

"Good," the man remarks.

Taylor still doesn't know his name. So she asks him, "What's your name then?"

"My name is Aleksandr Petrov. And you are?" comes the man's response.

"My name is Taylor Hebert."

"It's nice to meet you Taylor," is Aleksandr's swift answer.

Her name sounds lovely when he says it, especially with his Russian accent.

"It's nice to meet you too, Aleksandr," she says, smiling uncertainly at him.

"If I may ask…are you lost by any chance?" He inquires.

"Yes, a little bit…" is her honest admission. "My personal navigator stopped working when I was nearing this town. Now, it looks like I might really need a map to travel around Russia."

"If I may suggest a better alternative?" Aleksandr says tentatively.

"What is your suggestion?"

"You intend to travel around Russia right?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well, I can always offer you my service as a tour guide. I've been traveling around Russia for many, many years and I can show you around my homeland. And with me traveling with you, you won't need a navigator or map because I know my homeland like the back of my hand," is Aleksandr's offer while he grins at her, which only emphasizes how handsome he really is.

"Why are you willing to help me?" Taylor asks, unable to stop the suspicion from leaking through her voice.

"Because I have nothing much to do and I really need to leave this place," Aleksandr replies, his grin widening. "If you don't want to take my offer, then you can drop me in the nearest town that I can guide you through."

There is a short pause wherein Taylor thinks about Aleksandr's offer. It sounds like a good deal at a glance. She can pay him money from the winnings she won in the lottery in America for his service as a tour guide. However, something about this entire proposal makes her wary, but she isn't certain what it is. Maybe because she just met him? A strange man living alone in an abandoned town?

Is he crazy? He doesn't seem to look like it... She thinks. Anyway, I better decide soon…perhaps I can accept his offer and watch him closely? I think I will do that…

"Alright. I will accept your offer," Taylor informs him. "But you better get ready to leave here because I don't want to stay in this town for another minute."

"Yes, of course," is Aleksandr's quick reply. He seems to be eager to come along with her for some reason.

Is this really the first time he talks to someone? She silently wonders. How sad if it is the truth...

A moment later, Taylor suddenly has a terrible premonition that this isn't going to be an ordinary tour and judging from Aleksandr's expression, he looks to be enthusiastic about the entire thing.

Taylor Hebert can only hope that nothing bad happens on their journey to travel around Russia. If nothing else, she can always return back to Brockton Bay or the Null Zone as it is known by most, where parahumans lose their power. But it will only be the last resort because she did make a promise to herself and her father before the disastrous kidnapping incident that causes her father to die and for her to trigger a second time.

She promised that she will travel the world with her father after she won the lottery. And so she will, even though her father is currently in a sealed container, just waiting for his ashes to be scattered across the globe, pinch by slow pinch.

She promises herself.

So she will do everything she can to fulfill that promise, even if it means accepting an offer from a strange man.

Taylor Hebert will keep her promise or she will die trying.

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AN: What's this new abomination?! Sleeper x Taylor and Taylor x Ash Beast? Am I crazy? Yes, I am! ahaha...I just couldn't resist after writing the most insane rare pairings out there. And this is a new one to be added to Taylor's Harem. So I hope this first chapter piqued your interest. Please don't hesitate to tell me what you think or ask questions!