Hoooo boy.

This is AU af, you guys.

This was an original story idea I had, and I totally blame Livinglittlelie for encouraging me to turn it into a Miraculous Ladybug fic. But I decided to post it anyway, despite the fact I've already got a multi-chapter ML fic to focus on (which I am working on, I promise).

I suppose when the muse hits you, you just have to write.

I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Miraculous Ladybug.

Definition:

Petrichor

Noun

The scent of rain on dry earth, or the smell of dust after rain.

To whomsoever holds this book,

Set forth in the following pages is the true and secret history of the Kingdom of Land, the establishment of our subservience to the Empire of the Sky and our plans for freedom. Long have we, the people of the Land, served under our masters, the Sky People. Long have our royal family, the House of Dupain, planned the destruction of our cruel and ruthless watchers from above.

The time of our freedom is coming, and this book is to document the steps it took to get us there. Our gracious and wise ruler, King Anthony Dupain, commissioned me to write it. So when we are free from our chains of the Sky Empire, our people would know exactly how our liberty came to be.

Take heart, dear reader, for our freedom is coming and the Sky Empire will fall.

Long live King Anthony and a free Kingdom of Land.

Signed,

Lord Geoffrey Mortimer,

Court Historian, Librarian and Advisor to the King.

Written in the year 105AGF, under the reign of King Anthony.

Princess Marinette Dupain-Cheng pushed the book away from her in disgust. She glared at the book and fiddled with one of her ever-present pigtails, as she mentally went over what she'd just read.

She was sitting at a desk in the castle's library; studying, as always. It was pointless, however. She didn't need to read the book. She'd read it countless times before on her Grandfather's – the late King Anthony's – urging. She'd read it so many times she had it memorised. Chapter one was on the Great Flood, which the Sky People sent down from their floating kingdom in the skies. It devastated the Kingdom of Land. Millions died from the never-ending flood and as a result their Kingdom became a part of the Sky Empire.

The Kingdom of Land was once strong and powerful in the time before the Great Flood (BGF) but that changed after it (AGF). They were still allowed their monarchy and government, but now the Kingdom of Land answered to the Sky. Taxes were paid to the Empire and members of the Land's royal family were always married off to appease the Sky Emperor and his Imperial heirs.

Long have the rulers of the Land hated the Sky.

And that was where Marinette came in.

She was first in line for the throne of the Kingdom of Land and she was going to married off to the Sky Empire. She didn't want to go, as those that were sent to the Sky never returned to the Land. Once you were a part of the Empire, you never left. But Marinette had been told of her duty and this was what she had been training for her whole life. This was what the Kingdom of Land's rebellion was resting on.

The bride that would bring down an Empire.

She didn't believe her parents wanted her to go. She didn't think her Father, King Tom, believed in Grandfather Anthony's cause. Her Father was a kind and just King. He was more at home helping out in the castle's bakery than planning a rebellion. He had even taken a foreign noblewoman as his Queen, drastically changing the legacy of House Dupain. They were now known as House Dupain-Cheng and Marinette was the first to be born into the new royal family of the Kingdom of Land.

Her Mother, Queen Sabine, was just as kind as her husband and enjoyed baking just as much as he did. While the people loved Sabine as their Queen, the nobles and advisory council left over from the reign of King Anthony did not.

It was the council that had the true power in the Kingdom of Land. Seen as weak, the King and Queen were merely the council's puppets. Tom and Sabine had no control over their Kingdom's welfare and their beloved only daughter was forged into a weapon at the late King Anthony's and the council's behest.

Since birth, Marinette had been trained to be ruthless; an assassin and a spy. She trained in hand to hand combat, weaponry, stealth. She was incredibly intelligent, strong and had an eidetic memory. Marinette had been given the code name of the Terran Assassin and then trained so she knew how to kill an enemy in countless different ways.

Long had the council been planning this. King Anthony had planning the rebellion and the council continued it after his death, regardless of King Tom and Queen Sabine's opinions on the matter. The council had been waiting and they had been ruthless, just as ruthless – or perhaps even more so – than what they claim the Sky Empire to be. The people had been taxed harshly, under the guise that the Empire had raised their tax amount and the Kingdom needed more money to be able to meet it. The reality was that half of the taxes taken from the people went to the Empire. The other half went to the rebellion.

There was one group of people in the Land and Sky that opposed hostilities between the Kingdom of Land and the Sky Empire. They called themselves Petrichor. They called themselves this because they thought it to be the perfect combination of something from the sky and the earth. That was Petrichor's ultimate goal: Friendly relations between the Land and Sky and the abolishment of the mistrust between their people; for although most of the Land didn't know about the planned rebellion, everyone lived in fear of the Empire.

Of course, the Kingdom of Land couldn't seem outright hostile to the Empire, for fear of their wrath. For there were those in the Empire who could control the sky. They could make in rain in another never-ending flood if word reached them that the Land was planning a revolt.

So Petrichor was considered a nuisance by the Kingdom's council. They thought Petrichor was foolish. With their ridiculous ideals and absurd code names (After all, what self-respecting leader of a group calls himself Chat Noir?)

The council didn't want friendly relationships between the Land and Sky. They wanted the Empire's demise and the Kingdom's freedom. And to do that they had trained Marinette to be the perfect weapon: Polite, beautiful and deadly. She would be sent to be the bride of the First Imperial Heir and would bring the Sky Empire to its knees.

If only she wanted to.

Marinette might have been brought up to bring about the downfall of the Sky, she might have been trained to be ruthless and deadly, but that wasn't what she wanted to do.

She was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the Terran Assassin.

And she wanted to join Petrichor.

Authors Note:

... I'm actually really nervous to see what you guys think of this. This is by far the most original and AU idea for a fic I've ever had.

I was reluctant to change it into a fanfic because I had to do a lot of tweaking to it in order to fit the characterisation of the show. Originally, the main character's parents were 100% on board for the rebellion plan, but there's no way Tom and Sabine would be like that. However, I got an idea and I cave easily to peer pressure (looking at you, Livinglittlelie), and then I was really excited to write it.

Fun fact: I got the idea for this story by going outside to put washing on the line, looking up at the overcast sky and saying, "I don't trust the sky," because I thought it would rain.

Anyway, I hope you liked this little prologue. I tried to give as much background as I could, whilst setting up where the story is going to go. Please let me know what you thought of it in the reviews!

Much love,

Leisey.