A/U: I'd like you all to know that the government I'm portraying in this is in no way like France's government AT ALL. I've sort of meshed a lot of different governments and government ideas together to make this, simply to avoid any drama or insults. It might seem a tiny bit ooc for marinette, but I figure with age and experience she would grow into a more 'ladybug' type of person. This is un-beta'd so please forgive mistakes, let me know if anything is super glaring as I can't find everything. Thank you all for reading! This is also posted on Ao3 under my name.

Chapter One: A Reason to Rebel

Marinette Dupain-Cheng, 23 years old, hadn't walked into her job hating her boss. As a matter of fact, she was ecstatic in the beginning.

Like many, many others, Marinette had been charmed by Gabriel Agreste during his political campaign. He was young, for a politician, and oozed charisma. She had believed the man when he claimed that he was what France needed to get back on track again. After years of economic struggle, Gabriel was like a breath of fresh air. Marinette had been charmed, and had helped coordinate multiple public rallies, fundraisers; anything she could to support him.

That was why she'd been offered the job in the first place. Her ability to organize such events and her unwavering loyalty gained her a position as his personal assistant. She'd found a place interacting with her political idol, and a paid internship for her college. What more could she ask for, honestly?

However, once he attained power, it became obvious that change wouldn't be quite as easy as the public had hoped. As his personal assistant, Marinette saw first hand what his schedule had become. Constantly in meetings, constantly involved in one struggle or another. His ideas could bring them back from the brink, but they would need time for that to happen.

Alya, her closest friend and roommate, wasn't quite so quick to believe. Her thought was that he was too good to be true, too formulated and precise. While Marinette had been planning rallies, she'd been digging into his history. She claimed he couldn't be trusted, that there were too many hazy details from his prior positions, but Marinette refused to believe her. After all, she would've noticed if the man wasn't as he seemed.

She didn't even consider that Alya's warnings could hold any weight until her first year in. One day, as she was looking over appointments to schedule with Gabriel's council members, she realized not a singular name on her list had been in the council from the beginning of her superior's term. Normally, a few members from past leader's councils would be replaced over time when someone new came into office, but never all of them. Why would everyone be gone; it was nonsensical. How had she not noticed?

Something was strange, her instincts were screaming at her. She tried to push the nagging feeling aside but it just wouldn't back off. There were doubts, plenty of doubts. Maybe she was overreacting—overthinking? Perhaps there was a logical reason for an entirely new council..but if there wasn't? What then?

She decided that like Alya, she would find information on her employer, but not his past. His present.

It wasn't until she was scheduled to oversee a meeting for Gabriel's new policies for economics and business that she became truly certain her boss wasn't who she had hoped he'd be during elections. As he listed off what he wanted to do she noted it was almost a polar opposite of what he claimed he'd do a year before. And because it was an entirely new council, all handpicked by the man himself—of course he'd get his way.

Her eyes met those of his son, Adrien, during that meeting. She saw her own confusion reflected there, an unease that spoke that not even he had expected such a turn around. For some reason, that was comforting and dissatisfying. Knowing that not even his own son had a clue about his father's true nature.

As she expected; Gabriel's enacted plans made lifer harder for every citizen in Paris. Taxes had been raised on almost everything, businesses were forced to comply with new restrictions that plummeted overall sales. It was no surprise to her when she saw stocks drop, signs of national bankruptcy beginning to rise. It was to be expected given the nation's leader.

What she was surprised about, however, was the countries response. Not one person stood to call out the man who was pushing them into a financial hell. There were no riots, no protests, but why? Her country had never been quiet before over such matters—why now?

When she saw Gabriel go through yet another speech on television, she knew why. They still believed in him. They believed it had to get 'worse to get better'. They didn't realize it wouldn't. The country didn't care he was destroying it because the country didn't know.

She told no one of her own, very dangerous plan as she started using her job as his assistant to her advantage. Getting full access to his emails was easy, no one questioned her when she went into his office during off hours. After hours of sifting through messages both personal and professional, she knew there was enough to confirm that things were only going to get worse. Secret rendezvous, bank conversations, covers. There was too much there to pretend as if everything would be okay.

"Scammer," she muttered to herself as she pulled out her flash drive and downloading as many emails as she could. Her country, her home, her very life was in danger. She wouldn't simply let this go.

She needed to do anything she could to stop him. Something, anything to keep him from ruining her home. She knew simply getting the emails weren't enough, the public would never believe her and he could claim they were fake. He'd silence her, she'd be fired, and she'd be unable to do anything against him.

She closed out of his computer and put everything back where she found it, leaving a sticky note saying she just needed to confirm some appointments, knowing he wouldn't find that suspicious. He never had before.

She needed to go home, she needed to show Alya. She needed to figure out just what she could do, because she wasn't one to simply stand still.

She never had been.

When the first thing she did when she entered the small, two bedroom apartment was set a flash drive in Alya's hands, Marinette had to admit she seemed a bit strange. Alya looked at the flash drive, then at her for explanation, but Marinette just crossed her arms.

"So, what's this?" Alya voiced out loud, her voice concerned. Nevertheless, she followed her closest friend as she gestured towards the computer across the room.

"You'll see, it's easier for you to look than for me to explain." Marinette responded, ignoring the unsatisfied glare Alya sent her way.

"Fine , let's look at this bad boy then." she popped the flash drive in, sitting down at the computer chair. She drummed her nails against the desk, waiting for the drive to show up on the screen.

When it did, Marinette watched multiple expressions cross over her friend's face. First; confusion. But as her friends eyes gazed over the titles of each document, she knew she had peaked the girl's interest.

'gabriel agreste-email 1'

'gabriel agreste-email 2'

gabriel agreste-email-'

"Girl, is this.." she trailed off, glancing back towards her. Marinette nodded, leaning against the nearest wall while waiting for her friend to sift through the emails.

"It is, and you'll see just how right you were when you read them all. I should have listened to you, Alya."

Alya's bright eyes, shining with victory, dimmed as she saw Marinette's fallen expression. She reached for her friend's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Granting her a small smile when their eyes met.

"Hey now, I'm not going to brag. I didn't want to be right, Mari. I know how much you believed in him. He should have been who he said he was." Alya paused, tilting her head curiously when she saw the same determination Marinette carried with her throughout her entire life.

"So, I'm guessing you didn't show me this for fun. What are we going to do?" she asked. Marinette shrugged at that, eyebrows furrowing as she tried to think.

"I didn't get to that part." Marinette admitted, and Alya snorted in amusement.

"Well, that won't do at all. I know how you are, if we don't do something you'll do it all by yourself and that's not a good idea when facing the leader of France." Alya crossed her legs, leaning back into the computer chair, and Marinette chuckled.

"Probably not, no." Marinette smiled as she said the words. Her gaze wandered around the room, trying to think of anything, when her eyes found her sketch pad. She walked over to it, half ideas burrowing into her head as she flipped through the pages. Page after page of designs for Gabriel Agreste's campaign stared back at her, and that's when she knew just what needed to do.

"I've got it." Marinette spoke, grinning widely as she pointed at the sketches. Alya stood and looked at the sketch book, before raising an eyebrow.

"Care to share?"

"Well," Marinette began, putting the sketch book down. "Remember last year, before that man was elected. I did sanctioned street art to help with his campaign! It boosted votes and public approval by a ton, his campaign adviser told me it was one of the main reasons they offered me that job!"

Alya did remember. Marinette had begged for her help, and in the end Alya had caved—recording her best friend spray paint old walls throughout the city in record time. The girl had always carried a talent for art, so of course her designs would be noticed.

"Yeah, but don't get me wrong here. There's no way Gabriel Agreste is going to just let you besmirch his name with art." she watched a familiar glimmer appear in her friends eyes, and felt her hackles rise. Oh, oh no.

"Who said anyone was going to let me do anything?" she asked. Alya shook her head, highly concerned.

"Mari—no! I'd be all for it but this is your life, your career on the line! You could go to jail, or even worse if he's as corrupt as those letters portray."

Marinette came close to her, grabbing her hands and grinning at her. It was too infectious for her to not smile back.

"You know I'll do it anyways, Alya. This is bigger than me, you know that."

She had a point. Once Marinette had something in her head, that was it. Stubborn to the end, it was why she'd be such an amazing politician. Alya's thoughts flew a million miles a minute, until finally she sighed.

"Fine. But you're not going out there alone-parkour experience or not." she added in when she saw Marinette beginning to disagree.

"We'll bring in people we trust. Nino is reliable, and kind of popular now with his music. He could make anti-government tracks, that's bound to get attention. I'll start a blog, anonymously of course. Max will probably have to be brought in so no one can get into my system." she trailed off, and Marinette took over.

"Alix and Kim are fast, like—really fast. They could go on runs with me. And I'm sure Rose and Juleka would join, too. They'll just be happy to help. None of them cared for Gabriel."

The two of them grinned at each other, separating only to send out messages for one big, private meeting for the next day. Once the messages were sent, they began to piece together a more solid plan.

"Let's bring down Gabriel Agreste!" Alya cheered.

A/N: That's the first chapter! This probably won't be a long series, it originally started as a one shot and got wayyyy out of hand and far too long for just one chapter so maybe around 6 chapters total. Tell me what you think, don't worry chat noir will show up soon. ;]