You reappeared dazed and disoriented in a courtroom, standing in front of a tribunal, three wizards or witches dressed in black robes their faces covered in masks. While you were still loopy from the cookies, you were shoved into a sturdy straight-backed wooden chair with arms. Your wrists were secured with the manacles attached to the chair.
Your brain was becoming less confused, which was good, however your magic was still affected by whatever was in those cookies. You were going to let Sera eat that shopkeeper when you got out of this mess.
You weregoing to get out of this mess.
There was no reason for you to be brought before the Witch's Council, nor had you received any official summons. This was bullshit and you knew it.
"Witch Y/N, you have been brought up on charges of Corruption of Magic and-" the black-robed tribunal member in the middle started. You tuned him out for a moment, taking in your surroundings.
This wasn't the Witch's Council. Nor the Council chambers. You'd been there before. This was a really well done replica. But this wasn't the real council chambers and more importantly, this wasn't the real council.
"You're not the Council," you informed them. You were pressing the subject now before they quickly justified your death at this farce of a trial. You needed to stall them for time. Loki and Sera would notice your absence soon when you took too long to return from the store. Both of them could track and find you. Both of them could reach you telepathically even if you didn't have the power to reach them.
You just needed to stall for time for them to realize you were in trouble.
Or until the drugs cleared your system and you got your powers back.
You didn't much care which as long as you survived this confrontation with the witch hunters.
The fake council looked shocked at your words. They were used to acquiring lower level witches in their schemes, it seemed. You wondered why they were risking so much targeting you when you were one of the most powerful witches alive. "I told you we should have just killed this one," the one in the middle told his compatriots.
"Who are you? What do you want from me? Why are you doing this?" you demanded before they could get too attached to that train of thought. You needed to keep them distracted from killing you as long as possible. You were chained to a chair without your powers. You needed them to not kill you.
So you had to get them monologing.
Rule #1 of being a superhero, when you're held captive by the villains, get them monologing as soon as possible while you think of a way to escape. It was a great strategy and would buy you the time you needed.
Predictably, they fell for it and started talking. You didn't even pay attention to which one was talking. You needed to know who they were, what they wanted, and best of all, how to get out of here. "It usually takes much longer before you witches figure out we're not the real council. They spill their guts and sell their souls to us, binding themselves so tightly to our mission that they can't break free, before they'd even realized that we weren't their precious council," they laughed.
"Then who are you?" you demanded, glaring up at them. Damn, these guys were defective villains if you had to keep prompting them to continue their monologing.
"Our organization's name has changed over the centuries. In this age, we are known as the Brotherhood of Salem," you tried so very hard not to roll your eyes at that lame ass name. Really, it was awful. They couldn't come up with a better name than that? Seriously, that was just lazy writing on the part of whoever was leading this stupid organization. "Our goal hasn't changed, though. Our goal is simple: to eradicate all the witches,"
That shook you and you just stared up at him with open mouth.
"But... why?" you asked stupidly. "That makes nosense. Witches don't cause harm. It's against our very laws:
Bide the Wiccans laws ye must,
In perfect love and perfect trust.
Live and let live,
Fairly take and fairly give.
Mind the three-fold law ye should,
Three times bad and three times good.
Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill:
An it harm none, do as ye will"
You recited the creed to them. Really, you would say and do anything to continue stalling and keep buying time. The more time you bought the more likely you were to get out of this mess.
"Witches are an unnatural blight upon the world. Their abilities are supernatural and they need to be eliminated," they recited as if a mantra they had memorized.
You rolled your eyes. "Really? That is the dumbest reason ever," you informed them. "Witches are caretakers of this realm. We tend the earth, help her grow, we guard against the demons and creatures of darkness. We protect the humans. For fuck's sake I'm one of the Avengers!"
"You have already betrayed the witches," they said. "You have broken their precious laws, their precious statute of secrecy. You cavort with a known super villain-"
"Loki is reformed! He was under mind control when he was made to attack New York. He has been working for the Avengers for over a year to make amends. I also have permission from the realcouncil to work for the Avengers and break the statute of secrecy for my work," you told them firmly. Your magic was starting to come back, you could feel it again, you just needed to buy a little more time, and come up with a plan. "Killing me would be stupid. I'm one of the Avengers and "American's Sweetheart" no one is going to believe I broke wizarding law to warrant an execution. So what do you want from me?" you demanded
/Loki? Sera? Can you hear me?/ You sent out the message, hoping you had enough power back after those cookies
/Love? Y/N! Are you alright?/ Loki thought back and you nearly sighed in relief.
/Soul Sister! We are coming!/
/I'm alright for now. Hurry! It's the witch hunters! They're rogues/ you bid them. You were relieved that they were on their way. You just had to hold out a little while longer.
"You are going to work for us, same as every other witch we bring here. They're always so willing to trade the other witches for their lives. They don't realize they have no choice once we place the tattoo," they told you. You blanched. The shopkeeper hadn't been working for them after all, at least not willingly. You saw his hesitation to act, saw him hide the tattoo on his hand. He had given you up to save himself from the witch hunters, willingly or no.
"No!" you told them firmly. You were out of time, you realized. You couldn't let them put that tattoo on you, not when it would be infused with magic to make you do what they wanted. You couldn't let that happen, so you were out of time.
You acted quickly and used magic to destroy the chair from under you, standing in the same movement and preparing for a fight. You drew your blade, thankful your mother had insisted you learn how to fight without magic. Your powers were too weak right now to , but you could still fight physically and with limited magic. So you fought as they swarmed you. Thankfully these men were mostly squibs, so even your limited magic was an asset.
So you whirled and fought in a dangerous blur of blade and magic bolts. Your magic flickered back out about halfway through the fight. You just didn't have the power back yet. You fought with all of your skills, but started taking more and more heavy blows, bleeding from multiple wounds and you were pretty sure they had broken more than one bone. There were just too many of them.
They had you pinned to the ground, bleeding and injured. There were too many bodies of big strong men holding you and you heard the tattoo gun come to life.
You shrieked and struggled, but couldn't win against them as they started drawing their symbol on your hand. There were tears streaming down your cheeks at the horrible sigil. You recognized it of course. It was the wizarding equivalent of a swastika. And it was permanently etched into your skin in bright black ink. It was a circle with a five pointed star in it and runes inside the blank spaces.
The wall burst open behind their fake tribunal desk. You looked up in relief when Sera flew in through the hole she made with a roar. Loki was on her back.
You were saved!