The rest of the day, Emma refrained from using the bracelet, despite the amount times Regina tried calling Emmett's phone. Sure she could try a voice changer spell, but she knew if she heard Regina's voice, she'd be too weak.

Unfortunately, avoiding Regina was not working out in Emma's favor. Not only did the woman show up at Snow's apartment for dinner–per Henry's request–she also has a date with Emmett planned for the following night.

Emma knew using magic again would be a risk, but wasn't Regina worth it?

Of course she was, she decided.

Emmett was not going to miss his date with Regina, and Emma will not sacrifice herself in the process. How she planned to accomplish that? That's going to be a challenge.

That night, Emma broke into to Gold's shop–knowing he was staying with Belle for the weekend at their cabin–in hopes to find a solution.

"Come on," she groaned. "It has to be here somewhere."

The sheriff continued pulling out and flipping through the pages of numerous different spellbooks, but still could not find any answers.

"Maybe it's time to learn Elvish so I can read this crap," Emma grumbled to herself.

Right after she finished her sentence, the blonde flipped to a page that looked promising and paused. There was an image on the page of a man split in half: one side being a knight and the other a lowly peasant. "This has to be it."

Emma tore the page from the book and then scrambled to find the proper ingredients. It took much longer than expected, but she finally managed to produce the potion.

"Bottoms up," she said before downing the drink in one large gulp. Immediately following swallowing, Emma felt the magic sizzling inside her stomach and related the feeling to eating Pop Rocks. The next thing she felt was nausea, and then finally the spell activated.

Emma rose to her feet, deciding to put the spell to the test. She willed herself to turn into Emmett and–to the blonde's surprise–it worked! Then she willed herself to return to Emma and it worked, as well. And she received no headaches! Emma was so happy that, after cleaning up the shop, she went home and fell into a deep peaceful slumber.

The next day Emma woke up in a great mood. She used Emmett's phone to text Regina about his excitement for their date that night, and the woman responded in a similar fashion, adding a winky face.

The rest of the savior's day went by extremely slow until she got a call from work, calling her onto a case.

When she got home from the station that night, she was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to snuggle up with her pillows and fall asleep. Except, she remembered her date with the mayor and all her drowsiness turned into excitement.

Glancing at her phone lock screen, she noticed the time and was alarmed to find out she was running late. Shit!

Thankfully, Emmett made it to their meeting location on time. They had decided to meet at the docks for a late-night picnic.

During their date, Regina revealed to Emmett that she had never fallen for someone as quickly as she had for him. When she admitted to feeling as if she's known him her entire life, Emmett mentally thought the mayor wasn't too far off.

Emmett opened his mouth to respond to the woman's admissions, but was cut off, his attention having been stolen by the form of Mr. Gold appearing from the shadows.

"Shit. He's found me." Emmett's eyes widened in fear.

"What? Who?" Regina was confused by her date's response, Gold having appeared behind her. The mayor's gaze followed the man's line of sight to the pawnshop owner and both bodies rose to their feet.

"Didn't think you could hide forever, dearie, now did you?" The corners of Gold's mouth lifted into a smirk.

"Leave him alone!" Regina was quick to defend him, casting threatening look at the pawnshop owner.

"How precious. You've gotten her to fall for you."

"Leave her out of this," Emmett demanded. "She's done nothing."

"It's time for me to collect my debt," the other man sneered.

Confused by what was transpiring, Regina blurted out, "Emmett, what is he talking about?" Her voice was shaking with fear.

"You don't know?" Gold chuckled, feigning shock. "He's a woman!"

"What?!" Regina eyes grew wide.

Turning his attention back to Emmett, he snarled, "Have a nice life! What's left of it, at least!"

Rumpelstiltskin swished his hand into the air, causing his body to disappear into a cloud of dark red smoke and Emmett collapsed to the ground, letting out a wail of pain.

The blonde-haired man quickly realized what Gold had done as he felt the effects of the spell being ripped from his body cell-by-cell. The pain was unbearable.

Recovering from her shock, Regina rushed to the man's side. "Emmett?" she called out in desperation. The body below her let out a low groan. All she could see was blonde hair flowing loosely out from the now over-sized clothing.

"Emmett?" Regina tried again. Despite having been lied to, she felt as if she was losing the love of her life all over again.

Tugging at a small muscular shoulder, Regina managed to flip her lover's body onto their back and sucked in a deep breath.

"Emma?" Regina gasped.

And then the savior's world faded to black.