Snow stumbled into the sheriff's office, Charming immediately rushing to her side. She was holding her arm which appeared to be broken and she had scratches on her cheek. There were bruises on her neck.

"What happened?" Emma said as her father guided Snow down to a chair.

"It was Regina," Snow said. "She attacked me."

"What!"

"I went home after you left to check her house and she was there waiting for me," Snow said. "I was relieved at first but then when I tried to get out my phone to dial you, she used her magic to pin me up against the wall. She started saying all these things about when we were in the Enchanted Forest and how she was finally going to avenge Daniel's death. I barely got away from her."

"We need to get you to the hospital," Charming said,

Emma had stepped away from her mother as she spoke not able to believe what she had just heard.

"It has to be Gold," Emma said. "He's done something to her."

"Emma, I don't think so," Snow said. "I've seen Regina like this before. It was no different than how she was back home. She was very much the Evil Queen she once was. She said things …"

"What kinds of things?"

Emma watched as Snow paused as if not wanting to speak at all.

"She said all of this had been a ruse. Her relationship with you, everything, was just so no one would suspect her. She said she's going to take back control of Storybrooke and she is prepared to kill anyone that gets in her way. She laughed as she talked about … about fooling you most of all and the joy she took from knowing she had corrupted the daughter of Snow White."

Emma took two more steps back. This wasn't possible, she told herself. Regina wouldn't. Her one-time nemesis had changed. She had become a better person and she wouldn't, couldn't have been this cold and calculating. These were the thoughts in Emma's head even as her father helped Snow up.

"We need to get your mother to the hospital and then formulate a plan. If Regina thinks she isn't going to face resistance then she had forgotten who she is dealing with," he said.

"I'm sorry honey," Snow said. "You don't know how much I wish that it wasn't true."

"You need to go get checked out," Emma said. "I'll um stay here and see if I can figure out what her plan might be."

Charming nodded to her and then helped Snow out the door. As soon as they were gone Emma sat down in the nearest chair. Her heart was pounding and she felt like she had entered some Twilight Zone reality.

She thought about the last several months, her relationship with Regina, the potential that relationship had.

"No," she said standing up. She refused to believe this was true until she saw Regina herself. She knew exactly where she needed to go for answers.

….

Regina woke with a slight headache just behind her eyes. She sat up in bed only to realize this wasn't her bed.

She got out of the bed and looked around. Heather, she thought suddenly, this is Heather's house. But what am I doing here?

She felt like she had forgotten something important. She needed to find Heather, she thought. Somehow she knew that Heather would be able to explain it all to her. She trusted Heather to explain it to her.

She walked out of the room and headed downstairs where she found Heather sitting on the couch.

"You are awake," Heather said, smiling at her.

"Yes," Regina said looking around her, trying to remember how exactly she had gotten there to begin with.

"Are you feeling ok?" Heather asked, approaching her.

Once Heather was closer to her, Regina smelled what she thought was a lotion that Emma often used. She would never admit to Emma that the $4 bottle of department store lotion smelled amazing to her.

"Come sit," Heather said taking her hand and guiding her to a seat on the couch. "We have much to talk about."

Heather kept a hold of her hand and Regina looked down at it. Why did this seem natural to her, she wondered. Why was she even here?

"I am not sure how I got here," Regina said finally.

"You came here with me," Heather said. "You came here because this is where you belong, with me."

As she said the words Regina felt like she had heard those words before, that they were somehow etched into her brain.

"I belong with you," Regina said.

"That's right," Heather smiled.

"But Emma …"

"Listen to me," Heather said. "You and Emma are no longer together. In fact you were never really together. You don't love her. You were only toying with her."

"No," Regina said suddenly removing her hand from Heather's grip. "I love Emma and she loves me."

She stood up, intent on getting out of there, but she stopped. She smelled that smell again and she found herself sitting back down, wanting to be closer to it. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She felt Heather take her hand once more.

"Regina, listen to me. This isn't how I planned it exactly, but we are going to have to move a little quicker than I had anticipated," Heather said. She paused and just looked at Regina for a moment. "You are so beautiful."

She leaned in and kissed Regina, smiling through the kiss when Regina kissed her back.

As Regina kissed back she wondered why it felt so natural yet unnatural. She could still smell Emma's lotion and she thought of her for a moment. Heather had said she had been toying with Emma, was that true?

"We're going to return you to your former glory and I am going to be right here at your side," Heather said.

Regina merely nodded.

….

"Gold!" Emma said entering his shop. "Where you are you little imp?"

Gold entered from the back room with Belle.

"Sheriff," he said calmly.

"What did you do to Regina?" she said.

"Oh, this again," he said. "Sheriff Swan, we've been over this. I have not done anything to our illustrious former mayor. But do tell, what are you here to accuse me of today?"

"Where is Regina? What have you done with her?"

"Emma," Belle said calmly. "I promise you Regina isn't here and he has not done anything to her. Please, just tell us what is going on and we will see what we can do to help."

"I wouldn't take his help," Emma said through clenched teeth. She turned to leave.

"I warned you once already that I am not the only one in this town capable of magic," Gold said.

Emma whirled around. "Enough with the innuendos. If you know something tell me."

"I can't," he said. "It kind of goes against the code of my former profession back home. When I make a deal, I don't go blabbing about it."

"A deal? Did you make a deal with someone to hurt Regina?"

"I did not," he said. "Rather when I made a certain deal many years ago and secured a certain item for a person I had no idea who it was to be used on."

"Many years ago?" Emma questioned. "This is happening now. I don't understand."

He sighed. "I honestly don't know what Regina sees in you. Clearly it is not your intellect. Now like I said the deal I made happened years ago. Before you were born even. A person came to me looking for something that would make another person need them, like an alcoholic needs a drink although this particular potion works in a more subtle manner. I imagine if the person who requested this potion knew that they would have to wait all these years to use it on their intended target they would have asked for something a little more fast-acting."

Emma thought about it. "Heather," she said finally. "She came over in this last wave which means she wouldn't have been able to do anything with whatever it is that you gave her."

Gold smiled, "Maybe your intelligence level isn't low, maybe it's just slow."

"Well maybe if you had just come out and said it," Emma said. "I knew that woman was trouble. Where does she have Regina?"

"I don't know," he said getting irritated. "Sheriff, I have very little interest in all of this. If Regina couldn't handle keeping herself protected then she certainly isn't the person I trained her to be."

"The fact that she isn't; that she could turn her life around is one of the reasons I love her," Emma said before walking out.

….

Emma was beyond frustrated at this point as she took a seat at the counter at Granny's. She had been searching for Heather and Regina for a week now and hadn't made any progress. She was sure Regina, or maybe even Heather, was using magic to keep them hidden. She didn't want to believe it was Regina but if Heather had her under her control like Emma suspected then it was possible.

She hadn't expected to find her mother to be her main opponent in all of it. Since being released from the hospital—and really while she was still in the hospital – Snow had been telling everyone who would listen that Regina, the Evil Queen, was back and they needed to be prepared to defeat her. She had managed to stir up a minor panic among the citizenry and Emma had responded to a couple of supposed sightings of the Evil Queen. When the calls had come in, no one had referred to her as Regina.

How quickly they forget that Regina had changed her ways.

Emma had tried explaining this to her mother but to no avail. Snow was convinced that it was Regina acting alone as the Evil Queen who had attacked her. Yet when Emma had questioned her further about it, her mother was short on details which Snow had chalked up to the trauma of the situation.

Snow hadn't mentioned anything about Heather being with Regina which is also what made Emma suspicious of the whole thing.

Ruby put a cup of coffee down in front of her without Emma even ordering.

"Thanks," she said.

"You are welcome. I don't need to ask how the hunt is going because obviously you wouldn't be in here," Ruby said. "So how are you doing?"

"I'm worried about her."

"I know you are. I can't imagine what this must be like for you and Henry."

"Henry. He also believes as I do that this isn't Regina; that Heather is controlling her, but he also believes that Regina won't do anything bad."

"And you believe otherwise?"

"When I went back in time I saw Regina as the Evil Queen and she was …"

"She was evil," Ruby finished for her.

"Yes she was and while I believe in her good nature now, I can't say that I think she won't do anything bad if Heather is controlling her. Gold has been no help in giving me a direct answer on what kind of potion Heather gave Regina and how to break its hold on her. He indicated that Heather has magic but again wasn't forthcoming on what that means exactly," Emma said. "I don't want to have to face Regina if she truly has turned back into the person she once was. It's not that I don't think she could be defeated, it's just if we can get her back it needs to be before she does anything she is going to end up regretting. Despite what she says, I know she has regrets about the things she has done. It's a heavy burden to carry."

Ruby was about to offer her words of comfort when Leroy came crashing into the diner.

"She's here, the Evil Queen is here!"