Chapter 6

In her current condition not even being able to disappear respectively appear in a purple cloud of smoke she had no choice but to take the little yellow death-trap. As she got out of the car and hurried towards her own vault, she took a look at the watch. Damn! Twenty minutes late. When she finally arrived, she spotted herself – no, Emma – standing in the middle of the vault, waiting.
"Miss Mills. Being the model of punctuality as I see", she greeted her with an arched smile, not able to contain her satisfaction.
Regina snorted. Did she just Miss Mill her? She had to confess, it didn't feel so good. Maybe she should stop teasing Emma with that. Throwing the other woman a self-mocking look she answered: "Very funny. Please Emma, I think you made your point quite clear. I apologize for my delay."
Emma grinned and shrugged her shoulders: "No big deal, Regina."
"Can we start now? Maybe we will find a clue as to what has brought us into this… dilemma."
Emma nodded and so the two of them began their search.

It didn't take long for them to find the little vial, lying on the table, of course empty by now. Emma, ever the attentive sheriff, took it off the desk. "Look at this, Regina. What is it?" The older woman, at the other side of the room, approached fast.
"Well, well, well, if this isn't… I can't believe it!", she whispered astonished, as she recognized the little bottle. "I totally forgot about it."
Emma raised her eyebrows questioningly. "So is this a trace or not?"
Regina nodded. "It definitively is. I do exactly know now what has occurred to us. Shame on me for not remembering the instant I apprehended the situation!"
"So…?"
The former queen cleared her throat, a little embarrassed. "Well, some time ago, before I had casted the spell that brought everyone to Storybrooke, I experimented with some other means to … get rid of your mother. One of my ideas was to simply switch body with her, so I could get rid of all her friends and allies without them even getting suspicious. The possibilities could have been various – from bringing Snow into discredit with the populace, having her killed by Charming himself mistaking her for the evil queen…" Regina absently gazed into the distance, then, realizing who she was talking to, she smiled embarrassedly. "You see, after a short while I discarded the thought because it seemed too devious, even for my standards, and I decided upon something more aggressive than sneaky. Besides, I realized that it would have a weakening effect on my magical powers, a fact I wasn't willing to accept at that time…"

Emma still was looking at her with big eyes. The former queen just waved her hand. "This was years ago, I didn't do it and I have changed since then. So will you stop looking at me like this?"
The other woman just shook her head in disbelief. "You sure were a villain back then… But what is the potion doing here? Didn't you like… threw it away or something?"
"Obviously I didn't, Emma, as you can clearly see the consequences it brought opun us. To be honest, I thought about it as a kind of emergency curse. And with all that's been going on around here the last few years, I simply forgot about it."
Emma shook her head again. How could one forget about such a powerful, dangerous potion? She sighted. "It's a curse – that means it can be broken by a true love's kiss I assume?"
The other woman hesitated and bit her lips. "That was the most appealing part about it, you see. Can you imagine Charming would have kissed Snow while she was looking like me? And how should she even have convinced him, it was her, when she curse forbid her to do so?"
"I get it now, Regina, you had a really great plan to destroy my parents' happiness… But what if somehow my mother would have succeeded in persuading my father?"
With a doubtful look, Regina answered: "Then, maybe, it may have worked out. But do you have a clue how long it would take us to convince our two… men that we're actually not who we seem to be? Without being able to tell them? I am not even sure about Robin, but with all due respect, I doubt your pirate's perception. This could easily take us weeks."
Emma nodded. "Okay, you are definitively right about that. And honestly, I'd rather not have Robin Hood trying to kiss me…"
With a smirk Regina agreed: "The same goes for your pirate."

"So what are we gonna do then? Can't we just – brew something up down here?", the saviour suggested
"Well we could at least try", Regina slowly replied, still in thought. "But I wouldn't put my hopes on that."
"Give it your best. It was your potion after all that brought us into this situation."
"Excuse me?", the queen flared up. "If my memory doesn't fail me, it was you who had a lack of emotional self control and made it fall over!"
"Yeah but I wouldn't have been so mad if you wouldn't have overreacted that heavily!"
"Well I wouldn't have overreacted as you put it, if you wouldn't be late every time!"
"I already told you that I really got a lot to do all day long and can not always be perfectly on time!"
"Not always? It is the rule with you that you're at least twenty minutes late every time we meet!"

The two women were staring at each other, starting to get aggravated again. Then suddenly they both broke into laughter, relaxing.
"We're right where it all started yesterday, you know that?", Emma stated with a weak grin.
"This won't lead us anywhere. Let's instead focus on our task", Regina agreed with a genuine smile. So the two of them set aside their quarrels and started to work. They browsed various books, made some speculations, but even after three hours of work, there was no result to be seen.

Emma sat down, frustrated. "I don't get it. What are we doing wrong? What else could we possibly do?"
Regina took a seat beside her. "I know this is exhausting, but don't let yourself get discouraged. It's getting late anyway. Maybe we'll be more successful tomorrow."
The other woman nodded, caught up in her thoughts. Suddenly Regina sprung up. "I have an idea!"
Startled by the sudden noise and movement, Emma looked up. "Please tell me it isn't reading another book right now, I don't fell strong enough for that…"
"It isn't – it's something far more practical. You're going to like it" The former queen smiled mischievously. Alarmed by the look on Regina's face, Emma frowned. But after all, practical did sound good to her so she stood up as well and nodded.
"Whatever it is, I'm in. Let's do it. …what is it?", she then asked, nevertheless a little suspicious. Taking Emma's hands in hers Regina replied: "I want to give something a shot. Now, concentrate!" Following the strict order, not even daring to ask on what she should concentrate, Emma automatically closed her eyes.