"Are you sure you can do this, Emma?" Regina's voice was mixed with uncertainty. She wasn't sure how much magic Emma had here, nor did she know how much energy this would take away from her.
Snow and Henry had finally found out about Emma having magic in this world, although not about the part where it hurt Emma every time they touched her. Emma and Regina had had to tell them about her magic in order for their plan to work.
Emma's exhausted green eyes met Regina's dark brown ones from across the room. "No, I'm not sure, but I have to try, right?" she replied.
"I think she should try it, Mom," Henry agreed. "We don't have any other ideas at the moment, anyway. Plus, the hospital said they're not comfortable with releasing Emma yet. We need to get Emma out of here."
Snow spoke up from her spot in the corner. "What if it doesn't work? Or what if the spell doesn't wear off and we end up getting Regina stuck here, instead?"
Regina shrugged and leaned back against the door. "I kind of deserve it, don't I? That would be nothing compared to what I've done to others. Besides, they'd release me eventually."
"Okay, okay, fine," Snow said. "I'm just really worried about Emma, and I guess you, too, Regina, though not as much."
Regina laughed genuinely. "I appreciate your honesty."
"So… what am I supposed to be doing?" Emma asked. "Do I just say, 'I want to look just like Regina,' or something?"
Regina smirked at the blonde. "No. It's more like being in a play; you have to build up the character and just kind of… become that person."
"Right." Emma nodded. "So, I want to be a bitchy brunette, basically."
"Very funny, Miss Swan." Regina crossed her arms. She bit back a sassy remark and kept her seriousness. She continued on. "Turning me into you will be more difficult. I'm not even sure how to do it; you'll have to figure it out on your own."
"What?!" exclaimed Emma. "So I'm on my own for that? What if we end up with two Reginas and no Emmas?"
"Can we cross that bridge if and when we get there, please, Swan? Right now, the plan is to turn you into me and me into you. That's it," Regina assured her. "The more you worry about it going wrong, the more likely it is to go wrong."
"Let me make sure I have this whole thing straight," Snow pleaded. "Emma is going to make you look like her and herself look like you? And Henry and I are going to leave with the Regina-looking Emma and leave you, the real Regina, here? Then, the magic on you, Regina, is supposed to wear off, and you'll go back to being Regina, call a guard, and ask to be let go since you're not a patient here. Right?" Snow's head was spinning; this was an incredibly confusing plan. It was so hard to keep the details straight that she sounded like a lost kindergartener whilst listing out all the steps involved.
"You got it," Regina said encouragingly. "Your only job here is to take Emma and Henry out of here."
"Okay," Snow said nervously.
Regina shifted her position so she was totally facing Emma. "Are you ready, Emma? We should probably get this done soon."
Emma didn't say anything, only nodded.
Emma glanced quickly back at her mother and son, then took in a large swallow of air. She decided she would start by turning Regina into her. Better to get the hard part over with.
Emma drew from every last bit of power she could feel pulsing inside of her. She drew from her thoughts, her emotions, her needs, her wants. A wild wind picked up in the room as she did so, whipping her blond hair around her expressionless face. Emma drew from everything she knew she was and everything she knew, and she sent all of that into one place, one ball of Emma, tucked in between her fingertips. It was almost beautiful; the tiny swirling mass was a mixture of every color imaginable: red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange, black, white, silver, gold. Emma felt she was holding the most precious rainbow.
The swirling orb spun with more force, and the wind in the room became twice as intense. It was all anyone could do to stay standing.
Emma suddenly hurled the colorful ball of light at Regina; it passed right into Regina's chest. Right where her heart was.
Suddenly, a rainbow array of colors swirled around Regina, much like the dark tendrils had done days before, only with much more beauty and much more purpose. Regina's face took on more of Emma's features by the second, and you could see Regina's body being re-molded into Emma's through the colored lights encircling her.
The wind stopped abruptly, the lovely colors in the room disappeared, and there Regina stood, looking exactly like Emma.
The real Emma collapsed to the floor in exhaustion, and Mary Margaret hurried to her side. She helped the unsteady blonde to her feet and onto the bed.
Emma had just enough energy to hide the red marks left behind by her mother's touch from view. It was simply that she was so afraid of hurting the people she loved that caused the painful, sparkling red marks to appear on her skin wherever they touched her. It was like she was trying to give them some defense against her.
Regina studied the lighter skin that was now covering her arms, held up a strand of blond hair in her face, and pressed her hands to her face. She could feel Emma's high cheekbones on her own face, and the scar that normally resided on her upper lip had disappeared. "Emma, that was amazing," Regina breathed. "I didn't know this kind of thing was possible!"
Emma panted heavily from her place on the bed. She was so tired now. She felt like she'd just run a marathon. No, two marathons. Sweat was running down her face and exploding from practically every pore in her body.
Mary Margaret gently pushed a strand of sweat-soaked hair from Emma's face. "I know you're tired, Emma, but this can't work unless we have a Regina look-alike to walk out with."
Emma groaned. "I'll try," she mumbled. "But I'm not standing up for it."
This time, instead of drawing from her own powers, Emma shut her eyes and searched for the presence of Regina's magic. It was faint, since this world suppressed magic, but Emma found it. She mentally grabbed onto it and imagined what it would be like to be Regina. Emma imagined walking around with Regina's short raven-colored layers and piercing brown eyes. She imagined how much love she must hold for Henry and how hard it must be for her to share her only son with a mother who had asked for a closed adoption. Emma thought about how Regina had overcome her own demons to become good; she thought about how Regina must be tempted on a daily basis to return to the Villain's side.
"Emma?" Mary Margaret's soft voice broke through Emma's thoughts.
Emma sat up in her psychiatric hospital bed. Something felt different.
She reached up and felt her now layered, short brown haircut, exactly like Regina told her she had done after casting the curse.
Across the room stood… herself. But it wasn't herself. It was Regina with Emma's looks.
"Holy shit," Emma said.
"Emma, you've been sleeping for forty-five minutes. We need to get going now. Regina's guessing this whole different-looks thing will wear off within the next four hours, and we want to get going long before that happens." Mary Margaret's voice was both gentle and insistent at the same time.
Emma nodded sluggishly. Emma was tired, but less so than before, presumably because unlike her own thinning figure, Regina's body still had some muscle and energy left.
Regina Mills may have had to play the part of psychiatric patient Emma Swan for a few hours, but the real Emma Swan walked out of the hospital freely and with absolutely no opposition.