Agate collapsed into the flat part of a mountain top. Just for a few moments, she remained exactly the way she was, all her arms help close to her body and her face resting in the cool grass growing in patches amongst the untouched soil.
She breathed in deeply. She laughed. She cried. Her bottom pair of arms wrapped around her hurting ribcage while the top pair took the tears from her eyes.
Through the bliss and the blinding water, Agate spoke: "I did it. I really did it." Her smile beamed. "It's good to be back together." Then the queen wept and gently came apart into a little pink woman and a big orange one.
Even though the boundaries of their bodies were well defined, they still held one another as if they were one entity. Jasper lied on her back with Morganite filling in her empty spaces, and with those black and rainbow eyes, the smaller stared directly into the larger gem's face.
Her emotions came up and rushed out. Every single one of them at once. And all she could manage was: "Oh, Jasper."
Morganite's ribcage was nothing more than an excuse for excruciating pain. But it was so good to be in those strong arms again, and so good to know that the warrior queen's chains had been abolished. So those spent arms held onto the red-orange gem beneath her as best they could.
All this while that tangerine mouth got whatever parts of Morganite's face it could.
"Thank you!"
Her cheeks.
"Thank you!"
Her nose.
"Thank you!"
Her thick brows.
"Thank you!"
Her lips, through which they remained connected a long time. The pair even exchanged taste buds. Eventually, they separated with a little pop and Jasper was breathing hard, shedding solemn tears and dipping into the refugee's eyes.
"Hey." Elegant rose fingers came and caught Jasper's liquid sorrow.
The soldier inhaled a sharp breath.
Morganite kissed her cheek. In response, Jasper threw her head to the side.
"You've gone through such an ordeal." Touch. "And you know that I would never, ever judge you for feeling the way you do." Touch. "You don't have to bother hiding your emotions from me." Morganite's mouth moved a bit closer to Jasper's lips. "So go ahead. Let it out."
"Will you shut up? I don't—" But then her face contorted into shapes she wasn't used to, and the floodgates broke and Jasper was sobbing. Those big hands pulled Morganite in even closer, and the torture and hatred and suffering were expelled from her in boiling tears and hard breaths. Their cheeks were touching, and Morganite's face was buried in Jasper's wild white hair. And because the warrior queen was crying, her attendant began crying too.
So they lay in a pile together, as a singular, enormous hot mess, and made horrible noises and expressed every feeling either of them had ever felt. Occasionally, one would calm down and kiss the other, and there were a few moments where both were quiet. But somewhere inside the mess they created, one would begin again, and soon after, so would the other until it was all expelled and all of the energy had really and truly been spent.
The sun was beginning to set.
Morganite sluggishly crashed her lips into Jasper's neck. Her lashes brushed against her jaw-line and turned that tangerine face darker orange.
"I'm going to recover for a while, okay?"
"Sure. I think I will too."
Pause.
"Jasper?"
"Yeah?"
"I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you for everything." Another slow, slow kiss.
"I owe you one, Morganite."
"No, you don't. I did it for you and I would do it again." Now their mouths made friends and hesitated to move apart. "I'll see you in a while."
"See you."
And Morganite became a cloud of pink smoke, her gem falling upon Jasper's chest. Once again, those strong hands covered her up in a blanket of heart lines.
Then after a few minutes, Jasper too disappeared and their gems lied next to one another amongst all the stones on that mountain, along with the soil and grass they had flattened over the course of several hours.
The wild colors of the sunset phased out of the sky.
And both gem warriors were bathed in moonlight.