"Jasper, what happened to Morganite? It seems she's up and disappeared. Like magic! Explain."

"I tried to apprehend her, Ma'am, but she escaped."

"She escaped! How intriguing!"

Jasper just kept her eyes closed, facing the floor in a low, apologetic bow.

"I could kill you for lying. I'm sure you're aware of that." Yellow Diamond sat back a little further in her chair. "But I'm not going to kill you. Not just yet, anyway. You're too useful for me to impulsively turn to dust, and I'm certain you know where she is. So talk."

"I don't know where Morganite went, Ma'am. She's more than likely on another planet."

"'More than likely.' I don't believe this. I should have known to ask someone else to do this job. But you've been such a loyal and dutiful soldier up to this point. I'm hurt, Jasper. More than hurt, I'm shocked. And now you won't even tell me what you did with her. Perhaps the more important question is: what should I do with you?"

Silence.

"I guess I should have expected this. That little reject didn't have any friends other than you, and it doesn't seem like you're swimming in pals either." She sighed. "Even so, I thought you would follow my orders. Oh, but that look on your face…It's a sad, sad day when Jasper, Conqueror of Worlds, disobeys me of all gems. I underestimated how much you loved her. How foolish of me."

"Loved her, Ma'am?" Jasper was blushing furiously.

"Yes. And don't you suggest for a moment that my accusation is off-base. You would never do something this stupid unless you felt incredibly strongly about something, or I suppose, someone." Her thumb, middle and index finger found places against her temples. "I'm sick of looking at you."

She rose and one of her servants handed her a destabilizer. "I know you've used one of these, but do you know how it feels?"

"No, ma'am."

There were a few steps, and Jasper could hear the frantic energy coming from the two prongs pointed directly at her forehead.

"You'll get to find out in about ten second unless you're feeling a little more talkative."

Yellow static that almost touched her. The Queen shifted her weight.

"Not to worry. It won't hurt nearly as badly compared to what you'll be experiencing throughout the next several days. Just remember, you can alleviate the excruciating pain by telling us what you know, but that's up to you now. Good luck."

Yellow Diamond thrust her weapon forward, directly into Jasper's face. Her enormous body, that seemed so resistant to everything, disappeared, and that fiery tangerine stone clinked upon the polished floor.

Then she held that very gem in her cruel hands and tossed it haphazardly to her servant. "Torture her until she speaks."

"Yes, My Lady. Right away."

But Jasper wouldn't speak. It went on for six entire days until Yellow Diamond decided to forgive her. Though, this pardoning came with a bright red warning that if she ever did anything like this again, she wouldn't think twice about smashing her to pieces.

"You're lucky you've been so loyal and that I'm in a good mood." She had said.

In the meantime, they had cleaned out all of Morganite's things. Peridot delighted in completely upgrading her office and throwing out all of her bottles and books and plastic bags and other assorted interplanetary junk. Now that space was made up of clean, straight, perfect lines and the newest and best technology.

Her room was entirely empty and devoid of anything that had ever been associated with her.

Morganite might as well have been dead.

But just as Jasper had promised, her painting was set up in her home, hanging upon the wall. It waited for her everyday to break her heart with all of its almost straight lines and vibrant colors. Hiding amongst all the triangles and squares was a heart-shaped pink gem in the bottom right hand corner and a familiar fiery orange stone in the upper right.

Agate.

The Queen of Disaster was crying, lost somewhere in the light years between them.

Jasper went away with Peridot to Earth just as Morganite was being dropped off on the beach, somewhere in Japan.

The ex-aristocrat thanked Emerald for the ride and did what she always did: collected souvenirs and wrote everything down. She studied even more Earth creatures and studied more Earth languages and ate all sorts of different Earth candies.

And she waited for Jasper.

Sometimes, when the novelty wore off, Morganite would sit on the balcony of her tiny apartment and look into the heavens. She attempted to read the stars and erase her memories, begging those bodies of light for an answer. But Morganite couldn't accomplish any of these tasks.

One night, she came close to praying that Jasper would somehow figure out where she was; praying that she was even still living. Yet, little did she know that her warrior goddess would soon be imprisoned at the bottom of the ocean Morganite would occasionally dip her feet into.

Their cruel fates and sick destinies were even further intertwined.

Surely, it would only take one more shift in the paradigm and one more swing in the pendulum before they were reunited and could embrace again. Queen Agate was very much alive; she was simply fragmented between different continents that shared a singular world and a singular ocean.

Quelle ironie, she would say as she destroyed an entire forest and smile enthusiastically with her crazy mouth.

What irony.

Mais c'est la vie.

But that's life.