>>100492462It isn't explicitly stated but it is suggested that there's more to her desperation to be Malachite again than just wanting power.
Garnet's subtle "you're just mad that you're single" line and Jasper's not-so-subtle "nobody I fuse with ever wants to stay" line both have implications that she deals with feelings of loneliness, and it makes sense for her to with her background.
But Jasper doesn't like opening up or expressing vulnerability to others because she's afraid of being weak. She knew Lapis enjoyed having power over her, and that's probably why she was only hyping up the power of Malachite when trying to convince Lapis to fuse with her again, even though she later showed that she was unable to move on from their fusion and felt more emotionally affected than she wanted to let on, especially with the way she stayed in the ocean afterwards and that line in Earthlings.
You also have to remember that Jasper already had self worth issues before the fusion and that was playing a part in it, by Rebecca's words the fusion was bringing out the worst of both of their issues and flaws and Jasper's biggest ones are her self hatred and self destructiveness.
She feels undeserving of help and love and puts all of her value into her strength, so she might have felt like she deserved the punishment Lapis put her though and ended up feeling even weaker and more useless than before Malachite after the power Lapis gave her was taken away.
So I'm not saying she she feels affection for Lapis, but she did come to have some kind of emotional dependency on her and a desire for companionship, that's development.
For other hints, there's two pieces of art from the crewniverse depicting Jasper in the ocean post-Malachite while thinking about her.
And the "you're just mad that you're single line" also gets translated into less subtle lines like "I can see the hate caused you this, lonely and friendless" and "you are alone, I know it torments you" in other languages.
