Zoe had never felt so uncomfortable in her life.

Sitting on the plastic covered couch of this home, she couldn't help but feel incredibly out of place, but she was here with purpose, and she refused to ignore it. The woman brought her a cupcake and a cup of coffee, both of which she accepted graciously, before the woman seated herself beside her husband. Both were wearing the kind of clothing one would expect from aging out hippies. Zoe sipped her coffee, then pulled the wrapper off her cupcake and took a bite. After a moment, she finally spoke.

"I know this is sudden," she said, "um, believe me, I'm aware of how strange it is, but I just...I felt so bad, and she was my friend, and I just want to do something nice in her memory."

"We appreciate it," the woman said, crossing her legs, "really, we do. Nobody else seems to have even cared, sans her boss. We've been hurting so much since it happened, we can't even go to the graveyard. It's all just...too overwhelming. To lose something you didn't anticipate having in the first place, and then loving with such ferocity."

Zoe got a confused look on her face, so the man sighed and leaned forward, hand resting on his wifes knee.

"Raindrop wasn't...planned," he said, "hell, that can likely be said for many of the children in our community at the time they were conceived. The love was free, the contraception not so much."

Zoe laughed. Fully, heartily laughed, and it felt good. He smiled.

"But," he continued, "we loved her so deeply. She was our special little girl, and she was so talented, so skilled, so driven. Ambitious. Sure, she wound up encompassing all the very things we despised in our youth, but you know what, we'd rather her betray or morals and live a moderately comfortable life for herself than try to follow in our footsteps in a world that no longer believes in those things anyway, and be unhappy as a result. We didn't care. We were just happy she was successful. She was our daughter, and we loved her."

"I only knew her a short time, while she was working at the casino right before she was killed, but we became good friends and...and I really just want to do something that honors her memory, you know? Something that she would want someone to do in her name. Carry out, like, her final wishes or whatever," Zoe said, "but I'm not even really sure what those might be."

A lie. She knew damn well Raindrop had already gotten what she wanted...a swift exit from the situation. Away from Raymond. Away from it all. Still, Zoe wanted to do something more for her. Alan and Mary looked at one another, thinking about it momentarily, until Alda snapped his fingers and pointed at Zoe.

"You know what she really loved, I mean, at least when she was a kid, can't speak for her interest in it as an adult of course," Alan said, leaning forward and grinning now as he whispered, "she loved space."

                                                       ***

Agent Rebecca Siskel had been late getting to the office thanks to having to order her coffee three separate times, because they'd been training someone new who simply couldn't get it right. Finally having parked in the parking garage and now stepping out of her car, cup in hand, she felt exhausted and it was only 9 in the morning, a whole work day stretching before her. She started the walk to the elevator, sipping her coffee, letting the warmth bring her back to life.

"You're not gonna believe what I have to tell you," a voice said, causing her to jump and spill her coffee all over herself, which, in turn, made her scream.

"Fuck! Fuck that's hot!"

"Oh god I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" Allie said, stepping out of the shadows.

"Then why are you hiding like Deep Throat?!" Agent Siskel shouted back.

"I'm a magician, I just like making an entrance!" Allie replied, helping wipe her shirt down, adding, "I'll pay for cleaning, don't worry, hell I'll even buy you a new suit. But trust me when I tell you that I wasn't being hyperbolic, you really aren't going to believe what I'm about to tell you."

Agent Siskel finally finished dabbing at her clothing, with Allie's help, and stared her down. Allie couldn't tell if she was going to dismiss her or not, which was stupid, because why would they come this far and not finish it? After a few moments, Agent Siskel ran a hand through her hair, exasperated, and rolled her eyes.

"Alright, walk with me," she finally said, the two women continuing through the parking garage before getting into the elevator that led up to the main offices; Agent Siskel added, "so what is it that was so imperative that I know that you had to scare the living shit out of me?"

"Tony came to me," Allie said, "I went to my loft to get some things, and found him waiting for me, watering my plants. He told me that he is terrified of Raymond. He knows I stole the car. But here's the thing, he isn't mad. He wants to work with me, and he has, as he put it, a scapegoat, a fall guy."

Agent Siskel stopped the elevator and turned to face Allie.

"Miss Meers," she said, "I'm an agent of the law, sworn to uphold and protect it, and you're asking me to participate in the involvement of blaming everything on a seemingly innocent man. Now, normally, I'd say absolutely not, but the thing I've learned repeatedly during this investigation is that fairness, justice, isn't real. It's an illusion. My case is being buried repeatedly by red tape, thanks to Raymond having so many favors with judges in the court. Unless we hit him with so many things that he can't help but cave, there's no taking him down. He's a politician. They're untouchable."

Allie stared at this woman, a woman who, at one point, believed so deeply in her work, her ethics and morals, who had now become an embittered and cynical shell of her former self, and she smirked.

"Well then," Allie said, "I guess if justice is an illusion, it's a good thing that's my specialty, being a magician and all."

Agent Siskel stared back, and then smirked as well. She was ready to hear what Allie had to offer.

                                                      ***

Rachel St. Sebastian was sitting on the porch of the funeral home, eating her breakfast sandwich and sipping coffee when the car pulled up and parked. Rachel looked up and casually took a drag from her cigarette before ashing it on the edge of the old, brass table beside her seat and took another bite of her food. Zoe exited from the car and slowly approached the car, hands in her coat pockets initially, but as soon as she saw Rachel's posture stiffen at this, she removed her hands from her pockets and Rachel immediately changed her body language, softening.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked.

"I need a favor," Zoe said, "um...and it may very well be immoral, I don't know, but-"

"Yeah, cause that's stopped me before," Rachel said, interrupting, taking another drag as she looked away. Zoe seated herself on a chair beside Rachel and exhaled, hands clasped tightly on her knees.

"-I need you to dig up Raindrop and...and burn her. Put her through the cremation process. I mean, what remains of her anyway, at this point, if that's possible. Forgive me, I know nothing of the decomposition process. And before you get all legal about it, yes, her parents said it was okay, and I even got it in writing."

"Not for nothing, but it can take 10 to 15 years to fully decompose to a skeletal form, so you're right in admitting you know nothing about the decomposition process. Since it's only been a few months, she'll be, more or less, relatively the same as when we buried her. And kudos on you for getting their permission, but...I do have to wonder why you need me for that?"

"Well you're the one who buried her, and..." Zoe said, shaking her head, staring at her shoes, "look, I'm gonna level with you, the whole thing's left me so shaken up that I can barely manage day in or day out. I want to fulfill her last wishes, or what her parents thought they might be. But I can't do it alone. All of this happened because I was trying to protect a woman I care about, you of all people should recognize what that's like."

Rachel nodded slowly, taking another long drag and then a sip of coffee. She did indeed know what that was like. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and nodded again.

"We can do it, but I'll need you to tell me more about what it is we're doing with her, post cremation," Rachel said.

Zoe continued staring at the wooden slatted porch and exhaled slowly, deeply, shutting her eyes.

"We're taking her to space," she said, causing Rachel to raise an eyebrow.

                                                      ***

"Everything lines up perfectly," Allie said.

She, Agent Siskel and Agent Tropper were now seated in a private, locked room, the agents at the table as Allie paced in front of them, laying it all out bare for tem the way Tony had for her. She continued.

"Tony hired Strange as a new act," Allie said, "Strange is literally an escape artist. Now he approaches Tony claiming I'm the one who tried to rob him, I'm the one who's after him, and his supposed proof? Grainy film footage from a hidden camera HE installed in the parking lot of the casino, which we can frame as him casing the joint for years in advance. He's the perfect candidate. We give Tony the car, Tony gives it all to you guys, you take Raymond down on embezzlement charges - because wealth fraud is the only thing the courts give any shit about - and Tony and I each do a bit of time. Everyone else walks free. Jackson gets the brunt of the blame."

She stopped and looked at them. Agent Tropper was eating a hashbrown from a local fast food place. He chewed, then looked at Agent Siskel and shrugged. She sighed, sipped her new mug of coffee and set it down on the table.

"It isn't that simple, Allie," Agent Siskel said, "It's just one groups word against another. We still need proof. We still need proof of everything. We have a bunch of doctored papers that Nicole kept for her father, records and such, but...we need the smoking gun. We need numbers. These papers, they're just...they're receipts and stuff, links to questionable banks and sources and funds. We need a detailed account record. Without that, it's just...heresay."

Allie groaned and sat down across from them. She put her head on the table and stared at the wood grain. Why was it always so difficult. Why, just once, couldn't everything work out in her favor. All she was trying to do, at this point, was spare her friends any more hardship, make things right. She thought about Sunny. About that night in her loft, the night that started all of this, when she killed him. She grimaced.

"All I've been trying to do this entire time is protect someone," Allie mumbled, "protect someone who only wanted to work with me. I didn't want to see her get sucked into the same bullshit lifestyle I got sucked into. But...the thing is...I think even that's sort of an excuse, cause she was never as damaged as me. She never would've fallen victim to it. I think I just saw enough of myself, or who I could've been had I been a healthier person, in her that I was scared she'd also succumb to this cities ills."

Allie finally looked up at the agents again.

"And if we can get that one vital piece of information?" Allie asked.

"Then we're golden, but we've cleaned house, there's nothing left at Nicole's," Agent Siskel said, shrugging, "I'm sorry, Allie. Tony's plan is good, but without that crucial thing that ties it all together...that irrefutable proof...we have nothing, as always."

She'd tried so hard, she'd gotten so far, and repeatedly had the end snatched away from her. Allie wanted to disappear. Thankfully, that was another thing magicians were good at.

                                                        ***

Zoe and Rachel were seated in the main viewing station of the local planetarium.

Nobody else was there, and they had the dome to themselves, an urn sitting between Zoe's legs. The star screen overhead slowly rolled by, both women staring at it intently, each lost in deep thought about something. Zoe finally broke her concentration and looked down at the urn when she heard the sound of a lighter being flicked, and looked to see Rachel lighting a cigarette. Zoe smirked.

"They really do allow smoking anywhere in this city," Zoe said, "thank you for helping me."

"I get it," Rachel said, not looking at her, "I get you. I get what it's like to want to do the right thing, especially for a woman you care so much about."

"I didn't really know her that well, I just-"

"Not her," Rachel said, shaking her head, "no. Allie. That's why you've done anything you've done, right? I get that. To love someone so deeply, be it platonic or not, that you'd be willing to do anything for them...even if it means sidelining your own best interests and well being. Only difference is, I think, Allie genuinely cares about you. I don't think Claire cares about me. Not in the way I want, or need. We're not that different, Zoe. Not at all."

Zoe looked at Rachel, tapping her cigarette on the arm of the chair, ashing it to the floor where she smeared it around with her shoe.

"We just want to be appreciated and loved," she continued, "like anyone does. You're a good person. I like to think I am, but I can't be certain. You can't call yourself a good person, that's the thing, because that's egotistical, narcissism. You have to have that goodness verified by outside sources. So I'm verifying yours right now, Zoe. You...are a good person. You gave this woman information for the right reasons, because, from the way you explained it to me, you saw someone else like us who wanted out from under the boot of an owner. You felt guilty about her death, so what did you do? You didn't hide it. You didn't run away. You approached that guilt head on by going to her parents and asking them point blank what could be done to make her memory stronger. Zoe," Rachel said, turning and taking Zoe's hands in her own, her eyes wet with tears, "you...are a good person."

Zoe bit her lip. Her entire time in Vegas, working with Allie, all of this...she'd struggled so much with that very question of her morality, and whether or not it even existed. Now here was a woman, a woman who'd helped another woman - much like herself - hide bodies in walls tell her outright she was, in fact, good. Zoe started to cry, and Rachel pulled her in for a hug. Rachel wasn't typically the sentimental type, but she was so tired, so very very tired, from dealing with everything, with Claire, and it'd finally broken through her walls. Rachel St. Sebastian squeezed this poor young girl as tight as she possibly could, and when she finally pulled apart, she held Zoe's hands and she smiled warmly.

"Let's do this. Let's send her to space," she whispered, and Zoe nodded.

Zoe stood up and they undid the screw lid on the urn, then they carefully tipped the urn into their cupped hands and started tossing Raindrop's ashes all over the auditorium. Here she would, forever, amongst the planets and the constellations and the galaxies. From nothing she came, to nothing she returned, stardust once more. But at least she'd be remembered.

                                                        ***

Allie entered her loft, exhausted. She slowly pulled her jacket off and dropped it on the floor when she noticed Tony, still here, looking through a photo album. He smiled as he watched her approach, and then patted the spot on the couch beside him. She smiled weakly, and took her seat, laying her head on his shoulder.

"Are you looking at my photos?" she asked.

"I like to see where you came from, before I found you," Tony said, "Allie I built this casino, this business, but you helped cement it with your stage work. I like to see where you started. You don't seem like a very happy child in most of these."

"Not sure why I even keep reminders of an adolescence I ran so far away from around," Allie replied shrugging.

"I think cause it helps contextualize our present. A sort of 'look how far I've gotten' mentality, you know?" Tony asked, "I'm proud of you, I hope you know that. You put this place on the map of the city with your act, you survived a tiger attack, you got sober. I'm so fucking proud of you, kid."

Allie looked up at him and she realized he wasn't just saying this. He really meant it. Sure, they'd drifted a bit apart since all of this started, but in the end, he really did love her. He really had been more of a father to her than her own ever was. Allie closed her eyes and nuzzled against him more, and he rubbed her back, holding her close. It was a moment of quiet reflection, of solidarity. Rufus had been right after all. Tony had never tried to implicate her, or anything of the sort, he'd done the exact opposite...protect her, at all costs. She'd gotten herself involved, albeit accidentally, of her own accord. What a fucked up pseudo father daughter bonding experience this turned out to be.

"How did it go?" Tony asked.

"Not good. I mean, they liked the plan, but they said without a bullet proof key piece of evidence, something that really is iron clad about his knowingly financial involvement, that he's untouchable," Allie said, sighing, feeling herself start to fall asleep; she yawned, then added, "I think we're done, Tony. I can't do any more."

He looked at the photos in the album on his lap. A photo of Allie in her magician costume as a teenage girl. This adorable little girl, the daughter he'd always seen her for, the talent he'd long since appreciated and admired, and he couldn't...he just couldn't let her go down for a man she had never even been directly involved with.

"What's that phrase magicians use?" Tony finally asked, "there's nothing up my sleeve? Well I still got one trick up my sleeve."

"Yeah, what's that?" Allie asked, half laughing, half asleep.

"...Nicole has a book," Tony said, and Allie's eyes slowly opened as she looked upwards at him, and he down at her. That had woken her back up.