A/N: Welcome to part three of the series: Lost and Found. If you have not read Descent into Darkness: A Tragedy in the Name of Love or Ascent into Light (both posted here), then it is recommended that you have at least played Sonic Adventure 2 (or SA2B). Also, if you have not read the prior stories, 'dokan' is the word I'm using for the humanoid animal races in the Sonic-verse; 'furry' sounds silly and is too narrow (are the Babylon Rogues then 'featheries'?) and 'anthropomorph' or similar terms are too long. Other than that, this is more loosely linked to the base game(s) than the prior stories. There is a lot of story in Heroes that got shoved behind the scenes, and if this goes into ShTH, that's a whole other level of complexity. Obviously, there will be spoilers for the above.

On with the story:

Lost and Found

The corridor was empty, except for the accumulated dust and sand of several months of neglect. Despite the tight-sealed doors separating the corridor from the still-used portions of the base, sand seemed to end up everywhere.

The silence was disturbed by a metallic clinking sound, followed by a faint scraping noise. Eventually the ventilation mesh in the ceiling was lifted aside, allowing the unmistakable form of a dokan to drop down into the corridor. Rouge the Bat glanced quickly up and down the corridor, then permitted herself to relax slightly. There was no indication that anyone - or anything - was aware of her entry, and clearly even the cleaning robots didn't come this way. She moved towards the large, solid metal doors that stood between her and her goal, glad to be out of the glare at last. Humans and the diurnal dokan might enjoy a day at the beach, but to a bat the Piscine islands on a midsummer day were simply too bright.

She considered the keypad a moment, then tried the code that she had been provided with when she received her instructions for her current mission. She grinned in delight as the doors powered up and slid open. "This must be it! I've found Eggman's secret treasure!" The code and location of the base had been part of her briefing, but the layout had not been known, and this vault was well hidden. And well sealed, she thought, glancing a bit uneasily at the massive doors as she stepped between them. If they close while I'm in here, no one would ever hear me, even standing just outside the doors. But then, she'd never been trapped in a vault yet, and she'd been in plenty of them. Well, except that time on Prison Island when she'd been rescued by– she shook her head sharply; distractions could cause unwanted complications. Stepping towards a large structure with a glowing green top, she speculated eagerly as to what sort of treasures might lie herein.

The green glow made her think greedily of Chaos Emeralds, but it appeared rather to be some sort of fluid, with a darker shape floating inside it. She frowned at the keyboard on the front of the unit and tapped in the Doctor's standard password, then looked up in delight as the fluid began to drain and the top hatch of the pod cracked open.

Delight turned to jaw-dropping shock as she realized what –no, who was inside the pod. Then suddenly the room exploded with noise and flare; the next thing she knew she was lying on her back on the concrete with an impossibly familiar red-and-black hedgehog crouched over her, while machine guns bullets ricocheted off the walls and equipment in the room. "Stay here," the hedgehog ordered, and jumped away.

"Shadow!" she gasped, then with great presence of mind crept out the door, peeking back in to see a large red robot trying to pick Shadow off as he bounced from wall to wall on the attack.

"Must destroy all Eggman robots!" The mechanical voice had to belong to the robot.

"Huh?" Her agile mind suddenly seeing a way to make use of both the room's residents, Rouge jumped back into the room as Shadow launched himself for the robot. "Hey, hold up!" Diving between them she shoved the robot's gun arm upwards and flung her other hand towards Shadow, who skidded to a stop. It wasn't until the pair did stop that it occurred to her what could have happened if they hadn't.

"Shadow's not a robot, he's a dokan like me," she said to the robot, shaking off her belated attack of nerves. "So stop trying to shoot him up.

"Why do you want to destroy all of Eggman's robots anyway?"

"I am E-123 Omega. I was created by Eggman as the strongest of all of his E-series robots, then he locked me up here to kill anyone who tried to come in and activate that unit." For a moment Rouge thought the robot meant Shadow, then realized it was referring to the capsule in which Shadow had been contained.

"But you're not trying to kill me now," she said cautiously, hoping that the reminder wouldn't provoke another attack.

"I was left here to prevent anyone trying to activate the unit," was the mechanical reply. You are not currently trying to activate the unit, so I have no reason to kill you. As the unit has been activated, I no longer have to remain here on guard. Therefore I must prove that I am the strongest of Dr. Eggman's robots by destroying all of the other robots."

"Eggman won't like that very much," mused the bat. Shadow was gazing rather blankly around the room, looking like he'd been hit over the head once too often.

"I did not like being locked in this room very much," responded the robot almost primly.

A corner of Rouge's mouth quirked in amusement. The robot was angry with its creator and therefore was going to defy him by acting on the actual letter of its commands. She looked at the dazed hedgehog. "What about you, Shadow? We all thought you were dead when you fell after the ARK was saved. How did you end up here, of all places?"

"What?" The other looked at her in perplexity. "Shadow... ...that's my name. What's an ARK?" Glaring at Omega, he added, "I do know I don't like being shot at."

Rouge stared at him in surprise. How could anyone forget saving the entire planet!? But then... if he fell to Earth... Could he have survived that? She remembered the report she'd made up for the president during that incident. Shadow had been created in an attempt to capture eternal life and youthfulness, and to have incredible healing abilities. If anyone on the planet could survive plummeting through the atmosphere, it would be the Ultimate Life-Form. Nodding slightly to herself, she announced, "Now I get it...now I know what this is all about." To Omega, "You're mad at Eggman for sealing you in this room! And you..." she looked at Shadow, who had turned his back on her and the robot. "You can't remember anything, can you? Then let's get this settled! We can go looking for Eggman together!" She took the other two's hands and linked them with her own. "Yeah baby! This makes us a TEAM!"