A/N: BEFORE WE START!

I ask that everyone be open-minded about this chapter.

As the title says, worlds collide in this chapter...

...and things will never be the same.

Yes, this story ENDS here.

It continues in "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home" my other Bioshock fic. This has been my plan since this story was first created. Oh, and the troll infecting the reviews the who wants me to kill myself can go sod off. He seems to think my name's Ryan, oddly enough.

Pretty sure the name's Mike there, pal. Anywho!

I'M ON AN UPDATE SPREE!

I'm also a sodding uncle! WHOOO! I've got a baby nephew now!

On a side note, this story is coming to a close very soon, as I first intended. If you've been following my other Naruto-Bioshock fic, "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home" you'll see why. That's being updated today/tomorrow by the way. I've been running myself ragged in that regard. Almost twenty bloody updates this month for all these different stories! You'll be happy to see a familiar face in this chapter, if you've been reading both fics.

Tell me, which do you think is stronger? Raw, unbridled power? Or is it technique?

A monster who spent all his life under the sea, or a Sage in the Clouds?

Either one could triumph given the proper circumstances.

Also, I'm hearing rumors of another Bioshock game.

Apparently this one's going to be underground?

Hmm...not sure how to feel about that.

Still, they're just that. Rumors.

Nothing substantial.

Yet~!

...why the hell do you have my face?!"

"Tch. Look at you, faker. A copy of a copy. Why do you exist?"

"I should be asking you the same question. What's with the eyes?"

"You poor, poor deluded fool. You don't know anything do you? Its pitiful."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, oi?! You're not making any damn sense!"

"Doesn't matter. If you think your story has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."

~Omega and the Sage.

Worlds Collide

"Three tickers for passage to the First Lady airship, please."

"Yeah, just a minute friend."

Naruto cocked an ear as Booker addressed the ticket booth attendant. The beginnings of a frown creased his whiskered cheeks as they continued to converse. Bit of a one-sided conversation there, considering the latter seemed content to converse with whomever was on the end of that line. He didn't like that one. Didn't like this. Not at all. Not one bit. Where had everyone gone? Mere moments before the plaza had thrived with happy families and beach-goers. What had happened to them? Where had they gone? No, he realized, it wasn't that they'd vanished, rather

Too many people were lingering nearby.

Some read outdated newspapers, others tended to tasks that were long since complete. There was even a man cradling a half-finished hot dog in hand while another polished a perfectly pristine floor with a dirty rag. Any one of them he could have dismissed out of hand. Distantly, he heard someone lock the door behind them with a soft click of a latch. Well. That settled things, then. His every instinct screamed at him to move, to flee, to sweep Lizzie up into his arms and flee from this room/

Even then he might have passed that off as his imagination and ignored them outright, with Elizabeth at his side.

But when each wore matching clothes and carried a weapon?

No, that was too much of a coincidence even for him. Even a fool with rose-tinted glasses could see the danger. The whole thing reeked of a setup. Whether Booker realized the truth or not was a moot point. He could fend for himself. Elizabeth couldn't. He wasn't willing to let her risk herself for his sake. He didn't know what she could do in combat. Hadn't seen. Frankly he wasn't willing to trust her untested battle experience. Wordlessly, he looped an arm around his friend's waist, keeping her close despite her sputtering protest. He nearly darted out of the room with her outright, but a thorn of caution pricked his conscious and held him back. Perhaps that was his paranoia talking. Whatever the case, he found he couldn't bring himself to relax.

"Mmm-hmm." the booth-tender murmured into the phone. "I got it. I'll ring you back once the matter's in hand. We're ready to execute."

What kind of idiot was he to blow his cover like that?

"Hey. In a bit of a rush pal." Booker growled.

'And thank you once again, paranoia!'

Naruto's loosened back went tense. His arm twitched, holding the object of his affections closer, crushing her against his chest.

In his arm, Lizzie stiffened.

A gentle hand tugged at his sleeve.

Tug.

"Naruto?"

'Such misfortune!'

"What? What are you...?

"Whatever happens, stay behind me."

Averting his gaze from her pleading face and ignoring her questing tone, the ninja flicked his wrists in an imperceptibly motion. The act of which triggered the sheathes in his wrists and palmed him several knives hidden in his sleeve, five to each hand. One for every finger. She must've felt the latter against her wast, for the portal-wielder stiffened imperceptibly, her large eyes growing wide with fear. No doubt she realized what was about to happen and was terrified by it. She hadn't seen him kill anyone before. Not that his fuzzy memory recalled, at any rate.

"Yeah, I have it." as though from a great height, he heard the booth attendant continue speaking through that insipid phone of his. "Sure. We can get both apples with a single pick. How do you want to-

A hand settled on the blond's shoulder and his vision wrenched to the side as lost the conversation.

'What in the world-

As such, he was only mildly nonplussed to find himself staring in the hardened face of one of the very bruisers he'd been eyeing. His reaction was a pale shade compared to Elizabeth's. Comstock's daughter shrank back in his arms, hiding behind his shoulder. In any other situation his face would have been downright pleasant to look at; now she found it frightening. With a stern jaw, dark eyes and well-trimmed beard, his face stood set in a hard line. More so that grasp on her companion's shoulder. Judging by her companion's expression, he looked dangerously close to having words with him. At the very least.

Then the latter went and opened his fool mouth.

"Hey Mister," the suited man rumbled, "You gonna keep squeezing the girl like that?"

Naruto glared bloody red daggers at him.

"Yeah, I think I am-

He never had a chance to finish that sentence.

"Certainly sir, sorry about the WAIT!"

Booker roared in pain and all hell broke loose.

"Get the girl!" Someone shouted!

Without pause or warning the bearded man lurched forward, thrusting Naruto aside to snatch at her arm. It wasn't a bad plan; under normal circumstances he might've succeeded. Unfortunately for him, he failed to notice the array of knives hidden in the blond's hand. Said hand twitched, and her would-be assailant found himself staring at the bloody stump that had once been his wrist. Naruto didn't give him time to react; nor did he allow him to scream. He simply moved, a whirlwind of motion spinning Elizabeth behind him and thereby freeing his arms, and thusly, his hands.

Then he let the weapons fly.

The aim of a ninja isn't something to be questioned under any circumstance; even a rusty one can slaughter the unprepared. Each kunai found its mark without flaw Without fail. Ten knives flew. Some found their targets immediately. Others caromed off of nearby walls, the ceiling-even the floor itself-to find their targets. In the end, the result was the same. Ten kunai left his hand. Ten men dropped, dead. Pierced in their most vital areas without pause or preamble. The firefight ended before a single shot could be fired, indeed, before it could truly begin...

...leaving the unarmed-literally!-man to gape at the slaughter of his fellows.

Too late, he realized his own peril.

"I...you...by the Prophet...!"

Even as he fumbled for his pistol, a knife found his throat.

"M-Mercy!" He croaked out, dropping the weapon from his remaining hand. "Please! I beg of you! I have a family!"

Red, slitted eyes regarded him in silent scorn, dismissing his faint and feeble plea.

"So do I. You tried to take her from me and now, you're going to die."

"No, I-

A streak of steel, and he toppled with a wet gurgle as the blond opened his throat in a torrent of red.

Ah!

The sight finally reactivated Elizabeth and she lurched away from them, retching. The blood. So much blood. Oh, no. She was going to be sick. No, too late for that. He hadn't expected the horror in her eyes; the sight of it made him cringe. As if she were truly seeing him-the real him-for the first time, something in her recoiled. She understood it, what he had done and why he had done it, but she still couldn't reconcile his actions, nor his sudden outburst of violence with the smiling, sunny boy she'd known all her life. An increasingly faint part of her became aware of Booker approaching them, but no, she couldn't bear to look at him either, seeing the blood on his hand. Her naive mind simply refused to accept it.

She saw only blood.

Blood.

So much blood...

Cleaning his knife on the coat of his enemy, Naruto sighed softly.

...I'm sorry you had to see all of that, Lizzie."

"You killed those people." she whispered the words, bringing red-flecked hands to her face in horror. "I can't believe you did that. They're all dead."

"Lizzie, I-

She shrank back.

"You...you're a monster!"

"Honey, you don't know the half of it."

Before Naruto could offer a counterargument against her, or even think to speak his mind on that matter, an armored limb erupted through the wall behind him and closed around him with incredible force. It locked around his throat, and pulled him backward against it. Hard. He had half a heartbeat to realize what had occurred-indeed, what was about to happen-before his attacker ripped him through the wall -through space and time itself-and hurled him away out of the room. Something solid cracked against the back of his skull and stained his world red, sending him tumbling through an adjacent room and into another.

"What's wrong?" a throaty voice trickled into his ear. "Get up already."

Grimacing against the pain, the blond blinked it away and obliged, rising with an effort. Though his skull pounded furiously and a trickle of blood ran into the corner of his vision, his mind was already at work, concocting a plan to counter his attack and make it back to his most cherished friend. Initially, he gave the interloper no more thought than one would an ant beneath their boot. And why should he? He'd faced far worse, and although they'd gotten the drop on him, he remained confident in his ability to fight them off and finish them. One might call it arrogance, even.

A mistake, that.

Nothing could have prepared him for what came next.

He opened his eyes to another world.

In place of the bloodied office, the Sage found himself staring at a ruined realm of broken pipes, shattered furniture, and rotted floorboards. Where was he? An atrium of some sort? The steady drip-drip-drip of a leaky roof ticked away in the distance as his mind sought the sole source of light. Was it a skylight of some sort, or perhaps a window or maybe even an...oh. His mind balked, momentarily unable to process the enormity of what he was looking at. Red eyes blinked with infinite slowness, gradually fading back to their true blue as his anger receded, replaced by shock. Awe.

Horror.

The light did indeed hail from a window, but it was what lay beyond that riveted him.

Water.

Water, outside the window.

Not just the window, but the world.

"No, no, no. This isn't happening...this can't...

As he looked on a towering shark swam past, sparing him a lazy glance as it moved on. Disinterested, it vanished into the murk beyond. No, the worst of it lay beyond. In disbelief he stumbled toward the window, tripping over what might have once been a dinner table, now reduced to little more than flotsam beneath his feet. As he approached Buildings in the deep. A metropolis trapped amidst a world of water. He'd gone from a city in the clouds to a rotting world of skyscrapers stretching out from the abyss.

A city in the sea.

Frantic, he looked for a way out, a way back, and found none.

Only ruins.

"Forgive the mess," a voice intruded on his thoughts. "I didn't exactly have time to set the table."

With a growl, he rounded on the sound.

"Show yourself!"

"Gladly."

Laughing, they stepped into the light.

And here, at the end of the world, he saw not Comstock...

...but himself.

It didn't make any sense but there he stood amidst the gloom; an older, grizzled version of himself standing on the pier. The doppelganger, for it couldn't possibly be anything else, stood clad in what could only be called a diving suit of mammoth proportions, his eyes hidden in shadow. As he looked on the look-alike raised his gaze, revealing scarred, red eyes. Slitted eyes. The same eyes he'd seen in his dreams. Something in him quailed at the sight of them, instinctively shying away out of pure revulsion, no, not that wasn't quite right. More than fear, more than disgust. As he looked on, the stranger spread his arms wide, like a long lost friend welcoming him home.

"Welcome to Rapture, little man."

Wrong.

This was wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

This man, this creature...wrong.

No, he rejected the very sight of him.

The mere thought of his existence made him ill.

His body reacted so strongly that he'd palmed a knife almost without realizing it.

"Who the hell are you...?!"

The stranger smiled sardonically.

"I'll be honest. Now that we've finally met, face to face, I can't help but be...disappointed." when he spoke his voice was hoarse, a man unused to speaking. "Nice to meet you, Naruto. I'm Naruto. Confusing, isn't it?" he shook his head and laughed, palming his face with a gloved hand. "I suppose we'll have to use my old designation to avoid confusing ourselves. I'm Omega. And it seems she was right about you." those whiskered cheeks dimpled in a sudden scowl, scorn twisting at his scarred face. "You're not who I thought you were. Just a monster."

...why the hell do you look like me?!"

"Tch." the stranger shoo off his demand with a sigh. "Speak for yourself, faker. You're a copy of a copy. Why do you exist?"

"I should be asking you the same question. What's with the eyes?"

That actually got a blink out of him.

Then, incredibly, he laughed.

"You poor, poor deluded fool. You don't know anything do you? Its pitiful."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, oi?! You're not making any damn sense!"

"And what would you know about sense?" He moved, and the man moved with him, circling.

"More than you, fake." came the answering rumble. "You're the one distorting things. Stupid boy, why didn't you just take Lizzie back to your world and be done with it? It was that simple! Even a fool could've done it! We wouldn't be having this conversation if you had!"

"What are you talking about?!" Naruto snapped. "I'm in a hurry here; answer quickly before I do something you'll regret."

"That's my line." the older Na-no, Omega!-rumbled. "Kid, you have no idea who you're messing with."

"Some putz who think's he's me, that's who!"

"Listen to yourself. You think you're pretty hot shit, dont'cha?" a gloved hand flicked, revealed the twisted hand beneath. "I thought so once, too. You're arrogant, cocky, not a team player and that, that is going to get you killed someday. If I don't kill you first."

"Enough of of your riddles, old man! You're not making any sense!"

"...you really don't know." the look-alike frowned-those blazing orbs narrowing upon him with frightening disparity and disdain. "Or do you honestly think you can take on this entire world by yourself? Make everything right? I pity you. Was I ever that naive? Lizzie would laugh if she saw me like this. We've still got Lamb to deal with; can't have you mucking things up...

The words created a cold chill in Naruto's heart, turning blood to ice.

"Lizzie?!"

"No! Not yours! MY Lizzie." the juggernaut answered with a growl, raising a gauntlet in a fist, thrusting it at him. "MINE." he emphasized, striding forward until nothing but a broken length of pipe separated them. "My girl. My wife. My life. Everything. The mother of my children. And, what you're doing is threatening her very existence." Fire scrawled across his fingertips, trickling up the hulking apparatus he wore on his shoulder. His left drew a hulking drill from his back, the massive weapon revving even as he looked on in disbelief. "And, well...you've gotta go. So, before anyone interferes, before my girls can see this...

The flames in his hand intensified.

...die for me."

Naruto gulped softly.

"And if I don't want to?"

A bitter laugh answered him.

"Alright, I'll bite. Can you think of a way to save her?"

Naruto opened his mouth to retort that he did...

...and snapped it shut.

In truth, he didn't.

This was all too much to wrap himself around. Another him? Another world? Another Elizabeth? Where did it end? Could it end? Was such a thing even possible? All these revelations threatened to make his head spin. How could anyone make this right? Was it even possible? Was it real? An illusion-no, the other's words rang too true and cut too close to home to be anything but reality. Could he die for them? Would he? No, he had promises of his own to keep, people to protect. He couldn't die here, even it was for the sake of another Naruto, surreal though it might sound.

In the end, Omega finally took his silence for an answer in and of itself.

...I didn't think so.

"Wait, maybe we can talk this out, find another-

Crunch!

A gloved fist hammered a dent into the floor between them.

"No."

A flaming hand rose, slamming the helmet into place over his head.

"I'm tired of talking. That's all we've been doing down here. Talking!"

With a ponderous rumble, that fell, blazing red porthole turned to face him head on.

"If you think your story has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention. It ends with your death. If I kill you, she lives. My world lives. I know that much for a fact. That's all there is to it." With a thunderous rumble, the drill engulfing his hand roared to life. When next he spoke, the words were nearly lost in the howl of that mighty engine. "Nothing personal, kid. I'll try to make this quick."

In a beat, the time for talking passed.

The sage settled into a defensive stance.

"You'll have to forgive me if I don't go quietly."

"Ha! I wouldn't expect any less of ya!"

With a roar, Omega was upon him.

A/N: And there we go.

One might think the tale of "this" Naruto has ended, sudden as it may seem, and with a cliffhanger at that.

Ah, but has it...?

It continues in Daddy Won't You Please Come Home! As surprising as that may seem, this was always how I intended things to end from the get go. The question you need to ask yourselves, dear readers is this: Will these two be able reconcile their differences and face their enemies? Or are they doomed to fight? They are LITERALLY rejecting the existence of the other at the moment, so its anyone's game to be had, folks~!

Once again, the rest of the story continues in Daddy Won't You Please Come Home!

Which will be updated tomorrow!

Yes, tomorrow!

Now, I know we're in Rapture at the moment, but I'll say it anyway just for the hell of it:

In the immortal words of Altas...

...Review, would you kindly?

~Fin.

R&R! =D