Examples of a character becoming The Atoner in Fan Works.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
- The Azula Trilogy has Azula become this gradually. At the start of the fic, she is as selfish and arrogant as ever upon regaining her memory, though she slowly begins to develop a conscience when she allows the two Fire Nation peasants who found her after escaping the asylum to escape. Her Character Development continues when she convinces Zuko to allow her permission to find their missing mother, culminating with her giving a Shut Up, Hannibal! moment to her hallucination of Ozai, representing the darker half of her conscience. Azula's Heel–Face Turn is then complete when she aids Team Avatar in liberating Ba Sing Se from Jian Chin's forces and resisting the temptations of the Spirit of War Zhan Zheng.
- This is one of the primary reasons behind Cassandra Cain's conversion to Christianity in Angel of the Bat.
- But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci starts when the Joker is restored to sanity. Jack Napier really doesn't like thinking about how high of a body count he racked up as the Joker and hates the fact that people still call him Joker. The memory of now-RetGoned Batman, however, is what drives him to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, convincing other villains and anti-heroes to take up the fight against the Lex Luthor-possessed Superman.Jack: I was what I was. I'm not proud. Want me to come out and say it? The world deserves the Bat. It needs the Bat. But all it has is the Joker. I'm here, and the Bat isn't. That's not right.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
- In For Good, Warp Darkmatter deals with some heavy guilt following his Heel–Face Turn, and works hard to rid himself of it.
- Carpetbaggers, a Narnia fic, features a wolf named Rhea, who dedicates her life to serving the Pevensies in their new roles as kings and queens in order to atone for the evil deeds of her littermate Maugrim and the rest of her former pack who served the White Witch.
- The CLANNAD fanfic An End to All Things features an Okazaki that appears to be atoning for something, and it's implied that it's at least partially for his past self nuking the city at some point in the future.
- Code Geass: Reverse:
- During their childhood, Nunnally was jealous of her younger brother Lelouch taking up the attention of their mother as well as their half-sisters Euphiemia and Cornelia. She, as described in her words, acted horribly to him, making sure that Lelouch was distrustful around people and taunting him about his weak physique. This changed after their mother's death and Lelouch getting paralyzed and blinded in the crossfire, and on the plane to Japan, he mutters how sorry he was for being too weak to stop the disaster. Guilt-struck over how she acted towards him, Nunnally vowed to make sure her little brother will never be sad again.
- The author notes mentioned that Guilford originally served under Princess Carline, but was unable to stop her tyrannical and bloody rule over Area 11. After the control of the area is passed to Princess Euphie, Guilford seeks to make up for his failure in serving under Princess Cornelia.
- In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Izuku initially feels that the only way he could make up for nearly killing Bakugou as a child is to swear off his dream of becoming a Hero so he wouldn't hurt anyone else. His goal shifts to making up for all the trouble and hysteria he caused by arriving and living on Earth after All Might convinces him to follow his dreams again.
- In Child of the Storm, Loki sees his membership on the Avengers as atonement for his actions while insane.
- Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier, after being freed from his decades-long brainwashing during the first book's Final Battle, seeks to make amends for all the evil he's done over the years. Though he also freely admits his belief that he'll never actually find redemption for his actions.
- In Thousand Shinji, Rei was so jealous of Asuka and so furious with Shinji and her that she refused to help her fellow pilots several times. As a result, several of her friends got crippled or killed, Shinji and Asuka spent several weeks in a coma, and Rei was so sorry for everything and determined to make amends that she became this.
- Kingdom Crossovers: Zim went through a My God, What Have I Done? moment before the story started and he is now this.
- Outcry:
- One of the major reasons why Legend comes to Brockton Bay.
- Also heavily implied to be the main reason Tattletale turns herself in to the authorities to make up for all the damage she's caused, especially to Taylor.
- Emma after a number of therapy sessions and eight months in prison.
- A number of former antagonists caught up in The Infinite Loops will take this role.
- The Doki Doki Literature Club Loops gives this motivation to Monika, and thoroughly explores the consequences of both her actions and her attempts to make up for them.
- In Justice League: The Spider, Spider-Man convinces the other six founding Leaguers not to fire Hawkgirl so that she can redeem herself by working with the rest of the League.
- Viper, Spider, Phoenix: O-Ren Ishii became a doctor and reinvented herself as "Joan Watson" to atone for her past as a yakuza boss.
- Discord of all beings is considered to be this in If Wishes Were Ponies, due to him having a role in creating the first Pegasi so long ago and having indirectly condemned a fair number of them to death during Tirek's Magic-Stealing Rampage: causing many airborne Pegasi to plummet to their deaths, while ground-bound Pegasi were ripped apart by predators they couldn't now fly to escape from. It could be argued that Discord had probably manipulated the effects of the Portal in Little Whinging to transform any and all Squibs that passed through it into Pegasi when arriving in Equestria: not only to provide a better lifestyle for the Squibs to free them of the burdens of the Wizarding World's Blood Caste System; but to also try and rebuild the Pegasus species.
- SAPR: Sunset Shimmer eventually evolves into this, though there is no single moment that flips her.
- People Like Us: Travis is deeply ashamed of his behavior and actions back in '76, and rather than acting like a crusader in the present he'd much rather keep a low profile while occasionally helping people through small gestures of kindness, hence why he gives Arthur a hand in the beginning.
- Cinders and Ashes: the Chronicles of Kamen Rider Dante: Hoshi, prior to the beginning of the story, wrote a fanfic about his Original Character beating up minions of an organization called Re:Shocker that represented people who harassed a departed friend of his. He soon ends up receiving the power of his character and soon finds out about what he wrote. This, along with creating a villain based on another friend whom he was angry with at the time, led to him realizing his role in the conflict and vow to defeat Re:Shocker. To that same end, a major character arc is Souta's attempts to atone for his role in Setsuna's suicide and, to a lesser extent, Hoshi's involvement in the battle and Mamika's death.
- In Chapter 61 of BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, it's implied that the reason Weiss wants herself and Yang to continue in the Vytal Tournament instead of Pyrrha is in part motivated by the guilt of having treated her like an icon on a pedestal, something she very much loathes.
- Remnant's Bizarre Adventure: Deconstructed in Blake's case. After her fight against Tamami Kobayashi ends up with all the harm her actions in the White Fang caused coming back to haunt her, she becomes determined to atone for them. However, her obsession with redemption becomes self-destructive. She Forgets to Eat and doesn't sleep to the distress of her friends.
- Shadows over Meridian: Following his Heel Realization, Vathek resolves that once he has helped stop Phobos and Kage, he'll ensure the mistake with the blue girl's persecution won't get repeated and that Elyon's reign won't turn into a continuation of her brother's, whether by his old comrades or anyone else. When it becomes clear he's unlikely to survive the four Razor Khan during the Battle of Cavigor, his (believed to be) last act is to ask the warriors to relay a message to their queen that Elyon has seen the error of her ways and wants peace with Kage. The Razor Khan opt to take him to Kage herself so he can deliver the message himself and have judgment rendered.
- Danganronpa: Paradise Lost: Shion Nanashi can only faintly remember her past... of committing all sorts of horrific crimes against both friends and foes. She spends the entire Killing Game desperately performing as many good deeds as she can to make up for what she did.
- Danny Phantom: Stranded: After befriending Danny and leaving the A-Listers, Star feels great remorse for how badly she used to treat him and takes great strides to make up for her past behavior.
- By the end of "Trapped", Star helps Danny when Dash pushes him into his locker and stands up to the Jerk Jock. Later, when she sees Mr. Lancer unfairly give Danny detention because he favored Dash, she privately talks with him and threatens to have her father sue him and the school for turning a blind eye to the harassment students receive from the A-Listers unless Mr. Lancer stops favoring them and does his job. Mr. Lancer agrees, apologizes to Danny, rips up his slip, and gives Dash detention. Finally, Star publicly sits with Danny and Valerie, ends her friendship with Paulina, and publicly quits the A-Listers for good.
- In "Sunk", hoping to make up for her past rudeness to her new boyfriend, Star insists that she and Danny go out to the water park. Despite Dash, Paulina, Kwan, and Colette trying to ruin their time and Sam and Tucker spying on them, they had a great time, with Star also forcing Dash to apologize to her and Danny, and gifting her boyfriend a model shuttle that Dash broke in the past.
- In "Stuck", Sam and Star are forced to work together when they are accidentally sent away and stuck at the abandoned Camp Skull and Crossbones. Despite originally fighting with each other due to mutual dislike and Sam's jealousy over Star dating Danny, the two girls eventually work through their differences after saving each other's lives and finding shelter. While the two sit down at a campfire and open up to each other, Sam points out that while Star is dating Danny and is nicer to him, she has, at best, tolerated the former and Tucker and never even apologized to them for how she used to treat them when she was an A-Lister. Star, realizing that Sam is right, genuinely apologizes to the goth girl, and by the end of the story, they make a truce for Danny's sake. Afterward, Star treats Sam and Tucker better, and Sam is more respectful of her relationship with Danny from then on.
- Light in the Death Note fic Fever Dreams after he realizes the Kira plan isn't working and that he doesn't really want L dead.
- Light is this in AU Ragnarok (Skeptikitten), even though he's never acted upon his impulses he realizes he very nearly gone insane as a teenager and was "a future Serial Killer in the making" and works to make up for it every day.
- Misa Amane in Silent Partner, Unfinished Business resolves to catch Kira so that he can be supervised and prevented from making any more "mistakes" and atone for the wrongs he's already done. Her need to make up for her previous love of Kira and her actions as the Second Kira grows through the course of the story.
- Ken in An Unseen Kindness wanders the digital world trying to make up for what he did in the events of the first fic in the series.
- Oikawa in the Zero 2: A Revision version realizes his own mistake after Cody's grandfather called him out for making a deal with Demon who enters the Real world along with threatening to shoot Hiroaki's wife for the Digivice and decides to try and make up for it by travelling to the Digital World along with Blackwargreymon and helps the other troubled Digimons in the process.
- In the Dragon Age: Inquisition fanfic Walking in Circles, Solas is this to Evelyn. He’s extremely protective and considerate toward her both out of love and guilt because, as he puts it, most of her ordeals and traumas were all or partially his faults and he’s murdered her twice over with his mistakes.
- One of the Otswick's Templars, Ser Ralston, is also one. In his younger days, he had a dalliance with a mage as perk of the job, said relationship produced a child who was taken away but he kept an eye on her. But eventually, his child turned out to be a mage and didn’t survive her Harrowing. He now spends the rest of his life atoning for his sin by helping and protecting mages whenever he can.
- In an Inquisition AU fanfic called All This Venatori Nonsense, the latter portion of the fic sees a formerly Venatori version of Dorian Pavus working with the Inquisition to try and make up for the damage he did under Corypheus.
- The Dragon Ball Z Fanfic Honor Trip has Perfect Cell as this trope in an alternate universe where Gohan doesn't kill him at the Cell Games, but instead scrambles his programming with a blow to the head.
- Crow in The Tainted Grimoire took part in several crimes and was a member of Khamja, a criminal organization. He had a Heel–Face Turn and is now trying to make up for what he did.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): San becomes this following his Heel Realization and after he and Vivienne meet the other Titans including Godzilla and Mothra. San has gone from formerly being part of Ghidorah to fighting against Ghidorah's return and the Many alongside the other benevolent Titans. He also feels genuine remorse for all the pain Ghidorah caused Vivienne, even after Vivienne has forgiven San.
- The Choices That Make Us: Regulus becomes deeply remorseful for his acts as a Death Eater and strives to stop Voldemort's plans and live a humble and virtuous life as atonement.
- An unusually forward-thinking Omnicidal Maniac, Harry in Harry Potter and the Rest of the Sentence already has plans to beat himself over what he's done, once he's done doing it."Everyone was going to die. Everybody. And then he would pay for all the evil dark shadows beneath his misery. He would be promptly paying, with much longer pain."
- The premise of The Peace Not Promised is that after his death, Severus Snape is shown his many regrets — most especially his culpability for Lily's death, but also an assortment of murders, torture, and general debauchery, during his time as a Death Eater, plus his inability to keep Harry alive in the end — and is given a chance to go back and avoid most of them. He accepts in hopes of keeping Lily alive this time; everything else is secondary.
- Queen of All Oni:
- Tohru sees saving Jade from the dark side as another act of redemption for his previous evil ways.
- The Shadowbinding Sage who created the Oni masks was once a brutal enforcer of a warlord, but was forgiven and dedicated himself to making amends.
- Jade at the story's ending, after Paranoia is cleansed from her mind and Tarakudo is defeated.
- The epilogue reveals that Drew has been trying to make up for his bullying after his Laser-Guided Karma.
- Shape Shenanigans: Bass. She's incredibly regretful for harming her family and the world, and is willing to do anything it takes to make it up to everyone.
- A Different Lesson: Tai Lung doesn't start out this way — when he's not still being his arrogant, nasty, egotistical self, he's settled into a cross between Villainous BSoD and Despair Event Horizon over the ruin his life has become and his humiliating defeat by Po. But once he realizes everyone was right about him, and it truly sinks in what all he has done (and in the end, for nothing), the guilt and shame do urge him to follow this trope. Late in the story, he proves he's come to understand what most Atoners do, when contemplating Xiulan, a woman whose husband he killed during his rampage: "He would spend the rest of his life trying to make it up to her."
- In The Blue Dragon, Malefor feels guilty for the things he did in the past, and throughout the story, atones for them.
- In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, Drill Man, ProtoMan, and Mr. Black are all these.
- Miraculous City:
- Chapter 23 reveals that André has become this, wanting to make up for not stopping his wife Audrey from mistreating her daughters and enabling Chloé’s Spoiled Brat behavior that led her to become a supervillain. He does this by providing Adrien and Kagami amnesty from their respective Abusive Parent and joins Zoé in trying to talk Chloé into coming back home
- During the raid in chapter 23, Nathalie confesses her crimes as Mayura to the police. In chapter 26, she would join the heroes in the war against Hawkmoth.
- Soul Eater
: The protagonist Andrew Gregas in his old school was originally caught under the sway of a Manipulative Bastard classmate's lies about other kids bullying him, and while Andrew never went after the targets violently (even interfering with those that did), he did join in the jeers in distrust until he overheard the bully threatening one of his target, which he recorded and exposed to the school along with apologizing to the bully's victims, though he's still racked with guilt. When he moves to Paris, Andrew despises his old self, with these feelings coming back to haunt him when he witnesses Chloe and Lila's reign of terror at Dupont. These feelings motivate him to try and record evidence of their actions to take them down, but when they threaten to ruin both his reputation with his classmates and his parents' career, he falls under akumization and becomes Soul Eater, plotting to take down evil more than "pathetic" Andrew ever could.- In Chapter 11, Nathalie, fearful of how far Gabriel is willing to hunt down a deakumatized Andrew and the heroes' loved ones after his Secret Identity was exposed along with how she is dying from using the damaged Peacock Miraculous, decides to tell Adrien the truth about his father's plans and motivation to get the Miraculous at any cost, plus how to defeat him akuma self and free his Sentimonster Tracker from his control. She also tells him that he and Kagami are Sentimonsters while handing him his amok so Gabriel can't use it against him, and warns him that Kagami's mother Tomoe is one of Gabriel's allies and another threat they must vanquish.
- Telling Lies? No, Mama: When Lila's lies are all revealed, the whole class feels awful for how they treated Marinette, and towards the end, make it up to her by throwing her another party like they did on Heroes Day. Alya, however, stands out the most at the end. She takes full responsibility for her part in enabling Lila and not checking her facts like a reporter should have, removes all of her content with the liar in it and debunks all her stories, and apologizes to all her followers for posting false information. Even though she has been Easily Forgiven by Marinette, she still makes a public apology to her on the Ladyblog and vows for all her followers to hear that she will work hard to make it up to Marinette.
- Marinette herself has become this by the time of Mending Warped Designs for her Face–Heel Turn in the previous story. How much the heroes are willing to accept that apology...varies, though she's not Easily Forgiven by any of them.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Paradox: Thanks to her death being undone at the start of the story, Flay Allster's main goal in life is to atone for her past sins of manipulating Kira during her time with the Archangel and her Fantastic Racism towards Coordinators, continuing from where she left off while under ZAFT custody. Even after surviving the war, Flay is still haunted by her past actions, this even includes the nuking of Boaz, believing that what happened was her fault despite the fact she was tricked by Rau Le Creuset into handing over the schematics of the Neutron Jammer Canceller to Muruta Azrael, leading to the final stages of the war.Flay (in chapter 6): I don't want my past mistakes determine my future.
- In the Friday the 13th crossover fic Deku's Retribution, Bakugo is horrified when Deku actually does jump to his death and starts changing his attitude.
- those hardest to love need it most has Aizawa and Nedzu teaming up to take down Aldera Junior High after discovering how the staff enabled and participated in Bakugou abusing Midoriya.
- Nedzu specifically refers to this as making amends for past mistakes; while he was aware that Izuku used to be Quirkless, he drastically underestimated the impact this had on him, being blissfully unaware of how much discrimination the Quirkless face. Learning the extent of what they endure proves to be a sobering experience for him, and he sincerely regrets not taking it seriously.
- Aizawa meanwhile learns that he was Locked Out of the Loop because of his history of dismissing students based on his estimate of their potential. Nedzu assumed that if he knew about Izuku's past, he'd have kicked him out for his inexperience - and given that Aizawa was already planning to boot him out on that first day for being 'reckless' with his Quirk, he can't entirely claim that he was wrong. Aizawa also discovers that his tendency to call Izuku 'Problem Child' reinforced his student's surety that he was no different from the teachers he was used to dealing with - that he sincerely despised and wanted nothing to do with him.
- The reason why Bakugo in Waiting is worth it stays friends with Izuku in this continuity is because he feels horrible guilt for putting Izuku in his wheelchair, becoming overprotective to the point where people think that he has a crush on Izuku. Whether he does or not depends on who’s reading.
- In the My-HiME fanfic The Sword of the Lord, Nao and Reito are driven by a desire to atone for their actions in the Hime carnival. Nao despises Shizuru for apparently not doing the same.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In Chrysalis Visits The Hague, Lieutenant Fighting Fit is tortured by guilt over hesitating to investigate the disappearance of Junebug and failing to stop a changeling from taking her place and mind-raping her mother. Two years later, he assembles a search party for the real Junebug, obviously trying to make amends for his failures.
- The Immortal Game: In addition to Princess Luna, there's also Twilight Sparkle after her time as Nihilus.
- LEGO Equestria Girls 2 here: Sunset Shimmer became this after the events of the previous story. It starts to show early on when she was the only one who did not escape from her prison when she was given a chance to. Only the Canterlot Master Builders are willing to give Sunset a chance. In a fit of irony, despite not wanting to, she later has to do actions her old self would do since, due to the entire Lego World being under the Dazzlings' spell, the Master Builders are considered bad guys to the Lego World.
- Winter Bells: As a sequel to Past Sins, Spell Nexus tries to atone for his role as the " leader" of the Children of Nightmare cult. His attempts fail and he falls into despondency and a deranged mental state until he realizes why he can't go through penance by fixing the wrongs caused by his previous acts: There are no wrongs for him to right because by this point there is nothing broken for him to fix.
- Pony POV Series:
- There's Fluttershy, after her time as Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper, and Fluttercruel, who accidentally turned her into Nightmare Whisper in the first place. They make no effort to make excuses, taking full responsibility for their actions and any punishment they've earned for it. It's made quite clear in their final scene that, although a lot of good did come from their actions, they both still regret their actions and will live with a lot of guilt.
- There's also the redeemed members of the Dark World versions of the Mane Cast, but especially Applejack, who's working hard to atone so that she can join her sister in Pony Heaven.
- Recursive Fanfiction gives Dark World another, rather surprising, example in the Valeyard, the Doctor's evil self and Discord's Starscream. After being killed and sent to Pony Hell, he's tasked with helping the recently departed Pinkie Pie rescue the soul of one of her adopted foals. Along the way, he rediscovers that Good Feels Good and, task completed, he rejects an offer of a lighter sentence in order to help the souls condemned to pull Havoc's chariot find redemption, wondering if he might earn it himself one day.
- The Reading Rainbowverse version of Trixie was very legitimately traumatized by her experience with the Alicorn Amulet and is, apparently, now trying to redeem herself. Somehow.
- In Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox, Naruto is one of these. He was a member of the Kyuushingai ("Nine Terrors"), nine people of mass destruction who caused a lot of chaos across the continent for exactly 365 days; two years after their activities stopped, Naruto is still remorseful about all the bloodshed he helped to cause during that time.
- The Child of Love: Ritsuko tried to atone for helping Gendo’s schemes. So that she gave Asuka pills meant to undo Gendo's genetic manipulations and turn Asuka's daughter Teri into a normal child.
- A Crown of Stars: After talking with Yui and realizing the weight of his crimes Gendo wants to expiate his sins.
- Ghosts of Evangelion:
- After Third Impact Shinji spends his whole life trying to atone for abandoning Asuka and getting the whole mankind killed.
- Misato strives to atone for effectively abandoning Shinji and Asuka right when they needed her, in spite of her being the only person who cared for them.Misato: It might surprise you to learn I agree with you. Everything you said is true. I did a terrible job with the both of you, and there's no excuse for it. Nothing about the circumstances changes what happened to you. It was criminal, and it was wrong, and I'll regret it until the day I die. But even so, you have to think about your situation here: you aren't equipped to live on your own, and neither is Shinji. You both need a lot of help and support, and there aren't exactly a lot of candidates banging on the door for the job. For better or worse I'm the closest thing to family either of you has.
Asuka: (shaking her head) …
Misato: And I do care about you. I can't undo any of the things that have happened to you, but I can do my best to look out for you in the future. And I want to do that.
Asuka: No you don't. The only reason you're bothering at all is because of him.
Misato: That isn't true. But even if it was, does it really matter? Either way —
Asuka: Of course it matters!
Misato: I see. I've really misjudged you, haven't I? All this time, I thought your only interest was in survival. Shinji, me, even Kaji were just means to that end. But it wasn't like that at all, was it? No, of course not. It's so obvious, given what happened with your mom. I guess I never really made the connection because of everything else that was going on.
Asuka: …
Misato: Alright then. I think I can understand your feelings now. And I can't really blame you; I'd be pretty skeptical myself if I was in your position. So that means I'll just have to prove it, right? But you'll have to give me the chance to do that, Asuka. I can't force you to accept me. All I can do is do my best to earn you trust. And that starts right now.
- HERZ: Gendo tries to atone for being a bad father by being a good, doting grandfather when he is allowed to see his granddaughter Akiko.
- Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88): Neither Misato nor Hikari understand why Shinji is so determined to and obsessed with making everyone happy. They do not know that Shinji feels immensely guilty and is trying to make amends because in the original timeline he left Rei alone because she "scared" him, let Misato die because he was wrapped up in his grief, defiled Asuka and abandoned her -which led to her very bloody and gory death- and wished that everyone died because he thought nobody loved him.
- Scar Tissue:
- After nearly getting Shinji killed, Asuka spends the whole fic trying to atone for her behaviour and earn his forgiveness.
- On the other hand, Shinji endured whatever Asuka did to him because he thought that he deserved it after his actions (never helping her when she needed him, leaving her alone after her Mind Rape, masturbating over her comatose body, leaving her alone as she fought for her life before losing and getting quartered and eaten alive, trying to kill her twice...).
- Ritsuko is trying to help both kids and eradicate the Eva technology in order to make up for her actions.
- Shinji and Asuka subvert this in The Second Try, surprisingly. At the beginning, it looks like they're trying to save the world after going back to the past because they let it die in the original timeline. However, it becomes more apparent as the story goes on that they've largely come to terms with their failings, and they're not motivated by regret and/or guilt.
- In OSMU: Fanfiction Friction, Odd Todd (now referred to as just Todd) is this. He doesn't want to go back to villainy even when offered the chance and is terrified of Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and becoming a villain again. Instead, he's content being Reformed, but Not Tamed.
- This Bites! has Aokiji becoming this, at the very end of the first half of the story. After he followed the Government's orders and took Blackbeard alive after the latter captured Ace, despite his own misgivings, which caused the War of the Best In Spite of a Nail, and reflecting on his passivity over the last twenty years and how he Stopped Caring after Ohara's destruction and his friend Saul leaving the Marines out of disgust, he quietly admits to himself that it's partly his fault that the world is being thrown into chaos, and decides to dedicate his remaining life to fixing the consequences of his refusal to take responsibility, as best as he can.
Other
- Christian Humber Reloaded: Surprisingly, Vash sometimes is this. He turns himself in, apparently out of regret, after killing his friend Soku and the rest of her family in revenge for her turning him in. After bursting out of the stomach of a rogue dragon, he undergoes a quest to defeat the demon dragon Le Hung Doe. Unfortunately, those aren't even his worst crimes, and he remains largely unrepentant for actions such as killing six million people at the Super Bowl.
- Boiling Isles and Beyond: Lilith is still making up for her actions in canon. Not only has she taken the curse, but she also helps Eda with anything she needs.
- Brave New World by Ri2 has multiple atoners. Father Yamari was actually a homicidal mercenary before dying. He's spent his entire afterlife attempting to atone.
- In RWBY: Scars, Blake's main reason for becoming a huntress is to atone for her years of terrorism and killing by helping others.
- In The Wandering One Neopolitan becomes this after first being a Nominal Hero only out for vengeance.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
- After undergoing a Heel–Face Turn in Doubt (Found here), Hordak resolves to be this at the end, planning to travel to each world still subjugated by the Horde and free them.
- A Study in Regret has Marcel Bernier, the Swiss youth who delivered Professor Moriarty's letter to Sherlock Holmes in "The Final Problem." Marcel was just an Unwitting Pawn, but he still feels some responsibility for Watson's death and Holmes's captivity.
- Another Sherlockian example is Ascended Extra Fred Porlock in the Deliver Us from Evil Series. Porlock turns out to be an English nobleman's son whom Moriarty recruited from university, and, having seen what his employer really does, Porlock begins to slip information to Sherlock Holmes. We also find out that he's one of Inspector Patterson's contacts—Patterson is Scotland Yard's expert on Professor Moriarty.
- The North Remembers: Much of Theon Greyjoy's character arc is spent trying to redeem himself for betraying the Starks by accompanying a band of Wildlings to Winterfell in order to rescue Mance Rayder and kill Ramsay. Later as Stannis lays siege to the Dreadfort, Theon and Asha agree to exchange themselves for Davos, whom Ramsay had captured and taken prisoner, in order to get inside the castle and retrieve the real Lightbringer sword in Ramsay's possession. Once inside, Theon exacts revenge on his former tormentor, only for Ramsay to reveal he had drunk some of Davos' blood, which had been poisoned by an Other blade, and rises as an Other-like being. This finally culminates in Theon killing Ramsay again by using his and Asha's blood to rekindle Lightbringer.
- Forum of Thrones:
- Following the rescue of her little sister, Kersea is no longer forced to work for Clayton and Butterfly. She then decides to make up for her past actions in their service by helping in bringing them down.
- Harpy's actions during the chapter 6 finale, where she risks her own life in an attempt to kill Maron Mullendore, the real Butterfly are a version of this trope, as she underwent this risk because she was convinced that the situation leading up to it has been entirely her fault for killing the fake Butterfly two chapters ago
- Terroma is revealed to feel heavy guilt over having trained Clayton back in his younger days. After hearing of his former pupil's actions, he decided to return from retirement and to focus on bringing him down.
- In Safe Anchorage Theon Greyjoy sees both his canon rescue of Jeyne Poole and continuing to care for her after his pardon as a way to make up for his canon crimes.
- My Super Best Friend: Several characters.
- Kyle who wants to atone for indirectly causing Canada to get nuked by participating in Stan's fundraiser that would help the country.
- Stan who feels responsible for Kyle Jumping Off the Slippery Slope tries to help Kyle by becoming student vice council president and start a fundraiser for Canada while also trying to ease tensions between the boys and girls.
- Heidi also wants to atone for her actions when she was Cartman's Distaff Counterpart, especially in regards to Kyle.
- Wendy too wishes to atone after being called out by Stan and Kyle for her terrible treatment of Heidi.
- Nichole admits to Kyle that her reasons for helping Kyle is to atone for not listening to his advice and mocked Heidi anyway resulting in her going back to Cartman and becoming his Distaff Counterpart leading to Kyle getting Canada nuked.
- In Memories Born of Fire, a Star Trek: The Original Series fanfic, Spock stays at Kirk's side after he's poisoned, saying that he has "recently failed to carry out" his duty to ensure his captain's well-being.
- Professor Atani Dukat of Reality Is Fluid is the daughter of Gul Skrain Dukat from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It's not a relationship she's particularly proud of, and her opening scene has her formally apologizing for everything the Cardassians and Gul Dukat did to both Bajor and the Federation.
- The Count's World: Count Bleck and his minions in general know they can't completely make up for their actions in Super Paper Mario, but they honestly want to keep trying. Dimentio is this as well on a more personal level.
- Touhou Ibunshu has Yukari, a vicious, cruel manipulator who nearly destroyed Gensokyo in a doomed effort to kill herself. Realizing what a deep pit she's dug for herself, she starts by confessing her misdeeds and repairing the damage brought by the unnatural winter. She's aware it's step one at best and has zero illusions as to how long it's going to take her to actually earn her forgiveness, but the fact she's actually trying makes it clear she no longer wishes for death.
- Several appear in Travels Through Azeroth and Outland.
- In Security! (Worm), there are quite a few of these, some facilitated by the self-insert protagonist. These include Purity (rebranded as 'Evenstar' of the New York Protectorate), Bonesaw (captured and rehabilitated earlier than in canon), Canary (her power is very useful with crowd control), Lung and Bakuda (pressed into service by the PRT), Emma Barnes (after a traumatic experience with Bakuda and Oni Lee), the Undersiders and Glory Girl.
- The X-Men fic The Wraith Saga presents an alternate timeline in which Jean Grey survived the events of The Dark Phoenix Saga and spends most of the story trying to atone for the destruction that she caused as the Dark Phoenix. At one point, she even returns to the charred ruins of D'Bari, the planet that she destroyed, to contemplate her past sins.
- Hecate: Despite not being personally responsible for Pandora’s actions, Cadeline feels the need to apologize to Yugi for what he did out of obsession with her.
