Crossovers
- Advent Crossover Crisis begins and ends with narration from Sly Cooper, both times discussing how everyone goes through very strange lengths of time, even relative to how strange their life usually is. To a lesser extent, the first and last line of spoken dialogue are both said by Deadpool.
- The first season of Children of Time: the first episode starts with the Doctor saving an unconscious Sherlock Holmes. The last episode ends with Beth Holmes succeeding in bringing him back from the dead.
- Code Prime: The present storyline of R1 - Rebellion begins and ends with C.C. being involved in the acceptance of a contract. It, of course, begins with Lelouch accepting the terms of her contract where she gives him his Geass to help fulfill her wish, like in canon, and it ends with C.C. accepting the terms of the Primes' contract within the Matrix of Leadership, in order to allow her to give Optimus Prime a Geass in exchange for her acceptance of his cause to defeat Megatron.
- Crossed Paths: Upon returning to their own worlds, Indy and the mane six find themselves in the areas where they disappeared, and presumably Jack did as well (though his scene starts a while after he returns to his world, so we don't know for sure).
- In Demented Verse, this concept neatly describes Gadreel's role in the rise and fall of Metatron; as in canon, he initially manifested on Earth by hiding in another person's body to save their life, but after the final confrontation with Metatron, Gadreel does the opposite, taking Harry's soul into himself so that he can take Harry back to his body after Metatron cut the connection.
- In Doctor in the Underworld, Selene invokes this when she witnesses Erika sobbing over the apparently dead Doctor and finds herself sympathising with the other woman, realising that the last time she mourned a death like that was the deaths of her parents before she became a vampire, marking the start and end of Selene's quest for vengeance for the loss of her family.
- The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Danny's first and last dates are a redhead with green eyes he's constantly shipped with in other fanfictions. They both end up being dates he enjoys his time with the most.
- My Little Avengers begins and ends on Big Mac's birthday.
- Necessary to Win:
- The first fic begins and ends with a few paragraphs of narration worded in a way that can apply to either Miho or Saki. The beginning of the story talks about why they came to dislike tankery and why they're returning to it, while the end talks about the results and what awaits them in the future.
- The first installment of the series begins with Miho being called in to the student council office in an attempt to pressgang her into taking tankery. Near the end, Miho sees them again, and they thank her for her help.
- "Paths Towards Victory" begins with the Atago family getting dressed for the convention. Their final scene involves them going back to their hotel room, and changing out of their business attire.
- On a series-spanning example, Oarai's first and last battles with other schools both end in Oarai narrowly being defeated, with Anglerfish being eliminated immediately after(BC Freedom)/before (Pravda) they can take out the commander's tank.
- In The Prayer Warriors, some installments have these.
- At the beginning of The Evil Gods, Part 1, the heroes pray to God, who kills Grover Underwood. At the end of the story, they call on God's assistance to defeat Hades.
- Attack of the Sphinx begins with William spying on Carter meeting with Anubis, only to get surprised and captured. At the end of the story (at least thus far), Carter, now a Prayer Warrior, goes to Syria and gets kidnapped by the Islamic State.
- The second and last chapters of The Bug Princess revolve around surprise celebrations for Lydia.
- Hogyoku ex Machina: Aizen's story begins and ends with him being stabbed through the head by Ichigo. The first time, the Hogyoku saves him. The second time, it doesn't and he dies.
- Uninvited Guests begins and ends with Toshiro Hitsugaya working with Nanao Ise in his office. The first time was a Daydream Surprise. The second time, Nanao and Rangiku Matsumoto traded squads.
- Bridge to Terabithia 2: The Last Time, a surprisingly long LDD Fanfic split into two installments. The first part ends with Jess and Leslie, now teenagers, finally admitting their true feelings for each other and embracing in a kiss. The second part ends with a Distant Epilogue where Jess and Leslie, now a married couple, embracing in a kiss.
- The first and last times Xander turns to stone onscreen in Defender of the Night
, someone tries to peek under his loincloth. Jenny Calendar is unsuccessful but Buffy manages. - Taaroko's Buffy the Vampire Slayer uses this for Angel and Oz's proposals to Buffy and Willow; Angel proposes to Buffy on the steps of Hemery High, where he first saw her, and Oz's proposal to Willow uses basically the same words he used when he originally asked her out.
- The Calvinverse: The opening of Can You Imagine That?, canonically the first installment in the series, is replicated nearly word-for-word in the end of Retro Chill (canonically its last... we think).
- The Cleveland Show Fanon's newly added finale to the original show uses a bookend naming scheme. The show's first episode, which was originally titled "Pilot" but in this adaption is called "Cleveland Moves In". Whereas the show's new finale, "Cleveland Moves Out" is the inversion of the show's first episode.
- The first Class Trial in Danganronpa Class Swap - Hope's Peak Academy ends with Chiaki Nanami (or, as it's later revealed, the Ultimate Imposter disguised as Chiaki) getting executed as the culprit. The final trial ends with the actual Chiaki being executed as the mastermind with the Imposter's execution being the one to finish her off.
- Danganronpa: Paradise Lost:
- The story begins and ends with Daisuke Hiyori receiving a letter through the mail. At the beginning, Daisuke is given a false invite to Hope's Peak Academy meant to lure him to the Killing Game, while at the end, he is given a genuine letter by one of the survivors detailing what they have been up to since the end of the Killing Game.
- The very first line in the prologue is "This is the story of a hopeful boy and hopeless girl." by Daisuke, referring to him and Shion. After finally returning home from the Killing Game in the epilogue, he narrates "...And that was it. That was the story of me, the hopeful boy, and her, the hopeless girl."
- Three-Point Shot begins and ends with a Title Drop. At the beginning, Kokichi says the title after throwing the shot put onto the bookshelf, thus enabling Shuichi to realize that Kaede didn't kill Rantaro and save her from being executed. At the very end of the fic, Kaede says this after surreptitiously throwing a poster for the newest season of Danganronpa into the trash.
- Where Talent Goes to Die begins with Kaori Miura waking up in a classroom in Talent High School with Sae Edogawa nearby, at which point Edogawa shows her the locked front door and then takes her to where everyone else is waiting. At the end of the fic, Miura and Edogawa go back to that same classroom for a private conversation and a kiss, then meet up with their remaining friends and head to the entrance, so they can leave the school for good.
- At the start of Where Talent Goes on Vacation, Yukari Nagato, the mother of the protagonist, Chiyuri Nagato, ends up being imprisoned in a cell belowdecks in the Ursa Major, keeping her out of the way of the killing game. At the end of the fic, the Future Foundation arrests Yukari for her role in starting the killing game, and takes her away in a ship.
- The Digimon Tamers fanfic Digital Prey begins and ends with Ruki Makino riding a train.
- 3 Doctors, 9 Companions, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? starts with a lot of characters appearing on the TARDIS, quickly followed by a wedding. One of its sequels ends with those same characters choosing to leave the TARDIS, and a wedding.
- The Fifth Act: The beginning of Cloud's journey starts with him saving Genesis when the latter's chronic pain interrupts their fight, curing him from a painful deterioration and a horrific downward spiral. It ends with Genesis interrupting Cloud's fight with Sephiroth, saving both their lives and preventing Cloud's self-destruction.
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
- One Step Ahead opens and ends with scenes showing Mac, who is otherwise completely absent. At the start, he's miserably sobbing after Bloo roped the whole house into playing a cruel prank on his birthday. Three years later, Bloo tracks him down only to see how much happier Mac has become after cutting him out of his life, having improved his relationship with Terrence and found a girlfriend.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- Forget-me-not (don't leave me behind) starts and ends with Lan Xichen getting a letter from his brother. Furthermore, it starts and ends with him having a box of correspondence from his family.
- After the End (Arabella and Zsenya) begins and ends with a group hug surrounding Harry. Everyone is in a dark room, lit by a bluebell flame, which someone kicks out.
- At the end of the first chapter of A Black Comedy, Harry tells someone (as he's being sucked into the Veil of Death), "You can keep my sandwich." At the end of the story, James flees a restaurant and when asked about the food he left, tells his son "You can keep my sandwich."
- This USUK kink meme fill about a bulimic Arthur/England starts with 'He felt cold', and ends with "Alfred," he murmured as he nodded to sleep, "You're warm."
- Johanna Mason: They Will Never See Me Cry: The opening and closing scenes both have Johanna mentally vowing that her Capitol enemies will never get to see her cry, whether in response to losing tributes or being tortured.
- Judge Minty (a short fan film based on the Judge Dredd comics) opens with Minty almost getting killed on the streets by trying to grant a member of the Kovaks mob mercy and getting pulled off active duty by Dredd. At the end of the short, he finds himself in the same situation when a Cursed Earth dweller begs for mercy, which Minty denies him.
- The first chapter of the fangame LISA: The Pointless begins and ends with Alex, the main protagonist, almost bleeding to death while being taken somewhere on a vehicle.
- Ace Savvy: A New Hope: The fic starts with Ace Savvy asking Lincoln to burn his house to the ground so nobody can get what is inside, and in the end, it is done.
- Missing Linc starts and ends with Lincoln narrating.
- In the prologue of Game Theory, Precia asks Fate if she would like to see Alicia. And in the epilogue...
Mahouka Koukou no-Rettousei
- The Ojou-sama begins and ends with Mayumi searching the school for Tatsuya, though he is a good deal happier during the latter.
- Peter Parker's journey as a hero included Tony Stark temporarily taking away his advanced suit after he unintentionally endangered lives trying to be a hero, telling Peter "If you're nothing without the suit, then you shouldn't have it". In the post-Spider-Man: No Way Home fic "Tingle", Peter delivers the same statement to a villain whose powers relied on a suit, having come to accept his own worth as a hero but aware that the villain will never be anything more than a hanger-on to others' attempts at power.
- This comic begins and ends with a doll waking up.
- A Scotsman in Egypt begins with Edward and Edmund Canmore getting piss drunk, cursing their father, and leading an army off to Egypt to conquer the Middle East; it ends three generations later, with a vast Scottish empire covering the length and breadth of Europe and Africa, and their great-grandson Kirk getting piss drunk with Angus the Mauler, Edward of Shetland and Edmund Besat, cursing his father, and leading his mates and a huge army to conquer the Aztec empire.
- Fashion Upgrade: The story opens with Lila spinning her sob story, and Principal Damocles reassuring Bustier that she hadn't done anything wrong. It ends with Bustier trying — and failing — to convince Marinette to transfer back, with Marinette letting her know that yes, she did in fact make some critical mistakes.
- Here opens and ends with the same line: 'Alya couldn't believe she was here.' By the end, she has a much better understanding of why she's in the position she's found herself in.
- Lila's arc in Missing is tied up this way. It's noted that when she first arrived at College Francoise Dupont, she was surrounded by rumors and speculation as the mysterious New Transfer Student. She departs in much the same fashion, only the rumors swirling round her now are much less pleasant. Rather than whispering about her supposed connections to celebrities and famous figures, everyone's gossiping about her potential connections to Marinette's disappearance, wildly speculating that she might be involved in human trafficking and other horrific endeavors. She's still the center of attention, just like she's always wanted... but without any of the admiration she desired.
- One Thing After Another starts with Adrien exhibiting cat-like behaviours like jumping in empty boxes, and ends with Marinette exhibiting ladybug-like behaviours like eating aphids.
- In the first chapter of Where The Pleasant Fountains Lie, where after Akuma turns Chat into a sexy and beautiful young lady, Chat makes a joke about the importance of grammar and commas (using the classic "let's, eat grandpa" and "let's eat grandpa" as an example) in saving lives. In the last chapter, Chat nervously makes the same joke when Ladybug declares she will destroy her kitty after learning that not only that Chat is Adrien, but that he's been acting intentionally seductive towards Marinette while stuck as a girl.Ladybug: Adrienne Agreste. I'm going to destroy your kitty.
Chat Noir: Don't you mean, "Destroy you, Kitty?" I mean, commas and proper pronunciation save lives, or so I'm told.
Ladybug: I meant what I said.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): The story's first chapter starts with an excerpt from Dr. Chen's notes and the final chapter ends with another excerpt from her notes. Both the opening chapter and final chapter also respectively have a Time Skip of a matter of months.
- Abraxas: Empty Fullness: The first and last scenes of "Damnatio Memoriae" mention an alien religious text called the Ghee'haszhra. The opening reveals that the Makers' work on creating Ghidorah was inspired by the Ghee'haszhra. And the closing has Ghidorah itself, having just wiped out an entire planet for the first time and now set to eradicate the Makers next, recalling how its victims screamed the name Ghee'haszhra, with the implication that Ghidorah (who isn't yet called such by itself) will take a distorted memory of the name as its own name in the future.
- The Gatekeeper, begins with the sentence, "Masaki Matsuda was on cloud nine," since she's proud of herself for getting into U.A. Academy, unaware that Aizawa will expel her entire class (she got in a year after Mirio and a year before Izuku). The final scene says that "Masaki was on cloud nine once again," having started at a new high school, and recently gotten her provisional hero license.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- The Alarmaverse: The story opens with Ditzy waking up, noticing a dimensional rift in the sky above, and wishing that she could share the sight with somepony else. The story ends with another dimensional rift, and Ditzy waking up. And waking Dr. Hooves up so he can see it.
- Alicornundrum: A mild example, but both the first and last chapters feature an alicorn angsting over outliving a loved one right before said loved one ascends.
- Anthropology: "Are you gonna eat that?"
- The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan begins and ends with Princess Luna visiting protagonist Nova Shine, offering him a position, and leaving him with the words "May thou enjoy the coming days."
- A Growing Fire In My Heart actually includes two for Spike and Ember.
- Their friendship began in the first chapter after Spike saved Ember's life by saving her from drowning. In the final chapter they become an Official Couple after Ember helps save Spike's life from the effects of the rage potion that was forced on him.
- In the first chapter, shortly after they start their friendship, Ember impulsively kisses Spike on the cheek. In the last chapter, Ember asks Spike to kiss her so she can see if it feels right, and knows for sure after it that she loves him, resulting in the two becoming a couple.
- I Did Not Want To Die begins with an enemy solider being shot and concludes with the protagonist being shot.
- The Triptych Continuum installment "Unstable Sale", detailing the Cutie Mark Crusaders' attempt to fund their next scheme by selling off the remains of their previous crusades, opens with the line "The Crusade had a cost, and Apple Bloom was no longer able to pay." It ends on the same line after the combination of looking over all of their failures, being confronted by countless ponies who have been harmed by their single-mindedness, and realizing how long it has been going on drives Apple Bloom to renounce the Crusade and try to actually think about her future.
- Ghosts of Evangelion: In the beginning of the story, Asuka hugs Shinji and makes him promise that he will not leave her from that day on. In the end of the story she hugs him tenderly and reassures him that he was true to his word.
- A Glass of Wine starts and ends with Shinji holding Asuka while she has a bout of phantom pain. In the beginning it's stiff, awkward, and more confusing than comforting. At the end Asuka is able to relax and reflects that she's no longer alone.
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: In the first scene Shinji is watching over a sleeping, comatose Asuka. In the last scene, Shinji is keeping watch over a sleeping Asuka. There is a key difference, though: in the final scene Shinji is not depressed or hysterical; he is calm and confident that she will wake up. It's implied that she will.
- Rolling Blackouts starts and ends with Shinji and Asuka snuggling underneath a blanket during a black-out.
- The Junior Officers chapter "The Dogfish Sharks" begins and ends with the characters talking about kelp cakes.
- One Year begins with Yu returning home after his year in Inaba, with his mother greeting him at the station. The epilogue begins with Yu's parents arriving in Inaba for their son's wedding, and he greets them at the station.
- Second Year, Second Try begins with Rise Kujikawa excited that her boyfriend Yu Narukami, who'd been Held Back in School, is in her homeroom at the start of her second year. The fic ends with Rise, now a third year, checking the class roster again to confirm that Yu's name isn't there, since while he passed his classes this time, he had to go home.
- Denounce the Evils begins with Team Rocket learning of their organization's fate as they're eating out in a small diner. By the end of it, they're working in a diner of their own, oftentimes spending their days chatting with the very person who jumpstarted their adventure in that first chapter.
- A Force of Four starts off with Power Girl and Jimmy Olsen talking about Superman and Kara taking Jimmy for a flight; and it ends up with Power Girl and Lois Lane talking about Superman and Kara taking Lois for a flight.
- The first paragraphs of the first and last chapters of Warriors of the World: Soldiers of Fortune is exactly the same apart from a change in season to show the passage of time, to capture the image of the world before and after the events of the story.
- Powerless begins with Logan's statement of how people like them (Logan, Virgil, and Patton) are statistical anomalies. The story ends with Logan's statement of how a turnout of over 200,000 people showing up to their protest march is a statistical anomaly. Even some of the characters that were there in the beginning (the man with red eyes, the snake-haired girl and her friend) are there at the march.
- Two in With Strings Attached:
- At the very beginning of the First Movement, Paul and John nervously walk along the beach, completely new to the world, wary of each other, and frightened. At the end of the Second Movement (in the chapter “Full Circle, Moebius-Style”), they walk together along another beach, back to being friends, more or less accustomed to the world (if not to their new magic), and enjoying sharing this utterly unique experience.
- When the four first arrive in Ta'akan, they have a frightening experience in the Owner's Head Tavern when an enormous Bar Brawl erupts around them. When they leave the city for the last time (not counting when Ringo accidentally teleports back there), they have dinner in the Owner's Head and laugh at how tame the nightly brawl seems now.
- In The Progenitor Chronicles, the story begins with a dream sequence where we see locations and themes from each of the mainline Resident Evil games. It ends with the MC and Rebecca going on vacation, visiting locations reminiscent of each of the mainline Resident Evil games, and Rebecca noting that their nightmares are just in their dreams now, rather than in the real world around them.
- The first and last lines in A Monster's Marriage sum up Cinder Fall. The first lines are "Cinder Fall was a monster. She knew this." And the final ones are "Cinder Fall was a wife and mother. She knew this."
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong
- to love another (and to learn yourself) has Luo Binghe trying to invoke Intimate Hair Brushing with Shen Yuan (whom he just abducted and imprisoned into his palace) only to get frustrated because there's no warmth in the gesture. In the second last chapter, after much character growth from Luo Binghe, Shen Yuan (who genuinely fell in love with him) offers to brush his hair from his own volition... and Luo Binghe feels warmth.
- The Song Fic Little By Little has Original Character Jett asking Frank Grimes what flower could define their love. At the end of the story, Jett places a bunch of those very flowers on Frank's grave.
- The first comic of Sonic the Comic is Enter: Sonic. The last comic in the continuity, written by Nigel Kitching himself, is Sonic the Comic – Online!'s Distant Finale Exit: Sonic.
- Chapter 12 of I've Got Your Back begins and ends with Pearl reminiscing about a word of advice from her father, concerning his daughter's yearning to tell Marina about all of her various insecurities, and to have somebody to share them with:"Talk to her, Pearl."
- The Star Trek: New Voyages episode "World Enough And Time" has beginning and ending scenes that take place about 30 years from the time of most of the episode, all based around the character Hikaru Sulu.
- "Solaere ssiun Hnaifv'daenn": The first and last scenes start with Tovan tr'Khev walking in on Jaleh Khoroushi doing her daily prayers.
- Ahsoka: A NZRE Star Wars Story: E1 begins with Ahsoka liberating Calodan. E8 ends with the team liberating Sarvchi.
- Something's main story begins with a description of the stolen plot and ends with a description of the plot itself.
- In Courtney and the Violin of Despair, the first and last chapters of the story proper (i.e. excluding the prologue) are very similar. Both chapters end with Courtney receiving a cursed violin (the Violin of Despair in the first chapter, and the Violin of Doom in the last) as a birthday gift from her parents, and the spirit inhabiting the violin contemplating Courtney's fate.
- The Gensokyo 20XX series begins with Reimu's narration and it ends with her narration.
- Queen Anne's Legacy: The story begins with Anne Boleyn dying in childbirth, after finally producing Henry's long-awaited son. The story concludes with her granddaughter Joan giving birth to her own son George, the future King of England, and unlike Anne, Joan survives.
- you can only use your own begins and ends in Asriel's point of view as he tries to prevent Chara from killing themself.
- A Fan Vid by snakey973 called X-Files // bones focusing on Scully's personality starts and ends with Mulder and Scully looking at a blue origami bird. It's quite sublime and beautiful.
