Be aware that this trope is naturally prone to SPOILERS.
Times where someone takes up another's quest, mission or legacy after their death in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Avengers of the Ring:
- In Dagor Arnediad, as the last member of Thorin's company in Erebor in fighting shape, Ori takes up Orcist to join the Guardians of the Galaxy in hunting down Thanos.
- In Methteilien, Rhodey trains Faramir in the use of the Hulkbuster armor.
- This is how Cinders and Ashes: the Chronicles of Kamen Rider Dante kick off, as Hotaro, a character from an in-universe fanfic, passes his belt onto his author, Hoshi. Hoshi later realizes that the reason Hotaro did this was because he knew Hoshi created him and trusted him to use his powers.
- In the Angel/The Hunger Games crossover Demon's Games
, when Buffy is preparing for her final fight on the astral plane, she leaves the Scythe to Cressida (while acknowledging that this is because Cressida is the only Slayer available and will understand if she passes the weapon on to Katniss later) and asks Cressida to look after Willow after she's gone, a 'duty' that Cressida is more comfortable with. - The Equestrian Wind Mage: At the end of Season 2, as Ganondorf, purified of Demise's curse, lays dying (for the final time), he passes the Triforce of Power on to Vaati.
- Fates Collide:
- After Gawain is killed, Lancelot is shown wielding his sword, Galatine, in the ending.
- Medb does a Heroic Sacrifice. The sequel Lost to Dust reveals that her student Neo started wielding Medb's sword Caladbolg.
- Astolfo sacrificed himself and in the sequel, his friend Charlemagne started wielding his lance the Trap of Argalia.
- Played with in Infinity Crisis:
- Tony lifts Stormbreaker after Thor is disarmed, only for his enthusiasm to be quashed when Thor clarifies that there is no worthiness enchantment on his new hammer.
- Faced with the threat of Thanos and the Avengers coming back together, Tony returns Steve’s shield.
- Mick Rory gives Snart’s cold gun to Rocket.
- Jane Foster proves worthy to hold Mjolnir and becomes a Goddess of Thunder.
- In Last Child of Krypton, a retired Wonder Woman shows Asuka her tiara, her bracelets, and her Lasso and asks her to pick them and carry on in her place. Asuka accepts.
- Features for various characters in the Hunger Games/Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover A Man Like No Other and its sequel:
- Obviously Katniss Everdeen, who receives Steve Rogers' original shield when she is chosen as the leader of the new Avengers, the shield later being repainted in black and gold with a mockingjay in the centre to reflect how Katniss fights for Panem rather than America.
- Tony Stark assembles the remnants of his old armors that survived into the future to create a new suit, which he passes on to Peeta before returning to his own time.
- Katniss briefly picks up Mjolnir, which inspires the long-absent Thor to return for his hammer.
- With Mjolnir restored, Thor entrusts the axe he was using in its stead, Jarnbjorn, to Johanna Mason, who uses it under her new codename of Bloodaxe.
- A Man of Iron: In A Crack of Thunder, Theon's mentor Jonos Bracken is killed by Asha. Enraged, Theon picks up Bracken's sword, Hate Eternal, and uses it to start killing Asha and Vanko's Ironborn, fighting his way to an escape.
- In the How to Train Your Dragon/The Lord of the Rings crossover Ring of Fire, Gandalf leaves Narya, the Ring of Fire, with Hiccup when he departs Middle-Earth for the Undying Lands; Narya lacks its former power with the destruction of the One Ring, but Hiccup recognises the symbolism of the gesture is what truly matters, as Gandalf shows that he has faith in Hiccup to help Men and Night Furies build a better world.
- In "Turbo: A KP/PR Story", after some of Kim Possible's enemies join forces with Divatox and injure Adam, Kat and Tanya during the attempt to rescue Lerigot's family, Kimberly and Jason (as well as the Possible family as a whole), Tommy, Zordon and Alpha ask Kim, Monique and Ron to serve as temporary Pink, Yellow and Green Rangers until the originals are back in fighting shape (Kim also participates in the final charity fighting tournament alongside Tommy, Adam and Jason, although there she is an additional fighter rather than replacing anyone).
- All Assorted Animorphs AUs: In "What if Elfangor and Loren raised Tobias?", Mertil and Gafinilan gave the Animorphs their powers. Before he died, Gafinilan passed on his title of war-prince to Jake.
- In We Are the Night, this is how original character Ginette Brookes a.k.a. Swift joined the Batfamily. When Alfred Pennyworth passed away, one of his last wishes was for the Waynes to hire Ginette, an old friend and fellow MI6 retiree, as the new housekeeper. She is just as adept as Batcave personnel as a maid and cook, and her British dry wit is certainly worthy of Alfred. What stops her from being a Distaff Counterpart is her lack of familial relationship with the Waynes, being more professional and, at times, antagonistic.
- Winter War takes the view that Tousen's zanpakutou Suzumushi originally belonged to his dead friend, and that after her murder, he essentially took on her (sentient) weapon and powers as well as her goals. In the present of the fic, with Tousen dead, Suzumushi is actively trying to get someone else to "take her up" and use her powers to pursue Tousen's "justice"... although she'd really prefer to just possess someone, rather than allow a shinigami free rein with her powers. Nanao finally persuades Suzumushi to temporarily lend her her powers, until they have accomplished their common goal of killing Aizen.
- In But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci, part of the premise is that Batman has been Ret Goned and the Joker (now sane and going by Jack Napier) remembers him, but in Jack's attempts to Set Right What Once Went Wrong he accidentally becomes the new Batman, with the internet giving him that moniker when he beats up Superman (evil in the new timeline) with a baseball bat. Jack is heavily reluctant to take up his former rival's legacy, but eventually embraces the identity.
- A relatively minor example in Package Deal when Ben, Mal, and Evie are in a relationship; when the time comes for the trio's wedding, Belle gives Evie her distinctive gold dress so that her future daughters-in-law can use it in their wedding dress.
- Invoked in spirit in "Maggie of Manhattan" after Hudson is apparently killed, with Maggie taking up the sword left behind and vowing to learn how to use it in his honor. While Hudson reveals that he is still alive, he offers to give Maggie some training in using the sword, and she eagerly accepts the offer.
- from porcelain to ivory to steel: After her brother Jean-Pierre dies protecting her from J. Geil, Sherry Polnareff inherits her brother's Stand Silver Chariot, which she uses to defend herself against her assailant. Once she recovers from the shock, Sherry vows to hunt down and kill J. Geil to both avenge her brother and protect more innocent victims from the madman.
- At the end of Game Theory, Yuuno gives his Device to Momoko, setting things up for the sequel.
- A non-fatal example of this occurs in Unsustainable when Steve, Tony, Bruce, and Clint have been captured by one of Banner's old friends with the goal of experimenting on Steve's super-soldier-enhanced physiology. With Steve and Bruce trapped and Tony injured, Tony directs JARVIS to allow Clint to use the Iron Man armor to stop their enemies.
- Sins of the Past starts with Lila successfully isolating Marinette, with Hawkmoth finishing the job. Fifteen years later, Kamala Lavillant-Couffaine finds the Ladybug Earrings and winds up with Marinette as a Spirit Advisor.
- A Father's Wrath:
- When Haku visits Zabuza's grave, his mentor appears in spirit form and passes over Zanbato to him.
- Sasuke takes the Kiba Blades from Raiga Kurosuki after his death.
- Another non-fatal example of this is in More than Meets the Eye; when competing against her ex-fiancé in the Whirl Cup, Misty has the secret weapon of Ash's Greninja, which he temporarily traded to her for the Cup; with careful training, Misty has even been able to replicate Bond Phenomenon with Greninja, although she can only use it for long enough to mount a single attack.
- Loosely applies in Power Rangers Mythos; the Mythos Morphers themselves haven’t been used before, but the Rangers all end up in a different colour to the one they were familiar with;
- Tommy finds himself wondering how Jason would feel about him acting as the Red Mythos Ranger.
- Tommy and Flynn later discuss how strange it is to see Flynn in Green when that was Tommy’s colour just hours ago.
- While still under Avanth’s control, Shelby claims the Yellow Mythos Morpher, while Z retrieves the Blue Mythos Morpher and Adam acquires the Purple.
- In Forever Yellow- a mass crossover featuring various Yellow Rangers opposing a version of Venjix- the final battle sees Taylor, Maya, Summer, Z and Tanya being trusted with the orbs for the Falcon, Giraffe, Deer, Rhino and Armadillo Wild Zords respectively, allowing them to oppose Venjix's new body in the Isis Megazord.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Redone concludes with Carina- here Jack’s daughter rather than Barbossa’s- taking her father’s compass and title to become the new Captain of the Black Pearl.
- The Stargate SG-1 fic "How Long is Forever?" opens with Daniel Jackson of early in the campaign against the Ori travelling back to early Season 3, briefly creating a timeline where his younger self is killed before he is revived in the sarcophagus. As a result, the past SGC receives an unexpected visit from a timeline where the young Daniel stayed dead, which led to Sha're being saved from Amaunet by SG-1 and ultimately taking Daniel's place on the team using the knowledge she gained from her time as a host.
