History EnemyMine / Literature

** In ''Lies'' they have reluctantly paired up again to murder [[spoiler: Caine's daughter.]]. They fail miserably, but it's a awesome fight scene.

* A typical strategy in ''TheHungerGames'', especially used by the Careers. Involves forming alliances with one or more other tributes to help each other, stay alive longer, and maybe take out other tributes. But of course, these can only be temporary, since the pool of remaining tributes gets smaller and smaller... There's only ''one'' victor, after all.

* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/{{Catseye}}'', faced with Troy's suspicion, Rerne proposes that they join forces against a common foe.

* This is the plot of Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Stars and Stripes'' AlterhateHistory trilogy. After the British declare war on the Union, they accidentally sack a Confederate town instead of a Union fort (the stars-and-bars flag confuses them). In response, the Union and the Confederacy agree to a cease-fire and, eventually, the Confederacy re-integrates into the USA and abolishes slavery in the face of the British Empire. One of the main criticisms of the trilogy is how easily this happens without too many problems.

* This is a major part of the plot of all 3 novels in CS Friedman's ''{{Coldfire|Trilogy}}'' trilogy: an immortal vampire and a priest team up to fight mutual enemies. [[spoiler: By the end of the novels, the priest has been thrown out of his church and the vampire's patron Dark God has rescinded his immortality and cast him into Hell for being insufficiently evil. Turns out saving the world isn't compatible with maintaining that black-as-a-moonless-night karma, who knew?]]

* The DaleBrown novel ''Air Battle Force'' culminates in [[spoiler: the Taliban detachment that served as primary enemy of that book]] working with Turkmen and American forces against the Russians, which continues into ''Plan of Attack''.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** In William King's novel ''Literature/SpaceWolf'', the Marines chose Ragnar and Strybjorn for Marines when they were fighting each other to the death, and both were mortally wounded. Ragnar's desire for {{Revenge}} is kept at bay by the knowledge that the Marines will not let him. [[spoiler:Finally, when they are fighting Chaos Space Marines, Strybjorn saves Ragnar's life, and shortly thereafter goes down. Ragnar realizes that he neither should nor does want Strybjorn to die; he sends the others on and [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind stays to treat and bring Strybjorn with them]].]]
** The first ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' novel, ''For the Emperor'', forces the Imperial Guard into an uneasy truce with a Tau diplomatic security contingent because neither side considers the crappy backwater planet Gravalax worth getting into an all-out war over. [[spoiler:It turns into EnemyMine after the two sides discover there's a genestealer cult trying to ''provoke'' that war, and the Tau aid the Guard in restoring order. The suicide squad Cain puts together from condemned Guardsmen joins up with a Tau pathfinder unit down below, while on the surface, a Tau Hammerhead hover-tank helps the 597th break through a traitor PDF position.]]
** HistoryRepeats in the ninth novel, ''The Greater Good'', where the Tau and Guard start out fighting, [[spoiler:then are forced to join forces when their war is rudely interrupted by a tyranid hive fleet]].
** Subverted in ''[[Literature/SpaceMarineBattles World Engine]]'' - after realizing that both the Astral Knights and Turakhin are there for Hequroth's blood (engine coolant?), the two simply decide to ignore each other until the Overlord's dead.
** In another ''Literature/SpaceMarineBattles'' novel, ''Malodrax'', Lysander is disgusted to find an ally in a daemon prince, but goes with it, as he wants revenge on Thul and Shalhadar wants to teach the Iron Warrior his place.
* And in the ''Literature/WarchildSeries'', Captain Azarcon, a SpaceMarine, and Niko, human sympathizer of the alien [[LaResistance resistance]] work together to [[spoiler:rescue hostages and capture gunrunners. This collaboration leads to the end of the war... for a time, anyway.]]
* In Creator/EEDocSmith's ''[[Literature/SkylarkSeries The Skylark of Space]]'', the villain [=DuQuesne=] agrees to act as one of the party until they return safely to Earth, even though he wants the hero Richard Seaton dead. Ultimately Seaton [[spoiler:makes his best friend hand BOTH his guns over to [=DuQuesne=] because [=DuQuesne=] is the better shot, and then Seaton and [=DuQuesne=] stand side by side and mow down their common enemies until all four guns are empty.]] In ''Skylark [=DuQuesne=]'', [=DuQuesne=] enlists Seaton's help in fighting an otherwise unstoppable alien menace and ends up [[spoiler:winning the war and saving Seaton's life in the process]], though by this time [[spoiler:his reasons for wanting Seaton dead no longer apply]]. The fact that each man at least respects the other's abilities helps.
* ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'', by Creator/HarryTurtledove. Aliens invade in 1942. The Axis are working with the Allies. Another one occurs between the Jews in Europe and the Race. Aliens who never figured out discrimination or Nazi Germany. Played with in the sense that they aren't quite sure who'd be worse for mankind. (The Jews play it both ways,[[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor working with the Race or the Germans depending on who's a bigger threat at the time.]])
* In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', after the zombie outbreak Israel pulls back from the Palestinian territories and offers asylum to any uninfected Palestinian refugees, both sides agreeing to cooperate in the face of an apocalyptic disaster. When the outbreak is contained they form a permanent truce and Israel agrees to a two-state solution.

* Literature/TheRiftwarCycle has a few:
** In ''A Darkness at Sethanon'', the Heroic Prince teams up with the former EvilChancellor to defend a city against the TheHorde.
** In ''Honored Enemy'', a band of Kingdom raiders allies with a Tsurani patrol in order to survive pursuit from a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Moredhel]] company. The story plays during the war between the Kingdom and the Tsurani and revolves around the tension this causes.
** In ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'', the moredhel chieftain Gorath seeks out Prince Arutha to curb another upcoming invasion that he feels would be too costly for his people.
** In the Chaoswar Saga, the final trilogy, an enemy shows up who is so dangerous that the God of Evil comes in on the side of Good.
* The ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' only teamed up with their main enemy, Visser Three, twice: to defeat a race of annoying, psycho, tiny-tiny-tiny aliens with a shrink ray and a mass Napoleon Complex, and to escape from a bunch of mutated blue fish-people that want to kill and stuff them for their DerelictGraveyard. On the other hand, Visser One freed them from Visser Three's prison in her very first appearance. Since the Animorphs are guerrilla fighters and Visser One is the main advocate for a stealth invasion (and her host is [[spoiler:Marco's mom]]), they're not unwilling to accommodate her if it hurts Visser Three's credibility -- but they're not unwilling to use it as an excuse to double-cross her, either...
** In ''Elfangor's Secret'', the Ellimist and Crayak both agree that the Time Matrix should not be in the hands of a mere mortal and help the Animorphs stop Visser Four.
** In the last few books, they team up with Tom and his followers in order to hijack the Pool Ship. Both sides then double-cross each other, but the Animorphs end up winning in the end.
** In ''The Andalite Chronicles'' there's a brief few minutes where Elfangor and the future Visser Three (then only Visser Thirty-Two) team up to escape certain death.
* In ''Literature/TheOtherWind'' by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin, representatives of four cultures normally at loggerheads -- if not outright enmity -- have to pool their respective mythological knowledge in order to figure out the truth about an ancient evil.
* In the ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington Crown of Slaves]]'' sub-series of the ''Honorverse'', Victor Cachat and Anton Zilwicki are two intelligence operatives from the warring Star Empire of Manticore and the Republic of Haven (Formerly People's Republic of Haven). They team up to investigate Mesan intrigue and how it impacts the war. It's implied this sub series may lead to a Grand Alliance...
** Really, by now it's evident that The Climactic Conflict will be between the Andermani/Havenites/Manticore/Maya/Beowulf/Torch/others versus the frikkin' huge Solarian League (minus bits like Maya)/Mesa/whatever else we haven't seen yet. It promises to be ''awesome''.[[note]]Though in context, Manticore and (post-Theisman Coup) Haven are natural ''allies'', particularly considering how vehemently both of them enforce the Cherwell Convention. Now that the reason for the war -- the PRH's expansionist policies -- is gone, the true Republic has been restored, and all the diplomatic snafus are cleared away, it would have been more surprising if they ''hadn't'' allied together.[[/note]]
** As of ''Mission Of Honor'', [[spoiler:Manticore and Haven have signed both a peace treaty and a military alliance]].
* In the ''TheEternalChampion'' story by Creator/MichaelMoorcock, humanity has unified solely because of the presence of the alien Eldren. Ekrose, the protagonist states that, absent the Eldren presence, humanity would be at war with itself. This is a key reason for his decision to [[spoiler:kill the entire human race]]
* Creator/TadWilliams' ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'' CyberPunk novel series has a prominent example of this in the fourth book. After PsychoForHire John Dread usurps control of the Otherland network, CorruptCorporateExecutive Felix Jongleur, who up until now has regarded the heroes as an annoyance (if he was aware of them at all), finds himself on equal footing with them: trapped in the network and [[BroughtDownToNormal unable to use his godlike powers]].
* This is a major part of the plot of all 3 novels in CS Friedman's ''{{Coldfire|Trilogy}}'' trilogy: an immortal vampire and a priest team up to fight mutual enemies. [[spoiler: By the end of the novels, the priest has been thrown out of his church and the vampire's patron Dark God has rescinded his immortality and cast him into Hell for being insufficiently evil. Turns out saving the world isn't compatible with maintaining that black-as-a-moonless-night karma, who knew?]]

* In ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'', black robed mages ally themselves with the good guys every now and then, for example to drive off the Dark Queen in ''Literature/TheLegendOfHuma'' and during the War of the Lance. ''Dragons of Summer Flame'' was based around this trope. Also Fistandantilus and the Kingpriest used each other for their own goals.

* It is briefly mentioned in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''Literature/GreyKnights'' that the underhive gangs of Volcanis Ultor "buried their enmities for one long night" to do battle with a powerful gang of Chaos followers.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': The Cullens ([[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires Vegetarian Vampires]]) and the Quilettes ([[FurAgainstFang Werewolves born to kill vampires]]), had to work together to destroy an army of newborn vampires that were killing people in general and wanted to kill Bella Swan in particular.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** While most of the clone troopers went on to serve the empire, the True Mandalorians (a.k.a. the group that nearly destroyed the Galactic Republic 4,000 years ago) fought alongside the rebels to retain their heritage as well as kill those who had betrayed their own kin.
** ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'': Jedi and the LostTribe of the Sith form an alliance (in the titular ''Allies''), to investigate and subdue a feminine EldritchAbomination named Abeloth. The arrangement doesn't last long, but it does allow Luke's son Ben to pick up a [[DarkActionGirl Sith Apprentice Girlfriend]]...
** Speaking of ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'', Apocalypse reveals that the Father, the Son, and the Daughter had fought against Abeloth multiple times after she got corrupted. The mere fact that the Son, who is the embodiment of the Dark Side, would ally himself with the Daughter, who is the embodiment of the Light Side, even when they would more often than not fight each other to the death had it not been for the Father's influence would imply that this trope came into play.
** ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'': Mara Jade sees her having to constantly work with Luke as this trope, especially with that [[KillMeNowOrForeverStayYourHand not-so-covert wish to kill him]]. He doesn't see it the same way, though. At the end of the trilogy, they've become FireForgedFriends, and by the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series, they're a married BattleCouple.
** ''Literature/TheTruceAtBakura'' is this trope personified, with the Imperials forced to work with the Rebels to defeat the evil Ssi-Ruuk. [[spoiler:Once it becomes clear that the aliens are in retreat, the Empire reverts back to their evil selves and re-declares war on the Alliance.]]
** A couple of times in the ''Literature/NewJediOrder''. In ''Conquest'', Anakin Solo teams up with [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]] warrior Vua Rapuung to rescue his friend Tahiri from a MadScientist who is also Rapuung's enemy (and ex-lover). In the last book, ''The Unifying Force'', Han Solo and Boba Fett find themselves briefly fighting side-by-side against Vong warriors. Finally, at the very end of the series, a subversion comes into play- Nom Anor, RecurringBoss for most of the series, allies with the heroes only out of a selfish sense of self-preservation, and immediately tries to flush them out an airlock when he feels they've outlived their usefulness. For his part, he 'does'' eventually [[BecomingTheMask Become the Mask]] of the Prophet, and genuinely leads an uprising of the Shamed Ones (who have come to view the Jedi as saviors) against the rest of the Vong.
** In ''Iron Fist'', one of the ''Literature/XWingSeries'' novels, Admiral Rogriss of the Empire offers a temporary unofficial alliance with Solo and his fleet to hunt down Warlord Zsinj, and then, in his words, they can go back to their personal ideological differences without inviting anyone else to play.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has some interesting ones. Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth are forced to coexist when Catelyn Stark sends Brienne to trade Jaime for Sansa, but though they start out quite hostile, they've reached a point of sort-of friendship and mutual respect (and [[ShipTease maybe more]]). A more hostile camaraderie briefly exists between Sandor Clegane and Arya Stark; she still hates him, sure, but when it comes down to it they work well together, and she's probably more like him than she'd like to acknowledge. On a larger scale in ''A Dance with Dragons'' [[spoiler: the wildlings and the Night's Watch agree to work together against the Others. Many of them aren't happy about this, rendering the alliance extremely tenuous.]]
** While they never actually get round to fighting, Stannis Baratheon makes it clear he views Robb Stark as just as much of an enemy as BigBad Joffrey Baratheon. By Book 5, Robb has been betrayed and killed by some of his own soldiers, while Stannis' forces have been decimated. Subsequently, the Northern soldiers who remain loyal to the Starks join up with Stannis.
** On the outbreak of war, the Tyrells initially throw their support behind Renly Baratheon. When Stannis assassinates Renly, they jump ship to Joffrey and the Lannisters in order to take revenge on Stannis.
** Nearly every alliance is this given [[DeadlyDecadentCourt the infighting and divergent agendas common in Westerosi politics]]. Forging any alliance is an arduous task and they're very fragile in times of defeat or betrayal - times when they're needed most.
* Reversed in the ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse''. In the wake of the Borg invasion, several previously non-aligned minor enemies such as the Tholians join the Typhon Pact in order to leave the Federation and Klingon Empire surrounded by a hostile power. The Tholians, well-known for xenophobia, join for this reason ''alone''.
* The DaleBrown novel ''Air Battle Force'' culminates in [[spoiler: the Taliban detachment that served as primary enemy of that book]] working with Turkmen and American forces against the Russians, which continues into ''Plan of Attack''.
** ''Edge of Battle'' has [[spoiler: Zakharov and Task Force TALON]] reluctantly cooperating after Comandante Veracruz's double-cross, though it doesn't last.
** ''Strike Force'' is centred on an Iranian coup leader and former enemy of Dreamland who now needs their help. The blurb tells you as much!
* ''A Pict Song'' by Creator/RudyardKipling. "No indeed! We are not strong, But we know Peoples that are..."
* ''The White Rose'' by Glen Cook. In the final battle the Lady -- sorceress leader of the northern empire -- needs the help of the white rose to take down the dominator, her husband and a much better sorcerer. The white rose creates a area where magic cannot be used and therefore is vital to taking down the greatest sorcerer in known history.
* In ''[[Literature/TheIcewindDaleTrilogy Streams of Silver]]'', Drizzt Do'Urden and Artemis Entreri declared a temporary truce in order to join forces against a common enemy (the [[AlwaysChaoticEvil gray dwarves]] inhabiting Mithral Hall). Some time later, in ''[[Literature/LegacyOfTheDrowSeries Starless Night]]'', Catti-Brie and Entreri teamed up to rescue Drizzt from the drow, who were holding all three of them captive and who would have eventually executed both Drizzt and Entreri. (Or condemned them to a FateWorseThanDeath.)
* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' and Holly do this in ''The Arctic Incident'' and ''The Eternity Code'' -- they are opponents, or at the very least rivals with a sore history, even though they have both saved each others' lives. In ''The Arctic Incident'', they cooperate as part of a deal: Artemis uses his above-world influence to investigate a smuggler, while the LEP use their advanced technology to help rescue Fowl Senior. In ''The Eternity Code'', their relationship is more tense as they cooperate to resolve a situation Artemis is partly to blame for. By ''The Opal Deception'', they are friends, and later [[ShipTease possibly more than that]], though that does not go anywhere.

* [[TheHero Sam]] and [[BigBad Caine]] of the ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' series (who are ironically brothers) have teamed up ''twice'' during intervals of trying to kill each other;
** They teamed up in ''Hunger'', against [[TheDragon Drake Merwin]]. Sam wanted him dead because he tortured him senselessly and this was enough to piss even ''him'' off, and Caine's motive was spontaneous rage for him trying to his [[UnholyMatrimony girlfriend]] [[TheDarkChick Diana]].
** In ''Lies'' they have reluctantly paired up again to murder [[spoiler: Caine's daughter.]]. They fail miserably, but it's a awesome fight scene.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Literature/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/RoguesInTheHouse" after Murilo and Conan have broken into Nabonidus's house to kill him, and find that he is not, after all, the BeastMan, they ally with him to deal with it.

* In Literature/TheDresdenFiles series, Harry teams up with Lara Raith multiple times over the course of the series to help them reach mutual goals.
** They do this quite often in fact, to the point at one instance Lara indicates quite clearly she would rather [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow rule]] with Dresden together than for them to keep fighting each other.
*** Harry has shown that he finds it particularly (or at least very) difficult to resist her, and has even used this fact to taunt a mutual enemy, one of her cousins with whom she shares a bitter rivalry. It was later revealed in Cold Days that [[spoiler: if Kincaid had refused to kill him in Changes, his second choice would have been to go OutWithABang at her...um, ministrations.]]
** He does this even more with crime lord John Marcone; it eventually gets to the point where they've had common goals so often, they're more enemies in principle than practice.
** The novel ''Turn Coat'' is one long, extended Enemy Mine sequence between Harry and his former nemesis Donald Morgan, who finds himself needing Harry's help to survive.
** ''Skin Game'' revolves around Harry (unwillingly) joining forces with all-around terrible person Nicodemus and a band of other unscrupulous types in order to pull off TheHeist, effectively making him their TokenGoodTeammate. Then he brings in two of his ''own'' allies as backup, including ThePaladin who's fundamentally opposed to Nicodemus. Naturally, the arrangement falls messily apart at the end.
* In the ''Literature/CodexAlera'' series, the Canim have Gadara, meaning "trusted enemy". Gadara can often work together, as [[spoiler: Tavi and Varg]] eventually do.
** The trope is carried much further with the appearance of [[spoiler:the Vord]], which allows the First Lord to forge tentative alliances with all of Alera's long-standing enemies to fight together against the new opponent. In fact, the First Lord ends up saying [[spoiler:the Vord]] was the best thing to happen to Alera.
* In ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'' novel ''[[http://www.amazon.com/dagger-affair-Man-U-N-C-L-E/dp/B0007KDMFI The Dagger Affair]]'' by David [=McDaniel=], UNCLE and THRUSH operatives work together to stop DAGGER, a new organization armed with advanced science. In the end a THRUSH-controlled fighter jet kamikazes the DAGGER base, using sheer momentum to overwhelm its force field. There's a poignant moment where the leader of THRUSH reminds the leader of UNCLE of their former friendship and gives him a copy of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. Then he ends the truce ahead of the agreed time, not that anyone expected anything else. We also discover that the full name of THRUSH is the somewhat unwieldy "Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity".
* In the second book of the ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' trilogy, Vin finds herself working with an enemy - [[spoiler:Ten-Soon, who had assumed the identity of Ore-Seur, and had been working on behalf of Straff Venture.]]
** Then there's [[StalkerWithACrush the Watcher]], who is first introduced when she notes that she missed fighting with that one guy who is probably an assassin but hasn't seriously tried to kill anyone yet. His first proper appearance is him saving her life from the sidelines as she hadn't realised one of her opponents had Atium.
* This happens in ''Literature/ThePathToWar'' where Tahniya is soul bound to Zan as punishment; they can't stand each other.
* Bertie Wooster and [[spoiler:Sir Roderick Glossop]] team up in ''[[Literature/JeevesAndWooster Thank You, Jeeves]]'' and end up getting along very well, even exchanging invitations to lunch. Bertie notes that he can't be all bad, since he [[spoiler:beat up Chuffy's BrattyHalfPint cousin Seabury]].
* This is the plot of Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Stars and Stripes'' AlterhateHistory trilogy. After the British declare war on the Union, they accidentally sack a Confederate town instead of a Union fort (the stars-and-bars flag confuses them). In response, the Union and the Confederacy agree to a cease-fire and, eventually, the Confederacy re-integrates into the USA and abolishes slavery in the face of the British Empire. One of the main criticisms of the trilogy is how easily this happens without too many problems.
* The alliance of the outlawed Malazan commander Dujek Onearm with his enemy Caladan Brood against the [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal]] Pannion Seer in the third volume of ''Literature/TheMalazanBookOfTheFallen''. [[spoiler:It later turns out that Dujek's outlawry was a XanatosGambit by Malazan Empress Laseen to win Caladan's support for the war.]]
* In Creator/TomKratman's ''Literature/{{Caliphate}}'', in spite of a continuing state of low-level conflict between them, the [[ExpandedStatesOfAmerica Imperial States of America]] and the Celestial Kingdom of the Han (China) work together to eliminate a significant [[spoiler:bioweapon]] threat posed by the eponymous Caliphate.
* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'' has three examples:
** The premise is Baalaria and Drewghaven teaming up to quell raiders produced by civil unrest.
** Zarracka and [[spoiler: Mordak]] team up because they both hate Daniar.
** [[spoiler: Everyone still alive joins forces against Kthonia.]]
* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/{{Catseye}}'', faced with Troy's suspicion, Rerne proposes that they join forces against a common foe.
* A typical strategy in ''TheHungerGames'', especially used by the Careers. Involves forming alliances with one or more other tributes to help each other, stay alive longer, and maybe take out other tributes. But of course, these can only be temporary, since the pool of remaining tributes gets smaller and smaller... There's only ''one'' victor, after all.
* In Creator/JulieKagawa's ''Literature/TheIronDaughter'', Ironhorse allies with Meghan because he considers the Iron King to be false.
* In ''Literature/APassageToIndia'', which is set in the [[UsefulNotes/TheRaj British Raj]], the religious divisions among native Indians - particularly those between Hindus and Muslims - are only set aside when they find themselves both in conflict with the ruling British authorities. As Dr Aziz says to [[AuthorAvatar Cyril Fielding]], "We may hate each other, but we hate you more."
* In ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight'', Aphrodite and Zoey start out with an ArchEnemy relationship, which ends up morphing when the two of them need each other and have a common enemy. Zoey and Aphrodite frequently have JerkassHasAPoint moments.

* The point of the ''Literature/LeagueOfMagi'' story "Wait," and ultimately subverted when [[spoiler: one of them kills the other.]]
* In ''Literature/LastSacrifice'', Rose teams up with [[spoiler:Victor Dashkov]] against the mysterious assassin of [[spoiler:Tatiana Ivashkov]].
* The end of the first book of the ''Literature/AhrimanTrilogy'' features the hero teaming up with a man whose entire job is hunting down and killing mages like him.
* Happens in the backstory of ''Literature/RememberToAlwaysBeBrave'', and shown in with the prequel ''{{Literature/Cilva}}'', the Roman Republic is called in by the Alliance to aid an uprising in Zesan/Azania's capital city of Cilva. It's not a trap, but its not really an uprising either. It is mused on as a total wreck of a battle. Later on in Remember To Always Be Brave, the Roman Republic and the Alliance of Nations unites [[spoiler: to fight the Tenebrae invaders, and Corna turns on the Tenebrae after they use a cult base as a experiment ground for their biological terror weapon.]]
* Of a sort in ''Literature/{{Insurgent}}'', Cara extremely dislikes Tris [[spoiler:(due to Tris [[ShootTheDog shooting a brainwashed Will]]]]) but is fully willing to assist in Tris's plans. She even admits to Christina that logically, Tris did what had to be done.
* In ''Literature/TheEmpressGame'', it gets complicated. Blame for the conquest of Ordoch can be attributed both to the IDC (which planned it) and to Dolan (who led the Empire there in the first place). Kayla, an Ordochian, is willing to work with an IDC team while opposing Dolan, since she thinks there's a possibility of freeing Ordoch that way. [[spoiler:Meanwhile, Tia'tan is pursuing the same objective by working with Dolan against the IDC team. She and Kayla each accuse the other of being a traitor on account of the alliances they made. When they work past that, they team up themselves.]]
* In ''Literature/ThePillarsOfReality'', Mari and Alain start out thinking of each other as enemies who have to work together to survive. As they get to know each other, however, they begin to realise that they're only enemies in the first place because each of their respective Guilds are either wrong or lying about the other.
* ''Literature/SwarmOnTheSomme'' is an Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom story where the opening months of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI are interrupted by an invasion of a race of ''[[OhCrap intelligent]]'' HordeOfAlienLocusts called the Grex. Within a month, the sheer threat of the Grex is enough to make all the human nations co-operate. [[HopelessWar It's still not enough.]]
* In ''The War With Liliputs'' from ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture'' series, Alice teams with Rat and Jolly U, her enemies in most of the books, to get rid of another, more sinister criminal clan.
* In ''Literature/TheTraitorSoNCycle'', the humans and the Wild have been at enmity for over a generation, but an OutsideContextProblem forces them to start to first assist each other from time to time, and then ally - with an implication that they might no longer consider themselves enemies.

** ''Skin Game'' revolves around Harry (unwillingly) joining forces with [[CompleteMonster all-around terrible person]] Nicodemus and a band of other unscrupulous types in order to pull off TheHeist, effectively making him their TokenGoodTeammate. Then he brings in two of his ''own'' allies as backup, including ThePaladin who's fundamentally opposed to Nicodemus. Naturally, the arrangement falls messily apart at the end.

** ''Skin Game'' revolves around Harry (unwillingly) joining forces with [[CompleteMonster all-around terrible person]] Nicodemus and a band of other unscrupulous types in order to pull off TheHeist, effectively making him their TokenGoodTeammate. Things fall apart messily at the end.

** ''Skin Game'' revolves around Harry (unwillingly) joining forces with [[CompleteMonster all-around terrible person]] Nicodemus and a band of other unscrupulous types in order to pull off TheHeist, effectively making him their TokenGoodTeammates. Things fall apart messily at the end.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/RoguesInTheHouse" after Murilo and Conan have broken into Nabonidus's house to kill him, and find that he is not, after all, the BeastMan, they ally with him to deal with it.

* ''{{Worldwar}}'', by Creator/HarryTurtledove. Aliens invade in 1942. The Axis are working with the Allies. Another one occurs between the Jews in Europe and the Race. Aliens who never figured out discrimination or Nazi Germany. Played with in the sense that they aren't quite sure who'd be worse for mankind. (The Jews play it both ways,[[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor working with the Race or the Germans depending on who's a bigger threat at the time.]])

* This is how [[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Miles Vorkosigan's]] parents got together, in ''Shards of Honor''.

* In ''The Other Wind'', the last (so far) in Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/{{Earthsea|Trilogy}}'' series, representatives of four cultures normally at loggerheads - if not outright enmity - have to pool their respective mythological knowledge in order to figure out the truth about an ancient evil.

** ''TheThrawnTrilogy'': Mara Jade sees her having to constantly work with Luke as this trope, especially with that [[KillMeNowOrForeverStayYourHand not-so-covert wish to kill him]]. He doesn't see it the same way, though. At the end of the trilogy, they've become FireForgedFriends, and by the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series, they're a married BattleCouple.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

* In AndreNorton's ''Literature/{{Catseye}}'', faced with Troy's suspicion, Rerne proposes that they join forces against a common foe.

* The alliance of the outlawed Malazan commander Dujek Onearm with his enemy Caladan Brood against the [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal]] Pannion Seer in the third volume of ''TheMalazanBookOfTheFallen''. [[spoiler:It later turns out that Dujek's outlawry was a XanatosGambit by Malazan Empress Laseen to win Caladan's support for the war.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'', black robed mages ally themselves with the good guys every now and then, for example to drive off the Dark Queen in ''Legend of Huma'' and during the War of the Lance. ''Dragons of Summer Flame'' was based around this trope. Also Fistandantilus and the Kingpriest used each other for their own goals.

* In ''Literature/WorkdWarZ'', after the zombie outbreak Israel pulls back from the Palestinian territories and offers asylum to any uninfected Palestinian refugees, both sides agreeing to cooperate in the face of an apocalyptic disaster. When the outbreak is contained they form a permanent truce and Israel agrees to a two-state solution.