History EnemyMine / Literature

* 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 ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' book "Battle Beneath the Ice", a few Autobots and Decepticons stumble upon a hidden city in Antarctica, then learn that the city dwellers are robots who plan to program the aggressive instincts of humans, Autobot and Decepticons into themselves and conquer Earth, forcing Bots and Cons to work together to save the day.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' book "Battle Beneath the Ice", Hot Rod and a few Decepticons stumble upon a hidden city in Antarctica, then learn that the city dwellers are robots who plan to program the aggressive instincts of humans, Autobot and Decepticons into themselves and conquer Earth, forcing Bot and Cons to work together to save the day.

* In ''WesterAnimation/TheTransformers'' book "Battle Beneath the Ice", Hot Rod and a few Decepticons stumble upon a hidden city in Antarctica, then learn that the city dwellers are robots who plan to program the aggressive instincts of humans, Autobot and Decepticons into themselves and conquer Earth, forcing Bot and Cons to work together to save the day.

* ''Literature/WithoutWarning'': sees the entire USA vanish (well, technically an energy field kills everyone inside its bounds)except Hawaii, Alaska, a tiny slice of Washington State, the US Navy abroad and the forces poised to invade Iraq, and the military base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. In the absence of instructions from both their governments, American and Cuban soldiers work together to provide disaster relief.

*** 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 [[ThanatosGambit kill him]] in ''Changes'', his second choice would have been to go OutWithABang at her...um, ministrations.]]

** 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.
** At the end of ''Peace Talks'', and [[TwoPartEpisode leading into]] ''Battle Ground'', most of the signatories of the Unseelie Accords -- who are constantly jockeying for power -- have to forge TheAlliance to stand against [[spoiler: Ethinu and the Fomor's intention to wage war on the mortal world]].

* 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]].

* 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]]

* Literature/TheRiftwarCycle has a few:

* 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/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' the presence of [[OurWightsAreDifferent the Shade]] forces a temporary truce between [[spoiler: Lyrah and Daylen]], even though she wants nothing more than to [[{{Revenge}} kill him]] at that point. Any [[TeethClenchedTeamwork teeth-clenching]] is purely on her part, however, as [[ItsAllMyFault he never thinks of her as an enemy]] and is [[MustMakeAmends eager to help]].

** In the eighth book, ''That Ain't Witchcraft'', Antimony teams up (or at least calls a truce) with Leonard Cunningham, the future ''leader'' of the Covenant, to defeat the [[EldritchAbomination Crossroads]]. [[He ends the book still enemies with her]].

** In the eighth book, ''That Ain't Witchcraft'', Antimony teams up (or at least calls a truce) with Leonard Cunningham, the future ''leader'' of the Covenant, to defeat the [[EldritchAbomination Crossroads]].

** 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.

* 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."
* ''A Pict Song'' by Creator/RudyardKipling. "No indeed! We are not strong, But we know Peoples that are..."
* ''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.

* 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.]]

** 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 ''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.

** 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 ''Literature/WarriorCats'', rival cats and Clans occasionally put aside their enmity in order to take on a greater threat, such as the four forest Clans standing together to take on [=BloodClan=] despite some of the leaders, Leopardstar and Blackfoot, being former foes of [[TheHero Firestar]]. They eventually make it a law in the Warrior Code to ''require'' it to happen.
* In the final ''Literature/TheSpiritThief'' book, Eli, Nico, Josef and Miranda strike an uneasy truce with the Lord of Storms and the Master of the Dead Mountain to stop demons from consuming the world, despite the fact that Lord of Storms and the Master have it out for both one another and the main characters. The Master is pretty much the only side that's happy with the arrangement, as he gains the most out of it.
* ''Literature/WithoutWarning'': sees the entire USA vanish (well, technically an energy field kills everyone inside its bounds)except Hawaii, Alaska, a tiny slice of Washington State, the US Navy abroad and the forces poised to invade Iraq, and the military base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. In the absence of instructions from both their governments, American and Cuban soldiers work together to provide disaster relief.
* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'': No matter how much the gunters (both clans and individuals) are competing with each other to find James Halliday's egg, they always gladly put their differences aside to gang up on the Sixers.
* ''Literature/JohannesCabal'':
** ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheDetective'': Johannes and Leonie Barrow find themselves stuck together on an airship where two other passengers are murdered and team up to unravel the mystery. It's tense, since Johannes was a [[TheSoulless soulless]] VillainProtagonist in the previous book, but [[spoiler:Leonie passes up a chance to report Johannes to the authorities and Johannes, very uncharacteristically of him, risks his life to save hers]].
** ''Literature/TheBrothersCabal'': Johannes the {{Necromancer}} and his vampire brother Horst team up with five {{Creature Hunter Organization}}s to storm the SorcerousOverlord BigBad's castle. Johannes is best-informed about the situation and ''loves'' to rub the others' noses in it.
* ''Literature/{{City of Bones|1995}}'' by Creator/MarthaWells: When faced with cooperating either with [[spoiler:Riathen, their sort-of-ally and [[TheMentor mentor]]]] who's about to do something truly terrible, or with [[spoiler:Constans]], who's murderously insane but is trying to prevent it, Khat and Elen reluctantly make their peace with the latter. [[spoiler:When Riathen realizes what a disaster he's on the brink of causing, even he cooperates with Constans.]]
* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' the presence of [[OurWightsAreDifferent the Shade]] forces a temporary truce between [[spoiler: Lyrah and Daylen]], even though she wants nothing more than to [[{{Revenge}} kill him]] at that point. Any [[TeethClenchedTeamwork teeth-clenching]] is purely on her part, however, as [[ItsAllMyFault he never thinks of her as an enemy]] and is [[MustMakeAmends eager to help]].

* 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.]]

* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' the presence of [[OurWightsAreDifferent the Shade]] forces a temporary truce between [[spoiler: Lyrah and Daylen]], even though she wants nothing more than to [[{{Revenge}} kill him]] at that point. Any [[TeethClenchedTeamwork teeth-clenching]] is purely on her part, however, as [[ItsAllMyFault he never thinks of her as an enemy]] and is [[MustMakeAmends more than happy to help]].

* In ''Literature/SorcererConjurerWizardWitch'', the Diogenes Club forms a cautious and temporary alliance with their rivals the Undertaking, a sinister group of TheMenInBlack who are suspected of succumbing to HeWhoFightsMonsters, in order to defeat the Greant Enchanter, a DiabolicalMastermind plotting to take over and ultimately destroy the world. It's noted that the situation isn't quite as bad, yet, as it got with the previous generation's Great Enchanter, an OmnicidalManiac who posed such a grave threat that the Diogenes Club and the Undertaking formally combined into a single command structure for the duration and at the final push "no fewer than fifteen of the world's premier magicians, occult detectives, psychic adventurers, criminal geniuses and visionary scientists set aside profound differences" to work together and defeat him.

* 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.

** 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.

** In ''Hunger'', and continuing into ''Light'', Sam and Caine once again work together to battle Drake and the Gaiaphage, now in the body of Caine's daughter. They actually work quite well when fighting on the same side.