History Main / InevitableMutualBetrayal

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': After Long Feng and Azula pull off a coup in Ba Sing Sae, Long Feng approaches her with the line, "Now comes the part where I double-cross you." Which they both knew was coming. He then orders the Dai Li to arrest her, but they stand by and do nothing instead because, as she explains, "they're waiting to see how this is going to end". She proceeds to give him a BreakingSpeech about how his FromNobodyToNightmare backstory is impressive but inferior to her DivineRightOfKings. Looking around at how she's converted his insanely loyal elite soldiers to her own followers, Long Feng acknowledges that she's beaten him at his own game, which she laughs off with, "[[PretenderDiss You were never even a player]]."

* Near the end of the first season of ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', Megatron proposes a Maximal/Predacon truce to Optimus Primal; even admitting upfront that it's to afford him the chance to divert his attention elsewhere for a while. Primal accepts because he's honor-bound to give peace a chance -- but he still sends spies to the Predacon base to find out what they're up to. Megatron naturally drops the truce in the next episode (without warning and when two Maximals are seemingly at his mercy), but they came prepared and win the ensuing scuffle.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Employee of the Month", [=SpongeBob=] and Squidward get overly competitive over the titular award, leading to them sabotaging each other. They eventually agree to a truce, but their internal monologues quickly reveal a mutual distrust of each other.
-->'''[=SpongeBob=]''': As soon as he stops shaking my hand--\\
'''Squidward''': --I'm gonna make a run for it.\\
[''the handshake slowly peters out, and after a {{beat}}, they both sprint towards the Krusty Krab at full pelt'']

* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, it is stated that [[TheStarscream Vader was planning to betray Palpatine]] and that Palpatine was taking every available precaution to keep Vader under control while he searched for a viable replacement apprentice. This is par for the course with Sith apprenticeships, the master always looking for a better apprentice, and the apprentice always looking for an opportunity to become the master. The "RuleOfTwo" exists to ensure the apprentice can only succeed by being stronger than the master: Otherwise two weaker apprentices could gang up on the master, making the Sith weaker overall.

* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, it is stated that Vader was planning to betray Palpatine and that Palpatine was taking every available precaution to keep Vader under control while he searched for a viable replacement apprentice. This is par for the course with Sith apprenticeships, the master always looking for a better apprentice, and the apprentice always looking for an opportunity to become the master. The "RuleOfTwo" exists to ensure the apprentice can only succeed by being stronger than the master: Otherwise two weaker apprentices could gang up on the master, making the Sith weaker overall.

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[[folder:Roleplay]]
* ''Roleplay/AsteroidQuest'': When Waska's gang plans a joint heist with the Shredded Flag, they're planning to backstab them, take all the loot for themselves, and kidnap their local leader. All along they assume the Flag has similar plans, which is probably true if their bit about kidnapping [[LadyMacbeth Mimi]] was premeditated. [[spoiler:Grudge-Bearer smelling [[LovableRogue Hok]] on the premises threw a massive spanner in both sides' plans.]]
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* ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'' has a hundreds-of-years long backstory and a lot of political intrigue; this kind of scenario is far from uncommon:

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': In Part 2 of ''[[DownloadableContent Burial at Sea]]'', Elizabeth strikes a deal with Atlas to rescue a Little Sister; bring him the "[[MacGuffin Ace in the Hole]]" and he lets The Little Sister (named Sally) go. She knows that Atlas cannot be trusted and Andrew Ryan even tells her as much in an attempt to get her on his side. [[spoiler:In the end, Atlas betrays her, by threatening to lobotomize her and Sally if she didn't hand him the Ace. She does it because she knows that Atlas will die in the original ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'', though she dies by the end of the episode.]]

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* Near the end of the first season of ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', Megatron proposes a Maximal/Predacon truce to Optimus Primal; even admitting upfront that it's to afford him the chance to divert his attention elsewhere for a while. Primal accepts because he's honor-bound to give peace a chance -- but he still sends spies to the Predacon base to find out what they're up to.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Employee of the Month", Spongebob and Squidward get overly competitive over the titular award, leading to them sabotaging each other. They eventually agree to a truce, but their internal monologues quickly reveal a mutual distrust of each other.

* In ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'' Qwenthur's unit temporarily works with an Information Alliance tank unit. When the tank unit reaches its final destination, they attempt to kill the Kingdom soldiers as planned from the start. Qwenthur, having foreseen this, had already arranged for Baby Magnum to arrive as support when the betrayal happened.

* In ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'', after Arthur [[spoiler:retakes Etisin from the Alacryans and thus secures the surrender of the remaining Alacryan forces on Dicathen]], he is summoned back to [[spoiler:Epheotus as Kezess wants to negotiate with him]]. Neither party is happy to see each other. [[spoiler:Kezess views Arthur as a failed asset whom he wasted his time on, especially since his granddaughter Sylvie was forced to perform a HeroicSacrifice to save Arthur during one of the closing battles of the war]]. Arthur on the other hand despises [[spoiler:Kezess for being [[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks a tyrant no better than Agrona]] and for the atrocities he has committed, namely committing genocide on the ancient Djinn (whom Arthur and his family are descended from), ordering the [[GodzillaThreshold destruction of Elenoir]] in an ultimately futile attempt to prevent the Vritra from summoning the Legacy, and the [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness attempted purging of what was left of the Dicathian resistance]] when they refused to accept a set of magical artifacts that would enslave them to his will]]. Indeed, the premise of the negotiations is in return for Arthur telling him everything that he has learned about [[spoiler:controlling [[ElementNumberFive aether]] (which was the reason why he ordered the genocide of the Djinn in the first place as they refused to share their knowledge of the aether with him), Kezess would ensure no conflict among the Asuras would spill onto Dicathen or Alacrya and would assist Arthur in retaking his homeland. Once the terms are established, both sides attempt to manipulate the MagicallyBindingContract that underpins the agreement so that it becomes one-sided. While the negotiations end with Arthur turning the tables on Kezess so that he is beholden to keep his word rather than vice versa, it is clear that once Agrona and the Vritra are dealt with, hostilities are bound to resume between the two parties.]].

* In ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'', after Arthur [[spoiler:retakes Xyrus from the Alacryans]], he is summoned back to [[spoiler:Epheotus as Kezess wants to negotiate with him]]. Neither party is happy to see each other. [[spoiler:Kezess views Arthur as a failed asset whom he wasted his time on, especially since his granddaughter Sylvie was forced to perform a HeroicSacrifice to save Arthur during one of the closing battles of the war]]. Arthur on the other hand despises [[spoiler:Kezess for being [[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks a tyrant no better than Agrona]] and for the atrocities he has committed, namely committing genocide on the ancient Djinn (whom Arthur and his family are descended from), ordering the [[GodzillaThreshold destruction of Elenoir]] in an ultimately futile attempt to prevent the Vritra from summoning the Legacy, and the [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness attempted purging of what was left of the Dicathian resistance]] when they refused to accept a set of magical artifacts that would enslave them to his will]]. Indeed, the premise of the negotiations is in return for Arthur telling him everything that he has learned about [[spoiler:controlling [[ElementNumberFive aether]] (which was one of the reasons why he ordered the genocide of the Djinn in the first place as they refused to share their knowledge of the aether), Kezess would ensure no conflict among the Asuras would spill onto Dicathen or Alacrya and would assist Arthur in retaking his homeland. Once the terms are established, both sides attempt to manipulate the MagicallyBindingContract that underpins the agreement so that it becomes one-sided. While the negotiations end with Arthur turning the tables on Kezess so that he is beholden to keep his word rather than vice versa, it is clear that once Agrona and the Vritra are dealt with, hostilities are bound to resume between the two parties]].

* There's a game mode in ''VideoGame/{{DEFCON}}'' where all the players start out as allies. Since the point of the game is to inflict as many casualties as you can on the opposing players while protecting your own cities as much as you can, this alliance will inevitably crumble.

* The ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' series has the ''Deadly Alliance'', formed by sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung. They teamed up in order to conquer Outworld, and know that if they stay together, nobody can stop them. However, they also perfectly know that after they reach their goal, the other one will betray them, and they don't intend to be on the receiving end. And as they expected, in the beginning of ''Videogame/MortalKombatDeception'', after they get rid of Raiden, their alliance crumbles because they both want to be the only ruler and owner of Shinnok's Amulet. Their non-canon endings in ''Deadly Alliance'' both end with them betraying each other; Shang Tsung's sees [[spoiler:Shang Tsung realize Quan Chi no longer needs him, so he hires Kano to steal the Amulet, allowing him to control their army himself, at which point he has the army take out Quan Chi]], while Quan Chi's has [[spoiler:Quan Chi kill Shang Tsung and Kano, only for Shang Tsung's death to release the souls inside him... [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard at which point Liu Kang's soul dives into Kano's body and brings it back to life]]]].

** That one faction, Orochi, though is in an uneasy truce with The Illuminati, and at first The Illuminati are trying to get a formal alliance. When the player creates an international incident with them, (not quite a violation of terms but a really bad look) the Illuminati put you down for termination, you bounce back by looking for dirt on them. The shear amount of dirt you find not only gives the Illuminati leverage over them it gets Orochi kicked out of the conspiracy treaty and green lights all three societies go declare Orochi an outright enemy and the societies team up to tear apart their corporate HQ.

* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, it is stated that Vader was planning to betray Palpatine and that Palpatine was taking every available precaution to keep Vader under control while he searched for a viable replacement apprentice. This is par for the course with Sith apprenticeships, the master always looking for a better apprentice, and the apprentice always looking for an opportunity to become the master. The "rule of two" exists to ensure the apprentice can only succeed by being stronger than the master: Otherwise two weaker apprentices could gang up on the master, making the Sith weaker overall.

* In ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'', after Arthur [[spoiler:retakes Xyrus from the Alacryans]], he is summoned back to [[spoiler:Epheotus to negotiate with Kezess]]. Neither party is happy to see each other. [[spoiler:Kezess views Arthur as a failed asset, especially since his granddaughter Sylvie had done a HeroicSacrifice to save him during one of the closing battles of the war; Arthur on the other hand despises Kezess for being [[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks a tyrant no better than Agrona]] and for the atrocities he has committed, namely committing genocide on the ancient Djinn (whom Arthur and his family are descended from), ordering the [[GodzillaThreshold destruction of Elenoir]] in an ultimately futile attempt to prevent the Alacryans from summoning the Legacy, and the [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness attempted purging of what was left of the Dicathian resistance]] when they refused to accept a set of magical artifacts that would enslave them to his will]]. Indeed, the premise of the negotiations is in return for [[spoiler:Arthur telling him everything that he has learned about controlling [[ElementNumberFive aether]] (which was one of the reasons why he ordered the genocide of the Djinn in the first place because they refused to share their knowledge), Kezess would ensure no conflict among the Asuras will spill onto Dicathen or Alacrya and would assist him in retaking his homeland. All the while, both sides attempt to manipulate the MagicallyBindingContract that underpins the agreement so that it becomes one-sided. While Arthur is able to turn the tables on Kezess, it is clear that once Agrona is dealt with, both parties will be at odds once again]].

* ''Literature/HerCrownOfFire'': Kaya never had any intension of honouring her bargain with Rose, even though the two performed a binding ritual to help each other. Rose was a bit more willing to help Kaya, but eventually recognised Kaya's deepening insanity and started to work against her.

* In ''FanFic/JWitch'', Wong and Cedric both agree to work together, but, in a ShoutOut to the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' example below, their inner monologues reveal that they plan to betray each other the first chance they get.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Max Steel2013}}'', Dredd and Makkino form an alliance to defeat Max Steel and N-Tek, but both have previously admitted to the other that they don't trust each other and both fully understand that the alliance lasts only as long as Max Steel and N-Tek does.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2012}}'' (2012), this trope is discussed in the second season finale. The Shredder has allied his Foot Clan with the warmongering Kraang who are preparing for an imminent invasion of New York, and must decide if he will assist in the invasion. Earlier in the season, the Shredder implies he does not trust the Kraang as he forbids Karai from dealing with them without him present. The Shredder himself is not the most honest guy in the show to begin with. Tigerclaw points out that the Kraang will eventually betray him as they care nothing for the human race. Shredder meanwhile observes that while this is true, until now, the Kraang have been pretty straightforward and have provided much for him and asking little in return. Ultimately Shredder decides to continue his alliance with the Kraang (partly due to being an insane MisanthropeSupreme), but he does not ignore the inevitability that he and the Kraang will come to blows in the future.

* In the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' novel ''The Con Job'', both TheMark Lorenzo Patronus and his financial backer Daichi Kanabe plan to betray the other and pin their crimes on him (with Kanabe intending to [[spoiler:kill Patronus in the process to cover his tracks]]). The Leverage team makes sure they both get their comeuppance.

* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Aizen predetermined that Ichimaru Gin would betray him when he joined up with him, nearly a hundred years ago. He was only concerned with how.

* ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndTheSevenSirens'': Both Risky and [[spoiler:The Empress Siren]] planned to betray each other from the start. The latter turned on the former without knowing the former had a contingency plan. Funnily enough, unlike Risky's past gambits, this one only worked because [[spoiler:Rottytops, [[SpannerInTheWorks who no one knew would even be there]] poisoned the Empress, cancelling out the immortality they would have gotten]].

* ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndTheSevenSirens'': Both Risky and [[spoiler:The Empress Siren]] planned to betray each other from the start. The latter turned on the former without knowing [[spoiler:the former had poisoned her]].

** Shao Kahn, believing that M. Bison has broken their alliance ([[spoiler:actually, Demitri brainwashed Bison into it]]), seeks the help of the heroes in tracking him down. Knowing the true situation by this point, the heroes happily point Kahn in the direction of Bison's forces, letting them take each other out as a distraction while they slip away to deal with a bigger threat.

** In the runup to the Fourth Succession War, House Kurita essentially bullied Houses Liao and Marik to join it in a defensive alliance, the Concord of Kaptyen, intended to be a counterbalance to the Federated Commonwealth treaty signed between Houses Davion and Steiner. Problem: Marik and Liao were enemies, having fought along their mutual border for the better part of 250 years. Once House Davion began their [[CurbStompBattle dismantling of the Capellan Confederation]], Maximilian Liao began to stridently demand that Janos Marik do ''something'' as per the treaty obligations. Marik [[ExactWords sent military supplies]] -- of the useless[[note]] toilet paper and dress uniform gloves and expired [=MRE=]s[[/note]], insulting[[note]] a case of Xanax [[RefugeInAudacity to be handed directly over to Chancellor Liao himself]][[/note]], and useless ''and'' insulting[[note]] a gross of "Hunky Hanse" and "Bellissima Melissa" -- i.e. ''THE VERY PEOPLE MAX WAS FIGHTING'' -- dolls[[/note]] varieties. To add additional insult, Janos mentioned that he found the crate of "military supplies" on New Delos[[note]] [[AndThisIsFor where Janos' brother had his headquarters in an ill-fated, Liao-aided attempt at a coup against Janos]][[/note]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2012}}'', this trope is discussed in the second season finale. The Shredder has allied his Foot Clan with the warmongering Kraang who are preparing for an imminent invasion of New York, and must decide if he will assist in the invasion. Earlier in the season, the Shredder implies he does not trust the Kraang as he forbids Karai from dealing with them without him present. The Shredder himself is not the most honest guy in the show to begin with. Tigerclaw points out that the Kraang will eventually betray him as they care nothing for the human race. Shredder meanwhile observes that while this is true, until now, the Kraang have been pretty straightforward and have provided much for him and asking little in return. Ultimately Shredder decides to continue his alliance with the Kraang (partly due to being an insane MisanthropeSupreme), but he does not ignore the inevitability that he and the Kraang will come to blows in the future.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': After Long Feng and Azula pull off a coup in Ba Sing Sae, Long Feng approaches her with the line, "Now comes the part where I double-cross you." Which they both knew was coming. He then orders the Dai Li to arrest her, but they stand by and do nothing instead because, as she explains, "they're waiting to see how this is going to end". She proceeds to give him a BreakingSpeech about how his FromNobodyToNightmare backstory is impressive but inferior to her DivineRightOfKings. Looking around at how she's converted his insanely loyal elite soldiers to her own followers, Long Feng acknowledges that she's beaten him at his own game, which she laughs off with, "[[TheChessmaster You were never even a player]]."

* According to popular wisdom, the standard plot Seasons 8-10 of ''Series/DoctorWho'' was that the Master would be working with the MonsterOfTheWeek, but each would have plans to betray the other. Usually, the [=MotW=] would strike first, and the Master would find himself in an EnemyMine situation with the Doctor. (The only story that this ''really'' applies to is "The Sea Devils", though.)