The Midnight Sun

The Robotech rebels leave the warm serenity of the tropics to tackle a snow-covered mountain pass. Cataclysmic changes have altered the planet's surface during the three Robotech Wars. Rand can hardly believe the abrupt change in climates: "It seems impossible that when we crossed into these mountains two days ago it was summer."

As the group sets up camp, Marlene undergoes another painful attack. During the past few months, the young woman has developed the ability to think for herself. She has also developed a vocabulary to relay her thoughts, but Marlene, known to the Invid as Ariel, still remains puzzled. She loves the freedom fighters as much as she fears the Invid. Her origins are a mystery. She cannot understand her confusing dreams and pain-filled reactions.

Marlene is not the only suffering from the complexity of unfamiliar emotions. As the Invid Princess Sera deploys her squad against freedom fighters, she thinks of Lancer. "What is wrong with me?" she wonders. "Why do I keep seeing his face over and over again in my mind? What is it about this human that haunts me so? Part of me is repelled by the very thought of him and yet, somehow, part of me wants to see that human's face again. This is wrong – it's not the Invid way."

During the attack, Sera leads her troops against every member of the group except Lancer. To her dismay, she finds she simply cannot harm him. At the last, Sera confronts both Lancer and Marlene. In a face-to-face showdown, the unarmed human male stands up to her: "I know you...but why are you fighting for the Invid? Listen, I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play, but I want some answers. Can't you hear me? I said – look, forget it. In fact, go ahead and shoot me if you want but spare this girl. Please."

Sera can only stare at him. "That face...it's like time has stopped and I can look into my past and future – at the same time....What is wrong with me? I'm so confused!"

Marlene experiences her own reaction to Sera: "It's as though I know her...like sisters somehow."

Sera's perplexity saves the day for Lancer and Marlene when Lunk and the others arrive to drive her away. Later, the rebels speculate over the alien's failure to shoot. "That's easy," Scott says. "We distracted it with out cover fire. It was just enough to confuse it so it didn't hurt them. Like Lunk said – we were lucky. We were real lucky!"

Marlene tries to understand her attraction to the Invid with Lancer's help. She is upset. "I can't do it. I don't belong with you. Please, Lancer, I'll just bring trouble."

Lancer soothes the frightened woman. "You'll be safe with me, Marlene. Trust your emotions."

"All right," Marlene agrees. "But I'm afraid for us all."

As they return to camp, the singer can't help thinking: "Strange, that Invid pilot acted like she knew Marlene, and now Marlene is scared to death. I wonder...."

Lancer and Marlene are not the only ones wondering. In the hive, Sera is lost in her own thoughts. "I have failed the Regess, but still, I feel no shame over my defeat. I could have destroyed them...I know that. Now I must find out why I spared them."

Experience this episode at home! Now available through the Robotech.com Store:

- DVD Video: Robotech DVD Vol.13: Genesis (also part of DVD Box Set 7 and The Protoculture Collection)

- Toys: Cyclones and Alpha Fighters

- Collectibles: Mars Base patches and keychains