Raven was absolutely dumbfounded by what Marcus said. All she could muster was "what?" as a few glass plates were engulfed in black aura and shattered.

Marcus wasn't an idiot. He almost immediately realized he hadn't traveled to a parallel world, he'd gone back in time. Then it hit him like a freight train: the white rock-it was quartz! Quartz had time-bending properties, that must have been what the villain was after.

The silence that permeated the room felt like an eternity for the Titans as these thoughts germinated in Marcus's head.

Eventually, Gar broke the silence with the inquiry that everyone had but had yet to voice: "Did he just call you mom?"

Marcus put one foot back and just let out a long "uh".

The surprise eventually subsided on Robin's face, and it shifted to one of suspicion. He sternly asked: "Who are you? How did you get in here"

Marcus paused for a moment. He didn't know if there would be unforeseen consequences to breaking time in such a way. But, he capitulated and simply replied "My name is...Marcus"

Cyborg put his hand on Robin's shoulder and said "Okay, him calling Raven 'mom' is weird enough, but how the hell did he get past the tower's security features?"

That question stumped both of them. Marcus hadn't considered it at first, but now that he did,it confused him too. Maybe the tower's security systems were genetics based and, since both his mother and father were allowed in, it somehow didn't sense anything wrong with him? It seemed far-fetched, but was the only explanation that came to mind.

"Well, Marcus, if you don't mind I'd like to take you in for questioning" Robin said, "and Cyborg, run some tests on a DNA sample"

"You got it" he replied

Marcus sat nervously in the dark room, illuminated by just one lightbulb directly above him. It looked as if just one cone of light interrupted an abyss of darkness. And there, in front of him, stood Robin. Robin's face was plastered with two equally strong emotions;confusion and suspicion.

"Alright, let's get started" Robin began, "you said your name was Marcus, right?"

Marcus gulped, "yes".

Robin could definitely detect his nervousness, which only heightened his suspicion. "You called Raven 'Mom'. She's only 16 and you look not much younger than her. I'll assume this true until we get conclusive lab results. So, tell me, how is that possible?" he asked.

Marcus hesitated for a moment before telling him: "Alright, me and my team split up to search for the villain who attacked some kind of mineral expo. He was fiddling with some white rock and he shot me with what I thought was a laser rifle or something. I think the mineral he was messing with was quartz, I know it has time-bending properties"

Robin took all of this in and thoughts raced through his head. Starfire went into the future, it only makes sense that someone could go back. Was that villain warp? He said he has own team, right? He might actually be Raven's son. Etc.

Marcus was clearly uncomfortable as Robin took his time to contemplate the available information.

Then Robin voiced his next inquiry: "you said you have a team of your own"

Marcus nodded

Cyborg inserted a lock of hair taken from Marcus into a slot labeled "Biological Analysis". After a few minutes, the machine ejected the material, and notified him that all necessary information had been gathered. Now for Cy to work his magic.

This system had a database of genetic code for just about every hero and villain under the sun, naturally including Raven. Cyborg ran the Marcus's genetic profile against the database in search of a maternal match.

After waiting patiently for the machine to work its magic, Cyborgs finally got two matches: maternal and paternal. He was definitely intrigued, but decided, first, to open the maternal match. There he was met with Raven's face and dossier. Slightly surprising, but with his appearance who else could it be?

Cyborg closed the profile and contemplated checking the paternal one. After much internal deliberation, curiosity got the better of him. He opened the paternal profile and his jaw nearly slammed into the floor when he saw the result.

Raven cooped herself up in her room, unsure of the situation. Her personified emotions gnawed at her mind full of all her inquiries into the situation.

Well, it's no good to simply ignore this she thought, and took her magic mirror in hand and entered the realm of her mind.

When she first entered, she found herself face to face with Knowledge.

"Well, you know exactly what I'm here to discuss", said Raven.

Knowledge nodded. "And I naturally assumed myself the best fit make heads of tails of it. Well, there's no doubt the physical resemblance is great. There are only three logical explanations. One:it could be a highly sophisticated trick, two:He could be from an alternate reality or three:he could be from the future"

Raven contemplated this. "I should be more apprehensive, but this somehow doesn't feel like a trick"

"Feelings can be deceiving, but I'm not certain about any of the three possibilities. I'd suggest further investigation, approached with caution", Knowledge replied.

"Understood", Raven said.

Beast Boy and Starfire were sat at the counter in the commons room while the others were busy and were quite intrigued by the recent development.

"Okay, so, you've been into the future before, right?" He asked.

"Yes", she replied "Do you mean to imply that our visitor has arrived here from the future?"

"Exactly!" he exclaimed.

"Perhaps so, but I cannot be certain. He was not present in the future that I went to, but it's possible that I changed the course of events by returning from then"

"Do you have a better explanation?"

"Perhaps he comes from a parallel world"

"Yeah, I'm sticking with the time travel theory"

"Very well"

Cyborg startled Robin by entering the interrogation room, but he quickly cooled his nerves.

"Yo, Robin. I ran the DNA tests" Cy said.

"And?" Inquired Robin.

"Well, for one thing, he's definitely Raven's"