A few months after the death of her father Steph is recruited to what is essentially Batman Bootcamp, taught primarily by Batwoman. For the first time Steph fights as part of a team, and finds that she likes it. She makes new friends, starts dating Tim Drake, and develops her skills as a more straight-forward fighter. These are the happy times, when she opens up to people and re-learns how to trust. She even gets relatively friendly with Clayface, another member of the team.

Then Batwoman's father turns on them, and Tim is apparently killed saving some thousand people from robot-assassination. Steph's entire perspective is changed. Tim was the one who made her want to be a vigilante, who made her believe that Batman's crusade was a good thing. With his death she begins to focus more on the cost. Questioning Batman starts to form a rift between her and her friends, who are devoted to the cause. She becomes depressed and angry, and finally runs away.

Tim returns, of course, and convinces Steph to rejoin the team. She never really trusts Batman again, though. She views everything with a more critical eye from this point on, even Tim. Her temper seems to be a little closer to the surface, though she doesn't act on it as rashly as she did when she ran away from the team. In a lot of ways she ends this emotional roller coaster at roughly the same place she started it: analytical, quick to anger, slow to trust, longing for little more than a chance at normalcy.