dr. october makes her second appearance in "detective comics" #959 during the "gotham knights/batman eternal" story arc. at the belfry, she performs surgery on the bioengineered "dwarfling", nomoz, after he is injured battling the villain ascalon. at that time, she offers to work on a means of returning clayface to human form permanently. she asks clayface to stay in his monstrous form for as long as possible so she can chart the mental degradation he undergoes the longer he remains nonhuman. she also acts as his counselor when he despairs of a cure. batman has clayface wear a high-technology forearm device (later replaced with a smaller, longer-lasting wristband) that enables him to regain human form without using his powers—reducing the psychotic effect being clayface has on karlo. the device is not a cure, as the clayface dna consumes basil karlo's human dna whenever he is locked into human form. dr. october gives him a "placebo" bracelet with messages from his close friend cassandra cain (orphan), which helps him focus on retaining his sanity. after pushing past the twelve-hour mark, clayface loses his sanity and attacks dr. october. orphan intervenes, saving her life by putting the real bracelet back on.