She stands - or perhaps that is giving her too much credit, as supported as she is by the larger man behind her - on the lip of what was once a floor, deep below Central Headquarters.
She stands - and it is no simple task, even with the supporting hands of the chimera, because merely being vertical is a challenge - and watches the darkness below shift and flicker into brightness and back to blackness.
She waits, and this is the hardest of all. But the ones below are fighting an enemy against whom she can hope to do no damage, and the chimera that wait with her know that they could help little more than she in the battle below.
So they wait, between a battle waged above between two men who had both been her enemy, and below, between the chosen pieces and the crux of it all. It is the only safe place to be had.
She waits, and watches for any hint of change from below, feeling bloodlust from above and below, because she can no longer do her duty to guard his back while her legs threaten to buckle beneath her own weight.
They wait, and a raging blackness engulfs them, retreating into an uncanny silence and a lurch in their stomachs - had they lost? But the dimness below flares into flickering light, too far to illuminate whatever struggle continued, but the fact that the struggle continued meant they had not yet lost.
They wait, and a brilliant blaze of light upwards is followed by a shower of cement and tile as the edge of the floor caves in. She is hauled backwards by the arm across her shoulders, her own feet too slow to respond. And a vortex of faces screams past their now awe-dazzled eyes moments later.
Her mind is focused below, intent for any noise, any signal that might reverberate up to her ears. The bloodlust from above has ceased, and the crackle of alchemy means that she will not be slain from behind by Wrath's blade. She must not die. Her shirt and jacket are sticky with her own blood, and whenever the chimera moved his arm, he would find a long bloody imprint left there, but she had not died and she would not die.
Whatever happened below- whatever had become of the Colonel as he was pushed through the Gate - she would obey her order until she was released from it. She must live through this, and she must wait. She will see this through.