Hi, I'm very sorry it's been taking me so long to write a chapter. I am truly sorry, I've just been having a hard time writing and finding the time to do it. But as I said before, I'm not leaving this story halfway done, I'll finish it. I want to thank everybody who reviewed, story followed or story alerted, I was surprised by how many people began following both this and No Matter What, they were plenty of people and I thank you. Without further ado, I hope you like this!

11: Thank you for saying it's nice :), it means a lot. I'm very, very sorry this hasn't been updated as often as I would like, but I'm trying really hard and I won't leave this halfway done under any circumstance.

Weakness:

Nike's POV

I'm not quite sure for how long we kiss. My closest guess is a very, very long time. She was first on her knees in front of me, but after a while that got too uncomfortable, so she sat on my lap instead. I'm still not quite sure how to describe a kiss. The best I can say is that you're extremely aware. I'm aware of her hands; one on my chest, right where my heart is, the other underneath the collar of my t-shirt, tracing the muscles on my back. My own hands are both placed firmly on her waist. I'm also very aware of how it feels to have her lips moving alongside mine. I should be used to the feeling, to the awareness or just used to Johanna herself, but I'm not. Not at all. And I don't think I'll ever get used to all of it. We finally break apart when she says ''Your heart is beating really fast''.

Of course it is. I can feel it pounding in my chest. I just smile, looking at her eyes ''Can you blame me?'' I ask her and she smiles too, which only makes my heart go faster.

''C'mon, we need to clean this place'' she says, suddenly standing up. I feel strangely unaccustomed to not having her weight on my legs, which just proves just for how long we were kissing.

''Why?'' I ask standing up as well. I look around and realize I did leave the room in a pretty bad shape. Everything that could break is broken, drawers are lying on the floor along with their contents, the bed is flipped and there's a fist sized hole on one of the walls. I still see no reason to clean this up.

''Because, you idiot, if they find out you had another psychological breakdown they'll take you back to that crazy-ass psychiatrist who'll make you a write a bunch of nonsense about your feelings'' she says, beginning to pick up some of the trash ''And you won't be able to go to the Capitol next week''

I hadn't thought about that. I actually forgot about my breakdown the second her lips met mine. ''I thought you didn't want me to go'' I say after a moment of silence in which we flip the bed to its original position.

''I don't.'' She says ''But it's your choice, not mine. If you were to tell me not to go I would probably break all your fingers''

I laugh ''It's funny, I can actually picture you breaking my fingers''

''You think I'm kidding?'' she asks dead serious.

I just laugh again and she smiles. It takes us maybe an hour to finish cleaning the rooms and once we're done we need to go to training. I feel worse and significantly tired as soon as she's not with me anymore, and I notice how much dependant I've become of her in the last couple of weeks. I sincerely hope it's not happening to her too. I get to training just before they're about to start. I was switched during my first week because I was bored with the younger ones, so now I'm with Finnick. I tell him what happened with Johanna as we jog ten miles as a warm up.

''You… told… her… you… loved… her?'' he says, breathing deeply every two words.

''Yep'' I answer, as I'm too winded to say anything longer.

''What…did…she…say?'' he says as we are nearing the end of the field.

''She…said…'I…hate…you''' I say and then we stop ''And ''You're a total pain in the ass''' Finnick laughs loudly ''What? I'm serious.''

''I know, I know'' he says stopping himself from laughing again ''It's just… That's so Johanna. You're not mad that she didn't say it back?''

''Nah. No, not really'' I reply as we head towards the shooting range ''The Johanna I know would never, in a million years, say she loves me''

Finnick laughs ''Unless you were dying''

This time I laugh ''Unless I was dying'' I agree smiling.

Our final week before the exam went by fairly quickly. Johanna went to my bedroom almost every night, and I gotta say I owe that to Katniss, who covered for us more than once, as couples are not allowed in the same bedrooms, unless they're married. I appreciate Johanna coming, is only when she's with me that I'm not plagued by nightmares. Probably because I don't really sleep much when I'm with her, but that doesn't come to case.

The day of the exam I feel surprisingly calm. The exam is supposed to make you face your weaknesses. What is mine? Fire? That could be it, but I'm not sure if I care anymore about that. Physical pain doesn't seem very scary anymore, at least to me. Maybe, my resistance to kill? Lack of training? None of this things seems particularly bad. I'm smart, I can figure it out. Plus, I've been training, I'm in a fairly good shape considering all the time I spent in the Capitol. And, well, I'm happy. At least as close to happy as I can get with everything that's going on. My breakdowns are at a minimum, so are my nightmares, Johanna's with me, I've been hanging out with Finnick whenever he isn't with Annie. Things hasn't been so bad, even if I don't pass the exam, for now things are alright.

They call when it's my turn. I wish good luck to the guys who are with me, Finnick and Gale amongst others. I walk into a very well lit room, which for a moment reminds me of the room they were torturing me in, and then they hand me a gun for me to reassemble and load. It takes me just a moment to do it. It's very easy once you get the hang of it, just like solving a Rubik's cube, it's the same every time. Next I'm taken to a dark room. The lights go on and I find myself on a perfect representation of a Capitol street. By my sides I have a team of three other men aside from myself. The street is filled with cars turned upside down or wrecked; buildings have, for the most part, pieces of the walls missing and smoke coming from the open windows. There's graffiti on the walls and trash on the streets. All in all, it looks a lot different than how the Capitol usually looks. Our goal is Snow's mansion. A perfect replica of it was placed about a hundred feet from out position and we're supposed to take over it.

One of the men, who I assume is playing the part of the leader signs us to walk pressing our backs against the wall to our rights along the streets. We all follow quietly, glancing quickly at every direction for enemies or traps. At the first few feet we find nothing, but then all of the sudden we hear gunshots and all of instinctively throw ourselves to the ground behind a car or a fallen piece of wall to cover ourselves. I find myself behind an open car door. I stand up quickly and look through the scope of my rifle to find a small army, around twenty five people, coming towards us well armed. I take cover again. Our leader shouts that we separate, find higher ground and shot them from them. I look around, to my left there's a wall, to my right there's the rest of the car and to the other side a house with a broken window. That's where I gotta go, the broken window, get inside and see if there's a second floor in which I can shoot the enemy. I look at my things; I have my rifle, a knife and a hand grenade.

I try to think how to get to the other side without being shot by the enemy, but without any cover or smoke bombs… I have a plan. I look at the inside of the car. I've been inside a car as a driver maybe twice in my life, but I know the basics and thankfully we're in a slight slope. I climb in the driver seat with my head down. I remove the hand break and the car begins to very slowly make its way down. I open the door on the opposite side of the car, take the pin off of the hand grenade and place it on the driver seat. Quickly, I jump off of the car from the passenger side and without seeing the results of my work I run to the open window of the house. I look through the window. The car is moving a little quicker now, it is maybe 20 feet down the slope, almost to the people from the Capitol, who are moving to the sides to let it through, when the grenade explodes. The car goes up in flames instantly and kills around half the enemies. I must say, for this being an animation, it is extremely detailed. The rest of the enemies take cover and hide.

I look at the house I'm in, there are stairs on the opposite side. I run there and quickly climb the stairs. On the top floor there's a window leading to the street. I take my rifle and look through the scope trying to find any enemies. ''Sir, any orders?'' I ask into my ear bud, as I see no enemies.

''Are you in a high place?'' He asks in a hushed tone.

''Yes.''

''Good, the other two soldiers will make a distraction, you cover me as I make my way to Snow's house'' he orders.

''Sir, I advice against that'' I say ''If the other two make a distraction they'll die, we need to find another way''

''Negative'' he says ''We're going like this. Are you ready to proceed?''

I want to keep arguing, to find a way to make the other two random soldiers to live along with me and this leader guy. Then it hits me: this is my weakness. I don't leave anybody behind. I can understand why that in certain circumstances might be consider bad, but not leaving anybody behind seems more like a strength than a weakness. So instead I shut up. ''Lets' proceed'' I say getting on my knees and pointing at the streets where I know the leader is hiding to cover him. The other two soldiers come off their hiding place and run along the streets. The first one is shot in the head as soon as he's out, the other one holds a little longer, even killing a couple, but dies after receiving multiple shots in the chest. But I see where the enemies from the Capitol are hiding and I take down four before they can hide. The leader begins to make his way down the street and I shoot every enemy I can find until the street is clean and the guy breaks into Snow's mansion.

I get out of the house I'm in and the simulation ends. I'm taken aback by how easy is what. And I wonder how far off this simulation must be compared to the real thing. It's impossible that war is this easy. Right after thinking this I hear a voice in the back of my head ''Yes, this was easy, but out there, you're fighting against real people, not simulations''. And that thought freaks me out more than any mutt.

I'm assigned to the crew 451. The first thing they do is buzz cut my hair. I must admit I felt a little bad as I was getting used to having my hair long again. We are told to go to command, where I see who else is on my crew. Johanna, Gale, Finnick, Katniss, Boggs and five others I don't know. Johanna smiles at me when she sees me walk in, as well as Finnick. They presents holograms of the Capitol, recites plans and traps, and all in all, it feels pretty much like preparing to go back into a different arena for a different set of games, so much that Katniss says it right in the middle of the conversation. I laugh, Johanna does too. The rest don't seem to find it so funny. It is finally over.

''You know, I think the hardest thing of this whole thing was saying goodbye to your hair'' Johanna says once we're out.

A sudden flashback of Johanna pulling at my hair during the night of Finnick's and Annie's wedding comes to mind and I immediately blush. ''Don't worry, I'll let it grow'' I say smiling at her.

''You better''

We begin more training the next couple of days. We usually have a quick workout and then we have to go and shoot dummies with peacekeeper's uniforms. It's boringly easy. My aim wasn't the best, but now it's certainly better than most, as I never miss the skin on the dummies, drenching them in red paint. The others in our crew are just as good, the other five I didn't know are Jackson, a middle-aged woman with the best aim I've ever seen, a pair of sisters, Leeg 1 and Leeg 2, we call them, and two older guys, Mitchell and Homes, who also have a very impressive accuracy.

We are finally given a mission. We'll be their ''Star Squad'', which means we're only supposed to be taped doing random shit to make it seem like we're fighting to give the districts hope. Practically everything will be fake. It's safe to say we're all outraged, especially Johanna, who seemed like she was about to murder president Coin and Plutarch with her very own hands. What's scarier, I can actually picture her doing that, no problem. We still have no choice but to agree, so the next day we're saying goodbye, in the case of Johanna and I to just Blight, and leaving to begin our trip to the Capitol.

Once we're in the hover craft Johanna tells me, quietly ''Let's get this war started, right?''

And that might have been disrespectful to the people who are going to die, or to the ones who already did, but still I can't help but crack up. Because right now, this doesn't feel like war, this doesn't feel dangerous, this doesn't feel like fighting. It feels like a game, and God knows we know how to win those.

That's it for today! I know it's not the best I've ever written, but it turned out better than I hoped. I should tell you that on the twelfth I'll be leaving with my family on vacation and I will obviously not post during that time, but I'll try to update at least once before leaving, either on Sunday, or Wednesday, probably Wednesday. I hope you liked it, sorry again for the delay and please review :). And the next chapters will be more exciting, I promise.

Oh, and just because I have to, you've got to hear this awesome group called Mayday Parade. They're so good... It's not even normal, they have these songs called Stay, You're Dead Wrong and I Swear, This Time I Mean It that are just so damn good... Just listen to them :). And I saw Catching Fire. It was awesome. If you want to thoroughly discuss it you can PM me and we'll talk about it for hours. I don't mind.