A/N: Hello! Three things:

1- I promise, promise, promise I haven't died and that another chapter of the AU Chronicles is eventually going to come. Eventually.

2- This is a Hunger Games story. Or collection. And I don't own the Hunger Games, aside from copies of the books and the movies. Understand?

3- This is an idea I had. Essentially, what if a second changed everything? It will be a collection of One-Shots detailing how a second delay or a second of action could've changed everything. And it will do so. Generally, the pairing will be Katniss/Peeta, and some of the One-Shots will be happy while others will be sad.

This one is titled 'A second of anger', is unambiguously sad, and is set at the end of Mockingjay chapter 12, where a hijacked Peeta attempts to kill Katniss. There is character death. Enjoy!

"My lips are just forming his name when his fingers lock around my throat." (Mockingjay, Chapter 12).

There is a moment of inaction, a moment of stunned silence. And Peeta uses it. No-one, too stunned to do so, pulls him off Katniss, and this second of confusion will decide fate. For a second is all Peeta needs. His hands twist, and all the people are stunned out of their silence by a crack that echoes round the room. Katniss slumps to the floor. Everyone hurries around her, Peeta swept to one side, momentarily forgotten. For him, like everyone else, the next few minutes pass in a haze of worry and anger. Attempts are made, but even the strongest Mockingjay can fall. Fifteen minutes later, Katniss is pronounced dead at the scene.

Peeta lay, chained to a bed, his second of rage gone. What had he done? A solitary tear traced a path down his cheek. Doctors come and doctors go, monitoring him, taking samples, running every test they can. Finally, a result. One rushes out, getting Gale, Haymitch, and the Everdeen family, and ushers them in, while barking a message asking for the file on a rare technique known as hijacking. All bar the doctor are bewildered, until he explains.

"Hijacking is a technique involving tracker-jacker venom." The doctor starts. Peeta blinks, flashes of torture surfacing in his mind.

"A subject is shown a happy video, for example one of a loved one." The doctor doesn't say it, but everyone knows who he is talking about. Katniss.

"They are then injected with a minute dose of the venom, inducing fear. They then associate that memory with fear and anger, instead of happiness." He pauses for effect. Peeta wishes he could block it out, forget it, close his eyes, open them, and see Katniss standing over him asking if he is alright. For he most definitely isn't.

"Over multiple doses, a subject can be conditioned to even believe that the person the love wants to kill them, and in a fit of rage may pre-emptively strike. The most insidious part, is that once the perceived threat is gone, the brain may revert to its initial state, leaving the victim to realise what they've done." The doctor finishes. Silence rings throughout the room. Finally, Peeta speaks up, voicing the obvious question.

"So was it my fault?"

The answer takes some getting used to. While Peeta was in full control, the information his brain was given was flawed, therefore he did things he may not otherwise do. Most understand and forgive, but not Peeta. He loses the joy in life, and even when he is asked to bake a cake for a wedding, he declines. He cannot think of weddings without also thinking about what should have been. In the end, he is found hung, alone, in his dormitory in the catacombs. He is buried in the ruins of district 12, next to his beloved Katniss. Without the Mockingjay and her lover, the rebellion fails. Slowly, many of the districts defect back to the Capitol. In the end, the 76th Games are fought in celebration of the annihilation of the last of the rebels. No hope left.

24 years later…

"Hello," President Snow yells, "And welcome to the 100th annual Hunger Games. This year is a majestic year, a Quarter Quell no less!" Cheers ring throughout the Capitol.

"For this Quarter Quell, the fourth, to remind everyone of the power of the Capitol over love and life, and also to commemorate the crushing of the second rebellion, couples shall be reaped. The male component of the couple shall then be… treated to change their opinions of their significant other, shall we say. May the games begin, and may the odds be ever in your favour!" His voice rings through the auditorium, crushing any hope of a third rebellion.