Welcome to my first Buffy fanfic. This story is roughly after "Wrecked" Season 6. Warning for some Spuffy moments. Enjoy x

Buffy lay winded on the bristly lawn of the cemetery. Her whole body ached and she winced as she tilted her head back to see the vampire stamping towards her. She groaned as she scrambled to her feet. She had been fighting and hunting this demon for close to 2 hours and exhaustion was setting in. The vampire was old but strong. The creases in his vamp face were dark and deep. His gnarled fingers out stretched towards her neck as he charged towards her. She never liked running away from a fight so she set up her stance. She gathered all her remaining strength and round house kicked the demon to the head just as he was about to be on top of her. The vampire collapsed in a heap. He tried to get up, but his tired muscles spasmed and he collapsed back down. He raised his head and glared up at Buffy with cold black eyes. Buffy was taken a back by his eyes. She noticed they shone a red gleam when the lighting from the street hit them at right angle. There was no soul and no pupils to gaze into, though Buffy saw exhaustion in these eyes all the same. Buffy pushed him down onto his back with her foot and stood over him, her feet either side of his torso.

'Who are you?' she demanded. There was no response from the vampire. His breaths came out in growls and he maintained his gaze. 'I've never seen you here before and you certainly didn't just crawl out of the ground.' She pushed. The vampire remained silent for a beat, then in a low tone said,

'Alistair.'

'Tell me why you're here.' She pressured. The vampire didn't respond. The look of defeat was becoming more apparent. 'Well Alistair, you came out of the wrong Hellmouth.' She knelt down on his shoulders. She kept her eyes locked on his ruby eyes as she raised her stake above her head. He whispered, 'Your end is coming' just as Buffy plunged her stake into the left side of his chest. She dropped down with a soft thud onto grass as the vampire turned to ashes beneath her.

'Doubt it...' She muttered, gathering herself up. She leant up against a tall tombstone while she tried to catch her breath. She surveyed the damage to herself, feeling the swelling form around her eye and the long tear in her denim jacket. She poked her fingers through the tear.

'Oh man...' Buffy said aloud.

Whilst tracing her steps back through the cemetery gates and out under the dim street lights, Buffy noticed a swell of mist forming around the tree line of the forest. It slowly crept out onto the side walk and graced itself against Buffy's ankles. It did strike her as odd and she stared into the trees. Barely any moonlight reached the ground – but she was confident nothing was lurking. She walked home clutching her stake in her jacket pocket.

The fog gathered and spread across town like a thick blanket. It lingered well into the morning refusing to dissipate. The Scoobies had felt their way to Giles' apartment, each one concerned that this was no ordinary fog cover. 'It's giving me Silent Hill vibes.' Xander chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

'This isn't a movie, Xander.' Anya interjected.

'Or a video game.' Willow added, light heartedly.

'Well even if it was, I wouldn't play with you Debbie Downers.' Xander said defensively.

'Guys...look.' Buffy piped up. They all turned to look at her to see Buffy standing at the window looking out onto the street. The fog was finally clearing and what it left behind made their hearts drop to their stomachs. Every single tree, plant, blade of grass and flower were dead. It was the middle of Spring and dead leaves were falling in clumps from the trees. The once lush grass now crunched under every step. The flowers wilted, laying flat in their beds. A plethora of browns, greys and golds coated the once vibrant neighbourhood lacking the warmth of a natural change of season. There was such a feeling of dread in the atmosphere that even Buffy felt unsettled.

'Everything was alive and green yesterday!' exclaimed Willow in shock. Everyone looked up to see a disheartened Giles emerging from the stair case, carrying an indoor peace lily in a pot. It's limp body wilted over the side.

'Even the indoor plants. I've never seen anything like it' he said in disbelief. He flopped himself at his desk.

'Well I think we can all agree that this was caused by the fog. I noticed it develop around 4am last night when I was walking home from patrol. It was rolling out from the forest. Could this be a curse of come kind?' she asked the room.

'Are there other accounts in history that detail mass genocide of the garden variety?' Xander asked in response.

The group watched a squirrel scurry up a bare tree. 'The animals haven't been affected and neither have we...have we?' Willow's eyes turned wide as she put her hand to her cheeks.

'I feel fine,' Anya shrugged. 'You know, this isn't actually too bad. I've been to dimensions that had no plant life at all. Everybody still lived quite happily there...except they didn't breathe oxygen.'

'Still intact.' Buffy said reassuringly, placing a hand on Willow's shoulder. Xander dashed over to the tv and switched it on. ' The news should already be on,'

"...around Sunnydale this morning with locals calling it "The Fall from Hell". Health and weather experts alike are left baffled at the no apparent cause to the heavy smog, Sunnydale winning cleanest town in 1994."

Xander changed the channel.

"Next on Channel News 4 9, The residents from the small town of Sunnydale expected to wake up to another beautiful Spring day but were left heartbroken to find all plant life in town dead after a huge smog cloud engulfed the town overnight. We are getting reports in of two multicar collisions on the highway. People are still trying to commute to work despite the poor visibility conditions. A short statement delivered earlier this morning by the Mayor recommends people think about working from home and only travel to work when its safe to do so. Essential workers such as medical professionals, fire and police are an exce.."

'Well at least we know the whole town is baffled...that's about all I got from that." exclaimed Xander.

'That was only the 9 o'clock news. I'm sure there will be updates soon. In the mean time we can start our own research.' Giles removes his glasses and pulls out a handkerchief. 'Fog has many different meanings in the supernatural. It can be a symbol of melancholy which could possibly be brought in by an unsettled spirit. However I know by the power of druidism, it could also act as veil to obscure some presence.' He cleaned his glasses as he spoke and placed them back on as he finished. 'Buffy,'

Buffy reorientated herself. Her mind had wandered to last night when she first noticed the fog forming out through the forest. She couldn't be sure of the cause, but she regretted not checking it out. You can't fight what you can't see, Buffy tried to reassure herself. If she knew how, she would have stopped it. This was big and she couldn't help but feel it will get worse way before it gets better.

'Hm?' She brought her focus onto Giles. 'Sorry, I kinda got stuck in my head there for a second. You wanted to ask me something?'

'We'll train later this afternoon before you go out on your patrol tonight. I'll need to also brief you on our findings. In order to find clues, we need to know what we're looking for.' Giles, finished.

-'-;-

Buffy gripped her stake tight to her chest and rounded the corner of the mausoleum. The vampire was waiting for her and Buffy took a right hook to the face. She was knocked back into the stone wall of the adjacent crypt. She let herself drop as the vampire took another swing. It roared as it's fist connected with the stone. Buffy kicked the demon hard in the stomach knocking it backwards. It collided with a tombstone with such force it dislodged the stone from its stand. In a cruel twist of fate, the stone rocked back then came forward and crashed down on top of the demon's head. Buffy blinked.

'Damn...' she said out loud, circling the scene. She jumped as the vampire started flailing it's limbs in an attempt to push the stone off. Buffy strode over and jabbed the stake into the vampire, immediately turning it into dust. Buffy always held her breath to avoid inhaling the ashes, the first breath she took, she smelt the unmistakable smell of cigarette...

'Talk about one hell of a headache.'

Buffy spun around to see Spike perched up on the mausoleum like a gargoyle, sneering down at her. She wondered how long he had been up there, just casually watching her get her ass kicked before she got the upper hand. Or the tombstone did.

'You're lurking. Go away.'

'I am not. Can't a bloke watch the stars while he feeds?' He held up his thermos, though it wasn't full of coffee. 'I was just waiting for you to be done.'

'Well, I'm done.' She said, tartly.

' I see that. Oh and by the by, I have something you might be interested in.'

'I doubt it. Unless you're going to tell me what is causing this fog, I don't want to hear it.'

Buffy turned away from him. 'Now wait on,' Spike jumped down off the crypt and intercepted her. She jolted to a stop and looked up at him from under her eyebrows. 'It's not about what, it's about me knowing WHO is causing this fog,' he leaned in closer to her face. Buffy often wished he wouldn't do that after he'd just fed. His breath had a metallic edge to it, slightly overpowering the tobacco. However, his presence in her space made Buffy's heart skip, much to her disgust. She tried to convince herself that the reaction was from the curiosity of what he was going to tell her.

'And who is who?' She said, coldly.

Spike took a deep breath in, 'I've been feeling it for days.' He began and stepped away from her for dramatic effect. 'I wasn't sure if it was the pigs blood that had turned bad or something else.'

Buffy frowned. 'You knew something was on the horizon and you didn't think to mention it?'

'Like I said, I wasn't sure. But now I reckon it's definitely something else.' Spike completed letting his arms fall to his sides. 'You wanna check it out?' He asked.

'Where do we start? Check what out?' Buffy said, becoming frustrated. Spike tossed his cigarette butt and grinned. He brushed past her and sauntered over to the tree line of the cemetery.

"We'll follow the fog.' He gestured to the wisps of fog appearing from inside the forest.