Hey all, Happy New Year! I apologize for taking so long to update this, the holiday really kept me busy. Plus, this chapter took an annoying long time to write. There's a little bit of action at the beginning, but trust me, there will be a lot more in the coming chapters. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy!

xoxo~Joel

"Get down!" Tamora shouted to her cousins before blowing up a demon in front of them.

"Are you sure you scryed right?" seethed Prue, dodging a fire ball. They were in a smaller open cavern of the Underworld, perhaps some kind of nest, as demons kept appearing by the dozens. The four witches Prue, Tamora, Kat, and Wyatt stood in a sort of circle, with their backs to each other, fending off the onrush of demons.

"I scryed for high levels of demonic activity and it led us here!" defended Kat, who was significantly out of her league with these demons. "Watch out!" she yelled, freezing a fire ball inches away from her sister's back.

"Thanks," called Tam before blasting the ball of fire back in the direction of the demon that fired it. Wherever in the Underworld they were, clearly there was no kind of strategic planning to take down Magic School – just a bunch of fiery demons that were surprisingly powerful.

"Maybe we should get out of here," Wyatt suggested as another demon went up in flames and was vanquished. As much as they enjoyed ridding the world of as many demons as possible, there was no point wasting their time and risking their lives if it wasn't for any good outcome. Wyatt's cousins all nodded in assent, and with a wave of his arm he orbed the four of them back to the Upper Regions.

Seconds later, the group appeared in the Halliwell Manor attic, a few feet away from the famous Halliwell Book of Shadows. Since the Charmed Ones' retirement, the second generation had full access to the old tome, which had grown even larger in the past twenty years.

"Sorry," Kat immediately apologized. "I guess I didn't think about how specific my scrying should have been. I nearly got us killed."

Wyatt placed a comforting hand on Kat's shoulder. "It's fine Kat, we're fine. Now we know we just need to refine our search a little bit. We need a lead."

"And where are we gonna get a lead?" asked Tam, plopping herself down onto an old couch in the corner. "It's not like any demons are going to talk."

"I know," sighed Wyatt, flipping through the Book for the thousandth time in his life. "We should have stuck around Magic School with the others for a little while. I'm thinking we'll need to find some specifics. Maybe some kind of energy-sucking demon, or a past event that we can link this to. As for the Book of Shadows, I don't think this family has ever run into a threat like this."

"Let's go then!" agreed Prue, her green eyes eager. "Unless you want to go back to a crumbling Magic School." And with that, she disappeared in a glow of pink light.

"Well," said Tam, "you've got to admire her determination."

Meanwhile, over in the Magic School library, things were going equally as slowly. It was Friday morning, and Leo had allowed the Charmed kids to miss their classes (and arranged substitutes for Wyatt and Chris) so that they could focus on their imperative task. Chris, Melinda, Henry, Parker, and Peyton were scattered intermittently around the spacious library, each at a table covered in various books, maps, sun charts, and other materials. They had spent all morning scanning everything they could for information on magical shields, cloaks, force fields, wards – everything. Much of what they came up with was types of protective magic and their uses, yet somehow Magic School seemed to have nothing on its own magical barriers.

"This book has a chapter on magically concealing buildings," announced Melinda. "But it seems more like glamouring; it talks about making old sacred buildings look ordinary so that they aren't disturbed." With a sigh, she closed the book and put it in her growing pile of 'these-may-or-may-not-help-us-but-at-least-they-have-something' books.

"This is so pointless," complained Chris, dropping his head onto a large stack of books. "I still don't understand why the Elders couldn't handle this on their own. If the old Elders could do it, why can't they?"

Melinda sighed and looked at her brother. "Come on, Chris. Dad entrusted us with this. I get the feelings that it was more his idea to have us work on this. Besides, they already told us that the kind of magic those Elders used to protect this place requires a lot of power. I don't think they could fix this if they tried."

"And we can?" detested Parker, wiping the dust from a dozen books onto her jeans.

"Look, guys," Melinda pleaded, "I know this is really disheartening and we all feel really defeated, but—"

"Oh nice, now you're sounding just like Prue," Parker said, rolling her eyes. Her biggest pet peeve with her older sister was her tendency to constantly announce everyone's emotions just because she always knew what people were feeling.

"Did someone call me?" Everyone's heads whipped around to see Prue standing in the doorway to the library, a smirk on her face.

"Hey, Prue," greeted Henry, the only one in the room who was still completely calm.

"Wow, talk about negative energy," Prue disdained, looking around the room.

"You see?" shouted Parker, throwing her hands up in the air.

"We're just having a little trouble finding anything very helpful," Henry explained, rising from his chair. "Where are the others? How did it go for you guys?"

"Oh, you know, your sister landed us right in a nest of crazy demons and we learned absolutely nothing," Prue beamed in a sarcasm-soaked tone. "But what else is new?"

Meanwhile, Prue's three companions orbed in behind her, and gawked at the huge clutter surrounding them.

"You guys did all this in just a few hours?" said Tamora, cautiously picking up a book titled How Force Fields Work. The library looked like it had been stricken by three earthquakes and a hurricane.

"Please tell me you've found some kind of lead for us to work with," said Wyatt.

"Unfortunately, we haven't found much," Henry sighed. "Although I did find something about a demon that has the ability to negate protective forces. Maybe you guys can find him if he's still around somewhere."

"Well, it's something. Let me see." Wyatt headed towards Henry, who was digging through the various books around him.

"Here it is," Henry said, opening up to a bookmarked page in a smaller leather-bound book. "The demon Pengahl targets various magical beings, consuming them and using their magical energy as food. She kills her victims by hiding in walls or floors and slowly absorbing their magic until they are weakened enough for her to make her move. Pengahl is capable of absorbing all kinds of magic, including force fields and magically conjured objects."

"That sounds pretty convincing to me," agreed Wyatt. "She could be currently feeding on the magic around the school in hopes of getting in and feasting on all the magical creatures inside the school. Is there anything else on her?"

"Nope," said Henry, closing the book and handing it to his tall blond cousin.

"Okay then, we can try to track her down, see if she's even alive."

"Hi Uncle Leo!" Wyatt heard Kat say. He looked up to see his father entering the library.

"Hey kids," Leo greeted them. Somehow Wyatt could tell that he was currently in Headmaster mode, not cool uncle mode. In fact, his father looked serious, and he held himself with an air of authority and responsibility that Wyatt had rarely seen in him.

"Is everything okay, Dad?" asked Chris, getting up from the table and heading towards the center of the room. Clearly he had sensed something in his father as well.

"Not exactly," the former Elder said with a frown. "I'm afraid most of you aren't going to like this, but I just spoke with Mrs. Felicity, and it's been decided that the weekend camping trip must be cancelled – or, at least postponed for the time being."

"What?" cried Kat. "I've been waiting for this trip like, all month! You can't cancel it now!"

Leo sighed and addressed his niece. "I'm afraid we have no choice, Kat. It's too dangerous to be letting kids out of Magic School without full protection at this point. I was just notified that a student has been missing since last night."

"Missing?" Chris repeated. "Who?"

"Ginger," Leo replied, his expression stern. "Her roommate said she heard her get up last night, but when she woke up in the morning, Ginger wasn't in her bed."

"There's no way she ran way," Tamora contemplated out loud. "That's just not like her."

"Besides that, I checked the portal and it hasn't been used since yesterday afternoon. And Ginger doesn't have any teleportation powers. She could have used a spell or something, but like you said Tam, that's not something she would do. Regardless, we're doing our best to locate her in hopes that this has nothing to do with the school's barriers being damaged." Leo then noticed for the first time the library's state of disarray, and frowned. "I see you've all been hard at work in here."

"Unfortunately, we haven't had as much success as you'd think," Wyatt lamented. "But Henry did just give me a good demonic lead to follow. I'm going to head down to the Underworld after I scry for the demon. Ever heard of Pengahl?"

"Not that I can remember," Leo responded. "Just be careful, and come back as soon as you find anything. I don't think you should face anything alone until we really know what we're up against."

"Got it," Wyatt nodded, and orbed back to the manor.

"Shouldn't someone go with him?" asked Prue, ready to volunteer.

"No," the Headmaster declined. "Wyatt can handle it. Besides, we need as many people as possible looking for more information here. There must be something to help us in these books." Leo sat at the nearest table and opened a book, ready to help out and get this thing done.