So, the book Danny was reading is basically the prologue to the story, hope that helps clear things up.

Danny shut the book with a heavy thud. 'So that actually did explain almost everything ever.' he thought with a scoff. He'd always wondered why he had the peachy skin he did. Plasmius had blue skin, and he was a halfa too, but still, no other ghost had his skin color. He'd assumed it was because the electrical burn he'd gotten in the portal had tanned his skin, but apparently, it was so he could blend in with humans.

It was simple evolution, the angels who survived were the ones who looked like humans. The less they looked like demons, the better. The angels who looked like demons would be killed, but the ones who looked human would survive. Of course, Danny's human half did help him hide among the humans more efficiently than other angels, most likely. But it was all speculation, there weren't any other angels to ask or anything. The best he could get would be asking Clockwork, but why didn't Clockwork tell him about his being an angel? Maybe he didn't know. or maybe he didn't want to tell Danny for some reason?

Danny sighed and hung back on his haunches, leaning against the table. A sharp pain shot up his back, immobilizing him and making him cry out.

Upstairs, Maddie had just finished spooning some pasta into a bowl for Phantom when she heard a scream echo up from the lab.

She dropped the pasta into the sink and dashed downstairs, nearly tripping on her own feet.

Phantom was writhing on the ground, his mouth wide open in a silent scream of agony, his face turning red from strain.

"Phantom! What's wrong what-" Maddie was cut off by a ripping noise and Phantom's screams growing louder and more pained until the boy passed out, slumping over his arms.

Wet and sticky with ectoplasm, two bony, white wings stretched from his back, skin and sinew falling off in chunks, ripping Phantom's back apart.

His green blood pooled beneath him, dripping from his newly grown wings and running down his back.

Maddie nearly gagged. She looked away, covering her mouth with a hand and choked down bile. "Oh, god, Phantom." She gently placed a hand on the boy's back, jerking it away when he whimpered. It looked like they just burst out of his back.

"You'll be okay. Everything will be okay…" She muttered more to herself than Phantom. She hopped up and scurried over to the other side of the lab, sifting through vials and papers, trying to find some ecto-dejecto. Although Phantom wasn't composed primarily of ectoplasm anymore, it would still help with the pain, and he wasn't quite out of the woods yet.

Buried under layers of paperwork and notes was an injection needle, filled completely with slightly glowing green liquid. "Got it."

She dashed back over to Phantom and carefully stabbed the needle into his neck, making him wince before his face fell into a relaxed, dopey expression. "There we go…" Maddie trailed off, wiping the streaming ectoplasm off of him, a concerned look gracing her face.

She wrapped his back in gauze after cleaning it and sewing up what she could, the drain on the floor nearly clogged by ectoplasm. She'd saved the boy's chunks of skin to use later for scientific study.

The injury was awkwardly wrapped and stitched together, being that there was two white wings sticking out of his back.

Maddie did some final checks, making sure Phantom's core was beating steadily, his bandages and stitches were in place, and he wasn't losing any more ectoplasm- he wasn't.

Maddie sunk into her lab chair with a sigh. She didn't sign up for this. There was a dead kid growing wings in her lab and she had no idea what to do or how to help. This whole job would be better suited for another angel. Sure, they were all pretty much dead, but had that stopped them before? Maybe they just went into hiding and nobody knew where they were any more. If that was the case, maybe they could come and take the kid off her hands. She was not cut out to take care of a fledgling angel, and doubted anyone but an actual angel would be. This was too much. He had to learn how to fly, or he'd be a sitting duck. She wouldn't be able to teach him how to fly, she didn't have wings, nobody had wings. Sure, birds had wings, but who knows if their wings work differently than angel wings? They would have to be structured differently to accommodate arms and squared shoulders, but would that affect how he flew?

She could take some x-rays and compare them to a bird's, but she didn't exactly have an x-ray machine handy, and she had no contacts in the hospital. Phantom wouldn't even be able to go in a hospital without someone finding out and reporting it to the GiW, who would probably take him in for study, and he'd never learn how to fly because he'd be strapped to a dissection table, which Maddie can't really get behind.

She waited for hours, wanting to be there for Phantom when he woke up. She couldn't just leave him and go to bed, no matter how much she wanted to. What if he woke up? He just had a very traumatic experience that he was mostly conscious for, plus some parts of his back were still missing, and that couldn't feel very good, so he would need painkillers and probably a hand to hold.

Even if he didn't wake up, what if something happened? What if he lost too much blood while she was asleep? Or tore out his stitches somehow and bled out right there? What if he rolled over and fell of the table and got a concussion?

No. There was too much that could go wrong if she wasn't there, and she wasn't willing to let that happen, even if she felt like she was about to fall over with exhaustion.

So she waited. At one point she thought her eyes were going numb and they just stopped blinking and stared at a spot just above Phantom's head, where now-dry ectoplasm cracked and flaked.

The whole place reeked of ectoplasm. That sour and rotten smell that somehow reminded Maddie of the old lemon tree they kept in the house for a few years until Jazz got sick of the rotting fruit that fell off of the tree, and the fruit flies that swarmed around it, and burned it in the backyard.

Maddie smiled at the memory. 8 year old Jazz had wheeled the heavy tree out to the yard herself, doused it in nail polish remover, lit a match and danced around the smoldering ashes with Danny, humming songs she'd heard on the radio while Danny screamed out nursery rhymes.

Maddie sat, remembering the days tinted with happy yellows and loving pinks, smiling softly. Until Phantom stirred.

He groaned, rolling onto his side and clenching his fists. His new wings fluttered and stretched, even though he probably didn't even know they were there.

He arched his back, trying to stretch himself out, but his eyes snapped open, a scream of agony ripped out of his mouth as he curled in on himself, trying to get away from the burning pain that consumed his back.

"Phantom! Phantom, calm down!" Maddie rolled him onto his stomach and held him down, carefully avoiding his injuries. "I know it hurts, but you've got to stop moving!"

Phantom's thrashing slowed to a stop and pathetic whimpers now echoed around the room. "Shhh, it's okay. You're safe. You're safe." Maddie stroked his head, trying in vain to comfort him.

"Wha-what happn'd?" Phantom slurred.

"Your wings came in. It's going to hurt for a while, so stay on your stomach and try not to move. You'll tear your stitches out."

"O-ay." His voice cracked and tears streamed down his face, pooling on the lab table and wetting the long-since dried ectoplasm. Phantom's head slowly turned, trying to look over his shoulder and get a good look at his wings, but gave up when his head was halfway up, the strain on his torn muscles was too much, and he plopped back down with a 'thud'.

"I have some painkillers. They might knock you out, though." Maddie walked over to the medicine cabinet they kept down in the lab for when they couldn't make it upstairs. She grabbed some extra strength pain pills that Jack had gotten when he broke his leg, and moved back to Phantom's side.
"Good." And, like a spoiled baby, Phantom opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out, waiting for the painkillers to be poured into his mouth.

Maddie snorted and plopped three pills- one more than prescribed, for Phantom's nonhuman metabolism- in his mouth.

"'anks." Phantom swallowed the pills and shut his mouth with a click, wincing when it jarred his already throbbing head.