A/N: Welcome to 'I Remember'! Before you start reading, I'd like to say a few things.

This is my first Maximum Ride fanfic, although I have written a few other fics on another topic. I am a huge fan of Maximum Ride, and have read all the books up to date. My absolute favorite character is Iggy. Personally, I think he doesn't get enough attention in the series. So I knew I wanted to write a story from his POV.

I also don't think there are enough prequels to The Angel Experiment. So, I also knew I wanted to write a prequel. So why not make it from Iggy's POV?

So that's what this story is. It is many scenarios from when Iggy was a child growing up in The School. The first chapter has a brief introduction and then goes into the story, which is when Max, Fang, and Iggy meet Nudge for the first time. I really hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. If I did, Iggy would get all the attention he really deserves.

Chapter 1: The Nudge-Station

I remember. I remember it all. Colors, people, faces, places, things, light, everything. Sometimes people automatically assume that I envy those who still can see, those who have not lost their sight. But that is not always the case. Yes, I wish I could still see, and yes, I do envy those people. But sometimes the people I envy most are the people who could never see, and never would. Why? Because they don't remember. And they never will remember. Sometimes it's best to have never experienced something you will always desire, for it just makes the desire ten times worse. When you never own the thing you desire most, you will never miss it if it is taken. You will not miss it, or long for it, or remember it. You will never remember. They will never remember. That's why I envy the people who were born blind. Because I do remember.

What do I remember? The oldest memory I have was when I still had sight. I wish it had been a better memory, but unfortunately it wasn't. There weren't too many good memories back then, anyways.

I was four. Like all four-year-olds, I could walk, giggle, smile, smell, almost talk, and see. I had friends (kind of). But unlike most four-year-olds, I lived in a dog crate. I was treated like crap by these insane scientists we later called whitecoats. I had crazy experiments done on me every single day, and so did all my friends. I had never been outside, never played a game of any sort. I was genetically altered to be smart, strong, and apparently a good fighter. And, oh, yeah, I had wings! Like I said, not your average four-year-old.

So, I was four. I lived in this horrible place called the School where these whack-jobs did all sorts of horrible things to kids. Living in a dog crate the first ten years of your life, you don't really get the opportunity to make many friends. You didn't have too many choices. So I became friends with two other kids, in the two cages next to mine. They were about my age. And they both had wings. Hey, guess we had a lot in common!

In the cage to my left was a girl. At this point, she was the only one with a name. We couldn't talk much at this age, but she did say one word quite often: Maximum. Max was easier, so she said that a lot, too. I later asked her how she came up with that, and she said a whitecoat had told her that was her name. I didn't bother asking any more questions. Anyways, the girl had dirty blond hair, freckles, cute brown eyes, and white and brown speckled wings. I like them. They weren't like mine; creamy-colored feathers with black tips, but they were still pretty. She seemed to do most of the talking, which wasn't much, but it was still the most. She also seemed to be the one who rebelled against the whitecoats most often, which always kept me going. In a way, she gave me hope.

The cage next to Max and furthest away from me held another boy. I couldn't see him too well because Max's cage was in the way, but I could still see him a little. I liked him, too. He was dark. His hair was dark, his eyes were dark, even his wings were dark. It was a nice contrast to our always-white surroundings. I had never heard him talk, and I had only seen him smile once: when Max was telling him her name for the millionth time. His smile made me smile, too.

We were all about four-years-old the day the next winged-one arrived. It had been a horribly hard day; I can remember that. These nasty things called Erasers, human lupine hybrids, took our cages to all these different rooms with different environments, people, or temperature to record the way our bodies reacted. Not fun.

Anyways, we were back in our cages, in the same dark room, filled with other caged experiments as well. Unfortunately, none of them were as successful as us, and many died right before our young eyes. Pretty traumatizing, right?

I was doing pretty much what I did everyday; sitting in my cage, listening to Max repeat her name sleepily, ignoring the searing pain in my body, and, well, surviving. It was then when some Erasers, flanked by whitecoats with clipboards, entered the room. They carried another small cage, like ours.

"Put it next to number 193," said a whitecoat vaguely. Like I said, we didn't have names; only numbers.

One of the Erasers carried the cage over next to me, and roughly placed it onto the ground. I guess I was number 193.

As quickly as they came, they all left. We all immediately turned to the new cage. We were used to having new "roommates", but even at age four we learned never to get too attached to them; they never lasted as long as we did. No other experiments had been like us. None have been as successful.

So we were surprised to find that the new caged resident was a fairly normal looking baby. She must have been about one; she had dark skin and a whole mess of black hair. She was sitting straight up in the cage, not looking the least bit scared. In fact, she looked more curious than scared.

The three of us exchanged glances. What was so special about her?

And then we noticed the brown feathers coming out of her back.

We were stunned. Even the dark boy gasped. There was another like us! We were no longer alone! Thoughts were already streaming through our heads; will she survive as long as we have? Will she have horrible experiments done on her, as well? Will there be more of us?

But our thoughts were interrupted, little did we know, by the first ever live broadcast of the Nudge Station: all Nudge, all the time. As soon as her mouth opened, we all wanted it to stop. Even if she couldn't really speak, she was making more sounds than I though possible for one child to make. And it went on and on and on and on. How could such a small kid have such a big mouth? I was pretty sure that in less than a minute that kid had just made more noise than we have ever made in our entire lives! (Minus screams, that is).

We waited for her to stop, to settle down, but she didn't. She continued to make noises, not really forming words, just making odd, babyish sounds.

Then Max got an idea. She leaned in as close as she could to see the newcomer, and said, in a somewhat steady voice, "Hi."

The baby smiled largely, probably happy someone else here could make a noise, and a strand of drool dribbled down her chin. Then, to my surprise, she copied Max. "H-hiiiii!" She squeaked. Then she was bouncing up and down. "Hi hi hi hi hi hi!"

I smiled. It made me happy to think that this kid was happy here. I knew it wouldn't last much longer, but it would be nice while it lasted.

Max tried again. "Ma-xi-mum!" She pronounced each syllable to her favorite word separately, like how she did when she was trying to get the other boy and I to say it. "Maximum!"

Once again, the small baby beamed. "Ma-Mamum! Mahimum!" She struggled with the words, but seemed proud of herself. "Mahimum Mahimum Mahimum! Hiiiii Mahimum!"

Maximum giggled, probably happy she got someone else to say it for once.

Max looked at me, then the other boy. "I like." She said happily, probably referring to the new girl. I smiled in return.

Max turned back to the baby. She pointed at herself. "Maximum. Me. I Maximum!"

The new winged kid looked confused for a second, then smiled. She raised a small arm and pointed it at herself, as Max did. "Mahimum! Me! Me me me me me! I me I Mahimum! Hiiii me Mahimum!" She giggled.

Max, on the other hand, didn't look too pleased. "No! I Maximum! You…" She trailed off, her face blank and her eyes wide. "You…" She looked defeated. She turned around to look at the both of us. "Who she? I Max. Who she? Who you?"

I frowned slightly as the dark boy looked thoughtful. We had never though about that. I never really desired a name, like Max, but they seemed a little necessary at this point…

The baby, not seeming to detect the trouble, continued to make noise, forming words that made no sense. "Mamum Mamum Hiii Mahimum! I me I me hiii! Heehee! Bleh Bleeh…" She giggled and continued with the nonsense words. "Bling Bleh Bloo! Nya na na! Niiiiaaaa! Na na na na! Nuhhhhh! Nud nud nud nud nya! Nudgeeeeh! Nudgeeeeee!" And suddenly her eyes lit up, as if she had just found her soul mate. "Nudge Nudge Nudge Nudge NUDGE!" She sang cheerfully. She continued her little parade of "Nudge", until Max had enough.

"QUIET, NUDGE!" She yelled at the child. Then she froze. She turned to look at the other boy, then me. Then she smiled. Again she turned towards the baby. She pointed at herself. "I Maximum." Then, before the child could say anything, Max's finger switched direction and pointed through my cage bars and to the baby. "You Nudge. That you. That you name." And she sat up a little straighter, looking proud of herself.

Nudge's eyes widened. Then she threw her hands up into the air and yelled "HOORAY!" And we all laughed.

Now Max turned to the dark boy. He looked happier than I had ever seen him; a real smile planted across his face, as Max said, "Now you. Nudge," she turned to her, and then pointed at the boy. "Who he?"

As if she knew what we were talking about, she sat up straighter and peered at the cage farthest away from her. After a few seconds she got bored and plopped back down onto the cage floor; small, fragile-looking wings spread wide. She began to talk nonsense again. "Fi fong fu! Fa fa fa fa! Fab! Fan! Fah! Fah Fah Fah-"

"Fang."

All heads suddenly whipped around to face the dark boy. Even Nudge stopped talking. The voice was one I had never heard before, but there was no doubt as to where it came from. For the first time ever, the dark boy had spoken.

Getting over the shock, Max repeated what he had said. "Fang? You Fang? Why?"

The boy, Fang, shrugged. "It… feels right…" And he stopped talking, seemingly satisfied with his new label.

So Max pointed at him and told Nudge he was "Fang." Nudge apparently accepted the name, because she suddenly broke into a chorus composed only of one word, and I think you can guess which word that was.

And that only left me. I was wriggling with excitement; something I had never done before. A name! I was going to have a name! It was going to be the fourth name in the list of Max, Nudge, and Fang. Man, I hoped it sounded good with those ones…

Max turned to Nudge. "Nudge? One more." She smiled, then pointed to me: the scrawny blond boy in the cage separating her cage and Max's. "Who he?"

The small baby looked up into my eyes. Her dark chocolate brown ones met my pale blue ones, and she smiled that goofy smile, drool continuing to run down her chin. Probably figuring she should do the same as she did with Fang, she stopped looking at me and her eyes began darting around the room, as the Nudge Station was again turned on. "Ag ag ag ag! Ug ug ug ug ug! Ig ig ig ig ig!" And her smile widened again. "Ig Ig Ig Ig Ig…" her 'igs' were getting faster and faster, speeding up in tempo as she began to bounce up and down again.

I don't know if you've ever tried this, but if you haven't, (and if you're alone in the room), try it right now. Try saying 'ig' really fast, about a million times. Say it as fast as you can. What's it sound like to you?

I knew what I wanted my name to be. "I'm Iggy. That me." My voice sounded hoarse, yet confident. Nudge stopped her chant and looked at me, curiosity spreading it's way across her brown face. And before Max could say anything, Nudge lifted an unsteady hand, pointed it at me, and said, "Iggy!"

Pride welded up in my chest as it would in a father's. She had accepted and learned my new name before Max had even told her. Wow… my name! What a great feeling, to have a name…

But of course, something just had to ruin this perfect moment, right? Something always had to ruin it.

So, frankly, I wasn't too surprised when, at that exact moment, the same group of Erasers and whitecoats from earlier re-entered the room. Immediately Nudge stopped her chatter, as if she could sense something bad was about to happen.

And bad it was. An Eraser, fully transformed and terrifying, strode over to Nudge's small cage and picked it up by the handle on top. None too gently, he threw the cage into a small rolling cart, which was being pulled by another Eraser. I heard Nudge scream.

That's when I snapped, I think for the first time. I should be used to this kind of stuff by now, but seeing this baby, innocent and fun, being thrown around like that really made me mad. She had given me a name, and made even Fang smile and talk. If you were me, would you just sit back and watch those death-machines take away your new cage neighbor from you?

Yeah, well that's you.

So, before Max had time to yell something like she usually does, I yelled first. "Stop!" I projected my shaking voice best I could at the men. Looking surprised, they turned to face the four-year-old in the dog crate. I tried my best to look scary, spreading my small wings out around me and putting on a snarl. "I. Said. Stop. Give her back."

One Eraser, snickering slightly, slowly made his way over to my cage. For once, the whitecoats didn't even try to stop him. As I watched, he slipped open the cage door, reached in, and…

I didn't even think. I just did it. I lashed out, grabbed hold of the hairy arm with my teeth, and latched on. The Eraser howled as I bit down tighter. He swung his thick arm against the wall of the cage, making me hit my head on the bars, hard. I felt my jaw loosen as the arm slipped from my grasp. And I sat there against the back wall, eyes wide. The Eraser, growling slightly, raised his arm again and clawed me across the face, under my right eye. I yelped in pain as the Eraser swung the door shut, mumbling, and the team of jerks marched away. With Nudge.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. I was panting slightly, and felt warm blood running down my face from where the claws had scratched me. It hurt, but I had put up with worse.

"Iggy?"

I jumped, still not being used to my new name, and turned to see Max. She looked worried, the way she usually does when one of us are damaged after an experiment. She smiled reassuringly, as if she could see right through me. "She be ok."

I think then I fell asleep, because I don't remember what happened next. What I do remember is waking up to the door sliding open again, and heavy footsteps. Not wanting to open my eyes, I heard someone set something down next to my cage. I didn't open my eyes until the door had slid shut again. By then, all of us were awake.

Nudge was lying in the cage next to mine once again. Only this time, she wasn't happy, talking, giggling, or drooling. Instead, she was breathing heavily, eyes closed. Bruises covered her round face, and she was shaking slightly.

I swallowed my anger and focused my attention on Nudge, who was now stirring. In a few seconds her eyes flew open. Then they immediately began to water. She sniffled a few times, opened her mouth, and cried. Her sobs echoed through the large room, as ours have done so many times. I felt sorry for her. I really did.

"Nudge."

The baby looked up, still crying, and saw me. As if she remembered us all of the sudden, she said, in a small weak voice. "H-hiiii Ig Ig." Then she went back to crying.

But I still wanted to cheer her up. So I reached my small, pale arm through the bars of my cage. If I pressed my body hard enough to the bars, I could almost touch Nudge's cage.

"Nudge."

She looked up once again, big brown eyes watering, and saw my hand. Then, with some struggle, she pushed her self up and shuffled over to the bars. For a second she just stared at my outstretched hand, then, seeming to know what to do, she pressed tiny body against the bars as well. She stuck her small dark arm, now bruised, through the bars. I stretched just a little further, and then I took her small, chubby hand in my long, slender one.

"It ok, Nudge."

And again, that adorable little smile spread over her face. "Iggy." And she broke into a fit of giggles.

And we were no longer Max, the dark boy, and I. We were Max, Fang, Iggy, and Nudge.

And I wanted it to stay that way forever.

A/N: Ta da! Like it? Hate it? Please review and tell me what you think!

The next chapter will probably be when the flock meets Gazzy. Then I want to do one on Angel, then one on Iggy's blindness, (because, as I hope you realized when reading this, Iggy can still see when this is taking place.) And then, eventually, when they escape with Jeb.

I'm sorry, I must sound really stupid asking this, but I can't quite remember the answer: do Gazzy and Angel come to the school at the same time? Could anyone clear that up for me? Also, does it ever actually mention how old Iggy was when he became blind? I didn't think it did, but I just want to make sure. Thanks so much!

I won't update if you don't review! So please do! They make me the happiest person in the world!

Thanks for reading!

~blue-eyed-cow