After Echo was rescued, he broke. Not in the loud way that screams crazy from the way you move, not in the way that leaves you rocking on the floor, staring into space, not in the way that leaves you homicidal, not in the odd ticking in your bones and twitching in your eyebrow, but in a way where he only knows in his head. For a while, during the time as the Algorithm, Echo was screaming. He was so loud, loud loud loud loud loud LOUD LOUD LOUD, until, one day, he wasn't. And now he's silent. His head is now quiet, too quiet. And so is he, he speaks when spoken to, when the quiet gets too loud.
His brothers know this. Even on days when Hunters overstimulation is too much, they make noise, not a lot, but enough that the quietness in his head is not too loud. They know to do this because one day Crosshair asked. One day on the ship, in-between missions while after restocking on Kamino, Echo isn't participating in the conversation.
"You're think you're too good to speak to us reg?" He's all snipy and sassy. He won't be soon though. Echo turns his head slowly to stare at him instead of the wall.
"No. Just don't have anything to say."
"You sure had a lot to say when Rex was with us." But it's too late, Echo is already gone.
"Had to make sure he didn't notice the quiet, was never the quiet type before. But the screaming got loud enough and it turned into silence. It's too quiet now. Always is."
Later, the Batch will gather around Echo after he gets quiet again and they'll make noise. Tech will chat about his latest hyperfixation, Hunter will share the sound of colors and smell of certain sound waves. Crosshair will gossip and share embarrassing stories about the batch. Wrecker will share stuff from whatever novel he's reading at the moment.
Until Echo is back from the quiet. The whole Batch sleeps with music playing now. Always. It's always loud on the Marauder. And so is Echos head.
