Atton couldn't remember which position he was training for before he fell, but he had apparently been doing well. He had trouble remembering his life before he ended up joining the First Order, and so far all the masters could do was suggest meditating. His fall must have done something to his memory. Still from the little he could remember, he was happy until he met Ben. He had family and friends who loved him, and whom he loved in return. Ben was different, he made him feel special, like he was the only one who truly understood him. After Ben had convinced him to turn to the Dark Side he felt powerful, like he could conquer the Galaxy. He felt Now there were only blank spaces where their faces were. He could remember his teachers, his old friends, but not everything else. Despite this he still dreamt of his family. Their faces were blurry. It didn't matter to him though, as he was happy and so were they. Sometimes he wished he could stay asleep forever, but it wasn't his time. All he knew was that the longer he used the Dark side, the more he forgot his past. His family and those he killed started to blend together. He had been so consumed by hatred it was a miracle he was able to remember anything from his past. Whatever happened he told himself it was the will of the force to bring peace, freedom and security to the galaxy. To him it didn't matter the cost, he was doing his duty to Kylo Ren, Snoke and to the Galaxy.
He still had much to do before he died, and he planned on doing a lot to redeem himself. He wanted to prove he was no longer what The First Order made him. He was no longer what Kylo Ren made him. The First Order had him shed who he once was, but for him it wasn't that simple. He still saw his family, his old friends, even his old masters, in his dreams. He felt the anguish of those he killed. The love of those who died protecting others. He was sure Kylo could feel the call to the Light as well, at least at the time. Perhaps that was why he stayed with the First Order so long. He had sensed conflict in his old friend since the day they destroyed the temple. Every part of him was screaming to go back to Luke and beg for forgiveness and start again. Even when he struck down Voe, Hennix, and Tai he sensed Ben wished them peace. Killing them brought him no joy, yet he still chose to kill them. He thought this call was a weakness, a sign he needed to let go of the past. His conflict only grew when he killed his father. Atton never dreamed he would kill Han, but he was wrong. For all his raving about how he cared more about the Republic than him, something broke in him. From that moment on the conflict in his heart grew. This conflict lasted until Rey rejected him at the ship, leaving him heartbroken and alone. From then on his heart was truly hardened. Any conflict Rey sensed was likely a ruse on his part to pull her to the Dark Side.
He wondered if Rey knew that. He hadn't really talked to her since their sparring session, and she still seemed to genuinely believe there was good in him. Perhaps there was, but it was buried beneath too much hate. It saddened him, but it was true. The Ben Solo he once knew was dead, and Kylo Ren's heart was too filled with wrath and scorn to ever be truly calmed. Atton felt strangely sad. One of the people he looked up to the most in the world had fallen and chose a path he could no longer follow. He couldn't blame her for it though. He and Leia were the last family she had, of course she would want to see good in him. Luke also managed to save the galaxy however briefly from Palpatine though this line of thinking.
"Maybe she has a point." a small voice in his mind said. "Maybe family could lead to his redemption."
He wondered for a moment, then continued on his meditation. Eventually Atton stood up and began to take a walk around his room in an attempt to take his mind off the Dark side. He thought of what little he remembered of his home. He didn't know what happened to his family, as they had been long gone when he and the Masters got to his childhood home. Even so, they probably were dead anyways. He would have been able to sense them if they were alive. All he had left was his lightsabers. Snoke had his followers kill the families of the children he abducted, so they wouldn't have anywhere to go back to if they decided to defect, and this was no different for the Knights of Ren. They had been instructed to kill their families, to prove they were truly loyal. That was the odd thing, even when he arrived at his home, all those years ago, they were gone. It was as if they had vanished into thin air. Still, his family was gone and Snoke was content with the story he gave.
He had never trusted Supreme Leader Snoke. From the moment he met the…thing that helped corrupt Ben, everything seemed wrong. From the pasty white skin to his malformed body to the smile that crawled across his face when he saw him for the first time. He was visibly pleased that he was there, yet surprised. It was as if he had received an unexpected gift. It was as if he knew something Atton didn't, and he had always been confused as to why. It wasn't like he was a Skywalker, and as far as the Jedi Masters knew the last Force Sensitive in his family joined the Jedi Order twenty years before Anakin Skywalker fell. That still didn't stop Snoke from asking Atton to join Kylo on private missions to learn about the Dark Side of the Force. Snoke had kept a close eye on him for the first few years, and after a while he was trusted to lead missions in the name of Kylo Ren. Of course he rarely completed these as expected, as he would rarely use violence. This always confused him. He had years worth of proof his family was strong with the Light side of the Force, and was less violent than the others, yet he was always treated with a certain amount of favoritism. At the time he didn't give it much thought but now he was concerned why. With Palpatine revealed to have survived his encounter on the second Death Star, he could not help but wonder if he was interested for a reason. According to many of the Masters, his family had been strong with the Force. They were not as strong as Skywalker's, as they were descendants of the Chosen One, but they were still notable in their own right. Atton himself had been an excellent student, something which was noted by Luke. Atton remembered being particularly proud of this fact. While he was no Kylo Ren, his discipline and control was unparalleled. "Maybe that was why he was so interested." he thought.
Whatever it was, the fact Snoke was interested in him at all terrified Atton more than he cared to admit. It made him wonder about why he couldn't remember his life prior to his fall. Palpatine couldn't be related to him, he just knew it. Still, when he asked the Masters why Snoke and Palpatine were so interested in him, they avoided the topic and looked uneasy. He needed answers but they would not give him any. Something about his family history scared them into silence. He had to know why they feared it so much. As the First Order grew and indoctrinated more planets, now was not the time for secrets. They of all people should know this, as sooner or later they would find Ossus. Rey and Finn had trained as much as they could, and the Resistance couldn't fend them off forever, not with the amount of people they had currently. While the Resistance was spread far and wide, The First Order had managed to block their transmission for help on Crait so no others would come and so that they would believe no one else was willing to fight. The Dark Side thrived on hopelessness, and Kylo hoped that by singling out the head of the Resistance, the rest would fall in line. Still, even if he did manage to kill them, they would just be Martyrs, something that many officers pointed out after the battle of Crait.
Remembering this, he grabbed one of his new lightsabers. It was the orange one, newly constructed and stared at it while fidgeting with it. He had constructed it from a mask that had allegedly been in his family for generations. The other one, the purple one, was also an heirloom. It had been passed down in secret for generations. Both the Mask and the Lightsaber were said to be thousands of years old, yet they seemed to be hardly used. The last Jedi who had wielded it had apparently been his late aunt, who died before he was born. She had died after being betrayed by the clones who served with her, much like most of the Jedi at that time. The lightsaber was smuggled to them by some of those very same clones, shortly after the Jedi were declared traitors. Apparently there was a conspiracy that the Clones were not in control when they attacked their Jedi. There was truth to this, as when Palpatine was supposedly killed, records showed they had illegal implants in their brains. He was oddly saddened by this. He never knew his Aunt or clone, but the fact so many died or worse because of Palpatine and Anakin made him saddened. Was it the Force's will to see innocents suffer, or was it human nature to conque?
As he thought of this, he felt his family's lightsaber call to him. He ignited his family's heirloom. The purple blade lit up the room. Nothing happened. As he motioned to turn it back off, a vision flashed before him.
The place he was seeing was cold, dark, and damp, and he didn't know where it was. The planet around him was corrupted by the Dark Side. He saw the man once known as Ben Solo kneeling before a cloaked figure.
"The Last of the Jedi continue to evade us." said the cloaked figure.
"Not for long, Emperor. While we believe there are many Jedi Havens, I heard a rumor of an old Jedi Temple on Dantooine the two of them could be hidd-"
"The Jedi we are looking for are not on Dantooine, you know this as well as I. They are somewhere else the Galaxy left to rot. Somewhere else, at least."
"Emperor, we're checking all the known locations of the old Jedi Temples, but unfortunately much of the information about them in the Corasaunt Archives were destroyed or stolen long before I was born."
"This is most displeasing. I expected more from the Supreme Leader of the Final Order and grandson of Darth Vader." The Emperor made a hand gesture and Kylo began choking and clawing at his throat. "Perhaps one of the other Knights of Ren would make a better fit, such as Deimos or Algea. Maybe even Erebus. Snoke mentioned he was a promising candidate."
Kylo Ren was turning blue. Palpatine let him go.
"I will send a list of old Jedi Temples to your ship. Find the location of these Jedi and bring the location to me. I will not tolerate any further delays."
"Yes my Lord." replied Kylo, gasping for breath.