When the stormtrooper awoke in the Falcon he was, unsurprisingly, unsettled. Rey almost felt sorry for him- he looked younger than her or Finn. But despite the fear in his eyes, the trooper refused to offer any sort of useful information.
"We were sent to gather any intel we could get our hands on and take prisoners," was the trooper's response.
"What intel were you looking for?" Lando asked as he crossed his arms.
"The useful kind,"
Rey gave Lando a sideways glance. This was going nowhere. The trooper was likely withholding information, but she doubted it was anything substantial.
"Or at least anything Ben hasn't already told me," Rey thought. She hadn't had the chance to tell the others about Vader's return. Then again, she would have to subsequently tell them how and why Ben visited her. And Finn…well, she wanted to tell Finn everything after he'd confessed his feelings for her on the Resistance base, but after an attack this didn't seem like the opportune moment.
Rey knelt so she was eye level with the bound trooper who sat on the floor. "I find it hard to believe a stormtrooper would go into a situation without having at least been briefed on something," Rey said as she stared into his eyes. She would not prod around inside his head, opening doors that he refused to let her enter, like Kylo had when they'd first met. No, Rey would merely glance inside to see what was readily available in the man's mind. Rey felt guilty for doing this (as it felt like an invasion of privacy), but she'd seen enough war to know that sometimes things had to be given up in order to preserve the greater good.
To Rey's relief, the trooper didn't resist. He didn't even know she was searching inside his head at all. Guided by the Force, Rey clung toward any pieces of information that could be of value.
As she suspected, there wasn't much to learn- the stormtroopers were deployed to gather intel from the base's information systems. This trooper didn't know if any information had been collected, as he hadn't made it much further than the hanger before Chewbacca and Lando stunned him.
Rey's breath caught in her throat at the last bit of information she uncovered. The First Order didn't know if Rey would be on that base, but the stormtroopers were given clear instructions that if she was found to bring her alive…to Darth Vader.
Rey pulled back to the present. Sure enough, that was Vader she saw in the trooper's mind, a dark being with a black mask set with seemingly soulless eyes. What Ben had told her was true- the First Order had succeeded in cloning the Sith Lord.
"Tell them," Rey said to the trooper, "Tell them who is in charge of the First Order,"
The color seemed to drain from the trooper's face. "I…I don't see how that is relevant. Kylo Ren died, and Palpatine was killed a few months ago,"
Rey narrowed her eyes. "This is every bit as relevant. The Resistance will find out sooner or later. Besides, it's not like you're betraying the First Order by giving away battle strategies,"
"Not that you would know them anyway, given your rank," Rey heard Finn mutter under his breath.
The trooper threw his hands into the air. "Look," he said exasperatedly, "They don't tell us much. All I know is that we're taking orders to gather intelligence from a clone of Darth Vader,"
At the mention of Vader, Chewbacca let out a roar.
"Darth Vader?" Lando repeated.
"Yeah," the trooper said. "Apparently Snoke wasn't the only creation. They cloned some Force-sensitive people too,"
"Who else did they clone?"
The stormtrooper shrugged. "That's above my paygrade,"
Finn narrowed his eyes. "You sure about that?"
"He's telling the truth," Rey said. "He doesn't know anything else,"
"Well, in that case…" Lando stunned the trooper from behind, knocking the First Order soldier out cold once again as Chewbacca growled his discontent at the entirety of the situation. "I agree," Lando said. "Let's drop this guy off at the next habitable planet with a cantina, then let's regroup with the rest of the Resistance. They need to know what we're up against,"