"The Empire "Gestahl"" plays, adding to the gloomy mood that the rusty girders all over the town already give off. Parts of the town are too overrun with Imperial soldiers to navigate safely. Bumping into any of the guards starts a battle, and even a win gets the party kicked back to the entrance to town.

Going too far north results in a run-in with some soldiers manning a big giant robot.

Don't even bother attacking. The completely invulnerable Guardian just mocks any puny attempts to damage it:

I'm tempted to just say "resistance is futile" here.

Anyway, in the main part of town, soldiers take special care to completely block off one track to the side.

Some lines from selected townsfolk:

博士 (hakase), the term used with Cid's name, refers to the holder of a doctorate degree (or an expert in general), not a medical doctor. And, of course, "all the soldiers there can use magic" means something very different from "the soldiers go there to gain magic".

One person in town throws guards at the party if they say they haven't pledged loyalty to the Empire, but beating the guards earns free healing there any time. The inn is also "free", but the innkeeper may steal 1000 gil while they sleep. Additionally, there's a boy in town who will heal them (even incapacitated characters, in a minor oversight), but only one hit point at a time.

Eventually, the party comes across a man half-hidden behind a large crate.

When the party indicates their readiness, the man walks toward the guards, moving oddly.

While the soldiers escort the man to the side of the walkway, Lock and the others slip by on the girders.

Everything is metal, there are machines everywhere, and 2-14 "Devil's Lab" plays. Most of the foes here heavily resist physical attacks, so the ability to use magic comes in handy. Very much so.

Note that certain character skills also count as magic attacks, and others simply ignore defense. Useful abilites include Cayenne's first three sword skills, Edgar's Bio Blast or Sunbeam (for groups) and Drill or Chainsaw (for single targets), any of Mash's skills, and any Rage Gau knows with a magic or magic-like attack. If you've returned to the Beast Plain since first getting him, Di Olveda (Anguiform) with its Aqua Breath works wonders. Also, several elemental swords hidden in the factory give Lock or Celes a chance to cast free magic when attacking (or Edgar, but he already has his Machines).

Also note that you can easily steal Tents from the common Sergeant enemies. Feel free to stock up.

Eventually, the party comes across Cefca, and quickly ducks out of sight behind a nearby crate.

He laughs maniacally for a while, then walks over to some humanoid, but clearly non-human, creatures nearby.

He flings them both down a conveyor belt that leads somewhere below, then leaves. The party goes down the belt to investigate and finds both creatures, but attempting to talk to them results in a flash of energy, and they attack, tag-team style. One of them, Ifrit, looks demonic and uses Flame attacks, and the other, Shiva, resembles a blue-skinned woman and uses Ice. Celes can negate many of their attacks with Magicseal Sword, but not all.

Be careful about using magic, as Ifrit is weak to Ice and absorbs Flame, but Shiva is weak to Flame and absorbs Ice, and both have immunity to all other elements. The two will switch with each other every five times they are attacked, and each may also counter each hit taken, Ifrit with Fire and Shiva with Blizzard. Additionally, they'll use a special counter on a random character (Shiva casting Reflect and Ifrit casting Figa) every three times they're damaged through the Magic command, giving another reason to attack other ways, though magic of the correct element undeniably works well. 'Slow' also works on both.

For Gau, I recommend Heavy Infantry (Templar) for Fira. Sure, it heals Ifrit, but what heals Ifrit heavily damages Shiva, and you only need to beat one of them. Other Rages with comparable Flame attacks, such as Bomb with the slightly stronger Blaze, have nasty weaknesses that can get Gau killed, while Heavy Infantry is only weak against Poison and has 'protect' status as a (largely useless in this battle) bonus. Veil Dance for Blizzara also works if you've been back to the Beast Plain since Zozo, but since Shiva can't take damage as well as Ifrit, Flame is a better choice anyway. Other elements have no effect, physical attacks won't do much good against their high defense, and there's not much available in neutral magic damage at this point, so yeah... On the other hand, Fira and Magicseal Sword don't mix.

Once either one runs out of HP—note that it's neither necessary nor even possible to beat both—they finally try talking.

Ifrit appears.

That's assuming Shiva was the active opponent. Swap the above two lines if Ifrit was out when the battle ended.

The battle ends, and the conversation continues.

Like Ramuh, they go out with a flash of energy, leaving behind magicite.

There's a room with a save point nearby, then it's time to head deeper into the building.

The room with the empty glass tubes has a Break Blade hidden in the bottom left corner.

Number 024 guards a doorway and can change its elemental resistances, but should pose little difficulty, especially with good non-elemental attacks.

Number 024 initially has no strengths or weaknesses, and only uses normal attacks or an occasional Overflow (causes 'confusion'). Things get more interesting when he starts using Barrier Change, which will give him a random elemental weakness but grant immunity to all other elements. Number 024's abilities will also change depending on the weakness chosen: Ice attacks when weak to Flame, Flame attacks when weak to Ice, Water attacks when weak to Thunder, Thunder attacks when weak to Water, Wind attacks when weak to Earth, Earth attacks when weak to Wind, physical attacks (or Reverse Polarity) when weak to Holy, and healing spells when weak to Poison. Strike the weakness or let enough time pass, and he'll use Barrier Change again. However, after three uses...

At this point, Number 024 will for three turns randomly cast either Sunbathing, Mountain Hare, or Library on himself before returning to the usual attack pattern... in theory. But any further use of Barrier Change during this period will restart these "error" turns, and the time-based one happens often enough that he tends to get stuck in this attack pattern. Finally, Number 024 may strike back with a normal attack when damaged at any point during the battle.

As for alternate tactics, try casting Kappa on him (Celes level 13+, or learn from Cait Sith). This will disable most of his special moves, but his attack power will remain unchanged and he'll always get critical hits, so it's a mixed bag. You can also kill him by draining his MP (using Raspir and Aspir from Shiva), but the usual method probably goes faster. It gets better, though. 'Sleep' status works on Number 024, and Siren teaches Sleepel almost ridiculously quickly. Avoid physical attacks, and odds are you can keep him asleep the entire battle. Combine with 'kappa' status for further amusement. Gau's Brain Sugar (Mind Candy) Rage can also inflict 'sleep', in case you don't have the spell or wish to attempt a no-magic challenge.

Steal for a Rune Blade (common) or a Blood Sword (rare). Number 024 will also drop either an Icebrand (common) or a Flametongue (rare).

The next room has six glass tubes with a Genjuu floating in each one. "Another World of Beasts" plays. The party notices a prominent switch on the far side of the room, and of course activates it.

Like the others, they turn into magicite with a bright flash.

A person in a strange yellow lab suit comes up an elevator to the side, runs into the room, and looks around.

He runs around the room some more, looking more closely at the stones.

I hereby dub the NA line "woefully inadequate".

The stones burst free of the tubes and converge on the party.

This gives the party the Unicorn, Madin, Catoblepas, Phantom, Carbuncle, and Bismarck magicite.

Celes steps forward.

I could never make sense of Cid's NA line here. Now I know why. It doesn't make sense. He's not asking whether Celes came here as a spy to cause a rebellion. That's just silly. The rumor he heard says that she infiltrated and is spying on the Returners, a rather more reasonable conclusion.

Before Celes can respond, Cefca's deranged clown laughter interrupts.

Cefca hops around and laughs some more.

I'm amazed that he's considering taking Cefca seriously... "Cefca" and "serious" don't even belong in the same sentence, unless it's something like "Cefca has some serious problems." Maybe Cid's comment lends the notion some credibility.

Two soldiers ride up on that fancy magic armor the Empire's so proud of.

They attack. Cid, already to the side, runs. Celes is also to the side, and barely jumps out of the way. The others collapse, and the music fades.

Celes jumps back into the action and starts casting a spell.

The spell warps Celes, Cefca, and the soldiers away. The rest of the party slowly gets up, starting with Lock.

The room starts rumbling.

Cid rushes back to the lift that he rode when he arrived. The others follow.