Rodney McKay was worried. He had been reading the reports the scientists made over and over. So far it had not been encouraging. The pictures of the Ancient manuscripts had been sent to Atlantis to be translated by their own linguists. He was still waiting for a response.

The green parakeet, whom they decided was John, was twittering on the desk. He had an irritated air about him. Originally John seemed thrilled with the transition, freely flying from place to place. Now he followed Rodney like a lost duckling, vying for his attention. John jumped up onto Rodney's shoulder and whistled in his ear.

Rodney startled and clamped a hand over his ear. He did not push John away though, as he was soothed by his presence. It was late at night and he had been working for hours, compelled to find a way to turn John back. The problem he came up against was there was no documentation of any reversals of the process. He was beginning to fear John would spend the rest of eternity as a bird.

Radek Zelenka who had been called to the planet immediately following the accident, waded through the animals from the site to the library. When he entered the building he walked over to a separate room for research. Rodney looked up hopefully, but Radek shook his head, causing Rodney to sigh. Radek sat down next to him, admiring the beauty of the parakeet. It seemed even in his animal form, John was handsome.

"You cannot beat yourself up over this. You were given permission to work on the device." Radek awkwardly patted Rodney on the back, narrowly avoiding the bird.

"I wasn't following procedure, just caught up in the excitement of finding advanced Ancient technology. The experiments the Ancients came up with are amazing." Rodney's voice conveyed his awe, but his gestures lacked enthusiasm.

"It makes me wonder about their ethics. They have studied creatures as if they were toys and not living beings." Radek had often disagreed with the decisions made in the name of science. "Even in ascended form they interfere or ignore crises at a whim."

"They're fallible, we all are." Rodney resumed searching the books.

"Yes, we are. So forgive yourself this mistake. Guilt will not bring the Colonel back."

"Fine, but guilt has never prevented me from concentrating." Rodney absently patted John's feathers. John snipped at his fingers. "The difficulty is that there's nothing here to learn. I feel like I'm running in circles."

"You run? Perhaps crawling would be more accurate." Radek laughed.

"Funny. Did you discover anything with the device?" Rodney wearily asked.

"There is something, but it is not good news. I found no evidence of a seismic disruption in the area, but I discovered scorch marks on pieces of the device."

"Scorch marks?" Surprise and confusion warred on Rodney's face. "You don't mean? But why?"

"I believe it was an explosion that damaged the device." Radek shrugged. "I do not know why they would hide this from us."

"I do." Elizabeth walked into the room. Her eyes wandered until they fell on John. The parakeet turned and upon seeing Elizabeth, flew towards her. She put her hands up to protect her face and John landed on her head. "Colonel! Get off." He appeared to pout as he settled on her shoulder.

"Elizabeth, have you found something? Has the translation been finished?" Rodney was hoping they would finally get somewhere with the investigation.

"Yes. As for your first question, I believe the building was bombed to stop the tests." Elizabeth shifted her eyes away from them.

"Why would someone do that?" Rodney was shocked.

Elizabeth steeled herself, looking them straight on. "The Ancients weren't studying the metamorphosis of humans into animals." Her mouth was grim. "They were studying reincarnation as a form of ascension. The device kills their subjects and reincarnates them as animals."

"No." Rodney shook his head in denial.

"That bird is not John. It's just a bird, albeit a long living one." Elizabeth's voice did not waver.

"That's not possible." Rodney closed his eyes. Radek sighed.

"I'm sorry Rodney. John's dead."