NullReferenceException when changing scenes

[plant]

Following this lecture, I am unable to load between portals due to the following error:

The scene fades out, but does not fade back in. The fader prefab is not in the heirarchy by default.
This seems to be coming from the capture state in the fighter script:

using UnityEngine;
using RPG.Movement;
using RPG.Core;
using RPG.Saving;
using RPG.Resources;

namespace RPG.Combat
{
    public class Fighter : MonoBehaviour, IAction, ISaveable
    {
        [SerializeField] float timeBetweenAttacks = 1f;
        [SerializeField] Transform rightHandTransform = null;
        [SerializeField] Transform leftHandTransform = null;
        [SerializeField] Weapon defaultWeapon = null;

        Health target;
        float timeSinceLastAttack = Mathf.Infinity;
        Weapon currentWeapon = null;

        private void Start()
        {
            if (currentWeapon == null)
            {
                EquipWeapon(defaultWeapon);
            }
        }

        private void Update()
        {
            timeSinceLastAttack += Time.deltaTime;

            if (target == null) return;
            if (target.IsDead()) return;

            if (!GetIsInRange())
            {
                GetComponent<Mover>().MoveTo(target.transform.position, 1f);
            }
            else
            {
                GetComponent<Mover>().Cancel();
                AttackBehaviour();
            }
        }

        public void EquipWeapon(Weapon weapon)
        {
            currentWeapon = weapon;
            Animator animator = GetComponent<Animator>();
            weapon.Spawn(rightHandTransform, leftHandTransform, animator);
        }

        public Health GetTarget()
        {
            return target;
        }

        private void AttackBehaviour()
        {
            transform.LookAt(target.transform);
            if (timeSinceLastAttack > timeBetweenAttacks)
            {
                // This will trigger the Hit() event.
                TriggerAttack();
                timeSinceLastAttack = 0;
            }
        }

        private void TriggerAttack()
        {
            GetComponent<Animator>().ResetTrigger("stopAttack");
            GetComponent<Animator>().SetTrigger("attack");
        }

        // Animation Event
        void Hit()
        {
            if (target == null) { return; }

            if (currentWeapon.HasProjectile())
            {
                currentWeapon.LaunchProjectile(rightHandTransform, leftHandTransform, target, gameObject);
            }
            else
            {
                target.TakeDamage(gameObject, currentWeapon.GetDamage());
            }
        }

        void Shoot()
        {
            Hit();
        }

        private bool GetIsInRange()
        {
            return Vector3.Distance(transform.position, target.transform.position) < currentWeapon.GetRange();
        }

        public bool CanAttack(GameObject combatTarget)
        {
            if (combatTarget == null) { return false; }
            Health targetToTest = combatTarget.GetComponent<Health>();
            return targetToTest != null && !targetToTest.IsDead();
        }

        public void Attack(GameObject combatTarget)
        {
            GetComponent<ActionScheduler>().StartAction(this);
            target = combatTarget.GetComponent<Health>();
        }

        public void Cancel()
        {
            StopAttack();
            target = null;
            GetComponent<Mover>().Cancel();
        }

        private void StopAttack()
        {
            GetComponent<Animator>().ResetTrigger("attack");
            GetComponent<Animator>().SetTrigger("stopAttack");
        }

        public object CaptureState()
        {
            return currentWeapon.name;
        }

        public void RestoreState(object state)
        {
            string weaponName = (string)state;
            Weapon weapon = UnityEngine.Resources.Load<Weapon>(weaponName);
            EquipWeapon(weapon);
        }
    }
}

Has anyone seen this error before? Additionally, health is not saving between scenes, but that is probably a topic covered in later videos.

[plant]

Figured it out. I should have caught this, but I didnt change the Start() to Awake().

[Brian_Trotter]

Good job in catching this. It gets the best of us!