As his eyes opened, there was a bright light above him. It took a bit of time for his eyes to adjust, but they did and he recognized the place he was in.

He was back in the dorms of the newly rebuilt Beacon, or at least it was newly rebuilt eight years prior. He looked around and saw Ruby, Weiss, and Blake all sleeping in their beds.

He looked at the bed he was sleeping in, and saw himself sleeping alone, remembering that Yang had perished during their battle with Salem.

He started sobbing, tears coming from his eyes.

"Damn it..." He muttered as he covered his eyes with his hands.

The bathroom door then opened, footsteps approached the bed and the weight of the mattress shifted.

"Hey, baby, why're you crying?" Someone asked.

The young man opened his eyes and took his hands off of them, seeing Yang in front of him. More tears sprain from his eyes, quickly jumping upon her and hugging her.

Yang hugged him back, a little confused.

"Carter, what's wrong?" Yang asked once more.

He couldn't get any words to come out, only sobs were heard as he cried into her shoulder. Yang sighed softly, pulling him closer to herself.

"It's okay, don't worry. I've got you, and I'm not going anywhere." Yang stated.

After a bit, Carter slowly looked up at her.

"Sorry if I kept you waiting up here." He said.

"What do you mean? Did you go somewhere?" Yang asked, a puzzled look on her face.

"Y-You..." Carter trailed off before he slowly sat up and hopped down from the bed.

"I-I gotta go to the bathroom real quick, be right back." He said, leaving Yang wondering what the hell was going on with him.

Carter walked to the bathroom and opened the door before closing it behind himself. He then looked into the mirror and saw that the scars across his right eye and cheek were both gone. He didn't know what was going on, so he lifted up his shirt, seeing that he still had some torso scars, but not the wounds that he'd gotten in the battle against Salem. He then started hyperventilating, extremely scared as to what was happening. He wasn't dead, that was for sure. Honestly, he would've been in a better mood being dead instead of whatever the fuck was happening then.

He came out of the bathroom with heavy breathing, looking to the rest of team RWBY.

"Wake them up, please." Carter pleaded to Yang.

"Why?" Yang asked, now starting to get scared as to what was happening with her boyfriend.

"Just do it!" Carter yelled.

Yang was taken aback, frightened by his actions. He never really yelled or had an outburst, so she knew that it wasn't a joke. She then started to wake up the rest of her team and the three groggy girls started to open their eyes and look around in confusion.

"It's a Saturday, why're you waking me up so early?" Ruby asked, her voice lower than normal, however, not as low as it was to Carter normally.

Puberty hit Ruby like a truck in her late 'teens, as her height skyrocketed. She wasn't as tall as her sister like she was before.

"I should've been up anyways, anyone want breakfast?" Weiss asked as she looked to everyone from her bed.

Weiss was still the shortest of the group, at least her bust had grown though.

"I could go for some crepes right now." Blake stated, rubbing her eyes as her left cat ear twitched lightly.

Blake hadn't changed in later years, however didn't have the scar on her right arm that she'd gotten a few years prior.

Carter then looked around to all the girls frantically, going between each one in a matter of seconds. He then held his head with his hands before falling to his knees, his eyes wide and his breathing even more frantic than before.

"What the fuck is happening?!" He yelled.

Everyone then suddenly looked to him, concerned beyond belief.

"What's going on with him?" Weiss asked Yang.

"I don't know." Yang said before she started to walk up to her boyfriend, however he was so shaken up that when she tried to console him, he bolted out of the room.

The halls were empty and no one was really awake during that time, even though it was already almost noon.

Carter didn't know where to go, so he went to the training area. He found solace there whenever he needed it, though he didn't have Yang to make it better. Did he? She was right there in the room, he felt her. He didn't know what to think.

"You have trouble sleeping?" Someone asked, the voice male.

Carter quickly turned, in a fighting stance in an instant.

The person who'd asked the question was Jaune, who already had clothes on and looked like he was ready to start the day, except for the fact that he had slippers on his feet.

"Hey, calm down dude. What's going on?" He asked.

"I... don't know. It feels like everything's normal, but everything's different." Carter stated.

"What do you mean?"

"Our battle with Salem... Yang... I-It's all hazy."

"Yeah, it can get difficult to think about. We have to fight though, for our friends."

"You're making it sound like it's yet to happen."

"Well, we haven't encountered her yet."

Did he hear that right? They hadn't encountered her yet?!

"Dude, I can't be hearing you right. We literally just did like, a few hours ago." Carter stated.

"Hey, d'you have a nightmare or something? Is that why you're here?" Jaune asked.

"Jaune, you've gotta be joking. We were all there when Yang... died. W-Wait, you got knocked out. I forgot about that."

"Okay, you're starting to freak me out. Yang's here, she moved in with us last night."

"How old are you?"

"Nineteen, w-why?"

He was FUCKING NINETEEN?! How was he nineteen again?! There had to be some mistake in there somewhere.

He was dreaming still wasn't he, is that what it was?

Yeah, he was still dreaming. That's what it all was.

Carter then pinched his right cheek. Hard.

Nothing happened though.

Carter then growled before remembering something, a voice had said something as he'd fallen after killing Salem. Not the thing about rest, but after everything had faded to black.

"You may rest with her, or you can save her. You must endure all the pain that has passed however."

"I don't care, as long as I get to see Yang again."

"You'd go through it all again, for her?"

"I'd die infinite times over if it's for her."

"Then fulfill your dream... fight with all you have for your beloved."

Carter slowly calmed down, getting his bearings as he sighed a bit.

"So... that's what happened, I didn't really think that'd be possible."

"W-What? What happened? I'm really scared and confused right now."

"I'll save it for another time, dude. I just... need to think on it is all."

Carter then walked past Jaune, looking around at the school's interior. As he walked, he heard multiple sets of footsteps coming towards him. As he turned to his right, he saw team RWBY running towards him with worried looks on all their faces.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Yang exclaimed as she put her hands on his shoulders.

"I... needed to clear my head." Carter said before he slowly pulled Yang close to his body as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm sorry for worrying you guys." He added, looking at the other three RWBY members before looking to Yang.

"Just don't do that again, okay? You miss enough sleep already." Yang stated before she squeezed Carter's torso softly with her arms.

"Got it." He said, nodding slowly with a small smile on his face.

If he was nineteen again, he was going to have to act like it. He had to keep it under wraps as long as he could, and if he couldn't, then he'd have to explain everything and he could not do that to them all, especially Yang. He was going to have to play it all off like he'd had a really bad nightmare.

"Alright, now that that's over; let's go get some breakfast." Weiss said as she softly crossed her arms with a smile, happy that Carter was okay.

"To the cafeteria!" Ruby yelled with excitement before grabbing Weiss and using her semblance to take themselves there.

Blake sighed before she had a small smile on her face.

"I'll just walk, it's too early for the use of semblances." Blake said, scratching behind her right cat ear.

"Wimp. C'mon Carter, let's beat 'em all there." Yang said before jumping on to her boyfriend's back suddenly.

Carter sighed and adjusted her a little before he activated a part of his semblance, which let him move almost as fast as Ruby, but not quite fast enough. They'd almost beaten Ruby there, but ultimately, Ruby won the race.

As they all got their food and sat down, Carter hummed to himself as he thought.

'If I'm going to make sure everything turns out well, I'll have to make sure no one suspects anything. I'm going to have to act like I'm nineteen again.'

"Hey, you sure you're okay babe?" Yang asked as she put a hand on Carter's shoulder.

Carter looked over to Yang and smiled, not wanting to worry her. He'd gotten perfect at faking smiles over the years, so she didn't suspect a thing.

"Yeah, I'm good."