Arc Ideas

Escape Arc:

In which the crew is being pursed by marines (led by Galileo, who recognized Kitt and Cat on Hierro) and take shelter on a nearby island. Faline discovers them skirting around the island and leads them to a secluded cove unknown to anyone not native to the island. From there, they come to know Faline and Naoise, well enough that Cat offers them a spot on the crew. They decline at first, with Faline unwilling to leave her childhood home and Naoise unwilling to leave Faline, but when the marines eventually find the Wraith pirates, the swordsman duo is forced to intervene and help them escape from the cove and back out to sea. They don't regret leaving in the end, but they hope at one point they'll be able to return to their island.

3-4 Chapters

Siren Arc:

In which the crew's men are abducted by sirens, and the girls (Catriona and Faline) must call on the help of a local island girl (Cadence) to help get them back. In the end, they encounter Calypso, a daughter of the Sea Devil, who demands that she be able to keep one of the male crew members (Tempo, Naoise, Kitt, Zeo) so that the others may go free. Cat offers herself instead, knowing now that she resembles a man, but is ultimately shot down.

4-5 Chapters

Davy Back Fight Arc:

In which the Wraiths are challenged to the legendary Davy Back Fight by Captain Read, a female pirate masquerading as a man so that she can keep control of her mostly-male crew. Kitt accepts the challenge before Catriona can dissuade him, which has the unfortunate consequence of convincing the rival pirate crew that he captains the Wraiths. Treated as a mere first mate, Cat watches as her crewmates win the first match, lose the second, then steps in as the contender for the last round against Read. She eventually emerges victorious, and from the crew, Cat takes a young cabin boy (so that she won't weaken Read's crew or really hinder them in any way). Read, having only challenged them at her crew's behest in the first place, recognizes Cat's kindness and gratefully sails off, minus only one minor crew member. The cabin boy's name is Sawyer Wolf (backstory to be determined later).

4-5 Chapters

Bounty Hunter Arc:

In which Kane attempts to collect the bounty on Catriona's head, but is ultimately thwarted not by Cat, but by Kitt (in his Cerberus form). After realizing how he compares to Kitt, as well as the other members of the Wraiths, Kane brazenly decides he'll be joining the crew, under the condition that he be allowed to keep his freedom. Kitt protests, but Cat doesn't see the harm in bringing him aboard. Kane continually makes attempts on Cat's life for a while after joining (much like Ace with Whitebeard) but is stopped by either Kitt or Tempo before he can reach their captain.

2-3 Chapters

Revenge Arc:

In which Paxon Tawny locates the slumbering Wraiths at last and unleashes her pent-up wrath by engulfing the ship in perilous flames, dooming them to a watery grave. However, she's unaware that Tempo acts as sentry, and that he's stationed in the crow's nest; he catches sight of the fire immediately and sets about warning the other crew members, Cat first seeing as she's captain. Tempo, Cadence, Zeo, Kane, Wolf and Kitt make it to the lifeboat they've stored away, but Faline and Naoise are nowhere to be found. Against the wishes of both Tempo and Kitt (and after escaping them both by cutting the line to the lifeboat and dropping them into the sea below), Cat makes her way below deck to search for them. She eventually finds Faline guarding an unconscious Naoise in their shared room, where it seems the fire caused the roof to collapse; Naoise protected Faline from the falling debris and lost consciousness from the blow to his back. It soon becomes clear that Faline, suffering from smoke inhalation and the fatigue of shifting the debris off Naoise, is unable to move (she's also slightly paralyzed from her fear of fire), and she pleads with Cat to save Naoise at all costs. Because she loves him and would gladly give up her life for him. Cat reluctantly agrees, knowing she won't be able to save both of them. She manages to bring Naoise on deck and lowers him down to the waiting lifeboat, then instinctively tries to hurry back to Faline - only to be halted by the explosion of gunpowder that decimates half the ship, and blows Cat completely off into the water. And so, the Ghost Flower (their ship's name) sinks below the waves, taking Faline with it.

They discover Tawny not too far away from the wreckage; she'd been tossed out of her own escape vessel by the force of the explosion, and they rescue her by pulling her into theirs. When she regains consciousness, she immediately tries to kill Tempo, furious he'd escaped her previous attempt. He admits to the crew that he doesn't remember her, which only worsens her fury, and she screams that he killed her younger sister with his Devil Fruit powers. Driven mad by grief, she could only think of getting her revenge on him by taking his life in exchange, especially once she'd heard he'd been rescued from death row.

Cat, in her own maddened grief, takes out a seastone knife she admits she'd started carrying in case Tempo ever lost control of himself to the point where her voice couldn't reach him. About to drive the knife into Tawny's heart, she's stopped by Kitt, who signs that her hands don't deserve to be bloodied by such a wretch, and it's him who delivers the killing blow - after being taunted by Tawny (because now she just wants to die so she can reunite with her sister).

1-2 Chapters

Mourning Arc:

In which the Wraiths settle down on a nearby island to deal with both the loss of their ship and the death of Faline. While there, Cat happens upon a smithy who specializes in creating swords, and she meets a young Shanks who, after coping with the death of Roger, is attempting to break out on his own path as a pirate. As such, he's in need of a new weapon, hence his presence at the blacksmith's shop. The sword he ends up with is Yuragu Honoo, though in this time she's called Kishi Kaisei, named so because the smithy thought "it suited a kind soul liked her".

Catriona, having heard of people who can communicate with their swords, asks Shanks if she'd be allowed to hold his sword, if only for a moment. He readily agrees, and as she takes Kaisei into her hands, she swears she hears Faline's voice.

"Hey, uh, miss... are you okay? I didn't mean to make you cry, I swear! Oh man, how could I do this?! I'm so sorry, I'll do anything--"

"Kid," I choked out, past the sob taking up residence in my throat, "yer fine. Dis isn't yer fault, alright? I'm just... happy, is all. And sad. It's weird, huh?"

His panicked eyes lowered to the sword I still cradled in my hands, holding it to my chest as though it were the only corporeal thing in an unreal world. Something not unlike understanding flitted through his gaze, softening the wary look he'd regarded me with, and he nodded. Shanks smiled as he politely turned his head away, giving me the privacy I'd been too preoccupied to beg for.

"I get that," he said after silence had descended between us once again, having returned with the absence of my childish sniffling. "Happy, sad... They go hand in hand, you know. Two sides of the same coin, or something. I know that feeling all too well. But" - and here he looked at me, smiling, and my breath caught, seeing the gentle wisdom flickering in his somber black eyes - "it's not a bad feeling at all, is it?"

...After this, once Shanks has said his peace and gone his separate way, Cat speaks with the smithy, who recognizes the look on her face and informs her that the spirits of swordsmen who never fulfilled their dream are sometimes imbued within freshly-hewn swords, which explains why she can hear Faline's voice emanating from the blade. The smithy says it's likely Faline will eventually forget her past with Cat, but also informs her that she may be reborn eventually if something were to happen to her vessel to make it uninhabitable.

Cat located Faline's tanto in the wreckage, once they'd dealt with the problem of Tawny's lifeless body, and she presents it to Naoise as a memento of his best friend. She also gifts him with a Skypiean shell, which recorded a message to him from Faline, in which she expresses her honest feelings for him - though she understands he's never felt that way about her and wishes him the best of luck in finding true love with someone else. He breaks down crying after listening to it multiple times.

1-2 Chapters