Disclaimer: I do not own Sands, or any other character played by the delectable Mr Depp. I only own this plot and my OC.

Chapter 1- Paint it Black

The shrill ringing sound of a cellphone cuts through Sands' sleep. He curses and sits up. "Whoever this is, you'd better have a fucking good reason for interrupting my beauty sleep," Sands listens with frustration to the soft breathing coming from the other end of the line. "Hello? Who the hell is this?" He hears a soft female voice. "Don't go to Mexico mo gealbhan." Sands frowns, "What? Who is this?" The line goes dead.

One year later…

"I feel it's only fair to warn you that killing me would be crossing the line and you will have every single Marine from here to Guantanamo Bay up your keister, mister. So just know that." Sands thinks that he sounds pretty confident for somebody who is mentally shitting himself right about now. As a CIA agent- a pretty good one who has made it his business to know everything worth knowing- he is aware of what Barillo and his goons are capable of. Slow, painful and torturous deaths that even manage to make sociopaths like Sands squirm in horror. "Fortunately for you, nothing you did is worth dying for. You have only seen too much." The last image he sees flashing before his eyes is not the spinning of the silver drill, nor Barillo's bandaged face. It is a ship. A ship with black sails, that are caressed by the bright blue sky. Sands clings to this image as his screams ring in his ears.

Sands jolts awake and groans. When will the nightmares stop? He turns on his stereo. Music is one of the only pleasures he has left now. He grimaces as Paint it Black by The Rolling Stones fills the night air. "I wanna see it painted, painted black. Black as night, black as coal. I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky. I wanna see it painted, painted black. Yeah!" Sands smirks at the irony, "Are you sure about that Mr Jagger?" He has always loved that song. Of course now it was becoming a reality. He is surrounded by black now. Black fills his life and his memories. The black he was wearing as he smoked Ajedrez for her betrayal. The black of his guns, who were his best friends now. The black of that ship he had seen before his world went dark. The long black hair of a woman…