What if Buttercup had met Inigo Montoya earlier?
Perhaps one day he happens upon her, a lone woman surrounded by a band of robbers. As an honourable man, he draws his sword to defend her.
Buttercup can only watch as the newcomer dispatches the robbers with a grace and efficiency unlike anything she has ever seen.
"Are you the Dread Pirate Roberts?" she asks him, when no man is left standing.
"No, I am Inigo Montoya. Tell me miss, have you seen a man with six fingers? He murdered my father in cold blood, and for that I mean to kill him."
"I know such a man," Buttercup tells him. "He works for Prince Humperdink, who has been courting me these past few weeks."
The Spaniard glows with a singular intensity. "Tell me where I can find this man."
Buttercup eyes his sword, the sword that killed seven men like it was nothing. "I have a proposal for you," she tells him. "If you teach me to fight like you, then I will help you get close to the man who killed your father."
Inigo is surprised. "Why would you desire such knowledge?"
Buttercup smiles, a smile Inigo recognises. "Because with it I could get my own revenge, on a man named the Dread Pirate Roberts."
They hatch a plan. Inigo teaches Buttercup to fight as well as he, so that she may stand a chance against the infamous pirate. For her part, Buttercup accepts Prince Humperdink's proposal. She knows he means to martyr her as a political pawn, and before meeting Inigo she had considered it a means to an end. But now she has hope, hope that she may actually avenge her love before joining him.
On the eve of her wedding, a band of three rogues kidnap Buttercup. The Sicilian is clearly the one in charge, shouting at the other two to tie her up. The giant, Fezzik, is surprisingly gentle with her, making sure her bonds are not too tight. The Spaniard barely glances in her direction.
"Prince Humperdink will find me," she promises them. "He and his closest men will track me to the ends of the earth."
The Spaniard smiles.
A man in black upsets their plans. He gains on them, slowly but surely, until Vizzini orders Inigo to stay back and fight him. Then he orders Fezzik to set an ambush while he takes Buttercup ahead. Buttercup takes note of the short man's sword just before he places the blindfold over her. If Inigo doesn't return, she will do what she must.
The Sicilian is outwitted, and the masked man claims his prize. Buttercup eyes him warily. "Who are you?"
"I am no one to be trifled with; that is all you need know."
"Did you kill the Spaniard and the giant?"
The man shrugs. "They were breathing when I left them. But they won't be interrupting us any time soon."
Buttercup breathes a silent sigh of relief. "If you release me now," she warns the man, "you may yet live. But if you are still here when Prince Humperdink arrives-"
"You think your dearest love will save you," the man laughs in her face, and she bristles.
"I never said he was my love."
"So you admit you do not love your fiance."
"He knows I do not love him."
"Are not capable of love, is what you mean." The man in black steps toward her, and her hand inches toward the dead Sicilian's sword.
"I know who you are," she whispers. "Your cruelty reveals everything. You're the Dread Pirate Roberts; admit it."
"With pride," the man bows, and for the first time in two years, Buttercup can feel her heart beating. Quick as blinking, she has slid Vizzini's sword from its scabbard and has it pointed at her quarry's heart.
"Then there is something I must say to you." She holds the rapier lightly but firmly, just as Inigo instructed her. "Hello. My name is Buttercup. You killed my fiance. Prepare to die."
The Dread Pirate Roberts is no longer laughing. He looks at her sword, her eyes, and finally her awful smile. And he smiles too.
"As you wish."