Cable travels back in time to before the fight and discreetly places the skee-ball token he had previously taken from Wilson over his heart, stopping the bullet. Wilson's death allows him to reunite with Vanessa, though she again tells him that it is not yet his time. Wilson dies and Russell loses his desire for revenge, saving Cable's family in the future. Cable shoots at Russell, but Wilson leaps in front of the bullet and is hit in the heart. They manage to reach Russell before he can kill the headmaster and Wilson attempts to calm him down, putting on the power-suppressive collar and offering himself in the headmaster's place. Colossus arrives and distracts the Juggernaut long enough for Cable and Wilson to catch up with Russell.
Wilson, Cable, and Domino arrive at the orphanage to stop Russell and the Juggernaut but face difficulty fighting the latter, who proves too powerful for them. Cable decides to team up with Wilson and they plan to stop Russell from killing the abusive headmaster, an act which sets Russell down a path that ends with the death of Cable's family. Wilson organizes a team of mutants to fight Cable and save Russell, consisting of Bedlam, Shatterstar, Vanisher, Domino, Zeitgeist and non-mutant Peter. Called X-Force, the team launches their assault on a prison truck transporting Russell by leaping from a plane and parachuting in, however, due to heavy winds, all of the members (except for Wilson and Domino) die in various gruesome accidents upon landing Bedlam is struck by a bus, Shatterstar is liquified by the blades of a helicopter, Vanisher is electrocuted by power lines, Zeitgeist is shredded in a wood chipper, and Peter (who intially landed with no problems) dies in a failed attempt to help Zeitgeist after the latter accidentally vomits acid onto him. Russell frees the Juggernaut, who destroys the truck and escapes with Russell. Wilson has another vision of Vanessa who helps him realize that he has a chance to save the boy and redeem himself for not being able to save Vanessa. Wilson manages to throw himself and Cable out of the prison while Russell stays inside. During their incarceration, the facility is broken into by Cable, a cybernetic mutant from the future who has traveled back in time to kill Russell. Wilson and Russell are taken to the Icebox, an isolated prison that houses several dozen mutant criminals wearing similar collars. Both Wilson and Russell are arrested and restrained with collars that negate their mutant powers, including Wilson's healing factor that counteracts his terminal cancer.
After several failed attempts to calm Russell down, Wilson discovers that the headmaster and staff of the orphanage have physically abused him, and shoots one of the staff members in anger. Collins, who calls himself Firefist, has fire-like abilities, enabling him to produce extremely high temperatures from his fists that can ignite objects. Wilson agrees to join, and together with Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, responds to a situation involving a young mutant named Russel Collins. Colossus arrives at the now-destroyed apartment and brings a dismembered Wilson back to the X-Mansion in an attempt to recruit him into the X-Men and help him through his grief. Wilson has a vision of Vanessa in the afterlife she says that his heart is not the right place yet, leaving Wilson confused.
Six weeks later, Wilson decides to commit suicide by blowing up his apartment with several barrels of high-grade fuel. Wilson chases the criminal through the streets and engages him on the road before a truck hits them, killing the drug lord. Later that night, the drug lord attacks Wilson at his home and kills Vanessa. Following a failed assassination of the head of a New York drug cartel, Wilson returns home to his girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle to celebrate their anniversary. Two years after killing the man who gave him mutant abilities, Wade Wilson has become a mercenary who works worldwide, killing various criminals under the moniker Deadpool.