BIOGRAPHY - Page 7
Nathan also joined forces with Captain America to stand against the Superhuman Registration Act, which put him at odds with just about everyone. Cap rejected his offer of asylum at Providence, and so Nate provided the Secret Avengers with whatever information and assistance he could, even though Deadpool had taken a job as a "hero-hunter" and the X-Men had declared themselves officially neutral during the so-called "Civil War." After Goliath was killed in the field by the registered forces, though, Cable took his disapproval straight to the top and confronted the president of the United States directly in the White House. This confrontation proved pointless and also put him into direct conflict with Deadpool, straining their friendship to the breaking point. [Cable & Deadpool #30, Civil War #2-5, Cable & Deadpool #31-32]
Cable's actions during the Civil War led SHIELD to take aggressive action against Cable for the first time since he founded Providence. Hiring Deadpool as a new member of their Six Pack operatives, SHIELD (in conjunction with the United States and European Union, among others) arranged for a series of explosions at a fusion chamber on Providence, damaging Cable's base of operations while providing fodder for propaganda on the news networks about radioactive fallout, tarnishing his public image. Meanwhile, the Six Pack proceeded to Rumekistan to arrange for electronic chaos and disorganization among the country's power grid, further diminishing public confidence in Cable's abilities. Nate stayed one step ahead of his detractors, though, and managed not only to defuse their sabotage but also win Domino back to his side, thanks to the guilt she felt over taking this gig with the Six Pack and screwing with innocent people just for a chance to humiliate Cable. [Cable & Deadpool #33-34]
Although Dom was by his side again, Cable's other relationships became strained. Irene Merryweather's feelings for Nate became apparent with Domino's presence, but Nate avoided the issue instead of talking with Irene. When he removed Deadpool from the Six Pack in Rumekistan, Cable also planted a subconscious impulse in Wade's mind to make him see the people he had killed in the past. This guilt trip was Nate's way of driving Wade back to him for help so they could mend fences, but Deadpool saw through the deception and confronted Cable about it. He refused being Nate's friend if it also meant being his puppet, and the rift between the two unexpected friends and partners grew even wider. [Cable & Deadpool #35]
Tired of dealing with the thorny and complex political issues of Providence all the time, Nathan decided to reacquaint himself with the X-Men. He heard media reports that the X-Men were involved in a catastrophe in Nogales, Mexico and came to the mansion to investigate. Cable 
arrived in the middle of an attack by the brainwashed Northstar and Aurora. Nathan helped subdue the Canadian twins and worked to extract information from the X-Men's prisoner, Sabretooth, about the overall threat, the Children of the Vault. He was recruited on the fly by Rogue to be part of her new strike team, who defeated the Children when they arrived at the mansion with their flying oil tanker, the Conquistador. [X-Men (2nd series) #190-193]
Cable helped Rogue fortify her new position as an X-Men squad leader. With the Children gone, he modified the Conquistador to be their squad's mobile headquarters, a necessity to distance themselves from the mansion and the O*N*E* Sentinels watching over the X-Men after the Decimation. He and Hank McCoy worked up a nano-Sentinel injection to keep Sabretooth on a leash as an asset for the team as well. [X-Men (2nd series) #194] He entrusted Irene, Black Box and Domino with handling the day-to-day activities on Providence during his absence, which all seemed to be working out for the best. Rumekistan was now holding their own presidential elections, leading to a peaceful transition of power out of Cable's hands and back to the people's, now that his work was done. [Cable & Deadpool #39]
While investigating a mad scientist named Pandemic, Cable and the X-Men assaulted his laboratories in India and Rogue was infected with an unstable virus named Strain 88. [X-Men (2nd series) #194-196]
Nathan brought the X-Men and Conquistador to the relatively-nearby Providence for treatment and repairs. There they were confronted by a mind-devouring alien weapon called the Hecatomb. 
Cable interacted with Urizen, a Mummundrai psychic entity that the Hecatomb had chased across space to Earth. Urizen aided Cable by reawakening his telepathic and telekinetic abilities for the conflict. The Hecatomb proved nearly unstoppable, even after Cable telekinetically crashed the Conquistador directly on top of it. The people of Providence were in a state of panic, and the island was breaking down under the forces being unleashed. Urizen was consumed in a psychic conflict between Cable and the Hecatomb as well, depleting Nate's newfound powers. Seeing no other choice, Cable awakened Rogue from her stupor, as he believed her absorption power was the perfect counter for the Hecatomb. Though the gambit succeeded, Rogue's absorption of the Hecatomb minds only served to further damage her sanity. [X-Men (2nd series) #197-199, Cable & Deadpool #40]
While the X-Men took Rogue for further treatment, Cable stayed behind to deal with Providence. His island sanctuary was devastated by the fallout from the Hecatomb, and everything Cable had been working towards was on the verge of being lost. More pressingly, Sabretooth was loose on the island. Cable and Domino went looking for Creed as Nate also tried to stabilize the island long enough for the population to evacuate. Sabretooth had already made it to the infonet chamber, however, killing Black Box and taking Irene hostage. Fortunately, Deadpool came to the rescue after hearing of the troubles on Providence. He stalled Creed long enough for Irene and Domino to get to the evac ferries, at which point Cable telekinetically expelled Sabretooth from the island. Nate and Wade reconciled their differences and shook hands, accepting each other as friends once again. [Cable & Deadpool #41]
Of course, Cable still had his own agenda. Nate intended to scuttle Providence, destroying and erasing all of its technology and future data files to prevent it from being salvaged by anyone else. 
He sent Deadpool off to recover his backup database while he worked on the main power core, but both of them faced opposition. The renegade X-Men Gambit and Sunfire confronted Cable, prompting him with the mysterious phrase "...one minute before dawn." In a running battle, Cable and a partial copy of the Professor ran down the phrase, and realized the dire implications at hand. Cable activated his Requiem program, detonating Providence's power core in an effort to hide his data and eliminate his attackers. At the same time, Deadpool had located Nate's "backup," only to discover it was an emergency teleporter that whisked him out of harm's way, just as Cable detonated the core. [X-Men (2nd series) #200, Cable & Deadpool #42]
[Note: No further mention would be made of Cable and Deadpool's genetic link. By bodysliding Deadpool independently of himself this issue, Cable apparently confirmed their link was no longer functional, for reasons left unexplained. Presumably, any aspect of Wade's healing factor Cable had acquired was gone after this point as well.]
Cable miraculously survived the destruction of Providence, but kept his survival a secret from his friends and foes alike. Gambit and Sunfire were only the first traitors found among the X-Men -- half of Rogue's team were revealed at the same time as loyal to the Marauders. Not knowing whom to trust, Nathan made plans independently of the X-Men. Unfortunately, the timeline had reached a key moment in history, the arrival of the first new mutant since M-Day. This “messiah child” was destined to reintroduce the mutant race to Earth after the Decimation... provided she lived long enough.
Isolated without allies or resources, Cable managed to identify the place of the mutant birth in Cooperstown, Alaska. He called in Deadpool for backup as several parties descended on the small city. The Marauders and the anti-mutant extremists called the Purifiers both had access to future-tech and knew about the child's birth as well. The Purifiers planned to massacre every child in Cooperstown in order to prevent the messiah from rising. Cable and Deadpool fought their way into the maternity ward and recovered the infant girl, but not without taking injuries. Many of their supplies were lost in Cooperstown or the outskirts in battle with the carnivorous Predator X, another mutant hunter. Nate thanked Wade for his help, but decided to proceed alone after that. [Deadpool & Cable #25, X-Men: Messiah CompleX #1]
Cable intended to escape into the timestream with the baby, much as the Askani had removed him from the past in his own childhood. With his equipment damaged and Providence lost, however, Nathan needed a chronal regulator to govern the time machine built into his cybernetic 
arm. Cable began making his way south, with his ultimate destination being Forge's Eagle Plaza in Texas for some spare time machine parts. His psychic jammer and survivalist training allowed Cable to stay off the grid and avoid detection. Unfortunately, the information blackout worked both ways, and Nathan was unaware of some of the forces working against him, including his fellow X-Man and time traveler, Lucas Bishop.
In Bishop's future, the messiah child did restore the mutant race, only to kill over a million humans. It was the messiah child's actions that led to the mutant concentration camps where Bishop was born, where his parents were killed and where his people were enslaved for a generation. The child was the boogeyman who haunted Bishop's sleep as a boy, and he intended to kill it before his future came to pass. (It's unclear if Cable's idyllic view of the messiah's future is because he came from a different timeline than Bishop, or simply had a longer view of history by coming from further into the future.)
The X-Men were already concerned when they learned Cable had the child instead of the Marauders and Purifiers, and yet he hadn't contacted them. Bishop fed their paranoia by turning loose the nano-Sentinels with which Cable had recently worked, using them to corrupt the O*N*E Sentinels and turn them against the X-Men. Without any other information, Cyclops assembled an X-Force squad to hunt Cable with prejudice, bringing in him and the baby at any cost. Of course, saying and doing are two different things. X-Force attempted to intervene on a fight between Cable and the Purifiers' Reavers in northern Canada, only for Cable to double back and steal their own Blackbird to speed his journey to Texas.
At Eagle's Plaza, though, Bishop finally caught up with Cable. He disabled Forge and then caught Cable off-guard. Bishop was steeling his nerves to shoot the infant when the Marauders arrived and stole the child from under him. Cable escaped in the melee and cut his losses, turning off his psychic jammer and calling Professor Xavier for help. Nathan quickly realized his strategic error when Xavier informed him how Bishop turned the X-Men against him. Xavier and Cable joined 
forces and tracked the Marauders to Muir Island to rescue the baby.
The final conflict was an all-out brawl among Cable, Bishop, Predator X, the X-Teams and the Marauders. During the struggle, Cable diverted Predator X into Bishop, costing the driven time traveler an arm. After all the opponents were defeated, Cable made his pitch to Cyclops. The messiah child could not be raised in the present -- too many forces would be constantly after her to keep her safe. Cable would take her into the future, obscuring her location in the fabric of time. Scott and Nathan both saw the parallels with their own situation years earlier, when Cyclops sent his child Nathan into the future to save his life. Cyclops relented, entrusting the future of the mutant race to his son. [Messiah Complex crossover]