Ghost of X-Mas Past!

• Writer - Steve Seagle
• Penciler - Chris Bachalo
• Inker - Thibert
• Inker - Tim Townsend
• Inker - Aaron Sowd
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Lettering - Albert Deschesne
• Colorist - Liquid!
• Colorist - Monica Kubina
• Editor - Mark Powers
• Editor in Chief - Bob Harras
• Lettering - JG

Summary

  The night before Christmas, Piotr is visited by a phantom woman, whom he has been attempting to draw. He follows her into the attic, which becomes a drawing.

  Ororo startles him: she heard him stomping around, and he explains himself and shows her the unfinished sketch, but it has been changed. Ororo thinks he's imagining things and goes back to bed.

  Piotr starts another sketch, then hears something and goes outside, where Logan finds him and invites him into his cabin with Remy and Puck. Remy questions Piotr to make sure he wasn't seeing his ghost, then goes to start his own series.

  Piotr goes back to the mansion and sees the ghost in his window. He storms upstairs and finds his sketch, with the story of the Ice Princess written on it: she was the prettiest girl in the eastern empire, but she lost her face, and the King of the Crickets has it.

  Piotr follows the ghost into the hall and finds Kitty (does anyone sleep?). Kurt bamfs in with a Christmas tree from a nearby dumpster. They both say Piotr's delusional. He continues down the hall and runs into Xavier, who has been confronting his own ghosts: dead X-Men. He looks at their photos every Christmas, to remember.

  Piotr eats a banana, then back in his room finds the next sketch: the Princess wants to ask the cricket for her face, but she has no mouth. He can't understand her gestures, so he offers her a face.

  Piotr demands the ghost reveal herself; then he realizes it's Illyana. She leads him back into the attic and appears: she had mystically bonded a disk there. She needs him to do something but is forbidden to say what. She can say just one word: "Remember."

  He does and unpacks his photo of her, makes a sketch, and goes to sleep. Next morning, the X-Men gather around the tree and open presents. Marrow has added a story (and a frame of bones!) to Piotr's sketch: the Ice Princess gets her face back, but more importantly, she is surrounded by friends, the X-Men.