A/N: Seriously. This party is ridiculous. Like seriously. Oh yeah! I forgot to invite Emily Wong and Ann Bryson, so I totally found a way to include her in this chapter. I just replayed the "Leviathan" DLC and remembered I really liked Ann's character. I especially got a kick out of Liara saying "What is it with you and rescuing archeologists from dig sights? If you ask her to help take down the Shadow Broker, I might get jealous. And more than a little worried." I think it's cute when she gets jealous. X3

P.S.: Happy Holidays everyone! :D

Chapter 22

Part 3

"YOU'LL NEVER DEFEAT ME, ARIA T'LOAK!" Wrex bellowed so loudly the furniture in the living room actually shook. He threw a powerful Warp at Aria while rolling behind the piano for cover. Aria threw up a barrier as the Warp hit her, but she wasn't even phased.

"You're all talk, Old Man!" she shot back, summoning a Singularity above the piano. Both Wrex and the piano began lifting off the ground, though the krogan struggled impressively against it. As soon as Wrex appeared in Aria's view, she bolted to him, dove over the piano, and tackled him to the ground. What started as a biotic fight quickly turned to a violent wrestling match.

Shepard, Liara, Tali, Garrus, and Councilor Tevos were standing a safe distance away on the balcony, watching the battle below. Realizing her precious vase of Rannoch Lilies was in serious peril, Liara brought them to her with a biotic lift.

"So he has reach, but she has flexibility," Shepard said, taking a swig of brandy. "Who do you guys think will win?"

"I think this is one match that will never be settled," Garrus said. "Aria may have defeated that krogan Patriarch, but Wrex is considerably more badass."

"Oh please. Wrex -hic - won the last time, Aria just got lucky when she - hic - escaped the blast," Tali said, leaning heavily on the railing with her drink clutched in her talons. "My money's - hic - on Wrex."

"I don't know, Wrex is pretty tired after dealing with all those krogan females," Shepard said over the crowd of people downstairs.

Everyone else (except for Sam and Kelly who had "mysteriously" disappeared and the ever-elusive Samara) at the party was chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" while scurrying out of the way of the battling pair on occasion.

"What do you think, Councilor?" Liara asked, turning to the asari Councilor. She was trying not to blush while she looked into the face of her respected leader. Partially from Aria's earlier proposal, but also because Shepard had informed her what she walked in on earlier in the game room. Liara had a feeling she would never get that mental image out of her head. She was beginning to see her Councilor in a whole new light.

The well-poised Councilor took a dainty sip of her glass of wine. "Urdot Wrex relies on his strength, will, determination, and experience to win battles. What he lacks in cunning, he makes up for in brute force and enthusiasm. Aria is a powerful biotic who relies on her creativity, cunning, and speed to win battles. She never expends unneccessary energy in a fight; she is deliberate in everything she does. Wrex will alway go for a direct approach, such as head-butting, whereas Aria will always find the most well-hidden, deadly weak-spot and exploit it. She once defeated a drell assassin by using two fingers to hit a particularly vulnerable nerve in his back. He foolishly wasn't wearing armor to protect it."

"An asssassin got past all of Aria's network of guards?" Liara asked in disbelief.

"The assassin was after me, not Aria," Tevos replied.

"Oh," Liara said, unable to hide her surprise.

"He didn't know Aria was there, otherwise he very probably would have succeeded in his mission."

"What's it like being with Aria?" Liara blurted out before she could stop herself. For some reason, she really couldn't picture them together.

"Intense," came the interesting reply. For such a short reply, it was oddly enlightening. Then she added, "And strangely relaxing."

"Relaxing?" Liara asked with continued disbelief.

Liara saw a mysterious smile ghost over the Councilor's lips. "Aria is very talented at helping me forget the problems of the galaxy when I really need to. If there's one thing Aria has mastered, it is the art of being distracting."

"I see . . ." Liara said with a nod, though she didn't see it at all. She always pictured the confident, authoritative Councilor with another equally powerful politician like perhaps the Councilor Sparatus or someone like Primarch Victus. But Aria . . .?

She was pulled from her thoughts when Grunt and Zaeed suddenly joined the fray, both of then cursing and yelling at each other like a couple of crazed animals. Liara sighed. It was going to be a very long night. If she survived.

"So Shepard -hic-," Tali said, from atop her perch on the bar counter, "want to explain why you told -hic- Garrus about your babies and not me?"

The earlier fight had been broken up by Matriarch Aethyta when Wrex had nearly shattered the living room window. Aria was sprawled on the couch with her head resting in Tevos's lap who was nursing the Queen of Omega's bleeding face, and Wrex was sitting on the floor near the fireplace nursing a broken toe. Zaeed and Grunt had finally worked out their differences and were now both chugging bottles and bottles of Ryncol together, belting out a drinking song Bailey had taught them.

"I was on a lot of morphine at the time," Shepard replied unapologetically. "I am not responsible for anything I said or did during that time period."

"Oh I see how you -hic- roll," Tali said. "You're going to claim the 'it slipped -hic- my mind' -hic- card. Well played, Shepard. Well -hic- played."

"Or maybe she just knows you're a damn gossip and would have told the entire galaxy," Aria drawled from the couch.

"Mind your own -hic- business," Tali shot back.

Shepard took a huge swig of some swill Wrex talked her into trying. "So, Joker. You can take on Cortez in a drinking game, but can you take me on?"

"Hell yeah!" he replied enthusiastically.

"Whoa, are you crazy?" James gave Joker a look of concern. "Everybody knows you can't out-drink Lola."

"I've been avoiding alcohol all night, unlike her. I've been preparing for this, my friend. You're going down, Commander!"

Shepard plopped down next to him at the bar and looked expectantly at Aethyta. "Let's settle this! Drinks, Matriarch!"

Shepard felt Liara come up behind her and press her breasts against the Commander's back. To her surprise, Liara initiated a shallow mind-meld. 'If you win, you will be thoroughly rewarded, Commander,' Liara sent over. 'Promise.'

Before Joker could even pick up his shot glass, Shepard emptied hers. It was the same swill that Joker had made in his drink-off with Cortez at the last party, but Shepard was beyond giving a damn. She really wanted to get to Liara's reward awaiting at the end of the game. Liara began softly massaging her shoulders and nuzzled her nose in Shepard's hair.

"Why can't I get moral support like that, Edi?" Joker pouted, looking a little enviously at Shepard and Liara.

"I have been running simulations on the likelihood of you winning," Edi replied. "The results were . . . disheartening."

"Doesn't mean I couldn't use the moral support," Joker said. "It would raise my chances."

"In what way?" Edi wanted to know.

Shepard slammed back another shot followed quickly by Joker. "You know, like how Shepard motivates her team. It raises their chances of winning because they are motivated," Joker explained, followed by a loud hiccup. Tali giggled.

"The redundancy of that sentence aside, what could I say that might at all raise your chances of winning?" Edi pressed with genuine curiosity.

Just as Joker and Shepard took another shot, Aethyta said, "The boy is tryin' to get you to motivate him with sex."

Both Shepard and Joker choked heavily on their shots, coughing and sputtering and gasping for air.

"I see," Edi said without missing a beat. "So if I suggest to him that I will 'give him sex' in the event that he wins, it will significantly improve his chances of winning?"

"I'm not sayin' he'll win, but it might make him hold out longer," Aethyta replied.

"Can you even have sex?" Aria called from the couch. "And the robot, too?"

"Can we just forget the motivation stuff? Please?" Joker said, slumping forward on the bar.

Ten shots later, everyone (other than Kelly and Sam who were still AWOL) was chanting "Drink! Drink! Drink!" and Joker was turning a peculiar shade of green and looking like he was moments away from throwing up everything in his innards. Shepard tossed back shot number fifteen, then slammed the shot glass onto the bar.

"Matriarch!" Shepard bellowed. "Another!"

Joker groaned piteously. "Doesn't anything stop you? I purposefully made it an extra dreadful batch!"

"I'm just getting started Moreau!" Shepard shot back. "Was that a surrender I heard in there?"

He groaned again. "Shit. Okay Commander," he heaved a huge, defeated sigh. "You win."

Everyone cheered and whooped and somewhere in there everyone heard Wrex bellow, "HAHAHAHAA! No one defeats Shepard!"

Shepard staggered to the kitchen and took a huge drink of water. She really didn't want a hangover. Then she staggered to the living room to check on her guests when she saw Grunt standing next to the front door. She grinned then staggered to him. She seemed to be doing a lot of staggering . . .

"Who we got tryin' to get in this time, Grrrunt?" she slurred, slinging an arm around his huge shoulders.

"Some pyjak named . . . Ann Bryson? She's pretending you invited her," he grumbled.

"That's because I did invite her. She told me she'd be late. Don't you have the invite list?" she asked.

"I did . . . but I ate it," he replied.

She stared blankly at him for a moment. "You do realize the kitchen is full of food, right?"

"Krogan!" Ann's voice said over the comm. "Go get Shepard! I'm telling you, she invited me!"

Shepard flipped on the comm with a chuckle. "I'm here Ann, and you can come up. Apparently Grunt 'misplaced' the invite list."

"Shepard!" another familiar face said enthusiastically. "It's me, Emily Wong! Sorry I'm late!"

"Come on up!" Shepard said cheerfully. "And Grunt, make sure no one slips in with them."

"Will do, Battlemaster!"

After bringing Grunt four pizzas to keep him from eating the piano, Shepard made her way back to a bottle of coconut rum. A tad sweeter alcohol than she usually drank, but they made crazy good shots. Suddenly Liara appeared next to her, mixing her some kind of blue drink.

"Whoa . . . how did you do that . . .?" Shepard asked, blinking back blurry eyes.

Liara kissed her cheek. "You're the father of my future daughters. I'm not letting you out of my sight. That, and it's easy to sneak up on someone who is so clearly inebriated."

"Hey," Shepard said defensively, "I'm not eeneebrated. Eennneeeebrrrraaateeeeed . . . drunk. I'm not drunk."

Liara planted a very sloppy wet kiss all over Shepard's lips. "You're cute," she said with a playful smile. Then she lowered her voice to that tone that generally had Shepard hot and bothered in moments and said, "And you're loads of fun in bed when you're drunk."

Shepard's eyes darkened several shades. "Well I wouldn't say no if you want to drag me off, Dr. T'Soni."

Liara held up the blue drink she'd been making. "This is called a Thessian Sunset. I added my own special ingredient I believe you humans call 'Hpnotiq.' You'll love it."

"I love yooou," Shepard slurred, leaning forward to place a teasing kiss on Liara's neck. "If we were alone, I'd be more than a little tempted to take you right now on the kitchen counter."

She leaned back to enjoy watching Liara's cheeks flush at the thought. Then Liara rewarded her efforts with a deliciously smoldering look. "Promises, promises, Commander."

Shepard slammed back the Thessian Sunset then looked expectantly at her bondmate.

"You should probably know," Liara purred in her ear, "that one of the ingredients in the Thessian Sunset is infamous for being an aphrodisiac."

Shepard's eyes widened, then darkened even more. "Well then what are you waiting for Dr. T'Soni? Take me away and have your wicked way with me."

Liara gave her an equally wicked smile. "With pleasure."

A/N: Heh heh heh. I'm such a tease. I bet you can all guess what's going to be in the next chapter. X3

Hint: MAGIC DILDO!