She had...she had figures, and facts. Numbers that didn't mean anything to anyone except that the end was extremely fucking nigh, and she didn't even know if they could survive.
If the Reapers dropped dead tomorrow, would there be an Earth to rebuild? Would there be humans left to rebuild it?

She looked up into blank emotionless faces.

"Palaven is burning, Shepard," Sparatus said. "We are not unsympathetic to your problems, but we are being hit hard as well."

She sighed and dropped the datapads with their useless facts and figures and lists to the floor. She didn't look up at them. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"Councillor, you don't understand. If Palaven is destroyed, your people will be able to go on. If Earth is destroyed...sir, if Earth is destroyed, I am very much afraid that that we will not."

"Your people breed quickly," Valern said. "You will be able to replace those lost at Earth easily enough."

It was Garrus who stepped up beside her, Garrus who always had her back.

"Councillor, with all due respect. That's not entirely accurate. The humans were targeted by the Collectors last year. They lost almost all their colonies in the Terminus. The Reapers have been going after them specifically from day one, largely because of Shepard's actions in stopping Sovereign. For all intents and purposes, Earth is all they have left. If we don't save Earth, we are looking at the total extinction of the human race."

Total. Extinction. The words hit her like a weight, driving her to her knees. Total. She'd seen the same figures, read the same reports. She hadn't put the pieces together. Hadn't wanted to.

Garrus had always been braver when it counted.

Shepard held on to the railing and pressed her head against it, cool metal against her face.

"Please," she said. "I'm begging you. Their vanguard is at Earth right now. If we stop them there, we can stop them everywhere. But if we don't..." she stopped, closing her eyes. "If we don't, humanity is lost. Please, Councillors. Don't let my people die."