"All my life! You made me!" the Master cried, adding to the drowning noise that congested the atmosphere. The lightning that shot out through the palms of his hands crackled and sizzled, rapidly sapping the Master's energy. He didn't care anymore; he had to defeat Rassilon, even if it killed him.
"One! Two! Three! Four!" the Master screamed out, above the roaring of Gallifrey returning to the Time Lock. As the Master cried out the last words, he crumbled to the floor of the mansion. The ripples in time enveloped him in a blinding light, carrying him back to Gallifrey as his last shreds of energy surged from his body.
"Or so I thought. That didn't happen, though; rather, a fold in time-" the Master explained in a calm tone, the pace of his words and the speed of his walk matching the Eternal Drums. As he paced about the marble floor of the first floor, he paid his audience no heed, so he could finish his spiel. But because it was The Doctor, he interrupted as he pleased.
"-a Time Eddy." he said, butting in to his thread of words. Yet to the Master, he hardly seemed to be in a place to do so; the Doctor was the one handcuffed the banister of the grand staircase.
"-call it what you please; but it took me instead, and suspended me in time. I wasn't on Gallifrey when it was destroyed. But with its destruction continued the Drums." the Doctor looked up from his lap at their mention, and the Master smirked with a mix of pleasure and pure disgust before proceeding. "They haunted me. I was there, in the Time Eddy, for centuries, millenniums-"
"It was only three years." the Doctor retorted, attempting to be considerate, yet he seemed to be annoyed by the whole situation. The Master licked his lips, chuckled slightly, and stopped in the dead center of the room, near the mahogany desk.
"See, that's the thing, Doctor. Within the Time Eddy, I was alone. The forever beating of the Drums seemed to rule me. Every breathe I took, every thought, every moment that slowly passed with the pace of eternity, they haunted the very shadow of these moments, regulating every waking moment of my being. Can you hear them, Doctor? There they are. One two three four.  One…two…three…four." The Master murmured, voice not leaving a calm, almost monotonous growl. He taped his foot to the beat that dictated his soul. He had moved now to the desk, tracing over the shapes in the desk subconsciously.
"You've gone insane." The Doctor mused, shifting his weight slightly.
"Well maybe I have!" the Master cried. With one grand motion, he swept everything off the desk; papers, post-its, even a lamp that careened into the wall next to the Doctor, who barely flinched. "Maybe I have! But you know what? I'm brilliant when I'm insane, and I managed to figure out a way to get rid of the Drums!"
"And how do you plan to do that?" the Doctor enquired, adopting a face of curiosity and amusement.
"Think about it, Doctor: where was the first place I heard it? Where is the source that is continuing to send the signal to me?" the Master replied, turning his attention completely to the Doctor. He didn't feel the need to answer his questions when he could figure out the answers himself.
It took him a minute, and the Master searched the Doctor's face intently as his eyes showed what his mind was doing; racing at a million miles per hour; connecting Point A to Point B. Suddenly, a flash of realization burst on his face, and the Doctor turned to him, mouth agape.
"Destroy the Untempered Schism? Are you mad?" he shouted, raising his voice at the end of the questions for emphasis.
"You said it yourself, Doctor." The Master countered smugly, crossing his arms over his chest.