Massive hybrid battery discharge in first 2-3 miles.

Hello, so here is my deal. I've searched but can't find anything, if you know a thread I should look at please point me to it. My car is an 05 and currently has 219,000 miles. Runs great. Only things I've replaced are the 12 volt battery and the rack and pinion. Replaced the rack because I was trying to drift in the snow and tried to beat the traction control. Needless to say, I lost and hit the curb. Jammed the gear in the left side of the rack. Replaced the rack with a $75 used one and no problems since.
My issue is this, even if my battery is at 6 bars when I first take off, my hybrid battery drains down to even as low as 1 bar. It only got down to 1 once but is hitting 2 regularly. After about 3-10 miles it is back to the regular charge rate. I also noticed the other day with the window down, there was a slight whirring sound, almost like a gear or wheel that is a gummed up and is being slowed down. It also felt like there was resistance, almost like the brake was dragging. After a few miles, as in less than 5, the noise was gone and the car was going along just fine. I've checked the emergency brake to see if it's dragging by applying it and releasing it several times. Does not appear to be the issue. Today I put it in neutral to see if that changed anything but it did like it always does and just coasted along fine with no resistance. My thought is the transmission. I'm wondering if the fluid it so old and broken down that maybe things are gumming up. Either way, I purchased the tranny fluid and will change that out. I know people will probably gasp but I have never changed it. Actually thought because it's a cvt and there is no dipstick to check it, that it doesn't need changed. After reading up yesterday I discovered I was mistaken.
I think that's about it. I'll edit it if I think of something more. Once the battery is back up to charge it accelerates and drives like normal. I do want the car to last so my daughter can use it when I buy the new Prius Prime. Hopefully this fall
Thanks for any help!

 

Thanks for the reply. Can you help me understand why it discharges to almost nothing and then starts charging and discharging normally? Any idea, roughly, what my chances of recovery are? Thanks for your help.

 

Thanks. I actually did try that today, let it stay on before I left,after the initial warm up. Still drained super quick. Didn't help I had to get on the highway right away and get up out of a valley. Did get down to one bar but got itself back up to almost fall after a few miles. This just started about a week ago so I'm assuming I need to jump on the reconditioning quick. I hate to drop almost $500 when I can get the whole battery from Napa for about $1200. I like the $500 better but don't want to essentially throw that money at the charger and still have to buy the battery. Looking on the forums it appears most people have good luck with the reconditioning, would that be safe to say? It's worth it?

 

Well, I got it installed a while back and have partially reconditioned the battery. I've only been able to make it to stage 2 due to time but I can already tell the difference. Hopefully soon I can take the battery all the way down and get it finished. Thanks for your help!